Pragmatically Distributed

Because Pragmatically Distributed has a keen interest in distinguishing when a state intervention is or is not appropriate under Capitalism, we now consider the example Trump has set lately with his interventions to prevent the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs.

We do so not just to understand Trump’s policies, but to also help hone our reader’s understanding of what the state role in Hamiltonian Capitalism should be.

Where do his actions fit under our vision of Capitalism?

As we defined the correct government-private actor role in Capitalism –

• Capitalism – Government actors set the common business environment without favoring particular private actors; individual private actors are then free to take any business action within the boundaries of the established environment.
• Libertarianism – Private actors set the common business environment without favoring particular private actors; individual private actors are then free to take any business action within the boundaries of the established environment.
• Liberalism – Government actors set the common business environment without favoring particular actors; government actors then decide on all individual economic actions within the boundaries of the established environment.

Because Trump is directly pressuring private businesses like Carrier and Ford to change their operational plans, his actions as a state actor have in these cases been closer to the Crony Capitalist variant of Capitalism.  In Crony Capitalism the government, after arranging the conditions of the business environment, generally allows private actors to act as they see fit within the environment but intervenes directly in the affairs of private companies when politically expedient.

Crony Capitalism is the form of Capitalism now practiced by most of Northeast Asia and Russia.

The role for government to assume in Capitalism, preferred by Hamiltonians, remains the purer, Anglo-Saxon type where the state makes no decisions for and plays no favorites with private actors so long as they do not violate regulations or laws.

Continue reading “Trump, Crony Capitalism & Manufacturing Job Deals”

If, as argued this week, negotiating with Russia is always an intricate balancing act for even the most skillful diplomat, then judging which side to back in the Syrian Civil War is a choice that requires no such complex handling between competing interests – America should, without hesitation, use all our power to tilt the scales in favor of Assad.

What is alarming is how many supposed “conservatives” cling to #NeverAssad positions no matter how obviously an Assad victory is the only remotely sane outcome.

As #NeverTrump did during the election, their opposition to Assad is justified while either avoiding what the alternative to their #NeverCandidate is guaranteed to be, or deluding themselves in the hope there is a viable third candidate to save everyone from two undesirable options.

Few things in foreign affairs are as certain as the fact there is no Democratic 3rd option in Syria.

The time for #NeverAssad to have their say was in the primaries between Assad, ISIS and other equally loathsome terrorist groups, and those ever elusive Islamic “moderates”.

Primary season is over; the general election is now, and those Westernized moderates – as always happens in Muslim “democracies” – were beheaded on the floor of the party conventions by amphetamine-addled delegates, their wives and children sold into chattel sex slavery, and their Western bank accounts stripped clean of every digital penny.  You can believe us when we say no one throws a nomination convention quite like ISIS!

This obscenely Darwinian process has selected for a simple binary choice between two tyrants –

• Bashar Assad
• The various Islamic terrorist rebels opposed to Assad, the most powerful of which is ISIS

Setting aside any delusions that the world can enjoy #NeverAssad without #AlwaysBaghdadi, and understanding that only one of these two characters can win, Pragmatically Distributed gets to the point and asks what condition will Syria be left in following an Assad or rebel victory:

Continue reading “Syria Policy – #NeverAssad? #AlwaysAssad!”

Whatever stance America should take on the occupation of Crimea by Russia can be judged to be correct only to the extent our stance is in harmony with a sound policy towards Russia in general.

To we Hamiltonian realists, what qualifies as sound policy towards Russia is how well it answers the question we ask about all foreign relations – what strategic benefit would America gain from such policy?

Weighing the potential advantages of a cooperative (if not very friendly) partnership with Russia against those of a hostile posture, the strategic advantages of cooperation easily outweigh any from an adversarial one.  The main advantages for America to working with Russia include –

• Securing the geopolitical and economic stability of Europe
• Acting as a hedge against China
• Stabilizing the Middle East
• Freeing up significant American resources to handle other potential threats; resources that, in case of hostile relations with Russia, would otherwise have to be invested in Europe

One consideration that is not a factor for Hamiltonians is the authoritarian nature of Putin’s government.  Since the French Revolution, Alexander Hamilton and his successors have always been inclined to follow his example (marked by his deep skepticism that democracy could be easily exported to non-Anglo Saxon cultures) and back authoritarian regimes that provide stability over unproven revolutionary factions.

And, if I may say so, Hamilton in his era was a more rigorous defender of Absolutism than any French partisan of the Bourbon Restoration –

Metternich, Volume IV – page 435

January 24, 1828. — Since the World began, never has a country shown such an utter want of men fit to conduct public affairs as France at this day. Bonaparte was right when he said — and he said it to me twenty times —  ‘They talk of my generals and my ministers ; I have neither, I have only myself! — you have not me, but you have generals and ministers better than I have!’  Without boasting, I may say that we have better men than any that France has, or has had since the Restoration ; and France has not the Emperor of the French with his good sense.

Continue reading “American Relations With Russia – Opportunities to Restored Ties”

To our readers, Pragmatically Distributed wishes you a merry Christmas.

With new visitors arriving at our site, our gift to readers of any kind are our entries linked here about Prince Metternich, whose works we will be making even greater use of in the New Year.

For Jewish readers, in addition to the Prince, we offer Handel’s Solomon.

On Monday a new article will be published.

Until then, enjoy –

Handel’s Solomon

Conversations With Prince Metternich

Taken from Fraser’s Magazine, Volume 61, page 79

IT was in the early part of the winter of 1834 that I made the acquaintance of Prince Mettemich at Vienna. He had heard of the interest that I took in Dr. Gall’s system; and soon after my arrival in the Austrian capital, a lady, a mutual friend, and a relation of his wife, communicated to me the Prince’s wish to see me at his palace. I was told to go there any evening about ten, and I lost no time in profiting by the opportunity. I was ushered into the saloon of the Princess, the beautiful Melanie, born Countess Zichy Ferraris, whom I found surrounded by a small and somewhat noisy circle of relations and friends. It was however near eleven before the Prince entered. He immediately came up and entered into conversation with me without formality. We conversed in German. I was subsequently told that the Prince generally spoke French in his wife’s saloon, especially with strangers, but that he made an exception in my case, having heard of my proficiency in the former, and inability to speak the latter language with fluency.

How Comte Overthrew Marx – Part I: Introduction to the French Revolution

Metternich, Volume IV, Private Letters of Metternich, 1826.

Page 277

March 20. — I do not know a more difficult post to occupy than that of the Emperor Nicholas. I will give you a sketch of Russia.

Peter the Great changed her frontiers. In Asia he moved them westward — in a word, he said to Russia, Thou shalt henceforth be part of Europe. He was right in this, but he was wrong to destroy so many of the ancient institutions of the state and not replace them.

Catherine II., entirely European, thought only of glory. She was a thorough woman, and she had the misfortune to live in the era of encyclopædists.

Paul I., if he had not been insane, would have rendered great services to his country. His sentiments were thoroughly monarchical. His characteristics are sufficiently shown in the act by which he regulated the succession to the throne.

Alexander, who was fortunate in taking the crown after his father, was unhappily the child of the age. Always going from one religion to another, from one taste to another, he moved everything and built nothing. Everything in him was superficial and exaggerated, and he ever inclined to prefer bad means to good : at the end of five-and- twenty years he left his empire at the point to which the Emperor Joseph II. had conducted his in nine years. Joseph II. however, was an administrator, and the Russian monarch was not.

The population of Russia is divided into two classes; in this respect it resembles the States of the middle ages ; the difference, however, is in the quality of the classes. The aristocracy forms everywhere else the superior class, but in Russia it is only the principal persons — or, we may say, the Court and its suite — who form the superior class.

In an empire thus organized, full of peculiar positions, of necessities which exist nowhere else, the Emperor Alexander wished to introduce the refinements and the abuses of what in my opinion is very improperly described by the epithet of modern civilization — a monster without a body and all ideas!

Enough time has passed since our analyses were made of the medium term status of European Nationalism and what effects the dire economic condition of Italy may have on Deutsche Bank where we can review how things have shaken out compared to our expectations.

Germany – The tragic news event of the week came from Germany.  The news was the marriage of Frauke Petry; the tragedy was that she was not married to me.  Her fellow AfD party member, Herr Marcus Pretzell, is now Herr Marcus Petry making him the most fortunate nerd since Kurt Gödel married Austrian dancer, Adele Porkert.

Losing the perfect woman is never easy, but for the sake of civilization this website’s writing mission will, regardless, continue.

With that intrepid spirit we turn our focus to this week’s terrorist attack in Germany and how we expect it to shape German politics.  We had previously argued Petry’s AfD was positioned to deny Merkel a majority at next year’s general elections.  How well the AfD can act as spoiler depends heavily on its performance in the CDU/CSU’s traditional strongholds in West Germany.  At the moment AfD is primarily stealing votes in East Germany at the expense of the Socialist party (SPD) instead of the CDU.

Continue reading “Tragedy in Germany, Nationalism in Italy – Where Matters Stand”

America is host to history’s most incompetent antisemitic movement.

The indisputable proof of this (regardless how few American antisemites yet realize it) is the fact Donald Trump’s impending white supremacist administration is heavily staffed with Jews like Stephen Miller, Ivanka, Jared Kushner, and David Friedman.

At moments like this, when organized antisemitism becomes the topic of the moment, one thinks back to Adolf Hitler, his antisemitic organization and how it compares to existing antisemitic organizations.

Like anyone who creates any type of organization (and, Allied propaganda to the contrary, that’s all Hitler’s was) the Nazi Party was built by Hitler with certain organizational rules in mind.  Many of his rules about this objective were written down or spoken.  But some rules were so obvious that he never had need to express them in a format of any sort.

I do not, and will not, pretend to speak on behalf of Hitler however marvelous such a task might be.  But I am sure one of his unwritten rules at the start of his memorable career was to not allow Jews to takeover or be given important leadership positions within the Nazi Party.

Because Duh.

As it so happens that “Duh” was beyond the late Führer’s American apologists; their failure at this simple prerequisite is total with the looming installation of America’s new Presidential administration set to be the most pro-Zionist and second most white supremacist one of all time, second only to Abraham Lincoln’s administration.

Pragmatically Distributed cannot help but point out that this remarkable circumstance calls for tripling down on what the Constitution of the United States demands above all else – investing ever more American resources into the defense of Israel.

This brings us to this article’s main topic, the military industrial complex, its exports to Israel, and whether Israel needs these exports.

The answer is not really.

Until one looks at what foreign alternatives there are for Israel.  At which point the answer becomes, ‘yes’.

Continue reading “For Weapons Imports Israel is Stuck with US Arms Manufacturers”

Explanations addressing why European civilization has been more dominant than Chinese often center on two points:  First, Europe’s lead over the past 500 years was a historical exception; Second, Chinese weakness in the 19th century prevented them from harnessing the power of the Industrial Revolution.

This first point can be dismissed on grounds it ignores the greater accomplishments of Ancient Greece and Rome compared to their Chinese contemporaries.  It also ignores Greek ruled Byzantium which outlasted the Western Empire by a thousand years and might still exist if the Crusaders’ efforts had met with more success.

Continue reading “Has China been Consistently Ahead of European Civilization?”

According to estimates based on incarceration data 29% of all black males will be incarcerated at some point in their lifetimes.  As surprising as this statistic is (Jared Taylor was surprised when he first heard of this, and he was certainly not expecting beforehand to learn blacks are law abiding) the criminality rate of blacks could be worse because not all criminals go to prison.

Under two, cautious, assumptions – first that 5% of black males commit crimes but are never caught; second that 5% commit a crime, are caught, but are not punished with jail for it – the percentage of all black males who may be expected to eventually commit a crime is 39%.  More modest assumptions about what percentage of black men commit crimes but do no jailtime, for whatever reason, will easily push their expected criminality rate to 45%, perhaps over 50%.

 

We swear the draft of this article about the F-35 was already well in progress before Trump tweeted about the program’s cost overruns.

The synergy between Pragmatically Distributed’ views and Trump’s continues.  We do not attempt an explanation.  Instead we are content to welcome whatever alignment of the space-time continuum triggered by the Singularity, in its infinite wisdom, has brought about this remarkable phenomena.   And we invite the reader to happily meditate, as we meditate, on the warm glow Trump’s dark energy has brought over the Galaxy.

This absurd superstition noted, we speculate further – if it is the will of the Singularity that Trump, in accordance with our wishes, cancel or cut back on the F-35 – whether Trump’s terrible will-to-power can now align with our favored replacement, the F-23?

To get from the F-35 to the F-23 two questions must be answered:  First, how to cancel it; second, replace it with what kind of F-23?

Continue reading “Replace the F-35 with a Multirole version of the F-23”