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Journal: WTF, WI? 5

Journal by smitty_one_each

The state Government Accountability Board's top officials proceeded with a secret probe into coordination between Gov. Scott Walkerâ(TM)s campaign and conservative political groups for months without authorization from the six retired judges who run the board, court records unsealed Friday allege.
The records add ammunition to Republicans in the state Legislature seeking to overhaul or abolish Wisconsinâ(TM)s elections and ethics watchdog agency.

I can't fathom the disquiet about secret investigations.You know darn good and well that those Lefties felt justified when they did it. Isn't that what matters? As long as our moral superiors say it's important, I gotta figure it's important.

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Journal: [TCM] Communist Manifesto Reading Club, Part 5 20

Journal by smitty_one_each
We've passed the halfway point in the first chapter. Golf clap. Let's continue the journey. I'm going to use a lone capital B (Das Kapital) for "bourgeoisie":


So Marx is against urbanization, without explitely saying why, other than crediting his B strawman with the development, while decrying the "idiocy" of rural life.


Well, that blows away a lot of thought which credited technology with liberating agrarian labor, in addition to providing new work in cities, for the urbanization. Is technology, itself, a B conspiracy in the B movie of Industrialization?


Marx's genius is elevating the B to near-Cthulhu levels of diabolical power. Here we are decrying all of the improvements that have made modern life possible, AND set the stage for the reactionary counter-charge that labor is being exploited and Gaia molested.


So Feudalism--it's not clear whether it was as bad as the B, or merely a precursor--was superceded by this hellish B force. As far as I can tell, Marx is noting a technological progression, and attributing societal side-effects to his B group. Has he confused horse and cart here? Perhaps. Is this a deliberate rhetorical choice? Let's keep the disbelief suspended.


Heinlein replies:

This is known as "bad luck."


It's as though Marx views technological improvement as though it were nuclear fission. Was he a proto-Luddite?


Here is a critical point: Marx has said that the B are bad, and will now be hoisted upon their own petard. But who is managing that? If the B were so clever as to fell Feudalism, how is the B to be eliminated by less than an Ueber-B?


Oh, the Proletariat is going to be bigger and tougher enough to slay the B dragon, while somehow not actually becoming even worse than the B, even though the slope of history sketched by Marx seems rather negative.


Wait--are the Proletariat the victims, or the conquerors of the B.


OK, here is what I don't get. If "individual character" and "charm for the workman" are a key component of work in the market, why aren't the workers in the proletariat leveraging that? I'm talking craft beer, artisinal cheese, and hand-made furniture.
That is, Marx seems to appeal to fear of obsolescence in the proletariat, rather than appealing to individual greatness and pursuit of excellence.


One of the interesting aspects is how readily Marx both (a) rejects individual responsibilty for life outcomes, and (b) places individuals like sheep in the B factory pens in support of his argument.
In this, Marx seems ready to agree with the B, while purporting to attack them.
The contemporary version is rioters destroying small businesses in Ferguson, in the name of "Fighting the Power". Because #Justice.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Pastable version:

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Journal: Cardow cartoon cannot be unseen 14

Journal by smitty_one_each
Click at own risk:

While the 2013 "Lie of the Year" was Obamaâ(TM)s pledge that you can keep your doctor and your health insurance, the 2014 "Weasel of the Year" must surely be Herr Gruber, architect of fraud and deceit.

I guess, since damn_registrars doesn't really fib (does he?) and Gruber is an Economist from MIT, that MIT is some kind of an insurance company, right?
I recall going to my soon-to-be-ex Congresscritter's town hall on the Affordable Care Act, and being verbally accosted by an Obama drone of working for an insurance company because I opposed ObamaCare. #GoodNotGoodTimes

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Journal: Does Being Honest About A River Of Lies Count As Integrity? 33

Journal by smitty_one_each

In a recently uncovered video taken at an event in October 2013, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber says that lack of transparency was a key advantage in helping get the law passed.
"This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes," Gruber stated. "Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage," he explained adding, "Basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really critical to getting the thing to pass." Given a choice between honestly informing the public and passing the bill, Gruber says he'd rather have the bill.

Would that I'd confidence the Republican's didn't secretly agree.
Anybody who thinks good can come from this river of lies is an utter fool.

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Journal: Keeping the Pimp Hand Strong 9

Journal by smitty_one_each

In June 2012, Mr. Walker became the only governor in American history to survive a recall election--initiated to reverse his enormously controversial 2011 budget-repair bill, Act 10, which limited the collective-bargaining powers of public-employee unions, as well as automatic dues collection and health and pension benefits. Big Labor and national Democrats returned this year to avenge their loss, though the irony was that Ms. Burke declined to relitigate Act 10 or even take a coherent position. The election turned on competing accounts of economic progress under Mr. Walker, such as job creation and rising household incomes.

Like the Confederate States of America, the Wisconsin unions don't seem to be on the correct side of the argument.
Walker is like Chris Christie, with less bloat in the ego and waist.
Presidential timber? Heck. To. The. YEAH!

And I fully expect at least one person on here to blow a hole through his Depends on this JE.

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Journal: 6) I believe in God. 48

Journal by smitty_one_each


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Journal: Context? Context? Hahahaha 20

Journal by smitty_one_each
What a goofball's goofball:

Jesus said render unto "Caesar" that which is Caesar's. In this context, Caesar isn't just referring to one individual, but to the government which he stands for. It is through government that Caesar ever could claim authority such that you have to render undo him anything.

Look. At. The. Context:

19. Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
20. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

A few points:
15. The Pharisees came for a bit of gotcha journalism.
16. They start by buttering Jesus up.
17. Then the gotcha question: as a matter of Jewish religious law (because the taxes in question were collected via tax farming, not a proper legal code) is it kosher to pay taxes?
20. Jesus specifically asks whose image is on the coin before him. Jesus is explicitly referring to the individual on the face of the coin. He is doing it precisely NOT to be referring to the government in question, damn_registrars. You have the scene Completely. Backward.
21. By personalizing the question in this way, Jesus both directly answered it, and utterly refuted some dishonest interlocutors.

Aside: are you going to pick up the Communist Manifesto Reading Group project after the election?
