Why we have Trump
Link here. The post provides an excellent selection of some of the more memorable and egregious performances by the arrogant press, insulting and attacking and making fun of the tea party protesters. As the author notes,
Dear Media. Psst. Pay deadly-close attention here, for this is nearly the whole game that lost it for you:
1) pols made statements about a new policy to help it pass.
2) policy passed.
3) public discovered the policy was not as described. In a really bad way.
4) pols laughed at the public for believing them in the first place.
5) public learned its lesson, and acted accordingly.
Media: remember who was cheerleading and protecting the politicians who were enacting ACA? Remember who was vilifying those making good faith arguments against it? Defaming them as racists? It was you. And we all remember being lied to by you, too.
When you weren’t simply mocking us.
And this is how you got Trump.
The post ends with a few links to just a few of the Obama administration’s worst power grabs and fascist attacks on citizens, including the Gibson guitar raid and the IRS harassment, both of which the mainstream press either ignored or worked to embargo so that no one would know they happened.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Link here. The post provides an excellent selection of some of the more memorable and egregious performances by the arrogant press, insulting and attacking and making fun of the tea party protesters. As the author notes,
Dear Media. Psst. Pay deadly-close attention here, for this is nearly the whole game that lost it for you:
1) pols made statements about a new policy to help it pass.
2) policy passed.
3) public discovered the policy was not as described. In a really bad way.
4) pols laughed at the public for believing them in the first place.
5) public learned its lesson, and acted accordingly.
Media: remember who was cheerleading and protecting the politicians who were enacting ACA? Remember who was vilifying those making good faith arguments against it? Defaming them as racists? It was you. And we all remember being lied to by you, too.
When you weren’t simply mocking us.
And this is how you got Trump.
The post ends with a few links to just a few of the Obama administration’s worst power grabs and fascist attacks on citizens, including the Gibson guitar raid and the IRS harassment, both of which the mainstream press either ignored or worked to embargo so that no one would know they happened.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Seeing these video clips, I am amazed at the amount of the vote that Hillary received, I do not for the most part watch network news, Obama care by itself should have caused Hillary an even bigger defeat, Gruber telling Americans what they did to deceive and lie to the public should have caused a revolt at least. The media is most complicit with the election of president Obama and are fellow travelers in an unamerican way of life.
Mr. Zimmerman: Be happy having Trump. He will end the evil PC stuff, imperial attutide and behavior of USA, incl. the hazardous attacks against Russia. Soros, Merkel and EU, as all the evil identity and nation destroying globalist are also in deep trouble now. We are cheering Trump every day. We wish a long life.
I think the mentality of the media and the government as they understood their growing power position is that the people do not have much of a long term memory for such things and they are solely focused on the here and now. And they myopically thought that they can do what ever they wanted, lie, cheat, deceive and force their will when ever they wanted. As the press giddily surrendered more and more of its objectivity and fiduciary responsibility in trade for their own personal beliefs in support of their idealistic governments tests of the limits of Constitutionality and abuses of power they were unable to see the growing rage that must at some point rise up and come to counter balance their abuses of power.
Lets all be thankful that for the most part the Constitution is still in operation as designed and intended, although always under pressures from all sides, always. The Founders and their scheme for freedom and liberty still stand for the most part and are tested and proven to be far superior to all who dare to better them. It really is an amazing accomplishment.
Trump is the measured American push back to the clearly, IMO, un American Obama administration, we will survive Trump just like we survived Obama. However, if the people were unable to see the road that they needed to steer the country down and chose to continue the Leftist drift with the empowering of Hillary I truly fear that we would have been so badly damaged that recovery may well have been impossible and 50 years + of darkness would have descended upon us all.
Trump will make us smile, Trump will test the limits of Constitutionality and piss us off, but I am more optimistic than pessimistic at this moment in time. I smile and shake my head every time I hear in the media “president elect Trump”. Hearing president elect Clinton would have really enraged me for the soooo, sooo many reasons that exist.
We “got” Trump and I say we roll with him, until he also has to go.
Cotour–
Have to counter-differ on the “..for the most part the Constitution is still in operation as designed and intended…,” thought.
>17th Amendment & all the SCOTUS cases dealing with the Commerce Clause have effectively breached numerous fire-walls. Our Federal government has not been operating with original-manufacturer’s specs, for about a 100+ years. (Not to even mention the first 100++ years.)
We are getting a taste of what sort of industrial-policy DJT is embarking upon.
It’s never worked before & it won’t work now.
Been there, done that, didn’t work, can & will never work.
On the flip side; if he can slash taxes, that’s a huge start & very positive, but I fear he has no intention of touching spending.
“For the most part”
I put that there just for you :)
In a way they are lucky they got Trump. One of my fears was what would happen to all that (well deserved) anger if Trump lost. It wasn’t going to go away and Hillary sure as heck wasn’t going to help it subside. If anything, the idea that the establishment was able to drag her over the finish line would have made it worse. Such anger could have been harnessed by someone much more malevolent than The Donald. Yeah, they dodged a bullet.
wayne,
I would add the Sixteenth Amendment as not only a bastardization of the Constitution but as allowing tyrannical control over the population, as Justice Roberts allowed in the Obamacare case. The government may now coerce us to do or not do anything, so long as a tax is associated with the decree.
I would also add the Kelo v. New London case, which eliminated any restriction on eminent domain that the Fifth Amendment imposes on government. Eminent domain can now be applied for fun and profit, not just for public use.
It is difficult to determine whether anyone in Washington DC has read even the Preamble to the Constitution, as it specifies that the spirit of American government is to, in part, “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” We the Posterity have fewer Blessings of Liberty than their generation did.
Kelo vs. New London was due to a problem with the Connecticut state Constitution, and in their ruling, the Supreme Court was careful to point out that Connecticut could change that at any time. I haven’t read the ruling in a while (actually, I never read the whole thing, just the pertinent parts), but it seemed to me that the Supreme Court’s stance was along the lines of “unhappily, we are forced to rule this way, because of the way Connecticut’s Constitution is written, but we urge Connecticut to amend their Constitution to eliminate this injustice.”
Just before the next election, I ran into my state representative in a crowded post office and got into a public discussion about this with him. I loudly pointing out that the Supreme Court practically begged the state legislature to amend the Constitution, but they did nothing and I thought they should all be replaced. He whined that (I’m paraphrasing) the representatives from the big cities were being bullies about it, so I pointed out that this is where leadership comes in; he and others should expose that to the public, after which we, the public, would provide a groundswell of support. He stopped the conversation there, got re-elected shortly after, but eventually stopped running after his arrest for drunk driving.
Sorry, I got off on a tangent and missed some of the main points I wanted to make.
Kelo vs. New London upheld New London’s use of eminent domain under the Connecticut state Constitution. It never applied in states that have Constitutions that are more restrictive in eminent domain, and shortly after, several states amended their Constitutions and/or eminent domain laws to make sure that it couldn’t happen there.
Unfortunately, Connecticut was not one of them. That’s just one reason why I would consider myself a failure if, 5 years from now, I’m not living somewhere else. There is a faint glare of hope; November put the state Senate seats at 24/24, but with a Democratic Lieutenant Governor, the tie goes to the Democrats. Still, it’s a refreshing change from years of Democrat super majorities in both houses and will have some effect.
Yes, the Supreme Court has made some destructive rulings over the years that have eroded our freedoms, but this one was not their fault, and doesn’t apply across the whole United States.
Chris L said:
“…In a way they are lucky they got Trump. One of my fears was what would happen to all that (well deserved) anger if Trump lost….”
Agreed. If Trump had lost by a small margin and the Republican Establishment was seen as making it happen my guess is that would have been the straw that finally broke the party.
Trumps victory has re-unified the party, at least for the moment. Whether they appreciate that is another question.
Garry, thanks for the info on the Kelo Decision, very interesting. The public perception was and still is that it was another failure of the Supreme Court. In fact I recall an effort in Vermont to use eminent domain laws to seize one of the Justices summer homes in that State just to make a point…. LOL
My guess is that CT has been the recipient of people fleeing NYC over the years and then voting for the same politics that caused the issues they were fleeing… My own State of Mass has been driving people into NH for years and now they are doing the same to that State :-(
Garrry,
The correct ruling was that no state can ever allow such an egregious violation of rights to occur, no matter their poorly written, tyrannical, anti-American Constitution.
It is because they misruled on this case that abuses of eminent domain may freely occur in America. The Supreme Court failed to rein in government power and stole yet another of our rights.
Despite the outrage expressed by the public, they went ahead, a decade later, and stole our right to freely spend our own money as we see fit, not as these tyrants direct. Our government teachers told us that the Supreme Court protected our rights, but it turns out that they are not on our side but ignore the US Constitution in order to add power to the ruling class at the expense of We the People.
It no longer matters which political party puts them on the bench, they are not protecting us from tyranny. It is bad government like this that is the reason why the American colonies revolted in the first place. It is bad government like this that is the reason why we have Trump.
Edward–
Yes, the 16th Amendment, needs to be amended. (as in, repealed)
“… allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the States or basing it on the United States Census…”
–It was always historically illegal to charge people different tax-rates, on the same “thing.”
Constitution was very clear about what sort of taxes the Feds could levy, and they needed to change the Constitution to impose an income-tax, on us. (They just fought a Revolution where-in taxation & representation were big issues.)
(pivoting slightly to the Prohibition Era; it was historically illegal to just ban a substance by Congressional action, they had to amend the Constitution to outlaw alcohol.
NOW, the FDA and DEA can magically outlaw any substance they want, administratively, without an Amendment. > that’s B-S!
Garry– interesting stuff, Ref Kelo.
I would highly recommend anything by Prof Richard Epstein concerning the takings’-clause & Administrative Law issues.
A nice example (one of many) of his presentations:
Professor Epstein on Kelo v. New London
https://youtu.be/ZbtEjbmmASw
Steve– in Michigan, we get a lot of people fleeing high-tax Illinois in favor of south-west Michigan.
Edward, you are correct; I was relying on hazy memory; for one thing, my faulty memory had it as a unanimous decision, but it was the usual 5-4 at the federal level, 4-3 at the state level.
Now that I’ve taken the time to review the facts, what I should have said was that even some of the justices who ruled in the majority considered it a legislative matter, and were quick to point out that the state legislature could change the rules. The silver lining is that even some of those justices apparently have a healthy respect for separation of powers; it doesn’t seem to be a case of judicial activism, but rather a misguided reluctance to overstep their bounds.
In my opinion, one problem is that eminent domain is mostly handled at the state and local level, which makes the federal government hesitant to get involved. I think the interpretation of the Fifth Amendment should be clarified to prevent any future Kelo situations, and the Supreme Court seems not to have captured original intent in this case.
There have been several attempts at the federal level to pass bills fixing this, but they haven’t gone anywhere. As I mentioned before, many states tightened up their eminent domain laws and/or Constitutions to prevent repeats of Kelo.
The great irony is that the land seized in the Kelo case was never developed as planned, and was used as a dump for debris in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene (it’s often called Hurricane Irene, but by the time it made landfall this far north it had been downgraded).
The original plan would have yielded only a few million dollars more for the City of New London, and the net result was that they lost revenue, as the land would have earned them property tax if left as is. The City even had the gall to try to charge the homeowners back rent for use of their seized land.
One of the State Supreme Court justices who ruled with the majority later made a public apology.
Steve Earle, most of the fleeing these days in out of Connecticut, an exodus I will join once my kids get settled (the youngest is still in high school). Like our People’s Republic to our north, we’ve had a loony leftward bent as long as I can remember. I suspect that even with the influx from New York, we are a net exporter of loony leftism.
I just received an email (I have not verified any of the information, if someone knows different please correct it) laying out some of the election numbers, and this again explains the function of the electorial college in our modern world. Always reject any thought of rejecting or rethinking the Founders well thought out and constructed scheme of governance.
There are 3,141 counties in the United States.
Trump won 3,084 of them.
Clinton won 57.
There are 62 counties in New York State.
Trump won 46 of them.
Clinton won 16.
Clinton won the popular vote by approx. 1.5 million votes.
In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. (Clinton only won 4 of these counties; Trump won Richmond)
Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country.
These 5 counties comprise 319 square miles.
The United States is comprised of 3, 797,000 square miles.
When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.
Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc.) don’t, and shouldn’t speak for the rest of our country.
I again point out the most important take away from all this, the verifiable lawless and corrupt, Hillary Clinton will never be the president of the United States. I sleep easier knowing that alone, everything else will some how work its way out. Instead of 50 years of guaranteed darkness we have IMO the potential of 50 + years of a more optimistic America and world.
Garry wrote: “the Supreme Court seems not to have captured original intent in this case. … and the Supreme Court seems not to have captured original intent in this case.”
Which is why I think they have not read (or maybe it is that they misunderstood) the Preamble. It is clear that liberty is the important concept in America. Anything that reduces this requires extraordinary reasoning and explanation.
Garry wrote: “The great irony is that the land seized in the Kelo case was never developed as planned”
Yes, but I go further and call it a tragedy. Several people and families lost their houses, only for it to be for nothing. And the thieves have gotten away with the government sanctioned theft.
Garry wrote: “The original plan would have yielded only a few million dollars more for the City of New London”
Which is why eminent domain should never be allowed to be used for fun or for profit. It turns into the loss of liberty and of property rights for the benefit of a malignant government.
Garry wrote: “One of the State Supreme Court justices who ruled with the majority later made a public apology.”
I hadn’t heard that one before. Good for him, but it would be so much better if he would also use his influence to help correct the problem on a national level. This is one of the many topics that I think need to be addressed at the coming Article V convention.
Cotour,
Interesting information. I had known that the majority of counties went against Clinton, I just didn’t realize how much of a landslide it was. It is bad enough that two states would drive national elections, if there were no electoral college, but it is worse knowing how few counties would drive national elections.
As it is, it seems that too many Americans vote for those who insist that we need baby sitting — are not mature enough to take care of ourselves — instead of realizing that as imperfect as we each are, we are still able to take care of ourselves without depending upon mommy and daddy — er — government.
Except for government-raised millennials, because it took a village to raise them. Or rather the “village” took them to raise.
Garry/Edward, others et-al–
interesting points.
>Our schools have totally failed to educate our population in the most basic aspects of our Country; who, what, when, where, and for-what-reason. We can all differ on Policy, but we all need to maintain a consistent rule-of-law.
And.. our Judicial Overlords, need to be reigned-in, big-time.
(Convention of States proposal on Term Limits, would include 12 years & out for any Federal Judicial appointment, including SCOTUS.
Cotour–
interesting Stats & consistent with what I know about the vote distribution.
(Referencing “vote fraud;” 120 million votes total. 1% overall (nation wide) fraud rate would be 1.2 million.
Numbers needed to swing Key Congressional districts, far smaller.)
>wrong thread, but referencing Carrier & DJT;
WSJ editorial page, (of which I’m no fan,) says:
Average wage-rate there is $20/hr + union-benefits.
The State gave that Plant $7 million in tax-incentives.
Carrier has a 30% share of the domestic-market for gas-furnaces. (same coils, etc., AC or furnace)
United Technologies gets 10% of it’s total revenue from the Pentagon.
They have an effective (current) Fed Tax Rate of 28%.
United Technologies pays $2 billion/year in taxes,
They export $10 billion/year (aerospace stuff), they have 40K USA based employee’s.
EPA regulations cost them more than their overall average Labor costs.
(and… pretty nice.. UT will “finance 4 year’s of college,” for any employee.)
As long as tax-breaks are given to ALL business, equally, I have no problem whatsoever.
I must draw the line at threats, tariffs, and picking-n-choosing winner’s/loser’s.
All-in on slashing Corporate Taxes & squashing huge amounts of EPA regulations, for everyone.
Wayne, I agree with your points on where to draw the line, but as far as I know, it was the Governor of Indiana, not the federal government, that gave tax breaks to United Technologies. Trump was there only to make the connection / take the credit, and instead of crowing about it he should have talked about lowering business taxes, cutting regulations, etc.
Also, the deal only covered one of 2 Carrier plants; the other is still planning to move to Mexico.
UT is a major employer in my area, with Sikorsky Helicopter, Otis Elevator, Pratt and Whitney, and others. They’ve always been well know for their generous benefits. I’m surprised that the federal government accounts for only 10 percent of their revenue; I thought it was much higher than that.
Garry–
Thanks for that additional info.
…as well, I have no problem with individual States competing for business.
I believe they have around 120K employee’s Worldwide & something like $50 billion in revenues
>Aren’t they based in Connecticut?
They do own a whole list of solid Brands with long history’s.
I think Trump wasted an opportunity to shine the light on EPA regulations and taxes in general. Instead, he made it all about HIM and the Federal Government.
He could have went all Reagan and pounded on taxes & the EPA and generalized this predicament to everywhere, but his inner Corporatist shone through, when it mattered.
Depending on the actual details, I could go either way, but it just smacks of crony corporatism. It may not actually be, but it sets a bad precedent. Have not formed a solid opinion either way.
For me, it is open to “bad-optics,” even if its pure as Ivory soap.
>Re-watch DJT’s Carrier news conference; right at the very beginning– when talking about that one employee– he goes off-prompter and essentially says, paraphrase/fragmentary,
” …’Carrier will never be allowed to go’…I just said that as a metaphor… he believed me… I had to do something,…it was the primary campaign…”
>>don’t have the link handy, but that’s the distinct message I received & he was off-prompter.
My only ‘thing,’ on all this; it’s not-good when Obama did stuff-like-that, and it’s not-necessarily-good, when DJT does it. (details, of course, matter. But so does the Narrative it creates. I’m all-in with every one of Mark Levin’s criticisms on this.)
Referencing the DJT/Carrier comments I paraphrased above–I cued this clip up, to the relevant remark time:
Listen to what he says. He gave it all away…
Full Speech: Donald Trump, Mike Pence
Indianapolis Carrier Plant
https://youtu.be/pQFZfzKVDl8?t=705
Thoughts for which I am extremely sympathetic—
Mark Levin on DJT
“What is this…a Banana Republic?
https://youtu.be/o8eiPW_rY00
It’s Christmas Season after a major Election, I believe this little tune is highly relevant:
“Deck the Halls with Macro Follies”
(EconStories)
https://youtu.be/7uKnd6IEiO0
(4:34)
“we’re spending as fast as we can…to stimulate the economy…”
Wayne, thanks for the links, especially the Levin clip (I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn’t yelling the whole time; I love his ideas, I don’t much care for his delivery).
The most frustrating thing for me about Trump is that reporters, debate moderators, etc. will ask him questions and I’ll think “this is so easy; there’s a great answer to this that will open eyes of the uninformed and shut up the idiot trying to trap him.” And then Trump will say something…..very different. Even when I agree with his actions, his rationale for them is very disappointing. And he misses so many opportunities to beat the drum of free markets, a rising tide lifts all boats, small government, etc.
I miss Ronald Reagan.
Garry,
I agree about Levin’s delivery. When I yell at my radio, I get worried when it yells back (unlike Sheldon on Big Bang Theory, I have not been tested for insanity).
As for Trump missing so many opportunities, he does not believe in those ideas, so it does not occur to him that he has a softball question to hit out of the park for conservatism. But, he will become president, and we will have to see just how much damage he causes before he’s through.
Garry–
[Highly recommend the “Deck the Halls…” video. They pack an entire year’s worth of Grad-school econ education, into 5 minutes.]
“Even when I agree with his actions, his rationale for them is very disappointing. And he misses so many opportunities to beat the drum of free markets, a rising tide lifts all boats, small government, etc.”
>Priceless!
You’ve hit upon exactly why I am highly leery of DJT.
At his core, he just doesn’t get it, and goes off on some strange tangent to justify his actions, even when they are perfectly rational to begin with.
On the upside (hopefully) he appears capable of doing the correct-things, but for all the wrong reasoning.
I believe it was the Philosopher Karl Popper (?) who formulated the idea that;
“all mass-movements are essentially identical & the adherents of such, are ALL interchangeable.”
The key terms, being “mass-movement’s,” and “all interchangeable.” (In part, this is why he speaks to communists/Bernie-types, and invites them to join “the movement,” and…HIM.”
I would just tangentially opine, “When you believe in nothing, you’ll believe…. anything.”
Levin gets a bad wrap for his “yelling.” If he’s yelling, he’s upset, but he’s not ranting/raving irrationally. He’s done more to politically-challenge the left than most every radio-host on Earth, via his Landmark Legal Foundation, which has targeted the EPA and the NEA for decades.
–It was Landmark Legal, that brought suit against Bill Clinton for lying and got his legal-license yanked. It wasn’t the GOP, the RNC, Congress or the Senate, it was Levin’s legal Foundation.
Edward– (posts are crossing in “the cyber.”)
Said it before & will say it again; highly sympathetic/empathetic toward all of your DJT criticism’s the past months.
Best way to listen to Levin is via mp3 podcast. 3 hour show is only 1:53:00 long, and “they” insert additional advertising in the live-stream. (WABC NY is a notorious offender, they add 5-7 minutes/hour.)
Generally– his first hour (40 minutes) is a monologue.
On a lighter note…
Sheldon teaches Penny Physics
https://youtu.be/AEIn3T6nDAo
(6:57)
Cotour–
…unfortunately (or not, as the case may be) I know way more than I should, about the whole “illuminati” ‘thang. I met Robert Anton Wilson 1x at a comic-con in Chicago , albeit very briefly.
Friend of mine in college went on to buy the rights to present his works in comic-book format, in the late ’80’s. (lasted 3 issues, the B&W graphic-novel format was crashing at the time.)
Whom do you think killed JFK?
(Serendipitously– recently watched an author-interview, where-in the guy presented a good take– summarizing crudely– the assassination was already in-progress seconds before Zapruder filmed what we came to think was “the entire event.”
sorry– posted in the wrong thread.
Wayne, good find on Deck the Halls; it’s hilarious (because it’s true).
I listened to Levin for 5 years or so, maybe 5 to 7 hours of his show per week. At one point I noticed that he yelled more and more often, and with many other moving parts of my life getting in the way of listening, I found myself listening less often. He’s by far my favorite talk radio host, because he’s done so much for this country through his legal foundation and I learn a lot from him.
I’m encouraged by what Levin has to say, and will make a point to listen more often.
Edward, I agree with you that Trump will do some damage to this country, but he will also do some good. The big question is how that balances out, and as Mr. Z has pointed out many times, one of the determining factors will be who he surrounds himself with.
I’m not convinced that Trump disbelieves all conservative principles; I think many of them align with his beliefs, but he’s not wired to look at things through the lens of conservatism; he argues specifics rather than principles they are based on.
I believe Trump’s greatest strength is that he’s a great negotiator, and his greatest weakness is that he often looks at things only through the lens of negotiations.
Garry– good stuff! (as in “nail, on the head.”)
(tangent–you ever watch In Living Color? They had a good running-skit on Jamaican immigrant’s who always had “multiple jobs,” —I think of you & your multiple activities.)
-My daughter lives in Virginia & I’ve been to a “Bark in the Park” event, 2 Levin book-signings, and multiple Tea Party Rally’s in the DC area.
(Had a chance to see many good Conservative speaker’s at Hillsdale College, here in Mi., as well.)
– I’m a definite Levin-ite, but not a 100% version. I vary in the region between Beck and Levin, overall. (crudely stated.)
>>Save yourself on the commercials for Levin (or indeed, for anyone) there’s only about 40 minutes of show per hour. Mp3 files only have the intro commercial & the in-show voice-over’s.
Same for the John Batchelor show– I only download the mp3 files.
a repeat from me, but well worth a view:
“Fight of the Century Round 2”
https://youtu.be/GTQnarzmTOc
and, serendipitously—
This weeks Econ-Talk episode from Prof Russ Roberts:
“Illiberal Reformers”
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2016/12/thomas_leonard.html
“Were the first professional Economists racists? Thomas Leonard of Princeton University and author of “Illiberal Reformers” talks with Econ-Talk host Russ Roberts about his book–a portrait of the Progressive movement and its early advocates at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The economists of that time were eager to champion the power of the state and its ability to regulate capitalism successfully. Leonard exposes the racist origins of these ideas and the role eugenics played in the early days of professional economics. Woodrow Wilson takes a beating as well.”
wayne linked: “Sheldon teaches Penny Physics”
Excellent. I will have to start my stories from their very beginnings too, if I can figure out whether the beginning is “It was a dark and stormy night” or “It’s a warm summer evening in ancient Greece.” If you thought my stories were long before …
Garry,
You wrote: “but he’s not wired to look at things through the lens of conservatism; he argues specifics rather than principles they are based on.”
It was a dark and stormy night. Trump argues specifics, because he does not have the principles to ground him in anything. This is why his mind wanders as he gives a speech, why he tells or believes different “facts” based upon the needs of the moment and truly believe it to be true as he states it (e.g. did he or did he not support the Iraq war, way back when?), why during his campaign he continually changed his promises to include so many mutually exclusive things, and why he drove four businesses into bankruptcy.
That’s why wayne opined: “When you believe in nothing, you’ll believe…. anything.”
wayne linked: “Fight of the Century Round 2”
It’s a warm summer evening in ancient Greece. I also like round one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk (8 minutes)
Keynes’ problem was thinking that it is all in the spending, which is what an economy is, but in reality there is also what is not seen: that it is all in the productivity of goods and services. The important thing is to get value for your spending, which is what your “Deck the Halls” link was telling us.
http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html#SECTION_G002
When the baker spends money replacing a broken window instead of buying a new pair of shoes, there is less useful value in the world, because the shoes are never made.
Just as “Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed,” society loses the value of things which are uselessly purchased.
The fallacy can be better demonstrated by reductio ad absurdum: if it is good to break the baker’s window, it should then be good to break all the windows in town, good to burn down the baker’s shop, or good to burn down the entire town. replacing the windows, the shop, or the town spends lots of money, which should hypothetically be great for the economy, but there is no more value in the world than before. There is no additional prosperity than there was before.
Rather than rebuild what already had existed, all that labor could have gone into creating new wealth — new prosperity — that hadn’t been there before. The building of America occurred because of new construction and the creation of new goods and services, rather than rebuilding what already existed. Why is Los Angeles a large city when a century and a half ago it was a small crossroads town? I recommend the entire “What We Believe” series, but focus on this part for my point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkXI-MNSb8Q#t=118 (10 minutes)
The economy does not need stimulating, it needs a reason to grow.
So why do we have Trump instead of someone who already knows how and why an economy works and how and why a great nation becomes great again?
(If this educational rant added value to your life, then it was well worth creating.)
Edward- good stuff.
I’m doubting current Journalism School grads, know who Bastiat is.
On an infinitely lighter tangent, you might enjoy this: (watch all 4 parts)
“American Engineer” 1956 (part 1)
https://archive.org/details/American1956
(9:18)
>you can stream or download at the Archive– no registration.
>>”Tribute to engineers and their role in improving American life through technology.”
Jam Handy Productions
Garry wrote: “as Mr. Z has pointed out many times, one of the determining factors will be who he surrounds himself with.”
I guess that I somewhat disagree with Robert, on this point, because he can surround himself with the best of the best of the best, but if he does not listen to them or directs them poorly, then we can have another Obama on our hands. Obama directed the government poorly, doing so as though his job were absolute monarch rather than the one who merely presides over only the governmental operations of a constitutional republic.
Obama ruled as though he were personally responsible for solving all the country’s problems and all the problems of each individual within it, and Trump speaks in the same way. Instead, the job of the US President is only to direct the executive branch, approve legislation into law, and be the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces.
Governments have only three jobs to do: protect the population from foreign and domestic enemies, peacefully resolve disputes, and get the hell out of the way of their populations. The US has forgotten the third job, and is neglecting the first. The portion of the government that is responsible for the second job, the judicial branch, is one of the offenders of the third job.
The purpose of the Preamble is to remind the government that it has only these three jobs. The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to remind the government to stay out of its population’s way — that is how important this job was, to those living in the country at that time.
Presidents have taken the task of suggesting legislation to mean that they are the sole problem solvers, and now we have had one president who ruled as though he were a dictator, including being the sole arbitrator of justice. If we let the next president do the same, rather than redirect him to the much smaller task of his actual job, then we are complicit in the destruction of our republic and its demise into the dictatorship that Obama has tried to turn it into.