On the off chance you happen to be one of those rah-rah political party guys or gals, I’d like to point something out to you.
1. In the Senate, the 800+ page “comprehensive immigration reform bill” is going to make it out of committee thanks to the votes of two Republicans on the “Gang of 8,” Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham — both of whom rejected every effort by conservatives to avoid the very obvious pitfalls of the 1986 amnesty bill, most specifically, the charge that we secure our border as a precondition of any amnesty provisions for law breakers already hidden away in the country.
And that’s because a coalition of special interests, both from the identity politics left to the corporatist right, from organized labor and La Raza to the Chamber of Commerce and the WSJ editorial board to the American Conservative Union (which brought you Jeb Bush at CPAC), are pushing for this bill, a bill American citizens overwhelmingly don’t want, can’t afford, and are at their wit’s trying to get their representatives to reject.
But we the people have no special interest group representing us. So we’re fucked.
Once the bill makes it out of committee, Republicans are free to grandstand and pretend that they are concerned that the “triggers” that lead to a pathway to citizenship need to be strengthened, and will then note that in good conscience they cannot vote for the bill. Knowing full well that the Democrats already have the simple majority vote to pass it.
It is a fan dance, and one we’ve grown painfully accustomed to. And yet we do nothing to stop it.
2. John Boehner is blocking a special committee investigation into Benghazi. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton appeared before both the Senate and the House fact finding committees and gave testimony, since thrown into question by career civil servants in the diplomatic corp who have come forth, under oath, as whistleblowers, and was in neither case sworn in.
Meaning that on the one hand, Republicans in the Senate are working with Schumer and Leahy and the Democras to pass yet another amnesty that increases Democrat voter roles, further strains the welfare state, and fails to commit to the constitutional role the federal government has for securing our border; while in the House, Republicans are blocking any real inquiry into the role the Obama Administration had in the death of four Americans, including an ambassador.
We no longer live in a country where the consent of the governed is taken seriously. In fact, as I’ve been pointing out for some time now, the federal government’s sole concern is expanding its power, reach, and authority over us — and by doing so, further solidifying its permanent position over us as sovereigns to our subjects.
It is a one-party government — a federal ruling elite operating out of DC — that has found the formula for our subjugation, and is busy now racing forward to institutionalize our subjugation.
Establishment Republicans are no more against big government than progressives. They just wish to push bigger tax breaks for cronies and donors.
There is no one left to represent us save for a handful of TEA Party candidates in both the House and the Senate, and they are sadly powerless so long as the establishment sticks together and works out their deals in backrooms or on some Senator’s yacht.
And if we live in a country where we aren’t represented, we aren’t in any real way free or autonomous individuals.
Just thought I’d point that out to you all.
Now, go hug an illegal. They are the best of us, after all, far more hardworking and noble than the crass Americans who won’t wash their own dishes or pick their own lettuce or tend to their own children but who nevertheless seek to keep down these industrious, god-fearing angels by stubbornly insisting upon the right of country to control the influx of citizens from other countries. They deserve it. Along with free healthcare, reduced-cost tuition, and welfare payments that they can send out of the country.
And after you’ve done that, go find somebody who’s made a YouTube video — it doesn’t matter who, or what, just express your OUTRAGE — then throw a sack over his head and lock him in a closet for the next several months.
At the very least, it’ll give you a feeling of belonging. And who doesn’t crave that?
On the off chance you happen to be one of those rah-rah political party guys or gals, I’d like to point something out to you.
We already knew about Lindsay Grahamnesty and Jeff Flake (aptly named enough) would sell us out. We also already knew about the Wall Street Journal greedheads, who care about nothing more than their cheap menial grunts, gardeners and maids.
And we already knew we were so boned. :-(
‘Just Be Nice.’ It said so on the Prius at Whole Foods downtown — just above the ‘Patriotism is No Borders’ and beside the ‘Hugs For “Terrorists”‘ stickers — and I hear those people’s professional corporate lobbyists have clout.
Spit.
Keep that up, Curmudgeon, and next thing you’ll be protesting bankster statism. And the GOP can’t have that.
Remember Google’s, “Don’t be evil.”? I gues it all depends on how you define evil.
We live in this America now, where the government is so wedded to political correctness and cringing before “the noble Other” that we let our enemies mock our heroic dead at their funerals.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/09/families-say-muslim-cleric-disparaged-dead-navy-seals-at-their-own-funeral/
Some Bushie doofus was wondering where conservatives’ communitarian sense had gone. Geraghty had a partially good response, but he missed the bigger picture.
It’s quite simple: when my beliefs are considered inconvenient or (more frequently) antithetical to what the ruling class defines as “the common good,” what the fuck are my options?
Keep that up, Curmudgeon, and next thing you’ll be protesting bankster statism. And the GOP can’t have that.
I’m already there. But i don’t know what else to do, and sending “You just don’t get it, do you?” letters to the WSJ editor for the umpteenth time is getting tiring.
Lenin was unfortunately was correct: When the time comes to hang the capitalists, they will have sold the Left the demographic rope with which to do it.
So what’s the problem. Once the good progressive vision is fully in place our children and grandchildren will live in that wonderful utopia. One where no one has any use for those evil things called guns, except for those anointed by our fair and gentle rulers. A world where we all live side by side in perfect harmony with all our beautiful diverse neighbors.* You will do so, it has been ordered from on high.
A world where we all live side by side in perfect harmony with all our beautiful diverse neighbors.*
And it isn’t just skin tone or ethnic diversity! Many cities used to have “Vice” section officers who would look out for this kind of evil. But today, how dare we judge anyone’s “alternative lifestyle”, or allegedly “safe, sane and consensual play.” (sic)(k)
Money and power. Elements of Republicanism just as much as they are of its foundational ethic, which is progressivism.
To them conservatism is no more than a business suit and a corporation, they naturally being the fundamental moral antithesis of brick-throwing hippies and welfare moms.
from the identity politics left to the corporatist right
I realize that you’re making a rhetorical point about the all-encompassing nature of the corruption, but for the Steeler’s fans and the folks in Rio Linda, “corporatism” is a phenomenon of the Left.
Granted, it’s to the right of Stalinism, but what isn’t?
“corporatism” is a phenomenon of the Left.
This.
Collectivism is at the left-end of the spectrum and absolutely no government SHOULD be at the right-end of the spectrum
current choice between sadism and masochism is no choice at all
“corporatist right” in the sense that they present themselves as being on the right.
Like a lot of textualists, for instance.
At the end of the
daynation, special interest takeover of the Republic is what doomed it. What it sees as its unique political orientation is of no concern. The structure did it, not a self-identified sense of ideology.And yet we do nothing to stop it.
We can’t stop them from drafting reams of insanity and then voting yea or nay on it. Threats to vote them out of office have no effect, because if they don’t get elected, they can find themselves a cozy sinecure on K street or with a gubmint contractor.
All we can do is say “lan astaslem”: I will not submit. To either Imperial Islam OR our Imperial President.
Take that back about Steelers fans, di.
Seems more like the abandonment or abrogation of the structure (i.e., the instantiation of the Constitution in action, in law, in procedure, in fact) is the cause of the doom of the Republic to me, but then that view is dependent on my understanding of the meaning of the appropriate referent for ‘the structure’ to start with.
At the least, the Constitution specifies its structure, whereas the nominal guidelines of progressivism are beyond vague as such, being whatever “new” or “novel” nominal “progress” may happen to come along in the indefinite future. They’re slippery. Or we might say the progressives say “Just trust us.”
I agree, sdferr, and was about to say the same thing. A delicious breakfast burrito allowed you to beat me to the punch.
It wasn’t the structure. It was allowing the structure to be altered in ways large and small (and deliberate) that now suggests that the structure, a husk of its former self, is to blame.
Federalism died with the popular election of Senators, a move that made the Senate redundant. And SCOTUS has done more to alter the foundational structure of this country than any other entity. The flaw in the structure of the system was an interpretation by the Courts that it has final say, and the acceptance of that interpretation by the other branches — until Obama realized that the courts only have final say if he allows them to.
Federalism died with the popular election of Senators, a move that made the Senate redundant. And SCOTUS has done more to alter the foundational structure of this country than any other entity,
And at a lower level, I think it was “Reynolds v. Sims” in 1965 or so, the Supreme Court destroyed the sovereignty of Counties within State legislatures.
I don’t think that disagrees with the establishmentarian influence practiced by the so-called right, sdferr. For example, the Federal Reserve is considered far and wide — and probably internally — as a separate entity beholden to the will of a nation of stakeholders. It incubates the banks and the banks are a destructive corruption on the nation without peer.
So gone are the definitions thereof that this empire sees their current “stimulant” as savior for the consequences of their own policy! As with its language — paralleling the inversion of the language of politics — everything monetary is inverted as regards cause and effect.
Yet the banks are darlings of the too-bit-to-fail set, a mishmash of Socialist landlords in high places who know The System is their god and paymaster, and rightist corporatists who only have to play games with the semantics in order to justify identical ends.
Repeat endlessly across all domains and here we are. Fiat Keynesian corporatism is the fuel that aids the religion of state that powers the onslaught. The continuum is complete enough that all have become lemmings, not like this is any different this time than all the times it played out elsewhere by slightly different ideologies and slightly different names.
Structural American liberty requires a free man. Everything else is encroachment.
I see the mixup:
By that I mean the structure of statism, not of the original Republic: what I called a special interest takeover of the Republic. Apologies as necessary.
i heart immigrants more than beans but you can’t just get a few senate whores together in a dark room and then shove immigrants up people’s asses
it’s rude
roobs should know better not to be such a cheesy cheesy cheesedick and why does he want to get in bed with meghan’s coward daddy?
I do not understand why so-called “Republicans” want to execute immigration reform exactly no differently than how food stamp violated America with his obamacares
my guess is it’s cause roobs and meghan’s coward daddy are smarmy, tacky fucks
We can’t afford to make wholesale changes to immigration, be it disguised as ‘reform’ or no.
12 million actual citizens are out of work. Adding 11 million illegal aliens to the roles of citizenship, bullshit standards of Rubio not withstanding, is only going to further strain Social Services, healthcare and, exponentially cause a rise in criminal behavior.
I kind of like Ted Cruz’s proposal. Since they’re already here, they can stay but they can never be citizens. Of course, NY state is trying a an experiment in letting non-citizens vote so I don’t see a good outcome to this situation at all.
All we can do is say “lan astaslem”: I will not submit. To either Imperial Islam OR our Imperial President.
Are electoral victories possible at all anymore?
Yes, it is demoralizing to “lose more slowly”.
But it is also demoralizing to lose, period. When I watched well-meaning Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle or Christine O’Donnell or Todd Akin walk into obvious (at least to me) media traps and implode, I felt like I was in some Warner Bros cartoon from hell where Tea Party Wile E.Coyotes were endlessly doomed to fail, with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert faced Roadrunners providing an endless “meep-meep” (stick out tongue) taunting.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think there was a “sweet spot”, presidentially with Uncle Ron Reagan and congressionally with the Gingrich GOP Congress before Karl Rove mucked it up, where principled rightism / conservatism / classical liberalism / libertarianism was reconciled to pragmatic power politics and could actually *win*. Or as closest to the ideal sweet spot that could be achieved here on Earth anyway.
In the Uncle Ron era, there was talk of a three legged conservative stool: (1) the business Right people, (2) the social / religious Right people, and (3) the foreign policy Right people. I would add (4) the classical liberal / libertarian/ conservatism / call it what you will ideological intellect Right people as a fourth stool leg.
Is there a way to get the stool in balance again?
12 million actual citizens are out of work. Adding 11 million illegal aliens to the roles of citizenship, bullshit standards of Rubio not withstanding, is only going to further strain Social Services, healthcare and, exponentially cause a rise in criminal behavior.
The 12 million are actually back to their old pre-welfare reform, post “Great Society” (sic) status as welfare breeder parasites, crime prone.
And the 11 million are imported to do the jobs that the 12 million welfare breeder parasites should do, but won’t.
The “achievement” of the Obamunist Oweministration is the undoing of welfare reform.
That’s bullshit, Curmudgeon. The US is chockfull of uneducated native born citizens who are flag-wavers and Evangelical Christians. They work in semi-skilled labor, are in the Armed Services, are police officers and sheriffs, or sell insurance and automobiles.
They’re called blue collar workers.
That’s bullshit, Curmudgeon. The US is chockfull of uneducated native born citizens who are flag-wavers and Evangelical Christians. They work in semi-skilled labor, are in the Armed Services, are police officers and sheriffs, or sell insurance and automobiles.
They’re called blue collar workers.
I KNOW there are such people. But to the Commiecrats, they are podunk “white” people (even though a good many aren’t I know), so they don’t count.
And they are just too independent.
They need to be replaced with a compliant Commiecrat welfare class.
There are a great many who are swinging on the welfare teat or course. I’ll say it: most of them live in the inner cities. Fourteen year old moms who are 7 months gone with their second child. 30 year old grandmothers. Four or more generations on public assistance and revolving door trips to the pokey between shoot-outs with gang rivals. Crips, Bloods, the Mexican gangs, et al.
That’s their Commiecrat welfare class. A bunch of people who could give two shits about politics other than what’s in it for them or, if they’re smarter than the average bear, decide to get a piece of the action and run for office where they can then steal large and be respected and feared.
The “achievement” of the Obamunist Oweministration is the undoing of welfare reform.
Imagine for a moment a hypothetical Hegelian thesis-antithesis-synthesis analysis applied to the “undoing” [under the so-called Cloward-Piven strategy], where the “undoing” is the “thesis” in the Hegelian manner above. The antithesis would be the negation of welfare, and the synthesis? Something like a re-institution of welfare reform under vastly re-conceived circumstances?
Only this whole “exercise” looks like a repetition of the stupid cycle, moving from the formation of the welfare state many scores of years ago (possibly in Bizmark’s Germany), to the exposure of the welfare state as an absurdity akin to an unintentional Ponzi scheme, to the reforms begun in the US (but not completed) only a scant couple of decades ago. Backwards is Obazm’s Forward!
Bingo. That’s who I am talking about. The 1990s welfare reform has effectively been undone by Obama and his minions.
a mishmash of Socialist landlords in high places who know The System is their god and paymaster
Perhaps we can call them “high priests of Baal and Molech,” given their penchant for child sacrifice and ritual prostitution.
Are electoral victories possible at all anymore?
I’m fairly sure they’ve been a mirage for decades, now.
Is there a way to get the stool in balance again?
Reconstitute the Soviet Union so that we can have a clear enemy to our Left that can serve as an Example Of What Not To Do.
I’ll say it: most of them live in the inner cities.
The white welfare dependents are living rural and in trailer parks, spread out so’s they don’t form gangs, and out of sight from the Media Elite.
Which is why they can so easily associate “the poor” with “brown people,” thereby making it “obvious” that demands for welfare reform are raaaaacist.
The rural/trailer-park welfare cheats are suffering from exactly the same social pathologies as their inner-city counterparts: fatherlessness, substance abuse, parental neglect, illegitimacy, illiteracy, domestic abuse, delinquency.
Same as it ever was.
Same as it ever was.
Seconded.
Yup.
The pervasiveness of government assistance creates a dependency class among the poor. People get so enervated that they give up. Plus, they have a lot of time on their hands since they aren’t working, so they get into a lot more trouble. The system encourages unwed mothers having multiple children, when it doesn’t encourage the unborn to be murdered.
It’s difficult to get out of because the initial rewards for doing so can be less money and a whole lot less free time. That can easily look like a bad trade.
It has absolutely nothing to do with skin color, and we need to get away from that notion because it’s preventing us from even attempting to fix it.
The rural/trailer-park welfare cheats are suffering from exactly the same social pathologies as their inner-city counterparts: fatherlessness, substance abuse, parental neglect, illegitimacy, illiteracy, domestic abuse, delinquency.
Agreed. There are a tremendous number of rural folks who are also tax cheats. Their children are claimed as dependents on more than one tax return by more than one parent or relative of the parent(s) and “earning” the cheaters the EITC. A lot of these people have more cash money than I ever did.
(me) Is there a way to get the stool in balance again?
Reconstitute the Soviet Union so that we can have a clear enemy to our Left that can serve as an Example Of What Not To Do.
For a time post 09/11/01, I thought the islamunist savages would serve that purpose. But I guess not. Will Red China step up?
(me)Are electoral victories possible at all anymore?
I’m fairly sure they’ve been a mirage for decades, now.
Well, that settles it. I recently got back from a Club Med vacation, and I just have to figure out a way to take more of them, so I can “lie in the sand and watch the world go to hell”.
Or dive under the tropic waters, as the case may be.
But it’s been done before.
There are a great many poor in the inner cities who are white, as well. Huge urban populations of poor whites in the cities are on the welfare roles. As cranky said “pervasiveness of government assistance creates a dependency class among the poor.” Color really has nothing to do with it. My original comment about inner cities has to do with nearness to social services: free clinics, section 8 housing, busses and public schools.
They form militias instead.
I’m not sure if I’m being sarcastic, ironic, serious, or some combination thereof.
Maybe I have my movie trivia wrong, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the original, British, version of Suspicion the wife winds up so worn ragged by her fear that her husband is plotting her murder, that she chooses to let him kill her, just to get things over with.
That’s what the Republicans are doing with immigration “reform.”
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