COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, August 20, 2016

But, she successfully dodged Bosnian sniper fire while sprinting off a plane.

Clinton supporters: Can you name a single thing Hillary has ever accomplished? | Mulching | NJ.com

By Paul Mulshine | The Star Ledger 
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on August 18, 2016 at 6:50 PM, updated August 18, 2016 at 6:51 PM


State Senator Mike Doherty sent me an amusing message after I noted that Hillary Clinton is a dangerous person because of her stated desire to confront Russia militarily in Syria:
"Hillary Clinton was against the Cambodian incursion during the Vietnam War but now wants to enter Syria and shoot down Russian planes? Isn't that a little crazy?"
More than a little crazy, I’d say.

Clinton’s call for a no-fly zone over Syria would not only risk World War III with Russia; it would also be a great aid to ISIS, which has no air force and would be able to take even more territory in the absence of Russian and Syrian fighter attacks.

Doherty is a West Point grad with a good knowledge of military history. And until I read that message, I never quite realized just how thoroughly confused Clinton is in that regard.

How could you have opposed American intervention in Southeast Asia and now support American intervention in the Mideast?

But her foreign policy is just one of Clinton’s many negatives.

Post-Paris attacks, Hillary Christie's still clueless


Is there a single thing Clinton accomplished in all her years as First Lady, then New York Senator and then Secretary of State?
I can’t think of any.

But maybe you can. If so please list these in the comments section. Be specific. General comments about her demeanor and experience will add nothing to the conversation.

Also, please leave her opponent out of it. There’s plenty written about him.

This is about her.

In the meantime, I invite you to ponder this column on Clinton I wrote in 2008, when she was running in the Democratic presidential primary against Barack Obama.

Note that even back then she was a darling of the so-called “ eo" conservative wing of the Republican Party – which is just the mirror image of the Wilsonian wing of the Democratic Party.

All of us traditional conservatives consider both to be forms of liberalism.

Also note that at the time of this writing, Obama was still on the record against the individual mandate that became the basis of Obamacare.
The original headline was quite prescient in light of the number of neocons now supporting her. It was “Conservatives for Clinton?"

Back in the 1970s when I was a young reporter, I got a winter rental by the beach with two old friends.

One day, one of them came home with a Barry White album. He did it as a joke, he said. At our next party we all got a good laugh listening to the corny lyrics mouthed by the deep-voiced singer.

That was fun. But then my housemate started playing the album regularly, all the while laughing at its corniness. So one night when he was out, the other guy and I took it to the end of the block and threw it into the ocean like a Frisbee.

Conservatives for Clinton? There's no such animal


We had peace and quiet for a while. But then our housemate came home with another copy of the album. It was then we realized that he wasn't kidding. He really liked Barry White.

Something similar is going on with the so-called "neoconservatives" and Hillary Clinton. Among us old-time conservatives, Clinton has always represented what Eleanor Roosevelt represented for conservatives in a prior era.

She was the progressive ideologue behind a president who at least made some effort to appear pragmatic.

Ten years ago, I wrote a column comparing her gaze to that of the infamous Nurse Ratched in the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." (See video below.)

In it, I noted that actress Louise Fletcher "had to work hard to achieve the look and mannerisms of a power-crazed control freak. With Hillary, it comes naturally.

That assessment was a bit uncharitable perhaps. Yet back in the good old days of conservatism that remark represented the consensus on Clinton.

In the Bush era, however, we are seeing an amazing phenomenon. A number of people who consider themselves to be conservatives are actually pushing the Clinton candidacy.

It started as a joke, like my friend's flirtation with Barry White. A few months ago, neoconservative front man Rush Limbaugh began what he termed "Operation Chaos." This was an effort to get Republicans to cross the lines in primary elections and vote for Clinton over Barack Obama.

Limbaugh’s stated theory was that this would prolong the Democratic primary to the advantage of Republicans.

As far as that went, it wasn't a bad idea. Any state political party dumb enough to open its primary process to members of the opposition party deserves whatever it gets.

But then I began to see unmistakable signs that these guys were serious. The neocons really did want Hillary to win over Obama.
In the past few weeks, as Obama has consolidated his lead, these characters began to protest too much. Instead of merely watching the fun from a distance, they jumped into the fray, openly advocating for Clinton. (Update: Here's an amusing column from Steve Kornacki, now of MSNBC, in which he cites a prior column of mine to that effect.)
They even began to offer the usual conspiracy theories about media bias. To hear the nattering nabobs of neoconservatism tell it, the liberal media are ganging up on Hillary. That just doesn't make sense.
I have spent a quarter-century or so railing against liberal bias in the media.

But the theory that the liberals are conspiring against a liberal for being liberal is ludicrous.

Something else is going on in what I like to call “ he streetwalker media," that brave neo world in which the concept of conservatism has been hijacked by characters like Rupert Murdoch and the various talking heads he purchases.

I don't dislike Murdoch. In fact I've always been partial to loud Aussies. But something’s a bit weird when the loud Aussie in question both claims to speak for American conservatism and also hosts a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton.

Then there are the neo-Cans, all of those Canadian imports like David Frum, Charles Krauthammer et al. These guys spend as much time attacking traditional American conservatism as they do promoting a vision of internationalism that is literally foreign to the American conservative way of thought.

But their vision dovetails nicely with Clinton's, at least when it comes to employing the American military in all of those nation-building exercises George W. Bush promised us he would avoid.

Of course, that was back when Bush was first running for president in 2000. And by the traditional conservative standard Bush set that year, Obama is to the right of Clinton on foreign policy.

He’s also slightly to the right of her on domestic policy.

Both are entirely dreadful in that regard, but on the one issue on which they had a prominent disagreement, mandatory health insurance, Obama's vision was much more conservative than Clinton's - and also more conservative than that of two unsuccessful GOP presidential hopefuls who embraced that awful idea. (Update: I was talking about Mitt Romney, who of course later got the 2012  GOP nomination despite the fact he pioneered Obamacare.)

So on balance, an Obama presidency would probably be slightly better than a Clinton presidency, at least in light of traditional conservative views of governance. We'd better hope so, anyway. With their brilliant theories on foreign policy, the neocons have paved the way for a Republican disaster at the polls this year.

As for me, I am content in the notion that I warned the world against George Bush in 2000 and again in 2004.

And I am also content that I will no more have to face the prospect of a President Hillary Clinton than I will have to face the prospect of ever again listening to the music of Barry White.

(END NOTE: I hope I didn’t speak too soon on that one.)

BELOW: The liberal group Media Matters for America did a search of comparisons between Hillary Clinton and Nurse Ratched of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I'm proud to say I was one of the first to note the connection. Also I find it puzzling that the liberals find the comparison unflattering to Clinton. I thought a person like Nurse Ratched would be seen as a role model by the typical liberal.)

33 comments:

  1. Can you name a single thing Hillary has ever accomplished?

    Me me me

    I can.

    I can !

    The Old Hag has succeeded in claiming she was named "Hillary", after the Sir Edmund Hillary of Mt. Everest fame, before he had climbed Mt. Everest, and before anyone anywhere had ever heard of him.

    I find this remarkable, and even preternatural to a degree.

    The successful Everest climb expedition was accomplished in 1953, and The Hag was born in 1947.

    So you can see why I find it remarkable that Hillary was named Hillary after Hillary six years before Sir Hillary had climbed Mr. Everest.

    We desperately need a President that can pull such feats out of her ass.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Public recognition[edit]

      Edmund Hillary on the New Zealand five-dollar note

      On 6 June 1953 Hillary was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal the same year;[25] and on 6 February 1987 was the fourth appointee to the Order of New Zealand.[49] On 22 April 1995 Hillary was appointed Knight Companion of The Most Noble Order of the Garter.[50][51] The Government of India conferred on him its second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, posthumously, in 2008.[52] He was also awarded the Polar Medal in 1958 for his part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition,[53][54] and the Order of Gorkha Dakshina Bahu, 1st Class of the Kingdom of Nepal in 1953 and the Coronation Medal in 1975.

      wiki

      I leave it to the imaginations of a Quirk, or a Doug, to create the appropriate recognition and award for our Hag.

      All I can come of with his Hillary's beaming lying face on a new 13 cent value US Hundred Dollar Bill.

      Delete
    2. Make that a thousand dollar bill, adjusting for inflation.

      Delete
    3. You Tube

      Hillary Clinton's Lie About Being Named For Sir Edmund Hillary (Rush Limbaugh)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cttV9Eud5B4

      Hillary Claims Psychic Mommy Named Her After Sir Edmund Hillary

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7PSQ3qV0kI

      cartoon

      Delete
    4. What do these three people have in common?

      Ryan Lochte, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton.

      Delete
    5. .

      They are all retty good swimmers?

      .

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. Bush did.

      McCain did, did he not ?

      Then O'bozo did.

      Quirk could easily secure your vote, if he wanted it.

      Delete
    2. Romney failed cause you didn't like his 'celestial underwear'.

      Delete
  3. My grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren will be guaranteed healthcare as a result of Hillary Clinton pushing the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) through Congress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We were able to negotiate the Iran Nuclear Deal as a result of Hillary Clinton putting together a World-wide Sanctions program (including Russia, and China.)

      Delete
    2. She took the lead in obtaining reconstruction money ($26 Billion) for New York after 9-11.

      Delete
    3. She supports, and has a plan for increasing, alternative energy, supports raising the minimum wage, and improving the ACA, while expanding Medicare to cover those 55 and older.

      Delete
  4. Trump inches back ahead in LA Times Daily Tracking Poll -

    http://cesrusc.org/election/

    By a hair....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Replies
    1. And needs Tums, Milk of Magnesia and a larger Depends. Plus the warfarin.

      Delete
    2. And a motorized wheelchair, with one of those stair climbing thingys, or perhaps a portable dais on which she can be carried about by a gaggle of robotic servants.

      Delete
  6. MEDIA SHOCK: TRUMP BACK IN LEAD?....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
  7. 16 Minute Video Montage of Leftists Attacking Trump Supporters -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMux_UHmpvc

    "If totalitarianism comes to the USA it will come from the left not the right"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Today -

      Agitators Block Trump Motorcade, Jump on Vehicle...

      Supporters punched, forced to run 'gauntlet'...

      Spit on....DRUDGE

      Delete
  8. Hillary Changes Her Tune

    Linguistic Analysis of Hillarytalk

    Hillary Clinton Talks More Like A Man Than She Used To

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/08/19/hillary-clinton-talks-more-like-a-man-than-she-used-to/

    She's trained her voice to be deeper too, many have noticed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. .


    The US War in Yemen

    We may not be making any friends but we sure are influencing people, about 14 million of them in the poorest country in the ME who don't know where their next meal is coming from.

    Saudi Arabia Kills Civilians, the U.S. Looks the Other Way

    In the span of four days earlier this month, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen bombed a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital, killing 19 people; a school, where 10 children, some as young as 8, died; and a vital bridge over which United Nations food supplies traveled, punishing millions.

    In a war that has seen reports of human rights violations committed by every side, these three attacks stand out. But the Obama administration says these strikes, like previous ones that killed thousands of civilians since last March, will have no effect on the American support that is crucial for Saudi Arabia’s air war.

    On the night of Aug. 11, coalition warplanes bombed the main bridge on the road from Hodeidah, along the Red Sea coast, to Sana, the capital. When it didn’t fully collapse, they returned the next day to destroy the bridge.

    More than 14 million Yemenis suffer dangerous levels of food insecurity — a figure that dwarfs that of any other country in conflict, worsened by a Saudi-led and American-supported blockade. One in three children under the age of 5 reportedly suffers from acute malnutrition. An estimated 90 percent of food that the United Nation’s World Food Program transports to Sana traveled across the destroyed bridge...



    ===========================================================================


    The American assistance for Saudi Arabia that Mr. Obama authorized last March includes aerial refueling for coalition jets, intelligence and targeting assistance. American tankers offload fuel to any coalition jet, no matter its target. This support comes on top of more than $100 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2015, and recent deals made explicitly to “replenish” stockpiles spent in Yemen.

    At the United Nations, Saudi Arabia and its allies have blocked investigations into the Yemen conflict and complained when the Security Council considered a resolution aimed at protecting Yemeni civilians. Saudi Arabia has also warned aid workers to leave much of Yemen, ominously presaging M.S.F.’s Aug. 18 decision to pull out of two governorates in the country’s north because of the coalition’s “indiscriminate bombings.” Without the group’s presence, it will be more difficult to know the toll of future strikes in these areas.

    In June, Saudi Arabia threatened to cut its funding to the United Nations after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon included the coalition on a list of violators of children’s rights. While criticizing the Saudis for their bullying, Mr. Ban’s office has also been accommodating out of a belief that it can’t afford to lose Saudi money.



    Of course, the US is appalled. Appalled I say. When the publicity got too bad, the US cut off sales of cluster bombs the Saudi Arabia. Temporarily!

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shouldn't your intro read:

      The Iranian War in Yemen ?

      Or at least:

      The Saudi/Iranian War in Yemen ?

      Delete
    2. The Israeli/Saudi/Iranian War in Yemen ?

      Delete
    3. Nope.

      It's gotta be 'The US War in Yemen'.

      Delete

    4. The Middle East Post

      This blog provides you the knowledge of ongoing geopolitical changes in Middle East

      Wednesday, 13 May 20

      YEMEN CRISIS EXPLAINED : WILL IT BE CAUSE OF INTERNATIONAL WAR?

      http://themiddleastpost.blogspot.in/2015/05/yemen-crisis-explained-will-it-be-cause.html

      Delete
  10. Obama Offends Louisiana Flood Victims With Memo Reminding Them Not to Discriminate

    The people of Louisiana are dealing with the worst natural disaster in years. While Obama has been too busy golfing on Martha’s Vineyard to visit Louisiana, he did send them a memo reminding them not to discriminate.

    People didn’t take the message well.

    The Washington Times reports:

    Obama irks La. flood victims with memo warning them not to discriminate

    President Obama has refused so far to survey the Louisiana flood disaster, but he did let state and local officials know that he’s watching to make sure they don’t engage in racial discrimination.

    In a 16-page guidance issued Tuesday, the Obama administration, led by the Justice Department, warned Louisiana recipients of federal disaster assistance against engaging in “unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin (including limited English proficiency).”

    The guidance’s frameworks “highlight the importance of complying with nondiscrimination requirements of civil rights statutes, addressing the needs of the whole community, and ensuring equal opportunity to access recovery efforts.”

    Needless to say, some Louisiana residents were offended, including the American Conservative’s Rod Dreher, who took umbrage at receiving an anti-discrimination lecture from Washington, D.C., as locals struggle to rescue, house and feed their neighbors.

    “[E]verywhere you look you can find black folks and white folks loving on each other, helping each other through this crisis,” Mr. Dreher said in a Thursday post.

    It’s easy to see where Obama’s priorities are.

    Perhaps he could spend less time lecturing the people of Louisiana from the golf course and visit them.

    http://americanlookout.com/obama-offends-louisiana-flood-victims-with-memo-reminding-them-not-to-discriminate/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hateful, Miserable, Son of a Bitch.

      Delete
    2. Louisiana being a red state, it's not high on his priority list.

      Delete
  11. Despite fears, Mexico's manufacturing boom is lifting U.S. workers

    Factories south of the border are fueled by American goods and services

    Better title would be "Mexico vs China wrt USA"

    http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-manufacturing-boom-mexico/#nt=oft12aH-2gp2

    ReplyDelete