When Oleg Atbashian described the “Professional Left” he might well have been describing the way in which Wikileaks funds itself. That is, professionally and with great secrecy. Atbashian takes the reader on a tour of an economic sector that can boom in a recession: the paid Left. That whose name must never be mentioned.
Of all the slips of the tongue and unintentional admissions by this administration, Robert Gibbs’ ‘Professional Left’ comment may well be the one they wish they could squeeze back into their collective windpipe. … I hear these people saying (Obama) is like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested. … I mean, it’s crazy. … The Professional Left … will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. … They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president. …
AdvertisementIt would seem that Robert Gibbs broke the first rule of the Professional Left, which is, you do not talk about the Professional Left.
Well what is this secret thing? It’s a network of people who have are gainfully employed in negotiating, finding funding for and advancing the Leftist agenda. It’s not just a cause, it’s a job. “There is a class of people with radical leftist views who have made it their job – with the help of abundant grants, foundations, and trusts – to carry out propaganda campaigns, indoctrinate, subvert, and plant the seeds of the leftist worldview in people’s minds through the arts, media, education, blogging, and street protests. For many it’s the only income they’ve had in years.”
Take Wikileaks. Although it styles itself as a rag-tag organization, Wikileaks funds itself through a system that is professionally designed to cover its tracks, sources of funding and modes of direction. The Wall Street Journal says “the controversial website WikiLeaks, which argues the cause of openness in leaking classified or confidential documents, has set up an elaborate global financial network to protect a big secret of its own—its funding.” Using methods familiar to sharp operators and money launderers, they’ve set up shell organizations in juristidictions which prohibit disclosure; created levels of cutouts and cultivated unnamed private donors. Although the media describes Wikileaks as an idealistic, whistle-blowing organization it has the form, if not the function, of a criminal organization.
The linchpin of WikiLeaks’s financial network is Germany’s Wau Holland Foundation. WikiLeaks encourages donors to contribute to its account at the foundation, which under German law can’t publicly disclose the names of donors. Because the foundation “is not an operational concern, it can’t be sued for doing anything. So the donors’ money is protected, in other words, from lawsuits,” Mr. Assange said. …
The German foundation is only one piece of the WikiLeaks network.
“We’re registered as a library in Australia, we’re registered as a foundation in France, we’re registered as a newspaper in Sweden,” Mr. Assange said. WikiLeaks has two tax-exempt charitable organizations in the U.S., known as 501C3s, that “act as a front” for the website, he said. He declined to give their names, saying they could “lose some of their grant money because of political sensitivities.”
Mr. Assange said WikiLeaks gets about half its money from modest donations processed by its website, and the other half from “personal contacts,” including “people with some millions who approach us and say ‘I’ll give you 60,000 or 10,000,’ ” he said, without specifying a currency.
By contrast, the “Amateur Right” as Atbashian calls them, is “a loose amalgamation of free-roaming conservatives and libertarians who engage in political activism in their spare time – and on their own dime.” And because the professional Left is so pervasive, that dime often winds up in Leftist hands. If you’re a conservative philanthropist you can’t even give away your money without he Left taking their cut. Take the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
Obama’s entire career has been about organizing, sustaining, and advancing the Professional Left and their operations. One such undertaking involved the processing of $50 million given by the conservative Annenberg Foundation to reform Chicago public schools from 1995 to 2001. …
The abuse of the Annenberg Challenge wasn’t the only example of conservative funding being hijacked by the Professional Left and used to destroy conservatism. It’s how the Professional Left make a living. Converting other people’s money into hot air is their raison d’être; everything else is a side effect.
Atbashian says Barack Obama examplifies someone who has spent nearly his whole career inside the professional left, going from grad school to the Presidency of the United States without ever doing a normal day’s work in his life. The professional structure of the Left eventually creates a common organizational culture. One of the reasons that the Left does so well working with foreign intelligence agencies, Islamic extremists and even criminal syndicates and crooked unions is that they architectured like them. The Left has a version of every process a conspiratorial organization possesses. From rites of initiation — which may consist in the case of menial, repetitive tasks like selling the Daily Worker at a streetcorner to ‘making their bones’ the Left has a conveyor belt geared towards controlling admission into a cherished inner sanctum. It is a process that appeals naturally to snobs. When Kim Philby was asked why he betrayed his country to join the KGB he gave a remarkably candid answer. “One does not look twice at an offer of enrollment in an elite force.”
The disdain for peons who ‘cling to guns and religion’ or who watch the NASCAR races is not based not an appeal to ideology, but class. In almost every Western country where the Professional Left gains power it becomes synonymous with snobbery. From the inflated salaries at the EU to the private jets to environmental conferences, to vacations which never end, to hobnobbing on a weekly basis with the stars, what is there not to like about being a professional leftist? In the phrase “revolutionary elite”, it is the “elite” part that matters. Because the Left partakes in the internal structures of power they are not going away soon; certainly not in 2010 or 2012. The Left is baked into the system. “Every time you buy a corporate product or service … you also feed the Professional Left. All of these, and most other big companies have donated to leftist groups and causes … Guess who is best positioned today to appropriate billions of tax dollars in stimulus slush funds, and to process them into organic, locally made hot air?” They may never, ever go away.
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The Left, along with the other power structures of our society are our secret rulers. The disquiet created by the information revolution stems from the fact that it has allowed the “amateurs” to briefly glimpse the professionals at work, perhaps for the first time in their lives. The options facing the amateurs are either to create their own Towers of Power, knowing that the first efforts to do this will be criminalized, or to tear the conspiracies around them down. Most amateurs aren’t interested in dominance over others. Their greatest weakness of the amateurs is that like the Hobbits of the Shire, that they are more interested in tilling gardens than in ruling.
America was conceived as an experiment in creating a land run for amateurs. The Founding Fathers appear to have taken the view that the Towers of Power would always be with us, but attempted to keep them low. They tried craft a society in which the power of elites would limited, with no established religions; no runaway central authority; hedged with prohibitions on government. It was an attempt to enshrine amateurism as a means of pre-empting the establishment of Byzantine structures that would eventually encrust the majority will with their own agendas. One of the reasons for the reaction against President Obama’s agenda is the perception that the elites are about to succeed, perhaps forever; that the experiment of July 4, 1776 is at an end. Elitism by it’s very nature emphasizes its aversion to the mass and is therefore under no obligation to be loyal to anything but itself. It’s rules of admission are internal. Once an elite is created there is no reason in principle why an alien can’t rule over a population. In the age of Kings it was quite common. In recent times the original Bolshevik Party was dominated by outsiders. Two thirds of Bolsheviks hailed from ethnic minorities in the Russian empire. The Internationale recognizes only one flag. The Party’s.
The Left has always been just another kind of establishment. Their “revolution” was a term of art for a campaign for dominance of over other elites. To fight Hitler for Stalin was noble. To fight Stalin for Russia merited death. By contrast all true revolutions are attempts to assert the primacy of the ordinary and of the individual over the powers and principalities of the world. In practice most revolution is not about the wretched of the earth overthrowing their masters. It is about the ordinary man trying to keep from being told what to do by self-appointed and highly paid busybodies. It is a struggle that will probably continue to the end of the human race between those with the will to rule; and on the other hand those who simply wish to to be left alone. The most revolutionary thing in the world is to try to live your life as you want to. If you dislike this path, then run, don’t walk to join “an elite force”. In their own way “it is the uniforms” that turn the Left on.
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I did some work for a guy here in Tucson a couple of years ago who wrote grants for left wing organizations . I built 20 bookcases for the most extensive commie agitprop library I’ve seen. Nice guy, expensive house. Revolution for fun and profit,
Described by the media as idealistic, it has the modus operandi of a criminal syndicate.
My immediate observation upon first scanning the WSJ article earlier today.
The Professional Left is like a virus (not a living organism) that takes over a living cell and controls its activity until it dies.
Pope John Paul accurately called it the Culture of Death.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the Trusts and Foundations that allow the Left to exist insulated from reality need to be broken, just so they experience reality.
Now I realize they need to be crushed because they are subversive in the most serious sense of the term.
Wikileaks may have shown its hand too early, it’s clearly engaged in espionage and is intended to do so.
Major corporations now have their own community outreach divisions, and even foundations, and these are immediately taken over by professional leftists. I have observed this, and been affected by it, first-hand.
Even within the major foundation world, a largely leftist preserve to begin with, a new strain of ultraleftism is trying to coerce large foundations both out of more money and to change the foundations’ directions and priorities, in the same manner as ACORN and Al Sharpton due with major banks and other corporations. They’ll likely succeed, because they have discerned that foundations, major coprporations, large universities, etc., are led by professional cowards, who easily cave to the demands of leftists (and are often leftists themselves). It goes back to that whole “Power of No” thing Wretch alluded to and discussed in recent threads. Most major American institutions seem incapable of saying “NO! NO WAY!“
If our intelligence agencies aren’t infiltrating Wikileaks with the aim to expose every morsel of information about that organization, its connections, its employees, and most of all, Mr. Assange himself, they are not doing their jobs.
The right is amateur because they all have real jobs, and – dare I say – real lives. For them, the world does not begin and end with politics. They really don’t give a damn what an acquaintance’s politics are if the relationship is friendly or professional, and civil.
For the left, their identity is wholly wrapped up in politics. What they believe is conditioned by what they feel, and is not a matter of thought but of morality. While nearly everyone on the right knows plenty of people with differing political views, most leftists – at least the professional ones – can’t even conceive that anyone they know or respect could disagree with them. That’s why conservatives in so many occupations are closeted. Conservatives know that if they can’t have a polite discussion they’d best just shut up, and leftists refuse to engage conservatives politely because to do so is to grant their ideas equality with hteir own, which isn’t just wrong, it’s immoral.
Excellent work, Richard Fernandez! Thank you for expanding my article with more details, examples, proof, and conclusions. We see the problem eye-to-eye. Being in the position of the amateurs is a disadvantage, but there has to be some strategic advantage in that as well. Judo, for example, was developed as a set of skills allowing a weaker, unarmed common man to fight a stronger, heavily armed government enforcer by using the attacker’s strength against him. That is a powerful concept. The Professional Left has been using it for years against us amateurs. They started small, running circles around us and robbing us blind. But now they’ve grown big and have BECOME the establishment. It’s time we learned to use the political judo against them.
The best definition of Capitalism I ever heard is that it consists of what people will do if you leave them alone.
My own definition of Communism is that it is what governments will do if you leave them alone.
People working, creating, and investing in the future is as natural as breathing. Even if 90% of people are only interested in tending their own gardens there will be at least 5% who will figure out how to makes rakes and hoes or design and build Garden Weasels or some such thing that are better than standard hoes. And there will be always another 5% who figure they should not have to tend gardens.
From my years in DC I came to understand that the inevitable “progress” of governments drive them to control more and more. Mostly it is bureaucratic inertia and Parkinson’s Law at work but it is also the earnest efforts of people who want to make it illegal for children to wear pajamas that catch fire or to save the endangered snail darter. So eventually the government ends up controlling everything, and since that inevitably does not work it ends up owning everything.
The reporter, John Stossel, wrote that for years he exposed bad situations for the purpose of getting people to Do Something. Then he came to realize from experience that that always was disasterous, because the government would get involved and eventually make things even worse.
We should be heartened (and draw courage) from the fact that amateur comes from the Latin word for “lover” by way of French– that is, in the original sense of the word, an amateur is someone who participates in the arts, or sports, or whatever– for love of the thing. For love, not pay.
It took time for the word to acquire its present connotation of “unskilled” or “untalented.” No harm in taking honest pride in being amateurs in the good original sense.
Gates is a perfect example of a Rockefeller-esk monopolist who decided half way through his life that it was time to become a philanthropist.
(Ironically it was the Reverend Gates (Frederick T. Gates) that initiated the philanthropy.)
So we see a guilt driven Patrician class player either handing out dimes or swatting at mosquitoes.
That their philanthropy takes the shape of tenured high spending, big wheeling, do-betterism with the funding totally disconnected from results achieved means that Drones DO scale-up from the hive.
Such organs are the perfect platform for pipe-dreamers.
Is it hard not to note that Patrician Giving is always Camera Ready and has the long term impact of a flash bulb.
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For Oprah, or Harpo, the reality is that amelioration of broken societies best starts with the WATER SUPPLY. It was the cleansing of European urban water supplies that caused/permitted London, Paris, Berlin to boom without bust. The vast bulk of misery in the Third World is rampant PARASITES. These little devils bleed vitality from all afflicted.
My parents, back in the day, were really big boosters for the Hmong. They had one consistent ailment: tape worms. Treatment was quick once the offender was identified. The difference in child energy after treatment was ming boggling. Obviously, back home reinfection from contaminated waters would frustrate cure.
So stop building girls schools. Build water projects. Something as simple as a clean water well will do wonders. Of course, constant sweeps for parasites must be maintained. When everyone is healthier, then building and maintaining a school actually works.
My nephew is in SA, pretty much the heart of HIV. The locals are so demoralized that what schools they have are attended on strictly a hit or miss basis.
The Professional Left is glutted with humanist-clerics who espouse Gaia’ism and exude an aura of moral piety while playing at Henry Higgins here and abroad.
IIRC, Jesus Christ held strong opinions on such over-standing citizens. So this is a long standing peculiar institution.
Another item that never seems to make it to the top of the to-do list: waste treatment. In the third world the locals hold many unusual waste habits. In my nephew’s village the family goat took relief in the living room. In a couple of weeks it is hoped that the flies will take it all away. Procter & Gamble has not reached the veldt.
IF you are getting the idea that the Professional Redistributors have no clue as to how to get economic traction in primitive lands then it’s easy to understand how they can’t figure out their own societies.
For BHO, funding shows up after some fantastic bull story. HIS talk isn’t cheap. A big part of his spiel is that any such giving will operate as a racial balm.
Exactly the reverse is the intent.
The Professional Left benefits from a rage-pay-me feed back spiral.
Rather like an attorney – on the clock – who earns even more by not resolving anything – you’ve got a player who can’t abide a cure.
(The same thing even pops up in medical research. Struggling to find a cure pays and pays. Success terminates the annuity! This is why radical ideas contrary to prior research are so ill funded. It’s much safer to keep pouring dollars down dead ends so that it can be absolutely known what does not work.)
So at its core, there is no merit to these pretentious organizations which by their own nature can never abide a fundamental solution to pretty much anything.
They are MORAL ANNUITY CONDUITS.
Time was a great man blew his wad on the Taj Mahal. ( To be ousted by his son for the staggering waste and vanity.)
Now the amoral man of means funds an indulgence committee: His Foundation!
@RWE -
I agree with you on all points. However, in this particular case, we must learn to differentiate between the NATURAL tendency of all government bureaucracies to grow and be inept – and a DELIBERATE EFFORT to subvert the system for ideological and political reasons. Since the two are different in nature, the methods to cure them may also be different.
If the Left has come to resemble a criminal enterprise then it is subject to attack at those very points where it is most criminal: there is no reason why independent hackers cannot attack the Left’s operational systems which they do not want law enforcement to know what the Left is doing.
I think there are charities in the world not dominated by leftists. But those charities tend to set people free rather than tell them what to do.
My favorite are the charities which give money to poor kids to pick the school of their choice – private vouchers if you will.
An example where I live is:
http://www.kidsfirstmn.org
I bet there is one near where you live too.
The public schools exist because its easier to propogandize one institution than 1000. Give the kids a chance to leave and the large organization vanishes in a second. There is no economy of scale in Education – other than navigating the government department of education.
Has Wretchard taken the red pill?
8. Oleg Atbashian Judo, for example, was developed as a set of skills allowing a weaker, unarmed common man to fight a stronger, heavily armed government enforcer by using the attacker’s strength against him… It’s time we learned to use the political judo against them.
Are there books that teach this judo? I want to read these books.
Will “Rules for Radicals” work for us? Will teach-ins and all the other 60′s techniques work for us? Would creating chaos on campus work for us?
Somehow I don’t think they will. What judo techniques will work for us? I gave up on letters to the editor long ago. I only know how to donate to campaigns, talk to neighbors, work in political campaigns, and buy ammo.
Oleg #12:
It may be the Left taking advantage of the bureaucrats’ natural tendencies.
It may be vice versa. I have no doubt that some in the bureaucratic legions look upon the Left as a means to power, especially in the environmental, legal, health, and education “industries.”
It may be an unholy alliance between the two guided by puppet masters.
It may be that you can no longer tell the difference between the two – and that neither can they.
But the simplest, surest, and kindest way to handle the problem is to take away their money. Let them all learn to say “Do you want fries with that?” or better yet, “Got any spare change, mister?” The funny thing is that they are heading in that direction at their own urging.
I have just now gotten an email from a friend in the Philippines who has been listening in on the “hostage crisis” that ended with the deaths of a bunch of Hong Kong Chinese and the wounding of several others. The basic storyline is this. A former cop who sacked for involvement with drug dealers took a whole busload of civilians hostage to “clear his name”. This makes sense, but only in certain twisted ways of thinking.
The perp had an M-16 and threatened to kill everybody unless his demands were met. Amazingly the media got involved. From what I hear it turned into a frigging circus and at some point the hostage taker decided to show he serious by shooting some of the Chinese. This caused the SWAT team to open fire and basically riddle the bus. They gassed the bus with tear gas too. The Chinese are already livid at what they believe to be the amateurish handling of the siege. The whole thing appears to be a goat rope but we’ll see what the official story is.
I remember watching the siege of the Banco Filipino branch in Cubao back in the day. Some armed robbers were inside when the cops came. The crowd was only slightly back, watching the proceedings with the same interest that one might have for a basketball game. If memory serves there were some firemen around too, with their hoses ready to add to the general combat.
After a prolonged period of negotiation, they fired tear gas into the building and sent an assault team in. The assault team forgot they would be affected by the tear gas too and retreated within seconds coughing and weeping. Then, having donned the appropriate masks they returned to the attack. With the crowd so close confusion was almost total. The cops ran into the building and for some reason, perhaps due to the reduced visibility through the visors, believed a certain individual was the chief robber and began beating him with the butts of their M-16s. Only after they had dragged him out did they discover he was the bank manager.
By the time they discovered their mistake it occurred to them to ask themselves “then where are the perps”? And you guessed it, the perps all made a getaway in the confusion by running into the crowd. Not a single one of them was captured. From the sound of it, the tourist bus incident suggests that not much has changed since. Apparently the bus driver jumped from the window to escape the crossfire. So you can imagine how confused the situation must have been.
There really is no meaningful distinction between these modern elitist leftists and the old European aristocrats and government-paid parasites the founders of the US sought to rid themselves of, by declaring independence.
In the early colonial days the standard of living in America was too low for these people to want to emigrate from the UK. As the level of luxury available in the colonies grew however, it became clear that the home-country aristocracy and bureaucracy intended to start moving across the Atlantic, to re-establish their dominance over the daily lives of ‘ordinary’ Americans. Hence the revolt which became a revolution, and kicked them out.
Now we are unfortunately menaced by our own, home-grown, class of pompous, self-praising, would-be aristocratic overseers.
I wonder what would happen if all us oldsters around 60 went back to university and took one course — American history, maybe. Or Ethnic Studies. And we challenged the professor every day in class.
I’ve taken courses twice since graduating from university. Professors get very nervous when a mature adult sits down into class with a challenging look in their eyes.
The left establishment is terrified of the awakening of the decentralized American amateur…Millions upon organic millions of grassroots American Patriots have taken to opposing them in any way we are fit and able to. Each and every one of us is in control our own battle space. We each determine who, what, where, and how we will stand in opposition. In this sense Patriot Judo need not co-opt the juvenile antics of the professional protest establishment as the rising mass of Americans asserting their individual rights leave the Liberty eaters with no defined avatar for their professional character assassins and enforcement apparatus to behead.
They are forced to show and assert their hands which are proving to be in direct opposition to what it means to be an American. Every grand solution they float to solve the quandary of facing an increasingly aware and ungovernable polity is a new affront to each and every one of us; not because we have maneuvered to make it appear that way, but rather because they maneuvered in the light of their own decisions to prove that it is what it is. As such they are running on the mere fumes of decades of snake oil and propaganda.
Continue to attack their institutions in every way we as individual citizens can. We are like sand grinding away at the gears and flywheels of their infernal machinery. Disrupt their bullsh*t factories at every weak point. Grind away at the hardened teeth and wear away the protective coatings they’ve depended upon.
America was founded by and for individuals with a God-given right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness gained through the fruits of our individual labors. America was NOT founded to empower cabals of would-be elites presiding over fiefdoms of dependent serfs.
If they deny us recourse to peacefully redress our grievences, they reap the whirlwind of their decision to repress the will of the people.
The fight is ours to lose.
W: “In the phrase “revolutionary elite”, it is the “elite” part that matters… The Left, along with the other power structures of our society are our secret rulers.”
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others… We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we’re doing… Power is not a means, it is an end… The object of power is power… Always there will be the intoxication of power… We are the Priests of Power… Power is power over human beings, over the body; but above all over the mind… The real power; the power we have to fight for night and day is not power over things but over men… Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing… We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.” George Orwell – 1984
I encourage you to do so, Salt Lick!
W: “In their own way “it is the uniforms” that turn the Left on.”
“Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.” Karl Marx
“The individual is only a cell… power is collective. The individual only has power in so far that he ceases to be an individual… If he can make complete utter submission; if he can escape from his identity; if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all powerful and immortal… Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death; the Party is immortal… You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do, and will turn against us; but we create human nature.” George Orwell – 1984
“There is, first of all, the profound experience of Russia, the significance of which we are only now beginning to understand. The question therefore arises: will this experience be sufficient? Is it sufficient for the entire world and especially for the West? Indeed, is it sufficient for Russia? Shall we be able to comprehend its meaning? Or is mankind destined to pass through this experience on an immeasurably larger scale? There is no doubt that if the ideals of Utopia are realized universally, mankind… shall find the strength to regain its freedom and to preserve God’s image and likeness–human individuality–once it has glanced into the yawning abyss. But will even that experience be sufficient? For it seems just as certain that the freedom of will granted to man and to mankind is absolute, that it includes the freedom to make the ultimate choice–between life and death.” Igor Shafarevich
“The author (Shafarevich) also convincingly demonstrates the diametrical opposition between the concepts of man held by religion and by socialism. Socialism seeks to reduce human personality to its most primitive levels and to extinguish the highest, most complex, and “God-like” aspects of human individuality. And even equality itself, that powerful appeal and great promise of socialists throughout the ages, turns out to signify not equality of rights, of opportunities, and of external conditions, but equality qua identity, equality seen as the movement of variety toward uniformity.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn
http://www.robertlstephens.com/essays/shafarevich/001SocialistPhenomenon.html
W: “The Founding Fathers appear to have taken the view that the Towers of Power would always be with us, but attempted to keep them low. They tried craft a society in which the power of elites would limited… It was an attempt to enshrine amateurism as a means of pre-empting the establishment of Byzantine structures… all true revolutions are attempts to assert the primacy of the ordinary and of the individual over the powers and principalities of the world.”
“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object… The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves;… that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press… Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories… The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite… Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him?… I have no fear but that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master… All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” Thomas Jefferson
7. Steve Skubinna:
It was the Left that coined the phrase “The personal is political”. That means that everything you do–the food you eat, the job you take, the car you drive (or whether you choose to own a car at all) are all political statements. The Left eats, sleeps, and breathes politics.
Those of us on the Right, on the other hand, just want to be left alone to live our lives as we see fit. But since the Left now has so much power over our lives and wants even more, we can’t do that. Now they are forcing us to eat, sleep, and breathe politics too. And that doesn’t sit well.
Oleg:
Nice to see you here! Great article, and great website. FWIW, I bought your deck of cards, and was inspired to create this image of my late cat, Leo.
(When I adopted two kittens ten years ago, I named them Kira and Leo, after characters from Ayn Rand’s novel We the Living.)
“16. Salt Lick
Will “Rules for Radicals” work for us? Will teach-ins and all the other 60’s techniques work for us? Would creating chaos on campus work for us?”
Yes. The problem is that most center rightward folks are too busy earning a living to spend as much time on it as the professional left. That means that we’re going to have to create cadres of ‘revolutionaries’ from stay at home moms, retirees, and part time amateurs. I’ve posted a little primer I found over here: http://wp.me/pwhzQ-1t
A lot depends on being ready to engage when the opportunity offers. Myself, I’m usually about 30 minutes behind. That’s an improvement because when I started I was years behind. I figure that if I keep at it pretty soon I’ll be only a few seconds behind, and maybe even catch up from time to time.
For example: I recall that there was at one time a great hue and cry about how the awful wing nuts were accusing the left of not being patriotic. The response would be, IMO, as follows:
“Interesting that you should bring up the issue of patriotism, as I did not raise it and no one has accused you of being anything but patriotic. In these days when patriotism means subverting American interests and policy at home and abroad, no one claims you are not patriotic. When patriotism means demonizing our troops for the least pecadillo, no one claims you are not patriotic. When patriotism means turning a blind eye to the enemy’s atrocities and supporting his propaganda initiatives, no one claims you are not patriotic.”
You get the idea.
“20. Salt Lick
I wonder what would happen if all us oldsters around 60 went back to university and took one course — American history, maybe. Or Ethnic Studies. And we challenged the professor every day in class.”
Education? Great fun? Consternation in Academia? Sounds like a great experiment.
Judo: In the Left, you have a large, powerful, centrally directed organization. The classic way to attack such an entity is to go after the leadership, and jam the lines of communication. Such attacks have effects out of all proportion to their weight.
In my more optimistic moments I wonder whether Obama is a truly great gift to the conservative movement. He’s really the only leftist outside of Bernie Sanders to really take off the mask in the last 40 years. In so doing, the american public gets its first real look at the American left of the Democratic party.
At the same time, a host of conservative political ideas have been percolating over the past 30 years and are just waiting for the right tinder and match to get them going. If the Democrats lose a lot of seats in 2010, and Obama loses in 2012 – the reforms that conservatives have been pushing for 30 years will have their chance – with a public that is really choosing them this time. School Vouchers, Health Savings Accounts, Social Security Accounts.
Such things are the Cross to the Liberal Dracula, but with their credibility shot, they wouldn’t have anything to fight with.
As Reason.com has been pointing out, New Orleans almost doesn’t have public schools any more. After the Hurricane, with a popular Republican governor, 70% of the system was replaced overnight with charters. This year, 2000 kids get vouchers for the first time. No one is screaming in disgust on the left. Their ammunition has run dry.
Could the whole country follow? Its wimsical to imagine, but if we get through without being Nuked by Iran, and Obama doesn’t change his stripes (the first being less likely than the second), I could see it happening.
As I was driving around tonight, I was wondering. Who is the next speaker of the house? Paul Ryan?
wretchard, you had me until the last paragraph and the “all true revolutions” bit. I’m sure I don’t know what a true revolution is, or in what direction it must go.
meandering back, I wonder if Hillary’s crack about the “vast right-wing conspiracy” hasn’t had lasting suppressive effects on the right. certainly the attempts by the left to criminalize differences of opinion is a new thing in American history, and if not, it’s noxious anyway.
remember, Obambus showed up at just the wrong time, after Wall Street had very nearly succeeded in doing what Marx and Lenin never could, destroying capitalism. add to that the ambiguities (?!) of our anti-jihadi wars, and the freak superposition of waves washed up on our shores … our dear POTUS, only to be welcomed with arms wide open by Pelosi and Reid, like the RingWraiths who prepared Mordor for the return of the spirit of Sauron (“he is himself just an emissary, …”). these times will eventually pass, and Obambus’ ham-fisted actions may pass that much faster, like in, oh, about 90 days from now, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Meanwhile, I leave you with this little ditty:
“N.”,
I say “N.E.”,
“N.E.O.”,
“N.E.O.F.”,
“N.E.O.F.A.S.C.I.S.T.”
doodley-do-dee Neo-Fascist
do-dee doodley-do-dee Neo-Fascist
“N.E.O.F.A.S.C.I.S.T.”
Neo-Fascist
Neo-Fascist.
I have no time for a detailed response tonight, but here are a few bullet points:
1. Wretchard’s post is spot-on.
2. Today’s so-called “charitable institutions” are really nothing more than Dionysian cults of dissipation and reverie catering to the tastes of elites and the hoi polloi. They have nothing whatsoever to do with caritas, the theological virtue of love.
3. This tendency of elites to become a criminal cartel is a permanent possibility of fallen human nature and will never be solved within the field of history but only eschatologically. Democracy makes the problem worse not better (and at the most fundamental level, the problem is actually identical with democracy). The best possible government is one of strong and Godly monarchs: Caesars who recognize that their power comes “from above” and wish to return love for love.
4. In the end the elites always loose, but only after somebody has paid the spiritual price necessary to defeat them. And he who wishes to pay that price must purge himself of the passions that motivate the elites; but most of us have no idea of the great extent to which we are infected with same evils.
In case anyone doesn’t get the context of Josh’s ditty, here you go.
W: “all true revolutions are attempts to assert the primacy of the ordinary and of the individual over the powers and principalities of the world.”
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure (living constitution)… The accounts of the United States ought to be, and may be made, as simple as those of a common farmer, and capable of being understood by common farmers… If you state a moral case to a plowman and a professor, the farmer will decide it as well, and often better, because he has not been led astray by any artificial rules.” Thomas Jefferson
The American Revolution is history’s only true revolution on behalf of the ordinary individual – possibly with the exception of the ancient Hebrews who acknowledged all men are created in the image of God, and were all therefore of equal value. The American Revolution extended the concept of equal human value to equal human rights (life, liberty and labored-for property) and then to equal law mandated with securing those equal rights. The Marxist Revolutions of history have all been counter-revolutions to the American Revolution where all men have evolved through natural selection with unequal value and therefore unequal rights supported by unequal law. The tax-eating, self-serving Marxist ruling class evolves into Plato’s “Philosopher Kings” (actually the Pigs of Animal Farm) and they along with the tax-eating so-called Proletariat class possess superior property rights compared to the laboring tax-paying Middle class which created the property. The Marxist pigs end up superior in value – superior in rights – superior before law – superior in social and economic outcome.
“The proletariat (lazy animal class) will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie (laboring middle class animals), to centralize (Collectivize) all instruments of production in the hands of the state (Marxist Pigs)… Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property.” Karl Marx
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
“It had long been realized that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly. The so-called “abolition of private property” (Communist Manifesto) meant in effect the concentration of property in far fewer hands than before… In the years following the Revolution it (The Socialist Party of Oceania) was able to step into this commanding position almost un-opposed because the whole process was represented as an act of collectivization… It had always been assumed that if the Capitalist Class were expropriated Socialism must follow; and unquestionably the Capitalists had been expropriated. Factories, mines, land, houses, transport, everything had been taken away from them; and since these things were no longer private property it followed that they must be public property. Ingsoc (Socialist Principles of Oceania), which grew out of the earlier Socialist movement and inherited its phraseology, has in fact carried out the main item in the Socialist program with the result; foreseen and intended beforehand, that economic inequality has been made permanent.” George Orwell – 1984
Think of any ideology as a religion. At the top there are the high priests who actually believe in every aspect of the gospel. To them the theory is everything and totally sacrosanct.
And then there is the second level, that being the people who pretend to believe in the gospel because they think they can profit by doing so. So long as they can benefit by worshiping it they will, but once it ceases to be to their advantage they can and will convert to another ideology on a dime and stab the old god in the back.
And then there is the third level, that being the people who think that the ideology will result in them getting something for nothing and/or putting the screws to people that they can blame for all of their problems.
It is the people of the second level who are the most dangerous. They will embrace whatever ideology that they can get away with that will most enhance their power and status. That, for the most part, is what’s ruling us now. We can call them the ruling class or the political class but perhaps the most accurate characterization would be to call them the sociopathic class. They are predators who view the societies they live in as a combination of a brothel and a chicken farm. As long as you are one of the wonderful people you can eat who you want and you can screw who you want.
In George Orwelle’s Animal Farm the Wonderful People were pigs. Let us hope that in the near future that all animals will have the right to a large and daily ration of bacon or ham.
#32, more my speed, the Beany and Cecil version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eRXyQn55hM
The elite, the elect, the chosen, the few, the fellowship all share the trait of networking. Shocking to see simplicity in front of one’s eyes. Where two are gathered so also is the network there.
The key to the state of mind of the individuals in these groups is the notion of service to something greater than one’s self. Multitasking is one thing but I do wonder at the concept of multinetworking. Can we really rank order competing networks as an internal “inside our head” thing. Could it be that one could divide the elites by having then enroll themselves in competing networks?
Oh just a thought. Serving more than one master may be a way to confuse them. Maybe one network can serve another network. Then we can corrupt them. A rattlesnake would not for long serve another rattlesnake.
‘Voting Rights’ organizations are a major scam run by the professional left, and ultimately this is the scam that is most important to them. By ‘voting rights,’ the organizations mean ‘get out the vote for Democrats.’ Nominally, the ‘get out the vote’ initiatives are ‘non-partisan,’ but only the most impossibly naive citizens, i.e. non-leftists, would believe such a self-evidently false claim. In the 2008 election, grants from local foundations and even state funding went to organizations that were going to ‘get out the vote,’ because, of course, every vote (i.e., that will vote Democrat) needs to get to the poll.
The professional left also spares no effort to blur the distinction between ‘immigration’ and, well, the illegal kind. If a conservative is anti-illegal immigration, the professional left brands him as ‘anti-immigrant.’ After a while, the verbal shell game has confused the non-leftist coneys, and soon the leftist is gearing up to get the ‘new immigrant’ vote to the polls.
The voting rights scam is ultimately what all the leftist scams are supporting and leading to. Ask Al Franken, whose election has made so much of the Obama agenda possible.
35. Josh
Great find! I dimly remember Beany and Cecil from my childhood. There’s a lot in that clip that would go over the heads of small children, and also many adults.
wretchard:
A revolutionary who never expects to wield power necessarily acts differently from a revolutionary who fully expects to eventually wield power – those who expect to wield power try to preserve the civilization they intend to rule. Those who merely seek to destroy civilization are barbarians, regardless of their cloak of good intention.
A rational parasite would not seek to destroy his host. If anything, a rational parasite would seek to be as symbiotic as possible so that he could derive sustenance from his host. This is why professional leftists are so puzzling; why would they seek to destroy their hosts?
A shepherd may shear his flock and butcher the occasional lamb, but he naturally protects his flock from lions and wolves. Yet, much of the Left turned against the United States after the September 11 attacks, at a time when the proletariat was (and is!) under direct attack from would-be feudal overlords of Islamist ideology. Why would a shepherd seek to destroy his own flock, to the point of aligning himself with the wolves?
The other wrinkle to the problem is that the Professional Left likes to go by a hundred different names or take over causes then carry it forward with their twist. For example, the Hill claims that the “net neutrality” movement has been taken over by the Left.
How many layers down do you go before trusting anyone these days? And at what point does caution become paranoia? It will probably be a long time before conservative activists reach anything like the level of proficiency and professionalism that Leftist have attained. They have an unmatched infrastructure, a force generation factory and millions of man years of experience.
” Today’s so-called “charitable institutions” are really nothing more than Dionysian cults of dissipation and reverie catering to the tastes of elites and the hoi polloi. They have nothing whatsoever to do with caritas, the theological virtue of love.”
W and Matt are right. We peasants are getting restless. Tonight, boots should be a shakin’ in the executive suite of many charities , particularly the non- religious ones, but I’m sure they’re not. The time may be fast approaching when charities are going to have to prove their patriotic bona-fides to attract the heavy contributions they now get from the right they now take for granted . In casual conversations even here in LA, you can feel the tipping point coming. The anger and disgust is spreading; it’s us versus them. It’s the elites vs the commoners and those in charge of the charities are all too often on the wrong side of that divide.
However you choose to express your anger, make sure you are loud and unafraid. The left has held it’s fashionable/nannystate/victim coalition together through fear and bribes. Showing no fear in the face of the Left’s intimidation will give those afraid to speak up the courage to do the right thing.
They have an unmatched infrastructure, a force generation factory and millions of man years of experience.
Kewl! And they’re using this *against* Obama?!
Problem: how to counteract the Professional Left without creating a Professional Right?
One approach would be for the citizenry to stop outsourcing governance to the Political Club. Right now, the average American does almost nothing to contribute to our system of self-governance. You can see this in the voting statistics (~60% of eligible voters vote in a Presidential year, ~40% in an off-year, and ~10% in a non-federal election), and also in the abject apathy that has infected the body politic.
I know this from experience because until 2008, I was one of the infected.
There will always be a Political Club, a group of people who care about politics and enjoy playing the game. It’s like folks who like NASCAR or curling or musical theatre. It’s an avocation. Fair enough.
But if the average citizen completely outsources governance to the Political Club, and allows them to make rules that protect their members, the incumbents and their enablers, the Political Club morphs into the Ruling Club (as I’ve though about it, I prefer “club” to “class” because a club admission is based upon supplication, while class is based upon birth).
It is only accountability to the citizens that keeps the Political Club from becoming the Ruling Club.
However, if the citizens don’t engage, there is no accountability.
The good news is that there are so many more citizens than members of the Ruling Club that only a modest investment of time and energy – perhaps a couple of hours per week per voter – would completely break them, and return them to merely the Political Club. It would restore self-governance.
Perhaps what we need is the something like a tithe for self-governance. This would be voluntary, but if people commit to using 10% of their free time, or 10% of their income, for political activity, it would go a long way toward restoring self-governance.
Another option might be to go to a mandatory voting system. Everyone must vote. No free riding.
We simply have to accept the fact that self-governance imposes a cost. Our unwillingness to bear that cost is a big part of the reason why the Political Club has been promoted to Ruling Club.
It’s not someone else’s problem to fix. It’s up to us.
Good thing we’re Americans. We can fix anything, once we put our mind to it.
L3
There are those on the Right who will never call the Left what they really are, at least not from my point of view. (Dennis Prager has gone so far as to make it a mark of pride for himself. Pride goeth before the fall, Mr. Prager?)
As an exercise, I decided it might be interesting to see how Wretchard’s piece today sounds when I alter one word wherever it appears to match the way I think we all need to view the Left. Especially since they’ve been projecting their own despicable behavior on to the Right for years, they are certainly overdue for the tables to be turned.
So without further ado, I am labeling the affected sentences.
About the only instance where sinister did not apply was in this simply phrase: “those who simply wish to to be left alone.”
American institutions were formed to help protect the American perspective. Wretchard’s excellent piece relates in substance what I’ve highlighted bluntly. The Sinister are the termites of our institutions. When termites destroy a structure, their damage is mostly sub rosa until you decide to rely on that structure to support you. Likewise, when we seek the support of our institutions. Instead of defending us, we find them tumbling down upon our heads. The fatal recognition often comes with the sense that up has become down and right has become wrong.
Ferchrissakes, what did we expect? Instead of those with the know-how to run the institutions, like architects, normal scientists (not post-normal), engineers and physicians, we’ve allowed attorneys (with their eye on winning at anybody’s cost but their own) to rule the roost.
The Left is Sinister, and the top most not only know it, they’ve become brazen about it. The hell with Prager et al. and their niceties. Call them on it. It’s time we all knew it.
This was a brilliant thread. It reminds me of all the “front” organizations of the 1930′s and 1940′s with great sounding names.
And the point that Steve Skubinna made @7 is important. Conservatives tend to work in the private sector and to focus on their families. The left tend to work in government, NGO’s, and politics and to focus on saving society. Therefore the left will always have a deeper political bench and a deeper penetration of civil service and NGO’s as well as the “charitable” organizations referred to.
But every once in a while, perhaps once every other generation or so, as the anthem says, “Freemen shall stand, between their loved home and the war’s desolation!” If we miss this window we may not get another for a long long time.
The basic problem with political corruption in the US (and most places) is that few if any consequences attach when you’re caught. When you are they go through the motions but the game is usually rigged. Nothing usually happens to the people who are inconveniently caught. You just slap them on the wrist most gently and see that they get a lucrative position elsewhere. They take care of their own. Do you really think Charles Rangel is going to go to jail? I don’t think so. Bill Clinton gets how much money for giving a speech? Come on– the network takes care of its own.
I forget which country it was or is (San Salvador?) in which the crime of driving while intoxicated was punishable by death by firing squad, but they rarely had to carry it out. The prospect of the penalty kept most people from doing it.
Perhaps we need an equivalent for political corruption here. Yes, we can always vote them out of office but currently for the political class that’s like have your character die in a computer game. Its not really going to affect their lives much at all.
For the ruling class the sin is not doing the crime it is getting caught in a manner that cannot be covered up. That is the essence of the problem and the rot.
Wretchard: Great post.
#7 Steve Skubinna: Your comment is spot-on.
Matt @ 31:
Excellent comment! Just want to differ on one point, about kings. The big problem there is the succession to that king, which is often bloody, and usually results in an inferior successor.
God doesn’t recommend having kings. That’s what He told the Israelites through the prophet Samuel. Warned them that a king would take their possessions and labor. Except for King David and a scattered few, it worked out that way.
In the Millenium, it is prophesied that Christ himself will rule. Until then, we would be foolish to hope for a Good King, rather than fighting to preserve the democratic republic we have.
But I enthusiastically second the rest of your great comment.
Lift a rock from the left and you will see Soros crawling out.
#3. fnord
“The Professional Left is like a virus (not a living organism) that takes over a living cell and controls its activity until it dies.”
The problem with this for the professional left is that if it is true, they have forgotten the first rule of successful parasites.
To everyone else on the thread, focusing on the elites in the professional left is important, but we ignore their footsoldiers at our peril. Town administrators, public school teachers, workers at rent-seeking businesses whose income streams are propped up by hyperregulation and prevailing wage laws, associate professors at community colleges, and their like, will buy into and support whatever the left’s agenda might be not from any ideological deep thought or consideration, but from the simple need to keep the paychecks rolling in. Their “theology” is not the secular extremism and faux compassion and Gramscian incrementalism of the cultural elite, but is a rather simple one instead: the worship of perfect income stream security, plus the ability to go through life feeling good about themselves.
Therefore, what works against the professional left may not work against the others I mentioned, and may in fact be counterproductive to dealing with them.
27. Tamquam — Thanks, I was able to download the ACORN manual — though reading through it I felt like I was reading porn, snuff porn — but I was unable to get anything out of what appeared the main link on “Community Organizing.”
In yesterday’s Roanoke Times (our Southwest Virginia regional newspaper), a commentary attacking the Republican challenger, Morgan Griffith, to our 28 year Democratic Congressman, appeared with this prelude about the author:
“Charles W. Sydnor, Jr — Snydor, of Glade Spring, was the executive assistant and speechwriter for Gov. Charles S. Robb during his administration. He was also the president of Emory & Henry College from 1984 to 1992 and served as president and CEO of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corp. in Richmond from 1992 until May 2006.”
I know Belmont Club’s readers can connect the dots. That the author and the Roanoke Times allowed that prelude tells me how clueless they are about the present political climate. Good.
Atbashian makes a good point. Combined with Wretchard’s comments it was a well written synopsis of the left’s secret financial system and its almost complete take over of America. As others have pointed out, the left uses the same tools that organized crime uses: subversion of money laundering laws and payola of key officials.
In simpler times these crimes would have been exposed and punish. But, with the very sudden rise of “Chicago Style left” or the “Professional Left” these crimes has gone unpunished. Its clear that Eric Holder will not be using the RICO act to prosecute those who feed him (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act).
I am with agreement with @13 NJartisr49 that skilled hackers could expose or cause extreme damage to the Professional Left’s financial structure. If their financial life line is cut they will eventually wither on the vine. Now, how to go about hacking this financial network is the key.
Someone on the inside probably has to make the first disclosure. It may take a reward system akin to Andrew Breitbart’s “JournoList.” Or, it could take something much more powerful.
In the interim, to smash the left’s control of the media requires complete starvation of their revenue stream. Stop all subscriptions to the NYT, WaPo and turn off CNN and MSNBC – and that goes for the advertisers who feed those organizations. But it could require more.
If any of you have suggestions – let’s hear them.
Great thread. I believe in judo (and, given the asymmetry in forces, it’s a method not merely useful but essential for us)(. But I recognize the wisdom of No Mo Uro’s point (#50) that the Left has many footsoldiers and hangers-on to whom the elite can turn, automatically and easily. Where then are the points of maximum leverage? I think public exposure of tax abuse is one of the big ones. The public will pay attention to that because they’re getting killed by taxes and see nothing but hikes to come. Meanwhile they will follow the story if it’s presented not like a corporate org chart but like a season of the “Sopranos.” Build the graph around the individuals, not the endless spawn of front entities (they need to be named and tracked, ubt ultimately what matters is the individuals feeding them, and whom they feed). Then get many eyes to look at the organizations’ tax filings and other data, and look for signs of abuse. Self-dealing. Cross-affiliation (mutual backscratch, e.g. Foundation A hires the children of the guy who funded Foundation B, and vice versa). Fat salaries for no work, excessive expense accounts, lack of good governance policies, no audits or poor audit results on accounting for funds. Everything. Also, the percentage of revenue that actually serves the declared mission, and how much gets eaten up in “consulting” and other black holes. This is a huge job but it is made of many small parts and the Web allows knowledge and skill to be shared. The big leverage is twofold. One, there are lots of eyes and hands who can do this work, and arguably only a few thousand (maybe 10,000) organizations that need to be worked on. Second, there is nothing that these organizations fear more, and that will cost them more money more quickly in legal fees, than the prospect of losing their tax-favored status. Nothing. For these people, sunlight isn’t a disinfectant. It’s Kryptonite.
The best way to control the professional left is through a Constitutional amendment limiting Federal taxation to 10%. When Federal government is placed back into its smaller non-God-like box – when Federal government gets only 10% – the States (empowered and limited by their own 10% taxation) would find themselves positioned to take over (or share with private charities) all social programs now un-Constitutionally administered by Federal government: Social Security, Healthcare, Education, etc. Limiting Federal taxation to 10% would have the effect of resurrecting the 10th amendment – resurrecting State government – resurrecting the Bill of Rights – resurrecting the Constitution. With such an amendment “We the People” will finally become “masters of both Congress and the Courts” – masters of our own destiny.
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
Here is the full amendment that would address many of the wrong turns that we have made; amendments which are anti-Marxist and pro-American.
Amendment XXVIII
Section 1. The Declaration of Independence is the supreme un-amendable moral law of the United States of America
Section 2. Term limits for Congress (shorter) and the Supreme Court (longer)
Section 3. Federal taxation under Amendment XVI shall not exceed 10% for any individual, nor shall Federal taxation under Amendment XVI exceed 10% of the nation’s GDP
Section 4. Federal income shall only consist of 10% domestic taxation as per Section 3 regarding Amendment XVI, plus foreign tariffs, plus the sale of domestically purchased bonds by U.S. Citizens
Section 5. Federal spending shall not exceed federal income. Federal income shall not occur through borrowing or self-creation of money.
Section 6. Amendment XVII is hereby revoked
Section 7. Supreme Court decisions shall be revoked by Congress with 2/3 or greater vote in both houses.
Section 8. Article I, Section 8 shall be changed to: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, and provisions for general welfare shall also be uniform throughout the United States and innumerated herein this Constitution; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and to regulate disputes of commerce among the several states…”
Don’t forget, whatever you do, do it joyfully!
This will discombobulate them more than anything.
Mr.s Atbashian and Fernandez there is a template, if you will, for Oleg’s judo metaphor. Adolph Coors, of Coors beer created a foundation way back in the Goldwater/Reagan days to fund, educate and make viable the conservative movement. He had observed the tendency of the parasitic left to subvert and eventually to subsume philathropic organization and placed an expire date on his foundation. I forget the name of the foundation but for years had incubated conservative thought.
Another observation I have had is that the Pelosi/Obama sect has taken a shine to taxing philathropy. Now do not get me wrong I think this is a horrible idea. It does occur to me that even though Pelosi and Obama are avariciously seeking more money, a preoccupation of the left generally, there is some merit to destroying philathropy as Old Europe is a prime example. Their charitable giving is very low compare to Republicans. We all know Democrats are chincy donators. Hillary gave what, $10 bucks, for Pakastani relief. Symbolism writ larger than comedy. Now consider this, if the government does tax giving outside of the church there will be less giving. In turn, the left within the government will monopolize “giving” much as they think they are doing now. Follow this down the road and we will have all of the bad eggs in one basket so that when the government does come down, if the producers still have any capital left, their whole edifice will come down with it.
In essence, we need a foudation to examine this phenomena of subversion of philanthropy to shine a bright shining light on this activity and its attendant philosophy and bias mcuh like the spontaneous Taxed Enough Already before this movement becomes Tased Enough Already! Lastly, when the USSR fell where did all of the Comunists go?
Oh, and one last observation, there is/was a kinda rightist organization that could keep a secret that the drives the left to apoplexy…..the Masons.
The rise of the Leftist Aristocracy is something I have been ranting about off-and-on for a while now. Now that they are in power they have even affected the behavior of the Divinely Appointed absolutitsts of old. One thing that they hadn’t counted on was being in the same position that Loius XIV finished his days in, with the next four generations worth of taxes spent and no relief in sight.
Let us hope that they end their days as did the Bourbon lineage; reviled and irrelevant.
Wretchard wrote;
“It is about the ordinary man trying to keep from being told what to do by self-appointed and highly paid busybodies”
Once again our host has demonstrated his ability to reduce the essence of the problem to one easily understood and delightfully succinct sentence. Bravo!
re: Vast Right-W-C.. we need to recognize projection and call it out for what it is when we hear it (rather than decades later when the proof is ever-present. Madame Hillary certainly knew what resources the left controlled and directed back then, and knew the conservatives had nothing like it save raw intellect & judgment).
re: Police not professional/competent. Does this remind anyone else of “cargo-cult” behavior? (like the uniforms endow ability?) Saw this in Mumbai/Bombay bombings as well. My sense is the institution is mostly a jobs program when this occurs (and is happening more often in the U.S. sadly). And the U.S. could export this – training and rule-sets for countries that want to do better. fyi, it’s already happening as developing countries hire 1st world firms to, say, run their custom’s house. Local corruption ends, tariffs get paid, a better local government emerges (finance by taxes not corruption).
re: institutional corruption (non-profits, etc.). Means the first libertarian impulse was correct. The alternative to putting up with NGO corruption (or creating an even larger government to attempt to control them) is to defund them by eliminating the notion of non-profit (or taxes determined “profit” status). Which means charities and churches will be hurt. But using taxes for social purposes has always proven a mistake, long-term. Best to write law directly v. regulate, v. thumb-on-the-scale.
Re: LL3 & citizen involvement. Part of the founders’ conception was governance was a < 5% attention-unit problem (so the citizen could focus on their own self-government, family and local needs, civil society – etc.., and put almost all their energies into their “enterprise” knowing the social environment would be held stable – a fixed foundation to stand on). So most need not care if the Founders’ framework was honored and only tinkered at around the edges. Unfortunately it’s rotted beyond the founders’ ability to recognize. For which they also share the blame– so we will eventually have to pay attention (if we want the “makers” (v. takers) to remain in this country v. voting with their feet because it is demanding more than 5% of their attention – including wallet) – but this means leadership (not just grass-roots dissatisfaction). Given the ‘Pubs reluctance to embrace Mr. Ryan’s plan (or promote another) I’m not encouraged. Perhaps they are keeping their powder dry until after the election.
Nothing less than devolving all the domestic power out of the center will suffice (which both left and right should support unless they’ve been captured by the Ring). Else these special interests (and the regulatory state) will continue to enslave the people, governing against their local interests/freedom/wealth/happiness/opportunity.
Well, I can dream. Neat thing is we’re now mobile and able to vote with our feet, and haven’t reached the point of China where “once a chinese, always a chinese, your person is owned by the state”). (But we’re getting there, wrt citizenship and taxes)
The best possible government is one of strong and Godly monarchs: Caesars who recognize that their power comes “from above” and wish to return love for love.
Mr. Beck, that is, to coin a phrase, shit. And I will not apologize for calling you on it. You are demonstrating your profound historical illiteracy. You even name Caesar: the tyrants who overthrew a republic and considered themselves god-kings.
The now lost American Republic was design to counter the fallen nature of man. The founders stated form the beginning that the Republic was only suitable for a virtuous people. Within decades of its founding, the elites had begun laying the groundwork for its overthrow; to return a freed people to their ancient serfdom. The laws and institutions the founders put forth were based on the Natural Laws: the laws of nature and of Nature’s God – Yahweh, not some demon named Allah (piss be upon him) or Vishnu.
“The Left has always been just another kind of establishment.”
Exactomondo. Socialism ALWAYS leads to a dictatorship. Not what Marx and Engels envisioned, but they were fools of the first order.
RickL, IIRC it was the Romans that thought EVERYTHING was political. The left takes that thought to extremes, while the right pretty much ignores it. In the car business, it was a rule of thumb that you never tried to sell horsepower to a liberal nor fuel economy to a conservative. There were exceptions, but you could starve to death finding them.
Actually dictatorship is what Marx and Engles envisioned. Marx and Engles lied when they said there would be a “dictatorship of the proletariat;” they knew there would instead be a dictatorship of an elite Marxst ruling class, and that is exactly what the 20th Century revealed.
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions… The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat (actually conquest of political power by a Marxist ruling class).” Karl Marx
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
“I do not claim to have discovered either the existence of classes in modern society or the struggle between them… My own contribution was… to show that… class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat… that this dictatorship itself constitutes no more than a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.” Karl Marx
Marx was not stupid; he knew that Communism would end in dictatorship – not of the so-called proletariat class – but of a new Marxist ruling class.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/letters/52_03_05.htm
Back in 1985 I was entering into a DMV in San Diego Ca. to get a drivers license. As I approached the building a quite attractive young woman asked if I would like to register as a voter and that all it would entail is a few minutes of filling out the paperwork and simply the possession of an State of California ID card.
My antenna went up and of course I was curious who she was, and why she was so generous with her time and and ever flowing civic virtue. The point of all her effort was to register Democratic voters in San Diego County. Where did she find them, especially new ones, especially new voters typically earning under $40,000 grand and much less per year. The DMV. The Department of Mexican Voters.
The Democratic Party in SoCal was very much in Tea Party mode back in 1985. Stealthily but extraordinarily open in affecting its’ plan of subverting the majority political class in SoCal. From what I have read recently they have pretty much succeeded.
Lesson I picked up that hot and dry San Diego afternoon, is that the young and earnest democrat pretty girl will suffer the grunt work of standing in the sun and getting the voters fresh from the oven. The opposition often deprecates this long haul, vagabond smelly s—t shoveling as something tea party types do. Aha! Tea Party types do.
Tea Party types send their boys and now their young women off to war! They strain to pay their bills. Battle to keep their homes out of foreclosure. And struggle mightily to avoid the clarion call of the professional left and that hypnotic miasmic mix of mantra and vomit “Yes WE Can!’
Our leadership in this fight is pathetically weak incompetent, and woefully uninspiring. I’m full of despair for this country and it’s people. Why? Because those who hate! Hate this country . Hate it’s citizens. Hate it’s legacy! and hate it’s greatness which makes it exceptional. Well they are thisclose to screwing the whole works up.
WE it’s citizens are about to allow haters, professional haters rule our nation. That I will not and cannot accept . Stop the haters simply stop them
now!
It’s been obvious for many years that the hard left is built on a bunch of people with personal as well as ideological links, who gained control of charitable foundations and government bureaucracies, and corporate “giving” and “diversity” programs, and basically give money to each other and their ideological clients, and use the fact of such grants to claim proof that the recipients do good work (e.g., they got a Ford Foundation grant so they must be good).
I’ve been observing this from my perch in Chicago for 20 years at least, watching the MacArthur and Joyce Foundations, among many others, give money and credibility to hopelessly corrupt and, frankly, evil groups and individuals, while the media and politicians accept the premises and lend their own support to those who would destroy them when the chance arises.
Glad to see this is being recognized as the worldwide phenomenon it is.
After the GOP took Congress in 1995 there was brief talk of “defund the Left,” but the GOP leadership caved in to their locals, their spouses, and their own fears of bad publicity, and didn’t zero out abominations like the NEA and CPB. This year, there isn’t even any talk about doing the right thing if the GOP is in a position to do so come 2011, but it is an absolutely ESSENTIAL first step to reclaiming democracy in not just the USA but the Western World (if such phrase even means anything anymore, with Europe so thoroughly dhimmified).
Socialism “in the grip of a “ferocious civil war”,”.
Time for a purge*, socialist Stalin says.
…-
“Labor war hurting bid for power
JULIA Gillard has failed to keep the lid on recriminations within Labor over its poor election campaign.
A former national president describing the internal atmosphere as poisonous, amid growing calls for the sacking of national secretary Karl Bitar.
As the caretaker prime minister faced opposition claims that her party was in the grip of a “ferocious civil war”, her promise to deliver a stable minority government was compromised when former ALP president Warren Mundine attacked the party as divided, and several beaten Labor candidates vented their frustration about party bosses, who imposed a flawed campaign on candidates.
The attacks came as Tony Abbott sharpened his pitch to the three independents who will anoint the next government by saying only the Coalition could provide stability, while Labor infighting was a recipe for chaos.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-war-hurting-bid-for-power/story-fn59niix-1225909632518
…-
*Socialist Stalin’s Purges:
“The Great Purge
The Great Purge/The Great Terror Joseph Stalin changed his name each of the six times he escaped from being arrested or exiled. One of the names he used was Stalin, Russian for ” …
http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/russia/stalin/great_purge.htm
…-
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/014711.html
The most startling thing to me about the professional left network is the resourcefulness they demonstrates that rivals that of the most energetic entrepreneurs. Imagine if all these lefties had channeled that energy and resourcefulness into the private sector instead.
A related phenomenon is all those recent entrepreneurs who also hold left-wing views. Boggles the mind.
For those who hold publicly traded stock might I recommend using the shareholders meeting to demand changes in Gifting the Left from corporate accounts?
Most big corporations have been co-opted to fund leftist causes, if for no other reason than the CEO’s personal taste. ( GE, Apple, Microsoft, etc.)
One might study the corporate books and detail to those assembled just how much harmful monies have been vectored Left.
On the same line: challenge feel-good-about-this-company advertising placed to support notoriously Left programming. A ban would be appropriate.
Likewise, ads placed in failing media such as Newsweak should be banned by corporate. First off, their collapsing readership makes for a high cost per thousand. Next, it must be apparent to all that readership quality is plunging. Anyone with an brains has dropped their subscription. Newsweak is entirely sustained by corporate advertising — it doesn’t run classified ads — and its content now entertains only the dental que and pet floor space.
Since most firms are heading into a cash crisis, the last thing they can afford is the Left.
BTW, use corporate money to stop the hazing of white men in advertising. Capital One has to be the worst. It’s broken out like a rash all over broadcasting. Who could possibly come to a favorable decision when such negative stereotyping is smashed in one’s face?
———–
OT but still relevant:
The lousy construction economy has got so many bad drivers sitting at home local collisions have slumped terribly. The auto body shops are going bust right and left. Our biggest attorney partnership (128) collapsed for lack of road kill. Ambulance drivers are becoming as lonely as Maytag repairmen.
Against that, the insurers are in an ad mania, trying to get a bigger book. The collapse in claims is doing wonders for their ‘surplus.’
Since Trial Lawyers are an absolute bastion of Left funding, please do not overlook any opportunity to step on their wallets.
Any further contraction in the economy may completely bust out an entire legion of blood suckers. After all, they need a tort, and as human interaction falls back to subsistence tort-able opportunities must fall away.
Don Roderigo,
The reason that “all those recent entrepreneurs who also hold left-wing views” are left-wing is that they went through the educational system after it had turned left.
Notice: If we don’t wrest the education of our kids from the hands of the left NOW, the on-coming ranks of left-thinking young people will soon make the Left an actual majority. This election cycle could well be the last one in which conservatives are a majority of the population. (And they are a somewhat bigger-than-usual majority this time because of Obama-economics being such a disaster.)
It looks like the last chance for us if we don’t take out kids out of the lefty indoctrination of our public schools in the next year or two at the latest.
The internet has eliminated any rationale for the CPB; likewise NPR.
Any corporation playing footsie with this duo should have its shareholders up in arms.
By far and away the number one source for nationally ranked Leftist is corporate funding.
The left center of gravity is money, period. Conservatives can cut off their power if they are willing to sacrifice a little and organize a lot. An example, maybe a bit simplistic but still valid, is the Dixie Chicks. People stopped buying their CD’s and going to their concerts. I have not heard much from them lately so, mission accomplished. I actually really enjoyed their music, owned 3 CDs, but for me some things are not forgiveable. I have never seen Mystic River because I will not support Sean Penn. Same with a number of actors. Make a list and withold support. I would love to see a boycott on all movies until Hollywood is scoured clean of progressives but most people are too self indulgent to make that happen.
With regard to the shadow organizations that fuel the left, just give directly to local charities or churches.
54. Storm-Rider:
I’m reflexively leery of amendments, but I’m inclined to support one that affirms the importance and legitimacy of the Declaration of Independence, as your proposal does. The single most dangerous trend, to me, has been the dismissal of natural rights and the attendant sentiments of the Declaration.
The founders never saw a need to enshrine that in the Constitution since it was, after all, “self-evident.”
Don Rodrigo 71,
The reason I’m for a Constitutional amendment is because we are losing “the battle of democracy.” Envision Orwell’s Animal Farm where half the animals (the lazy proletariat class) are holed up in the barn writing poetry, watching soap operas and smoking pot; the other half (the middle class) labor in the fields. Farm produce is brought, under threat of force, to the central pot which is exclusively controlled by the Pigs. The Marxist Pigs control the all the communal farm produce – the eggs, corn, potatoes, apples, etc. The self-serving Pigs are the commune-ists. After gorging themselves the Pigs toss out leftovers to the “little animals” if they wag their tails, and if they will lick the hand that feeds them.
Who are the proletariat animals going to vote for? Answer: they will vote for the Marxist Pigs because the Pigs rob the laboring animals on their behalf. With enough barn animals (proletariat class) the Pigs can eventually win all elections – they become masters of perverted democracy. What will keep many of the laboring middle class animals from eventually becoming demoralized and exhausted, themselves finally entering the barn? Ultimately there will be an insufficient number of laboring middle class animals to support the lazy proletariat class and the lazy Marxist Pigs; hunger and anarchy will ensue. Who comes to the rescue? The Marxist Pigs “come to the rescue” with a “dictatorship of the proletariat” – code for dictatorship of the Marxist Ruling class.
“The proletariat (lazy animal class) will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie (working animal class), to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state (Marxist Pigs)… Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property… We have seen above that the first step in the revolution by the (non) working class is to raise the proletariat (lazy animals) to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.” Karl Marx
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
We are not a democracy. We are a Declarational/Constitutional Republic. “We the People” must destroy American Marxism with a Constitutional amendment, otherwise we will lose “the battle of democracy.”
This is the style of the Leftist elites in LA Unified District:
From http://formerspook.blogspot.com/
”…the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex in Los Angeles. At $578 million, it’s the most expensive public school ever built, and it speaks volumes about why the city–and state of California–are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Apparently, there’s no budget crisis in the L.A. school district, just plenty of money for the best of everything.”
and the AP, per the WP:
“The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation’s costliest – the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.
The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation’s second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing.”
This is the king of folly. Obviously, this palace is built for the ‘teachers.’ To look at it, you’d swear it is swankier than an ivy league institution. Full up, it’s projected to hold 4,200 students. That means that each class seat cost $138,000; debt financed, of course.
“But it’s for the children.” Right!
SE/70–FYI, the two sisters of the Dixie Chicks have formed a duet act; don’t know what’s happened to the big-mouth.
But you’re right: their market just evaporated (and they were sooooo indignant).
72. Storm Rider:
Since natural rights are no longer self-evident to both our elites and a large segment of the public, I think it has become necessary to enshrine them in the Constitution.
Interesting post, and interesting thread!
Still, there is no need to be despondent about the Professional Left’s grip on foundations and institutions. Those people may be very good at politicking, but they are absolutely lousy at running anything. They are destined to fail.
History is clear. Whether it is the New York Times, the BBC, the Soviet Union, or Mao’s China — the Leftie road leads to a dead end. The extremists will inevitably fail again with the US.
All that remains to be determined is the mode of the coming unavoidable Leftie failure. And a number of external global actors with no love for the Left will likely play a large part in determing that eventual failure mode. But one thing is for sure — when it comes to picking up the pieces after the inevitable failure caused by the inherent contradictions in the extremists’ philosopy, ordinary people are the ones who are going to be able to do it. Not the succubus class of the Professional Left.
We should not waste our time trying to outwit Lefties at their own rigged games. We should be focusing on getting ready to start rebuilding after their inevitable collapse. You know it’s coming!
In the non-profit sector, learn how to read the code.
Charitable programs that differentiate giving based class, race, gender, ethnicity are usually left-wing scams.
Charitable programs that help people based on a temporary disruption in the normal events of life, so that people can get back on their feet, are usually good groups to support. These tend to believe in the concept of a helping hand to get the person back on their feet, instead of a permanent hand-out.
Add in any type of “defense” in the name of the environment, left-wing scam. Environmental groups fall into two easy categories – defense of the environment – scam – or defense of your rights to enjoy the environment – ie hunting, fishing, recreation, socializing in the great outdoors – usually good groups.
Want a very simple activity to subvert main-stream environmentalism that is poisoning the minds of our youth and many of the newly college graduated adults in our country – take them hunting, trapping, or fishing.
Get the mind-numbed and dumbed enviro whacked zombies into the great outdoors interacting with nature, through hunting, trapping or fishing.
Getting a kid to shot and clean a deer, and then eat venison, and catch and keep a fish, fillet the fish, eat the fish, is the best defense against the whole pile of environmental crap that is being force fed them since their entry into the world.
Want organic – go hunt and fish organic.
In the last century, hunting, trapping and fishing license fees have been the primary manner in which conservation has been funded in the United States. These user and license fees fund conservation in America.
The Deer Hunter was a great movie, but the story line at the end is a left wing fantasy. The war veteran (DeNiro), having enough of killing, gives up a shot at a prized buck, knowing in his heart that he no longer has to kill to define his enjoyment of life.
Go to any Wounded Warrior event across this country today that gets veterans out into the outdoors hunting and fishing, and you see veterans becoming at ease, returning to nature, coming home, feeling at home in this country, feeling a sense of healing by being in the outdoors through the activity of hunting and fishing.
The version of the Deer Hunter that should have been made, and would have been made in the 40′s and 50′s for returning veterans, is for DeNiro to shoot the big buck, and take it back home, and share a good meal of deer meat with his family and friends.
But of course that was not revolutionary in the 70′s and 80′s through today – man must be a part from nature, not an integral component of it.
Speaking of secret rulers and foundations that whitewash their nefarious endeavors, why the hell has FOX News been covering up all the billions pumped into their parent company, News Corp, by the wealthy wahabi-ist AlWaleed bin Talal, a prince from the House of Saud?! Rudy Giuliani rightly sniffed out the stench of Taqiyya from this clown prince when Talal attempted to bribe him, but someone needs to tell this to the plastic people on FOX’s morning show!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-23-2010/the-parent-company-trap
As per the Italian political theorist Gaetano Mosca, there will always be elites, and occasionally waves of populism that attempt to become the new elites. We shouldn’t get too nostalgic about our Founding Fathers without realizing that, as professional politician with years of experience in their local states, they created the new order AS the incoming elites. They were wealthy, politically connected, highly educated and at least half of them (notably John Adams and the Federalists) were committed to keeping the rabble out of power. The populist rabble made their feelings known in the Shays and Whiskey Rebellions, with predictable results.
My Moscanian concern is that the Tea Party, if its wins entre nous into the halls of power, will quickly falter or corrupt in very similar ways to the last great Conressional revolution, that of Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America.
63 Hallmonitor – the difference between then and now is that the Tea Party is a decentralized grassroots organization, while the Democratic Party activists are and have always been top down. This explains why the left and the media are unable to come to grips with the Tea Party – they cannot conceive of a truly spontaneous movement that isn’t directed from a central authority. It literally makes no sense to them, in the same way that a “Libertarian Fascist” would make to us.
No, that’s not even correct – we would determine that one of the two words was a lie, but the left can’t even accept the basic concept of the Tea Party. To them it’s like watching a person walk across the room, up one wall, and across the ceiling. Doesn’t make sense, there has to be a trick if only they can spot it.
I think that is an advantage we have: we can know where they are coming from, but there are some parts of our underlying philosophy that are so alien to their way of thinking that there is no explanation for them. And since the left are so wrapped up in their political vision that there is no line separating self from political thought, such things cannot exist. They don’t keep shrieking “Racist” at every hint of disagreement, or making absurd claims that “the Right hates babies and brown people and women” just because they believe it to be effective. They do it because it explains us in terms they can accept.
79 Sig Sour (BTW, is that a typo, a joke, or an editorial expression?): of course there have always been and will always be elites. Some people are smarter than others, or better educated, or more talented in some area, or richer.
Fine. No problem – so long as they, or their acolytes, do not fall into the trap of believing they are BETTER than others. Even worse is when they decide they are obligated to run our lives for us. I could stand a Kennedy or one of that ilk (and incidentally, how did a gang of ignorant thugs gain entree to the elite?) believing he’s better than I am, so long as he stays in Hyannisport or some such and marinates in his superiority. Once he steps unto the podium and begins ordering me about, the two of us have a major problem, and he sure as hell won’t like my solution to it.
As we are seeing right now in the media and the power elite.
I mean, get real – would anyone accept John McEnroe as a natural aristocrat because he was good at tennis, or Lindsey Lohan because, hey the Freaky Friday remake was pretty good? Either of those two have more to boast of in terms of achievement than any professional pol does.
Hey, Blert! Your number 12 really connected. I think you’ve identified the Leftist strategy:
Poop in our living spaces, then tell us that it’s a miraculous method for collecting obnoxious flies all in one place. (All we have to do is kill the flies…)
Well, I suppose it’s true. But most importantly, it’s certain to lure the flies away from THEIR living spaces…
Marie-Claude,
In re to the “Fatal Summer” column (apparently comments are closed); the French had a larger number of modern tanks, and more trained infantry, than the Germans did. That is well documented. The problem is that they weren’t ready to react to the strategy of the Germans.
So far as I know no group in political history, whether privileged or hoi polloi, has ever willingly given up its spot at the public trough. Once the theft becomes legalized the only rational behavior is to game the system to fight for your group’s “fair” share. That’s the way it has always been, and there is no reason to believe that people will suddenly change today.
I think it will take a “shock” to the system to precipitate the possibility of meaningful change, something that captures the national imagination and keeps people up at night. Natural disaster, war, big terrorist attack, who knows. On the other hand a high magnitude event is probably more likely to consolidate power in the center.
For the longer term the level of dissatisfaction with the federal government and its coterie of cultural busybodies is so high that American society will almost necessarily physically fragment along ideological and geographical fault lines.
The “No” people will eventually aggregate in less burdensome locales – States and cities. They will elect representatives who will say no to the feds. A Constitutional crisis of 1850s proportion will ensue although I cannot imagine anything like a similar result.
I can imagine more political power moving from the center to the States, however, as societal fragmentation becomes the new accepted normal. California will be bankrupted by public employee unions and California’s No people will vote with their feet and move to a friendlier clime, as many are already doing now.
SaltLick: I wonder what would happen if all us oldsters around 60 went back to university and took one course — American history, maybe. Or Ethnic Studies. And we challenged the professor every day in class.
I love this idea! And at a lot of schools you can even monitor classes (no credit) for only a small fee. Though in that case, the Prof will likely kick you out first day.
Still, it could be effective even by being there one day and dropping a whiff of doubt into the room. For instance, odds are the Lefty prof is using Zinn’s corrupt book for American History. So first day, make a big fuss about “why are we using this book? It’s known to be highly biased and full of lies.” Let the kids know right at the start that they are getting an agenda, and not history.
In fact, you might even check the campus book store first to see which classes use Zinn’s book, and target those.
Sig Sour:
My Moscanian concern is that the Tea Party, if its wins entre nous into the halls of power, will quickly falter or corrupt in very similar ways to the last great Conressional revolution, that of Newt Gingrich and the Contract for America.
The trick is to keep them from quickly faltering. Whatever mechanisms we can devise to slow down the process of inevitable corruption to a crawl is what we should adopt. Mechanisms like term limits, legislative mechanisms to require tax cuts after two years of budgetary surpluses, the return of a genuine, independent free press, and a judiciary that believes in the Constitution and the actual founding principals that are documented in the Declaration of Independence. Maybe even replacing or supplementing the National Guard(s) with Swiss-type militia (they take their military-grade firearms home with them).
Yes, a very tall order, but worth pursuing.
85. peterike
SaltLick: I wonder what would happen if all us oldsters around 60 went back to university and took one course — American history, maybe. Or Ethnic Studies. And we challenged the professor every day in class.
I love this idea! And at a lot of schools you can even monitor classes (no credit) for only a small fee. Though in that case, the Prof will likely kick you out first day.
I know I would enjoy the bejeezus out of it.
I have emailed professors whose courses I podcasted from Do It Yourself Scholar. It wasn’t pretty and things got outright hostile from time to time. These folks do not like being called out. They would have called security if I had been present in the classroom.
Take any course on political thought from the Enlightenment. There are Progressives and the enemies of progress. Nothing in between.
On the other hand there are still some honest professors, Kagan at Yale for one, who are not reluctant to point out the anti-reality thinking of the modern age.
Peter Boston…
There have been situations when government payrolls massively contracted: the end phase and cure for hyperinflation.
Foreigners made the national government do it as a condition for a return to the international foreign exchange markets.
Ultimately, the US Government has to scale back its fantasies — and fantastic spending drastically.
When the spender is the issuer of the fiat currency, then all such spending is a TAX. It operates as a tax on liquidity. Then it morphs into a tax on all negotiable assets. In its final stage, money-printing-tax takes out commercial activity across the board by destroying the legal tender.
Each transition is a cliff-function.
With China, Russia and Iran openly rejecting the USD in favor of everything else — and Japan and Britain completely unable to absorb the fresh issuance — and with our domestic free cash flow quite inadequate; we already are at the edge of hyperinflation.
Firm and rising commodity prices, particularly gold, silver and oil — plus foodstuffs — are indicators that the world has reached supersaturation of US Dollars.
Our only hope is that the Pelosi-Obama regime is neutered in November.
——–
Pelosi is our first Prime Minister — running the government by strength of wallet.
Obama is our first Prince — reigning without leadership, truly TOTUS.
Fighting the Left is like sex; it is best when done for love instead of money.
#31 Matt Beck: “…Democracy makes the problem worse not better (and at the most fundamental level, the problem is actually identical with democracy). The best possible government is one of strong and Godly monarchs: Caesars who recognize that their power comes “from above” and wish to return love for love…
Wow – I may be missing something here, but you are about as wrong as can be. Can you show me ONE such “Caesar”? American power flows from the consent of the governed, who in turn understand that our Rights are God-given and cannot be taken away by the hand of man.
If the Left is to be effectively combated, there must be alternative media. According to a current story in the Washington Examiner http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/blogs/yeas-and-nays/Washington-Times-to-meet-its-end-___-again_-545288-101343354.html, the Washington Times is on the verge of going out of business. The Times has been a lively newspaper and a valuable alternative to the Washington Post. Rumor has it that there is a potential buyer, but that disagreements in the family of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the paper’s original publisher, may spike the deal. Anyone out there who can affect this outcome?
Of Ivan the Bear, and the “Professional Left”.
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“Canadian jets intercept Russian bombers near N.W.T.”
“Two CF-18 fighter planes shadowed the Russian TU-95 bombers within 55 kilometres of Canadian soil after they were discovered approximately 220 kilometres north of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, said Harper’s spokesman Dimitri Soudas in a statement.
In a repeat of a similar incident at the end of July, Canadian fighter jets were launched on Tuesday after two Russian bombers approached Canadian airspace, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/canada/Canadian+jets+intercept+Russian+bombers/3440369/story.html
…-
>>>The Professional Left attacks with the left-liberal MSM on its left wing>>>:
“Project Ploughshares, an organization that promotes peace and is affiliated with the Canadian Council of Churches, said the government has not yet engaged in any debate on the purchase, which was announced at a news conference last month.”
“Critics set to launch new attacks on untendered deal to buy fighter jets”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/critics-set-to-launch-new-attacks-on-f-35-deal/article1684112/
“Wow – I may be missing something here, but you are about as wrong as can be. Can you show me ONE such “Caesar”?”
I couldn’t agree more! This is how men like Obama, Al Gore, and Prince Charles all see themselves, as divinely inspired “saviors” of the misguided peasantry.
May the good lord and the force of our arms continue to save us from the rule of any such men as these!
http://www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar00.html
You’ll find there a whole series of the history of Julius and how he became dictator of Rome, as well as the aftermath.
It started with the dream of three generals, Crassus, Pompey and Caesar, with the 1st Triumvirate.
After the death of Crassus fighting the Iranians of his day, Pompey was driven by Caesar to flee to Egypt where the regents of the boy-king Ptolemy had him killed. While Caesar was away in Egypt, the last Senatorial republicans plotted his demise. But they didn’t expect to have to deal with another group of men who craved power, The Second Triumvirate. Our globalists are following a similar path; but as I’ve noted before, our civilian leaders are not generals, so the type of power seeking we are witnessing is pathologically different — but the goal is the same.
The really bad omen, imho, is that what was once American culture has been watered down with years and years of Marian style reforms, aka as socialism. There are whole loads of Americans, at all levels of society, who have been living off the govt dole. And now we have open borders of the sort that both Marius (d. 85 BC) and Julius employed to gain popularity.
Let’s have more about our Inner Circle Wretchard. Please.
6. huxley If our intelligence agencies aren’t infiltrating Wikileaks with the aim to expose every morsel of information about that organization (snip) they are not doing their jobs.
*****
Huxley, But what is the nature of the actual tasks performed by CIA agents? Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA has the following widely quoted “quip” by former West Hemisphere operations chief David Atlee Phillips:
> “There are two kinds of people I never met in the CIA,” quipped retired
> spy David Atlee Phillips. “One was an assassin, and the other was a
> Republican.”
I wonder if our other intelligence organizations are any more “diverse” than the CIA.
> “There are two kinds of people I never met in the CIA,” quipped retired
> spy David Atlee Phillips. “One was an assassin, and the other was a
> Republican.”
Are you suggesting that Wikileaks is not a bug, but a feature?
Whose in charge of the CIA. Wazzitsname from the clinton era? His name sounds like an Italian dish.
Forget the CIA, where’s Army intelligence as regarding the source of the leaks to Assange? **crickets**
OT: Does anyone expect Al Franken and Richard Daley to be traveling to Alaska at the request of Murkowski to help in the counting of GOP ballots?
Makes sense that she’d be reaching across the aisle in the sense of “bipartisanship” that is connoted by our understanding of the Inner Circle.
Hey, maybe this isn’t OT after all.
And where is Buddy? It’s his role to be making these observations. Or is that Doug? I’ve been gone too long, and as can be readily seen, I’ve a hit and miss memory.