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variations on a theme

Here’s the common thread connecting today’s posts from me:  the biggest problem the right has to overcome in order to salvage the republic is, in fact, the right itself — from those in the ruling class who actively conspire with the Democrats in deconstructing the country’s founding ideals to those who act as kneejerk defenders of the party under the guise of “realism” or “pragmatism,” guaranteeing themselves a shot at future employment within the establishment structure (with its attendant media mouthpieces) while guaranteeing that the rest of us will continue right on being forced to lose more slowly.

It is what it is what it is.

Thus endeth the sermon.

Amen.

 

61 Replies to “variations on a theme”

  1. guinspen says:

    Ahyup.

  2. Blake says:

    Jeff,

    The stupid arrogant bastards in Washington are playing musical chairs and figure they’re quick enough and smart enough to grab the right chair when the music stops.

    They’re stupid, because they don’t realize that, at some point, there are not any more chairs.

    We probably have the most venal and corrupt government in the history of our republic.

  3. JHoward says:

    Given this, Jeff, the fundamental truth we as Americans all need to accept is that we’re already looking at this once great nation in the past tense.

    It is not bad, it is not really bad, and it is not fucked, as goes the vernacular.

    It is over. We are looking at our own smoldering Rome. By any rational definition of American or original or structural or what-have-you as it relates to classical American liberalism and its lights, this is not what we were.

    This is what we were established precisely to never become.

    And with this truth finally permeating the airwaves and print medium, the inevitable next truth is that the establishment right not only did this — by way of its not being constitutional at all — but did this still thinking it can sift the ruins for jobs. Graft. Booty. Treasure.

    These are not only tools of its demise, they are fools of at least as great a stripe as the overt fascists and socialists and worse who they aided. And they are cowards. They didn’t stand for what obviously were never their convictions.

    Nice job, right wing. In hindsight you were not only wrong, your were both duplicitous and self-deceived. You were liars.

  4. newrouter says:

    That’s why we created Project Phoenix. To help revive and repair all the local Tea Party groups that were victimized by the government’s goons.

    We need to make sure every single local Tea Party organization that has been harassed is made whole again.

    We need to make sure the IRS gives them their nonprofit status letters immediately.

    And we need to restart each and every Tea Party group that was forced to shut down because of these government attacks.

    Please make the very best donation you can right away to get Project Phoenix off the ground.

    Our list of local Tea Party groups victimized by the IRS is growing by the hour. This is a huge and incredibly costly rescue mission.

    And we can’t succeed without you.

    link

  5. Ernst Schreiber says:

    As I mentioned the other day, Chambers thought he was joining the losing side when he abandonded communism. Also, I expect that when Buckley first chose to stand athwart History and yell “STOP!” he expected History to run him over.

    In a sense, Reagan spoiled us. We thought by winning abroad, we’d win at home by default.

  6. JHoward says:

    We need to make sure the IRS gives them their nonprofit status letters immediately.

    No disrespect to PP, the TP or to you, newrouter, but hahaha. We need to make sure the warden gives us our gruel.

  7. BigBangHunter says:

    – Don’t know Howard. “The Warden” seems to be absent from his office 100% of the time.

    The only possible explanation if they are telling the truth, Beck said, is that President Obama is “completely disengaged and out of the loop.”

    “That would mean he is not in charge of what is happening in the agencies that answer to him. If that is true, are you comfortable with it?” he asked. “Why is he so uninformed and out of touch? How could he possibly effectively govern if he is that far removed? …If he is not the one being informed and updated and steering the ship, who is? Is there anyone?”

    – Apparently Chrissy tingles Mathews, of all people, now agrees with Beck, and you know when you’ve lost the ankle lick of “O as a God” Mathews, you’ve lost it period.

  8. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The more likely explaination is that this administration has organized itself like a Mafia family. Which would explain why nobody wants to be this guy’s chief of staff for very long.

  9. leigh says:

    It the Wan sends Chrissie a heart-shaped box of chocolates, all will be forgiven, BBH.

  10. 11B40 says:

    Greetings:

    Or, as Alice Cooper used to sing, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”.

    Trying to treat honorably with those of no discernible honor is lunacy.

  11. bgbear says:

    In a Dashiel Hammet story from the 20s, the Continental Op ends up in a European country and there is this observation that some peoples just want to be ruled. I wasn’t sure I bought it at the time I read it but, now I do.

    Modern liberals, progressive, whatever just want to re-create European royalty and plenty of folks are will to go along. Individualism is just too hard.

  12. John Bradley says:

    How could he possibly effectively govern if he is that far removed? …If he is not the one being informed and updated and steering the ship, who is? Is there anyone?

    “….a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody-or at least some force – is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel. ” –HST

  13. dicentra says:

    Levin scours the president’s daily schedule and notes how little he does.

    It’s entirely possible that Obama really didn’t know, but only because he’s too much of a narcissist to give a damn.

    OR, he knew in general, but his lieutenants were running the show anyway, and he was 100% down with what they intended to do, so he didn’t want to be bothered with knowledge.

    Either way, his role in this farce is to be the suave symbol, the Golden Calf, the object of worship, while the others do their thuggish little jobs.

    His role never was to call the shots: I imagine Soros and/or others like him are doing plenty of that.

    OR, given that the proggs already know what they want to do and how to do it, a lot of this can be run on autopilot.

  14. newrouter says:

    Something will slip through at the Olympian level and this will have the effect of shattering the low-information voter’s world. They live in a simplified mythical universe; the one in which Lena Dunham always votes for the first time. Now all of a sudden 32-bit reality will come crashing down on their 8-bit world.

    This has been happening for some time, although it may not have been immediately obvious. The reason why the Benghazi misdirection ultimately failed was because the story of the Los Angeles video was crushed by uncontrollable follow-on events. The same process doomed the IRS coverup. No sooner did the jornolist crowd get their marching orders from the West Wing when reality changed on them.

    This is obvious in other ways. Any hope that the Woolwich attack could be portrayed as a “lone-wolf” event was crashed by the diversion of the airliner from Pakistan and the riots in Stockholm. Reality is burning through the shields. More power Scotty — “she canna’ hold!”

    We may be entering a period where nothing has closure any more. Issa’s hearings on the IRS may be overtaken by even greater scandals. Who even remembers Fast and Furious? The laser printer in the oversight committee’s offices may not be able to churn out subpoenas fast enough to cope. We have reached the ‘price of admission’. The only question is: what’s showing?

    link

  15. newrouter says:

    the revolution

    Purely as a practical matter, how long do you think it will be before someone takes an Othermill or similar portable CNC machine, and builds the jigs and writes the code to make finishing an 80% receiver or 80% frame as simple as clicking a button with your mouse?

    For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, all firearms have one part that is legally the gun according to the BATF. For an AR-15, it is the lower receiver. No other parts that make up the firearm are technically a gun, so they are not individually serial numbered, nor tracked.

    An 80% receiver (or 80% frame for most pistols) is not a finished part, however, and is not registered with anyone. You can buy as many as you want, and then finish them yourself into a firearm that has not serial number, which does not have to be registered, and which is 100% legal to own under federal law (I don’t know if that holds true in the individual slave states, so comply with your local laws, etc).

    While the plastics are a disruptive technology on a political and psychological perspective, they are nearly irrelevant as a practical matter.

    The introduction of high-quality, affordable micro million machines which can cheaply finish 80% parts or completely manufacture them from scratch, however, changes the game entirely. When these technologies become commonplace, the concept of “gun control” becomes a complete absurdity, since the equipment to manufacture firearms will be as affordable and commonplace as a crafter’s Sizzix machine.

    link

  16. geoffb says:

    We may be entering a period where nothing has closure any more. Issa’s hearings on the IRS may be overtaken by even greater scandals. Who even remembers Fast and Furious?

    Beta testing the Cloward-Piven scandal defense system.

  17. SBP says:

    Tangentially-related link from one of nr’s links:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-25/swedish-police-face-fifth-night-of-riots/4712662

    “Swedish young people” rioting and torching cars. Note the typical Swedes in the picture.

  18. dicentra says:

    32-bit reality will come crashing down on their 8-bit world.

    Dood. Sixty-four.

  19. Ernst Schreiber says:

    We may be entering a period where nothing has closure any more. Issa’s hearings on the IRS may be overtaken by even greater scandals. Who even remembers Fast and Furious?

    Beta testing the Cloward-Piven scandal defense system.

    If geoffb meant that as the scandals will come so fast and furiously that the media coverage, investigations, etc. all get overwhelmed and crash in a sound and fury signifying nothing, then I agree with him.

  20. Ernst Schreiber says:

    I mean, really, do they even have to beta-test a scandal defense system? Wasn’t that what the Clinton administration was for?

  21. BT says:

    The spree of destruction has seen masked youths vandalise schools, libraries and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at police and firefighters.

    Sweden’s integration minister Erik Ullenhag said the priority was to return the affected neighbourhoods to normal everyday life.

    “In the long run, we need to create positive spirals in these neighbourhoods,” he said.

    Would that be before or after you restore law and order Mr. Ullenhag

  22. BT says:

    we need to create positive spirals in these neighbourhoods????

  23. newrouter says:

    because deporting jerks is a no no swen?

  24. geoffb says:

    That was my meaning indeed Ernst.

  25. geoffb says:

    positive spirals

    5.56×45 with a 1×9 right hand twist can create those “positive spirals” when generously applied.

  26. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Wasn’t sure if it was that, or if the scandals would finally overwhelm and burn out the scandal deflector shields (aka “the media”) and leave the administration powerless and adrift.

  27. Ernst Schreiber says:

    5.56×45 with a 1×9 right hand twist can create those “positive spirals” when generously applied.

    So long as the delivery system cycles virtuously.

  28. mondamay says:

    overwhelm and burn out the scandal deflector shields (aka “the media”) and leave the administration powerless and adrift.

    Anybody got an anti-orbital ion cannon to help with that effort?

  29. geoffb says:

    Clinton beta tested two protective systems. One was the conviction defense system which is still in placed and expected to remain functional.

    The other is the MSM scandal defense system which operated best before the internet was in common use. Now they are getting a bit ragged around the edges so a new one has to be tested to take up the slack.

  30. geoffb says:

    In place not in placed.

  31. newrouter says:

    sorry lang and jeff weekend

    some havel from 1977

    }Let us take note: if the greengrocer had been instructed to display the slogan “I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient;’ he would not be nearly as indifferent to its semantics, even though the statement would reflect the truth. The greengrocer would be embarrassed and ashamed to put such an unequivocal statement of his own degradation in the shop window, and quite naturally so, for he is a human being and thus has a sense of his own dignity. To overcome this complication, his expression of loyalty must take the form of a sign which, at least on its textual surface, indicates a level of disinterested conviction. It must allow the greengrocer to say, “What’s wrong with the workers of the world uniting?” Thus the sign helps the greengrocer to conceal from himself the low foundations of his obedience, at the same time concealing the low foundations of power. It hides them behind the facade of something high. And that something is ideology.

    {8}Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe. . . .

    {9}The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.

    link

  32. geoffb says:

    This is this administration perfected.

  33. mondamay says:

    And 27 years after that album, they were still releasing cool stuff that still sounds like Yes.

  34. BigBangHunter says:

    – This months required essay: “The post-totalitarian system, an example in post modern society”. All essays must be at least 300 words, double spaced, and neatly typed. Variance earns a dnc. Work must be tendered by the third Friday in the current month. Grades count as 1/5th of the semester total. Grading will be based on freshness of ideas and discussion, as added to the base argumentation. Simple rewrite of existing works is unacceptable.Example.

  35. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Holder investigating Holder just about makes the case for appointing a Special Prosecutor, doesn’t it?

  36. BigBangHunter says:

    – Yes Ernst, thats a no brainer. However there’s no need to rush it. The more traps the rats talk themselves into the better, and the hotter the fires at 2014 election time, the better still.

  37. newrouter says:

    The greengrocer has not committed a simple, individual offense, isolated in its own uniqueness, but something incomparably more serious. By breaking the rules of the game, he has disrupted the game as such. He has exposed it as a mere game. He has shattered the world of appearances, the fundamental pillar of the system. He has upset the power structure by tearing apart what holds it together. He has demonstrated that living a lie is living a lie. He has broken through the exalted facade of the system and exposed the real, base foundations of power. He has said that the emperor is naked. And because the emperor is in fact naked, something extremely dangerous has happened: by his action, the greengrocer has addressed the world. He has enabled everyone to peer behind the curtain. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth. Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. The principle must embrace and permeate everything. There are no terms whatsoever on which it can co-exist with living within the truth, and therefore everyone who steps out of line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety. . . .

  38. Ernst Schreiber says:

    OT: When seconds count, the police are unavailable due to budget cuts.

    (via Glenn Reynolds)

  39. happyfeet says:

    when seconds count you need to hurry the fuck up

    chop chop

    shake a leg

    get the lead out

  40. Ernst Schreiber says:

    In this case, Joe Biden gave better advice.

  41. happyfeet says:

    so sick of joe biden i can’t even tell you

    i think he could beat roobs though in a 2016 presidential contest if it came to it

    he’s untouched by scandal, this joe biden

    has anybody noticed that?

    i know it just speaks to his irrelevance, but still

    keep an eye on that fucker

  42. Ernst Schreiber says:

    This is interesting:

    The point … is that a country that doesn’t simply laugh the “free condoms” crowd out of town—without need of explanation—is in serious trouble. The very fact that clever pols can turn this no-brainer into a “wedge issue” makes you wonder about the reservoir of good sense out there.

    Maybe conservatism has become disconnected from the thought that “the average person has a moral life that is worth leading and pursuing,” and maybe it neglects or slights the fact that government can at times foster that pursuit. But even if so, that ain’t the major problem. The contemporary transfer state is not about moral worth and aspirations. The administration’s “Julia” had no aspirations and no coherent plan of life, and the government in her story had no objective beyond assuring her that whichever way she might drift or be tossed, there’ll be a government program. To put the point in a sentence: while one can perhaps imagine a government that would help “average” people to realize their transcendent hopes and aspirations, our actual government is designed to wring any meaning out of life. The cheap, nasty free condom campaign encapsulates that agenda.

  43. happyfeet says:

    something about condoms is the takeaway there

  44. geoffb says:

    Hard work and nose to the old grindstone.

  45. geoffb says:

    The link disappeared.

  46. Ernst Schreiber says:

    From the post geoff linked:

    If it’s any consolation, ideologues like Lerner remain a minority[.]

    I’m not so sure that’s really the case. And even if it is, I’m not sure that it’s at all helpful.

  47. happyfeet says:

    meanwhile roobs is just gonna slip in the tip of his turgid immigration scheme would you like another glass of cabernet

  48. Ernst Schreiber says:

    In fact, I’m fairly sure it’s not any consolation, because, even though you can’t motivate them to do the work, you can motivate them to work against you by theatening their rice bowls.

    And what is the tea party other than a movement of tax payers tired of paying for other peoples’ rice bowls?

  49. BigBangHunter says:

    – Unfortunately, a few rotten apples, strategically placed, can ruin the entire harvest.

  50. Ernst Schreiber says:

    And left has been strategically placing those rotten apples since the thirties, at least.

  51. geoffb says:

    I’d like to complete the quote.

    If it’s any consolation, ideologues like Lerner remain a minority–but they tend to gravitate towards high-paying (and highly influential) positions. Far more numerous are the career “civil servants” who are incompetent, lazy, or both.

    So ideologues as the bosses and incompetent/lazy slugs below them who just want to keep the bosses apple polished so those travel budgets and other perks keep on keepin’ on.

    How to spend 3 1/2 trillion and have nothing much to show for it other than some nice trips, with pictures and golfing, and a fully funded gold plated pension.

  52. Ernst Schreiber says:

    So ideologues as the bosses and incompetent/lazy slugs below them who just want to keep the bosses apple polished so those travel budgets and other perks keep on keepin’ on.

    That was the point Lord made in the AmSpec blog post I linked.

    Maybe I’m misunderstanding formerspook’s point, but I don’t find it any consolation that the bureaucrats, for the most part, aren’t out to get me for ideological reasons. It’s sufficient that they’re after me because they expect me to keep supporting them in the style to which they’ve been accustomed.

  53. geoffb says:

    His conclusion.

    So that’s your federal workforce. The ideologues like Ms. Lerner are bad enough, but when you factor in all of the deadbeats, sycophants, crooks, empire-builders and the rest, you can see why our government is a mess. And that doesn’t include the folks at the top of the steaming pile, our elected leaders, the same bunch Mark Twain once referred to as “America’s native criminal class.”

    Maybe it’s time to bring back the Spoils System.

  54. Ernst Schreiber says:

    thanks for the reminder.

    But what it’s really time to do is to start lopping heads off of this hydra.

  55. geoffb says:

    Agreed.

    G’Nite.

  56. Ernst Schreiber says:

    To you as well.

  57. palaeomerus says:

    We had a big storm in Austin today. Nothing like the thing that smashed into Oklahoma and Kansas, last week, but it got pretty loud and what with it being almost Memorial Day I did worry a little bit. It added up to 2.8″ of rain though which the yard will appreciate greatly.

  58. Maybe it’s time to bring back the Spoils System.

    Imagine a Leviathan staffed top-to-bottom with Lois Lerners?

    Unless we’re assuming such a State would of necessity be much, much smaller and less able to impose its malevolence, which, I’m not sure that’s a safe assumption.

  59. Pablo says:

    In more hopeful news, Brandon Raub is suing the bastards.

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