The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Vote Sodom/Gomorrah 2016!

Posted on | May 13, 2014 | 234 Comments

by Smitty

You can despise Greenwald all you like, but I have the puke-coming-out-my-nose feeling he’s spot-on here:

How do you feel about the early presidential jockeying?
Hillary is banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion. I mean, she’s been around forever, the Clinton circle. She’s a f_____ hawk and like a neocon, practically. She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere. But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.

I hope this happens so badly, because I think it’ll be so instructive in that regard. It’ll prove the point. Americans love to mock the idea of monarchy, and yet we have our own de facto monarchy. I think what these leaks did is, they demonstrated that there really is this government that just is the kind of permanent government that doesn’t get affected by election choices and that isn’t in any way accountable to any sort of democratic transparency and just creates its own world off on its own.

And. Still. I. Will. Not. Vote. For. Jeb.

Can we emphasize this point enough for the Vichy GOP? No amount of Hillary Angst is going to get votes for the next Dole/McCain/Romney. Especially if non-reformer #4 is Yet Another Bush.

If you want to impress me, Mr. Bush, don’t run. Show that you care about the country, and it’s not about you, by Not Making It About You. Get together with Sarah Palin, tour the country on the Tea Party Express, connect with the people, and support someone else. Get behind the Convention of States in an honest way that will make the Founders smile as they look down from Eternity.

We’ve got 300+ million people in this country. If the only way somebody who is nominally conservative can win a Presidential election is to bear the name ‘Bush’ (as has been the case since 1988) then just screw us to the wall.

I voted Perot in ’92, and I’ll write in the old codger again before I vote for another Bush. Sure, I’m just the one vote, but I’m far from alone. If the Republican party wants to turn the 2016 vote into a suicide pact, Then So Be It.

via ZeroHedge

Category: Hillary Clinton

Comments

234 Responses to “Vote Sodom/Gomorrah 2016!”

  1. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:37 pm

    Say what?

    We’re talking about Iraq and Afghanistan. Not some new war.

    Too many conservos have heard the term “nation building” and seem to think it means the same thing as what we did at the end of WWII. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    If we had used our position as victor in Iraq to impose a peace in our terms, instead of playing metrosexual negotiators and UN toadies, we’d have imposed a government, and made them follow it. Bush listened to Rove and pandered to the UN and Ted Freaking Kennedy, and instead trid to “nation build.” A very stupid mistake.

  2. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:42 pm

    Yep. Prior to then, the states had not all established the two parties as the ONLY parties. New rules followed that make it incredibly difficult to have third and fourth parties get on the ballot in many important states.

    And they tightened it up after the Perot scare, so it’s now harder than ever.

    Add to that the mischief caused by so-called “open primaries,” which is a joke, and third parties are essentially shut out.

  3. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:44 pm

    It’s probably too tight, though!

  4. cmdr358
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

    No argument here on either point.

    I was only pointing out that his potential opponents and their PACs will not go any deeper into it than is necessary to paint him in the worst light.

    As to being told to vote for worse people… I think we’ve all voted for worse, though sometimes we only realized it in hindsight.

  5. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:46 pm

    Good observations.

  6. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

    Well, we did have to go to great pains to remind people of Article Six at Scoop’s. As I believe Smitty had to do here several times.

    A lot of Southern Conservatives were pretty harsh over Mitt’s (or anyone else’s) Mormonism.

    Moderating that stuff is a major headache.

  7. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:51 pm

    Or just become an illegal alien.

  8. Dave R
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:51 pm

    No, we aren’t nominating someone who has never been a senator, governor, VP, or commanding general in a major war (you’ll note the presidents who were not one of those were all pre-1900). And there are presently no Republican ex-VPs or generals of consequence who are alive and still politically active.

  9. K-Bob
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:53 pm

    For whom?

  10. Dave R
    May 14th, 2014 @ 6:55 pm

    Why does anyone think Hillary is remotely unbeatable? In the only competitive election she ever faced (the 2008 Dem primaries), she lost.

  11. Dave R
    May 14th, 2014 @ 7:07 pm

    MA actually had a really messed up individual insurance market. And because it wasn’t passed in the middle of the night on parliamentary tricks, they actually knew what was in it.

  12. Dave R
    May 14th, 2014 @ 7:12 pm

    re #1 – If the goal is to select the candidate with the best general election prospects, we don’t want to nominate the candidate most popular in overwhelmingly Republican states. We want to nominate the candidate most popular in swing states (though we don’t care at all how overwhelmingly Democratic states think, so my vote here in CA doesn’t matter).

  13. Quartermaster
    May 14th, 2014 @ 7:50 pm

    If you really believe Dean you’re more naive than I thought. Dean has been engaging in self justification for 40 years and is not to be trusted.

    You can stay on the “line adminstration” biz as much as you like. Having been there, done that, I have to say – so what! It simply does not have the meaning you wish to ascribe to it. Nor is it of the importance you wish it to have.

  14. Quartermaster
    May 14th, 2014 @ 8:10 pm

    You don’t have to buy it. The Bushies didn’t either, but we’re finding they just got hustled.

    The differences between the Iraqis/Afghans and Krauts/Japs are massive. The Germans and Japanese actually have more in common with each other than than they do with the Iraqis/Afghans. The Iraqis and Afghans have quite a bit in common, and Islam is just one factor.

    The Soviets tried things your way. I note that the Afghans are no different than they were with the Brits earlier, or with us now. You may not buy the Tribalist “argument ” (actually it’s an observation), but it will come back to bite anyone that ignores it on the posterior. Soviet brutality didn’t work. Making the demands of Germany and Japan worked because we had societies that understood each other. That is not the case in the middle east.

  15. Quartermaster
    May 14th, 2014 @ 8:12 pm

    You are obviously in over your head. Way over.

  16. Art Deco
    May 14th, 2014 @ 9:52 pm

    It simply does not have the meaning you wish to ascribe to it. Nor is it of the importance you wish it to have.

    No wishes, just sense. (Which bothers people here; they tell me it’s ‘arbitrary’).

  17. Art Deco
    May 14th, 2014 @ 9:55 pm

    If you really believe Dean you’re more naive than I thought. Dean has
    been engaging in self justification for 40 years and is not to be
    trusted.

    Oh? Dean through his collaborator was describing not criminal acts but his daily routine, how intramural communications were handled, how assignments were handed out, and how appointments were vetted. It is congruent with what others have said about the modus operandi of the Nixon White House. Not a well-run place.

  18. Art Deco
    May 14th, 2014 @ 9:56 pm

    [chuckles]

  19. K-Bob
    May 15th, 2014 @ 4:21 am

    I was referring to the general argument folks have been floating about the tribal organizations making it impossible to deal with them in the aftermath. History shows that it takes determination and willingness to “put down” a few resisters, but tribal systems have been beaten many times by men with the guts to do it.

    The Soviets failed to actually “win” in the first place. That’s why their brutal methods (and all of their other methods) didn’t work.

    But among “Western” nations, no one wants to *win* anymore. Winning is poor form to the bleeding hearts who hate soldiers. They just expect our sons to die for the right to show the locals we could do something “if we really felt like it.”

  20. Quartermaster
    May 15th, 2014 @ 6:13 am

    If Ivan didn’t win first, then neither did we.

  21. Quartermaster
    May 15th, 2014 @ 6:18 am

    “Wish” is the correct word choice here. You may wish it to be “sense” but it is not, as I’ve observed many times long before I ever heard of Stacy McCain.

  22. Quartermaster
    May 15th, 2014 @ 6:21 am

    Dean has spent his life since the Nixon admin doing his best to overcome his lousy reputation. The man was simply an opportunist who stood for himself. If you wish to believe what such a man says through his collaborator that’s your right. I don’t because I’ve seen what the man is, and he was one of the worst people appointed by the Nixon Admin.

  23. Paul H. Lemmen
    May 15th, 2014 @ 8:20 am

    Heh. As an “undocumented immigrant” I’d have more rights and freedoms …

  24. Paul H. Lemmen
    May 15th, 2014 @ 8:22 am

    You have effectively de-selected anyone of consequence who will reduce government and end corruption. All that fit your filter are RINOs and assholes set to further enrich themselves and their cronies. A pox on them all.

  25. McGehee
    May 15th, 2014 @ 10:20 am

    Well, I ain’t buying you a house.

  26. Eric Ashley
    May 15th, 2014 @ 10:32 am

    Short term thinking.

    Also, you make a premise that the Leftward Ratchet cannot be broken. Ronald Reagan proved that the Ratchet could be broken in Grenada. I assume you understand the Ratchet, then and now.

    Its possible to turn back. Indeed, the Left is fragile (this is why they went ballistic over Palin because she could have been another Reagan). But first you must have people who want to turn back. When the parties are Commie and Liberal, the Liberal is not going to be conservative no matter how much they claim to be so.

    Your policies will lead us to more of the same, and eventual Doom. Which will then lead us to Quartermaster’s scenario.

    Courage is what is needed now. We fail for lack of boldness.

  27. Eric Ashley
    May 15th, 2014 @ 10:44 am

    Dave, first you get the Base enthused, and by enthused, I mean, red hot.

    Then when the Media attacks like mad dogs as they will, your Base comes out in a fury and chases the Media away.

    Then your Base tells everyone they know how great the Candidate is.

    The Candidate lays out some of his mid-complexity plans to show himself smart and with good plans, and shows his sense of humor and good balance.

    Massive Precinct work that has been going on all along bears fruit.

    Candidate wins in a landslide.

  28. Art Deco
    May 15th, 2014 @ 11:08 am

    You don’t have to rely on Dean. Reading Richard Nathan will do. Dean is interesting because he provides an account of how certain decisions were made.

    One example he goes into in detail was how Supreme Court appointments were handled during the period running from 1970 to 1973. Nixon had a golden opportunity that he blew, managing one good appointment with four vacancies. Dean’s account of how that happened doesn’t make the President or John Mitchell or Dean himself look anything but deeply confused.

    I can’t figure why your making the case for Richard Nixon. He was certainly constrained by the kultursmog and by the balance of interests and opinion in Congress. Even so, he could hardly make a good decision to save his life. His monetary policy was a complete cock-up; the practice of running regular large-scale deficits regardless of economic conditions began with his administration (Johnson left office with a balanced budget and the previous eight years had seen proportionately smaller deficits); systematized introduction of racial preference schemes in hiring ditto; Paul Rogers’ plan to play chicken-games with industry over air and water pollution was signed into law; and, of course, Nixon was so hypersensitive that he was having his legal counsel hunt down the tax returns of the owners of a stupid opinion magazine, having a young lawyer from Seattle plant phone taps on various and sundry officials; and allowing his chum John Mitchell to set up another crew of spies made up of a very strange man who had once worked for the FBI, a less peculiar fellow retired from the CIA, the chief of security of his re-election committee, and a collection of dodgy Cuban exiles. It was the stuff of National Lampoon.

  29. K-Bob
    May 15th, 2014 @ 4:40 pm

    Definitely correct. You can’t win by running meat-grinder ROE like ours. I agreed with the AUMF-Afghanistan, and supported the actions we took there. But as soon as the SCOAMF took charge I was all for pulling out of Afghanistan and leaving it to the Air Force as a practice range.

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  31. Quartermaster
    May 17th, 2014 @ 4:14 pm

    I’m not saying Nixon was good. Just that he was OK. That is solely in comparison to most of the others. Carter makes him look positively brilliant.

  32. Joan Of Argghh!
    May 18th, 2014 @ 8:47 am

    GWB NEVER found his veto pen. He went along w/ every expansion of gov’t long before 9/11. You could tell, at the end, that GWB was not his own man. Not sure who owned him, but it didn’t jibe with his spirit. Obama is not his own man, but that jibes perfectly with his lazy morals and lack of a spiritual center. Either way: bought and paid for by unnamed oligarchs.

  33. Joan Of Argghh!
    May 18th, 2014 @ 8:54 am

    We have a better chance of changing things, as Conservatives, if we join the Democrat party and start splitting THEIR votes.

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