The smug style in American liberalism
Kyle Smith helps with some analysis. Liberals embrace the smug life Read Smith first, then if you need, go read the Vox piece. Smug is nearly always a result of living in an echo chamber, without countering opinion. This is a disaster for liberal, and is probably the reason they are unable to simply run the board on most elections. Obama's smug campaign in 2008 was backed up with indifference, dithering, incompetence, and failure. He reprised his smug campaign and was reelected in 2012. Stein's Law states, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This will stop once the electorate comes to the understanding that no matter how good the liberal positions sound, the implementation is bollocks. Read the Smith piece, it is worth your time.
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Britain’s Self-Inflicted Housing Crisis | The Antiplanner . . . as the Antiplanner notes, that question is a smaller question than some others in Britain's quiver of problems. "The Antiplanner has spent the last week in Britain, and everywhere I went people were talking about Brexit: the vote in June on whether Britain should leave the European Union. Britain originally joined the union when it was a free-trade area, but since then it has grown increasingly intrusive on the economies of its member states." Who would have guessed that progressive Euro Socialists would really be little more than dictators in drag? The Euro idea, of free markets is a terrific idea, and should be replicated the world round. If we were smart we would kick this off by opening trade with all comers, no tariffs. The Antiplanner is correct, the Brits must correct their land use laws or face the slow death of a nation whose people cannot afford their housing. As for Brexit, the discussion should revolve around what the EU will look like in 10, 20 and 30 years. but it revolves only around whether Britain will suffer tomorrow if it leaves the union. Good luck Britain, you will need it. http://nypost.com/2016/04/16/proof-that-worthless-diplomas-are-just-what-city-government-wants/
. . . and protect the rich sinecures of the teachers, and union bosses. This is a RICO fraud action waiting to be pursued by an aggressive prosecutor, or a hungry young class action attorney. "We never bought Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña’s promise of “zero tolerance” on grade-fixing — but it’s now plain she meant zero accountability. Last week, an arbitrator reinstated ex-Dewey HS principal Kathleen Elvin — after Fariña’s Department of Education, which in theory was trying to fire Elvin, utterly punted on making its case. Elvin was fired last summer after The Post caught her running a grade-fixing diploma mill: Students in “credit recovery” programs to make up for failed courses barely had to lift a finger to pass. A Department of Education investigation showed several other administrators and teachers were involved — but only Elvin faced the ax. Except that she’s now off the hook (with back pay, no less), pulling her $158,000 salary." I am sure she worked very hard for that money not teaching those hooligans. "In today’s Post, Susan Edelman details how little DOE did to make the Elvin firing stick. But the key fact is that the ruling said her programs must have met DOE approval — because DOE later OK’d all those bogus “recovered credits.” DOE’s lawyers “explained” that Team Fariña didn’t want to make the 100-plus students retake the classes for real; it might’ve held up their graduations." At some point, a bright, hungry young lawyer will figure out that there is a huge class action lawsuit trussed up under this mess, and find a former student, mired in poverty who will act as plaintiff. Then all hell will break loose, the school district will be pointing the finger at the union, the teachers, the administrators, and the union will be pointing at everyone else, so on, and so forth . . . Regardless, the students will remain uneducated, and the cancer that is our education system will be only changed marginally. Fighting the evil leviathan is hard work here at the End of History. The Killer Hiding in the CDC Map
. . . and after they are done sexually enslaving, and killing, they leave having done little else to resolve the original condition. The US needs to leave the UN today, not tomorrow, not Friday, but today. Is my position clear enough? This article shows how the UN Peacekeeping force in Haiti brought a cholera epidemic which killed more than 5,000, and infected, three quarters of a million. It also shows how the UN covered up this fact, and how one of the worst health agencies in the world, the US's own CDC also has successfully covered up the story. I have previously discussed the UN peacekeepers rape, and sexual slavery/brothel encampments. The US first needs to clean house at the CDC. Anyone in the chain of command should go, immediately. Anyone who had information of this, and withheld it from the public should go, anyone in the Administration who did so, should go. But we are saddled with a President incapable of action, so nothing will happen, the world will continue to turn, and the failures will continue to mount. The US also needs to clearly and unequivocally point out each and every time the UN, its Peacekeeping forces, or other entities runs a rape, and sex for money camp, every time it fails to follow proper hygienic procedures, acts as a vector for disease, or simply fails to act according to its mandate. It needs to take action to prosecute these criminals, if others will not. If we need to change our laws to achieve this, then so be it. The US needs to finally realize that the UN is a failure, of which, the US can no longer be a part. We should part the sheets, and leave, post haste. The US needs to join with Great Britain, the other Anglospheric countries, the Scandinavian countries, and the Germanic language countries to form a new international entity. One with a positive mandate, one not run by the tyrants of the world, and one which can help drive the rest of the world to accept what we know here at the End of History. What we know is that there is a political/economic/social model which works to allow the most human fulfillment, prosperity, and wellbeing. That model is republican governance, free markets, reformed religions, highly limited government involvement in the economic, social, cultural, and business spheres, and the atomized nuclear family and the necessary reformed social institutions to make the ANF work optimally. The UN is an antagonist to all of these outcomes, it has become a playground for the tyrants, dictators, and evil in the world. Its commissions are first and foremost cover for evil, with its human rights commission commonly ignoring actual human rights violators. So, Israel is tagged a human rights violator while actual evil like the House of Saud is not. The US can no longer participate in this charade of evil, death, rape, sexual bondage, and terror. It is time to leave. And create anew. Walter Russell Mead starts out discussing the fact that school funding is a serious problem . . .4/11/2016 A Drought of Ideas
. . . but ends indicting the entire political system noting that the failures of government create "a weakness that undermines the strength of our republic at home and endangers world peace." This is a seminal article, which you must read. I think it so important I will not comment or quote it here but implore you go and read the whole thing. This is the slow strangling death of the blue model. It must be replaced and very soon. The longer we wait the more damage we do here and abroad. Mead ends, "And of course behind the crisis of state and municipal governance, there is the broader problem of the crises of the American middle class and of American society. These are big problems and they require bold, unconventional thinking. We clearly aren’t getting enough of that today and the nation knows it. Establishment politicians leave the public unsatisfied; that opens the door to the quacks and the snake oil salesmen. But the failures of social imagination and political vision that weaken our country’s political order have graver consequences still. A nation as poorly governed as the United States now is cannot long serve as the cornerstone of world order: the combination of budget pressures and political dysfunction at home is already sapping the nation’s will and capacity to lead abroad, and this is likely to get worse rather than better without a course change. The problems of a predominantly African-American college on the South Side of Chicago may seem like small beer to those not directly involved, but they point to something larger. The decay in our institutions points to a weakness at the heart of liberal society, a weakness that undermines the strength of our republic at home and endangers world peace. It is time for America to step up its game, and as the first step in that process it is time for a wave of creative social thought, some coming from the Right and some from the Left, so that the present stale competition between parties bereft of serious policy ideas can be replaced by something meaningful and real." It is time to finally ditch the progressive blue model, and turn fully to embrace the Third Way with its ownership society, streamlined, reformed welfare state, and smaller more independent government entities. Or we can just wait for this buggy to fall apart, your call. Instapundit BLUE MODEL BLUES: t’s Not Just Puerto Rico.
. . . if you don't know who is the mark, you are. The link goes to one of my favorite liberal intellectuals, Walter Russell Mead. It’s Not Just Puerto Rico "Puerto Rico’s rolling bankruptcy crisis is just a taste of the fiscal storm that lies ahead if American state and local governments can’t find a way to bring their own gaping pension shortfalls under control. For decades, rapacious public sector unions and craven politicians on the mainland have also been also been propping unsustainable state employee retirement systems, and—crucially—using accounting tricks to dupe the public and conceal the magnitude of their unfunded obligations. Congress’s proposed relief package for Puerto Rico would require the island to be more forthright about its pension costs going forward, but it would allow state and local governments to continue downplaying the size of their debts." We have written about this often. Progressivism infects the entire body politic, and unless it is eradicated, it will eventually kill us. The pension Ponzi is only one of the myriad problems facing America here at the End of History. This transition from the progressive era to the new economic, political, social, cultural, technical model is proving to be long and arduous. But a White Knight is riding to the rescue. "… Last year, nearly 60 percent of state and local governments failed to make their full pension contributions. With trillions of dollars in public-pension liabilities residing off the ledger books, and increasingly risky investments used to fund those liabilities, failing to address public-pension disclosure would be a huge lost opportunity." Not what you expected? But it will have to do. The change is critical, and there is no way we will see the progressive movement give up its current hold voluntarily. It appears the way out will be through the total collapse of the progressive movement, likely triggered by the existential crisis foretold in the American State Pension Ponzi. "The resistance to honest accounting is apparently coming not from Congressional Democrats, but from Republican state legislators eager to keep their pension Ponzi schemes in place—a reminder that corrupt blue model practices are thoroughly bipartisan. Hopefully Congressional Republicans will have the good sense to reverse course and require state and local governments to come clean as well. If not, they shouldn’t be surprised when they are asked to send billions not just to San Juan, but to Chicago, Trenton, and Frankfort as well." It is bipartisan stupid, the only thing our political class seems to do well. Perhaps the Stupid Party® will reverse course, but they are nick named the Stupid Party® for a reason. I am not holding my breath. Opec’s days as economic force are ‘over’ - FT.com
. . . but the Yergin seems to misunderstand why. "Opec’s economic power is broken, says the unofficial historian of the oil industry, who has argued that the association of oil exporting countries has become irretrievably divided and is unable to reverse the current slump in crude prices. Daniel Yergin, whose Pulitzer-prize winning book The Prize provides a comprehensive history of oil and power, said he believes the association’s economic prowess has been undone by its inability to agree on how to stop the oil crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Yergin, who is also vice-chairman of data provider IHS, said the recent disagreements among Opec members have revealed how weak the organization now is. Mr Yergin said: “The era of Opec as a decisive force in the world economy is over. It is clearly a very divided organization.” Mr Bergen’s book, first published in 1990, dedicates several chapters to the rise and domination of Opec, the 13-member organisation that has caused sharp swings in the oil price by restricting or raising supplies since it was set up in 1960. But the 69-year-old argues the current oil slump has exposed the organization’s inability to act in a unified way." Ok, correct as far as it goes, but it does not go anywhere near far enough. The reason for the lack of unity is the existential war between the Shia, represented by Iran, and the Sunni, represented by the House of Saud. "Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince, said earlier this month a deal would only happen if Iran also signed up. But Iran wants to increase its output after sanctions were lifted in January as part of a nuclear deal with world powers. Mr Yergin said he did not think a freeze was possible until Iran clarified how much it could export. As for Saudi Arabia, Mr Yergin said it was thinking differently about oil. “I remember when the operating code was: save the oil for our grandchildren. Now the grandchildren are in charge and they are looking at it in a very different way,” he said. “They are not looking at it as precious resource . . . but rather asking how do you monetize it?'" Right Saudi wants to tie up Iran so it has no money to fight this existential war. Iran will have none of it, and so will pump oil, in order to build its more integrated economy back from the recent sanctions, and seek to fight proxy wars in the meantime. Saudi has very little economy outside of oil, and what it has, is nearly completely reliant on oil money transfers from the House of Saud. It is not that the House of Saud is thinking differently about oil, it is thinking about an existential war, and it needs as much oil money as possible to ward off economic unrest from its people, and fight expensive proxy wars. Remember in this fight the House of Saud is the banker to the Sunni proxy wars, while the Iranians are not, they train, and provide some arms assistance but do not do the majority of the bankrolling. The reason the House of Saud recently left Yemen, is to cut the costs of the proxy war there. The House of Saud is deeply concerned, and panic is just setting in. OPEC's days as oil hegemon are over. Not because "Kids these days!" But because Iran wishes to reduce the kingdom. Optimistically, this will be the warfare at the beginning of the Islamic Reformation, which will lead to an Islamic Enlightenment. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Al-Saud is our enemy. The Shia, represented by Iran are the only real hope today for an Islamic Reformation. We need to make this work. We need to trade with Iran, and promote the full reintegration of Iran with the world economy. This will allow Iran to pressure the House of Saud, and allow Iranian businesses, and the people of Iran to build relations with America, and the West. Only this will result in the diminishment of the Iranian hardliners, and the ultimate democratization, and free marketization of Iran. Something the world needs dearly. Let's do it! A Swede Quickly Corrects Misperceptions of Sweden - Cafe Hayek . . . among other things. He has another good video here: This follows on to my earlier post: whenever I travel in Europe, I am always amazed . . .
Sweden, and the US provide a good starting place, here at the End of History, to refine, and fine tune the welfare state. One point Norberg makes is that much of the medical, and pharmaceutical advancement comes out of the American free(er) medical markets. This is absolutely true. I am optimistic that the European blue model which is slowly strangling Europe will be reformed, and one of the reforms will be the reintroduction of more free market reforms. If this happens, the European medical community will begin to create more medical advancements. This would be a very positive outcome for the entire world. Maddogsbrer's both live in California . . .
. . . California just wants to do it nicer, and gentler than South Africa, and progressivism is just the model to accomplish the goal. One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier piece is that the entire reason for many policies like massive minimum wage increases is to drive the poor out of the wealthy coastal enclaves of California. Or make sure they are segregated into temporary living arrangements within the enclave. Proposed law would subsidize housing for cops, firefighters Housing prices will continue to force the poor out of these areas, and require subsidies for the more desirable middle class individuals like firefighters, and police. The minimum wage will ensure the elimination of a large number of low paying jobs, and automation. The result will be an even wealthier more exclusive wealthy coastal enclave, separated by a mountain chain from the poor. These policies look nearly exactly like apartheid but without the draconian laws which created apartheid. There are no color laws, no segregation laws, instead, the state has simply limited land available for housing, and priced low income workers out of employment by raising the minimum wage to heights where the low skilled poor worker cannot hope to offer an employer a value in exchange for $15 her hour. This is apartheid written softer, and gentler, but with the same outcome. This is progressivism in its purist form. Win/win. I guess!? Instapundit THE PANAMA PAPERS
. . . ok, not all 11 million. The UN is a cesspit of corruption. There is no reason to maintain this horrible international entity any longer. The US should leave the UN, and build a new international entity comprised primarily of the Anglosphere, the Nordic countries, and perhaps the German speaking nations (the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, etc. Other nations could be allowed in if they have republican governance, and free market economies, with substantial, and substantive individual liberties. Tyrannies need not apply. On the individual side, there will be serious consequences for this leak. The Iceland Prime Minister looks like an early casualty. As is the Chilean "head of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International's country branch, Gonzalo Delaveau, steps down as his name emerges in the documents." A few articles if you are interested: The ‘Panama Papers’: Here’s What We Know What are the Panama Papers? A guide to history's biggest data leak Happy reading. |
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