Party Pooper Podcast

Update: When I talk about recreating pre-WWI Europe I am not just talking about Europe. I am speaking of the alignments and dynamics of the globe. And I said in this piece that all it would take to set off the powder keg is a small incident in a key area, where surrounding players see an opportunity in the chaos. There are some examples in other articles.

BUT!!!!! In my interview with Patricia Degennaro she brought up something I never even considered. The Balkans. There are people in power in that region who were young adults during the late unpleasantness there. And according to Patricia memories remain long and dark. Russia and NATO have divided responsibilities and allegiances there. The Balkans region is now what keeps me up at night. Remember, WWI started with the assassination of a not-overly important royal by a Serb. I hope the NATO is listening to Patricia, in their meetings with her, on this subject!

And Capt. Bartlett will be here on the 28 March, not 7 March.

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Before moving on to the the videos below, I want you to take a good, long look at the picture just below the audio line. That’s the face of then Lt. Robin Bartlett serving with the Air Cav along the DMZ in Vietnam.

Keep looking at the picture. He’s a child; and he’s leading men in battle! He hasn’t lived his life yet. And he’s seen infinitely more shit in his tour in Vietnam than most of us will see in a lifetime. I don’t know about you, but I see my two oldest grandsons, Liam and Aiden, in that picture.

We hear a lot of people screeching lately, for us to arm Ukraine to the teeth. There are people saying we need to defend Taiwan no matter what.

Okay,… I’m inclined to agree with both statements. In terms of our national interests, yes, those statements are both technically correct. But are we prepared to do what is needed to make those commitments stick? Because I have news for you folks, the Russians aren’t going away. And the Chinese think this is their century to do as they please. Are you prepared to deny them that?

Look at the picture again.

To accomplish what the sabre rattlers want in the foreseeable future, YOU need to prepare for what the sacrifices will be. Will a war be worth these sacrifices?

To prepare for potential action in those theaters of conflict we need to enact NOW a national draft or mandatory military service - NOW - not 4 years from now. Or Ukraine and Taiwan are already lost. And YOU need to demand an outline NOW - from your government - a hard explanation of what we will be fighting for. Is Taiwan worth it? Is Ukraine worth it? And victory will have to be defined long beforehand.

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If you hear terms like limited engagement, proportionate response or advisory force, you know these guys aren’t serious. Those are terms for wars of convenience, not wars of necessity. There is nothing patriotic or moral in fighting a pointless war. And that’s all we’ve done for almost 80 years, since the end of WWII.

And arming the hell out of combatants won’t do the trick either. Let’s say China does make a move on Taiwan. Now we’re pumping arms to Asia and Eastern Europe. We can send all the arms we want so long as our friends want to keep on shooting. The weapons industry will make a killing, just like pre-WWI and pre-WWII. But eventually all the smaller players will be up against it. We will have stripped our national treasure for a desired outcome and we won’t get it. Now what? What did we end up doing in 1917 and 1941? Do you see my point? If not, leave a comment. We can kick it around some more.

I believe an argument can be made for drawing lines in the sand. But at the moment, I don’t believe we have the right people at the helm. I am not comfortable with people so enamored with nonsensical trans fads, and philosophies of weakness, and ESG, in the seat of power during a potential run up to conflict.

I still believe that if we really put the screws to Putin - we still haven’t - Ukraine could end very quickly. All the sanctions we imposed on Russia were rolled out in a very slow, comfortable fashion. It allowed Putin plenty of time to create work-arounds to blunt the pain of each inconvenience. We never shut down his ability to finance his operations. And we never hammered the oligarchs hard. And it was all telegraphed to them well in advance.

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So Putin got his war. Biden got another shiny object to point to. And we got bilked for billions of dollars. Whether you support Ukraine or not, there is no way to deny that we were shafted for what should have been a non-starter for Putin. It was plainly obvious in the way he crept up to zero hour that he was reading the tea leaves, and quite possibly not believing how easy we were making it for him.

It was around this time we heard Ned Price, State Dept. flack, say the most stupid thing ever uttered by an U.S Government official. Deterrents only work after a country takes steps against our interests. The response to that, of course, is if deterrents are weak and late to the game, then the aggressor is vested and can’t walk away because of sanctions. So sanctions in this case should have been designed to prevent the actual invasion. The line to trigger sanctions should have been drawn at a point PRIOR to the invasion. For example Biden could have said in December start standing down your build-up in the next 24 hours and evacuate your troops (by a date certain) from the border areas, or all sanctions will be immediately imposed including sanctions on your ability to export oil.

That’s what I was referring to when I mentioned Putin’s gradual movement to the Ukraine border and his disbelief at what he was about to get away with.

So, along with allowing Russia to attack a neighbor and watching the ChiComm belligerence in the Pacific, we have created a global atmosphere not unlike pre-WWI Europe.

The citizenry is now discussing the possibility of war. We are starting to develop our own prejudices and attitudes toward potential combatants. These have been helped in no small part by the media and government press releases. This was the atmosphere in Europe from 1900-1914. And things happen a lot faster now.

Left unchecked, or handled stupidly, these things have a way of developing a life of their own. We get caught up in the momentum of bluster for bluster, sleight and counter-sleight, troop movement for troop movement. All the while, the wealth of nations and the credibility of the opposing politicians gets stretched thin. Eventually, even the general public will want to see results for their sacrifice. Weak leaders will make poor decisions to regain their stature.

This was precisely the picture of Europe prior to WWI. It is exactly where we are now. Watching, waiting, almost daring each other to cross some nebulous line.

Then an actor does something no one saw coming. It doesn’t even have to be an important figure, as we saw in 1914. Just a nut bag with an axe to grind or a tiny group of nut bags wanting to be on the world stage. The offended country hits back. Allies take sides. And the international leviathan starts an inexorable roll toward conflagration.

In these times, who will side with whom? Will Vietnam and Thailand and Malaysia side with us? Will Russia join China? What of South America? Or the Saudis? Or India?

But it won’t be the incompetent or impotent politicians doing the fighting. And it won’t be most of the armchair generals holding forth at the dinner table about the dirty commies. It will be our young people who, by the way, are the most unprepared generation ever to face this kind of experience since Rome fell.

This combined with our horrible, present-day intel and military leadership, leaves us in quite a pickle. That was why I mentioned a draft or mando military service. To prevent what seems to be looming we have to appear deadly serious. To defeat the potential adversaries, we have to get big, fast. We also have to immediately do away with faddish infatuations that are wasting valuable time and softening our troops. The last thing any country needs is sensitive soldiers. Leave that to Civil Affairs. A soldier’s job is to shoot, move and eat.

At any rate, the military we have today is NOT prepared for the actions we are presently pondering.

Here’s the good part for me. I don’t have to define the sacrifice required of the people who would be doing the fighting. On 7 March 2023, Capt. Robin Bartlett will be here, on P4B, to define the sacrifice for us. He’s the young man you see in that photo. Happily, he is now no longer a baby face Lieutenant in the US Army. He’s an old war horse, and a better man than me. I had my war, but I never had the dubious honor of being shot at or shooting anyone.

The captain is also an author. We will talk about Capt. Bartlett’s book and his time in combat. We will discuss what you need to do to wrap your heads around the NOW. And the conversation will range in other directions. Anticipate a multi-episode event.

So mark your calendars for 7 March and join us.

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Also in the near future, we’ll have guests discussing finance and home buying, and music. I am working to produce things I think you need to know along with things that are entertaining.

Be sure to watch or listen to the videos below. The videos are just two aspects of the Ukraine argument. FOX and CNN certainly won’t help you here! Both have a warped vision of what we are up against and a very poor forum for gaining in-depth information.

Some quick thoughts on the second video. It is very informative. This, despite the speaker’s strong infatuation with the Biden team, who I believe were doomed to bungle the Ukraine mess - and did. They are all of a naive stripe. And her observations about Trump are wildly simplistic. But you will get a real feel for the conflict in the interview. Also, Putin knew exactly the sanctions that were coming. They had been telegraphed for months prior to the invasion and were scheduled to be strung out from February all the way to December. He even knew which banks would get the pinch, none of them being his money or oil and gas money.

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In two weeks time, it will be our privilege to feature Robin Bartlett, former Captain, U.S. Army. He is the author of Vietnam Combat: Firefights and Writing History. He will relate his experiences with the Air Cav in Vietnam in 1968. He served during the worst year along the DMZ and Laos and brought forward the lessons he learned there so we might le…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.streetpolitics.us

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.streetpolitics.us

Quick hits

Before we get started, let me get some bullet points out of the way.

First, the next three weeks are going to be huge. I have a piece on next week discussing the present world situation. The planet, today has all the characteristics of pre-WWI Europe. Next week we’ll start a 2 part series on that. There will be truly fascinating videos featured in the text of the podcast.

Then on 7 March, we will have a great guest on. He’s is a veteran of the Vietnam War and a post-war success. He will share his amazing story and also engage in a far-ranging discussion on other topics.

Then on 14 March is part 2 of the dangerous global situation we’ve created, with absolutely CHILLING video.

So, DO NOT miss it all.

Comments

I remember, when writing about the 2016 campaign, I thought wow, I guess this is as bad as campaigns can get.  I was certain that we could only go up from there.  By the end of 2020 I was longing for the halcyon days of Trump v Clinton and the sweeter, more sophisticated lies that were being spun.

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Correction!

Last week I called the podcast Episode 7. It was actually 6. My alter ego podcast was coming up on 7 and is now in the can. So THIS WEEK is episode 7 for P4B. So I am officially 3 weeks away from hitting my goal of 10 for 10 on both sites. I am having a ball doing this, but I will be glad to settle into a more sane rhythm.

Coming up

I would say the book series will start within two weeks. I have had a guest lined up for a few weeks. But he works at a medical clinic and is easily called away. Bad timing on our part.

But he is also a student of history and up on current affairs. I expect to have him on to talk about China and what we might expect in the next few years in Episode 8. If not, there is plenty of political nutbaggery to keep us busy.

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Big correction: Before this podcast was in the can, I had heard Linda had died. This is NOT the case. My apologies Ms Ronstadt! Geeeez!

27 Jan 23

I woke up this morning at about 0400. For some inexplicable reason, I had Blue Bayou stuck in my head. I tossed, I turned, I tried to think of another song so my mind would drift. I struggled to think about work. Nope. The song was still there. I got out of bed around 0800. With the song still stuck in my head I sat at my laptop thinking about Linda Ronstadt. I loaded up Blue Bayou and considered her story. All due respect to Roy Orbison, Linda sounded SO MUCH better singing it. And the soothing base riff just sets the song off.

And she looked better than Roy too. I’m sure he’d agree.

Ronstadt had a fascinating career. And that’s where we’ll go after some newsy stuff. Stick around. You WILL enjoy the ride.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.streetpolitics.us

I HAVE GOT to get a new sound system. Be prepared between segments to move the volume up or down.

There is so much to get to! My drafts and notes are becoming voluminous. We have doctors promoting diet pills and stomach staples for KIDS! Tufts has produced a new food pyramid the looks like something the Babylon Bee or the Onion would make up as a really sick joke. Davos is in full loony bloom. Schools are getting caught red-handed teaching kids to be little racists and gender benders, in direct defiance of the law in some states, and against the wishes of the parents…and laughing about it, BRAGGING about it.

And each week, I get further behind on the BIG Surprise.

I will get to all of this, including the biggee. But the rhetorical spanking of Robert Reich it important. He is a happy shill for the far Left in this country, saying things he knows from his own life experience are not true: things he does not practice himself. His job, as is the case with the MSM, is too marinate you in nonsense to the point where you lo longer know what is true and what is not.

So I will continue with the series - probably this episode and one more - and include the rest of life’s goings on, in small segments. They can provide little breaks in the RR narrative.

Hello and welcome to the Political Party Pooper Playbook.

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A note to the listener. I really hate listening to myself on audio. I know everybody says that. But I really do have a voice for newprint. HOWEVER! I discovered in editing my last podcast that my stuff sounds 100% better when played at 1.25 speed. It’s much more engaging. It sounds like Ben Shapiro with an earthier voice. Do with that knowledge as you will.

In last week’s P4B podcast I set up this series and spent a bit of time defining the motivation behind the article America’s Growing Zero Sum Economy. Subtitle: It’s also where you find many of the nation’s ultra-rich.

My first point was a take down of the churlish, class envy subtitle. The previous episode will give you a flavor for the series.

Today, I will dispense with the title itself.

The first and recurring rebuttal to that is this: There is no such thing as a zero-sum economy. This term, much like “trickle down economics”, is a contrivance created by the left. It invents a problem to use as a cudgel with which to attack clear minded, productive, free-market people. That’s where the power of the Left comes from. Emotional outbursts and silly populists notions.

I didn’t use the example of trickle down economics without a reason. I used it as a historical reference to demonstrate how the Left always get economic issues wrong. And I am 100% confident Reich used the term frequently during the Reagan years to try to prevent the 30 years of economic growth we experienced, thanks to the Gipper.

Now, he wasn’t, in his own mind, trying to prevent the expansion. He was just busy being wrong and promoting his Ivory Tower political narrative. That’s what happens when you get into a money gun fight with a broken political knife.

Anyhoo, When Reagan brought Art Laffer and the Laffer Curve into play to support his tax cut proposals, the Left immediately carted out the term “trickle down economics”. As Thomas Sowell pointed out in an article about the subject, NO ONE in the Reagan administration, no one handling the Supply Side argument, said the economy would benefit by money trickling down from rich to poor. And that was never any basis for their efforts.

The Left knew this. But they claimed that the Laffer curve was just that, and Supply Side economics was voodoo economics. What they were intentionally overlooking was Supply Side economics is precisely how an economy works. History proves this. The power and control Lefties see in central planning, which people like Reich espouse, is where economies go to die.

Getting it right

The actual effect of Reagan’s cuts, as with JFK’s and Trump’s cuts is a certain and undeniable ripple effect that happens across the entire economy. The effect mimics perfectly, the ripples in a still pond when you throw a pebble into it. The ripple don’t get to a certain spot and stop. They don’t just stay in the rich side of the pond. They eventually reach the entire pond.

An economy is stones of all sizes being thrown into the pond without let up. What a low tax rate and free market ALWAYS DOES it allow for more people to throw more stones into the pond. And it allows the ripples to reach everywhere in the economy.

I know there will be silly push back on this historical reference. I therefore provide the following:

The Kennedy Tax cuts and resulting expansion and Government revenue: Economic economic growth and increased government revenues.

The Reagan Tax cuts are severely skewed by many as having failed.

I would argue that people like Wessel at the link above, are thinking zero-sum nonsense. Growth throughout the 80’s was nothing short of spectacular. Confidence in the economy was astounding. Everybody was throwing stones in the pond and getting wet.

What went wrong was two-fold. First, after putting a responsible economic plan into effect, Reagan and Congress went on a spending bonanza. And the Gipper started to get cold feet. He signed little increases back into the code instead of letting the inevitable growth occur. And the spending did what all spending does, it created a lag on an otherwise astonishing economic machine. And despite the needless and damaging spending, the US went on a long and successful growth curve.

Left in place revenues to the federal government would have seen steady growth, but the inexcusable spending ruined it. If you expand an economy money does pour into the treasury. But if you outstrip the growth with spending, then yes, revenues as percentage of the GDP will shrink.

And anyone who says the Trump cuts weren’t a “social good” (as we’ll see, this is a Reich tag line) you just aren’t living in reality. His policies put the economy in overdrive - twice. Then Brandon killed it all with his “social good” projects and his massive executive overreach.

The tip-off for me that David Wessel, was thinking in zero-sum terms was his use of the term winners and losers. The whine of central planners.

The “zero-sum” nonsense in Reich’s article and elsewhere in recent history is meant to mean that the economy is a finite thing. If I win, you lose. If congress cuts taxes we get less government revenue. Period. And if I don’t get a personal benefit from a transaction you carried out with someone else, that means what YOU did was a zero-sum transaction.

All of those statements are ONLY true when we are operating in a centrally planned, dystopian economy. None are true in the free market (a slowly dying entity in the US). And Reich repeats the phrase again and again in his piece. And here’s where he tips his central planning hand.

“You might think a rational society would heavily tax zero-sum work while subsidizing work that generate lots of social good.”

Not only is Reich stuck in this historically failed concept, it emerges in almost everything he writes. He and others like him, ten of thousands of them, are teaching this lunacy to our kids. Doubt me not!

Almost all LEGAL financial transactions result in “social good”. They fuel the process by which WE improve OUR lives. The “social good” Reich is clearly espousing in his Substack is the kind of “social good” politicians, the media and ivory tower do-gooders want to saddle us with.

Saddle is the perfect word here. The Left want to use their “social good” as a means of control. It is ultimately demeaning and the more people “benefit” from this kind of “social good” the less likely it is that they will ever be able to go through life without the government on their backs.

This is almost exactly the same kind of “social good” Mexican cartels employ to keep them in business. They make small gestures and give “gifts” to the people in their regions to keep them quiet. The idea is if El Scumo, the narcotics guy, builds a little school in your village or hands out Christmas gifts for your kids, you might develop a bit of amnesia when the federales come sniffing around.

You’re being played for chumps!

Accordingly, the Left (and not a small number of GOP political whores) are enriching themselves at our expense. To continue doing that they are working to control every aspect of our lives (ESG much?) To smooth their way and do more of that, they “give” you things. The more you take, the more they’ll give. Every year they increase the amount of other peoples’ wealth which you can enjoy by keeping them in office. Talk about creating winners and losers!

And as we’ve proven in the endless, phony “war on poverty” we’ve been “fighting” since LBJ, no real good comes from the “social good” people like Reich pontificate about.

We’ve spent multiple trillions, in this “war” on programs that have the veneer of Reich’s “social good”. By gradually debasing respect for value - the value of personal property, the value of civil behavior, the value of respect and accomplishment and keeping one’s word, even the value we hold for our own health - the “war on poverty” has created a society overpopulated with people who have an outsized expectation of free provision. I think the greatest casualty of this debasement is the disrespect for pursuit of real knowledge.

If you don’t see the significance of the last sentence, consider for one second what passes as “science” these days.

At the same time these takers resent the hell out of those who remain at the till, providing the very wealth they exploit. The taking class have become grasping but easily distracted, easily medicated horses the Left rides to stay in power. And the Left knows this.

In a show of pretense that has been churning since FDR, rich elitists have made wild theatrical display of scorn for the making class, calling them greedy and lazy. This is 180 degrees out from reality, like most of what these people dump on the takers. To want without providing is greed. To do little and expect much is laziness.

And I would argue that this very point has been the operating principle behind the “war on poverty”. By making a show of giving “gifts”, the elite cement their power at the expense of their horses in the making class.

And let me caution you here. The line between makers and takers has been blurring for years. More and more people, through frustration or ignorance are becoming the proles. You still work and produce, but you are slowly sinking toward the taking class. You are easily distracted. You don’t look past your desk or front door when thinking of your self -interest. You let entertainment become your knowledge. Sports statistics mean more to you than the health of you 401K.

This class, the proles, wear the same saddles at the takers. And they will be forced to obey along with them. But don’t worry. People like Robert Reich and Klaus Schwab will find flowery phrases to make wearing your saddle seem patriotic, almost pleasant.

As promised…

I said last week I was working on an idea to dress up our podcast package with music. What you hear now is cute. We now have a little intro and stings and bumps. But it wasn’t the idea I had.

One of my favorite soundtracks is the one from a BBC TV show called Ground Force. It features the Black Dyke Band. Get your mind out the homophobic gutter. It was previously known as the Black Dyke Mill Band. It’s a brass band.

So I got it into my undersized brain cavity that I’d like to feature some really fun or beautiful snippets of the soundtrack here. It would fit the personality of the podcasts, especially future videos we’ll have.

So I emailed the band. On receiving their reply, for one glorious half second I was ready to jump up and cheer. “That sound like a wonderful idea. I know the band would love it.” Good, right? Huh? Then they said that they can’t actually provide the permission because the BBC owns the rights to the music. Wa-wa-wah.

Undetered, I wrote to the BBC and basically begged for the snippets. They told me that they didn’t control permissions, that was contracted to Getty Images. There is no way a retired Gunner’s Mate could have gotten those rights. We’d be talking hundreds of dollars just to start the conversation, and recurring payments!

Bloody hell!

So I went, tail between my legs, to the place where retired Gunner’s Mates get all their audio snippets. They’re nice. I like them.

But if you want the real high quality brass band stuff you’ll have to make P4B rich. So do subscribe and be ready for when we go to paid. And if you’re really feeling generous, go with the founders option. [insert side eye here]

So much BS to unpack here!

As I move through this intellectual and economic train wreck of an article, the task in breaking it all down into digestible chunks seems endless. Oh, well. That’s why it’s a series, right!

I’ll start today with Reich’s opening statement. I whole-heartedly agree that Trump’s NFT and gold check ideas are a riot. Anyone who purchases one of these are the suckers PT Barnum spoke of. There is an exception with those who are buying them knowing Trump won’t live forever, and when he eats his last Big Mac the price of everything Trump, as with all celebrities, will likely boom. SELL! SELL!

So at least there’s that.

Where RR starts to drift away from reality.

More complex NFT’s and block chain “currency” are slightly different creatures.

NFT has real appeal to the younger tech generation, among whom I and Reich do not number. And it was born as a means of owning works of art that exist only as digits, but are some are arguably quite amazing works. Would Robert argue that art isn’t a social good? Is NFT art to be dismissed because the medium isn’t canvas and oils?

That I nor he would not buy an NFT work says nothing of the actual value of the work. And who are we to criticize the transaction in any meaningful way?

And like all transactions, including buying traditional art, or subscribing the PBS (very popular with rich people), the buyer wants the thing being sold more than the money he has in his hand. Show me a single voluntary transaction that differs from that reality.

Just because someone buys something that doesn’t result in a cut going directly to a third party, does not make the transaction a zero-anything!

Digital currency even has it’s value to the buyer. I see them as being no more than an electronic checking account that is difficult to track. Yes, that is why criminals like them. But we are talking about legal transactions here as Reich was in his piece. And in this realm, the young techies again are the market.

I would never use Bitcoin to make a transaction. But I sure wish I saw the “pet rock” potential in holding some while the market went loony tunes over it. I would have lost not one minute of sleep over the doing of “social good” if I had bought a thousand Bitcoin at a dollar and sold it at the peak last year. And there are two points here.

The first is that people like Reich think it is their duty to extract from me to give to you. In my case all he’d get is debt and truck. But you see my point. The Left feels entitled to tell you what you must do with your wealth. If you don’t share the worldview of say, Robert Reich, you are somehow evil or without merit in their world.

The second point is if I had bought 1000 bitcoin at a dollar and sold it a $62,000 I’d have gotten a whole bunch of social good out of the deal. AND I WOULD STILL NEED TO EAT.

Now, even before Uncle Stinky got his greasy meathooks into my $62M, who can we safely assume would benefit from that money? First, I tell you true, my new accountant and lawyer would. AND THEY EAT TOO!

Then there will be the guy who builds my new house and his crew, and his suppliers and the gas station who fuels his trucks and equipment and the material suppliers and the truckers who move them, and the guys who make the nails, and on and on…

That $62M would send shock waves (the good kind) through my community and state. Every purchase I make will ripple. And yes, I would give money away. American are the most generous people on the planet and I have dozens of things I’d love to fund.

But it’s not all fun and games

But there will be a wet blanket. My county and Virginia and Uncle Stinky would come skulking around for their cut. I won’t begrudge them the productive, efficient things they do with the money. But there is so little of that. And so much of that money would be just handed to people, getting them through until the next check but further debasing their lives in the process. Reich seems to believe that these recipients, across the board are entitled to the money. But we have more than 7 million men of prime working age not participating in the job market. Where does their money come from? And if some are working under the table, you can bet they’d be getting a cut of my Bitcoin sale from Uncle Stinky anyway.

But even THEY have to eat so…ripple,ripple.

You see the point. If I say a thing has no value, that means nothing to the transactors. They will make their exchange and participate in the big pond we call the economy. Even the huge numbers of able bodied, young and middle-age adult welfare sponges serve a purpose in the larger scheme of things. But that lends them no legitimacy.

So at least we have dispensed with the value in Reich’s opinion of other peoples’ buying and selling. That value is zero. But like I said in part one, he sounds good saying it, doesn’t he?

Don’t read too much anger into this series.

I think it’s important to point out that I don’t dislike Robert Reich, the person. If I were at a social gathering and struck up a conversation with the man, I think I’d find him affable and well-mannered - altogether pleasant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the man shit thunder. Conversely, he might find me a bit loud and flippant (flip? not sure).

The purpose of this series is to debunk the economic and political myths the Ivory Tower, of which he is a charter member, foist on us every single day. And perhaps provide you with some warnings you can provide your kids before the Universities get a hold of them.

..And a warning

In the first few paragraphs, RR mentions FTX. The intrinsic problem with FTX was the fact that is was an elaborate con job. Idiots threw money at this fat slob and since he had money, he had the undivided attention of our political whores in DC. And then they all ended up looking deservedly stupid.

But mark my words, in the very near future, you will be hearing the lecture from Uncle Stinky that BECAUSE of FTX and the fat slob, the ONLY digital currency we should have is the government’s digital currency. This will be, of course, undiluted bullshit. Uncle’s digital money can be manipulated and will be used against you - if you’re not a good prole.

Bad Prole! Bad! No food for you this week!

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A living, breathing self parody

Whenever I come across an article by Robert Reich or listen to him speak it becomes ever clearer to me how America, and by extension the world, came to be in the sorry social state it is in today. We’ve had people like him, tens of thousands, pouring worthless mush into the skulls of our young adults for generations. And now Hillary Clinton is said to have been offered a professorship at Columbia University. Is there any hope for our kids?

Reduced down to it’s simplest portrayal, academics (left-leaning “economists” like Reich) teach kids that 2+2 does indeed equal 4. But stating it as a simple fact, and NOT creating nonsensical exceptions, or not claiming how it tears at the fabric of society and the environment,… well, that’s just racist, or greedy, or harmful to the environment. And if you ask a student to show you his work in a more complex equasion, well, you’re a classroom Bull Connor! You might as well be teaching in a white hood! Don’t take my word for it. People, ADULTS, are actually trying to turn this into a serious discussion.

And, of course there is no end of the “hate the rich” talk and teaching students to strive for victim status.

It is the easy notoriety resulting from the mystical transmogrification of hard facts into chewy, socialist propaganda that has the professors themselves eventually BELIEVING the nonsense they make up. They make themselves into Ivory Tower caricatures? They become so enamored with the nonsense, that whatever hard facts they actually did learn as students are replaced with the mush they now provide OUR kids.

It’s not all bad…kinda…

It isn’t hard to actually read or listen to Reich. He has a pleasant (if not a little smug and self-righteous) tone that he’s developed speaking publicly for a century or so. If he were to teach history with the integrity of say, a Victor Hanson or Larry Arnn, I cold listen to him all day. I should be so lucky as to have that voice. Sadly, I have a face for radio and a voice for newsprint.

And Reich usually doesn’t fill the air with figures and jargon. Jargon always requires a running translation on the part of the listener. And figures, in Reich’s case, would often undermine whatever point he may be making. He replaces figures with flowery claims or emotional complaint.

To be certain, his specific celebrity is based on whatever it was he did, way back when, to earn his degrees (yes plural) and his unholy alliance with BJ Bill and his wife.

So, more than anyone, the professor has cashed in his actual credentials to become the caricature of the Ivory Tower do-nothing. And therein lurks the danger.

I recently read an article by this man entitled America's growing zero-sum economy. The subtitle is It's also where you find many of the nation's ultra-rich.

And it is with this heading my series will start blowing apart this article and the nonsense behind it.

I don’t possess a PhD. I have an Associate’s Degree in robotics. Any of the electro-mechanical or electro-hydraulic devices I used professionally are long obsolete. But I do come equipped with an excellent bullshit detector and keep company with Hayek, Smith, Sowell and Hazlette. You can safely assume it is they who will make my arguments more than me.

And far less than all that is needed these days, to rip into the work of people who are in possession of lofty degrees, who then ignore whatever was valid in their own education to push a political narrative steeped in nonsense, observable by anyone who with an ounce of common sense.

I will get to the actual title in a bit. It will be a recurring theme. And it will require more space to rebutt than the original work took to defile the page.

So, in the subtitle we have a highly politicized “professor” using the term “ultra-rich'“. Right out of the gate you have a non-academic, unobjective, emotional term. Why? And, pretending the term has a valid point, how do we define ultra-rich?

Professor Reich has held forth in tony universities like Harvard and UC Berkley for decades. They pay well from what I understand. He collected some fine fees from his days campaigning for the Clintons and working in the White House. At that level you are paid several times what a top GS employee earns. He is certainly VERY wealthy. He and his wife and son never need worry about the future.

But is he Ultra Wealthy? I would argue that compared to someone who is naked and standing on a piece of ground they don’t own, he’s outrageously wealthy. Compared to a handsome, witty writer living mostly on a Navy pension in Virginia, I can tell you Reich is LOADED! But compared to his peers in Ivy League academia he’s just a drinking buddy. Samie same.

If I was in a bar, talking to a fellow patron about rich people one of us might throw out a term like ultra-wealthy. It is an empty term, inartfully describing someone’s relative net worth. And in a conversation like that, meh, who cares. We both know what is meant by the term. But in this article, as has been the case with Reich since he was a regular on Nightline with Ted Koppel, the term “ultra-wealthy”, and terms like it, it is meant to sew discord. Like the entire article itself, it is meant to inspire class envy and distain for capitalism. This is and always has been an important tool for the Ivory Tower Left. Many of them ARE the very people, living the very lives they pretend to disparage.

Consider the arrogance of people who live that well and yet try to torture YOU with angst about people who have more than you. All these bankers and lenders are getting rich while you suffer. Tell me, is this fair!? Then, like Jeremiah Wright, golfing with rich Whities, people like Reich hobnob with their fellow rich people. It’s okay for HIM. HE’S an academic!

So much for even the subtitle of Reich’s article where in one line Reich demonstrates the lack of value of 3 degress, including a JD. But as I eluded to earlier. This rebuttal will be a series. It will require that much to unpack the BS piled into America’s growing zero-sum economy.

I could make a living just dispelling the myths in a few posts from this guy. It’s fun and may some day be profitable. (I don’t think Substack has laughing emojis. Assume you see one here.)

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Do stay to the end of the Podcast.

I spent late summer and early fall admonishing the GOP to start talking specifics. I pushed for it in my 2016 book, and have been banging away at the idea of getting loud and touching noses for years at streetpolitics.us. Trying to get the GOP to show testicular fortitude is like pushing a wet noodle. It’s made more difficult by the constant election abuses of the Left. My advice went unheeded, as usual. The GOP didn’t open themselves a comfortable lead. So it was easy for the Dems to groom just a couple of races and produce the results we got.

But, more to the point, the scum we discuss below are enjoying a free ride over the Bill of Rights because people see articles like this one, shake their heads at the revelations and then click to the next distraction. Don’t be that kind of weak American. Push the damn button, stay with us and get involved!

Time to take out the garbage!

In furthering my election series, with a goal of acquiring 65 Senate seats, there’s this post, short and sweet.

Start making noise now about cleaning up the agencies that have been utterly corrupted at the top by the Biden and Obama regimes. Under Obama the IRS, Intelligence agencies and the EPA were weaponized to advance the regimes political interests.

Under Biden, the FBI is running roughshod over as many political opponents as they can find. We now have FBI SWAT teams doing door kickers on old men under investigation for procedural crime and anti-abortion protestors. They’ve gone completely off the tracks. This kind of activity is not only low-life, banana republic behavior; it is demoralizing and counter-instructive to the rank and file of the organizations.

The people at the heads of these tarnished organizations have watched CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER too many times and think the bad guys in government are the people to be emulated.

Communications bureaucrats throughout the present regime, including the FBI, CDC and DHS are working constantly with social media outlets, specifically YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to induce them to censor and block information that interferes with the regime’s wishes.

For those who don’t know, the government cannot censor information. They are also prohibited from suborning censorship by a third party. And yet, the three major outlets I mentioned above speak freely of their censorship and post suppression in support of the regime. The intentional censorship is egregious. This is just one astounding example.

Solution:

Withhold funding for all agencies and activities that have participated in the political jack booting. Compile a list of the types of activities mentioned above and require the agencies to FIRE supervisors and executives involved with it. Clean up the corruption!

And start talking about it NOW!

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.streetpolitics.us