Local not Federal

"I'm urging federal action," said Governor Andrew Cuomo, "because its the only way you can make a real difference." It's a statement that is pure Democrat and exactly one hundred and eighty degrees wrong!  Actually, as in most government initiatives, local can be effective while federal is useless.  New York City has the strongest local gun control regime in effect, Chicago doesn't.  If Cuomo tries to put something like New York's gun control federally it will force the city's control to the lowest common denominator, rural Illinois and worse.

Carried Interest

Mitt "Carried Interest" Romney explained to donors that 47% of Americans are takers.  

Republican Audit of 2012 Predicts Bad GOP Showing in 2016

Remember Karl Roves' disbelief on election night that Ohio wasn't going the GOP way as he had predicted?  Democrats were quietly comfortable because they had the better data for getting the voters who would vote their way out and leaving the others to fend for themselves.  Well, the same big data team is working for Hillary and the Republicans have no chance of doing the same because of time constraints and lack of intelligence, that is the preponderance of top and dumb down reliance on broadcast media rather than a granular poll driven campaign.  

Another One for Max Bialistock

Mel Brooks where are you?  I got a storyline that’s so bad that it’s too good.  First you take a political hack trolling the waters of evangelical conservative politics. let’s call him Dan Backer,  as in Dan’s has got your back. He works the southern political backwaters raising money for tea party candidates when a funny thing occurs to him when a candidate wins by landslide with the simple promise of stopping Hillary.

Wow, what a goldmine stopping Hillary is. Easy money to raise yet impossible to spend  because how and where do you really spend money to stop Hillary? it’s like Max Bialistock raising a vault full of cash from gullible little old ladies but unlike with Broadway there is no pay off required, no matter how many wrongs go horribly right.

Eating Its Own

"These groups stir people up on issues that don't exist or solutions that can't be achieved and hold members to impossible tests," said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises money for candidates. "There needs to be an investigation into these groups . Where does the money go?"

It goes to maintain the lucrative business and life style of Dan Backer and his political consultancy that preys on the politically gullible, especially the aged.  Last year I blogged about a "Stop Hillary Now" solicitation an elderly relative of mine received which begged the question. Where could the solicited money be spent to stop Hillary?  Not to Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi without causing a scandal.  Sure it could be used to raise additional money to celebrate Trey's and his other Republican committee members fight and raise even more money! Dan's bank account must be a thing to behold.      

Buereaucracies

     Volkswagen Suspends its Quality Control Manager gives the appearance of a house cleaning after the diesel scandal.  Appearance because a little reading shows that the person let go, Frank Tuch, is a recent hire from  Lotus and previously Porsche, both sports car companies with no diesels in their lineup.  Difficult to fathom Frank's involvement at the start of the emissions fraud and much easier to see his discomfort in protecting those who perpetrated it.
      Bureaucracies are funny in that sense.  Yesterday we see General Nagata as the head of our effort with the Syrian Rebel Support group, who ultimately recruited four (4) dudley dorights to fight for our cause, get promoted and issued a medal for his great success.
 

Business as Usual at D.O.D.

Failure of Syria Rebel Plan shows an analytical failure by the Department of Defense that is laughable yet as usual the general in charge gets bumped upstairs and handed a medal. What was admirable about Generals Jack Keane and David Petreaus was the out of the box analysis they brought to the surge in Iraq.  General Nagata on the other hand did what he was told with regard to Syrian Rebel Training without questioning the lack of local political unity and will backing the trainees because any competent counter terrorism analyst should have predicted a Bay of Pigs like failure of the plan.

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black

Trump has just brought up a beaut when questioning Jeb's assertion that his brother kept us secure.  9/11 happened on his watch.  He and his advisers ignored the warning signals just as Hillary did for the Bengazi. So ... Lets string them both up?

Bernie isn't a Socialist or Communist

Watching Bill Maher the other night trying to coax a label other than “Socialist” from Bernie Sanders lead to the Wikipedia article, “Nordic Model.”

The Nordic model (also called Nordic capitalism[1] or Nordic social democracy)[2][3] refers to the economic and social policies common to the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Sweden). This includes a combination of free market capitalism with a comprehensive welfare state and collective bargaining at the national level.[4][5]

Although there are significant differences among the Nordic countries, they all share some common traits. These include support for a "universalist" welfare state aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy and promoting social mobility; a corporatist system involving a tripartite arrangement where representatives of labor and employers negotiate wages and labor market policy mediated by the government;[6] and a commitment to widespread private ownership, free markets and free trade.[7]

It’s not Socialism because very little of the means of production are state owned, and certainly isn’t communist as Trump declares.  Bernie ought to call himself a Nordic Capitalist. It won’t get my vote but it better describes his politics.  

BTW Sweden’s decision not to save SAAB when General Motors went bankrupt despite a long and storied history with many employees in country came from a clear headed attitude that private enterprise is meant to support a welfare state and not vice versa. It’s worthy of admiration from afar by this observer in the land of corporate welfare.

Russian Bear Stirring up a Hornet's Nest

Untangling The Overlapping Conflicts in the Syrian War requires letting the various sects split away and support the only viable political union, the Kurdish and their pesh merga militia, and develop from scratch a functional Sunni political union from the Jordanian refugee camps. The picture of Sunni Muslims declaring "Russia Kills Us" in front of Russian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon shows that Putin has really stepped into it by supporting Assad's failed political union of all of Syria.

Citizens United Not Withstanding

How the Presidential Candidates Have Raised and Spent is the political lesson of the 2016 Presidential campaign that the GOP won't learn, which is that a successful campaign requires many small donors.  Scott Walkers failed campaign had plenty of super PAC money but not enough regular donors to sustain field offices.  Ben Carson on the other hand has got huge small donor support to feed field offices to turn out his vote.  It's apparent that big money Jeb is going to starve like Walker and that no field office big money candidates like Cruz, Rubio and Fiorina will be very weak candidates against the Democrat back office juggernaut of either Clinton or Sanders.  Sanders by the way appears to have the winning campaign which draws many small donors, some who will provide sweat equity to the field offices, and committed voters.

I admire what Bernie is accomplishing and expect that Rand is working quietly in the weeds putting together a big small donor base and a young college back office just like his father did in previous campaigns because the big donor route is so totally elite and authoritarian.

The Country's Political problem is that Republicans are not the Ying to the Democrat's Yang

Are There Two Nations? One optimistic and the other pessimistic. I reject the Republican propensity to put up nonsensical issues that require more legislation, intervention and finally adjudication.  A loyal opposition would reduce government on every front and let Democrats be the party of more government.

Malinvestment

There is nothing like excess to shine a light on stupid investments.  The 2008 financial crisis in the United States was brought about by an excess in housing investment. In Canada today it is the investment in the oil sands of Alberta. Its a long tail investment upon which Stephen Harper's Conservative Party has hung its hat on and which will be looked upon as its denouement.

Campaign Fund Raising

From 158 Families, Half the Cash for the '16 Race is a scary headline that means nothing.  Consider how Jeb Bush has raised the most money with the least result then look at Bernie Sanders having raised money from more people donating than any other with the greatest result.  This is a bottom up, not a top down, election and those raising big money from just a few will fail, thank god.

An Incoherent Syria War Strategy

The initial plan was dubious. The new one is hallucinatory, and it is being rolled out as the war enters a more perilous phase now that Russia has significantly stepped up its military support of Mr. Assad’s forces.

I couldn't have said better myself

Ben Carson has a Point on Guns and Nazi Germany

When reading Sholzenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago I recall thinking how I wouldn't want to go quietly when the "Black Maria" arrived to arrest.  Individual gun ownership makes resistance to grossly authoritarian regimes viable and enforcement possibly lethal to the perpetrators.  The 2nd Amendment is the founding father's answer to Stalin and Hitler.

Afghanistan - A Wasted Effort

Latest Affront for Afghans in Kunduz makes it clear that once again that political dysfunction greased by corruption trumps the best laid plans to democratize and govern. Setbacks are sure to come as will be the useless calls for our re-engagement militarily. Useless because the military option does not change the political equation just as it doesn't in Iraq and Syria.

Retaking Raqqa, Good Luck With That

When ISIS took the city of Kobani in north west Syria, it over reached. Kobani being Kurdish lacked the Sunni sympathisers  that it required to maintain it's rule and so the retaking of Kobani was ninety nine percent because of the Kurdish desire for a homeland and very little to do with our air power.  Obama's renewed offensive against ISIS in the North of Syria will be successful in taking back Kurdish villages but Raqqa, a Sunni city to the west will not be taken back from ISIS using Kurdish fighters who lack an imperialist desire to expand beyond what they consider their homeland.  Without a strong Sunni political union to take the place of ISIS in Raqqa, a takeover is sure to end badly for the allies there.  

With Guns Act Locally

Its counterproductive to look to Washington on every issue other than foreign policy and defense, particularly guns.  If after Sandy Hook Connecticut elected to have a comprehensive gun training and licensing program similar to what we have for automobiles as a method of keeping track of "People who, when you think back, seemed off. Didn’t dress right. Kept to themselves. Were nursing a bitterness that smoldered inside of them.  And then they picked up guns and went out and killed as many as they could."  Then do it.  In retrospect it was unfortunate that Obama flew Sandy Hook's grieving parents to Washington on Air Force One in a federal show rather than to have encouraged them to lobby Connecticut's legislature for a local solution.

Joe Biden's Original Plan to Let Iraq Separate into its Tribes is Correct

Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and former Senior Adviser at The State Department, said there was a deepening sense in Iraq that "ISIS is a Sunni problem , not a Shia problem." He said that saving Anbar was not worth "the blood of our children."

What is it about Syria and Iraq that requires that they remain as countries as presently constituted? Letting both separate into their sectarian regions of Kurdish north, Shia south east, Sunni center and an Alawite  Shia enclave in the west north of Lebannon by the sea. It would pacify the region greatly.

Two Faced Holier than Though Germany

Ex-Chief of VW Not Under Investigation, Officials Say and Critics Link German Scandal to Government’s Close Ties With Industry are two very telling headlines.  If we think we have it bad in Washington with the revolving door between government and industry of elite cronies, well there is always Germany. How two faced of it to lead the Green charge to save the planet’s environment and exonerate its insiders who cynically cheat to pollute more.

Numbers Donating is much more Important than the Money collected

Figures are just coming out that Bernie Sanders collected small amounts from over one million individual donors. The the total collected of 26 million is just shy of what Hillary collected which was 28 million. One million people forking over hard earned money is much more valuable because its the basis of a volunteer group willing to provide sweat equity and do the follow up ground work that the big money candidates will have to pay through the nose for.  It's what Rand Paul is missing in comparison with his father's previous efforts where the money bombs were coming in from small donations. Not until Rand stops looking for quick cash and concentrates on a political muscle building diet that makes him different in the way he can to what the big money contributors suggest he do, such as defend Wall Street's carried interest sinecure.