Liberal Math
Item: Charles Rangel is both an advocate of cradle-to-grave federal entitlements and the higher taxes needed to fund them. But he shows two disturbing recurring liberal hypocrisies: a desire to avoid income taxes (see Timothy Geithner, Chris Dodd, and Tom Daschle) and a fondness for the good life (his multiple rent-control apartments or Caribbean getaway). Moreover, Rangel has repeatedly advanced the argument that his prior heroic service in Korea must be set against his current various ethical violations — failure to pay income taxes on unreported income, House ethics violations, and abuse of New York rent-control laws. Is not that “Dream Act”-like tax exemption a dangerous precedent? I don’t recall former Congressman Duke Cunningham — the only Navy flier to achieve “ace” status in Vietnam — being given exemption from bribery charges, informal or legal, despite his heroic war service.
And when Rangel lists all the felonies that he did not commit — bribery, sexual shenanigans, etc. — to offset the crimes he did commit, should we laugh or cry? When the IRS knocks on your door, try that: “But I did not sleep with underage girls and never paid off a cop.” Then see the reaction.
Item: The Obama encomiast Richard Wolffe reported that Obama told an obese staffer to lay off the fatty food and eat a salad instead. The incident is being reported as an example of Carteresque micromanaging: Obama directs the diet of his subordinates while unemployment hits 9.8%. But I think the real message is one of narcissistic exemption. Obama believes that his own behavior is exempt from his own moral strictures. By all accounts he is a devoted smoker who cannot quit. On the list of sins, smoking is as serious as poor dieting.
And do we need more examples in the vein of class warfare waged from Martha’s Vineyard and Costa del Sol? We get news that the Obamas are going to Hawaii for Christmas. I do not begrudge them the warm weather and would like to go there myself for the first time. But I wonder, how do we offset the Obama propensity for Hawaii, Martha’s Vineyard, and Costa del Sol against lectures and sermons about the evil rich junketing to the Super Bowl or jetting off to Las Vegas? Downright mean country?
A Final Note as Unemployment Hits 9.8%
I think that after the stimulus failed, the $1.3 trillion-dollar deficits did not pump the economy, Orszag, Romer, and Summers, the architects of these policies, fled, and the health-care mess, there is a sort of feeling of: “We tried every liberal nostrum and none worked.”
Now what? I think the answer is more talk about another “summer of recovery” and hopes that the Obama trash-talking of business, take-overs, and massive deficits is ending with a new Republican House. So the administration’s de facto new attitude is: “OK, they stopped us. We can’t do any more to you. So hire, buy, and get back in our game.” Then they can claim things got better than they were in January 2009. And, as a bonus, they were not the ones to trim what had to be trimmed from Social Security. It may be easy to hamper the U.S. economy in two years, but it is very hard to sidetrack it completely.
And that tactic may work — the more Republicans can stop Obama from being Obama.
Here is an example from Federalist #57 (by Madison):
After speaking of the restraint on the members of the House of Representatives from taking oppressive measures (as they have progressively done) by virtue of the constraint… “… that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of society.”
He then goes on:
“If it be asked, what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class [special interests???] of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.”
Which is followed by:
“If this spirit shall ever be so far debased as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, as well as on the people, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty.”
And, I think that is exactly what has happened.
Very well observed and said, and a good corollary to Professor Hanson’s article.
How is it that we’ve gone from equality of opportunity to trying to legislate equality of outcome? Have we really fallen so far?
Dianna,
My compliments on this distinction:
“How is it that we’ve gone from equality of opportunity to trying to legislate equality of outcome?”
Fine comment. At the heart of the Founders’ genius, in my view, lies their commanding knowledge of history — and more — their acute understanding of human nature.
If the new breed of ‘young gun’ Republicans were to propose legislation designed to bring the US Congress into line with Madison’s prescription, we would see an interesting test of both the public will and of the institution itself.
The more I read about the left, I think the center and left of center leftists aren’t actually concerned with equality or PC. It all folds back into the concept of power. I’ve been mulling things over, with out a serious damage physical damage, and I thougth back to my feeling of the many left’s want of an autocracy. Last night I watched, “Totalitarian Islam’s Threat to the West,” at Ayn Rand’s Center for Individual rights. Then this morning I see, “The ‘Unholy Alliance’ Between Islamic Jihad and Utopian Socialism,” here at Pajamas. Then I thought about DADT, Panthergate. I don’t think any of their goals are about equality. It’s about gathering power for them and establishing voter base that, “owes them.” They don’t like military. It is a threat. Wouldn’t it be nice to add a sympathetic voter block? Illegal Alien amnesty, the same. They’ve already alienated a great deal of the country and are slowing ruining it. They hate America, don’t believe in its exceptionalism, and cozy up to, whom I feel may actually be quite evil, enemies of America. The PC and equality roads are just tools. What the tools are don’t matter. Only the result of increasing their power and voting base. I also think it’s why some of these are being pushed so hard now, instead of, “It’s the economy stupid.” They see how alone they are and are trying to scramble allies.
No offence Woofty but if it’s taken you this long to figure out that the perpetual crusading of the left wing has nothing to do with actually bettering anybody elses life then perhaps you need to spend some time around lefties.
As a reformed lefty I can well assure you that the many crusades and large complicated range of subjects that they take ownership of is purely a battering ram to bring down whatever status quo they deem fit. Sometimes, I don’t even think they know why they support one thing over another. Often it’s simply the belief that if they hold a view that is absolutely contrarian to the mass of society then that *obviously* makes them superior the the “unthinking masses”. Holding a debased and contrarian view means that they are “intellectual”.
Sometimes their views are gained simply through osmosis, peer pressure and because they are on the side of popular culture.
Sometimes it’s because they’re absolute totalitarians (witness the calls to shutdown anybody who says things they don’t like).
Whatever the reason the end result is inevitably crushing totalitarianism once the rough and tough thugs take over and use the system that the mushy lefties setup against said mushy lefties, and the rest of the populace.
Sure there are some useful idiots in amongst them that truly believe in the garbage that they spout and generally the true believers are snickered at by the mass of lefties who don’t actually believe that crap in-so far as they wouldn’t in a million years want any of BS that they go on about to affect them personally.
Go spend some time on bread and butter lefty boards, feel the hate, bitterness and desire for their team to absolutely crush all others. While as a matter of course in their more mundane discussions they engage in “hate speech”, “sexism”, “misogyny”, and utter racism well beyond that which I’ve found on conservative boards since my awakening.
Go spend some time on bread and butter lefty boards, feel the hate, bitterness and desire for their team to absolutely crush all others..
It’s palpable and tactile. Those “people” are seriously unhinged.
Sadly, even people 10 years senior to Dr. Hanson don’t realize it’s not their daddy’s Democrat Party anymore.
You would be wise to understand that the large majority of liberals are “useful idiots”, including the MSM. So, they DO believe in their own propaganda, and it would be no use in, say, badgering some urbanite liberal into confessing their plans for world domination. It is the higher ups that lust for power, and dream of governing the globe with a special zeal. It is a blunt thing to even say that, but it is the conclusion I’ve come to myself.
The only course is to attack their worldview, and theirs, to attack Conservative morality. The irony is in the realization that you necessarily attack your opponents strength (which is to say that the a thoughtful CONCEPT of Socialism is stronger than Free Market Capitalism, and the Moral compass of Conservatives is superior to the “relative truths” and wandering mind of liberalism). Their desire for a world that works, with no war, etc, is a hard thing to put in the cross hairs if you do not have a foundational counterbalance of your own, whatever it may be. And live it.
You are very correct about their motives being unthinking and largely contrarian. One example. In the late 80′s and early 90′s, the left began organizing against the Taliban and elsewhere in the muslim world, because of their treatment of women. However, once the Taliban became the official enemy of the US, the left can no longer get upset about women in muslim countries. The enemy of their enemy (the US) is their friend.
Your observation regarding the true aim of the left is dead on, if I may use a bad pun. George Orwell knew the pedigree of these monsters as well. Who remembers this quote from his 1984?
This is the goal of the elites who despise us precisely because we are free and not subject to their bidding. Communism, totalitarianism, etc are merely the means to an end. Power is the name of the game. By all measure of reason, history has shown us that those who seek absolute power are monsters – they are and become killers without conscience once that power to harm others, and to harm otehrs without consequence is in their hands.
There will be only one way to stop them.
Yeah, I know. The only reason I’d look at a leftist site would be the same reason I’d visit a UFO board, the entertainment. The difference though is that I take issues, non-UFO ones, seriously. I would like to believe that the majority of democrats do look at the issue with good intent. I mean they did give us Mr. Hicks and Mr. Ott. It’s, well I see a lage portion now, a pertentage that were out. Even though I saw their methods, implimentations, and logic flawed.
I used to avoid politics. It wasn’t until Obama got elected and Jihad was openly declared that I got looking. I don’t even remember how I found Pajamas Media or PJTV, etc. I Think it was a stumble on Instapundit and the rest followed. I used to not even dream of posting on boards like this. I just feel more, similar I guess or perhaps comfortable, here. So yeah, face palm time with muttered comments. At least, though rare in occurence, can get a clue.
It’s always been about the acquisition and maintenance of power. The poor, the downtrodden, the “victims” are nothing but a means to that end. Easily discarded and vehemently vilified, if they stray off of the entitlement plantation and attempt self reliance through opportunity rather than wait for the promised equal result.
Exactly. It’s about power. All the other stuff is just marketing.
The Ruling Class has “adapted” to the new reality, certainly.
The constantly true split is between serving others or serving self.
We like to joke that politics is for ugly actors who couldn’t star in a movie, but, hey—the creme de la creme of the political dimension, such as the Clinton duo, look to me like they have their FOOLING act down cold!
Their “hot to trot” struggle only pretends to be for “the children”, which is short for losers who believe they need a champion to take from the rich and give to them, the poor.
Truly, almost all very successful politicians are in it for the money. Any fame that comes along is gravy.
Oh, how few statesmen we have these days!
Want to bet that the vastly miseducated people of this country will continue to buy the wild crap offered by future pols?
There are ongoing improvements via technological innovation, based on hard science. So, the standard of American living continues to grow.
AND—there are likewise super improvements in the ability of humans to outdo their predessors in political trickery!
At my age of 68, especially as I got older and wiser due to having to experience the tomfoolery of so many scam artists, it’s hard to conclude otherwise.
Why, when I discovered the truth about LBJ, I thought people would not be able to be fooled again, and then along came Carter!
But, Slick Willie Clinton, the best “acting” president to his date, took over: I thought that would be the tops.
Then, the dumb and dumber people of the USA fell for the Obama con!
Oh my—I can’t imagine how much worse it can get, LBJ to Carter to Clinton to Obama to—-
HELP!!!
Con artists always have the edge.
They spend full-time dreaming up the scams. You spend a few minutes when it finally comes to your attention. Sometimes it’s too late to do anything. More often, you have to take a big hit and grin and bear it.
Witness, the Communitity Investment Act and the eventual near-destruction of the entire world economy. The average Joe was vaguely aware of sub-prime mortgages, but probably less than .01% of the population knew the con had the potential to destroy civilization. In 2007, word leaked out that the markets were ‘worried’ about some issues with mortgages. I didn’t hear Kate Couric or Bill O’Reilly screaming from the squawk box about it. Then, bam, it hit like a ton of bricks in 2008, oh, what a surpise, 2 months before the most important election of 2 lifetimes.
This Joe noticed in 2006 when a man showing me apartments in North Attleboro MA, remarked “if you want you can buy it as a condo. doesn’t cost much jsut some paperwork.” I thought he was off his rocker to say that not knowning my meager salary. Surprise. That was being said to would be renters everywhere.
In my opinion, everything that took place prior to and in ’08 was set up; there were too many convenient crises (not to be wasted) that brought about the current administration.
Somebody somewhere has big plans, I expect.
And we don’t need Newt to save us, thank you very much.
Well put. I reached a point, around 1990, when I was working with lefty organizations (by default) that I realized that virtually every “program” being enacted in Atlanta, be it federal, local, or private non-profit, was utterly corrupt.
I don’t mean a few rogue players: I mean that every aspect of that city’s government was a kickback for someone, mostly sustained by cynical manipulations of the politics of race and other identity politics, which is why it is so important to challenge these things.
Empowerment Zones, set-aside government contracts for the airport and everything else (the entire elite political class has their fingers in the airport pie), questionable voter registrations, fake computer sales to the schools, fake job training, payoff-rich community centers, low-income housing “renewal,” SBA largesse, overpaid layers of useless administrators, the Olympics boondoggle, the theft of federal sewer funding (which led to re-taxation), free-money mortgages for the unqualified (which brought down the economy and, nearly, neighborhoods like mine) — even the dismantling of the projects, which was praised in the conservative media but was still just the latest pricey public works program to line politicians’ pockets while finding new euphemisms and zip codes for paying off spongers and predators — all of it was completely corrupt.
I watched billions of taxpayer dollars simply disappear, to virtually no positive effect for the alleged beneficiaries, and few dared call anyone out for it.
Instead, the people with jobs simply got up in the morning, donned their little frog suits, and silently climbed back into the boiling water.
I always thought there would come a “tipping point” of frustration, but it hasn’t happened yet. VERY luckily for the crooks, the schools train generation upon generation of cowed, self-loathing, good liberal citizens to subsidize their graft.
Thank you thank you for saying that. Before Obama, before the housing melt-down you saw it all at work on the local level. So did I in my town. Every organization government or non-profit has been affected by this thought process. No surprise when one of the community organizers got bumped to the top. Getting things back to what is normal, ethical behavior is going to be more than just ridding ourselves of Obama. It is every organization on the ground level that needs cleaning out. There is more work than just showing up at the ballot box.
Once again, thank you.
Hey proreason did you get the notice in the mail from President Obama this week that there has been no rise in the cost of living since 2008? Yep it’s true, there is one born every minute who believe such claptrap. Except in the USA where there are at least two born every minute. Now excuse me while I go apply for my third year of unemployment compensation.
And thank those Republicans who are going to get the country back on the right course. On second thought, maybe there are three born every minute in the USA.
VDH: what would we if it weren’t for our social betters, our wonderful elites, those who brought us “smart power” to the State Department and hope to the world and to the US? will we be able to cope by ourselves?
sometimes e story of Alice in Wonderland seems like a history more of the Democrat Partei than a fictional novel! But please on turning out your essays; they do hit the mark!
Hypocricy is far too kind a word.
They are not intellectually lazy but good-intentionned do-gooders. They are in-your-face grab-all-they-can bare knuckle criminals. And marxism isn’t a difficult to implement utopian philosophy, it is a criminal enterprise operated at national levels.
If they don’t tip the ship this time, they will be happy to scurry back under the baseboards with their lucre, and let their sychopants in the press spend another decade ginning up lies to denigrate another honest leader and convince the rubes that armageddon is around the corner. It would be round 4 of the game, wouldn’t it be? or is round 5 more accurate?
There is some hypocrisy involved, especially when they need to shield their own psyche from the damage and destruction they are actually inflicting on people. They tell themselves “it’s for their own good”; some of the more honest say “it’s a rat race out there, someone has to come out on top…” But every once in a while it dawns on them that they are monsters. (For a purely ego driven mind is indeed monstrous). There are sudden, unexpected moments when they catch a glimpse of this terrible truth, and it both elates them and causes them endless, existential torment. They love the feeling of freedom they get when they push beyond the normal bounds of moral restraint. It’s an adrenaline high. But they know they are missing something vital in not being able to connect to other humans in the ways that make life worth living. They know that their lives are really empty and meaningless, that despite their talents, they will leave nothing worthwhile behind, since they are driven only by their basest animal instincts; and use their powers merely to rationalize that fact that no-one every truly loved them. So they dream endless grand designs as they seek to subjugate all that they encounter to their all consuming egos. In short, they are not fully human. That is why they deserve some pity, and why we must always be careful to keep them away from the levers of power. For, driven by their resentments, they will always choose to inflict their yawning misery on the rest of us. It is the only dubious salve they can find in this life.
This is why we see phenomenon like “Very wealthy people seek to be exempt from the regulations and taxes they impose on the middle classes on behalf of the poor they studiously avoid”, as VDH puts it. And when you point this out to them, sudden and explosive anger is the usual response. That kind of emotion means you have touched a nerve. That is, there is inner self-awareness there that is carefully hidden from view, most of the time. And that is what makes far-left Dems dangerous. They are capable of pulling down the whole house of cards out of sheer spite, if things don’t go their way. As another reader once put it here, underneath it all, they are all fundamentally nihilists.
Right now Obama is making a big show of a few tentative steps to the right. But to keep his base happy, he is making it clear that he does so under protest. So VDH is right to point out that “Then they can claim things got better than they were in January 2009. And, as a bonus, they were not the ones to trim what had to be trimmed from Social Security. It may be easy to hamper the U.S. economy in two years, but it is very hard to sidetrack it completely.
And that tactic may work — the more Republicans can stop Obama from being Obama.”
In other words it is all posturing to protect the Dem brand for 2012. In fact everything they do will be tuned in this way. They are counting on us having short memories. This is good news in two ways. One is that it this simply won’t work, no matter what they try now, we are automatically one step ahead because of the way in which Nov. 2 persented a new, inescapable truth: the voting public is not happy with the Dems. So any change in direction is in fact a subtle admission that they don’t really know what they’re doing. Let’s make hay out of that!
And two, it reveals that they still have no idea what is really happening outside the beltway. They don’t see the forces gathering against them; or they see them, but don’t understand their composition. i.e. that there are a lot of centrists and independents in these ranks who can no longer be fooled. More importantly, the think we aren’t aware of what they have been up to behind the scenes, and behind the big, distracting set-piece legislation they’ve been imposing these last two years. So we have to time things very carefully now.
Anon. was me : )
Uh, but we really really really mean well.
Really.
A few blocks from me, there is a Salvation Army. Every morning, young adults start congregating in the parking lot, waiting for free meals. None of them looks like they are ready for a job interview or a day of honest labor. Instead, they look like they just rolled out of bed after a hard night of partying.
And yet we’ve just increased unemployment from 99 weeks to 112 weeks. That’s being out of work for more than two years. A young man my son knows brags to everyone that he can’t figure out why anyone works when the government pays you to take vacations, as he does. He works a few months and then goes on unemployment, visiting beaches and having parties.
He’s got a point.
When did it become indiscrete to ask lazy, irresponsibile adults to take care of themselves? Why is it my problem? Why do we encourage so many young people to have children out of wedlock, children they don’t have any obligation to?
Why is making a commitment to someone in marriage and keeping that commitment and serving as an example to our children out of fashion?
Those of us who work for a living need to stand up especially to those Reblicans who says we can’t raise taxes in a recession. The implication is that we can raise them once the recession is over.
No, we can’t. We’ve spent money we don’t have for programs that don’t work. Enough is enough.
“He works a few months and then goes on unemployment, visiting beaches and having parties.”
A tale of two families.
My better half is an English girl from a “poor as poor” post industrial working class area outside Manchester.
She left her deadbeat husband and moved to this fine sunburnt land where she eventually met a strapping hard working skilled white collar worker named Twostix the aussie.
Twostix and the English lass settle and raise a family, her ex-husband remains on the dole for nearly ten years. In that time Twostix works 50 hour+ weeks in a well paying job to support and lift up his young family.
At the same time, the limey pom doesn’t work at all and has four children with his new woman, remaining on the dole and living in government housing.
Limey pom who though is 6’4 and physically fit hasn’t worked a day in his life, yet by some twist of devilish fate *has just as much purchasing power as Twostix* who works many hours at a fine job for a fine wage and only has to support two children + adult.
The only thing that Twostix can get that limey pom can’t get in large amounts is…debt.
Then again, Limey Pom lives in a the beginning stages of an third world country.
Twostix the Aussie doesn’t.
Great anecdote, Twostix. As a Hispanic Republican, I can tell you that I raised my sons to stand on their own two feet, and not to sit on their fourth point of contact. It’s sad that the opposite is becoming true in this country………
“When did it become indiscrete to ask lazy, irresponsibile adults to take care of themselves? Why is it my problem? Why do we encourage so many young people to have children out of wedlock, children they don’t have any obligation to?”
Well, it’s not because of random events.
It’s because what you describe has been the strategy of the Left for generations. They purposefully seek to create irresponsible adults who will be a drain on the resources of the hard-working citizens. The ultimate goal is to destroy the middle class, after which the marxists will be able to rule like the emperors of bygone ages.
There are hundreds of sub-strategies: moral relativism, class warfare, deomonization of business, controlling the media, changing the language, devaluing the family, elevating deviant lifestyles, demonizing religion, encouraging criminal behavior, creating an underclass, controlling the education system, marginalyzing small businesses, and many many more. It’s really plainly obvious to anyone who chooses to look.
All of the strategies and tactics are designed to deconstruct American culture, so that the Marxists can reconstruct it in a two class system: the ruling commissars, secure in their absolute power, and the other 99.9%, us serfs.
Or think about it this way. The age of devine rulers was really great…for the kings. The USSR almost recreated that nirvana. But one thing stopped it. YOU, and your fellow free men. And now the people who want it back know how to go about it.
I too, grew up in a democrat houshold in a democrat stronghold State….now becoming a GOP State. Of course I grew up a few decades before you VDH….market collapse, dust bowl and depression….and slightly less than 30 years of Statehood.
We didn’t know much nor were we concered about democrat or republican. We always knew first hand those who ran for office at any level. Most we considered as neighbors and for certain, personal friends. We all agreed what was important for us and what was important for the nation. Some were just farmers and ranchers like us and some were, I supose, the financial elites though, we never viewed them as such and they never did much to be perceived as such.
All I’m going to say is, that today what is best for the nation has become a battle ground of which is the best ideology for America’s future. Over the years it became more and more apparent that there were those who represented communism and socialism cloaked in coats of many colors motivated to destroy and transform the relatively new constitutional Republic of the United States and it capitalism.
This war, waged by the communist and socialist elitists and the opposing traditional American’s elitists has remained at various levels to the present. It has been an interesting time to watch the opposing sides strategize and vie for the flocks. One side stands rigid upon the constitution and capitalism while the other side stands for complete transformation to socialism through many evolutionary process and steps. One sides arsenal is filled with individual freedoms and rights for opportunity limited only by one dreams and motivation. The other sides arsenal is filled with strategies of corruption, controlled freedoms, controlled opportunity, consolidated economies, government welfare slavery and centralized government control. The latter side grows its flock through welfare enticements and welfare slavery at this juncture of their evolution.
But back on topic! Both parties have their elites of leadership and elites within their flocks. Success for all is touted by one side and the other is deceitfull of who success should be limited to in their end game of transformation.
In the end, it will be interesting to see if the weak of mind (regardless of their walls adorned with degrees) will win or the Traditional Americans. I pray there will be a perch up above for me to continue watching from. Theres no doubt in my mind that, if the transformers win, the heavens will be filled with such sadness and a flood of tears from the millions who have fought so hard, sacreificed so much and the many who gave their lives, to preserve the Traditional Constitutional Republic of the United States.
George Orwell captured it perfectly.
“Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others…”
One observation, about Secretary Clinton and her campaign debt, and her purchase of a home. Of course she’s not paying the debt off herself; this is an unspoken rule in Washington. The equivalent in Hollywood is well-known among actors and screenwriters: you never ever have your own money in a film. You get someone else to pony up the cash,and you make sure you get a good paycheck, and a piece of the box office; that means if it loses money someone else loses their shirt, while if it succeeds you get very rich. In politics, you never run for office with your own money: instead you get someone else to contribute their money to you, stroking them and cooing in their ear about what an important patriot they are for doing this. If you win the election, you can appoint the contributor ambassador to Uraguay or someplace; if you lose, you just don’t pay him back for awhile. Being loose with someone else’s money is good practice for when you *do* win an election.
It has been well noted by many others but have you noticed the ‘cricket’ sounds on the Left with regard to the liberal hypocrites? Imagine the frothing that will occur if and when the Palins decide to upgrade from their relatively modest home in Wasilla? (My guess is that sarah and Todd are too practical minded to spend extravagantly on a palatial home.)
I hate and detest these millionaire liberals who feel compelled to tell the rest of the country how to live, how much it can earn, how much taxes it has to pay, and how much it is allowed to keep after they squander it on pork projects and a bloated Federal government.
Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have spent will over a trillion (that’s with a “T”) dollars and unemployment has actually gone up and NOT down. They have proven that every liberal plan for dealing with a recession or a depression is WRONG, yet they act as if nothing has happened. They always say that if we just spent MORE money, everything will be fine. They are like gambling addicts in Las Vegas who have lost the house at the card tables and, if they just made one more huge bet, they would make all of their money back.
The sad fact is, they always lose at this game, but their addiction to gambling does not allow them to admit that they are the ones who have a problem, NOT the American people. Pelosi, Reid, and Obama desperately need to be put into a rehab program for gamblers. It’s called “throwing them out of office.” Unfortunately, I think they will do as well at that as Lindsay Lohan has done in her rehab programs.
Dear Dr. Bones,
Our old pal Rear-Colonel V. D. Hanson, Freelord and Kiddiemaster Blimp in the peerage of Foxcuckooland, is the victim of unexpected political weather: a lot of this latest oracle is scarcely suitable to a brave new world in which President Summers has finally been compelled to see the hatchet and bury the light.
Just an accident, mainly. Not quite altogether, though: his freelordship’s notion (down at the bottom line) that “Social Security” is gonna get “trimmed” convicts him of bad judgment no matter when he scribbled, whether before or after the collapse of Bowles-Simpson, before or after the collapse of Summers-Geithner-Bernanke-O’Bama.
One must remember that Blimp is only an honoris causâ Hoovervillain, a hired hand’s hired hand, not privy to the secret counsels of his Party Paymasters, and probably not all that interested in the intricacies of the AEIdeology either. What really galls the freelordly gasbag is no doubt the ascendancy of lieberals and demonocrats in the sphere of tertiary educationism. VDHB’s big shtyk is to bring back Mark Hopkins and that ever-immortal log — with precisely his own freelordship in the starrin’ rôle, natch.
All very well in its way, that is, I guess, but such a neocause as Blimp’s own is but a Faculty-Club teacup, not a massy bag of AstroTurf™ to clobber selfservative kiddies over the skull with so as to keep ’em votin’ whight.[1]
From the paymagisterial viewpoint, as I presume, Blimp must be deemed rather an ornament than any sort of structural necessity. [2] Not cake, but only icin’ is this kiddiemaster. Once in a (very long) while, it tickles the brainpans of Daddy Warbucks and Uncle Scrooge ¡y de Tio Ruperto! to be informed by some ‘conservative’ ‘intellectual’ like VDHB that Thersites and Thucydides and Cleon and Cleopatra and the rest of that crew nod approve to all their neodoin’s from the Elysian Fields.
A little of that clasic product goes a long way, however, which means that Warbucks & Co. are not in contact with its purveyors often enough or long enough to know or care what they think about how best to advance Party an’ Ideology in the year of religionism 1432/2010/5771. In the Epoch of Destructive ©®eationism (Pat. Pend.). [3]
And this is very sensible of the Party Paymasters, surely? I mean, if the Paymasters actually instructed their Von Böhners an’ Von Kantors an’ Von McConnells to “trim Social Security” startin’ next month, they would be plumb out of their minds. You and I attended two different ’Turf’bagger events, sir, and if the first thing to report was that the neofaithful are all congenitally, as it were, disposed to be whight-wingers, the second is how far advanced most of the ’turf’baggees are towards the Bosom of Alzheimer. The idea that anybooby is goin’ta trim *them* is laughable. If the hack pols of the militant extremist Republican Party wanna hear ’bout “Remember in November,” just let ’em try that! And if Herr Doktor Viktor von Peloponesus cannot work out that sum in illiberal mathematics, he is a . . . .
Never mind. His perfesserial freelordship may in fact still be able to manage “2 + 2″ and was only tryin’ to recommend himself to the Party Paymasters by takin’ their obvious wish (and his own) for an accomplished fact, knowin’ perfect well that a great deal more preliminary bombardment will be required before the Daughters of Virtue & Sons of Wisdom (LLC) finally storm Fort Entitlement an’ put all its defenders to the fiscal sword. Expugnation is not yet.
Still, Blimp *does* scribble as if he thought The Hour immediately at hand. Tusk, tusk!
And I wish you, sir, as ever,
Happy days through affordable healthcare.
__
[1] I betcha Wally Wombschool an’ Cindy from Wasilla would find Planet Blimp very uncongenial, should they ever be highjacked thither: *compulsory* Laughing and Grief, for Pete’s sake! Who ordered THAT?
More urgently, what freelord of the Employin’ Classes is gonnta like the kiddies’ neoresumés any better because they have that musty drool slobbered all over them?
But Mammon knows best.
[2] Here I spot a happy coincidence with Comrade Low’s noble conception : even in the 1930’s, what Tory scum in earnest about getting to a destination would travel by blimp?
As to lighter-than-air aviation machines filed under ‘ornamental’, well, perhaps if one thinks of gargoyles?
[3] Or how about “In the age of ‘JUST VOTE ¡NO! ’ ” ? (( Now *there* is a punctuation étude for you, Dr. Bones. ))
Soothing wisdom from…The Unabomber?
Pithy passages from…Finnegan’s Wake? From…academic papers regarding Education or…social studies?
A modest suggestion: ease up on the hallucinogens, eh?
What a steaming pile of horsesh*t. JHM, you can certainly shovel it. Do you ever actually say anything coherent?
One of VDH’s readers here once made an astute observation to one of you trolls, (so obviously free of any agenda yourselves) that it must be awfully liberating to live inside a self-created universe. That is to say one in which you are free to select what is real and what is not. Apparently this is true, since you seem to be very proud of yourself. The fact that you leave yourself the escape hatch of pretending not to take anything seriously is puzzling therefore.
Any insights?
Taking the concepts of useful idiocy and elitist pretentiousness to a new (low) level of obfuscation.
Clearly, your intellect has escaped the bounds of this forum, JHM. Fly free, fly free……..
All indications suggest that JHM set his chickens free a long, long time ago.
A few questions;
Are you any relation to Timothy Leary? Are you the present editor of the Harvard Crimsion? Have you discovered a new designer drug?
Finally; Would you like to do a ’60 Minutes’ episode?
“Item: John Kerry was extolling the stimulus effects of unemployment benefits, as in more money returns to the economy for each dollar paid out to the unemployed.”
Pure nonsense by John Kerry, as usual.
The utility of $1 of public money spent, is 10 cents to an individual. That’s been measured.
Nobel prize winning economist, Gary Becker, U of Chicago, once a student and later colleague of Milton Friedman stated very simply that the results of the last stimulus will take years to assess and measure.
“Stimulus” ought to be replaced with “plug”, or “cork”, or “fiscal anti-depressant”.
I agree that the Democratic Party has become the thing it once fought against. As Mr. Hanson suggests, there is a disconnect between their stated goals and their own behavior.
It seems as if what we are seeing is a long drawn out stage of teen age rebellion which started in the 60s and consists of nothing more than contrariness for its own sake.
Thus you have people who decry anything they perceive as a middle class concept from the 1950s without any real thought to why. No surprise that the greenest and most revolutionary people are simply middle class intellects with their own 401ks, credit cards and gas guzzling automobiles.
Unfortunately this counter-anything mentality has been passed on to a generation of young people who inhabit our colleges, media and fine arts. They protest by rote and political correctness like some monstrously distorted form of slavish adherence to Emily Post rather than from common sense.
In this scenario, people who are not racists are and those who are not are racists as witness the Congressional Black Caucus which defines itself by race and the Tea Party which does not. Illegal immigrants are not law breakers but people who don’t want their kids genitals handled at the airport are. Fox News is evil and MSNBC is not thought they play the same game. “Rage Against the Machine” is seen as revolutionaries by youth though they are simply millionaires, part of the very machine they protest, and with their own alternate view of history of America as sinful without facts or context to back it up.
Instead of a pledge of allegiance, it seems that each classroom in America needs instead a reading of George Orwell’s treatise on “doublethink”.
The tables have turned for the Democrats indeed, since the onus in being suspect of wishing the country to do poorly is very much on them now. It will behoove them to be more compromising proportionally than Republicans. If things look up they can say them were compromising (and therefore SHOULD get equal acclaim for any success), and if things look down they will blame Republicans for being belligerents. The Republicans need to be a party of big moves now, otherwise they will seem smarmy and inept. Most likely only a full push to FULLY repeal Obamacare is politically safe, since it will be compromised down a great deal; the gesture will be that Republicans know the type of government they are fighting for in doing so, or it will seem that they just don’t like the black president’s ideas. It is a tough position for both sides. Republicans need to be full bore, and Democrats need to tone down.
The trap is already sprung on the Dems, but they don’t realize it. So from this point forward, the more they struggle, the tighter it gets.. For instance, the tax deal is a significant victory for us. It will be increasingly clear that this is so in the months ahead. The gains Dems hope to achieve by their tactical shift will never materialize. They will neutralized by the contradictions you point out, and then drowned up by subsequent events. The only variable is us. The next two years will determine the fate of the Republic. We need to 1) keep dialing up the pressure on all fronts, day by day, week by week, month by month. 2) Resolve our own differences, make our own compromises and above all, stay united. (This is our weakest point and the one that Dems will attack most relentlessly, they have already begun, beware of their shadow plays), 3) Deny them any opportunities to silence us, confuse the narrative or game the system. 4) Don’t waste energy on sideshows, allow them a few minor victories here and there to keep them distracted (though make them pay for each one), and wait for the right moment(s) to bring out the heavy artillery.
Yes, it is proper for the sitting Secretary of State to hawk DVDs. She’s not nobility. Might do her some good to get down in the mud with us common people.
I think I’m an old-style Democrat. What drove me from the party more than anything was their mind-numbing, unremitting support for unrestricted abortion.
A party that doesn’t care about babies is not going to care about the elderly or down-on-their luck for anymore than what they can use them for.
I think that after the stimulus failed, the $1.3 trillion-dollar deficits did not pump the economy, Orszag, Romer, and Summers, the architects of these policies, fled, and the health-care mess, there is a sort of feeling of: “We tried every liberal nostrum and none worked.”
No, they’ll never admit their policies are failures. To them, the only failure was that we didn’t spend enough. Listen to idiots like the Nobel Prize winning Krugman who keep demanding ever greater amounts of stimulus spending because, deep in their hearts, they know if they keep shoveling hard enough that eventually they’ll find the pony.
Einstein said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome. By that reasoning, it’s apparent that the Left is insane.
Let’s face an awful and inexcapable fact – Political office and scads of cash are inextricably linked on two levels.
First – You have those already-wealthy persons bored with another season in the south of France who decide that politcal office would be a nice diversion in their lives. These are the Pelosis, the Kerrys, the Kennedys, the Herb Kohls, the Jay Rockefellers etc. (And no – I am not forgetting the legions of wealthy GOP officeholders such as the Bushes, Darrell Issas and Rick Snyders out there.) This group can often “buy” their office (Hello Mayor Bloomberg!) simply by dipping into their own petty cash for campaign funds.
Second – You have those candidates and officeholders of modest means who obtain prominence or influence and instantly translate this into substantial wealth. The Clintons are the prime example as is, apparantly, Charles Rangel. For most of them the real payoff comes when they leave office and become lobbyists for this or that business, union or foundation. However an increasing number of polticians manage to become “celebrities” either in or out of office and use that to leverage book contracts, speaking engagements and other deals that make them multi-millionaires almost overnight. Both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, ironically, share this distinction.
It is wildly unconstitutional but I think that any candidate for anything from dog-catcher to President should be required to put all of his/her private wealth over, say, $200,000 in escrow when they declare for office and that any outside money they make as a direct result of the influence and status they have acquired as politicians should be placed in some national charitable trust. Let them live on their salaries. Nobody should be allowed to be a lobbyist for a period of five years after they have left office at any level of government.
I know it’s all wildly impractical but it would do our political class a world of good if they actually HAD to shop at Wal-Mart or Target once in a while. I’d give a lot to see the President make his State-of-the-Union speech in a suit he bought off the rack at Sears.
What we have here is a basic inability to comprehend reality by the Left. They live in a fantasy world where nothing makes sense and what if it did? Rationality and common sense are as foreign to them as Sanskrit and papyrus.
We’re dealing with some seriously disturbed individuals. We need to start treating them like the mental patients they should be.
The wealthy Liberals have envisioned the future (socialism) and are positioning themselves to take full advantage. They do not want to be touched or tarnished by the unwashed underclass ( except to mow their lawns, repair and maintain their sail boat and jets. ). Achieving Liberal power regardless of the means and in the wake of misery plays out daily in front of our eyes. We, the mostly powerless, are busy scratching out a living to pay our own way and to keep ahead of the IRS cops. Those in congress are aspiring to be like or be liked by the Clintons, Kerrys, Kennedys, Gates, Buffets, et al. That is, “The Club” who make the rules but do not have to live by them. Socialism is not just around the corner – it is HERE. Now what to do about it ? I have one vote and the second amendment. Only one of these I predict will protect me in the end. Now it is the mission of Liberals to erradicate or nullify the second ammendment. Of course the Liberals don”t like the military – thats who has most of the guns.
Does Dr VDH have some solutions to accompany his insights ?
Get my generation off the stage, sooner…rather than later. Obama et al. are malignant narcissists, nothing more.
You know, VDH, I have been thinking about something that is a strong undercurrent in your essay today.
What is it that the New Party Democrats really, truly want? I mean this with all sincerity. They are furious today because we are not soaking more and more money from folks who built businesses, many of them from the ground up. Small business creates the vast majority of jobs in this land of ours and the New Party Democrats want to take the owners of those businesses and throw them through a plate glass window at the IRS.
If they wish to leave their children and grandchildren a portion of the wealth they spent a lifetime accumulating WHILE PAYING TAXES ALL THE WHILE, they are furious that they can only soak them at a 35% level, not at a 55% level.
They are furious that we have gone after state sponsored terrorism where it was fed, bred and left thousands dead.
They are furious that we detained mortal enemies and wish to try them as enemy combatants.
They are furious that we seek facts and information that isn’t filtered through their far leftist prism and wish to shut it down using the powers of the FCC and the “Fairness Act”.
They are furious today that we wish to protect our borders from invasion with impunity.
They are furious that we want to roll back a legislation that tore apart our health care system through bribery, kickbacks and secret meetings, producing something that wasn’t read, poorly constructed and against the will of the people.
They are furious that we haven’t spent more trillions of dollars, pushed through more entitlements, expanded the government reach more even though not one sane economist believes that we are on a sustainable fiscal course.
They are furious that we didn’t buy into the “global warming” fraud and continue to press against our building a robust self-sufficiency in energy production.
The New Party Democrats have all the signs and symptoms of totalitarian/anarchist overthrow of our system of government. I simply cannot come to any other deductive reasoning conclusion. They wish to tear down the present system and replace it with something of their own…very different from what the vast majority of this nation wants.
In an eerie sort of way, I’m fine with the FACT that they wish to do this. If my countrymen choose to adopt a new form of governance, if they express a will to become a “social democracy” or a small c communist nation or a totalitarian regime run banana republic…then I will leave, but I will respect the will of the people.
But, this stealth implant, hidden cells, polluted information stream, Trojan horse, attack from the inside…turn the pop culture against itself …stuff, needs a very bright light shined upon it.
We need to call things what they are. We need to connect ALL the dots. We are in a civil war with no bullets but plenty of bytes. We are in an information era war. We are being lied to and misled daily. The fight on the left is whether to TODAY…openly confront us…or continue to use stealth, guerrilla tactics.
To show us the cards face up, or keep the aces hidden up their sleeves. We need to have a very open, very vocal discussion on this…and we aren’t. We are missing the boat entirely, in my opinion.
The New Party Democrats are not your daddy’s party. Or mine. They are something different entirely.
“The New Party Democrats are not your daddy’s party”
The Democrat Party is now the shell that the totalitarian revolutionaries hide within. It works pretty well, particularly with older people who remember the party when it stood for something other than total control of people’s lives, and young people who are easily fooled into thinking that the carefully constructed utopian vision is more than a cynical con.
CFB – you ask “What is it that the New Party Democrats really, truly want?” Having encountered great herds of lefties I have noticed two things about them when they accidentally become separated from the herd.
1) they feel personally inadequate
2) they are frequently stunned by visions.
The feelings of inadequacy make them resentful towards and jealous of other individuals who are more competent, more self sufficient and therefore more successful. A corollary of feeling inadequate is feeling needy. If they feel needy then, by golly, everyone else must be needy too. If others don’t feel needy then more feelings of inadequacy are generated and a lefty will want(need) to force all people to feel needy.
We all have aspirations but lefties tend to suffer from incoherent, grandiose visions. Examples are utopia; the planet Earth actually being a person; apocalyptic visions of ecological/climatological doom. These visions seem to stun lefties, drain them of competence and make them anable to function in the day to day world as free individuals.
To unkindly sum up – I think that many lefties are neurotic and/or stunned – so what they truly want is an antidote for feelings of personal inadequacy and relief from the burden of having to think or fend for themselves.
They seek both in the company of herds and collective catch-phrases.
I think that most of the remaining lefties who don’t fall into these categories simply want to be King (as a collective of course).
Agreed. My hope is that it will be the outsiders who broach the subject. The Sarah Palins, the John Boltons, the Chris Christies, the Tea Party congressmen and women… The Old GOP won’t do it because some among them are afraid of the blowback. Newt Gingrich has come closest from what I’ve heard. God bless him for it. But I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised by Boehner et al.
The far-left Dems know what is coming. That is why they are seeding the airwaves with false accusations against us. They are hoping to muddy the waters by claiming we are doing the very things they have been up to. But when the facts finally get laid out, the case against the Dems will be devastating. I actually feel sorry for them because they still have no clue what is coming. But properly timing our presentation is crucial. Levelling those kinds of charges (however true they may be) means you better have more than just circumstantial evidence. You need proof. Otherwise you are easily dismissed as a loon. To the average bystander these appear to be normal, understandable cultural trends, as opposed to a concerted, coordinated and well financed effort to subvert democracy and crash the economy. That is the genius of the Dems strategy. Fortunately for us they got greedy and impatient at the end.
For now, our best bet is to follow the money. And guys like Daryl Issa are already on that, and from what I’ve read, he’s on the right track. They will come at him with heavy bribes and so forth. Let’s hope he’s got mettle in his spine. I imagine it has already occured to some well placed Dems that they can make a lot of money by throwing Obama under the bus, while being acclaimed as saviors of the Republic at the same time (and possibly avoiding lengthy stays in jail as well). Especially as Dem moderates come more and more to understand that their leadership is plunging them into the abyss. In the end, only the fanatics will remain, hunkered down in their bunkers. If we do this right, it is the end of the Democratic Party as we know it. But let them belive they still have a chance. The harder they fight back now, the worse their final undoing will be.
I think the dems are done for a generation. The only thing that could save them is Huckster, Romney or Jeb bush. ie 85% of the Republican establishment. We need a libertarian party to replace the republican party.
@VDH: “Very wealthy people seek to be exempt from the regulations and taxes they impose on the middle classes on behalf of the poor they studiously avoid.” Wonderful!
From President Reagan, American has offered
George H. W. Bush 4 years
Willim J Clinton 8 year
George W Bush 8 years
Barack H Obama 2 years
THIS IS THE BEST WE HAVE???????????? Every one a big Government President. Regulations and Department expansion during their term in office. America required Leadership to the Global Problems, weakness does not work.
That is 22 years of Moderate Liberal to Ultra Left Political Leadership
for the American Voter. And, during this 22 year period, we have had a Liberal Democrat House and Senate in majority more than 50% of the time.
Only after Obama, have we seen the voters taking up opposition to this Left Liberal large government movement. What has taken the people so long to understand what the objective of the Social Liberals, Eco-Liberals, Illegal Alien Groups, Elite Liberal Class. It has been clear to me for a long time, and I am 73 years in age.
It is not too late to recruit and elect the required people to congress. But we must remain active and gain in strength and effort.
Please don’t tell us George H W and George W. Bush are conserverativies and believe in small government.
I have never understood and still do not understand the reasoning behind the legislation which permited the creation of income and estate tax exempt “family foundations”. They are the greatest inequities in our tax system. Money and property, which would othewise be subject to estate taxes on the death of the owner, avoids the tax entirely by being dedicated to a “charitable endeavor”, while at the same time the heirs of the owner continue to control and enjoy the assets which escaped death taxes. Listen to NPR programming; there is frequent mention of programs “made possible by a grant from” [the John and Susan Doe] “family foundation”. In short, such “foundations” sequester assets from taxation but enable the heirs and successors of the creators to use those assets for political purposes, more often than not with a “do as I say not as I do” attitude. Perhaps the best recent example is William Gates, Sr. urging the adoption of an initiative creating an income tax in the State of Washington, while he himself is benefitting from an income tax exemption in the form of a foundation.
What is there to understand about them?
The wealthiest people buy politicians and write tax laws to exempt themselves from virtually ALL taxes, including inheritance taxes. This is the criminal wealth class, not piddly little milliionaires or 5 millionaires – the Kennedy’s, Kerry’s et al. When they do pay taxes, it’s for show. Kerry, for example, paid 5 million in 2003, on his wife’s fortune of 1 billion – 1/2 of 1%. We know about that because he was running for president and had to show something. Looking at it another way, 1 billion in 2003 should have easily been able to generat 60 million in income, so Madame Kerry paid less than 10% of her probably income in taxes. But rest assured, that is far far above their yearly average.
And don’t tell me how their wealth “creates jobs” either. Their gardeners and maids are the only jobs they “create”. Sure, they spend money on stuff and that greases the economy, but the criminally wealthy class doesn’t create any wealth, they only consume it. They suck 10 times the wealth out of the tax system with their lawyers than they ever put back into circulation.
No government will ever get its hands on their money. The bolsheviks got their hands on the Romanov’s money, and that was a lesson the Kennedy’s and Kerry’s of the world learned well. Now they are the new bolsheviks…they even use the same textbook.
Entrepreneurs and business people who really do create wealth are exempted from the above comments. I don’t care how much money Steve Jobs has and what he keeps. The world will never be able to repay a thousanth of what he has given through his business genius.
Proreason….just a small add-on re: ["I don’t care how much money Steve Jobs has and what he keeps. The world will never be able to repay a thousanth of what he has given through his business genius."]
I believe that individual charity should start at-home and reamin at-home so long as there are needs. America is “family” and family should come first. When the family is well, then the family can begin to be charitable. Just some oldtime wisdom.
The mega wealthy are charitable far more outside the family than they are inside the family.
An area of complaint from me in their domestic charity is in education. Their charity is always to the government bureaucratic and centralized education systems rather than creating private, tuition free/assisted, education centers of excellence around the country, in all levels of education, prepartory for the sciences and math’s. Likewise, much can be done to create those same kinds of educational centers for the “real” skilled trades, perpetuating a much needed two-track educational system once more in America.
Take a look for example, of the gazillions of taxpayers monies spent by the DOD to get recruits and new officers trained to perform at the most basic level for all the non scientific and technical jobs in the military.
Anyway, in my opinion, charity is horribly misdired and does a poor job of benefiting the domestic (family) needs in America.
Do you really imagine that there is no connection between the “leveling the playing field” talk of your parents, and the leveling– to the ground— of the moral, ethical and social standards which left wingers talk of today?
Or between the patronizing favoritism of the past, and the patronizing elitism of today?
Our society was based on virtues of hard work, independence, the free market, and the right of a man to the sweat of his own brow. Your parents could not talk of their various high-sounding agendas without tearing down those virtues in one place or another. And when one generation dedicates itself to using the government to tear down values they don’t like, the next generation will do the same…
It is Not money, but The Love of money, that is the root of all evil!
It does not matter what the reality of the donkey party is. Half or more of the voting public will vote for the party that promises continued class envy no matter how two faced that party is. Our republic is dying. We have a terminal case of rottenness to the core. This has been devolving for decades now. FDR tapped into it and sold it lock stock and barrel to an envious and greedy people. A people who have not for a hundred years insisted their children be properly educated while refusing to insist on moral behavior from said children at the same time. Our chickens are roosting. We have the government and the society we deserve.
again— look at all the hype about “MATH & SCIENCE” “MATH & SCIENCE”
lefty math— unable to make sense of simple economic concepts; considers 250k wealthy; considers taxes revenue
lefty science— man-made global warming
why dont we worry more about reading and writing; reacquainting ourselves with the classics and history?— because the illusions of the left would cease to exist that’s why!
What the elite leftists really, truly want is to establish the Kingdom of God on earth without the God they don’t believe in, just to REALLY prove to Him that he doesn’t exist and that they can do it all by themselves, thank You.
Dr. Hanson. What period of time and which society do you equate with the present trend of the United States to ignore it’s vulnerabilities and deteriorating economic condition?
I’m sure you have addressed this in one of your books, but, which one?