The Liberal Agenda vs Galt's Gulch

Politics makes strange bedfellows does not mean that it's a good thing.  Actually it's kind of a stupid thing because it's just stating the obvious isn't it?  I mean doesn't everything make strange bedfellows?  Isn't it the same as the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which is kind of deceptive because it doesn't add the obvious clause that once my enemy is weakened or maybe I make a deal with him, than this third guy is no longer my friend.

Here's a quote from one of the heroes of Beagles's boyhood.  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, than it is a duck.  I thought it was invented by Tail Gunner Joe, but the internet sez it is from a mechanical pooping duck, though I have to say I am skeptical about that, but the gist of the way Joe used it was if somebody acted like a commie they were a commie, and by that rubric I think Beagles is a Trumpist, though he may quibble with certain niceties that Trump lacks I suppose.

I was kind of rushing to get to that Queen of Sheba thing when I said that about  Republicans wanting to make people poor.  What they really want is all the money for rich people and a side-effect of that is that they have to take it from the middle class and that puts the middle class in poverty, so it's not really what they want, it is just an inevitable side effect.  Poor white people don't get as good an education as rich white people.

I thought Michigan had already had its primary, that's why I had trouble googling around because I kept running into information about the primaries and thought it was old news and discarding it.  Seems like a pretty fluid republican primary with candidates dropping in and dropping out.  The only info I provided about  Helicopter Gunner James was how deeply snuggled in bed with Trump he is, but I guess that is what Beagles took to, like a, ahem, duck to water.


I was not aware of Ten Thousand Queens of Sheba or the stage play Purlie Victorious, is that a spinoff from Porgy and Bess?  Internet research did not give me an answer quickly and the morning is fleeting.  Anyway I like those mythological characters that people take to and make their own, like King Midas etc.

Capitalism in its pure form, laissez faire, is the law of the jungle for economics.  The law of the jungle itself trumps capitalism because why not just kill this guy and take everything he has.  That's why you need certain rules to protect capitalism, like property laws and some kind of stable currency and stuff like that.

Once you have that, it is pretty much the law of the jungle, when Dagny Taggert is asked who will feed and clothe the poor once Galt's Gulch takes over she sniffs, "I suppose you can if you want to." I'm not sure if it's her but actually they are all the same person just wearing different clothes.Christianity, of the love thy neighbor form, has no place in capitalism.

That's where Umair loses me with talking about  morality in capitalism, it sounds like he is asking capitalists to play nice.  I mean come on.

What I think Umair is actually espousing is, tada, The Liberal Agenda, tolerance and a more equal distribution of wealth.  Until Umair becomes a fellow of the Beaglestonian I would rather hear what Old Dog has to say than what Umair has to say.  The guy apparently likes to write, perhaps he could be persuaded.

I'm looking at the time stamp on Old Dog's post to see if he was aware of the latest insults Two-Scoops hurled at France and Canada.  Hard to tell, but there will be new ones in the morning.  I wouldn't be surprised if he just doesn't show up, sends Sarah Sanders, or how about that mayor turned gnome Giuliani?  Like all bullies Trump is fine insulting people to their backs but face to face he backs off because I suppose he is afraid somebody will punch him in his pouty lips.

Happy weekend fellows.

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows

I don't remember what famous guy said that, but it seems appropriate here.  As I have said before, I am not currently a card carrying member of any political party.  I mostly vote Republican as the lesser of two evils.  Last time I voted for the Libertarian presidential candidate as the lesser of three evils.  If it was a presidential year, I would be inclined to vote for Trump this time.  I still don't like his personality, but I care more about issues than I do about personalities.  I don't like everything he has tried to accomplish, but I like most of it better than I like what any other president has done, with the possible exception of Reagan.

I have always heard that the Republicans are the rich man's party and the Democrats are for the poor people.  I don't necessarily agree with that, but that's what people say.  I don't remember ever hearing, until Uncle Ken said it, that the Republicans want to make more people become poor.  I have also never heard before that "Poor white people vote Republican because they don't get no education".  Funny, I seem to remember that Uncle Ken once said that White kids still get a better education than Black kids, despite all the efforts that have been made over the years to level the playing field.

Be that as it may, I'm glad that uncle Ken looked up John James for me because now I am more inclined to vote for him than ever.  Of course that depends on who runs against him.  We haven't had our primary yet, it's coming up in August.  Last I heard there were a number of Republican candidates for governor, but I haven't heard about anybody except James running for senator on the Republican ticket..

I am not particularly proud of being White, but I am certainly not ashamed of it either.  I am what I am, but that doesn't make me responsible for what other White people do, or other Republicans either.  

I did indeed participate in social activities in high school, but mostly in my freshman year.  I did it less and less as the years went on because I came to the conclusion that it was a waste of my time and energy.  Our ROTC uniforms were left over from the Korean era, so they were probably donated by the army as surplus.

It is my understanding that the Queen of Sheba came from, what is now, Ethiopia.  When they used to have a king, one of his titles was "The Lion of Juda".  Some years ago, they were having a civil war, and a plane load of Ethiopians showed up in Israel, claiming to be Jewish, and requesting asylum.  They did some DNA testing on them, and came to the conclusion that these guys indeed had a little Hebrew in them, possibly from King Solomon himself.

Sheba-bam-boom

Good scholarship on the Queen of Sheba, Uncle Ken.  I had to backtrack to see how her name came up in the first place and it was in the discussion of Yemen.  Huh.  Knowing that Sheba was located in or nearby present day Yemen is very uncommon knowledge; I'm impressed.  But the only reference that came to my mind was the line "Ten thousand Queens of Sheba!" used by a buddy of mine whenever a particularly impressive black lady happened by.  That line originated in the stage play Purlie Victorious, later made into a movie starring Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and a very young Alan Alda.  I remember it as a comedy but I could be wrong.

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Although currently living in London, Umair Haque's parents are from Pakistan; make of that what you will.  The guy is an economist of the capitalist persuasion and a big believer in democracy but he draws the line at the predatory capitalism that is, in his opinion, the cause of the American decline into a pariah nation.  His essays can speak for themselves but I wish his observations weren't so damn reasonable.  Capitalism shouldn't just be about the bottom dollar but should also include social responsibility, and I can't disagree with that idea although it gets a bit complicated.  You guys can read his other essays for yourself, and here's the latest.

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There should be fun times in Ottawa this weekend during the G-7 summit meeting, don't you think?  It looks like a certain Cheeto is facing a lot of unhappy trading partners but I'm sure he will be well prepared and present his ideas in a cogent and affable manner. If not, the next meeting will be of the G-6 nations and Donny Two-Scoops will be left to play with his new pal in North Korea and his other besties in China, Russia, Turkey, and the Philippines.  The autocrats have got to stick together and make the best deals, don't they?

The Queen of Sheba

Obamacare is better than what we had before.  If the Republicans had not fought it every inch we could have had single payer and that would have been way better.

The Republicans want to take money from everybody that is not in the one percent, if that results on middle class people becoming poor, that is no sweat off the elephant's brow.  Those warm-hearted dems would love to lift the poor out of poverty, but the best they can do is help them out a little because of the intransigence of the cold-hearted reps.  Poor white people tend to vote Republican, because they don't get no education.

The kids would be better off with better schools and smaller classes than some popinjay strutting around with a gun for an event that is less likely than a bolt of lightning.  I think I remember Beagles taking part in social activities in high school, and who paid for that fancy ROTC uniform?

Beagles said he didn't notice it that much and I don't know what it was like on the north side, but growing up in Gage Park, what I remember is nigger this and nigger that.  It's not so much the word as it is the attitude everytime the subject of black people came up nobody had anything good to say about them.  I don't hear white people talk like that anymore.  And that's a good thing. 

So maybe if that guy, the author of that commie crap that Beagles refuses to address because the guy used the word social a lot, had had a black name Beagles wouldn't be so quick to dismiss him the way white folks on the south side did in the 50's.  But the muslim (doesn't Beagles mean Arabic name?) name is enough to dismiss the guy because some muslims are terrorists.  Doesn't sound right to me.

Of course Beagles is a proud member of the white race, and the white race has never done anything bad, well not to other white people, oh that's right they have done plenty to each other.

I wonder how much John James' army antics would have meant if the guy was a dem.  I also wonder if Beagles voted for him in the primary, and if he is voting for him now because he is the last best chance to keep a dem from taking the seat.

Oh, and I wonder if this has anything to do with Beagles liking that John James, from the man's website: Conservative Outsider who supports the Trump Agenda – Actions speak louder than words and from tax relief for working families to the elimination of overbearing government regulations, President Trump is keeping his promises to the American people.


So I messed around with the Queen of Sheba, well I wished I had messed around with her, if for no other reason than to tell people that I had messed around with the Queen of Sheba.  Now there's a song title that writes the song

Well I messed around with the Queen of Sheba
But the Queen of Sheba had nothing on you Babe

And then the song would go on about how actually the Babe had treated the guy pretty shabby and now he wished now that he had stuck with the Queen of Sheba, and if you could work the words in where even if the Babe hadn't treated him wrong he still would have wished he had stuck with the Queen, because honestly who wouldn't?.

Each of the Abrahamic religions has a different take on the Queen of Sheba (some have her cavorting with Solomon (does the bible ever come out against polygamy, and if not why are so many fundamental Christians against it?), also the Copts and the Ethiopians have their version.

But she shines best in popular culture.  You know I ain't the Queen of Sheba, Bonnie Riatt wails, and it seems like the Queen is mostly seen in a negative light, like I ain't the Queen of Sheba, or who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheba?  The Queen of Sheba is not like the Queen of England, she is shapely and she swings her hips, and she is a sharp dresser and if some folks say she is maybe a little slutty, she just winks her kohl-lined eye and swings her gaudy beads because what does she care, she is, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Queen of Sheba.

All hail The Queen.

Say What?

I thought that Uncle Ken and I had previously agreed that medical insurance is part of the problem, not part of the solution.  I know that I have said I would favor something like the Canadian system, but Obamacare is nothing like that, it's just a sweetheart deal for the insurance companies.  As predicted, insurance rates and medical costs have continued to rise faster than inflation since Obamacare was implemented.  Trumpcare wouldn't have been any better, and might have been even worse but, thankfully, it didn't pass.  I don't think that the taxpayers foot the medical bill for people who don't have insurance, unless they are already on Medicaid, and there are more of them on it than ever since Obamacare passed.  It is my understanding that health care providers charge more for insured people to make up for the uncollectable bills of the poor.  When I had that bleeding ulcer back in 2008, I got a 20% discount on my hospital bill because I didn't have insurance.  The balance that I paid represented about two years of insurance premiums that I would have paid if I had insurance, so I literally paid for it with the money I saved by not having insurance.

I don't know why the Republicans would want to see more people become poor because poor people generally vote Democrat.  I seem to remember Uncle Ken saying once that the Democrats don't want to lift the poor out of poverty, they just want to give them a little help.

I remember saying recently that I would vote for a school millage if the money would be used to hire armed security guards, preferably law enforcement professionals.  I also might vote for one if I could be assured that the money would be spent on education instead of sports and social crap.

Islam is not a race, it's a religion, the fastest growing religion in the world.  I'm not saying that all  Muslims hate our guts and want to kill us, but many of them do.  Even if it's a minority of Muslims, when the Muslims become the majority of the population, even a minority of that majority will become a force to be reckoned with.  I have said before that I have nothing against minorities, as long as they remain minorities.  It's when the minority threatens to become the majority that makes me nervous.  I have never done anything to persecute minorities, but they don't know that.  As far as they're concerned, I'm as guilty as any other White guy, which they probably learned from the liberals.  Now that's racism!

Speaking of race, we've got a Black guy running for U.S. Senator from Michigan on the Republican ticket.  His name is John James, a nice American sounding name.  He has no previous political experience, and his other habits are good as well.  He is a West Point graduate who flew helicopters in the army for eight years, seeing action in the Middle East.  It's a little early to make that decision but, as of now, he's got my vote.

Houthis are actually Zaidas

I recall hearing quite a bit about how the death toll from Puerto Rico was about ten times what they said it was.  Mostly this was on CNN and NPR,  I'd say both are covering Puerto Rico pretty well.  I'm not sure about the newspapers, when I go through them I skip a lot of stuff I know about already, or if it's a complicated issue I may read closely to catch details I missed when I saw it on tv or heard it on the radio.

I'm surprised the blowup about Roseanne didn't go on longer,  I thought sure Trump was going to jump in with a chance to champion one of his fans and bash the media,  He did jump in on that football thing.  I don't think his little Trump is the Flag rally was televised, but this photo looks like something you would see from one of those old-timey South American dictators. 

Trump's suits are his uniforms, and his hair is his visored hat, but where are his medals?  Why is he not bedecked in shiny metal and bright cloth?  I have to assume he has not yet thought of it.  

There is a strong vocal, opposition to Trump, and it's the democrats, and most of the liberal punditry, and some of the Republican punditry, and a few actual Republican pols who aren't running for anything in the next election, and curiously, John Kasich.  What passes for opposition in the rest of the party is applauding Trump vigorously rather than jumping up and down and slavering at the mouth.

As per my Crucible of Truth belief, I've played devil's advocate with myself by imagining what would happen if Trump had run as a dem,  Well I just can't see him running roughshod over the dems like he did the reps, but what if he was more of a leftist Trump, say like that guy in Venezuela or his successor.  I still don't think so.  Dems talk in longer sentences.

I didn't read all of that Old Dog article, but I scanned through it.  It seemed like his big issue was heath insurance and then there was a nod to broadband.  I've long heard that Europe has much better and cheaper internet than the US.  Lately the reps have tried to do to the internet what they are trying to do with schools where you have one form that rich people can pay for and is pretty good, and another that is free but crappy.  I think we just held them off the pass at that one, but they are sure to be back.

Speaking of health insurance I am thinking of a couple guys I know well, both about 40 and neither one with health insurance.  The one guy owns a carwash, has rental property, and invests in classic cars, has plenty of dough, but never had health insurance.  Then he had a stroke.  His bills are enormous, we taxpayers will probably pay much of them.  The other guy was barely scraping by, Obamacare was made for him, but when the time came he paid the fine rather than buy insurance because that was slightly cheaper and he is an idiot.  He hasn't got sick yet, but if he does, you know where the bill is going.

I think the author is mainly saying that Americans have an aversion to helping out their fellow man.  It used to be we were worried about poverty, oh those poor people what can we do about them?  But those days are long gone.  Republicans, the party that doesn't want socialized medicine and doesn't want to help people have insurance, doesn't mind if people can be slammed into poverty by a medical emergency, because once they are there they are just ground into dust and swept away.  

As Beagles says he didn't cause it and there is nothing he can do about it.  But of course he can get out there and vote down every bill that goes for schools or whatever those no-account  poor people want.

I don't have anything against wiki, I just didn't want to get bogged down in details when I wanted to just present a brief review of Yemen.  I did go back and check afterwards.  I think I did a pretty good job, although, of course, it turned out to be even more complicated that I thought.  Houthi is the name of the leaders of the movement and they are Zaidis, which is a form of Shia which is close to Sunni, probably why the Iranis are not as crazy about them as the Saudis claim they are.

Queen of Sheba though, that is crying out for more research.  Seems like a lot of different countries claim her, and there is speculation about the relationship between her and Solomon.

I hate political correctness, and I decry the tendency of my ilk to toss around charges of racism, but what the fuck is this?  

Sounds like a Muslim name to me.  And you say he's Canadian?  Apparently the US isn't the only country that's being over run by those people.  

Who the Hell is Umair Haque?

Sounds like a Muslim name to me.  And you say he's Canadian?  Apparently the US isn't the only country that's being over run by those people.  He seems to be down on Wall Street and capitalism in general, and he uses the word "social" a lot, which suggests that he's some kind of socialist.  I suppose that doesn't mean that he's all bad but, if he was running for president, or even county commissioner, he would not get my vote.  Like most stories, this one probably has some truth in it, it all depends how you want to spin it, and this guy's spin is definitely counter clockwise.

I can't speak for other people, but Wall Street has been pretty good to me since the paper mill closed down in 1990.  I don't do hedge funds or any of that fancy stuff, just a conservative index fund.  Of course there have been ups and downs, but the long term trend has definitely been up, at least for me.
I'm sorry that there are people out there who have fallen through the cracks, but I didn't cause it and I can't fix it.  If the government confiscated my total net worth and distributed it to the poor, they would still be poor, and now I would be poor too.  How would that be an improvement?

I agree that a lot of the news these days consists of celebrity gossip, which is why I don't follow the news as much as some people.  As I have said before, I am more interested in issues than I am in personalities.  By the way, Uncle Ken, why are you down on Wikipedia?

This Yemen thing sounds like another can of worms that would best be avoided by our government, but don't count on it.  It doesn't seem to matter which party is in power, they both like to squander our troops and treasure in those two bit countries that nobody cares about.  The Libertarians are the only ones who believe that we should stay home and mind our own business, but they believe in some other things that don't make as much sense, so there you go.