Kook Left

Leaving the Cult?

Mark Noonan76 Comments

As we all discussed in the Labor Day Open Thread, Mike Lofgren over at Truth Out has written an article explaining why he left the increasingly lunatic GOP “cult” – but as I read it, the views Lofgren express indicate that even if he once upon a time had a GOP voter registration, his views are actually (and rather lock-step) in line with the leftwing extreme of American politics.  For example:

…Some liberal writers have opined that the different socio-economic perspectives separating the “business” wing of the GOP and the religious right make it an unstable coalition that could crack. I am not so sure. There is no fundamental disagreement on which direction the two factions want to take the country, merely how far in that direction they want to take it. The plutocrats would drag us back to the Gilded Age, the theocrats to the Salem witch trials. In any case, those consummate plutocrats, the Koch brothers, are pumping large sums of money into Michele Bachman’s presidential campaign, so one ought not make too much of a potential plutocrat-theocrat split…

The condemnation of liberals as weak-kneed combined with the accusation that the GOP wants to grind the poor and burn witches is classic leftist dogma…the sort of thing we’ve seen out of the left since Lenin asserted that only Bolsheviks have a right to be heard.  As I said, I can’t determine whether Lofgren is a former GOPer who switched – but his views as written are not those of someone dismayed at the direction of the GOP, but of someone who despises the entire GOP.  This is not like, say, Arlen Specter switching from Republican to Democrat and still holding 99% of the views he held as a Republican…this is a night and day difference.  Like Specter switching from the GOP to the Communist Party.  Lofgren isn’t so much leaving the GOP “cult” as proclaiming his adherence to the kook left cult.

And as a kook leftist, Lofgren gets it all wrong.  Even when he correctly identifies a problem (rapacious Big Corporation, eg) his proposed solution (more Big Government) fails to recognize that Big Corporation and Big Government are two sides of the same coin.  It staggers the mind to read Lofgren condemn GOPers as ignorant when he can’t even see that the whole system is corrupt – and only a break up of the system (Big Government and Big Corporation) will allow the people to recover their freedom and with it their prosperity.

The system we have today is the result of a century of giving people power over others.  We started out, as a nation, with a federal government which could barely interfere in the lives of Americans.  Over the last century we have continually increased the power of government and corporations until the initiative of the American people has been stifled.  Do you really think there was a popular demand to stop drilling for oil, mining for metal and growing food?  No – that took major, sustained action by government and corporations to accomplish.  Our ability to create wealth has been stifled because those in charge of government and the largest corporations prefer us to be dependent…bribed to peace with welfare and distracted by trivial  gadgets and disgusting popular culture.  It allows the Ruling Class to continue undisturbed.  We do need massive change…but it won’t and can’t come from the left…because all a leftist like Lofgren would do is strengthen the fetters on the people.

In the end, the people who will save this nation are those Lofgren most despises…those TEA Partiers and their notions of constitutional governance, and their adherence to what Lofgren clearly considers to be a worn-out Judeo-Christian morality.  It will be the bitter-clingers who will restore American greatness…while leftists of the Lofgren stripe ill be consigned, deservedly, to the ash heap of history.

Maxine Waters: Tax Banks Out of Business

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Sort of the liberal gift that keeps on giving – from ABC:

…Waters also wants to help by putting more pressure on the big banks to help with mortgages.

“If they don’t come up with loan modifications and keep people in their homes that they’ve worked so hard for, we’re going to tax them out of business,” Waters said…

And suppose you do tax them out of business – who does the banking, then?  I guess that Waters would just set up some sort of government-funded entity and put her family members in charge…in keeping with her past actions.

There is an extra spice of weirdness growing on the left – as things get worse and Obama’s failures become manifest, the left is retreating in to a socialist cocoon where all that is required is the application of more liberalism.  Long time readers know I have no love for our banks – in fact,  I hold them in contempt…but to talk of taxing them out of business if they essentially don’t just give away the houses they hold mortgages on is stupid…counter productive; it would make the housing market even worse.

Things can be done to help those who are upside down on their mortgages (in fact, I started advocating them in 2008…but also feel that by now it might just be too late).  Lots of things can be done to reform banks.  But we need banks and we need to have mutual accountability between lenders and borrowers…Waters and the left only wants accountability from the banks, or she’ll tax them out of existence.  Boiled down, as liberalism fails the left is insisting that we destroy everything rather than admit to the failure.

But the failure is unmistakable…and while Waters and others will be calling for the end of the banks, I think that the voters in 2012 will call for an end to the left.

HAT TIP:  Tax Prof Blog

Hoffa Expresses Democrat “New Tone”

Mark Noonan27 Comments

From Real Clear Politics:

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa had some profane, combative words for Republicans while warming up the crowd for President Obama in Detroit, Michigan on Monday.

“We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war,” Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.

“President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” Hoffa added.

The trouble is that I don’t think union rules allow fighting after 5 pm unless the party bosses start paying double time…and as fighting opens up the prospect of injury, the unions might have a huge problem with disability claims.  And just what is the Davis-Bacon “prevailing wage” for union goonery?

Message to Hoffa – there are vastly more of us than there are of you…and, if you really want a fight, our side is much better armed…I’m not at all worried about the outcome of a fight between unionized government bureaucrats and the regular folks of the TEA Party…a huge number of whom are former military, after all.

How Liberals See It

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Cenk Uygur wrote a piece over at HuffPo about how Obama and Co just won’t get out there and fight…that Team Obama thinks they are winning and thus just don’t answer the GOP blow for blow.  For those of us who have been watching Obama serially insult and attack us since he became President, this attitude comes as a surprise…what do the liberals want Obama to do?  Shoot us?

Uygur’s opinion is applauded and repeated by many liberals in the comments, but other liberals are countering the argument with a plea for patience.  Obama, you see, had dropped in his lap more challenges than any other President.  Civil War?  World War Two?  Oh, puhleesse!  Give me a break…that’s nothing!  Think about what Obama was faced with:  a recession!  My goodness, man, can anything be more challenging than that?  And then look at all that cruel obstructionism from the GOP…for crying out loud, in the face of the beaten down, dispirited GOP all Obama had was absolute command of Congress and the slavish devotion of the MSM.  It is a wonder that Obama survived at all!

Interspersed are, naturally, the accusations that we’re all racists and that corporations and billionaires control us (one wonders if any liberal has ever asked what George Soros does for a living?).  It is really rather sad; pathetic, really.  It is people who simply don’t know…they were fed a fairy tale about what that wicked,  mean Chimpy McSmirk BusHitler was up to…and then they were told that Obama was The One who will make it all better.  Now that the fairy tale has entered reality and reality doesn’t measure up, they are just floundering around, looking for excuses or getting petulant that The One hasn’t delivered.

These are not people who are set for victory next year…from Obama on down liberals are just out of their depth.  We’re going to beat them like a drum – not easily because ignorant as they are, they’ll still have a billion dollars to spend and a nasty streak a mile wide, but we’re going to beat them.

Applied Liberalism

Mark Noonan28 Comments

Liberal, Democrat governor; liberal, Democrat legislature; tax hikes…and what do you get?  From the Illinois Policy Institute:

In a trend that continues to worsen, more Illinoisans found themselves unemployed in the month of July.

Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report. After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.

Illinois started to create jobs as the national economy began to recover. But just when Illinois’s economy seemed to be turning around, lawmakers passed record tax increases in January of this year. Since then, Illinois’s employment numbers have done nothing but decline…

This is entirely unsurprising – in fact, it was predicted in many quarters.  Why on earth should business expand or even remain in Illinois if they are to be taxed higher than elsewhere?  Do you liberals out there really think that higher taxes are just so much water off the business duck’s back?  I mean, seriously – tell us:  did you really expect that things would get better after a tax hike?

Over in Wisconsin the conservative, Republican governor and legislature took the opposite course – and it is paying off in jobs growth.  Anyone want to bet that some of those new, Wisconsin jobs are old, Illinois jobs?  Not like its all that far to move.  This isn’t rocket science – make something more expensive and there will be less of it being used…Illinois made having employees more expensive, so less employees are being used.

As I’ve said before, the dichotomy between the States being governed by liberalism and those by conservatism will be immensely instructive for a generation of Americans.  In practical application, the people are seeing the results.  Those States with the most liberalism are doing worse than those States with the most conservatism…and as time goes on, this will merely become more pronounced…and when the next election rolls around, I think we’ll see some startling results in the liberal States.

HAT TIP:  Mish’s

Democrats Go Even Lower in the Gutter

Mark Noonan10 Comments

From Politico:

A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African-Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would “love to see us as second-class citizens” and “some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me … hanging on a tree.”…

Any liberal, any Democrat, who has a shred of decency would repudiate these disgusting statements and call on Carson to resign – he has proven himself unfit to serve in the United States Congress.  Enough is enough – I am thoroughly sick and tired of this slander of the TEA Party.  It is an outright, bald-faced lie to state that there are any racists or racism in the TEA Party.  I’ve been to the TEA Party rallies, I’ve met the people attending and never once did I ever detect even a hint of racial animosity.  The people who make up the TEA Party come from all walks of American life – including minorities – and their sole desire is to restore American greatness so that all Americans can have a nation to be proud of and a future of liberty and prosperity.

Standing firm for basic decency, Allen West has advised the head of the Congressional Black Caucus that he’d better condemn these and other slanderous remarks or West will resign from the CBC.  I say that there has to be more – there has to be a demand that Carson resign, and if he won’t resign the CBC must work for his defeat next year.  It is what we Republicans would do if we found a Republican making such statements and it is the least the Congressional Black Caucus can do.  And it is a matter of doing this or being forever known as a collection of corrupt, hate-filled hacks who use fear and slander to gain personal power and wealth.  The choice lies before the CBC – decency or depravity.  Let the tree be known by its fruit.

 

Gore: AGW Skeptics are Like Raaaaacists!

Mark Noonan14 Comments

It just had to happen – from the Daily Caller:

One day climate change skeptics will be seen in the same negative light as racists, or so says former Vice President Al Gore.

In an interview with former advertising executive and Climate Reality Project collaborator Alex Bogusky broadcasted on UStream on Friday, Gore explained that in order for climate change alarmists to succeed, they must “win the conversation” against those who deny there is a crisis…

In the future, all opposition to liberals will be racist, I guess.

Might help you , Al old buddy, if your theory had facts and logic behind it.

One other small bit of advice – if you’re trying to convince us that oceans are rising then it would be best if you bought your next vacation home in Kansas, rather than next to a California beach.  You also might want to cool it on the amount of money you make off the global warming industry.  It would also be nice if you would give some respect to those who dissent from all or part of your theory…especially as many of those who do dissent have vastly better scientific credentials than you.  All in all, if there is some general thrust I can give you for your future efforts it would be to advise you against acting like a a grasping, bloody-minded, hate-filled con artist.  Ok?

Liberal Nastiness Continues in Wisconsin (Updated)

Mark Noonan34 Comments

We have some video:

 

Which side is the side of reason and decency?  We report, you decide.

They don’t seem to realize just how nauseating they are becoming – from 620 WTMJ:

Protesters crowded the street outside Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood as Governor Walker visited the school Friday to read to children. The protests came just hours after someone vandalized the school ahead of the Governor’s visit.

“Some of these folks super glued our front doors at the prep school,” said Br. Bob Smith, OFM, the president of Messmer Catholic Schools, about the school on the corner of North Fratney and East Burleigh Streets.

He told Newsradio 620 WTMJ that a woman was walking in front of the school Thursday, asking people to protest.

According to Br. Smith, one protester said ” ‘Get ready for a riot,’ because they were going to disrupt the visit.”…

A riot at a Catholic school where the Governor is coming to meet the kiddies and read them a story.  Petty vandalism thrown in, too.  These liberals just don’t understand – they have no sense of proportion or any grasp of how a democratically governed Republic is supposed to work.

You fight out an election and then abide by the results…you don’t keep trying to reverse them with recall after recall, and you don’t make every last aspect of life a heated political debate.  A while back ago the same sort of disgusting leftists disrupted Walker’s efforts to honor the kids of the Special Olympics.  If the left really thinks this will win hearts and minds and get people on board to recall Walker next year, then they’ve got another think coming.  After a while, it is time to admit defeat, and start gearing up for the next election…not keep up an unending drumbeat of political vitriol.

Keep hate alive, liberals…we’ll know how to answer you, next year.

More of That Democrat “New Tone”

Mark Noonan2 Comments

From Real Clear Politics:

“When you look at African American males, 40% of them are unemployed, those under 30 years of age. I understand exactly the entire nation must be involved in this recovery but the black community is experiencing a great recession. That’s what we’re experiencing,” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) told MSNBC.

“And all of the growth in the past 30 years, we see it slipping away. From home ownership, the middle class; it’s slipping away from our hands. And it has a lot to do with many issues. Racism, shipping jobs overseas, access — no access to technology. You know, the digital divide is there and many of the new jobs that’s what it requires. So, we have a problem.”

Yes, we do have a problem – most notably hack defenders of a corrupt, dying system who will toss around the accusation of “racism” in a white-majority nation which elected a black man President.

The reason there is such high unemployment in the black community – and all the other social pathologies – is not because some crackers are thwarting the black man, but because the black man has been corrupted by the welfare State.  Once upon a time, almost all black Americans worked hard, went to church more often, defended their families and did a whole host of things magnificently…even better, given the adversities black Americans faced when they first emerged from degrading and brutalizing slavery.   These days, a very large segment of the black population does none of these things…and they don’t do them because Big Government liberals have told them not to…told them that they don’t have to work, don’t have to have faith, don’t have to form and maintain families…sit on your rear and collect welfare, Nanny Liberal will take care of all things…

It is people precisely like Rep. Wilson who are the source of the trouble…and to defend their corrupt privileges, people like her are determined to defend this hideous deformation we call the liberalism.  Get rid of Wilson and those like her, and watch black people rise…2012 must be the year we make a clean break; it must be the year we crush liberalism.  Basic, human decency requires it.

 

New Tone Update

Mark Noonan29 Comments

Feel the love – from PJ Tatler:

With all the conviction of a traveling preacher, and a bought and paid for audience, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made sure her constituents understood that any conversation of a “New Tone” or “Civility” was meant solely for the political right, and would have no bearing on her, nor her devotees.

As Alexis wroter ealier, at a forum in Inglewood, CA, supposedly created to address the ever growing problem of unemployment in California – which is now at 12%, second highest in the Nation (2nd to Nevada at 12.9%) and significantly higher than the nation average – Rep. Waters told those in attendance that she was not afraid of a fight.

“I’m not afraid of anybody,” said Waters. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”…

Geesh, lady, what did the TEA Party ever do to you?  I mean, other than eject you from the House majority and thus lessen the opportunities for personal enrichment?

This is the modern left – pretending they are under fire and using that pretense to justify attacks on everyone who disagrees with them.  A corrupt, dishonest and blind Ruling Class limps to its destruction…