I don't know which is more ludicrous, the idea that the president is anything other than a front man for the corporations, where the incumbent acts in accordance with prevailing economic conditions (Hitler and Bush were the defenders of finance capital during a period of severe economic dislocation), or the following statement from the posted article.
"Most of our subscribers to The Casey Report appear to be libertarians or classical liberals – i.e., people who believe in a maximum of both social and economic freedom for the individual." These peanuts are advocting social freedom--which is indeed predicated on economic freedom--by promoting the free-market ideology which has resulted in the worst wealth polarization in the US and the world in history. Under this sytem workers are at the mercy of the vagaries of the market and the measures that capital employs to maintain private profit. You are a free individual that has only his labor to sell--and if that's not in demand--well too bad. Confronted with this as freedom, it's no wonder mental illness and suicide are out of control Makes perfect sense, if you are a retarded amoeba on Saturn. On Aug 19, 11:39 pm, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Baby Bush: The Worst President in History?by Doug Casey > I recognize that I’ve antagonized many subscribers over the years with "Bush > Bashing." In January, just after OBAMA!’s election, I said I wouldn’t mention > Bush again, his departure having made him irrelevant. I only feel bad that he > and his minions will apparently get away scot-free with their crimes; better > they had all been brought up before a tribunal and tried for crimes against > humanity in general and the U.S. Constitution in particular. But that is > objectively true of almost all presidents since at least Lincoln. > Most of our subscribers toThe Casey Reportappear to be libertarians or > classical liberals – i.e., people who believe in a maximum of both social and > economic freedom for the individual. The next largest group are > "conservatives." It’s a bit harder to define a conservative. Is it someone > who atavistically just wants to conserve the existing order of things (either > now, or perhaps as they perceived them 50, or 100, or 200, or however many > years ago)? Or is a conservative someone who believes in limiting social > freedoms (generally that means suppressing things like sex, drugs, outré > clothing and customs, and bad-mouthing the government) while claiming to > support economic freedoms (although with considerable caveats and > exceptions)? It’s unclear to me what, if any, philosophical foundation > conservatism, by whatever definition, rests on. > Which leads me to the question: Why do conservatives seem to have this warm > and fuzzy feeling for George W. Bush? I can only speculate it’s because Bush > liked to talk a lot about freedom and traditional American values, and did so > in such an ungrammatical way that it made him seem sincere. Bush’s tendency > to fumble words and concepts contrasted to Clinton’s eloquence, which made > him look "slick." > I’m forced to the conclusion that what "conservatives" like about Bush is his > style, such as it was. Because the only good thing I can recall that Bush > ever did was to shepherd through some tax cuts. But even these were targeted > and piecemeal, tossing bones to favored interests, rather than any principled > abolition of any levies or a wholesale cut in rates. > Is it possible that Bush was actually the worst president ever? I’d say he’s > a strong contender. He started out with a gigantic lie – that he would cut > the size of government, reduce taxes, and stay out of foreign wars – and > things got much worse from there. Let’s look at just some of the highpoints > in the catalog of disasters the Bush regime created.No Child Left > Behind.Forget about abolishing the Department of Education. Bush made the > federal government a much more intrusive and costly part of local > schools.Project Safe Neighborhoods. A draconian law that further guts the 2nd > Amendment, like 20,000 other unconstitutional gun laws before it.Medicare > Prescription Drug Benefit.This the largest expansion of the welfare state > since LBJ and will cost the already bankrupt Medicare system trillions > more.Sarbanes-Oxley Act.Possibly the most expensive and restrictive change to > the securities laws since the ’30s. A major reason why companies will either > stay private or go public outside the U.S.Katrina.A total disaster of > bureaucratic mismanagement, featuring martial law.Ownership Society.The > immediate root of the current financial crisis lies in Bush’s encouragement > of easy credit to everybody and inflating the housing market.Nationalizations > and Bailouts.In response to the crisis he created, he nationalized Fannie Mae > and Freddie Mac and passed by far the largest bailouts in U.S. history (until > OBAMA!).Free-Speech Zones.Originally a device for keeping war protesters away > when Bush appeared on camera, they’re now used to herd in opponents.The > Patriot Act.This 132-page bill, presented for passage only 45 days after 9/11 > (how is it possible to write something of that size and complexity in only 45 > days?) basically allows the government to do whatever it wishes with its > subjects. Warrantless searches. All kinds of communications monitoring. > Greatly expanded asset forfeiture provisions.The War on Terror.The scope of > the War on Drugs (which Bush also expanded) is exceeded only by the war on > nobody in particular but on a tactic. It’s become a cause of mass hysteria > and an excuse for the government doing anything.Invasions of Afghanistan and > Iraq.Bush started two completely pointless, counterproductive, and immensely > expensive wars, neither of which has any prospect of ending anytime > soon.Dept. of Homeland Security.This is the largest and most dangerous of all > agencies, now with its own gigantic campus in Washington, DC. It will never > go away and centralizes the functions of a police state.Guantanamo.Hundreds > of individuals, most of them (like the Uighurs recently in the news) guilty > only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, are incarcerated for > years. A precedent is set for anyone who is accused of being an "enemy > combatant" to be completely deprived of any rights at all.Abu Ghraib and > Torture.After imprisoning scores of thousands of foreign nationals, Bush made > it a U.S. policy to use torture to extract information, based on a suspicion > or nothing but a guard’s whim. This is certainly one of the most damaging > things to the reputation of the U.S. ever. It says to the world, "We stand > for nothing."The No-Fly List.His administration has placed the names of over > a million people on this list, and it’s still growing at about 20,000 a > month. I promise it will be used for other purposes in the future…The > TSA.Somehow the Bush cabal found 50,000 middle-aged people who were willing > to go through their fellow citizens’ dirty laundry and take themselves quite > seriously. God forbid you’re not polite to them…Farm Subsidies.Farm subsidies > are the antithesis of the free market. Rather than trying to abolish or cut > them back, Bush signed a record $190 billion farm bill.Legislative Free > Ride.And he vetoed less of what Congress did than any other president in > history. > The only reason I can imagine why a person who is not "evil" (to use a word > he favored), completely uninformed, or thoughtless would favor Bush is > because he wasn’t a Democrat. Not that there’s any real difference between > the two parties anymore… > As disastrous as he was, I rather hate to put him in competition for "worst > president" in the company of Lincoln, McKinley, Wilson, the two Roosevelts, > Truman, Johnson, and Nixon. He is simply too small a character – > psychologically aberrant, ignorant, unintelligent, shallow, duplicitous, > small-minded – to merit inclusion in any list. On second thought, looking > over that list of his personal characteristics, he’s probably most like FDR, > except he lacked FDR’s polish and rhetorical skills. I suspect he’ll just > fade away as a non-entity, recognized as an embarrassment. Not even worth the > trouble of hanging by his heels from a lamp post, although Americans aren’t > (yet) accustomed to doing that to their leaders. Those who once supported him > will, at least if they have any circumspection and intellectual honesty, feel > shame at how dim they were to have been duped by a nobody. > The worst shame of Bush – worse than the spending, the new agencies, the > torture, or the wars – is that he used so much pro-liberty and > pro-free-market rhetoric in the very process of destroying those > institutions. That makes his actions ten times worse than if an avowed > socialist had done the same thing. People will blame the full suite of > disasters Bush caused on the free market simply because Bush constantly said > he believed in it. > And he’s left OBAMA! with a fantastic starting point for what I expect to be > even greater intrusions into your life and finances. Eventually, the Bush era > will look like The Good Old Days. But only in the way that the Romans looked > back with nostalgia on Tiberius and Claudius after they got Caligula. And > then Nero. And then the first of many imperial coups and civil wars. > Only by looking at the past can we make sure that history won’t repeat > itself. But most of the time, Doug and his co-editors ofThe Casey Reportlook > at the future. They analyze budding trends for potential money-making > opportunities and share that research with their subscribers… usually for > two- or three-digit gains. One of their favorite investments of 2009 is a > play on an economic inevitability that isalmostguaranteedto bring early birds > big returns.Read more here.http://www.lewrockwell.com/casey/casey16.1.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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