FYI, there will be a major outage of services on the internet starting “soon”. Depending on where you are in the world, it will be in the next couple of days.
Why? Well, the folks who are paranoid about content and want to assert their monopoly rights over it (and would just LOVE to do away with all “fair use” doctrine and the exemption for ‘teachers’ too – both of which let me do most of what I do) are pushing the US Congress to make it a criminal offense for a SITE to have someone else publish something that someone, somewhere, held to be their copyright.
At one time they tried to hold the internet service providers liable for any content published by anyone. That means that if Wiki, or WordPress, or just about any OTHER hosting site had ONE person put up ONE thing that was not validated as properly licensed, that SITE could be hit with penalties for the ‘crime’. This was to be a big change from then current US law which hold it was the PERSON who put up the stuff without proper license who is at fault. Lucky for us, that one got quashed in court ( IIRC ).
The latest one is due to yet another push. A push to require blocking entire sites by service providers if the recording industry decides to sue them and / or gets a court order supporting their claim.
In protest, many sites are going to shutdown for a day ( in their opinion, to demonstrate the impact of the law…)
Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours tomorrow to protest against US piracy laws, which are backed by the music and film industries but rigorously opposed by internet companies.
The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act will force internet service providers to block non-US websites that offer pirated content if served with a court order.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced the planned global block-out of the site’s English pages on Twitter this morning, after first raising the idea on Monday.
You can be assured that shortly after non-US sites are done, they will be back with the ‘precedent’ to demand the same be done to US sites.
Never mind that such blocking will just force a whole lot more folks to learn the tricks and tools to bypass such filters and train entire generations in how to make VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnels to remote ‘anonymizer’ sites. (On second thought, maybe it would be a GOOD thing… training a whole new generation of hackers from the moment of their first music download…)
Never mind that I can set up my own Domain Authority and make my own “dark network” and put the whole thing inside encryption (out of sight, out of mind?) and just keep on sharing with like minded folks.
No, the idiots-that-be think that THEY are in power (or can buy it from Congress…). They think that THEY have real control. They don’t. They have INFLUENCE, and even then only on the less technically connected. ( You don’t need to know how to do this stuff, you just need to be connected with someone who does..) And as we all know, folks who smell just a tiny bit of power begin to dream of invading Poland, and then think Russia will be easy… ( W.W.II reference, for anyone too young to know that bit of history…)
So, be advised:
Many of my pages use graphics from places like the Wiki Media library. Those pages will be broken. I’ve quoted and Australian news article, as I’m not sure what’s going to happen to US news. I’m also not planning a whole lot of ‘new stuff’ for the next couple of days until we see where all this ends up.
Welcome to a Brave New World…
Mr Wales said the block-out would run from midnight US Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday to midnight the next day (4pm – 4pm AEST).
“Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!” he tweeted.
An estimate by digital analysts comScore puts the English site’s daily visitors at an average of 25 million globally. But Mr Wales said the site’s traffic could blow out as a result of the black-out’s publicity.
I heard on the news (Fox or CNBC) that other companies were joining the ‘movement’…
Musings from the Chiefio 
Internet outage may be the start of Big Brother’s desperate attempt to hold onto power, in the face of increasing displeasure at politicians who ignored the will of voters:
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/occupy-just-say-no-to-congress
I was reminded again today that this is not a left-wing or a right-wing issue. Both political parties seem to have sold out to an international coalition of corporations and communists, who feel entitled to rule the world and have made great progress in establishing a one-world form of 1984.
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
Personally I won’t be missing Wikipedia very much!!
Have to see what else shuts down.
@Oliver K. Manuel:
What folks tend to forget is that many things have ‘brittle failure’ modes, and government is one of them. Folks who lust after power find they can always take just a bit more, and nothing significant breaks. Until it does….
Then the ‘reset’ goes a very long ways the other way… Just ask the folks who started using the blade during the French Revolution… only to end up under it themselves.
In watching the Republican Debate last night, I noticed a Very Restless audience. Now these folks were undoubtedly not your average rabble off the street. They will have been “connected” to a much larger degree than the rest of us. They had a clear “off with his head!” mood about some of the questions (that were perceived as having some agenda) and about some of the answers.
Now if that’s how THEY react, how is the rabble feeling?
IMHO, if EITHER Obama gets a second term (and thus pushes things to the breaking point, as he will/is) OR if a Republican gets in and things are not dramatically improved pronto ( were improved included drastically smaller government spending and intrusion); then we enter the land of “brittle failure”…
Some symptoms?
After 911, I sent a resume to some TLAs volunteering to help in any way needed. (THEY were so swamped with resumes they put on their web site to please stop as they couldn’t even read them all…. ) Yet just a couple of years ago, when having a talk with my son, I advised against joining the military. Things had changed.
Where once I would NEVER have thought of leaving this country, I’m now actively researching places to be “if needed” (and getting a non-US passport lined up).
Where once schools taught the constitution and civic duty, California has now mandated the teaching of “Gay and Lesbian History”. (Nothing against the GLBT folks – some of my best friends are in that group, but it hardly ranks with ‘how to preserve liberty’) Where once we taught how to effectively and properly use the language, the spouse (a teacher) was just sent to forced re-education camp (called an ‘in service seminar’) where they were told that they were FORBIDDEN to criticize “Ebonics” and Spanglish. That they are “just as valid and just as correct as standard English”…
Now, don’t get me wrong; long time folks here will know that I grew up speaking Spanglish half the time and swapping between proper English and poor Spanish the rest. I like Spanglish. It just isn’t English and if you want to “blow it” on your future job prospects, just keep on speaking Spanglish and Ebonics in the interview…. It does no service to these kids to “protect their fragile egos” so they can have their teeth kicked in by reality as young adults.
LOADS of businesses have packed up and left for better places.
Our culture is in rapid decay. The organs of good governance have been turned into organs of indoctrination and domination. The end is that the people just stop. ALL it takes for things to fail is that folks of good will stop participating. I look around and see a whole lot of folks ‘just stopping’.
From the mechanic who decided NOT to expand his operation (and retrenched by one employee instead), to folks moving to other countries or states, to the folks who “show up for the check but do not participate beyond the minimum”, it’s all around.
We even see it in well over $1 Trillion of “stimulus” that did nothing as folks just pocketed it and decided to ‘do nothing and wait’. Even the banks largely just stuck their share into ‘reserves’.
So every year the load rises by about $2 Trillion, and the support is either shrinking (in real terms) or static (in nominal terms). That path eventually leads to brittle failure… and I’m not seeing many folks decrying it; while some large fraction seem happy at the idea…
I’ve run into a fair number of folks (on both coasts and in between) who have said, in various ways, “Fix it or break it, either one”, but not said ‘just keep it running a bit longer’ as congress is doing….
So we’ll see if the Congress Critters keep pushing their loss of rights and freedoms agenda. Maybe someone ought to start sending them free copies of the history of the French Revolution… They could use a better understanding of why Brittle Failure is to be avoided, and what aristocratic attitudes causes.
I was reading a “buy american, support the american worker” article in the usa today and was struck by how totally of touch that notion is in general. You can buy american products on occasion, but the majority have moved overseas because of groups gaming the economic system. Trial lawyers, insurance, unions, doctors, and the biggie, government itself have all set themselves up to be paid *before* anyone who works in or owns a business and sells a product. Sure you can support an american worker buying american products, it’s just not the american worker you were thinking of.
The federal government and a number of similar states are broken and can’t “fix” the problem, because they and the groups they most represent are what’s wrong.
Government budgets need *massive* cuts, both in percentages and in number of departments.
I liked Herman Cain’s 999 plan because it was at least an improvement on inherent problems with the economy and the federal budget. Sad that he was run out of town because he was black and not a democrat.
Alaska isn’t a bad place to move to IMO. The cold is survivable with proper preparation. Game is at least available at the moment. It’s far enough away that it’s not really in the equation if things go bad enough in the continental US (or anywhere else for that matter absent total nuclear war).
Good idea to look for an escape E.M.
If you need any advice, just send me an e-mail.
As for your assessment of “brittle failure” I have been expecting and experiencing problems with the internet for a long time.
But screwing up the internet is not what I fear.
I just don’t want to be around the block when we experience a systemic collapse of the economy with empty shops and empty shelfs.
I don’t want to be meddled with or put in a position where I would have to fight for my survival or worse fight a war for the same pack of crooks that put us on the brink.
I just know myself too well.
I still think the USA is going to make that 180 degree turn on a dime so I still watch the show but my suitcase is packed and all I need to do is take my hat, flick the switch, lock the door and I’m out of here.
To add to Eric’s comment about the “buy American” concept. About mid-November our local newspaper begins an aggressive campaign to get folks to spend Christmas $$ in the town. However, many of the local residents work elsewhere and the elephant-in-the-room is the University that gets its money from all across the country, and very little from local sources. When I use $5 for gas and save $30 buying retail in another town, I then have $25 I can save or spend. That’s an easy and sensible decision.
Internationally, some American jobs have moved. Boots and shoes, and clothing are examples. But I don’t have to pay $350 for boots. And clothing is less expensive than it otherwise would be. Has America suffered? Lots of jobs that moved away have generated better jobs here in the States. One example is Woolrich, a company whose red and black coats I grew up in. Find the story at this link:
Click to access article.pdf
@E.M.Smith (23:55:58)
I agree with most if not all of your message.
I am too old and too stubborn to leave, but I will try to do what I can to prevent ‘brittle failure.’ Western leaders are now trapped, like rats on a sinking ship, in ego cages fabricated of their own arrogance and pride.
Of course they would like to control the web. That is the media that keeps flaunting reality in the faces of world leaders and pointing out gaping holes in the Emperor’s imaginary models of reality, e,g.,
I just read that there i opposition among the 1800 volunteers involved with Wikipedia to participate the protest.
They take the position that Wikipedia should not shut down for political protests.
I think they are right.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/17/4194930/wikipedia-editors-question-sites.html
John F. Hultquist (01:26:27) :
I like Woolrich shirts. :) I have a couple that were made in China and they’re very nice shirts. I really like Pendelton wool shirts. There was one that retailed for about $130 that I bought in the spring and I was ecstatic when I got it for $30. Never thought to look at where it was made until now and it was made in Mexico. IMO, when you have to move production on the other side of the planet to compete on a local level, there’s a serious problem with the business environment.
I don’t think boots, or shoes or etc. would be much more expensive if produced here *if* the politicians, unions, lawyers, insurance agents, etc. weren’t constantly taking a bite of the pie before it was in the pan.
I live in a college town as well, but can barely bring myself to shop downtown. I like to shop at our local antique mall and garage sales/estate sales. That’s the best way to keep money in the community.
I am just sick and tired of a government that acts like it is our parents or worse, that we are their adversaries or something.
I am really tired of the patronizing. We aren’t children. We aren’t dumb. There are probably several million of us more qualified than they are to hold their positions.
George (02:33:12): You are not alone, George. All around the globe, citizens of formerly “Free West” nations feel have totally lost control of government.
E.M.Smith (23:55:58) gave an excellent summary of the problem that plagues leaders of formerly “Free West” nations:
“Folks who lust after power find they can always take just a bit more, and nothing significant breaks. Until it does….
Then the ‘reset’ goes a very long ways the other way… Just ask the folks who started using the blade during the French Revolution… only to end up under it themselves.”
I hope someone can find a way to help them escape their currently hopeless predicament – locked in a futile battle against reality – to avoid the potential horrors of economic and social collapse.
PS – Does anyone know how citizens of the formerly “Communists Block” of nations feel about current events?
Reblogged this on pindanpost.
Chiefio. Forgive me for being off thread but this is very important to me and anyone else who really cares about what is being done in the name of allegedly “clean green wind energy”.
Our gullible scientifically illiterate members of the Labor/Green government in Tasmania have given the go-ahead for a 56 Turbine Wind Plant in one of the most beautiful environmentally sensitive areas in our State. It is already a Conservation Area right next to a National park home to threatened raptors and other birdlife and many native animals. It will be environmental destruction on a grand scale and preliminary work has already commenced.
I’d be very grateful for anything you can do to help raise awareness of this travesty in the wider world. Even allowing me to post this is of great assistance.
Tonyfromoz has kindly done a great assessment of the project at pindanpost.
For anyone who wants to see a template of what is about to happen, some good folks in Wales photographically documented the enironmental madness perpetrated in building Cefn Croes, the largest onshore Wind Plant in Wales. I’m sorry I can’t get a link to work for it , but for those wishing to have a look, Google ‘Cefn Croes’ campaign website and access the photo gallery.
Thanks so much E.M and cheers to all.
SOPA will surely be generalized by the United Nations, through a “Binding Agreement”, as the many smuggled in the legislations of the world.
We should need a new kind of internet if control measures are enforced: Like the “whales´internet”: Whales communicate among them using VLF, all what it would be needed is private transmitters (made after Nikola Tesla design) and an USB VLF receiver, and, of course, computers running under Linux from a CD drive.
@Oliver K.Manuel. PS – Does anyone know how citizens of the formerly “Communists Block” of nations feel about current events?
Visit: http://mat-rodina.blogspot.com/
Just to know an opposite perspective. …
“Mat Rodina” though it seems a name, it means something like Our holy Russia.
SOPA (and PIPA) are akin to shutting down Ford because a bank robber used one of their cars for a heist. But then the MPAA and RIAA have been usurping American Constitutional rights for years now under the guise of “potential crime’ not actual crime.
It is amusing that the sponsor of SOPA, Lamar Smith himself violated copyright on his own campaign web site. If this law was in effect when the transgression occurred, his site would have been shut down immediately with no warning or recourse. Perhaps it should have been just as a demonstration of his stupidity.
MPAA and RIAA are the gorillas in the glass shop. I deal with them daily. They do not look for transgressions – the plant them for entrapment (I have documented proof of that). I for one refuse to patronize their products and have not bought a first edition CD or DVD in many years. I will gladly pay to download material from an artist site who I like – but I will not support the 21st century gestapo in making criminals of anyone who browses a web page.
It is time for a push back. Dodd (of the infamous housing fiasco Dodd/Frank Bill) now runs the MPAA. That should tell you the unethical nature of the organization and the impediment to freedom it represents.
Protests
Mmmm. WUWT is down too, participating the SOPA protests.
Where were the protest against the “Patriot” act? That one there just robs us blind of our liberties. Like the energizer bunny it keeps getting extended and extended. Why I need to show ID to fly boggles my mind. All the 911 terrorists had proper ID. That and how everyone has knuckled under to Big Brother thinking it makes us safer. bahh
There are 300 Million Buffalo peacefully eating their grass. Somewhere, something starts a grass fire. Buffalo don’t like fire. Some start moving and others start moving and more start moving and then some start running and soon things start to look like a stampede. Now if a few buffalo had just walked over a pissed on that little flame everything would have been just fine. But you know how stupid buffalo are.
Someone once said people were “political” animals. Well maybe they used to be. I’m getting the feeling we’ve forgotten how to be “political” and the only thing we seem to know how to do (and even then on very rare occassions when all hell freezes over) is sit down and write some politician an email.
Friends! I say FRIENDS! Politics is about voting! It’s about VOTING WITH YOUR FEET, AND LEGS, AND ARMS, AND HANDS, it’s about VOTING with your MOUTH, and JUMPING UP and DOWN, and SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER to make sure some idiot you elected KNOWS exactly how you FEEL and how high and how fast and where exactly you want him to JUMP. NEVER ASSUME! I say NEVER EVER ASSUME anything about politicians, except that they are the lowest form of scum on the planet. FRIENDS! I say, FRIENDS! Stop eating that blasted grass and piss on that flame. NOW!!!
adolfogiurfa (13:51:29) Thanks for the link, but I really wanted to know if citizens of the formerly “Communists Block” of nations are alienated from their leaders.
I certainly hope “Mat Rodina” vision of America’s future is wrong:
“This year, more then likely, America will transfer fully into a police state dictatorship. Sure, they will still have an “election” but the Republican candidate will be handpicked by the party’s elites, to make sure he loses to Obama and that Obama remains in power. By midyear the government will have the right to arrest without warrant or accusation “terrorists” and their “enablers”. This will be just in time, as inflation will continue to sky rocket and nations will continue moving away from the dollar.”
http://mat-rodina.blogspot.com/
@Oliver It´s really biased, but as in science, we must be opened not only to “consensus” science, and know the other side too. For example: Fission Sun vs. Electric/plasma Sun (as those new energy saving plasma light bulbs). BTW: Have you figure out the size of the Sun´s iron core?
@Pascvaks: You are absolutely right: Just keep it cool and buy more “popcorn”, we are living in interesting times. Those f** Mayans and their 2012 thing!
@Pascvaks: We will need to get some young Buffalos to piss on that fire…as we are old, and you know…the prostate thing :-)
@adolfo:
Funny thing about that prostate thing, since they took mine out I can’t STOP pissing;-(
John F. Hultquist (01:26:27) :
America’s dirty war against manufacturing
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/america-s-dirty-war-against-manufacturing-part-1-carl-pope.html
Whew! waht a depressing thread to go with the times. some would say you are exagerating.
I wouldn’t. :<(
O.K. Corrections: What, capitol S-ome, and exaggerating (sic).
I am down in the dumps.
Wiki will be down??
Where will the ill informed go to get half truths????
@R. de Haan (17:42:50) : “Those were the days, my friend, we thought
they´d never end”. I remember the high quality of US manufacture. But, just imagine you being one of that small elite profiting from just pouring the “empty into the void”, like buying “carbon credits” at US$3.- per hectare/year of amazon jungle forest and selling “carbon shares” to first world “polluters” ,to keep on polluting of course, at US$127,500 the same hectare/year.
Would you try to produce or manufacture anything….Nope!..your ancestors, those who were found by a surprised Abraham, worshiping the “Golden Calf”, still living in your blood, tell you that “not working” it´s the best business: Working is for “gentiles”, not for you..
I am afraid that the majority of them are not to blame for it, but a small bunch of stubborn worshipers of the Golden Calf, who, btw, are in urgent need of a second descent of the prophet from the Tabor mountain, or…. things will end worst than the last time. (there is a better “technology” available now).
True Witches (really Druidesses of the higher nobility) and Wizards (really noble Knights) have a better internet: They gather at “sabbaths”, under the light of the moon, driving their “astral bodies to the “site”, thanks to a well formulated ointment, mainly based on “belladonna”, applied to their bodies.
We just don´t care about it!
The watermelons and strawberries are past ripe and their perfume is turning to stench, soon they will be compost as the old era dies and the next is born.
Smile 8-) We live in interesting times! pg
@Adolfo; Belladonna! I don’t think I would go there.
Now a touch of Brandy, medicinal purposes only, might put a smile on my face. ;-) pg
@P.G.: Celtics as E.M. must be waiting for the next Druidess to appear in order to lead her now afflicted people.
Two thousand years of darkness has been quite a long time, but as watermelons and strawberries are past ripe and their perfume is turning to stench.., the mistletoe and noble oak revive….
@P.G. That formula was real: I read it, many years ago, in a study about it by the swiss lab “Roche” in its magazine.
adolfogiurfa (19:45:09) :
@R. de Haan (17:42:50) : “Those were the days, my friend, we thought”
Today Obama scrapped the keystone XL pipeline, an act that even makes people in Pilsen, Czech Republic wonder if the US President is crazy.
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/01/obama-expected-to-reject-keystone-xl.html
At the same say however, yes there are still some bright lights, Ron Paul has moved to kill the Indefinite Detention Provision of NDAA, signed by the President last year.
http://rarereaders.seablogger.com/2012/01/ron-paul-moves-to-kill-indefinite-detention-provision-of-ndaa/
And if you’re in need for some positive writing about the USA and the future, have a read at this.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/99521/america-world-power-declinism?passthru=ZDkyNzQzZTk3YWY3YzE0OWM5MGRiZmIwNGQwNDBiZmI
Maybe it will cheer you up.
adolfogiurfa (13:46:00) :
“SOPA will surely be generalized by the United Nations, through a “Binding Agreement”, as the many smuggled in the legislations of the world.
We should need a new kind of internet if control measures are enforced: Like the “whales´internet”: Whales communicate among them using VLF, all what it would be needed is private transmitters (made after Nikola Tesla design) and an USB VLF receiver, and, of course, computers running under Linux from a CD drive.”
I’m all in for that.
A shadow internet entirely based on private initiatives.
Thanks to the internet control in China we have to hear from the U.S.Ambassador that the current Chinese Government is pretty unstable.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/18/us_ambassador_political_situation_in_china_very_very_delicate
I have wondered for years why we would export our manufacturing base to a Communist Country.
If something goes wrong there, we could see US Manufacturing returning home at lightning speed.
Just like the EU it would be filed as another failed experiment.
Somehow I think this is going to happen sooner than later.
All we have to do is throw out the current establishment of lunatics, scrap the red tape and make a fresh restart.
“What evil lurks in the minds of men?”
“The Shadow knows!”
___________________________________
Chaos! Chaos! All is chaos! Or soon will be!
___________________________________
If OBYuan wins, we’re fast burned toast! China wins!
If Mitt wins, we’re slow burned toast! No real change!
If Ron wins, we have a 50-50 chance to toast or not toast!
(But we might still go stale, or crumble. It just ain’t fair;-)
Manufacturing Super Cars in the USA
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/manufacturing-supercars-america
@R.de Haan: All we have to do is throw out the current establishment of lunatics, scrap the red tape and make a fresh restart.
But….as in any country, they are just butlers, clerks of a hidden master/masters. So you will need to identify them. Perhaps they can be found among the bailouts´ recipients.
@R.de Haan: The real decline, the real fall you must search it in the moral and principles realm, there is where the ideologies have aimed their weapons, since the secularizing French Revolution, just to mention the last one of the big efforts for alienating the human spirit from its perennial principles. The decay has been long, perhaps it goes as far back to the division, promoted by the occidental catholic church, between “gnosis”( the possibility of accessing to knowledge) and agnosticism (the negation of knowledge and “salvation”), where gnosis was anathematized and humanity was “convinced” (by force) to accept the philosophy that nobody could attain knowledge or “salvation” except through the intermediation of “The representatives of God” on earth(THEY: the political-religious establishment).
After “illustration”, and accommodating themselves to current circumstances both former enemies: the church and the revolutionaries joined forces.
They are embedded in the “Club of Rome”, as it was shown when the Pope himself, 24 hours before the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit failed, went out to proclaim that “every good christian should sign the Copenhagen agreement”.
Profiteers behave the same as cancer cells: Insanely driven by their greed for power and gold, they do not even pause to think they are really killing the body which sustains them.
SOPA?PIPA UPDATE
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/update-sopa-and-pipa
“After “illustration”, and accommodating themselves to current circumstances both former enemies: the church and the revolutionaries joined forces.
They are embedded in the “Club of Rome”, as it was shown when the Pope himself, 24 hours before the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit failed, went out to proclaim that “every good christian should sign the Copenhagen agreement”.
Profiteers behave the same as cancer cells: Insanely driven by their greed for power and gold, they do not even pause to think they are really killing the body which sustains them.”
How right you are.
Who’s also right is Joe Bastardi in a posting at WUWT.
Don’t you love it….
Pascvacks,
If Ron Paul wins, Islam wins. The economy will be better, but, I just am not interested in Burqa clad women and camels!! Yeah yeah, I know, it would still take years if not decades, but, an RP presidency would continue the fast penetration of our Legal system, gubmint, and other institutions that are happening under Obie. It is weird how similar this is to the Commie take over of the US.
I don’t think we have to worry about “Going Islam”. I don’t think we qualify for either the Sunni or Shia sects (or would want to), and no one can read Arabic, or much of anything else. No we’d need NYC and Hollywood to meld it all into something that 300 Million Buffalo can understand, besides we don’t have enough of those ‘submissive’ women for every guy to have a harem. (Unless you’re elected to Congress, that is. I just can’t see it working for the rest of us, especially with the no boz or pork ribs clauses. Nope! Won’t work. Guess they’ll just have to kill us all;-)
Pascvaks,
You have gone delusionary. Where in the EU has the popular society gone Muslim?? Yet, Islam is gaining more and more influence daily in those extremely liberal, almost opposite to Islam, countries.
Here in the US we even have large Christian sects pushing the, it is all one religion BS! Islam is yore brudders!!
Nice posting about Vaclav Claus, notes from Saudi Arabia
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/01/vaclav-klaus-notes-from-saudi-arabia.html
This climate skeptic and EU skeptic simply tells how it is.
As long as the Sunni’s and Shiite maintain their warm relationship I think a RP Presidency of non intervention could be a blessing.
Just another popcorn show to watch when they slaughter each other and a great incentive to move on home brewed oil and gas and a nice opportunity for Europe to test the fruits of their Energy Revolution and bring down the straw men behind this wind and solar scam.
Screw them all.
@ kuhnkat “RP presidency would continue the fast penetration of our Legal system, gubmint, and other institutions that are happening under Obie.”
Can you expound on this a little more? I honestly do not understand what you are meaning here.
Jason,
we have the US Gubmint using groups like CAIR to recommend advisors and policy. CAIR has been connected to Hamas and other Jihadis organizations. The FBI was utilizing Muslims who would NOT rat on their religious brothers in operations surveiling Mosques. We have Judges making decisions on Civil Court cases based on Sharia law due to the citizens being Muslim. Where is this allowed in our system?!?!?! We have Universities running awareness and Civil Rights groups and courses advancing the Islamic agenda, often with pure propaganda against the West, Israel, etc.
I should note that this has been happening at least as far back as the Clinton Administration and possibly earlier. It seems to be faster under Obie with all his Czars and other whacknut appointments.
R de H,
Muslims have been fighting internecine wars since soon after Mohammeds death. It won’t stop and doesn’t appear to slow their advances very much. The main assault on the US is through the Wahabbi outreach from Saudi Arabia, but, is not the only direction. In “enemy territory” they appear to be able to cooperate a little better.
@ kuhnkat
Thanks for your response, and I agree that our legal system is, to put it bluntly and a bit coarsely, so screwed up that only a three alarm fire and a re-boot could fix it. The sad truth is that the destruction of our laws (including of course, the Constitution for These United States) has been very much a bipartisan project, equally implemented by both Republicans and Democrats.
I was curious why you said ““RP presidency would continue the fast penetration of our Legal system” however. He seems to be the only politician I can think of who has NOT voted for violating our laws. I am unaware of when he has voted in favor of subverting our Constitutional laws for Sharia, Noahide or any other system, but perhaps I misunderstand you. Is that what you are saying?
kuhnkat (19:57:15) :
R de H,
“Muslims have been fighting internecine wars since soon after Mohammeds death. It won’t stop and doesn’t appear to slow their advances very much. The main assault on the US is through the Wahabbi outreach from Saudi Arabia, but, is not the only direction. In “enemy territory” they appear to be able to cooperate a little better.”
There was a time in the past there armies and leadership were superior and they even controlled the South of Spain.
However, the British and German Empires successfully used them to advance and protect their regional interests. The Germans even introduced the concept of “Jihad against Nations” (in this case against British interests of course). The Germans even had a special “Ministry for Jihad” in Berlin during those times.
The strong role of tribes in Muslim society further contributes to the divide which together with the centralist, on Sharia based legal system imbedded in their religion makes their societies vulnerable for totalitarian rule.
No Arab Spring will change that.
Submission is part of their social history as they only respect “The strong Hand”.
This is exactly why Muslim culture and the free democratic West are incompatible.
Islam and Democracy compares like water to fire.
And don’t make the mistake of presenting the Turkish society as an example
of a democratic Islamic State.
The workings of Attaturk are wining down fast and the Army, the ultimate protector of Attaturk’s nation building has lost it’s former powers, thanks to EU requirements for Turkey to become a member state.
We can already see Turkey turning into an Islamic State again and it’s foreign policies a.o the cooling relationship with Israel confirm this.
It’s really incredible how Western policies today are screwing up matters by ignoring all the knowledge and experience achieved a long time ago.
Immigration policies and the freedom of education, freedom of religion and the job offerings open to Muslims to all facets of society including the Armed Forces and the highly specialized anti terror organizations and the high reproductive rates among Muslim immigrants make all Western nations vulnerable for a cultural religious takeover by Islam before the end of this century.
This is not a joke but the very hard reality.
“Correct Politics” is killing us and I regard the Immigration strategies over the past 30 years as an integral part of the same doctrine that has brought us peak oil, the fusion between Extreme Environmentalism and Politics resulting in the implementation of punishing Emission limitation schemes, Agenda 21 in their quest for Global Governance which requires the destruction of Western culture and civilization in order to succeed.
And so it goes…
On the topic of “Free Speech” or the lack thereof, here is something that really cheered me up. Incredible to find such a thing on NPR, that bastion of leftist thought:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/01/20/145360447/the-secret-document-that-transformed-china
It appears that Chinese Communism is generating economic growth rates of ~9% per annum because it is based on………”Capitalism”. How ironic that the western world is hell bent on embracing socialism with what Havel calls its “slovenly indifference to work”!
I agree, this is incredible. NPR kicking in open doors.
I’m sure it will make the Mao admiirors in the Obama Administration frown.
But on the other hand: isn’t this why they are trying to introduce the Chinese Model to the entire world…
Capitalism under Centralized totalitarian rule.
No rights for the workers, no elections, no waiting for a donor if you need an organ, just take it.
There are cultures and peoples without culture. As we say in spanish: “Don´t bite the hand of he who gives you to eat”
R de Haan,
There is a strong correlation between personal freedom and prosperity. It seems strange that the PRC appears to be improving prosperity without a corresponding change in Freedom.
Yen Jingchang was allowed some personal property when he was farming but his later business enterprises were taken over by “The Party” once they started to be profitable. Until the Chi Coms fully respect personal property rights (e.g. ownership of corporations) their economic miracle will be in danger. (Hat tip to Ayn Rand and Vaclav Havel).
gallopingcamel (03:52:17) :
R de Haan,
There is a strong correlation between personal freedom and prosperity. It seems strange that the PRC appears to be improving prosperity without a corresponding change in Freedom.
Yen Jingchang was allowed some personal property when he was farming but his later business enterprises were taken over by “The Party” once they started to be profitable. Until the Chi Coms fully respect personal property rights (e.g. ownership of corporations) their economic miracle will be in danger. (Hat tip to Ayn Rand and Vaclav Havel)”.
Yes although one of the biggest problems with the Chinese system is corruption.
It often happens that companies are taken over by “The Party” to serve the Party Members or favor the competition.
The wide spread State corruption is one of the reasons I have refrained from doing any business with China or Russia for that matter.
Some of my friends did and lost a lot.
Any one that moves their business interests to China deserve to loose everything. We closed our business down rather then transfer the technology to China. pg
Jason,
Ron Paul goes to great pains to tell us that Islam is NOT our enemy simila to Bush and the rest of the Business as Usual types. Until I hear him talk about stopping the penetration of our legal system through usage of Sharia in Civil cases and similar I simply do not see him as a solution.
R de H,
Fascist Germany and Italy also increased the prosperity of the individual before they were taken down. It was through enabling the business environment rather than restricting it. In China’s case it appears to be similar. They were allowing enough freedom in business that people could profit from their own hard work and were therefor incentivized to work harder and keep working!!
I say were because we are seeing signs of the gubmint being more restrictive as the world wide economic recession hits. It would appear that they will also be a victim. Without western markets there simply isn’t enough markets to keep their expansion going.
Well, I’d posted this posting, then spent a day “away from the net” as part of the ‘event’… Now I come back and find an extensive and interesting comment thread that will take an hour or three to read, react to, etc. Sigh. Victim of my own success it would seem ;-)
OK, this will be in somewhat jumbled ‘time order’ as I jump around the comments.
First up: @GallopingCamel per China (and related responses):
NPR is willing to ‘promote it’ as part of the “Third Way” form of Progressivism that is the present mantra. (As stated by Madam Hillary: ~”I’m not a Liberal, I’m a Progressive!” (more or less from memory)).
The “Third Way” term was originally coined for Fascism and was applied by FDR and other American Progressives as adoration. Until that whole W.W.II collapse of Third Way Progressive Socialism that brought Mussolini to the gallows and Hitler to the bunker / suicide. Then it fell from grace as they corrupted the meaning of Liberal from the prior classical (more nearly Libertarian) meaning to the peculiarly American form that really means “Third Way Progressive Socialism”. I’ve taken to distinguishing these uses with Clasi-Liberal and ASoLiberal for Classical Liberal and American Social Liberal markers.
You simply MUST keep this in mind to have clarity of understanding of things like NPR and China.
So China is moving form a very broken Maoist Communist system of full collectivization to a “Third Way Progressive” form of Socialism. This will be seen as “a very good thing” by the ASoLiberals as it is embracing their world view. One that uses the Corporation, but keeps it firmly under Central Government Planning and Control.
The careful observer will note that the organs of power in China work rather similar to those of Fascist Italy and of Nazi Germany (even down to some of the Nationalist and Racist elements that distinguish Fascism from the “Modern Progressive ASoLiberal Socialism” variation… though not at blatant.)
So of course they will praise the move toward The Third Way. But just watch what happens if the trajectory takes it past Third Way Progressive Socialism and on into real Free Market Capitalism… Then the Long Knives comes out…
So in Lange Type Socialism, the major distinction is that “Major Industries” are “socialized” but small operations are left to private enterprise. This is thought to let industries prone to monopoly (like large scale industries with large economies of scale – say Steel or Aluminum or Coal Mining) avoid the worst evils of rapacious capitalism and Trusts & Monopolies. While gaining the advantages of competition in things like farms, restaurants, auto repair. Things with small economies of scale an prone to natural competition. There is still Central Planning and Control, but exercised via massive regulation and permitting processes (rather like we see being promulgated by the Obama Administration via the EPA et. al.)
Seen in that light, the confiscation of a successful, business once it is ‘large enough’ and the central planning of what industries to absorb into the collective part of the economy are just normal day to day activities for a Third Way Progressive economy. It’s just Lange Type Socialism in action. (Though in China there is still a tendency to a bit more absorption of what could be freely competitive industries).
Does this let China grow fast? You Bet! Mussolini and Fascist Italy were widely lauded for their economic miracle in their day. The central planning of their Industry / Labor / Government planning boards avoided a lot of ‘destructive competition’ and it does work well.
Folks often take my ‘carping’ about the evils of Socialism to mean that I think that it can not run an economy well. That simply is not true. It does work well. Just look at how it lifted Soviet Russia from backwater nothing to World Power and put it squarely in the realm of superpower. No, the problem isn’t in ‘does it work?’. The problem is in “For how long?”.
It all comes down to “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”. In a Central Planning system of any sort, the central planners gain power, and with that comes corruption. As they have more power than anyone else (by definition), they become more corrupt. Furthermore, the leaders of the government, finding themselves with power over everything, become even more corrupt. Typically this leads to various forms of domination of their neighbors, wars, and intrusive militarism. (Vis: 2 World Wars, Cold War – Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe, China absorbing Tibet, and the USA now deciding it needs to dominate the Middle East without a declaration of war.)
So what can we expect from China? We can expect it to rise in economic power. To become smug about it’s superiority. To begin to ‘dominate where needed’ and eventually to have a major war when others do not wish to be dominated. (The major question being “Will this happen before the USA / Muslim World / Israel / EU / Russia / India-Pakistan blow up into a new World War…)
The other big question is just how far toward Capitalism they go before putting on the brakes. IFF they make it “all the way”, there is hope. IF they stop at “Third Way Socialism”, well, watch for tensions on the Russian Chinese border and the Chinese India border the South CHINA Sea vs everyone else in the area, etc.
What NPR is doing is basically doing the ‘capitalism wash’ on Third Way Socialism and praising the “managed markets” of Fascism. They just can’t come out and say so (as FDR and other Progressives of that era DID say so) as there is this “unfortunate” connotation now to Fascism after that little World War thing… so they mandate that Fascism be redefined as “right wing” and evil… This means that every OTHER thing they do gets ‘bent’ around that lie. But Progressive Socialists are good at The Big Lie. It is a cornerstone of the Propaganda Ministry that every centrally planned socialism must have.
Seen in that light, praising “Manged Market Third Way ‘Capitalism'” suddenly makes a lot more sense. It is well in line with promoting Progressive ASoLIberalism…
Adolfo,
I shouldn’t bite my own hand?? 8>)
When the gubmint gets out of our way we rarely need to depend on others. When we do it should be because THEY decide they wish to help, not because someone else decides they have to.
@Eric Barnes:
I think you meant “out of touch” . But yes, it simply is not possible to avoid buying Chinese and it is not possible to “buy American” for whole classes of products.
Even those ignore the question of “From where did the raw materials, parts, etc. come?”. So right now China is a major player in steel and aluminum production. Why? To make all those steel and aluminum parts that go into everything. They are THE major player in Rare Earths. Why? To make all those parts that go into everything high tech or green electronic…
Buy a disk drive “made in America”? Where did the rare earth magnets come from? The steel holder of the magnet? The Aluminum case?
But yes, you are correct about the reason.
We have a Lange Type (Third Way) Socialist government. (NOT a pejorative usage – just a strict definition. Once GM was “kept from bankruptcy” – a primary tenet of Lange Type Socialism – and the Government centralized control of the banks – and semi-nationalized them with forced cash: That moved us from a “mixed economy” into Lange Type Socialism. By Definition.)
These tend to fail as you ‘run out of other peoples money to spend’. The fleas and ticks sucking blood from the economy outnumber the workers and things slowly collapse. We’re seeing that now. Government Weenies see no problem as long as their checks and retirement are timely. Lawyers and Judges too. NGOs and various other “feeders at the trough” are happy as long as their slop shows up. It is the ever shrinking capitalist edge that atrophies and dies. (the inverse of what happens moving the other direction toward more free markets, where a ‘boom’ happens). It isn’t where you are on the spectrum that determines growth, it is the direction you are moving.
So we’ve reached the point where an economic downturn came, jobs lost, companies gone. The Central Planners are sure that enough money sent to their NGO friends and spent on Lawyer Driven EPA studies and spent on added bureaucrats “planning and monitoring” will get the economy going again. They are sure that more taxes will “fix it”. They are sure that enough “tax beatings will continue until morale improves” is all that it takes. In short, they are sure that MORE of THEM and LESS of US is all it takes. Mistaking the disease for the cure. After all, THEY have a fine economy and THEY have a nice steady pay check. Clearly THEY know better…
So as we gut the economy and move actual wealth creation to China, we go ever deeper into debt to China. This continues until China decides it doesn’t want more US debt. I suspect that is in the next year or so (if not already begun). Then we have a real SHTF moment and the money supply instead of being sopped up in debt issued to China and stuck in a vault runs instead to inflation.
The only really good news is that Europe is getting there first…
One sidebar on China and size of industry: In one town in China the Central Planners built a factory to make socks. Yes, plain old socks like on your feet. The size? It was sized to manufacture a volume equal to the total consumption of socks in the world. Yeah, go ahead and try to make a sock factory in America (with higher taxes, massive regulation burden, higher materials costs, higher wage costs – much of it as social welfare taxes, etc.) How much of a ‘competitive market’ will there be in global sock production? None. It is being managed using mercantilist methods as a global State Monopoly. Once all the other sock makers are out of business, watch for prices of socks to rise to the monopoly optimum pricing. Just like OPEC and oil, manufacturing monopolies can and do exist.
It will be interesting to see what happens the first time we ‘cross’ China and they just hint at shutting off the supply of parts and materials to our munitions industries…
@R. de Haan:
On my ‘to do’ list is get the passport up to date. I have ‘some friends’ who have offered a nice place in a country not to far away, if needed…
Not the ideal economy, but nice weather ;-)
I, too, hope we ‘do the turn’ in the next election. If Obama gets a second term (and even worse, if he gets it with a pliant congress) we’re Third Way Progressives writ large by the end of that term. It will be all over, and not much shouting, just a lot of whimpering…
@John F. Hultquist:
The only real problem with that argument is that it ignores “predatory pricing”. IFF this were are real market competition, I’d be all with you on the efficiency point. But it isn’t. This is State Sponsored Mercantilism working to create Global Monopoly power in various sectors. Again, this not an opinion, it is their stated objective. (Vis the sock factory, rare earths, and many many more).
We know quite well that Free Markets are subject to Monopoly Practices and that the intermediate point is lower prices (predatory pricing) to drive the ‘competition’ out of business. AFTER that comes the big price hike. THEN you can do nothing to stop it….
So WHEN socks go to $5 / pair (or $10 / pair) just who will loan you the couple of $Billion to build a new sock factory in South Carolina? Knowing full well that at any moment China can just flood the area with $1 socks until you are broke?
That’s how the game is played. The only difference this time is the massive scale and with China playing for Global Domination.
So enjoy the low prices while you can. It isn’t going to last.
@George & Oliver K. Manuel:
Unfortunately I don’t know of any way to get people to learn enough Economic History to avoid another turn on the wheel. Add to that the fact that the “Social Sciences” have been substantially parasitised by the Progressive Movement and turned into propaganda ministries and you also have the question of just who will do the teaching?…
I’d love to know what the folks who most recently escaped this folly (in the Ex-Soviet Block / old Warsaw Pack areas) think about this Brave New World…
@HIllbilly33:
Well, since this is a ‘political topic’ thread, hard to see how anything could be ‘off topic’… unless you only posted science and data.. but even that is now politicized ;-)
Per wind:
Yes, it’s got ‘real issues’ once you go over about a 20% contribution. Even below that the bird kill is just criminal (IMHO). Add in the sound pollution and the flicker problem (gives me a slight headache) and it’s just not a major solution to anything. (Nice for a small home away from the grid, though).
I’m a bit ‘way behind’ right now, but perhaps I can find time to work up a “problems with wind when too large” posting in the next few weeks…
@Adolfo:
What the censors do not recognize is that ANY communications allows ALL communications. It’s just a matter of tunneling via a private VPN and folks ‘coordinating’. So a private DNS system inside the “dark net” and then if ANY site in the dark net has a link to a shutdown service (even a dial up direct to it or a desktop sitting next to it…) then the bits flow. After that it’s just a matter of scale… SO having everyone still able to communicate is a problem of size, but having enough communicate is not hard. And, as the trend grows, it becomes harder to stop.
There are countermeasures to ‘dark nets’, but I will not discuss them openly… ;-)
And folks wonder why I still have a modem account available and why I keep some open wireless nodes on line (for the oppressed neighbors to use ;-)
As soon as a general shutdown of ‘file sharing sites’ happens, there will be a great blossoming of ‘dark net file sharing’. Maybe I’ll whomp up a ‘dark net search engine’ that’s more countermeasures resistant…
@PhilJourdan:
OMG, so that’s where Dodd has run to hide and keep pot stirring…
@Ralph B:
Don’t even get me started on the “Steal your privacy and rights” act…
And the ‘virtual strip search’ of millimeter wave observation equipment being installed now (AND being added to Police Departments so they can have a roadside strip search of everyone walking by… they “hope to extend the range beyond the present 14 feet” so they don’t have to be at the curb to see everyone under their clothes…
Somehow I think a new fashion fad will be metalized fabric… Maybe the Chinese can make it cheep ;-)
@Pascvaks:
As one nervous buffalo to another, I think I’ll go “piss on it” ;-)
@Tim Clark:
It’s another one of those English Irregular Verbs:
I enlighten
You ramble
He exaggerates
;-)
@P.G. Sharrow:
I’m with you on the brandy… But some druid naked dancing under the stars might still be of benefit ;-)
@Adolfo:
OK, guess I’ll have to research the effects of “the formula”… seeing as how it’s real and all… and historical… and cultural…
OK, time for another break… have to run off to Pizza and Mind Rot (a weekly tradition of food and bad American Adventure TV of about 40 years duration ;-)
More later
Former Senator Cris Dodd publicly admits to bribing politicians and slams them from not staying “bought”. Petition for the investigation of Dodd and the MPAA launched on whitehouse.gov
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/MPAA-Publicly-Attacks-Politicians-Staying-Bought-Early-Rumblings-Hollywood-Boycott-28971.html
@ E.M. “So as we gut the economy and move actual wealth creation to China, we go ever deeper into debt to China. This continues until China decides it doesn’t want more US debt. I suspect that is in the next year or so (if not already begun). Then we have a real SHTF moment and the money supply instead of being sopped up in debt issued to China and stuck in a vault runs instead to inflation. ”
Yes, that has been my take on it for some time, but I have been surprised at how long it has taken. Honestly, I expected the SHTF moment last spring. If I had to confess to the one biggest, recurring fault in my judgement over the last few decades, it has been my consistent underestimation of the sheer inertia in national and global trends. Bubbles, fads, celebrities, crazes, political beliefs — all of these seem to last twice as long as I would ever think possible. Even when I take into account my tendency toward underestimation, they STILL last longer. :)
The bill WILL come due. I think that by the end of this year is as good an estimate as we can have, but if not then, then soon afterward.
@Jason Calley –
So true! But I guess it’s the old problem of “Time:Distance:Speed” and “Vantage Point”, what you see and feel depends on where you stand; it’s like watching a comet every night, it doesn’t even seem to be moving, and we’re too busy to stay out and look at it for more than a few minutes anyway;-)
@E.M. Smith – Does it work?
It only works if you have nothing. Central planning of a simple economy is not too difficult. It is when the society grows up and becomes more complex that it breaks down. Even the most powerful computers do not have the capacity to factor in all the variables of a complex society, so central planning cannot keep up. Shortages and overages start to become rampant and the whole system breaks down. That is why socialism – on a small scale like a kibbutz – is possible (although it did fail miserably at Plymouth Mass.)
The reason china is working is because it is getting away from central planning. That is their swing to capitalism. Russia was brought from an agrarian society to a power one – but it was uni-dimensional (the military complex). It never really worked. What saved them from succumbing earlier (and it is the model that China used unMao mao) was the devotion of all resources to the military. Stalin Hitlertler as his excuse. Mao made sure China was just plxenophobicobic.
But once the external enemy is gone – or there is just no reason to starve the nation for the military, it will fall apart. It always does. You can make psacrificerafice greatly if they perceive their lives are in danger (sacrifice liberty for security – we know that one well). But once the threat is over, they want the liberty back (it usually comes at a much higher price than Russia paid).
@ E.M. “So as we gut the economy and move actual wealth creation to China, we go ever deeper into debt to China. This continues until China decides it doesn’t want more US debt. I suspect that is in the next year or so (if not already begun).
They have to fulfill, also, formality. Changes will be taken by the new presidency, that would justify any changes to be taken:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_China_presidential_election,_2012
FYI – Sometimes others, though they be long dead, can speak best to those who are lost and in need of direction –
“FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:
20 I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
21 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
22 The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
23 Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
24 It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
25 There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
26 It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way, which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
27 Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
28 It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ?
29 Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
30 As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue; that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
31 Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices ?
32 In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim.
33 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
34 As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
35 Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
36 The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
37 Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
38 Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
39 Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
40 It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
41 Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
42 Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
[43-50 omitted from some newspaper printings.]
43 In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
44 How far in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.
45 In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April 1793, is the index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
46 After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.
47 The considerations, which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe, that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, has been virtually admitted by all.
48 The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.
49 The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
50 Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my Country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
51 Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man, who views it in the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.”
George Washington
PS: And I did NOT sleep in all those places either! ;-)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Farewell_Address#1
@Pascvaks (16:43:43) : Changes hurt when rejected, but if accepted….
“Que será, será..what will be, will be?, whatever will be,will be… “, as the lyrics of that old song when we were children….
@George:
Wow! Maybe there IS some hope after all…
@Jason Calley:
Yeah, I thought it would be last spring, too, when China started trading treasuries for resource rights and dumped $200 Billion of them on Brazil (and some on Australian mining too).
But the Euro hit the crapper and all the money that was in Euro headed to $US, and the only thing ‘liquid’ enough to soak up $Trillions is USTreasuries. So all that Saudi Oil Money and all the private savings of Japanese and the money China WAS shifting to Euro got shifted back. This will eventually end, too, when either a “final bailout” of Greece (and the other PIIGS) is done, OR Greece leaves the Euro and the ones left behind promise to be better… I’m still trying to guess when that will be…
An old market saying:
“Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”.
Usually followed by “Never try to catch a falling knife” and “Don’t fight the tape”.
@PhilJourdan:
Basically, yes. But I’d point out it is, IMHO, more about “how crappy” than about “how big”. After a major war, most places have a “command economy” for a while, even if a large place. It’s just that the more broken a place is, the easier it is for a bright person to point at the “big lumps” and say “We need steel and copper, and plant more wheat”.
As you pointed out, toward a maturity point the complexity becomes overwhelming for any central planning department and the information flow is just not able to support it. In capitalism, when someone invents a Digital Camera the make a fortune (and the film guys go into bankruptcy – see Kodak recently and Konica / Minolta a few years back) or shift effectively into digital tech. In Russia they kept on making film… (So you can still get real old fashioned B&W film, from Russia! Oh, and in the UK Ilford was kept alive making B&W by some true believers in art…)
Central Planning Commissars never admit to error. Bankruptcy stick your nose in it. And you move on.
Your description of the ‘method’ is pretty much spot on. I’d only add that under the despots they had before Communism, things were very grim for the average worker. For many folks, Communism WAS much better. Even if it was authoritarian and military directed. ( A wag would point out that about the only thing the USA is presently dominant in manufacturing is weapons and armament… We have the bulk of GLOBAL military spending AND will sell a boat load to other countries. So just who is telling whom that we need central control for ‘security’ these days? Some things never change…)
Basically, they go from dismal to sort of moderately better, then drop back into misery as the promises are never quite up to the other guys reality. Then things start to ossify and eventually the graft / corruption / power monger axis takes over. The end is usually not long after that…. (Strangely, an authoritarian Empire tends to be much more stable. It isn’t the authoritarian nature that makes Communism and Socialism unstable, it is the “appeal to the masses”. Keep the masses under a JackBoot and it just keeps on running. Vis Roman Empire, various Chinese Dynasties, Caliphates, etc. Miserable for the average Joe and Jane, but stable (modulo the periodic upheaval at successions).)
@Pascvaks:
Nice, very nice.
The more things change, the more we ought to read history…
No SOPA, no PIPA, no PROBLEM! We got a Dear Leader undeterred by Law, Constitution or anything else it seems, ready to step in and ACT.
http://www.infowars.com/obama-signs-global-internet-treaty-worse-than-sopa/
does this need a /sarc off. surely not :)
@Jerry:
OMG…
Guess it’s time to start polishing up those “Black Net” skillz… (Private network tunneled and encrypted inside public clear text cover).
E.M.Smith (05:57:19) :
@Jerry:
OMG…
“Guess it’s time to start polishing up those “Black Net” skillz… (Private network tunneled and encrypted inside public clear text cover).”
I agree.
The current establishment can no afford free internet and social media to screw up their agenda.
When they closed Professor Phillip Stott’s climate and UK Government critical web site this was a clear sign what they’re after.
The critical remarks are made in the open that Government should act on “conspiracy plots like climate deniers acting in opposition of the Climate Change consensus etc. etc.
We just have to do this.
Just let me know what I can do.
And the beat goes on, and on,……. dimocrats sure seem determined to get something in place ASAP! oh yeah, an election on the way. Failure to praise Dear Leader will NOT be tolerated.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/06/democrats-to-continue-internet-coup-with-new-cyber-bill/
@E.M.
Got any How to ‘Black Net’ reading list to suggest?
Hearings to be held on DHS monitoring web.
http://www.infowars.com/group-forces-congressional-hearing-on-big-sis-twitter-drudge-spying/