WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Short Takes: Ass-Clowns of the Dead Media
byVanderleunonFebruary 5, 2018
“I always laugh at that stupid ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ slogan that the WaPo editors bravely started displaying on their front page after their preferred candidate didn’t win last year. Do you know what democracy also dies in? It dies in poorly sourced news stories, printing rumors as facts, peddling fake news for clickbait, blatantly biased reporting, non-existent fact ‘checking’, incompetent editing, jackass reporters writing obvious nonsense that gets refuted within 24 hours, all covered with a thick layer of journalistic hubris and smug. If the media were doctors, they’d be swamped with malpractice suits. But they dish out garbage year after year, and instead of working to improve their product, they just give each other awards and congratulate themselves on their ‘bravery’, strutting around and preening like they’re some kind of damned heroes. Screw them. Screw every one of those ass-clowns.” The Morning Rant
I avoid supporting the Bezos Post by trying to buy at eBay or somewhere else instead of Amazon. Because of the Post and Jeff Bezos’ dominance, shopping at Amazon just seems kind of masochistic to me anymore.
Millie_woodsFebruary 5, 2018, 4:39 PM
Warning, link to Ace Hole……. now posing as a lifelong Trump supporter.
OhLord! Ace of Spades posts that picture of Joshua Tree, and the worst thing is I’ve actually seen those mounds. Rocks! I meant rocks!
idk how the media can even look at themselves in the mirror at this point in time. We are in the midst of Watergate 2; Watergate on steroids. All that back-patting shit after Nixon was only for show.
Mikey NTHFebruary 5, 2018, 6:02 PM
Gorilla Pundit is most wise.
DrTedNelsonFebruary 5, 2018, 6:34 PM
I think there was a line from “The Omen” that perfectly described the media, “Apostates of Hell”. They’ve sold their souls and will sacrifice anything to serve the progressive cause. Nothing matters to them anymore.
John A. FlemingFebruary 5, 2018, 6:39 PM
JTree’s a big place, and there’re a million rocks that look just like that. Those rocks could be anywhere from Indian Cove to Lost Horse, and Black Rock to White Tanks.
It’s likely very near a campground. 1. Given the physical conditioning of the model, they didn’t walk very far from the car. 2. JTree is a favorite place for photography enthusiasts, especially nature and figure. And 3. It’s likely from a Figure Workshop. One of the “traditions” of Figure Workshops is for the man or woman behind the camera to put themselves in front of the lens. And as part of the show and tell for the other workshop participants, not only do you show your best work with the slinky models, but you have to exhibit one of yourself. What you see is typical of the genre.
When you Googl e how the current memo/FISA/ Ru collusion is like Watergate, GooGull sends you to articles about how “Trump is like Nixon,” or some shit like that.
What they don’t understand is, we remember Watergate. A small group of criminal operatives broke into the DNC headquarters to gather intel on their presidential political plans; Nixon admin covers it up. Nixon resigns before he can be impeached.
Well shazam! Paint me with honey and tie me to an anthill! We have Clinton, Obama’s FBI, and the DNC colluding with Russia, and operating a plan to subvert the election, then the administration, of Trump. Higher placed, or more powerfully organized, and more widespread, members of the Obama administration, and Obama’s FBI, secretly operating to monkey wrench (follows in all caps) my vote!
If that ain’t parallel to Watergate, and in fact much worse, then I’ll be damned. The only thing we don’t have, is Obama on record so he can lie about this stuff. We do, however, have Hillary’s e-mail purge, relating to her plot to subvert the DNC convention. Those were the good old days, huh? I miss them already.
JaynieFebruary 6, 2018, 5:04 AM
Yes, ass clowns, indeed. They seem to earnestly believe the junk they are putting out there though. When I listen to the MSM, it is as if there are two parallel realities. And, to me, it is extremely scary.
Ace is an opportunist. He clames Trump’s actions turned him around but all he’s doing now is jumping on the “Strong Horse”.
At DJT’s first major misstep he will be one of the ones ready to burn POTUS at the stake.
Mark my words.
VanderleunFebruary 6, 2018, 9:47 AM
On Moderating Comments
Comments are fine by me. Moderation depends on my being at my node and on the site. If I am away or asleep, moderation can be delayed.
At this point the spam filter, which is updated elsewhere, catches things for reasons that I cannot understand and may have to do with key words from spam blowing up across the net. I can’t know.
All I can do is restore em when I see em.
It’s gotten a lot better in the new site but still not failsafe.
On Ace
I’m aware that he had a less than heroic attitude on Trump.
John A. FlemingFebruary 6, 2018, 9:58 AM
Hi Bunny, thanks very much for those links. They’re being shared now in the photography circles that I have a peripheral connection to.
I have been trained over the years from the artists in our extended family that in many cases it is the non-average figures and models that are more interesting. The average or “pretty” figure doesn’t allow the student to grow in their artistic skills, as much as taking on the challenge of the “distinctive” figure, and making art of it.
I learned that a good piece of art is one that you want to and can look at every day, and always find something new to look at and enjoy. When I first saw that pic, I thought “Ah, an essay in the craft.” It was too closely cropped for my taste, and had some other visual oddities that didn’t work for me. But I could see the idea and lauded the attempt.
BunnyFebruary 6, 2018, 10:17 AM
That’s very nice, John, sincerely. But I was being sarcastic. You’re a better man than I.
TenFebruary 6, 2018, 10:39 AM
“Ace is an opportunist.”
Like scads of faithful, unread rightists, Ace was hoorah de rigueur concering the Trump Economy. About how it was the function of G-d’s Free Market and the instantaneous return of the Messiah of Pure Capitalism.
Folks who knew better warned about this mentality. Folks who knew better warned that, as with Baraq The Subduer of Oceans’s reign of economic terror, Prezident weren’t gods and didn’t perfect things by their mere presence in the big chair by nine-fifteen the day after inauguration. Especially in the house of cards.
But Hordes find it endlessly self-amusing to accord the Current Occupant magical economic powers and hector skeptics and other realists with their wit and sarcasm.
Then the market tanked – the natural, necessary, and certainly not-over function of our bullshit monetary policy playing out in everything from QE-Infinity over through the corporate state’s endless stock buybacks with a stop at the Wall St’s parasitic, lucre-clawing casino for many drinks – and suddenly Ace is all about how every analyst in the solar system saw it coming.
No Ace, from appearances The Horde never even suspected it.
Said it before; say it again: The right’s biggest enemy is the right. Give the right what it wants – which it has right now, little thanks to it itself – and it’ll pitch it into a cocked hat before the midterms. Trump – the anti-political executive – is almost certainly the best thing to happen in a dozen consecutive Administrations but he’s both an accident and a not-to-be-repeated-gift.
Ten. Your comment is over its due date by one day. Market: back. It is a matter of confidence.
John A. FlemingFebruary 6, 2018, 4:33 PM
Casey, nah, that’s just the dead-cat bounce caused by BTFD buyers. Weird. The whole thing started turning the moment the tax-law passed, practically to the day. Wait till the end of the week.
TenFebruary 6, 2018, 4:47 PM
“Market: back. It is a matter of confidence.”
Love the sarcasm.
Millie_woodsFebruary 6, 2018, 5:16 PM
“Ace is an opportunist”
There’s only two other options, he was getting paid to trash DJT or he actually thought Hillary would be a good president. Neither speaks well of Ace.
That’s very nice, John, sincerely. But I was being sarcastic. You’re a better man than I..
Green Eyed JinnFebruary 6, 2018, 7:01 PM
Summary: Political Oppo Research contracted by HRC, paid for in excess of $9M, hidden behind Perkins Coie, to a foreign agent with ties to Russia and has proven to provide false testimony under Oath, who took updated cues from the HRC campaign, dressed it up as “Intelligence” information, coordinated with the FBI for months, coordinated to create circular-logic veracity by leaks to multiple press outlets, otherwise completely unverified by the FBI, used to gain a FISA warrant against at least one American with deliberate mischaracterization of the ‘dossier’s’ veracity to the FISA Court, by FBI & DOJ leadership that were fully in opposition of President Trump’s election.
I utterly hate the ass-clowns, too.
PS Re: Ten’s comment, “Folks who knew better warned that, as with Baraq The Subduer of Oceans’s reign of economic terror, Prezident weren’t gods and didn’t perfect things by their mere presence in the big chair by nine-fifteen the day after inauguration. Especially in the house of cards.” Brilliant. You left me chuckling with real Schadenfreude. Thank you.
DerakFebruary 6, 2018, 9:00 PM
Yeah, I watched Ace flounder through the election choices, just like everyone here. He came around, he listened to his readers and he analyses the potential outcomes and calls it like he sees it.
Dammit people!
He is a convert and you’d better embrace those who have come to see the light, instead of casting them into the sea for the transgression of skepticism.
And Trump does need to overcome skepticism in order to become a great man. He is on the path. Quit killing off our allies.. we be lonely people.
VanderleunFebruary 6, 2018, 9:01 PM
Derek speaks the truth. We can’t cannibalize our side. We have to start to figure out how to take out their side.
TenFebruary 6, 2018, 9:04 PM
“The whole thing started turning the moment the tax-law passed, practically to the day.”
And I’ll tell y’all one more thing- that post refered to in this post from Gerard is from Oregon Muse, not Ace. Oregon Muse is one of the most erudite contributors to the HQ. it was not long ago that Ace even allowed others to use his site to voice their opinions. And that is a stout risk he ventured into.
Oregon Muse has gone through the physical ringer recently with an unexpected initial epilepsy attack, which resulted in a fall which destroyed his shoulders. This man has just recently been able to regain his stature as a primary voice on the HQ. Ace has been magnanimous in allowing others to be “his voice”. And they have served the HQ well.
So again, quit killing off our allies. So few and far between.
TenFebruary 7, 2018, 4:31 AM
“So again, quit killing off our allies. So few and far between.”
Kindly define: allies. By specific ideology. This is a war, am I correct? With due respect, uniforms, please.
Nobody’s killing off our allies. The normie, conned, boomer right is simply hardcore statism by a different name, with different self-defeating myths, endless slogans, eternal federal programs, empty jingoistic patriotism, enforced groupthink, faulty momentum, and all that. The fact the left is clinically insane does not mean that that fact has conversely written the rightist playbook and that it is good. In fact, the rightist playbook is a deeply regretful strategy in defeat.
That makes the normie, conned, boomer right an active force against the conservatism it thinks its on about. It’s about to find that DJT – as is alluded in conversations like this one – is accidental, won’t be repeated, and won’t solve the problem, especially the biggest problem. Maybe one in a thousand (or ten thousand) normie, conned, boomer rightists know even what it is. The rest deny it, many advocating for it outright as an essential ingredient for … normie, conned, boomer rightism.
The ostensible right had since Wilson to do something, which is a hundred and five years, more or less. Not only didn’t it do something, it adopted the problem and actually made it its own.
Did you click my link? Whether the feckless right-o-sphere believes most profoundly in, say, the sacred church of veterans culture or overpaid thugs honoring vapid anthems for a million Sunday tailgaters or its crusade to stamp out veganism to save the ‘Murica-defining drive-thru is not just dumb, it’s directly opposed to “conservatism” because it effectively denies the real thing even exists.
You can have those things and another fifty like them but you cannot have only those things and another fifty like them. Except that’s where we’re at and we’re not going to change.
VanderleunFebruary 7, 2018, 7:45 AM
There are fifty shades of right from left to right.
10: listen here, sonny. You say the boomer playbook is a strategy in defeat.
WTF is Trump, if not a new strategy?
We may agree that the old right is non-operational in many ways. We also agree that there are some very strange characters on the right, whose stances are limited in reality, imagination, and functionality. I give you Glenn Beck. I give you Ron Paul.
I agree, we need to stop shooting our wounded. I am just now starting to re-visit sites like PJM. Not everyone could see Trump’s brilliance, but people change.
Not good with the anthem or veteran culture? Defile thyself and quickly, then. You can sit at my table when you’re done carrying your cranium up your evacuation port. If you imagine these emblems as a monolithic one-think, you’d be wrong. But, you haven’t lived enough of life to see the breadth of it. “Stamp out veganism?” You mean shit-covered foodism?
TenFebruary 7, 2018, 8:40 AM
“10: listen here, sonny. You say the boomer playbook is a strategy in defeat. WTF is Trump, if not a new strategy?”
Trump isn’t boomer. Trump is what I said Trump was, at least within the context of the loser, ostensible, conned- right’s largely passive, accidental view of the man. He’s a somewhat apolitical accident and a gift. Ace – or you – taking credit for either accident is amusing.
“We may agree that the old right is non-operational in many ways. We also agree that there are some very strange characters on the right, whose stances are limited in reality, imagination, and functionality. I give you Glenn Beck.”
Exactly … except for the old right part. It hasn’t changed and Trump won’t or can’t replace it. He’ll definitely never reform it.
“I give you Ron Paul.”
And about whom you’d be wrong while again making my point. Recognize the real issues; the big ones.
“I agree, we need to stop shooting our wounded.”
Our wounded? How are they wounded if not by their own fire? You still need to identify them, and solely by principle, trajectory, and effect. Not by assumption, reaction, and habit.
“I am just now starting to re-visit sites like PJM.”
Which is fairly unmitigated boomer rightist crap, just in a mildly, anti-NRO, highly rightist-cultural way, myths and all, which a child can do. PJM carries too much low-level; political daytime television; tabloidism for the lower-middle of the rightist intellectual bell curve. Still not even close to being on about the big issues.
“Not everyone could see Trump’s brilliance, but people change.”
The conventional wisdom on Trump, while not-uncommonly encouraging, doesn’t even begin to address the things that must be addressed and that he himself almost certainly shall not address. Are you aware that the deficit will rise by roughly a trillion this year, twice last year’s? So if not Trump then who?
“Not good with the anthem or veteran culture? Defile thyself and quickly, then. You can sit at my table when you’re done carrying your cranium up your evacuation port.”
Read, little fella. Conservatives mustn’t be good with patriotic fetishes, sloppy populist/media-led misdirection, culture obsession, jingoism, instinctive reflex, enormous codependency with the left, and all that other uselessness that’s trapped the right in tar and prevents it, somehow, reforming a damn thing. In. A. Century.
“If you imagine these emblems as a monolithic one-think, you’d be wrong.”
If I imagine myself as you I’d be wrong too. Or you as perceptive to all this; also wrong. So in the abstract that’s self-evidently true but then we can make all sorts of theoretical statements that avoid the point, that point being that stupid flag-waving nationalism – Trumper or not – isn’t conservatism, hasn’t been conservatism, and won’t one day constitute conservatism.
“But, you haven’t lived enough of life to see the breadth of it.”
Is this where I haul out my 60 year old list of international bona fides and play to the right’s level of presumptive, ignorant, cultural dumb?
“‘“Stamp out veganism?’” You mean shit-covered foodism?”
And again. And again and again, and again. Wise up.
Look Casey, I’m sure the ancient .45 and the rifle rack over there in Cowtana are fun – really I am – but the right is simply ostensible. It’s the left, just give it 20 years. Nationalism isn’t structuralism and so the Founders would reject 90% of contemporary rightism. Ask them. They recorded their thoughts. You can take it out on who you misunderstand out of defensiveness or you can be effective.
Conservatism isn’t shrieking at the left like it’s your criminally insane but somehow cognizant ex while she burns down the house again. That makes you codependent. Conservatism is structuralism and the right doesn’t even recognize structuralism. It recognizes mostly it’s version of contemporary patriotic nationalism and it applies its tests accordingly.
ghostsniperFebruary 7, 2018, 12:33 PM
“You still need to identify them, and solely by principle, trajectory, and effect. Not by assumption, reaction, and habit.”
=====================
There ya go, right there.
Gerard was close, with his 50 shades comment.
Whether he knows it or not he was speaking of all of us.
Our principles. Yes, they matter.
You can avoid principles but you can’t avoid the consequences of avoiding them.
Now, for me, the left seems to be the most unprincipled, at least the media portrayed version.
That doesn’t mean the right is principled, they are not.
For me, right now, the right seems to be the least unprincipled but still far from where it should be.
My metric?
Stealing.
Both sides do it, and it seems nobody ever even tries to come up with an uncriminalized way.
ALL of the gov’t created problems are created by way of stolen money. ALL of them.
When I mention that if the gov’t stops the stealing all of the problems will vanish everyone’s eyes instantly glaze over, they simply cannot overcome the brainwashing since birth.
So the problems will continue for they are a result of stealing, not a separate thing. Trump is an anomaly and he too will pass and he too will not stop the stealing. Circa 2020, stealing continues and more and newer problems will occur. You can’t expect your neighbor to stop shooting at you as long as you are stealing his shit. Over and fucking out.
TenFebruary 7, 2018, 1:36 PM
“My metric?
Stealing.”
Did you click my link? If stealing is your nemesis, it seems you should understand how things really work. The right doesn’t and it refuses to be led to it. It’s statist.
Smoking ’em out, one gopher at a time. Trump’s base is the boomers. Smell that victory? You’re welcome.
ghostsniperFebruary 7, 2018, 5:31 PM
@Ten, yes I read the first 2 paragraphs and then MY eyes glazed over. Same old story. Gov’t steals money, gov’t spends money, over and over, nothing changes except a coupe more zero’s are tacked on the end, until such time that can cannot be kicked again. I personally believe that is how this country will be brought to it’s knees – through gov’t financial malfeasance. Not sunspots or EMG’s or nuclear warheads or muslims. The illusion of magic money will come to a cease as politician integrity has left the building long ago. I’ll leave you with this little tidbit I have posted here before:
NOT YOURS TO GIVE
From The Life of Colonel David Crockett, compiled by Edward S. Ellis
(Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884)
David Crockett
Member of Congress 1827-31, 1832-35
One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in it’s support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:
“Mr. Speaker– I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblence of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every memeber of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”
He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.
Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:
“Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made homeless, and besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.
“The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly.
“I began: “Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and—-‘
“Yes, I know you you are Colonel Crockett. I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.’
“This was a sockdolager….I begged him to tell me what was the matter.
“Well, Colonel, it is hardly worth-while to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intended by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest…. But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.’
“‘I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, For I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.’
“‘No, Colonel, there’s no mistake. Though I live here in the back woods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings in Congress. My papers say last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some suffers by fire in Georgetown. Is that true?’
“‘Well, my friend, I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve it’s suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.’
“‘It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to anything and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favortism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose.If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief.
There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the suffers by contributing each one week’s pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditable; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.
“‘So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch it’s power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you…’
“I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have oppostion, and this man should go talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, for the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:
“Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head, when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully, I have heard many speeches in congress about the powers of the Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.’
“He laughingly replied: “Yes Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the distict, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.’
“‘If I don’t,’ said I. “I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbeque, and I will pay for it.’
“‘No Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbeque, and some to spare for those who have none.. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbeque. This is Thursday; I will see to getting up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.’
“‘Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.’
“‘My name is Bunce.’
“‘Not Horatio Bunce?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.’
“It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.
“At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.
“Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.
“I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him — no, that is not the word — I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times a year; and I will tell you sir, if everyone who professes to be a Christian, lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.
“But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted—at least, they all knew me.
“In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying: “Fellow-citizens — I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgement is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.’
“I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:
“And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.
“‘It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.’
“He came upon the stand and said:
“‘Fellow-citizens — It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.’
“He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.
“I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the rememberance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the reputation I have ever made, or shall ever make, as a member of Congress.
“Now, sir,” conluded Crockett, “you know why I made that speech yesterday.
“There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week’s pay. There are in that House many verywealthy men– men who think nothing of spending a week’s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased — a debt which could not be paid by money — and the insignificant and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them reponded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, intergrity, and justice to obtain it.”
It’s a good story about the great frontiersman and congressman. It’s why I live by the Code of the West, or I try to.
If gubmint would get out of the giving business, the private coffers of the citizenry would open up and give overwhelmingly.
Economies are a trust racket. Make, and have, stuff. This is the only real money. Otherwise, live within your means, and borrow very, very carefully, if at all.
The government has a limited mission, in their minds: to make laws and tax us. Both are essentially to your detriment. They do exist to protect the citizenry and our land, but they see this as a burden, and not a duty. Otherwise, defense would be even shinier than it already is. Instead, politicians pander, making up reasons to spend on endless, mindless interesting and stupid “needs.” They also exist to enforce the law. Does that even need a comment, at this low hour in our national history?
OK. Everyone take the weekend off. I’m going to crack a cold one, and watch the biathalon in South Korea.
Gerard, you’re rocking it as great as ever. It’s why I read here.
TenFebruary 8, 2018, 3:43 AM
“Ron Paul. I knew it.
Smoking ’em out, one gopher at a time. Trump’s base is the boomers. Smell that victory? You’re welcome.”
You’re in identitarian, Casey. Together with your flowery self-identification, at least some of your politics are based on social identity. This is why you cannot see Paul for his philosophy but for, apparently, his age and pop-reputation.
Same with Trump. He wasn’t carried by the boomer conned normie right – by guys like you, quite likely – but by swaths of the moderate crowd who preferred his message of new, apolitical nationalism to what they knew was the certain totalitarian stagnation the other party would bring. Meanwhile the boomer conned normie rightists couldn’t project the established Cruz, Christie, Rubio, or even another Bush into candidacy, much less the Oval.
Cruz’s narrow constitutional revivalism, appealing to boomer conned normie rightists, wasn’t enough to defeat the Clinton and even they knew it. His flakey dad – and that bizarre Glenn beck interview – didn’t help. Christie, the early-on shining conservative light, destroyed his own chances by being a fickle part of The Machine. Rubio, another early conservative messiah, also exposed his real leanings too many times and flamed out. And even casual voters figured out that Bush was v3.0 from the same globalist Republican cabal that began with Reagan. Something of that ilk was warned by Eisenhower, and probably saw its roots in progressivism’s father, T. Roosevelt.
Those are your faded boomer conned normie rightist candidates. That is your expanded perspective. Nobody knew who Trump was until a year after the election, and even now, only partially! During the election boomer conned normie rightists shrieked loudly how he was a New York liberal, a Clinton puppet, and no conservative. This is because boomer conned normie rightists are wrong, have been wrong for as long as they’ve plagued the nation, and are now obvious playing to the little red hen.
Like I said, Wilson’s legacy went unchallenged and today boomer conned normie rightists can’t even list either what’s conservative or what’s important. Too busy playing the left’s game, the eternal boomer conned normie rightist game of simple clinical codependency. Makes sense: The left is clinically nuts; it shall have its codependents. They’ll live with it, react to it, become enraged with it, but they will never remember their own principles, such as they may have been.
Sad to say that that rightist, identitarian, instinctively anti-left, flag-waving pro-our-own-kinda-government shtick is old and tired, Casey. It’s not conservative and in many , many ways, it’s anti-conservative. It’s what got us into this mess and we need to own it or we’ll just keep repeating it for another hundred years, years we don’t have even one of anymore.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
I avoid supporting the Bezos Post by trying to buy at eBay or somewhere else instead of Amazon. Because of the Post and Jeff Bezos’ dominance, shopping at Amazon just seems kind of masochistic to me anymore.
Warning, link to Ace Hole……. now posing as a lifelong Trump supporter.
OhLord! Ace of Spades posts that picture of Joshua Tree, and the worst thing is I’ve actually seen those mounds. Rocks! I meant rocks!
idk how the media can even look at themselves in the mirror at this point in time. We are in the midst of Watergate 2; Watergate on steroids. All that back-patting shit after Nixon was only for show.
Gorilla Pundit is most wise.
I think there was a line from “The Omen” that perfectly described the media, “Apostates of Hell”. They’ve sold their souls and will sacrifice anything to serve the progressive cause. Nothing matters to them anymore.
JTree’s a big place, and there’re a million rocks that look just like that. Those rocks could be anywhere from Indian Cove to Lost Horse, and Black Rock to White Tanks.
It’s likely very near a campground. 1. Given the physical conditioning of the model, they didn’t walk very far from the car. 2. JTree is a favorite place for photography enthusiasts, especially nature and figure. And 3. It’s likely from a Figure Workshop. One of the “traditions” of Figure Workshops is for the man or woman behind the camera to put themselves in front of the lens. And as part of the show and tell for the other workshop participants, not only do you show your best work with the slinky models, but you have to exhibit one of yourself. What you see is typical of the genre.
Casey and John, that is courageous art!
https://artillerymag.com/courageous-photography-laura-aguilar/
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-mexican-american-photographers-body-on-display-and-invisible?mbid=social_twitter
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/12/01/gallery-displays-artwork-featuring-obese-woman-pretending-rock-new-mexican-desert-570195
Millie, a person can change his mind, can’t he?
I thought it looked like near Hidden Valley. A short walk from there. She’s like 20 feet from picnic tables, but that seems obvious.
When you Googl e how the current memo/FISA/ Ru collusion is like Watergate, GooGull sends you to articles about how “Trump is like Nixon,” or some shit like that.
What they don’t understand is, we remember Watergate. A small group of criminal operatives broke into the DNC headquarters to gather intel on their presidential political plans; Nixon admin covers it up. Nixon resigns before he can be impeached.
Well shazam! Paint me with honey and tie me to an anthill! We have Clinton, Obama’s FBI, and the DNC colluding with Russia, and operating a plan to subvert the election, then the administration, of Trump. Higher placed, or more powerfully organized, and more widespread, members of the Obama administration, and Obama’s FBI, secretly operating to monkey wrench (follows in all caps) my vote!
If that ain’t parallel to Watergate, and in fact much worse, then I’ll be damned. The only thing we don’t have, is Obama on record so he can lie about this stuff. We do, however, have Hillary’s e-mail purge, relating to her plot to subvert the DNC convention. Those were the good old days, huh? I miss them already.
Yes, ass clowns, indeed. They seem to earnestly believe the junk they are putting out there though. When I listen to the MSM, it is as if there are two parallel realities. And, to me, it is extremely scary.
My comment has been languishing in moderation. Is it not to your liking?
Casey and John, that is courageous art!
https://artillerymag.com/courageous-photography-laura-aguilar/
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-mexican-american-photographers-body-on-display-and-invisible?mbid=social_twitter
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2017/12/01/gallery-displays-artwork-featuring-obese-woman-pretending-rock-new-mexican-desert-570195
Millie, a person can change his mind, can’t he?
On the money, Millie.
Ace is an opportunist. He clames Trump’s actions turned him around but all he’s doing now is jumping on the “Strong Horse”.
At DJT’s first major misstep he will be one of the ones ready to burn POTUS at the stake.
Mark my words.
On Moderating Comments
Comments are fine by me. Moderation depends on my being at my node and on the site. If I am away or asleep, moderation can be delayed.
At this point the spam filter, which is updated elsewhere, catches things for reasons that I cannot understand and may have to do with key words from spam blowing up across the net. I can’t know.
All I can do is restore em when I see em.
It’s gotten a lot better in the new site but still not failsafe.
On Ace
I’m aware that he had a less than heroic attitude on Trump.
Hi Bunny, thanks very much for those links. They’re being shared now in the photography circles that I have a peripheral connection to.
I have been trained over the years from the artists in our extended family that in many cases it is the non-average figures and models that are more interesting. The average or “pretty” figure doesn’t allow the student to grow in their artistic skills, as much as taking on the challenge of the “distinctive” figure, and making art of it.
I learned that a good piece of art is one that you want to and can look at every day, and always find something new to look at and enjoy. When I first saw that pic, I thought “Ah, an essay in the craft.” It was too closely cropped for my taste, and had some other visual oddities that didn’t work for me. But I could see the idea and lauded the attempt.
That’s very nice, John, sincerely. But I was being sarcastic. You’re a better man than I.
“Ace is an opportunist.”
Like scads of faithful, unread rightists, Ace was hoorah de rigueur concering the Trump Economy. About how it was the function of G-d’s Free Market and the instantaneous return of the Messiah of Pure Capitalism.
Folks who knew better warned about this mentality. Folks who knew better warned that, as with Baraq The Subduer of Oceans’s reign of economic terror, Prezident weren’t gods and didn’t perfect things by their mere presence in the big chair by nine-fifteen the day after inauguration. Especially in the house of cards.
But Hordes find it endlessly self-amusing to accord the Current Occupant magical economic powers and hector skeptics and other realists with their wit and sarcasm.
Then the market tanked – the natural, necessary, and certainly not-over function of our bullshit monetary policy playing out in everything from QE-Infinity over through the corporate state’s endless stock buybacks with a stop at the Wall St’s parasitic, lucre-clawing casino for many drinks – and suddenly Ace is all about how every analyst in the solar system saw it coming.
No Ace, from appearances The Horde never even suspected it.
Said it before; say it again: The right’s biggest enemy is the right. Give the right what it wants – which it has right now, little thanks to it itself – and it’ll pitch it into a cocked hat before the midterms. Trump – the anti-political executive – is almost certainly the best thing to happen in a dozen consecutive Administrations but he’s both an accident and a not-to-be-repeated-gift.
The left is psycho and the right isn’t right.
Ten. Your comment is over its due date by one day. Market: back. It is a matter of confidence.
Casey, nah, that’s just the dead-cat bounce caused by BTFD buyers. Weird. The whole thing started turning the moment the tax-law passed, practically to the day. Wait till the end of the week.
“Market: back. It is a matter of confidence.”
Love the sarcasm.
“Ace is an opportunist”
There’s only two other options, he was getting paid to trash DJT or he actually thought Hillary would be a good president. Neither speaks well of Ace.
That’s very nice, John, sincerely. But I was being sarcastic. You’re a better man than I..
Summary: Political Oppo Research contracted by HRC, paid for in excess of $9M, hidden behind Perkins Coie, to a foreign agent with ties to Russia and has proven to provide false testimony under Oath, who took updated cues from the HRC campaign, dressed it up as “Intelligence” information, coordinated with the FBI for months, coordinated to create circular-logic veracity by leaks to multiple press outlets, otherwise completely unverified by the FBI, used to gain a FISA warrant against at least one American with deliberate mischaracterization of the ‘dossier’s’ veracity to the FISA Court, by FBI & DOJ leadership that were fully in opposition of President Trump’s election.
I utterly hate the ass-clowns, too.
PS Re: Ten’s comment, “Folks who knew better warned that, as with Baraq The Subduer of Oceans’s reign of economic terror, Prezident weren’t gods and didn’t perfect things by their mere presence in the big chair by nine-fifteen the day after inauguration. Especially in the house of cards.” Brilliant. You left me chuckling with real Schadenfreude. Thank you.
Yeah, I watched Ace flounder through the election choices, just like everyone here. He came around, he listened to his readers and he analyses the potential outcomes and calls it like he sees it.
Dammit people!
He is a convert and you’d better embrace those who have come to see the light, instead of casting them into the sea for the transgression of skepticism.
And Trump does need to overcome skepticism in order to become a great man. He is on the path. Quit killing off our allies.. we be lonely people.
Derek speaks the truth. We can’t cannibalize our side. We have to start to figure out how to take out their side.
“The whole thing started turning the moment the tax-law passed, practically to the day.”
Worse than that but close enough. QE is heroin.
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/two-elephants-in-the-room-that-the-gop-has-completely-forgotten/
And I’ll tell y’all one more thing- that post refered to in this post from Gerard is from Oregon Muse, not Ace. Oregon Muse is one of the most erudite contributors to the HQ. it was not long ago that Ace even allowed others to use his site to voice their opinions. And that is a stout risk he ventured into.
Oregon Muse has gone through the physical ringer recently with an unexpected initial epilepsy attack, which resulted in a fall which destroyed his shoulders. This man has just recently been able to regain his stature as a primary voice on the HQ. Ace has been magnanimous in allowing others to be “his voice”. And they have served the HQ well.
So again, quit killing off our allies. So few and far between.
“So again, quit killing off our allies. So few and far between.”
Kindly define: allies. By specific ideology. This is a war, am I correct? With due respect, uniforms, please.
Nobody’s killing off our allies. The normie, conned, boomer right is simply hardcore statism by a different name, with different self-defeating myths, endless slogans, eternal federal programs, empty jingoistic patriotism, enforced groupthink, faulty momentum, and all that. The fact the left is clinically insane does not mean that that fact has conversely written the rightist playbook and that it is good. In fact, the rightist playbook is a deeply regretful strategy in defeat.
That makes the normie, conned, boomer right an active force against the conservatism it thinks its on about. It’s about to find that DJT – as is alluded in conversations like this one – is accidental, won’t be repeated, and won’t solve the problem, especially the biggest problem. Maybe one in a thousand (or ten thousand) normie, conned, boomer rightists know even what it is. The rest deny it, many advocating for it outright as an essential ingredient for … normie, conned, boomer rightism.
The ostensible right had since Wilson to do something, which is a hundred and five years, more or less. Not only didn’t it do something, it adopted the problem and actually made it its own.
Did you click my link? Whether the feckless right-o-sphere believes most profoundly in, say, the sacred church of veterans culture or overpaid thugs honoring vapid anthems for a million Sunday tailgaters or its crusade to stamp out veganism to save the ‘Murica-defining drive-thru is not just dumb, it’s directly opposed to “conservatism” because it effectively denies the real thing even exists.
You can have those things and another fifty like them but you cannot have only those things and another fifty like them. Except that’s where we’re at and we’re not going to change.
There are fifty shades of right from left to right.
10: listen here, sonny. You say the boomer playbook is a strategy in defeat.
WTF is Trump, if not a new strategy?
We may agree that the old right is non-operational in many ways. We also agree that there are some very strange characters on the right, whose stances are limited in reality, imagination, and functionality. I give you Glenn Beck. I give you Ron Paul.
I agree, we need to stop shooting our wounded. I am just now starting to re-visit sites like PJM. Not everyone could see Trump’s brilliance, but people change.
Not good with the anthem or veteran culture? Defile thyself and quickly, then. You can sit at my table when you’re done carrying your cranium up your evacuation port. If you imagine these emblems as a monolithic one-think, you’d be wrong. But, you haven’t lived enough of life to see the breadth of it. “Stamp out veganism?” You mean shit-covered foodism?
“10: listen here, sonny. You say the boomer playbook is a strategy in defeat. WTF is Trump, if not a new strategy?”
Trump isn’t boomer. Trump is what I said Trump was, at least within the context of the loser, ostensible, conned- right’s largely passive, accidental view of the man. He’s a somewhat apolitical accident and a gift. Ace – or you – taking credit for either accident is amusing.
“We may agree that the old right is non-operational in many ways. We also agree that there are some very strange characters on the right, whose stances are limited in reality, imagination, and functionality. I give you Glenn Beck.”
Exactly … except for the old right part. It hasn’t changed and Trump won’t or can’t replace it. He’ll definitely never reform it.
“I give you Ron Paul.”
And about whom you’d be wrong while again making my point. Recognize the real issues; the big ones.
“I agree, we need to stop shooting our wounded.”
Our wounded? How are they wounded if not by their own fire? You still need to identify them, and solely by principle, trajectory, and effect. Not by assumption, reaction, and habit.
“I am just now starting to re-visit sites like PJM.”
Which is fairly unmitigated boomer rightist crap, just in a mildly, anti-NRO, highly rightist-cultural way, myths and all, which a child can do. PJM carries too much low-level; political daytime television; tabloidism for the lower-middle of the rightist intellectual bell curve. Still not even close to being on about the big issues.
“Not everyone could see Trump’s brilliance, but people change.”
The conventional wisdom on Trump, while not-uncommonly encouraging, doesn’t even begin to address the things that must be addressed and that he himself almost certainly shall not address. Are you aware that the deficit will rise by roughly a trillion this year, twice last year’s? So if not Trump then who?
“Not good with the anthem or veteran culture? Defile thyself and quickly, then. You can sit at my table when you’re done carrying your cranium up your evacuation port.”
Read, little fella. Conservatives mustn’t be good with patriotic fetishes, sloppy populist/media-led misdirection, culture obsession, jingoism, instinctive reflex, enormous codependency with the left, and all that other uselessness that’s trapped the right in tar and prevents it, somehow, reforming a damn thing. In. A. Century.
“If you imagine these emblems as a monolithic one-think, you’d be wrong.”
If I imagine myself as you I’d be wrong too. Or you as perceptive to all this; also wrong. So in the abstract that’s self-evidently true but then we can make all sorts of theoretical statements that avoid the point, that point being that stupid flag-waving nationalism – Trumper or not – isn’t conservatism, hasn’t been conservatism, and won’t one day constitute conservatism.
“But, you haven’t lived enough of life to see the breadth of it.”
Is this where I haul out my 60 year old list of international bona fides and play to the right’s level of presumptive, ignorant, cultural dumb?
“‘“Stamp out veganism?’” You mean shit-covered foodism?”
And again. And again and again, and again. Wise up.
Look Casey, I’m sure the ancient .45 and the rifle rack over there in Cowtana are fun – really I am – but the right is simply ostensible. It’s the left, just give it 20 years. Nationalism isn’t structuralism and so the Founders would reject 90% of contemporary rightism. Ask them. They recorded their thoughts. You can take it out on who you misunderstand out of defensiveness or you can be effective.
Conservatism isn’t shrieking at the left like it’s your criminally insane but somehow cognizant ex while she burns down the house again. That makes you codependent. Conservatism is structuralism and the right doesn’t even recognize structuralism. It recognizes mostly it’s version of contemporary patriotic nationalism and it applies its tests accordingly.
“You still need to identify them, and solely by principle, trajectory, and effect. Not by assumption, reaction, and habit.”
=====================
There ya go, right there.
Gerard was close, with his 50 shades comment.
Whether he knows it or not he was speaking of all of us.
Our principles. Yes, they matter.
You can avoid principles but you can’t avoid the consequences of avoiding them.
Now, for me, the left seems to be the most unprincipled, at least the media portrayed version.
That doesn’t mean the right is principled, they are not.
For me, right now, the right seems to be the least unprincipled but still far from where it should be.
My metric?
Stealing.
Both sides do it, and it seems nobody ever even tries to come up with an uncriminalized way.
ALL of the gov’t created problems are created by way of stolen money. ALL of them.
When I mention that if the gov’t stops the stealing all of the problems will vanish everyone’s eyes instantly glaze over, they simply cannot overcome the brainwashing since birth.
So the problems will continue for they are a result of stealing, not a separate thing. Trump is an anomaly and he too will pass and he too will not stop the stealing. Circa 2020, stealing continues and more and newer problems will occur. You can’t expect your neighbor to stop shooting at you as long as you are stealing his shit. Over and fucking out.
“My metric?
Stealing.”
Did you click my link? If stealing is your nemesis, it seems you should understand how things really work. The right doesn’t and it refuses to be led to it. It’s statist.
Rabbit hole, my friend.
Ron Paul. I knew it.
Smoking ’em out, one gopher at a time. Trump’s base is the boomers. Smell that victory? You’re welcome.
@Ten, yes I read the first 2 paragraphs and then MY eyes glazed over. Same old story. Gov’t steals money, gov’t spends money, over and over, nothing changes except a coupe more zero’s are tacked on the end, until such time that can cannot be kicked again. I personally believe that is how this country will be brought to it’s knees – through gov’t financial malfeasance. Not sunspots or EMG’s or nuclear warheads or muslims. The illusion of magic money will come to a cease as politician integrity has left the building long ago. I’ll leave you with this little tidbit I have posted here before:
NOT YOURS TO GIVE
From The Life of Colonel David Crockett, compiled by Edward S. Ellis
(Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884)
David Crockett
Member of Congress 1827-31, 1832-35
One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in it’s support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:
“Mr. Speaker– I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblence of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every memeber of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”
He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.
Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:
“Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made homeless, and besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.
“The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly.
“I began: “Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and—-‘
“Yes, I know you you are Colonel Crockett. I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.’
“This was a sockdolager….I begged him to tell me what was the matter.
“Well, Colonel, it is hardly worth-while to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intended by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest…. But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.’
“‘I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, For I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.’
“‘No, Colonel, there’s no mistake. Though I live here in the back woods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings in Congress. My papers say last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some suffers by fire in Georgetown. Is that true?’
“‘Well, my friend, I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve it’s suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.’
“‘It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to anything and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favortism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose.If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief.
There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the suffers by contributing each one week’s pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditable; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.
“‘So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch it’s power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you…’
“I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have oppostion, and this man should go talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, for the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:
“Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head, when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully, I have heard many speeches in congress about the powers of the Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.’
“He laughingly replied: “Yes Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the distict, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.’
“‘If I don’t,’ said I. “I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbeque, and I will pay for it.’
“‘No Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbeque, and some to spare for those who have none.. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbeque. This is Thursday; I will see to getting up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.’
“‘Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.’
“‘My name is Bunce.’
“‘Not Horatio Bunce?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.’
“It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.
“At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.
“Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.
“I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him — no, that is not the word — I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times a year; and I will tell you sir, if everyone who professes to be a Christian, lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.
“But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted—at least, they all knew me.
“In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying: “Fellow-citizens — I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgement is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.’
“I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:
“And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.
“‘It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.’
“He came upon the stand and said:
“‘Fellow-citizens — It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.’
“He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.
“I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the rememberance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the reputation I have ever made, or shall ever make, as a member of Congress.
“Now, sir,” conluded Crockett, “you know why I made that speech yesterday.
“There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week’s pay. There are in that House many verywealthy men– men who think nothing of spending a week’s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased — a debt which could not be paid by money — and the insignificant and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them reponded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, intergrity, and justice to obtain it.”
It’s a good story about the great frontiersman and congressman. It’s why I live by the Code of the West, or I try to.
If gubmint would get out of the giving business, the private coffers of the citizenry would open up and give overwhelmingly.
Economies are a trust racket. Make, and have, stuff. This is the only real money. Otherwise, live within your means, and borrow very, very carefully, if at all.
The government has a limited mission, in their minds: to make laws and tax us. Both are essentially to your detriment. They do exist to protect the citizenry and our land, but they see this as a burden, and not a duty. Otherwise, defense would be even shinier than it already is. Instead, politicians pander, making up reasons to spend on endless, mindless interesting and stupid “needs.” They also exist to enforce the law. Does that even need a comment, at this low hour in our national history?
OK. Everyone take the weekend off. I’m going to crack a cold one, and watch the biathalon in South Korea.
Gerard, you’re rocking it as great as ever. It’s why I read here.
“Ron Paul. I knew it.
Smoking ’em out, one gopher at a time. Trump’s base is the boomers. Smell that victory? You’re welcome.”
You’re in identitarian, Casey. Together with your flowery self-identification, at least some of your politics are based on social identity. This is why you cannot see Paul for his philosophy but for, apparently, his age and pop-reputation.
Same with Trump. He wasn’t carried by the boomer conned normie right – by guys like you, quite likely – but by swaths of the moderate crowd who preferred his message of new, apolitical nationalism to what they knew was the certain totalitarian stagnation the other party would bring. Meanwhile the boomer conned normie rightists couldn’t project the established Cruz, Christie, Rubio, or even another Bush into candidacy, much less the Oval.
Cruz’s narrow constitutional revivalism, appealing to boomer conned normie rightists, wasn’t enough to defeat the Clinton and even they knew it. His flakey dad – and that bizarre Glenn beck interview – didn’t help. Christie, the early-on shining conservative light, destroyed his own chances by being a fickle part of The Machine. Rubio, another early conservative messiah, also exposed his real leanings too many times and flamed out. And even casual voters figured out that Bush was v3.0 from the same globalist Republican cabal that began with Reagan. Something of that ilk was warned by Eisenhower, and probably saw its roots in progressivism’s father, T. Roosevelt.
Those are your faded boomer conned normie rightist candidates. That is your expanded perspective. Nobody knew who Trump was until a year after the election, and even now, only partially! During the election boomer conned normie rightists shrieked loudly how he was a New York liberal, a Clinton puppet, and no conservative. This is because boomer conned normie rightists are wrong, have been wrong for as long as they’ve plagued the nation, and are now obvious playing to the little red hen.
Like I said, Wilson’s legacy went unchallenged and today boomer conned normie rightists can’t even list either what’s conservative or what’s important. Too busy playing the left’s game, the eternal boomer conned normie rightist game of simple clinical codependency. Makes sense: The left is clinically nuts; it shall have its codependents. They’ll live with it, react to it, become enraged with it, but they will never remember their own principles, such as they may have been.
Sad to say that that rightist, identitarian, instinctively anti-left, flag-waving pro-our-own-kinda-government shtick is old and tired, Casey. It’s not conservative and in many , many ways, it’s anti-conservative. It’s what got us into this mess and we need to own it or we’ll just keep repeating it for another hundred years, years we don’t have even one of anymore.
I’ve been called a lot of names in my life, but this takes the cake!
Just don’t call me late for dinner. And, better yet, don’t call me at all.