Thom’s article:
Libertarians Believe in Kingdom Rather than Democracy | Thom Hartmann

“I’ve often said that Libertarians are Republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid (they’re in favor of decriminalizing pot and prostitution), but what Rand Paul is showing us that their worldview goes much farther than even a Republican like Richard Nixon – who brought us the EPA – would.”

That’s right, Thom – but libertarians don’t believe in Kingdom, they believe in a Magic Kingdom. In modern libertarianism, a super-deity called Free Market rights all wrongs and makes everyone free through it’s magical power of privatization. And even though we have wonderful examples of universal privatization in places like Somalia, somehow the magic deity will make things all better in America. You just have to believe…

We could wish that libertarianism was a movement of personal freedom, as it would like to disguise itself. If only libertarians weren’t so stuck on their worship of corporatism it might be different. However, we have to deal with modern libertarianism as it IS, not as we wish it was.

The fact that libertarian think tanks are funded by corporations and the super rich should tell you everything you need to know. But of course, the average citizen probably doesn’t realize that. So let us clarify AGAIN that libertarians want ZERO regulations on corporations AND universal privatization. That means that while you may own your own home, you won’t be able to set foot outside of your little piece of property without having to “trespass” on someone else’s property. That means that if you are allowed on the streets and sidewalks at all, it will be a privilege granted to you by the owner of that property. You will be able to do so ONLY under the rules of the owner, and that privilege will be subject to revocation at any time.

Rand Paul’s insistence that businesses should be able to be “white’s only” or “no Jews allowed” if the owner chooses isn’t an aberration, it is the cornerstone of libertarianism: private property rights above all; no public rights, period.

Once again, we remind you that you have NO rights when you are on someone else’s private property. And under the libertarian ideal, every inch of space is someone else’s private property.

The faith of libertarians is admirable for its steadfastness in the face of reality. Their idea that corporations, which now do so much harm as they play games at the edge of the law, will suddenly start doing good things once they have no restraints on them would seem to fly in the face of both common sense and empirical observation. For the faithful, however, reality has a well-known liberal bias and may be ignored.

It reminds me of the line that is used every time there is a merger: “The new combined company will be more efficient and will be able to pass the savings along to the consumer.” – Yeah… they will be able to - that’s very different from actually doing, however. The reality is that no corporations ever merged so that they could pass savings along to consumers; they did it to maximize profits. And that’s all corporations ever try to do, is maximize profits. But that never stopped a libertarian from believing.

Oh, and speaking of Libertarians being Republicans who want to smoke dope: Try going into a mall wearing the “wrong” kind of t-shirt (one that is against “mall policy”) …or saying the wrong thing – in that privately-owned public space – and see what happens. And yet Libertarians think that dope will be okay? Well, maybe, but only if the giant corporation that owns the town in which you live decides to allow it. That decision will depend only on how it affects the quarterly corporate bottom line.

If libertarianism prevails then we hope and pray that the libertarians are at least right in this one aspect and dope becomes legal. Frankly you’ll need to be stoned 24/7 to deal with your life under the corporate jack-boot …and knowing that you, Mr. Libertarian, helped bring about our living hell.

Another reason why libertarianism means no liberty at all.

The Tea Party could be the lone group standing against this wave of oppression – it certainly isn’t the Republicans or the Democrats! But while the Tea Party people may prefer to think of themselves as Constitutionalists and freedom-loving citizens, the truth is far sadder and more predictable.

The tea party people have, as I see it, at least two problems.

The first problem is one that they share with the Libertarians: The idea that government is evil and corporations are good. Like Libertarians, most Tea Party people seem to want a government that doesn’t do anything for the people.

Defense and police. That’s it. Which of course leaves a power vacuum into which steps the giant corporations – who will have no problem telling you how to live your life in minute detail. Don’t think so?

Paying attention to news, you regularly see stories about someone being evicted from a mall for wearing the wrong kind of t-shirt or saying the wrong thing. That’s because you have no civil rights when on someone else’s private property. But in the Libertarian/Tea Party ideal world EVERY INCH of ground is someone else’s private property. Ergo, no rights for anyone.

Libertarians (and now by extension Tea Partiers) seem to live in a fantasy world where corporations are so concerned with good public relations that they would never impose anything grievous on the people – only evil government would do that. No corporation would ever cut corners and destroy the environment – or force you, in their relentless pursuit of profits, to take services you didn’t want in order to get something you really need.

Except, have you dealt with a corporation lately? Have you ever called Comcast (now Xfinity) customer service? Giant corporations don’t give a shit what you think of them; they are only interested in profits. And they don’t need your good will for that, they just need an effective monopoly.

The second problem with the Tea Party people is that they have been co-opted by astroturf “grass roots” front groups that are funded by big corporations such as Wellpoint (healthcare) and GE (war profiteers). The local Tea Party rally was organized by outsiders from The Lewin Group, a fake grassroots organization that is actually owned and operated by a giant healthcare company. They’re the ones who brainwash granny into going out there and screaming “Keep government out of my Medicare” (literally).

If there is any reader who doesn’t know this, Medicare is “government run” healthcare (as the insurance companies define it).

Unfortunately the healthcare bill that finally passed was more of a Tea Party bill than anything else: It mandates the purchase of private health insurance whether you can afford it or not. The only “give back” is that the health insurance companies won’t be able to exclude pre-existing conditions anymore and they won’t be able to cut you off in the middle of lifesaving treatment (a very common practice). It’s not a very good deal but you can thank the Tea Partiers for that.

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We should not leave this subject without mentioning their biggest problem: Hypocrisy.

Tea Partiers proudly call themselves “PATRIOTS” who want to “take back their government.” This is a message shouted at every meeting to loud applause. They yell and demand (and sometimes threaten). Really? Take back “our” government from whom? Well, they would be “taking it back” from the majority of American citizens that elected the government we have.
It would be hard to argue that the Tea Party movement represents anything close to a majority in America. Instead, they are the farthest right-wing fringe of the American political landscape. Yet they feel entitled to control the government anyway, democracy be damned.
It is hard to imagine a philosophy less patriotic.. well, for an American. This would be a patriotic ideal in the old Soviet Union, but in this country with its tradition of democracy it is …well, anti-American.

Tea Partiers say government is too big. I mostly agree. The majority of federal spending, however, is on the military – something a Tea Party person would never want to cut. They also want government “hands off” their Medicare, which is another big chunk. If they mean other kinds of social spending (and that’s the “big government” they keep mentioning), that is something like three percent of the federal budget.

Tea Partiers say the national debt is too great. I agree. The vast majority of that debt was run up FIRST by Ronald Reagan and then by George W. Bush. These two men are heroes to the Tea Party movement. So naturally the Tea Party people were silent during the reign of these reckless spenders. Also, once again, almost all of that debt was run up with military spending. Something most Tea Party people are for.

What they really mean by all of this anti-government rhetoric is that they don’t want services that benefit anyone else – but they DO want lots and lots of military spending (because they are afraid of everything) and they want their Medicare because that helps them. Everyone else can go fuck themselves.

I guess this brings me to my final point, which is that the tea party movement is a magnet for low information people who are easily swayed by emotional arguments AND who lack compassion for their fellow human beings. They’ve got theirs and the hell with everyone else. It is a movement based entirely on the twin pillars of fear and selfishness.

With that knowledge in mind, I’m very glad that the Tea Party people are a small minority but sad that they get attention so out of proportion to their numbers – and that politicians listen to them.

The reason I could vote for Ron Paul is because I know he would have acted to end the wars and stop spying on Americans. “Restore the constitution” as it were. Yet Congress would have stopped him from getting rid of social security, Medicare and public education – thus thwarting the detestable side of libertarianism.

The fatal flaw of American-style libertarianism (assuming you think that feudalism wasn’t so great) is the exaltation of corporate interests: The idea that you can turn everything but defense and policing over to private corporations and they’ll just magically do the right thing. The other name for this philosophy is corporatism. And the other name for corporatism is fascism. Anyone who isn’t drinking the libertarian Kool-Aid knows this is a stupid idea, but the average libertarian has been sold a bill of goods for so long that they can’t tell the beef from the bullshit.

A corporation’s only loyalty is to profit; their only goal is to maximize the bottom line on the next quarterly report. If selling a product that kills lots of people accomplishes their short-term goal, it’s fine with them. Shortening the lives of customers for a 1% boost in the quarterly report; Great! Using slave labor to improve profits? Pure Heaven! Gathering the wealth of a nation into one’s own pot and into the hands of a few super rich: priceless.

My take on this is that the only thing worse than government tyranny is corporate tyranny: With a government, at least you have a chance at voting the bastards out – if you can get enough people to agree with you. With corporations, you have nothing. You are just a slave, a piece of meat, a serf. The fact that corporate bosses refer to the insurance they buy on their workers as “Peasant Insurance” should tell you what they really think of you. And this is where American-style compromised libertarianism falls apart for me. It has this poison pill that kills any of the goodness it might otherwise express.

Libertarianism doesn’t have to be like this. The general idea of individual freedom is wonderful. But American libertarianism has sold out like everything else. You fans of this evil empire, does it never give you pause to think that giant corporations fund all the Libertarian think tanks?? Do you really think those giant corporations have the interests of the average Joe and Josephine in mind?? Hmm?

All the Libertarian talking heads exalt privatization (read, corporate-ization) because they are PAID to say that. Some of them may believe in this fairy tale too, but mostly they just say it because they collect big fat checks from corporate-funded think tanks to do so – whoring themselves out and selling out America in the process.

Having everything run by corporations that only care about this month’s profit statements always leads to disaster because corporations are acting in their own short term interest with absolutely no thought to the general welfare of the country or the long-term consequences of their actions.

Thus, libertarian paradise countries are doomed to going broke in the long run as every corporation works only toward improving its next quarterly report to the detriment of everyone else. Dubai is just the latest example: Dubai Has No More Money.

Dubai—home to the future world’s tallest building, artificial islands shaped like a palm tree, and a misplaced faith in the power of wealth—is broke. The government has asked its many creditors for a six-month reprieve from debt payments.

Of course, having a broke government is part of the libertarian dream, too. Dubai, as with other libertarian paradise countries such as Somalia and Abu Dabi, shares the common libertarian features: Government is minimal to non-existent and everything is privatized, workers having no rights (after all, government is the only entity that can tell corporations that they must treat workers humanely, and government is evil). With all those “small government” features, wealth has inevitably migrated into the hands of a few super-rich while the bulk of the population has been impoverished.

What did you expect? In the absence of government (which is supposed to represent the collective will of all of the people) the power vacuum will always be filled by the richest and most powerful among us. Duh. It’s hard to believe that anyone would argue otherwise but of course libertarians have to – they can’t just say, “yeah, we want to be ruled by the iron fist of a few rich guys” because nobody would join their party. So they preach the good stuff while soft-pedaling (but never discarding) the really horrible part of their philosophy.

I believe in the part of the libertarian ideal which says government should stay off of our backs and out of our personal lives. You could have a government like that, which still does the right thing and protects the average person from the predatory nature of the rich and powerful, that eschews corporatism and protects the weak. But for American-style libertarianism that just isn’t enough. They won’t be happy until regular people are owned by Disney and GE and can only live where they are told, wear what they are told and eat what they are told by their corporate masters. That part of libertarianism makes me want to puke.

Another take on it all: Objective Error – the Faith of Libertarianism and Objectivism ~ Random Journey

“In my 20 years of practice as a family physician, I have encountered dozens of cases where the main contributing factor to a person’s death was the lack of health insurance for most of their lives.”

A recent academic study showed that about 45,000 people die in the USA every year due to lack of health care. These are deaths that simply DO NOT HAPPEN in other first world countries. This may be part of why most general practitioners are FOR universal healthcare even as the AMA vehemently opposes it.

What are the arguements against universal healthcare? “The government can’t do anything right” …even though Medicare, which is government-run healthcare is twice as efficient as the best of private insurance, delivering the best healthcare at the lowest cost. “You’ll have to wait to see your doctor” …like you don’t wait now! Sure, okay, there will be more people who can see a doctor if we have universal healthcare. God forbid you should have to wait an extra day to see your doc about that hangnail. 45,000 dead people every year is a small price to pay! “There will be death panels” … No, but there ARE DEATH PANELS RIGHT NOW; they are called insurance company bureacrats (why, btw, brag about killing people to boost profits).

Basically, my bottom line is this: If you don’t care about all those people who are dying RIGHT now, EVERY fuckng day because we in America put private profits above human life, then go fuck yourself. I don’t want to hear your bullshit.

The real “DEATH PANELS” are those who – in the name of ‘profits uber alles’ – are willing to let people die and turn a blind eye to it. They are paid off by insurance companies and they don’t give a crap about you. Oh, and this applies to radio talk show hosts, too.

As we have said, however, America does not have a health care system, it has a health care INDUSTRY. That means that they are in business to make profits, not take care of sick people. As such, insurance companies aren’t in business to pay your claim when you get sick. They are in the business of trying to figure out how to AVOID paying your claims. It’s always profits not people – one hundred percent of the time. Try not to forget this, okay?

They may try to call your newly-discovered cancer an “undisclosed pre-existing condition” or they may say that any treatment is experimental and therefore not covered. If they can’t do that, they’ll just cancel your policy.

Don’t kid yourself, it happens all the time. It is the inevitable result of a for-profit, pay-or-die system. And that is also why even the biggest, most fanatical knuckle-dragging wingnuts in other western democracies would never advocate that their countries adopt our system. They may be wingnuts, but they’re not crazy!

HHS: Insurance Companies Encourage Employees to “Revoke Sick People’s Health Coverage”

‘You might have known that insurers can deny health coverage based on preexisting medical conditions, but here’s something else to worry about: They can take away the coverage you thought you had when actually need it’

Another blog gives a good breakdown of why American healthcare is so expensive and yet so bad: Where the money goes in the US health care system.

If you haven’t figured it out already, ALL of the scare stories and ALL of the crazy yelling town hall people are health insurance company-backed bullshit.

The people are shills. They are lying about being constituents, LYING about being ‘non-partisan’ – and the money behind all this AstroTurf (fake grassroots) comes from people with a dog in the fight; the health insurance industry.

Lies built on lies, and parroted by sleazy amoral radio and television talking heads.

So now we know, these people don’t give a shit about you, and they think you should just die if you aren’t rich. They’re bought and paid for by billionaires who also think you should die if you aren’t in their club. I hope all these sick fucks rot in hell. If there was an ounce of justice in the world, they WOULD!

So we see anecdotal evidence every day that conservatives don’t live in a world of facts, they live in a world of pre-determined conclusions… and fear. Scientists Explain Why People Vote For Republicans.

Covering two scientific studies about political views, one of the things we’ve shown as rather obvious is that conservatives start with a conclusion and then accept only “evidence” that fits their original beliefs. Duh. We see it all the time right here!

One study started with the whole lie about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. For the purposes of the study, they could have started with any story. Taking people who believed this trumped-up cover story for the pre-planned invasion of Iraq, the true believers were then shown evidence that the story was not true. This evidence included very thorough research papers and studies. More than enough facts to change anyone’s mind. But not conservatives. For them, they only became MORE certain of their preconceptions.

“This ‘backfire’ effect only worked on conservatives. Even when they varied the source of the refutations, it made no difference—corrections from the New York Times and Fox News both caused conservatives to believe the lies even harder. In other words, objective truth is dead, observable reality is a fairy tale, etc.”

The last poll I heard indicated that about 40 percent of Americans self-identify as conservatives. And as we’ve seen here time and again (and has been repeatedly proven in scientific studies) conservative=fact-free.

Or put another way, America is almost certainly doomed. I’d like to think better – I really would. I’d like to believe that facts and reality DO eventually penetrate the conservative mind; it just takes a lot longer.

At least give me that!

To get the best healthcare in the world, you should be at least a millionaire. If you aren’t a millionaire, the next best thing is to be a citizen of any industrialized nation in the world EXCEPT the United States. If that’s not an option and you are stuck in the good ol USA, try running for congress. They get the best healthcare in America… of course, they are mostly millionaires too so it’s kind of a wash. If you can’t get into congress, try to get on Medicare… yes, government-run healthcare is the BEST you can do in America. Lastly, there’s private health insurance. Just bear in mind – as the examples show – when the chips are down they will try to do everything legal and otherwise to avoid paying, and if you end up dying as a result, that’s an extra bonus for THEM.

Some ‘conservatives’ (read, pro-oligarchy folk) have tried to redefine the term ‘free market’ to mean only one that doesn’t involve “government interference.” I can’t blame them, I guess, everyone wants to make their position sound as good and as reasonable as possible.

It’s false, however.

A free market isn’t just a market lacking government regulation. Here is the ACTUAL definition: A “free market” is a market in which sellers, under no undue pressure to sell, proffer their goods/services to buyers who are under no compulsion to buy. This is critical; change any element of this formula and you are no longer talking about free market.

Health care is not (and cannot become) a free market for two reasons:
1) Supply is artificially restricted by the government and the AMA. The scarcity of medical care drives up the cost. This is completely artificial. You might say “Well, they have to! You can’t have just anyone practicing medicine!” Fine, I agree, but that means that health care CANNOT EVER be a free market, because of the artificial restriction of supply.
2) Not only is supply artificially low, but buyers are under EXTREME compulsion to buy. What, that thought never occurred to you!?!? If you need lifesaving medical care, you either get it or you die! End of story.

No free market exists in health care. And you just agreed in item one that you cannot turn it into a free market.

You could change item 1 by stripping the AMA of its ability to tell medical schools how many doctors they can graduate every year AND letting anyone sell medical services who wants to do so. So then you could choose between the really expensive guy who went to medical school and Joe the Plumber who sells antibiotics out of the back of his truck. This would take care of half the problem.

BUT, you can’t do anything about item 2: People will still need lifesaving care and as long as it is a LIFE OR DEATH NEED, the medical health care system will NEVER follow free market rules.

Sometimes people say, “yeah but we need food, too! And you don’t want the government regulating that.” Food has multiple sources and you can even grow your own, so supply isn’t artificially limited as it is with healthcare. And even so, the government does, in fact, regulate prices through farm subsidies and other methods. We have a cheap food policy in the USA. Some people think that’s bad. Whatever, we need an affordable healthcare policy and it needs to be effective in balancing the artificial (but necessary) limitation on supply.

No free market in healthcare and the people who say they want a free market really don’t (they still want limited doctors, limited medicines, etc.) so what we have is a monopolistic utility, ["monopolistic" because the government & AMA tell you who can provide the services and a "utility" because consumers NEED and are compelled to buy the services from only a few government-approved providers]. As with all monopolistic utilities consumers have no choice except to pay whatever price is demanded.

Now in most other utilities, government as the representatives of the people recognizes the unfair power that the supplier has over the consumer and acts to tightly regulate pricing. For medicine, those with an agenda having NOTHING to do with anyone’s best interest are still trying to pretend that there is some kind of free market solution.

It’s bullshit. When you figure out a way we can all buy medicine from our local supermarket in the same way we buy potato chips AND you figure out a system where people are NEVER compelled to seek medical care to LIVE – THEN and only then will you have free market healthcare.

The rest is all pure phony bullshit spewed by people who only care about profit-taking for the super rich and don’t give a shit about the average person. It’s a fact, and I just proved it!

Some probably-paid talk show callers have been claiming expertise and saying that the problem with health care is that people get too much of it. =The solution, these ersatz listeners claim, is to get rid of medicare and all government price controls and let the “free market” decide. Yes, that’s right, people are dying every day for lack of health care – and America is the ONLY industrialized nation where that happens – and the conservative “solution” is to make health care even more expensive so that you stupid consumers won’t use it as much!!!

Look, those of you who are driven by ideology need to understand that free market rules are a bit like the laws of thermodynamics: Yes, they work – but they apply only in a vacuum, under ideal conditions that seldom exist in real life. You need to blow off the ideology and start looking at reality. We’ll all be better off if you do.

‘Joe the Plumber’ says journalists should be ‘abolished’ from war coverage

“I’ll be honest with you: I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. (sic) I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine.”

Schwitzer health news blog: TV news directors make another bad deal on health care news

“In celebration of Ivanhoe Broadcast News’ 30th anniversary, Ivanhoe and The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation have joined forces to provide two new training opportunities for journalists.”

What it all really means is that you are going to see more and more commercials disguised as news and more and more TV “journalists” acting as product pitch men. That’s just great. Like they didn’t lie to us enough as it was, now they are going to finish the job.

The only thing we can do is to REFUSE to watch any TV news, ever. Period. You’re reading this online so obviously you have Internet service. You can get real news online…although you have to hunt for it. I’ll suggest a few places some other time. Oh, and readers may feel free to suggest their own sources.

From Cartoon People

So you conspire to trash the US Constitution, you create a policy where torture isn’t torture unless YOU or the President say it is… some people don’t like that, and this makes YOU a victim of the War on Terror?

Wonkette : Alberto Gonzales, War On Terror’s Latest Victim

Mr. Gonzales said that “for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror.”

Oh the humanity! Poor misunderstood Alberto. He only wanted to turn America into the Soviet Union. How could anyone call him evil? SNIVEL–WHINE. Why can’t people see what a good little crypto-Nazi he is?

He truly pities the fool.

“Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended ‘useful life’.”

I understand they’re working on another plan to have everyone’s paycheck directly deposited to a corporate funding pool. There, the money will be distributed to the corporations to which you’ve been assigned as a “consumer”… and if there’s any left, they might pass it along to you after deducting a reasonable fee for their wonderful service.

“Ortloff discussed engaging in various sexual acts with said ‘minors’ while conversing with them online and on the telephone,” states the plea agreement signed by Ortloff on Wednesday.

I remember a Republican party that used to be practical and interested in fiscal conservatism. Where did those Republicans go, hmm? It seems that the embrace of religious extremism has caused a death spiral for the party. Now the only thing they can do is attack, ridicule and slime the other guy.

On the positive side, it makes it much easier to find child molesters and other sex offenders: Just check the voting rolls.