2020 Election: Capitalism versus Socialism?

If you had stood up ten years ago and said that an entire Presidential election could be on the topic of capitalism versus socialism....you would have gotten laughed out of the room.  But here we are in the early part of 2019, and it appears that the entire strategy of President Trump....is to get the Democratic Party attached to the socialism agenda, and have a campaign just on this.

Part of this can go to the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign, where he talked a good bit on socialist ideals.  Part of this can go toward 'ideals' generated and talked about via CNN and MSNBC.  And part of this revolves around an 'unfairness' angle that has lingered in the public view.

You can imagine rural folks sitting around the TV in the spring of 2020....asking themselves what all this socialism chatter is about, and having their nephew educate them by explaining the 'cow-theory': you have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to manage all the cows. Then the government gives you as much milk as you need.

Grandma is impressed by this talk by her nephew, but Grandpa asks....what about capitalism? Junior talks about this: you have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Well....Grandpa gushes at this point....that makes perfect sense.

But then Junior gets onto bureaucraticism: you have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and dumping the milk down the drain. Then the government requires you to fill out paperwork accounting for the missing cows.

Grandpa agrees....that's typically how the US government works.  But hold on....Junior isn't finished yet.

Then Junior gets onto Facism:  here, you have two cows. The government takes both, then the government hires you to take care of them, and finally, the government sells you the milk at the price which fluctuates each week for no apparent reason.

All of this unsettles both Grandma and Grandpa.  They look over at Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, and Greece.  All use socialism and all have a decaying landscape.

Across the US, this worry....an actual image of starving people in Venezuela....identifying the Democrats to something that they really can't talk to, or push to the side.  It will eventually trigger a negative reaction.  The 2020 election?  You could see some massive Electoral College swing with over 350 votes for Trump and 'capitalism'.  At the end of that election, a number of Democrats will stand up and ask....where the hell did this conversation start from, and then everyone will look at Bernie and the 2016 election.  Blame will be dumped there.

The End of Air Travel (AOC Green Plan)

One of the odd things from this week was the proposal that air travel would end in ten years after the 'Green Deal' goes into effect.

Over the past 24 hours, I've spent a fair amount of pondering time....examining how this would work.  AOC never explain the 'how' part to this proposal.

I suppose you could add a 700-percent tax to air tickets, or draft up massive regulations that would terminate most of the airlines....but what's the real results?  Some massive grid of railway travel?

How would foreigners arrive in the US?  Only by ship?  We would revert to the 1940s methods of getting from NY City to Atlanta.....over a train or bus network? 

Would AOC ground Air Force One and limit the President to just boat travel and railway expeditions?

All of those airline folks?  With 27,000 flights a day, and probably between 700k and 900k people in the industry....just let go?  What do you do with the airports?  Just shut them down, and turn the parking lots into playgrounds?

Would we ground helicopters as well? 

This type of chatter from AOC is the kind of thing that you'd expect from an eight-year-old kid.  The sad thing is that it's a college graduate that uttered this. 

How the Virginia 'Losers' Mess Will End

Over the past two weeks, I've sat and observed almost daily how the Governor fell into this blackface discussion....then the Lt Governor fell into a sexual assault accusation....then how the Attorney General also fell into a blackface discussion.  The general perception by the public is that all three must resign.  The fourth guy in line?  A Republican, who sits as the Speaker of the Virginia Legislature.  Note, the three guys in question.....are all Democrats.

So this is how it'll end, and you got to see part of this game yesterday....as a Virginia House bill came up to start an impeachment against the Lt Governor (the only one of the three who might have violated a law).  Some suggest that the draft will easily pass, and a 60 day countdown would start up with the procedure to impeach the guy (he is black, if that matters....and generally regarded as someone who might be in national politics in ten to fifteen years).

I think as you get within a week of impeachment starting up, the Lt Governor will resign.  The Governor will still be around but he'll have a list of twenty-odd people to appoint to the position of Lt Governor (he can appoint the replacement, without a vote).  That replacement, I will virtually guarantee you, will be a woman.

Once this lady assumes the role of Lt Governor, within ten days....I think the Governor will resign, and she will move up.  Then she will select a replacement to Lt Governor, and it'll be a woman as well.  Finally, a week or two after that....the Attorney General will resign, and a woman will be appointed into that position.

So come August, all three 'problem-children' will have been replaced.  Women will occupy the positions in question (my humble theory).  It might be a sad story over Justine E. Fairfax (the Lt Gov) having to dismantle his future, and never become a Senator, and potential future VP....but his episode in the sexual assault thing really screwed up his future. 

Three women resolving this entire Virginia mess?  Yes. 

'Green Deal'

The odd piece of the Ocasio-Cortez 'Green Deal'?  Basically, to pay for it.....you have to use capitalism, commerce, and government revenue.  After you've downsized capitalism, commerce and government revenue....the new deal will eventually dissolve away.  This is one of those moments when you pull out some high grade whiskey, draw upon two shots....and try to imagine yourself riding a stagecoach, and relying upon candles for night time activities. 

Essay #3: Mass Movements and Boredom

"There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society's ripeness for a mass movement than the prevalence of unrelieved boredom."
-- Eric Hoffer

One of the cornerstones to a charged up movement is that you have a group of people with no real 'life'.  They aren't members of bowling club, a church, a weekend softball league, or bear-hunter's association. 

When Eric Hoffer wrote True Believer in the 1950s....he had done a fair amount of study over revolutionary groups and found that those who ran in and joined in the early stage.....really didn't have much of a life.  They were bored.  A mass movement or revolutionary group....was a relief to boredom.

You need a purpose and an identity.  You need something that gets you out of bed and peppy....when boredom is the reality of your life.

When you go and look at the Antifa groups, or the young social justice warriors.....they all have the same basic element....a bunch of members who don't have much of a life or enthusiasm for anything beyond their 'club'.

My brother (the engineer) often makes the analysis that guys need a good eight to ten hours of hard physical labor to get the boredom out.....to prevent them from doing stupid things (like tipping cows over at 11PM, or drinking to 2 AM in a honky tonk).  It's probably true that if people just got that boredom all pumped out.....they'd quietly avoid mass movements or social justice warrioring. 

Essay #2: Mass Movements and Hatred

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents.  It pulls and whirls the individual away from his own self, make him oblivious to his own weal (a bruise left upon the body after a slap or hit) and future, and frees him of jealousies and self-seeking. 
-- Eric Hoffer

In a true mass movement, you need something to 'hate', resent, avenge for, or just something to bother you on a day-by-day or week-by-week basis.  Just being satisfied and happy....won't achieve a long lasting attachment to a movement.

The neat thing about having this hate or resentment....being in the company of others....you can sit and talk about your hatred, and find companions who feel like you do.  A team of 'haters'?  Well, it's a great thing.  They can come out to some meeting and get all hyped up....getting the adeline flowing, and feel a certain charge.  You don't get that with 'love' people or happy people.

So you start to look around and notice that social media has created various 'hate-groups'.  They seek your attention and look for charismatic folks with hate-charm, and push them to the front to further the talk and escalation of more hate.

You can create songs around hate....comic dialogs based on hate....movies driven by hate....and even sports hype to generate hate.  The NFL, with the Colin Kaepernick kneeling business helped to generate hate, which translated into lesser TV rating, fewer fans, and a very likely NFL strike in 2021.  News story generations can be contrived in such a way that a hate-fan base will feel great happiness in the hate story, and drive the movement along to the next agenda. 

As long as people are oblivious to the hate hype and continue to fall for the 'trap'.....it proceeds on.  The minute that you have people stop in mid-stream and start to ask questions over the hate.....then you have a problem. 

If hate swivels up and slows down?  The mass movement is in trouble. 

Virginia, Blackface, and Intrigue

Over the past two weeks, I've sat and watched this episode with the Virginia Governor, and Lt-Governor.  Both are democrats and it's just rather odd that some downfall would occur like this. 

First, you would think that in the vetting process...both (the Governor with the blackface episode and the Lt-Governor with the sexual assault episode) should have laid this out prior to running, or someone should have spoken about this.

Second, both intend to stay on and fight for their cause. 

Having grown up in Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s....I have to admit this rare fact....you just didn't have plays or parties going on, with blackface being used.  Maybe I didn't hang out with the 'right' crowd.  But you just didn't notice things like that.

This sexual assault story?  Once you sit down and read the whole story....it just reminds you a lot of the Michael Douglas 1987 movie....'Fatal Attraction'.  You walk into some situation....bump into some lady who is not completely 'normal', and wake up to realize you got a mess on your hands.  I feel sorry for the Lt-Governor, but I think every single guy in America....by age 18, should watch 'Fatal Attraction' and write down a dozen personal rules about situations to just walk away from and avoid like the plague.

Why so many people latching onto this scandal-drama?  Well....the public, mostly because of social media and stupidity, are behaving like a herd of cows.  While there was a time when the controllers of the internet could herd the cows in one direction.....I suspect we've entered the stage where the herd can flip and turn quiet well now.....on their own.  Just one hint of a scandal, and that can move out and reach one-million people in a matter of six hours.  Politicians are just not prepared for this type of environment where some little small scandal item from 1984 pops up, and they have to launch into a defense.

The odds that the next Governor's race in Virginia will be a freak show?  I think it's going to be hard to sign up for a race, and have everyone drilling down into your past....to find your sexual assault or your blackface incident to show up.  A simple DWI from 1982, or a financial mess with 22 credit cards in 1998, or four-week visit to a 'fat-farm' in 2002.....all could lead to some public 'casting of the stones' on the candidate.  Just admitting that you routinely bet $50 on NFL games, or that you dated a Russian-model for a year in the 1990s....would be enough now to disqualify your candidacy.