Opponents of the new Constitution warned that the framers had put too much power in one figure, a new king who would sit at the head of the executive branch.
Psychedelic mushrooms "helped me to clear my mind, get me back on track...and [be] a productive, happy person," but I don't see Congress moving very fast to legalize them. And they are far cheaper with fewer side effects than SSRIs. Can I have access to that care?
It’s an interesting illustration of how the left has created new “scientific” principles. Formerly, the scientific method excluded “anecdotal evidence”; somehow, over the last decade or so, anecdotal evidence has become widely accepted under the new term “lived experience“. Many people have had a different experience with SSRIs than that senator, but somehow, she thinks that her experience is more dispositive than theirs. As usual with the left, so much of their world view is based on narcissism.
Except the lived experience of parents whose children were healthy and developing normally until they got one or more vaccines and suddenly developed autism. That is mere “coincidence”.
I am developing a tic in response to the assertion, always about abortion - that you have no right to control someone else's body. Because it is always stated by a person that has zero problems prohibiting you from consuming things they don't approve of.
Thats why ivermectin and fen ben are villainized as treatments... can't make money off it. Or an absurd amount of other wonderful things to improve our health. Can't make money, don't promote it and indeed, try to kill it.
It’s not capitalism. It’s crony corporatism. bordering on fascism, an incestuous relationship between the “private” sector and the politicians whose favor they purchase. And it certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy. They hate Mr. Trump because he’s not part of their game.
It's capitalism working the only way it can: by creating larger and larger monopolies for those already well-off. That naturally and by necessity bleeds into politics, and vice-versa.
Capitalism and communism both result in the same end-state: a total blend of state and corporate. What the fascists tried to do a century ago was simply to skip to the end of a naturally occurring process (unless consciously countered, which carries its own risks).
We haven't really tried pure "free market" capitalism, opting instead for the government-captured version you describe. Capitalism does naturally bleed into politics, but is it necessary, if "consciously countered?" A question for the ages......
The irony of all the grousing about capitalism is that the perverse, bastardized, corrupted version of capitalism we’ve got isn’t true capitalism at all, but capitalism gets the blame. So few people actually have any idea what true capitalism that I’m reticent to speak truth because I don’t wanna hafta try to explain WHY it’s the truth to folks who don’t get it (that part isn’t a problem) and want to argue about it rather than try to understand (that’s the problem).
Anyhow, I’ll risk it; here goes. The thing that everyone calls “government” isn’t, and that’s the thing that has corrupted capitalism into the hideous thing that makes people assume that capitalism is the problem. We don’t have government, except in a very limited sense, and I can prove it to anyone who accepts the Declaration of Independence (NOT the Constitution) as the founding document of the U.S.A.
But there’s more. True capitalism is actually much closer to real government than the monstrous fountainhead of corruption that everyone calls government.
Think about this: Capitalism couldn’t bleed into politics if there were no politics. The fact that politics exists at all is the result of a fundamentally false assumption about the purpose of government, and how it should operate. I can summarize the fallacy in two words: legalized coercion. And there goes the ball game.
It’s necessary because PURE capitalism seeks ONLY profit & growth. Price fixing, etc. are all fair tools.
Capitalism is a tool by which to harness man’s labor, ideas, & capital, all to the greatest efficiency for the greatest cumulative good. By itself, capitalism does not value non-monetary aspects of life.
John: The last sentence in your comment introduces a logical inconsistency that is at the root of the anti-capitalist mentality. It constrains the statements in your first paragraph to a domain in which the only concepts of “profit” and “growth” are those that are rooted in secondary (tangible) property, which subsumes its monetary equivalent. That is precisely why intellectuals are generally among those who are most adamantly anti-capitalistic.
The first sentence in your second paragraph is absolutely correct, but the second sentence contradicts it, and constitutes a renunciation of the most valuable form of capital (ideas, innovation, creativity, aka intellectual or primary property). You can’t have it both ways. PURE capitalism acknowledges and values ALL forms of property, especially the intangible forms, which are the most valuable.
The form of capitalism that concerns itself exclusively with secondary property is secondary capitalism. We do not even have full secondary capitalism, especially due to the interference of the political state, which does not respect the sanctity of private agreements between parties who involve only their property and no one else’s. What we actually have is partial secondary capitalism, which cannot operate in a way that optimizes even secondary profit and growth, let alone optimizing primary profit and growth.
The integration of primary and secondary property is off to a bad start, and for exactly the reason you would expect—the interference of arbitrary political law. The state has corrupted secondary capitalism, perverting it to the point that capitalism routinely gets the blame for engendering a “crass, materialistic society”, with epithets like “greed” equated to “profit”. In fact, the word “profit” has come to have a nearly universal negative connotation, as though any moral gain realized through voluntary transactions is somehow inherently immoral. And now the state is meddling in primary property, via the domain of “IP law”, which barely even recognizes the principle that authorship entails ownership. And don’t even get me started on the threat that AI thievery poses to humans who create. AI plus politics is a disaster waiting to happen.
I commend to your consideration the concept that the exclusion of “non-monetary aspects of life” from the profit-and-growth-centric aspect of capitalism is precisely what has undermined the public perception of capitalism. Not all profit is monetary, and not all growth is in tangible property or its monetary equivalent. You yourself have acknowledged the value of ideas in their contribution “to the greatest efficiency for the greatest cumulative good.” That is brilliantly stated, and is absolutely correct.
Primary property—ideas, innovation, creativity, ingenuity—is the fountainhead of all secondary value. There is no need to controvert your entirely correct identification of primary property as an intrinsic and essential part of capitalism’s self-organizing allocation of resources. There is no need to regress to the far more limited constraints of secondary capitalism. The classical interpretation of capital as being limited to secondary property is part of the problem.
The paradigm shift that integrates primary and secondary property—a genuine revolution in the way we think about capitalism—is the path toward advancing civilization beyond the perpetually destructive belief that the political state is the only possible vehicle of self-governance. In fact, it is antithetical to true government, whose sole purpose is to secure our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which automatically subsumes secondary property.
True government is a service, not something to be forced on people at lawpoint, jailpoint, or gunpoint. The free market is eminently capable of providing that service without recourse to legalized coercion. But in order for the naturally self-organizing forces of pure capitalism to function, all forms of property—especially the most valuable, intangible forms—must have the same rights and protection as the tangible forms. In that scenario, mutually profitable interactions will be preferred, and will self-select into predominance throughout the marketplace of human interaction.
Otherwise, if we insist on maintaining our addiction to partial secondary capitalism, manipulated and controlled by political state meddling, civilization will continue to be a zero-sum game, with those who corrupt their way into amassing the greatest secondary fortunes being the winners. They will always be able to wield the most coercion, making them the winners and everyone else the losers.
IOW, that’s what we’ll get if we continue to insist that capitalism is ONLY about secondary profit. It’s just not. Your own statement acknowledges it. That’s how genuine revolutions start. They don’t come out of the end of a gun. They come about as transformations in people’s thinking.
There is no monopoly in capitalism per se; all monopolies are enforced by government (whether nominally democratic or not). Marx was full of shit on that point.
I disagree. A year after we moved to an ex-urb of Knoxville and built our house, Vulcan Materials bought its ONLY competitor in the local gravel business, and prices instantly more than doubled. That’s an inherent development in capitalism. Capitalism is still the best system, but we should be honest about its warts and the need for their prevention.
I think the pursuit of a “perfect” system of inspiring men’s efforts/regulating their conduct is a fool’s errand.
Pure economic communism (no politics) was disproven by the second winter of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in the 1620s: Land was held in common, farm work was assigned equally to the men, and the harvest was divided equally. Shockingly, attendance at the dividing up of the harvest was MUCH better attended than was any farm work, and the Colony lost 20-40% of its people to starvation and disease that winter.
The following spring, the fields were allocated based on family size, and each formally assigned to a family. The men again did the work, but this time, the harvest was bounteous. What could possibly have been different? Perhaps the prospect of benefitting directly from one’s own labor?
(It is this New England feast which is erroneously depicted in paintings as the 1st American Thanksgiving with the helpful natives. The actual 1st Thanksgiving feast was in Jamestown, Virginia where the leaders were not leftists requiring starvation to educate them.)
Capitalism harnesses selfishness, the innate character trait born into every baby, and helps generates a product or service that no one else found his way to create. JD Rockefeller became the richest man in history (to that point) by transporting petroleum in tank cars (and in turn pipelines) rather than wooden barrels. Yes, he became richer still by engaging in widespread, as-yet-still legal anti-competitive practices, which were subsequently prohibited.
The key is to take the best performance motivator and shackle it with the smallest possible restraint that will prevent societally harmful behavior. An economy isn’t intended to be “fair.” It’s intended to reward productivity. So far at least, capitalism has lifted billions more people out of extreme poverty than any other system known to Man.
It more than borders. I wanted to say something snappy, eg it’s skipping double Dutch rope with the demarcation, but in fact the rope is being held by corporate players and politicians at state, federal, and too many local levels. It’s just not *exactly* what Mussolini did, and we aren’t *Italy*, so their pro-fascism antifa hollering claims it’s nothing like it. It shows up in how courts handle cases, not just one off but as established practice. Cf Chicago for some examples such as their landlord-tenant legislation as altered de facto by how judges simply don’t allow the tenant-side legislation subsections to be argued in that category of room (and are selected for incompetence to judge those arguments in any case); chime in with whatever locality someone has experienced. It shows up in proxy wars being fought until real estate and industrial interests like the deals they’re getting. And so on. It’s subtle, is what I’m saying, because it uses specialization, absence of positive action to comply with law, and detachment from documented responsibility to effect its goals, rather than traceable actions.
The traceability of Trump’s actions is possibly one reason these established fascists are freaking out. The only real way to “resist” him, or rather whatever policy or activity changes he makes, lies in acting in a non-fascist way, and being equally traceable. Anything that would be desirable to the existing fascists (such as idk Ukrainian redevelopment) is so visible, their cloak of “beneficial intentions” can’t be used.
The progressive/left in this country always - ALWAYS - accuses the other side of doing what they themselves do. So when they scream that you are a fascist, it is because you are suggesting something that they want to do. It is laughable how they tremble about Trump politicizing the DoJ - because that's not something they want to do, they've already done it.
It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so gravely worrying.
I know some hard leftists who were working, ok in Canada but they came from the US, for an outcome that involved silencing those on the right. That was a platform goal: take away the voice of the politically right.
I cannot understand what their education or moral upbringing must have been.
I must be honest: I’ve seen this attitude among the Christian evangelicals a lot. Any goals to implement laws based on religious beliefs are nothing else but this, even if people don’t bother to say the necessary preconditions along with their stated goal. But I’m not picking on Abrahamic religions in particular. I am sure the general mindset exists among any religious fundamentalists that earn the label. After all, Hindus & Buddhists each have pogrom style religious out-group murders in their generalized histories. That’s a sign of fundamentalism and murder is the ultimate “silencing”.
So this is a fundamentalist attitude, just on the left, attached to a secular but religiously intense belief system.
I don’t know, but suspect, that it’s a general failure of the education system that fails to give people the mental tools to steer clear of fundamentalism in general. I’m not certain though. By 11 or so I’d already read enough that I was first-principaling everything that ends up rejecting religious fervor, so I don’t see what’s wrong with these people that they haven’t. It’s not that hard to encounter the root ideas of the enlightenment.
"It’s not that hard to encounter the root ideas of the enlightenment."
It is also not that hard to take one principle or another of the enlightenment and fetishize it (which then becomes the basis for religious devotion in the fundamentalist style). I can offer you more at:
'Capitalism' was the term Marx used to smear the free market. Why? Because he was a bitter fool The creation of wealth occurs because more than one thing occurs. First a human decides to expend his own energy(capital) along with any excess(savings) and offer it to others as progress(profits.) What is weird, is no one wants to use the terms...FREE & market together to explain how the people in charge of the 'capitalism' can't do it very well. Maybe they should start calling it a FREE market and stop hampering the freedom needed for it to thrive. Why are we calling something by only one of its components? How are the bureaucrats helping it when its their rules hindering its implementation. Another weird thing is that, where is the thriving Leftist paradise happening because humans are instinctively social, you know so that we can learn from them.
So you are saying that anything that cuts into the profits of a capitalist enterprise (which is EVERY enterprise since all enterprises need capital, regardless of whether that's private or government capital) is illegal? Growing my own vegetables. Illegal?
Miz Lizzie is a true “piece of work” and as she gets older she’s gone really wacky. She was a credible voice back in the day when she focused on credit card debt and the predatory practices of the credit card companies, back in the Obama days. But that went nowhere, and then she “got the memo”…”this is how you ‘play’ here in the Senate” and she ran toward Big Pharma
$$$! On another note the way she rattles on has me seriously wondering if she got the EUA mRNA Jabs and Boosters. Too bad Kennedy won’t ask that question with these a-holes.
And this endless calling any twisted thing pharma or the medical industry does “care”. School-shooting and suicide-inducing SSRIs are “care”, mastectomies for 13-years olds and late-term abortions, important “care”, mRNA shots are “care” , as and by the way, I also learned that the CDC consists of “wonderful people who wake up every day” to go to work. Kinda hard to go to work if you don’t, but apparently you have to dig pretty deep to come up with something good the CDC has done lately, so “waking up every morning” is perhaps it?
I wanted him to ask her if she's cured or still taking SSRIs. I also wanted him to ask if she realizes what a black box warning means and if she's aware side effects include suicidal/ homicidal urges especially in teens and clearly says you can't stop then "suddenly."
Totally agree with you, Chris. My husband and I were just talking about this. I'd feel more comfortable if the "orders" were instead acts of Congress signed by the president. The way this is going, the next guy/gal can be just as bold, and bold is crazy sometimes. But what are his options? Congress has gone to shit. A complete circus. He needs to shovel shit and retrain the animals so they know their roles. Hopefully the shown will go on, but it's hard to see how this ends, no pun intended.
Congress will never, ever vote to limit their own power, benefits, terms, or spending, all reforms that are critical to getting our country back on track. So I agree that, if any fixing is going to occur, it will have to be by fiat. I also worry about what future presidents may do by fiat, but look what the last one did by fiat before Trump. Congress didn’t vote to mandate masks, vaccines or school closures, but they happened and went on for years, plenty of time for Congress to ratify these mandates. I’ve often thought that if the 9/11 terrorists flew into the Capitol, we might be thanking them (at least privately).
It was hard to watch, so very hard, especially the weasel faced man who sounded confusingly like a woman ( and whose name I’ve mercifully suppressed) and kept going on about vaccines in an angry and near hysterical voice. But I told myself if Bobby can take this one for us, the least I can do is listen, no matter what it does to my blood pressure and general outlook on life and our near future.
I don’t know if Bobby drinks, but for his sake I sure hope he does, because boy would I need a stiff one after the day he had. Our world sure punishes the rogue heroes and truth tellers something awful.
Kennedy has been ‘sober’ for many years. He regularly drops into 12 Step meetings. He also has a very strong faith and prayer practice. His grandmother Rose Kennedy instilled this into her grandchildren, with when they were with her out The Cape, they regularly attended morning mass. That is his solace. I have heard him speak of his faith and prayer practice a number of times.
Actually, it’s easier (or at least less emotionally trying) if you remind yourself frequently that the questioners are mostly insane, so don’t engage with the “questions” and stick to the script. (I know this from my childhood and a perpetually angry father.) The only objective is to not cause doubts among uncertain Republicans.
I wrote this 8 hours ago on another substack about Warren, and yeah, I was up early and unfortunately watched the whole thing: "She was totally unhinged, just like the last hearing, and the one before that, and ALL the Democrats before that. They are really flailing."
The only thing I take away from these hearings that has any tangible value anymore: Most of Congress is plainly retarded and unfit for any type of government service in a functional serious country.
We think Warren and her ilk are flailing because we still hold the quaint notion that she works for us - we the people - and as such should at least pretend to care what voters think. But she doesn’t think she’s flailing. She’s pleased as punch with her performance. Because she wasn’t performing for us, she was performing for the bagmen of Big Pharma. She’s not a Democrat, she’s a Pharmacrat. She does work for us or anyone like us, she works for “those who pay.” WE.DONT.MATTER.
If you want to know who treated RFK,Jr the worst, just check the amount each Senator receives from Big Pharma. Their civility is disproportional to their Pharma grift.
“Stolen elections have consequences.” Dig into the election apparatus and I’m pretty convinced almost none of our elections are real. I refuse to believe REAL people picked these fake people to represent them. One or two idiots, sure. But when the entire body starts looking like a gross candy bowl of weirdos that are literal cartoons half the time? I have to believe Americans - even lefties - are smarter than that.
When I listen to anything more than 60-120 seconds of any of the leftists senators question Hegseth, RFK Jr, Bondi, Bessett--I need to stop because I unconsciously begin to grind my teeth into powder.
I know a few people in local government...city, county, state. Clowns. All of them. It is like none of these fools could succeed in the real world, so they play at politics which is nothing more than junior high mean-girls shit.
I've been calling my two leftist senators over the past 5-6 weeks, "Hi, this is Brian. I am confident that you and the senator are as excited as I am about the Trump admin...just calling to confirm that she will support 100% of Trump's cabinet picks..."
"Thank you for calling, I'll pass on your remarks to the senator." CLICK.
This week I tried a different approach: "Whew, I gotta say, this has been the most remarkable, greatest week in US history, I'm sure you agree! Please ask the senator to vote in favor of RFK, Kash, and Tulsi. God Bless America!! What a country!! Can you believe it?!?!"
Yes, it is childish--but I am an adult child, just ask my wife...
"It is like none of these fools could succeed in the real world, so they play at politics which is nothing more than junior high mean-girls shit."
Western democracy since the 1970s, summed up in one sentence right there.
My quibble: it's not just "like" they can't succeed at anything real. They really can't. Former Swedish PM Reinfeldt (neo-lib globalist) got a sinecure at Merril-Lynch when he resigned, the job having been set up for him in advance. They got rig of him anyway inside a year. How's that for a "mark of quality", getting sacked from a fake job?
Drug cops call what your PM did “getting high off your own supply,” i.e., he believed his own own bullshit and thought he could actually do a real job on investment banking.
When he lost the election back then (and there were no doubts about it even before the count was done), instead of doing the customary speech with all the expected floskels* - he snuck off the stage and went home, turning off his phone as he went.
Reports about his behaviour in private reinforces the image of an immature man-child, used to getting his way by throwing tantrums and runny to Mommy/any woman in charge of anything.
Now, he's recently been sacked from his position as head of the National Soccer Association (think NFL), a position he was given after intense lobbying on his behalf and against the near-unanimous vote of all franchised members.
And to take it up a notch and back to the drug-reference, his oldest son has been busted as being a wholesaler of cocaine to the rich and famous (which means the investigation is going nowhere, lots of politicians and celebrities in his little black book according to anonymous police leaks).
*Floskel is a great word, by the way. I'm sure English could find a use for it:
“When he lost the election…he snuck off the stage and went home…”
At least Reinfeldt showed up – Harris didn’t bother to show up anywhere for 36 hrs. I began to hope she’d done the honorable thing, but alas, she showed to deliver a word salad about…who knows what?
The problem, Chris, is the Congress doesn’t think it’s “just hanging there like a dead limb on a sick tree.” Quite the contrary, they believe it’s doing exactly what they want it to do - make them rich and powerful. Congress is giving Representatives and Senators exactly what THEY want, access to incredible riches. The Senate is not embarrassed even the tiniest bit about the RFK, Jr hearing. The hearing wasn’t for us, it was for the bagmen of Big Pharma and Big Ag and Big Food. The Senate gave their pay masters exactly what they wanted -derailment of the one person who threatens the gravy train. Where WTP see a dead limb on a sick tree, those in Congress see the most amazing grift machine in the history of the world. IT’S DOING EXACTLY WHAT CURRENT CONGRESSMEN WANT IT TO DO. It’s not sick, it’s intentional.
Spot on analysis Chris. I watched/listened to today's RFK Jr. hearing in incredulity. There is a reason when I am asked WTF is wrong with America I reply, "the stupid people are running everything." I'm not being flippant. These people have failed up in government and are the useful idiots for the consultancy class. Their rule is already crumbling.
The election process has not selected for competent legislators recently in any country. The US is far from alone in this (and arguably far from the worst). Take the UK & two tier Keir’s government or Germany for example
The good news: Bernie says he isn't going to run again. The bad news: he was just reelected in 2024 so we won't be rid of him for a while.
I was down at Town Hall this morning to take the oath of office for my third term as Justice of the Peace and we all had a big laugh about Bernie's performance. He made an absolute fool of himself and embarrassed all sane Vermonters. Again. As usual. We did take some solace in the fact that he was not the only senator who behaved like an idiot.
David Collium quote of the day on the confirmation hearing. “The Tree of Memes is fertilized with the blood of idiots”. I think this captures the entire process now.
Psychedelic mushrooms "helped me to clear my mind, get me back on track...and [be] a productive, happy person," but I don't see Congress moving very fast to legalize them. And they are far cheaper with fewer side effects than SSRIs. Can I have access to that care?
It’s an interesting illustration of how the left has created new “scientific” principles. Formerly, the scientific method excluded “anecdotal evidence”; somehow, over the last decade or so, anecdotal evidence has become widely accepted under the new term “lived experience“. Many people have had a different experience with SSRIs than that senator, but somehow, she thinks that her experience is more dispositive than theirs. As usual with the left, so much of their world view is based on narcissism.
also her experience includes large incoming funds from Big Pharma, but she might not have mentioned that.
Except the lived experience of parents whose children were healthy and developing normally until they got one or more vaccines and suddenly developed autism. That is mere “coincidence”.
I am developing a tic in response to the assertion, always about abortion - that you have no right to control someone else's body. Because it is always stated by a person that has zero problems prohibiting you from consuming things they don't approve of.
in a country where the government enforces laws regarding smoking tobacco, but not fentanyl.
Only if big pharma owns the patent.
Thats why ivermectin and fen ben are villainized as treatments... can't make money off it. Or an absurd amount of other wonderful things to improve our health. Can't make money, don't promote it and indeed, try to kill it.
nailed it
No product you can create yourself for little cost can be legal: it cuts into the profits and kick-backs of capitalist democracy.
(That's not an endorsement of socialism, just to be clear.)
It’s not capitalism. It’s crony corporatism. bordering on fascism, an incestuous relationship between the “private” sector and the politicians whose favor they purchase. And it certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy. They hate Mr. Trump because he’s not part of their game.
100%. This isn’t capitalism, it a highly regulated nepotism.
It's capitalism working the only way it can: by creating larger and larger monopolies for those already well-off. That naturally and by necessity bleeds into politics, and vice-versa.
Capitalism and communism both result in the same end-state: a total blend of state and corporate. What the fascists tried to do a century ago was simply to skip to the end of a naturally occurring process (unless consciously countered, which carries its own risks).
We haven't really tried pure "free market" capitalism, opting instead for the government-captured version you describe. Capitalism does naturally bleed into politics, but is it necessary, if "consciously countered?" A question for the ages......
The irony of all the grousing about capitalism is that the perverse, bastardized, corrupted version of capitalism we’ve got isn’t true capitalism at all, but capitalism gets the blame. So few people actually have any idea what true capitalism that I’m reticent to speak truth because I don’t wanna hafta try to explain WHY it’s the truth to folks who don’t get it (that part isn’t a problem) and want to argue about it rather than try to understand (that’s the problem).
Anyhow, I’ll risk it; here goes. The thing that everyone calls “government” isn’t, and that’s the thing that has corrupted capitalism into the hideous thing that makes people assume that capitalism is the problem. We don’t have government, except in a very limited sense, and I can prove it to anyone who accepts the Declaration of Independence (NOT the Constitution) as the founding document of the U.S.A.
But there’s more. True capitalism is actually much closer to real government than the monstrous fountainhead of corruption that everyone calls government.
Think about this: Capitalism couldn’t bleed into politics if there were no politics. The fact that politics exists at all is the result of a fundamentally false assumption about the purpose of government, and how it should operate. I can summarize the fallacy in two words: legalized coercion. And there goes the ball game.
It’s necessary because PURE capitalism seeks ONLY profit & growth. Price fixing, etc. are all fair tools.
Capitalism is a tool by which to harness man’s labor, ideas, & capital, all to the greatest efficiency for the greatest cumulative good. By itself, capitalism does not value non-monetary aspects of life.
John: The last sentence in your comment introduces a logical inconsistency that is at the root of the anti-capitalist mentality. It constrains the statements in your first paragraph to a domain in which the only concepts of “profit” and “growth” are those that are rooted in secondary (tangible) property, which subsumes its monetary equivalent. That is precisely why intellectuals are generally among those who are most adamantly anti-capitalistic.
The first sentence in your second paragraph is absolutely correct, but the second sentence contradicts it, and constitutes a renunciation of the most valuable form of capital (ideas, innovation, creativity, aka intellectual or primary property). You can’t have it both ways. PURE capitalism acknowledges and values ALL forms of property, especially the intangible forms, which are the most valuable.
The form of capitalism that concerns itself exclusively with secondary property is secondary capitalism. We do not even have full secondary capitalism, especially due to the interference of the political state, which does not respect the sanctity of private agreements between parties who involve only their property and no one else’s. What we actually have is partial secondary capitalism, which cannot operate in a way that optimizes even secondary profit and growth, let alone optimizing primary profit and growth.
The integration of primary and secondary property is off to a bad start, and for exactly the reason you would expect—the interference of arbitrary political law. The state has corrupted secondary capitalism, perverting it to the point that capitalism routinely gets the blame for engendering a “crass, materialistic society”, with epithets like “greed” equated to “profit”. In fact, the word “profit” has come to have a nearly universal negative connotation, as though any moral gain realized through voluntary transactions is somehow inherently immoral. And now the state is meddling in primary property, via the domain of “IP law”, which barely even recognizes the principle that authorship entails ownership. And don’t even get me started on the threat that AI thievery poses to humans who create. AI plus politics is a disaster waiting to happen.
I commend to your consideration the concept that the exclusion of “non-monetary aspects of life” from the profit-and-growth-centric aspect of capitalism is precisely what has undermined the public perception of capitalism. Not all profit is monetary, and not all growth is in tangible property or its monetary equivalent. You yourself have acknowledged the value of ideas in their contribution “to the greatest efficiency for the greatest cumulative good.” That is brilliantly stated, and is absolutely correct.
Primary property—ideas, innovation, creativity, ingenuity—is the fountainhead of all secondary value. There is no need to controvert your entirely correct identification of primary property as an intrinsic and essential part of capitalism’s self-organizing allocation of resources. There is no need to regress to the far more limited constraints of secondary capitalism. The classical interpretation of capital as being limited to secondary property is part of the problem.
The paradigm shift that integrates primary and secondary property—a genuine revolution in the way we think about capitalism—is the path toward advancing civilization beyond the perpetually destructive belief that the political state is the only possible vehicle of self-governance. In fact, it is antithetical to true government, whose sole purpose is to secure our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which automatically subsumes secondary property.
True government is a service, not something to be forced on people at lawpoint, jailpoint, or gunpoint. The free market is eminently capable of providing that service without recourse to legalized coercion. But in order for the naturally self-organizing forces of pure capitalism to function, all forms of property—especially the most valuable, intangible forms—must have the same rights and protection as the tangible forms. In that scenario, mutually profitable interactions will be preferred, and will self-select into predominance throughout the marketplace of human interaction.
Otherwise, if we insist on maintaining our addiction to partial secondary capitalism, manipulated and controlled by political state meddling, civilization will continue to be a zero-sum game, with those who corrupt their way into amassing the greatest secondary fortunes being the winners. They will always be able to wield the most coercion, making them the winners and everyone else the losers.
IOW, that’s what we’ll get if we continue to insist that capitalism is ONLY about secondary profit. It’s just not. Your own statement acknowledges it. That’s how genuine revolutions start. They don’t come out of the end of a gun. They come about as transformations in people’s thinking.
There is no monopoly in capitalism per se; all monopolies are enforced by government (whether nominally democratic or not). Marx was full of shit on that point.
I disagree. A year after we moved to an ex-urb of Knoxville and built our house, Vulcan Materials bought its ONLY competitor in the local gravel business, and prices instantly more than doubled. That’s an inherent development in capitalism. Capitalism is still the best system, but we should be honest about its warts and the need for their prevention.
Only competitor you say?
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=8bc2d4f2a321e1d3&tbm=lcl&q=knoxville+gravel&rflfq=1&num=10&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1wZDEs6CLAxV3jIkEHWVpI4cQjGp6BAgpEAE&biw=1567&bih=895&dpr=1#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[36.1409035,-83.78723230000001],[35.7669468,-84.26730839999999]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2
I think the pursuit of a “perfect” system of inspiring men’s efforts/regulating their conduct is a fool’s errand.
Pure economic communism (no politics) was disproven by the second winter of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in the 1620s: Land was held in common, farm work was assigned equally to the men, and the harvest was divided equally. Shockingly, attendance at the dividing up of the harvest was MUCH better attended than was any farm work, and the Colony lost 20-40% of its people to starvation and disease that winter.
The following spring, the fields were allocated based on family size, and each formally assigned to a family. The men again did the work, but this time, the harvest was bounteous. What could possibly have been different? Perhaps the prospect of benefitting directly from one’s own labor?
(It is this New England feast which is erroneously depicted in paintings as the 1st American Thanksgiving with the helpful natives. The actual 1st Thanksgiving feast was in Jamestown, Virginia where the leaders were not leftists requiring starvation to educate them.)
Capitalism harnesses selfishness, the innate character trait born into every baby, and helps generates a product or service that no one else found his way to create. JD Rockefeller became the richest man in history (to that point) by transporting petroleum in tank cars (and in turn pipelines) rather than wooden barrels. Yes, he became richer still by engaging in widespread, as-yet-still legal anti-competitive practices, which were subsequently prohibited.
The key is to take the best performance motivator and shackle it with the smallest possible restraint that will prevent societally harmful behavior. An economy isn’t intended to be “fair.” It’s intended to reward productivity. So far at least, capitalism has lifted billions more people out of extreme poverty than any other system known to Man.
It more than borders. I wanted to say something snappy, eg it’s skipping double Dutch rope with the demarcation, but in fact the rope is being held by corporate players and politicians at state, federal, and too many local levels. It’s just not *exactly* what Mussolini did, and we aren’t *Italy*, so their pro-fascism antifa hollering claims it’s nothing like it. It shows up in how courts handle cases, not just one off but as established practice. Cf Chicago for some examples such as their landlord-tenant legislation as altered de facto by how judges simply don’t allow the tenant-side legislation subsections to be argued in that category of room (and are selected for incompetence to judge those arguments in any case); chime in with whatever locality someone has experienced. It shows up in proxy wars being fought until real estate and industrial interests like the deals they’re getting. And so on. It’s subtle, is what I’m saying, because it uses specialization, absence of positive action to comply with law, and detachment from documented responsibility to effect its goals, rather than traceable actions.
The traceability of Trump’s actions is possibly one reason these established fascists are freaking out. The only real way to “resist” him, or rather whatever policy or activity changes he makes, lies in acting in a non-fascist way, and being equally traceable. Anything that would be desirable to the existing fascists (such as idk Ukrainian redevelopment) is so visible, their cloak of “beneficial intentions” can’t be used.
The progressive/left in this country always - ALWAYS - accuses the other side of doing what they themselves do. So when they scream that you are a fascist, it is because you are suggesting something that they want to do. It is laughable how they tremble about Trump politicizing the DoJ - because that's not something they want to do, they've already done it.
It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so gravely worrying.
I know some hard leftists who were working, ok in Canada but they came from the US, for an outcome that involved silencing those on the right. That was a platform goal: take away the voice of the politically right.
I cannot understand what their education or moral upbringing must have been.
I must be honest: I’ve seen this attitude among the Christian evangelicals a lot. Any goals to implement laws based on religious beliefs are nothing else but this, even if people don’t bother to say the necessary preconditions along with their stated goal. But I’m not picking on Abrahamic religions in particular. I am sure the general mindset exists among any religious fundamentalists that earn the label. After all, Hindus & Buddhists each have pogrom style religious out-group murders in their generalized histories. That’s a sign of fundamentalism and murder is the ultimate “silencing”.
So this is a fundamentalist attitude, just on the left, attached to a secular but religiously intense belief system.
I don’t know, but suspect, that it’s a general failure of the education system that fails to give people the mental tools to steer clear of fundamentalism in general. I’m not certain though. By 11 or so I’d already read enough that I was first-principaling everything that ends up rejecting religious fervor, so I don’t see what’s wrong with these people that they haven’t. It’s not that hard to encounter the root ideas of the enlightenment.
"It’s not that hard to encounter the root ideas of the enlightenment."
It is also not that hard to take one principle or another of the enlightenment and fetishize it (which then becomes the basis for religious devotion in the fundamentalist style). I can offer you more at:
https://rathercurmudgeonly.substack.com/p/the-problem-of-no-politics
The best evidence of what the Left is doing privately is what they’ve publicly bitching about at the moment. It’s really quite remarkable.
You notice you don't hear any lefties complaining about dark money the last few years? It's because they got better at it than the right ever was.
Capitalism is the most efficient equitable economic system but still has many downsides
Thomas Sowell explains why it "fails" in his first laws of economics and politics. Everyone wants more than they can have.
Capitalism is putting the creation of capital - money - as the prime ethical principle.
True, so it must be given guardrails within which to operate: no price fixing, no purchasing of sole competitors, i.e., no anti-competitive behavior.
'Capitalism' was the term Marx used to smear the free market. Why? Because he was a bitter fool The creation of wealth occurs because more than one thing occurs. First a human decides to expend his own energy(capital) along with any excess(savings) and offer it to others as progress(profits.) What is weird, is no one wants to use the terms...FREE & market together to explain how the people in charge of the 'capitalism' can't do it very well. Maybe they should start calling it a FREE market and stop hampering the freedom needed for it to thrive. Why are we calling something by only one of its components? How are the bureaucrats helping it when its their rules hindering its implementation. Another weird thing is that, where is the thriving Leftist paradise happening because humans are instinctively social, you know so that we can learn from them.
So you are saying that anything that cuts into the profits of a capitalist enterprise (which is EVERY enterprise since all enterprises need capital, regardless of whether that's private or government capital) is illegal? Growing my own vegetables. Illegal?
According to the likes of Monsanto (f.e.), the answer would be yes.
Not according to me, but I'm neither capitalist nor communist, but a patriot and a nationalist:
Family -> Kin -> People -> Nation, is the hierarchy I acknowledge, where family comes first, and the state never.
'No product you can create yourself for little cost can be legal'
So was this you who wrote this or a Rikard imitator?
The bit about patriotism, family, kin, people, nation etc. has precisely zero to do with the above claim.
Their regulation must be an enumerated power under the "magic" clause.
Well played.
bsn
Pocahontas was too much for me. She's off the rails.
And the 2nd biggest recipient of big pharma cash. Bernie was #1.
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/whos-trying-to-stop-america-from?
Someone should produce a whiteboard with this info on it and set it in the table next to Kennedy.
Are you supportive of this onesie?!?!
https://i.imgflip.com/9ihspp.jpg
She has been off the rails for a long time.
Pocahontas needs an intervention, along with Bernie, maybe Schumer too 🫣
That's Fauxcahontas.
Lieawatha.
I think you meant to write 'reservation'!
More like Chief Crazy Horse. The real Pocahontas was cute.
So true! She was such a harpie!
She is the benchmark AAWFL (affluent & angry).
Miz Lizzie is a true “piece of work” and as she gets older she’s gone really wacky. She was a credible voice back in the day when she focused on credit card debt and the predatory practices of the credit card companies, back in the Obama days. But that went nowhere, and then she “got the memo”…”this is how you ‘play’ here in the Senate” and she ran toward Big Pharma
$$$! On another note the way she rattles on has me seriously wondering if she got the EUA mRNA Jabs and Boosters. Too bad Kennedy won’t ask that question with these a-holes.
She was never credible. The biggest debt predator by far is Congress. Followed closely by universities.
And off her meds.
And this endless calling any twisted thing pharma or the medical industry does “care”. School-shooting and suicide-inducing SSRIs are “care”, mastectomies for 13-years olds and late-term abortions, important “care”, mRNA shots are “care” , as and by the way, I also learned that the CDC consists of “wonderful people who wake up every day” to go to work. Kinda hard to go to work if you don’t, but apparently you have to dig pretty deep to come up with something good the CDC has done lately, so “waking up every morning” is perhaps it?
I wanted him to ask her if she's cured or still taking SSRIs. I also wanted him to ask if she realizes what a black box warning means and if she's aware side effects include suicidal/ homicidal urges especially in teens and clearly says you can't stop then "suddenly."
And don't forget the Cremation of Care ritual at Bohemian Grove, which they all attend. Because they don't care!
Wake up every morning and sleepwalk.
Totally agree with you, Chris. My husband and I were just talking about this. I'd feel more comfortable if the "orders" were instead acts of Congress signed by the president. The way this is going, the next guy/gal can be just as bold, and bold is crazy sometimes. But what are his options? Congress has gone to shit. A complete circus. He needs to shovel shit and retrain the animals so they know their roles. Hopefully the shown will go on, but it's hard to see how this ends, no pun intended.
Congress will never, ever vote to limit their own power, benefits, terms, or spending, all reforms that are critical to getting our country back on track. So I agree that, if any fixing is going to occur, it will have to be by fiat. I also worry about what future presidents may do by fiat, but look what the last one did by fiat before Trump. Congress didn’t vote to mandate masks, vaccines or school closures, but they happened and went on for years, plenty of time for Congress to ratify these mandates. I’ve often thought that if the 9/11 terrorists flew into the Capitol, we might be thanking them (at least privately).
The old joke about Congress that ends with "about a gallon."
https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/3eft1l/congress_gets_kidnapped/
Agree and Tom Clancy wrote a fabulous book about this scenario.
I’m pretty sure the “saints” in Clancy’s book didn’t have dark money types scurrying over the Capitol’s new rubble to bribe the newcomers to D.C.
It was hard to watch, so very hard, especially the weasel faced man who sounded confusingly like a woman ( and whose name I’ve mercifully suppressed) and kept going on about vaccines in an angry and near hysterical voice. But I told myself if Bobby can take this one for us, the least I can do is listen, no matter what it does to my blood pressure and general outlook on life and our near future.
I don’t know if Bobby drinks, but for his sake I sure hope he does, because boy would I need a stiff one after the day he had. Our world sure punishes the rogue heroes and truth tellers something awful.
I don't think he does, the poor bastard.
Not even single malt scotch? After today I believe he does!
Bobby is a recovering drug addict who goes to an AA meeting every single day, I doubt there’s any restorative whiskey in his life.
So I am not the only one who thinks Ron Wyden is a weasel! I have identified him as such on several occasions.
In Oregon we often say Wyden is New York's third senator.
Kennedy has been ‘sober’ for many years. He regularly drops into 12 Step meetings. He also has a very strong faith and prayer practice. His grandmother Rose Kennedy instilled this into her grandchildren, with when they were with her out The Cape, they regularly attended morning mass. That is his solace. I have heard him speak of his faith and prayer practice a number of times.
Actually, it’s easier (or at least less emotionally trying) if you remind yourself frequently that the questioners are mostly insane, so don’t engage with the “questions” and stick to the script. (I know this from my childhood and a perpetually angry father.) The only objective is to not cause doubts among uncertain Republicans.
“The government of my country snubs honest simplicity but fondles artistic villainy....." - Mark Twain
Very well said! Same!
I wrote this 8 hours ago on another substack about Warren, and yeah, I was up early and unfortunately watched the whole thing: "She was totally unhinged, just like the last hearing, and the one before that, and ALL the Democrats before that. They are really flailing."
The only thing I take away from these hearings that has any tangible value anymore: Most of Congress is plainly retarded and unfit for any type of government service in a functional serious country.
We think Warren and her ilk are flailing because we still hold the quaint notion that she works for us - we the people - and as such should at least pretend to care what voters think. But she doesn’t think she’s flailing. She’s pleased as punch with her performance. Because she wasn’t performing for us, she was performing for the bagmen of Big Pharma. She’s not a Democrat, she’s a Pharmacrat. She does work for us or anyone like us, she works for “those who pay.” WE.DONT.MATTER.
Yeah I saw the donor chart. Guess who else was on it? The Frozen Turtle himself, and the resident fake Communist with multiple lake homes.
If you want to know who treated RFK,Jr the worst, just check the amount each Senator receives from Big Pharma. Their civility is disproportional to their Pharma grift.
“Stolen elections have consequences.” Dig into the election apparatus and I’m pretty convinced almost none of our elections are real. I refuse to believe REAL people picked these fake people to represent them. One or two idiots, sure. But when the entire body starts looking like a gross candy bowl of weirdos that are literal cartoons half the time? I have to believe Americans - even lefties - are smarter than that.
I wish I shared your "optimism."
“The Greatest Deliberative Body in the World.” Bwahahahahahahaha! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Isn't it time for her to be gone? Where are these term limits we keep hearing about?
When I listen to anything more than 60-120 seconds of any of the leftists senators question Hegseth, RFK Jr, Bondi, Bessett--I need to stop because I unconsciously begin to grind my teeth into powder.
I know a few people in local government...city, county, state. Clowns. All of them. It is like none of these fools could succeed in the real world, so they play at politics which is nothing more than junior high mean-girls shit.
I've been calling my two leftist senators over the past 5-6 weeks, "Hi, this is Brian. I am confident that you and the senator are as excited as I am about the Trump admin...just calling to confirm that she will support 100% of Trump's cabinet picks..."
"Thank you for calling, I'll pass on your remarks to the senator." CLICK.
This week I tried a different approach: "Whew, I gotta say, this has been the most remarkable, greatest week in US history, I'm sure you agree! Please ask the senator to vote in favor of RFK, Kash, and Tulsi. God Bless America!! What a country!! Can you believe it?!?!"
Yes, it is childish--but I am an adult child, just ask my wife...
bsn
"It is like none of these fools could succeed in the real world, so they play at politics which is nothing more than junior high mean-girls shit."
Western democracy since the 1970s, summed up in one sentence right there.
My quibble: it's not just "like" they can't succeed at anything real. They really can't. Former Swedish PM Reinfeldt (neo-lib globalist) got a sinecure at Merril-Lynch when he resigned, the job having been set up for him in advance. They got rig of him anyway inside a year. How's that for a "mark of quality", getting sacked from a fake job?
Drug cops call what your PM did “getting high off your own supply,” i.e., he believed his own own bullshit and thought he could actually do a real job on investment banking.
Oh yeah, big time!
When he lost the election back then (and there were no doubts about it even before the count was done), instead of doing the customary speech with all the expected floskels* - he snuck off the stage and went home, turning off his phone as he went.
Reports about his behaviour in private reinforces the image of an immature man-child, used to getting his way by throwing tantrums and runny to Mommy/any woman in charge of anything.
Now, he's recently been sacked from his position as head of the National Soccer Association (think NFL), a position he was given after intense lobbying on his behalf and against the near-unanimous vote of all franchised members.
And to take it up a notch and back to the drug-reference, his oldest son has been busted as being a wholesaler of cocaine to the rich and famous (which means the investigation is going nowhere, lots of politicians and celebrities in his little black book according to anonymous police leaks).
*Floskel is a great word, by the way. I'm sure English could find a use for it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Floskel
“When he lost the election…he snuck off the stage and went home…”
At least Reinfeldt showed up – Harris didn’t bother to show up anywhere for 36 hrs. I began to hope she’d done the honorable thing, but alas, she showed to deliver a word salad about…who knows what?
Great post, BSN! Glad you’re back!
NOW I’m seeing the MI background! 😂
(Next you’ll be calling them to see if they have Prince Albert in a can?)
The problem, Chris, is the Congress doesn’t think it’s “just hanging there like a dead limb on a sick tree.” Quite the contrary, they believe it’s doing exactly what they want it to do - make them rich and powerful. Congress is giving Representatives and Senators exactly what THEY want, access to incredible riches. The Senate is not embarrassed even the tiniest bit about the RFK, Jr hearing. The hearing wasn’t for us, it was for the bagmen of Big Pharma and Big Ag and Big Food. The Senate gave their pay masters exactly what they wanted -derailment of the one person who threatens the gravy train. Where WTP see a dead limb on a sick tree, those in Congress see the most amazing grift machine in the history of the world. IT’S DOING EXACTLY WHAT CURRENT CONGRESSMEN WANT IT TO DO. It’s not sick, it’s intentional.
Shameful, but yes.
So true. I often wonder why anyone would spend millions of dollars on a job that pays $160,000. I don’t think it’s the cheap lunch.
It’s the free haircuts…
Spot-on!
If the Senate does not confirm RFKjr for HHS, the Senate is done, over.
No, it will go on, emboldened by its success.
It will go on but all it’s denizens will be illegitimate.
Spot on analysis Chris. I watched/listened to today's RFK Jr. hearing in incredulity. There is a reason when I am asked WTF is wrong with America I reply, "the stupid people are running everything." I'm not being flippant. These people have failed up in government and are the useful idiots for the consultancy class. Their rule is already crumbling.
Donors select those who carry their water, not those who are wise thinkers & stand on principle.
I can see why Trump and RFK Jr are compelled to think more Libertarian.
The election process has not selected for competent legislators recently in any country. The US is far from alone in this (and arguably far from the worst). Take the UK & two tier Keir’s government or Germany for example
Shadow of Larry, couldn't agree more.
They need to stop televising these hearings so the clowns won’t feel the need to perform for the audience.
That wouldn't make much difference. Then they'd perform in even freakier ways, like beating the shit out of each other with canes.
Canes would be a vast improvement.
Keep them on tv but encourage the cane fights. I’d do pay per view for that.
They’d fight over Name, Image, and Likeness, as well as revenue-sharing
They can “perform” (in the SAME room!) naked on all fours, “twink” style, remember? The guy filming from behind is called Big Pharma.
The saddest thing is watching Bernie talk about onesies. It is time to follow Biden into retirement.
The good news: Bernie says he isn't going to run again. The bad news: he was just reelected in 2024 so we won't be rid of him for a while.
I was down at Town Hall this morning to take the oath of office for my third term as Justice of the Peace and we all had a big laugh about Bernie's performance. He made an absolute fool of himself and embarrassed all sane Vermonters. Again. As usual. We did take some solace in the fact that he was not the only senator who behaved like an idiot.
I don't even want to know what that's about.
And we pay these people?!!!
David Collium quote of the day on the confirmation hearing. “The Tree of Memes is fertilized with the blood of idiots”. I think this captures the entire process now.
A rare moment when I actually laughed out loud.