Sunday, June 29, 2014

Short reply to Jakc Kelly today

I had a short reply to Jack Kelly today: Jack Kelly: Tea Party tea leaves: Liberals delude themselves about the uprising on the right, although I tackled several other comments and/or replies:

"Democrats soon may regret having turned a deaf ear."

Jack Kelly once again predicts the coming triumph of the Tea Party (and/or the Republican party). How are President's McCain/Palin/Allen West/Bobby Jindal/Romney working out?

Monday, June 23, 2014

Jack Kelly 6/23/14

I commented on the PG online site on Sunday's Jack Kelly column "Jack Kelly: They're hushing up Khattala. He might be able to reveal how Obama ended up arming extremists". What I said is copied below.

A few months or more ago I raised, on these comment threads, a particular issue about Benghazi (or more accurately repeated that others has raised it); I asked about what the CIA's role in the whole thing was. To a person, conservatives here on these threads accused me of trying to protect a lying President by distracting from those lies. Then today I read this in Jack Kelly's column: "We don’t know what CIA operatives at the Benghazi annex were doing. We do know extraordinary measures have been taken to keep them from talking about it."

Sorry Jack, you are how many yeas too late to the party. The Obama administration got the guy responsible for Benghazi. If you want to say that he could tell conservatives about the Obama administration doing an "ran-Contra scandal on steroids" but you don't think it will happen unless he is released into the custody of Fox News, you go right on and say that.

Apparently he will be a defendant in an ordinary criminal trial, so what he says will be a matter a public record. Now why we couldn't have captured rather than executed bin Laden and done this is beyond me, but this time the Obama administration is trying something new. So I am sure Khattala will have the opportunity to chat bout "ran-Contra scandal on steroids" if he so chooses.

Past my initial comment is a "lively" back and forth between me and a conservative commenter.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Jack Kelly column 6/15/14 redux

UPDATE 6/16/14: All of the long comments (including mine) criticizing this Sunday's Jack Kelly column have disappeared from the PG site. This doesn't happen with Reg Henry, Dan Simpson or Tony Norman. My only assumption has to be that Jack Kelly himself ordered them removed. How incredibly insecure the man must be to not be able to face any criticism

Sunday, June 15, 2014

And from no where - I post again.

UPDATE 6/16/14: All of the long comments (including mine) criticizing Jack Kelly have disappeared from the PG site. This doesn't happen with Reg Henry, Dan Simpson or Tony Norman. My only assumption has to be that Jack Kelly himself ordered them removed. How incredibly insecure the man must be to not be able to face any criticism.

So today Jack Kelly ruminates about the Brat win/Cantor loss Jack Kelly: Cantor ran to serve the elites - Dave Brat’s populist message may scare Hillary. It is an interesting topic, but what I find even more interesting is the Kelly embraces an anti big business spin. How long does he think th e Tea Party would survive he their billionaire sponsors abandoned them? But of course I am just jesting, the billionaires and the Tea Party love each other, and the billionaires think it is cute when the Tea Party rails against them. Below is a comment I posted on the PG website:

This column is an interesting swerve into fantasy land for Jack Kelly. He is, as ever, always willing to sing the praises of the latest flash in the pan for conservatives/the Tea Party, and there is a long list. Michael Steele, Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin (ever his favorite), and more recently Allan West and Ben Carson. I am surprised Kelly didn't suggest a Presidential run for David Brat yet.

But I expect that the fact Brat is an economics professor totally (if only secretly) delights Tea Party members and their slavish supporters like Kelly. I mean, among the Tea Party's principles is a rejection of any sort of expert.. but they mean the other experts. It's OK as long as their expert says the right things (an unregulated free market doesn't need a minimum wage, oh and by the way illegal immigration depresses the wages of actual Americans - I paraphrase his remarks). If he admires Ayn Rand and copies Ludwig Von Mies, he is in. As ever, it doesn't matter if reality backs up Dr Brat's remarks, there will always be some data that can and already has been distorted to produce a study or two to support his ideas, and other pet economists to oppose the sea of howls of derision from the mainstream. And Jack Kelly will be there to unquestioningly repeat Brat's rhetoric.

To me the really interesting thing is Kelly's brief attack on big business. Back in the nineties Pat Buchanan tried a similar thing, tapping into rural populist anger before the Tea Party was a gleam in the Koch brothers eyes. During another Democrat's Presidency (to the extent Clinton was not a DINO) Buchanan went after (believe it or not) income inequality. This surprisingly anti-big business (at its core) message garnered some support, although the culmination of Buchanan's efforts might have been his position on Florida's infamous "butterfly" ballot in 2000, where even Buchanan admits he siphoned off some of Gore's votes.

It is just funny how Republicans know they can "say" anything they want and still take big business for granted. It that respect (alone) I can see a comparison between a naive Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) and David Brat. As one junior member in the House of Representatives, he can say anything he wants, but will be unable to get any legislation passed (not even for Virginia land for the "Boy Rangers" or for legislation on shutting down immigration). The one percent will encourage his rhetoric, even as it encourages conservatives to say the majority of the one percent is made up of athletes and Hollywood. They get a laugh out of that in the club every time.