Reagan’s Teabagging followers are wrong: Government is GOOD for Business.

Latest example of Adam Smith’s wisdom: Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since the private sector wasn’t going to provide the requisite infrastructure to support 21st-century businesses, the local and Federal (but not state) governments did the job. And now businesses are clamoring to relocate to the city with some of the best Internet access in the country:

Chattanooga rolled out a fiber-optic network a few years ago that now offers speeds of up to 1000 Megabits per second, or 1 gigabit, for just $70 a month. A cheaper 100 Megabit plan costs $58 per month. Even the slower plan is still light-years ahead of the average U.S. connection speed, which stood at 9.8 megabits per second as of late last year, according to Akamai Technologies.

As federal officials find themselves at the center of controversy over net neutrality and the regulation of private Internet service providers like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC), Chattanooga offers an alternative model for keeping people connected. A city-owned agency, the Electric Power Board, runs its own network, offering higher-speed service than any of its private-sector competitors can manage.

” People understand that high-speed Internet access is quickly becoming a national infrastructure issue just like the highways were in the 1950s,” Berke said. “If the private sector is unable to provide that kind of bandwidth because of the steep infrastructure investment, then just like highways in the 1950s, the government has to consider providing that support.”

The comparison to the Eisenhower Interstate Highway is appropriate. One might also consider the government’s essential role in providing electricity, water and flood control, and a host of other infrastructural necessities on which businesses rely.

Businesses need to make a profit. It’s what businesses do. No ethical (or rational) business would or could build something like public infrastructure. If a CEO were to propose building a, say, city-wide fiber network that would not make his or her company a profit, they would be (rightly) escorted to the door with their personal effects and never allowed back into the building. In fact, they could even be sued.

That is why governments are good for business: they provide an environment in which businesses can provide goods and services, and by so doing earn a profit. Anybody who thinks otherwise should try starting a business in a place with little or no government and see how they fare. Somalia comes to mind.

We should also note that the state government of Tennessee is full of Teapublicans and is a royal mess: they think that the Randians and Paulbots are correct about Reagan’s “government is the problem” crap. Indeed, the state is busily shooting itself in its supply-side foot. The Feds and Chattanooga locals pulled off their huge Internet success in SPITE of their Red State, not because of it.

(Teapublicans like to pretend that Adam Smith was somehow an Ayn Rand/Ron Paul/Rand Paul anti-government ideologue. But anyone who has actually READ his work knows that he was a lot smarter than that: he knew that some things that businesses wouldn’t build on their own were necessary for the people, society, and indeed businesses themselves to survive, thrive, and prosper.)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

So, if Boehner thinks Obama broke the law, why didn’t he take the President to court?

That is, after all, what one does when laws are broken, yes? And Little Johnny Boehner says laws were broken, yes sirree:

” This is not about, actually, the issue of immigration,” said Boehner after a closed-door meeting with rank-and-file Republicans. “What it is: It’s about the president acting lawlessly.”

We’re voting to block the president’s overreach,” Boehner told reporters on Tuesday, when asked about the potential impact on the Latino vote. “His executive overreach, which I believe is beyond his constitutional duty and frankly violates the Constitution itself.”

Ooooh, sounds like quite the crime spree. You’d think the Speaker would have platoons of lawyers clamoring at the doors of Federal courts, demanding that justice be wrought upon the Eeevil Obamanator.

But he hasn’t. Instead, he is trying to deport Hispanics. Uhhhhhh …. How, Mr. Speaker, does that address the Prexy’s supposed extra-constitutional, “lawless”, dictatorial actions?

The answer is, of course, these deportations have NOTHING AT ALL TO DO with any alleged illegal Presidential acts. It’s just Teapublicans being their usual racist, bigoted, corrupt, motherf***ing selves.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A Modest Proposal: Require all Americans to Vote, Read Plato, and Read Mark Twain.

America has a dismal record when it comes to voting. It also has turned into an Oligarchy, in which the politicians are bought and sold by rich motherf***ers (since there aren’t enough votes to get their attention). This is not a coincidence. When most Americans don’t vote, we get liars, crooks and con artists “elected” via bribes and propaganda to be our “public servants”.

So mandatory voting would at least get more of our citizens to show up and vote (maybe charge them a fee on their taxes if they don’t). And that in and of itself would be a benefit, even if the new voters just vote randomly: it would scare the crap out of our “representatives” and the 1%-ers who own them. But to get maximum benefit, it would be better if people understood just what and who the Hell they are voting for, and (most importantly) why they should question everything a candidate or government says.

One example: a popular bit of Plato, currently winging its way about the Intertubez:

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

This is not the exact wording (he wrote, “But the chief penalty [of good men who refuse to lead] is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.” [Republic, Book I, line 347c]) but it captures the essence.

In other words: we wind up with crooks, fools, and a**holes in government when the competent, intelligent and decent people refuse to run and/or vote.

Another couple of examples:

In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing. – Autobiography of Mark Twain.

Sounds a lot like the crap we hear from Teabaggers and such, does it not? Willful ignorance, regarded as a virtue rather than a vice. Here’s one example: James Inhofe http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inhofe-an-epa-foe-likely-to-lead-senate-environment-committee/2014/11/05/d0b4221e-64f4-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html
And:

“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.” – Mark Twain’s Autobiography

This writer would prefer that it say “a party” rather than “one party”, but that’s just me.

That is wisdom, Gentle Reader, spanning thousands of years, and speaking a truth we most sorely need to hear: if you let parties and plutocrats run things, they’ll run things to suit themselves. Which they have done. Those of us who do not participate in politics will NOT get the government we want: we’ll get the government THEY want.

Everybody needs education. Everybody needs motivation. This modest, if cynical, proposal can help empower our people and repair our democracy, at a very low cost. It’s kind of hard to think of anybody who’d object to that, right? Ermmmm….well…the bastards who have stolen our country will most certainly object. But f*** those people.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Republicans admit it: they want to “regulate” your “sexual relationships”.

And they say government has the right to do so. In this link, the “Republican” government of Michigan says it straight out, with no shame or moderation:

“One of the paramount purposes of marriage in Michigan — and at least 37 other states that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman — is, and has always been, to regulate sexual relationships between men and women so that the unique procreative capacity of such relationships benefits rather than harms society.”

Got that? They are saying that they have the right to be bedroom police. And this is not some random pundit flapping his yap; this is an official court filing by attorneys for the state of Michigan. (Never mind that the Constitution says nothing at all about Government having such power.)

Even the most Leftish of all  Liberal Dems haven’t been THAT f***ing intrusive (pun intended). And these “Republicans” say that they are in favor of smaller government??? Bulls***. It doesn’t get more Big Brother than monitoring our bedrooms.

Plus, they are saying that procreation is the purpose of marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Blunt and Cranky can’t have more kids. Does that make our marriage null and void? Hell, some married couples can’t even have sex at all. How about any elderly couple –  is divorce mandatory?

We’ve heard this tripe before, from politicos trying to make a headline or get some free media time. But now, the Elephants are trying to make it the law of the land. If that doesn’t scare you, p*** you off, or both…well, you’re either a closet pervert peeping Tom bedroom cop yourself, or you’re just not paying any attention at all.

Vote these Big-Government “Republican” preeves out of office while you still have the right to do so. Unless you really like having somebody watch your every move, including what you do in bed.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

You Don’t Need Guns to Overthrow our Government

Lots of people have been conned by the gun industry (and their stooges at the NRA) into stockpiling weapons and ammunition so as to be “ready to resist a government takeover” or some such twaddle. Millions of dollars have been taken from the gullible and deposited in the bank accounts of weapon merchants, and of course all for naught.

Naught, that is, if it’s overthrowing a tyrannical government you’re wanting to accomplish. First of all, your knock-off versions of Mattel toy rifles will accomplish doodly-squat against a trained and well-equipped military force; and secondly, there are better ways to take over the the reins of power in America. Ways that have already succeeded, and that you probably didn’t notice.

Example: the “Republican” takeover of the United States of America, which occurred between 1976 and 2007. Never a shot fired, done legally, and very effective indeed. You missed it, you say?

Short version: after Nixon, the Reeps and their corporate paymasters got their collective wedding tackle kicked in so far they had craters in their crotches, they got together and planned their revenge: said plan contained in the Powell Memo. The gist? To take over the media, deregulate businesses, concentrate wealth, rig elections, rewrite laws and create think tanks that would re-invent reality a’la Orwell: all for the benefit of the “conservatives” involved.

Here are two sources that explain how the Elephants planned and executed their coup:
Number A: a thoughtful (if somewhat partisan) analysis along with source documents for the wonkier folks: Should be Required Reading
Letter 2: a shorter version that hits the high points and captures the essence (focus on the lyrics ): Ignoreland by REM.

Needless to say, the “revolution” was quite successful indeed: look at the results in terms of law, media, income inequality, gerrymandering, government philosophy, and a host of other elements of modern American life. The “conservative” “republicans” have managed to largely remake the nation on their terms and to their benefit, and to the detriment of the majority. Nary a single assault rifle was used in this overthrow. Hell, not even a single round from a BB gun was fired.

And now you, with your little gun safe full of crappy little imported weapons, are going to do better than that? This writer rather thinks not.

Mr. B & C

Yes, Government Can Create Jobs. And it Should

Mr. Blunt and Cranky will drive to work today on roads built by government-funded workers. When there, he will use the Internet, developed partly by the government. He will use water fountains that are supplied by government-funded water systems.

He will be protected by government workers from the military and police and fire departments. On and on the list goes. Taxpayer money providing jobs: that is a pretty tangible return on investment (ROI).

Government-created jobs built much of the infrastructure that we use each day: because there is not a lot of money to be made, private businesses rarely take on such projects.

Today, that infrastructure is crumbling, because much of Congress is delusional enough to think that rational business interests will lose their shirts by taking on such undertakings. They will not. No ethical private-sector organization can or should do so.

While the backbone of our economy is quickly breaking down, our legislators refuse to live in the real world; the world outside of their comfy cocoons, in which real people use the real “products” provided by those government jobs that really do exist.

During the Great Depression, our leaders were wise enough to see that paying people to build things was preferable to paying them to look for jobs in the private sector; especially when there were no effing jobs to be found there.

It is time to give the unemployed the opportunity to work again: to not only provide honest value for the taxpayer’s hard-earned (which the so-called “pro-business types should endorse), but also to provide dignity to those who would be working for their money and providing us all with a better life and the increased opportunities that come from those jobs.

The jobs that modern “Republicans” pretend don’t exist.

Mr. B & C