The Fly, The Lie, And The Terrified Billionaires
It says quite a bit about the average intelligence of the American voter when netizens were, in some cases anyway, more interested in the fly which rested comfortably atop Mike Pence's coiffed, white hair during Wednesday evening's vice presidential debate, than they were in the debate itself.
To be sure, "The Fly" (which was capitalized, movie title style, as a trending topic) surely has an interesting backstory of its own. How did it get there? Why Pence? Where did it go after leaving his hea
Great article. Thanks.
I found his non-answer to the second-to-last question unnerving. He refused to answer what if would do if the president refused to accept the election result. He just replied that he was certain they would win.
Just when many or most of us were starting to believe that chaos (political & social) after the vote was becoming less inevitable.
Are we getting too complacent?
It was also disappointing that when he rolled out the ghost of Hillary Clinton he failed to promise another Benghazi investigation.
great article, indeed. Thanks.
btw in case you did not have a chance to read Cliffs reply (yes, I looked it up), here it is:
/quote
I’m really not. And, that’s not a point, it’s just the kind of high handed bull**** anonymous leftists write when they got nothing.
/unquote
speaks volumes
That’s awesome. Incidentally — and regular readers know this — I’m anonymous for a hodgepodge of very good reasons, and I’m not a “leftist”.
It’s amusing that Cliff claims to know enough about me to categorize me as a “leftist” despite my being “anonymous”.
Of course, we all know plenty about Cliff. And there’s not a lot to like. But I never held that against him.
Also, my back porch view is better than his based on his Twitter banner image. 🙂
@Derek: totally agree.
I would like to add that in addition to complacency there still seems to be a widely-held believe that Trump is constrained by certain social/political norms, however loosely interpreted (i.e. he can’t do this or that). He’s not.
I do get the impression that there are still too many people refusing to accept the simple truth that there is no bottom to his barrel.
And the implications of that.
On a different topic (deficits):
Unfortunately there is a very real way that deficits matter, even for the country printing the worlds reserve currency. If enough politicians believe that they do, they will feel compelled to “pay” for deficits by cutting social security, medicaid (fill in the blank for any program that benefits regular folks). With real-world outcomes for real-world people.
It doesn’t have to be this way, but more often that not, it is
I don’t care where you live. Walk down any street, anywhere in America and ask any random person who offers to respond to you what comes to their mind when you say the word “REPUBLICAN”.
They’ll almost always tell you they envision of a big fat guy lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.
If GOP is afraid of a young bartender from Queens who shows more than a little common sense then they must be afraid of all above average intelligence service economy workers everywhere.
They attack a Congresswoman from Queens virulently as she is in their dreams of fear. They are afraid. As they are the party of the oligarchs and super-rich (a spectrum from one to the other), the object that keeps them up at night is a candidate who unites the underclass across geography and ethnicity.
Mr. Asness, seemingly, also suffers from these dreams.
Great writing (again). It’s funny that some on the right are so quick to raise the socialism threat. Every society has some degree of socialism. You get a bunch of people together and there is always collaborative thought and process. Maduro is not so much about socialism, but tyranny, which makes Asness’s argument somewhat ironic when you look at where things are headed under the current administration. Additionally it sure seems blatantly clear to me that the most significant examples of socialism in our country are socialism for the rich; bailouts, fed intervention, tax loopholes….all at the eventual cost to the average tax payer (if you believe debt matters).
A most significant example that could easily have been included is the health care that was provided to the president, and the care provided to many older white people who feel entitled.
I have relatives in who live in the South of the United States.They bemoan socialism while all the time taking as much from the system as they can, including care for serious long-term conditions. Over the years, they have sucked a sum amounting to seven figures. Paid for by a socialized medical system. A system that has kept them alive. Many people are not very smart.
I find it appalling that so few people understand what economic socialism is in our country. I often ask people, “what country has the largest socialist project in the world?” Everyone guesses European countries or china. However it is the USA, the U.S. interstate system. I point out that free roads of all types are socialism, as is taxation policies for home interest deduction. The examples are too many to list. I like to point out the socialism inherent with QE and how farmers have their economic socialism through government programs. The conclusion is inescapable, those that hate economic socialism the most are the greatest beneficiaries of economic socialism. They do not hate socialism as much as they hate you getting your socialism.
To add to this confusion, I also have a definition for socialism that I find rare therefore I rarely communicate. This definition for socialism is social engineering intended to produce a particular outcome in society. With that definition any action intended to affect social order or society taken by government is a form of social engineering and therefore socialism. With this definition both the left and right are socialists. A few examples: If you tax a behavior such as buying a big house more then are we not engaged in economic social engineering and therefore is economic socialism? If we reduce penalties for racist policing are we not social engineering fear into the hearts of the targeted races? If you give a tax cut the rich or effectively increase barriers to prosecute the wealthy then we are social engineering inequality?
In latter this view of socialism no one can be smeared of being a socialist in politics because we all are. Socialism is not a disease of the left but a tool of both the right and left used to affect public policy. I like this latter definition because it diffuses the hatred of the word and focuses instead on policy outcomes.
mR. iMPERFECT – YOUR POINT ABOUT SOCIALISM AND POLICY CHOICES IS CORRECT, BUT THE ‘WORD’ IS A RED FLAG FOR EVERYONE. Sorry about the caps as I know Walt hates them – but I am too busy – lazy – to go back, and IT MAKES MY POINT. Maybe MMA can be used to change our thought process to consider policy choices upfront rather than burying them out of sight.
The word has been vilified. I think intentionally to reduce chances that the masses focus on outcomes.
(sarcasm) What a horrible world that would be if lesser beings than the wealthy were focused on outcomes.
I grew up in a very rural area where farming is the backbone of the economy and have many relatives who are involved in farming. I frequently see those folks post about how liberals should move to Venezuela if they want socialism so bad. They don’t like it when I point out that they’d be clamoring to move to Venezuela too, but they already get their handouts here. The conversation then devolves into non-sequiturs or anger that anyone would dare question a farmer’s work ethic. Admittedly, it was a bit trollish on my part and I’m no longer on facebook, but it does demonstrate the extent to which these people happily deceive themselves about socialism.
I was born in the GDR and we fled across the iron curtain when I was four.
Grew up in Germany where the official term for it’s economic system is “Soziale Marktwirtschaft”.
Later lived in Portugal for almost a decade and currently for over a decade in Canada.
From an American point of view those countries are four degrees of “socialist”. Yet I can’t point out a single reason why I would want to live in the US.
The way the term “socialist” gets demonized for political purposes is a joke considering humans are by nature “social” animals.
How about replacing Venezuela, Cuba and China with Sweden, Switzerland (25 USD minimum wage anyone?) and New Zealand when telling tales of the Socialist Boogieman?
And there are still plenty of ways for people to become millionaires and billionaires in those countries!
The US needs a multi-party system so people start to understand that there are many different degrees of “left” and “right”.
And for good measure, every young person on the planet should be forced (paid?) to live or study in a different country for a year or two. Over time bigotry and racism would be eradicated and global compassion and cooperation would go through the roof.
I came to this site for H’s great writing and takes on economic issues and the comment section has definitely caught up to that level! Thanks and cheers to everyone here.
Thank you for the calm and reasoned post. I try to help people ‘see’ but it takes a community to raise a child.
Great post.
Thank you for this well reasoned rebuttal. I wish more people could read this essay
As Renfield asked: “Flies? Flies? Why should I eat flies? Why should I eat flies when there are these nice, big juicy spiders?”
I would appreciate a simple definitive explanation of what attributes or beliefs make one ‘leftwing’ or ‘rightwing”. I hear all the time how bad the extreme right is and how bad the extreme left is but am unsure of how one delineates the two. I’ve seen video of the Nazi goons in Charlotte on the ‘extreme right’ and no videos that I can put my finger on of the ‘extreme left’?? I always assumed I was therefore somewhere in the middle.