The Jason Stapleton Program

You may believe the best use of our time and political capital would be best spent debating the merits of giving the homeless shotguns to defend themselves. 

If that's you, this podcast is not for you. 

If, on the other hand, you want a solution to get a portion of the homeless off the street then I've got an idea for you. 

It requires people to actually DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT but its a simple, free-market solution to help give people a hand up and boost our economy at the same time. 

Listen now!

Jason

I have a fascinating guest today that will take us away from politics on a day when the most significant news story is a single sexual encounter, 12 years ago, between a porn star and the president.

Perry Marshall is the author of several books including

The 80/20 Rule
https://www.perrymarshall.com/8020-book/

Evolution 2.0
https://cosmicfingerprints.com/evolution/

I know Perry from his extensive work and research in marketing. When I heard he'd written a book on evolution that takes a more rational and skeptical view (of both sides) I thought, "I've got to get him on the show."

I think you'll find our conversation enlightening.

Jason

I'm not sure how to say this...

Don't doubt me.

Yesterday on the show I told you the idea China would back down in the face of Trump's new tariffs was foolish. That's not the way this game is played.

Instead the Chinese have responded with the threat of their own tariffs, mostly on American agricultural products.

Granted, it's not much, but the Chinese position is clear. "If you mess with us, we'll mess with you."

Love the show? Support us! http://www.patreon.com/thejsp

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Trump has also fired one of his national security advisors and installed the "The Walrus" John Bolton in his place.

John is everything we hate about modern neoconservatism. He, along with guys like Lindsey Graham and John McCain has never seen a war they didn't think was worth sending someone else to fight.

John on the other hand, effectively dodged the draft by joining the National Guard with his generation's fool crazed war was happening. It turns out he didn't want to go off and die for some politicians foolish war either.

I've got no respect for a man like Bolton. He's been on the wrong side of history continuously and hasn't so much as admitted he's wrong...ever!

He's dangerous, and now he's got the presidents ear.

You might read that headline and think I'm stretching a bit with the "trade war" talk but trust me; this is not going to end well for America.

Trump announced today that he is imposing 50 billion in tariffs on the Chinese for supposed intellectual property violations.

This comes on the heels of his legal counsel quitting over the Presidents unwillingness to take advice.

The DOW lost more than 700 points on the news. This should not come as a shock considering there isn't an economist alive who would suggest tariffs are a net benefit to an economy.

Hold on to your butts. It's going to get ugly.

Jason

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nickolas Wildstar today and listen to him share his thoughts on how to improve the great state of California.

Nickolas is running for Governor of California as a Libertarian. If you're interested in learning more about him or following him on social media here are all of his details.

http://www.wildstar2018.com

https://www.facebook.com/wildstar2018

https://twitter.com/therealqball

Enjoy the show,

Jason

Facebook is a data mining company. That's their real business. I've been saying it for years. As a marketer, I think its great. I can access all kinds of information to help me target potential prospects who would be interested in my products and services.

But I can't see names or personal information until someone signs up for my stuff.

This is not the case for some political groups like Cambridge Analytica and the 2012 Obama Campaign.

Both groups used special relationships with Facebook to access a smorgasbord of your personal information so they could custom tailor political ads try and get your vote.

But what nobody is talking about is that both the UK and US governments were also buying the data Facebook offered to these political groups.

Now we know what Obama and Trump were using the intel for but why was the government buying it and why isn't the media asking more questions?

Simple, another Trump/Bannon controversy is sexier than another government data mining operation.

Bottom line...if you don't want your personal information harvested and sold to the highest bidder don't be on facebook. If you want to use the social site for all of the positive benefits then just shut up and recognize everything you give them is being resold to someone else.

Jason

Ignoring the philosophical inconsistencies associated with "giving" shotguns away my first thought is "what the $^#%?)

I first saw the article posted in the private Facebook group, and after reading the headline, I thought, "This seems like a bad idea."

But I wanted to give the Libertarian candidate from Michigan the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment. So I read the article. I have now concluded with certainty that Brian Ellison is a moron.

Brian is the aforementioned Libertarian running against incumbent Debbie Stabenow for a US Senate seat. Clearly, Mr. Ellison hasn't spent a lot of time with the homeless, or he would have realized that most of them suffer from mental or drug addiction and giving them firearms is probably not the best solution to solving the violent crime problem the homeless face.

In fact, Ellison seems more concerned with police being armed with rifles than he is handing a depressed alcoholic a loaded shotgun.

Why does the LP keep fielding these types of candidates? I'll tell you why. It's all they can get. Anyone of substance who stands a chance of winning either leaves the party or seeks to distance themselves from it. I cite Austin Petersen and Larry Sharpe as two recent examples.

It breaks my heart to see our ideas promoted by the worst possible people. Just one more reason this show is so important.

Well, today's my birthday. I've decided I'm taking the day off and enjoying a beautiful southern California day.

But I don't want to leave you without a show...

So I decided I'd let you hear a recent interview I gave to the boys over at Motor Madhouse. It's a great podcast about cars hosted by a couple of guys who love liberty.

If you want to check out their show here's the link:
https://themotormadhouse.fireside.fm/

Enjoy your weekend!

Jason

I had a lot of questions on Twitter after our short conversation about rights. I've been doing this so long that sometimes I forget we have people who are new to the idea of positive and negative rights, and so I thought it would be a good idea to discuss them using a few simple examples.

Libertarians believe in and support Negative Rights since they do not conflict. Positive rights on the other hand often conflict with someone's Negative Rights. Because of this most libertarians reject the idea of Postive Rights outside of those imposed by contract.

This will be more clear after you listen to today's show but I wanted to give you a taste of what you're going to hear.

***
As I suspected, in the absence of proper leadership and guidance some student protested descended into chaos yesterday with kids running through malls, throwing rocks at random cars and attacking the public.

For most of these kids, the opportunity to teach was squandered. Sad.

Jason

More than 3000 schools are expected to see kids from grade school to college walk out of class to protest gun violence in our schools.

If you're politically inclined to agree with the idea of more gun laws, increased background checks and raising the age to purchase then you likely welcome the protests.

If however, you oppose those ideas you likely think the kids should be punished or prevented from protesting. I've even heard someone people suggest that kids can't understand the issues well enough to have an opinion.

That last one cracks me up since I spend WAY to much time on social media reading comments from adults who clearly have zero understanding of the issue on which they're commenting.

I see these protest as an opportunity to help teach our kids several things.

1. Dialogue.
Why not use this as a chance to challenge these young men and women on what they believe? Use the protests as an opportunity to bring people with opposing ideas together in rational discussion and debate. Teachers! DO YOUR JOB! Facilitate positive interactions to help teach these kids how to have an intelligent discussion without name calling or shouting.

2. Teach Civil Disobedience
Our nation was founded on it, and kids in high school are not too young to learn how to engage in it. You have a right to peacefully assemble and petition your government. Teach these kids about the value of this and how it should be done.

3. Problem Solving
These kids, like their adult counterparts, are likely big on complaints and short on ideas. The ideas they do have are full of holes. I know this because most of the ideas being floated on solving this "problem" are full of holes. This is a chance for us to teach our kids how to use skills like deductive reasoning and problem-solving. You never know. There might be a young man or woman out there who comes up with an idea none of us have ever thought of. Crazier things have happened.

Don't dismiss the potential value of what's happening today. We as a society will screw it up, we always do. But there is potential here to mold the next generation and teach them valuable life skills that will serve them into adulthood.