I agree that the whole thing is questionable, of course. And thanks for the effort. This question is an easy yes or no, though, and I’m finding it surprising that you do not know how to answer it.
Do you know the means by which libertarians can acquire proper legitimately?
This might help:
https://mises.org/library/what-libertarianism
The correct answer to the question is “No,” by the way.
So if he did liquidate the DOD whose property rights do you reckon are being violated? If there's no victim I don't see how the issue of legitimacy comes into play. That's like if you took that 100-dollar-bill went to spend it and the store owner starts to talk to you about whether or not you have legitimate ownership over the money in your possession.
Point being, if there is not a party that would claim the liquidated DOD property was stolen, what does the legitimacy of it's acquisition matter? The funds came from the collective of the people, so even if he illegitimately acquires the property and returns it to the people that's okay in my book. I personally like my idea of what to do with the funds better than his.
It's like if you found a wallet on the ground and you picked it up and looked at the license drove to the mans home and returned it to him. If it were your wallet and I did that. Would you say, you didn't have permission to acquire my property? Na, you'd be like thanks dude.
The wallet metaphor is of course not analogous though, man. The man’s ID would be in it. Maybe you didn’t check out the article I linked to. There would be a direct, objective, intersubjectively ascertainable link there.
What Adam is proposing is more akin to finding a marina full of millions of boats, and not worrying at all about who they belong to via the libertarian laws of property (see the article) but just appropriating them and arbitrarily deciding where they will go. Some will even go to his own lake (see his plans to create and fund various NPO projects).
This is categorically differnent than finding a single wallet with an ID in it.
Oh I totally agree with you. I don't like his plan for the liquidated funds at all. I think if that was done the money should be returned to the people who paid for it. I also think the boats should be returned to their rightful owners. Do you think in the DOD scenario the people would be the rightful owners and possibly some corporations too? I think it would depend on how much the various people and entities paid, and how much of that was used to fund military expenditures. With all of the tax records it should be calculable.