The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
Mollie Hemingway ·
Jul 23, 2010 at 9:52am
The fifth annual gathering of the Netroots Nation (it used to be known as YearlyKos) is being held at the Rio in Vegas. Van Jones, the 9/11 Truther who was forced to resign as President Obama's "green jobs" czar, is apparently the hit of the convention thus far. Judging from the lefties I follow on Twitter, at least.
The American Spectator's Phillip Klein is also there and he reported the following tidbit:
V. Jones says not to fall for the deficit talk: "There's plenty of money out there, the only question is how to spend it."
I'm all for differences of opinion but this lack of a grasp on reality is scary. He received standing ovations for his talk, by the way.
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Jun '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
If reality doesn't jibe with your preconceived notions, simply make up your own reality in which it does. This is how the Left can deny the empirical evidence that counters all of their preconceived notions; by simply denying that the evidence exists or by asserting that it doesn't apply. What planet have you been on these past few decades?
May '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
As I explained in another thread, the idea that we have limited money is a hard sell even to reasonable people. I doubt many Americans who are not economists could explain clearly on what the value of the American dollar is based, since it's no longer tied directly to hard assets like gold. The vague understanding that our national debt is a problem might not be enough to affect the necessary change.
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
I fear you may be right, Aaron.
May '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
It's like the conversation I once had with one of my kids when he was about four-years-old:
He: "What's that?"
Me: "A dollar. It's worth something."
He "Who says?"
Me: "The government."
He "You believe them?"
I still don't have an answer.
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
EJHill: It's like the conversation I once had with one of my kids when he was about four-years-old:
He: "What's that?"
Me: "A dollar. It's worth something."
He "Who says?"
Me: "The government."
He "You believe them?"
I still don't have an answer. · Jul 23 at 1:09pm
It's at times like these when the goldbugs seem to have me beat, too, EJ. "Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government!"
Jul '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
i started out as a goldbug for monetary issues but I think Milton Friedman pushed me away from regarding hard assets as an ultimate safety. A failed market will still need to be able to value gold. if our market fails completely food will be our currency, gold will be useless. Fiat currency, as unsustainable as it has always been historically, theoretically can work. The problem is that its management is hidden and the implications of having a team of politically interested folks managing it isnt widely understood. If there was some process that forced its management into daylight I think fiat currency could limp along reasonably well.
also -- the problem in saying we have limited money is that money is really only limited by available human capital. one of the shortcomings of gold is that it actually doesnt respond as flexibly as we need to quickly growing economies with lots of new human capital being added constantly.
Jul '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
It's simple, don't you see? There's just a great big pot of money sitting there, The only question is who gets to spend it. Those evil republicans want to let the RICH, WHITE, MALE EXPLOITERS plunder the pot and keep it for themselves. The goal of progressive politics is just to wrest the pot away from them so that the rest of us can get a share. The size of the pot remains the same. See?
In my Navy days we had name for people like Van Jones - College-educated Idjits.
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
Zoon Politikon: i started out as a goldbug for monetary issues but I think Milton Friedman pushed me away from regarding hard assets as an ultimate safety. A failed market will still need to be able to value gold. if our market fails completely food will be our currency, gold will be useless. Fiat currency, as unsustainable as it has always been historically, theoretically can work. The problem is that its management is hidden and the implications of having a team of politically interested folks managing it isnt widely understood. If there was some process that forced its management into daylight I think fiat currency could limp along reasonably well.
also -- the problem in saying we have limited money is that money is really only limited by available human capital. one of the shortcomings of gold is that it actually doesnt respond as flexibly as we need to quickly growing economies with lots of new human capital being added constantly. · Jul 23 at 5:54pm
Phew, Zoon. I feel much better now. I think. But I know that if I go back and read The Fed, I'll start feeling vertigo again...
Jul '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
James Poulos, Ed.
Phew, Zoon. I feel much better now. I think. But I know that if I go back and read The Fed, I'll start feeling vertigo again... · Jul 23 at 7:53pm
i don't know the Fed but have a go at The Creature From Jekyll Island. That one will definitely make you want to go out and join an "End the Fed" rally.
May '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
Zoon got me excited for a second. Fiat currency. I'm getting paid in small Italian sports cars? (Of course Fiat is the latest former-Axis power to be saddled with Chrysler. After it did the Germans in, Chrysler will drag down the Italians and then we'll peddle it to one of the Japanese manufacturers)
Economics gives most of us headaches. Donald Trump is either a gazillionaire or on the verge of bankruptcy - on alternating days.
May '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
I watched a short bit of Sentator Al Franken's keynote to the Netroots convention (on Fox.) I still can't believe that he is a senator now, but I digress... He kept hammering on the notion that they had to defeat the "Republican echo chamber."
That the Netroots crowd, er, "echo chamber," is detached from reality is absolutely no surprise. Here is a quote from Erica Payne's foreword to The Practical Progressive:
"The government of the United States has millions of employees, offices around the world, and a budget of three trillion dollars. It is the single most powerful entity in the world. It can ensure freedom, protect the week, explore new worlds, create industries, transform economies, cure disease, spread prosperity, rebuild war torn nations and even reach the moon. If we can change the leadership of that government, we can change the world."
This is what we are dealing with here: utopians trying to hatch what Paul Johnson called a "despotic utopia." Of course money is no object, we're talking about changing the world here!
May '10
Re: The "Reality-Based Community" Strikes Again
Hmmm... makes me think of Captain EO.