Category: Political Theory

Antiwar Has Its Supporters

You all know that I am an antiwar person and have been since 1971….in those days we had a movement that did all they could to stop an unjust war….those days are gone….long gone. Americans seem to accept continuous war and the lack of a shared experience with the troops that fight these wars.

But wait!

First what do all these people have in common?

Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Alex Mooney of West Virginia, and Bill Posey of Florida.

They are all in the House of Representatives….they are all Republicans….and they are all antiwar (for now)…..and after the antiwar I have very little in common with them.

Believe it or not…the GOP,  at least part of it, has become the voice of antiwar in the Congress.

comparative case study has demonstrated that only one political party has a principled (albeit small) contingent of legislators who care more about ending U.S. intervention overseas than partisan positioning.

In February, the House of Representatives voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 37, which directed “the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.” This, along with its complementary senate vote, was the first congressional invocation of the War Powers Act in the law’s history.

Then last month, the House voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 77, a resolution condemning “the decision to end certain United States efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria.” This vote was in opposition to President Donald Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Syrian-Turkish border.

The Small But Brave Cadre of Conservative Anti-War Republicans

I did not believe my eyes but there it is……but I think their antiwar sentiments are just a political game and not some concern for the troops and our station in the world.

If I could would I ever vote for any on the list?

Probably not….for most are Tea Party toadies and I never liked the politics of the Tea Party.

Antiwar is just one issue that I care about and my candidate needs to tick off a couple of boxes before my vote goes down.

So far this election season only has one truly antiwar candidate….but they may not be long for the campaign trail for the MSM is doing all they can to make sure her campaign is killed in the court of public opinion……sadly it is the party that is doing the most damage with the help of the MSM.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

The Real Constitutional Crisis

#2 In A Series

To help my reader keep up begin with Part One……https://lobotero.com/2019/11/25/thoughts-on-impeachment-and-the-trial/

As the House portion of this drama draws to a close we hear daily that we are in a Constitutional crisis….on that point I agree for we have a leader that thumbs his nose at the Constitution……

Yes I said “Thumbs” and in a wealth of ways……just a few of the ways he is in violation of the document……

Violation of Constitution on Domestic Emoluments; Violation of Constitution on Foreign Emoluments; Incitement of Violence; Interference With Voting Rights; Discrimination Based On Religion; Illegal War; Illegal Threat of Nuclear War; Abuse of Pardon Power; Obstruction of Justice; Politicizing Prosecutions; Failure to Reasonably Prepare for or Respond to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria; Separating Children and Infants from Families; Illegally Attempting to Influence an Election Tax Fraud and Public Misrepresentation; Assaulting Freedom of the Press; Supporting a Coup in Venezuela; Unconstitutional Declaration of Emergency; Instructing Border Patrol to Violate the Law; Refusal to Comply With Subpoenas; Declaration of Emergency Without Basis In Order to Violate the Will of Congress; Illegal Proliferation of Nuclear Technology; Illegally Removing the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

I know a few in that list is a bit of a stretch but it all comes down to interpretation

The Constitution itself is the crisis that we keep hearing about in the MSM and from those pundits with an agenda……

To no small degree, “our” (their) archaic Constitution is the constitutional crisis. It helped hatched the Trumpenstein and it is helping keep it in office perhaps for five or, God help us, more years. The way to get rid of this terrible tyrant is through a mass and prolonged popular rebellion that includes among its demands the call for a new national charter, one that includes among its provisions (just for starters) the abolition of anti-democratic absurdities like the Electoral College, the disenfranchisements of Puerto Rico and Washington DC, the provision of two Senators to each state regardless of its population size, the lifetime appointment of Supreme Court Justices, and the eviction of private money from public elections. The whole damn system that spat up/shat out Malignant Orange is guilty as Hell. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote not long before his death, “the real issue to be faced” beyond superficial matters is “the radical reconstruction of society itself.”

The Real Constitutional Crisis: The Constitution

Then we have those that say “not to worry this to shall pass”…..I say WRONG!

Even a former GOP Representative Justin Amash has made his thoughts known….

Independent Rep. Justin Amash said on Wednesday that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony to House Intelligence Committee hearing on impeachment was the latest evidence against President Donald Trump that—if Trump was a regular person facing a grand jury—would result in certain indictment.

Amash, who left the Republican party in July 2019 over Trump’s behavior and the refusal of GOP leaders to hold him accountable, pointed out on Twitter that “impeachment in the House is an indictment.”

“If this were an ordinary prosecution, there’s no grand jury in America that would not return an indictment on the facts and evidence presented in these hearings,” said Amash.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/20/ex-republican-justin-amash-says-theres-not-jury-country-wouldnt-indict-trump-based

One conservative (politician) with a spine does not a party make…..PERIOD!

The Trump presidency has changed everything and we will have a long journey back to normalcy…..if ever.

Apparently an oath given before God (if you believe that sort of thing) does not matter……..

Before you toadies go on the attack maybe it would help to refresh your memory (if you have one) of what the Constitution is all about…..

https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution

Better Angels My Ass!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Dems Run To The Center

That is the lie from the MSM……that this country is a center left or center right country…..I disagree and I have written about this lie extensively….

https://lobotero.com/2011/06/27/centrist-vs-independent/

https://lobotero.com/2016/08/26/why-political-parties-are-unnecessary/

https://lobotero.com/2016/10/11/independents-the-lie-that-just-keeps-giving/

And then my favorite lie from the MSM….”electability”……

https://lobotero.com/2019/07/16/electability-the-lie-that-keeps-on-giving/

I bring all this up because we are in the throes of another election to pick a Dem nominee then the president and the media is doing all they can to elect Joe Biden….they give a whiff of not being biased by focusing on the front runners but with caveats…..

The media has its darling, Joe Biden, a ‘moderate’ that is in the same vane that lost twice and yet they are embracing and pushing a return to the past…..

Clinton lost in 2016 mainly because she ran a poor campaign. In retrospect, though, in view of all the nefarious things she stood for and all the political currents she embodied, it was bound to be tough going for her even with an opponent as preposterous as the one she had.

Democrats ought to take that lesson to heart. But Democrats will be Democrats and so many of them are hellbent instead on doing just the opposite.

Their moderation has become so extreme that Clinton, along with some of her unreconstructed supporters, have lately been floating feelers about her running again. Seriously!

Worse by far – not just because it is far more likely to happen — leading Democrats and their toadies on the cable news networks are still pushing the idea that only Joe Biden, the doddering dufus himself, can guarantee a Trump defeat.

First Lose All the Moderates

Personally I do not think that centrists/moderates/ whatever we want to call the spineless in the party will not win the White House in 2020……

I keep hearing that the Democratic primary is coming down to someone who’s “electable” versus someone who has “ideas.”

This is pure nonsense. Beating Donald Trump requires getting out the vote. And in order to get people to turn out and vote, a presidential candidate has to be inspiring. Which means big ideas, a vision of an America that could become a reality if we all got behind it, a sense of where we need to be heading.

Don’t be fooled. This primary is not a contest between someone who’s electable and someone who has big ideas. Big ideas are essential in order to be electable.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/09/please-note-2020-election-wont-be-won-democratic-centrists

The Mainstream media is picking the candidate for the public and so far they are winning the hearts and minds of the voter for Joe Biden…..

I refuse to let them do this to me….how about you?

Be Smart!

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I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Is Hyper-Capitalism Dead?

Is the “Witch Is Dead”?

Do you know what an “Objectivist” is?

Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Fundamentally, it requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism. Under capitalism, a strictly limited government protects each person’s rights to life, liberty, and property and forbids that anyone initiate force against anyone else. The heroes of Objectivism are achievers who build businesses, invent technologies, and create art and ideas, depending on their own talents and on trade with other independent people to reach their goals.

Politicians like Rand Paul (that is Rand not Rue) and ex Speaker Ryan were followers of the head honcho of this philosophy Ayn Rand….but in today’s society it looks as if the meth head may be losing her hold on the young…..

Eight rules governed the original Ayn Rand clubs that proliferated across college campuses in the 1960s, as they sought to seed Objectivism—Rand’s philosophical glorification of laissez-faire capitalism and heroic individualism—in the minds of impressionable youth. And of these eight, only two rules could ever be mentioned publicly: 1) Ayn Rand is the greatest human being who has ever lived, and2) her novel Atlas Shrugged is the greatest human achievement in the history of the world.

Objectivism has a serious youth problem, and the conference’s organizers were quite aware of it. They offered a discount rate for those under 30, a talent show, and extracurricular activities like “late night jams.” It made me wonder: Is Rand’s hyper-capitalist philosophy—which has influenced some of the most powerful political and economic giants of recent history, from Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan to Mark Cuban and Steve Jobs—running out of juice? There was only one way to find out. I would have to attend the conference’s various panels on the virtue of selfishness, the evils of regulation, and the greatness of capitalism’s dark patron saint, and try to fraternize with the next class of Paul Ryans in the making. So I went into the Objectivist sanctums of Cleveland, sporting an Ayn Rand tote bag outfitted with an “I <3 fossil fuels” pin, to gauge the reach of Rand’s cult of unbridled capitalism on today’s political scene.

https://newrepublic.com/article/154705/last-ayn-rand-acolytes

The young seem to be leaning Left these days…..and that will not change as long as economic injustice is running rampant…..change that and it is possible that Rand’s (Ayn not Paul) could once again be popular…look at the new popularity of Orwell’s “1984”….any thing is possible.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Should We Redraw Our Map?

The country is “Slipping Into Darkness”……song made famous War….(the group not the conflict)……

For a couple of decades now the US has been separating itself into tribes…..and it has only gotten worse and the last election illustrates just how far this division has gone.

Of course you know I have written on the subject before, right?

https://lobotero.com/2018/05/11/tribes/

Our beloved nation is slipping further and further into ‘tribalism’…..which, in my opinion, will destroy this country and all we have made of it in the last 200+ years.

For about five decades the politics of fear have us dividing ourselves into tribes….basically it is ‘us against them’……these tribes that will destroy all we have accomplished.

People have always used fear for intimidation of the subordinates or enemies, and shepherding the tribe by the leaders. Recently, it appears that Pres. Trump has used fear by suggesting in a tweet that four minority congresswomen go back to the places they came from.

There is a longstanding history of employing the fear of “the others,” turning humans into illogical ruthless weapons, in service to an ideology. Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behavior.

Fear is arguably as old as life. It is deeply ingrained in the living organisms that have survived extinction through billions of years of evolution. Its roots are deep in our core psychological and biological being, and it is one of our most intimate feelings. Danger and war are as old as human history, and so are politics and religion.

https://theconversation.com/the-politics-of-fear-how-it-manipulates-us-to-tribalism-113815

How you may ask?

All this division and tribalism is threatening the pillar of our nation…the Constitution.

“Americans have come to view the Constitution not as a statement of shared principles but as a cudgel with which to attack their enemies”  Gordon Wood…….Not a more accurate observation has been found.

The U.S. Constitution was and is imperfect. It took a civil war to establish that the principles enumerated in its Bill of Rights extended to all Americans, and the struggle to live up to those principles continues today. But focusing on the Constitution’s flaws can overshadow what it did achieve. Its revolutionary ambition was to forge, out of a diverse population, a new national identity, uniting Americans under a banner of ideas. To a remarkable extent, it succeeded.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/the-threat-of-tribalism/568342/

Maybe we should forget about Greenland and do some work on the good old US of A…..(link has an interactive map for your ease of comprehension)….

… a new way to map the diverse lands that make up the United States. Unlike a traditional classroom map, this uses counties rather than states as the building blocks for its regions. The United Regions of America map solves the problem that many states actually lie in more than one distinct region (for example: Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, California, or New York, to name a few). And since there are 3,142 counties (including areas equivalent to counties), the regional boundaries can be drawn much more precisely than with just 50 states.

https://jeremyposadas.org/regions/

If you did not like that map…then maybe this one will be more to your liking…..https://considerable.com/us-map-38-states/

Be Smart!

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Your Country Needs You!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

What Do Democrats Stand For?

After the disaster of the Congressional Hearing…..the question needs asking and needs a good answer.

Look at the Democrats in Congress….what do they stand for?

There is a serious lack of authority from a committee of the US House of Representatives….they all sat there let some half-wit thug show them the door.  Basically Lewandowsky dropped his pants the wiggling his penis at the Committee and the Nadler let him get away with it.

We know what the candidates have on their minds……there is Medicare For All…..and a Green New Deal……and some vague criminal justice thoughts and financial reforms by the boat load…but in reality there is nothing to their “policies” because NONE of it will ever see the light of day.

We are talking about a full time body that works on a part time schedule….about 3 days a week when in session…..weekends off with Friday and Monday for travel to meet with the high dollar donors.

Democrats of old knew how the game of politics was played…….the Dems of today are willfully unqualified to play the game. 

As the saying goes….”Democrats have great ideas but suck at the game of politics.”

They spend their time on the short term goals and never have formulated a long term plan and it shows…..their inefficiency screams everyday out of the “Idiot Box” as one and then another is interviewed and there is NO unified message….no matter the topic….there is NO unified message.

And this is why the so-called “moderates”….have proven what I suspected for many years…..Dems are cowards and truly SUCK at politics and a doable message.

In January of 2019 I wrote that the Dems would be a major disappointment and my opinion of them has not changed……https://lobotero.com/2019/01/03/democrats-will-be-a-major-disappointment/

If you are a Dem then please tell me what do the Dems running for the presidency stand for?  Then take a look at the Dems in Congress and give me the same answer….do they truly stand for anything other than being re-elected?

Back in May of 2019 I tried to help my reader with this probing question about our Dem candidates……https://lobotero.com/2019/05/13/party-politics-for-2020/

Be Smart!

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VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Trump Has A Challenger

Closing Thought–26Aug19

Not much news on the Right from the GOP other than what insults and one liners the president and the GOP can sling at the Dems……

The sad part is that the Dems are the biggest circus in town until the news came out the Trump would face a challenger in Rep. Joe Walsh….

Former congressman Joe Walsh wrote an op-ed in the New York Times saying President Trump should face a conservative challenger in the primary. Now, it appears, Walsh has found just the guy: himself. Both the Times and Politico report that Walsh, who calls Trump “absolutely unfit” for office, is poised to announce his candidacy as early as this weekend. Details and developments:

  • Who’s Walsh? He served one term in the House after being elected in Illinois as a Tea Party conservative in 2010. Walsh, who now hosts a radio show, initially supported Trump but now is a vocal critic.
  • His chances: Pretty much non-existent, with a caveat. Walsh has “virtually no chance” of beating Trump, per the Times, and Politico agrees he has “little chance of posing a genuine threat.” However, Walsh could expose Trump’s weaknesses on the right, which could hurt the president in a general election.
  • His rationale: Walsh calls Trump, among other things, a “racial arsonist,” in his op-ed. And he tells the Times, referring to Trump’s trip to Finland last year: “He lost me for good in Helsinki, when he stood in front of the world and said, ‘I believe Putin and I don’t believe my fellow Americans.'”
  • His own rhetoric: Axios notes that Walsh has no shortage of controversial comments on his own record and rounds up examples, including a tweet from 2016 in which he wrote, “I think Obama is Muslim. I think in his head and in his heart he has always been.” Walsh acknowledged as much in his op-ed, saying he regretted how he has “expressed hate” for his rivals. “We now see where this can lead.”
  • The problem: “Walsh’s history of divisive rhetoric and previous support for Trump won’t help distinguish him in the eyes of Never Trump Republicans who want to see the president ousted,” writes Ursula Perano of Axios. “And even if it did, Trump continues to maintain a near-90% approval rating within the GOP.”
  • Trump’s reaction: Nothing, yet. But campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh is succinct on Walsh’s expected run: “Certain failure.”
  • Prominent backer: Bill Kristol of the now-defunct conservative magazine the Weekly Standard is behind Walsh’s move and thinks he makes a “good David” in a David-and-Goliath way. At Breitbart, Joel Pollack see this as an “odd pairing” and also views Walsh’s past rhetoric as a liability in regard to being a Trump alternative. “Yet to Kristol, and the Times, who have struggled to understand the conservative movement and Trump’s political base, he seems good enough.”
  • No. 2: The Hill notes that Walsh would join former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as the only other Republican to officially declare a primary challenge to Trump. Walsh is to the right of Weld, however, notes T.LaDuke of Red State, who nevertheless sees Walsh’s move as a “political suicide attempt or a vanity exercise.”

Cannot wait to see what verbal insults Trump throws at these people….what cutsey names he has or the lies he can spread….

If he hangs in there he could help lessen the support for Daddy Trump and help the Dems out……

Wishful thinking, huh?

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VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

 

DNC–Not A Fan

I will not lie…there are a few Dem candidates that I like or would support by as far as the DNC goes I dislike it on so many levels…I decades I have been saying the Dems for the most part are cowards and spineless and the election for 2020 is bringing this to the forefront…..

How do I hate thee? Counting the ways would be a fool’s errand; there are too many ways.

They have to do with your hypocrisy, cowardice, and servility. Circumstances change, but these traits have been constant themes in Democratic Party politics seemingly from time immemorial.

They have become particularly salient since the late seventies, when the party began to make neoliberal ideology its watchword, effectively shedding its left flank. Although Bill and Hillary were late on the scene, I call the phenomenon the party’s Clintonite turn. They were the ones who consummated the deal.

Since deeply entrenched institutional arrangements militate against third parties, the “love it or leave it” option” is basically a non-starter for anyone aspiring to create an authentic, non-marginalized Left opposition, much less actually to empower one. For now and the foreseeable future, it is the Democratic Party or zilch.

Democrats, How Do I Hate Thee?

Sadly in the Age of Trump the saga is elect a Dem NO matter who…..no matter how cowardly they are or spineless…..

Elementary logic seems to demonstrate that self deception should be impossible. Deceiving others is not comparably paradoxical. When A deceives B, A causes B to believe what A believes to be false. Happens all the time. But how can anyone deceive herself, i.e. make herself believe (to be true) what she in fact believes to be false? She’d have to be both deceived and not deceived at the same time. Yet this too happens all the time. How is it possible?

Blue No Matter Who? Lesser Evilism in the Age of Trump

I do not agree….yes I want Trump in the rear view mirror but at what cost?

The whole “electability” is a con job that is spread by the MSM….it is there way to help control the candidates and the message offered to the voter…..https://lobotero.com/2019/07/16/electability-the-lie-that-keeps-on-giving/

The issues are not so important but how the candidates stack up in a poll is….that is the main message that the networks gives the voter

The voter should not have to hold their nose and vote as they did in 2016….and we see how that worked out for the nation, huh?

Be Smart!

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Then VOTE!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

More “S” Word BS

MSNBC is once again trying to control the electorate…..the mouth of PA, Chis Matthews, is so concerned about the “S” word that he injects it into his nightly broadcasts at every opportunity.  (Should qualify him for a gig with FOX News)  Matthews tries to create the news not report it.

Have you noticed that those that earn the big bucks are the ones most afraid of the trend in American politics…….especially these so-called experts and pundits that earn 6 figures or more…..and the only people not concerned are the people that are suffering everyday with the system as it is……

Conservs are concerned that the US will become a “socialist” state if everyone gets health care….and yet they turn a blind eye to corporate socialism….and yes we can call it like it is….

“We renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump said recently.

Someone should alert him that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it’s socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.

In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing nothing. This pretty much describes General Motors’ receipt of $600 million in federal contracts, plus $500 million in tax breaks, since Trump took office.

Some of this corporate welfare has gone into the pockets of GM executives. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra raked in almost $22 million in total compensation in 2017 alone.

But GM employees are subject to harsh capitalism. GM is planning to lay off more than 14,000 workers and close three assembly plants and two component factories in North America by the end of 2019.

The nation’s largest banks saved $21 billion last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand, thousands of lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/11/socialism-rich-capitalism-rest

For example…..Red States, long have hated the dread of socialism depends on government handouts more so than Blue states….

Conservs know nothing of socialism short of the lies of their party, the GOP….plus the morons in Congress have started a totally worthless endeavor….an “anti-socialism caucus”

Republican politicians have form an anti-socialism caucus in congress, a member of the House of Representatives has announced.

“Just received approval from the House for the formation of the Anti-Socialism Caucus,” Chris Stewart, a Republican politician representing Utah, said on Wednesday.

“This caucus will defend individual liberty & free markets and highlight the dark history of socialism.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/congress-anti-socialism-caucus-chris-stewart-utah-aoc-trump-gop-democrats-a8854131.html

Is this how “Tailgunner” Joe got his start?

This is silly and worthless…..just another attempt to keep the corruption where it belongs…… in the hands of the Congress.

For those intelligent people that would like to know more…..

What is Socialism?

American Socialism–A History Lesson

Most of what the voter will hear is bullsh*t and lies…..but most have made up their minds as to what is “socialism” and NO amount of facts will change their mistake in thought.

Do I consider them stupid?

Stupid NO…Ignorant yes!

Be Smart!

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“Lego Er4go Scribo”

 

Political Chaos Theory

It seems that the more chaos that is spread the more popular some politicians become…..I took a look at the chaos now being spread within our government back in May of this year……https://lobotero.com/2019/05/20/feeding-the-lord-of-chaos/

I then read a piece written The Bulwark on political chaos…..

“Chaos theory,” at least in the popular version, is the study of unstable systems that can rapidly reach a tipping point where massive and radical change occurs—the point at which a seemingly stable equilibrium careens toward dangerous extremes.

Both major political parties experienced a chaos theory moment over the weekend, in which the balance we have historically looked to as a steady state suddenly degraded, and we were reminded how fast a veneer of reasonable “moderation” can break down into dangerous fanaticism.

Political Chaos Theory

I do not necessarily agree with their conclusions….keep in mind the this publication is new and a replacement for the Neocon “Weekly Standard” that is now defunct.

Our Dear Supreme Leader is a master at creating political chaos…it may well work on his reality shows but it sucks as a governing style.

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“Lego Ergo Scribo”