Two weeks ago, the partisans of Hombre Naranja were prematurely celebrating what seemed at that point in time to be the foreordained victory of the Hombre Naranja in the (s)election that’s still more than three months away. Now the partisans of Hombre Naranja are gloomy, because they made the mistake of joining the chorus of calls for the Hombre Senil to be taken out of the (s)election process.
And then he was. And that left Hombre Naranja without much of a case to make anymore, insofar as the main case he had been making was that Hombre Senile was too senile to be running for (s)election. Or for that matter, running the country. At least, pretending to run it.
We all know by now – hopefully – that presidents are just fronts for the powers and principalities that actually do run the country.
And that latter is just the point. Or rather, the problem. Whether it’s the Hombre Naranja or the Hombre Senil or the Mujer Cacareando it’s all the same thing. More finely, variations on the same theme.
They want to run the country – which is just a euphemistic way of saying they want to run you.
We hear about the Left and the Right; about what are vaguely referred to as “conservatives” and “liberals” – though what it is that “conservatives” want to conserve is hard to divine and “liberals” seem uninterested in conserving anything, especially other people’s freedom.
But at least we know that much about “liberals” – and the Leftism that underlies “liberalism.” But what underlies “conservatism”?
Leftism, of course!
“Conservatives” will flush with anger at that – but their anger doesn’t make it less true. A good working definition of a “conservative” is one who disapproves of the use of government force by Leftists but very much approves of government force when it is used to further or enforce that which “conservatives” deem worth “conserving.” Obvious examples include what “conservatives” reverently refer to as the “troops” – by which they mean the army of federal mercenaries that consume trillions of tax dollars at home and enforce the will of the federal government abroad while lining the pockets of the “defense” cartels that make the equipment for the “troops.”
Also “law enforcement” and other “first responders,” whom “conservatives practically worship and definitely consider to be worth more than anyone else’s liberty to not be forced to pay their salaries (and early and lengthy retirements).
“The schools” – by which “conservatives” mean the government schools that are used to inculcate the government’s point-of-view in kids while forcing everyone to pay for it via property taxes that preclude the possibility of anyone ever actually owning their home.
And don’t touch my Social Security!
(This is a less-objectionable “conservative” position in view of the fact that everyone who works has been forced to “contribute” and even though no one has a “right” to “benefits” paid for by others, it was wrong to take from those who are now dependent upon those “benefits.”)
The point being, there really isn’t much in the way of fundamental differences between “conservatives” and “liberals.”
It is more like a squabble over who gets what from whom. However it comes out, what everyone gets is government.
Good and hard.
But there is one difference between the two sects. “Liberals” have faith in government as the source of all Manna. And so they want more of the former to get more of the latter. At least there’s a consistency in this.
“Conservatives,” on the other hand, are kind of like “cultural Christians” in that they have a kind of vague affection/nostalgia for the thing at the core of what they don’t really believe in. More finely, an affection/nostalgia for some of its side effects, such as respect for the individual’s freedom and free will – and the general civility/good manners that go along with that.
But without conscious understanding of the underlying principles that make the case for those things and the willingness to defend those principles and apply them to particulars (including those things that “conservatives” like but which are at odds with those principles, such as forcing anyone to pay for government schools or “the troops” or for anything at all they do not freely choose to pay for) they are doomed to end up in the same place – and under the same thumb – as the “liberals” are headed toward and herding them toward.
. . .
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Left vs. Right. They are just two wings of the same bird. Both sides will screw us over in a heart beat. The only difference is, the Right will use lube, and the left will not. Sounds harsh, but seriously, after how many election cycles over the years, and nothing ever gets better? Debt grows, society degrades more and more, to the point now you cannot assume the “woman” you are dating is an actual woman? No elected president (D or R) is going to fix a problem with a country that is in the last stages of falling apart. Perhaps they could slow it down, but sadly, this country is rotten from within, and there is no savior out there who is going to fix it.
RE: Social Security “sacred trust.”
It was sold under false pretenses as a savings account. It was a solution to a problem that wasn’t there, mainly that retail investors were wiped out in the ’29 crash and therefore had to be protected from greedy Buffett types. That’s all true of course, but anyone depending on a retirement portfolio of 100% risk is an idiot. But like CNBC, investment publications of the day were all hyper-bulls who downplayed the risk (after all, the wise hand of the FED was at the tiller, what could go wrong?).
Most people were far better off “investing” in children who would keep the family homestead intact, buying some gold and/or productive equipment, and generally living frugally.
“But what of the childless widows?” Well, there’s always charity and the missions. Or doing light duty work like tutoring children or something. Sure it ain’t retiring to Boca Raton, but that’s not all its cracked up to be either.
People need to come to terms with one simple fact. It isn’t “white supremacy”, bigotry, racism, the patriarchy, or any of the rest of the stupid “far-right” mythology but rather it is government that is the greatest common denominator of all human suffering.
No matter how you want to slice it, the greatest suffering, misery, and death of humans en masse has been (and only could have been) at the hands of government.
Without government, I don’t care who the hell it is or was, e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Biden, or Trump. None of those fuckers outside the framework of government could have perpetrated the damage that they did.
And others will follow. All of ’em talking like they’re Jesus (fucking) Christ and gonna make it all right. This time. This is the one. This is the most important election of our lives — somehow always more important, urgent, and drastic, than the last.
“Democracy” is on the ballot! Insert whatever dumb fucken shit they keep saying every election cycle, which never truly ends. The next election starts as soon as the current one ends, just like all the wars.
We don’t talk about moving into prosperity and wealth. We talk about how we might be able to get fucked less hard, if we’re lucky.
Somehow, that “our precious Democracy”, our beautiful constitution, or the deep love of the “thin blue line” has either failed to stop or (more accurately) allowed all of this shit to happen.
Yet few people are talking about how this system, where nothing gets better, should be replaced entirely.
The very fact there is a system is the major problem. Government is inherently evil. Every thing it does is done at gunpoint. If it were not, we could simply ignore it, and government will not have it. They are all psychopaths. They care no more for our welfare than a rabbit does.
If memory serves me correct wasn’t it Dan Bongino who said something to the effect of “Conservatives might not solve all of your problems but they won’t create more problems”?
At this point I suspect they all hate us and want us living in fear of them.
If our glorious leaders keep saying “Democracy” instead of “Representative Republic” it makes you kinda wonder where they went to school.
Excellent points, Eric. Most Americans are socialists and don’t even realize it. “Don’t touch my Social Security” nails the point: SS is a welfare scheme in which Uncle Scam steals money from younger workers to pass off to retirees, with the proviso that when it’s your turn to retire, someone else will be robbed on your behalf.
Most Americans don’t have the guts to “just say no!” to SS, which means they’re active participants in a form of communism, thereby validating government’s right to control them. We saw this during the scamdemic, when 90-95% of the country willingly participated in the Big Lie, once again validating government’s right to call the shots for everyone.
All the bluster among “conservatives” about the “Deep State” further underscores the point that, deep down, they all believe the State is essentially good–it’s just the “deep” part of the State that’s the bad element. “If only we could get rid of the corrupt element, we could go back to trusting (and worshiping) the government!” They’re either too naive or too stubborn to admit the ENTIRE State apparatus is evil.
Thanks, Jason!
My hope – as regards “conservatives” – is that enough of them will see their own cognitive dissonance; perhaps the best case-in-point is the tendency many “conservatives” have to support the war on some drugs. Just not their drug (alcohol). There are many other examples. The bottom line is either you believe government’s only legitimate business – if it has any at all – is to keep the peace. Once one endorses anything more than that, one has opened a door that will inevitably be opened wider and wider until there is no longer anything that the government does not regard as its business.
And here we are.
Keep the peace? Almost all the state does eliminates peace, and what doesn’t certainly does not keep it.
Amen, John –
That’s why I qualified it with legitimate business.
It has none.
“SS is a welfare scheme in which Uncle Scam steals money from younger workers to pass off to retirees”
When the SS system was implemented life expectancy was only about 66 years of age. There fore after retirement at 65 the system would only pay out for about 1 year. These days life expectancy is about 75 or so. Clearly an untenable financial system. In other words a person was expected to die shortly after retiring. SS currently pays out about 24 thousand a year. Clearly this is not enough to live a life of luxury. SS was only meant to stem hunger and homelessness.
I do not get SS as I do not have enough credits to qualify. My father who worked in a non union factory got a pension of $400 a month after retiring (1980’s). This clearly wasn’t enough to pay for expenses (property taxes, food, utilities etc etc). Without SS it would have been a tough retirement. Modern living is expensive. Maybe that’s part of the reason White people have few children or no children. When the native population fails to reproduce then our leaders have decided to import our replacements. That’s what it looks like now. After all who’s going to cut the grass, pick up the garbage, clean the toilets, cut up the chicken, flip the burgers, wipe our asses in the retirement centers etc etc.
It sure looks like doomsday for the people who built this country. Maybe a reset will happen and we’ll go back to a simpler, less expensive way of life.
Hi Euro –
You’ve touched on a couple of interesting things here. First is the way the system leaves most people still in need of regular income after they get too old to continue working, in order to pay for such things a property taxes. Before there were such taxes – and income taxes – it was much more feasible for a person who worked hard when he was young to be in a position, financially, to not have to work in old age. He owned his house – and he had savings enough to pay his basic expenses.
Today, no one ever owns their home and it’s damned hard to save when you are constantly having to pay for property taxes and “insurance.”
Your other point – about children – is also worth discussing. If one doesn’t have kids (that’d be me) then they rely on themselves or the state to care for them in old age. I guess maybe I ought to have a kid!
I just listened to Robert Kennedy Jr speak on the Roseanne Barr podcast — he sounds like a really nice guy, so real and so deep. I like his platform better than Trump’s now LOLOL. I’m really disgusted with how they won’t let us select our second choice on the ballot — that makes us ‘split our votes’. It is a CRIME and is election fraud.
But I don’t think I can beat all the trumptards, so i’m planning to throw a vote in for Trump, even though I like Kennedy (and Shiva) better. Trump’s platform isn’t bad, it’s just that Kennedy’s platform is all that and a whole lot more (better). Oh well, maybe someday us people will make our own platform/agenda and we’ll all vote on it and make the world the paradise that we all want. All we have to do is get together and organize. So far no one seems to be organizing though… everyone is just staying in the dictator system so far LOLOL. But we’ll see… sooner or later it’s destiny.
Kennedy is about 80% of what I’d like in a president, except that his solutions are more government intrusion, more wealth transfer, more meddling. Not that anyone else is saying anything different, just that he’s done a better job of identifying the problem (but still failing to see the biggest problem is the money cartel). If he had a snowball’s chance of winning I’d be more inclined to vote for him. But as it is, if I’m going to throw away a vote it’s going to be for the LP train wreck candidate, just like the last two elections.
(Warning: revisionist history)
It’s a foregone conclusion that the only reason why we first worlders live so well is because of our form of government allowing our “freedoms.” Why, without wise overlords ruling the corporations, who knows what horrid things the evil robber barons would unleash on the unsuspecting public!
It’s a foregone conclusion that the Industrial Revolution wouldn’t have been possible without King George III allowing James Watt to build the steam engine, guided by his kingly hand in order to end slavery in the United States.
Once King George showed the world just how to mechanize work, it was only a matter of time that great industrialists would be permitted to exploit the accomplishments of the state.
Absolutely correct about the minor differences between right and left as represented by Orange Jeebus and Heels up Harris. The sad part is, the brief respite of relative peace Trump may bring on, would be offset by all those supporters of his that will line up for more vaxx’z, and going off to fight for team RW&B. If K-hole Harris wins, then at least the dipshits who support her will have to carry their own water when it comes to Russia and Tinyhatlandia. The fail is baked in either way. The trash can is overflowing and needs taken out. The spectacle of incompetent LGTQ+Ps prosecuting a world war ought to be a laugh-riot.
Such an important concept that most just can’t accept.
“We all know by now – hopefully – that presidents are just fronts for the powers and principalities that actually do run the country.” -EP
Matt Taibi has a good article on Substack related to the stalking of Tulsi Gabard by the TSA, probably as payback from Kamala for Tulsi wiping the floor with her in the 2020 presidential debates. He points out that the TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, the American Gestapo created by the Chimp after 9/11 to stomp out our civil rights in order to fight the terrists. Now the D’s and the R’s are both onboard with using its unconstitutional powers to harass anyone opposed to their agenda. Whoever gets (s)elected will carry out the Uniparty goal of destroying our freedom while stealing our money and sending it to foreign governments.
‘the Mujer Cacareando’ — eric
Eh, that’s a good one, Eric — Kakamala, cacareando.
But the frayed-collar stenographers of the Lügenpresse, as the PR wing of the Democrat party, saw you coming. Today’s New York Slimes:
Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign.
‘Democrats are smiling again, and so is Vice President Kamala Harris, who once weighed the political risks of cheerfulness.’
Reframing: that’s how the pros do it, son.
Will they play Ode to Joy at her rallies? Uh, no: sounds a little too bombastic, a little too Teutonic, a little too … how to put this delicately … Caucasian. That’s not her demographic.
Somewhere in the sweat-drenched underworld, ol’ Eddie Bernays takes a cigarette break from mining sulfur with a pick-mattock, and whistles in admiration. The chutzpah! ZAZIM!
“Will they play Ode to Joy at her rallies?”
I’m guessing Megan the Stallion songs. I understand she was the opening act at Kamala’s rally in Atlanta. She did clean up her songs.
Here are some of the lyrics; I saw her perform at HULU’s Lallapalooza. WTF !!!
On second thought I won’t copy the lyrics as they are X rated
but you can see them for yourself here ; https://www.azlyrics.com/m/megantheestallion.html
‘There really isn’t much in the way of fundamental differences between “conservatives” and “liberals.”’ — eric
Not a dime’s worth, in fact, as ol’ George Wallace quipped decades ago. On their core obsessions — central bank currency printing; the national security state; the welfare state; abject whoredom to Israel — it’s all one big Uniparty.
‘J D Vance’ [not his real name] stated in a 2021 interview: “Fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state. Replace them with our people.”
And there you have it. He’s not interested in, say, CLOSING Jimmy Carter’s useless Education Department. Instead he wants to slot in right-wing ideologues, who will forcibly immerse kids in Old Testament hate literature, as opposed to leftist drag-queen shows.
Both wings of the Uniparty want to shove their agenda down other people’s throats. In response, I advocate mass arrests of Democrat and Republican leaders, and RICO charges against the DNC and RNC in order to seize all their assets and shut them down.
The name change is very odd to me (the Left may be on to something with this “weird” stuff). Here’s what Wiki says:
James Donald Bowman was born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, to Beverly Carol (née Vance; born 1961) and Donald Ray Bowman (1959–2023). He is of Scots-Irish descent.[13][14] His parents divorced when he was a toddler.[12] After Bowman was adopted by his mother’s third husband, Bob Hamel, his mother changed his name to James David Hamel to remove his father’s name but used the name of one of her brothers to preserve his nickname, JD.
Although Hillbilly Elegy [his purported memoir] implies that Vance adopted his grandparents’ surname of Vance upon his marriage in 2014, the name change actually occurred in April 2013, as he was about to graduate from Yale.
Back on the topic of vehicles and the US auto makers that are conspiring with governments against their customers:
Ford Files Patent For System To “Automatically Snitch” On Speeders
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ford-files-patent-system-automatically-snitch-speeders
“Ford has filed a new patent called “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations” that reveals the company is looking at ways to “automatically snitch” on speeding drivers, a new report from TechRadar shows.
Ford’s patent filing with the USPTO details a system using vehicles’ cameras and sensors to detect speeding motorists and report them to authorities.
Basic sketches and flow charts illustrate how this technology senses speed violations, activates cameras to capture images, and transmits data to nearby pursuit vehicles or logs it to a server. The captured data, including speed, GPS location, and clear imagery or video, can then be sent to authorities for potential action.”
Boycott Ford. Send US vehicle makers to hell where they belong.
We’re at the point where you might actually decrease your risk of fines, liability and abuse by just driving around without a license plate. Maybe just put it on the floor and, if you get caught, make up a story the neighborhood kids pulled a prank and threw the screws away and you’re on the way to Home Depot to get some new ones. “Sorry about that, officer.”
What’ the worst that can happen? Your car is still registered and insured. You’ve just failed to display the plate. A $50 infraction at worst?
Oh, just don’t drink before driving though, because they have a reason to pull you over.
Which is the ultimate failure of the Libertarian party. “The system is just fine, if only WE were in charge.”
Not a lot of difference between a politicians salary and a welfare check. Except politicians decide when they get an increase. Both are a liability forced upon us at gunpoint. In fact, every thing politicians do is forced upon us at gun point. If we could take government “services” a la carte, they wouldn’t be so much of a problem. We could take none, and be done with it. But no, how could they collect their graft?
My “conservative” senator, Katie Britt, wants to criminalize corporate boycotts of piss-rail. She’s Richard Shelby with nice tits and was installed, thanks to Trump, over a much more conservative (ie liberty oriented) person, Mo Brooks.