Libertarians have a problem. Their political philosophy all but died out in the mid- to late-20th century, but was revived by billionaires and corporations that found them politically useful. And yet libertarianism retains the qualities that led to its disappearance from the public stage, before its reanimation by people like the Koch brothers.
First, some background. There is a kind of libertarianism that’s nothing more or less than a strain in the American psyche, an emotional tendency toward individualism and personal liberty. That’s fine and even admirable.
We’re talking about the other libertarianism, the political philosophy whose avatar is the late fiction writer Ayn Rand. It was once thought that this extreme brand of libertarianism, one that celebrates greed and brutality, had died in the early 1980s with Rand herself.
Randian libertarianism is an illogical, impractical, inhumane, unpopular set of Utopian ravings which lacks internal coherence and has never predicted real-world behavior anywhere. That’s why, reasonably enough, the libertarian movement evaporated in the late 20th century, its followers scattered like the wind.
But the libertarian movement has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, and there’s a simple reason for that: money, and the personal interests of some people who have a lot of it; and exists only because in political debate, as in so many other walks of life, cash is king.
The Koch brothers are principal funders of the Reason Foundation and Reason magazine. Exxon Mobil and other corporate and billionaire interests are behind the Cato Institute, the other public face of libertarianism. Financiers have also seeded a number of economics schools, think tanks, and other institutions with proponents of their brand of libertarianism. It’s easy to explain why some of these corporate interests do it. It serves the self-interest of the polluters, for example, to promote a political philosophy which argues that regulation is bad and the market will correct any ill effects. And every wealthy individual benefits from tax cuts for the rich. What better way to justify that than with a philosophy that says they’re rich because they’re better than you...
The only problem is with the Libertarian ideology is: It’s complete fantasy! At no time or place in human history has there been a working libertarian society which provided its people with the kinds of outcomes libertarians claim it will provide. But libertarianism’s delusional mythos claims that it’s more realistic than other ideologies, which is the opposite of the truth. The slope from that contradiction to the deep well of hypocrisy is slippery, steep—and easy to identify
No single Libertarian is more "out there: than Peter Thiel, who made his fortune with PayPal. In one ludicrous diatribe, Thiel whined that allowing women, and people he describes as "welfare beneficiaries” (which might be reasonably interpreted as “minorities”) to vote. “Since 1920,” Thiel bloviated, “the extension of the franchise to (these two groups) have turned ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron."
With this remark, Thiel let something slip that modern conservative libertarians prefer to keep quiet: A lot of them don’t have much use for democracy. In their world, democracy is a poor substitute for the plutocratic rule of wealth, administered by those who hold the most of it.
Thiel is not a hypocrite on this point. He’s willing to freely say what others selfish bastards only think: Democracy should be replaced by the rule of wealthy people like himself.
But how did Peter Thiel and every other Internet billionaires become so wealthy?
They hired government-educated employees to develop products protected by government copyrights. Those products used government-created computer technology and a government-created communications web to communicate with government-educated customers in order to generate wealth for themselves, which was then stored in government-protected banks—after which they began using that wealth to argue for the elimination of government.
By that standard, Thiel and his fellow “digital libertarians” are hypocrites of genuinely epic proportion.
Many libertarians pontificate by saying that government has only two legitimate functions: to protect the national security and enforce intellectual property laws. By why only these two? If the mythical free market can solve any problem, including protecting the environment, why can’t it also protect us from foreign invaders and defend the copyrights that make these libertarians wealthy?
For that matter, why should these libertarians be allowed to hold patents at all? If the free market can decide how best to use our national resources, why shouldn’t it also decide how best to use Peter Thiel’s ideas, and whether or not to reward him for them? After all, if Thiel were a true Randian libertarian he’d use his ideas in a more superior fashion than anyone else—and he would be more ruthless in enforcing his rights to them than anyone else.
“Libertarians believe that people will be both freer and more prosperous if government intervention in people’s economic choices is minimized,” says the Cato Institute.
But victims of illegal foreclosure are neither “freer” nor “more prosperous” after the government deregulation which led to their exploitation. What’s more, deregulation has led to a series of documented banker crimes that include stockholder fraud and investor fraud.
The bankers who collude to deceive their customers, as US bankers did with the MERS mortgage system, were permitted to do so by the unwillingness of government to regulate them. The customers who were the victims of deception were essential to the production of Wall Street wealth. Why don’t libertarians recognize their role in the process, and their right to administer their own affairs?
Because the label "Libertarian" is just a less truthful and more polite way of saying "Selfish Bastard".
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
Welcome to Stupid shit Republicans say!
Remember, your neighbors and crazy uncle voted for these certifiable imbeciles!
Bobby Jindal just noted on Meet the Press that the RACE-BASED attacks on Obama were okay because Democrats criticized Bush, and Jindal also pontificated in a Politico op-ed that racism persists because minorities cling to their heritage.
---WTF?!?---
Ron Paul will be the keynote speaker at the rabidly anti-Semitic Catholic FATIMA CENTER on September 11 and Pat Robertson has claimed on his 700 Club that gays will be wearing special rings so they can infect you with HIV/AIDS when you shake hands.
Not to be outdone in the crazy, frothing and foaming closeted gay "Man" David Usher of the Council for Marriage Policy warns men that lesbians will have your children and make you slaves!
Fox News pretend Psychiatrist Keith Ablow claims that abortion and Facebook are to blame for the mindless murder of the Australian baseball player.... Huh?!?---
If that isn't twisted enough how about this: consumer confidence is near a five year high, but John Boehner is still threatening to obstruct and crash the economy. America sold the highest amount of previously lived in houses since June 2006. It was the best July since 2005. And right wingers seem to be oblivious of these important milestones. There is a great idea out there and its call infrastructure spending. It works. Until Obama wanted to do it, the GOP thought it was a great idea. 2014 here we come!
Texas Rep and idiocy enthusiast, Louie Gohmert agreed with Alan Keyes on the Family Research Council's Washington Watch that it was "scary" that liberal elites would use vaccines for "culling the population" of humans.
----LIBERAL ELITES! OHNOES!----
Also from Texas, the land of alternative history, and disbelivers in medicine and science; Eagle Mountain International MegaChurch, known for its anti vaccination positions was the site of a recent measles outbreak. Virtually all of the children who were infected were home schooled and not vaccinated.
---Yup, some parents are dimmer than a 15 watt bulb in a blackout!---
In North Carolina, the Republican Body of Leviticus lovers passed an anti-Muslim Leviticus lovers Sharia law even though the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, (Art 6).
In Dope-lahoma, Senator Tom Coburn seems to have harvested some of those purple mudrooms growing on cattle dung right before a town hall meeting where he said that President Obama is getting "perilously close" to meeting the "high-crimes and misdemeanors" standard the Constitution sets for impeachment charges. An Oakie gynecologist, that does not believe in women's rights, point of view!
In the land of Faux News, younger viewers age 25-54 are avoiding Fox News like the plague as their ratings hit the lowest level since 2001. Showcasing even more stupidity, Fox's medical "expert" Dr. David Samadi argued that President Barack Obama's administration was wrong to force gender equality for health insurance rates because men "only have the prostate," while women "have the breasts, they have the ovaries.".
---SMDH---
Finally, I can't leave Russ Wiles out of this edition. Russ thinks the president should take advice from the Heritage Foundation and CATO while at the same time parroting right wing nonsense about "the cyclonic economic destroyer that is Obamacare". Oh, Did I forget? Romney got his initial mandate ideas from the Heritage Foundation and then Obamacare used what they thought would be useful. And the SCOTUS upheld it. George Wills joins in with his "superior" prefontal cortex and well developed sense of white privilege to tell us that single, minority moms are more dangerous for minorities than a lack of rights.
In environmental news the fracking gas companies Newfield/Hess in NE Pennsylvania ran with their tail between their legs as they finally gave up against the onslaught of negative press. Gasland 2 now at HBO will only make matters worse for the Fracking outfits. In Youngstown, Ohio, over 100 earthquakes were linked to the process used to dispose of wastewater: from hydraulic fracking. In Greenbrier, Arkansas, there weren't hundreds of small earthquakes, but THOUSANDS! A study linked their occurrence to the arrival in town of waste-water disposal wells. As soon as the Arkansas Oil and Gas commission shut down the wells, the quakes stopped. Greenbrier residents have filed five federal lawsuits against the drillers.
Last but not least as August's season of nonsense comes to a close, A Republican state senator from Arkansas who is leading a legislative committee on the subject of giving guns to school teachers accidentally shot a teacher during an "active shooter" drill earlier this year, the local paper of record has uncovered. And in an EPIC level of irony and self delusion, Donald Rumsfeld says Obama is not making the case for bombing Syria.
We now return you to IQ's over 70.
Bobby Jindal just noted on Meet the Press that the RACE-BASED attacks on Obama were okay because Democrats criticized Bush, and Jindal also pontificated in a Politico op-ed that racism persists because minorities cling to their heritage.
---WTF?!?---
Ron Paul will be the keynote speaker at the rabidly anti-Semitic Catholic FATIMA CENTER on September 11 and Pat Robertson has claimed on his 700 Club that gays will be wearing special rings so they can infect you with HIV/AIDS when you shake hands.
Not to be outdone in the crazy, frothing and foaming closeted gay "Man" David Usher of the Council for Marriage Policy warns men that lesbians will have your children and make you slaves!
Fox News pretend Psychiatrist Keith Ablow claims that abortion and Facebook are to blame for the mindless murder of the Australian baseball player.... Huh?!?---
If that isn't twisted enough how about this: consumer confidence is near a five year high, but John Boehner is still threatening to obstruct and crash the economy. America sold the highest amount of previously lived in houses since June 2006. It was the best July since 2005. And right wingers seem to be oblivious of these important milestones. There is a great idea out there and its call infrastructure spending. It works. Until Obama wanted to do it, the GOP thought it was a great idea. 2014 here we come!
Texas Rep and idiocy enthusiast, Louie Gohmert agreed with Alan Keyes on the Family Research Council's Washington Watch that it was "scary" that liberal elites would use vaccines for "culling the population" of humans.
----LIBERAL ELITES! OHNOES!----
Also from Texas, the land of alternative history, and disbelivers in medicine and science; Eagle Mountain International MegaChurch, known for its anti vaccination positions was the site of a recent measles outbreak. Virtually all of the children who were infected were home schooled and not vaccinated.
---Yup, some parents are dimmer than a 15 watt bulb in a blackout!---
In North Carolina, the Republican Body of Leviticus lovers passed an anti-Muslim Leviticus lovers Sharia law even though the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, (Art 6).
In Dope-lahoma, Senator Tom Coburn seems to have harvested some of those purple mudrooms growing on cattle dung right before a town hall meeting where he said that President Obama is getting "perilously close" to meeting the "high-crimes and misdemeanors" standard the Constitution sets for impeachment charges. An Oakie gynecologist, that does not believe in women's rights, point of view!
In the land of Faux News, younger viewers age 25-54 are avoiding Fox News like the plague as their ratings hit the lowest level since 2001. Showcasing even more stupidity, Fox's medical "expert" Dr. David Samadi argued that President Barack Obama's administration was wrong to force gender equality for health insurance rates because men "only have the prostate," while women "have the breasts, they have the ovaries.".
---SMDH---
Finally, I can't leave Russ Wiles out of this edition. Russ thinks the president should take advice from the Heritage Foundation and CATO while at the same time parroting right wing nonsense about "the cyclonic economic destroyer that is Obamacare". Oh, Did I forget? Romney got his initial mandate ideas from the Heritage Foundation and then Obamacare used what they thought would be useful. And the SCOTUS upheld it. George Wills joins in with his "superior" prefontal cortex and well developed sense of white privilege to tell us that single, minority moms are more dangerous for minorities than a lack of rights.
In environmental news the fracking gas companies Newfield/Hess in NE Pennsylvania ran with their tail between their legs as they finally gave up against the onslaught of negative press. Gasland 2 now at HBO will only make matters worse for the Fracking outfits. In Youngstown, Ohio, over 100 earthquakes were linked to the process used to dispose of wastewater: from hydraulic fracking. In Greenbrier, Arkansas, there weren't hundreds of small earthquakes, but THOUSANDS! A study linked their occurrence to the arrival in town of waste-water disposal wells. As soon as the Arkansas Oil and Gas commission shut down the wells, the quakes stopped. Greenbrier residents have filed five federal lawsuits against the drillers.
Last but not least as August's season of nonsense comes to a close, A Republican state senator from Arkansas who is leading a legislative committee on the subject of giving guns to school teachers accidentally shot a teacher during an "active shooter" drill earlier this year, the local paper of record has uncovered. And in an EPIC level of irony and self delusion, Donald Rumsfeld says Obama is not making the case for bombing Syria.
We now return you to IQ's over 70.
Willful ignorance is the true enemy.
Louisiana Republicans blame Obama for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina than blame George W. Bush, 29-28%-- with another 44% "unsure." Perhaps most Louisiana Republicans didn't recall that they had never heard of Barack Obama in 2005 when Katrina struck. At the time he had been a U.S. senator for a few months.
"Oh my God," I thought when I heard about this; "are these people voting?
No wonder David Vitter was reelected!"
But, it's hardly just Louisiana Republicans-- even if Louisiana does have the worst education results of any of the 50 states.
"Seven in 10 Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. One in five thought that Obama was Muslim.
In another famous poll, Americans were three times more likely to be able to name two of the seven dwarfs than two Supreme Court justices." And they can all vote... and buy automatic weapons!
The drive into insanity, idiocracy and the imbecilization of the American public, a state actively pursued by right-wing strategists for decades, has reached the point where a frighteningly large section of the electorate has no conception of what a 'fact' is!
Let me repeat that.
A large number of Americans have no idea of what constitutes a Fact!
These willfully ignorant Americans truly believe that 'reality' is whatever insane notions lodge in their heads... As many have pointed out before, the genius of so-called 'reality TV' is that it plays on the fatigue, or perhaps outright animosity, that a large segment of the public has developed toward, er, real reality, and their eager flight into what I like to call 'reality substitute,' based on the premise that reality is now defined as whatever it makes me feel best to believe.
You know, "Facts" such as: "Obama was born in Kenya and has engaged in a lifelong conspiracy joined by who knows how many thousands of people to conceal it?" and "Obama had the IRS target his political enemies", or my personal favorite amongst Tea Party freshmen: POTUS has no Constitutional right to make recess appointments"
Yes, I am sorry to say, the Tea Party freshmen are so ignorant of how government works, they needed to attend a Civics 101 course. And they STILL have no idea that they are ignorant of the Constitution that they wave about like a banner!
Or "Facts such as: "People and dinosaurs co-existed, and people used dinosaurs as beasts of burden and conveyance" or " 2 each of 7 million species, 14 million animals fit on a single boat".
It is the loss of fact, the ease at which people dismiss observable reality, if it does not coincide with their prejudice and preconceptions; are the reasons Americans are divided, why lies are so easily spread as fact and why America is in such dire circumstances.
"Oh my God," I thought when I heard about this; "are these people voting?
No wonder David Vitter was reelected!"
But, it's hardly just Louisiana Republicans-- even if Louisiana does have the worst education results of any of the 50 states.
"Seven in 10 Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. One in five thought that Obama was Muslim.
In another famous poll, Americans were three times more likely to be able to name two of the seven dwarfs than two Supreme Court justices." And they can all vote... and buy automatic weapons!
The drive into insanity, idiocracy and the imbecilization of the American public, a state actively pursued by right-wing strategists for decades, has reached the point where a frighteningly large section of the electorate has no conception of what a 'fact' is!
Let me repeat that.
A large number of Americans have no idea of what constitutes a Fact!
These willfully ignorant Americans truly believe that 'reality' is whatever insane notions lodge in their heads... As many have pointed out before, the genius of so-called 'reality TV' is that it plays on the fatigue, or perhaps outright animosity, that a large segment of the public has developed toward, er, real reality, and their eager flight into what I like to call 'reality substitute,' based on the premise that reality is now defined as whatever it makes me feel best to believe.
You know, "Facts" such as: "Obama was born in Kenya and has engaged in a lifelong conspiracy joined by who knows how many thousands of people to conceal it?" and "Obama had the IRS target his political enemies", or my personal favorite amongst Tea Party freshmen: POTUS has no Constitutional right to make recess appointments"
Yes, I am sorry to say, the Tea Party freshmen are so ignorant of how government works, they needed to attend a Civics 101 course. And they STILL have no idea that they are ignorant of the Constitution that they wave about like a banner!
Or "Facts such as: "People and dinosaurs co-existed, and people used dinosaurs as beasts of burden and conveyance" or " 2 each of 7 million species, 14 million animals fit on a single boat".
It is the loss of fact, the ease at which people dismiss observable reality, if it does not coincide with their prejudice and preconceptions; are the reasons Americans are divided, why lies are so easily spread as fact and why America is in such dire circumstances.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Need proof that Billionaires bought themselves some complete state governments?
The Institute for Southern Studies released a report this week about how Art Pope used his fortune to buy the state's Republican Party and then leverage that into an anti-democracy neo-fascist jihad. Their investigation found that Pope played several critical but largely behind-the-scenes roles in advancing the state's new voting restrictions
1. Pope's ideological network ginned up fear of voter fraud.
In 2012, North Carolina voters cast nearly 7 million ballots, and only 121 alleged cases of voter fraud were found, a grand total of 80 cases of double voting, three cases involving voter residency issues, and two cases of voter impersonation, which is what the state's new photo ID law aims to prevent.
2. Pope's ideological network gave a platform to voting restriction extremism.
Both the John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute have prominently featured the work of Jay DeLancy, an avowed anti immigration advocate, and his group the Voter Integrity Project of NC (VIP-NC), which has been involved in controversial efforts to kick people off the voting rolls.
3. Pope supported key GOP lawmakers involved in advancing voting restrictions.
House Bill 589, the elections bill that the North Carolina legislature passed this year, was originally introduced in April by four primary sponsors, all Republicans. Two of them-- Reps. Harry Warren of Rowan County and Tom Murry of Wake County both got generous support in launching their political careers from Pope, his family, and his network of political spending groups; to the tune of nearly $450,000
4. Pope helped Republicans win control of state government.
As Facing South has documented, Pope, his family, his company, and the network of outside political groups he's affiliated with-- Americans for Prosperity, Civitas Action, and Real Jobs NC-- spent a total of over $2.2 million in the 2010 election cycle to elect Republican state lawmakers, helping give the party control of both the state House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction. Those wins also put Republicans in control of drawing new political lines, with Pope serving as an adviser to the redistricting process and further consolidating GOP control of state government.
In 2012 alone, the neo-fascist Koch Bros. front group, Americans for Prosperity, spent $33,542,051 on broadcast ads smearing Democrats. Pope was one of the biggest single donors to the shadowy group that doesn't reveal contributors. Sometimes donations leak out, like one from Pope on November 21, 2011 for $500,000 an d another for $500,000 on the same day!. And another one for a mere $100,000 on that November day as well. In fact on November 21, 2011, Pope gave $1,350,000 to Americans for Prosperity. The two biggest targets of their smears were Barack Obama and Tammy Baldwin-- around $36,000,000 combined-- and both won comfortable victories. The state of North Carolina, it turns out, was far easier to pick off.
And for this the Governor, who is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pope, appointed Pope as budget director for the state..... Democracy is dead in the Red States!
Welcome to the Oligarchy!
1. Pope's ideological network ginned up fear of voter fraud.
In 2012, North Carolina voters cast nearly 7 million ballots, and only 121 alleged cases of voter fraud were found, a grand total of 80 cases of double voting, three cases involving voter residency issues, and two cases of voter impersonation, which is what the state's new photo ID law aims to prevent.
2. Pope's ideological network gave a platform to voting restriction extremism.
Both the John Locke Foundation and Civitas Institute have prominently featured the work of Jay DeLancy, an avowed anti immigration advocate, and his group the Voter Integrity Project of NC (VIP-NC), which has been involved in controversial efforts to kick people off the voting rolls.
3. Pope supported key GOP lawmakers involved in advancing voting restrictions.
House Bill 589, the elections bill that the North Carolina legislature passed this year, was originally introduced in April by four primary sponsors, all Republicans. Two of them-- Reps. Harry Warren of Rowan County and Tom Murry of Wake County both got generous support in launching their political careers from Pope, his family, and his network of political spending groups; to the tune of nearly $450,000
4. Pope helped Republicans win control of state government.
As Facing South has documented, Pope, his family, his company, and the network of outside political groups he's affiliated with-- Americans for Prosperity, Civitas Action, and Real Jobs NC-- spent a total of over $2.2 million in the 2010 election cycle to elect Republican state lawmakers, helping give the party control of both the state House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction. Those wins also put Republicans in control of drawing new political lines, with Pope serving as an adviser to the redistricting process and further consolidating GOP control of state government.
In 2012 alone, the neo-fascist Koch Bros. front group, Americans for Prosperity, spent $33,542,051 on broadcast ads smearing Democrats. Pope was one of the biggest single donors to the shadowy group that doesn't reveal contributors. Sometimes donations leak out, like one from Pope on November 21, 2011 for $500,000 an d another for $500,000 on the same day!. And another one for a mere $100,000 on that November day as well. In fact on November 21, 2011, Pope gave $1,350,000 to Americans for Prosperity. The two biggest targets of their smears were Barack Obama and Tammy Baldwin-- around $36,000,000 combined-- and both won comfortable victories. The state of North Carolina, it turns out, was far easier to pick off.
And for this the Governor, who is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pope, appointed Pope as budget director for the state..... Democracy is dead in the Red States!
Welcome to the Oligarchy!
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