Win-Win Gains from a Libertarian Party Cross-Nomination of President Trump

 Dear Mr. President:

Have you thought of negotiating a cross-nomination deal with the Libertarian National Committee?

I am a lifelong supporter of Libertarian Party candidates.  I have since concluded that you can do more to further the cause of freedom than the LP can, so I will support and have been supporting you and the NRCC over the past couple of years.  Why not negotiate the LP's cross nomination of you in 2020?

The following chart shows that the LP won 2.2% to 4.15% in the six battleground states, more than enough to put you well over the top.

Battleground States/ LP Percentage

Florida                    /          2.20%
Wisconsin               /          3.60%
Pennsylvania         /         2.40%
Michigan               /          3.60%
New Hampshire    /         4.15%
Nevada                 /             3.30%

Although I have not been active in the LP since 1983, I can imagine at least two bargaining chips that can result in mutual gains for both parties: first, an agreement to abolish a set of government agencies and programs that you don't mind abolishing (they want to abolish everything) and, second, an offer of placing Libertarians in powerful agency posts in which they can gut government programs.  In exchange, they would throw you the percentages that secure a win.

For example, if you offer to abolish the Department of Education and a list of fluff that Rand Paul or Citizens Against Government Waste provides in exchange for LP support and/or offer them a dozen positions in areas like the NLRB, and EPA, they may be willing to make a deal. You would likely have an additional benefit by having people in positions of power who are hostile to the deep state and have little to lose in attacking it.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Students Thank Me for Exceptional Teaching

The college has a formal evaluation system, and there are teacher-rating systems available online.  Often, however, I receive thank-yous from students who have benefited from my courses.  I received one last fall from a student who had taken my class six years earlier, and several years ago I received one from someone who had taken a my course at NYU thirteen years earlier.  Some of the letters I've received in the past year follow:

Dear Professor,

Thank you so much for your time to correct my essay, I have learned from your comments and the class.
--Student LZ

Dear Professor Langbert,

I would like to express my gratitude for being one of your students. Thank you for allowing me to learn from my mistakes.
--Student BA

Dear Professor Langbert:

That was fast, amazing class, I learnt A lot

Dear Professor Langbert:

Thanks for your very informative lessons, you know so much amazing, enjoyed your class very much. 

Have a great winter break.

P.S. I showed my husband a nice video of one of your presentations, he enjoyed your opinions, proud you can stand up strong about your opinions, even if others disagree. You are so calm cool & collected & brilliant.

--Student RH

Dear Professor Langbert: 

Also, thank you for such an amazing semester. My major is Business Admin: Leadership and Human Resource Management with a minor in Business Law. I think after this class, I may want to practice Employment Law. 

You class really made me realize this is the field I want to be in. Have a great holiday! Hopefully we cross paths again soon! 

--Student AB

Dear Professor Langbert:

Thank you for a great semester,
--BD

Good evening professor,

Thank you for being my professor and I really enjoyed the lessons that you taught this semester. The book for this extra credit was very helpful for me since i am a finance major, and the basis of this book practically touches upon everything i have learned in my other classes. Happy holidays and have a wonderful year.

--Student JP

Hi Professor Langbert,

Thank you very much! It was a pleasure learning from the best of the best!  Hope you have a wonderful and safe holidays
--Student AA

Dear Professor:

I wish I had paid sturdy attention in your class in 2012. I finally got finished reading Ragged Dick and realize how much I see myself in this character. An immensely inspiring underdog story!

On this Thanksgiving I want to say thank you for planting the seed for my development.

I don't if you remember me. I am a former student. You might recall I cried in your class in 2012. The truth is, I was going through a lot(Manic Depression and all the Jazz), and in retrospect- Your class was the single most important moment in all of my years at college. 

I remember like it was yesterday. You, critiquing all my work. The red ink all over papers. Talks of socialism, freedom, individualism, and self-esteem. During that time I didn't understand it all. I was young, and very naïve. I couldn't even read at a 12th grade level, but I tried my best. You gave me a C+ in that class, and in retrospect that was the most important grade I have ever had. 

The thing is, I have over the course of my years been torn between Capitalism vs Socialism, Individuality vs Collectivism, and having Freewill vs being guided through Determinism. I read, read, and read. I read many books, watched many lectures, and had many debates. It wasn't until I realize during all this debating that all this exploring I was doing and mass confusion was merely making me more aware. Yes, I said it. It was increasing my understanding of the world. Of the polarity which is associated with everything. 

I can't say I agree with you on everything. But I do want to formally thank you for "putting the battery in my back" as is often said.You are an amazing teacher, and at one point my arch enemy. I hated how you made me dislike Obamanomics, and found vested interest in Billionaire tycoons like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

Thanks for your inspiration!

Your former student,

--Student HF

Thank you for a great, informational semester Professor. Happy Holidays!  

--Student BC

Thanks for great course and happy holidays. 

--Student NS

Need for an Antitrust Action against Comcast, TimeWarner, and Disney

Dear Mr. President:

The deterioration of the American media and its open partisanship should be addressed through an antitrust action.  More than 75 percent of airwave and cable broadcasters are in practice affiliated with the Democratic Party.  This came about because in the 1930s the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration illegally required ideological litmus tests in its granting of airwave monopolies.  

When the country had something of a dominant, bipartisan consensus, perhaps from the candidacy of Wendell L. Wilke through the George W. Bush administration, partisan monopoly of the airwaves was unimportant, although conservatives have never been happy. When the cable monopolies were established by local governments in the 1970s and 1980s, the extension of the New Deal system seemed natural, although by then the media was increasingly at odds with moderate Republicans. Moreover, the major parties had not diverged ideologically to the degree that they have since Goldwater and McGovern--and to a greater degree since Obama. Conservatives have lived with an unresponsive, monopolistic media for the past ninety years.

The recent handling of the impeachment hoax and the legacy media’s deceitful coverage of your presidency has intensified the issue.  At present, the Democratic media monopoly is becoming  an embarrassment, a system at odds with the preferences of the majority of Americans. Given that the media lacks professionalism and intersects with state influence—via the Democratic Party---the current system makes a mockery of Constitutional protection of freedom of the press. The current system is a state-granted monopoly that favors one party and is much like a totalitarian system. This is especially so of the stations owned by Comcast, TimeWarner, and Disney.    

There needs to be an antitrust action and a divestiture of airwave and cable networks from the Democrats so that airwave and cable control are wrested from Comcast and Disney and  fairly distributed among Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, and others in rough proportion to their numbers in the population.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Cc: Robert Iger, The Walt Disney Co.

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman, Comcast Corporation
Joseph J. Simons, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission

Americans for Limited Government Calls for End to American Bar Association Accreditation of Law Schools

Americans for Limited Government has emailed a release that calls for the ending of American Bar Association accreditation of law schools.  ALG characterizes ABA accreditation as crony capitalism. They write: 

There is an inherent conflict of interest when lawyers are allowed to regulate the entrance of competitors into their field. Due, in part, to the ABA’s numerous requirements of law schools and its restrictions on the practice of law, millions of Americans are unable to afford legal services and are forced to represent themselves in the bewildering legal system. While it is hard to argue that the world needs more lawyers, the ABA accreditation system, by design, limits the number of opportunities to attend law school with the result being the capping new entrants into their field, a clear conflict of interest.  As such, the Department of Education should end the American Bar Association’s credentials to provide law school accreditation. 

As I have previously blogged, under Betsy DeVos the DOE has done too little to investigate left-wing influence on higher education.  The ALG's point is a little different: licensure is a market impediment, and a professional guild should not be permitted to limit access to a market. It is difficult to argue that the standards that apply to law schools raise the quality of lawyers to some minimum, below which malpractice would be the norm. Rather, the ABA standards are meant to restrict the supply of lawyers. 

The education system is not, on a number of levels, what it claims to be.  Yet, the DOE has done little in the way of investigation and research, much less reform.