Am Grt 02/03 Boycott House/Capitalism the Enemy/Economic Populism

 

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Start By Boycotting The House by Angelo Codevilla Right-leaning Americans are living as if occupied by a foreign power intent on denigrating and destroying our way of life, impoverishing us, and punishing us for objecting. But to get away with this, the oligarchs who control America’s public and private institutions need us to respect their mastery of us. Hence the only way for us to preserve our way of life is to separate from institutions they have turned from common to all Americans to partisan instruments. By so doing, we deprive them of legitimacy, as we patronize or create alternative ones. The long list includes America’s largest corporations, educational institutions, the media, and government itself.  Separation between conservative America and the oligarchy is happening spontaneously as Americans sort themselves into mutually agreeable groups. It’s also a result of the oligarchs pushing dissenters into what they believe is the Outer Darkness. But in order to preserve republican freedoms, those of us who want them require leadership from our elected officials. We can start by boycotting an institution that undeniably, has become ruinously partisan: the House of Representatives.  From Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to committee chairmen such as Homeland Security’s Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), with no dissent in the ranks, the House Democrats assert their Republican colleagues are “enemies within,” accusing them of complicity in the January 6 Capitol riot, and claiming that Republican members endanger their lives. That the Democrats don’t believe a word of this lie only underlines why they repeat it ad nauseam: to pin the label “terrorist” on Republican leaders and voters, thereby depriving us of standing as citizens who must be respected and justifying all manner of oppression.  Full article

‘American Capitalism’ Is the Enemy by Pedro Gonzalez Sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, cities across the United States went up in flames last year, beset with looters, agitators, and killers. As leaves, and ashes, fell softly last autumn, homicide rates began to soar nationwide as $1 billion-plus in claims registered on the insurance industry’s books, making these riots the most destructive in American history.  Even so, last week, Norwegian Member of Parliament Petter Eide nominated Black Lives Matter for the Nobel peace prize.  The most peculiar thing about the mayhem last summer was not the media coverage, the bipartisan kowtowing to the demands of agitators, or even the magnitude of the destruction. Instead, it was the universal embrace of the movement behind the madness by the managers of industry.  A week after a gunman shot and killed federal officer Patrick Underwood while a Black Lives Matter protest roared on nearby, as riots were gaining momentum across the country, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey encouraged his followers to “Download Signal,” an encrypted messaging app. Signal served as an organizing tool for BLM activists to conspire away from prying eyes.  Three days after Dorsey tweeted that thoughtful tip, looters killed a retired African American police captain named David Dorn as he tried to protect a friend’s pawn shop in St. Louis, Missouri. Full article

‘I Banish You!’ by Glenn Ellmers In responding to the absurd impeachment proceedings brought by the Democrats in Congress, Donald Trump should take a page from Coriolanus—Shakespeare’s riveting play about envy, honor, and the decline of popular government. The play is well worth reading, but for those who may not have the time or inclination to get the book, an excellent film adaptation—released in 2011 and starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, and Vanessa Redgrave—is available on DVD and some streaming services. Coriolanus, the title character, is a successful Roman general and veteran of many wars in defense of his country. As was the Roman custom, he expected to be rewarded for his service by being elected to the office of consul. But being proud and a bit stubborn, he resisted some of the normal conventions and rules set up by “the establishment.”  The general would have been better off listening to his friends and his wise, dignified mother—one of the great characters in all of Shakespeare, who actually represents Roman virtue better than her son. Coriolanus is a fearsome but deeply flawed figure. His prickly (and somewhat self-defeating) sense of honor, and his inability to accept good advice, is one aspect of the play’s tragedy. The other is a warning about how popular government can become corrupted. The play takes place in republican Rome, before the rise of the empire and the absolute rule of the Caesars. Republican government is only possible, Shakespeare reminds us, when the people exercise the vigilance and self-control that is essential for liberty under the law.  Full article

Cheney’s Republican Party Is No More by Ned Ryun There’s a mistaken assumption regarding job security, it seems, for establishment Republicans living in super-safe districts in, say, Wyoming. Such a Republican doesn’t fear losing her seat; after all, the opposition can’t beat her. Democrats haven’t won the seat in decades. She is well-financed, with a national fundraising base. Democrats won’t waste their time and money, so it’s not surprising such a Republican would assume she can do whatever she wants with no recriminations from her constituents.  But the rush she must feel from that power trip can easily mislead. And it seems to have done exactly that in the case of U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who mistakenly felt empowered to push for legislation and positions that have nothing to do with the wishes of the Republicans in her district or, in fact, her country. Now reality is about to slap her in the face. Cheney, a throwback to the neoconservative days of the Republican Party, decided that as part of the Republican leadership in the U.S. House, she should vote to impeach one of the most popular Republican presidents of recent times. It’s difficult to understand this idiocy on a realpolitik level. Liz Cheney, sitting in one of the strongest Republican districts in the entire country, in a state where Donald Trump is very popular, thinks she could just vote willy-nilly to impeach Trump on the basis of politically motivated charges, and somehow she believes there would be no political fallout for her?  The arrogance is amazing. But then again, when your family is to politics in Wyoming what the Kennedys are to Massachusetts, you might see how such a leap in logic could occur. Familiarity breeds contempt, the saying goes. Full article

The Justice System Is Rigged Against The Right by Paul Bradford The infamous “Zip Tie Guy” was denied bail this week. Eric Munchel, who went viral for carrying around zip ties during the Capitol riots, was deemed too much of a threat by a federal judge to be allowed out of jail. This order overrode a Tennessee judge granting bail to Munchel. Why was Munchel deemed a threat? According to federal prosecutors, the zealous Trump supporter needed to be held because people died in the riots (even though they couldn’t prove Munchel’s involvement in any of those deaths), his opinions make him an extremist, and he allegedly was part of a group that yelled at a reporter. The only solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing is that the defendant walked around the Capitol without permission—he didn’t bring the zip ties and there is no evidence he attempted to kidnap lawmakers. That still won’t draw any retractions from media outlets that claimed this foolish demonstrator was a terrorist mastermind bent on abducting the entire Congress.  Even though we grant bail to rapists and murderers, Eric Munchel was apparently too dangerous to be set free. And, as the prosecutors admitted, it was due to his politics. The same federal judge, Beryl Howell, also denied bail to the man who put his feet up on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk. Howell said the Trump supporter, Richard Barnett, didn’t deserve bail due to his “entitled behavior.” The powerful need to teach the plebs a lesson. Full article

Robinhood, Reddit, and the Cram Down of Economic Populism By Edward Ring Short sellers claim there is a moral and economic worth to their trade. They supposedly keep the market honest by exposing overvalued stocks, thereby preventing “irrational exuberance” from creating stock bubbles. If that was all there was to it, they’d be right. Stock bubbles tend to pop eventually, and when they do, the worst case scenario is that the collateral they represent implodes, the loans that the collateral enabled go into default, and trillions in debt-fueled liquidity is erased in a cascading downward spiral. And just like that, the economy collapses into a deflationary depression that makes the 1930s look like a cake walk. There are good reasons we don’t want to demonize short sellers indiscriminately, or drive them out of the market. What’s happening with Robinhood and the Reddit “mob,” however, exposes the gritty reality behind the high-minded justifications for short-selling. Yes, short-sellers play a vital role in regulating stock market levels. But the world of short-selling is an elite club, rife with intrigue, shady players, and deliberate market manipulation. And when an online mob crashed the party and pissed in the punchbowl, suddenly the bouncers came to life. This is the point to emphasize: Reddit and Robinhood didn’t do anything that elite Wall Street hedge funds haven’t been doing for years. They just did it publicly, using an online mob of small players, and were indifferent (at best) to the impact it would have on elite institutions that have become accustomed to raking in billions in profits out of the market. When interlopers play by the rules, they’re still interlopers. Which means it’s time to change the rules. Full article