Non Partisanship

Political parties are a cancer on our body politic. They must have their influence reduced, and I have just the prescription.

But first off, something of an apology.

Over the years, I believe that I may have touted the city where I live (Denver, Colorado) as some sort of liberal Valhalla. It isn't. But overall, it is perhaps the most liberal major city in this part of the country. Depending on how you judge "liberal" and "major city", I suppose that an argument could be made for Santa Fe, New Mexico instead.

Anyway, that's largely irrelevant. I just want to make it clear that I recognize that nothing, nowhere and nobody is perfect.

The Illusion Of "Free Markets"

One of the most frequent cries from the libertarian right is that government interferes with, and even prevents, the existence of free markets.  Taxes, government regulations and other statutory burdens keep America uncompetitive.  Never mind the fact that we have lower taxes and fewer and more lax regulations than almost any other developed country.

This is one of the places where libertarianism truly breaks down. There have never been, in the entire history of mankind, any such thing as free markets. The very term itself is illusory.

During times of little to no government interference (rare in history, because governments always want their tax, don't they?), the markets cease being free rather quickly. Collusion, trusts, monopolies...these form quickly and stifle competition more severely than any sort of government action other than nationalization.

Are markets that are dominated and controlled by a few large players really free? 

The No Solution Solution

Letting the Republicans hijack the government completely again, as has been suggested many times around here, without first doing the groundwork of at least trying to craft an alternative may very well result in change.  It won't be positive, it'll hurt you as much as anyone else (unless you are planning to be one of the snitches/secret police), but at least you'll learn what fascism actually is.

It's true that big business has always had a hand in establishing and funding fascist regimes.  It is just as true that they almost always regret it later.

It's also true that big business and big money has great influence over every government of every country on earth.  Don't kid yourselves.  Countries like Sweden and Switzerland only demonstrate that, under certain conditions, big business can be cajoled into sharing a small part of the booty with the people, or at least allow the people to tax themselves to the point of appearing to give a shit.

Our government isn't fascist...yet.  Those who say it is seem to want it to be so, which is an attainable goal that the Democrats, once again, won't deliver to you.  

The Great American Fascist Conspiracy

It all started with James Madison.  Not me.  The real James Madison.  He was responsible for bringing fascism to the United States.

Unknown to the rest of the world, he and Napoleon Bonaparte had a secret meeting on March 17, 1813.  This was the beginning of a conspiracy so vast and deep, even the secret meetings were, and are, held out in the open surrounded by cheering crowds.

They made an unholy pact.  France and the United States would aid each other in establishing worldwide fascism.  In addition, the US would provide France with enough plutonium to build a nuclear weapon with dial-a-nuke variable yield capability.  They agreed to this even though neither one of them had never even heard of plutonium, nuclear weapons, or fascism.

They agreed that it would all make sense sometime in the future.  In the meantime, Madison went back to the US to beg Congress to charter a new National Bank, and Napoleon got back to work having people killed.

The biggest problem with their secret plan was that they kept it so secret, nobody else was in on it.  As a result, not much happened on the fascist conspiracy front after Madison's death in 1836.

It wouldn't be until 1898 until further progress was made in the Great Fascist Conspiracy.  That's the year that William McKinley decided to get serious about fascism.

I mean, really fucking serious.  McKinley was nothing if not serious.

 
He started by trying to coerce the Spanish to share the secrets of fascism with him. But the King didn't know what the fuck he was talking about, so he declared war on Spain and took their shit.


He was just about to go to Italy for help when a left-wing nutjob walked up to him and shot him.  


His successor, TR, wasn't interested in fascism.  He was interested in socialism, but he couldn't really tell anybody, lest they think that he was a socialist.

Wondering Aloud About Taxes and Stuff

Lots of criticism of the President lately. Most of it is well deserved

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But I feel that I should ask myself a few questions. What would I do if it were me? I ask myself this question frequently, from the Clinton administration on.

For example, during the Bush administration, I would have done pretty much everything differently. As an example, I would have tried to find a way to satisfy American bloodlust after 9/11 without actually invading another country. I wouldn't have wanted to start a second war, either.

Like I said, just about everything.

Then there's EGTRRA, the 2001 treasury busting tax law. Taxation is something I know quite a bit about, so it's easy to analyze what I would have wanted, what I would have done.