Normally I'd say - Ouch! That had to hurt

Normally I'd say - Ouch! That had to hurt, but in the case of Obama who seems to be both shameless and monumentally lacking in self awareness - well he probably just doesn't get that he's been rejected by his own ideology.

Cuban State Media: ‘Negro’ Obama ‘Incited Rebellion and Disorder’

Logic?

Trump maybe?

The one thing that keeps me thinking Trump might be a reasonable alternative is his ability to stifle the mainstream media.   He just doesn't care about what they think, or what they say.   Which is the ONLY way to deal with the relentless river of abuse they heap on anyone who challenges the Progressive Narrative.

You can't use logic because they dismiss facts as irrelevant.  The Progressive mechanism for coping with the never ending cognitive dissonance created by the huge difference between their world view and reality is to simply ignore reality.   They dismiss it without a second thought because thinking about it causes actual pain.   Watch some videos of Progressives talking about Trump's hate, and intolerance. They are a fascinating study in what psychologist call projection.

Destined to repeat it

One of Edmund Burke's most paraphrased quotes,  has a long history and I'm sure you've heard some variant of it:  

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."  

Variations on this quote have been attributed to any number of people, but most notably George Santayana who wrote In his 1905 book The Life of Reason. 

 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

It's been attributed to Churchill who apparently never said it - he was significantly more verbose:

"Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history."

The meaning is the same regardless.  I also happen to think it is hopelessly optimistic, and wrong.  We've studied history; we have it written down, at least as much as can be ascertained from the victors who always write the history with themselves as the hero. 

There are two problems. First, I think it is not an inability to remember or know history. It is the failure to recognize it in a different context.  Second,  if we do recognize it, there is a flaw in human nature that makes us believe that somehow it will be different this time around.   And - it usually is different. It's almost always worse.

Death by Regulation

I've said it for years, regulation is strangling our economy and our lives.   It's obvious to me and I don't even study the numbers of new regulations created every year.   Regulation is nothing more than a law enacted by a bureaucrat who does not hold an elected office.   Now the constitution is pretty clear about Congress and its ability to make laws, but bureaucratic regulations - not so much because there is NO support in the constitution for bureaucrats to make laws or anything that behaves like a law.  Changing the name doesn't make it legal.  

Based on this article Over at WUWT  (What's Up With That?):

Washington’s despotic lawlessness 

Now this heavy handed approach to rule by regulation pretty much started with one of our early attempts at Socialism in 1933 - Roosevelt's New Deal. That's when congress started to really abdicate their responsibility, and to violate their oaths to "Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America".   They did that by delegating law-making powers to agencies of the executive branch.   Then they doubled down with the passage of the 1946 Administrative Procedures Act.

Not until recently, has the Executive Order been used as a tool to bypass Congress.  The first of what we consider executive orders was issued by George Washington and was at the time called either a letter or memorandum.  Obama is  using them to create Law, where congress won't give him the law he wants.

As long as this continues - we will NEVER fix anything. 

Opportunities and Statements

One thing about conflict - it always creates opportunities. Often we view those opportunities as less than ethical - war profiteering comes to mine, even though it's standard practice here in the good old USA.  What I have in mind would only be considered unethical by some very unethical people - college administrators.

I believe there is a market for a few colleges in virtually every state that would cater to students who are more interested in education than activism.  Students that can see the PC, SJW, Feminist, BLM crowd for exactly what they are - even if they can't quite put a name to it (I can - Useful Idiots to the  Cultural Marxism attack on Western Civilization).  I think it's time to make a statement.  Give those who actually want some value for all that money they're spending on education some place to go where they'll get it.

If I were running a school -- it would likely be a predominately a STEM school, but I'd require economics, philosophy, and history (not hxstory - actual history).  I might even require a course on just why Western Civilization, individual liberty and capitalism have done more good for the world than any other system ever devised.  There would be no Women's Studies department - there are plenty of schools that cater to that crap, we don't need any more of them. Anyway, right about now I'd be thinking that starting an advertising campaign that emphasizes education, not activism. Personal responsibility not learned helplessness, and free speech.

So about that free speech thing - I would allow students to bring any speaker they wanted to listen to, but I would not allow disruptive protest - if you don't like the speaker, don't go to the event.  Simple.  If you interrupt a speaker with the usual SJW bullshit protest - you're out, gone, expelled.  If you're not a student - then you're trespassing and I do my level best to have you arrested on those grounds.   If you come and you're polite (even if you disagree with every fiber of your being) then I really don't care if you're a student or not.

I'd advertise the indoor gun range and the outdoor long distance rifle range, and the combat 3-gun range. I'd state unequivocally that there will be no Space Spaces, Trauma Councils or any other idiocy that the perpetual victims demand.

I suspect I could fill up a college or two with kids who are sick and tired of being terrorized by Cultural Marxists.

Ethnicity

I get that the government and businesses like to know the ethnicity of everyone when they're compiling statistics.   It's occurred to me that this is actually a bad thing.  This thought came about when I was wasting time on a phone survey about - of all things - light bulbs.  I've got no idea why I did this one, when I usually just hang up on them.  Maybe I was bored.

Anyway, we got to the end and he asked how I would describe my ethnicity I told him Human.

"Cuban?"
"No, Human - Homosapien."
"Oh I'll just put it down as no answer"

Why?  Because it shouldn't matter.  Why the hell does it matter?



You know who it matters to?   Progressives, they're obsessed with it, race and sex.    The first doesn't matter at all, the second only maters if you're planning to have a sexual relationship with someone.  Beyond that - who the hell cares?  Progressives care - it's hard to rip society apart if you can't manufacture conflict.  And if there's one thing Cultrual Marxist are good at - it's manufacturing conflict.    Why?   Because the obvious answer is more laws, more controls, more government.  When your goal is: The Totalitarian State as God - this is how you achieve it.

PC - Feminism - LGBTQLMNOP - Diversity - perpetually offended, victim status, safe spaces  - All BULLSHIT.

Complete, unadulterated BS.  Perpetuated by a parasite class.  Most of whom are useful idiots to the cause and don't even know what that means.

The failure of the Rule of Law

There are any number of problems associated with the rapid influx of persons from cultures other than our own.   This article does a pretty admirable job of covering some of them.

The Weirdness of Illegal Immigration.   By VICTOR DAVIS HANSON MARCH 13, 2016
At PJ Media

I'm not fond of the term illegal immigration - they are not immigrants - they are invaders, criminals, - illegal aliens.  But they're not immigrants.   That is pretty much my only grip with this article - and that's a pretty petty gripe - give it a read.

An Excellent Question

(H/T Blues Blog)

The Dems don't ask, the Republicans don't ask, and the media don't ask.   The truth is:  They don't give a crap.  They're beyond being able to figure out why they should give a crap.    We The People are a necessary inconvenience to them. We provide the wealth they use the government to transfer from us to them.  We're the worker drones and they'd really rather we just shut the hell up and worked.

It's a bad place to be.  Trump will not fix any of the problems we have, because Trump is in the end all about Trump.  He's just closer to the rest of us, he still remembers why he should give a crap.  Will he?  I suppose when it's in his best interest, but otherwise?  Probably not.

Is there a good answer?  No, there's an okay answer - Cruz.  In the end, it probably won't matter, we're so far gone it's sort of irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure she didn't mean it that way

In reporting on the "unreal" surge in sexual assaults by refugees in Sweden, several young women were interviewed for comment.  I found Lovi's comment sort of interesting:

Others said the situation had already got 'out of hand', and admitted they were 'terrified' to go outside after dark. Lovis Jonsson, 16, said: 'It is terrible that women are the ones who are targeted. I feel afraid and exposed. I will never go out by myself after dark after the police warnings.'

Emphasis is mine - Yes, it's terrible that women are targeted - it should be men instead?  I'm almost sure that she means: It's terrible that the people we stupidly invited into our country are attacking us.   But after listening to so many feminists in the US, I really can't be sure. 

Full article here  @  Zero Hedge. 


I have to admire the PC of one young woman who thought perhaps blaming the refugees was premature. She's right, but one has to be willing to entertain the idea that these refugees are possible or probable source of the problem and many aren't.  Since the increase is timed with the influx of refugees, and the victims report "foreign" attackers (calling them middle eastern is just so not PC) and is unprecedented; logic suggests that refugees are the likely source of the problem.

To Trump or not to Trump

I'm not a fan of the Donald.  I understand the appeal to the average conservative (R) voter. They've been screwed over by their own party so many times they've hit a wall.  They're done, they've reached the point where the differences are irreconcilable. They want to see the establishment flushed down the drain.  Can't say I blame them.

Normally I vote my conscience - I don't buy into the big lie told by both the Republican and Democratic parties - that any vote for a third party is a wasted vote.  How can voting your beliefs be a waste?   Is the goal of our political system really to pick the Lesser of Two Evils?   Doesn't matter which one you pick - it's still EVIL.   And no, I'm not saying Donald is evil, but I don't think he's being even remotely honest with the voters either.  Hillary is evil, no doubt in my mind about that.  Bernie is far and away the most honest and sincere of the three candidates, but there's no way I'd vote for a socialist. His policies will kill the economy so fast it'll make your head spin.

Then again - I believe we're looking at WW III in the making -  Russia is stirring up the refugee's in Europe (or so I believe). They've given the best anti-aircraft weapons the Russians have to offer to Iran - which puts both the US and Israel in peril. China is moving in strength in the South China Sea and we have obligations to Japan, Okinawa, and Tiawan.   The Russians are also pushing in Europe. If we go one direction - the other will likely explode.  Obama has crippled our military so there's no chance of covering both plus the middle east. We're overextended, we have one of the weakest presidents in history, and Europe is under invasion by invitation.

The isolationist side of me says - screw 'em - Europe invited the Islamic hoards in, they can deal with it on their own - except they won't.  Unless that suppressed tendency of Germans to go from zero to Jackboot in the blink of an eye kicks in.   No this time it won't be little Germany and little Japan - it will be huge Russia, and huge China.  And our college students need safe spaces because someone expressed a thought.

I don't think we have a chance in hell of fixing things.  But Cruz might maybe hold things off long enough for the world economy to collapse - taking us with it.  But would you rather have a world economic collapse - or WW III and world economic collapse?  If China and Europe fail, taking Russia and America with them, we might escape  WW III.  If we go first - maybe we avoid it at least until China has gobbled up Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and everything else down to the Indian Ocean. While Russia snags Europe - once they're done, we're the obvious next target - then it's just a matter of splitting up the rest of the world.

So, I'm hoping Cruz get's the nomination, in which case I'll vote for him because we won't survive Hillary or Bernie. Or I'll hold my nose and vote for Trump - because there's no chance a libertarian will win, and we're at the point where the options on the left scare me enough to vote against them rather than for someone else.    And I really HATE being in this place.

Crony Capitalism and Socialism

This is really just me thinking 'out loud' as it were, as I try to work out where we're really going.

Is there a difference between Crony Capitalism and Socialism? Yes, the system we have in the United States today is a someone confusing mix of socialism, crony capitalism, and capitalism.  There is very little in the way of an actual free market, except for the underground economy, which has been mostly barter, but may eventually move to a more efficient crypto-currency.  Government bailouts are the beginnings of a socialist economy, as are government mandates.  Regulations, while not actually socialist tend to push the economy in that direction, but are often used by corporations for their own benefit. They are also used by bureaucrats to enhance their empires. It's critical to understand that a government employee is a walking, talking socialist, even if they think socialism is a bad idea. Their jobs exist only because of government. There is no means of production because regulations do not create production, they discourage it - we have a State owned, State run monopoly on the creation of regulatory obstruction of economic growth. At least when a business is nationalized, there may still be a chance of some production (how ever inefficient), with regulators there is none.

Looking at crony capitalism, which is what most people are talking about when they complain about the failure of capitalism, we can see that it leads in two possible directions. If it continues, not only unchecked by supported by the government, then eventually we will achieve a full blown Corporate Oligarchy, where a few huge multinationals will actually control multiple governments. We're getting closer to this every year. But the government is growing so fast that it is holding the line.  The competing trend is toward full blown socialism. This trend is supported by larger and large central government, more and more regulations, and the spawning of new government bureaucracies.  If the central government grows faster than the corporations - which seems most likely at this point, eventually they will, through a series of laws, regulations and bailouts, own the means of production bringing about full blown socialism.  If successfully checked by the big multinational corporations, usually by employing capital flight, regulatory capture, and vote buying, and thereby reducing the ability of a single government to restrict behavior and capture taxes, this battle may continue for a long time. At least until the clash as destroyed the economy, which I think is the most likely result.

Crony capitalism starts through four mechanisms:

• Cronyism is the directing of favors such as, contracts, jobs, etc., directed by a politician or government bureaucrat.  Usually in return for immediate benefits, such as real estate, travel and actions, insider information for stock trades, or even cash. Sometimes, the benefit comes in the form of private sector jobs that pay significantly more than the job is worth.  This is relationship building between the public and private sectors, the backroom dealing making.
• Direct funding such as Solyndra or the bailout of AIG, which are essentially a direct transfer of wealth from the taxpayer to corporations.  The funding is provided under any number of excuses, but it's almost always either favors to friends, an attempt to buy votes, or as payment for votes already received.  Too big to fail is a perfect example of this. 
• Regulatory Capture is typically done through the efforts of lobbing by a corporation. The lobbyist suggests, or in some cases actually writes a bill for a congressman.  The bill will create some direct benefit for the corporation, typically a subsidy or by creating a barrier to entry, and thus allowing the corporation to achieve higher profit margins before the competition becomes viable.  Over time, regulations and laws are created that block competition, create tax benefits, and establish economic rents such as the corn subsidies tied to ethanol production. 
• False information. In this case, corporations will create fear of some future failure and demand that the government step in to prevent it. Net Neutrality fits this fairly well.  This sets the stage for regulatory capture. 

All four methods may result in what's called the revolving door, where government employees are given jobs when they leave the public sector, and private sector employees gain positions, sometimes as the heads of government departments, and even cabinet positions.  This process continues as long as it benefits the parties involved and continues to siphon money from tax payers and transfers it to the players.

Socialism comes in two parts, culture and economy.  Direct economic socialism has failed every time it's been tried, but those failures never seem to stop others from trying.  Most likely it's either because of the short term lust for power, not caring what happens beyond the lifetime of those in power, or it's a factor of extreme arrogance and the belief that somehow they will manage to succeed where everyone else has failed. If the agent of socialism is a believer, then they either do not understand the basic impossibility of the task, or their arrogance exceeds their intellect and allows them to believe that "I will figure out how to make it work."  Most believers simply have failed to think through the consequences of the policies they "feel" good about. Minimum wage hikes, rent control, welfare programs, public schools, etc.   Especially popular are programs that allow the believer to disassociate themselves from consequence. Abortion, the feminist battle to destroy the traditional  family, the glorification of the single mother as some sort of hero.  These are all documented tactics of Social Marxism to destabilize a country and allow the growth of communism.

Corporate Oligarchy eventually leads to serfdom to the corporation - or private ownership of slave labor.   Socialism (and Communism) is nothing more than self imposed serfdom.  In the case of Socialism, society votes itself into chains, while in the case of communism, chains are affixed by government thugs with guns - Suicide or Murder - either way - you're dead.

Brilliant

It's been forever since I posted anything. Mostly because everything feels the same to me anymore, it's all so broken I just have just stood back and watched it burn.

For some reason the above diagram made me really smile - it's just so accurate.   It really is about class warfare - it's just not the classes as defined by Marx and perpetuated by academia, the media, and other leftist organizations.   This shows where the real class divide is - pay attention. Know thy enemy.

Nice job - Read it at Dan Mitchell's blog