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"House Of Cards"' Top 3 Lessons For A Naive Voting Public

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Unlike so many television shows, House of Cards shows how politicians use their power to help themselves and their friends - not the people who elected them. The fictional character at the center of the series, Frank Underwood, shows us the pitfalls of bureaucratic democracy. As professor Steve Horwitz explains in this brief clip, the series exposes the truth of public choice theory, rent seeking behavior, psychopathic tendencies, Machiavellian inclinations, corruption, and scandal. House of Cards is not that far from reality theses days and the following 3 lessons should be heeded by every voter.

 

 

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Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:49 | 4460041 satoshi411
satoshi411's picture

"I'm from the government and I'm here to HELP you"...

Your telling us its not true?

Isn't there like 6-10 BITCOIN is burning storys today that ZH could be reporting, but instead were being told that Politicians can be assholes.

My fucking GAWD ZH has gone full retard.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:07 | 4460104 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I've seen people post some pretty worthless crap over the years, but I have to say you post some of the worst.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:09 | 4460112 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

+100

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:51 | 4460522 old naughty
old naughty's picture

Three lessons...Only?

F rank U nderwood;

"We can be xxx dangerous too";

"Let the slaughters begin".

 

another GREATone from holliwand.

Sat, 02/22/2014 - 08:08 | 4464669 The Mist
The Mist's picture

In season 2 at the end of episode 3 or 4, they display the rings with his initials "F U" full in the screen. To me, it was a subtle yet clear message of what the writers believe politics to be, a giant FUCK YOU to the viewing audience.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 10:00 | 4461479 CitizenPete
CitizenPete's picture

Holy shit, I am glad someone else said it.   I was begining to think I was alone in reading this total crap all the time. 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:19 | 4460114 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

Maybe you shold pay attention to Ukraine a little closer. What started out as peaceful EU/Russia protest has turned into a full-retard war against mafia government.

There is no EU/Russia side any more. The protesters are priests, punks and everyone in between. From Ultra-right Ukrainian Nationalists to Russian Ukrainians. They're taking bullets side-by-side in the Maidan. Hard to convince the various groups that they're enemies when the DHS... er, interior ministry cops are shooting ALL of them.

Everyone there is against the corrupt, mafia government. They don't give a crap about Russia or the EU. 

The psychopathic crazy train just went off the tracks in Kiev.

Which brings up a rather interesting dilemna for Putin, Merkel AND Obama. They are terrified of what's happening in Kiev and have been desperately trying to spin the whole affair as a EU/Russain fight or a internal Ukrainian ethnic fight and it's not working. They tried to negotiate a deal to give the opposition leaders political positions and the opposition said, "Fuck off". When you can't bribe opponents with money or power, then they're not ever going to be on the TPTB team.

It's a mass revolt against corrupt, bullying-ass government. The Russian people are watching. The EU is watching. Even a few fat-ass Hot-Pocket-eating Americans are watching. 

Who does a government nuke when they can't convince the people that someone ELSE is their imaginary evil enemy? What does a government do when the people keep insisting that their real enemy is the goddamn corrupt governments and their crony corporate pals? 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:42 | 4460229 greatbeard
greatbeard's picture

Interesting take, thanks. In a way I hope you are on the money.  In this respect it's much like American politics, I hate both side ( EU/US an Russia).  Certainly I do hate to see civilians killed for any reason.  After all, all 90% of us want is to be left alone to live our lives.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:53 | 4460270 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

I'm enjoying how quickly the wealthy psychopaths are abandoning each other. Mass exodus of oligarchs/cronies and families from Ukraine in their private jets filled with sacks of looted money are being turned away by - of all places - Austria!

+1 for Austria - you let one in, they invite their pals, and the next thing you know your burning tires in 'Freedom Square'

http://storage1.censor.net.ua/images/9/5/b/9/95b9bb82d9ad140534467645b06...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 06:51 | 4461209 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

do hate to see civilians killed for any reason. 

not to dismiss your point in any way beard, just would like to offer a caution against any use of the word civilians , which seems to be the human collateral damage term du jour by TPTB and those who manage their language interface with the rest of us.   that interface seems to be increasingly peppered with military terms lately, like the term "civilians".

never forget that everyone in the Ukraine are living, breathing human beings like you and me.   i know you realize this, but it's all too easy for any of us to allow words that subtly serve to dehumanize us all through their constant repitition to creep into our common usage without us even realizing it.

i/m/h/o we must all be diligently careful right now, as the times are becoming as delicate as a powderkeg.    and memes are more powerful than we may think.   hearts & minds.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 08:09 | 4461285 new game
new game's picture

excellent - words are powerfull and most of all "they cant be taken back".

so refrain, you may just not say anything and have said the most.

silence-your friend...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:10 | 4460334 Xanadu_doo
Xanadu_doo's picture

"The Russian people are watching. The EU is watching. Even a few fat-ass Hot-Pocket-eating Americans are watching."

 

Double-plus-good.

And damn funny.

 

Let's just hope you, right!

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:22 | 4460160 fuu
fuu's picture

Hey speaking of charts!

 

Your posts by hour: http://i.imgur.com/54Muzq3.png

Your posts by date: http://i.imgur.com/qMAZtST.png

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:43 | 4460230 Skateboarder
Skateboarder's picture

Hey, he gets a full eight hours of sleep. :)

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:58 | 4460253 fuu
fuu's picture

6 AM must be lunch time. That's a long 15 hour day at the shop though.

 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 23:03 | 4460569 fuu
fuu's picture

Do you have a new one lined up already or will you have to think of a new moniker? Maybe a combo next time around. Something like Squeeky4SatoshisFoyle?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:53 | 4460050 lickspitler
lickspitler's picture

Fuck you Cleisthenes

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:53 | 4460051 Democratic koolaid
Democratic koolaid's picture

M.T.V. will tell you how to vote.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:42 | 4460222 Goldilocks
Goldilocks's picture

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing [subtitulado español] + lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNxGr2CKLfw (5:14)

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:54 | 4460056 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

So the lesson is don't vote; it's like creating shallow pools of brackish water for mosquitoes to breed in.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:00 | 4460075 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

Bingo. Voting = your consent. Withold it.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:16 | 4460141 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

Fuck that.  I'm going to vote in every election and cast it for anyone who is not Red or Blue.  I don't care if they run on the dildo-face ticket.  Actually, especially if they run on that ticket.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:55 | 4460276 johnQpublic
johnQpublic's picture

flying spaghetti monster for the mother fuckking win

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:28 | 4460407 Greenskeeper_Carl
Greenskeeper_Carl's picture

I do understand why people don't bother anymore. I did vote for the LP, after giving it much thought on if I can bother. I won't argue that your vote counts for shit in a general election, because aside for third parties, the choices wind up being nearly identical on the issues that matter to me. However, I always tel people to vote even if its only in local elections. On every single ballot where I live there are always some initiatives about raising the sales tax or some shit 'for the children' or some other bullshit reason the govt feels entitled to more of my money. And it's important to say no to that shit every time you are able.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 00:18 | 4460794 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Yeah, I know, "participation" and all that.

I'm just completely jaded.  After 38 years of voting I feel impotent.

When the FED runs the economy - and the FED is run by TBTF banks who own the FED and CONgress and the Judiciary and Executive branches and by extension the Military and the Police - voting seems like banging my head against the wall.

The only thing I see as useful is nuking New York.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 01:55 | 4460971 geotrader
geotrader's picture

DC first.  NY  30 seconds later.  

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 02:46 | 4461037 the0ther
the0ther's picture

Close but this will never work. Until they reform voting and adopt a Condorcet method of voting there is no hope. The majority will always consider a vote for a third party candidate as a wasted vote. 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 11:33 | 4461881 FrankDrakman
FrankDrakman's picture

Only in your (recently) benighted country. Here in the Great White North, we have 3 credible parties (as in, capable of winning elections; all of their policies are ridiculous), and four if you count the Greens.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 23:53 | 4460133 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

Pardon me while I clear my throat yet again:

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." — Emma Goldman

But of course the one vote upon which all others derive their power — self-determination, i.e, secession — is illegal and has been ever since union was forced upon a henceforth "indivisible" nation by the outcome of the disastrous War for Southern Independence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDqbczws1jg

P.S. I am not an unreconstructed Southerner but a transplant from "The Land of Lincoln," who has lived in the South for a couple decades.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:14 | 4460136 James_Cole
James_Cole's picture

So the lesson is don't vote; it's like creating shallow pools of brackish water for mosquitoes to breed in.

Voter apathy works in the elites favour, what needs to happen instead is the people need to reclaim the political system in the US.

Getting the money out of it would make a big difference to my mind. It's like the prohibition, when the easy money was removed (by legalization) a lot of the crime went away but people still got to enjoy the product. 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 00:31 | 4460813 Real Estate Geek
Real Estate Geek's picture

It's not apathy; it's a principled abstention. 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 07:14 | 4461228 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

whatever it's called, it has the opposite effect as intended.   Haiti, with its 25% voter participation rate, is a perfect example.

how about instead: go to the polling place, patiently stand in the cattle lines, respectfully refuse to use their fucking machines, make the volunteers explain to you how you can write-in your chosen candidates (even if it's Frank Zappa), remind the volunteers of your sovereign right to write-in any candidate you wish, insist on your wish to exercise that right, do not leave until you are assured that your vote was filled out properly and will be counted.    as long as this is accomplished with no hint of aggression, this is all "legal" by any stretch of the word. 

if 1 in 10 people did this, i can assure you that although the (s)election may not go as you wish, it will most definitely not go as smoothly as planned.   and it may just knock a gear out of whack enough to be noticable to everyone as to how broken the machine really is.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 11:20 | 4461824 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

Please recount your experience with doing so, or are your bruises still healing.

The sheeple would, at the very least, shout you down.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 11:35 | 4461893 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

let me ask you something dick, do you go through the cancer chambers in the airport or do you decline?     do you ever see anyone shouted down for choosing to exercise their right for a patdown when done so in a non-aggressive manner?   

sheep don't shout, they baa.    not do they gang together to beat someone up.    they do listen though.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 22:49 | 4464030 Dick Buttkiss
Dick Buttkiss's picture

 

Jesus. Who puts up with any of this other than because they're too brainwashed to protest (the vast majority) or understandably don't want to lose their lives to one extent or another.

Again, give me an example of when you have stood up to the powers that be — just one — and then let's talk.

Anything short is just bravado.

 

Sat, 02/22/2014 - 14:26 | 4465508 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

fail to see how a top-down tall tale of my dick swinging at the Man has anything to do with the bottoms-up approach outlined above except obsfucate the issue, dick.

if you're asking me if i've ever declined the cancer scanners, all the time except when i'm running late.   funny enough, met mostly friendly TSA folks in the process, a couple of assholes, but an equal amount of pretty cool ones as well.   

the question whether a little bit of bravado delivered with grace distributed across a broad swath of the citizenry is more effective than a few pissed BSD's spraying their bravado like apes across the intertubes and/or public squares remains open it seems.

ciao for now.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 02:42 | 4461034 the0ther
the0ther's picture

Correct. The only hope of overcoming is to make USSA government irrelevant. Voting cannot possibly help. Pissing in the wind.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:54 | 4460058 Flying Tiger Comics
Flying Tiger Comics's picture

Excellent plagiarism of the British original.

 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:04 | 4460092 Democratic koolaid
Democratic koolaid's picture

The British plagiarised anything of use they could find floating around on the high seas.

Just like the Chinease rip of every bit of new technology the world currently creates.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:55 | 4460060 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

I love my pussy.  It is the complete summation of my life.  ... my pussy is the temple of learning.

                          Madonna

  From the wonderfully named book, What would Machiavelli Do?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:00 | 4460074 ParkAveFlasher
ParkAveFlasher's picture

I happen to agree with Madonna, there is much one can learn from meditating on her woo woo.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:02 | 4460081 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

I wouldn't meditate on that diseased twat with YOUR brain.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:05 | 4460097 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

meditate on that diseased twat or eat a diseased hot pocket. what would you choose?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:09 | 4460111 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I choose eating a hot twat.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:13 | 4460125 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

But..., Rodney was chewing on that before you.

Who can forget Dennis...?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:14 | 4460135 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Who said I was talking about that specific twat? I said "a twat" not her twat. Try to keep up.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:19 | 4460149 krispkritter
krispkritter's picture

Twat's the difference? Oh...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:21 | 4460151 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

"Who said I was talking about that specific twat?"

My most sincere apologies...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:27 | 4460175 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

You are sentenced to eat your asparagus, Pea.

You can have mine too.  Gives me enough gas to float the Hindenburg.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:29 | 4460180 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

No need to apologize. We're just having a little fun here. After 16 years of marriage, I'm just fantasizing anyway.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:44 | 4460234 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

16 years..., you're newlyweds.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:05 | 4460317 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

I filed a FOIA request to find out if my marriage vows included a vow of chastity.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 04:07 | 4461100 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

It did. They all do.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:20 | 4460154 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

This thread is a whipped Pussy Riot.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:21 | 4460159 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

well to be fair I said meditate on that specific twat, so knowing that...which do you go with? This is a tough one. 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:24 | 4460163 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

42. The answer is 42.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:25 | 4460165 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

always

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:24 | 4460389 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Sometimes 69 is the right answer.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 01:40 | 4460944 idontcare
idontcare's picture

Season 2 HOC had a 69x3 scene cut to black.... 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 01:52 | 4460967 Chuck Walla
Chuck Walla's picture

77! It's really 69, but you get ate more...

FORWARD ASS NAPKINS!

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:12 | 4460127 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

What is the difference between Moochelle, and a bowling ball?

You could eat a bowling ball if you had to.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:14 | 4460134 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

who junks doc for giving an honest answer? Bless you Doc, you just throw it all on the line. I respect that.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:16 | 4460137 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

(remark pulled)

Lost in translation...

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 07:30 | 4461244 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

meditate on that diseased twat or eat a diseased hot pocket. what would you choose?

 

NONE OF THE ABOVE. Why give another worn out false dilemma choice?

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 08:34 | 4461314 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

It was just make pretend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb7FgSzeGqg

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:59 | 4460070 Democratic koolaid
Democratic koolaid's picture

choice? what a joke! How many times did little Wayne and Jay-z mention Obama running up to his elections?

Popular culture has been a deciding factor in every presidential election since Kennedy.

If we see Chris Christy in a Justin Timberlake Video we'll know who the next presedent will be.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:01 | 4460077 ParkAveFlasher
ParkAveFlasher's picture

Awesome key indicator.  +1.  Fat, it's the new black.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:07 | 4460105 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

The medium is the message.

   Marshall McLuhan  (but how much can you expect from a Canuck?;)

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:38 | 4460467 InTheLandOfTheBlind
InTheLandOfTheBlind's picture

Politics give yesterday's answers to today's questions

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 01:47 | 4460956 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing
it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” –Groucho Marx

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:53 | 4460269 notadouche
notadouche's picture

If you don't realize it's Hillary in 2016 then you haven't been paying attention.  That deal has already been made long ago.  

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 08:45 | 4461334 Comte d'herblay
Comte d'herblay's picture

Don't understand the thumbs down, since you are only writing the truth.

We have to have a black man and white woman in that figurehead office to convince the world that white men have been in control for too long, that black men and white women are our saviours, with high morals, ethics, and no self-interest at all.

They are holy men and women. 

 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 03:31 | 4460083 CaptainSpaulding
CaptainSpaulding's picture

I liked Spacey better as John Williamson in Glengarry glen ross.. Will you go to lunch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2PtsSKE4mY

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:05 | 4460095 h0oS
h0oS's picture

Shit, I'm old enough to remember watching the the original in the UK...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:06 | 4460101 h0oS
h0oS's picture

By the way, fuck the balhead with the beard...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:09 | 4460116 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Please, let's give Mr. Yellen a chance.  He/she and BO will make quite a pair, but of what?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:10 | 4460119 h0oS
h0oS's picture

LMAO, class call sir!

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:07 | 4460102 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

The irony is that many of us find ourselves cheering for Frank Underwood nonetheless.

Cause Spacey is just so damn likeable, in spite of his flaws and ruthlessness.  That seems to be the pinnacle of a 'successful' US politician, it seems.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 08:41 | 4461326 Comte d'herblay
Comte d'herblay's picture

I don't know where the cheering for Underwood began, but count me out on that one, as I would just as soon throw him off the subway station into the speeding path of an oncoming train, along with several others who epitomize the rank disease at the roots of government.

Including his wife, played by Robin Wright, who looks more and more like a man with every passing year. 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:11 | 4460121 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

The only solution to .gov corruption is no government.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:30 | 4460188 deflator
deflator's picture

 

The only solution to .gov corruption is no government.

The only solution to .gov corruption is self governance. FIFY

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:18 | 4460147 stant
stant's picture

buy more ammo

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:25 | 4460164 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

Who let DHS on this thread?  /sarc

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:36 | 4460205 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

House of Cards is rad.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:45 | 4460241 notadouche
notadouche's picture

Obama going to speak to the Dalai Lama over concerns of human rights abuses in China.  Meanwhile here at home....well it doesn't appear the government will hand out lube while ass raping the citizen as it pertains to rights.  Is it just me or does it seem over the last 2 decades or so that our politicians are far more concerned about the conditions of other countries than what's going on in their own backyard.  All the foreign aid given could've actually been used to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure that they keep harping on or any other number of "problems" they tell us we have and the need to raise taxes to conquer them.  Perhaps we could actually afford healthcare for all if we kept our tax revenues at home instead of spreading it all over the world which has no affect on the daily lives of the people here.  Wouldn't Detroit or Appalachian Region be more worthy candidates?  I mean if we are hell bent on giving handouts shouldn't those handouts be to the exclusivity of our own citizens?  Gee strengthen the home, shape it up and then do good abroad if the taxpayer decides that's how they want their money spent.  Nah that would be too simple.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 21:52 | 4460268 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Will president Skroob make the Dalai Lama sneak out the back door again and do the walk of shame?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2010/02/20/nbc-notes-obama-ma...

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:27 | 4460406 Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking's picture

Which brings up a rather interesting dilemna for Putin, Merkel AND Obama. They are terrified of what's happening in Kiev...

Obama is not afraid nor should he be, because lazy, dumb americans won't bother to stand up for their rights. Dumbass american voters don't know about Kiev, and wont object to govt in the newsroom, as long as the ballgame is on, nobody gives a damn.

 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 22:32 | 4460430 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Are the dimwits that watch this drivel actually going to learn anything from this except to accept it as 'normal' behaviour?

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 23:53 | 4460730 European American
European American's picture

"the following 3 lessons should be heeded by every voter."

 

 

Lesson 1. the ballot box is rigged

Lesson 2. the ballot box is rigged

Lesson 3. the ballot box is rigged.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 00:02 | 4460759 Sedaeng
Sedaeng's picture

I only vote on ZH.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 02:12 | 4460994 European American
European American's picture

I wonder if the votes, here at ZH, are rrigged. Ever notice how the first posts get the most votes. ;0

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 01:43 | 4460947 Wait What
Wait What's picture

"house majority whip in bed with lobbyist." there's not even a hint of innuendo there. House of Cards is to politics what Gallagher was to having a slice of watermellon.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 04:17 | 4461107 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Shockingly, a pretent politics show mirrors the actual sick corrupt pyscotic real politics.

The sickest thing on that whole show is the clip of Frank being interviewed by Morley Safer. 

The guy looks like he died 10 years ago and they dug him up for the clip.

What's with these egomaniac MSM talking heads that they refuse to retire? Is it a Tribal thing?

All those old assholes look dehydrated and like they should be rocking on the porch and telling kids to get the fuck off the lawn.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 08:37 | 4461319 Comte d'herblay
Comte d'herblay's picture

Old Rock 'stars', cultural icons, BababWaWa, the entire panoply of those way past their best days----more significantly the poor taste of the people who want them to continue, their fans----is an indictment of the gross sentimentality of human beans reliving their past and their hopelessness about their future.

As you state, the pathetic egomania of these entertainers, sports figures, and other celebrities (does anyone have any clue as to why Beckham has tatooed the entire surface of his arms??) is a chronic disease, as is Harrison Ford wearing an ear ring.

The wailing cries for attention these people seek, is nauseating. 

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 04:58 | 4461119 johnberesfordti...
johnberesfordtiptonjr's picture

Friedrich Hayek and the "Road to Serfdom" indeed (mentioned in the video by "Professor" Steve Horwitz) are part of crackpot Libertarian goofballism.

It seems that "Professor" Hayek was enamored by Social Security and needed to be persuaded  by none other than Charles Koch in order to come to the U.S. and join the crackpot Institute of Humane Studies (really an offshoot of the John Birch Society – Eisenhower was a Commie!-  of which Charles Koch was a founder… morphed into The Cato Institute eventually)-    

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cb1_1330213178

Billionaires (wealth mostly inherited or made via some form of financial industry theft/fraud/manipulation or through tax-payer cost externalization such as pollution)  are behind the movement. Ayn Rand (and various academics) provided the philosophical cover .  The irony is that Libertarianism is the actual “Road to Serfdom.” Libertarian ideals are a fantasy fed to the gullible to serve the interests of a particularly nasty collection of wealthy elitists.

Ask yourself this simple question- Who paid for Sarah Palin’s Americans for Prosperity T-shirt? And, why?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity

By the way, Ayn Rand ultimately collected SS and Medicare (without making it public of course). It seems that her chain smoking habit caught up with her... the government is lying about cigarettes causing cancer and has no right to regulate them!

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 07:23 | 4461236 blabam
blabam's picture

Talking point after talking point. Any original thoughts? 

 

Also: LOL Sarah Palin. Forgot about that chump.

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 06:08 | 4461171 daemon
daemon's picture

Some "taoist" quotes about government and society. Taken from here : http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/salt/salt08.htm

Small note : " ...  and fills their bellies, ... "   .... not with food. Those who have heard about relaxation / qi gong  will understand.

 

" NOT exalting worth keeps the people from rivalry. Not prizing what is hard to procure keeps the people from theft. Not to show them what they may covet is the way to keep their minds from disorder.

Therefore the Sage, when he governs, empties their minds and fills their bellies, weakens their inclinations and strengthens their bones. His constant object is to keep the people without knowledge and without desire, or to prevent those who have knowledge from daring to act. He practises inaction, and nothing remains ungoverned.

He who respects the State as his own person is fit to govern it. He who loves the State as his own body is fit to be entrusted with it.

In the highest antiquity, the people did not know that they had rulers. In the next age they loved and praised them. In the next, they feared them. In the next, they despised them.

How cautious is the Sage, how sparing of his words! When his task is accomplished and affairs are prosperous, the people all say: "We have come to be as we are, naturally and of ourselves."

If any one desires to take the Empire in hand and govern it, I see that he will not succeed. The Empire is a divine utensil which may not be.  "

Fri, 02/21/2014 - 07:53 | 4461266 zippy_uk
zippy_uk's picture

In the UK its:

Francis

Urquart

"I couldn't possibly comment"

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