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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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The mystery of Milei’s dogs Javier Milei, President of Argentina, is a very odd person. He has four dogs. Now, you may think there is nothing particularly odd about that. But these dogs are clones. They are clones of the late Conan, Milei’s first mastiff, who was named after Conan the Destroyer. The clones are named Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas apparently after famous economists. Sadly, they are not so famous to me. Yes, Murray is doubtless Murray Rothbard and Milton, Milton Friedman – men who incidentally did not necessarily see eye to eye on monetary matters – but otherwise I am stumped. Robert? Surely not Skidelsky? Lucas? A complete blank. And no Adam, Ludwig, Friedrich or Henry? Truly Milei is an odd person.
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According to various sources, Robert Lucas Jr.
People do have strange pets. I heard of a guy who had a pet halibut.
Which he named “Eric“.
{ – Sorry – I HAD to… 😀 }
It would better if the President of Argentina really abolished government departments – rather than combining them into new government departments.
There is also talk that the President of Argentina is actually increasing government welfare benefits – I hope that is NOT true.
So, he’s named two dogs after Robert Lucas? Am I to believe that Lucas – the economist, not the dog – is therefore twice as good as Milton Friedman? Hmm.
Didn’t he already renege on his campaign promise to abolish the Arggie version of the Federal Reserve?
Also my last dog’s name is Eris, after the Greek goddess of chaos and delicious discord.
Clones?
Of HITLER!
Let us hope that Lucas refers to the English philosopher John Lucas who wrote a splendid (and splendidly brief) paper memorably entitled “Against Equality.”
How about some words about Lucas from a real economist?
My Obit for Robert E. Lucas Jr.
How bad could a dog-lover be, anyway…?
Oh, wait… I seem to remember one Blondi, unindicted co-conspirator of that horrible man, Adolf Hitler.
Poor thing wound up being the test dummy for Hitler’s suicide capsules, which leaves you wondering just how much said arsehole really loved his dog.
In the grand scheme of things, being a “dog person” doesn’t really tell you much. But, I will say that my dogs are usually better judges of character than I am, so if we could introduce Mr. Meili to them, we might be able to tell something from that about the man…
Robert Nozick perhaps
While the situation may be different for dogs owned before the person entered the public eye, all dogs (indeed, all ‘pets’) acquired by politicians after they enter the public eye are more-or-less visual props, designed to reinforce a certain public persona. Vide President Biden and his insistence on a succession of German Shepherd dogs (Alsatians) as a sort of prop for his delusional ‘tough-guy’ image. The long tradition of 10-Downing-Street cats is another such. Anyone who thinks that any of these people has the time or emotional bandwidth to form a meaningful bond with these animals is deluding themselves, and I fear that Mr Milei (and his dogs) will soon discover that whatever relationship they have enjoyed up to now will never be the same again.
llater,
llamas
StevenR.
The promise was to substitute one fiat currency, the Peso, for another fiat currency, the Dollar – the promise was rather pointless so I do not care if the President of Argentina has broken it (if he has broken it).
Prime Minister Lord Liverpool restored honest money (rather than the whims, the fiat – order, edict, of the state) – but that was long ago.
The international establishment seem fanatically determined to stick to fiat money – so they can carry on creating “money” from nothing and handing it out to their mates – to by real assets (such as land and homes) before prices go up, thus concentrating wealth in a few corrupt hands.
A “Cantillon Effect”, institutionally corrupt, world – where “money” is created from nothing and dished out to the politically connected Corporate Elite.
Whether it is Putin in Russia, Xi in China, or Biden in America – this is what they all do.
The economic and political system of the world is as honest and above board as the Supreme Court of Colorado.
Anyone who thinks that the fiat money system of BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard is a “free market” (or anything to do with “freedom” or “liberty”) is an idiot.
How bad could a dog-lover be, anyway…?
Hasn’t the POTUS owned several dogs famed for chomping on his masters security detail?
In his defence of Napoleon against the recent film, the historian Andrew Roberts said “Napoleon created the Bank of France” (as if that was an achievement) and talked vaguely of “monetary reforms”.
Napoleon restored gold money – if you are not prepared to say that, and to understand why it is vital that money is NOT the whims of governments and corrupt bankers, then just say nothing.
But then Andrew Roberts, in his biography of Winston Churchill, did not understand why capturing Constantinople in 1915 would have been so important – how it would have cut the Central Powers off from the Middle East (indeed cut them off from the world – encircled them) and allowed Britain and France to link up with Russia. Instead Andrew Roberts seems to think that the idea was to “capture the Turkish government” which it was not.
The first thing to understand, whether it is about military history or monetary matters, is that the establishment is utterly wrong. And lots of “amusing anecdotes” do not make a history book.
The rule of law has collapsed in the United States – with endless corrupt court judgements (including people being sent to prison for memes) and we are talking about the names of dogs.
Runcie Balspume said:
How bad could a dog-lover be, anyway…?
We badly need a punctuation convention for obvious satire… Which I thought would be clear from my having violated Godwin’s Law in the next paragraph…
We are talking about the names of dogs – and the drug-booze-and-sex habits of some pop star from the 1960s.
Well it brings a new meaning to “fiddling while Rome burned”.
Easy there, @ Paul Marks – remember, politics is downstream of culture. We mostly know and at-least-partly understand the political and financial issues that exercise you the most. Endlessly re-hashing them doesn’t help much in finding ways out of the mess(es) we are in. It will be cultural and social markers that indicate changes in course. Sure, we’re gossiping about trivia – but who knows what trivia will assume a non-trivial meaning as we go forward? Remember, the American revolution began over trivia like tea and stamps. Relax. Besides, if we’re really doomed, might as well find something fun to talk about ;-).
llater,
llamas
Paul, people can write about what they want in this blog.
The culture that came out of post war Britain, including the music, shapes our world to some extent. There’s more to live than politics, central banking or the psychodrama of Trump.
Have to have some circus with the bread!
Johnathan Pearce – yes indeed people are free to write about anything they want, and I am free to comment.
As for the “psychodrama of Trump” – President Trump is not the issue, and murdering him (as the establishment, most likely, will do at some point) will make no real difference. The basic fact is that the Corporate State regime is evil and it must be destroyed – whether or not they manage to destroy President Trump makes no difference to this fact. “The Beast must die” – and “The Beast” is not Donald John Trump, the Beast is the system.
bobby b – yes and I am against both, in Roman (or American) terms I am an old Republican, I despise the bread-and-games.
Llamas – yes indeed politics is downstream from culture, and a degenerate culture helps produce degenerate politics.
That is why a degenerate culture should be opposed – although it should be opposed on cultural grounds as well.