Balls, by Robert Gore

Posted by straightlinelogic 7 years, 2 months ago to Government
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Political venues are nowhere to look for courage. Politics is a popularity contest and its winners lie, flatter, and pander. They don’t generally stand for anything grander than their own advancement. The venal pursuits of politicians and bureaucrats—power, money, sex, intoxication—don’t lend themselves to stirring moral defenses. Power ebbs and flows, but there’s a community of interest—perpetuation of a corrupt system. They’re all “part of the same hypocrisy,” and revelation of it serves no one’s interest.

Truth is the enemy of hypocritical regimes, which makes telling it, as George Orwell noted, a “revolutionary act,” bold and dangerous. President Trump spouts his share of nonsense, bombast, hyperbole, and lies, but it’s not those excesses that frightens and enrages the regime. Rather, he has shattered the veneer of respectability that cloaks its incompetence, corruption, and carnage. He challenges elite consensus on interventionism, immigration and trade, and the whole canon of political correctness.
SOURCE URL: https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/02/06/balls-by-robert-gore/


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  • Posted by Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
    Funny you should use the word "prowess". That was considered the keystone of French Chivalry.

    Just a did-you-know.
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  • Posted by chad 7 years, 2 months ago
    Good article Robert, as usual you make me open my dictionary to ensure I understand what you are saying and your use of the language inspires me to continue to learn to use it well.
    Behavior tells more about an individuals character than anything they might say. Having the courage to live your convictions is somewhat laudable but if you don't understand the nature of your behavior it can still be destructive. When I was young someone parked a new Cadillac behind my produce truck on a hill, wanting to ensure I didn't get near it with my truck I revved the engine before dropping the clutch to ensure I pulled cleanly away. The truck was still in reverse! If you are mistaken in your belief you will still be destructive.
    Trump has displayed his character by taking advantage of laws that allowed him to bankrupt businesses and still make money on them, taking of private property through the use of courts so that he might benefit. Trying to buy politicians (the Clintons) to enable his business success by the compromise of liberty to favor his work. He is not a successful businessman in my terms he is a successful taker pretending to be a businessman. He is a showman and knows how to tell the political lies to ingratiate himself into the support of those he will take advantage of.
    I really don't think he is a threat to the Deep State, he is their supporter pretending he is not.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 2 months ago
    I'm not so sure I'd label Trump as having convictions which extend beyond himself. I don't see any great "cause" that he champions. That's generally the same with many Republicans. Democrats great "cause" is the accumulation of power in their hands even though they certainly use other faux causes (BLM, womens' rights, immingrants' rights, etc.) to this end.
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  • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
    I liked it, of course.

    Trump may spout his share of nonsense, bombast, etc. but it is because he is a brash successful American businessman. I like that too. The majority of American voters liked it as well, because brash is what Americans are. I'm glad PC is being beaten back.

    Gabbard may be all of those things, but she is not respected worldwide.
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    • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
      Give her time, she's only 35.
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      • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
        Maybe she'll have time to convert to a legitimate political paradigm.
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        • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
          We could invite her on to Galt's Gulch.
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          • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
            She already has 3 strikes:
            1. She's from Hawaii
            2. She's probably a feminist
            3. She's a democrat.

            But worse than those, she thinks she has influence with Middle Eastern potentates.
            That's rather arrogant. American arrogance.
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          • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
            You would give her a reference?

            She may have courage and cojones, but that won't help if she doesn't think right.
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            • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
              I don't think she thinks has any influence with Middle Eastern potentates. She's exposing US lies and trying to influence US policy in the Middle East in the right direction (get out). In my book, that makes her better than the Washington eunuchs who have endorsed and supported the US's endless wars. I'd invite her to Galt's Gulch where she would be exposed to arguments that she probably hasn't heard as a democratic feminist from Hawaii.
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              • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                Do you know if she has connections to any international socialist organizations? Or even any organization related to Soros?
                Like I said, I don't trust her.
                Clever, Bob.
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              • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                It is not up to her to expose U.S. lies, anymore than it was up to Ovomit and Hilary and their henchmen to instigate revolutions across the Near and Middle East.

                But you are wrong. She is an influence peddlar, and leaders in the Near and Middle East know it. She is a young, Democrat feminist trying to prove to Americans and the world she could be a capable leader. Right there, her feeling that she has to prove something, even were she not a Socialist, is a mark against her. From the time I read that she wanted to speak with leaders in the Middle East, I suspected her motives.
                I don't like her.

                If she were sincere, she would at least wait until she had some experience, and learning under her belt.
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                • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
                  I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on all this, but one question. Whose job is it to expose US lies, and why would a member of Congress not be qualified to do so?
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                  • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                    To leaders around the world, she is a traitor to her own country.
                    Assange is not a traitor, nor Snowden, nor Manning. They do not hold positions in government.

                    It was a stupid move on her part.
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                  • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                    She is 35; her motives are suspect. She looks like a traitor (and worse, naive) to those she is trying to impress. It doesn't look good for the U.S.
                    To the Middle East leaders it as if she is putting her own country on the line. Not protecting it.

                    You will have to trust my intuition on this.
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          • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
            AND supporting Bernie Sanders may be morally courageous, but it is not intelligent. Tells me she is living in a fantasy world like he is.

            She veers Left, Bob. God only knows what she would do to capitalism going after "The Deep State". I bet she doesn't really understand it; only that some men are wealthy capitalists, and must be destroyed. I don't trust her.
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            • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
              I don't trust any politician, including Trump. But keep in mind, I phrased my argument in terms of what the Democratic party could do to help itself. I think she's got more going for her than any other Democrat.
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              • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
                I know you did. That's why I wondered why you seemed to be supporting her. The Democratic party is a dead party. She could be the final nail. She wouldn't be old enough to run for president in 2020, would she?
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                • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago
                  I'd like to believe the Democratic party is dead, but it's not. It's like some impossible to eradicate disease that just when you think medicine has the upper hand, it comes roaring back. You only have to be 35 to run for President. However, can you name any other Democrat right now that they can consider a promising farm system prospect? I don't support her, although I like what she's said and done in Syria, but from the Democrats' vantage point, who else do they have?
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      • Posted by $ Seer 7 years, 2 months ago
        I doubt that any Near or Middle Eastern leader respects or trusts a woman, age 35, who comes to tell them her country is a bad country.
        It is not only traitorous in their eyes, it is stupid.
        Reminiscent of Jane Fonda riding on one of Ho Chi Minh's tanks.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 2 months ago
    The ego quoque fallacy, an odd form of the tu quoque fallacy, is not courage. If it were, though, we'd have a socio-biological just-so story to explain why you fancy the president's wife. I'm not sure if somehow this works around to looking at a pile of crap and seeing an anti-statist sundae. (sundae is a reference to https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
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