Authored by EconomicPrism’s MN Gordon, annotated by Acting-Man’s Pater Tenebrarum,
Cold Dark Clouds
The sun always shines brightest in the northern hemisphere during summer’s dog days. Here in America, from sea to shining sea, the nation burns hot. But, all the while, cold dark clouds have descended over the land of the free.
In case you ever wondered – yes, they really did say it… [PT]
For example, Senator Mark Warner – an absolute goober – is currently running interference for the Democrats on a proposal to silence political criticism. Yet for Warner, and his cohorts, all political criticism is not created equal. Criticism of President Trump is allowed and encouraged. Criticism of Washington insiders, like Warner, is what they want to prohibit.
Mark Warner, who at the behest of the leftist lamestream media complex makes as though he doesn’t understand what the “free” in “free speech” stands for. The dying corporate media want to de-platform their competition, as alternative media are eating their lunch. Leftist authoritarian politicians are more than happy to lend a helping hand, so as to get rid of all those pesky critics of the corrupt sty of parasites in Washington and the assorted bureaucracies it has spawned. With the mid-terms approaching and the much heralded “blue wave” beginning to look like an ever diminishing wavelet, shutting down Trump’s internet-based support is seen as a bonus. Silicon Valley firms bending to these demands better be careful – they may well be in violation of anti-trust laws by now or alternatively in violation of the first amendment. They cannot have their cake and eat it. We would strongly recommend ignoring politicians on this issue – all of whom will eventually be gone anyway. Tech firms should should get off the thin ice they are on now and remain above the fray by invoking the first amendment. [PT]
The guise of Warner’s would-be regulation is to prevent the bugaboo of Russian spread disinformation. Hence, Warner wants to destroy free speech to save it. Zero Hedge, via Martin Armstrong, offers the particulars…
“The Democrats want full disclosure regarding any online political speech. They even want the Federal Trade Commission to have unbelievable power and require all companies’ algorithms to be audited by the feds as if they even have qualified staff to conduct such audits.
“On top of that, they have proposed tech platforms above a certain size must turn over internal data and processes to ‘independent public interest researchers’ so they can identify potential ‘public health/addiction effects, anti-competitive behavior, radicalization,’ scams, ‘user propagated misinformation,’ and harassment — data that could be used to ‘inform actions by regulators or Congress.”’
Unfree Speech
Free speech, under this proposal, would only be free if it’s considered acceptable by ‘public interest researchers.’ In other words, free speech wouldn’t be free. It would be unfree.
Remember, it is free speech that grants us the right, without fear of fine or imprisonment, to say President Trump is an orange faced blowhard with whacky hair. Similarly, because of free speech, we can say Hillary Clinton is a political loser with the flare-up durability of ring worm jock itch. Would ‘public interest researchers’ find this speech to be unacceptable?
Defend your right to dispense equal opportunity offense at all cost. An aside: shutting down debate by “deplatforming” ideological opponents is an ages old Marxist tactic. Marxists once asserted the existence of “polylogism” in order to avoid having to debate economists on the merits of their central economic planning system. They simply insisted that there existed a “proletarian” (and hence correct) logic and a “bourgeois” (and therefore outmoded and incorrect) logic. Obviously there was no need to debate anyone whose thinking was based on the latter. Wherever Marxists subsequently attained political power, they made such debate bans permanent by incarcerating or killing “counter-revolutionary elements” who dared to disagree with them.
What’s more, a vast segment of the population seems to have wet their pants with glee over Warner’s war on free speech. They no longer have the sense or sensibility to hear or consider opinions that differ from what is deemed acceptable by “progressive” standards.
This, no doubt, is the same segment of the population that fancies policies of forced philanthropy. These are the people who believe the nation’s ails can be solved by redistributing wealth from those who earn it to those who burn it.
We will have some additional thoughts on this in just a moment. But first, to put things in proper context, we offer some empirical reflections on the natural and physical world in which we roam…
Adventures in Character Building
Readers who have experienced the stress and frustration of a large project gone sideways know that professional life is rarely neat and almost never tidy. One person’s good intentions can divert a task’s objectives far off course. An obscure regulation or a supply chain breakdown can wreak havoc on schedules and budgets.
There are, however, plenty of benefits garnered when taking a run through the proverbial meat grinder. For one, there are countless opportunities to build character, regardless of whether one has a hankering for a slice of humble pie.
For example, about a decade ago, a client held a report we had prepared up to the sky, flailed it around, and shouted, “this is crap on paper!” After that, to help better clarify his thoughts, he kept flailing it around and shouted some more.
Diplomacy and restraint in the face of demanding customers [PT]
Another time, immediately following our presentation of a table we had created to track and manage a project’s progress, a client looked us squarely in the eyes and said, “tables are for idiots.”
We have had a client tell us, between bites of a chicken salad sandwich, that we had “the significance of a gnat on an elephants ass.” Ironically, this message was delivered to us immediately after being accused of big jobbing his project.
We have had schedules escalated on us for no real reason, and were then hammered on for late submission. We have been squeezed for additional scope without the addition of a commensurate budget so many times, we are in a permanent state of compression.
Sudden change of specifications syndrome… [PT]
We have worked for months on end to create the perfect product, only to have the marketplace greet it with the frosty demeanor with which a congregation greets a Sunday morning sermon on tithing.
The result, if you have never experienced it, is precisely the same result that comes from dousing a big fat wad of cash in gasoline, and then setting it on fire. Poof! – just like that – the money is gone… and there is nothing to show for it.
The Fake Promise of Adult Day Care
Yes, we have had epic failures galore. We have had so many of them we’ve lost count. Still, we grit our teeth and take our setbacks with a grin and a smirk. Quite frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The simple fact is, the world doesn’t owe us a doggone thing. This obvious insight, however, is not shared by the likes of Warner or the burgeoning Democratic Socialist movement centered on Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
A range of wants and needs… [PT]
Rather than live and let live, they want to concentrate power in the hand of the state, where they can control and coerce what you believe, think, and say. They promise a world without failure in return.
Moreover, they promise a fake economy with fake jobs and pretend work. They promise adult day care where you’re paid a living wage for showing up and carrying out meaningless minutiae. They even have a plan for those who don’t want show up, but still want to get paid. It’s real simple, they want you to pay them.
A simple plan… [PT]
But that’s not all they want you to pay for. They want you to pay for free housing, free medical care, free food, and free education. They even want you to pay for your neighbor’s rooftop solar panels, so they can have free electricity at your expense.
The result, unfortunately, is the result of the Soviet Union in 1989. It’s the result of Cuba in 1995. Or Venezuela or North Korea in 2018.
Lettuce not be too results-oriented… [PT]
The Utopian promise has a catch… [PT]
Fake economies, where individual failures and individual thoughts and expressions are not permitted, are doomed to fail. If you don’t believe us, just wait and see.
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