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Cliff Asness' Cliff Notes To Progressive America
Cliff Asness, head of the quant hedge fund AQR, has been known to be a vocal opponent of various failed governmental policies in the past few years. Today, he has shared his "dictionary" (of "humorous" persuasion as he himself notes, with definitions "written sarcastically as a faux left-winger, some just conservative/libertarian interpretations of what the left really means.") of the key terms dominant in Progressive America right now. In a world in which other people's money has pretty much run out, and ahead of a rather historic Supreme Court ruling tomorrow, we believe some of these are quite relevant.
Some Useful Definitions to Understand Our Modern Progressive World
Failed Policies of the Past
Definition: Limited government, free markets, personal responsibility, liberty.
We Are All In This Together
Definition: For the love of God who do we tax back to the stone-age to get out of this!?
Social Darwinism
Definition: Essentially a darling concept of the progressive left of the first half of the 20th century (along with eugenics its even more vile cousin). It now is defined as "any attempt by conservatives and libertarians to rein in the unsustainable spending of out of control government."
Fairness
Definition: A word used to motivate making sure outcomes do not match abilities or effort. Note, pre-1970 it meant roughly the opposite.
Social Justice
Definition: Redistribution based on group affiliation, regardless of anything the actual individuals in question did, or even their specific ancestors did, but instead based on the actions of other individuals in the past who just kind of looked vaguely like those in the relevant groups being discussed now, both victim and oppressor. Also applies to redistribution of any kind, whether based on actual unfairness, or on simply outcomes liberals do not like.
Alternative definition: Unspecific. Just a meaningless phrase that screams “I am liberal and this phrase sounds liberal and nice with just a hint of revolutionary sexiness.”
Antonym: Justice (which, even if it must be applied broadly to address real group-wide wrongs, is always and everywhere an individual notion)
The Phrase “Deny Access to…”
Used in a sentence: “It is unfair to deny access to healthcare to 26 year olds living off their parents.”
Definition: When a person isn’t given something they want for free, and they have not found a way to steal it yet, they have been “denied access” to it. In general it is the “1%” that “denies access.” See “1%” below.
Entitlement
Definition: Something provided by other men and women’s labor that some claim as their right, sometimes claiming to have paid for it during their lifetime, when all forms of modern mathematics and accounting reject that notion.
Rights
Used in a sentence: “I have a right to healthcare.”
Definition: A more extreme form of “entitlement” defined above. Note that modern usage throws out the long tradition of natural rights only of a negative nature, that is, the right not to have something done to you, for rights of a positive nature, that is, the right to certain goods and services, like health care, Apple products, and soy milk. Since, no matter how important these items are, these modern positive rights must still be produced and taken from others, essentially the word “rights” now often stands for a system of slavery and theft.
Main Street
Definition: A place liberals used to ridicule as Mayberry but now pretend to love.
Regular Americans
Definition: People who support me.
Special Interests
Definition: People who support you.
Fat Cat
Definition: Something a politicians calls someone with 3x more money than the median voter who supported the politician in question.
Alternative Definition: Someone the same exact politician hits up for cash.
The 1%
Definition: Those who pay more than 1/3 the total federal income tax and are never thanked for it. More generally, they are responsible for all evil in the world today (unless they work in Hollywood or hi-tech in which case they are “honorary 99%-ers” regardless of income, tax rate, and lifestyle).
Middle-Class
Definition: A focus-group tested better word than “the poor” for progressives to use to advance their statist schemes. Some speeches by progressives now consist of just saying it over and over again in different hypnotic musical tones.
Income Inequality
Definition: What occurs when a free and productive economy includes people with different abilities, work habits, and, of course, luck. Also, one of the main reasons anyone actually works at anything.
A Fair Tax System
Definition: One in which the “rich” (i.e., those making more than the speaker of these words, or those voting for the speaker) pay 50% more than they currently pay, and the speaker and his constituents get to pay 50% less than they currently pay. These figures remain unchanged despite any starting tax rates. If this change pushes the “rich” to over 100% or the non-rich to below 0% more the fairer.
Julia
Definition: The person living the ideal progressive life where no responsibility is taken, no risk is taken, the government perks are endless, you never see who pays for it, and the tyrannical hand of big-brother never makes it into the cartoon narrative.
Synonym: Sheep Antonym: Men
Citizens United
Definition: The ultimate evil Supreme Court decision (narrowly defeating Dred Scott) which expanded free speech, thus allowing those with money to, uh, speak freely.
SCOTUS
Definition: A delicious breakfast treat that goes well with English Breakfast tea and clotted crème. Conservatives prefer theirs in the traditional 9 pack, liberals enjoy up to 15.
Elizabeth Warren
Definition: An “Elizabeth Warren” is any brilliant scholar who both thinks we can fix the U.S. financial system simply by adding another giant bureaucracy with near unlimited power, and who can, by dancing vigorously in a circle, make it rain. Both equally as likely.
The IMF and/or the World Bank
Definition: Nobody knows. See SMERSH and CHAOS for similar definitions.
The European Financial Crisis
Definition: A complex multi-year dance whose sole purpose is to see how much money can be shaken out of the German middle-class.
Universal Health Care
Definition: The system formerly known as single payer.
Single payer Health Care
Definition: The system formerly known as socialized medicine.
Socialized Medicine
Definition: Something Democrats claim they don’t want, as they simply want Universal Health Care.
Nobel Peace Prize
Definition: A prize awarded to the left’s favorite person that year.
Antonym: Any prize having anything to do with actual Peace, or frankly accomplishment of any kind.
Stimulus
Definition: Taking money from current and future Americans to undertake projects that didn’t make sense before, don’t make sense now, will net cost jobs as the stimulus must be paid for privately, but since the job losses will be hidden, and the direct hires put on the evening news, might let those in charge keep their cushy jobs a bit longer.
World War II
Definition: Mainly important as proof that Keynesian stimulus works (side note: also led to defeat of Nazis and Imperial Japan). Since it is the only such “proof” ever, and we all have nuclear weapons now, different options are being considered for future stimuli. Actually, since World War II ending did not crash the economy as Keynesians predicted at the time, frankly we’re rethinking the whole thing.
Cash for Clunkers
Definition: What we came up to replace World War II as stimulus. Many perfectly good cars destroyed, no Nazis defeated.
Quantitative Easing
Definition: The act of printing pieces of paper to purchase other pieces of paper and thinking it matters at all for anything. See “dogs chasing cars” for related examples.
Austerity
Definition: Spending much more than ever before but slightly less than you had once thought you might spend which itself was a completely insane amount to spend.
Synonym: Profligacy
Paul Ryan
Definition: A “Paul Ryan” is a Hollywood monster which kills and devours old people simply by showing them a preliminary reasonable plan to grow spending slower than we currently are, while keeping any obligations already made to the elderly.
Grand Bargain
Definition: An agreement to raise taxes now while tacitly agreeing to waive the corresponding spending cuts later. Usually done in at least a 10:1 ratio as waiving 10x the future cuts is a particularly effective amount of waiving.
Reform
Definition: To make something (e.g., government) bigger, more intrusive, less efficient, and more dictatorial.
Bipartisan
Definition: We found one old sap from the other party dying for one last shot at relevance who will add his name to our highly partisan effort.
Dodd-Frank
Definition: A verb, to “Dodd-Frank” something is to use the perpetrators of a major crime to fix things for next time. Like taking ex-computer hackers and putting them in charge of your security (this example is not perfect as this might actually work). Used in a sentence: “We really Dodd-Franked that financial reform.”
See also “Searching for the real killers.”
Right Wing Extremist
Definition: Someone objecting in any way to left wing extremism.
Conservative
Definition: Moron
Liberal
Definition: A word that when applied to yourself conveys an instant halo of goodness that does not have to be justified with actions, logic, or even the slightest examination of what the policies you support have wrought. Works particularly well for rich hypocrites (Wall Street) and rich morons (Hollywood).
Progressive
Definition: A rebranding of “liberal” post-Dukakis, going back to an older word, that means essentially the same thing, but contains the very positive word “progress” within it, and the always welcome “ive” ending.
Libertarian
Definition: A philosophy held by annoying bastards who happen to be right about nearly everything. Fortunately, due to the frustration that comes with being right about nearly everything, in a world wrong about those same things, there are only 19 of them, and we’re going to find the bastards soon.
The Party of No
Definition: Legislators who are rightly demonized by the press and progressives for being elected to bring down the size of government and then actually trying to do so. Sons of bitches.
Synonyms: Obstructionists, Do-nothing Congress
The Buck Stops There
Definition: Something Barack Obama says about George W. Bush.
Foreign Policy
Definition: A process where the USA makes amends to the rest of the world for being more successful than them, footing many of their bills, and shedding our blood to keep them safer and freer.
Due Process
Definition: Something progressives get misty over when Henry Fonda is being denied it on the silver screen and when in power they deliver at the end of an explosive drone after Judge David Axelrod pronounces the target guilty.
Climate
Definition: A non-linear chaotic system that is a near-perfect example of something that is very very difficult, even using modern methods, to explain or forecast. This in no way takes away from the possible reasonableness of man-made climate change described below. Though, one might note, we get frustrated by weathermen as they can’t forecast the climate today.
Global Warming
Definition: What we now call “climate change”. Global warming was phased out as it also leads to things being too cold, and sometimes being just right. Mama Bear has been replaced with a highly volatile mix of all three bears.
Climate Change
Definition: The fact that over time the climate, uh, changes.
Man-Made Climate Change
Definition: The entirely reasonable idea that seven billion industrialized humans may be affecting the climate.
Krypton Seven Seconds Before Kal-El Was Launched Into Space
Definition: The stage liberals are certain the Earth is at.
Jor-El
Definition: Both a character once played by Marlon Brando and coincidentally the fictional character Al Gore pictures himself as. Nobody listened to Jor-El and look what happened! A fascinating additional coincidence is that when Brando was alive, Marlon and Al alone actually omitted ¼ of the USA’s greenhouse gases.
Infinity
Definition: The amount progressives will spend to combat man-made climate change without any assessment of the costs and benefits of these actions.
The Green Agenda
Definition: The additional use of man-made climate change, even if it’s fully true and it makes economic sense to sacrifice to fight it, to have government and its anointed priests take over much more of our lives. Any questioning of it is absolute proof of evil. Children must be indoctrinated in it in grade school before reading or writing or arithmetic. They must then be sent to spy on and lecture their parents.
Resistance is futile.
Ronald Reagan Definition: Right wing extremist President who kicked people off welfare which progressives said would be a holocaust, radically broadened free trade which progressives say has since killed American manufacturing, and whose administration perpetuated the horrible banking deregulation progressives say brought on the financial crisis.
Bill Clinton
Definition: The guy who actually did those things right above (though Reagan did some other cool
things). Oddly today’s Democrats insist that it’s Republicans who’ve changed and gotten “way more extreme” since the 1990s.
Trickle Down Economics
Definition: A brilliant marketing phrase for denigrating the truth: that a freer economy helps everyone. Not to be confused with “trickle up poverty” a perfect definition of socialism.
Democracy
Definition: An excellent form of government where if you can cobble together 51% of the people, by promising them other people’s stuff, or scaring them that you’ll take away their stuff, you can rule as a dictator. It is decidedly not the form of government originally chosen by the United States of America, which is a constitutional republic with limited government. Thankfully we’ve mostly done away with that nonsense.
Socialism
Definition: A word that is a hate crime if used about an American politician who wants us to be more like Europe. Or, alternatively, a word used by many European politicians to define themselves.
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For The Children
Definition: We're going to strip the public of Rights to make their own personal daily decisions.
FOR THE CHILDREN
Definition: We're going to borrow as much as possible, blow it on unnecessary junk, and leave them with the tab
Boy, the junkmonkeys are really swarming over the comments on this thread!
I wonder what has them in such a huff here in particular?
A stubborn and enduring belief in the free lunch.
See also: Rights
and our still very popular president’s support for FDR’s concept of a second Bill of Rights.
tanstaafl, baby!
This post is chock full of classic right-wing Asness...
Some Useful Definitions to Understand Our Modern Progressive World
Failed Policies of the Past
laisse faire capitalism failed. Greenspan says American workers get paid too much. Need more immigration to lower wages.
financial deregulation, illegal immigration, etc.
We Are All In This Together
US is a sinking ship unless you have millions in swiss bank accounts and foreign real estate with private jet.
Social Darwinism
cut throat competition for you, top 0.1% rich watches from the private skybox. Must backstab, cheat, and sell your mother and your soul to make it into upper class. only the cunning and ruthless will survive because that's our society's "ideal" as we are just all animals.....except the ultra wealthy who have money to stay class and don't actually compete.
Fairness
Word used by top 0.01% to ignore flat taxes poor pay and only focuse on taxes they pay becuase lucky = merit to them.
Social Justice
"Corporations are people" but they pay almost no taxes unlike real workers.
Entitlement
only applies to workers and not capital speculators (ie. AIG traders who got million dollar bonuses)
Rights
things little poor people think they have in America but they don't. only for high net worth individuals. example: freedom of speech. you say the wrong thing to your boss, you are fired, but rich can pay $30,000 for a fundraiser dinner and say anything to the president. example 2: you protest bailouts you get beat up by cops, but cops have rights to spike up retirement pension for over six figures.
Main Street
place where rich and wall st. steal productivity from because they don't have much to contribute.
Regular Americans
"human capital" "human resource" ....slaves
Special Interests
Koch brother's out of state money involved in state politics. Foreigners middling in US politics, AIPAC
The 0.01%
Definition: Those who use top 0.1~50% of working americans to justify that the status quo is merited and fair. "see the doctor works hard and earns $200k/year, so I deserve $2,000,000 in capital gains income" Hedge fund scammers (see paulson's colluion with Goldman Sachs on Abacus Fund scandal) can earn $1,000,000,000 /year with tax payer backing.
Middle-Class
Definition: working class with education....some think they are better than blue collar so they vote republican but all in all they still work for a living.
Income Inequality
See 0.01%.....far right love to pit upper middle class with rest of workers to justify their income....except their income is from capital gains which is taxed half as much as labor income.
A Fair Tax System
for top 0.01% it is 0% capital gains tax and 50% labor tax (FICA + state + federal), because capital doesn't use anything provided by the state like roads, and educated workforce, etc.
Elizabeth Warren
One of few people who is not afraid of bulling by top 0.01%. She correctly stated that American middle class is disappearing because elites are giving away cheap toys at low cost (artificial food, chinese made junk, low culture entertainment), while more important stuff are far outpacing inflation (good education, healthcare, housing). Opposite of far right's female choice: Sarah Palin
The IMF and/or the World Bank
IMF = European colonial bank headed by leader who says "little people in greece need to pay more taxes" while global government elites like herself doesn't ($467,940 + $83,760 all tax free)
World Bank = American colonial bank
The European Financial Crisis
attack by US banks to defend dollar hegemony and destroy next best competition, Euro. Doesn't want to fix wall st, but have rest of the world pay by forcing them to trade everything in dollars.
Universal Health Care
What every freaking other country has. Even durign times of slavery, slave owners provided healthcare so slaves can get back to work. Something medicare & social security receiving tea party government worker hypocrites hate, because don't understand or lack critical thinking skills to question where the money is coming from.
Single payer Health Care
actually make lives easier and decrease cost due to less overhead.
Socialized Medicine
half of medicine is already socialized. doctor's residency training comes from medicare funds, tax exemption for most medical related, etc.
Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel's PC Prize, so blacks don't claim racial discrimination.
Stimulus
More trickle down at the top and see what kind of crumbs workers will get experiment.
World War II
What happens when rich countries loan shark poor countries.
Quantitative Easing
Fed eating their own shit in an attempt to show others how tasty their shit is.
Austerity
Make young poor generations pay for mistaken policies set by older entitled generation "I got mine so screw you"
Dodd-Frank
Attempt to fix their legacy as the "good guys" when they are the cause of the problem. Frank--banking, Dodd--insurance.
Right Wing Extremist
Nuts
Conservative
Conserve the status quo no matter how broke because it is working so well for them
Liberal
government welfare to the poor masses so they don't riot
Progressive
only hope for middle class, but conservatives hate them because things will change.
Libertarian
I got my money, so let others die party.
Bill Clinton
hillary clinton for Obama (the guy running things behind the curtain....healthcare, rubinites in power, etc.)
Democracy
excuse to invade foreign countries with your tax money.
"Libertarian: I got my money, so let others die party."
I would personally change it to "We're sick and fucking tired of not being able to lead our God-given lives as we see fit"
Libertarian
When we take money from them against their will to give to people we like, they act all selfish and refer to some old piece of paper they call 'the constitution'.
/sarcasm
Progressive
Soros' only hope for his elite NWO takeover, the rank and file Progressives themselves are either in on the con or hopelessly brainswashed, hopey changey type utopian pipe dreamers.
GREAT list....as a Demokracy loving Amerikan, i admit I got a little choked up when I read this one...:
"Citizens United
Definition: The ultimate evil Supreme Court decision which expanded free speech, thus allowing those with money to, uh, speak freely."
Right ON!
Keep stickin' it to the huMAN i say!!
POWER TO THE POWERFUL!!!
Funny fucking story.
Been in the business about 20 years.
About four years ago, I forwarded to my group list one of Asness's rants. I think it was the "Goodbye, good luck" one. Went out to about 50-100 people.
A year or so later, during a regular, scheduled, regulatory (i.e. F---A) exams, I get a call from compliance. Who and why did I send this email to. Was it approved? Is it on file? Etc... Real song & dance for about a weeki.
Clif is one of the 0.01%, now shitting on the the 1%. I'll take his definitions over yours any day asshole.
Here's one of your shiboleth's I'll gladly skewer.
A national conversation on race
How is it that since we've integrated the Armed Forces, we haven't won one fucking war?
How is it that a group that comprises 13% of the nation's population, accounts for over 40% of the nation's violent crime?
Here's a question for you.
When I watch modern movies about WWII, (Schindler's List, The Debt, etc..) how is it that I never see black Nazis?
Don't tell me that it's because there weren't any. Unacceptable!
There weren't any blacks sitting at King Arthur's court either, yet, there they are. Hollywood style.
Why? Just asking.
Tom Sowell had a glossary recently as well: http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/06/26/a_political_glossary
Don't get sucked into the left vs right battle. Its a 'false dilemma'. Its the old 'divide and conquer' strategy.
Both sides have been coopted for some time now. Smaller gov't is needed simply because gov't has gotten way too big, and centralized too much power, which makes it easier for 'special interests' (aka Big Money, aka Corporations) to tighten their grip. Big gov't is just a tool, a way to centralize power, to the benefit of the few, over the many.
Republican vs. Democrat is a false battle, they are two parties who say one thing and generally do another. When you cut to the core of most serious issues, they are often eerily similar.
Right vs. Left is philosophical and most certainly not a false dilemma, it is a legitimate ideological battle about the proper role and scope of government in human existence.
No, it is a contived and hopelessly narrow and limited representation of all possible (and actual) political positions.
For example, I, as a libertarian anarchist, have no place whatsoever within the so-called left-right "spectrum". It is merely a line of which each point represents differing interpretations of what are all equally statist positions on any and every political issue.
Agreed, but that doesnt change the fact that left vs. right are still clearly different philosophies. At no point did I say that this comprises all possible political beliefs- that isnt any more possible than graphing an algebraic equation with only an x axis. However, because there are more poitical beliefs out there does not by any stretch mean that there is not a difference between left and right, it only means its not an all encompassing description.
I think the political compass type setup with both x and y axes is more accurate, but nothing you said invalidates the basic premise that left and right are legitimate differences.
there's a difference between BIG Govt/smaller govt and limited govt.
Need you ask? Cliff Assness former Director at GS.
There are Europeans on this site, y'know.
Ya, I know!
If I had a son he would think like Cliff!
"I kill a communist for fun, but for a green card, i gonna carve him up real nice." Tony Montana
Sheer stupidity. Does it every time.
It's an army of Thom Hartmann(s) clones.
huff is the key word as in HuffPoo, all the progressives came over
"From Chicago, Cliff Asness moved to Goldman Sachs to be managing director and director of quantitative research for Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In that capacity he founded the Goldman Sachs Global Alpha Fund, a systematic trading hedge fund run for Goldman Sachs employees and clients."
His Assness is a Goldman Sachs Bankster, you wankers!!
Shame on you Tyler.
Typical of the pig bankster class to Shout "Austerity!! Austerity!!!" from the mountain tops AFTER they have gotten their fill.
Not that I disagree that austerity is not needed. Yes, it is needed. But it should only come after the pig bankster class has been prosecuted and their illegal gains clawed back.
It is irrational to demand austerity only for others.
He may be that, but his assessment of the progressive left in the US is dead on, I only wish he had included a skewering of the progressive right that thinks it is the proper task of the US government to make the world fair regardless of the cost or consequence to the US population. The global military welfare bunch arent particularly helpful either.
Too many people get caught up in personalities, what matters is not so much who says what but the validity and accuracy of what is said. I have a deep dislike of left wing political philosophy and thought, and as much as I loathe the man Alan Grayson was dead on in his critique of the Federal Reserve and thought he had some value for that. Its a shame we lost a solid critic of that agency because he was such a frothing left wing moonbat.
Scaleindependent you would be surprised by the amount of people who actually work in hedge funds and are sick and tired of this government manipulation and having to make money by speculating on how much the Government will screw things up. I don´t defend this guy because large banks are different they rely on gov money, hedge funds they rely on their own and yes ability to leverage to a level which comfortable. If the Government was out of the economy, banks would go back to finance the productive economy, we would go back to invest instead of permanently speculate on the next blunder the politicians would make, worry about counterparties all the time and wonder what will blow up next. If money was neutral like bi-metallism or Hong-Kong like paper money we would move back to make money by maximizing the use of resources instead of maximazing on the idiocy of policy-makers.
If I'm not mistaken, you can lay the blame for this one at the feet of the Religious Right during the Reagan years. Memory failure is so convenient when needed to back your agenda.
Blaming others in the past for the mistakes that one made today - sounds like a true Barackian.
Barak is just being a scumbag politician, just like all the Bushittes who blamed 911 on Clinton. It seems to be part of the terrain when dealing with ideologues and assholes.
Bush/Clinton was the same administration, still is.
as was Reagan/BushDaddy/Obama. . . seamless, whether acknowledged or not.
You gotta love the negative votes as I regularly drive by the offices of Focus on The Family. This country would collapse instantly if cognitive dissonance suddenly stopped working.
the resultant offspring brought about by drunken orgies of funny money who foot the bill for their post-party hippy/socialist poverty stricken parents
Liberal; Someone to thank when you cash that first Social Security check, or when you walk out of a hospital with new knees that mean you can again walk pain free, cost you a very small co-pay and didn't bankrupt you.
Or when you get your sorry ass downsized by some unregulated, profit maximizing company that just gave your job to an Indian, and you get that first unemployment check and food stamp chit that keeps you from starving.
Or when your kids are eating cheeseburgers that were inspected to make sure they weren't 100% pink slime as your unregulated, profit maximizing meat packer would rather ship to your grocery store.
Or when their mac and cheese is cooked in water not contamintaed by mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals that your unregulated, profit maximizing electric company or chemical maker would just as soon you not know about.
Fixed it for you:
Working Taxpayer - "Someone to thank when you cash that first Social Security check"
Fellow members of insurance pool - "or when you walk out of a hospital with new knees that mean you can again walk pain free, cost you a very small co-pay and didn't bankrupt you."
Boss who paid the unemployment insurance bill - "Or when you get your sorry ass downsized by some unregulated, profit maximizing company that just gave your job to an Indian, and you get that first unemployment check and food stamp chit that keeps you from starving."
Parents who pay attention to what they feed their kids - "Or when your kids are eating cheeseburgers that were inspected to make sure they weren't 100% pink slime as your unregulated, profit maximizing meat packer would rather ship to your grocery store, Or when their mac and cheese is cooked in water not contamintaed by mercury, arsenic and other heavy metals that your unregulated, profit maximizing electric company or chemical maker would just as soon you not know about."
As for the first three, programs made possible by liberals despite ferocious opposition from Republicans for decades. As for the last one, have you seen the child obesity rates lately?
My take on Liberal: someone I silently curse every tiime I get a Social Security payment, because he first spent 40 years taking the money from me and only returns about 1% to me each month.
According to Phil Ochs, singer/songwriter in his introduction to "Love Me, I'm a Liberal": Someone who's 10 degrees to the left of center in good times, 10 degrees to the right of center when it affects him personally.
Yeah, as opposed to all the checks today's retirees are cashing from their non-forced savings as seen in those hefty 401(k) accounts, averaging about $60k now. That'll last them.
With the voluntary savings rates and net worth of today's workers, they'll be thanking liberals even more. Of course, on principle, you could refuse yours.
This "Liberals" you speak of - is that some kind of a new-fangled high-capacity printing press that central banks have? Or is it a new make of helicopter?
The savings rate is so low precisely because of liberal policies including SSI, unemployment comps, welfare etc. When you subsidize welfare and overspending, you get more of it.
Liberal (archaic) - someone who believes in private property rights, limited government and personal responsibility.
Liberal (modern) - someone who believes in his rights to other's property, infinite government, and no responsibility for his or her own actions, ever. A modern slave-owner, who owns everyone else's money, labor, property and wealth through the actions of the infinite government he or she supports, so that lack of effort is rewarded with real compensation, in order to "level the playing field", "reduce income disparity", "remedy past social injustice", "for the children", or whatever other empty slogan might reduce indignation at theft.
Modern liberals like to point at Social Security, "free" healthcare, unemployment insurance, food stamps, the FDA, EPA and similar goverment programs and departments as proof that their thefts are justified. The fact that their endless interventions discourage investment, economic growth and savings to fund growth are ignored as inconvenient. The companion truth that the US is now effectively bankrupt, morally decayed and seriously economically depressed, largely as a result of their interventions, is also ignored.
The approaching Crunch will shed light on how many modern Liberals can effectively care for themselves without Federal or state aid; the death toll is expected to approach unity.
US citizens have always been modern.
There is no archaic meaning of liberal. From the start, US citizens have been thinking they have a right on others'property.
See how the US of A was built...
Chinese Citizenism citizens have always been archaic.
There is no Chinese meaning of "flush toilet". From the start, Chinese citizens have been thinking they have a right to squat and spread their buttcheeks everywhere in public, and on others' property too.
See how the piles of nightsoil on Chinese roadsides were built...
"Liberal; Someone to thank when you cash that first Social Security check..."
After the Printing, by the time I cash my first Social Security check (sometime around 2035) my benefits will purchase for me the same living standard that the indigent elderly had prior to Social Security.
Every penny of my hard-earned money taken as payroll tax thus far has been going out to people who received every penny of their contributions within 5 years of retirement, and now bleed me dry. Before receiving any of my contributions I'll have to endure 20 years of $1 Trillion+ printing and the resultant debasement, and final destruction, of the dollar.
Thanks indeed, Liberals. You ran out of everyone else's money to spend and now you spend tomorrow's prosperity today. A prosperity that seems more and more unlikey every minute.
As a clue, there was a time the US was prosperous and we could give to ourselves and the world from our surplus. Where is our surplus now? We don't have any - nothing but debt.
Strong post.
Thanks!
THIS is a guy I want to have drinks with
... preferably thru a straw after I've picked his teeth from my forehead.
Yes. Agreed.
This says it all >>>Cliff Asness, head of the quant hedge fund AQR<<<
My notes to Cliff: Fuck You! Get a job and stop fucking with the market. You're part of the problem.
heh, plus many for the correct use of Glasgow Handshake.
Libertarian
Definition: A philosophy held by annoying bastards who happen to be right about nearly everything. Fortunately, due to the frustration that comes with being right about nearly everything, in a world wrong about those same things, there are only 19 of them, and we’re going to find the bastards soon.
LOL!
Don't get excited you mouthbreather cause you'll get the Rand Paul version that somehow always ends up sucking Koch.
Fuck you you rancid fucking cunt, Rand is a conservative Republican, he isn't a Libertarian, and he has said as much.
Take your fucking straw man and shove it back up your ass next to your tiny rotten stinking syphilitic brain.
http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc390/tkdguy25/U-mad-bro-.jpg
That was unnecessary. I'm getting more and more paranoid that you can just wake up one day a total fascist. Libertarian... libertarian... libertarian... fascist... libertarian. Sneaky stuff man. Who knows maybe the meme was necessary, I love me some quickmeme.
I am paranoid too. That you could wake up a socialist democrat.. socialist ...communist .. communist .. khemer .. bolshevik tyrant murderer murderers.
Socialist democrats crack me up, because they not only have failed policies, but they fail at implementing their failed policies. Not that much to be afraid of.
Except mine actually made sense. Oh well.
fak you rand paul!
Until they've had a chance to actually think through their failed ideas...sorry, I assumed they could fucking think. This Assness is obviously another right wing dumb ass...ness.
Yeah right, in their own minds maybe. Do we have any examples throughout the entirety of human history of the Libertarian myth actually working in the real world?
I also like how guys like this always see government as owned and operated by "liberals" when all real life evidence shows our government completely and totally controlled by Wall Street, Defense Contractors, Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Big Ag, etc...
Can any of you totally correct and never ever wrong libertarians point out any major legislation that gave more power and wealth to poor, working class and middle class folks at the expense of the upper 10%; AND that were written by progressive grassroots groups not corporate lobbyists; AND that actually passed through the House, Senate and Executive branch and is now law? I'm not talking about some anecdotal, blowhard libertarian mythology. I mean real true actual legislation. Please, show it to me and make yourselves look way smarter than this non-libertarian idiot. I'm waiting......
Also, during the Reagan years, when this country took the turn straight toward the cliff, most government agencies turned their "customer" perspective from serving the public to serving corporate America. Many of the smart-assed terms this dweeb uses can easily be used rewritten as smart-assed terms about corporate welfare. It just depends on the agenda you're pushing.
Now that was solid!
A solid pile of shit, you mean, BobNoxious.
From just another obviously blinkered and hopelessly brainwashed true believer in the false, pro-Establishment, "divide and conquer" left-right political paradigm.
"Don't worry, just as soon as 'we' get a hold of that gun, then 'we'll' make everything all right!"
[months later]
"Oh fuck, they're shooting at me! Somebody! Grab the gun! Quick!"
Solidly wrong again. I'm an independent and aware enough not to vote, or participate in other scams. Why is it you Rebuplicans...sorry, Libertarians, always lose your cool so fast and resort to name calling?
It suggests very shallow thinking. Which explains how little time you spent actually thinking about what your Libertarian Paradise would look like. When...if you ever woke up, you wouldn't like it either.
It's not meant to make you freer. It's meant for big corporations to rape you without worrying about anybody stopping them. No government oversight and regulation. Guys like Angelo Mozillo would greatly appreciate your support though. It worked for him.
WTF? Do any of you actually know what a Libertarian viewpoint is? By the looks of it, that would be no.
Pro big corporation? Anti regulation? Are you kidding? Where do you come up with this shit anyway?
Why dont you look up "regulatory capture" and get back to us libertarian wingnuts...
''Libertarianism is a type of political philosophy that emphasizes freedom, liberty, and voluntary association. There is no general consensus among scholars on the precise definition.'' (Gotta admit, that does make it harder to understand just what you do stand for)
''Libertarians generally advocate a society with a government of small scope relative to most present day societies or no government whatsoever.''
So, who regulates if not the government? And who benefits most from deregulation? And who would be involved in ''regulatory capture''? The lobbyists that work for you and me?
Somehow, this reminds me of a question posed to relatives of mine visiting the Soviet Union in the 1970s by their Soviet relatives there: "If the government did not tell everyone which job they are going to work at, who decides who becomes a doctor and who becomes a factory worker? It would be chaos!"
I dont know, why not write and call the regulators (SEC and CFTC) like many Libertarians have been doing for years and years and find out for us?
"So, who regulates if not the government?"
Were you born this stupid or did you just forget to question your moronic professors in Econ and Poli Sci 101?
The entire premise of Capitalism is self-regulation.
who regulates if not the government?
And this "government" thing is created and regulated how exactly?
Remember: Anyone pushing for big government is only afraid of taking the responsiblilty for one's choices...
Wrong akak, I believe the entire left-right paradigm is bullshit. It's funny you would blame me of this agenda, when that is the entire basis of this writer's article.
I am, however, tired of the whole Libertarian myth so arrogantly promoted by its adherents. Hence my attitude above.
I also am tired of of the cognitive dissonance in this country, such as the whole blame everything wrong in this country on the "liberals" whoever they might be, when ALL power and wealth in this country are wielded by the corporations and their owners. I am at a loss to understand how this dichotomy might exist.
That is why I asked for someone to point out where I am wrong in my assessment instead of writing some insulting, empty bitchfest about how wrong and stupid I am. It appears I need to wait longer for a viable answer.
So, you don't believe in the statism of the bullshit left-right political paradigm, and you don't believe in the anti-statism of libertarianism. Just what DO you believe in, then?
Just because we have an imposed two-party system in this country that ensure we maintain a left-right paradigm doesn't mean it is the only answer. There are a lot more perspectives in this world than either liberal OR conservative, which is the only way we can have politics in this country due to the owners wanting it this way to keep the sheep at each others throats. Perhaps tons of parties that reach a consensus is the best way to go. Getting money out of politics would help too. It doesn't have to be an either or choice, unless we let the owners dictate it to us that way.
As for Libertarianism, I used to call myself one when I was young and naive. Like religion, It sounded to true, too good to be true in fact. It has the answer to everything! So I studied further and concluded that it is too good to be true, just like any good religion or myth.
So, in summary, you are a statist --- you just refuse to be pigeonholed.
All clear now. Thank you.
So typical of the libertarian mindset. You've got it all figured out and write off everything that's not part of the religion. Thanks for clearing that up.
By your admission and statements, you self-defined yourself as a statist, of undeclared flavor.
My summation of your position was in no way an insult, merely a statement of reality. If the monopolization of coercive societal power shoe fits, then you should proudly wear it.
Spoken like a true believer who knows so much, yet understands so little. Enjoy your self proclaimed superiority living the myth.
Spoken like a suspiciously sensitive (and likely insecure) pompous and arrogant windbag who equates moral compromise and surrender with wisdom and "practical reality".
Perhaps. But there are few who can display arrogance like a Libertarian. It's part of the whole, "I've got this all figured out and I'm always right" thing going. See the writer above for this example.
I keep waiting for all of the Libertarians to buy an island and show all of us retards how to create the superior society, yet it never happens. My guess is they aren't willing to put their money where their myth is. It's easier to brag and throw out pompous ideals rather than actually make it happen.
Concerning your disparaging remarks about the left/right paradigm, you need to have that in your mind as all you can see are statist/non-statist paradigms and nothing else. the black or white world, hence one of the weaknesses I found for dismissing libertarianism. It's sole purpose is to be the opposite of what exist thereby limiting it to seeing beyond that model.
Given your many oversimplified, facile, disingenuous and ad hominem remarks regarding libertarianism and libertarians, I very strongly suspect that you never understood nor accepted libertarianism at any point in your life, and are in fact just another dishonest statist desperate to justify your compliance with, and surrender to, a corrupt and failing status-quo paradigm.
See, you still have to call me a dreaded statist. It appears I'm looking for something beyond your ability to comprehend and you are still stuck in your own mire. As I said earlier, Libertarians are as dogmatic as any 'statist", they just don't see it. I would say I have understood the libertarian beliefs well beyond your capabilities. If you have to call that an ad hominem, so be it.
Hey, do whatever it takes to keep the faith. Just try to set the example instead of preaching it and being a hypocrite like all the other libertarian religionists I've encountered in life.
So are they, time to move on from this and their half-baked 'solutions'.
Yeah, okay Gene. Nice ad hom as usual. Coming from the guy who praises and quotes Marx all the time.
So why is believing in limited govt a "Libertarian myth"? Why insult people who have had no part in creating this nonsense and certainly arent to blame for it?
Let me guess, Libertarians who point out what "regulatory capture" is, dont believe in ANY regulation at all? LOL...what a load of twisted fucking bullshit that it.
Touchy are we? I made a comment, opinion that is all.
Marx was fascinating, give him a read if you aren't fully under the spell of idealism. I'm not idealogue Bay, I'm just not. I liked Ron Paul in 2008 and still somewhat agree with him today when he's crusader for common sense not libertarian sophistry. You and I, we agree on much more than you think.
Ron Paul, like his son Rand, is a conservative Christian Republican.
Libertarians who campaign and vote for the Paul family define the Libertarians, apparently.
wow, i didn't know oxycotin could make one libertarian...i should buy some of those pills and given them to my more progressive family members
Shit man, there are only 19 of us world wide...you libs own everything else....Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros et al to name a few only contribute to the libs
"most government agencies turned their "customer" perspective from serving the public to serving corporate America".
Government agencies never "served" the public. They have been and always will be arrogant parasites who produce nothing and bleed the host dry. Serve the public....what a load of shit.
Rent Seeking 101: Erecting regulatory barriers to entry (in order to prevent competition from non-club members).
Why this is so difficult to understand???
"Govt agencies have never served...will always be parasites"
Childish nonsense. Want to try a 'paradise' where there's NO government? Move to Somalia.
I'm glad that you embrace a life where some perverted mouth breather feels you,your kids, and your granny up before you board a plane. Or a system where a 400 pound heffer who can't get her fat ass off a chair to pick up her pencil as she looks down her nose at you like you are some kind of inconvenience while renewing your license. How about the dickhead who gets his rocks off beating up a junkie under the cover of a badge? The overpaid "teacher" who is just biding their time while trying to indoctrinate the kids, and doesn't want to be held accountable for the shitty job they do. The list goes on and on..Serve the public my ass.
I think it's hilarious that people bring up Somalia as an example of anarchy, because they cannot differentiate between it and chaos (I blame "public" schools).
The problem with Somalia isn't too few governments, but too many. As with any civil war, competing factions (gangs) fight each other in order to fill the power vacuum recently created. Eventually, Somalia will have the same outcome as the rest, where one gang finally gains the upper hand, and labels itself as the "legitimate government."
Anarchy, on the other hand is self-government, where no one person has the right to aggress against others under the guise of an institution. All people stand upon equal ground, with none beholden to another.
In other words, anarchy is the ONLY political synonym for peace, as it is the only one that observes the Golden Rule.
Do you consider the military to be a government agency? What about NIH (which has developed, discovered, and produced a number of cures and drugs that the private sector thought were too risky to tackle?
Care to revise your statement? Personally, I agree, shut it ALL down and let's find out the real value of everyone's labor. Fucking bring it.
Glass Steagall. Maybe not perfect but it certainly helped IMHO
The Articles of Confederation
The Bill of Rights.
The Freedom of Information Act.
George, your question proceeds from a false premise. Libertarains have never championed the legislation you describe, nor any other legislation that takes from one party to give to another party, whether it be money/wealth, land, 'rights', or real property - and regardless of the legal definition of the parties in question. Government should never be allowed to choose winners and losers, either in business or in society as a whole. To do so is either legalized theft or coerced 'volunteering' through threat of violence or imprisonment - two things Libertarians are wholeheartedly against (when one registers as a Libertarian voter in the US, they also take the pledge that they do not support the initiation of force in any situation).
As to other comments, corporations in the US were originally very limited charters, in both scope and length of time of permitted operation. This prevented the absolute abuse you see perpetrated every day by corporations; thank the US Feral Gubbermint for removing those restrictions against the will of the states.
'Reagan Years' is when this country 'took the turn straight off the cliff'? Perhaps if you read more and regurgitated less, you'd know what the fuck you were whining about.
The phrase " regulatory capture " escapes you. It is the feature not the bug, error.
FOR THE HAMSTER BORN IN A CAGE, THERE IS NOTHING BEYOND THE CAGE.
How about stats that show that the central US government was taxing a mere 2% of the GNP back in 1900. How about Hong-Kong where there is no central bank, no printing low taxes. Hong-Kong is the only survivor of banking not invaded by teh Gov. Before 1913, the banks could not carry gov bonds of the US, US banks would have no preference between domestic and foreign gov bonds all being backed by Gold. They would prefer carry self-liquidating bills to finance the economy. The Fed enabled the layering of bonds in banks by allowing the gov bonds to be rediscounted with no reserve requirements at very generous rates.
Check those two links.
1. On central gov debt as % of GDP.
http://gentlemaneconomics.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/measuring-the-wages-i...
2. On the layering of War bonds in US banking system.
http://gentlemaneconomics.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/the-unique-purpose-of...
Now just try to claim that 1870 to 1913 was not explosive output growth in the US.
You mean there's 18 other people like me in the world?
That 18 will disappear quick!
My favorite:
"The European Financial Crisis
Definition: A complex multi-year dance whose sole purpose is to see how much money can be shaken out of the German middle-class."
Soy milk makes me fart stinky
What's funny is that shit is processed more than the over-processed cow's milk it's replacing.
And it influences hormones for women but it seems to be especially bad for men -- according to Men's Health (don't have the citation).
Negative. The phytoestrogens do in fact act on estrogen receptors, but the effect is magnitudes less than estrogen.
You won't get bitch tits from soy.
I would be more worried about BPA and water that contains lots of excess estrogen from ladies on the pill.
Fish in the Potomac have actually gone hermaphroditic.
http://georgetownvoice.com/2006/09/07/hermaphrodite-fish-provoke-concern-about-pollution/
If you want to know why most birth control pills are now "low dose", see estrogen sensitive cancers.
pods
I know shouldn't post when I can't find the article (and I can't) but I think it had to do with interaction with visceral fat, which secretes estrogen.
But I take your point about BPA and estrogen in water.
I have read articles on soy and the negative effects on estrogen. They do have some validity, as the phyto-estrogens do have some hormone activity.
What most of the articles fail to address is that the hormone activity of these is so muted they could actually be looked at as an estrogen blocker when compared to estrogen either from food, water or the abundance of testosterone booster supplements, of which many are actually anabolic steroids that can be aromatized to estrogen. (Newer synthetic ones cannot be aromatized)
Our immersion in estorgen is one theory about why menses are coming earlier and earlier for girls, and many of the more aggressive cancers of women (breast, cervical) tend to be hormone sensitive.
As said below, I would say drink nut milks or coconut, which contains MCTs instead of long chain fats. I drink MCT milk for energy, as it is easier to digest as it does not need an enzyme to break it down.
We also make our own nut miks and although different (I love fresh, cold whole fat cow's milk) they are pretty good.
Been experimenting with a mix of cashew and almond and it comes out pretty tasty.
pods
Keep drinking your rape milk
Ugh... don't drink that stuff. Most soy milk is from GMO crops, the protein is not readily digestable by humans, and the estrogen in it will mess with testosterone big time.
Drink almond milk or coconut milk. Coconut milk has medium chain fatty acids and will help you burn fat.
Soy should only be consumed fermented i.e. soy sauce or tempeh.
beat me too it - +1.
and Miso, organic soy only.
I will add something to this that shows that nothing is inevitable :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence
What a load of shit.
Like America's problems is socialism. That's what your overlords want you to think ...
Agree. The problem right now is consumerism and everything that stems from it. Crony capitalism. America is the least socialist country that ever existed.
Many are talking about capitalism with a functioning free market, but there was never such a thing. It's a pipe dream at the same line as comunism. In theory it's great - in practice it's unachievable.
All of the problems you identify stem from the ideology of entitlement, the hallmark of any socialist system.
As long as losses are socialized amongst us all rather than by those who took the risk, it is a socialist system. Just because you can point to an absence of socialism the helps the little people in no way negates the fact that it is a socialist system. All you've done then is to demonstrate how socialism ALWAYS benefits one class at the expense of another.
Ideology of entitlement for the rich. You can call Norway, Sweden or Finland socialist countries. Heck, even Australia or Canada, but what happends in USA right now is not socialism in any shape or form. It's neo-liberal neo-conservative paradise.
Socialism is used as a stalking horse by "Champagne Socialists" to enable crony corporatism.
+1 Norway is an excellent example. It's a constitutional monarchy that paradoxically has probably the most egalitarian society in Europe possibly due to social 'values' being outside of state purview. Norway has a small population, true, but even so they've combined the possibilities amazingly well. They have State capitalism in some part of their economy but not all, or most for that matter probably because profit isn't the telos of their society.
I don't disagree with "...(Norway) has combined the possibilities amazingly well.". Nonetheless, let me add a significant factor: Norway can essentially pump cash (oil) out of the sea, which removes the necessity of making tough decisions on where to allocate spending, and can conceal a number of sins/non-optimal "combinations of possibilities". Same with other resource states; such as Australia, Alaska, Russia, Canada, Texas, etc..
The tough job is public policy for a place where the 'money you can dig out of the ground' has run out, and you need to continually make tough choices amongst real needs with limited resources; Ohio, upstate New York, Germany, France, etc. - and increasingly America.
what a load of shit. The us was and still is one of the countries of the wolrd blessed with an abundance of resources.
You might wish to check the price of petrol in Norway before you go on talking nonsense.
The US is a huge oil producer which could realistically become energy independent if the political will was there. It isn't, hence the extraction model is used for ME oil, to not foul up ones 'backyard'.
Math is obviously not your forte.
The USA has IN NO WAY nearly enough petroleum reserves to feed its insatiable and disproportionate demand for oil. Not even close, not even in theory. Epic fail.
Right. Then I guess you have to cut usage and innovate or...
Once again bringing 'math' where it doesn't belong. Physics maybe but even that is a question of bureaucracy. Shame you've fallen for that one, your corporate Overlords love you panicky and scared that 'emergency' is imminent meanwhile the Nascar retards and F1 keep raking in millions and wasting that scarce energy for pure entertainment.
Yes, of course, physical reality is always subordinate to wishes and desires.
Yes we can (drill our way to energy self-sufficiency)!
(Nonexistent) Petroleum we can believe in!
Just because it's for the rich, doesn't mean it isn't socialism. As I noted below, when I use the word "socialism" I do it with a small "s." I'm not talking about the political ideology the capitalized word represents. The same is true when I discuss libertarianism, as there's no point in discussing incoherent (read: political) concepts as a form of social organization.
You are a very confused and brainwashed person.
You have zero idea of what socialism actually is – "socialized losses" do not = socialism. I think the fact that they both start with the same letters is what confused you.
I suppose you think FACts are the same as FACism?
That COMMUNities are the same as COMMUNism?
"The ideology of entitlement, the hallmark of any socialist system".
Really? Did you just make that up? Did you hear it on CNBC? Did Santelli or Turk say it?
Play word games all you like, but you negate none of my arguments.
Notice for instance, that not once did I use socialism WITH A CAPITAL "S." Instead I used the term socialist system, which has a specific meaning differing from the capitalized political ideology.
All forms of collectivism are socialistic in nature, which is defined by the idea that one can make others pay for their gain/loss, or vice-versa, as opposed to all gains and losses being felt by the individuals repsonsible for taking the risk that led to it.
Now, care to respond to these IDEAS, rather than throw out one clueless insult after another?
socialism is a loaded word... reading a post of yours above... I think you could square your view of the world with many who may see value in some form of "socialism" if you would include some reference to the use of force. If anarchy is possible, I would imagine it to be somewhat socialistic in practice... only everything would be voluntary, not socialism as it is dictated by a state, which by definition requires force. I'm not sure if I'm making sense... it's clear enough in my head.
I respect your opinion and agree with many things you have said. However, whether you spell socialism with the capital or small "s" makes no difference to me.
If the society is built to help small minority to control vast majority and steal their resources - it ain't socialism. It's Friedmanism.
Your trying to differentiate between Socialism with a big or small "S" ... and I'm playing word games??
I call Bullshit ... With a Big *B*!!!!
nah... consumerism is an effect, not the cause. The cause is the monetary system. In our system, virtually all money is debt which is loaned into existence with interest that begins to accumulate the moment the money/debt is created. Only the system doesn't contain the "money" needed to pay both principle and interest... so the system must issue more debt... forever. When the cost of maintaining the debt (interest payments) reaches terminal velocity, the system will collapse.
Consumerism is one of the ways the "system" is able to live... "socialism - any sort of social spending, really" is another way that the system lives... perpetual war is still another... higher education, home ownership, etc. etc. etc. Anything that can be advertised to us as part of our duty or as a part of the "American Dream" is little more than a way for the system to issue more debt.
Right, Milton Friendman wanted to create MORE debt, MORE serfdom, in exchange for "raising a higher standard of living" meaning "more people owning shiny McShit."
He advocated rent seeking behavior, as Greenspanm advocated for the jobs market to be "uncomfortable, to make America competitive".
These people have NO interest in helping you.
You brought up the very name that simbolizes all of the evil happening around us, even more than Greenspan.
Another in the 10 ring!
Effect, not cause. Kudos for bringing up the part about government doing its part to keep the debt, err, sorry, money supply expanding which always happens to coincide with private debt production falling off.
pods
Socialist want unlimited state power, well your getting that here. How is that working?
And your overlords don't want you to think at all.
drivel
Fuck hedge fund managers. This one must love to wear lingere and masturbate in the mirror. Pompus ass.
C'mon, check that envy and properly admire your betters! Assness is recognized as a true renaissance man in his crowd.
Of course, his crowd is so fucking out of touch that they think the help laughs at their jokes because they're so artfully funny and nod to their unending pronouncements because of their brilliant wit.
Dumb cunts with money.
Probably shouts out his own name in bed.
I'm waiting for the counterpoint neocon version of this list as well.
Such as "National Security. Definition: that which enhances the power of the government, and furthers the cause of unjustified and unnecessary war (particularly in regards to diminishing the rights of the citizens)"
Please do. I'll add:
Austerity. Definition: the reduction in services that will coincide with an increase in taxation to insure that interest payments are made to the criminals who loan money into existence.
You will get up arrows on that from both the libertarians and the socialist, the difference is the libertarians see the evil in both the left and the right. Most of these statists trolls only see the evil on the right.
Failed Policies of the Past
Definition: Limited government, free markets, personal responsibility, liberty.
Yes, because right wing governments have done SUCH a great job executing this?
If right wingers were so good at the above, would we have the problems we have today? It's the same thing I say to liberals who think that when their dude is in the House, everything gonna be all right.
I can't wait until the baby boomers die off, of until another big bank crash happens, so that we can get passed this retarded "I'm a conservative! Go Team!" or "I'm a liberal! Go Team!" epidemic of group think that frustrates me more than a retarded kid trying to learn karate, or seeing an Asian woman drive a car.
Maybe then we can FINALLY get past the left-right crap that keeps us divided while the oligarchs loot our wealth and freedom.
What bullshit. If I wanted to be pandered and patronized to.....I'd go to Church.
You do realize that 75% or better of the Repubs are Progressives(neo-cons, rinos etc), so you get the same shit from them.