Totalitarians in Libertarian clothing, and how Conservatives became their "Fellow Travellers"

(This was published a year ago but still speaks well.)

It would appear to me that either Libertarians are deliberately framing issues to obscure reality or have not actually thought their obsession through.

Now my understanding of a Straussian is that they have thought it through and decided that it is good to be the King, as long as it is just them as king and a few cronies to keep them in power, and the rest of the World can just KMA. But they also realize the rest of the World considers such people to be pure evil, and even their fellow travelers would prefer each of them be king.

So in order to avoid sharing a cell with Saddam, they invent elaborate propaganda structures, while looking intently how to stab others in the back, and avoiding others doing the same to them. This is pretty much how Saddam operated, as well as the Bush Administration, and all the other more obedient Saddams in all the Tajikistans about the World.

That the Bush Administration has not yet demonstrated all the excesses that Saddam & Sons exercised on their private property they called Iraq, is limited only by their perception of being held accountable for their actions. And therein lies the rub that actual Libertarians have not thought through.

Now it is my understanding that a Libertarian believes in absolute freedom of personal action and property rights, and that the only legitimate activity of Government is to protect such happy folk from losing those things. Now such thoughts are fine if you happen to be Saddam, but the rest of the Iraqis did not find such free exercise of property rights so enjoyable. No matter how much less dramatic you make it, universal freedom and universal property rights cannot coexist. Just the definition owning anything means that someone else cannot mess with your stuff beyond the limits of your freely given permission.

The actual reality is that any action done in concert by two or more people, or the divvying up of the assets of the World are matters of power and those who exercise it. The only real issue is what controls those who are acted upon have on the actors. While it is an old saw that absolute power corrupts absolutely, the less pointed out corollary is that ALL power corrupts to the limits of its accountability to other powers.

Libertarians are quick to point this out of Government De Jure, but totally obsficate the fact that any exercise of power is Government De Facto and is even less immune to such corruption because of its stealth quality. This is how the Republicans hoodwinked the nation by saying they wanted "to get the Government off our backs" when what they really wanted was to fire all the cops. The prisons are full of people with the same complaint, but without the massive funding required to exercise their "Free" Speech.

Now actual Liberals, unlike Straussian straw liberals, believe in the maximum freedom for every individual to decide as much as possible about their own life. They even believe in "private" property and what personal power it gives to have your own stuff to help structure your life. The issue is one of accountability and who is going to stop any person from abusing the power to exploit, injure, or otherwise limit other people from exercising their own freedom.

Now there are many issues that honorable people can differ on, as to who guards the guards, and how much accountability and what kind is appropriate, but there should be agreement that stealing millions of dollars, or horribly killing thousands or millions, should get a lot more accountability than your average street criminal (though he should be stopped as well). That such power is excercised as the choice of serious injury / forking over your wallet, or paying the power bill / living without heat cannot be considered a free will choice, nor so if the facts are hidden/twisted to cause you to make a choice you would not make had you known them.

There was a time when people of Straussian attitude feigned being Liberals, and called themselves Communists, today they are almost all Conservatives, finding their power base in Bigotry, Theocracy, and Corporate Megalomania (often referred to as Fascism or Kleptocracy). All are Totalitarian at their black heart, and all need to be recognized as the pure evil that they are. In the United States all such folk with any power are Republican, and why the World is at greater danger than anytime in the past, with nine months to decide its fate.

Stupider than Screen Sided Submarines

What about this picture would make one immediately suspect that this trailer was not likely a Secret Biological Weapons lab?

Well duh, Biolabs need secure space, lest the pathogen escape and wipe out ones own side, much less the researchers themselves. They also require a controlled temperatures, and a clean environment, not only for safety but to keep the critters happy as well.

Lets see, 120 degree plus outside temperatures, check, dark brown canvas to keep the contents cool in the sun, not check, canvas sides as clean room siding, I don't think so, canvas tarps as level five pathogen security system, ROFL!

And still to this day these things are trotted out as proof Saddam had WMD or planned to use them for such. They even had drawings showing the canvas when Powell gave his speech.

If lies of this stupidity are believed what is the hope of seeing any actual fact.

Crazy Nakita was right

I watched The Frontline program about the depth of horror of the crushed Tianamein spring, including depths I had not known about. I was also struck by the discussion of the new Chinese economic situation, for the winners and losers in that situation, and how control of information is the knife edge they walk on.

In this there was much information I am aware of, and this contribution raised a thought far more chilling than the individual points you made, chilling though those were.

The first Image is of Crazy Nakita banging his shoe at the UN and saying that "your Grandchildren will grow up under Communism". Those who did not laugh rushed through Trillions in wasted money on massive military fantasies of Russians invading and going through the U.S. like the Nazis through France.

But the real invasion started at the University of Chicago. Because from there came the new Marxism, with Leo Strauss as the new prophet. Actual Communist governments were built on a populist base, however fascist the reality, the populist pro formas had to be observed.

But where the old Marxism had seen evil and spoken against it, if only in a shadow of the promise. The New Straussian Marxism saw evil and embraced it, turning many ideas 180 degrees, without changing the intent of domination and control by an elite.

Mao had created a fanatic Jihad, all belief and energy, but ultimately failed a changed belief or behavior. Tianamein showed the power of an idea, and the threat to the elite, and when the blood was washed off the street I believe they adopted the new University of Chicago Marxism. Already being in absolute power, they could implement the plan swiftly and completely, while in the U.S. and Europe the plan had to proceed slowly, lest their true nature be outed.

Among the pieces of the puzzle missed by the Frontline story is how the Chinese Military became the biggest partner in the major Industries. It would be speculation on my part, but it is an obvious guess, that those who were among the murderers at Tianamein have been among the most blessed by the new economy, especially the leadership. Actual details of this would be most interesting.

In your outrage that "American" Multinationals, particularly Yahoo, Microsoft, and Sisco would be actively complicit in the suppression of freedom, you failed to notice that, for these companies specifically, their actual politics is not opposed to such suppression, and actively support the same in this country ( the role of Google appears much more complicated).

All of this leads up to the bone chilling realization that the program created. Look at this program and realize that THIS IS THE NEOCON PLAN FOR AMERICA.! Look at this Frontline view of the life of the Chinese worker, exploitable, and disposable, no rights, and hidden reality, covered over with a "free" enterprise fantasy. Of necessity there must be millions of used up workers, too injured, or physically broken, to take part in the "New China" anymore. Where are they? What has happened to them? Will their deaths bring about the population control that China has desperately sought?

Is this the way you want YOUR Grandchildren to grow up?

Its not Hypocrisy (its worse)

NeoCon's reason d'être requires deception. It lies at the heart of their philosophy, and is inseparable from it. The very core of philosophy is two faced, one for public view and one, so satanically nihilistic they dare not show it, reserved for co-conspirators, that instructs their actual behavior.

Outsiders call it hypocrisy, but that makes way too lite of the matter, far more Joe Stalin than anything remotely Churchillian. Churchill spoke as any true leader, doing what was right, and knowing that every word would follow him through history and beyond death, and would stand by those words even now were he still alive.

NeoCons, like the Communists many were in an earlier part of their life, have no respect for words. Statements, and even sentiments, made today are only "operable" in the current context, and could be, and often are , a complete flip-flop when a new context requires it. Not because they have discovered a new insight, but simply because the new situation requires it.

In the Y2K debacle they even managed both sides at the same time, taking one side in one courtroom and the opposite in another, depending on the results expected. Famously even the Bush-v-Gore decision denied "operability" beyond the moment, and even in a context where every word is written in stone for the ages, it could be expected that the Roberts Court would do a 180 on that decision if the need arose.

Like the Russians, Americans do have memories, if somewhat short and faulty, and some have access to information the State has not controlled as yet. A certain amount of deception can be tolerated, if it appears reasonable and debatable. When it becomes absurd on its face, and provably stupid at the moment, no amount of spin can stand for long.

At long last, the sheer volume/ridiculousness is beginning to be noticed by all but the most ideological and/or stupid. The big question is whether a big Republican win in Nov. in the face of contrary reason and exit polls will cause enough gagging from within or outrage from without to bring Democracy back. Perhaps the gagging will start before Nov. Hope is a good thought but an unreliable plan.

Down The Hatch

Yup Censure of the Emperor isn't just wrong, it is unconstitutional--- Hey Whaaat!

Orrin (nut) Hatch is often off the wall, even when on message and the message is getting wider off reality every day. As reported in Hatch friendly home town paper in a hometown School Ole Orrie really let his hair down on his legal expertise.

At times his language was humorous -- he talked of "Sith judges on the Dark Side wielding their gavels like sabers" -- but he was also stern, warning that an unchecked judiciary could usurp the powers of other branches of government and spell doom for liberty.

That some of those powers are actually spelled out in the constitution as being Judicial, is not a fact that he would let get in the way of the official spin.

"The Constitution governs the Supreme Court, not the other way around," Hatch said. "The Supreme Court does not have the last word. The people do.

"I would like to restore the Constitution to what it was."

Uhhh, The constitution says the Supremes have the last word, no matter how crazy (unfortunately) short a constitutional amendment to the contrary. If that were not true, we might still have both a Democracy and (likely) a Democrat as President.

"Judicial activism represents a radical departure from the way we govern ourselves in this country," Hatch said. "If it continues, it means the Constitution won't be worth the paper it's written on."

While Bush said "its just a piece of Paper" and in Bush vs Gore The Supremes wouldn't even stand behind their reasoning in "newspeak" activist judges mean those who actually respect, the constitution and law much less honor.

Of course for Hatch, as all Republicans, talking is mostly just making noises. Coherence, much less reason, much less actual principals, are not part of the agenda, but a means to an end that has nothing to do with what the founders of the country had in mind.

I wrote this and cross posted it at the links noted:

I recall when the meme was "us versus the Communists" there were many speeches about why the Communists were different than a usual party, and why even if we supported a lot of thugs in the world "our thugs were better than their thugs"

Top of their list was that the Communists were Totalitarian. It was not enough to do as you were told, but they expected you think as you were told as well.

High on the list was that "their" principals were for the current situation only and could rotate 180 degrees if the situation was different.

Another point was that there was a spin of the day and everyone was supposed to stay "on message", only one voice allowed no matter who was talking.

A fourth was an obsession with party loyalty, people who disagreed, or worse, changed their minds were dealt with harsher than even critics.

Those are all now typical Republican descriptions. I guess it is that part about making principals fit the situation. It is not hypocrisy- it is the totalitarian way of thinking.