Colbert’s target, judging from the portions of the testimony I heard, seemed to be those who are anti-immigrant — which, in this country, is that faction best represented by trade isolationists like Pat Buchanan and, oh, say John Kerry and the host of Democrats who, like Buchanan, speak in code words about the evils of “outsourcing.”
Whereas Colbert didn’t really address at all the issue of anti-illegal immigration as it pertains to farm working, which is ostensibly what the testimony was to be about — or at the very least, is the point of contention among Americans whenever the issue of the government’s stance on immigration is raised.
And I guess that’s because border drug wars, kidnappings, and municipalities hemorrhaging money for services to non-citizens they can no longer afford, isn’t quite as target rich an environment as poking fun at an immigrant nation that supposedly (and IRONICALLY!) hates them some brown peoples who, bless their noble little hard-working hearts, just want to left alone to garden and landscape and pick our fruit for us.
Colbert’s routine was the shallow, lazy political philosophy and sneering elitism of the left in a perfect little soundbite bundle. It should be seen as instructive.
– There seems to be an echo in here…..here…….here……he…….
I haven’t decided yet if the left’s painting of an anti-illegal immigrant stance as an anti-immigrant stance is from ignorance or not. Either way it’s effective because it forces their opponents to constantly re-state their immigration policy. Alinsky’s rules work.
I don’t think it’s effective once you’ve had to call 70% of the population racist to keep the ruse going.
Ah, I see my ass arrived safely.
Originally, I was going to send a horse. However, that didn’t really seem to send the right message.
It was also a Viacom whore treading where a News Corp whore would never be allowed to tread.
And, as has been commented on in many other places, The Colbert performance worked remarkable well at diverting attention away from Christopher Coates NBP voter intimidation testimony.
Yes, thousands of Mexicans are dying from a horrible drug war (with guns that originate here) that is mostly staying on their side of the border.
Meanwhile, border states in America are seeing record low crime rates and the hard work immigrants do increases profits for businesses and tax revenues for governments. How that supports your argument is somewhat confusing.
‘lo and behold, the assumption of bad faith is itself an act of bad faith.
oh, and jeff, you forgot ‘sovereignty’ in your list of reasons why some people care about illegal immigration.
Meghan’s coward daddy wants to expand the drug war to nutritional supplements. That’s like throwing gasoline on a fire ask me.
and right on cue, ajb misses the whole “illegal immigrants != immigrants” business.. after a post dedicated to it.
purposeful, bastardizing idiocy.
“And, as has been commented on in many other places, The Colbert performance worked remarkable well at diverting attention away from Christopher Coates NBP voter intimidation testimony.”
It may have diverted attention, but wasn’t designed to do so.
Hard-working immigrants are what we want.
And by “we,” I mean people other than trade isolationists like the Democrats, whose entire economic philosophy fairly REEKS of nativism.
Racists.
Ah, the left. Most remarkable because of the religious zeal they generate on essentially one issue, that being a decidedly personal issue in a nation where personal accountability is foremost. Their greater ideology, as it just happens to turn out, cartoons all violence as the simple extrapolation of intolerance.
If by ‘all violence’ you mean categorical violence.
Well, violence is quite intolerant of its victim, but the left shall also then redefine intolerance and victimhood. Oh the selective outrage.
This is the ideology that’s captured the Press and education. So very tolerantly.
Are the Dems trade isolationists because that would be one way to keep companies from leaving the U.S.? They want high taxes and lots of regulation on businesses, which drives the cost of doing business up to the point that running the business in another country is more profitable. However, if you erect trade barriers to products from businesses run in other countries, you can drive up the cost of moving businesses to other countries.
At some point the whole thing collapses (pretty much like now), but until then you can really soak those evil capitalists.
Yup. A Mexican acquaintance summarized the whole “anti-outsourcing” business as Git back in yer ditch, Pay-dro, ah got Winnebago payments t’make.”
BTW Note that AJB almost got a whole sentence posted without a lie in it, then had to insert the parenthetical. Guns in Mexico don’t come from the US — the world is awash in cheap weapons, so paying American gun-show prices is simply stupid, and they don’t. Not even the Fed gun-grabbers are using that line any more, but that doesn’t stop ignorant leftoids from throwing it out continually.
Regards,
Ric
So you’re saying the problem with America, AJB, isn’t anything a little State religion can’t solve?
AJB hates it some First Amendment.
“How that supports your argument is somewhat confusing.”
– Well, how about this. Maybe some of us would like to put a stop to all that ‘untaxed’ money flowing southward, money that actually pays for those guns made here.
– I mean since we have to pay inflated prices for commodities anyhow these day’s, much of which is caused by inflated energy prices from the “green jobs” scam, why not get some of the benefits as well.
aside- i’m in the painters union
and every year we gotta take cpr/ blow in the tube lung function
stuff/ which is okbeen doing it for twenty years
no prob/ i found out union bosses get fed money for programs/ no big deal..
butt when my ba’s start hasslin me
hey/ u havent done ur safety class this year..
i reply
i’m working with 50 percent of peeps that don’t speak english
is that a safety problem?
i’m a pussy
i like my union wage…
just a story
the Coates seems unlikely to resonate anyway… people aren’t scared of black people right now at all at all for whatever reason they’re a lot more scared of the job-hating business-hating tax-loving cocksucking president piece of shit. I think there’s a lot more of a we’re all in this together feel going on than people realize… Obama and his dirty socialists are ass-raping the entire country a lot indiscriminately.
I don’t see AJB’s stuff, but as Ric said, cheap weapons are easy to get, especially in third-world countries. Why would anyone pay $500 or more for an AK-47 here when you can probably buy them illegally for less than half that elsewhere? It doesn’t make economic sense, and even criminals understand that.
– I;m stiull waiting for just one Lefturd economist articulate a list of all these green jobs that have been added to the work force. So far nada.
– And that only cost us 800 billion+.
– Hellofajob Barry!
800 billion? With the interest we have to pay on it it’ll be well over a trillion
The Coates/Black Panther story isn’t about black people to me. It’s about a corrupt DoJ and questions about overt political manipulation of the justice system.
That ties back rather nicely to the observable patterns of our President if you ask me.
I hear rich conservatives in spats, top hats, and monocle are GIVING away guns to the brown people who sneak and agree to ground them a fresh cup of coffee in the morning, and maybe trim the hedges by the pool house.
Win-win!
hf, where the Coates account of the Voting division of the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department may resonate is possibly throughout the entire Justice Department, no? That is, the willingness of the Obama people and accidentally embedded but consonant non-politically appointed DoJ people to force the administration of justice into an ideological box could maybe have relevance for all sorts of things, even things like businesses or job-makings.
ok but what’s a corrupt DOJ when your little country’s whole entire government is a corrupt failshit abortion of freedom and opportunity really
Apparently Mescin drug Lords prefer semi-automatic weapons over select-fire, fully automatic weapons per AJB.
– Thank god for Bumbblefucks post-racial America. Imagine the racist things that might be going on in the DOJ without his rock solid ideology and leadership.
……..
……..
– Oh wait…..
………
– Never mind.
Yup. Pablo noted this in the other thread, as well.
People like Stink want to turn it into whitey’s fear of the darkie, because doing so is suggestive of whitey’s inveterate and unreconstructed racism.
— Well, unless it’s a whitey like Stink, whose show of constant guilt over institutionalized white racism marks him as one of the good ones, and so not really racist himself. Meaning that to Stink, the only whitey who isn’t racist is the one who admits he is — and that all the others are, as well.
Ironic, eh?
what’s a corrupt DOJ
It’s a start at the unraveling of a giant wrong-doing is what it is.
that’s an interesting point sdferr… I wonder if there are those among them what are ashamed
heres a tip
for u young hipsters..
never wear a john lennon t-shirt
at a james brown funeral
people will justice spit at you..
You don’t see the connection between the failures of justice and failshit?
GM bondholders. Being forced by the gov to buy a product. And about 20 other things.
Capitalism doesn’t stand on its own. It requires a number of other functioning institutions to operate. The rule of law — being required for contracts and markets — being first in that line.
“…if there are those among them what are ashamed”
I reckon we’ll find out some of them will pretend to be (or have been) eventually, though I don’t count on the numbers being very high in that category. The truly sincere ashamed? Verging on nil.
– Thank god for the NAACP. Imagine the racist things that might be going on in th ESDA without their rock solid ideology and leadership in post-racial America.
……..
……..
– Oh wait.
……..
– Never mind.
well yeah bh that’s kinda my point – I don’t see the Coates thing becoming a Narrative what anti dirty socialists can usefully employ … sure it definitely further discredits the DOJ – but justice in America is sort of a quixotic idea anymore anyway. I think the ass-rape of the Treasury is a lot more resonatey.
Which is akin to Stink’s religious conversion/spiritual rebirthing/Great Enlightenment/psychological catharsis.
The ultimate proof of which is, naturally, going around calling others names and demanding the State do something to manage morality.
The way I figure it, Stink would do better to finally grow a pair and realize that one of the best indicators of the health of this constitutional republic is a full measure of what the First set out to do. Which happens to include, in effect, using every last bigotry in the book.
Ow! But we can’t have that, can we. Momma!
Yes, thousands of Mexicans are dying from a horrible drug war (with guns that originate here) that is mostly staying on their side of the border.
Is there a talking point that ajb doesn’t swallow?
get you some knowledge:
hf, if Coates’ testimony isn’t a great danger to the Obama leftists, why is it so scrupulously ignored?
AJB channels dumb, adulterous, born in California, racist Loretta Sanchez calling Saigon-born, came to America at age 10, Van Thai Tran anti-immigrant.
– Thank god for Bumbblefuck and this administration. Imagine the racist things that would be going on with the intervention of wealth redistribution and free unlimited health care for all minorities and illegal aliens.
……..
……..
– Oh wait.
……..
– Never mind.
with = without
Meanwhile, border states in America are seeing record low crime rates and the hard work immigrants do increases profits for businesses and tax revenues for governments. How that supports your argument is somewhat confusing.
We hates the immigrants, we hates them! And we hates hard work! And we hates low crime, profits and tax revenues! Behold the gnashing of our teeth!
Hello, all. LTNS.
the wagons haven’t been uncircled for a minute since Katrina really …. I just think this is more analogous to Obama’s marxist church and Reverend Wright where Team R simply doesn’t have the skill set to break it down and communicate anything useful about it to anyone what’s not already chosen sides
– Thank god for Bumbbleuck and this administration. Imagine the racist things that would be going on if the states were allowed to enforce the federal laws on immigration.
……..
……..
– Oh wait.
………
– Never mind.
Or pushing further back into the story itself, why would the Obama DoJ have slapped a gag on Coates and the rest of the division to start with? Why would it have sent Thomas Perez to give misleading (falsifiable) testimony to the Commission? I can’t account for actions like these without noticing the fears driving them. And if they are afraid, they must think they have every reason to be.
I guess they’re scared cause Team R will have subpoena power to some degree very very soon
And we thought the Rethuglicans were the silver platter brigade…
How about we bring it up because it’s horribly wrong, regardless of how useful it is as a marketing tool?
(And even on that point I disagree; it’s in keeping with calling 70% of Americans “racist” for their stance on illegal immigration, eg. Another brick in the wall.)
Maybe, but the actions they took which indicate fear were taken a very long time ago, a time when it was no way as clear that the political revolt we’re witnessing was going to be resulting in subpoena power. So . . .
well the outlines of the story were already clear before the new testimony and Team R hadn’t done shit with it so I’m not seeing this as all that much of a game-changer I guess
That’s my feeling as well, sdferr.
As to the messaging and packaging and communicating, all I can really say on that matter is that I don’t necessarily care. We can’t allow these incidents if we want to reverse our present path to a full fledged banana republic. Just isn’t an issue we can dodge even if I agreed that it held negative partisan consequences.
the killing fields part two/ in 3 D!
young young struggles to find boat float
scrambles herky jerky.. survivor!
paddles pathetically with thoughty things/ america!
gets picked up by uss something big boat
comes/dropped off/ to america
does all that “american dream” shit in spades..
and then?
“I think the ass-rape of the Treasury is a lot more resonatey.”
a boxer that uses only one punch
ends up lying on the mat
not exactly a siesta but
a nap preceded by CRUNCH
Jeff beat me to the point at #50.
– Thsnk god most of all for Bumbblefucks transformation of America. Imagine the wholesale racism that would be going on if the majority of white America were allowed to horde the money they earn. and make decisions for themselves, living free and uncontrolled under our Constitution.
…….
…….
– Oh wait.
…….
– Never mind, fuck it.
I don’t think I’ve implied that it constitutes a game changer as such, though maybe I have if I think about it more that way, but that it is one piece of a many stranded yet coherent ball of mess, which together with other strands constitutes a beginning at the unraveling. It isn’t something in isolation, that is, but is something important in itself in the context of all the other opposition mounting daily against the political ideology foisted on the country by the obstinate leftists.
Ric, I’m curious: Why shouldn’t a country make it a policy to encourage that its’ citizens be employed first? There are lots of perfectly qualified IT folks I know whose problem is that it’s cheaper to import some H1B labor from India.
Stanley’s BOOK! It’s coming soon. Just another piece of the puzzle, two years in the making but not too late even so.
“Why shouldn’t a country make it a policy to encourage that its’ citizens be employed first?”
Cause it can often amount to shooting oneself in the foot.
sdferr
I think “free trade” as a rule of thumb is fine. But, as they say, the devil is in the details.
IE steel dumping … or any other kind of “trade” that involves a government pumping tax dollars into a business in order for that business to sells its exported goods below cost of manufacturing for the express purpose of crippling or destroying the competition in that targeted country.
When that happens to capital-intensive industries – like steel; rarely do those industries return. High labor costs sometimes plays a role, no doubt, as does high taxes and business-hostile regulation (see California) but sometimes “free trade” ain’t so free.
I would add that turning a blind-eye to illegal immigrants working under the table for cash encourages what may be easily called slavery-agnosticism.
the American failshit Unites Steelworker life support system isn’t exactly in a position to whine about people exploiting lower costs of production in the more economically free countries of the world like China
*United* Steelworker life support system
I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that a foreign government’s decision to award America business its subsidies is all that bad a trade-off Darleen. Seems to me, at least insofar as I oppose our own government undertaking subsidization of our own industries, that a foreign government’s doing so will work to their ultimate disadvantage and hence, to the advantage of our consumers. It is at times a complicated analysis, but best to stick with the evident truth of comparative advantage I think.
I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that a foreign government’s decision to award America business its subsidies
1 I wasn’t quick and 2 I wasn’t talking about American businesses in foreign countries.
I understand fully that there are a lot of layers and tradeoffs (pun unintended) going on when trade goes international… and certainly we are witnessing something very strange of Obama’s obvious hostility to American industry while rewarding foreign industry — Obama trying to strangle American oil industry while pumping American tax dollars to Mexico and Brazil and their oil industry.
“I wasn’t talking about American businesses in foreign countries.”
huh? Neither was I.
huh? Neither was I.
Then I misunderstood your line about foreign government’s awarding American business its [foreign government] subsidies?
You have to admit that sometimes American businesses (and individuals) get totally hosed by the “come to our country with your business, we will *help* you”. The American’s come, build and develope a business from the ground up and then have it seized by the foreign country and the American’s kicked out.
Insert Lenin quote about rope here.
“Then I misunderstood your line about foreign government’s awarding American business its [foreign government] subsidies?”
Yes, evidently. As to
Possibly, but not necessarily, depending entirely on the cases themselves. However, this (risk assessment) is, to my mind, rather far afield of where we began with SDN’s query of Ric, is it not?
Stuart Anderson, on political advertising decrying free trade. h/t Cafe Hayek
We should also say something about where clever ol’ Lenin and his system, with his well blazoned smarty pants quote about selling rope with which they will hang us have got themselves to today, shouldn’t we?
Yes, evidently
Would you then please restate it?
However, this (risk assessment) is, to my mind, rather far afield of where we began with SDN’s query of Ric, is it not?
I’m sorry, but I was responding to your statement that “American citizens should be employed first” is a process of “shooting oneself in the foot”.
Then perhaps all will be made clear if you take the compressed “shooting ones own foot” metaphor and expand it into the full-blown theory of comparative advantage Darleen, that should suffice.
have got themselves to today, shouldn’t we?
How long did it take and how many lives were [unnecessarily] lost because of American boosters, apologists and supporters of the grand Soviet social justice experience?
“How long did it take and how many lives were [unnecessarily] lost because of American boosters, apologists and supporters of the grand Soviet social justice experience?”
I don’t know the answers to those questions, but then I don’t make any representations to those effects anyhow, so don’t see where or why I should be beholden to address them.
It all begins with a single lost honeybee, there on the inside of the screen window. Next thing is, there are hundreds of them outside the window hovering round the chimney. Next thing, they’re discovered to be entering the attic through a hole in the eave next the chimney. Aha, there’s a honey bee hive in the attic! Will wonders never cease?
Ah. I was away from the computer for a while…
At the end of the day, it’s a combination of “Shining City on the Hill” with Bush & Co’s insight on Iraq.
First off, though: What do you reckon the trade balance is between, say, New York and Idaho? Texas vs. California? Nevada vs. New Jersey? Is anybody in the vast, near-absolute free trade area that is the United States genuinely and deeply disadvantaged by it, in the long run? If they are, haven’t we made a Hell of a big mistake two centuries and a quarter ago?
The existence of total free trade between Louisiana and Massachusetts, without either of them being made poorer by it, constitutes evidence if not proof that the same thing is possible between the US and China, or India, or Madagascar for that matter. It’s just a bigger field, that’s all.
The truly unique thing about the United States, something near-forgotten in the latest stupid developments, is our discovery that any number can play, and everybody can have fun. If your neighbor gets richer, it doesn’t mean you get poorer except in relative terms. It’s not a zero-sum game, except in short term effects — which can, in fact, be painful, but the more we learn about real economics (rather than idealized theories) the more we find out that it’s kind of like ripping adhesive tape off a sensitive spot: best to get it over with and get on with the program.
And — most, if not all, of our present troubles are down, at the end, to jealousy and covetousness. People who don’t have what we’ve got, what we take for granted, are understandably envious of it, and that’s a fertile ground for demagoguery. Consider a Brazilian favelista, walking barefoot through raw sewage to get to the communal water tap. He is, in point of actual fact, no worse off than a poor Roman two millenia ago, but that Roman didn’t have an American “poor person” to compare himself to. How hard is it going to be to convince Senhor Mathao that the Yanquis stole all the good stuff? More importantly, how hard is it to get Hassan Abd-ul-Jabbar of that? This is the real, deep reason Bush “went to Iraq”. No, we can’t turn Iraq into Fifties America, but if we could, or even could get partway in that direction, would we be safer or in greater danger? The question answers itself.
The transitions get mismanaged, to be sure, and as we get to know more we may be able to reduce the trauma; and there needs to be some redress in cases like massive subsidy, as with Airbus and the steel industry. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that if, for instance, Mexico stood in the same relation to the United States as Alabama does to Pennsylvania, both Mexicans and Americans would be better off.
Does that mean I’m a one-worlder? Sure. I just don’t think anybody ought to be in charge of the one world.
Regards,
Ric
Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell would say that it was a boon to American consumers that foreign governments were taxing their people to make our prices cheaper.
Weird, ain’t it? The Rule of Law is the first thing to get failshit on it as you descend into the filthy socialisms. You’d think that would resonate.
Let me put it this way, Ric: if I tried to get a job in IT in India, the government wouldn’t let me because they take care of their citizens first.
Oh, and Ric, maybe an excellent way to convince Senhor and Hassan that we haven’t been stealing all the good stuff would be to actually do it in one or two limited instances, and then ask if they see the difference? and why, if we’re going to get blamed for it, we shouldn’t actually do it so we would have both the bad rep and the actual good stuff?
“Let them hate us, so long as they fear.”
SDN – Progressive Societies throw out the jews and asians first – You know, the ones that know how to create jobs and wealth. It works everytime.
Colbert’s appearance to Congress was a strange sign of the times. If this had been a skit in Highschool lampooning the High School government, then the adults in the room would have laughed very hard. Are there any adults left in Congress? I fear not. — And one O’Reilly is more than enough.
“…they take care of their citizens first.”
This seems to me the polar opposite of a classical liberal thesis. We would rather not depend on the tender “care” of the government when it comes to our employment or with whom we may trade for what.
“We would rather not depend on the tender “care” of the government when it comes to our employment or with whom we may trade for what.”
True, true. Unfortunately, in real life, government stacks the deck. They outta at least stack it in the houses favor.
So we should be happy that government will tell us with whom we may trade, what the price of goods should be, what the price of wages, who may grow how much wheat on what parcel of land and so on? Sounds like a recipe for tyranny to me.
Here in California, vastly more illegal immigrants work in construction than as farm labor…. which is the main reason wages in the construction sector are half what they were 25 years ago – before factoring inflation.
This is where Libertarianism falls on its face. Open borders – be it immigration or trade – cannot exist with the Welfare State. In the world of the obstinate “Big L” Libertarian, at some point Mexico and the USA will equalize: they will both be Third World shitholes.
Does a classical liberal thesis include the notion that sovereignty and citizenship mean something? And if they don’t, then Spiny’s comment in #86 is spot on, except that Welfare State should include a number of things (like OSHA and EPA, not to mention Ocare) that stack the deck against employing people in this country.
Hard working immigrants by the billions is gonna the only way to raise enough tax money to pay the interest on our debt… but Mexicans are too expensive.
I think we should import Bangladeshis for $2 a day like they do in Dubai
#88
No. Hard working americans will. Cut taxes on profits and income. Deregulate, privatise. Do anything just the opposite of what this administration and congress proposes and we’ll do alright.
I thought I was joking
If 70% of Americans were racist, wouldn’t that constitute a super majority sorta mandate for racism? Y’know. Democracy and all. Furthermore, if we’re all a bunch of goddam Klansmen like democrats say, why the fuck does no one ever run on racism? Southern strategy, my ass. Hell, proud racists would control every facet of government if this country was actually what the scumbag left says it is.
Then again…maybe they do.
“Ric, I’m curious: Why shouldn’t a country make it a policy to encourage that its’ citizens be employed first? ”
Because that’s protectionism. A dirty word to a libertarian minded free trader.
#90
Not over the top enough.
Think. toilet ship.