Is this con really going to sell… again?
The neo-con intellectual Francis Fukuyama claimed the “end of history” after the fall of the Soviet Union. The ascendance – in perpetuity – of authoritarian democracy (there can be no other kind) as the new order of the ages.
But based on last night’s political happenings, it appears we’re going back a few chapters for a remedial lesson in other forms of authoritarianism.
Leave-me-be-ism is off the table. Very few takers.
Once again, the populace is presented with – take your pick – strutting, bullying fascism (in the form of America’s business-suited Duce, Donald Trump) or the rumple-suited friendly-sounding socialism of America’s take on Leon Trotsky, Bernie Sanders.
Such a nice old man! He cares about us!
Or (cue the Duce) he will lead us!
Heads or tails, authoritarianism always wins.
Trump promises – and will deliver – order. As his prototype, the Duce did. He will make sure the trains run on time. And many other such things. Thyssen and Krupp… GE and ExxonMobil. We are going to have a time! 
Sanders, meanwhile, promises an easy ride and Free Stuff – and will deliver that. By taking more of your stuff. By having other people ride your back. Bernie will hold the reigns.
All for the common good, of course.
It’s what both of them claim – as their historical antecedents always claimed. Give me power and you will not recognize the place ten years from now!
Certainly.
People continue to fall for this. Over and over again. It is astonishing. And depressing.
Doesn’t anyone read anymore?
No, of course not. Government schools have seen to that.
Oh, they read all right. Just certain things – and most definitely not other things.
They do not read that the difference between the authoritarian fascism of Italy (copied and recast with local color by Nazi Germany’s most fervent admirer of the Duce, ol’ you-know-who) and the authoritarian socialism of the Soviet Union under “Uncle” Stalin (interesting the way these authoritarian uncles show up both over there and over here) was like the difference between a Scion FR-S and a Subaru BRZ.
That is, cosmetic.
Badges and trim.
Different uniforms and titles; different salutations. But – with regard to the fascism and socialism – always the same relentless do-as-you’re-told (or else) authoritarianism. Whether das volk or the state or the Soviet people… it all amounted to the same thing. You, the individual, do not matter. Only the collective matters. It has rights. You have obligations. Occasionally, privileges. Always conditional and subject to being rescinded at whim by the collective (that is, by its leaders, who embody and channel the collective will).
As here, as now.
We’ve been lucky, sort of, in that the democratic authoritarianism of the past several generations has been milder and less organized. One could dodge it to some extent. There were interferences and hassles, but relative to the other authoritarian isms, we had it pretty good. That is changing at warp speed, because the people, by and large, now champ at the bit for the isms. It doesn’t matter which ism ultimately prevails as they amount to the same thing.
There will be order and leadership.
Your obligations will increase. Your liberty will decrease. Everything will be defined in relation to the collective good – as defined by someone like the Duce or Sanders or whoever the leader turns out to be.
This unspoken premise is now spoken of openly by Trump and Sanders – who agree in principle and are merely arguing over the particulars. The fools who cheer Trump are as nauseating as the fools who cheer Sanders. They are both being had – but we’re being taken along for the ride.
PT Barnum knew what he was talking about.
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Feel The [Tax] Bern!
Democrazy: Stealing from those who don’t vote for you and giving the loot to those who do. D/democrats are socialist terrorists.
Submit to Allah, or die.
Submit to the State, or die.
WTF is the difference?
Most Amerikans are now too stupid to be free…They will always vote for thieving political terrorists that promise to steal the most for them…Just watch Hitlery Rob-um Clitler and The Bern battling it out giving more of other people’s property away to the retarded parasites that vote Democrat.
” D/democrats are socialist terrorists…..”
Yep. So are republicans.
“Just watch Hitlery Rob-um Clitler and The Bern battling it out giving more of other people’s property away to the retarded parasites that vote Democrat.”
Yep, and watch Trump, Cruz, and Rubio fighting over who gets to hand off more of OPM to the retarded parasites who vote republican.
No matter who you vote for, the socialist US government is going to win. That’s how the system is designed.
Republicans are democrats….democrats are terrorist parasites.
Peace. Love. Anarchy.
“Republicans are democrats….democrats are terrorist parasites.”
Yep. Years ago, I was listening to some republican dimbulb going on about “what has happened to our democracy”. I asked, “WTF do you care about democracy? I thought you said you’re a republican.” The asshole looked at me like I had a leg growing out of my forehead.
“WTF is the difference?”. Oh, there’s a difference….but only one I can think of…..the people who benefit from the theft.
There may be hope, if not immediate.
Fred Reed is always worth reading, even when he’s not right. But this time I think he’s right.
fredoneverything.org
None of the candidates understand what has happened to our society. If they did they’d realize that between big government and rent-seeking financial institutions, they’re the ones that have destroyed the American dream (no, not home ownership).
A real shame too. If someone understood that 1 in 5 of us aren’t working, and will likely never work again -and that the 2nd largest age demographic, the baby boomers, is just about to retire, they’d realize that income taxes receipts are going to dramatically drop in the coming years, and the spendthrift government will have to adjust, no matter what they do to the currency to stimulate “growth.”
Despite all their efforts to cause inflation, technology continues to wring efficiency out of the system by levering labor with automation, leading to a deflationary cycle that will only feed on itself. And as employees get more expensive and harder to lay off the drive to automate will only increase. Who’s going to pay taxes when 1/4 to 1/3rd of working age people aren’t able to find a job and give up? What idiot is going to fund a government that doesn’t have tax receipts for collateral? The income tax is a 20th century relic and should be eliminated, along with the transfer payments, before the goose is cooked.
But the Free Stuff Army™ and the Idiocracy will be placated.
Hi Eric,
This is spot on.
There will soon be another mass extinction (via automation) of jobs in transportation-related areas. Human taxi drivers, over-the-road-truckers will be rendered unneeded by automated cars and trucks. They’ll be able to keep a truck hauling 24 hours a day (less automated fuel stops) which double their efficiency (and profit, since no need to pay a driver). Etc. By-bye cabby, for the same reason.
All of this would be fine if no one needed to work in order to earn money to buy life’s necessities (and more than that, dammit) and we could all pursue the things that interest us, for our own sake.
But that’s not going to happen.
What will happen is an acceleration of circling-the-drain …
“The man of system…is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so
enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he
cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it… He seems to imagine
that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease
as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not
consider that in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has
a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the
legislature might choose to impress upon it.”
— Adam Smith
Eightsouthman,
It figures that you would find someone that writes more clearly than what I was ranting. 🙂
Eric_G,
I love the ™ symbol. The FSA™ coming to a theatre near you.
Eric,
It is a shame that people, by threat of force, need to get money to be able to live in a “paid-off” home. Property taxes and income taxes work together to keep people on the “rat-race”.
Forgetting for the moment that govt spends way too much on things it has no right spending, what alternatives are there for property tax and income tax.
I would prefer more taxes on consumption such as, but (fuel taxes, sales taxes, excise, etc.) instead of income/property. In this manner, those that prepare well, have a good chance to get off the “rat-race” and not be in fear of losing their home. If someone wants more, then that individual will need to work for it.
Regarding the pleas of how to pay for X, Y, Z.
1)Government should not be in the business of being (or trying to be) everything for everyone. While there may be somethings that might be nice (at least considered nice by some people) not everyone will agree to this.
If government has less money to spend (at least before it start the printing presses) then it should (in theory) mean it is running less programs.
Government spending distorts the market. This distortion can lead individuals (and the business they run) to make unsound decisions.
1a) If government is borrowing less to fund its spending, then lenders would have the funds available to lend to those that need it most at a market based cost.
2) If people (and the businesses they run) are taxed less then they may be able to afford some of the things that was being provided via government.
Will there be people that are in unfortunate circumstances?
Probably yes,
(1) not everyone makes good decisions
(2) sometimes life can be cruel, even if people do make good decisions
(3) there are bad people out there (some are members of the FSA™)
In some cases, other people will try to help out — especially if the person in need is deemed worth helping.
When people have more of their own resources available, they are probably (though not always) more willing to help another individual in need.
Do I claim to have all the answers? No. Thankfully I do not have to worry about getting all the answers. With all the people out there, there is bound to be someone that has an answer to one (or more) problems that we face. If they are motivated they can try to promote their answer (solution). If it is good, then it will succeed. (see telegraph, automobile, train as some examples) If it is not good it will (and should) fail.
Apologies for my rant. It is a bit stream of consciousness, but hopefully it makes enough sense.
“I would prefer more taxes on consumption such as, but (fuel taxes, sales taxes, excise, etc.) instead of income/property”.
So you would prefer to simply choose one group over the other? That is the point of lessening a tax here and raising one there. Fuel taxes, such as the common 150 gallons of diesel I use daily that in turn, has to be charged back to the people who buy my services and since my services entail keeping oil flowing, that would include everybody. Sales taxes, all those pieces and parts I use every day, once again, returned in kind to everyone else. Excise taxes, ah, the motor carrier, construction company, oil company bane, charged back to everybody who takes breath.
You say “My child, the estate of the non-aware rest home victim, people justly or for the most part, unjustly incarcerated have no direct stake in it”. Sure they do, they’re alive and taxable.
Eightsouthman,
I do not think I said the last paragraph.
Ideally I would prefer no taxes. In lieu of no taxes, I think consumption taxes are a better type than property/income taxes. (I am wiling to hear better ideas though)
You are correct that most if not not all consumption taxes will be passed to the buyer of the service/product.
Mithrandir, I didn’t try to put words in your mouth. I was just considering off-hand, those who have no choice an an example. Property taxes are another type of consumption even though it may or may not fit in a breadbox. Consider those people who pay business tax and personal tax on the same property. Now that’s certainly not fair.
Automated hauling, otherwise known trains, aren’t all that and more. Somebody still has to receive and unload that machine without robbing it blind.
If we truckers got the subsidy RR’s get it would be a glorious day a-truckin.
trucking is heavily subsidized by millions of people using their passenger cars. If they all disappeared trucking would get vastly more expensive.
“U.S. eyes ways to toughen fight against domestic extremists” (emphasis added)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-militants-domestic-insight-idUSKCN0VD0FG
Have you heard Cliven Bundy (not his son Ammon) was arrested by the FBI? No official word yet on the charges.
“[A] . . . trait . . . which, in my eyes best describes socialists of all schools and shades, is a profound opposition to personal liberty and scorn for individual reason, a complete contempt for the individual. They unceasingly attempt to mutilate, curtail, to obstruct personal freedom in any and all ways. They hold that the State must not only act as the director of society, but must further be master of each man, and not only master, but keeper and trainer. For fear of allowing him to err, the State must place itself forever by his side, above him, around him better to guide him to maintain him, in a word, to confine him . . . to sum up what socialism is, I would say that it was simply a new system of serfdom.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, September 12, 1848
Hi PTB,
“The plans differ; the planners are all alike.” — Frederic Bastiat
“None of the candidates understand what has happened to our society”
Of course they do! They are not stupid…They are terrorists.
I love the combination on this site of libertarianism and gearheadism.
“I love the combination on this site of libertarianism and gearheadism.”
And don’t forget anarchwasm.
I think we need a different metaphor for American presidential politics. Maybe a serial monogamist, who is constantly moving from one new lover to the next, trying out new things as our fancy changes. Sometimes this results in a fling (e.g., a one term president that doesn’t work out, like Carter), or a bad marriage (e.g., a two term president where the other party wins the next term, like Clinton and Bush2), or a good marriage that runs it’s course but eventually looses interest (e.g., a two term president where the same party wins the next election, but at some point the other party wins, like Reagan and Bush1).
America has had two bad marriages in a row. Will it be three? Or perhaps our polity have developed battered spouse syndrome.
Yo Adrian you gonna vote for Trump or what? I love that guy
http://www.infowars.com/sylvester-stallone-i-love-donald-trump/
People thought Goring was a swell guy, too!
Vermin Supreme in 2016!!!
Free Ponies for all!
Might as well have a laugh at this clown show…
Yep. Over a million people from S of the Rio Grande have returned to wherever the hell they came from due to no jobs, the very thing they sought but Trump(and others too)keep on with the ‘immigration” problem even though many sheriff’s in S Texas have said “What illegals?” I have friends whose families came from Mexico and they are the first born. They work hard like the rest of us and cuss the govt. policies that take their money for illegals coming to the US and bearing a child so they can’t be deported and then bring spouse and family…….just like their parent’s did. What goes around comes around.
Yep. I keep hearing from friends and family in other parts of the country that I’m in imminent danger from all the illegal aliens overrunning Southeastern Arizona. After all, Sheriff Joke Arpiggo says it’s happening, so it just HAS to be true, right? When I tell them that I wouldn’t know an illegal alien if I bumped into one, I’m told in so many words that I’m either clueless or a lying sack of shit.
“Immigration” is just another red herring issue, this one popular with the Right (like gun violence and the “wage gap” are with the Left), used to distract the sheeple from the real issues none of the political class wants addressed. That the distraction still works serves as a sure indicator that it’s not getting any smarter out there.
lib, you got it…..well said.
Believers in Govt are supporters of slavery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuRBLMGoUk
Most people’s objections to anarchy
https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/t31.0-8/12657883_569422826539953_5064848196431827035_o.jpg
We do what we like and are capable of, and that’s fine. As long as we keep straight other people are not our property. Not even Sean O. Roberts or Clover. We have unlimited right of defense, but no one owes us any kind of behavior or action, regardless of how popular and allegedly beneficial such conduct is believed to be
https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12645187_1094860847214430_679012346749205691_n.jpg?oh=79c913c12f1d783762f10be397339f15&oe=5725C718
A big part of the problem lays in the large (and growing) permanent “professional” bureaucracy where most of the power of the government actually is. At the federal level they are especially dangerous (though some states are getting close). They stay in power, no matter who is in the WH, since most are now no longer part of the spoils system. They are not elected, unaccountable, nearly impossible to fire and are cocooned from reality in DC.
Most agencies are run by a grad of an ivy league university, and most have the mindset of those places. Most of the bad ideas of humanity are born in the university setting. Communism, socialism, fascism, even most of nazism, all had their beginnings at an university.
Most bureaucrats, have had a lifetime of public employment, most are proud to tell you of it. A life of “selfless” public “service”, never mind that they earn six figure incomes. The few with “private” sector “experience” are those with short stints (sometimes less then a year) with wall street firms. So they are know nothings to boot. That’s why common sense and practicality have no place in government.
That’s why we have mandated low flow one gallon toilets instead of the five gallon ones that worked fine most of the 20th century. And those horrid buzzing CFL lightbulbs that give every room in your home the ambiance of a bus station bathroom. Or the new major appliances you have trouble getting a decade of service from, when your grandparents kept the same ones for forty years (even though they were a horrid shade of green)!
This is the joy a bureaucracy gives you. The politicians hand them power to do the things they want, the “dirty work”, that even they cannot get away with. These are the people who come up with the CAFE numbers. These are the people making the rules for woodstoves (they want to cut most of the emissions from those, yes really!) and water heaters (those are about to get a lot more bulky in size due to extra foam insulation $$, since most people still refuse to buy the expensive tank-less models they favor).
They don’t give a s**t that some people (generally lower income people) get all their heat from woodstoves, and that plumbers will have a hard time getting fatter, more expensive waterheaters into tight spaces (like doorways). They don’t care they are making things inconvenient, expensive, etc. Not only is that its not a bug, it’s a feature. They don’t want people living way out in the country (woodstoves) and they HATE that the average person takes a shower or more every day.
I’m in my early forties, I can’t imagine how much more control there will be when I am 80. Its not going to be fun.
When those old white ranchers (the only people that really seem to remember an America with far less government) in Oregon took over that government building, the press was quick to note that the residents in the near by town wanted them to leave. What wasn’t noted by the press that 60% of the employed residents of that town ARE government employees…………………. Why is it, that, it’s not seen as a major problem that over HALF of the employed people of a community are NOT working in the private sector?
Hi Rich,
Great comment! Isn’t it funny that the apostles of “Democracy” don’t seem to care that bureaucratic regulators, entirely unaccountable to the “democratic process”, can issue edicts that carry the force of law.
I differ from you slightly in pointing out that temporary regulators can do just as much damage as lifelong bureaucrats. As you point out, the “lifers” are often agenda driven ideological zealots who are profoundly ignorant and immune to the constraints of reality. However, the “temporals” are usually revolving door regulatory “captureachniks” whose job is to funnel money, favors and special privileges, all done in the name of “the public good”, to the industries they really represent. In exchange, they return to those industries and reap a massive profit. This problem is most damaging at the federal level but, local and state licensing boards exist for the same reason. The pols facilitate this system in exchange for bribes, er campaign donations.
Jeremy
Short timers get their jobs promising to uphold the long timers goals. How the hell else would things get so FU’d?
Well, I for one am a Trump FAN. I would rather have had a Ron Paul, but the communists behind the scenes on the R side stole the caucuses and conventions from him.
I would rather it was nobody, but in the bigger scheme of things, that is never going to happen. Most voters are to the left of the median IQ level and their votes will prevail unless the commies behind the scenes change the counts again. Most of them want a ruler, a boss, a master. Someone to tell them what to do, fight their battles, and give them stuff. So be it, let them have theirs, the problem is they want me to kneel and obey also.
Here’s the thing. Trump is (I know this is shocking, but..) filthy rich. With a veritable harem of trophy wives in his past and present. And a history of honorable dealing in his successful businesses. And a couple of well publicized bankruptcies where he obviously lost.
This is a man who has experienced life as most of us would like to. He had some advantages and capitalized on them. He made pragmatic deals and payoffs to keep the political crooks out of his “hair”.
This is a man with a history of real accomplishment, and now he’s turning his sights to immortality- the task of rebuilding from the smoking ruins of the USA. He will not be owned by the international commie/Davos crowd.
He is far from perfect, but he is exactly what is needed if there is to be any hope of restored liberty in our lifetimes. Because without good management the union thugs run the place into the ground. And good management leaves the talent alone to produce.
And Eric, I love you man, but calling that kind of guy a strutting fascist is a cheap shot. Il Duce and Adolph were little men, as are most dear leaders. Trump is cut from an entirely different cloth.
Hi Ernie,
This may of interest:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/19/donald-trumps-eminent-domain-nearly-cost-widow-house
Hi Eric and Ernie,
I read about the Vera Coking case about twenty years ago, glad to see the guardian has brought it up again. As for the comparison to Il Duce, it is entirely fair. Trump is the living embodiment of crony-capitalism (arguably a form of fascism). He also regularly invokes his credentials as a “great leader”, a decidedly fascist concept. While he seems to be better on war and foreign policy than most of his rivals in both parties, that isn’t saying much when everyone else is batshit insane on the issue.
The escalation of executive power is a huge problem today. I see no reason to believe that Trump would constrain himself in that area. Trump’s understanding of “greatness” is every bit as abhorrent as his rivals and, I am quite certain, it does not include dismantling the crony-corporate structure that he has exploited so well. He won’t usher in a new era of respect for individual liberty, property rights and free association. He won’t abolish the EEOC, undo the laws that grant special privileges to unions, allow private businesses to discriminate as they see fit, both in terms of choosing their clientele and hiring and firing decisions. He won’t declare that it is a human right for anyone to negotiate the terms of his employment without government interference. In short, he won’t do anything that could actually make people freer. His vision of greatness is about grand schemes, “world class” projects and the projection of strength.
That being said, he is no worse than any of the others and, in some ways, perhaps better. Also, I must admit I have a slight soft spot for him just because he confounds and pisses off the self-appointed elite, including the media gatekeepers, so much.
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
Remember Churchill’s backhanded defense of Stalin?
I regard Trump much the same. It’s great that he’s kicked Jeb Bush in the balls; that whole family should be air-dropped over Baghdad to “fight for freedom.” I like that he doesn’t truckle to political correctness.
But he’s still a thug. And dangerous.
Again, the Hitler/Duce parallel:
They both were hugely popular, to a great extent because they were regarded as fighters – as “leaders” – who were not afraid to speak their mind and because the appealed to the people’s desire for national greatness.
I realize there are no good options.
Hi Eric,
I know that Churchill supported Stalin and referred to him as “Uncle Joe”, but I don’t remember his backhanded defense.
Jeremy
He was criticized by a colleague for supporting Stalin and replied: “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
Hi Eric,
Ha, thanks. Although Churchill was an evil man, and one of the main architects of the modern welfare/warfare state, he could be witty.
Jeremy
Yall need to remember that Trump wasn’t the architect of just one big theft via eminent domain. He’s made a career out of it. Pay offs to those other evil people in mainly city govt.’s not to mention the state.
Trump has used government and fed policy for his own enrichment time and time again. It’s Trump’s big weakness but the others don’t pound on it because they did too. Jeb Bush tries but he’s got his brother’s stadium deal in the way. So we get articles on how Trump used a concrete company in NYC with mob ties. Is there any other kind of concrete company in NYC? It just makes the media look stupid.
And connections to organized crime. Can’t get a porta-potty built in NYC without letting the mob wet their beak (and not in the blue water either).
media – stupid. Hmmm, if the shoe fits, wear it
Dear Eric,
Exactly.
Trump does happen to be telling some truths.
He is thumbing his nose at PC.
But it hardly means we would be better off with him than any of the other sociopaths consumed with power lust running for office.
As I said, he’s not perfect. I’ve done things in my life I’ve been ashamed of also. And you are right, making the trains run on time is a warning sign. But making the trains run on time is not necessarily a bad thing.
But when I see someone standing up and sticking his finger in the media’s eye, and smacking down the PC, and promising to stem the tide of alien invaders, I am personally impressed.
Because I am tired of living under a communist dictatorship. Where speech and thought are repressed and punished, there is no liberty. When the PTB start mass importation of alien cultural values and aliens it is an existential threat to my liberty and western culture. Western culture is demonstrably superior to Islamic and other savagery.
He’s not perfect, but somebody is going to be elected, whether you or I like it or not. And I like a lot of what he’s selling.
Hi Ernie,
On alien invaders: The fundamental problem here (again) is the state. The state dangles welfare and other “free” things before these people – is it surprising they come? That they take advantage?
If Trump talked about ending welfare and other such “free” services, he’d have my ear. That would be far more effective than walls and deportations…
But he appears to be peddling that ol’ National Greatness moonshine.
I don’t want to live under any dictatorship – whether communist, fascist or democratic.
Trump promises a different flavor of authoritarianism. That’s all.
Keep in mind the old T Shirt slogan: What about all the good things Hitler did?
I agree completely, but welfare exists and you’re not going to be elected at this point in history, in the middle of the greater depression, by promising to take away the bread and circuses of those who believe you can simply vote away reality. Just like you cannot end so-called security when multiple generations were robbed of their savable income to pay for it and now are leaving the working world with nothing.
It is wrong that we have to die, but to date there is nothing we can do about it.
We as individuals can educate, and argue, and show people that it is a very bad thing to allow a government to do, but that is the only change we can make and it won’t be quick.
And I don’t want to live under any dictatorship either, but we already do. We have to deal with reality- with huge number of people who believe communism/socialism/fascism is good. Bernie Sanders, Barry Soetero, anyone? Those people are real, and they vote, and breed, and call the cops on you and I.
I am only making two points:
The first is that our society is in a lifeboat situation and the PTB are trying to throw us off so that they can eat everything that’s left. The question is not “Is anyone going to end up in charge”, but “Who is going to end up in charge”.
The second is that I regard a record of accomplishment outside of government as a much better qualifier than the bunch of lawyers who have arrogantly made the mess we are in.
Thanks for the conversation- it’s always great. Unfortunately, now I have to get back to work. Tens of millions of welfare cases are counting on me…
“communist, fascist or democratic” – democratism?
“democratism?”
Or its past tense, democratwasm.
Democratwasm – clever, but the problem is that democracy, the god that failed (see H H Hoppe) is not dead. It is, on the other hand, just as totalitarian as the other ‘isms’ we are told to fear.
Democratism is the curse that we live under. Democratwasm is just a fervid hope for the future, when democracy is in the past.
Hey, did you ever notice how impossibly tedious ol’ Hans’s writng style is? He’s a brilliant guy, but his writing style makes me want to just… I don’t know.
“Democratwasm”, gotta remember that one. Just something about it I like. I have never read “ol’ Hans”, just quotes and parts of article.
He’s almost as bad as me turning a sentence into a paragraph. I’ve controlled that somewhat better lately but I still think in those terms.
I have a couple job apps in front of me. They’ll probably just file 13 them before they get to the end, be afraid I’ll be like that on the radio.
“turning a sentence into a paragraph.”
William Faulkner had to be the world’s worst at that. His sentences would run for three chapters, and his paragraphs usually carried over into his next novel. ahaha
“They’ll probably just file 13 them before they get to the end”
Just don’t tell’em about any plethoras. They hate that shit. 😉
But Ed, I have a plethora of plethoras….or plethoras of plethora…..or a myriad of plethora…..most of them recorded but not all ‘findable”.
8, wouldn’t you rather have a plethora of good paying jobs? huh? ahaha.
All part of the plan Eric. Bring in third world hordes of ignorant, uneducated people born and raised in collectivism, allow them to vote and suck on the government teat and you get more “votes” for the collectivists. Couple this by giving them free stuff and you create a divide between the natives (vets, homeless, infrastructure) who get rolled over in favor of these new “immigrants” and you start cracking the very foundation of the country. I believe these scum do plan to lower everyone’s standard of living down to sustenance level so they can have more.
Bill, I don’t see how anyone could interpret it any other way than destroying the middle class, the very people who do/did the hard humping to make things work. NAFTA was their first major move to level the field between the US and Mexico. I think the exchange rate on money was 16 to 1 or so back then. When I was there for a while in ’04 it was a bit over 10 and now it’s 18.92…..so they ain’t doin all that well either.
When less than 1% own more than half the wealth in the world…….
Hi Ernie,
You are right, someone is going to be elected. I choose to not support anyone. Many claim this is naive and counter-productive, I disagree. As melodramatic as this sounds, I suspect it is necessary for the future of humanity that we abandon the puerile fascination with, and submission to, the authority of “leaders”. By this I do not mean those people who earn the respect of others; but those who seek to “rule” over others. All such people are dangerous. This is my decision and I do not hold that it is a NAP violation to support a candidate. However, once one has decided to support a candidate, it seems that any reason is as good as another.
There is an argument to be made for supporting the “less bad” candidate, but also one for supporting the “most bad” candidate. I can imagine a libertarian supporting Bernie because he believes that the system must collapse before meaningful change can happen. I don’t agree with either argument but, once one has decided to “use” politics, both are fair game.
As for Trump, a big difference between you and him is that Trump, in so far as using government force to enrich himself, is not ashamed of what he’s done.
Jeremy
Hi, Jeremy.
Wish we could sit down over a beer and talk back and forth over it. I mostly agree with you. Leadership has a (very limited) time and a place. Properly understood, when we have “elections” we are not selecting a “ruler” or a “leader”.
It annoys me no end when I hear fools talking about the current denizen of the el casa blanco as the “Commander in Chief” as that function is only active when the country is properly at war.
We elect, that is to say CHOOSE a MANAGER to deal with stuff so that we don’t have to.
This is only the way it’s supposed to be, not the way it is.
Life is imperfect and unfair. I’m still going to live. And I choose to participate in politics because it is a part of life, much like taking a dump. I may or may not like it, but it’s going to happen.
I know lots of folks who espouse anarchy, especially here. Unfortunately it is a noble ideal, which is not attainable. You and I can live in peaceful anarchy, up until you store your spent fuel rods in open air on my side of your property. At that point, something is going to happen.
The problem is we as libertarians and/or anarchists tend to be far to the right in the bell curve of IQ, we usually make more or less reasonable or rational decisions, and try to get along with those we interact with or avoid those we don’t. But we are a minority, and speaking from bitter personal experience there is an awful lot of people who respond to nothing but force and are perfectly without scruple about using it to take what they want.
Hi Ernie,
I would love to sit down and talk back and forth, as long as it was over a few beers, not just one.
I understand where you’re coming from, which is one of the reasons why I do not consider voting for, or even contributing to, a candidate to be a NAP violation. As for the viability of anarchy, we differ. As I’ve argued before, anarchy is the unseen and unrecognized default position that guides most actions of most people in their daily lives. Society could not exist if this were not so.
I think you are correct that “we libertarians and/or anarchists tend to be far to the right in the bell curve of IQ”. But just as most of us have been conditioned to think that submission to arbitrary authority is “normal”, people could be conditioned to think that voluntary cooperation and, in the case of conflict, submission to dispute resolution organizations was “normal”.
Still, I don’t expect to see this in my lifetime.
Jeremy
If you get near Fargo anytime soon, cold beer is always available. Unfortunately, everything else is also damned cold. I really need to get to work but it’s so much better to hang out here among friends than face -8 and ice. And squarehead farmers. And lots of democrats. Ugh- they call it SAD for a reason!
Likewise if you get near Santa Fe anytime soon. Beer is available and cold, but the 57 degrees and sunny might shock your system.
Jeremy
Probably get vitamin D overload. Haven’t seen the sun in weeks…. May just have to migrate…
Jeremy, you said “in the case of conflict, submission to dispute resolution organizations was “normal” ”
Isn’t that making a government again…?
The problem being human nature, to a certain extent.
Person A knows Joe at Service Provider A, and Joe will be “less than objective” in conflict resolution.
Person B knows Pete at Service Provider B, and Pete will be “less than objective” in conflict resolution.
And we could presume a C, D, E, etc, WRT those services.
How would you enforce a means to agree on a neutral settlement? Even before we look at bribery, or the normal human routine of weighing other evidence (E.G., wealth, social status.)
Who watches the watchers? Especially in the bad situations, where the Watchers would happily eschew the NAP to silence dissent or “bad press.”
I don’t want us to get too far into Unicorn lands, is all. We need to arrange a means that will drag the imbeciles along with us, or find a way to opt out and leave them to their own fatalities. But there’s no middle ground to my way of thinking…
Hi Jean,
There is a lot of literature on this subject that may help answer your questions. In brief, DRO’s would need to develop a reputation for objectivity and fairness to survive. In your scenario, each DRO could contract with an outside adjudicator that is not biased in favor of either. This adjudicator need not be employed by any particular DRO. I imagine that a market would develop for private judges that each DRO could approve in advance. There could also be provisions for an appeal judge, stipulated in advance. Each DRO could serve as advocates for their clients position, leaving the judge (or even a jury) to decide. Again, judges would have to develop a reputation for fairness to get business.
I don’t know all the answers, nor does anyone else. But, that’s sort of the point. Most people have been conditioned to believe that there must be a final arbiter and that the final arbiter can only be provided by a monopoly government. But, this is not so. The parties could agree, in advance to selecting the final arbiter in a possible appeals process. Security, justice and conflict resolution are goods that people value. There is no reason to believe that these could not be provided in a better, fairer and more efficient manner by competing institutions.
To my thinking, social conditioning is the huge stumbling block. Why is it that most people understand that competing institutions, in a free market, are better at providing all other goods that humans value, but balk at the idea of competing institutions providing security, justice and conflict resolution?
Finally, no it wouldn’t be just “making a government again”. A government is a monopoly institution that cannot be competed with.
Jeremy
Ernie, “He’s not perfect, but somebody is going to be elected, whether you or I like it or not. And I like a lot of what he’s selling.”.
Well, stand in line and maybe you’ll like some of the nice homes he’s had condemned via eminent domain and you can buy one whole for scrap and haul it off.
“you can buy one whole for scrap and haul it off.”
Ha! Good one, 8. I’m not buying a nickel’s worth of what Trump is selling. Fuck him and feed him fish heads. I think that anybody who likes any candidate is either watching too much TV or huffing a little more glue than they need.
Election years are kind of entertaining, in a morbid kind of way. I get to watch, horrified, as my fellow Merkins go insane and say mentally retarded shit about morally retarded assholes.
Hi Eight,
Trump’s affability is one of his most potent weapons. I mentioned earlier the Reichsmarschall. He charmed many people with his bonhomie.
Look out.
Trump, like Goring, is an extreme narcissist who regards other people as widgets to be made to serve his ends. The fact that he – a billionaire who does not need the money – would use the government to evict an old lady from the home she wanted to live out here remaining years in so that he could build a parking lot… what does this tell you about the man’s humanity? His empathy?
I was selling real estate about the time that Trump Tower Chicago was underway. Like every other developer (yes, he never uses his own personal fortune and borrows to build), you have to have pre-sales in order to get financing to even begin to build it. So you have to get people to put money down on a building that hasn’t even started construction. So you have to offer lower prices to get those early sales, since most people can’t visualize what an unit will even look like. Or even if the developer can or will even build what they promise (many can’t or won’t).
So they got those early sales. And the building began construction, even though the economy was tanking. So sales continued, probably at much lower prices then what they were hoping for when they were planning (pre-crash). They actually did pretty well for how bad the economy was (and still is in Chicago). As the building rose (its a 90 story building), the economy was starting to show some signs of life as the building topped out. Prices started to rise in his building even before anyone closed on their units and moved in.
So what did he do? Cancelled all the low priced pre-sales contracts. Yep, it’s something that is legal, but not common, duh, but certainly isn’t very ethical. Something that in the real estate community, yes, even in Chicago found very shady. Builders generally honor the price of the pre-sale no matter the current value.
So that what he thinks of established practice when it doesn’t work for his benefit. He thinks nothing of running it down. Too bad if your in the way.
In that way, he is perfect for government.
“He is far from perfect, but he is exactly what is needed if there is to be any hope of restored liberty in our lifetimes.”
That would be a real funny line if you weren’t so obviously man-crushing on the asshole.
I’m terrified by the authoritarian Trump, but my one hope of a silver lining if he wins is that he’d fire all the permanent bureaucrats in Washington and cancel all of Obama’s executive orders.
“my one hope”
Don’t hold your breath.
He won’t be able to fire the permanent bureaucrats. At this point, no president could. Even if he tries, it will be blocked. And outside of the loonier executive orders that have gotten some bad press, the majority will stand. It doesn’t matter if Hillary or one of the Republicans holds 1600. Remember when Barry said he would undo W’s? Not only did he not undo them, he doubled down on many of them. Obama may have hated when Bush welded power, he enjoys having it himself far more, then dialing it back.
There is a reason why people can’t see a difference between the two major parties. Because there is very little that is different.
Need more proof? I lean towards the conservative side of the political spectrum. I thought Reagan was a good president, and the only reason why he couldn’t do more was because he was stuck with a Democrat controlled Congress most of his terms. Move up to the Bush II years, we finally have both a Republican WH and Congress. So did we get any thing from our conservative wish list, we have had been waiting decades for? No, not a thing, in fact the opposite. We get even more government we didn’t want, like the department of “homeland security”, the TSA and new entitlements like the Medicare drug benefit. No one tried to do things like end the Department of Education, or defund PP or PBS.
How do you know a politician is lying? He is talking.
rich, it’s even deeper than that in my view. The shadow govt. has taken over and not recently. Kennedy tried to do what Truman and Eisenhower both wanted. to get rid of the spy agencies with their huge background power. No other prez since has tried anything like that except JC who simply got shoved to the side.
If the military were to suffer the same fate as civilians when some major catastrophe happens, things might get turned around. It would need to be worldwide.
“If the military were to suffer the same fate as civilians when some major catastrophe happens”
1 good thing that could result from the current low price of crude? It might be harder for TPTB to sell ‘war for oil.’ Not that that is ever a good justification for it, but the shmuck on the street might more easily figure it out. We really could do w/o Saudi crude, at least on a temporay basis, and they know it. That may be why they are knocking the price down, to pull the legs out from under the frackers.
Here’s what I believe and have since a coach teaching civics to us worldly 15 year old’s asked us what we knew about Vietnam, a place he pointed out to us, we’d soon get to see first hand. By the time I was 18 and we’d discussed and been bombarded by propaganda for 4 years or more, I had figured this out. I wasn’t the only one either. Nobody from my class got near Vietnam nor served in the “armed forces”.
i wish I had been around to travel the country as ask the settlers “What do you think about George Washington?”. And they would have replied “Who?”.
These guys said it truly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svPDzNO6GQk
I sure can’t bring myself to “cheer” for any of them.
But “one” candidate is universally hated by all the media whores, from CNN to Fox….and all the neocon traitors in his own party (especially the bushes and mc cain.) And that seems like a “good thing” to me.
That’s the kind of “lesser evil” I might vote for.
Hi Mike,
Yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a thug. Check his record.
Hitler (to continue the analogy) was also considered a savior of the people, not owned by the junkers or big business.
Remember what Carlin said about these guys and their club. We’re not members.
I, too am alarmed by some of what I have heard from Trump and Sanders, however, I don’t think that either is any worse than what we have had for the last 30 years.
Not to try to lessen the things Bill and Hitlery’s reign took away from us, the shrub’s bunch passed the most egregious legislation ever thought of. BO has been a continuation of that horror with only the mitigation of no large amount of feet on the ground in the middle east.
Someone commented on the LRC blog a few days ago, asking if the election of Rubio would mean a 3rd Obama term. I emailed him saying it would be more like a 5th Shrub term. Lew replied “Ha!”
Hi Swamp,
“Each president builds a ceiling which becomes the next president’s floor”.
– Robert Higgs
In a way I agree, presidential aspirants are almost universally awful people. But, the power they are “entitled” to openly wield is worse today. I suspect that if Reagan had claimed the power and authority to kill anyone, anywhere on earth, without charges, due process or even the need to provide evidence, even conservatives would have balked. Likewise, the mainstream press at the time would have at least covered it and, most likely, been highly critical.
Today, the sitting president claims this power and, except for principled libertarians and the few principled anti-war folks on the left, there is no outrage. The mainstream media, if they cover it at all, are generally supportive. This is different.
Jeremy
“Each president builds a ceiling which becomes the next president’s floor”.
– Robert Higgs
Yeah, I like ol’ Robert, He has a way of just layin it out there, don’t he? I first read an article of his on LRC and followed the link to the Independent Institute. He has a fine writing style.
Hi Ed,
Yep, gotta love ol’ Robert.
Check out his talk, “The State is Too Dangerous to Tolerate”.
https://mises.org/library/state-too-dangerous-tolerate
Jeremy
The problem is executive power is greater than ever.
‘Different uniforms and titles; different salutations. But – with regard to the fascism and socialism – always the same relentless do-as-you’re-told (or else) authoritarianism.’
Out of work(to paraphrase Ross Perot, that big Whump sound you heard from the southwest was the patch slamming the vault door shut) and bored a week ago, I stuck The Departed into the machine. The big funeral scene with the closet Nazi’s almost goose-stepping reminded me of that old saw “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.
“, I stuck The Departed into the machine. ”
There are some good lines in that film, like the one where Cully tells the guy that he could get into plainclothes work, “unless you like coming to work dressed like you’re going to invade Poland every day”.
Those Statie uniforms look as though the SS got their inspiration from the Massachussetts state police.
My daughter loves that line:
“Fiah fightahs are a bunch of homos…Well, they ahhhh”.
Ed, those Statie uniforms were designed and made by the same family that did all the German uniforms. It’s the reason they look like SS. It’s big up in the NE since the biz is in NYC. Never a shortage of SS knock-off’s to be made for despots worldwide.
Yep, I believe it. Those are some butt ugly uniforms, too.
At least part of the rise of Trump can be explained by the suffocating cloud of political correctness that has descended over America. Trump is openly saying what many people think but are too afraid to say aloud.
Amen.
Trump is correct… we have lost our mojo. And our citizens are suffering for it.
Both parties have forgotten this Nation and let it go to hell. Roads and bridges are falling a part, jobs are moving out of this country, to pay off the demands of the lobbyists and their corrupt politicians. Politicians have great retirements but they are worried that the working stiff is being paid minimum wage. Lets pay congress minimum wages and let them survive on it.
God, Term Limits would do wonders for this congress and senate. It would be flushing the political toilet in Washington.
We need more parties in this Nation. Like New Hampshire, let everyone vote. Just have one ballot with all parties and let all voters vote on it.
Take away control of the voting districts in the states from the politicians. And All retirement and benefits for all those corrupted officials
Start voting for the individual and not the party symbol and we will get better results.
Annie, you make some good points except the jobs left in ’94 right after NAFTA passed with more than 50,000 manufacturers being lost and estimates of 700,000 jobs…..but that estimate is just that and when you count the shock to the economy with support jobs and declining wages, the price to the country is enormous.
Congress, a group bought and sold by corporations, could easily survive on minimum wage with lobbyists making up any decrease in income. And considering how they enrich themselves by the bills they pass, it’s difficult to anything other than laws passed to stop that enrichment. It’s like asking someone to cut their own throat.
We need a new system, something that will only happen after a huge amount of bloodshed the sheeples of this country are unwilling to commit. Only continuing abuse by govt. agencies could push the country to that point……or this recession that’s likely to lead to such a tipping point.
On manufacturing jobs… Wenzel over at EPJ was using that manufacturing jobs are at a 7 year high as evidence we are in a boom phase. My comment which did not make it through moderation showed that this 7 year high doesn’t even get back up to the 2007 level, which itself was much lower than 2003ish. If this is the boom, all that TARP and QE and everything else could generate, what is the bust going to be?
“My comment which did not make it through moderation”
Fuckin’ Wenzel seems to want an echo chamber over there. He can have one, for all I care.
I had figured out why other comments weren’t let through (had URLs). Challenging ones got through before but this last one challenging his view that this is a boom didn’t get through. Thing is I’m not all that critical. I’m just pointing out this so-called boom is barely getting many measures for regular people not in SF or NYC or other fed money tap centers back up to what used to be bust level. I leave it to him to point out that this is part of Austrian theory, that the manipulated booms get smaller and the busts get deeper but he doesn’t take it.
” I leave it to him to point out that this is part of Austrian theory, that the manipulated booms get smaller and the busts get deeper but he doesn’t take it.”
He did make it relatively easy to comment there, which was the only attraction to the site for me, but the way he loads “articles” non-stop all day is a conversation killer for anyone not at liberty to hover over his page watching for new posts.
Wenzel may have found it too time consuming to “host his post” as the old standard requires for an active blog discussion. I stopped checking in there recently. The site doesn’t interest me that much these days.
Good point. I contend that the jobs started leaving much earlier. That’s why NAFTA (and still is) an issue. During the 1981-82 recession, many manufacturing jobs were lost, never to return. In the early 1980’s, the junk bond salesmen were selling these instruments to finance capital projects overseas. By the mid 1980’s manufacturing had begun a long, sharp decline. The passage of NAFTA codified what was already happening and greased the skids for more in a shorter time.
The fact is, like it or not, we weren’t protecting our economy. Tariff levels had to be adjusted for what we know as labor arbitrage instead of just regular protection of industry (or protectionism). Of course, protectionism was largely abandoned as policy just prior to WW2. Labor arbitrage is the substitution of labor from the host country (of a company) to a source of extremely cheap country. All of this is made possible by the increasing velocity of financial and durable capital (tooling, etc) across the globe.
Our trade laws need to be rewritten to account for that change. We need to withdraw from the WTO. This, in order to buttress middle class incomes. If we were able to do that, we would once again be able to fight. AS it is now, we are hamsters spinning faster on the wheel.
Like it or not, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are the only candidates who understand this. If Rand Paul had understood this and had been able to channel the anger of the American people effectively, he would have won instead. We all know what happened to his campaign.
With extreme reservations, I am voting for trump (not that it matters).
I don’t expect that much from political candidates anymore.
Hi Annie,
Looking to a “strong man” to rebuild roads and bridges… think on that a little. How will this get done? Will it be through peaceful, cooperative methods? Or will it get done like other “great” government projects get done?
How do we determine what a person’s work is worth? By having the government decree it? If the government has the right to do that, what other things – logically – has it got the right to do?
If I wish to work for someone and they offer to pay me “x” and we both agree, freely, to the deal – how is it that anyone’s rights have been violated? If the law says I have to be paid “y” but my prospective employer cannot afford this, I don’t have work – or pay. Now my rights – and the employer’s – have been violated.
The real problem is not wages. It is taxes. And inflation. Both things created/caused by government.
And god? Which god?
“Trump is openly saying what many people think but are too afraid to say aloud.”
So did Perot, and George Wallace, for that matter.
And they were both correct in lots of things they said. Wallace said what he thought he had to to get re-elected, the most important thing to a pol…..and maybe he would have gradually moderated without being gunned down.
Some of the 9 cadavers thought integration should be more gradual. The Emmit Till case kinda put their backs to the wall.
Ross simply called it like it was on NAFTA but got gunned down in the MSM by things he never called for, sorta like Goldwater.
Ross Perot, like Donald Trump, stirred people by speaking to issues that were being ignored in the candidate dialogues. That isn’t really hard to do since the range of acceptable subjects for candidates is so narrow.
Maybe people are getting excited about th’ Donald because he’s addressing a subject they like, but they’re failing to notice that his view on the subject isn’t like their own.
Hi Ed,
I remember Perot’s campaign and the thing that strikes me most, vis-a-vis Trump, is that Perot was never (to my knowledge) a demagogue. Trump is.
Perot talked sense about NAFTA. Trump plays to the fear people have (rightly, I concede) about their economic plight.
Trump constantly trumpets his National Greatness stuff, too. That bothers me. Just as The Chimp’s flag-humping bothered me. He seems to worship Greatness, very much as The Chimp did.
But whose Greatness, exactly?
I see Trump as imagining gilded, Kim Jong Un-like statues of himself erected on the Mall in DC.
Such a person is not the kind of person I can get behind.
I prefer a man like Long Tom, who didn’t even want it mentioned on his tombstone that he was once president of the United States.
Sorry, but my only memory of the Perot campaign was the VP debate, when Admiral Stockwell said, “Who am I? And why am I here?” It would have been a great question, if he could have come up with a decent answer.
At that point in time, I was very much into voting against Mr. Bill, since I had lived in Arkansas and did not consider any of her governors fit to go on to ‘bigger and better things.’ Even though I did not care for Bush the Elder, I held my nose and voted for him because I did not think Ross had a chance. Lot of good it did me.
BTW – have you heard that Monica Lewinsky is not supporting Hillary? Says the last Clinton presidency left a bad taste in her mouth.
Did BC ever tout the schools or misery index in Ark.? Living in Tx. we only knew there was petrified wood there we’d pick up on the side of the road.
I recall every time schooling was assessed as well as median income, the guvnah’s of Arkansas and Alabama would say “Thank god for Mississippi”.
Hi PTB,
Ha, good joke. My favorite debate line from Perot was when he was asked why he didn’t think that being governor of Arkansas made Clinton qualified to be president. He quipped: “It’s like saying if you manage a little corner store, your qualified to run Walmart.”
Jeremy
same would apply to Mike Dingleberry.
I was working in DC as an editorial writer at the time, so I remember it all very well. Perot tried to explain that these “free” trade deals were anything but. He was ridiculed by virtually everyone, left and right.
I recall him making his case using facts, logic – no appeals to emotions and fear.
Trump is a demagogue and those who believe he wants to “fix” the country are exactly right.
I remember Perot’s little charts. Imagine either of the major parties ever doing something like that? They would never do it because it’s harder to lie with a chart.
My dad voted for Perot in 1992. He didn’t in 1996 because he despised Clinton and felt he had helped him get elected by voting for Perot.
That’s another reason why people have difficulty voting for third parties, most still feel they are helping the worse of the two get elected.
“That’s another reason why people have difficulty voting for third parties, most still feel they are helping the worse of the two get elected.”
I know it, rich. That’s because the media uses that explanation as cover for the way the controllers juke the vote counts.
“AW MAAANNNN. MY GUY WOULDA WON IF THAT OUTSIDER ASSHOLE HADN’T SPLIT THE VOTE.”
We humans will believe the most retarded shit when it’s fed to us by the TV.
“Bur whose Greatness, exactly? ”
His own, of course. I’m astounded at the way some otherwise sensible people I know express admiration for Trump. To me, he’s a self impressed loudmouth with a bad comb-over.
I second that.
What an obnoxious egomaniac.
Trump. A perfect name for the guy. Everything about the buffoon is trumped up.
He’s no champion of the free market. He’s a crony capitalist who depended on political influence to accumulate his wealth.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-d-barris/donald-trump-crony-capita_b_8949138.html
Trump as prez……definitely would write his own memoirs, in blood most likely and anything else he desired. He’d probably shake things up for sure and view himself as a tough love kind of dictator, write lots of executive orders, maybe like Stalin he’d purge his enemies.
Take that same paragraph and substitute Trump with Hitlery and then Bernie. Scary stuff eh?
It will be interesting to see how the Hitlery-Bernie thing works but with possibly 130 million people voting for one of the two it sure pushes us closer to the tipping point of civil violence. Of course the MSM will downplay every instance of gun confiscation, probably to the point of not reporting it at all while legitimate gun sales will be pushed into a lucrative black market either via executive order or just pushed through by the socialist Dems. Might makes right……. as it’s always been.
I see freighters full of boxes marked “rubber ducks” getting offloaded onto trucks down where there are no dock lights. It will be interesting for us seniors eating out of the pasture and no meds. That gets rid of one hostile part of the population.
“admiration for Trump”
There are 2 things I like about the Donald. One is that, as bad as he is, I believe he is his own man, not bought and paid for by TPTB. But the main one is that he just might be able to do what the Republican establishment is afraid of – destroy the GOP.
Hi Ed,
Perot also scared the hell out of the political class. His huge success in 1992 (nearly 20% of the vote) made it clear to the CPD that they could never let an outsider candidate in the presidential debates again. After all, if a quirky crackpot (how he was described at the time) could get nearly 20% of the people to vote for him, then more people might start “wasting their vote” by casting it for an outsider candidate. Thus it was essential that neither he, nor any other outsider candidate be allowed to build on his momentum. This was accomplished by making sure that nobody but a d or r be allowed in the debates.
A little history is relevant. In 1980, the league of women voters threatened to include John Anderson in the debate. Carter insisted he would not debate if Anderson was included. Reagan, for politically opportunistic reasons, insisted he be included. Eventually Reagan “caved” as did the lowv. Still the d’s and r’s decided that they needed to exercise more control over the debate process. In 1988, the Bush and Dukakis campaigns met secretly and drafted a memorandum that stipulated who would be allowed to sit in the audience and who the panelists would be. It also abolished follow up questions.
When the lovw discovered the secret memorandum they withdrew their sponsorship and revealed the memo to PBS. Thus the commission on presidential debates was formed. It was formed as a “private” non-profit organization by the d’s and r’s and it completely controls the debate structure, timing and allowable participants. In 1992, Perot was polling at about 7% leading up to the debates. Probably because he was not seen as a threat, the CPD allowed him in. When he received nearly 20% of the vote, the two parties realized this could not happen again. In 1996 he was excluded and received about 8% of the vote. Outsider candidate momentum had been effectively crushed.
The CPD is a front organization for the two parties. It claims to apply objective standards for admissibility, but this is a sham. It exists to guarantee that the “Perot mistake” never happens again. It decides, in consultation with the d and r candidates, who is allowed to debate, and they always exclude outsiders. I despise “democracy”, but it should be apparent to its’ proponents that allowing the two parties to completely control the debate process effectively repudiates their claims of “popular consent”.
Jeremy
Two wings of the same vulture.
Two sides of a coin.
Not a difference between them.
You people wonder why I started off “violent” in my language?
This sort of post makes my case for me.
TPTB will corrupt or coopt anything that might affect the statist quo….
And you want me to tone it down…? So they can dig in more?
That is insanity.
Hi Jean,
After the “Perot mistake”, the CPD instituted the 15% rule: two weeks before the first debate, an outsider candidate must be polling nationally at 15% or more to be included. Given that the “major party” candidates receive a non-stop stream of free media exposure through the tax payer funded primary process, this threshold is impossible to meet.
They lie and claim that this is necessary to prevent hundreds of candidates in the debates. This is, of course, nonsense. Opendebates.org has proposed a reasonable standard of being on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of receiving enough electoral college votes to win the general election. By this standard, in 2012, two other candidates (green party, libertarian party) would have been included.
The process is so transparently corrupt and inimical to the theory of “democracy”, that people should object. The fact that they don’t just shows how well they’ve been conditioned. I no longer give a shit about “democracy”, so I won’t waste any time helping to reform the process.
Jeremy
” I no longer give a shit about “democracy”, so I won’t waste any time helping to reform the process.”
True, that. You can’t polish a turd, and if you could you’d just have a shiny piece of shit.
Hey, you know the definition of nothing? It’s a turd with all the shit scraped off of it.
This is why many in the Manosphere have taken to actively assisting the breakdown.
I’m getting there, too. I just keep hoping we could turn things around, but it’s “us against the tsunami”. Two little specks in front of an 800 foot wave…
(thinking dramatic movie effects.)
Maybe it’s better to push it all downhill? Increase the velocity, so that TPTB are actually TOO SLOW in implementing steps correctly, and make mistakes, and people don’t line up for their brain chips…?
Might be better that way. Keep the genes for freedom alive by finding a way off this rock.