Monthly Archives: April 2016

No Child Left To Succeed

17 Sunday Apr 2016

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For a very long time I pondered how America would fall, pondering what cataclysmic event would bring her down. It was a series of disappointments (or reliefs). The Atlanta Olympics? No. Bill Clinton? No. Y2K? Ha, no. 9/11? Nope. The Great Recession? Uh-uh. While I was looking for a zombie apocalypse the end quietly snuck up on us. As Jack Perry points out, the end is not near, it is here. Turns out it was all the little things, ever creeping along, that got us. It was like in the War of the Worlds – itty-bitty microbes slowly did what bombs and guns could not in brief but intense battle.

Every facet changed degree by degree – justice, economics, culture, education – creep, creep, creep. As the decades passed the education system (public at least) declined day by day. It was dismal when I was in school (in another century). Now, it is gone, living on in name only. Year by year the names of the great end-all, be-all education programs changed too. Head Start. It never started. Horizons Something. Never got anywhere near the horizon. Common Core. The only commonality was that the core was rotten. No Child Left Behind. This one actually lived up to the name. No one child was left behind – they all stayed behind together. Now, as of December, 2015, we have Every Student Succeeds. Pub. L. 114-95 (2015). Another lie, they don’t all succeed. In fact, under the government’s system most do not and those that do, do so in spite of the programs not because of them.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ZINwnEPhiFM?flag=1&enablejsapi=1&origin=www.ed.gov

Another Lie Becomes Law. http://www.ed.gov.

Like the collapse, Every Student came along quietly. I just heard of it this morning. I read a blurb in a story about the new non-white majority in the school age population. That story isn’t reassuring at all. Sixty years ago, racial discrimination aside, non white children (and all children) in America got more or less a decent, real education. It happened with smaller budgets, fewer standardized tests, no Department of Education, and no stupidly named, do nothing but waste money programs.

Every Student, like its predecessors, is based on lies and misconstrued findings. The government boasts: “For example, today, high school graduation rates are at all-time highs. Dropout rates are at historic lows. And more students are going to college than ever before.” Dropouts are down and graduations are up because standards have been dumbed down and everyone passes regardless of ability. They all get to college now but only half of them can read. This is not a success. This is delusional failure. Measured internally and ignoring illiteracy, things are fine. Measured against the rest of the world or our own history – against stark reality – things have fallen completely apart.

“We are a place that believes every child, no matter where they come from, can grow up to be anything they want… And I’m confident that if we fix No Child Left Behind, if we continue to reform American education, continue to invest in our children’s future, that’s the America we will always be.” – Hussein Obama lying to someone somewhere. Rest assured in a few years some other dipshit will be promising to “fix” Every Student. The children still won’t be reading.

More official lies: “…the bipartisan bill upholds critical protections for America’s disadvantaged students. It ensures that states and school districts will hold schools to account for the progress of all students and prescribes meaningful reforms to remedy underperformance in those schools failing to serve all students.” That was the purpose of the other failed programs. Programs and learning seem to be antonyms. Maybe we need a program banning programs.

Animal House, Universal Pictures.

Never let education get in the way of learning. Get your students, if you care for them, out of this failed and useless system. American education has become child abuse writ large. Leave the government behind and the child will go ahead and succeed.

Happy No Trust Day!

15 Friday Apr 2016

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April 15th, Tax Day. Well, I hear they moved the date to the 18th this year but the 15th, today, is the traditional deadline to file returns with the IRS. Yesterday in eerily timed oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge David Sentelle said, “It’s hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust.” The Case is True the Vote v. IRS, ___ F.3d ___, No. 14-5316 (D.C. Cir., April 14, 2016).

True and several other Tea Party groups sued the IRS for violating their civil rights. Throughout the proceedings the IRS has maintained the same disdain and arrogance they show to any ordinary taxpayer (maybe you have had the lovely experience). Except, this time, they unnerved two federal judges presiding over the arguments. At least the IRS is consistent.

The “masters of the universe” attitude, arrogance, and obstruction the IRS is famous for earned them the title of “untrustworthy”. The only word to describe them better is “evil”. Remember that next time your fill out their forms or meet with your CPA.

Now, go pay your taxes!

Google.

Fake Sex, Lies, and Red Tape

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Perrin’s definition of government: (Noun) (originating around 10,000 B.C. in Hell) A collection of psychopathic control freaks hell-bent on minding everyone else’s business at gun point. This lowly institution is good for killing people, enriching bankers, and not much else.

Show me a government, any government, and I’ll show you a murder of monstrous, freedom-crushing maniacs. Meddlesome at best, Satanic at worst, an unfit concept long passed over by civilization.

Texas once had a law banning the sale of dildos – not making that up. One woman was actually prosecuted after holding a sales party at her home. Several adult entertainment businesses sued the State claiming a Fourteenth Amendment Due Process violation. See: Reliable Consultants, Inc., et al. v. Earle and The State of Texas, 517 F.3d 738, Slip Op. 06-51067 (5th Cir., 2008). The Fifth Circuit struck down the law and struck a blow for individual freedom (as corny a freedom as may be…).

The Texas Solicitor who argued (in vain) against the sale of rubber weapons of mass destruction was none other than Presidential candidate Ted “Glen Beck’s Man Crush” Cruz  – he the victor of the recent Colorado GOP non primary. I’m not sure how much tax money he wasted on the case (Federal Court ain’t cheap rent). He did obviously waste the time of the Judges, earning himself a 2-1 overthrow. Teddy declined to take the case higher. Lonely housewives breathed easier. Or, rapidly. Something.

The Fifth Circuit took down Texas’s law in as much because of Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. at 578 (2003) (a la Bowers v. Hardwick) as because the government presented no evidence of any legitimate state interest necessitating such an idiotic, overbearing, busybody ban in the first place. More on legitimacy in a moment. The Court held: “The State’s primary justifications for the statute are “morality based.” The asserted interests include “discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation and prohibiting the commercial sale of sex.” Reliable, Id. at Slip 10.

Perhaps recognizing that public morality is an insufficient justification for the statute after Lawrence, the State asserts that an interest the statute serves is the “protection of minors and unwilling adults from exposure to sexual devices and their advertisement.” It is undeniable that the government has a compelling interest in protecting children from improper sexual expression. However, the State’s generalized concern for children does not justify such a heavy-handed restriction on the exercise of a constitutionally protected individual right. Ultimately, because we can divine no rational connection between the statute and the protection of children, and because the State offers none, we cannot sustain the law under this justification.

Id, at 11 (double emphasis added).

The State and Teddy came to battle with no factual evidence and a shaky “moral” legal argument. Morals are good. Their best in their place. Many are upset by the notion that one cannot legislate morality. A ruling like this is salt in their wounds. Their reaction is evidence of their own lack of morality, of a substitution of the Divine with the positive. God will handle matters related to morality. He does not need help from Texas or any other band of liars and thieves. Speaking of morality and Ted Cruz, Ted now advocates carpet bombing. Incinerating civilians is much more moral than selling a vibrator; God will surely agree.

The moment has come! Let’s look at the Texan idea that the state as an interest in banning sex toys in order to protect children and promote procreation (making up our evidence, if needed, as the State provided none). Law professors and black-robed priests prattle on about various standards of state interests – to be weighed against human freedoms or rights. Compelling, rationally related, important, legitimate – all artful when written out in a brief but still bullshit. I care, here, about the factor of legitimacy, real legitimacy. When talking about people (women one would hope) who use these…devices it becomes obvious they are the sorts who are not interested, at the time, in procreation. They’re looking for a little fun. They’re minding their own business behind closed doors.

Government is not content to leave anyone alone, that much is clear. What, really, honestly, is a state’s interest in procreation, children and humans in general. There is no guaranteed supply of people; no state is just entitled to subjects. In their absence the state would have no one to govern, to boss around. Therein lies the interest. Children are future taxpayers to the state. They are future speed trap victims. They are future cannon-fodder to march off to war. It’s immoral from the state’s perspective to withhold future victims, victims who might be needed to carry out such morality as a carpet bombing run.

The other week another opinion came out a different Court of Appeals on a different topic. Whereas the Fifth Circuit got Reliable right, the Ninth missed the Constitution on searches and seizures in United States v. Magallon-Lopez, ___F.3d___, Slip Op. 14-30249 (9th Cir., March 31, 2016). Different results for freedom but both cases highlight the hateful, demented existence of government.

In Magallon-Lopez the famously liberal Ninth Circuit sided with the police state. “The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that police officers can lie to suspects in regards to a traffic stop — even when no violation has occurred. The ruling essentially gives police officers carte blanche to stop anyone they want for absolutely no reason — merely acting on a hunch.” Matt Agorist, Court Rules Police Can Legally Make Up Lies to Pull People Over to Fish for Criminal Behavior, The Free Thought Project, April 11, 2016.

The criminal subject matter of Magallon is as unpopular as that of Reliable was silly. Defendant Magallon was a meth peddler, unwelcome in most communities. Still, we play the cases we are dealt. Both actions revolve around universal rights and are only brought to light by their subject participants. Both demonstrate government will do anything to abrogate liberty.

The defendant, who did not and could not seriously contest the existence of reasonable suspicion for stopping the car, contended that the stop violated the Fourth Amendment because the officer who pulled him over deliberately lied when stating the reason for the stop, and the reason the officer gave was not itself supported by reasonable suspicion. Rejecting this contention, the panel wrote that so long as the facts known to the officer establish reasonable suspicion to justify an investigatory stop, the stop is lawful even if the officer falsely cites as the basis for the stop a ground that is not supported by reasonable suspicion. The panel concluded that in light of the information obtained during the stop, the officers had probable cause to seize the car.

Magallon-Lopez, Id. at Slip 2 (Summary)(emphasis added).

Magallon and a friend were suspected by the DEA of running drugs. This was known to local Montana police who initiated a traffic stop. The asserted reason for the stop was an improper lane change – a flat lie. The vehicle was seized and searched, meth was found, and the occupants arrested. Again, the police only knew that other police suspected the defendant of carrying drugs (these are illegal for the same specious reasons sex toys were in Texas). The arresting officers had no actual knowledge of real criminal activity. Therefore they lied. And, lying is okay as long as it is done by the government. Given this new standard I may have to refresh How to Interact with the Police – best to just live your life completely in a basement somewhere.

So much for the Fourth Amendment. The Court withheld a ruling on Due Process grounds (really, they did enough). No dissent in this case, just a concurrence which noted that Montana officers are statutorily bound to disclose their (real) reasons for arresting someone. Lying and breaking the law are okay so long as committed by servants of the state.

A “God-fearing” conservative desiring war over privacy. Former “liberals” selling out liberty for lies and lawlessness. No, one doesn’t need a government for this – an insane asylum would be enough.

Intimitated.org.

By the way: this is post number 450. Rolling!

The Nestor Miranda Collection Maduro: Perfection on Fire

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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This evening I raise a toast to my friend Nestor Miranda in celebration of his excellent tobacco work. Specifically, I praise his “new” red labeled Maduro. Mine is a 6×60 Gordo. In a word: magnificent!

This baby came along late in 2014 or early 2015. The new collection replaced the already stellar Special Selection line – a favorite of mine. My Maduro, filled with Peruvian, Nicaraguan, and Dominican goodness, is bound by Esteli’s finest and wrapped in a beautiful dark Connecticut leaf. A work of art indeed. In fact, this was one smoke that required a lengthy visual examination prior to lighting in order to appreciate the high quality craftsmanship. The Maduro is also joined by a Connecticut and a Habano.

Nestor Miranda Collection

A tempting trio. Halfwheel.

The construction is flawless. Whenever I pick up a stick I do a little squeeze test so as to predict the draw. This big boy was a little tight. I am happy I disregarded my index finger’s assessment and trusted to Nestor’s brilliance. The draw is perfect, effortless. And, I have seen and smoked very few cigars that burn as evenly and as cleanly as this one. I’ve been working slowly at it for about thirty minutes and, to show, I have about an inch of whitish gray ash as uniform as could be imagined.

IMG_20160413_173453822_HDR

My Gordo prior to the fire.

The taste is superb. It definitely recalls the notes and character of the old line. This Gordo is medium bodied (maybe leaning towards the heavy side of medium) and the smoke is simply delightful. Oddly, this cigar would make just about any veteran happy and, at the same time, not make a newbie ill or regretful. There is Nicaraguan earthiness and leather aplenty to satisfy my base cravings. For me that alone would suffice. However, to be a little technical, I’m picking up terrific light peppery hints and maybe a velvet like coffee essence.

We all know I don’t have a rating system but, if I did, this is the part where I would call up five stars, a 90-something, two thumbs up, or something similarly exemplary. Let me just say it is damn good!

Nestor with a 250 pound Perrin (yeah, don’t miss that), circa 2010. Think that was a Special Selection Gordo in my hand.

Hats off to one of the baddest men in the tobacco business! A classic is reborn in astounding splendor. Put down the computer and get ye to the nearest tobacconist.

The Death of Men’s Suitcases and Other First World Problems

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Upon my return from my last jaunt to sunny Florida I noticed signs of wear on my suitcase, which has served me for twenty or more years. Mine is a small soft sided tote from Land’s End. It’s of the size most people would call an overnight bag though it has served me for weeks or even months at a time without issue. It is showing signs of wear and fraying and it will not last through many more trips. I do have a backup – a huge, modern rolling shipping container of a case by American Tourister. That one will almost hold everything I own but it is so large and unwieldy that I rarely if ever use it (see below). I travel light therefore I like smaller bags.

Whilst I perused the Nordstrom website for bargain suits I decided to glance at their luggage selection. I was aghast at what I found. Every single one of their dozens of suitcases has wheels. All of them. (I also noticed many, many “men’s” handbags and purses…….ahem…). I despise wheeled luggage, especially for use by men. One sees them everywhere nowadays. Hoards of poorly dressed, overweight saps lumber through our airports pulling these ugly contraptions. Hotel lobbies are clogged with them. Not only are all of these models ugly, they are huge. Even school children roll their backpacks around on wheels (defeats the point of a backpack). They’ve invaded malls, interstate rest areas, and the workplace. People even roll duffel bags into the gym in acts of self-defeating laziness.

I sought refuge at the Samsonite webpage. There my worst fears were realized. The industry apparently no longer make traditional non-wheeled suitcases! Even the “carry on” bags have wheels and they have “carry” in their name!

I have this crazy theory that if it is so heavy that it needs to be rolled, then one probably could do without it. It’s a suitcase not a box off a cargo ship. No forklift should be required to move it. No man should ever have to roll his suitcase. A woman, perhaps, but not a man. A man should pick his case up by the handle and carry it – like a man. If they happen to travel together the man will invariably carry his bag in one hand while rolling the woman’s with the other.

You know the drill. A man carries his one suitcase on a trip – regardless of destination or duration. A woman carries (has the man carry) her suitcase, another suitcase, a third suitcase, a garment bag, a makeup bag, a cooler, a tote, a backpack (always open), her purse, a backup purse, several loose plastic grocery bags full of unidentifiable material, some trendy novel, and umbrella, a pack of cookies, a teddy bear, two pillows, and a quilt. Frequently, upon packing the car with all that feminine stuff, a man discovers there is no room left inside the car for him.

The luggage industry, like so many others, seems now to cater to a 100% clientele of women, children, and metrosexuals/gays. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, except that we men are left outside the bag check stand entirely. I don’t want and will not use an Ironman elementary school backpack nor a 400 pound pink box mounted on tractor tires. My dad, rest his soul, carried (picked up off the ground by the damn handle) a manly man’s suitcase. It was hard sided, bland, simple, and functional. That’s what I want.

My parents had a Samsonite set like this in the 1970s. Dad’s was the big one. No wheels anywhere.

This thing needs a “wide load” escort truck with flashing lights and flags.

Now my problem is compounded. I need a new suitcase in a world where there are none left from which to choose. Must I search Craigslist, second-hand shops, or yard sales for ancient relics of the lost luggage age? Looks like it. That, or use duct tape on my old Land’s End bag.

As the years roll by and as society crumbles I notice problems like this are growing. In stores like Nordstrom it is getting difficult to find clothes that are not the uniforms of rappers, hipsters, walruses, or little boys. I’d like a plain blue t-shirt – nothing about NASCAR, thug life, or Batman (cool as his is). It’s becoming harder to smoke a cigar outdoors – or even in a cigar shop. Many “cigar” stores are merely discount cigarette outlets or hookah lounges for tattooed, low-rent felons. Have you seen a modern automobile?

My SUV, a gift from my divorce, is getting on in age. It runs fine and serves me well but I have slowly began to plan for its replacement. This experience has been worse than the luggage debacle. Every single car, truck or SUV made by all manufactures all look exactly alike and have the exact same features. They are (with the unaffordable exceptions of the exotic supercars) small, ugly, under-powered, “safety” riddled, and filled with beeping, flashing, talking electronic garbage from a bad sci-fi nightmare. I do not require a backup camera, lane watch mechanisms, auto steering, radar cruise control, crash avoidance, heated seats, a bitchy voice telling me to buckle up, self-parking modes, tracking systems, a black box, Facebook, Bluetooth, chirping birds, or even airbags. Just give me a cup holder and a helluva lot of horsepower, please.

It looks like I will be settling for a 1975 F250 Ranger Hi-boy 4×4 with a carbureted 460. That, or a reconditioned AM General M939. Either of these will have the torque to pull any modern,wheeled suitcase monstrosity. One solution solves another.

More Crazy 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Nutiness

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

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Everyone knows the only valid conspiracy theories are those put forth by the government for consideration by wise judges and noble, attentive jurors. You know – conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to rob a bank, conspiracy to catch a short lobster – serious crimes (the base crimes of murder and robbery simply are not enough; the conspiring, rather than the act, is what counts). Theories about the origin and operation of the Federal Reserve, MK Ultra, Operation Northwoods, Bretton Woods, and the imperfect ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment are the stuff of insane fantasy. Sure, they all turned out to be true but, come on, crazy, crazy, crazy.

No set of such lunatic fancies have a deeper and more fanatical following than those surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The truth is plain and simple: 19 young, poor, semi-educated men from Saudi Arabia (one or two of whom may have known someone who once said they met Osama Bin Laden), who hated Americans for their freedoms and who did not receive any state support, moved through and received some training in Germany and England, arriving in their base of operations in the United States where they carried out the most sophisticated terror attacks in history without any warning whatsoever, thus justifying wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Clear as a bell, really.

The crazies come up with all sorts of wholly unbelievable drivel regarding this simple event. They ask why Larry Silverstein insured the World Trade Center for twice its value and specifically against terrorist attacks a few months before 9/11. They ask why Israelis were stationed around New York like spectators at a football game on 9/11. They ask why President Bush didn’t immediately react once told of the attacks. They ask why Saudis were allowed to freely travel out of the U.S. on 9/11 when all other travel was banned. They ask why a CIA Clandestine Services agent would seem to have so much information about the attacks as to basically narrate them as and before they  unfolded. So many damned questions! Are they trying to learn something!?

These jokers actually insinuate that explosives were used to bring down the Towers that day; they claim airliners were insufficient for the job. The “proof” they foist on the sane consists of things like the following: That the modern buildings were specifically designed to withstand crashes by jumbo jets. That jet fuel fueled fires are not hot enough to melt steel. That the maximum temperatures in those fire were around 1800 degrees while months later hot pockets revealed temperatures in excess of 4000 degrees. That there were traces of titanium diboride found in the rubble. These nuts even claim the BBC reported the collapse of WTC building No. 7 twenty minutes before it happened. This screen capture from 9/11 disproves that one:

Loons. BBC.

Now we welcome a new nut to the bag – former U.S. Senator Bob Graham. Graham was once chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence so he obviously knows nothing about anything regarding either government or intelligence. I met the man once; he tried to tell me his suit was blue when it was inarguably gray. Now Graham is set to tell another whopper and feed the 9/11 conspiracy furnaces under the internet loony ward.

Sunday he will go on CBS’s 60 Minutes and drop a bombshell of a lie. He seems to think the 19 hijackers had outside, professional and state level help. He thinks the public needs to know what’s on the 28 pages of classified information redacted out of the 9/11 Commission Report. “I think it’s implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many didn’t have a high school education, could have carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States,” said Senator Nutjob.

There has been great speculation, this year and going back to 2001, about official Saudi involvement in the attacks. Just because the attackers were from Saudi Arabia means nothing. Maybe they met with other Saudis in the U.S. prior to the attacks. Who cares!? Yes, those other Saudis had to leave the country in a hurry – they had flights to catch. Geesh.

Some like Graham are demanding the 28 pages be declassified. They say the time has come, that the classification was only done by the Bush Administration to protect security interests while the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq raged. So what if those wars are history now (and such impressive successes too)? The release would only confuse the literate public about the nature of the original 9/11 Report.

That Report is the gospel truth. Sure the Commission said the government obstructed the investigation. Sure, Cheney and Bush refused to testify under oath. Yes, the Commission co-chair said the Commission was “set up to fail”. Senator Bob Kerrey said the Commission was denied access to evidence. Commissioner Tim Roemer said the government made false statements to the Commission. Yes, Senator Max Clelland walked off the job and called the Commission “compromised” and a “national scandal”. What’s the big deal?

For many more examples of this deranged questioning of the honesty of government read 7 Reasons 9/11 Could NOT Have Been An Inside Job by the Washington Blog, April 5, 2016. An example of the insidious whining:

Much of the 9/11 Commission Report was based upon the testimony of people who were tortured. At least four of the people whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators information as a way to stop being “tortured”.  One of the Commission’s main sources of information was tortured until he agreed to sign a confession that he was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ.

  • Blog, citing NBC News source.

If you can’t trust a torture coerced confession, what can you trust? You can certainly trust the U.S. government. It has never lied about anything. Well, except for lying about the Federal Reserve, MK Ultra, Operation Northwoods, Bretton Woods, the imperfect ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, Waco, income tax withholding, income tax brackets, social security, elections, the drug war, Pearl Harbor, the Grace Commission, JFK’s assassination, MLK’s assassination, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S.S. Maine, the U.S.S. Liberty, the Gulf of Tonkin, weapons of mass destruction, global warming, education, VA medical treatment, the national debt, the deficit, trade agreements, the gold standard, Three Mile Island, gun control, immigration and about a thousand other things.

Those with conspiracy theories questioning our benevolent Washington (that’s you, Mr. Graham!) are just plain crazy.

A Fool And His Party Will Soon…Whatever

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

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A last word on the GOP no vote BS out of Colorado. Last night I took a look at Rush’s “Us v. Them” approach to politics. Now I’ll turn it over to good old Vox Day, who adds a recent historical perspective and a blunt assessment:

Remember, this is the same Republican party who said we had to invade Iraq to bring democracy there and waxed ecstatic over purple fingers. Now they’re running with the “it’s a representative republic, not a democracy” line. And if you still believe that they care about anything but maintaining their own power, you’re a fool.

Of course, given that he is ineligible for the presidency anyhow, Cruz probably doesn’t care that he is now regarded as an illegitimate candidate for the nomination.

At this point we might as well replace the bald eagle with the fool.

Mile High Mania or Why I Stopped Listening To Rush Limbaugh

11 Monday Apr 2016

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Rush has been broadcasting for years and years now. When he first started I was a fan. He was honest, provocative and entertaining. He preached a message of macho conservatism in support of Ronald Reagan’s philosophy and heir, G.H.W. Bush. Bush turned out to be a horrible flop. In retrospect Reagan was too. Conservatives always forget about Reagan’s debt and government expansion, his gun control and immigration amnesty. Bill Clinton’s two terms were the best things that ever happened to Rush; he had something to shoot at and shoot he did.

Then something funny happened. Rush’s Republican party won everything. Oddly, the country continued to slide. Turns out Republicans govern just as poorly as Democrats. Rush finally settled into the role of GOP cheerleader – the squad captain. He praised Bush for doing things he had criticized Clinton for. He lost me.

Some things never change. Today Rush is of the party and for the party. The candidates don’t really matter that much, the voters certainly don’t. Consider what happened to the Republican (non) primary in Colorado. The state party decided to forgo an election and just pick Ted Cruz. Voters are not happy. Rush is fine with the process because it is from the party and for the party. Ted Cruz Isn’t Cheating, He’s Winning, according to Rush.  Click the link to read the transcript from Rush’s show today (or not – probably not).

Like the old bumper sticker said, “Rush is right”. He is. I said basically the same thing this morning. The Colorado GOP is, like the party in general, a private club. They can set their rules and procedures as they like. I think what happened is pathetic and an indication of how pitiful things are in the body politic. Rush is just happy a Republican won something Republican. Republican.

In that transcript you didn’t read Rush notes that when the GOP does something like this it is not cheating, just procedural. However, he points out that when the Democrats do the exact same thing, benefiting Hillary over Bernie, that is cheating. We can succinctly sum up Rush’s entire career: Democrats, bad; Republicans, good. Like any cheerleader he fights hard for his team.

And, that is all it is: teams in a stupid, stupid game played by the lowest dregs America has to offer. It will not change except that it will get worse. Go ahead and cheer…er…vote for your team – if they let you.

Gimme a G!… Phaster.com.

 

Your Vote Means Nothing…If You Get One

11 Monday Apr 2016

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Rock the vote! Vote or die! Every vote counts. Every election there’s a new slogan to entice the public to the Diebold booths. It reminds me of the snake oil sales pitches of old, stirring but meaningless, empty. An internet meme has given us a better, more accurate description of the process: Voting, the slaves’ suggestion box. That is, so long as the slaves are allowed to vote.

Voters, Republican voters, in Colorado have been disenfranchised this year. The story broke quietly last year. Now, as 1 Million are deprived of presidential input – no primary, no caucus tally – people are angry. Well, the Donald and his supporters are angry. Ted Cruz won the Mile High State’s GOP delegates without any public vote. The State Republican party decided last year to change their rules regarding nominee selection by putting the choice in the hands of the party’s elite rather than those of the voters.

Donald Trump

Angry Donald. WND.com.

“How is it possible that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to vote in the Republican Primary? Great anger – totally unfair!” howled Trump.

How? Here’s how: the party chose to simplify things by deciding the matter without citizen participation. It’s really very simply. Why? A more difficult question. Maybe the elites thought the voters had made one too many visits to the local pot cafes in Denver. Maybe they wanted to save money. Maybe they just don’t give a damn about the people. Anything is possible – legal too.

Party primaries are private functions – although held in public and partially at the public’s expense. As private groups the political parties get to set their own rules and change them on whims. As such, the deprived voters have no legal recourse as, technically, nothing wrong has happened. There was no state action to speak of.

Official government votes are frequently (always?) tampered with too. The tampering often results in votes being obstructed or nullified. One may recall the excitement of Bush v. Gore (2000). In that case of election irregularities once again the matter was decided by … wait for it … the elites (specifically by the Supreme Court, if memory serves). That was during the national presidential election with the whole governance of the country on the line. Honestly, no one outside of Colorado cares about this particular little scenario unless it also happens to them. It will. It has. Republicans and Democrats in all States can easily adjust their rules so as to sideline the people. But, again, in those cases no one seems to care.

Those impacted in Colorado actually do have recourse for the future. They can vote out the party leadership or they can leave the party. The funny thing is even if the leadership changes hands, the new crop will be as corrupt as the old. As for abandoning the party, most members aren’t going anywhere. They will craft all sorts of interesting excuses to stay – much as a battered spouse will defend his violent partner. Come the general election the sheep…er…people will fall in behind “their” candidate, regardless of how the candidate was selected.

This story highlights a few of my laws (not theories) of politics in general, American specifically. First, voting is meaningless and useless – a complete waste of time. It’s so pointless that a party may decide to dispense with it altogether. Second, this example is further proof that America is not a Republic nor a Democracy. As I have said time and again it is a curious mixture of Oligarchy and Ochlocracy. That means it is at once both controlled by a small elite and by a ranging mob.

The elites do whatever the hell they want but remember to promise some goodies to the mob. Primary or no you can bet someone will promise those Broncos fans more marijuana, some jobs, and another war to keep everyone safe from something. In exchange the mass of the sheep…darn…people will dutifully forget the sleights and betrayals and keep on supporting “their” candidates and leaders. You will not see a million new Libertarian or Green Party voters in November.

That is the way of practical politics – lies, deceit, and blind allegiance. Count on it. Just don’t count on your vote.

Google Images.

Rache the vote.

Masters Wrap 2016

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in News and Notes, Other Columns

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The 80th Masters Tournament is now in the books. It was a year that challenged the field like few have – wind, wind, more wind, and the Augusta factor. Hats off to Danny Willett for his win!

UK Telegraph.

All in all it was a terrific year. Spieth looked unbeatable until he wasn’t. Highs and lows and wind. Springtime in Augusta.

Outside the gates things were booming too. The cigar market, as headed by Russell Wilder, charted new territory. I haven’t seen any figures but it seems to me there was more money in town than normal – a good sign. Aside from that stretch of Washington Road and I-20’s Exit 200, traffic seemed almost normal. Good traffic management is one of the reasons the Wall Street Journal names ours the best major sporting event in the world. And, World, thank you once again for your visit.

Now, tomorrow is back to the usual in the most unusual city in America. Fifty-one weeks til next year…