Even knowing that, Republicans will vote for Republicans and Democrats for Democrats and Libertarians for people who are not libertarian. Even knowing they're just putting the yin and yang into those crushing boots, they will continue to believe if they could only defeat other leg, once and for all, their lives would be glorious.

The one thing a Libertarian cartoonist won't tell you though, is if you follow those boots up to the legs, and the legs up to the pockets and the pockets up to the head, you will find the corporate wizard pulling the levers, whispering, "God...guns...gay rights...family values...free markets...climate change...Sarah Palin...Michael Moore...liebruls...wingnuts..." into the megaphone. He's a wizened little man, looks a lot like Sheldon Adleson, in fact, whose own legs have withered. He's the subject of the Picture of Dorian Gray. Call it, "The Picture of John Galt". Corrupt, suppurating and certain of his position among The Elect. Plump and parasitic.

It's so easy to blame team red or team blue, but only because The Commissioner likes to keep our attention focused on the heels and away from the head.

History is not going to be kind to the only liberal democracy in the middle east?

That's correct. A "liberal" democracy the same way South Africa was a "liberal democracy" during apartheid.

Now that I think about it, the Weimar Republic was also a "liberal democracy", as was the United States during the genocide of Native Americans and it's promotion of slavery.

Atrocity in a country that is otherwise supposedly "enlightened" stands out more, doesn't it? And make no mistake: the current government of Israel is perpetrating an atrocity right this minute.

free trade theory is correct

There is no such thing as "free trade" and there's no proof that the "theory" is correct.

"The Free Market" is a fairy tale that the elite tell us to keep us from leaving the veal pen.

Yes, but you can't buy World of Warcraft experience points with a kidney.

I tried.

He made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

You have enumerated the reasons I will never, ever play a "Free 2 Play" game.

Ain't nothing free.

It's almost certainly BS, and you are spot on regarding those movies.

I assume you're referring to the 1931 Lewis Milestone version and not the (also pretty good) Billy Wilder version from the '70s.

Oh, you might find this little essay interesting. It's about reducing tariffs when there is no "emergency". It discusses why the benefit of tariffs is not that they help us out of a tough spot, but that they create stability for wage-earners, which is exactly what our leaders have been trying to destroy for the past 30 years.

Tariffs are just one part of a sound trade policy.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com...

Like ... how? Tip off Snowden that he's wanted?

If you assume a static, never-changing, fixed space... you might have been right.

Isn't this how we know it's expanding?

There were extreme situations extant at the time necessitating a tariff. And by extreme situations; I don't mean fiscal irresponsibility. I mean: there was no such thing as an income tax; the new government needed a bit of money to get on its feet, and the tarrifs were low and not a significant barrier.

Whatever the reason, they still boosted domestic production and economic growth.

According to the neoliberal free-trade types, tariffs can only have the opposite effect. It's quite possible that our fiscal irresponsibility is tied to our not having tariffs and other sound trade policies in effect.

What people who advocate tariffs don't realize is that imports and domestic production rise and fall very closely with one another.

Just like the number of people who drown in swimming pools rise and fall very closely with the number of movies that Nicholas Cage appeared in. My having to pee rises sharply when the sun comes up. Does that mean sunlight makes me pee?

What people who advocate tariffs don't realize is that imports and domestic production rise and fall very closely with one another.

Tell that to the 1950s and 1960s.

The rich that are negatively affected by tariffs are barely affected at all by them.

It's not about affecting the rich. It's not about class warfare. It's about sound domestic industrial and trade policies. It's about what's best for people. And believe it or not (I'm sure you don't) but the levels people doing well do not rise and fall with how profitable corporations are, or with imports. But they do with tariffs.

The first treasurer of the US, Alexander Hamilton knew it. Abraham Lincoln new it. So did Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy LBJ and Nixon. We had high tariffs in place for the greatest periods of economic growth. Real growth, not the bubble economies of Reagan and Clinton, which only made people poorer. What they put into place are negative tariffs which pump up profits and stock price at the expense of peoples' incomes and standard of living. And Barack Obama is the champ at this supply-side game. Pumping money to banks without strings attached so that stock prices soar (it's the only place to put your money). Reagan did pretty much the same thing by using executive action to kill the Taft Harley Act (and eventually, Glass-Steagall a decade later). NAFTA and CAFTA and TPP and TISA are all designed to remove tariffs and "unshackle capital" and they're all designed to redistribute wealth upwards. It's why they exist.

Unfortunately, the supply siders that followed Reagan (every president since 1980) do not know it, and we've been in decline ever since. That's why it kills me that so many liberals who hated Ronald Reagan think Barack Obama is the bee's knees. They both play for the same team.