Civilization
'Loose-Talk' from the past; so out of sync with today's fawning over the goodness of money as a Philosophy to order our way of life:
"Love of wealth and spirit of moderation cannot co-exist among citizens of the same State."
-- The Republic by Plato approximately 360 B.C.
The Big Govt half the people would vote for
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal at the D.A.V. post at Brick Church
“Put this option to a vote: An American Nationalist party; opposed to Globalism. --Believing in a very strong military defense, but with caution toward casual interventions. Every citizen is guaranteed an education, a job of last-resort and health care. This, plus improvements to infrastructure, is paid for by a combination of Tax rates from the Eisenhower and Nixon Administrations adjusted for inflation: The highest income brackets will pay 70% on last dollar-earned at $3.3 million per year; first-dollar earned taxed at about 15% and restore income-averaging for success-stories on the way up. The top marginal rate might be too low and need to be adjusted upward, as you want to encourage domestic re-investment and curb the avarice-based inflation that has plagued medical and financial service for the last 30 years. It was individuals in the financial-sector making what was called “F.U. money” who ruined their own firms while amassing personal fortunes during the last banking collapse -- in which future tax-payers, consumers and the Federal Reserve suckled failed private companies back to profitability. This should not happen again. -- It would probably require a Constitutional Amendment restraining the use of money in politics {fat chance} to allow such a vote. Add to this a Government modernization act in which government attempts, at least, to become competent and helpful. Compare this ‘conservative big-government’ vision to either a vacillating, ambivalent liberal, identity-based {& fragmented} solution; or a regime for, by and of billionaires with average people to be damned by the illusion of a free-market. If whoever champions the nationalist solution is careful to refrain from prejudices while quoting the Bible {especially Jesus & the Prophets} and being God-fearing, I think it beats all comers... --Would such a system champion the next FaceBook? I don’t know, but it would fix our roads.”
George W
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal speaking before the bar last June:
"Now, about George W; and when I say that name I always render the hand salute -- because he did me a favor and I like to show respect and loyalty. -- His great-grand pop was a smart fellow; middle class; got his engineering degree and went to work for the big railroads which couldn't have been started or finished without the federal government land-grants and bond acts... anyway after a bit he goes to work in manufacturing for one of the Rockefellers who gets him appointed to the World War1 Production board and makes bigger money, builds a country-club, marries his kid Prescott off to one of the Walkers --in Investment banking...
Transcript from House Committee...
Cong. McGuire: Thank you Mr. Chairman. -- Mr. Verasci, as you might be aware I am a member of the New Whig party. I would describe myself as a American nationalist and an enlightened Mercantilist. -- Mr. Verasci am I boring you already?
Chairman Verasci: No, Congressman, I was just...
Cong. McGuire: Very well. ... Also, ironically, I am the only member of this committee to have served in the Armed Forces... but that is... let me get to the...
Cong. Rudyan [Chair]: {interrupting}--You've mentioned that a thousand times...
Ideology
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal speaking at Our Lady of Grace' Men's Club:
People take a look around and see who might be with them; or like them; and who against them. From these slender suppositions people make assumptions about their self-interest and that of their progeny. From this potpourri comes political ideology. In the past I was against the idea of a gasoline tax to put a floor under petroleum prices in order to bolster production of alternative fuels and restrain excess consumption. I was against this because I was having trouble making ends meet financially; couldn't see paying more to fill up my car and believed that the great United States could and should force it's will on foreign cartels and their intermediaries the international oil corporations. I did not choose to understand the reality of money or of the finite. I found myself in league with parties who did not have my long-term interests at heart.
What it is
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal Question & Answer at the Older Americans for Limiting Freedoms:
A)...interesting question. Obviously a Mixed System. I would have to say that it is a 'Corporatist' system. And 'Corporatism' itself is international... Now, the other part of your question was about the Republican Party... Beginning in 1963; but moreover from 1980 the Republican party moved away from Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Eisenhower to a kind-of combination of Jefferson Davis and Standard Oil with the religious zealotry of a William Jennings Bryan who ironically was otherwise a liberal Democrat.
Q)-- Get to the point, please...
A)...ok. I think by its tenor, the way it uses propaganda... I would say 'neo-Fascist'...
[Groans, indistinct rebuttals]
Property rights and class warfare
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal speaking before the Griswald PTA:
Even though the second republic of the United States under our present constitution in 1789 was formed ostensibly to secure property rights there isn't much in the constitution about the rights of private property: The 5th Amendment states, and I paraphrase... that private property taken for public use, must be justly compensated. The 5th and 14th Amendment protect an individual from being deprived of property without due process either by federal or state government.
-- But we keep claiming to be a Christian nation; at least culturally...
Psycho-Politics
The Libertarian Psychologist analyzes the semi-Strategic Corporal
LP First-off, I know you. You bristle at obtuse regulations, rail about tax-forms...
SC --State-business tax forms are the worst!
LP -- I can’t imagine you as a ‘Statist.’
SC -- I’m talking about the Eisenhower Administration; not Russia.
LP Even so. Knowing you as I do, I wonder how you ever managed to stay in the military.
SC It’s true. It was difficult to follow what I thought were stupid orders given by individuals whom I did not respect.
At the Firehouse
Ned after two beers:
“My secret fantasies involve older, overweight women; -- if that ever got out I’d probably get elected to Congress. And politics ain't ready for me: I’m a conservogressive: conserve our nation’s freedom & beauty; strong military/strong borders; everybody’s got a job; affordable education & health-care. Use money wisely but don’t let it buy votes. ‘In God we believe and in the United States we put our trust.’ After a couple-of-years with the tax-policies of the Nixon or even Eisenhower Administrations {adjusted for inflation} foreign indebtedness will cease and we’ll have prosperity for all. Never happen, of course; average folks will die broke. Ike as President was dull and sometimes dithering but an accountable grownup."
Chiming In
Ad-hoc Lecturer, the semi-Strategic Corporal at the firehouse after one beer:
“Ned is as right as rain. Even though Money failed and was suckled on the government teat; it never lost its power. In the Fall of '08 every major financial institution in the Western World was over-leveraged and awash with dubious equity. But never underestimate the elasticity of bad debt. Central Bank liquidity, affirmed by promises from future tax-payers and captive consumers made international Finance whole. Nobody was punished and no lessons learned. Management rewarded themselves for their luck and apportioned new monies to buy new votes. -- Conservatives want to go back to before the Civil War; Conservogressives want to go back to the Eisenhower Administration.
Semi-Strategic Corporal honored
Remarks made while receiving the Quacking Duck award:
Civilization is not made in the marketplace.
We will not cut our way to prosperity; it takes money to make money. -- Build a million windmills over the next 10 years and see what the economy looks like.
The welfare-state was not first put on this earth by leftists but by the conservative Chancellor Otto Von Bismark.
The United States is not a business. We don’t need to slash our workforce, off-shore & outsource to enhance our bottom-line and flip the country for a good price. Our bottom line is whatever we want it to be. Our agenda is to establish justice, tranquility, security, welfare and liberty.
Not a political man
Sgt Cain had been regaling some cohorts about his cooking skills using a mini-pressure cooker on a hot-plate. "I call it beans and 'dines," he said, describing piling dry beans, rice, frozen sardines with 'most' of their gizzards chopped off into the cooker with varying amounts of water, or beer, which he overcooked and tamed with hot sauce. He saw the semi-Strategic Corporal and went over to say hello when he found himself amidst a cacophony of political talk. Looking uncomfortable he tried to back away until cornered by an activist concerning his own beliefs. -- "Uh, I believe in God, family and the United States; just not interested in talk about socialism-bolshevism or capitalism-crapitalism..."