Freedom Riders
I just learned that the guest speaker at this months Celebrating Conservatism meeting ( tomorrow) is Michael Shaw from Freedom 21 Santa Cruz and as I have been arguing, his and the Conservative and Tea Party agenda is saving capitalism. You can find his speech at www.Freedom Advocates.org where he warns the crowd that the language of "sustainable development" is simply New World Order lingo for "population control and reduction", the taking of private property rights and destruction of the free enterprise system.
I have been debating local liberal Democrats who prefer to see racist roots in this movement because they can then combat it with a liberal "rights" discourse rather than have to focus on economics. No doubt there are religious, racial, even xenophobic elements to all this but my liberal friends hope to avoid the discussion of "free markets" because it puts them in the position of having to defend "Keynesian" reforms ( obvious failures) or true free markets with all the barbarity that implies. In contrast, I respect these conservatives for their willingness to state the battle as it is ( Left vs Right, anti-capitalist vs capitalist) and welcome the opportunity to debate them. But will that ever happen? Is debate permissible? Where will Labour stand?
Shaw has a well organized operation ( media, researchers, speakers, literature, etc) to fight land use planning, environmental regulation, trade policy and anything going under the moniker "sustainable development" because it limits individual freedom and property rights. He is correct. It does. Liberals are forced to defend zoning and eminent domain and free trade and the Endangered Species Act and the WTO and all the other forms of elite control against populist anger. It's a losing proposition and sets up a false binary exploited by all the Sierra Clubs and NGOs and non-profits who soak the liberal elite for "Save the World" donations. The "progressive" project is in shambles and they had better find the courage soon to stop defending capitalism.This is how two "Democratic political consultants" totally misread it from the LA Times:
"The Tea Party is a harbinger of mid-life crisis, not political crisis."Like David Brooks they want to smirk at old Boomers as frustrated Hippies gone soft.
Speaking of capitalism, this article from the NY Times about credit default swaps ( hat tip to Che Bob) is interesting:
"Mr. Bernanke is undoubtedly an intelligent man. But his view that it's "counterproductive" to use credit default swaps to crash an institution or nation exhibits a certain naievete about how the titans of finance operate now."
First off, is Bernanke an "intelligent man"? What is our criteria? Everyone says "at least Obama is intelligent". Really? Isn't Alan Greenspan an intelligent man? Intelligence plus flawed ideology produces disaster so what does this tell us about "intelligence"? Anyway, look at the casual, cynical reference to "titans of finance". This is another way of saying tyrants or totalitarian masters and yet it elicits nothing more than a smirk from the hoi polloi. And it is totally off the radar of Mr. Conservative Sustainable Development from Santa Cruz ( where my little brother and dad live, by the way). The article goes on to say:
"Credit default swaps with a face value of 36 trillion dollars were outstanding in the second quarter of 2009". Talk about losing your freedom! And it is hardly a "New" World Order.
posted by troutsky @ 8:59 AM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Keep an eye on Treasury auctions. The Fed is buying treasuries in the face of scant interest and that can't continue.
If this bizarre game is going to continue someone has to decide to step up and swing because the umpire is getting ready to yell, "Play ball".
Is Bernanke a smart man? Bernanke has to act politic to avoid letting people know that Alan Rand (aka Greenspan) really put the freaking shit in the fan.
One thing I guarantee. These moronic tea baggers DO NOT understand that unemployment is part of the plan for controlling inflation. Big freaking train in the tunnel and these fools can't do anything but scream for more tinkle down economics even after the hosing they got under Chucklenuts Bush.
... and I was in such a good mood yesterday. Saw and absolutely riveting performance of the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1. Really lifted my spirits.
More immediate may be Jim Bunning (R - Near Uranus) and his shutdown of unemployment benefits, construction projects, COBRA benefits extensions and how this plays with the tea baggers.
Are they applauding his principled stand while their unemployment checks are delayed or does this strike them as a disgrace.
A larger question would be if the Senate can continue as a governing body when one hard core freak can stop the process. I assume the baggers consider this a good thing when there is a "socialist" in the White House.
Gentlemen, the wheels have fallen off. The government continues to function strictly on short term momentum and I guess the baggers will tell us this all represents the "genius of the founding fathers".
Question: Can the Senate continue to be a governing body under the current rules.
Here we go again. Genuine racists and bigots are more likely to comment on this site or specifically Renagade Eyes site than attend a Tea Party Rally.
This blog is linked to a blog whose content is regularly linked by Stormfront. Sorry, but jokes about Anne Frank and Holocaust references such as accusing an Israeli company of making lampshades out of Palestinians is clearly not political discourse.
Moreover, when people as diverse as Jams, CB, Sonia and a lefty whose last name was Fink all point
to the Nazi style rhetoric as objectionable some of you need to look in the mirror. While one can see plenty of instances where I object and state my views the usual
suspects encourage this fare.
The Old Geezer who went on a shooting spree at the Holocaust Museum filled out an anti Capatalist screed that would not raise an eyebrow at Ren's site or this one.
We have already passed the carrying capacity for this planet; any talk of 'sustainable development' is now ludicrous. The only hope of human survival now is population reduction. Unfortunately, that message can only be heard by and acted upon by the wrong type of people ... the 'titans' of finance, the corporate 'oligarchs', the captains of industry, the monsantos, the duponts, the rothschilds and the City of London financial hub of the world.
Oh, and let us not forget Bayer&Co. they tried to act on it before, supporting Hitler in the Third Reich!!
KKKultur has now ditched Mazzola Marxism for Malthus.
Malthus believed it was God's will; I don't believe in any deity
Troutsky: The Tea Party is an astroturf movement, not grassroots. Highly subsidized by lobbyists.
The real Tea Party, protested lack of elected representation. Obama like him or not, won an election. There is no analogy to real revolutionaries to be found.
Some in the Tea Bag movement, who even call Bush socialist.
Kulturcritic: Malthus is the proponent of the idea, there was a feast, and too many people showed up and spoiled the party.
When he wrote on population, he believed Britain was overpopulated. It had 10 million people, with half working in agriculture. Today its 60 million with .05% working in agriculture.
Malthus was a landlord, who ignored class. He blamed everything on the poor.
Scarcity of resources, depends on price.
We don't know how much oil is in the ground. There is more, when the price is right.
Adam Smith deserves respect, as a great thinker for his period. Malthus was always a hack.
One thing i admire about you beak, you are not afraid to show your closed minded bigotry. You are quick to label people; pidgeon hole them, call them names; defame them... hell, why don't you just do what the other fascist racist bigots do, and try to kill all of us who you don't agree with
face it beak...wouldn't you just love to take all those 'commies', put 'em in big ol' ovens and cook 'em til their crispy?
KKKultur
Commies belong in institutional settings where they are better served. Examples of places suitable
for commies are mental health facilities or prisons.
Sorry there KKKultur but mindless
killing along with property theft
is a commie trait. I like the university antisemitic attempt to link hatred of political criminals
with the Holocaust. Sorry, but when
commies are not stoking populist
antisemitism with Nazis and Jihadis
they try to claim victims status.
Also attempting to call a real Jew
( Commies like Ren and yourself are
not recognized by Jews) a Nazi is
a standard University antisemitism
101. You also display zero original
thought and are a walking example of a University hack. Just repeat
mindless Marxism and get a job with
no real scholarship or thought. If you have committed terrorism in the name of Marx this is a resume builder.
Sorry, but as an advocate of Constitutional Democracy the term
fascism does not apply to me. However in your case ditching Marx
for Il Duce would represent some form of self improvement. The real
Il Duce happened to be a Socialist. Fascism was a rival utopian scam not its polar opposite. Moreover, commies and Nazis and Jihadis frequently work
together when expedient.
KKKultur is well suited to life as
a lemming. Malthus merely skips all
of the blather of Marx and cuts to
the objective of Marx mindless death.
FYI: Marxism is more religiously doctrinaire and divorced from reality than the folks at Al Queda.
I wouldn't call Malthus a hack, ren. What we have been able to do is accelerate resource extraction with technology so that the extraction is faster than the population curve.
That has a limited life.
Ducky, sorry to be such a downer, good music is an antidote for me as well.
Beak, linked to a link? C'mon, I don't accuse you of guilt by association.
Ren, I am sure these folks I will hear tonight have outside funding but also genuine grassroots support. I admire them for their efforts but their analysis is way down the rabbit hole.
kultur, Fewer people might be helpful but under this system half as many people could still use twice as many resources. In other words, I don't think it is numbers alone but how they are organized. I wish the guy who wrote this guest column would volunteer for extermination: Ignore the Alarmists; Montana Coal Should be Mined by Marshall Cromwell.
Malthus a hack? C'mon. He was very intelligent!
And yes, I'd say Greenspan is an intelligent man. That doesn't mean he can't be a fool or a nincompoop too, among other things. What is intelligence, after all? It is not one simple thing. Just because people hold idiotic opinions doesn't mean they aren't "smart." Being smart is a much overrated quality, I think. (BTW, everyone thinks I'm really smart!)
Regarding "carrying capacity of the planet," nobody knows what that is. It's not a concept that meshes well with technological development. Using it uncritically gives free reign to the most reactionary elements - yes, I mean what I said! - of the environmentalist movement.
Finally, FYI Troutsky, et al, regarding my recent post on the Climate Change Consensus, here's a snip from current coverage of the testimony before Parliament of Phil-why should I share my data with you so you can criticize it-Jones of CRU at East Anglia University, UK:
The body representing 36,000 UK physicists has called for a wider enquiry into the Climategate affair, saying it raises issues of scientific corruption. The Institute of Physics doesn’t pull any punches in the submission, one of around 50 presented to the Commons Select Committee enquiry into the Climategate archive. The IOP says the enquiry should be broadened to examine possible “departure from objective scientific practice, for example, manipulation of the publication and peer review system or allowing pre-formed conclusions to override scientific objectivity.”
–Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 1 March 2010
kultur, Fewer people might be helpful but under this system half as many people could still use twice as many resources. In other words, I don't think it is numbers alone but how they are organized.
----------------------
What he said.
Troutsky
Your developmentally disabled Cafeteria Commissar Cumwad Renegade
Sphincter wants to play this game linking me to Bad Eagle. One can see many comments by me objecting to the racism and homophobia of that site.
Whatever, Dr. Yeagley is he is not
as low as Liberal White Boy who frequently makes Holocaust Jokes. Yeagley has made disastrous comments and Pagan Temple and I posted our opposition.
I was never linked to Bad Eagle and Dr. Yeagley did not post any objectionable stuff at my site. LWB posted here and at Ren's site for months. You ignored him and Ren fed him Red meat.
I want to thank KKKultur for unwittingly affirming something I said. Communist Traitors like Ren
and KKKultur quickly trot out a few dead relatives when trying to
insulate themselves from charges of
antisemitism.
I have always said Communists are not Jews. KKKultur "I don't believe in any deity." Thanks for
proving my point that Communists are not Jews. Jews who practice the religion do not recognize you.
Moreover, communism is a religion
that is more fundamentalist than anything at the 700 club. It is not based on science and fails in every application.
Ducky
Ren is an expert on hacks. As the embodiment of a soulless imbecile
whose next intelligent thought will be his first he embodies hackdom.
Malthus may have had goofy ideas.
However, he never had crazed followers butcher 100,000,000.
Lichanos, I looked over the Physics site and they and you ( and the world) have legitimate concerns over process, especially regarding East Anglia and the "melting glaciers" claim.
But it has to be contextualized ( as opposed to fetishized) within a hyper-media frenzy with political undertones.The easy leap is from malfeasance to GLOBAL CHANGE HOAX!!! It is Spectacular and way TOO easy. ( especially for someone as smart as you)
I am intrigued about your observation about intelligence. It's true, intelligence is usually applied in a narrow band and is not necessarily transferrable, if for no other reason, because there's generally not time. So Bernanke can be viewed as intelligent, within his sphere (nominally capitalist - decidedly mercantilist, monetary policy). His intelligence and expertise cannot be reasonably applied to physics, for example because of the work one would have to do in the field before someone might recognize that intelligence.
General intelligence could probably be applied to those who so excelled in their field that they advanced thinking in a particular area that their ability to reason is self-evident, like Einstein. Others with a breadth of high accomplishment like Aristotle, Davinci, Newton or John Stewart Mill would be examples of those who have general intelligence.
These pockets of intelligence don't often serve us well in these forums. While knowledge is available about theories, philosophy is not well understood and therefore an understanding to the different approaches to problem solving isn't common to us.
For example, Aristotle's approach was different than Kant's, who was different than Hegel or Nietzsche, etc., but as they followed one another or even contemporaries, had a basis for making an effective argument. Though Marx was impatient with philosophy, he understood it and in many ways was expert as his doctoral dissertation demonstrated. He responded to Hegel in ways that Hegelians could understand, even though they would vehemently disagree. Marx was also, by the way, more than sympathetic to the arguments of Malthus.
I'm not suggesting that we become philosophers to elevate our discussions in the blog forum and I would imagine many who advanced understanding would appreciate these conversations. But just a little understanding of Aristotle's theory on knowledge -identity, the excluded middle, causality and non contradiction couldn't hurt as you try to understand dialectical materialism or the a priori assumptions of Smith, Ricardo and Menger.
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