How our elites have sold out Americans

I was willing to give her a benefit of doubt, but the more I hear the less I like it. She stepped in crap in the presser and now anything she does will, justifiably, be tinged with doubt about her motives. She made good points for improving the bill initially but has gone off track. Progressives will still hate her and conservatives will not be able to trust her. Politics may be the art of the possible, but that is only when you don't shoot your own feet.

Mea, Mea, Colpa

I was appalled when I read this piece last summer. I found it amazing that such a person could head the Heritage Foundation.  Just shows you that the system in this country is anything but conservative, including the so-called conservatives. 

The good news is that she and another of the leaders of that organization have resigned. 



Disgusting leftist disguised as conservative

Reviews&Things will therefore award her the Marco Rubio Folding Tent award. That award has belonged to either Romney or Collins for the past 8 years running. Kudos to Noem for taking the trophy this year.

The problem is that Friedman and  Von Hayek economics have not been tried and held on too. One of the reasons that Chile was such a mess in the early 70s was they went from a reasonably free economy to a Marxist one under Allende. It was the main reason Nixon ordered CIA to take down the government. We know the story of Pinochet as president, however, one of the reasons the Chilean economy rebounded as quickly as it did was the advisors from University of Chicago, bringing a Milton Friedman style of economics to Chile. One of the first thing they did was kill the federal social security program, which had been modeled on the Roosevelt SS program. Employees were allowed to use their money to invest any way they chose, even to remain in the SS program. They also encouraged the government to strike trade agreements based on a Chile first philosophy. The economic miracle of Chile over the next 20 years proved the viability. Needless to say success brought out the hate of the left and for the last 20 years Chile has been drifting back to socialism and the resulting economic doldrums. 

Just like Chile we had four years of economic success, based mostly on sound economic ideals and the leftists are intent on killing it. For to admit it works is to admit their murderous philosophy is worthless. 

Friedman's and Von Hayek's "economics" has never been tried because it is just another theory, which has little to do with the real world. Yes, some of what these two write is worthwhile and logical, but instead of understanding humanity, they can't see the obvious implications of their theory taken to its end.

Let's say the world tried a completely libertarian style of economics. Does anyone honestly believe that wealth and power wouldn't quickly accumulate among a very small number of people. And once this happened, does anyone believe that these same people would not begin to misuse their wealth and power to insure that they did not lose their wealth and power? 

Let me be redundant, the people who reach the pinnacle of wealth and power are generally anything but good. True, they are by-in-large intelligent. But they are also arrogant, greedy, selfish, often obsessive, care little for others and are willing to step on anyone who might get in their way.  That is sadly how human nature works. Some people make it to the top by luck, most make it by being ruthless. 

The libertarian philosophy of "self-interest" is one of the most superficial systems to ever sprout from the mind of man. Yes, people are self-interested and look out for themselves. This is natural. However, pure self-interest is not a foundation upon which a culture or society can be built.

Taken to its logical end, such a system would induce incredible mass poverty and slavery as the losers would be left behind with only their "self-interest" in tact. This is not edible. Of course, it is likely that the losers would rise up before reaching this final stage and there would be some type of rebellion, i.e rivers of blood would flow. 

To live in a reasonably tolerable society, the problems inherent in human "self-interest" have to be taken into consideration and mitigated as well as possible, else you have the law of the jungle and people destroy each other. Solving this problem is basically what human governance has always been about.  

They are not letting Noem skate on this. Good. I repeat, she needs to be destroyed politically. If she can't stand strong on something so basic as the difference between a male and female, she is useless to conservatives. 


No, she is not playing 4D chess or the long game

We have all seen that when put to the test most politicians are more than ready to give up, give out or give in. Nome is of course just another who can not or will not hold the line, there are few that do. The election process breeds this kind of pretzel twisting. 

Assume you have just been elected either to congress, or even your local state house. The day you are sworn into office you meet with your party leader. They shake your hand welcome you and almost at the same time ask you if you are planning you're reelection in two, four or six years. You kind of like the idea of political office and you say sure. I want to keep the job. Then the hammer comes down, every so gently but the hammer is covered in velvet. You must have support from the state or national party to prevent a primary challenge, remember this is from your own party, and to get that support you must vote the party line. You may be allowed on rare occasions to deviate but not much and not often. Otherwise the money will not flow and you election campaign will starve. The prospect is go-along and get-along or find another job. And most can not get another job so they fold. They go three sheets to the wind and the wind is not blowing. 

I am not excusing Noem but this is the position she is in and it is not enviable. I don't know who or what collection of who's got to her but it appears she folded completely. There has been some speculation it was a combination of the NCAA and companies like Apple applying the pressure. I would not be surprised but I think the real pressure came from another source. Noem did a good job of keeping her state open over the last year in spite of pressure from the left to shut down and she deserves some consideration for holding steady when others were running around with their hair on fire. 

I think, as a potential national candidate she now has no opportunity, however, she can and probably will ride it out and continue to her re elected as governor. 

I’m going to defer to the Prime Kungian Rule: things are complex, including economies. Although guiding theories or principals (such as free markets) are necessary and good, the actual life of any society is much more complex.

I finished watching a pirate documentary on Netflix. In many ways the egalitarian (supposedly) life in The Republic of Nassau looked exactly like what I imagine a Libertarian society to be. There are conceits of “equality” but (as with English pirate Charles Vane), the most ruthless psychopaths tended to gain power.

We need checks and balances against absolute power. Even Communism, in its naive, college-professor, distant-from-reality form, is about (supposedly) shifting power from the few entrenched rich guys and spreading it to “the people.” Never stated, of course, is that you need people in government with far more power than even the worst industrialist ever held in order to implement this scheme.

A discussion of societies, justice, and economics could run on for pages. This is a big subject, and one that cannot be contained in the words, “free markets.” Slave traders were engaged in free trade, at least from their point of view.

What Libertarians avoid is speaking of the centrality of restraining morals. And that is because neither liberals nor Libertarians feel they should be restrained. No system of any kind — economic or otherwise — can long survive or succeed if based on naive notions — if not based on an eyes-wide-open understanding of human nature.