DCPolitics

About That “GOP” Control

RED, BLUE … NOTHING CHANGES By FITSNEWS || In the aftermath of this week’s “Republican” takeover of the U.S. Senate, there’s a great post up from Charles Hugh Smith – author of the blog Of Two Minds. According to Smith, it’s ridiculous to think a shift in power from one…

RED, BLUE … NOTHING CHANGES

By FITSNEWS || In the aftermath of this week’s “Republican” takeover of the U.S. Senate, there’s a great post up from Charles Hugh Smith – author of the blog Of Two Minds.

According to Smith, it’s ridiculous to think a shift in power from one establishment party to the other will result in a fundamental shift in America’s failed policies (a.k.a. what we’ve been saying).

“Anyone clinging to that fantasy is delusional,” he writes.

Uh-oh. Our new GOP columnist – Taylor Brown – is not going to like that one bit (and we suspect she’ll have something to say about it).

Anyway … Smith’s column offers a pretty compelling run-down as to why nothing will change with “Republicans” in control of the U.S. Senate.  You know … as if the last two decades of money-printing, deficit spending, explosive bureaucratic growth, unnecessary global interventionism, liberty deprivation, excessive regulation and incentivizing of dependency (perpetrated by “Republicans” and Democrats alike) had left any doubt in anyone’s mind.

To wit:

If you really think it matters which political party controls the U.S. Senate, please answer these questions. Don’t worry, they’re not that difficult:

1. Will U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast change from being an incoherent pastiche of endless war and Imperial meddling? Please answer with a straight face. We all know the answer is that it doesn’t matter who controls the Senate, Presidency or House of Representatives, nothing will change.

2. Will basic civil liberties be returned to the citizenry? You know, like the cops are no longer allowed to steal your cash when they stop you for a broken tail light and claim the cash was going to be used for a drug deal.

Or some limits on domestic spying by Central State agencies. You know, basic civil liberties as defined by the Bill of Rights and the U.S. constitution.

Don’t make me laugh–you know darned well that it doesn’t matter who controls the Senate, Presidency or House of Representatives, nothing will change.

3. Will the predatory, parasitic policies of the Federal Reserve that virtually everyone from the Wall Street Journal to what little remains of the authentic Left understands has greatly increased income and wealth inequality be reined in? Please don’t claim either party has any will or interest in limiting the Fed’s rapacious financialization. There is absolutely no evidence to support such a claim–it is pure wishful thinking.

4. Will the steaming pile of profiteering, corruption, waste, fraud and ineptitude that is Sickcare in the U.S. be truly reformed so its costs drop by 50 percent to match what every other developed democracy spends per person on universal healthcare? It doesn’t matter if ObamaCare is repealed or not; that monstrosity was simply another layer of bureaucratic waste on an already hopelessly dysfunctional system.

If you answer “yes,” please run a body scan on yourself to detect the biochips that were implanted while you voted Demopublican.

5. Will the influence of Big Money be well and truly banned from politics? If you answer yes, please pick up your tin-foil hat at the door.

6. Will the incentives in the Status Quo be reset to punish rapacious financialization and gaming the system and reward productive investment and labor? Before you answer, check out who’s buttering the Senators’ bread. Hint: Wall Street does not qualify as productive unless we’re talking about the production of life-draining parasites. Virtually none of the vast armies of skimmers and scammers, from those pursuing bogus disability claims to lobbyist leeches, will suffer any consequence.

Moral hazard is the Status Quo’s Prime Directive.

7. Will anything be done to dismantle the Neofeudal Debt-Serfdom known as student loans? You are delusional if you think either party has any interest in limiting the predation of an academic Upper Caste that came to do good and stayed to do well.

8. Will any prudent assessment be made of unaffordable weapons systems like the F-35 Lightning–$1.5 trillion and counting for aircraft that will soon be matched by drones that cost a fraction of the F-35’s $200 million a piece price tag? No way–parts of those insanely costly jets are made in dozens of states, so the pork is well-distributed. Never mind the plane is lemon, built to fight the wars of the past. It’s jobs, Baby–that’s all that counts. Never mind the $1.5 trillion–we can always borrow another couple trillion–the Fed promised us.

Do you really think the Senate controlled by either party will ask why the F-35’s price tag dropped to $120 million from $200 million? That’s easy–the revised estimate left out the engine and avionics. They’ll be added back in after the Senate approves open-ended funding.

If none of these key dynamics will change, you got nothing. Please don’t claim anything changes if one party or the other is in the majority. Anyone clinging to that fantasy is delusional.

Exactly …

“Republicans” and Democrats differ by the slimmest of degrees – a wafer-thin aperture the bought-and-paid-for legacy media would have you believe is some unbridgeable chasm.

But the reality opposing this false narrative is plain to see: George W. Bush and his GOP majorities did nothing to steer America away from its impending economic disintegration – and Barack Obama and his Democratic majorities have hastened terminal velocity by accelerating the same unsustainable policies.

GOP “control” of the U.S. House did nothing to slow the juggernaut … nor will GOP control of the Senate or (assuming the party can win a national election) the White House.

***

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34 comments

jimlewisowb November 6, 2014 at 2:17 pm

Fucking Cockroaches

Reply
sparklecity November 6, 2014 at 2:17 pm

No worries
Those F-35’s will to turned over to the civilain law enforcement (more accurately “paramilitary”) agencies for a fractions of a cent/dollar just like all the rest of the surplus military gear.
“Chucky” Wright is having a boner right now just waiting for a few F-35’s to patrol the
I-85 corridor between Cherokee and Greenville counties & I-26 from the NC state line to Laurens County!!

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FastEddy23 November 6, 2014 at 2:42 pm

Imagine my shagreen … The very worthy but older design, the A-10, is being scrapped to accommodate this stupidly expensive Air Farce F-35 project. … Almost as rediculous as the Air Farce plans to replace the big Boeing tanker fleet with “new” Airbus crapola.

FYI: the F-35 is totally useless in a close combat war like the one we are ingaged in with ISIS. The slower flying, more heavily armed A-10 works and costs one fifth as much … Duh!

FYI: the current big Boeing Air Farce tanker fleet has an average 400 hours of actual flight time on each airplane … Most owners of big Boeing airplanes fly them for tens of thousands of hours before replacement. Those Air Farce tankers, at most, need new avionics.

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sparklecity November 6, 2014 at 3:07 pm

Yep, the “Warthog’ is a great airframe and has proven its worth.
I get the weekly issue of “Air Force Times’ and the A-10 is mentioned in just about every issue in one form or another (pro & con).
INMHO if we could wave a magic wand and bring back a few squadrons of A-1E’s,A-26’s and bad-assed solid nosed B-25’s (complete with 10 forward firing 50 cals and the HONKING 75 mm cannon) groups like ISIS would not stand a chance (as long as we maintain air superiority and MANPAD?AAA threat to almost nil – that is). Still add some decoy capability and those old birds would be bad to the bone!!!
Simpler is better for this type of conflict but surely you have heard the chesnut about fighting the last war.
Presently it is a one sided affair as far as air combat goes (and I hope it STAYS that way!!) but like I posted above you plan for the next war not the last one fought.
God forbid if the balloon goes up over the Ukraine – We will need the best shit we’ve got and PLENTY of it. It could go from bad to “Oh Shit’ in a flash (with a mushroom cloud to boot!!!).
I need to modify……, “Chuckie” Wright might not get the F-35 but he would get an A-10 or two under the military surplus grant system because of the F-35 replacing the A-10.
Either way he will come out ahead. To hear him speak he is a legend in his own mind and can do no wrong.

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FastEddy23 November 7, 2014 at 12:40 pm

… except for the fact that prop driven planes are more vulnerable, I agree 100%.
—-

This AM the “balloon went up” over the Ukraine. :>( “RUSSIAN TANKS ROLL INTO UKRAINE…” … But, IMHO, we are on the “wrong” side of the Ukraine question.

The IMF/World Bank/European Union/”progressive” Fascist Complex are trying to rule the roost in Kiev … and force them to raise taxes to the level of the EU = way to high. This is The Heart of The Revolt of the eastern Ukrainian (Russian supported) rebels. The Russians offer a 13% flat tax, Kiev offers an unacceptable “progressive” income tax from 20% scaling up the 70% (ala France).

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CorruptionInColumbia November 7, 2014 at 8:13 am

I guess this is why some think our military budget needs to be more bloated than it already is.

Reply
FastEddy23 November 7, 2014 at 12:48 pm

Not I … More drones, more A-10Bs, more personnel carrying tanks, more pocket battleships, more nuke subs … less air refueling, cheaper, more reliable jets, less boots on foreign ground = much smaller military budget, much greater logistics ability … more “special” services.

One might note that the ObamaNation spent more on bullets for non-military applications (FEMA, BLM, Post Office, US Park Services) than bullets for the military !

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Fud November 6, 2014 at 2:22 pm

Pretty much, despite the incoherent writing in the above column.

Reply
Smirks November 6, 2014 at 2:28 pm

Rise of the Neocons. I hope the Middle East is prepared.

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sparklecity November 6, 2014 at 3:20 pm

Not to worry, hardly one of the neo-con’s asses will be there to fight it.
Maybe an offspring or two but you can be pretty sure it won’t be one of Gowdy or “Shirker” Sanfrauds kids.
That will go for pretty much the entire delegation of US congressmen and US senators from SC.(they seem to be pretty good at leading from behind and cheering the troops on towards victory).
However, Lindsay is a Colonel in the USAF Reserve serving as a JAG and he did pull few weeks in the “Big Sandy” sporting DBU’s (Desert Battle Uniform) a few years ago. He might go back if there is something to go to besides a glowing smoking hole from Cairo to Damascus (including Jeruasalem).

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Native Ink November 7, 2014 at 7:18 am

LOL. Neocon is just the nice way of saying chickenhawk.

Reply
FastEddy23 November 6, 2014 at 2:29 pm

Re: “To Wit:” #1 thru #8 …

Yes. And it will only take one significant act of the new (“newer”) congress.

Abolish The IRS.

All eight of the author’s concerns will be laid to rest by this rather easy to accomplish act.

Reply
sparklecity November 6, 2014 at 3:27 pm

The article did have SOME good points. Other stuff is what you find on just about every crackpot blog or website (complete with the latest news on spiderweb contrails at 30,000 feet).
You will find no bigger proponent of a no BS overhaul of the IRS than me (I’m a combination flat-taxer/national sales tax wonk myself).
I agree with you about the IRS fer sure.
But a no BS overhaul/abolishment of the IRS is something neither party has the balls to undertake.

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FastEddy23 November 7, 2014 at 12:55 pm

Dittos for the flat income tax … dittos for the nat. sls tax (except it should be levied on the paper flippers, commodities brokers and bankers, not the citizenry).

“… a no BS overhaul/abolishment of the IRS is something neither party has the balls to undertake. …”

That’s what The Second Amendment is for …

Reply
Rocky November 6, 2014 at 3:30 pm

Exacctly. What will change. There will be some holy crap vote in the House to repeal Obamacare, which won’t get through the Senate because they don’t have 60 votes. Then they’ll pass a repeal of the Medical Device tax, claim victory over Obamacare, slide in $30 billion for Texas – Florida – South Carolina Mediaid expansion and move on. ISIL – nothing. Tax Reform – nothing. Immigration – they’ll bitch about Obama’s over-reach – then quiety pass the reform package from last year so Jeb can run without people saying his wife is an illegal Mexican. Bailouts – keep ’em coming. Debt – borrower more to fund a huge roadway pork bill. They’ll work with Obama on everything – give the Dems everything they’ve already wanted – because – they “care” to work together. Difference between a Dem and a RINO – the size of the horn.

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Dave Chappelle I'm Rick James November 6, 2014 at 3:38 pm

Fantastic. Finally–an educated and persuasive analysis.

I hope more folks listen to this, rather than rejoice about our current state (i.e. “Tuesday night was such wonderful night…blah blah blah” “politicians come save me, yeah”).

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truthmonger November 6, 2014 at 3:51 pm

FYI…. the seizure of money requires some evidence of being related to drug dealing (like small baggies of drugs ready for sale, or drugs in quantity and paraphenalia for selling drugs), and this can always be disputed in court. Sorry you either don’t understand the law, or you are lying about #2…

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tomstickler November 6, 2014 at 4:01 pm

Better check Civil Asset Forfeiture practices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks

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CorruptionInColumbia November 7, 2014 at 8:36 am

That this goes on should sicken anyone who believes in the Constitution or freedom.

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CorruptionInColumbia November 7, 2014 at 8:36 am

Wrong!

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Buz Martin November 6, 2014 at 3:53 pm

Good one.

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Benjamin Ghazi aka "Ben" November 6, 2014 at 4:18 pm

Oh Yeh!

What about…

BENGHAZI!!!!!

Reply
Tom November 6, 2014 at 4:31 pm

I don’t get #5. The Republican Party supports “Big Money” in politics. Of course that will not change. They have argued for unlimited anonymous donations by anyone. Why would that even be on the list of possible change. If Republicans were for that they might even get my support.

Frankly as I read this list I don’t really understand any of this. Republicans don’t support any of these things. Other than getting rid of student loans so that poor students can go to college.

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Native Ink November 7, 2014 at 7:21 am

I think that’s the point. The issues on that list are what Congress needs to focus on, and huge portions of blue and red America unite to support reform. But will the Republicans touch any of them with a 10-foot pole? I think you already answered that.

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RHood2 November 6, 2014 at 6:16 pm

There will be big, massive changes. McConnell will get to move into Dirty Harry’s office, and possibly take over his desk on the floor of the Senate.

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xx November 6, 2014 at 6:19 pm

ONLY it the Republicans will stand up to Obama and fuck trying to negotiate or compromise with him. Obama thinks he can bully them and maybe he can.

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CorruptionInColumbia November 7, 2014 at 8:16 am

McCain, Graham, and Boehner, have been bending over and grabbing their ankles for him for years, now. Why would they change their behavior.

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xx November 7, 2014 at 8:52 am

Wishful thinking on my part. I only hope the constituents will put pressure on them to grow a pair. BTW, McCain, Graham and Boehner are Republicans in drag, otherwise known as RINOS.

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Bible Thumper November 6, 2014 at 10:23 pm

I hope you’re right. I’m feeling a lot more optimistic now.

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Native Ink November 7, 2014 at 7:14 am

That’s a really good list Smith put together, and it’s one that people on the left and right could get behind.

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diamond jim November 7, 2014 at 7:52 am

Only two things need to happen.No amnesty and decimate Obamacare.Pubs win in 2016.
That and Obama giving Iran nukes while ‘secretly’ supporting ISIS and radical islam will finish off the Democrat Party.

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CorruptionInColumbia November 7, 2014 at 8:37 am

Good buzz kill, Will,
Especially since you are totally correct.

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TyroneMamaCollards November 7, 2014 at 9:41 am

I would love to see Joni Ernst cut pork. She is delusional. She will work for her farm subsidies for her fellow farmers in Iowa and elsewhere.
Want to cut pork? Cut off all foreign aid. Eliminate the Department of Education. Want to make some extra money? Legalize drugs and tax the hell out of them and use that money for road and bridge repair.
We need a third party.

Reply
Frustrated Voter November 7, 2014 at 11:16 pm

From the comments, I can see that I am the only normal person who reads this website.

Reply

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