Patterico's Pontifications

8/13/2015

Ted Cruz: What I Would Ask Hillary Clinton

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:04 am



[guest post by Dana]

In a recent interview, Ted Cruz offered the question he would put to Hillary Clinton if they were to meet on the debate stage next year. Quite obviously, Cruz is a thoughtful and savvy politician who not only has a clear understanding of economics, but also sees how vital it is that Republicans expose destructive liberal narratives:

“Over the last six-and-a-half years, the rich have gotten richer and hard-working men and women across America have seen their lives get harder and harder,” Cruz said during an exclusive interview with The Federalist on his campaign bus. “The people who have been hurt the most are the most vulnerable. Young people, Hispanics, African-Americans, single moms.”

“We’ve seen for two terms now the big government policies you and Barack Obama advocate don’t work,” Cruz said before getting to the ultimate question for Hillary. “Why should anyone believe a third term of the same failed policies would produce anything different?”

He continued with what I believe is the correct take on how Clinton would respond:

“I think she would respond with high level rhetoric about income inequality that would not address any of the substance,” Cruz told The Federalist. “And then I hope to come right back at her with: I emphatically agree income inequality is a tremendously important problem. That’s why it is such a compelling indictment of your record that it’s increased dramatically under your policies.”

Cruz explained that the Republicans have a great opportunity to expose and correct that tired, old myth that the “GOP is rich and out of touch, while Democrats are the party of the working man”. This especially as Cruz’s own parents experienced serious financial hardships, while Hillary and Bill Clinton have made untold millions “exploiting their government service”.

All things considered, one can only hope to God that Cruz and Clinton will face off on the debate stage and that Cruz will have an opportunity to put his question to Clinton, because given this, I think he would brilliantly mop the floor with her:

[Clinton’s] economic agenda will be organized in three parts. The first is about breaking down barriers to joining the workforce, including increasing private and public investments in an infrastructure bank, tax relief for small businesses and clean energy development.

Clinton’s second area of focus is reducing income inequality. She will assert that the current economy unfairly rewards some work, such as financial trading, more than other work. She will celebrate Obama’s new rules on overtime but also urge raising the minimum wage and overhauling the tax code to make the wealthiest Americans pay what she considers their fair share. She will also back collective bargaining and reducing health-care costs.

The third area is corporate reform. She plans to argue that companies should focus more on creating lasting value, such as investing in their workers, than on earning quarterly profits to satisfy shareholders. To that end, she will call for more investments in research and development, tax- structure changes and new rules on shareholder activism.

The Democrats need to be confronted every day by Republicans who know how to turn the argument around and how to forcefully and effectively lay bare the liberal policies which do not benefit Americans in the long run.

Oh, and the reason Cruz would not ask Clinton about any of her many scandals instead?

“If one goes down the road of scandals with Hillary, it would consume more than a two-hour debate,” Cruz joked. “And frankly, the key to winning in 2016 is running a populist campaign of hard-working men and women against the bipartisan corruption of Washington, which Hillary embodies.”

–Dana

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Looks like I have found a point of disagreement with Ted Cruz. I could not care less about income inequality, except to the extent it is caused by government policy. To the extent capitalists make money by selling goods and services at the prices people want them, they are benefiting society and deserve every penny they can make.

145 Responses to “Ted Cruz: What I Would Ask Hillary Clinton”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (86e864)

  2. stupid trashy unethical lying clotty-headed hoochies what do not understand the value of pipelines can’t be entrusted with the management of an “infrastructure bank”

    this is obvious to anyone who is willing to do the analysis

    even if they have spectacular geriatric breast flap appendages, it’s just not advisable

    i think there’s a white paper somewheres on this

    happyfeet (7b1a9e)

  3. Poor Senator Cruz! He actually thinks that the Democrats care what Hillary Clinton’s answers would be. She could admit to everything, including killing Vince Foster, and the Democrats would vote for her, ’cause she’s (supposedly) a woman!

    The sadly realistic Dana (f6a568)

  4. NO!!! I’m surprised Cruz believes that Hillary would make income inequality the focus of her response. It shows that even the more intelligent R’s still don’t get how the Dems appeal to the low info voters – even though it’s right in front of their face.

    She would say that Bush and his pro-rich policies messed everything up so bad that Obama’s policies, as great as they are, still haven’t been able to fix it – and Cruz wants to double down on those policies. That’s why she’s running – to continue what Obama started fixing Bush’s mess.

    Once she’s established that Bush’s policies are still in control and Cruz = Bush, then every argument Cruz makes about how bad things are blows up in his face.

    Also if he wants to make the economy the issue, his question should have ticked off a bunch of statistics proving that they haven’t worked, like median household income, labor participation rate etc. Again you have to aim things at the low info voter. But once Hillary hits him with “It’s you Republicans’ fault!” he has to have something strong prepared in response. His assumption of how she’d respond indicates he’d have nothing prepared.

    Gerald A (e1ec12)

  5. income inequality is a tremendously important problem

    Why ?

    seeRpea (a7b697)

  6. Mr Pea wrote:

    income inequality is a tremendously important problem

    Why ?

    Because, sadly, it actually reflects intelligence inequality and determination inequality.

    Determination inequality because, if my income is unequal to some people’s, it is because I have worked harder than they have to get where I am. Intelligence inequality because stupid people vote Democratic.

    The Dana eating lunch at his desk (f6a568)

  7. Good question, Ted. And good reasoning on not asking her about her conflicts. Time for Cruz to take a beating by all the rino trump haters.
    Cruz/West

    mg (31009b)

  8. 17 seconds of Antonio Banderas from Machete Kills which says it all. “Canadian and Mexican”.

    nk (dbc370)

  9. Dana, making it “personal” is not the answer. We have a huge economy, and there are niches for all sorts of people. If someone is determined, they will find a way to be independent and successful in their own terms, so on that I agree with you. But you don’t need to have an LLD or PhD or some equivalent certificate attesting to your intelligence. We have been employing a lot of subcontractors (thankfully) for our recent projects, and almost without fail I am impressed by their skill and knowledge in their areas of activity. Many of them are knee jerk Democrats because too many Republicans take it for granted that their personal success is due to their lofty personal qualities, or their unique devotion to religious dogma, and they seem to be compelled to proclaim their accomplishments in these terms. This needlessly alienates a lot of people who otherwise would be allies, who are successful in their own right.

    Cruz will be a great candidate because he understands the universal appeal of an unfettered economy. And he has the ability to explain this in terms that are understandable without resorting to “us – them” comparisons.

    bobathome (601aa0)

  10. The unemployed, the under employed, those who can’t pay their rent or in danger of losing their homes, the ones who don’t know how they’er going to avoid bankruptcy, the ones afraid to answer the phone for fear it’s another collection agent, they don’t give a damn that someone might be making more then they do, most everyone with a decent job already does. It’s income that concerns them, inequality of income is something Democrats pretend to be concerned about when what really concerns them is raising taxes.

    ropelight (e0b84f)

  11. re #10: speaking as one who fit the description in the midst of the ’90s, i think ropelight is correct. I didn’t (and still don’t) give a whit how much Warren Buffet made. I was whitting about my next monthly rental.

    Thankfully i am not in the financial position anymore and also thankfully my upbringing and education taught me that jealousy over what over make and have is , aside from being immoral, a waste of time and angst.

    seeRpea (a7b697)

  12. Determination inequality because, if my income is unequal to some people’s, it is because I have worked harder than they have to get where I am.
    It can also mean you have better access to what used to be called the Old Boys Network (example: Hillary) or can use personal charisma to get what you want (example: Hillary’s husband).
    The free market works best for people with actual capital (ie,already have money),or social capital (ie, access to good employers, patrons, etc.), or mental capital (went to a good school and have some intellectual heft to their thinking). Now of those three, your average inner city kid may, by a fluke, have the third, certainly not the other two. Why should you be surprised that they riot and vote for Democrats?

    kishnevi (91d5c6)

  13. there is downward pressure on unskilled labor, and increasingly even certain white collar professions, through HiB visas and the like, why wouldn’t there be inequality,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  14. income inequality is not a problem … it is a symptom of a problem … the problem being horrible economic policies and over regulation …

    KaiserDerden (399734)

  15. Hello Dana.

    The devil of the matter is that, yeah, you and I and most readers here would see Cruz as wiping the floor with Hillary! in the debate, but rest assured the low-information media would make sure the low-information voter sees things differently. Remember back in the 2000 NY Senate election how they all took to their fainting couches when Rick Lazio — who had all the menace of a beagle puppy — walked across the debate stage to Her Hillaryness’s lectern to present her with some useless campaign pledge to sign? Remember how they went on and on about how that was a typically aggressive act from a male who felt that he could violate her personal space and try to intimidate her? If Cruz takes it to her in the debate we’ll hear no end to the stories about how he was bullying and domineering, and Hillary! will simply repeat the usual progressive cliches (“ask the rich to pay their fair share” and “leave personal health decisions to a woman and her doctor”) mixed in with a charming (for her, anyway) story about the first time she held her granddaughter and the low-information press will assure the low-information voter that Hillary! more than held her own and showed that she is ready to lead.

    Sorry to be so negative, but after sitting through Bush/Gore, Bush/Kerry, Cheney/Edwards, McCain/Obama, Romney/Obama, and Ryan/Biden debates I am thoroughly disillusioned that any of it matters one iota to the low information voter who now decides our Presidential elections.

    JVW (ba78f9)

  16. well we haven’t tried an aggressive approach in eons, so it’s worth a shot,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  17. kishnevi #12 – that “average inner city kid” can be matched up with a kid with the same haplogroup mix whose parents moved to the US from the Caribbean when said kid was less than 2 years old … both kids are likely to have just as much access to the actual, social, and mental capital … and the Caribbean descent kid is likely to work his/her buns off and succeed and thrive and prosper while the inner city kid continues to be barraged by how it is all the fault of some “inequality” or other …

    kishnevi – your friends with the plantation(-owners) mentality don’t want their effectively-captive followers to succeed, because, if they succeed, they don’t need all the ‘government help’ … and then where would the enablers be ?

    One of the most effective lessons we can convey to our kids is that, if one person can do it, chances are that everyone can do it … we can complain about someone else doing better – or we can set to it and do even better than that other person – until we start to try, we are going to get nowhere …

    Alastor (2e7f9f)

  18. Ask Hillary if she knows who wrote this poem entitled Invitation

    The Queen’s Henchmen request the pleasure of your company at a Lynching to be held at 23rd and C Streets NW [State Dept. building] on Tuesday, December 18, 2012 just past sunset.
    Dress: Formal, Masks and Hoods the four being lynched must never know the identities of their executioners, or what or whose sin required their sacrifice.
    A blood sacrifice to divert the hounds to appease the gods to cleanse our filth and satisfy our guilty consciences…

    ropelight (e0b84f)

  19. Today, yet again, the web remains clogged with histrionic Republicans, moderate and conservative alike, wringing their hands over Donald Trump. What an ugly picture it paints of the current state of the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It’s nice to find your post, Dana, which demonstrates that there is at least one level-headed Republican candidate for whom strategic thinking is more than a kneejerk. And it is difficult to deny that Cruz’ insight about engaging in scandal mongering with Clinton is of a kind with his refusal to trash Trump. Sadly, it is a lesson many among us will never learn.

    ThOR (a52560)

  20. Thilly ThOR #19 … the web is clogged by actual quotes and made-up quotes spread and encouraged by the propaganda arm of the Democrats/Progressives …

    Absent that fixation and determination, if this country still had significant numbers of actual journalists, Trump would have been past his sell-by date within a day or so of the debate … the “histrionic” part is what *you* and the other Democrat/Progressive supporters seek out … conservative politicians, in the main, are too polite to respond as a Scot to the inane questions involving Trump continuing to feed the misdirection fires … and, when a conservative replies in a non-histrionic way, mirabile dictu, it doesn’t get published … amazing how that works, isn’t it ?

    Still – good try, dear !

    Alastor (2e7f9f)

  21. UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Looks like I have found a point of disagreement with Ted Cruz. I could not care less about income inequality, except to the extent it is caused by government policy. To the extent capitalists make money by selling goods and services at the prices people want them, they are benefiting society and deserve every penny they can make.

    Patterico (4ce762)

  22. The free market works best for people with actual capital (ie,already have money),or social capital (ie, access to good employers, patrons, etc.), or mental capital (went to a good school and have some intellectual heft to their thinking).

    We have different definitions of mental capital. Going to a good school is neither necessary nor sufficient to having intellectual heft — nor is intellectualism a good predictor of who can contribute the most to society.

    The free market works best for those who contribute the most.

    Patterico (4ce762)

  23. I’m afraid that “income inequality” is for Ted Cruz what “traditional marriage” was for Hillary and Obama: it’s something they pretend to care about in order to pander, and their own base knows that it’s just squid ink to fool the independent voters. See also “immigration reform”, for both parties.

    You may find out though, like Obama’s base did, that sometimes the base is being lied to. See also “immigration reform”.

    Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1)

  24. What this says to me is that Cruz isn’t going to make Romney,s 47% mistake.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  25. Patterico, I think you may be misreading Cruz, or perhaps I don’t understand your point. This is from his book:

    The rich were richer and the poor a whole lot poorer, notwithstanding Obama’s rhetoric about fixing the income inequality that reached new heights under his policies. Labor force participation had plummeted, and nearly 90 million Americans were not working. Our international standing was an embarrassment. Our commander in chief was a textbook study in indecision and vacillation. Governor Romney is a good man who ran hard, but he failed to “win the argument,” as Thatcher would put it. Indeed, the entire 2012 race can be summed up in two words: 47 percent.

    Cruz, Ted (2015-06-30). A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America (Kindle Locations 4887-4891). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

    The “income inequality” is real and measurable, and it is growing. I think Cruz believes that it can be explained by policies pursued by the administration, and he faults Romney for not even attempting to make the argument. Indeed, Romney made it seem like failure was inevitable and there was little he (Romney) could do about it since the 47% were unapproachable. This is what I see as a failing in many R’s, they are too prideful. Many of those people on welfare are not satisfied, and relatively few of them see increased entitlements as their goal in life. That’s my take anyway.

    bobathome (601aa0)

  26. Here is hillarys answer. Every month 100,000 minority kids turn voting age and almost everyone of them hating evil republican racists.

    hillarys anwser (e36413)

  27. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

    Winston Churchill

    redc1c4 (cf3b04)

  28. http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=358448

    Those in Clinton’s “Inner Circle” May Have Stripped Classification Markers from Documents, Illegally

    Why would you do this?

    I can only think of a couple of reasons, and they all involve evading the law and subpeonas.

    If you can think of a non-criminal reason, let me know…

    I can think of no non-criminal reasons for doing this. As I’ve said, I have been involved in the prosecution of sailors for less egregious violations. It never occurred to me to ask their political affiliation.

    I am not trying to inflate something insignificant into
    the crime of the century simply because I dislike Hillary
    Clinton.

    This is significant. Classified information is classified for a reason. TS is information, that if compromised, would cause exceptionally grave damage to US national security. Secret would cause serious damage, and confidential would cause damage.

    Diplomatic information that, if compromised, would damage
    bilateral/multilateral relations and harm America’s security interests
    is classified secret. This would have been Hillary Clinton’s bread and butter. She had to have known this.

    I am being non-partisan here. This is why I’ve been saying since the story broke that if I were the head of a foreign government and I was watching the news that that Hillary! was getting away with this crap I would cease all information sharing with the USG. Obviously no one was taking their responsibilities to safeguard the information seriously.

    Hillary! didn’t jaywalk or step on a crack and break her momma’s back. This is a serious felony. And I’m disgusted by the defense I see forming. That her underlings stripped the classification and dissemination markings. Which makes things even worse if you stop and think.

    It was her job to know and enforce the rules. She just may get away with it but these are her crimes.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  29. I still can’t understand what income inequality really means. Does it mean a surgeon should make the same as a landscaper? Or does it mean all surgeons should make the same amount and all landscapers should make the same amount? Or does it mean if a guy invents something Americans find desirable to own and they buy it like say Windows, he should only be able to make a set amount of money? If so who gets to set the amount? Or does it mean a person should only be able to earn a set amount per year then the rest is confiscated? Who gets to determine income inequality and who gets to correct this travesty of economics?

    Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27)

  30. I think turning the “income inequality” argument back on progressives is masterful. Let’s turn to Alinsky:

    Rule #4 – “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”

    “Income inequality” is page one, article one in their book and it is something progressive policies make worse rather than better. Yes, please, let the whole world know that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer because of Obama, Clinton, Sanders and their ilk, and not in spite of them.

    But I also like:

    Rule #6 – “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. And what could possibly be more enjoyable than to lecture progressives about the gigantic wedge they are driving between rich and poor?

    ThOR (a52560)

  31. Rule #4 – “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”

    Based on that my question would be: ” Hillary!, you made 57 million dollars last year. Can you explain what product or service you provided to amass this exorbitant amount of money? When can we expect you to divest of this unconscionable amount of money and do your part to end income equality?

    12,000,000 non-minority voters (f4eb27)

  32. I’d also ask Hillary! what the difference is between a democrat and a socialist.

    Bye, bye Hillary! (f4eb27)

  33. Hillary! issued orders that she was not to be inconvenienced. That is her excuse for the unclas, unencripted homebrew server. So one of her underlings convienced her.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/13/official-clinton-inner-circle-may-have-stripped-email-classification-markings/

    …But a State Department official told Fox News that the intelligence community inspector general, who raised the most recent concerns about Clinton’s emails, made clear that at least one of those messages contained information that only could have come from the intelligence community.

    “If so, they would have had to come in with all the appropriate classification markings,” the official said.

    The official questioned whether someone, then, tampered with that message. “[S]omewhere between the point they came into the building and the time they reached HRC’s server, someone would have had to strip the classification markings from that information before it was transmitted to HRC’s personal email.”

    The official said doing so would “constitute a felony, in and of itself. I can’t imagine that a rank-and-file career DOS employee would have done this, so it was most likely done by someone in her inner circle.”

    The messages apparently contained satellite imagery and signals intelligence, information that diplomats cannot unilaterally obtain…

    Can anyone defend this? How is this not the boss’ fault?

    And the icing on the cake is we’re supposed to believe the dumb broad was too stooopid to know IMINT and SIGINT is classified.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  34. How about: “Hillary!, do white lives matter?

    12,000,000 non-minority voters (f4eb27)

  35. Our host wrote (#21) above: “I could not care less about income inequality, except to the extent it is caused by government policy.”

    I agree. And I may be guilty of projecting onto Sen. Cruz, but I suspect that he agrees, too — but that he’s quite deliberately downplaying that distinction because right now, he’s busy trying to do Jujutsu on this Dem meme. That is, he will acknowledge the statistics showing the differential, he will point out that the differential has increased during the Obama administration, and he will properly blame the Democratic Party for that.

    I don’t believe Sen. Cruz is a populist. I think he’s perfectly willing and capable of expropriating populist themes, though, at least temporarily, as part of a larger educational effort. I don’t see this as a concession by Sen. Cruz that income inequality is evil per se, which of course is the underlying premise of the Dems’ meme.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  36. Robert at his Residence wrote¹:

    Dana, making it “personal” is not the answer. We have a huge economy, and there are niches for all sorts of people.

    That’s just it: the Democrats have learned, far better than the Republicans, that politics is personal. They have made their appeals personal, and made their appeals to the special snowflakes who are failures at life, and telling them that it’s not their fault that they’ve failed, but some Wicked Corporation™ or Evil Cisheteronormative Patriarchist who have held them down.

    And, quite frankly, no, there are not niches for all sorts of people, because there are no niches for the chronically lazy. The problem is that we have enabled laziness, we have made laziness survivable, we have said to the poor dears, “Oh, don’t worry, we won’t let you go hungry,” when we should be saying that the choice is theirs: work or starve.
    __________________
    ¹ – I hope that you appreciate the attempt at alliteration.

    The Dana waiting on a wrecker to pull out a stuck concrete mixer (f6a568)

  37. Ted Cruz is insane if he thinks a debate with Hillary is going to be about anything substantial like economic policies. Democrats are mud wrestlers.

    Mike Giles (f0cdc4)

  38. Mr nevi wrote:

    Determination inequality because, if my income is unequal to some people’s, it is because I have worked harder than they have to get where I am.

    It can also mean you have better access to what used to be called the Old Boys Network (example: Hillary) or can use personal charisma to get what you want (example: Hillary’s husband).
    The free market works best for people with actual capital (ie,already have money),or social capital (ie, access to good employers, patrons, etc.), or mental capital (went to a good school and have some intellectual heft to their thinking). Now of those three, your average inner city kid may, by a fluke, have the third, certainly not the other two. Why should you be surprised that they riot and vote for Democrats?

    When I was graduated from the University of Kentucky, oh so many long years ago, I might have agreed with that. But all of these years actually working for a living have taught me one very simple thing: the first real skill one needs to get ahead, that anyone can master, is the ability to get out of bed in the morning, and get to work, on time, every day.

    That’s it, that’s really all it takes. If you can do that much, and the only job you can find is flipping burgers at McDonald’s, well, it won’t be very long before you are a supervisor at McDonald’s, and if you keep it up, it won’t be long before you are going places.

    I happen to know a young lady, in Mississippi, formerly a housewife, who never went a day beyond high school. She was married to a state policeman, and decided that she wanted a new car. Since they couldn’t afford a new car on his wages alone, she got a job at McDonald’s. because she had the maturity to go to work on time, every day, within just a few years she was a regional manager, supervising several restaurants.

    The Dana who was graduated in 1977 (f6a568)

  39. Waiting Dana,

    I agree that the Democrats and our society have done things that encourage people not to work or make it impossible for them to work. I also think many out-of-work people want to work, to have things that they can’t get on welfare, and to provide for their families instead of relying on government. Some don’t and they won’t vote for Ted Cruz, but I don’t think those people are 47% of the electorate.

    Now what’s going on with the stuck concrete mixer?

    DRJ (1dff03)

  40. Alastor
    both kids are likely to have just as much access to the actual, social, and mental capital …
    Actually, no. Working with both groups, I see it constantly. Immigrant families from the West Indies make sure their kids start ahead, with schooling, their own social networks, and money saved by the parents. Many came here as adults with some money and business skills, and most (the Haitian community is a partial exception, because of the poverty in Haiti) do not live in “inner city” environments. They are more blue collar and middle class, not welfare recipients.
    Patterico
    Going to a good school is neither necessary nor sufficient to having intellectual heft — nor is intellectualism a good predictor of who can contribute the most to society.
    I think you misunderstood what I meant by “good school”. I did not mean Ivy League or Phillips Exeter type schooling, which would be part of one’s social capital, but to a school (K-12) that provides a high quality education, that teaches how to think, that teaches actual history and science, not fads. IOW, the kind of school which, I presume, you want your own kids to attend.

    The free market works best for those who contribute the most.
    In Utopia. In the real world, money and connections outrank effort every day.

    kishnevi (294553)

  41. Dana:

    the first real skill one needs to get ahead, that anyone can master, is the ability to get out of bed in the morning, and get to work, on time, every day.

    That’s it, that’s really all it takes. If you can do that much, and the only job you can find is flipping burgers at McDonald’s, well, it won’t be very long before you are a supervisor at McDonald’s, and if you keep it up, it won’t be long before you are going places.

    Absolutely right. People seem think life is such a difficult proposition, but it isn’t. That’s why some of the smartest people in high school go nowhere, and some of the biggest achievers as adults were average folks in high school. It’s also why the military turns out so many leaders.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  42. The most useful skill is picking the right parents. The second most useful is picking the right husband.

    nk (dbc370)

  43. Dana stuck in traffic…
    Maybe working in a large corporation gives me a different perspective (that said, I have no idea of your line of work). Let us just say that brown nosing, connections at headquarters, and fluffed up resumes seem to count for more than actual results in determining who gets promoted among managers, and often among associates on the sales floor.

    But that merely confirms what I see around me. Your acquaintance in Mississippi probably brought more to the table than merely willingness to work. For instance, she obviously is intelligent if she understood the need for a second income to pay for for a car, not merely get a loan and cross her fingers about how to pay it.

    kishnevi (93670d)

  44. The free market works best for those who contribute the most.
    In Utopia. In the real world, money and connections outrank effort every day.

    Frankly kishnevi, money and connections work for the moneyed and connected in every system on earth. But the free market works best for those of us who are not moneyed or connected. Though the free market is no Utopia it’s a crap load better than what comes in second.

    12,000,000 non-minority voters (f4eb27)

  45. I’ll back Ted on this and I will wager a lobsta roll

    Ted will win any debate one on one.

    mg (31009b)

  46. I can vouch for Dana in that my most valued employees were the ones who showed up for work on time every day. No excuses. The rest were unreliable and replaceable.

    Hoagie (f4eb27)

  47. Ecclesiastes thinks you are all correct:

    Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going. 11I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all. 12Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

    nk (dbc370)

  48. DRJ, I think I know what you mean.

    Some of the smart people in high school weren’t really smart at all. They peaked early.

    At the time, though, it looked like they were brilliant. And maybe everyone telling them that kind of messed them up.

    It’s kind of like the high school football hero who doesn’t go on to college greatness, let alone pro ball. They’re just lost.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  49. 47. I can vouch for Dana in that my most valued employees were the ones who showed up for work on time every day. No excuses. The rest were unreliable and replaceable.

    Hoagie (f4eb27) — 8/13/2015 @ 3:21 pm

    Showing up on time with a haircut accounts for 95% of success in the Navy.

    I managed that.

    Smarter guys than me missed movement.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  50. I think someone smarter than me opined that half of life just involves showing up.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  51. http://www.tpj.org/

    Texans for Public Justice is a democrat front organization. They deal in political hackery. But still:

    By MANNY FERNANDEZ AUG. 6, 2015
    McKINNEY, Tex. — When Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas was booked at the county jail here Monday on felony fraud charges, he joined some pretty high-powered company, including Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, and former Gov. Rick Perry, as powerful Texas officials indicted while in office over the last decade…

    Manny Fernandez is just a party hack. But, still. There may be a case against Paxton, and I think he should step down.

    But where are the Democrats who think Hillary! should suspend her campaign? The case against her isn’t being built by partisans like me. It looks pretty strong. And if it is true, it is a vile thing she did. Assuming you care about the country.

    Where are the democrats?

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  52. nk-
    Translate what Ecclesiastes means to you.
    instruct? sermonize?

    mg (31009b)

  53. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/08/where-will-hillarys-email-trail-lead.php

    I agree with this evaluation:

    …I think the larger problem with the emails lies elsewhere than criminal negligence. Consider what was the main talking point about Hillary’s tenure when she left the State Department: she flew five million miles! And accomplished . . . what? That whole “reset” button fiasco with Russia? The terrifically successful Libyan intervention? A climate treaty?

    Becoming the world’s most prominent frequent flyer is ironic confession that you didn’t do bupkis. The real problem with the Hillary emails is that they are likely to reveal Hillary’s mediocre mind on foreign policy. This will be a bigger embarrassment than not following proper security procedures. No wonder she wanted to delete them.

    Despite the publicity, Hillary! is not the smartest woman in the world. She is, in fact, just a dumb broad.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  54. I could care less if the candidate I support wins the ideological purity award, much as I have no interest in the Megyn Kelly-inspired gallantry award. I’ll leave those awards to the likes of Ron Paul and Rick Perry. I’m looking for winning arguments, not noble arguments. Cruz takes a big step in this direction with his comments on income inequality. “Income inequality” is a liberal meme that is ripe for co-opting.

    So is “Black Lives Matter,” as Ben Carson is demonstrating. And this one cries out for a bit of Alinsky-esque personalization. I can see the political ads right now, with smiling photos of Planned Parenthood physicians along with estimates of the number of Black children they murdered last year. And why not also point out that under Obama and progressive big city mayors, the rate at which Black men and women are being murdered is going through the roof. “Black Lives Matter” should be our meme not theirs.

    Speaking in reference to Katie Couric’s questioning of Carly Fiorina about Climate Change and Ms. Fiorina’s deft, jujitsu-like responses, Ace wrote:

    “I do not care what people believe: I care about what they do, specifically with regard to coercive government action which limits my freedom and prosperity; so if Carly-Fu winds up getting people to accept that there are more important things to consider, without rebutting the central premise of AGW, then that’s fine by my lights.”

    By my lights, the same goes for income inequality and Black Lives Matter.

    ThOR (a52560)

  55. Ecclesiastes is literally “church man”. Preacher. Ecclesia is “church” in most translations of the Bible — the one guy who translated it “congregation” was strangled and his body burned at the stake by St. Thomas More.

    nk (dbc370)

  56. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/12/the-spy-satellite-secrets-in-hillary-s-emails.html


    • TOP SECRET, as the name implies, is the highest official classification level in the U.S. government, defined as information whose unauthorized release “could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security or foreign relations.”

    • SI refers to Special Intelligence, meaning it is information derived from intercepted communications, which is the business of the National Security Agency, America’s single biggest source of intelligence. They’re the guys who eavesdrop on phone calls, map who’s calling whom, and comb through emails. SI is a subset of what the intelligence community calls Sensitive Compartmented Information, or SCI. And these materials always require special handling and protection. They are to be kept in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, which is a special hardened room that is safe from both physical and electronic intrusion.

    • TK refers to Talent Keyhole, which is an intelligence community caveat indicating that the classified material was obtained via satellite.

    • NOFORN, as the name implies, means that the materials can only be shown to Americans, not to foreigners.

    In short: Information at the “TOP SECRET//SI//TK//NOFORN” level is considered exceptionally highly classified and must be handled with great care under penalty of serious consequences for mishandling. Every person who is cleared and “read on” for access to such information signs reams of paperwork and receives detailed training about how it is to be handled, no exceptions—and what the consequences will be if the rules are not followed.

    …If it has TOP SECRET//SI information on it, “your” computer now belongs to the government, because it is considered classified.

    People found to have willfully mishandled such highly classified information often face severe punishment. Termination of employment, hefty fines, even imprisonment can result. Yes, people really do go to jail for mishandling classified materials. Matthew Aid, a writer on intelligence matters, served more than a year in prison for mishandling TOP SECRET//SI information from the NSA, for example. The well-connected tend to avoid jail, however. Sandy Berger and John Deutsch—who both served in high-level positions under President Bill Clinton, did not go to prison for mishandling TOP SECRET intelligence (though Berger got probation and was fined $50,000).

    …As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton had no authority to disseminate intelligence-community information on her own, neither could she make it less highly classified (a process termed “downgrading” in the spy trade) without asking permission first.

    It is a very big deal and less-connected people who do this sort of thing ruin their lives, as any IC counterintelligence official can attest. During my NSA time, I saw junior personnel terminated for relatively minor infractions of security regulations.

    …The FBI is now on the case and one hopes they will exercise due diligence in their investigation of what may be a serious leak of classified information, made worse by the fact that Clinton’s personal server was wholly unencrypted for three months, leaving it wide open to exploitation by foreign intelligence services.

    Again, I think Ken Paxton should step down. I don’t think he’s guilty, but I also don’t see how he can operate as the TX AG with this hanging over his head.

    At the very least defending himself against the charge will be a full time job.

    But where are the Democrats on Clinton?

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  57. Teds got to stop saying and doing things that will change the unabashed worship he once enjoyed

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  58. nk #56 – is an ecclesiast a “church man” meaning Preacher (the authoritarian belief) or does it mean a “member of a church” (the congregational or fellowship belief) ? For the former, the latter belief is a grave heresy – which was where Thomas More sent them, was it not ?

    Alastor (2e7f9f)

  59. https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog

    David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog 11h11 hours ago

    #HillarysBookshelf How to Destroy Evidence Including the Evidence That You Bought This Book on How to Destroy Evidence
    147 retweets 110 favorites
    David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog 11h11 hours ago

    #HillarysBookshelf http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tips-deleting-emails-email-book-hillary-clinton-wanted/story?id=33046042

    EPWJ, if I remember correctly your daughter graduated from West Point.

    Do you or do you not have an opinion on Hillary! and her unencrypted, unclassified private homebrew Server? It is not a partisan opinion on my part; this could have well endangered US forces including your daughter. Hillary! did have information on the movement of NATO forces that are not to be discussed on unclassified systems.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  60. The silence is deafening. The silence speaks volumes. Hillary! dismissed this email issue as something cooked up by the great right wing conspiracy. And liberals apparently just swallow that line of BS.

    Because apparently party loyalty trumps all other concerns.

    I couldn’t do it.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  61. The first, Alastor. A church father, or approved canonical theologian, as I understand it, but my understanding is that of the Catholic apostolic tradition.

    nk (dbc370)

  62. thanks, nk.
    heresy was death in the 1500’s.

    mg (31009b)

  63. I don’t believe Sen. Cruz is a populist. I think he’s perfectly willing and capable of expropriating populist themes, though, at least temporarily, as part of a larger educational effort.Cruz wants to educate the electorate as well as Democrats. I like that. Instead of just attacking his opponents, he takes advantage of the opportunity to point out the fallacy of the argument his opponent is making, clearly re-states it correctly while taking control of the narrative, and expounds therein.

    Every time he is speaking to an audience, whether to a single interviewer or a filled auditorium, he is in the classroom and he is prepared and ready to teach. I think he wants an educated electorate and a better-informed America. The very things the Democrats don’t want because there go their votes.

    Dana (86e864)

  64. Hey! A Wisconsin dentist killed a lion.

    Focus, people.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  65. You make light of it, Steve, but it’s a vicious circle. We kill one of theirs, they kill one of ours, pretty soon our jungles are like big cities.

    nk (dbc370)

  66. nk, I swear on the graves of my ancestors who braved the trip across the Atlantic I am making light of nothing. If you could prove me wrong I’d buy you the bullet to kill me with.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  67. Sigh. No wonder the Jews were the comedians and the Italians the singers.

    nk (dbc370)

  68. Late to the game, but I have a question for mg. Why would Ted Cruz take a beating from all those who hate the RINO Donald Trump? You are right that Trump is a RINO on his best days (Democrat on his normal days), so those of us who hate Trump would gladly support Cruz.

    John Hitchcock (57f330)

  69. I don’t follow, nk.

    As for the Italians, I can only mention Manilla John Basilone. I bowed my head every time I passed the offramp to Camp Pendleton.

    And the Jews taught me Krav Maga.

    What are attempting to say?

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  70. Not bad for a bunch of comics and singers.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  71. Can I get a volunteer to explain my comment #66 to Steve while I go pound my head against the wall?

    nk (dbc370)

  72. Because the top men, are reflexively that way, whether the huntress Cruz or le toupee.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  73. I don’t follow nk. I don’t think any volunteers are necessary.

    Interrogative. Please clarify your last.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  74. The more I think about it, how sad and telling that the last thing the left wants is a well-educated electorate, hence the low-information voters they are desperate to keep in the fold. Keep them uneducated and give them free things. The low-info voters should be completely offended and such a bigotry of low expectations. Unfortunately, there’s a reason they’re low info voters. I prefer voting for someone who not only has high expectations of voters, but also believes they are curious and inquisitiveness and looking to learn, be challenged, and because they have the knowledge, are willing to call out their elected officials when they have missteped.

    Dana (86e864)

  75. Explain things slowly, nk. And, preferably, using one syllable words.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  76. Most of the last cohort were ones who were politically apathetic the first 6 years or perhaps passive Obama supporters

    narciso (ee1f88)

  77. Btw the cmp injunction has hot a snag.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  78. John Hitchcock – The rino Trump haters will soon realize it’s not bothering him and move on to who they had originally targeted to smear and ruin. Conservative Ted Cruz. These elitist snobs have to hate on conservatives who serve their constituency. Cruz/West

    mg (31009b)

  79. That last came through popehat.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  80. e by the fact that Clinton’s personal server was wholly unencrypted for three months, leaving it wide open to exploitation by foreign intelligence services.
    If we are lucky, they did not realize she was that dumb.
    The silence is deafening. The silence speaks volumes. Hillary! dismissed this email issue as something cooked up by the great right wing conspiracy. And liberals apparently just swallow that line of BS.

    Because apparently party loyalty trumps all other concerns.

    Two reasons. They have no replacement. And for most of them, in her will is their peace.

    Also, they are used to GOP cries of scandal. Cattle futures, Whitewater, Benghazi, the rest of it. They have a callus where Clinton is concerned. And face it, did you not have at least once a sick feeling when discussing this. Not another Clinton caper!!

    kishnevi (91d5c6)

  81. As the scope and scale of government grows, we all become lower information voters – there’s just too much to keep track of. All-encompassing government pushes the entire electorate to become more team-oriented and less issues-oriented.

    This is not really a partisan issue, except as a matter of degree. A core Cruz mantra is that the GOP elite, often in collusion with the Democratic elite, routinely engages in sham votes designed to mislead relatively well informed Republicans and to protect duplicitous Republican legislators. When Cruz has had the temerity to point this out, it antagonizes the elite, of both parties, I suspect, though primarily Republicans,and it infuriates ordinary Republican voters who feel their trust has been violated. Cruz’ comments about income inequality, I suspect, are intended to antagonize the Democratic Party elite and infuriate rank and file Democrats, in much the same way.

    ThOR (a52560)

  82. The reverse is true, they are marks willing to be swindled time and again

    narciso (ee1f88)

  83. 83. Thor
    I can dig that.

    mg (31009b)

  84. If one read the Sun sensible, why, you would find every excuse anything they have done for 25 years.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  85. About Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word, Koheleth, is derived from QHL, assembly. Meaning a public assembly of everyone, not only for religious purposes, although it can be for that.
    It is read on Sukkot, harking back to the assembly of all Israel every seven years on that holiday, when the king read out portions of the Torah to the public. Solomon would have assembled the people then and spoken to them, hence the use of Koheleth to refer to him. Midrash also sees a reference to the fact that he was able to assemble all forms of wisdom into one coherent body of teaching.

    So Ecclesiastes is the man who assembles the people, or addresses the assembly. But the assembly is not necessarily for a religious purpose.

    kishnevi (294553)

  86. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071249/

    An American bartender and his prostitute girlfriend go on a road trip through the Mexican underworld to collect a $1 million bounty on the head of a dead gigolo.

    Director:
    Sam Peckinpah

    The story of my live, kishnevi.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  87. I want nk to know I’m king of bitter about it.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  88. From Free Republic:

    Does This Mean Hillary’s Actual Server *Still* Hasn’t Been Turned Over?
    Twitter ^ | August 13, 2015 | Tammy Bruce
    Posted on 8/13/2015, 9:24:51 PM by Sontagged

    Does this mean Hillary’s actual server *still* hasn’t been turned over, but a useless doppelganger server has been?

    The server was housed in the basement of Clinton’s Chappaqua, N.Y. home while she was secretary of state. After she left office, Clinton hired Platte River Networks, which moved the system from her home to a private data center in New Jersey.

    Barbara Wells, an attorney for the company, told The Post agents picked the server up at around 4 p.m. Wednesday. But she said the hard are if “now blank” and no longer contains any useful information.

    “The information had been migrated over to a different sever for purposes of transition,” said Wells. The transfer was carried out in June 2013, she told The Post.

    “To my knowledge the data on the old server is not available now on any servers on devices in Platte River Network’s control.”

    It is unclear whiter that means the data once maintained on Clinton’s server is gone altogether or whether there is another device that contains Clinton’s records. Wells did not respond to an email from The Daily Caller.

    ropelight (e0b84f)

  89. *king of bitter

    Kind of bitter…

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  90. steve57

    I thought years ago she should have been imprisoned for whitwater, obj of justice (the missing billing records found in the residence), making false statements to investigators’ (the craig Livingston FBI files on republicans) Lying about Bengazi under oath – take your pick

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  91. Like a community organizer, kishnevi?

    mg (31009b)

  92. Yes it’s the old she’ll game, it’s on a bank of mainframes in can lehigh new Jersey.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  93. Dana 75,

    I wonder if Democrats feel like they have the most educated voters and supporters — their elites, who know what’s best for themselves, the less fortunate and society. It’s not about low information voters to them, it’s about elites who have the training and education vs non-elites who haven’t, but who would agree with them if they had the same advantages.

    It’s the same way they view terrorists — as unfortunate people who would make the the right choices if they had the right background and education.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  94. BTW, if we are consulting Bibles, try Deuteronomy chapter 8:11ff

    g Be careful not to forget the LORD, your God, by failing to keep his commandments and ordinances and statutes which I enjoin on you today:
    12
    lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built fine houses and lived in them,
    13
    and your herds and flocks have increased, your silver and gold has increased, and all your property has increased,
    14
    you then become haughty of heart and forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery;
    15
    he guided you through the vast and terrible wilderness with its saraph* serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; he brought forth water for you from the flinty rockh
    16
    and fed you in the wilderness with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end.
    17
    Otherwise, you might say in your heart,i “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has got me this wealth.”
    18
    Remember then the LORD, your God, for he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant he swore to your ancestors.
    19
    But if you do forget the LORD, your God, and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them,j I bear witness to you this day that you will perish utterly.

    kishnevi (93670d)

  95. Amen, and denouncing his name, as we saw three years ago, is proof of this.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  96. mg@93
    More like an acceptance speech at a convention…or the POTUS speaking from the West Front of the Capitol on January 20 every four years

    kishnevi (294553)

  97. @92, just so you know it could have been somebody else’s daughter or son.

    And I wouldn’t have cared how they voted. I would have hunted them to the ends of the Earth.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  98. steve57

    confused what on earth are you talking about?

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  99. kishnevi 87,

    That was also the meaning of ecclesia in ancient Athens. Ecclesia tou dimou, the People’s Assembly, was the principal democratic body in Athens.

    But I want to avoid Tyndale’s fate. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  100. 100. steve57

    confused what on earth are you talking about?

    EPWJ (6dd9d3) — 8/13/2015 @ 6:56 pm

    The Earth your child inhabits.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  101. Steve57

    My children are who they are, whatever you are trying to say just say it.

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  102. Well there are no Tudors to fear at this time.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  103. Clearly it was a assembly of non secular nature.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  104. nk confused Steve
    Steve confused EPWJ
    Now we need EPWJ to confuse nk
    So we can complete the circle.

    kishnevi (91d5c6)

  105. Languages change. Koine was derived from Attic but it was not Attic. Synedrion, from which Sanhedrin is derived BTW, is now the word for assembly and ecclesia definitely means church in any other than a historical or etymological context.

    nk (dbc370)

  106. nk…The Hebrew word for heretic is apikorus. Do you recognize the original from which it is derived?

    kishnevi (294553)

  107. I had to look it up. I knew Epicurus, of course, and epikouros is a tenured professor in modern Greek, but I did not make the connection.

    nk (dbc370)

  108. Sorry, *un*tenured professor, like associate professor.

    nk (dbc370)

  109. Sigh, *assistant* professor. No need for EPJW, I’m confusing myself.

    nk (dbc370)

  110. BTW, Christians were not apikorusim. They were minim, from the word min, meaning species, category, type. The usual English rendering is therefore sect or sectarian. Apikorus usually refers to atheism, or in modern times those who deny the divine status of the Torah and rabbinic teaching (iow, Conservative and Reform Judaism).

    kishnevi (294553)

  111. I could be more cryptic, if possible, lol.

    narciso (ee1f88)

  112. kishnevi, I had the grace to ask.

    Al least permit me that.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  113. mg, I’m a Cruz supporter and would love to see a Cruz/West ticket. I have actually put that ticket up on Twitchy. And Trump is Left-of-Center, even by 21st century standards.

    John Hitchcock (57f330)

  114. Steve, I was making a joke that hunters vs. lions is like Al Capone vs. Bugs Moran, or Bloods vs. Crips, or UT vs. Texas A&M*. One gang kills a member of another gang, the other gang kills a member of the first gang in retaliation, and so on in a vicious cycle. Pretty soon the jungles are like big cities which is a play on words that big cities are like jungles.

    Now laugh!

    *I’m joking about UT vs. Texas A&M, too.

    nk (dbc370)

  115. You did, sir, you did indeed.

    kishnevi (294553)

  116. and the Democrats would vote for her, ’cause she’s (supposedly) a woman!

    That needs qualification: Because she’s a LIBERAL woman. Non-liberal females need not apply.

    As for Cruz and income inequality, he should point out that government employees — who we the taxpayers are forced to pay for — have seen their incomes rise higher and faster over the past 10 years than what has been true for the take-home wages of the average Joe and Jane Schlub in the private sector.

    Beyond that, if none of the Republicans have enough sense to bring up the corrupt nature of today’s IRS, cited in an article published not too long ago in the blue-berserk New York Times about how that greedy agency has been seizing innocent people’s bank accounts without due cause or judicial oversight (and not even dealing with scroungebags like Lois Lerner) — and how the government FORCES us to pay for its goods and services, and employees, whether we want to or not, whether we want them or not — then they’re about as asleep at the switch as the liberals/Democrats.

    Mark (9abec5)

  117. 116. Steve, I was making a joke that hunters vs. lions is like Al Capone vs. Bugs Moran, or Bloods vs. Crips, or UT vs. Texas A&M*. One gang kills a member of another gang, the other gang kills a member of the first gang in retaliation, and so on in a vicious cycle. Pretty soon the jungles are like big cities which is a play on words that big cities are like jungles.

    Now laugh!

    *I’m joking about UT vs. Texas A&M, too.

    nk (dbc370) — 8/13/2015 @ 8:01 pm

    I was trying to make the case that lion hunting is justifiable on the basis that it is a good idea to teach lions to avoid people.

    Whether the dentist did it right I have no way of knowing. People can cheat at any activity.

    It’s not like gangs going at it, though. At least from the lion hunter’s side. Fair chase rules are supposed to be observed.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  118. Some of my best hunting days, I didn’t kill anything. I hunted well. I called in the ducks, which is no small thing.

    Another time I turned myself into part of a redwood and a doe and a fawn stepped over my legs. They never knew I was there. Another time I was no where near the trees but I turned myself into a pine tree and a family of otters ran right by me.

    I think this is part of the reason why during the evasion part of SERE I didn’t get caught.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  119. Hunting, at least for me, is mostly about blending in. Becoming a part of nature. Yes, killing is a part of it.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  120. What I’ve been saying from the start.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/08/13/hillary-email-claims-facts-column/31654799/

    Clinton convicted herself with a multitude of misleading and error-riddled email apologies.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  121. I agree. And I may be guilty of projecting onto Sen. Cruz, but I suspect that he agrees, too — but that he’s quite deliberately downplaying that distinction because right now, he’s busy trying to do Jujutsu on this Dem meme. That is, he will acknowledge the statistics showing the differential, he will point out that the differential has increased during the Obama administration, and he will properly blame the Democratic Party for that.

    I don’t believe Sen. Cruz is a populist. I think he’s perfectly willing and capable of expropriating populist themes, though, at least temporarily, as part of a larger educational effort. I don’t see this as a concession by Sen. Cruz that income inequality is evil per se, which of course is the underlying premise of the Dems’ meme.

    Beldar,

    Perhaps. I hope you’re right.

    There’s probably no way for a politician to come out and say what I believe (even if he believes it too) because it makes you sound too callous. But to me concerns about income inequality are just one more step on the road to socialism and Marxism. In his book, Cruz says he read Hayek, Bastiat, and Mises (!) (and of course Adam Smith), and I feel confident that he must understand why income inequality is a phony issue.

    Since I think he knows better, I take it as an indicator of how strongly the “income inequality” meme has taken hold that he believes he has to concede it to be a genuine issue (as a way to bludgeon Obama and the Democrats), rather than take issue with the whole concept, which would be my preference. I would rather see him distinguish between market entrepreneurs who do things that benefit people (and deserve to make money), on one hand, and government entrepreneurs/crony capitalists (who don’t deserve to make money for exploiting government connections), on the other. I would rather see him explain why it’s a good thing to make money because it means capitalism works, and people — real people, poor people — benefit.

    If he were to try, I would not recommend long-winded dissertations on the market not being a zero-sum game, the benefits of the division of labor, the superiority of distributed intelligence to central planning, or the importance of decisions being made by people with skin in the game.

    If I were a politician, or a Ted Cruz speechwriter, I imagine I would make the argument in this way: the Soviets had a great way of dealing with income inequality: everyone is equal — equally poor! Except of course the people in charge, because governments and their friends are never, ever poor. I believe in capitalism, not Communism or socialism, because capitalism doesn’t result in piles of dead bodies the way Communism did. Communism has never worked and it never will.

    Then I would attack crony capitalism and say that’s what people should be upset about: government handing out benefits to people and companies because of their influence. We don’t hate success in this country as long as it is achieved fairly, but that’s not the way it works when the Washington cartel is in charge . . . yada yada, the rest writes itself.

    But I would never personally say “income inequality is a tremendously important problem.”

    But making this argument is a tall order for a politician, clearly. His job is not to educate society but to get elected. So I guess he has to pretend income inequality is a thing we need to care about. It makes me a little sad but don’t worry, I’ll get over it.

    Patterico (4ce762)

  122. I suffer from income inequality. Darn ole crimaleins stealing carpentry jobs that old white people need to have to make payments. These crimaleins have kept my earnings well below where they should be. It’s all about me, now. Thanks, Ted for caring.
    Cruz/West

    mg (31009b)

  123. Pat,

    So accepting that something he said he’s saying to get elected or to get support, so you/we/us can trust him to be really genuine on his other stances?

    In other words he has to compromise, eventually take stands he may or may not agree with.

    Income equality is a code word for socialism, totalitarianism, subjection of the people to the will of the state, how on earth is he going to spin that?

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  124. I agree with Cruz that “income inequality is a tremendously important problem” because it has “increased dramatically under your [Obama and the Democrats’] policies.” Reasonable people accept and understand why the CEO of McDonald’s makes more than the person who works at the front counter. What we don’t accept is why the Obama-Clinton policies are artificially and arbitrarily making the divide even greater. That is what I hear Cruz saying, and I don’t think it betrays Patterico’s economic concerns.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  125. I also think Cruz is a populist, which is defined as “a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.”

    DRJ (1dff03)

  126. DRJ wrote:

    Waiting Dana,

    I agree that the Democrats and our society have done things that encourage people not to work or make it impossible for them to work. I also think many out-of-work people want to work, to have things that they can’t get on welfare, and to provide for their families instead of relying on government. Some don’t and they won’t vote for Ted Cruz, but I don’t think those people are 47% of the electorate.

    I don’t believe that government has done too much to make it impossible for people to work. Rather, government has done way too much to make it possible for people not to work. And, quite frankly, I do not believe that all that many people who do not have jobs really want them. Oh, they might be happy to take a middle management position somewhere, with a good salary and a clean office environment, but if all that they can find involves using a shovel, well to heck with that!

    Now what’s going on with the stuck concrete mixer?

    One of my utterly brilliant contractors directed a mixer into the same spot where the contractor had gotten his wall panel truck stuck the previous day. The mixer sank down into the soft spot, and a wrecker had to be called.

    The Dana who runs a concrete plant (f6a568)

  127. The best (and most irritating, to me) example of these Democratic policies is the ObamaCare provision that excludes part-time employees from the requirement to have employer-provided health insurance. That meant more workers were shifted to part-time status, resulting in people having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet … plus losing their health insurance. This hurt a lot of ordinary people, and Cruz is right to point out that Democratic income inequality is a real issue.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  128. Mr nevi wrote:

    But that merely confirms what I see around me. Your acquaintance in Mississippi probably brought more to the table than merely willingness to work. For instance, she obviously is intelligent if she understood the need for a second income to pay for for a car, not merely get a loan and cross her fingers about how to pay it.

    Normally, being able to take that much judgement shouldn’t be considered evidence of anything greater than average intelligence, but perhaps average intelligence is well above average these days.

    The wryly amused Dana (f6a568)

  129. Working people would be very foolish not to do their utmost to maximize their wages and benefits, by flexing their political muscle among other things, the same way their employers do their utmost to maximize their profits.

    nk (dbc370)

  130. Steve57

    SERE is open to aviator and crew, and is considered top secret, I wouldn’t talk about it in any form

    EPWJ (6dd9d3)

  131. Dana 128,

    Some people don’t want to work but some do. People are flooding into my area because we have jobs. The jobs are hard, not cushy management jobs, and the people don’t come because we have beautiful scenery, generous welfare, or a wealth of entertaining things to do. We don’t have any of those things. The people who move here come because they want to work, and they are willing to uproot or leave their families in order to provide for them the old-fashioned way.

    But I agree not as many people make this choice today, especially since government makes it possible to make other choices.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  132. 129.The best (and most irritating, to me) example of these Democratic policies is the ObamaCare provision that excludes part-time employees from the requirement to have employer-provided health insurance. That meant more workers were shifted to part-time status,

    And if employers had to provide the same benefits to part time employees they did for full time employees you would find a great many workers shifted to NO-time work. Fired. Let go. Regardless of how irritated you are DRJ the laws of economics dictate that an employer cannot incur the same costs to employ a part time employee as he does for a full time. If the employee were worth that much he’d be full time already. This type of thinking is rapidly pushing us to robotics. They work 24/7 without health insurance.

    Hoagie (f4eb27)

  133. Hoagie,

    I’m not upset with employers deciding to shift employees to part-time in response to the ObamaCare rules. That was an appropriate and reasonable response. I’m upset with ObamaCare that encouraged employers who wanted full-time employees (because that’s what they had before ObamaCare) to change their status to part-time because of a Democratic healthcare policy.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  134. EPWJ @132, there is a lot I don’t say because I promised there was a line I would not cross.

    Here is the point of contact if you feel I have crossed that line.

    http://www.ncis.navy.mil/AboutNCIS/Locations/HQ/Pages/default.aspx

    It is not my understanding that the fact I went to SERE school is classified. I also don’t believe that my subsequent understanding that the fact I was a hunter served me well.

    I did a search and a few years back I took issue with what a former SERE instructor, Malcolm Nance, had to say about water boarding. But I don’t think I gave away any military secrets by pointing out that breathing in water is bad for your lungs.

    In fact since Malcolm Nance could identify himself as a SERE instructor and spout off about what supposedly went on there without repercussions convinced me I could safely say, yes, I went and it wasn’t fun.

    turn me in if you want to. Was it a secret that I had gone hunting since I was 11? Was it a secret that breathing in water is bad for the lungs?

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  135. I would turn me in myself but I’ve had enough of NCIS agents laughing at me and telling me to go away.

    I spent seven years in Japan, and every once in a while I’d confess my foreign contacts to an NCIS agent. Technically you’re supposed to report those. And the NCIS agent would look at me and say, “Hey, f***wad, you’re living in Japan. Don’t waste my time.”

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  136. EPWJ thinks he knows everything about everything when in fact he knows nothing about nothing. Hey, EPWJ, ever take up JD or Eric Blair on their offers to let you test your theory on rock throwing? Ever find that law that says all trucks must drive slower than all cars in all states? Or that law that was going to slow trucks down to 50 mph on Texas’ 80 mph highways?

    John Hitchcock (d22e97)

  137. The Navy is really trying to keep the whole thing a secret.

    http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=22999

    SERE School Commemorates Adm. Stockdale

    CORONADO, Calif. (NNS) — Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Pacific, presented a photo collage honoring the late Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale to his wife, Sybil, at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School aboard Naval Base Coronado March 24…

    FASOTRAGRUPAC exists! Report me for spilling the beans, EPWJ.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  138. Doug Hegdahl’s UNCLASSIFIEd Wikipedia page.

    Douglas Brent Hegdahl III[1] is a former Petty officer second class (E-5) of the United States Navy sailor who was a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam War. After his early release by North Vietnam, upon returning to the United States, he was able to provide the names and personal information of about 256 other POWs as well as revealing the conditions in the prison cam

    …After returning to the U.S, Hegdahl used his experiences as an instructor at the United States Navy’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) school based in NAS North Island, San Diego, California.

    I am so f***ing sorry for revealing this “top secret” school’s existence.

    https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/doug-hegdahl.html

    Learn how very convincing Vietnam War POW Doug Hegdahl was at acting his “stupidly stupid” character while at the hands of his Vietnamese captors leading them to give him an almost free run of the POW camp he was in. To top that, he was able to memorize the names, personal information as well as the capture dates and methods of capture of another 256 POWs in the camp.

    Hey! Maybe if the information I’m revealing is so incredibly secret a google search on the internet wouldn’t turn it up.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)

  139. I agree with Cruz that “income inequality is a tremendously important problem” because it has “increased dramatically under your [Obama and the Democrats’] policies.” Reasonable people accept and understand why the CEO of McDonald’s makes more than the person who works at the front counter. What we don’t accept is why the Obama-Clinton policies are artificially and arbitrarily making the divide even greater. That is what I hear Cruz saying, and I don’t think it betrays Patterico’s economic concerns.

    The “because” you emphasize doesn’t appear in Cruz’s statement, but I’ll put that quibble aside. I just think this is a missed opportunity to explain how both sides — Republican and Democrat — have engaged in crony capitalism which increases the income inequality caused by government. This ties right into Cruz’s message and maybe it’s where he’s headed, but he needs (IMO) to sharpen the message to focus it on income inequality caused by unfair government policy.

    As far as I am concerned, he can soft-pedal or even omit for now the part of the message that says income inequality NOT caused by government is a good thing. He can just focus on income inequality that IS caused by government and argue how it is created by both parties.

    This fits (again IMO) with his core message — but if he doesn’t narrow the focus to the problems created by government action, he opens himself up to attacks by people who read his statements as supporting a tenet of socialism, and he disappoints those of us who (like him) have read Mises and Hayek and know why the only income inequality that matters is the inequality caused by government.

    Patterico (4ce762)

  140. I’m not upset with employers deciding to shift employees to part-time in response to the ObamaCare rules. That was an appropriate and reasonable response. I’m upset with ObamaCare that encouraged employers who wanted full-time employees (because that’s what they had before ObamaCare) to change their status to part-time because of a Democratic healthcare policy.

    If they are like my employer, they moved as many people as possible to part time well before Obamacare. My employer did it about twelve years ago, stating that the cost of providing insurance for most of their employees was much too high. A year or two later, they provided part timers with minimal catastrophic coverage. When Obamacare was enacted, they tossed all the part time people on the newly created exchanges.

    But the employment effect of pushing full timers into part time slots was a Bush era phenomenon.
    Admittedly, not all employers did this, but I know my company was not the only one, and that other companies used the same excuse of “too much to pay for insurance” in making the move themselves.

    kishnevi (870883)

  141. Patterico:

    The “because” you emphasize doesn’t appear in Cruz’s statement, but I’ll put that quibble aside.

    I don’t want to quibble either because your point is fair, but I sincerely think inserting “because” is a fair reading of his statement. By linking income inequality and the Obama-Clinton policies as he did, I think Cruz is saying the policies caused an increase in income inequality.

    As far as I am concerned, he can soft-pedal or even omit for now the part of the message that says income inequality NOT caused by government is a good thing. He can just focus on income inequality that IS caused by government and argue how it is created by both parties.

    I agree because I think there is only so much “educating” a candidate can do at one time. I’m glad Cruz is willing take on the subject of income inequality, instead of simply ignoring it as many Republicans try to do. Discussing the ways that income inequality have been caused by Obama/Clinton/Democratic policies is a good thing to me.

    First, it addresses a Democratic talking point that resonates with many Americans, and it ties it to the Democrats instead of to Republicans. Second, it’s a fair criticism. These policies aren’t minor contributions to income inequality, and it’s not just crony capitalism. Specific Obama/Clinton policies like ObamaCare have negatively impacted ordinary Americans’ economic well-being. Third, a smart candidate doesn’t say everything on every topic. Cruz’s comments have opened the door to a discussion about income inequality from a Republican perspective. I want him to expand on his comments with more details, and I feel confident he can and will.

    DRJ (1dff03)

  142. Republicans can try and will. It doesn’t mean they are full of s***.

    Steve57 (5a07a9)


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