We’ve spoken here of the militarization of our police forces and bureaucratic agencies — something Angelo Codevilla explores at length in this piece. A bit (h/t sdferr):
Increasingly, the US government’s many police forces (often state and local ones as well) operate militarily and are trained to treat ordinary citizens as enemies. At the same time, the people from whom the government personnel take their cues routinely describe those who differ from them socially and politically as illegitimate, criminal, even terrorists. Though these developments have separate roots, the post-9/11 state of no-win war against anonymous enemies has given them momentum. The longer it goes on, the more they converge and set in motion a spiral of civil strife all too well known in history, a spiral ever more difficult to stop short of civil war. Even now ordinary Americans are liable to being disadvantaged, hurt or even killed by their government as never before.
Government’s violent treatment of citizens has become generalized and unremarkable. Consider.
This month in Washington DC, Federal police riddled with bullets a woman suffering from post-partum depression who, had she been allowed to live, might have been convicted of reckless driving, at most. She had careened too close to the White House and Capitol, but had harmed no one and her car had stopped. In the same month, California sheriffs’ deputies killed a 13 year-old boy who was carrying a plastic toy rifle. It is not illegal to carry a rifle, never mind a toy one. America did not blink. A half century ago, Alabama sheriff Bull Connor’s use of a mere cattle prod to move marchers from blocking a street had caused a national crisis.
In a casual conversation, a friendly employee of the US Forest Service bemoaned to me that he was on his way to a US Army base, where he and colleagues would practice military tactics against persons who resist regulations. A forester, he had hoped to be Smokey the Bear. Instead, he said, “we are now the Department of Provocation.” In fact every US government agency, and most state and local ones now police their ever burgeoning regulations with military equipment, tactics, and above all with the assumption that they are dealing with people who should not be dealt with any other way.
Modern militarized government stems from the Progressive idea that society must mobilize as for war to achieve “the greater good.” Hence we have “wars” on everything from hunger and drugs and ignorance and global warming. Reality follows rhetoric. Since the health of “the environment” is a matter of life and death, the Environmental Protection Agency must deal with “enemies of the planet” with armored cars, machine guns, and home invasions. Apparently, even the Department of Education has SWAT teams.
[…]
Persons who possess the greatest power have the larger opportunity to direct blame and distrust, even mayhem, onto those they like least. Since the mid- 1990s, authoritative voices from Democratic President Bill Clinton to Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, echoed by the media have intoned a familiar litany: America is beset by racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious obscurantism, by domestic abuse, greed, and gun owners. These ills are not so different from those found in backward parts of the world where we fight “extremism” in order to fight terrorism. Indeed these ills argue for fighting extremism, indeed for nation-building in America as well as abroad. Who in America embodies extremism? Who is inherently responsible for social ills, including terrorism? Who will have to be re-constructed? No surprise: the ruling class’ political opponents: the conservative side of American life.
This has deep roots. In 1963, the ruling class imputed President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to the “climate of hatred” in conservative Dallas, Texas even though the assassin was a Communist. No less than Chief Justice Earl Warren indicted right wing “bigots.” Today, computer searches find that the term “extremist” correlates in the major newspapers with “conservative” or “right wing” at twelve times the rate it does with “liberal” or “left wing.”
The focus on “Homeland Security” has only added “terrorism” to our ruling class’ excuses for “going after” conservative Americans. And so, the Department of Homeland Security uses its intelligence “fusion centers” to compile ominously worded dossiers against such groups as “pro-lifers” and such “anti government activists” as “homeschoolers” and “gun owners.” The FBI infiltrates the Tea Parties as it once did the Communist Party. DHS conducts its “practice runs” against mockups of these groups. The IRS audits conservative groups.
Why not? President Barack Obama called these very groups “enemies of democracy,” and Vice President Joseph Biden has called them “terrorists.” Obama Administration spokesmen have referred to them as “jihadists,” “hostage takers,” persons “with bombs strapped to their chests, etc. Indeed a Rasmussen poll shows that 26% of the Obama Administration’s supporters – possibly not the least influential among them – regard the Tea Parties as the top terrorist threat to America.
No official act is needed for like-minded persons at the top of society to act in mutually pleasing ways. No law, no official policy, much less conspiracy is needed – only the prejudices and convenience, the intellectual, social, identity of those in power. Why should not officials all across the US government act according to their superiors’ opinions, to what they hear from the best people and what they read in the best media, indeed according to their shared beliefs?
Indeed, even if they weren’t explicitly following orders, they were, in effect, just following orders.
Unfortunately, when you willingly surrender your sovereignty to the new militias who are designed to control you, who are just taking cues from their government superiors — even going so far as to thank them for turning their guns on the other guy this time — you don’t deserve the liberty you were blessed with.
To my knowledge, there has never been a documented revolution of the sheep. Only a silencing of the lambs.
President Barack Obama called these very groups “enemies of democracy. . .”
But not enemies of a constitutional republic of limited powers.
chris dorner had some interesting ideas about how this war might look in practice but he hasn’t posted for awhile
Arming the good guys to take out the bad guys? Sounds like a good idea to me. UNTIL you realize that we’re the “bad guys.”
Somehow this reminds of the current gov’t healthcare boondoggle. Oh, right – affordable healthcare of everyone sounds great, until most people realize they’re the ones paying for it.
Government, or rather, the mere form of a regime isn’t understood by the regime to be a teacher, I guess. Otherwise, we’d all be drawing interesting conclusions regarding simple defiance from the “testimony” of Ms. Tavenner this morning, since unresponsive defiance of the simplest of questions is now the stance posed to nominal government oversight.
Can’t decide if they are simply trying to shut up the constitutionalists or provoking them. Both?
To my knowledge, there has never been a documented revolution of the sheep.
Good thing there are still a few sheepdogs out there who know how to bite. And wolves wearing sheepskins (even those from the “finest universities”) and saying “Baa” are just bilingual wolves.
“All enemies, foreign and domestic” includes “domestic”.
Woof.
bgbear says October 29, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Can’t decide if they are simply trying to shut up the constitutionalists or provoking them. Both?
– See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
Speaking for myself, I’m not feeling inclined to be silent.
Hmm. You have a movement that fantasizes about a “2nd amendment solution” and talks, repeatedly, about “which side will have the guns in the coming showdown,” and yet to bristle at the notion that anyone recognize you as being dangerous.
Go. Figure.
ça suffit!
bristle palin is a very good dancer I think
back in the day we would’ve called her a first-class hoofer
hooves for heros
When a government fears its citizens, you have freedom. When the citizens fear their government, you have tyranny.
I wonder which Slappy would prefer. (But the Second Amendment was written – by men who had just used their personally owned weapons, including cannons, to fight for their freedom against their previous government – solely to allow hunters to kill Bambi, right, Slappy?)
I believe that is called circular reasoning steve.
Slavery has returned, in the form of a law known as the “Affordable Care Act,” and our resident fool wonders why things might be getting stirred up.
Of course, that the ACA is enforced at the point of a gun is no matter to the resident fool
Hmm. You have a government that militarizes its police, politicizes its bureaucracies and talks, repeatedly, about “enemies of democracy,” and yet you bristle at the notion that anyone recognizes this as dangerous and takes steps to defend themselves.
Fuck. You.
What Squid said.
Woof.
heh.
When one side has repeatedly and consistently practiced nonviolent protest to petition the government for redress of its grievances, while the other side has just as consistently practiced unlawful
trespassoccupation of private property, aided and covered up sexual assaults in its camps, and provided cover for black-bloc anarchists to commit arson and vandalism, which side do you think merits attention from law-enforcement and homeland security?Conversely, which side actually gets the extra security? Which side is denied permits and access to hold its protests, and which side holds their protests without even applying for permits, with the Government’s blessing? Which side is portrayed with glowing profiles, all their “little faults” whitewashed in the media, and which side sees the media making up faux outrages and dishonestly manipulating its message?
Honestly, when the battle lines are drawn (not by us), and the troops are mustered and positioned (not by us), and the weapons are distributed (not by us), and the propaganda machine is cranked up to eleven (not by us), can you honestly assert that those few of us being targeted by this monstrous political machine are somehow defective for wanting to protect ourselves and warn our neighbors of the danger?
The Gadsden flag features a rattlesnake, the most polite of all Earth’s creatures. The activity that you characterize as belligerence is, in fact, what we call “fair warning.” The sound you hear is not a war cry — it’s a rattle. And if you would like to take a moment to consider your actions before you try to step on us, you can avoid some very nasty consequences.
If, on the other hand, you continue to kick us, poke us with sticks, and otherwise harass and molest us, well, I hope you’ll have the common decency to acknowledge that we tried to warn you.
I second what Squid said.
Woof x 2
Oh, and in the spirit of the rattlesnake, Growl with bared fang.
As an addendum to what Squid said: Link.
Hey, it was a mess! The informant couldn’t help that he had a lisp.
Shorter Squid: If you tax me for being uninsured – YOU’VE BEEN WARNED! (rattle, rattle)
Drum, you’re totally on a list somewhere.
I’m on lots of lists, youngster. Been interviewed by the FBI once and held a clearance so high it doesn’t have a name.
Doesn’t mean that the current crop of tyrants shouldn’t be warned off. “Foreign AND Domestic”.
I did have a gun fantasy which involved Bettie Page firing an M-60 while wearing a leopard print bikini but, I kind of grew out of that stage.
I don’t think Bettie was shooting at Fedskins. I believe it was a host of pot bellied 50s era amateur photographers wearing Dacron slacks.
The resident fool has no problem with government using guns on citizens and, if mistakes are made, well, omelets require government to break a few eggs. If for nothing else, government needs to make sure the serfs know their place.
The LA sheriff was quite shocking with his “you don’t tug on Superman’s cape” excuse.
It’s not just the unconstitutional fee/payment/penalty/tax/whatever that they’re forcing us to pay for their preferred brand of insurance that’s way the hell outside anything I would ever choose to carry for myself. It’s the recording and analysis of my telephone calls and e-mails. It’s the efforts to regulate my exhalation as a form of pollution. It’s the provision of military weapons to local “peace officers” who are supposed to protect and serve, not threaten and attack. It’s training those same “peace officers” to view me and mine as potential or actual enemies, as opposed to seeing me as their supervisor. It’s the accrual of trillions of dollars of debt in the name of my grandchildren, when they’re not even old enough to drive, much less vote or sign legal contracts. It’s the maleducation of millions of my neighbors’ children. It’s the ever-increasing theft of my hard-earned wages to be redistributed to political cronies and vote-buying schemes.
But more than any of that, it’s the persistent portrayal of middle-aged middle-class middle Americans as a sort of dangerous cult or militia. They’re preparing the battlespace, stevelandia, and you’re helping them do it. You’re helping them to paint ordinary Americans who just want to be left alone as bloodthirsty savages who want to reduce the country to ashes and anarchy. You’re helping them dehumanize me and mine, to make it easier to stomp on us when it becomes necessary.
And for that, evil stevie, I repeat my earlier statement: Fuck you.
There’s a huge difference between being dangerous and being a danger.
yeah, the whole “the marijuana in the son’s room justifies the middle of the night raid for meth” argument falls flat when you remember that unless there is clear intent to distribute, and since up to 2 ounces is considered “personal use” (therefore a misdemeanor), his room had better have been packed to the ceiling with it, and they had better hope that the son doesn’t have a prescription.
Because that would be like cops banging on the door at 1:30 in the morning but not identifying themselves and the killing the occupant when he opens the door ready to defend himself and then discovering that they had gotten the address wrong… oh wait.
http://now.msn.com/florida-officers-shoot-and-kill-the-wrong-man-at-the-wrong-address
What McGehee said.
Radley Balko on Jose Guerena being killed by cops and no evidence of a crime. Warning, it is a huffpo link.
I’m looking through my comments, but I’m just not seeing any place where I cheered police for shooting harmless innocent people.
Only the ones that consistently cheer for reducing the country to ashes (from which a FreedomAndLibertyLand can be rebuilt) and fantasize about shooting their fellow citizens. Those people have defined themselves as a bit bloodthirsty and a bit savage.
I have this penchant for believing people. When people in the Middle East chant death to America and plot mass murder, I believe them. When people on this forum cheer the destruction of the world economy, talk about being armed and prepared to rebuild, and talk about how a few liberals are going to need to be shot along the way, I believe them too.
I generally follow the police are getting too militarize arguments but, I also am thinking that they are getting a little cowardly as well.
I do not consider myself a brave person(and never considered becoming a cop) but, I would think I could show a little empathy and restraint in a situation where I was the aggressor and I had no proof that the other person was a danger.
Shooting dogs and old men are not usually considered hero traits.
You ever watch Firefly, steverino? You ever notice how Malcolm Reynolds goes out of his way to try to avoid the authorities, but they just keep butting in and screwing with him? You ever notice that while he doesn’t often go looking for trouble, he’s quite prepared to take care of himself when trouble arrives? Do you not understand that such a character strikes a real chord with people?
But no — you’re on the side of the Strong Central Authorities, and you go out of your way to paint independent businessmen as mental defectives who are a danger to the public. Because wanting to live one’s life unmolested by do-gooders is somehow twisted and dangerous.
Fuck you, evil stevie.
“The beating will continue until moral improves.”
Thus spaketh the resident moron.
????
Dogs.
steve, stop trying to be cute. It’s not working.
Is there a single post of yours since you decided to blemish the site with your presence in which you condemn the excesses of this administration? You’re A-Okay with the noose drawing tighter around your life choices because of the decisions of those in charge?
You hold your freedom and that of your children cheaply. I will not allow you and yours to take my freedom from me and mine.
This Orwell guy was like, Nostradamus or something.
And another thing, hellomynameislyingsackofshit — people here aren’t cheering for the destruction of the world economy, or hoping that the country goes to shit so we can start shooting people, or working to overthrow the government and install anarchy in its place. We’re worried about these things. We’re trying to warn our neighbors about the trajectory we’re on, in the hopes of avoiding these things. In those instances where you see one of us “hoping” for such things, it’s in the context of hoping that they happen soon, so that we can try to put things right while we still have the ability, rather than consigning future generations to a life of misery.
But no — you’ll continue to paint our worries and our warnings as cheerleading. You’ll continue to pretend that those who keep and bear fire extinguishers are all arsonists. You’ll continue to take our descriptions of our nightmares and quote them as though we were advocating for such outcomes.
And we’ll continue to say: Fuck you.
I’ll continue to say: enough already.
Just because I have emergency supplies and the means to defend them against depredations, Slappy would opine that I’m “cheerleading” for an earthquake.
I wonder if Slappy would say that we would be “cheerleading for the train” by trying to tell the morons in the stalled car athwart the tracks to get the hell out of the way…
Drumwater, it’s probably also worth noting that the first part of that oath is about defending the US Constitution, not the government, which isn’t a particularly difficult nuanced distinction unless you’re talking to one the l’etat c’est moi folks.
Sorry, meant Drumwaster, but no way to edit. Certainly no disrespect intended.
hellomynameisgullible says: “I have this penchant for believing people.”
No shit, special stevie. You believe stuff like, “You can keep your doctor. You can keep your health plan.” You believe stuff like, “I will close Guantanamo Bay in my first year.” You believe stuff like, “Alternative energies are the future.” You believe stuff like, “We must stop Climate Change,” (never mind the fact that we can’t build a fucking website). You believe stuff like, “Our Ambassador was killed by some unruly YouTube critics.” If only your penchant for believing people extended to those who told you the truth.
As to your assertion that the regulars here “consistently cheer for reducing the country to ashes…and fantasize about shooting their fellow citizens,” I once again say you are a liar. The only thing we’ve been consistent about lately is showing what a lame fucking excuse for an orator you are. You walk in here and talk shit, pretending that you’re a successful, knowledgeable guy, but when pressed for any evidence to back up your big talk, you distract and evade and insult and repeat.
Fuck. You.
Isn’t hellomynameiswhatever’s argument a corollary to why some Islamists require women to wear burkhas? I mean, what do you expect the authorities to do when they know they might encounter an armed citizen while conducting a warrantless raid with fingers on the trigger on the wrong house in the middle of the night?
That bothered me a lot as well. That sort of flippant disregard for the people they are ostensibly there to protect is going to result in some very hard feelings, and quite likely much worse.
At the very least, if an actual meth maker sees from this story that he’s likely to be shot during the course of a raid, he’s far more likely to up the ante with some very nasty surprises.
IIRC the proper fantasy is to imagine people (red staters) killed by more intense hurricanes and tornadoes whipped up by the very climate change they deny exists.
I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong–Mother Nature’s fist of fury, Gaia’s stern rebuke. Considering the havoc mankind has wreaked upon nature with deforesting, stripmining, and the destruction of animal habitat, it only seems fair that nature get some of its own back and teach us that there are forces greater than our own
bgbear, your quote, what incident was that in regard to? I vaguely remember the quote, but cannot remember why the idiot sheriff said that.
“cheer the destruction of our economy” would be good for a laugh if it didn’t display such stunning ignorance.
Our economy is already knocked down and is just waiting for the 10 count.
“Age does not preclude somebody from being aggressive toward deputies,” said Steve Whitmore, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, in a statement to local news. “The lesson here is, and obviously forgive me for stating the obvious, but don’t pull a gun on a deputy.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/16/police-smell-meth-raid-home-kill-80-year-old-man-find-no-meth/#ixzz2j9FuvXbW
Sorry, sheriff spokesman did not mention Superman, I meant to write “you don’t tug on Superman’s cape” type of excuse.
Because the cops have a RIGHT to KNOCK your door down.
Hey, they listen to Joe Biden too.
Ah, gotcha, bgbear. For some reason, I thought the quote might have happened during the Dorner episode or some such.
There’ve been so many abuses by cops the last few years, it’s hard to keep track.
Lucky for the LA sheriff the old guy wasn’t eating skittles and wearing a hoodie.
Only the ones that consistently cheer for reducing the country to ashes (from which a FreedomAndLibertyLand can be rebuilt) and fantasize about shooting their fellow citizens.
No body here is cheering.
Those people have defined themselves as a bit bloodthirsty and a bit savage.
Like the New Black Panthers,right?
I have this penchant for believing people.
No. You have a penchant for lieing. saying you believe people.
When people in the Middle East chant death to America and plot mass murder, I believe them.
Wise move. When threatened always assume the gun is loaded
When people on this forum cheer the destruction of the world economy,
Your grasp of economics is tenuous at best. Your understanding of economies is less so.
talk about being armed and prepared to rebuild, and talk about how a few liberals are going to need to be shot along the way, I believe them too.
If true, you should be preparing. Buy a gun and learn how to use it.
I remember Bill Ayers writing that some 25 million americans would need to be eliminated in the new socialist america. I believe what he said.
– See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
You guys made your intentions pretty clear when the debt ceiling was up for a vote. The effect of which would have been global recession / depression. I have to believe you knew what you were asking for.
leogh – I actually believe that most workable solutions are somewhere between “all” and “nothing”. I’m ideologically fine with either a) a government that collects a lot in taxes and provides a lot in services, or b) a government that collects very little in taxes and provides very little in services. It comes down to what the population in that country/state wants. However, I believe that the current examples in the world tend to show that, in aggregate, the latter perform worse than the former.
Even with the USA now being a so-called tyranny, the Heritage Foundation rates us pretty high on the freedom index:
http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
Want to know something interesting about all the free-er countries, they all have more guaranteed healthcare than we do. I simply see no evidence that the level of freedom you’re looking for, with no EPA, no FDA, very low taxes, very little if any social safety net, lead to prosperity. Most countries that meet those conditions are hell holes.
You guys made your intentions pretty clear when the debt ceiling was up for a vote. The effect of which would have been global recession / depression. I have to believe you knew what you were asking for
Because adding even more to the tens of trillions we are already in debt would make the world economy all better? Spend-until-we’re-prosperous school of economics so popular among politicians and college students waiting for the next support check from Mom and Stepdad? 2 + 2 = 47?
Where is all that money coming from, and what will it do to the world economy when the world isn’t buying the BS any more?
I’m also not finding my comments where I jumped in supporting Bill Ayers and the New Black Panthers.
…a bunch of guff that proves hellomybrainismissing only knows what he reads in his talking points.
Go away, little blitherer.
I’m ideologically fine with either a) a government that collects a lot in taxes and provides a lot in services, or b) a government that collects very little in taxes and provides very little in services.
Well, then, you must be in Hog Heaven, getting a bit of both – high taxes and low service! Meanwhile M’Shell is off on another paid vay-cay and shutting down Broadway…
I simply see no evidence that the level of freedom you’re looking for, with no EPA, no FDA, very low taxes, very little if any social safety net, lead to prosperity.
True, the government won’t be very prosperous, but people will get to keep the money they make rather than spending it on the mating habits of some fly halfway around the world, and someone to make sure that dairies fill out the required paperwork when they spill a bucket of milk. Sounds pretty prosperous to me.
You keep missing the fact that “freedom to try” does not equal “success”, but even worse, you think there should be someone deciding who wins and loses.
Also, for hellomyplanethasadifferentcoloredsky‘s edumacation, this video.
There’s a chance we’ll run out of the ability to borrow before the economy grows out of its need to borrow. A slim chance. Your plan was to force that to happen right now.
You plan was to turn a probability for ruin into a certainty. You knew what you were asking for. Don’t try to distance yourself from it now. There’s more brinkmanship coming soon, and you’ll be cheering “burn baby burn” again. Own it.
I’m also not finding my comments where I jumped in supporting Bill Ayers and the New Black Panthers.
I’m also not finding any comments where you answer any of the substantive questions regarding either your bona fides or condemning the unconstitutionality of the actions Bumbles has been taking. Simply using the phrase “so-called” does not make it any less of a one-man-superlegislature-and-executive-rolled-into-one that would have made Mussolini drool with avarice.
There’s a chance we’ll run out of the ability to borrow before the economy grows out of its need to borrow. A slim chance. Your plan was to force that to happen right now.
Will that chance be greater or lesser after we borrow a few trillion more we are clearly both unable and unwilling to repay? Will the fall be greater or lesser if we push it off another election cycle?
You plan was to turn a probability for ruin into a certainty.
It IS a certainty. That borrowed money will HAVE to be repaid eventually, unless the US simply declares a default (and what will happen to the world economy at that point?). When you are bleeding to death, you have to stop the bleeding before you worry about replacing blood volume.
The economy is currently stalled across the railroad tracks. There is an increasingly louder whistle sounding. There are three choices:
1) Get the car started and move it off the tracks.
2) Get out of the car and leave it for the train to hit when it comes along, causing untold damage to car and train.
3) Sit in the car and wait for the train to impact, denouncing any people trying to warn you as “extremists” and “Visigoths”.
You are currently deep into #3.
serving up a enough straw to choke an elephant
Ruin already is a certainty. Better that those who made it so should suffer through it than their great grandchildren.
Oh, the most problematic unconstitutional practices I see are:
RICO
warrantless surveillance
undeclared wars
political bribery (a.k.a. our campaign system and movement from government to lobbying)
Those all continue under our current president, and are the biggest threat to the nation.
But a tax on the uninsured? Meh.
Drum and McGehee – you’re rooting for ruin. You’re not “warning”. In your minds, the time for warning has past. It’s purely a matter of how we collapse, not when. You’d like it to be as much on your terms as possible. Squid, are you getting all of this down?
But a tax on the uninsured? Meh.
how about a tax on having a baby?
Boy, that gives a new definition to “blistering”, Slappy…
It’s right up there with Jay Carney criticizing Obama for wearing his tie knot a bit loose. You need to calm down a bit, dude, what with the fact that you don’t have any health insurance.
Good thing you missed the dead Federal agents and murdered ambassador.
You’d like it to be as much on your terms as possible
I’d like it not to be happening at all, but I deal with the facts as they are, not as how I would wish them to be.
TFG has doubled our national debt. His LOWEST deficit was still 200% of his immediate predecessor’s HIGHEST. His signature legislation was designed to fail, and his sycophants are now blaming its failure on the very people who have been saying for years that it would fail. Like predicting that a falling rock will hit the ground…
You also forgot to mention how Obama has illegally rewritten his legislation to grant waivers that he had no power to grant.
Those are impeachable offenses, and you ignore it all, because…? I can only assume willing ignorance.
Now I’m really interested in hearing what you do for a living to back up a claim such as that.
We did warn. You and your ilk hunkered down, fingers in your ears, shrieking, “Lalalalalalalalalalala we can’t hear you!” and voted for Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Obama rather than consider the possibility we might know what we’re talking about.
Now that it’s beyond the point where warnings do any good, we’re just standing over here, away from the crater-to-be, and suggesting ways the crash could be smaller and farther away from occupied dwellings.
Which you and your ilk, who are steering the bomb toward as many schools and hospitals as you can, slander as “rooting for ruin.”
Squid, are you getting all of this down?
The bit where you claim that a balanced budget will cause the world’s economy to collapse? Yeah, I got that. Added it to the long list of absurd and unsubstantiated assertions you’ve visited on this community ever since you first arrived.
. . . slander as “rooting for ruin.”
And with such conduct, make a perfomative depiction of Codevilla’s thesis. But then, there’s nothing like a first-hand representation to drive home the point.
Oy vey. You don’t know anything about lending, do you steve? If the PRC (that’s China) calls our debt in, we. are. fucked. In case you don’t know, and we’ll assume for the sake of this post, that you do not: a lender may at any time during the term of an outstanding loan, demand the repayment in full of said loan. This applies to all loans; credit card loans, mortgages, car loans (which are chattel mortgages), monetary loans between countries.
You probably think that the DOW crossing the 16K mark is great, too, right? Wrong.
I am pleased that you admitted that you care more for Big Government than for Everyman. It’s a start toward admitting what you are.
There’s a chance we’ll run out of the ability to borrow before the economy grows out of its need to borrow. A slim chance.
The likelihood of the need for automobile insurance is also a “slim chance”. I guess that means we don’t need car insurance, because unlikely events like car crashes never happen. Right, Slappy?
You should ask the Weimar Republic what happens when you devalue your own currency.
This is one of my pet peeves with you delusional fucknuts. Expecting is not rooting. When you fall out of a tree, I’m not rooting for you to hit the ground, but I’ll gladly tell the world you’re going to. This is because I understand gravity. And, I will prove to be right. Frankly, there’s not a hell of a lot of satisfaction in saying “I told you so.” unless the experience is novel to you because you’re right so fucking rarely. I’d rather we not collapse, but I’ll be damned if I can see how we don’t, thank you very much you commie pinko piece of shit arithmetic denialist.
This does not mean I’m rooting for us to collapse. What I’m rooting for is some social justice.
wed preview
Revealed: HHS was given “stark warnings” about ObamaCare website problems a month before launch
The next time I hear someone say “Law of the Land”, I’m going to point out that the Stamp Act of 1765 was also “The Law of the Land”.
Just ask King George III.
or dredd scott
Or Homer Plessy.
Even worse is “settled law”, as if there is such an animal.
there is no “settled law” in a representative republic . commie land sure.
*snipped after first lie*
Why do you idiots always preface your mendacity with “shorter” and similar? Do you really think people won’t notice you’re making things up?
Leigh, you know who else is screwed if china calls in its debt? China. Fortunately they don’t have a propensity to burn the world down because, fuck it, gonna happen anyway.
Leigh, you know who else is screwed if china calls in its debt? China.
See also “Full Faith and Credit”, Elimination of
Beginning to wonder if the advice from The Exorcist pertains here. hellomynameispantsonfire seems rather comfortable with manufacturing “truth” out of whole cloth.
“Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. . . . He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that — do not listen.”
– The Exorcist (1973)
Leigh, you know who else is screwed if china calls in its debt? China.
Shorter hellomynameisinternationaldeadbeat:
“Hey, China! You fucked up… you trusted us!” — Eric “Otter” Stratton
And advanced without a scintilla of shame, too.
hellomynameisHAVEL
And what about Freud’s words? Did they disclose the secret cosmos of the human soul, or were they no more than the fountainhead of the illusion now benumbing half of America that it is possible to shed one’s torments and guilt by having them interpreted away by some well-paid specialist?
But I’d go further and ask an even more provocative question: What was the true nature of Christ’s words? Were they the beginning of an era of salvation and among the most powerful cultural impulses in the history of the world—or were they the spiritual source of the crusades, inquisitions, the cultural extermination of the Americas, and, later, the entire expansion of the white race that was fraught with so many contradictions and had so many tragic consequences, including the fact that most of the human world has been consigned to that wretched category known as the “Third World”? I still tend to think that His words belonged to the former category, but at the same time I cannot ignore the umpteen books that demonstrate that, even in its purest and earliest form, there was something unconsciously encoded in Christianity which, when combined with a thousand and one other circumstances, including the relative permanence of human nature, could in some way pave the way spiritually, even for the sort of horrors I mentioned.
link
I think the democrats in the senate should investigate the damage done by the republican shutdown
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE99L0YP20131022?irpc=932
Considering the Dems in the Senate that were the ones that refused to even let most of the funding bills come up for a vote (the only one – the one funding the military – passed 93-0, which boded well for the others), and contrary to the lies being fed to you, it isn’t the Republicans who decide which bills come up for votes in the Senate, it is The Searchlight Pedophile.
You guys must be so passed about the 24bn that the shutdown cost
And it isn’t the Republicans that run the Park Department that physically assaulted senior citizens and foreign tourists while letting illegal aliens run roughshod, now, is it, Slappy?
It isn’t the Republicans that run the DoD that refused to pay for the death benefits of killed service members to the widows, is it, Slappy?
C’mon, even you should be able to tell the difference.
Wouldn’t have cost anything if Searchlight Harry would have let those other funding bills come up for votes, Slappy
I think elevating hellomynameiscaptainhowdy to “demon” status gives him too much credit. He is at best a proto-imp.
to the powerline folks and nro
The Who – Cut My Hair
Wow. The way steviekhan pillaged and burned his way through a whole straw village there, slaughtering strawmen left and right.
I bet the self-rape after was teh awsum!
Your mention of ‘steviekhan’ reminds me of the little girl rabbit with the sword made of two twigs tied together, from the animated version of “Robin Hood”.
http://www.dvdizzy.com/images/q-s/robinhoodmwe-16.jpg
The little one on the far right.
“You guys must be so passed about the 24bn that the shutdown cost”
It takes a special kind of mooch to consider money not spent by the government as a “cost”.
Don’t worry, Slaphead. It got spent anyway. No community organizers lost their jobs.
Sebelius testifies today. Proposed drinking game:
1) Blames problems on someone else (contractors, Republicans, Koch brothers, kulaks, wreckers, Tooth Fairy, etc.) — take a shot.
2) Says “I don’t recall” or “I don’t have that information” — take a shot.
3) Spouts obvious and verifiable bullshit (e.g., denies or otherwise tries to spin Obama claim that everyone could keep their coverage) — take a shot.
4) Pleads the Fifth Amendment — kill the bottle.
You guys made your intentions pretty clear when the debt ceiling was up for a vote. The effect of which would have been global recession / depression. I have to believe you knew what you were asking for. – See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
Please go into greater detail.
Want to know something interesting about all the free-er countries, they all have more guaranteed healthcare than we do. – See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
They also have more choices. Limiting choices does not create freedom. Forcing people to choose does not make them more free..
I simply see no evidence that the level of freedom you’re looking for, with no EPA, no FDA, very low taxes, very little if any social safety net, lead to prosperity. – See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
Because you don’t know how wealth is created.
You don’t know that bureaucracies in this country are laws unto themselves and routinely make laws that effect everyone.
I don’t consider Switzerland or Hong Kong “hell holes”
I think the democrats in the senate should investigate the damage done by the republican shutdown
Lie. Pretty much everything hellomynameis says is a lie, innit?
Why can’t we get a better class of lefty around here?
Is it because there’s no such thing?
hellomynameissteve says October 29, 2013 at 10:02 pm
You guys must be so passed about the 24bn that the shutdown cost
– See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51733#comments
Do you mean pissed?
Pissed as in drunk? Or pissed as in angry?
I bet you’re pretty happy at the 100’s of billions the shutdown saved . Turns out non-essential, in this case, really means non-essential.
Trespasser
Take him for what he is. A glib talking points messenger. He has no ideas of his own. He can’t defend his position. He can only recite what he’s read in Huffpo, or Slate, etc.
He’s had ample opportunity not only to defend his positions , but to refute any arguments we make.
He hasn’t.
A Christopher Hitchens he ain’t.
By this statement, you prove yourself a shill. No one, outside of a university environment, thinks or talks this way. Real people, outside of academia, who have the capability and drive to obtain things for themselves tend to do so, because they know that “government-provided services” come with a large helping of control/rules (and often outright lies). The other real people who cannot, or more accurately, refuse to provide for their own are more than willing to accept the inconveniences (and force them on everyone by excluding genuine, private, choices) because it’s “free”, and they know no other reality, and they resent the idea of someone else having more or better simply because they earned it.
For this reason, I hope Jeff bans you. This site, at least, doesn’t need an assigned activist throwing around meaningless assertions and moronic non-sequitur; we’ve got Happyfeet for that.
Yup.
“Only the ones that consistently cheer for reducing the country to ashes (from which a FreedomAndLibertyLand can be rebuilt) and fantasize about shooting their fellow citizens. Those people have defined themselves as a bit bloodthirsty and a bit savage.”
Someone clearly isn’t following his fellow “civilized” leftists in their savage rants on twitter much less understanding the simple and obvious difference between a “let it burn” attitude and “burn it all down” (which rests in who starts the fire).
I’ve seen PLENTY of leftists publicly fantasizing about robbing, exiling, killing, imprisoning, torturing, and/or brainwashing people who get in their way according to their whim and without any sign of due process. Nor do they object to suspicious raids of private manufacturing businesses thought to be using forbidden wood, after it is noted that they contributed to the political opposition.
And let’s face it, so has dumb lying Steve. He’s not here, twisting your words, or making them up out of whole cloth, because he is more responsible, serene, or civilized than the people he seeks to libel. Steve is fantasizing about stripping you of your citizenship, declaring you a mad dog, and sending the government, a militant group, or a mob to rob, exile, kill, imprison, torture, and/or brainwash you, because it makes him hard and you are in what he thinks of, as in his way. And of course he is unaware that the same bloodthirsty agent of retribution would just as happily gobble him up if he got in their way, or they thought he might.
The useful idiot always sings the same song, often long after he’s been pushed past the barbed wire gate and starved and beaten. “If only comrade x knew about this he’d surely fix it. Long live the revolution. Power to the workers.”
steve has unmasked himself as a capo, since he isn’t smart enough to be an actual Nazi.
“hellomynameissteve says October 29, 2013 at 4:09 pm
I’m also not finding my comments where I jumped in supporting Bill Ayers and the New Black Panthers.”
No true Scotsman would ere’ do or say such a thing. Therefore the people saying this are not true Scotsmen. Yet they wear kilts and plaid and march with the Scottish and go by names like Ferguson and McKenna, and I hear no Scotsmen cry out against their offenses or walk away as they approach. ‘Tis curious.
“You guys must be so passed about the 24bn that the shutdown cost ”
This is my bloody shirt. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My bloody shirt is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
My bloody shirt, without me, is useless. Without my bloody shirt, I am useless. I must shake my bloody shirt true.
I must shake it faster and harder than my enemy who is trying to close his checkbook and leave.
I must shake it at him him before he flips me off and ignores my mindless caterwauling.
I will…
“steve has unmasked himself as a capo, since he isn’t smart enough to be an actual Nazi.”
More of a sonderkommando, I’d say. No one would trust him with actual authority.
I had no idea that the left had so much trouble playing bar chords as to need a capo. :)
it’s the whole “musical multitasking” that confuses them ;)
It’s simultaneously cute and frustrating that the chattering shills like special stevie cannot ever put up a cogent defense of their assertions. No argument, no evidence, no analogy — not even a thought experiment to explore where their preferred policy prescriptions would lead.
In an arena like this one, the special stevies are demolished like an unprepared doctoral candidate. Our committee gives review after endless review of the thesis, sending it back with copious notes about unsupported assertions and missing or shaky evidence. We mark up the footnotes, making note of sources that don’t say what the candidate thinks they say. And at the end of all that work, the candidate turns in a thesis that hasn’t changed one bit, and then tries to defend the work before the committee. Nine times out of ten, the defense consists of telling us all that we’re stupid and ignorant for not recognizing the intrinsic TRVTH of the thesis.
Ask any PhD what would have happened to them if they’d accused their committee of ignorance and bad faith.
But there is some value in the unprepared doctoral candidate, if only because they force those of us on the committee to revisit the original source documents and arguments. And if the thesis defense is in public, then there’s the value of showing the observers what the scholarly record actually says.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many Progressives brave (or foolish) enough to stand before a committee of experts to be ritually humiliated. Usually, they gather in mobs, so that they can overwhelm the committee through sheer strength of numbers. When your unprepared doctoral candidate has 500 yes-men standing behind him, he doesn’t ever have to answer the questions put to him, because the mob will shout down every question and challenge.
I used to have the time and energy and desire to wander into those dens and try to beat some sense into them. Tiring work is was, and thankless. Still, I was motivated to try to expose some of the mob to actual arguments, and evidence, and thoughtful observations on where their path would lead. I don’t do that any more; there just aren’t enough hours in a week for me to waste them shouting in the wilderness. I console myself with the fact that the Gods of the Copybook Headings are coming, whether I prophesy them or no. And I hold the firm belief that no matter how much shouting and stamping of feet the mob engages in, the lessons of the Copybook Headings will be learned.
Squid, it’s the old “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” situation.
The difference between “us” and “them” ( a locution I don’t care for, but will use it for the sake of brevity) boils down to the old saying above. They would make us drink, even if it drowns us.
For our own good.
Squid. I’ve been told I have a very perverse idea if what constitutes “entertainment”.
Steve is afraid of us. Not only of conservative ideas, but physically afraid he’ll be hurt by the bitter clinging wingers.
Steve is a coward.
Trust us, Slappy, it won’t hurt a bit…
(After the first tenth of a second, that is.)
I wonder how Slappy thought he could continue in his lies, when the facts always turn out to be diametrically opposed to his every utterance
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/30/number-of-people-oregons-obamacare-exchange-has-signed-up-one-month-after-its-launch-zero/
That’s ZERO signed up in Oregon on the website. Helluva job, but you are now exposed as nothing more than a liar.
Go piss up a rope, liar.
Steve does claim (if I remember correctly) that he didn’t sign up via the website but talked to an insurance agent.
Which, it would seem, he was able to do prior to obamacare passing.