Progressive columnist Stoller on Ron Paul

[bruce MN]

Gives him real props for the effect he's having on the discourse and the challenges he creates for many liberals.

Stoller worked  with Paul's Congressonal Staff in D.C. on issues over the Federal Reserve., out of Alan Grayson's office when they were working to get a bill to require an audit

 Lays out a bunch of liberal hypocricy and provides some interesting historical perspective.

If you are into, or are simply following the RP phenomena, I quarantee you will find something to appreciate or at least ponder in  this piece:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/matt-stoller-why-ron-paul-challenges-liberals.html

SNIP:

Ron Paul’s stance should be seen as a challenge to better create a coherent structural critique of the American political order. It’s quite obvious that there isn’t one coming from the left, otherwise the figure challenging the war on drugs and American empire wouldn’t be in the Republican primary as the libertarian candidate. To get there, liberals must grapple with big finance and war, two topics that are difficult to handle in any but a glib manner that separates us from our actual traditional and problematic affinity for both.

[BA Deere]

I`m too old to dance around the "newsletter issue" and I am probably one of the few on here that actually read the newsletters hot off the press.  Here`s the truth, Blacks have a crime issue you have to be brain dead to not understand that, "racist" or not.  Total Honesty on all issues is imperitive if you really want someone with answers and workable solutions.   Pretending that the house isn`t on fire has somewhat worked, but we`re at the point now where if we aren`t honest it`ll only be smoldering embers in 4years.

[bruce MN]

The Nation? 

Props for Ron Paul:

http://www.thenation.com/article/165373/marginalizing-ron-paul

[johnaa]

nn

As another recent example of Paul’s sanity on the national security issues that have led to a flight from reason on the part of politicians since the 9/11 attacks, I offer the Texan’s criticism this week of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The act would allow the president to order indeterminate military imprisonment without trial of those accused of supporting terrorism, a policy that Obama signed into law and Paul opposes, as the congressman did George W. Bush’s Patriot Act. Paul said:

   “Little by little, in the name of fighting terrorism, our Bill of Rights is being repealed.... The Patriot Act, as bad as its violation of the 4th Amendment, was just one step down the slippery slope. The recently passed [NDAA] continues that slip toward tyranny and in fact accelerates it significantly.... The Bill of Rights has no exemption for ‘really bad people’ or terrorists or even non-citizens. It is a key check on government power against any person. This is not a weakness in our legal system; it is the very strength of our legal system.”

     That was exactly the objection raised by the New York Times in its own excellent editorial challenging the constitutionality of the NDAA. It should not be difficult for those same editorial writers to treat Ron Paul as a profound and principled contributor to a much-needed national debate on the limits of federal power instead of attempting to marginalize his views beyond recognition.

n    http://lewrockwell.com/keller/keller24.1.html  

Ron Paul’s Support Is Much More Widespread Than Reported

  snip--There are many other sources of information to confirm that Ron Paul is really the people’s choice, and the most interesting candidate in the field. Note that I haven’t cherry-picked these, as Mitt is clearly winning in some areas. I will point out that Gross Google Results includes news stories and cross postings of news, which is why I prefer actual search volume to represent interest. Similarly, Mitt is ahead on Facebook "likes", however, Ron is gaining ground after his fine debate performances and Tonight Show Appearance . The Youtube videos are especially telling. Ron Paul’s results page has multiple videos with hundreds and thousands of views each, and no video on the first page with less than 25,000 views. Mitt Romney’s results page has a clip with 42 views in the number 6 position.

Candidate	Ron Paul	Newt Gingrich	Mitt Romney
Gross Google Results	63.8 Million	9.7 Million	344 Million
Youtube Videos	352,000	29,700	41,800
Peak Twitter Mentions	.41%	.24%	.16%
Facebook Likes	660,000	221,000	1,237,000
Facebook Weekly Growth Rate	2.04%	1.32%	.64%

   In summary, the mainstream media attempts to show Ron Paul as a fringe candidate to discourage undecided voters from aligning themselves with him. Don’t be fooled, and don’t be fooled by the "Ron Paul can’t win" canard. The real world statistics and indicators show that the mainstream media has and is consistently underestimating the strength, depth, and breadth of Ron Paul’s support.

  n

[verbatime]

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh9a8RL9RH2cNhU1Vl

[Samnospam]

The article is a good start for any progressive thinking of rehabilitation. A progressive searching for introspection would also need to consider how the huge financing required to achieve the state of social equality desired by the progressive works to impoverish and enslave the very people the progressive wishes to uplift. This hypothetical introspective progressive would also learn that his philosophy is ethnocentric and eugenic at root. On this path the progressive might discover a liberal within, not the modern kind but the classic.

[bruce MN]

Good advice.  If I run into anyobdy with such needs I'll pass it along.

Looks like the writer as well as Sheer at The Nation understand the crony capitalism thing that you hint at understanding, but won't accuse.

It's easy to lay all expenditure off as waste.  Dont have to think or work at it then. That's winger territory, not libertarain or modernist liberal.

[Samnospam]

Not crony capitalism, central fractional banking moves wealth to those with first access to the money. You think there was a reason the big bankers of that era wanted the system?

[bruce MN]

Sure.  So that the engine would run at faster than 60 RPMs.  But then as now, they out kicked their coverage.  And somebody had to put a bridle on them.  Doesn't seem to be much interest in high places for that now.  And hell, the physics have taken it to a place where the bankers themselves don't even know how it works.  Somebody needs to say "Whoa!", not let it run unchecked.  The dilema that classic Mises and Hayek libertarians are faced with is that they would now be in favor of letting a runaway train keep going out of philosophical addiction.  Rand and Greenspan played teh true believers like a piano and set them up for fierce natural contradictions,  Greenspan told Congress he couldn't imagine how all of this s##t could have happened.

But what's happening now is not an inherent function of the fractional reserve system.  It's applied extraction and corruption.

[Samnospam]

You're off on a tangient again. Go back to thinking about how the edificies that allow big government progressivism actually make accomplishing its goals impossible. You can't free people while enslaving them.