Wednesday, September 10, 2014

HAYEK GET YOUR GUN.

The Libertarian Moment, ladies and gentlemen:
Sen. Rand Paul’s position atop the isolationist wing of the Republican Party has fueled his political rise, but his supporters are far more enthusiastic than the general public about any American military action against the Islamic State. 
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 44% of the people who hold a favorable view of the Kentucky Republican want the U.S. to become more involved in world affairs. About a third of Mr. Paul’s supporters said the country should become less involved and 17% said the current level of engagement is appropriate.
Senator Paul himself has found the moment opportune for a fit of war fever, leaving Rep. Justin Amash as the new front-man for libertarian foreign policy (look, big pixels at Reason.com!): after the lumbering hulk of Dick Cheney read the riot act to Congressional Republicans, Breitbart.com recorded this:
Amash disagreed with reporters that Republican hawks were coming back into the party. 
“Did you see my election?” he replied.
As goes Michigan's Third Congressional District, so goes the GOP! Hold on, the follow-up is even better:
Another anti-interventionist Congressman, Rep. Thomas Massie R-KY, was a little softer towards Cheney, politely telling reporters that he wouldn’t criticize the former Vice President after he took the time to visit with the Republican conference. 
“His advice was mainly to spend more money on the military,” he said, adding that he believed that Congress should “spend less money on everything.”
They're playing good crap, bad crap.

Always remember: it's a scam. Libertarians don't really care much about the social issues that many people associate with them. And in foreign policy they are clearly in accord with traditional U.S. political realities, i.e. full of shit. The limited-gummint they're serious about is very specific: They want to transfer as much of the economic power that currently resides in our government (the "takers") to a few rich fucks (the "makers"). And to get this economic power, they have to first get political power. That's why Paul's doing a war dance with the statists. What the hell, it's just going to cost some human lives, and since when have libertarians cared about those?

UPDATE. Speaking of Cheney, Dan Froomkin spots a lovely correction in the Times:
An earlier version of a summary with this article misstated the former title of Dick Cheney. He was vice president, not president.
"Easy mistake to make," says Froomkin.

UPDATE 2. In comments, LookWhosInTheFreezer:
Somebody must have told Paul that ISIS is pro-union and supports minimum wage.

78 comments:

  1. StringOnAStick10:44 AM

    Given the polling I've just seen for Kansas, a state that gets its extreme conservative governance good and hard these days, it is possible that the rubes are starting to smell a bit of coffee. Cue Rand to start the latest diversionary tactic: looks folks, Libertarianism is new and hip and so much better!

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  2. Helmut Monotreme10:45 AM

    Between Cheney and Kissenger, I'm starting to believe that agitating for war in the middle east is some sort of fountain of youth undeath.

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  3. As goes Michigan's Third Congressional District, so goes the GOP!In fairness to Mr. Amash, with a headline at Breitbart that reads:
    Justin Amash: Time for Republicans to Stop Listening to Dick Cheneyhe's obviously risen as far as he's ever going to get in his party. So why not play up what a big deal MI-3 is?

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  4. Also:

    Amash disagreed with reporters that Republican hawks were coming back into the party.
    Amash obviously took symbolic logic at Ann Arbor, because this statement is technically true, as Republican hawks never left the party in the first place.

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  5. We should drop Libertarians on ISIS, those crushing bores would have those jihadis cutting off their own heads.

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  6. I'd be happier to share in the finger pointing and schadenfreude, Roy, if AIPAC didn't own the Democratic party. Too.
    ~

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  7. Matt Jones11:15 AM

    "“Did you see my election?” he replied."


    Nah, I deleted that MMS you pervo. ;)

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  8. whetstone11:36 AM

    Can't they just call it "block grants to the military"?

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  9. Libertarians don't really care much about the social issues that many people associate with them.

    Come now, many libertarians care that states are forced to obey the Civil Rights Act and that bakers may have to make giant, labia shaped wedding cakes. rebRAND Paul is so concerned about Freedom he introduced a bill that would protect the rights of zygotes from early eviction.

    The limited-gummint they're serious about is very specific: They want to transfer as much of the economic power that currently resides in our
    government (the "takers") to a few rich fucks (the "makers").


    In other words, you need several micro-sliced core samples to tell a neo-con from a gibbertarian.

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  10. susanoftexas11:46 AM

    What the hell, it's just going to cost some human lives, and since when have libertarians cared about those?

    It's not just a loss leader, it's a gain from trade!

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  11. LookWhosInTheFreezer11:47 AM

    Somebody must have told Paul that ISIS is pro-union and supports minimum wage.

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  12. BigHank5311:48 AM

    Micro-sliced core samples? Why not just saw the whole top off and poke around inside there with a stick? I mean, it's not like there's any practical use for either a neo-con or a gibbertarian. Sorting 'em is the definition of wasted effort.

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  13. LookWhosInTheFreezer11:49 AM

    ISIS: "Christ, and people say WE are fanatics."

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  14. FrenchFriar11:52 AM

    Thanks a lot, now I'll have "Over there" earworming in my brain the rest of the day with all the chest thumping and flag waving nonsense that goes along with that little ditty.

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  15. witlesschum12:20 PM

    Plus, Obama's rhetoric about ISIS seems divorced from reality as far as overstating the threat. Not balsa drones of death divorced from reality, but I get part of the same "The fuck is he talking about?" sense when I hear him on NPR.

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  16. witlesschum12:22 PM

    As much as Amash is a dirtbag, watching him spike the ball in other dirtbags' faces is pretty amusing.

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  17. Lindsey Kyle Reese Graham:



    "Listen, and understand. That terminator... err... ISIS... is out there. It
    can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel
    pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until
    you are dead. And... and, passports! They've got PASSPORTS!!11!"

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  18. petesh12:56 PM

    Any Rethug with any sense would be nice to Dick's face; doing otherwise could lead to an invitation to a quail hunt, and we all know where that can end up.

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  19. Derelict1:09 PM

    Wow. Cheney agitating for more war, more defense spending. As a major shareholder of Haliburton (and remember that Cheney personally banked $120 million in deferred compensation from Haliburton when he left office), Cheney is once again pushing to line his own pockets using the bodies and blood of other people's children.

    It really isn't a joke that Cheney feasts on the souls of the dead or drink the blood of innocents. Every meal he eats, every glass of cabernet he drinks was derived from the blood of war victims. Dick Cheney is the only reason I hope that Hell exists.

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  20. Q: Why did the Chinese guy refuse to go hunting with Cheney?
    A: He didn't want to lose face.

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  21. mgmonklewis1:35 PM

    "We gotta fight 'em over there, so we don't have to fight 'em over here. I'm Acererak the Demi-Lich, and I approve this message."

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  22. mgmonklewis1:36 PM

    "We gotta fight 'em over there, so we don't fight 'em over here.
    I'm Acererak the Demi-Lich, and I approve this message."

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  23. Jay B.1:42 PM

    “His advice was mainly to spend more money on the military,” he said, adding that he believed that Congress should “spend less money on everything.”


    They love the checkbook metaphor for the budget, even though it doesn't make any logical sense -- families don't actually print money for example, like the government does. However, I was thinking the other day that the country does represent a kind of house. So, let's try this metaphor. The GOP "Homeowner" wants to spend more 500X money on the security system than they pay for their children's schooling, while they ignore basic upkeep on the house's infrastructure under the theory that they can always just give the problems to the next sucker.

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  24. RogerAiles1:48 PM

    Drone, baby, drone!


    If Rand plays his cards right, he can lock up that Bill Maher endorsement.

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  25. Rand wants to destroy ISIS because he thinks it's a women's pagan organization.

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  26. PirateCafe1:59 PM

    LOL!

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  27. Helmut Monotreme2:01 PM

    This administration might get another minor bump in the polls. The heaviest military elements of ISIS will be defeated. The situation that gave rose to ISIS in the first place will be worsened.

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  28. Float the cursor to the right side of your comment at the same level as your nym and an inverted pyramid will appear. Click on that.

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  29. Ted the slacker2:18 PM

    That or Rand is worried about looking soft on Muslims, which I imagine could be disastrous in the GOP primary.

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  30. I told people that playing D&D taught useful skills.

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  31. No rival Goa'uld allowed, declares Rand's hair symbiote.

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  32. Spaghetti Lee3:12 PM

    Amash is living the dream. It's like they turned all of Reddit into a single person and elected it to congress. Despite all his bravery, he still found the strength in his heart (or maybe it was the heart of his evangelical Calvinist voters in western Michigan) to oppose abortion.

    My stunning prediction: He hangs around forever in a GOP district, turns into Rand Paul in that he's a symbol of libertarianism without actually being one, and the fedora crowd finds a new Jesus circa 2018.

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  33. redoubtagain3:22 PM

    Yes. The Libertarian Moment=Limit government to killing brown people; leave the rest to robber barons.

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  34. Pere Ubu3:34 PM

    he introduced a bill that would protect the rights of zygotes from early eviction

    "C'mon, guys, let's at least wait until they're eight or nine before we start forcing them to live on their own!"

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  35. Pere Ubu3:36 PM

    5 Minute Rule: If you drop a wingnut on the ground for more than 5 minutes, you need to throw him in the garbage.

    Or less than 5 minutes, for that matter.

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  36. Pere Ubu3:37 PM

    Excuse me while I go get a hot cup of coffee so I can snort it out my nose while reading that.

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  37. Pere Ubu3:40 PM

    the U.S. to become more involved in world affairs

    For limited values of "more involved", mainly those dealing with big badda boom.

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  38. It's like they turned all of Reddit into a single person and elected it to congress.



    /r/+1

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  39. mgmonklewis3:47 PM

    Well whaddaya know. You learn something every day. Thanks!

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  40. Bethany Spencer4:06 PM

    Right?

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  41. Bethany Spencer4:10 PM

    Confession time: the idea of killing ISIS douches to death is not an unappealing to me. It's just that I know every time we seem to get involved in stuff like this it seems to turn to shit for everyone involved. How quickly these folks forget the "turn to shit" part.


    Listen, there probably is a way to deal with scourges like ISIS but it demands pretty much all boots on the ground, a shitload of money, sustained shock and awe, and a sustained presence wherever stick our noses. And not even the chickenhawks have the guts to go all in. Certainly they don't have the guts to sell it truthfully to their constituents.

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  42. thimker34:48 PM

    Rand is all growed up, demonstrating his independence from Ron!

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  43. hellslittlestangel5:00 PM

    Sen. Rand Paul’s position atop the isolationist wing of the Republican Party...

    Sounds lonely, and he would be if not for his army of Winkies and flying monkeys.

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  44. hellslittlestangel5:05 PM

    Play his cards right? He could get it by calling Hillary Clinton a cunt.

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  45. FrenchFriar5:08 PM

    War propaganda runs deep in Hollywood even when it's silent.

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  46. Jay B.5:16 PM

    That or we could accept the fact that revolutionary movements that pose no immediate or even medium-term threat to us aren't our responsibility to kill in a country we armed and "trained" for nine years after we bombed them. We won't. But we could.

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  47. JennOfArk6:46 PM

    Oh, I can think of a few more reasons: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Andrew Breitbart (who has already taken up residence), Ted Cruz....there are others.

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  48. JennOfArk6:51 PM

    That's along same lines as my dumb boat metaphor - if families managed their budgets the way GOP advocates, they would refuse raises or additional income, and spend what money they did have coming in on keeping up the payments on the stupid boat in the driveway they've used exactly 7 times since they bought it 3 years ago, rather than keeping up with the mortgage they've been paying on for 20 years. Tax cuts for trillionaires = the stupid boat in the driveway; the house = social security & medicare, which over 95% of us have been paying into our entire working lives.

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  49. JennOfArk6:52 PM

    Eh, I dunno. He wasn't swayed by McCain calling Cindy a cunt.

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  50. You can't have a free market on souls if you don't liquidate a few first.

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  51. Socialist Cubone7:44 PM

    http://thedailybanter.com/2014/09/bill-maher-gets-suckered-says-might-vote-rand-paul-clinton-hawkish/



    Done, and done.

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  52. Bethany Spencer7:52 PM

    In case I wasn't clear--it'll be terrible either way. Either we go all in and kill a bunch of us and them or we don't and the casualties trickle in.

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  53. Derelict8:15 PM

    Your metaphor is close, but the way the GOP looks at it is that you devote most of your household budget to paying for your dickhead neighbor's boat in his driveway. And to do that, you stop buying food and clothing for the kids, don't fix your house, and run your credit cards up to their limits while giving whatever money you have left to your neighbor's degenerate gambler brother-in-law to "invest" on Wall Street.

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  54. falstaff778:16 PM

    "What the hell, it's just going to cost some human lives"


    Oh yes, because we know government programs and the dependency rendered, *they*, they can only help.

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  55. JennOfArk8:23 PM

    Well, yeah, but my metaphor was less...ambitious.

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  56. Cheney will die soon. The world waits.

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  57. Pere Ubu9:19 PM

    You can't destroy a lich without finding his phylactery first.

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  58. AGoodQuestion10:29 PM

    If they all end up in hell, Satan is going to start taking some long vacations.

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  59. AGoodQuestion10:35 PM

    So my question is, how do I get in on that gravy train? ~ Rand Paul

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  60. AGoodQuestion10:39 PM

    Oh, I don't know. Finger pointing and schadenfreude keep their flavor even when you come to that "we are all so fucked" realization.

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  61. AGoodQuestion10:45 PM

    ISIS present a humanitarian crisis, but not an existential threat. Their ambition to solidify control over all Muslim lands will remain forever out of their grasp, in large part because they alienate Shiites right out of the gate. I'd prefer that we just focus on limiting the damage re the humanitarian part, but I don't really expect that.

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  62. AGoodQuestion10:59 PM

    It wouldn't surprise me if there were a concerted right wing effort to oust Keith Ellison from the house. By whatever means are at hand, assuming the voters of his district lack the moral fiber to vote him out.


    In any case, there's a great chance of Muslim Americans being in the crosshairs again.

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  63. TGuerrant11:14 PM

    Block grants to the military contractors. Soldiers' families must remain on food stamps while their mortgages are foreclosed because Deficit!

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  64. Hattie5:13 AM

    I feel bitter

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  65. You might say they are Legion.

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  66. Well, you know, one day that boat could be yours

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  67. Derelict7:16 AM

    And let's not forget the other great deficit-reducing measures from our Great Iraq Adventure: Redefining "combat death" so that 90% of casualties no longer qualify for the death benefit, and slashing the death benefit from $300 to $100.

    Nothing's too good for our troops, and that's why we give them so much of it.

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  68. DocAmazing7:42 AM

    Number two needs to be repeated endlessly. The petro-monarchies that our political leaders love and support have been funding armed religious lunatics for decades now. TIme to let the Saudis and Qataris enjoy the fruits of their investments, and for us to leave them alone in their enjoyment.

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  69. In his speech last night he sounded like a person trying to convince himself he's doing the right thing, while also knowing that it's bullshit.

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  70. I try to do both: understand that the Democrats suck, while simultaneously enjoying cheap laughs from watching right wing idiots.

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  71. He's great at understanding groups like ISIS/ISIL/whatever they are called today. Really seems to get the whole "irregular warfare" concept, in a way most commentators don't.

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  72. I am so tired of those people. America's supposed hatred and mistrust of Muslims seems mysteriously compartmentalized when it comes to Prince Bandar and his ilk.

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  73. DocAmazing9:37 AM

    Oh, so bitter
    I should Twitter
    how bitter
    I feel!

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  74. Halloween_Jack10:46 AM

    In the meantime, Lil' Nicky Gillespie is covering the beat, pretending to care about staying out of war while using it as an excuse to beat on Obama (the Patriot Act is compared to Obamacare, and this is his summary of Obama's foreign policy: "tripling troop strength in Afghanistan with nothing to show for it, bombing Libya with nothing to show for it, “resetting” relations with Russia with nothing to show for it") and, while making some very general criticisms of the GOP, mentions specific Republican representatives favorably. The guy can hit his mark and say his lines without cues by now.

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  75. BigHank5312:40 PM

    Hey, somebody remind me: what'd we get out of the Iraq War? Because Iraq still seems to be full of people who hate us and enjoy killing us. Could have saved a few trillion dollars and half a million lives and stayed home, you know.

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  76. JennOfArk5:30 PM

    If "we" includes Blackwater (now the much less creepy sounding "Xe") and Halliburton, several hundred billion dollars.

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  77. Halloween_Jack9:56 AM

    I've always thought that Xe was what Xenu's friends called him.

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  78. hidflect9:19 PM

    Libertarianism is the soft dough from which the Elite can form their pretzel logic.

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