Crony Capitalism

Possibly, the biggest oversight of our founding fathers was, to not include an article in the constitution regarding the separation of economy and state.  I'm still digging to see if perhaps they didn't actually make a conscious decision to leave the possibility of government interference in the free market.

When I was studying Economics in college, I took a course on government regulation.  My conclusion was that, as a company you wanted regulation - yeah I know, that sounds really wrong.  Keep in mind, that regulators, until fairly recently, didn't bother with little industries, there wasn't really enough voter noise for congress to create new regulatory agencies, and regulations.  Mostly it affects large industries. Here's how it works.

In the early stages of regulation you have a government sanctioned monopoly of some domain.  You are essentially guaranteed a return on investment, more than likely there is  government funds to help you build the business.   The second stage comes from the hiring of the individuals who used to regulate your business or, at minimum putting them on the board of directors.  You now have your Washington insider, who has a serious financial incentive to get additional concessions from the 'new' regulator.  Eventually congress get's involved, usually because of a change in technology, or  a perceived change in the competitive nature of the regulated industry.   Now the regulated corporation sends in the lobbyist, who write bills to favor the company, or industry.  They raise funds for re-election, and in return the bills are passed.  New regulators are appointed, old regulators are given very high paying jobs and put on the board of more companies.   Eventually a previous regulator will split off, and via the campaign finance donations bribery paid, they will be appointed to regulation again, where they with their new insight in to what the company needs, adjust the regulations, selectively enforce, or ignore regulations depending on financial gain to their now future employer.

Sometimes, the push to regulation comes from unions, early on, those regulations were primarily to prevent unscrupulous business operators from forcing workers into unsafe work environments.  That for the most part (not entirely) ended back in the seventies.

In the end, the government who was trying to control the business is in fact, owned by the business. As long as they avoid any monstrously huge public impropriety the politicians will work with them and help them fleece the consumer voter.

AT&T benefited hugely from it's government sanctioned monopoly - the euphemistic deregulation phase, on the surface seemed like a good thing, what it in fact did was create new regulatory conditions on multiple smaller organizations.   Additional opportunities for jobs for regulators, lobbyists, and additional complex regulation that would allow the companies to avoid competition, due partly to the onerous barriers to entry crated by the wall of bureaucratic red tape.

Regulation is used as a giant club which is used to beat potential entrants into the marketplace,  thus stifling competition. The large corporation, a million, or even 100 million dollar legal budget is an asset.  It erects barriers that smaller more efficient, more competitive companies can not scale.

Thus crony capitalism is born.

The last thing a crony capitalist really wants is an elimination of government interference.  There are few if any crony capitalists amongst small business.  That generally only happens if a congress critter leaves office and returns home to start said business, or go to work with a friend and long time supporter.

If you want to see this in operation, take a look at the number of ex regulators working at Monsanto, or Verizon, or AT&T, or .....

Why there is no Science in Climate Science

I keep thinking about the battle between Climate Science™and Deniers™ and wondering why there's so much resistance to an actual scientific approach.  For a while, I assumed it had to do with grant money. If you look at where funding comes from - the governments, you need to wonder why they fund non-science.  Certainly there has been sufficient skepticism from ligament sources that they might consider.   I think the answer lies in the centralization of power.

We've all heard the phrase "Never let a crisis go to waste."  A crisis is the fastest way to institute law and regulation resulting in the increase of centralized power.  Why? A crisis brings fear, and people who are afraid look for someone to protect them, sadly, we've replace family and community with government in that roll. So we have a crisis - apparently manufactured - funded by the government, supported by the liberal media.  But it's being used to enact policy that makes little or no sense.

Thermal solar is the least cost effective form of energy in use for large scale production, wind only works when the wind is blowing at a reasonable velocity,  geothermal doesn't seem to work well enough to gain traction, except perhaps in Iceland.  Photo-voltaic is enormously expensive and only useful at a small scale at present.  Both forms of solar are only effective during the day - fortunately solar covers the largest peak usage around noon, although it's less effective for the secondary peak around 5pm.   Neither wind or solar is a viable power source for virtually half the day.   Wave and Tidal power has a host of issues with maintenance costs and not in my back yard complaints.

So the government is attempting to kill coal because "global warming" at the same time, we're ripping out hydro-electric dams, we can't make progress on nuclear both of which are clean sources.  It seems to me, they're not trying to solve the claimed problem. What it looks like to me is an attempt to make people afraid so they ask for protection, since you can't protect someone from something that doesn't exist, the power mongers need to find policies that appear to do something, while at the same time waisting economic productivity (money). Why? People in debt are slaves to the system, they are put in a position where they need help, creating more dependency.  It's a self reenforcing form of serfdom.

Actual science would ruin all that.

Science is DEAD, long live Politics

The trend continues, any scientist who disagrees with the political agenda get's silenced.  Borepatch has some info on one of the more recent assaults on science.   If you sometimes wonder about Climate Science - just keep following the links on his site.   You will rapidly come to the conclusion that there is something going on - but it's NOT SCIENCE.

From Joanne Nova - http://joannenova.com.au

Want some more - go check out You Tube.  First look at the TED channel, there are some very interesting talks - there's also a LOT of social engineering going on - no big surprise, most of them are believers in the Leftist Agenda.

 Now search for Banned from TED talks.   Yeah there's quite a few of them, if you listen to them you'll find that they mostly talk about things that are counter to the Leftist Agenda.

One I can't quite figure out is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g - Look at my previous post - it's basically a Rich Guy saying we need to Tax Rich Guys.  Well that fits with the Leftist agenda - except that they KNOW they're not going to do it, because THEY don't pay taxes.

Way too far

Normally I follow the Heinlein Maxim: 

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

For THIS to be anything but malice is too hard to believe.  The charge is obstruction - the method - he wouldn't stop talking.  The cause - he wore an NRA t-shirt.

I suspect this is what Stalin's USSR would look like if it had started off with a Constitution - It would have ended up in the same place, it just would have taken a few years longer.   Exercising his first amendment rights - by showing silent support for the NRA is tantamount to terrorism - which apparently they considered charging him with. 

 Yes the progressives really do think the NRA is a terrorist organization.  

 

Fire them all and start over.

It appears that our government has allowed the following:

Chinese Steal Plans to our newest Joint Strike Fighter, PAC-3 and lots of other highly classified military projects.

But don't worry, cause we're trading partners and they would never use that stuff against us.   Really?  we're that friggen incompetent?   They've hack our Power Grid, they steal everything we produce.

We've filled our National Defense technology with Counterfeit Chinese parts.

So  just what the hell are the following groups actually doing with their time?

Pentagon / Military Intel, FBI, NSA, CIA, Trusted Defense Contractors.   Apparently either having Sex with Chinese honeypots or Spying on U.S. Citizens because, why the hell would we want to keep people out of our National Security infrastructure? We're worried about who might want us to actually not violate our Oaths of Office to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic".    We don't have time to worry about the Chinese, or Islam.  We gotta protect our jobs!

Fuck!  - Fire everyone and start over.   And when I say Fire - I'm pretty sure I mean Firing Squad.   At least charges for Dereliction of Duty, Violations of National Security, Gross Malfeasance, and if I knew more about the law I'm sure I could come up with a few dozen pages of things.  

From the FBI's own Priority List

National Security Priorities:

1. Protect the United States from terrorist attack    FAIL

2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage  EPIC FAIL
3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes  EPIC FAIL

Criminal Priorities

4. Combat public corruption at all levels  EPIC FAIL

5. Protect civil rights  EPIC FAIL

6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises 

7. Combat major white-collar crime  EPIC FAIL

8. Combat significant violent crime   

She really is that stupid

Once again Nancy Pelosi proves she'll say anything rather than admit they screwed up.  There aren't a lot of people I truly despise but she's right near the top of my list.

Right - Benghazi, IRS, AP/Fox - it's all just a distraction he's a great President - he should be allowed his little foibles - it's all the Conservatives Fault.  They're just trying to make him look bad. It's a distraction.   Right, massive violations of the Constitution are just a distraction.   Dereliction of duty is a distraction.

You can tell where she puts the Constitution and Government Corruption on her list of priorities - Yep, didn't even make the list.

This is the kind of thinking you get when someone believes that the Constitution is just that annoying, outdated, obsolete document that really doesn't mean anything anymore.

It's just possible

Well perhaps the AP and Fox News scandal finally hit close enough to home for the frigging Main Stream Liberal Media to see a slight glimmer of what the rest of us have been yelling about for the last 6 years.

I don't expect this to last.

You make it sound like news

This is not news, it's business as usual.

What's news worthy is that it came out in a Chicago Blog implying there's at least one person in Chi-Town that might not be in bed with Obama.  That I do find surprising.  It is after all the The Most Corrupt City in the U.S.

I'm not sure I like the way they rated those cities though, some how I'm not sure Seattle's rep for corrupt parking enforcement is in actually worse than Tampa, Boston, and Bell CA, which are noted for serious political corruption.   And Houston's corrupt PD I think might be worse than Seattle's.  I know I'd rather be in Seattle than any of the others but I have to say, my City is a sad, sad disappointment.   To many liberal Californians - it has been as we say - Californiated, and that's never a good thing.

Department of Redundancy Department

Corrupt Hypocritical Elitist Government Assholes (only one of those words is really necessary the rest are - well - redundant)

So Obama has a tax problem - well actually several.  It seems the IRS not only harasses conservatives but it gives liberals a pass.   36 of Obama aids have racked up an $833,000 in unpaid taxes.  What do you suppose the chances are that they've paid up since January?

Must be nice to work for the Obama administration - Overpaid, under worked and you don't have to pay your taxes.

To Protect and Self-Serve

Guys like this are members of the organizations  that some people think should be the ONLY ones allowed to carry guns - Really?  Why do so many people (especially those in NY, and CA) extend trust to authority figures - oh yeah, because they're children and want someone to protect them from the boogie man.  

Get ready to pay for law suits

It makes perfect sense really.   Sequestration results in layoffs, layoffs bump unemployment, unemployment perceived as a bad thing.  Solution: tell companies to break the law, not issue mandatory layoff notices,  and that tax payers will pick up the bill for the law suits.  DC-Think at it's finest.

Want to know more

Voting Depression

I generally vote for whom ever I think represents my views the best - usually it's not a (D) or (R).   I rebel against the idea of voting for a Republican just to keep a Democrat out of office, or vice-versa.   So here I am feeling sick to my stomach because I can't in good conscience do something that might lead to Obama getting re-elected.   He and his people are trying to bury the Constitution.   They despise gun owners.  And I believe their policies are going going to destroy our economy.   I will grant that he started off with a next to impossible situation that I believe started with Clinton (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) and was made considerably worse by the ill advised war waged by Bush - Oh and the IDIOT tax breaks they passed.   There was that brief moment when we had a surplus (OK Not really - but based on the fantasy accounting used by the government).  We could have used that to pay down the National Debt - you know the same thing they keep telling all of us to do - pay down your debt....


Nope Bush decides to give it back to the rich folk - oh sure the rest of us got a tiny bit too - then he goes and starts a massively expensive war and yep - cuts taxes again.   Now don't get me wrong - I'm not a fan of Taxes.     At the very least taxes give government types the idea that they have money to spend.   They don't - they spent it all a long time ago.   


OK enough history.    So here I am faced with Voting my Conscience (my usual choice assuming there's anyone at all on the ballot that fits that bill) and voting against Obama - it Damn it to Hell - they stuck me with MITT.  None of the four contenders where really worth a damn to begin with.   I really like about 60% of Ron Paul - the rest is.... not good.   Santorum scares me - he's a big government type - no real track record for protecting the Constitution and he believes some people have the right to tell other people what's right and wrong - despite what the courts have said.    Not interested in living in a Theocracy - thanks Rick.   Newt - well, at least I have an idea what to expect from him - more of the SAME.  but I don't think he'd trample our rights as fast as Rick or Mitt.  And I don't think he'd get us into the same problems with our allies that Ron would.


So now - after all the preaching I've done about not voting for a Republican or a Democrat - I'm thinking I'll have to vote for one - and it SUCKS. 


George was right - the two party system is a bad idea.

     I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
     This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
     The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.

(George Washingtons Farewell Address)