Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[hedge]

I'm probably going to regret this, but Prof, here's an interview with Camille Paglia, whom I have followed for decades and generally enjoy even when I completely disagree with her. She hits all your sweet spots in this one. Enjoy:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/camille-p ... le/2008464#!

[Toemeesleather]

By far, Hedge's best post ever.


But today's liberalism has become grotesquely mechanistic and authoritarian: It's all about reducing individuals to a group identity, defining that group in permanent victim terms, and denying others their democratic right to challenge that group and its ideology. Political correctness represents the fossilized institutionalization of once-vital revolutionary ideas, which have become mere rote formulas. It is repressively Stalinist, dependent on a labyrinthine, parasitic bureaucracy to enforce its empty dictates.


Harumph!!11

[Toemeesleather]

Even better....


It is certainly ironic how liberals who posture as defenders of science when it comes to global warming (a sentimental myth unsupported by evidence) flee all reference to biology when it comes to gender.

[hedge]

Like I said, I knew I'd regret it, but I'm the soul of generosity...

[Cletus]

Even better....


It is certainly ironic how liberals who posture as defenders of science when it comes to global warming (a sentimental myth unsupported by evidence) flee all reference to biology when it comes to gender.

This is an incomplete understanding of biology, to say the least.

[hedge]

Yeah, I enjoy reading Paglia rant against how french poststructuralists have taken over academia and her criticism of poetry/lit/cinema can be entertaining, but she's out of her depth in a lot of areas she feels compelled to dip her beak into. Still, I enjoy her contrarianism and stridency, but I can only take her in small doses...

[Professor Tiger]

Fabulous article. Thank you.

[Professor Tiger]

This is an incomplete understanding of biology, to say the least.

Silence, you Grand Wizard!

Paglia needs to hire some more bodyguards after this. The champions of tolerance, pluralism, diversity and inclusion will want to behead her.

[hedge]

She begs for that kind of response, it's a very large part of her shtick, and there are no shortage of folks who swallow it hook, line and sinker. I admit I sometimes find it entertaining, it's very much like the kind of back and forth sassery that takes place in here and the Goat Pen, but, obviously, on a much higher level than repeated posting of, say, Wile E. Coyote videos. She obviously understands that that sort of braying draws attention and she's good at it and craves it (I suspect it's been fairly lucrative for her as well, certainly from the standpoint of a career academic). If not for her legitimately thoughtful and insightful work (and there is a lot of it) in the field of art, literary and film criticism, she'd be just another Milo Yiannopoulos, who obviously patterned much of his act on her, but without any of her intellectual interest or credentials in any real field other than rabble rousing ...

[Toemeesleather]

This is an incomplete understanding of biology, to say the least.

Silence, you Grand Wizard!

Paglia needs to hire some more bodyguards after this. The champions of tolerance, pluralism, diversity and inclusion will want to behead her.

But of course, the malleable dictionary is the #1 tool of the whacked-out progs.

[bluetick]

Consider some of the points raised by former Reagan policy adviser Bruce Bartlett in an op-ed he recently penned for the Washington Post entitled, “I helped create the GOP tax myth. Trump is wrong: Tax cuts don’t equal growth.”

Bartlett points out that while cutting taxes made sense in the late 1970s — a time when “the top tax rate was 70 percent and the economy seemed trapped in stagflation with no way out” — the strongest decade for economic growth in recent U.S. history was the 1990s, a decade in which President Clinton raised income taxes on the wealthy.

The same year that Clinton left office, President Bush shepherded tax cuts through Congress that mainly benefited high earners, as would be the case under Trump’s plan. But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities wrote in a recent look at the legacy of the Bush tax cuts, although Republicans said they would dramatically spur growth, “evidence suggests that they did not improve economic growth or pay for themselves, but instead ballooned deficits and debt and contributed to a rise in income inequality.”

The Cut Cut Cut Plan, as labeled by the Orange Menace. Catchy.

[Professor Tiger]

This may shock some of you, but I don’t get all excited about Trump’s tax plan. Mainly, I no longer believe in trickle down economics. You can definitely make the case that the Reagan tax cuts created jobs and growth back in the ‘80’s. (They also... ahem... exploded the deficit, but I digress...) The GOP has tried the same thing since, most recently under W. They did not stimulate jobs and grow the economy. Instead, they just exploded thre deficit, just like under Reagan, but they didn’t grow the economy or jobs much.

The post-Reagan tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, while doing virtually nothing for the middle class. That’s because the wealth which Trickle down gospel said would be reinvested into businesses and create jobs simply didn’t happen. The already wealthy simply held on to their freebie windfall or spend it on other things.

If Trump’s tax cut plan fails in Congress (and I think there’s 50% chance it will fail , with Sen. McCain casting the deciding vote), then I won’t shed too many tears on the bill itself. I don’t think it was ever designed to help people like me. (I will be disgusted with the GOP congress for their latest blatant collective lie to their voters, but that’s another post).

[bluetick]

you are an enema wrapped in a pair a sox soaking in a Conan drum

[Professor Tiger]

Please keep your fantasies to yourself.

[bluetick]

The reason obamacare came into being is partly because oprama worked his butt off to get it. He pigeonholed congressmen, he stumped all over America for it - for better or worse, he got it done.

Whereas Trump did squat wrt the House and Senate repeal and replace bills. He did hold a Rose Garden celebration after the House bill passed, but except for a lunch or two and a tweet or 20, he did jack squat. Later he said the House bill was 'mean'. lol

This tax bill situation is setting up the same way. Except this time Trump has already laid the blame on Congress for it's failure BEFORE the outcome is known. Whereas the GOP congress just wishes Trump would wake up one morning with a functioning brain (and an inoperable twitter account). When this tax deal gets shot down, whoa boy - the meltdown will be epic. And 2018 will be a watershed year for the country, and the Constitution. Cheers! Nostrovia!

[Professor Tiger]

The failure of congress to pass tax reform might/will be epic indeed. It will probably pass the House, but will die in the Senate, like most conservative bills do. If/when that happens, I predict the GOP will lose at least 6 of their 8 seats up for re-election.

Having their own politicians defy the will of their own voters seems to be a uniquely Republican curse. The Democrats don’t have that problem, and I am jealous of that. When pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-LGBT, feminist, environmentalist, open borders Democrats vote for candidates who agree them, those candidates go Washington and vote for pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-LGBT, feminist, environmentalist, open borders legislation. For them, that’s just a given. It’s automatic.

They can’t even imagine a world where a Nancy Pelosi votes for restrictions on abortion, or a Church Schumer votes for the Wall, or a Bernie Sanders votes for bump stocks. But Republican politicians (especially Senators) do that kind of thing to their constituents all the time.

[hedge]

I guess "won't get fooled again" doesn't apply to republican voters...

[Professor Tiger]

Trump was the penultimate middle finger from the Republican base to the GOP Establishment.

The next and final step is not voting at all, and letting the Dem’s have the Senate, with a nice yellow bow tie on top. (Or In my case, I’ll vote Libertarian, for a the third cycle in a row.)

All we ask is that you Democrats not make the mistake of thinking we all decided to become wussy Mensheviks.

[bluetick]

Not sure you can say the GOP base and the Trump base are one in the same. Definitely a lot of overlap.

Nevertheless, tonight's elections don't bode well for TrumpWorld.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/45 ... epublicans

[hedge]

If the 2018 midterms shake out anything like last night, I'm sure we're going to be treated to the age-old "stabbed in the back" excuses, only this time, instead of the jews (or whomever), it's going to be the mainstream media...