Since the subject of "what can we do without laws and law enforcement?" seems to be hot among the newer folks, this very old episode of the Tom Woods show (#43) is a good listen.
What people fail to realize is that random violence actually becomes less dangerous and less expensive when there is a fixed social structure for "law enforcement" in place.
Whenever there is a fixed social structure in charge of something, it will ineveitably prioritize the growth of its own size, power, and survival over its alleged purpose. We see this today not only in "law enfocement," but in departments of large corporations, other ares of government, etc. There are leaders that can overcome this, but they are incredibly rare. You might as well just think of this as a law of nature or a similar constraint.
Before the sheriffs if somebody initiated violence then those who were attacked could retaliate, and if they were unable to do so then their family, friends, or any members of the community who found the attack to be a problem could respond. They were not constrained by any rules in these retaliations. Keep in mind that back then and there being a competent sniper was a pretty standard skill, even among the children. This made initiating violence both expensive and dangerous.
Because of this, the so-called "Wild West" wasn't that wild... until the sheriffs arrived. Once that happened, all the bad guys had to do was avoid, bribe, deceive, or intimidate the sheriffs. They didn't have to worry about anyone else because the sheriffs would defend their monopoly on violence with far more vigor than they would violence against others. The cost of violence plummeted, and the amount of it skyrocketed.
Most of what people "know" about the Wild West is from fiction written by or ghostwritten for the sheriffs, some of who made quite a few bucks off of it. Obviously their telling of the tales is a bit... one-sided. Learning aboout the Wild West from fictional Westerns is like learning about animal behavior by watching Disney cartoons.
Like every other government program they create huge problems, solve a tiny fraction of those problems, then strain their arms patting themselves on the back and endlessly droning on that we could never live without them.
People often react to the idea of anarchy by saying everything would turn into the Wild West and my response is "Yes, exactly, let's please do this."
Don’t worry!
His “very smart people” are totally right about things this time when it comes to trade.
There is zero - I repeat, zero - moral difference between the people who pushed for "experimenting" with lockdowns because "we have to do something!" and the people who push for "experimenting" with trade wars because "we have to do something!"
Musk is out.
Musk put himself in a corner where he can't rip into Trump and he has to play nice probably at least through the midterms, but just look at the guy's face and watch him refuse to give a straight answer here. He put a lot on the line with endorsing Trump and starting DOGE, and Trump absolutely stabbed him in the back. Trump's supporters will blame congress, but Trump has very openly and loudly endorsed all of the DOGE-defying moves that congress has made, and has viciously attacked the one congressman (Thomas Massie) who has stood against it.
The reason is simple: Trump cares about trophies. Cutting the budget is not a trophy. DOGE trying to take a chainsaw to government was a trophy, but as soon as DOGE became more of Musk's than Trump's trophy, Trump stopped caring about it because congress offered him a Big, Beautiful Bill as a trophy instead. Just like the FBI offered the opportunity to build a Big, Beautiful new headquarters building for them (Trump loves buildings!). ...
As comedy slowly slides into unfunny wokeness hell, the last comedian standing (assuming he doesn't drop dead first, I mean just look at the guy; he's a trainwreck) will be Doug Stanhope. He closed out his recent special "The Dying of the Last Breed" with this bit on how important it is that we be able to make fun of anything. Because making fun.
Language warning, duh.
Preliminary Q2 numbers for Argentina are in. This is still subject to adjustment but so far their preliminaries have been pretty accurate under the Milei administration.
Slashing spending works. Trump and Bessent are very optimistically projecting economic growth of 3% doing the opposite of what Milei is doing to deliver 7.6% - and climbing!
