Rand Paul was always a Piece of Shit

[wildcat09 29,267]

Being yelled at by American citizens is part of the job. What a fucking baby.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,149]

1 hour ago, UpperWestside said:

When your actions show that you support someone responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens during a global pandemic you lose the right to any high ground no matter what you are doing. I can be vocal about supporting the BLM Movement and go to all the rallies and protest marches I want, but if other actions I partake in do not reflect that commitment it makes my words and actions ring hollow.
 

Rand does not get to pontificate on criminal justice reform or invoke Breonna Taylor’s name when his actions and support go to a president who has made it his business to be as cruel as possible to black people that are still getting killed by racist law enforcement officers. You do not get it both ways. He made a choice to get in bed with the devil and he can suffer the consequences for that choice. I do not want to see him get beaten again, but all his words just ring hollow and they will for the rest of his days.

I don't know that I would call Paul a big supporter of Trump. If you're in the all or nothing mindset I don't think following politics is your best idea.

[wildcat09 29,267]

3 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I don't know that I would call Paul a big supporter of Trump. If you're in the all or nothing mindset I don't think following politics is your best idea.

Paul is a Trumper in a libertarian costume. When Trump goes full nazi and calls on his supporters to commit violence against liberals, Paul will support him.

[UpperWestside 6,136]

2 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I don't know that I would call Paul a big supporter of Trump. If you're in the all or nothing mindset I don't think following politics is your best idea.

Following politics is absolutely a great idea with this mindset. Rand is absolutely a big supporter of the current president. This does not need to be re-hashed. If for some reason you think he isn’t then again Paul’s words and actions show he is. Being there last night to show his support is but the most recent public support he has given our racist-in-chief.

[Celery Man 20,888]

Don't expect order when you destroy the law

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,416]

7 minutes ago, TXSG8R said:

Bike cop almost gave them the match.  Dudes were just walking along yelling and then he got pushy with the black guy.  Black guy pushed back and the cop almost ate it.  Really close to getting ugly.  

Agree. When confronted with a crowd that you don't want to engage, the best path is put your head down and quickly walk away. However we all know that many police cannot and will not allow any citizen to not acknowledge the police authority.

The police's main "weapon" is the ability to arrest you for a crime, or suspected crime. Which I think everyone wants. However the police have very little legal power over someone that hasn't committed a crime. Therefore they use the excuse of the "order" side of law and order, to maintain control. This when the abuse comes into play. You will not be allowed to disobey them regardless of the legality of their order. 

 

[HornOnTheBayou 8,881]

 

[bad_teammate 13,133]

That white cop was content to yell and hold his bike right up until he saw the dreadlocks and he went 300. Well, 300 for Fatasses.

[TXSG8R 3,360]

19 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I don't know that I would call Paul a big supporter of Trump. If you're in the all or nothing mindset I don't think following politics is your best idea.

He got invited over Ted Cruz.  Let that sink in.  

[High Plains Drifter 10,981]

1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I don't know that I would call Paul a big supporter of Trump. If you're in the all or nothing mindset I don't think following politics is your best idea.

 

Did he vote to remove? Yes or No?

 

[High Plains Drifter 10,981]

 

Oh, and by the way, I thought the government was supposed to be afraid of the people?

 

Or was that just all a bunch of horseshit, like everything else that oozes out of his mouth?

[27-25 2,040]

2 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

Literally saved our lives. Hyperbole much? 

[Hornius Emeritus 12,422]

2 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

awesome. 

 

 

2 hours ago, TXSG8R said:

Bike cop almost gave them the match.  Dudes were just walking along yelling and then he got pushy with the black guy.  Black guy pushed back and the cop almost ate it.  Really close to getting ugly.  

 

Yup. This is not okay with me.

 

[Hornius Emeritus 12,422]

2 hours ago, achooloco said:

Need a lot more of this, don’t let any republican  sleep well as long as they Support a racist piece of shit. 

 

I disagree. Shouting and the possibility of physical violence is not an acceptable level of discourse for me and it is likely to have a profoundly negative impact. 

 

[woohorn 1,131]

He was an asshole provocateur troll walking home like that last night. Zero sympathies.

[Brisketexan 104,670]

3 hours ago, Message Board User said:

His words ring hollow?

He introduced actual legislation to ban the police tactic that was used to kill Breanna Taylor!  Which is what the protester was screaming about!

Cool, cool.  What has he done to actually get the body that he is a part of, the Senate, to actually PASS such legislation?  Nothing? He just lets McConnell and Trump do what they want?  I'm shocked.

They also voted eleventy billion times to "repeal Obamacare!"  They're great at empty gestures.  They are a negative force when it comes to actually solving problems, and Rand is 100% on board with that.

3 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

When your actions show that you support someone responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens during a global pandemic you lose the right to any high ground no matter what you are doing. I can be vocal about supporting the BLM Movement and go to all the rallies and protest marches I want, but if other actions I partake in do not reflect that commitment it makes my words and actions ring hollow.
 

Rand does not get to pontificate on criminal justice reform or invoke Breonna Taylor’s name when his actions and support go to a president who has made it his business to be as cruel as possible to black people that are still getting killed by racist law enforcement officers. You do not get it both ways. He made a choice to get in bed with the devil and he can suffer the consequences for that choice. I do not want to see him get beaten again, but all his words just ring hollow and they will for the rest of his days.

And these.  Rand doesn't believe in any of this shit -- he believes in authoritarianism, which is "Liberty for the rich and powerful, the lash for everyone else."

2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Being yelled at by American citizens is part of the job. What a fucking baby.

And this.  Get over it, you gutless coward.

1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

Don't expect order when you destroy the law

But most finally, this.  The absolute 100% guaranteed outcome when you decide that the Rule of Law doesn't apply to you and yours is that you have unwittingly opted into the only alternative: the Rule of the Mob.  Don't bitch about the thing you intentionally opted into.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, right?

[Serak The Preparer 3,424]

3 hours ago, Message Board User said:

And they say there’s no such thing as cancel culture...

LOL, please define "cancel culture" and then explain how this fits within your definition. Bonus points for including socialist in the definition.

[wildcat09 29,267]

Harpers published "Who Goes Nazi?" in 1941 and it's probably still the best way to evaluate that question today:

Quote

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.

It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more susceptible to Nazism than most people, but I doubt it. Jews are barred out, but it is an arbitrary ruling. I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis and many others who would heil Hitler tomorrow morning if given a chance. There are Jews who have repudiated their own ancestors in order to become “Honorary Aryans and Nazis”; there are full-blooded Jews who have enthusiastically entered Hitler’s secret service. Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind.

It is also, to an immense extent, the disease of a generation—the generation which was either young or unborn at the end of the last war. This is as true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans as of Germans. It is the disease of the so-called “lost generation.”

Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work—a type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.

At any rate, let us look round the room.

The gentleman standing beside the fireplace with an almost untouched glass of whiskey beside him on the mantelpiece is Mr. A, a descendant of one of the great American families. There has never been an American Blue Book without several persons of his surname in it. He is poor and earns his living as an editor. He has had a classical education, has a sound and cultivated taste in literature, painting, and music; has not a touch of snobbery in him; is full of humor, courtesy, and wit. He was a lieutenant in the World War, is a Republican in politics, but voted twice for Roosevelt, last time for Willkie. He is modest, not particularly brilliant, a staunch friend, and a man who greatly enjoys the company of pretty and witty women. His wife, whom he adored, is dead, and he will never remarry.

He has never attracted any attention because of outstanding bravery. But I will put my hand in the fire that nothing on earth could ever make him a Nazi. He would greatly dislike fighting them, but they could never convert him. . . . Why not?

Beside him stands Mr. B, a man of his own class, graduate of the same preparatory school and university, rich, a sportsman, owner of a famous racing stable, vice-president of a bank, married to a well-known society belle. He is a good fellow and extremely popular. But if America were going Nazi he would certainly join up, and early. Why? . . . Why the one and not the other?

Mr. A has a life that is established according to a certain form of personal behavior. Although he has no money, his unostentatious distinction and education have always assured him a position. He has never been engaged in sharp competition. He is a free man. I doubt whether ever in his life he has done anything he did not want to do or anything that was against his code. Nazism wouldn’t fit in with his standards and he has never become accustomed to making concessions.

Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities by virtue of health, good looks, and being a good mixer. He married for money and he has done lots of other things for money. His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.

The saturnine man over there talking with a lovely French emigree is already a Nazi. Mr. C is a brilliant and embittered intellectual. He was a poor white-trash Southern boy, a scholarship student at two universities where he took all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a fraternity. His brilliant gifts won for him successively government positions, partnership in a prominent law firm, and eventually a highly paid job as a Wall Street adviser. He has always moved among important people and always been socially on the periphery. His colleagues have admired his brains and exploited them, but they have seldom invited him—or his wife—to dinner.

He is a snob, loathing his own snobbery. He despises the men about him—he despises, for instance, Mr. B—because he knows that what he has had to achieve by relentless work men like B have won by knowing the right people. But his contempt is inextricably mingled with envy. Even more than he hates the class into which he has insecurely risen, does he hate the people from whom he came. He hates his mother and his father for being his parents. He loathes everything that reminds him of his origins and his humiliations. He is bitterly anti-Semitic because the social insecurity of the Jews reminds him of his own psychological insecurity.

Pity he has utterly erased from his nature, and joy he has never known. He has an ambition, bitter and burning. It is to rise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate him. Not to rule but to be the secret ruler, pulling the strings of puppets created by his brains. Already some of them are talking his language—though they have never met him.

There he sits: he talks awkwardly rather than glibly; he is courteous. He commands a distant and cold respect. But he is a very dangerous man. Were he primitive and brutal he would be a criminal—a murderer. But he is subtle and cruel. He would rise high in a Nazi regime. It would need men just like him—intellectual and ruthless. But Mr. C is not a born Nazi. He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism. He would laugh to see heads roll.

I think young D over there is the only born Nazi in the room. Young D is the spoiled only son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines. He has been ruthless toward two wives and his mother pays the alimony. His life is spent in sensation-seeking and theatricality. He is utterly inconsiderate of everybody. He is very good-looking, in a vacuous, cavalier way, and inordinately vain. He would certainly fancy himself in a uniform that gave him a chance to swagger and lord it over others.

Mrs. E would go Nazi as sure as you are born. That statement surprises you? Mrs. E seems so sweet, so clinging, so cowed. She is. She is a masochist. She is married to a man who never ceases to humiliate her, to lord it over her, to treat her with less consideration than he does his dogs. He is a prominent scientist, and Mrs. E, who married him very young, has persuaded herself that he is a genius, and that there is something of superior womanliness in her utter lack of pride, in her doglike devotion. She speaks disapprovingly of other “masculine” or insufficiently devoted wives. Her husband, however, is bored to death with her. He neglects her completely and she is looking for someone else before whom to pour her ecstatic self-abasement. She will titillate with pleased excitement to the first popular hero who proclaims the basic subordination of women.

On the other hand, Mrs. F would never go Nazi. She is the most popular woman in the room, handsome, gay, witty, and full of the warmest emotion. She was a popular actress ten years ago; married very happily; promptly had four children in a row; has a charming house, is not rich but has no money cares, has never cut herself off from her own happy-go-lucky profession, and is full of sound health and sound common sense. All men try to make love to her; she laughs at them all, and her husband is amused. She has stood on her own feet since she was a child, she has enormously helped her husband’s career (he is a lawyer), she would ornament any drawing-room in any capital, and she is as American as ice cream and cake.

II

How about the butler who is passing the drinks? I look at James with amused eyes. James is safe. James has been butler to the ‘ighest aristocracy, considers all Nazis parvenus and communists, and has a very good sense for “people of quality.” He serves the quiet editor with that friendly air of equality which good servants always show toward those they consider good enough to serve, and he serves the horsy gent stiffly and coldly.

Bill, the grandson of the chauffeur, is helping serve to-night. He is a product of a Bronx public school and high school, and works at night like this to help himself through City College, where he is studying engineering. He is a “proletarian,” though you’d never guess it if you saw him without that white coat. He plays a crack game of tennis—has been a tennis tutor in summer resorts—swims superbly, gets straight A’s in his classes, and thinks America is okay and don’t let anybody say it isn’t. He had a brief period of Youth Congress communism, but it was like the measles. He was not taken in the draft because his eyes are not good enough, but he wants to design airplanes, “like Sikorsky.” He thinks Lindbergh is “just another pilot with a build-up and a rich wife” and that he is “always talking down America, like how we couldn’t lick Hitler if we wanted to.” At this point Bill snorts.

Mr. G is a very intellectual young man who was an infant prodigy. He has been concerned with general ideas since the age of ten and has one of those minds that can scintillatingly rationalize everything. I have known him for ten years and in that time have heard him enthusiastically explain Marx, social credit, technocracy, Keynesian economics, Chestertonian distributism, and everything else one can imagine. Mr. G will never be a Nazi, because he will never be anything. His brain operates quite apart from the rest of his apparatus. He will certainly be able, however, fully to explain and apologize for Nazism if it ever comes along. But Mr. G is always a “deviationist.” When he played with communism he was a Trotskyist; when he talked of Keynes it was to suggest improvement; Chesterton’s economic ideas were all right but he was too bound to Catholic philosophy. So we may be sure that Mr. G would be a Nazi with purse-lipped qualifications. He would certainly be purged.

H is an historian and biographer. He is American of Dutch ancestry born and reared in the Middle West. He has been in love with America all his life. He can recite whole chapters of Thoreau and volumes of American poetry, from Emerson to Steve Benet. He knows Jefferson’s letters, Hamilton’s papers, Lincoln’s speeches. He is a collector of early American furniture, lives in New England, runs a farm for a hobby and doesn’t lose much money on it, and loathes parties like this one. He has a ribald and manly sense of humor, is unconventional and lost a college professorship because of a love affair. Afterward he married the lady and has lived happily ever afterward as the wages of sin.

H has never doubted his own authentic Americanism for one instant. This is his country, and he knows it from Acadia to Zenith. His ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and in all the wars since. He is certainly an intellectual, but an intellectual smelling slightly of cow barns and damp tweeds. He is the most good-natured and genial man alive, but if anyone ever tries to make this country over into an imitation of Hitler’s, Mussolini’s, or Petain’s systems H will grab a gun and fight. Though H’s liberalism will not permit him to say it, it is his secret conviction that nobody whose ancestors have not been in this country since before the Civil War really understands America or would really fight for it against Nazism or any other foreign ism in a showdown.

But H is wrong. There is one other person in the room who would fight alongside H and he is not even an American citizen. He is a young German emigre, whom I brought along to the party. The people in the room look at him rather askance because he is so Germanic, so very blond-haired, so very blue-eyed, so tanned that somehow you expect him to be wearing shorts. He looks like the model of a Nazi. His English is flawed—he learned it only five years ago. He comes from an old East Prussian family; he was a member of the post-war Youth Movement and afterward of the Republican “Reichsbanner.” All his German friends went Nazi—without exception. He hiked to Switzerland penniless, there pursued his studies in New Testament Greek, sat under the great Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, came to America through the assistance of an American friend whom he had met in a university, got a job teaching the classics in a fashionable private school; quit, and is working now in an airplane factory—working on the night shift to make planes to send to Britain to defeat Germany. He has devoured volumes of American history, knows Whitman by heart, wonders why so few Americans have ever really read the Federalist papers, believes in the United States of Europe, the Union of the English-speaking world, and the coming democratic revolution all over the earth. He believes that America is the country of Creative Evolution once it shakes off its middle-class complacency, its bureaucratized industry, its tentacle-like and spreading government, and sets itself innerly free.

The people in the room think he is not an American, but he is more American than almost any of them. He has discovered America and his spirit is the spirit of the pioneers. He is furious with America because it does not realize its strength and beauty and power. He talks about the workmen in the factory where he is employed. . . . He took the job “in order to understand the real America.” He thinks the men are wonderful. “Why don’t you American in- tellectuals ever get to them; talk to them?”

I grin bitterly to myself, thinking that if we ever got into war with the Nazis he would probably be interned, while Mr. B and Mr. G and Mrs. E would be spreading defeatism at all such parties as this one. “Of course I don’t like Hitler but . . .”

Mr. J over there is a Jew. Mr. J is a very important man. He is immensely rich—he has made a fortune through a dozen directorates in various companies, through a fabulous marriage, through a speculative flair, and through a native gift for money and a native love of power. He is intelligent and arrogant. He seldom associates with Jews. He deplores any mention of the “Jewish question.” He believes that Hitler “should not be judged from the standpoint of anti-Semitism.” He thinks that “the Jews should be reserved on all political questions.” He considers Roosevelt “an enemy of business.” He thinks “It was a serious blow to the Jews that Frankfurter should have been appointed to the Supreme Court.”

The saturnine Mr. C—the real Nazi in the room—engages him in a flatteringly attentive conversation. Mr. J agrees with Mr. C wholly. Mr. J is definitely attracted by Mr. C. He goes out of his way to ask his name—they have never met before. “A very intelligent man.”

Mr. K contemplates the scene with a sad humor in his expressive eyes. Mr. K is also a Jew. Mr. K is a Jew from the South. He speaks with a Southern drawl. He tells inimitable stories. Ten years ago he owned a very successful business that he had built up from scratch. He sold it for a handsome price, settled his indigent relatives in business, and now enjoys an income for himself of about fifty dollars a week. At forty he began to write articles about odd and out-of-the-way places in American life. A bachelor, and a sad man who makes everybody laugh, he travels continually, knows America from a thousand different facets, and loves it in a quiet, deep, unostentatious way. He is a great friend of H, the biographer. Like H, his ancestors have been in this country since long before the Civil War. He is attracted to the young German. By and by they are together in the drawing-room. The impeccable gentleman of New England, the country-man—intellectual of the Middle West, the happy woman whom the gods love, the young German, the quiet, poised Jew from the South. And over on the other side are the others.

Mr. L has just come in. Mr. L is a lion these days. My hostess was all of a dither when she told me on the telephone, “ . . . and L is coming. You know it’s dreadfully hard to get him.” L is a very powerful labor leader. “My dear, he is a man of the people, but really fascinating.“ L is a man of the people and just exactly as fascinating as my horsy, bank vice-president, on-the-make acquaintance over there, and for the same reasons and in the same way. L makes speeches about the “third of the nation,” and L has made a darned good thing for himself out of championing the oppressed. He has the best car of anyone in this room; salary means nothing to him because he lives on an expense account. He agrees with the very largest and most powerful industrialists in the country that it is the business of the strong to boss the weak, and he has made collective bargaining into a legal compulsion to appoint him or his henchmen as “labor’s” agents, with the power to tax pay envelopes and do what they please with the money. L is the strongest natural-born Nazi in this room. Mr. B regards him with contempt tempered by hatred. Mr. B will use him. L is already parroting B’s speeches. He has the brains of Neanderthal man, but he has an infallible instinct for power. In private conversation he denounces the Jews as “parasites.” No one has ever asked him what are the creative functions of a highly paid agent, who takes a percentage off the labor of millions of men, and distributes it where and as it may add to his own political power.

III

It’s fun—a macabre sort of fun—this parlor game of “Who Goes Nazi?” And it simplifies things—asking the question in regard to specific personalities.

Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.

Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.

Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t-whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.

This was written before the rise of the post-war middle class so there are a few new types of people who would be at this party today. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are both a modern mix of Mr. B and Mr. C. They don't come from the upper class, but had early exposure to networks that the upper class use to recruit their type, and they have through a mix of merit, work, and luck found themselves among members of the upper class.  They fancy themselves intellectuals, but have immense, seeming resentment for basically everyone else on earth. They're not born nazis like Mr D (Trump), but they're both absolute locks to go nazi if naziism is ascendant.

This is a darkly fun and illuminating little game to play. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by wildcat09

[Bama Chick 28,596]

So libertarian. Much freedoms.

[sidis 9,755]

20 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

So libertarian. Much freedoms.

 

@bernorange

@maninblack

combined with his sudden silence on running the largest fiscal deficits in the history of this country since 2017 after 8 years of pretending loose fiscal policy coming out of a recession was the harbinger of revelations, how are you feeling about your favorite senator?  he wants to arrest people on the basis of his feelings.

[bernorange 8,348]

I had high hopes for Rand to do good work in the Senate.  But his political ambition appears to be larger than his principles.  I haven't posted in this thread in a long time because I don't have anything to contribute.  (The quest for) Power corrupts.

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,659]

55 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

So libertarian. Much freedoms.

 

JFC. I thought maybe his quote was possibly out of context. But the video is SO much worse than even the quote. That is some straight-up fascism. Interspersed with lies and an utter lack of evidence. And then more fascism.

[Brisketexan 104,670]

19 minutes ago, bernorange said:

I had high hopes for Rand to do good work in the Senate.  But his political ambition appears to be larger than his principles.  I haven't posted in this thread in a long time because I don't have anything to contribute.  (The quest for) Power corrupts.

Good on ya.

What's actually shocking is not that he's failed on "libertarian" principles, but that he's plunged gleefully into authoritarianism.  Like, the opposite of libertarian.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,844]

what a fucking pussy.

[wildcat09 29,267]

16 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Good on ya.

What's actually shocking is not that he's failed on "libertarian" principles, but that he's plunged gleefully into authoritarianism.  Like, the opposite of libertarian.

It's really not surprising. Many in the alt-right first got involved in politics as supporters of (and some even actually volunteered for) Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. There's definitely a libertarian-to-authoritarian pipeline, particularly for young white men.

[Brisketexan 104,670]

14 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

It's really not surprising. Many in the alt-right first got involved in politics as supporters of (and some even actually volunteered for) Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. There's definitely a libertarian-to-authoritarian pipeline, particularly for young white men.

What's the common thread?  Because it sure ain't "liberty for all, don't give the gov't power."  I mean, we've seen that's not the case.

So, what's the common thread?  Back in the day, I didn't want to believe it, but it's this: white supremacy.  When you have the money, guns, and power, a system that yields authority to those with....money, guns, and power...is really attractive.  And in our country, those things are skewed as hell on the basis of race.  When you add in their opposition to things like the Civil Rights Act, it all clicks into place rather smoothly.

Which bothers me, because for a long time, libertarianism was attractive to me.  Then, I actually read, saw, and listened to "libertarians"....and it was a shitload of stuff geared at protecting and furthering white power and positions of privilege, while giving no path forward to the poor and minorities. Shit that sounds great if you're white and own a house and guns, and awful if you're poor and black and don't yet have a good education/degree etc.

 

Oh, and another thing that has disappointed me is how PJ O'Rourke has handled the systemic failures here.  He's a Rand fanboy, but he's let him utterly skate on his descent into an authoritarian lackey.  And while he laments Trumpism, he's failed to address the underlying failings of our society that led to it.  Truly, Trumpism is an existential crisis for libertarian principles, because it's shown that left to our own devices, we'll fucking drink hemlock.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Brisketexan

[SizzleChest 8,275]

On one hand, that's scary imagery and the reality of it further clarifies the tragic state of discord in the US at present.

On the other hand, Rand Paul just experienced the kind of fear for a fleeting few moments in his life that POC experience in their lives constantly.

[Brisketexan 104,670]

1 minute ago, SizzleChest said:

On one hand, that's scary imagery and the reality of it further clarifies the tragic state of discord in the US at present.

On the other hand, Rand Paul just experienced the kind of fear for a fleeting few moments in his life that POC experience in their lives constantly.

Yep.  That we have descended to this point is an utter failure of leadership -- and, umm, doesn't the buck stop somewhere?  Coulda sworn it used to.

And yep, watching white folks in positions of power and privilege being afraid for the first time is at least smirk-worthy, and amusing in a sad way.  Look at how absolutely ape-shit unhinged it makes them.....but they just don't understand how minorities are so upset.

[BrickHorn 18,197]

Did a sitting Senator really just say it’s a crime to travel at someone else’s expense? What a fucking idiot. 

[Brisketexan 104,670]

8 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

Did a sitting LIBERTARIAN Senator really just say it’s a crime to travel at someone else’s expense? What a fucking idiot. 

FIF the fucking irony.

[BrickHorn 18,197]

I keep forgetting Paul is a Libertarian. Maybe because he so clearly is not a Libertarian.

[UpperWestside 6,136]

I gotta say that using the FBI to investigate these “terrorists” that verbally accosted him is peak Rand. This guy is a coward.

[kevwun 15,665]

A self-aware person would contemplate about why so many people want to beat his ass.

Edited August 28, 2020 by kevwun

[Ted Lange 16,054]

that is an attack

 

[wildcat09 29,267]

27 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

I gotta say that using the FBI to investigate these “terrorists” that verbally accosted him is peak Rand. This guy is a coward.

Let's not forget that far-right armed militias have occupied two different state legislatures in the past few months. Maybe I'm a radical leftist, but that seems to merit FBI investigation more than some people yelling at Rand on the street.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,844]

why was he walking home anyway? is that really a safe practice for any sitting senator? dumbass

[Pescado_Rojo 19,332]

1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:

that is an attack

 

no acceleration in his back pedal, stiff hips, shies away from real contact. 1 star...maybe a D3 talent. 

[Brisketexan 104,670]

1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:

that is an attack

 

No, man, that's what a sacred freedom fighter, a lover of the flag and eagles and fireworks and stuff, looks like.  You can smell the 'murica from here.  SALUTE!

[Brisketexan 104,670]

4 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

no acceleration in his back pedal, stiff hips, shies away from real contact. 1 star...maybe a D3 talent. 

Dude....the white pants and pink shirt coulda told ya that.

Apologies to @Bozo_Casanova

[Bevo14 8,275]

5 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

no acceleration in his back pedal, stiff hips, shies away from real contact. 1 star...maybe a D3 talent. 

Left bench for the intramural team at Trump U

[Bozo_Casanova 26,299]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Dude....the white pants and pink shirt coulda told ya that.

Apologies to @Bozo_Casanova

Fair

[staboner 4,959]

Metaxas? why are some of these radical right wing nut jobs ruining my greek heritage goddammit. fuck me. 

I need a drinky poo

[Fudge Nuggets 19,151]

10 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Being yelled at by American citizens is part of the job. What a fucking baby.

Agreed.  If you’re a crap legislator then expect to get yelled at.  Don’t want to be yelled at, then don’t be a crap legislator.  It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.

[Anastasis 23,398]

6 minutes ago, staboner said:

Metaxas? why are some of these radical right wing nut jobs ruining my greek heritage goddammit. fuck me. 

I need a drinky poo

Do you even 12 star bro?

[staboner 4,959]

I did 7 star a few times. sad to say I haven't 12 starred. but then again I would never trust a greek to take me from 7 to 12. 5 to 7, perhaps

also - other things there are nice. that's a good way to make it through your no nuke Friday my G

[Sawbonz 27,443]

4 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

that is an attack

 

Was that dude filming those chicks’ asses and just happened to get the douchebag in the frame?

[Royalfan5 2,348]

52 minutes ago, staboner said:

Metaxas? why are some of these radical right wing nut jobs ruining my greek heritage goddammit. fuck me. 

I need a drinky poo

Isn’t Metaxas already a name fairly closely associated with dictatorships, especially in Greece already? 

[Celery Man 20,888]

4 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

that is an attack

 

hey they made an arrest

we're going to have bloodshed

[wildcat09 29,267]

Cops and klan go hand and hand, those who work forces, etc.

Edited August 29, 2020 by wildcat09

[Anastasis 23,398]

46 minutes ago, staboner said:

I did 7 star a few times. sad to say I haven't 12 starred. but then again I would never trust a greek to take me from 7 to 12. 5 to 7, perhaps

also - other things there are nice. that's a good way to make it through your no nuke Friday my G

My wife likes the serbian version of the raki.  If I can get her started on that, she hits critical mass pretty quick.