Tag Archives: politics

Another Political Fable (They Want Your Guns) – from TPC

28 Wednesday Aug 2019

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The Wolf Who Cried Assault Rifle

A fable to make Aesop cringe:

A wolf was elected to Congress and therefore took advantage when and where he could. There was something about a Page, but the people did nothing. There was some legislative projection, but the people did nothing. Sexually explicit texting with more Pages followed. The people, the FBI included, still did nothing. Frustrated, the wolf yelled, “what the hell I gotta do to get caught up in here?!” He then resigned and came out as a homosexual.

Many years later, after a successful stint as a lobster salesman to the LGBTQIAXWTFBBQ+V, P&C community, the wolf decided to come after your guns. Ever treasonous, the GOP was happy to help him. The end.

 
Mark Foley was not just on your phone screen seven seconds ago so you probably don’t know who he is. Okay, if you’re an underage male Congressional Page, then he might be on your phone. Otherwise, read Anthony Man’s pretty good article from Saturday’s Sun-Sentinel for details.

In fairness, I met Foley at a Florida political function back around 2001-02. It was, I think, a luncheon hosted by the GOP or the Federalist Society, maybe both. The late Rep. Clay Shaw was there too. Other than the usual politi-creepiness – which would eventually drive me out of the Fed-Soc and all political gatherings – I detected nothing out of the ordinary about Foley (or Clay). If memory serves, they both bordered on being kind of nice, normal. I would not have then suspected Foley was a gun grabber. According to the Sentinel piece, he is.

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THE WHOLE DEAL AT TPC

Italy to Go Hard(er) Right

20 Tuesday Aug 2019

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Watch Italy to see how a country is supposed to protect its people. Go Salvini!

Italian President Sergio Mattarella is expected to sound out party leaders in coming days to see whether a new governing majority can be assembled in Parliament. If not, snap elections could take place as early as late October or early November.

Mr. Salvini withdrew his support for the government on Aug. 8, calling for elections, on the grounds that 5 Star was blocking policies that Italy needs, including infrastructure investments. Leaders of 5 Star have reacted by exploring the possibility of a coalition with the Democrats, a mainstream party that 5 Star has strongly criticized in the past.

Italy’s power struggle is a sign that Europe’s political upheavals have a long way to run. Electorates in Europe have become volatile over many years, but especially since the financial and immigration crises of recent years, which have weakened the credibility of established conservative and social-democratic parties in many countries.

Mr. Salvini’s tough stance against immigration and his rhetorical attacks on the European Union have helped turn the League into Italy’s most popular party, with support of around 36% in the latest opinion polls.

Where’s Richard Gere on all this?

The Times…

10 Saturday Aug 2019

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They’re REALLY changing. More stuff the media never reports.

The consequences of past actions and the imminent failure of a global paradigm that’s dominated human existence for decades can no longer be delayed. They’re coming to the fore as I write this and yet all the media and most people can focus on are the symptoms of failure. Past events lead to future events and there are in fact consequences for irresponsible actions. The various things people panic about on a daily basis are typically symptoms that can be traced back to a macro system failure, but nobody wants to talk about that. It’s too big, too daunting and seemingly impossible to fix absent collapse.

Yet outrage, anger and a cry to “do something” about symptoms of a much bigger problem will only result in an even more entrenched surveillance state going forward. Focusing on symptoms is not just short-sighted and a waste of energy, but it’s also likely to lead toward more authoritarian solutions and tendencies over time. Misdiagnosing a disease can be as deadly for a civilization as it can be for an individual.

Say! Isn’t there a swell election coming next year? That’ll be your chance to fix everything, once and forever. And, I think football run until then, so it’s all good, right?

Greek to Taki

20 Saturday Jul 2019

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Good old Taki compares his Athens, the then to the now.

ATHENS—Standing right below the Acropolis, where pure democracy began because public officials were elected by lot, I try to imagine if random political selection today would be a good thing. The answer is a resounding yes. Both Socrates and Aristotle questioned fundamental norms and values, and if they lived today they would certainly question the acceptance by us of career politicians who have never had any other profession. (Corbyn, Biden, I could go on.) Socrates was skeptical about many things, especially the arts, because he believed they led us away from the truth. Yet so-called “artists” today influence public opinion as never before. Even numbskull rappers have a say and can alter public opinion, hence election by lot should be a must.

Old Socrates was obsessed with the truth, and politics is all about the propagation of falsehoods. Aristotle believed that many people are slaves by nature, and the proof lies in the blind obedience of those hatchet-faced people who scream abuse on TV to leftist dogma. (Aristotle would not get invited to chic parties were he around today; he opposed homosexuality, believed women to be biologically inferior, and despised rule by the many.) The ancient Greeks may have invented everything useful, but they did not invent socialism, the system that makes theft legal. They were too smart to fall for its Siren-like attraction because they knew it would eventually kill all initiative. Yet politicians nowadays demand more socialism, even after the examples of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Venezuela. Go figure, as they never said in old Athens.

Who, really, knows better than a frightened and angry mob of illiterates? Damned near anyone, just ask the guys at the bowling league (if you can find them).

Friday Notes on Stuff

28 Friday Jun 2019

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I haven’t watched any of the Democratic circuses on television and I don’t plan to start. In fact, I so unconcerned, that I haven’t even looked at any transcripts. What’s the point? But, I do understand, maybe Tulsi Gabbard aside, every one of the Donkey candidates wants to give away heaping truckloads of “free” stuff to just about anyone they can find. Surfer Girl was right to stay out of that idiocy last night.

The Parkland school shooting and the aftermath are back in the news. Instead of more gun control, maybe we need more police control?

TPC is back from the annual summer getaway and a SUPER POST is heralded for Sunday. I said I might participate in that. And, I might. Maybe. That, or I’ll just concentrate on next week’s column – for which I have several ideas. One is of the political variety and something I’ve been holding back. “Independence” Day week might be a good time to unleash. Or, there’s a new short historical fiction piece I just totally made up out thin air. No idea where it came from, but I think it hits some buttons. It’s completely unrelated to any other fiction I’ve done, so I did add in Tom Ironsides, before and after, as a bookend set. The story is in no way related (directly) to his work, nor mine with him.

Blah, blah, blah. Happy Friday. – P

Tulsi Gabbard Ron Pauls Herself

27 Thursday Jun 2019

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She’s right about the interventionism, of course.

While the rest of the candidates at the first Democratic debate tonight have been doing their best to out-socialist each other, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been trying to keep the country out of war.

When asked whether she would rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal—first negotiated by the Obama administration and withdrawn from by President Donald Trump—Gabbard gave an unequivocal yes, while warning about the dire consequences of war.

“War with Iran would be worse than war with Iraq,” said Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran. “Donald Trump and his chickenhawk cabinet—Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and others—are creating a situation where a spark would light a war with Iran. Trump needs to get back into the Iran deal, swallow his pride, and put America first.”

And, according to a poll, she won the debate handily. I wonder if the DNC and the Deep State are going to deep-six her candidacy now, or if they’re going to have a little fun with it and then rob her later.

Conservatives Stuck in the Twentieth Century

02 Sunday Jun 2019

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Vox Day had something about George Will’s new book. Now, from the Washington Bezos Post:

Government needs to get back to basics. The political class, defined broadly to include persons actively engaged in electoral politics and policymaking along with those who report and comment on civic life, is more united by a class characteristic than it is divided by philosophic differences. The characteristic is a tendency to overestimate the importance of public policies, from which the political class derives its sense of importance. This is especially so regarding economic and social inequalities. These, the political class tends to believe, are largely the result of public policies and are therefore susceptible to decisive amelioration by better government actions. In the argument about which is primary, nature or nurture, the former receives an emphatic affirmation from the Founding Fathers’ philosophy. Beneath the myriad patinas of culture, there is a fixed human nature that neither improves nor regresses. What does change for the better is the capacity of certain portions of humanity to improve the legal, institutional and social structures for coping with the constants of human nature. And to do so without diluting America’s foundational commitment to take its bearings from the individual.

America isn’t, or wasn’t… a commitment, a premise, a sensibility, nor a proposition. But, times have changed. Odd, but Will’s ideas – all I’ve seen so far – seem like comments from Rush Limbaugh in the early 90s. I begin to suspect that even then, it was a little late.

BREXIT’s Been a Little Bit Hard on Her

24 Friday May 2019

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May gives resignation notice:

TEARFUL Theresa May today finally admitted her time was up and quit as Prime Minister insisting: “I’ve done my best”.

The PM was forced to resign after she failed to deliver Brexit and lost the support of her own MPs – but will continue in office as a lame duck until July.

Nigel! Nigel! Nigel!

Pocahontas Might be on to $omething

23 Tuesday Apr 2019

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The debt burden has to go. Adding it as a campaign plank makes sense, even if you (like Warren) have no intention of carrying through.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has identified something else to finance with her proposed wealth tax: wiping out student debt and tuition at public colleges.

She says her proposal would benefit 95% of the 45 million Americans carrying student debt and wipe it out for 75% of them.

Warren’s plan would also cut off federal money from for-profit colleges, which she says “enrich themselves while targeting lower-income students, service members and students of color and leaving them saddled with debt.”

My plan would get rid of all student loan debt and all other debts too. And, it wouldn’t require any taxes on anyone. And, it would get rid of a bunch of the most despicable criminals on Earth. Too bad I’m not an American Indian like Lizzy.