Obama’s New Nomenklatura
Socialism is a rich man’s game.
Oh, sure, random overheated (sometimes impoverished) Occupiers agitate for their version of economic equality, possibly gumming up the works at the Lincoln Tunnel, but the real financial justice action comes from the wealthy – or so it would seem.
And I’m not just talking about Hollywood, where George Clooney is full steam ahead on a putative record-breaking ten million dollar fundraiser for Barack Obama, or the laughably meretricious theatrics of the “Buffett Tax” that no one would pay anyway, but across the nation.
According to a book about to be released, The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, Obama has held more fundraisers than all presidents since Nixon combined.
What does this have to do with socialism? A lot, really, because what Obama promises – especially in his second term — is a socialism of permanent elites, a kind of new, very American, version of the old Soviet-style nomenklatura. And those who are in it will get to stay in it (via government support) as social mobility, aka the American Dream, diminishes or disappears.
This was what socialism ultimately was all about, indeed is all about, the preservation of nomenklaturas, whether of Hollywood, the media, union, and bureaucratic leadership or what remains of selected industry. Keep hoi polloi out.
All those fundraisers and bundlers, from Clooney to the considerably more anonymous, know this on one level or another. It’s certainly not subtle and those too clueless to understand were reminded by the recent quasi-blacklisting of potential Romney supporters. A warning shot was fired. No elite status for them.
Being part of this new nomenklatura is particularly crucial in hard times and even more so in hard times that look to be long-lasting and possibly permanent.
Seemingly disastrous undertakings, like the overweening government support of the feckless solar company Solyndra, therefore can actually have what would appear to be a reverse effect, reassuring elites that they will be protected, even cosseted, in their most irrational enterprises. Just stay on the team and all will be well.
Great truth-to-power piece, Roger. Victoria Jackson gets it too. See her perform: “There’s a Communist in the White House.” Scroll down to see it. What a talented woman. As a conservative, I’m sorry we keep making war on women all the time.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/democrat-comic-scorches-obama-again/
“As a conservative, I’m sorry we keep making war on women all the time.”
How exactly do we do that, I mean making war on women all the time????
Its complicated – but ask any democrat.
I did. “Shut up,” she replied.
War on women, BS from beginning to end. At least it gives these socialist cows a cud to chew.
i think george is obama’s token woman…:) yep…somethin goin on here…
obama hates women, we now know why…hahahahah cute little number in george..
Truth to power indeed!
And I don’t think it’s excessive (although I believe RS was being ironic) to discuss ‘nomenklatura’. After all, the Radical Feminist (distinct from the moderate feminist) approach is rooted in Marxist-Leninist thought as filtered (mostly without attribution) through Gramsci – that dead white European Communist male (DWECM) who tried to figure a way to insinuate Leninism into the robust and civicly-competent polities of the West (vs. the Russian East where the October 1917 Red revolution (not against the Tsar but against the government of the people’s February 1917 revolution) was carried out.
Since most people ‘just don’t get it’, and since the Radical Feminists (think of MacKinnon in her 1989 book about the (radical) feminist theory of the state) are possessed of the vanguard-elite true Knowledge, and since to doubt the ‘victim’ is to re-victimize the victim, then any doubt or objection to that Knowledge and that revolution is ipso facto to engage in counterrevolutionary activity (known here, slyly and neatly as ‘backlashing’). Lenin and Stalin both had a solution to ‘counterrevolutionary activity’ and ‘war’ on the Knowledge.
In a stunning irony, just as Communism was declining toward the dustbin of History, the Beltway imported it here in its desperate and addled (and perhaps treacherous) effort to enhance its shattered demographics in the late 1960s. Recall that when the Dems declared themselves the ‘party of women’ in the run-up to the 1972 election they were then rejected by The People 49 states to 1.
It was then that the Dems – and later the Republicans for their own purposes – decided that genuine democracy was no longer the way forward for them. Leviatha of the Left joined the ancient familiar Leviathan from the Right and made the beast with two backs.
We are all Russians now and that requires some serious thought as to what we might do about it. The soviets are not only not gone, they’re here.
Actually, the pattern of leaving the elite as “owners” of their companies, as opposed to nationalizing them, provided they remain team players, of course, has more to facism and National Socialism. Nobody wants to throw around the dimunitive of “National Socialism”; we were taught that it is the opposite of Communism, but in reality it was just as much a socialist system, and just as totalitarian. The primary difference was it kept the veneer of the old order- the elite got to keep their titles, social positions and perks, while serving as essentially a nomenklatura. Pretty clever, actually, since you got to keep and use the benefits of their education and training instead of shooting them.
It seems to me much more likely that our current course ends up closer to that model than the Russian one. Anybody remember a book coming out about ’68, entitled, “The New Left- the New NAZI’s”?
The are gone from there (for awhile) to here.
M’aidez. M’aidez. M’aidez.
That is all.
Its always been a rich man’s game. Humanity’s history is one of a small elite taking absolute power and plundering their country until another small elite overthrows them, sometimes promises better days to win the people over, then proceeds to plunder as as before and the cycle repeats. Few rulers have been otherwise and democracy and Republics are just an aberration to this cycle, just a meteor streaking across the sky in comparison.
In a real sense, democracy is just political warfare without the elites putting their lives on the line in their quest for power. They still crave power and plunder, just their weapons are lies, rabble rousing, and redistributing wealth for votes. Plunder and power are still the objective of most, however.
William, you’re eloquent. We play a game of semantics using names and titles that are different than the names and titles before. Kings have become “presidents for-life” while serfs now live in Section 8 housing. Alas, bureaucrats remain bureaucrats, and they still run the show. Barons have morphed into union leaders, bishops into the head of the EPA for the Earth is now the Almighty.
What’s that old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same?”
“serfs now live in Section 8 housing”
Except serfs were expected to work for their minimal sustenance. Now they only have to vote the right way.
Actually, “clientes” (in the ancient Roman sense of the word) would be a better analogy, with the New Class/Nomenklatura in the role of the “patrones”.
Voting is the ‘work’ that they provide to their political masters.
As William points out, this is no new development. From the outset of the Progressive movement, especially after the Great War, conservative elites masked themselves as progressives to stop the IWW and the Socialist Party. 1919 was a big year for this. I wrote in detail about The Nation magazine’s move to “the left” here: http://clarespark.com/2009/09/19/populism-progressivism-and-corporatist-liberalism-in-the-nation-1919/. Villard was explicitly calling for a top-down planning state.
When Romney becomes president and the Republicans take over the Senate, the first order of business should be “The Clooney Tax” — a special one, just for Clooney. After all, George, to paraphrase Obama, “How much money do you really need?” My guess is George will suddenly become a Constitutional purist.
That would not be possible under the constitution’s prohibition against bills of attainder. You can’t pass legislation to punish one person.
Yeah, but it’s fun to think about.
All those phoney loud mouths ….
Taxes and sacrifice for thee but not for me ….
They pass legislation intended to *benefit* just one person or interest all the time. Legislation to target or tax just one individual would be more difficult, but still possible. But that’s not how we operate.
No, but you can repeal the special tax treatment that was extended to Hollywood back in the early-50′s (another tax break for the wealthy) as Glenn Reynolds has advocated lately.
Simply change the tax rate on “unearned income” or title it anything you want to (short term non invested income, sounds right). Give it a tax rate of – say 90%. And then classify earnings from making movies as “unearned”.
Well, there’s no way to shame him at the box office, he’s in too many Coen Bros movies.
Right. But he could be punished at the box office, and should be.
What is this thing ‘constitution’ you speak of…?
That does not seem to stop Obama from taking unconstitutional actions like what he did in Libya, or not enforcing laws, or trying to enforce new regulations or signing what I believe will be unconstitutional in Obamacare, and many other actions like all these Czars, I could go on but the thought alone is making me ill, just 189 days till election!
The Dem Congress in Zero’s first year broke ground on this already with their attempted taxing of Wall Street bonuses. So lets go further. The left has already shredded the Constitution and they are for “targeted” taxing and tax benefits so lets target the left’s money.
That would not be possible under the constitution’s prohibition against bills of attainder. You can’t pass legislation to punish one person.
Constitutional concerns on the part of Congress are sooo 19th century and were finally abandoned under Obama.
So pass the Clooney-Buffet tax and dare the SCOTUS to overthrow it.
And a Happy May Day to you, Mr. Simon. And Fred, we are not making war on women. Most conservatives who are not enthralled on the religious right believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That means all of us have the liberty to decide for ourselves how we go about our own business. If that sounds entirely too libertarian for some, well, so be it.
Part of the uniqueness of America is the fact that we have kept down the “nomenklatukra” syndrome. It existed long before the USSR honed it to such “perfection” and the Chinese raised it even higher. There has, in most forms of government/leadership, always been an “elite” class, whether royals, the wealthy, or the famous, who ran the ship of state and controlled the levers of power. Our system gives the “hoi polloi” the chance to shake up the system every two years, and change the leadership every four. On the other hand, as is true in most other countries with a “career” bureaucracy, we have a hard time rooting out the “bugs” from the wheels of government.
“And Fred, we are not making war on women.”
I know, but I didn’t think I needed one of these after such a mocking statement: “/s”
Live and learn.
My apology. I didn’t see the snark.
Don’t worry Fred. Some of us got it.
Oh, you old elitist, you.
In the modern Internet era, people really have to learn that what they think is bloody hysterical too often doesn’t end up that way when rendered in print.
Failure of communication is more often the failure of the writer than the reader. Except to elitists, of course.
I gave you the benefit of the doubt at the start. Unfortunately, our “defender” above is confusing conservatives with libertarians. This “war on women” is simply conflating social conservatism with men, but actually some of the most outspoken social conservatives are female.
As Ann Coulter says, the biggest supporters of abortion are men with pregnant underage “girlfriends”.
Oh sure, the “find a man to blame” approach. It serves the interests of socially conservative and feminist women alike.
Strange though, that I don’t see many such men at pro-abortion rallies.
Meanwhile the pro-abortion women complain that the pro-life movement is mostly a conspiracy of men blah blah.
Feminist women blame men and traditionalist women blame men. See how they’re different?
The thing the elites really hate about America is our middle class. People who have stuff and are happy with their stuff don’t generally look with envy upon someone with more stuff. This really bothers the people with a lot of stuff who believe they should be worshipped by virtue of the amount of their stuff.
Nowhere is this more evident, in my experience, than in the state of Connecticut. Once a manufacturing powerhouse, it has devolved into a place where the “have-nots” discuss who has money, where and how they got it and generally wish they were themselves the rich and powerful.
And, I observed on more than one occasion, certain “haves” treating “have-nots” with utter disrespect, disdain and contempt. ie: the shopper lecturing the store clerk, the diner lecturing the server.
These things don’t generally happen in South Carolina where lots of have-nots and haves intermingle. In one case I witnessed where the server got an order so very wrong but the diner was very understanding and simply said, “It’s alright, everyone makes mistakes”. The server was understandable mortified and did everything they could to make it right and apologized profusely but I was most impressed by the diner who, though not happy, understood and accepted the error.
I’m sure this goes on more than otherwise in this still great nation but there are pockets of self-importance. I’m not jealous of those with money but I often wish that money came with instructions on how to have manners. But some people believe that having money somehow makes them better than others, and smarter, and better-looking, etc. To me, money simply represents freedom but not the right to treat others like dirt.
Actually, these types would prefer to eliminate money altogether. Money is so…fungible. Anyone can get it. Much better to dispense social privilege according to birthright or adherence to the ideological line. The things they hate above all are independent mobility (the idea that you can get ahead without owing a debt to the system), freedom (the idea that you can exist outside of the system), and innovation (the idea that you can change the system).
Calling these people progressives is a huge joke. Their ideas have nothing to do with progress and everything to do with preserving things exactly as they are. Whenever they talk about the need for change, they just mean more of the same old stuff.
I have NEVER seen this explained better or more succinctly. Bravissimo!
Connecticut? Well, I don’t think we are as rude as all that. Around where I live (so-called “Gold Coast”) people are friendly, chat with the guy at the dry cleaners, know the people at the supermarket check-out, yield to other drivers in traffic and so forth. But, yes, the state government is unreconstructed Democrat with all that entails. Never saw a tax they didn’t like. We are thinking about moving our legal residence to Florida (no state tax) as soon as practicable unless things change soon. Don’t think we are alone. CT is a small state and it is getting smaller…..
Thus the environmental movement.
YES!!!!! They’re not only not satified with taxing us to death, they also want to destroy our quality of life. They really DO want us back in mud hovels with no running water or plumbing. And forget that fire! Mother Gaia won’t like it!
Especially on this May Day, why can’t we just come out and say it? Barry Soetero or Barack Hussein Obama is a Red Diaper Baby and a practicing, avowed communist. At least two of his grandparents were communists. His mother was a communist. Two of the cities in which his grandparents and mother lived and the city in which he was born had a strong communist presence through the Longshoremen’s Union under Harry Bridges. The Kenyan putative father was a communist. Frank Marshall Davis, whether biological father, mentor, or both was an avowed communist. Whatever the stepfather was, Indonesia at the time was a hotbed of communist inspired rebellion and if Ms. Dunham was thought to be a CIA asset at that time, she had clearly been doubled. Only his Red Diaper status will explain his matriculation in schools that neither any obvious ablility on his part nor the apparent economic and social status of his family will explain. His having attended under some other citizenship or at the expense of some shadowy benefactor(s) would explain the incredible secrecy surrounding his education. Ayers is an avowed communist and terrorist and was and is far more than just some guy in the neighborhood. Even the story that Ayers’ parents may have financed Comrade Obama’s education may well be nothing more than a contrived legend. Axelrod’s ties to known communists are pretty certain and he too may be a Red Diaper baby. Clearly, Soros assembled or was recruited to be the front man for a cabal intent on eliminating the US as a singular power able to act unilaterally in World affairs. That cabal was financed by a combination of individual wealth, trusts, foundations, and, I believe, sovereign wealth, probably from the Middle East. We had a coup d’etat in November of 2008, and a communist junta with strong Muslim leanings is running our Country. They aren’t powerful enough nor certain enough of their power to tamper overtly with the fundamental democratic machinery of the Country as other communist strongmen have done after being democratically elected – yet – but they have plans, they definitely have plans.
“They aren’t powerful enough nor certain enough of their power to tamper overtly….”
They will be both of those things if Obama is reelected. Something our “purist” conservative friends need to bear in mind this November.
With “friends” like the “true conservatives,” you don’t need many enemies, and from what I saw in Alaska this past weekend, I’m becoming more and more convinced that much of RonPaul’s support is a false flag operation designed to divide Republicans and siphon off support for Comrade Obama’s opposition. Those people are simply a somewhat cleaner version of the OWSers. People purporting to be libertarians and “true conservatives” supporting RonPaul are taking over Republican Parties around the Country and manipulating delegate selection in such a way that guarantees an ugly nomination fight which will give that old fool the excuse he needs to run third party, in which every vote for him will be a vote for Comrade Obama.
Hmmmmmmm. I do find it interesting that the MSM isn’t making a bit of a fuss over Paul’s case of staying in the race. I note too that Romney isn’t talking about him at all either; perhaps to him Paul’s candidacy is a real non issue.
good point…loyal opposition comes in many flavors.
I have a better theory.
Romney has made a deal with Obama that will get him lots of money, and Obama the presidency. Romney’s campaign with its destructive nastiness is an attempt to suppress the conservative vote so that Obama not only wins, but the GOP also loses the House.
And I have about as much evidence for my theory as you do.
Romney–Obama’s tool.
And no, socons are not the enemy of women. Ladies like men of conviction.
That level of delusion and paranoia needs professional attention.
Fake conservatives have divided the party on their own. TARP, Patriot Act, NDAA, policing the world, gun grabbing, mandated health care, Goldman Sachs… am I talking about Romney there, or Obama? There is no difference on so many issues, and a vote for Romney is pretty much a vote for Obama.
Warhawks bash Ron Paul for wanting to follow the Founders and the Constitution and not police the world and not fight improperly declared wars, they call him crazy and whatever else, and then just recently warhawk Gingrich and other Republicans say things like how we need to rethink our foreign policy and that being in countries like Afghanistan is probably counter-productive. And then other warhawk “conservatives” put their hand to their chin and say, “Hmm, interesting, Newt.” Hypocrites.
Ron Paul is the most conservative guy in the race. His supporters started the Tea Party in 2007. So who does so many “conservatives” support? Mitt Romney. Gimme a break.
Ron Paul’s budget plan would balance the budget in three years without raising taxes. Meanwhile, big-government fake conservative Paul Ryan and the gang push his budget that adds trillions to the debt and doesn’t balance the budget for 30 years. 30 years!
Paul Ryan is for TARP, Patriot Act, NDAA, CISPA, and budgets that don’t get balanced for 30 years, and all the fake conservative pretend he’s a small-government conservative.
Big-government fake conservatives like those who support Mitt Romney are who is dividing the Republican Party.
RonPaul, RonPaul, RonPaul and most of the people who follow him and scream RonPaul, RonPaul, RonPaul everywhere are as crazy as sh*thouse rats. The ones that aren’t as crazy as sh*thouse rats are falseflag operatives working for Soros/Obama to disrupt the Republican nomination and state parties. Well, perhaps I overstated that; not all of them fit either of those categories, some are just idiots.
Unless the Paulites have turned Leninist when I wasn’t looking the convention will arrive, the faction’s leadership will extract a price for unity, and the agenda of freedom will be furthered, but only if Romney wins. If you want to maximize the price that Romney has to pay in terms of real pro-freedom legislation, concentrate on electing a much more Tea Party friendly Senate.
Then again, if you’re part of the “worse is better” crowd, you are no friend of freedom. You’re a wrecker.
Btw, Ron Paul supporters aren’t “manipulating” the delegate selection. They are playing by the rules the Republican Party made. The only ones manipulating the delegate selection are the establishment GOP. Want proof? Look up the caucus in Athens, GA and St. Charles, MO. Blatant caucus corruption, all on video. Reporter Ben Swann has some good segments on them.
In St. Charles, two of the head guys even later admitted on camera what they did. And there’s a third guy from the same county back in 2008 who later admitted that he purposely tried to get all the MO delegates thrown out because HE didn’t like who they supported. Blatant caucus corruption.
And then there’s the Alaska GOP playing games with shortening the time delegates have to pay their fee, and then providing limited ways of paying it. And then there’s the King County caucus where a Paul supporter was nominated Chair and then suddenly an establishment person said everyone has to leave the building because the GOP, not the Ron Paul campaign paid the insurance on the building for the day. what? That doesn’t even make any sense. That after everyone there paid $10 to be there, btw.
If people open their eyes, they will see the establishment playing tricks and rule breaking. But a lot of people don’t want to see, or they even think it’s a good thing. Anything to keep the most conservative guy in the race, the most small-government guy in the race, the most HONEST guy in the race from being President, right?
TARP, Patriot Act, NDAA, mandated health care, gun grabbing, Etch-a-Sketch… All the fake conservatives would rather have Mitt Romney as President. Unreal.
No, all the actual Republicans and conservatives who actually know how to win elections and run governments would really like the crazy as sh*thouse rat Paul supporters to go play at the Libertarian Party or Constitution Party conventions and leave the Republican Convention to serious, grown-up people.
This sort of stuff is self-defeating as it stirs up grass roots movements to replace committee majorities and then the establishment is on the outs and where are *they* going to go? The Paulista problem has been that they have concentrated too much on the top job and not enough on transforming the lower ranks. They’re addressing that now and it’s a time consuming painful process. If they keep at it, they’ll win.
@Art Chance.
Face it dude.
You’re side is going to lose and hacks like you will be out on your ass.
Good luck working in the private sector… you’re going to need it.
@JoshINHB – you ignorant punks couldn’t manage your bowel movements. You’ve managed to “flash mob” a few events and conventions, but fundamentally if you ever got control of a government, you’d be like the dog who finally caught a car; you would have a clue how to get it to do anything or even how to go about your fond desire of taking it apart.
It’s funny how on two different threads Art Chance calls Honest Ron Paul crazy yet gives no specifics. Wants to cut spending, wants to stop the runaway debt, wants the Constitution to matter, wants the Fourth Amendment to matter, wants to only fight properly declared wars… oh my god he’s crazy!
What a joke the Republican Party has become with so many big-government shills endorsing him and supporting him.
Romney got his butt handed to him this weekend in both Nevada and Maine despite More Cheating, AGAIN. This time Romney supporters passing around fake delegate slates, nominating Paul supporters for delegates who didn’t want to be delegates and weren’t on the list to run, as well as busing in 400 “guests” who all started participating in the voice votes!
The establishment is full of liars and thieves, yet Honest Ron Paul and his supporters still won the day and did it by playing by the rules.
you simply can’t call a spade a spade anymore…for evidence look at fox news. (omg did I just say that?)
Dominque Strauus-Kahn – remember him? IMF honcho reputed to have attacked a poor servile maid at a swanky hotel in New York? He was repeatedly described as a RICH SOCIALIST. Think about that. Did any of the useful idiots notice the inherent CONTRADICTION in that description? Have the brains to figure it out? Socialism is a way of making a living for LOSERS. Having nothing to offer that anyone will actually PAY for, they resort to STEALING by stoking human nature and its weaknesses and then when power is aggregated, manage and control the results. That’s ALL it is. It is cowardly theft on a grand scale. It is mafioso politics, and the crime bosses of old have been replaced by politicians and bureaucrats. They too have their “families” to protect and enrich. They too have their “turf”. In fact, in America today, our politics have become so foul because essentially what we are seeing are “turf” wars between warring gangs of politicians. Every loud mouth today who “supports” socialism is fabulously wealthy. And wants to keep all of it. If anyone ever showed up at their front door to tell them time’s up! Get out. We have 10 families here who need a place to live, then you would see them spring into action defending their “property”, wouldn’t you. But dictating that we should have everything stolen from us, that’s another story. Socialism is employment for losers.
Who else would think a $30 lightbulb is a good idea?
Roger: It’s the only way the rich can justify keeping their riches and the elite wannabes can justify spending $5 on a cup of coffee when someone down the street is eating oatmeal: become a Leftist. Leftist politics lets the well-off to pretend to be sensitive to the concerns of the world while, at the same time, clinging to every advantage they possess. You’ll notice Bill Ayres isn’t living in a hovel himself, is he? Nah. Obama? He’s lives like the dictator of a banana republic.
The so-called ‘Liberalism’ of the elite serves only to hold off existential guilt and justify greed. That’s the only explanation for it that makes any sense.
I think we’re ready for another revolution. I don’t see how to end the ratcheting up in size of big government without a big reset. In this case the revolution is a return to roots. There may be resistance but the reality will hit sooner than later because of entitlements.
No, Steve, it wouldn’t be a return to roots. These things never go backwards. We can’t return to 1776 or 1787. If there were to be a popular revolt – a real one, not the stupid, phony spoiled-child whining of the “occupy” nitwits – it would result in something new.
It might be worse, it might be better. There’s no way to predict that in advance. But it won’t be the same. There is no going back.
I wish we could just have an amicable divorce. Simply draw the lines and let people self deport to them. I think the only reason we don’t is because the left know they can’t survive without stealing our work and money.
In other words the left who depends on getting the rewards that those that are successful a producing and actually contributing something of value to those that never have and never will, yeah I think you are on to something, which is why I am legally armed at all times!
I’m trying to defend my earned stuff from criminals that want to take it legally or otherwise!
Looks as if a lot of people ARE seeking “divorce”: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-01/wealthy-americans-queue-to-give-up-passports-in-swiss-capital.html
Steve, the “big government” boat has sailed. Those of us who actually believe that the structure laid out in the Constitution is the one that ought to be followed are a dying breed. Yes, there are some people pointing to the iceberg ahead but most of politics now is just about rearranging the deck chairs. The story goes that when asked what the Constitutional Convention had produced Benjamin Franklin replied “a republic, if you can keep it.” Well, we have not kept it.
It’s actually not that difficult technically to create a structure to attack, branch and root, big government. Nobody is currently doing it, and that includes the Paulistas. You can’t even get a list of all the governments in the United States, much less a database of all their laws, rules, and regulations. And if we assembled that, then we’d be able to apply pressure in an organized way to fix big government on all levels concentrating on the low hanging fruit. There’s a lot of it out there.
In Europe, socialism has come into being, not as a result of proletarian revolution, but as a result of legislation motivated by the ‘generosity’ and ‘compassion’ of upper class leaders. The socialist systems that were introduced from the top down did not eliminate class differences, but rather fixed them in place. Socialism guaranteed that the position of the upper classes remained, for the most part, unchallenged. The upper classes retained their privileges and status, while the middle class, thanks to high taxes and political payoffs, was given little opportunity to rise. The lower classes were given economic subsistence to buy their complacency.
That same effort is evident now in the U.S. The scions of privilege want power in their hands, so that they can dispense public largesse in an enlightened manner, while simultaneously keeping unenlightened commoners (the bitter clingers) in the subservient position that arrogant elites believe they deserve. The result will be economic and cultural stagnation and a loss of motivation to achieve great things, both personally and nationally. It is a recipe for devolution and doom.
“any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods” Websters
The Government owns General Motors
The Government handed the board control to Union Members
The Government controls all Student Loan Business
The Government now controls All healthcare
The Government controls Unemployment benefits
The Government has shut down drilling on both coasts and killed Gulf permits
The Government controls the housing market
The Government controls Wall Street – Frank Dodd
The Government controls the EPA
The Government contols Immigration
The Government controls airline travel
We’ll soon see if the Government controls the Supreme Court
but Liberals will deny the Socialist tag every time you bring it up
Well then, let’s call it what it really is – Fascism.
I believe that’s the classic definition of a centralized, autocratic government characterized by racism, strict socioeconomic controls and nationalization of private industry that suppresses opposition through lies, propaganda and censorship.
“Liberals?” Give me a break.
More to the point, Obama’s economic system is somewhat fascist – government control trough corporations, like Mussolini. It’s also important to know that crony capitalism tends to be a byproduct of socialism; my semi-relatives got burned many years ago here in Israel; luckily we’ve since moved aways from all that. Israel does have a severe nomenklatura problem, though.
Hey! Leave China out of this!
Some 501c3 needs to point that out. I remember when the car companies folded and they (the government) STOLE dealerships that had been in some peoples families close to 100 years. Not only stole them but GAVE those same dealerships to their campaign doners.
So d@mned corrupt and contemptable it just makes my teeth grind in rage!
The dealerships are suing the federal government over this. Will be an interesting case to watch. Meanwhile, Venezuela and Bolivia are appropriating private businesses. Not the same you say? Merely a question of degree, IMHO. But don’t worry, if the government likes you (and CONTINUES to like you) everything will be ok. Maybe you will get a WAIVER. http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/202791-hhs-finalizes-more-than-1200-healthcare-waivers
You are falling for the big lie. Socialism isn’t about who owns what, it is about who controls what. About the 1920s, the academy became infested and they started the long propaganda. Communism was the bad, socialism the benign. It isn’t the true communist who is evil, it is the socialist. The communist will take your property, the socialist wants to control your body and soul, for you own good, of course.
They redefined socialism to government ownership of the means of production. That failed, as would be expected. They then pivoted to “government-guided enterprise” which defines the 1950s in America. Of course, they couldn’t lightly regulate for the benefit of all and quickly moved to government-strangled enterprise. After a short reprise under Reagan and the IT revolution, they’ve clamped on harder than ever in hopes to kill the human spirit.
Use this definition of a socialist from before the corruption of the entirety (liberal and conservative) of academia with their dissembling.
JKB,
Interesting quote. Where is it from?
Thanks,
Jeff
Scribner’s Magazine (1887) ‘Socialism’ by Francis A Walker
Also, check out the article ‘Ethics of Democracy’ in that same volume.
Another good one is ‘”Socialism a Philosophy of Failure”, Laughlin, J.L., Scribner’s magazine (1909)
I am not sure that Communism is really portrayed in schools as “the bad”. It is too close to Socialism in most people’s minds for the libs to want this to happen. One case in point is the ubiquitous discussion of Hitler’s killing machine in social studies classes (beginning in the early grades–my daughter had nightmares) with rarely a mention of Stalin’s killing machines even in high school or college. If you ask most people what WWII was about, they will say something about the Nazis killing Jews, not knowing that there was much more going on, to say the least. Parenthetically, I can highly recommend the following book if someone wants to learn more: http://www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465002390
Roger, I agree with Art Chance above.
Why are we so hesitant to call Small C Communism what it really is? Are we afraid of the protective bubble smear of “McCarthyism”, of being called tinfoil hat wearers?
See TXdollarbill above. Is he wrong?
This is not a bunch of innocent waifs, incompetently “managing” a recession. Traitorism and treason and sedition are not innocent acts.
George Soros is and has been seeped in the act of traitorism for nearly the whole of his life. One may debate whether his mind went off the rails when forced as a boy into a Hobson’s Choice of Greek tragedy proportions, but one does not need to slobber over “root causes” when he breaks a country’s bank or tries to tear down an information stream or puts spies out on news networks that don’t comply with his leftist worldview. His desire to take down capitalism is well documented, but not well studied.
As Art Chance notes above, and both he and I have noted frequently on these very pages…and Stanley Kurtz brilliantly exposed in his writings, nearly EVERY Obama mentor, father figure, close friend, dear friend, dinner companion, attempted czar or czarina…is a flaming radical on the far, far, far left.
If Bill Ayers describes them as Small C Communists, who am I to quibble?
Talking about this as if it were the benign and beknighted “social democracies” of Europe…is a fable, a myth, …but mostly a lie.
And, the benign has turned malignant in a few short decades. Europe is crumbling beneath the fraud that is leftist economics.
I think a panel discussion with you, Ron Radosh, VDH, Stanley Kurtz, maybe David Horowitz…and me if you would like…on these pages…via dialogue, Q & A…whatever, discussing why it IS or IS NOT Small C Communism would be interesting and intriguing.
I believe if you look at the actions that promote the Workers Party, the trampling of the Constitution, the ignoring of rules and responsibility in the Senate, the takeover of key industries, the assaults by the EPA, NLRB on the free market, the radicalization of the DOJ, the whole of Obama’s life and the attitudes and actions of those closest to him throughout his life…we would come to no OTHER conclusion than this is camouflaged communism (small c version) being inserted by stealth into the body politic.
Capitalism and the free market are in the middle of an overthrow. Without the consent of the people and most likely against their will. If that isn’t a definition of traitorism and treason, then we need a new definition.
When, in his years in office, has Obama adhered to the Constitution? Or Holder or Axlerod or any of the many communists now in office?
They despise that document, believe it to be false and ignore it so blatantly, they cannot cite any of it’s contents or anything in The Bill Of Rights, either.
When they try, they get it horribly wrong. And they only cite things from those works to try to bolster their argument for socialism/communism.
It’s been obvious to me for years.
They are also godless but use religion like a political cudgel. If I hear one more time that Jesus was a socialist I’ll scream!
In many ways what you style “small c communism” is worse than the original big C Communism. No, the cultural affairs guy at the Russian Consulate in SF probably isn’t the KGB, or whatever they call it now, guy and his attending the reception at Berkeley isn’t a cover for a meet with the professor he’s recruited to spy or agitate for the USSR and its objectives. We don’t have people carefully listening to Radio Moscow for the special code words that instruct them to action. That would seem a good thing but the reality is that they don’t need to anymore. The communists control the major institutions in this Country and can take their actions and postions without subterfuge beyond not calling what they’re doing what it really is. In fact, the old Soviet bureaucratic communism of Lenin and his heirs was in many ways a less virulent strain than the homegrown Trotskyite communism we have here in the absense of Comintern and CPUSA direction. Lenin was at least interested in running a government and having a society that could produce enough to make itself powerful. The permanent revolution of the Trotsky/Alinsky school only concerns itself with the destruction of the current order and has given no thought to establishing a subsequent order. If this lot prevails, and I’m not at all hopeful on this account, we’re trying to outdo the White Russians for shortsightedness and disunity, there will be a period of absolute chaos and a Lenin will arise with all the same terrible consequences of Lenin and Stalin’s reigns in the USSR. We make fun of the lank-haired castrati but behind those thick glasses is a wannabe Strelnikov and what he may lack in physical skill and courage, he makes up for in sociopathic viciousness. But, unlike the ignorant and unarmed Russian peasants, this Strelnikov’s Cossacks will be met by an armed “peasantry” as they try to suppress the bitter clingers; the rivers will run Red in the Third American Civil War.
I don’t know, Art. I agree with 90% of what you say here, but read Cass Sunstein, read George Soros, read Derek Bell, read what Google is doing, …the KGB didn’t have the technology available today.
Nor the brass balls to steal the Constitution away from the American people.
Taking chores away from farm kids? Invading people’s bodies…grandmas and babies in diapers?
This is retribution in disguise. The class warfare, the racial warfare, the pitting of people against each other…it’s a vicious brand of communism. The “small c” is the camouflage.
I think you misunderstand me; I indeed think the communism of the people around Comrade Obama is worse than the statist or bureaucratic, to use Trotsky’s word, communism of the old Soviet Union. These people wittingly or not are looking to bring on the world of Mao’s Cultural Revolution where the bourgois will be “put in its place” by condemnation, re-education, and death if necesary. These people and their mentors have considered themselves superior for two or in some cases three generations and deeply and intensely resent the fact that this Country has not seen the superiority of their vision and their persons, and they intend to punish the Country for that. And I know we have to wait for them to stike the first blow, and while we wait, I continue to invest in precious metals.
I agree, Art.
Some are Maoists out loud (Anita Dunn, Thomas Friedman, Carl Davidson), others pat Medevev on the knee and tell him to tell Vladmimir that Small C Communism Unchained is coming soon.
The communists control the major institutions in this Country and can take their actions and postions without subterfuge
What I believe about subterfuge is a bit different, however. The whole game is camouflage and subterfuge. I completely agree that they control the information stream to the masses, the cultural watering holes in music, movies and entertainment, virtually all of academia, the whole of the Democratic Party, (blue dogs won’t hunt), the Workers Party, the DOJ, EPA, NLRB, the voting and ballot construct, control over our natural resources on public land, half the Supreme Court, the Senate, …we are being ruled and overthrown.
The overt subterfuge is that this is NOT happening…the coverup by the Propaganda and Lies Ministry is engaged in this active distortion each and every day as an arm of the overthrow.
The Fabian in the White House admires Che and Fidel, but doesn’t like their methodology…although many of his co-conspirators do. He likes the soothing lie over the confrontational truth. It’s all subterfuge, all the time, Art.
That’s my take on it, anyway.
” He likes the soothing lie over the confrontational truth. It’s all subterfuge, all the time”
That’s the Alinsky school at work; call it something it isn’t, accuse your opposition of planning to do what you’re doing already. Lies are far better than the truth when you have a ready crop of fools to believe them.
I love it when the “mask” slips. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/04/26/epa_official_says_philosophy_is_to_crucify_oil_and_gas_companies.html
This guy got hustled off stage pretty quick, no? Please, not in front of the children…..
“But, unlike the ignorant and unarmed Russian peasants, this Strelnikov’s Cossacks will be met by an armed “peasantry” as they try to suppress the bitter clingers; the rivers will run Red in the Third American Civil War.”
Uh, wouldn’t we need a second American Civil War before we had a third? As far as I know, there has only been one American Civil War so far….
The events between 1776 and 1783 were very much a civil war, in many ways moreso than the events between 1861 and 1865. There’s a reason for all that stuff about bills of attainder and corruption of blood in the Constitution.
Not so sure it will be small c for long…and what’s up with the removal of illegal from the PC dictionary…it’s a strange Kafkan world that we live in, and liberals imo are certifiably insane…I forgot all the certified shrinks are liberals except for maybe Keith Ablow
I suspect that Obama’s 2008 coup was so bold and outrageous that no one could, at first, believe it. He robbed the bank and gave the money to all of his cronies. He nationalized whole industries in front of our eyes. He openly flouts every single law he is ostensibly bound to uphold. He has effectively made Congress obsolete. He has established a shadow government.
Yet no one on the Conservative side–even Mark Levin—has thad he stones to call it what it is. Allen West outed them only last week, and he’s catching a ton of flak and derision.
Nevertheless, Obammie is a Commie.
I think cfbleachers hits it above; McCarthyism may well be a stronger epithet than racism. Everybody in the US that is ‘Boomer-age and younger has had it pounded into them that the HUAC and McCarthy were just terrible things; the very nadir of Constitutional rights in the US. When in fact, while a less than stellar man in many ways, Sen. McCarthy was right about the communist, as in Soviet version, penetration of the US government and many US institutions, notably the media, academia, and the unions. HUAC was far to gentle with the traitors in our midst, and despite all the evidence even from former Soviet sources the left still insists on the Rosenbergs and Hiss’ innocence, and they were only the tip of the iceberg.
Maybe Roger Simon, VDH, et al. are right that this shouldn’t be said out loud to an ignorant and superstitious populace that listens to a media in large measure controlled by the communists. I know in my practicing labor relations days I didn’t go around telling my Rotary Club Republican principals that my actions in opposing unions were largely informed by Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals;” they couldn’t handle the truth.
My biggest fear is when the useful idiots wake up, and realize technology is being used against them, it’ll be too late. The last great IT company sold out to the collective a decade ago. Be forewarned.
“Nevertheless, Obammie is a Commie.”
No doubt. I concluded the same with quite enough certaintly about 4 years ago. But it has still been quite startling to see this Thing in action. To see the Evil, the Beast. Then to feel the threat and the challenge, and the uncertaintly. I’m always mystified when people can’t even make the original call. There’s really not much to it.
Great photo of Obama and Clooney. Were they about to kiss?
They were probably sharing one another’s dick sizes.
Joe did say Obama carries a big ‘stick’. Maybe he misspoke.
“Seemingly disastrous undertakings, like the overweening government support of the feckless solar company Solyndra, therefore can actually have what would appear to be a reverse effect, reassuring elites that they will be protected, even cosseted, in their most irrational enterprises. Just stay on the team and all will be well.”
Am I the only one around here who still remembers that Obama spent almost a trillion (that’s with a “T”) dollars on a stimulus that stimulated nothing, except a few union jobs? And then he and his rich buddies like Jeffrey Immelt were actually filmed on camera laughing about the fact that there were no such things as “shovel-ready jobs,” the very reason for the stimulus? Did I miss something here? If I were Romney, I would use the stimulus as a club to beat Obama’s team like a small baby seal. Keep reminding the folks where almost a trillion dollars of their money went and, like all liberals, after it was thrown away they just laughed about it. Make sure YOU have the last laugh on them in November by throwing them all out of office.
Well put Libertyship. What Obama and the Democrats did was out and out piracy. And like you say, they laughed about it. I hate these people with the heat of a thousand burning suns. They need to be dealt with like any pirates would be dealt with. Strung up – figuratively, of course.
All of the people posting comments here need to stop worrying about O getting a second term and contemplate the worry permeating the left right now. This is only May but there are plenty of signs that these people are going into political cardiac arrest over the likely prospect that November 7th will visit another shellacking upon dems that will send O home and render survivors politically impotent for at least two years–and probably a lot longer. They are deathly afraid that the latter will be used to wipe out any trace of O’s agenda in the same way that certain Roman Emperors and certain Pharaohs were expunged postmortem.
Short-lived, we hope. Barry Ritholz offers some hope in his observations of the young innovators
In the end, trust no one over 30, especially if it is an old Boomer hoping to relive the 1960s
Sure the Woodstock generation wanted to change the world. They did give us Disco and Pet Rocks. But now, the youth will change it back into something that functions and do away with the failed ideologies. Sure there are the youth with economically-useless degrees
occupyingtaking up space. But the true individuals who have transformed society and the conditions of mankind since the start of the Industrial Revolution, i.e., the hard scientists, craftsmen and engineers, have hard problems to solve and don’t have time to attend the whine-stock of their generation.They’re going to have to be really smart to solve all those hard problems with one hand because they’re having to use the other hand to hold their pants up.
That my friend is a crock of BS. The ‘clever youth’ invariably sell out to the power players (as a matter of survival). It’s been that way in technology for the last 30+ years, how’s it going to change now?
And after they sell their clever idea for a few hundred million or a few billion they become supercillious, over-bearing leftwing trust fund babies who think they have a better idea about how the rest of us should live.
exactly.
Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed) 3rd president of US (1743 – 1826)
There is another kind of a slippery slope, one not much talked about, which you touched on in your comment about excessive semantics. It didn’t seem to be a problem in America a half-century ago, when people didn’t seem so dazzled by appearances as they perhaps are now, and tended to use their eyes and judgement more.
But it is an age-old problem – seeing a threat through the fog of perception. We all know this phenomenon – we would rather choose to see a sweet little girl in pigtails than Frankenstein’s monster when walking home in the evening, given a choice.
But life is not so easy like that and today in America you have institutions talking about wheel chair access out of one side of their mouths and then giving a speech worthy of Joseph Goebbels. Who would ever think the Young Woman’s Christian Association would proactively and routinely make blanket accusations against white people?
Who would ever see the specter of Nazi-style racist propaganda against Jews done in America in 2012 as did the NBA Players Association with their press release regarding the Trayvon Martin killing while being completely invisible as John Lee Malvo and John Mohamed assassinated people for being white.
Who would ever think CNN and MSNBC would pay people to exhibit chagrin and exult at a white racist “prison system that hungers for young black and brown bodies” as did Michael Eric-Dyson or “liberating more black bodies from the criminal justice system” as did Melissa Harris-Perry.
Who would ever think that we would pay Federal revenues over to gangsters that put up plaques in town squares to congratulate Jews killed and make racist versions of Sesame Street that teach that hate.
Who would ever think millions of our revenues would go to an organization that calls itself “The Race?”
Forget about hoods and skin and swastikas. Close your eyes and listen to what people say because bad stuff is where you find it, and not where you want it to be. We in America are being strangled to death by people who portray themselves as little girls in pig-tails but who in fact are virtually indistinguishable from some weird amalgam of non-violent Nazis and commies concerned more about allergies to scented products than law, justice and order. The idea they are concerned about the greater good is a laugh.
Fred was being sarcastic. The “war on women” is a campaign theme launched by George Stephanopoulos during the debates. It’s undermined by the fact that the left belittles stay at home mothers and the White House underpays female employees but that hasn’t slowed them down. I think the “war on dogs” has been put down however.
great word have been using this privately here in DC — so glad to see in pundit print now— am hoping you can get it launched more broadly into our language base as a foreign loanword— ‘ crony capitalism’ doesnt have quite the same panache as NOMENKLATURA-.
Its all over DC– allthe way up to Boston– one giant trough for the ivies to pour out their graduates into the maw of government/ think tanks/ non profits– this self perpetuating-saprophytic elite that is attempting to perpetuate its cultural hegemony over the ignorant kulak class that does procuctive work and pays taxes.
Eiesenhower had it wrong its not the military-industrial commplex that we have to fear – its this iron triangle of democrats/media and goevernment jobs that are now our new NOMENKLATURA and would-be masters.
Wow, well done brian lordan. What I’ve been writing my representatives about over and over, taking me several paragraphs or even pages, you have summed up so eloquently in just one sentence. (I am without that gift, unfortunately.) Bravo! Well done you! This is a HUGE problem.
“…one giant trough for the ivies to pour out their graduates into the maw of government/ think tanks/ non profits– this self perpetuating-saprophytic elite that is attempting to perpetuate its cultural hegemony over the ignorant kulak class that does procuctive work and pays taxes.”
I think Barry needs to give “Booker” a hug and a kiss, it’s obvious they’re in love.
The SEIU is creating the Nomenklatura at the state government level too. The SEIU is killing state governments, rendering them ineffective in delivering limited state government services.
What is truly frightening about this new tyranny is that because of technology it is all pervasive and unavoidable. In days of old people may have lived under tyrants but the reach of the tyrant was limited. The Sheriff of Nottingham’s men couldn’t be everywhere, all the time. But our new tyrants have the ability to monitor every phone conversation, every line of internet posting.
I am becoming more and more convinced that the solution, if there is one, is beyond democratic means. And it is one that can’t be discussed either, for the reasons I note above.
Liberals are fond of telling anyone who will listen how they love the poor and disadvantaged. You can “love” something in the sense that you have great affection and respect for it, or in the sense that you are very fond of having the use of it. You may love your children and you may love scotch whiskey. Democrats love the poor and disadvantaged in that second sense.
Charles Murray in his book “Coming Apart” describes the new upper class elite not only as those who have 7-figure annual incomes but also those who have high cognitive ability, e.g., the smart ones who have catapulted to success by their Ivy League educations, which in turn have separated them from the masses. With this last element defining “elite” I would agree, but I wonder why this doesn’t screen out the less-than-bright lightbulbs on Hollywood sets as “elite” too. There’s more to “elite” than money.
It’s also no longer true, if it ever was, that an Ivy degree is a reliable proxy for high ability. Case in point: the POTUS.
It is a proxy for a high number of connections; hire one Ivy Leaguer, and before long they’ve bred like rats in your workplace. I would advise any Republican executive branch elected or appointed official to NEVER hire an Ivy grad unless it was independently established that the person had impeccable Republican/conservative credentials, and I don’t think I’d ever hire a lawyer from the Ivies. There is only so much immersion in leftwing groupthink from which you can recover; giving an Ivy League lawyer power is like putting me in a room with a carton of Winstons, a fifth of Chivas Regal, and a beautiful woman: it is absolutely guaranteed that my true nature will come out.
To some extent. I know a number of Ivy leagers (and live with one), and most of them don’t make connections, go on to ordinary careers, and you wouldn’t be able to spot them in a crowd. But a subset – maybe 10-20% – really do take everything over and install their own. It’s that subset that you have to watch out for. They aren’t necessarily very talented, but they do get what they want. Snot what you know, you know…
I only know the kinds of Ivies that gravitate to government; lawyers, MBAs, some other financial and other management sorts, a thoroughly dispicable lot in my experience. There may be human Ivies in other fields of endeavor, never had the pleasure.
When liberals were always complaining about the “rich white conservatives” during the last election, it always made me laugh. Fact is, there are far more rich liberals than conservatives. And this guy is right. The plan is for them to all keep their money, thank you very much. Only the poor, and of course what is left of the middle class will suffer, just as they always have. You cannot trust a liberal. They are liars, whether it be deliberate like Obama and his rich flunkies or the stupid liberals (like my youngest sister), you know, the ones who actually elected him in the first place. They are just too damn dumb to see what is happening. All they know is they put a bubba in the white house and that’s all that matters because he says the GOP is bad. He’s a negro, of sorts, so he must be right. Right?
“When liberals were always complaining about the “rich white conservatives” during the last election, it always made me laugh. Fact is, there are far more rich liberals than conservatives. And this guy is right. The plan is for them to all keep their money, thank you very much. Only the poor, and of course what is left of the middle class will suffer, just as they always have. ”
Actually, the real situation is a little different. While the “socially conscious” activist types always claim that they will take from the rich to help the needy, the reality is that the wealthy liberals will tax the middle class to help those with less while making every effort to preserve their own position and wealth.
Milton Friedman made that observation in his 1980 series Free to Choose.
Socialism…Communism…Fascism…Progressivism…
It is all antithetical to the Country Class, who’s response seems to be – in this election year – to be buying as many guns, and as much ammo, as they can get their hands on.
All you have to do is to look at the sales figures for firearms (as reported by the FBI NICS data), and the 1Q reports of major firearms/ammo manufacturers, and you can see that a lot of people are not going to leave anything to chance come November.
In the early years of the Republic, over-weaning “nomenklatura” were handled with honored spots at events such as Tar & Feathering, and Rail-Riding. There is no reason why the current residents of the Republic cannot replicate the activities of their fore-bearers.
It not “could happen here”. It’s HAPPENING HERE. Just because they are smart enough to get their propaganda ducks in a row doesn’t mean it isn’t going according to plan.
OF COURSE socialism isn’t about helping “the poor”. It’s the direct opposite. It’s about making power permanent, not for the 1%, not for the 1/10th of 1%, but for the .001% who have self-selected themselves as the eternal elite.
They are evil and they need to be eliminated.
Defending a political elite is not the purview of Obama alone:
http://countrythinker.com/home/politics/voting-for-romney-d-mass-the-worst-mistake-a-conservative-could-make/
Yes, but the time for this kind of talk was when we had a choice, such as, perhaps, Gingrich. Anne Coulter, Karl Rove, even Fox News blatantly and disgustingly drank the Kool-Aid for Romney. Now it is a choice between the limp and the wicked. I will vote for the limp. It is one hallmark of adulthood to be able to make a choice between a horrifying option and a merely very unattractive one, in my opinion. I am not brave enough to vote for Obama with the logic that we will “only” have him for 4 more years and then we get another chance, whereas we will probably have Romney for 8 before we get another chance….
Back in the 60′s I used to say that the ‘revolution’ was just a way for the unexceptional offspring of the wealthy to keep power. I was only half serious, I intended it as an ironic comment on the exaggerated radicalism of the privileged. And here we are 44 years later and it is so.
The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced with a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
— L.T.
What! Are there no poorhouses?
The whole “fare share” is just an election trick by the Obama & the Dems. So is the “1%” claim.
Most people are making less then 250K a year, so most people are more likely to support this argument. I mean, it won’t hurt them, right? It might in the future, but the target of this arguments are not looking into the future.
Is it so obvious? Or am I the only one one to point it out.
Congratulations, Roger I am delighted to finally see at least one of the heavy hitters at PJM dropping the wishy-washy euphemisms and talking about Socialism and Communism. There is one area where Obma has kept his promise of transparency: his administration is transparently Communist from top to bottom, Communist in belief. Communist in strategy.Communist in operation. Communist in purpose.
I have used the world “nomenklatura” frequently in my comments because it is so obvious he is using the Stalinist, Maoist approach to governance. It is not new; it is old as time. The Chinese Empire and the Roman Empire were the pattern: governance down to the smallest village based on loyalty to the ruler, central power dispensed to an elite inner circle of satraps, favor given to wealthy merchants for tribute, ruthless destruction of all opposition.
Could it happen here? It already is here. It is simply Big City Machine Politics writ large. The ward-heelers, the union thugs, the crooked lawyers making crooked deals with crooked wealthy CEO’s. Why should we be surprised that radical socialists out of the Chicago Daley LMachine, are imposing the foul classic imperial rule in the name of “Social Justice?”
Romney will be making a disastrous mistake if insists on issues and nuances of issues. The electorate is restless because it sees the ever-growing threat of Nomenklatura: the rule of an Adminisration that denies the authority of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights, and considers itself unanswerable to the peonple.
In 2012 the banner should be “Kick the Bastards OUT! That’s what will draw the swing vote, not “being positive.”
g
I hope that those who believe Romney an agent of this communist takeover will snap to and realize the absurdity of the position. Yes, you may be right –but what’s your point? It’s the same problem as death –yes, I’m gonna die, but it could be grusomely right now or serenely much later on. Get Romney into the White House –the country is ready to catch fire and we need to get the reds out of office. “Is Romney is the wrong guy?” is no longer the question. The question now is, “Is Romney our last chance?” –as in, last chance to keep USA in a recognizable –and repairable –condition, as opposed to ‘totaled’.
PS, among others, Art Chance and CF Bleachers –thanks for being good at expression and willing to work it. And to you, Roger, for the –resistance.
Indeed.
For all those cut-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face “conservatives” who see no difference between Obama and Romney, here is the one big difference that matters above all else for this election year:
A Romney election means that the economy will almost certainly surge, because business confidence will likely soar, and the energy sector will be unleashed. No guarantees, because there are ‘black swans’ lurking out there, but it is very, very likely the economy will turn around substantially — even dramatically — with Romney as President.
The economy, the economy, the economy. We can argue about “crony capitalism,” “limited government,” and other stuff after January, 2013.
And, in case you still don’t get it: if Obama wins, look for Supreme Court Justice Eric Holder in your future. Ginsburg is looking very frail and old.
I hope you are correct that the economy would surge if Romney were to be elected. Unfortunately the fiscal cliff almost ensures very great economic problems for whoever inherits the White House. Even if the Republicans have majorities in the House, the Senate and also occupy the White House, it would require immediate and strenuous uprooting of large swaths of destructive legislation the Obama experiment has left us with. They may or may not be able to do it. And to right our fiscal ship, austerity of one sort or another will probably be necessary. Look what has happened in the UK for example. These kinds of changes are necessary, and I would definitely support them. But to promise “happy days here again” under Romney may be unrealistic.
Didn’t “promise happy days.”
I qualified my remarks based on the most likely scenario rather than worst case. I was being very rational. I also cautioned against “black swans” lurking out there. The Euromess could swallow us, for instance.
Please read the link at post #31. Thanks!
I did as you asked –tho i’d already scanned the title and knew pretty much the position. Yes, he has points. There’s plenty of Mark Foleys (remember the ‘GOP’ rep that Pelosi used (‘culture of corruption’, ‘drain the swamp’) to tip the undecideds in election 2006?) –GOP’rs who have no rhyme nor reason to be in the party that is supposed to defend the country against the continual tsunami of change washing through Washington seeking floating gold.
But the Tea Party has been at work, and the GOP is cleaning up –even as the Democrat’s left wing is actively purging its own moderates.
Anyway, the choice between anything and anything worse is always ‘anything’ –unless you are of the opinion that a throw-down system-crash is the only way out, and wish it to commence. If that’s it, then let me offer two notions; one, the fight may be far worse than you might imagine (read up on the ‘border wars’ of Kansas and Nebraska, for a look-see on what happens where there are no lines — small stuff inside the great Civil War, but hellish indeed), so let us be sure of what we’re doing.
…and two, our institutional processes are still intact, if increasingly and acelleratingly tattering, and thus amenable to restoration if only we can vote out the current command echelon –and since it’s up to them to prove that regardless of the vote they can’t be voted out, it’s up to them to force ‘tar & feathers’ and worse.
Active measures taken in lieu of an acknowledged hopelessly betrayed official electoral process would define who will have to wear history’s system-destroyer scarlet letter. Close-watchers can already see the beginnings of the appeal-to-sympathy theatrical performance (“The poor President, he has been trying so hard to save that ingrate America”).
I usually agree with Rush, but I take issue with one of his favorite expressions over the years: “Socialism fails everywhere it’s tried.” Certainly its stated goals are never achieved, but then again we’re talking socialists. Why on earth would anybody believe their stated goals? Their actual goals are always accomplished if they gain power: their own enrichment and the punishment of their enemies. That is the sum total of socialist desire. Everything else they say is just a show for the dupes and proles, but I repeat myself.
Indeed.
Who died peacefully in bed after long careers as precisely what they wanted to be? Stalin, Mao –the big two, that’s who. And the Castro family hasn’t done too badly, either, nosiree, not too badly at all. Unless you count the big broken promise and the hundred million broken proles –wot a laff, that anyone would count THAT. And a few decades ago, that middle-size country in central Europe –once it had snuck the Gestapo past the bluenoses, it took 70,000,000 deaths and the combined total effort of the entire (almost) rest of the world over half a decade and most of the wealth many of the nations had, to stop the world-takeover plan in progress. And the Gestapo didn’t have the internet, or nukes.
NOMENKLATURA? AAAAAAHAAAAAA!
Obumbles couldn’t even pronounce that word.
I haven’t even heard him pronounce “czars” yet.
SSSSAAARRZZZ! Sounds like a disease that we already have in the White House.
KZZAAARZZ? Gesundheit!
Needless to say, the “STEEL TRAP” interpretation may never become known.
wanted to followup on Cultural hegemony
just clicked now onto Wikipedia see the opening statemnent/definition- this is the classic definition of how our nomenklatura has coalesced/evolved and now functions, in effect, as the ‘cultural pacemaker’
the iron triangle[ Mark levins phrase] is a triune deity- of which the media is the most potent as it constantly appears in the role of server-[as in tennis, the server always has the advantage]
here they constantly manage for citizen obama where to serve the ball so he can be reelected so they maintain N status.["jobs for the boys']
arent you ever struck by the almost perfect overlay between the ivies and theRed/Blue divide in the country
they have perfectly completed the ‘long march through the institutions’
undoing this ideology is the work of a generation— Ronald Reagan was only an aberration/ exception in this 80 year old saga of the rise of statism– again , the incomparable mr levin.
Our American Nomenklotura are clueless to the severe blow their progressive/socialist policies have wrought to the foundation of our Constitutional Republic.
Their self-serving elitism has heralded what I consider the darkest era since the Great Depression. History will remember them as the “traitor class.”
“Romney is going to have to point out that this election is not about just defeating Obama, it’s about holding back the hordes. It’s about turning back the tide of the worldwide left that wants to essentially get rid of capitalism — individualism, rugged individualism, liberty, whatever — and replace it with a command-and-control central authority that they run. I don’t know if Romney believes that — or not “believes it,” but I don’t know if he thinks that. I know, ’cause he’s told me, that he fundamentally disagrees with Obama and what Obama’s trying to do, and its effect on his kids and grandkids. Romney’s. I know he has a problem with Obama, but does he know that there are a gazillion other Obamas waiting in the wings?
And that even if Obama is defeated, there are gonna be a bunch of little Obamas still populating the bureaucracy over at the EPA and stuff? It’s going to be a long fight. This is an ideological battle. And that’s what the Tea Party’s all about, and that’s what conservatism’s all about. It’s about saving America, preserving this country as founded. It’s not just about defeating Obama. That’s, of course, required. But the campaign to do so has gotta be much more in-depth than that.”
from http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/05/01/campaign_advice_for_mitt_romney
“As in the overweening governmental support of the feckless solar company Solyndra, apparently disastrous undertakings can actually have what would appear to be a reverse effect—that of reassuring our elites that, even in seemingly irrational enterprises they will be protected and cosseted—just stay with the team, all will be well.”?
And yes—so that, people generally, everywhere can continue eating and wearing shoes, or continue their onward march down from the poverty which the mountain slopes represent, and in from the jungle, the pleasure in the grinding desperation of tribal struggle which adherents to and supporters of our so-called conservancy groups well represent, notwithstanding—the USA is the place-holder by which the monetary unit for shiploads of any nation’s output to be reckoned through the bank of international settlement.
And similarly, as with the recent million dollar GSA party at ‘Vegas—although as dual benefit in the process, while in parallel, some better tangible good might rightfully have been expected as forthcoming—if at the very least, upwards of another million bucks got into circulation as money.
Can you imagine how things might be if we were constrained as in the old days, to wait for miners out there in the boonies—and largely, without rule of law—to add to our money supply as in that time, then was done? How shall money be put into circulation?
And while questions will immediately present concerning the money supply overpassing actual wealth or GNP and what-not, those are fair game, but just this now, to say that, yes, in the grand scheme of all things American, our opulent and self-indulgent, wastrel corporatocracy—though ofttimes, perhaps, not so cleverly even, bilking the government—do have place and purpose. But, just think of how nicely done their function might be, were they to work in the integrity of conversion to decency and integrity of honesty—”Upon the conversion of even one sinner, the angels in heaven rejoice more than over ninety-nine just persons who have no need of repentance.”.
And with this, looking above and beyond the many Solyndra-like situations, just think of how that, penultimate Providence has so arranged universals such that, to be well-provided for, none need bilk or cheat, . . . but, to the sinful mind, it’s fun, . . . but then too, incurring the curse which is against those who take their pleasure in unrighteousness, . . . as is written of everyone who loveth and maketh a lie, . . .
Yer right “THE AMERICA DREAM” is gone and don’t know when its coming back, and the GOP should take full credit!
I love the Obama Clooney picture. Obama to Clooney: “Thanks for the advice on how to handle that problem with Assad in Syriana. Again, what is that language they speak?”
… yep –had a similar thought –that everything that happens is the moving fingertip of history, and there in that photo are two fellers who do not know sh*t about history, and are too cool to listen to who might.
Why would Obama ask what language they speak in Syria? Surely he’d just use his immense intellect – that Steel Trap that Michelle Obama has been blathering about – to reason that, if Austrians speak Austrian, then surely Syrians speak Syrian. Easy, peasy…..
Liberals don’t have a sense of humor because liberalism is both an ethical philosophy and a quasi-religion. Liberals are high priests or platonic Guardians, presiding over the ignorant rabble. There is nothing funny about being a high priest and a guardian of the One True Faith.
Flair not flare – we may get to flares and other fireworks eventually, but American flair is what’s needed now.
Obama is straight out of episode “The Hundred Days of the Dragon” of the old TV series “The Outer Limits”.
And on Chinese fireworks, I think this one is OK since it was after all the Chinese who invented them. The following is from Wikipedia:
“The earliest documentation of fireworks dates back to 7th century China, where they were invented. The fireworks were used to accompany many festivities. It is a part of the culture of China and had its origin there, eventually it spread to other cultures and societies.[1] Important events and festivities such as the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and the Mid-Autumn Festival were and still are times when fireworks are guaranteed sights. China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world.[2]“
I can fully understand the bond of Obama and Clooney. Both have advanced themselves without talent or integrity.
It’s all about fear. The elites are fearful that what their wealth, security and very lives will be wrest from them by the hordes of deviants and do-nothings at the bottom of the culture. The middle class are the human shields. They must be forced to work and to give and give some more to protect those at the “top.” Doesn’t matter whether you call it fascism, socialism, communism, whatever. The labels may change, but the reality has ever been thus.
Solyndra- feckless or laundromat?
Seems as though the Hollywood elite (who don’t understand that free enterprise allows them the wealth and fame about which they feel guilty for not “working”) need a Sexy Prexy to validate themselves. They must not get satisfaction mingling with others of a like kind and get the spotlight from the Sexy Prexy and be “cool” with their contemporaries. The one who raises the most money for Sexy gets to be most cool.
Disgusting.
This is how the Roman Empire died isn’t it, in a slew of taxes cossetting the lower classes and nomenklatura alike.
No, makes a good story, but it isn’t true. The Roman Empire came apart when they just didn’t have the money to hold it together anymore. When they lost the African provinces to the Vandals, they lost both the commodities Africa produced, especially wheat, and the revenue from taxes, permits, franchises, etc. derived from the provinces. Rome was a VERY bureaucratic state, and everything got stepped on by somebody. Without it, and trying also to lessen the blow to Italian Romans who’d lost their lands or leases in Africa by trying both to compensate them and lessen their tax burden, the Empire just couldn’t afford its military and its infrastructure anymore. When the Empire wasn’t paying and provisioning the troops anymore, local “warlords” picked up the slack and it didn’t take long for the Empire to dissolve into hundreds of fortified villas and the predecessors of castles whose lands were defended by private armies. Thus began feudal Europe.
But it was the fear of the lower classes that caused the Romans to spend so much to obtain wheat and such, leaving them unable to pay their armies, which were largely mercenary by that time. No pay, maybe we’ll just join with that new fellow down the block, and fight the Romans, instead.
All else is precisely as you say.
The lesson here seems to be: sooner or later broke, is broke.
“Great is Bankruptcy…”, Thomas Carlyle. Maybe we should mail a copy to Ostupid. Or Turbo Tim. Or Helicopter Ben.
Since Obama will be attending a fund raiser with the Hollywood 1%, I hope he will demonize them like he does people in the business world. Wanna bet this doesn’t happen? After all it will be a room full of actors with Obama the lead role.
(open quote)
On 21 September 1999 Richard L. Palmer, President of Cachet International, Inc. testified on “the infiltration of the Western financial system by elements of Russian organized crime before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services….” His full testimony can be read at the Web site for the Committee on Financial Services – Democrats. Palmer’s testimony, like that of many experts, has never been placed in proper context.
Palmer warned the House Committee of “serious threats to Western nations.” He had worked as an Army intelligence officer in Europe, and served 20 years in the Operations Directorate of the CIA. His final assignment was as Chief of Station in the former Soviet Union from 1992 to 1994. For several years he monitored criminal activities related to the Russian mafia. Palmer told the Committee he had direct experience working with former Soviet security and police services, “as well as members of Russian banking, business, Organized Crime and corrupt officials.”
(end quote)
read the rest, and access the link to the report
“Nomenklatura”? More apt than we perhaps know.
It goes back way further. The reason for aristocracy was that professional soldiers were required to keep the peace against outsiders. When they were not a-warring, they needed to be fed and housed, because if they were not, being armed, they simply took what they wanted from the populace. The people eventually decided that keeping their warriors fed and housed was a small price to pay to keep the peace.
By the time of the French Revolution, the aristos were no longer very warlike (as was proven by their easy overthrow by the mob), so were not judged worth the price. They had become simple leeches, their leadership yielding nothing but higher taxes and lessening prosperity; indeed, starvation.
Right now, we suffer no danger from Goths, Visigoths, or Vandals. The only global enemies we face are Islam and our own government, at all levels. Our government is not even protecting us from Islam, or from the bold criminals who occupy our ghettos. They allow their friends to openly steal from us. Even the tasks we need them to do are not being done competantly. We are surrounded by stupidity and tyranny. All these government scum have long outlived any usefulness they ever had. They have all adopted the ruse of buying off the electorate with their own money! In reality, they are now buying them off with Chinese money and Fed printed money, which is worthless. It is so similar to what happened in 1789, it amazes.
It didn’t end well for the French Aristocracy. Obama’s boys (and girls) better have them a better escape plan.
Amazing how conservative the posts are here. My take is that there’s too much light in the room for them to risk showing up.
Progessives that is.
In reply to the initial sentence. How is that in any way surprising? How is capitalism not a rich man’s game? And if you are trying to say that it is a bad thing that socialism is a rich man’s game wouldnt you be necessarily stating that capitalism is faulty in that regard.