Thursday, May 30, 2013
A biblical scandal
It turns out that IRS Commissioner Shulman made at least 157 public visits to the White House. Almost twice as many as the next most frequent visitor. In contrast, the IRS Commish made only one WH visit during Bush administration. Imagine that: top IRS cop makes 157 visits to the Chicago machine's DC branch while conservative and conservative sounding groups are screaming bloody murder all across the country about IRS harassment and not one legal or ethical issue raised for over two years. By the press, ,the Justice Department, anyone in the power structure. Nobody even said "gee, with all of the allegations of wrongdoing flying around here, maybe it looks a bit fishy that Captain IRS is coming here every third day". Verily it is a miracle. Immaculate in its conception. A tale biblical in its import: HT Instapundit.
Eric 10:38-42
King Holder Version (KHV)
38 Now it came to pass, as they won, that He entered into The City of God: and a certain apparatchik named Hillary received Him into her very White House.
39 And she had a brother apparatchik called IRS Commissioner Shulman, who visited 157 times to sit at The One's feet, hear His word, and help His reelection Ministry.
40 But Hillary was cumbered about with much to-ing and fro-ing, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my brother apparatchik hath left me to Benghazi alone? bid him therefore that he help me take the fall.
41 And The New Jesus answered and said unto her, Hillary, Hillary, thou art careful and implicated in many things.
42 But one thing is needful: reelection. And IRS Commissioner Shulman hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from him until his indictment cometh.
39 And she had a brother apparatchik called IRS Commissioner Shulman, who visited 157 times to sit at The One's feet, hear His word, and help His reelection Ministry.
40 But Hillary was cumbered about with much to-ing and fro-ing, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my brother apparatchik hath left me to Benghazi alone? bid him therefore that he help me take the fall.
41 And The New Jesus answered and said unto her, Hillary, Hillary, thou art careful and implicated in many things.
42 But one thing is needful: reelection. And IRS Commissioner Shulman hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from him until his indictment cometh.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
America has become Hysterialand
Even in Texas. A Reason contributor describes a lockdown at the GWB library in Dallas due to a false alarm about someone possessing a gun. In Texas.
The fact is that mass murder and terrorist acts are extremely rare. And murder hasn't been this low in over 50 years. Yet we behave like we live in a Mad Max world. We need to grow up.
The fact is that mass murder and terrorist acts are extremely rare. And murder hasn't been this low in over 50 years. Yet we behave like we live in a Mad Max world. We need to grow up.
Don't talk to the PoPo or FBI without a tape recorder and a lawyer. Ever.
The FBI has a policy of not recording any interview it has with a witness. Their reasoning is that a recording could contradict their claims that a witness lied to them. And of course, lying to the PoPo is a felony, one that is very useful in coercing 'helpful' testimony. And if you haven't recorded the conversation it is their word (minimum two of them) against yours. Reason has the story here.
You're a fool if you trust the boys with guns and shackles because: they're not on your side, they're on their side. The same goes for the rest of our criminal, kleptocratic state apparatus. You should be frightened every time you interact with them. Which is the way it is in Russia and China.
Ironic, no?
You're a fool if you trust the boys with guns and shackles because: they're not on your side, they're on their side. The same goes for the rest of our criminal, kleptocratic state apparatus. You should be frightened every time you interact with them. Which is the way it is in Russia and China.
Ironic, no?
Liberal Fascism MEANS double standard
Legal double standard: Obama administration gives wind energy industry a pass on killing birds, but not oil and gaS. But don't you understand? The Left is righteous by definition. Therefore they can't sin. Can they?
Fascist is as Fascist does
It is a mistake to believe that our rulers are anything but self serving power hungry despots seeking to slip their constitutional restraints at every turn so they can more fully get their way. Place no trust in men because they will fail you. Which is why we need to break it up, break it all up.
A single morning's roundup of Federal Fascist behavior:
Why Did the IRS Target Conservative Groups?
Outspoken conservative business leaders that is: RUMSFELD: IRS also retaliates against outspoken business leaders.
Politico: Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny.
EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups.
REMINDER: Obama Joked About Auditing Enemies in 2009.
DON’T LET THIS SHAKEDOWN GET LOST IN THE SCANDAL OVERLOAD: Lamar Alexander: Sebelius fundraising ‘arguably an even bigger issue’ than Iran-Contra.
Rep. Schakowsky: ‘Our Survival as a Species is Dependent on Women Taking Charge.’
Top IRS official didn’t reveal tea party targeting. When asked directly by Congress....
Of course it's not lying when Our Lord and Savior does it: BUSTED: WaPo Fact Checker Gives Obama’s Claim That He Called Benghazi “An Act of Terrorism” Four Pinocchios.
“Hillary’s promise of vengeance to the father of a fallen SEAL wasn’t that we’d get the jihadis who killed him but that we’d punish the filmmaker. That’s perverse, but in keeping with the fact that she decided to run ads on Pakistani TV apologizing for the film while Islamist cretins menaced American diplomats across the region.”– Allahpundit, Oct. 25, 2012
The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time: Nakoula was out on “supervised release” for a federal bank fraud conviction. He was $700,000 behind on restitution payments and operating under an alias when he made “The Innocence of Muslims,” a crappy movie that got turned into a YouTube video clip that in turn became the pretext of riots in Egypt and then — it is now generally acknowledged — was utilized as a flimsy excuse by the State Department in an attempt to distract from its embarrassing failures in the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Having become unintentionally famous, the con man Nakoula was arrested and hustled into federal court amid unusually high security two weeks after the Benghazi attacks. We need not wonder why Eric Holder’s Justice Department made this a top priority:
“We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
– Hillary Clinton, Sept. 14, 2012 . . . .
But this isn’t really about Nakoula at all, is it?
What the case of Nakoula actually demonstrates is the strangely misplaced priorities of the Obama administration: Eight months later, they still haven’t caught any of the terrorists who killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, but they needed only two weeks to apprehend Nakoula.
And Hillary is a more vicious fascist than Obama will ever be. Fear the Lady Reaper.
A single morning's roundup of Federal Fascist behavior:
Why Did the IRS Target Conservative Groups?
Outspoken conservative business leaders that is: RUMSFELD: IRS also retaliates against outspoken business leaders.
Politico: Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny.
EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups.
REMINDER: Obama Joked About Auditing Enemies in 2009.
GEORGE WILL: In IRS Scandal, Echoes Of Watergate.
Hey, even Massachusetts Democrats are saying that.
DON’T LET THIS SHAKEDOWN GET LOST IN THE SCANDAL OVERLOAD: Lamar Alexander: Sebelius fundraising ‘arguably an even bigger issue’ than Iran-Contra.
Rep. Schakowsky: ‘Our Survival as a Species is Dependent on Women Taking Charge.’
Top IRS official didn’t reveal tea party targeting. When asked directly by Congress....
Of course it's not lying when Our Lord and Savior does it: BUSTED: WaPo Fact Checker Gives Obama’s Claim That He Called Benghazi “An Act of Terrorism” Four Pinocchios.
But it's not a coverup unless a Republican does it. Coverup: State Dept. Kept Media From Speaking To Benghazi Attack Survivors.
I'm sure all the coverage is 'fair and balanced': Top CBS, ABC, CNN execs all have relatives working as advisors for White House.
STACY MCCAIN ON The Fate of Basseley Nakoula.
“Hillary’s promise of vengeance to the father of a fallen SEAL wasn’t that we’d get the jihadis who killed him but that we’d punish the filmmaker. That’s perverse, but in keeping with the fact that she decided to run ads on Pakistani TV apologizing for the film while Islamist cretins menaced American diplomats across the region.”– Allahpundit, Oct. 25, 2012
The wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time: Nakoula was out on “supervised release” for a federal bank fraud conviction. He was $700,000 behind on restitution payments and operating under an alias when he made “The Innocence of Muslims,” a crappy movie that got turned into a YouTube video clip that in turn became the pretext of riots in Egypt and then — it is now generally acknowledged — was utilized as a flimsy excuse by the State Department in an attempt to distract from its embarrassing failures in the September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Having become unintentionally famous, the con man Nakoula was arrested and hustled into federal court amid unusually high security two weeks after the Benghazi attacks. We need not wonder why Eric Holder’s Justice Department made this a top priority:
“We will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted.”
– Hillary Clinton, Sept. 14, 2012 . . . .
But this isn’t really about Nakoula at all, is it?
What the case of Nakoula actually demonstrates is the strangely misplaced priorities of the Obama administration: Eight months later, they still haven’t caught any of the terrorists who killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, but they needed only two weeks to apprehend Nakoula.
And Hillary is a more vicious fascist than Obama will ever be. Fear the Lady Reaper.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Colleges and Universities: The most 'egalitarian' institutions ever?
Colleges preen about how they are better than private businesses, that their morality is superior to the market's law of the jungle. But even the greediest private businesses don't charge poor people more in order to subsidize their rich customers do they? According to Bloomberg this is standard practice at many well known institutions of 'higher' learning.
For this we give them a tax exemption? Perhaps they're just trying to educate students on how venal and corrupt the world can be.
For this we give them a tax exemption? Perhaps they're just trying to educate students on how venal and corrupt the world can be.
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Damn! Hope and Change be breakin' out all over
We're kicking Euro ass! Poor Europe, they can't even beat us in suckage.
Related: The Idled Young Americans. “The idle young European, stranded without work by the Continent’s dysfunction, is one of the global economy’s stock characters. Yet it might be time to add another, even more common protagonist: the idle young American. For all of Europe’s troubles — a left-right combination of sclerotic labor markets and austerity — the United States has quietly surpassed much of Europe in the percentage of young adults without jobs.”
HT Instapundit
Related: The Idled Young Americans. “The idle young European, stranded without work by the Continent’s dysfunction, is one of the global economy’s stock characters. Yet it might be time to add another, even more common protagonist: the idle young American. For all of Europe’s troubles — a left-right combination of sclerotic labor markets and austerity — the United States has quietly surpassed much of Europe in the percentage of young adults without jobs.”
HT Instapundit
Catastrophic Success
What happens to people when their jobs can truly be automated away?
I think the real question is what is the rate of change? Manufacturing labor productivity has been growing at 5% per year for a long time. This has resulted in massive per capita increases in output but is slow enough for us to adapt to it. If the automation revolution happens much faster, then our institutions may struggle to cope.
Hmmm.
The standard argument is that manufacturing as a whole must now be seen as a quaint, buggy-whip-making type activity — one that technology and economic growth have decreed is no longer a viable creator of jobs. But not to worry! The economy marches on, creating more and better opportunities for all those folks displaced from manufacturing jobs. Automation is simply replacing drudge work, as it always has. The real economy is in information, now, not stuff. Everyone has the chance to move up the value chain.
The problem with that argument is that our machines are far better at working with information than we are, except where it comes to actually understanding information, where we still have a bit of an edge. Automation is poised to start killing white-collar jobs with the same ruthless zeal that it used in going after blue-collar jobs. In fact, the use of the future tense in that sentence is superfluous. This is already happening. How else can we account for an economy that is growing overall — however slowly — while the total number of people who work continues to go down?
I think the real question is what is the rate of change? Manufacturing labor productivity has been growing at 5% per year for a long time. This has resulted in massive per capita increases in output but is slow enough for us to adapt to it. If the automation revolution happens much faster, then our institutions may struggle to cope.
Hmmm.
Is the difference between a Depression and a Recession just the scenery?
The last decade has been the second slowest growth decade in American history, barely outpacing the decade around the Great Depression. Indeed that decade and ours stand out as far worse than any other in the last 210 years. But it doesn't feel like it did back in the 30's: instead of soup lines we have a trebling of Food Stamps, instead of men peddling apples, we have people on their 100th week of unemployment insurance and tripled disability claims. Yet the underlying real unemployment rate remains over 11% and while the misery might not be as visible it is real. For example, suicide rates are up 50% as more and more people fall into despair.
And the sad thing is that with our massive and ever expanding debt and unfunded liability levels, with the brutal regulatory state expanding its tentacles deeper and deeper into every nook and cranny of the economy and with the nation now totally acclimatized to welfarism and rent seeking, there is very little prospect of things changing absent catastrophe.
Last time it took WW2 to pull us out of the statist cul de sac we had turned into. What fresh hell will be required this time?
We have change with no hope.
And the sad thing is that with our massive and ever expanding debt and unfunded liability levels, with the brutal regulatory state expanding its tentacles deeper and deeper into every nook and cranny of the economy and with the nation now totally acclimatized to welfarism and rent seeking, there is very little prospect of things changing absent catastrophe.
Last time it took WW2 to pull us out of the statist cul de sac we had turned into. What fresh hell will be required this time?
We have change with no hope.
If this chart was for the Oil Industry....
During the GWB administration there were constant accusations of special dealing, particularly with respect to the oil industry and Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton - you couldn't drive down the street without seeing yard sins saying 'no blood for oil' or some such.
So pray tell what should we make of the chart below? Mr. Obama comes from the Higher Education industry. And since his accession to the Federal Throne lending to college students - which is almost all Federal - has quadrupled. And of course virtually every dollar of these loans was immediately passed to....the higher education industry. With the liability being held by the rubes....I mean the students.
Hmm. Tricky thing to explain, that. Good thing the President has the press in his pocket. Deep.
So pray tell what should we make of the chart below? Mr. Obama comes from the Higher Education industry. And since his accession to the Federal Throne lending to college students - which is almost all Federal - has quadrupled. And of course virtually every dollar of these loans was immediately passed to....the higher education industry. With the liability being held by the rubes....I mean the students.
Hmm. Tricky thing to explain, that. Good thing the President has the press in his pocket. Deep.
Coincidence?
The richer and more powerful the federal superstate gets, the poorer the people get. I guess you can call it 'progressive trickle down economics'. It's just that it seem that the bloated Federal river runs dry before it gets to the common people.
So since 2001 real per capita spending by the Feds has grown almost 50% or $3,500 in real terms. 10% of (falling) 2012 median income. Yet increasingly little (well now it's none) of this is finding it's way into pay packets. So where is the money going? To social security, Medicare, Food Stamps and other rapidly expanding bits of social democracy to make the people numb to the death of their hopes and dreams. Oh, and to cronies. Lots of cronies.
If I didn't know better I'd call all of this 'progressive' social 'democracy' part of an elite scam to protect their power and privileges in all of what Tyler Durden calls the 'Cartel and Rentier' sectors of our economy. But that can't be true, can it? I mean everyone who is 'great' and 'good' agrees that the glorious Federal super state must wax so therefore the common man must necessarily wane. In modern 'Progressive' parlance we need to be 'nudged'. And poked and shoved and slapped and....looted. Don't forget looted.
For the greater good, you see.
So since 2001 real per capita spending by the Feds has grown almost 50% or $3,500 in real terms. 10% of (falling) 2012 median income. Yet increasingly little (well now it's none) of this is finding it's way into pay packets. So where is the money going? To social security, Medicare, Food Stamps and other rapidly expanding bits of social democracy to make the people numb to the death of their hopes and dreams. Oh, and to cronies. Lots of cronies.
If I didn't know better I'd call all of this 'progressive' social 'democracy' part of an elite scam to protect their power and privileges in all of what Tyler Durden calls the 'Cartel and Rentier' sectors of our economy. But that can't be true, can it? I mean everyone who is 'great' and 'good' agrees that the glorious Federal super state must wax so therefore the common man must necessarily wane. In modern 'Progressive' parlance we need to be 'nudged'. And poked and shoved and slapped and....looted. Don't forget looted.
For the greater good, you see.
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
L'toilette cest Moi
http://www.politico.com/story/
Just for the record: I too observed a private minute of silence this morning. For yesterday's dinner. Sadly, my photographer didn't capture the historic occasion because she divorced me.
As I often say: L'toilette cest Moi. Well actually, no. I don't believe that I'm a crapper. That would be crazy. Sort of like observing a moment of silence when you are alone in your office and then announcing it to the world. Of course if an egotist spends a minute silent in his office without a photo op, did he really shut up?
Next up; President Obama observes a minute of flossing in honor of Gingivitis Prevention Week. Photo close ups of his pearly whites
Sweden: Social Equality is for the wee ones...
Perhaps no nation on earth has been more social 'Democratic' and 'egalitarian' than Sweden. Yet Swedish Kurdish Chicago PHD Tino Sandanadji points out that this has resulted in Sweden having far less social mobility at the top than the US.
According to one study the share of the richest Swedes who inherited their wealth is around, 2/3 with 1/3 being entrepreneurs, while in the United States it was the opposite, with 1/3 of the wealthiest inherited their wealth while around 2/3 are entrepreneurs.
Thus while the Swedish middle class is large and has a compressed earning distribution, at the very top you have a small number of aristocratic families controlling much of the wealth. Mobility into this group is rare, probably rares than it is in the United States. One reason are stronger informal class-barriers, merely earning wealth is not enough to be accepted a member of the aristocratic upper-class. Another more interesting reason may be the unintended effect of welfare-state economic policies.
Once again my Kurd plays Turd doing the backstroke in the progressive punch bowl. And once again Frederic Bastiat - the king of unintended consequences - shows why he should be the first Economist to receive the Nobel Prize posthumously. Reading Bastiat allows anyone to accurately predict the chaotic denouemont of Social Democracy going on all around the world.
Read the whole thing Here.
Thus while the Swedish middle class is large and has a compressed earning distribution, at the very top you have a small number of aristocratic families controlling much of the wealth. Mobility into this group is rare, probably rares than it is in the United States. One reason are stronger informal class-barriers, merely earning wealth is not enough to be accepted a member of the aristocratic upper-class. Another more interesting reason may be the unintended effect of welfare-state economic policies.
Read the whole thing Here.