The Tipping Point, Goodbye "Crypto-Anarchists," Sexual Harassment, Carousel and "The Meeting"

You'll Never Walk Alone

Last week’s rather pessimistic blog concluded with a picture reproduced below, with the caption, “the future.”  Perhaps I should have added Oscar Hammerstein’s famous lyrics from the musical “Carousel.”  Here they are:

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

“Carousel” opened on Broadway less that three weeks before much of the dark and the storm of the Second World War ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender.  It was 72 years ago then, when a “golden sky” peeked through the clouds and “the sweet silver song of a lark” might be heard if one listened hard enough. This lyric continues to have universal appeal today, especially today.

Jack Lippman

Playing with Words – “Crypto-Anarchist”

Up until the last posting on this blog I had been using the word “crypto-anarchist” (a word I erroneously believed I had invented) to describe someone who secretly (that’s where ‘crypto’ comes in) believes that we can do without the hierarchy of a governmental structure, which is what anarchy is all about.  Last week, I switched over to calling such folks “almost-anarchists,” people who make it no secret that their desire for very limited government approaches not having any government at all.

It turns out that the word “crypto-anarchist” has actually been around for a while (there actually is a “Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto!) and refers specifically to those who use electronic means, including computer programs involving “encryption,” to get around governments and subvert their activities, particularly those of a regulatory nature.  Julian Assange and his Wikileaks agenda might be considered an example, using encrypted emails to accomplish what governments wouldn’t allow them to do.

 

From now on, when I want to describe a conservative who wants to do away with most government functions, other than national defense, so that business can be carried on in as close to an unregulated manner as possible, I will henceforth use the term “almost-anarchist.”  “Almost-Anarchism” can be considered the extreme right wing of Libertarianism, which is a movement which aims, among other things, at freeing individuals from interference from “government.”

 

One of the Koch brothers, David, ran as the Libertarian candidate for Vice President in 1980 so that should give you some idea of that group’s orientation. Since that time, the Koch brothers (at right) have broken off their relationship with the Libertarian Party, preferring to use their influence (and money) to establish and support groups promulgating the libertarian ideas with which they hope to infuse the Republican Party.  Nevertheless, understanding “Almost-Anarchists” can be made easier by studying some of the elements of the Koch brothers’  activities.   Check out an informative March 2016 article  from the Bill Moyers website on this subject BY CLICKING HERE.

 

While It covers some of the same territory that Jane Mayer’s book, “Dark Money” (a “must” read for anyone who doubts that the United States is in great danger of becoming something other than a democracy), it provides considerable insight of its own as well.  CLICK HERE TO READ IT.

In August of 2011, I included a totally fictitious story (“The Meeting”) on this blog which after reading this article, seems closer to fact than fiction.  That story, for those of you who have not already read it, is included in today’s posting.  I believe that this short story preceded Ms. Mayer's wonderful book by several years.

JL

What is the Tipping Point?

Anyone with half a brain knows that the President’s position regarding moving our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a bad move, along with our recognition of that city as Israel’s capital.  That is already accepted on a “de facto” basis, but putting it on a “de jure” basis can only serve to arouse Palestinian hostility, foment violence and delay any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

Anyone with half a brain knows that mocking the North Korean leader and threatening military action is not the way to deal with that country’s nuclear aspirations.  If there is to be a solution, it must be a diplomatic one and not one based on military threats.  War is what happens when diplomacy fails.

Anyone with half a brain knows that ignoring histories of sexual harassment is morally reprehensible and that the President’s thoughts, as recorded on that infamous “Access Hollywood” video as well as the numerous accusations made against the Republican nominee for Senator from Alabama cannot be shoved aside for the sake of political expediency.

                                 

It is likely that many Republicans possess far more than half a brain and are beginning to show concern as to what the “tipping point” would be.  When will the President’s behavior prove to be even too much for Republicans in both Houses of Congress who, for the sake of political expediency and to avoid alienating the President’s army of supporters, have up to now supported him?  What will it take for them to rise up and scream “Enough is Enough! We have had it!”

Perhaps it would be best for the President to really shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue to prove his boast that even then his supporters would stick by him if he did that. But believe me, the New York City Police Department and the District Attorney for New York County (Manhattan) would not!  He surely would be arrested, jailed and tried for attempted murder. 

Would that be sufficient to convince Republicans to forget about their "Dopey" in the White House and start putting the welfare of their country and the world ahead of their party and the big money donors to whom it appears it is beholden? 

 

To avoid such bloodshed on Fifth Avenue though, it should be remembered that a President can also be removed from office according to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment if he is “incapacitated.”  The question remains as to how one defines “incapacitated.”  Woodrow Wilson, and possibly even Ronald Reagan, during their second terms in office might have met the dictionary definition of being “incapacitated” (deprived of strength or power, debilitated).  At this moment, unfortunately for the country, it does not clearly fit that high office’s present occupant, regardless of whether or not he has half a brain.  Duhhh.

JL

Does What this Boss Did Qualify as Sexual Harassment?

The lecherous company president and CEO is peering into neighboring apartments through a telescope from the window of his palatial skyscraper abode.  

Through a bathroom window, he spies an attractive woman stepping out of the shower.  He recognizes her as someone he has seen at company functions, possibly the wife of one of his vice-presidents, and immediately, he "wants" her.  The next day, he contacts her,  insisting that she come visit him in his apartment.  Recognizing him and  knowing of his high position in the company, and perhaps awed or frightened, she dutifully complies. They have a sexual encounter resulting in her pregnancy.  After an unsuccessful attempt to make it appear that the husband was the father, the boss decides to make sure he is killed in an industrial accident.  And they live happily ever after.   This is not fiction.  It really happened.  Check it out in the  Bible.  (Prophets - ll Samuel 11, 12)

Even though he ultimately married her, was King David initially guilty of sexual harassment of Bathsheba?  The "Man (?) Upstairs" seemed to think so and sent the Prophet Nathan to let David know of his (her?) displeasure with his behavior.  

Sexual harassment is still with us. And to a greater extent than what is in the headlines.  Others are now playing the role Nathan did with King David.  It is not inconceivable that within a few years, just to be on the safe side, all TV newspeople and anchors, and those holding leadership roles in the entertainment world, will be women and gay men. Perhaps this also will extend into government and ultimately business, but to a somewhat lesser extent.  

The ultimate reaction to sexual harassment may be found in the mythological legend of Hippolyta, warrior Queen of the Amazons, whose followers only allowed their female offspring to survive, slaying the males.  Of course, ultimately this was self-defeating.  But it's only a legend.

JL

And here is the 2011 short story I promised you in the second item on this posting:

The Meeting

Jack Lippman
 

The meeting was held in a secluded and luxurious chalet in the foothills of an isolated mountain range.   A private airstrip was the only access to the place other than a rugged unmarked road used to bring in the staff, food and housekeeping essentials from the nearest town, sixty miles away.  A number of private jets were parked at the end of the runway where the hangar and fuel depot were located.   

The men, all casually dressed as if they were there for a weekend of hunting or fishing, sat around a large conference table.  They shall remain nameless, but suffice it to say, each one represented personal wealth in excess of the 300 billion dollar level, which made their eight figure annual salaries almost meaningless.  These were the wealthiest men in America.   If I were to identify them, you would not recognize one name.  Each had gone to great lengths to preserve their anonymity, a quality common to possessors of wealth of this kind.

“Gentlemen,” intoned a short gray-haired man sitting at the table.  “In order to get to our agenda promptly and tend to business, I want to remind all of you of what our group is all about.  I am sure you all already know this … that is why you are here … but these ideas bear frequent repeating.”  No one said anything.  A few of the men nodded their assent.

"Although we as individuals are clearly the most charitable people in the world, our prime objective is wealth preservation.”

“Not exactly,” someone interjected.  “I am not in the least charitable.  I don’t care if people out there live or die or starve or whatever.  I donate for tax purposes.  If the God damn government took away the deductions I get for what I give, and what my foundations give away, I wouldn’t let loose of a red cent.”

“Thank you, George, for your comments.  But let’s get on with it,” the discussion leader continued. 

“Ideally, it would be wonderful if there were no such thing as taxes.  Some of you, I know, have moved a lot of your wealth to countries where there are practically none, but we all know there are limits to how much of that you can do.  So long as we are Americans, we must do as much as we can to keep taxes here to a minimum and deductions and loopholes at a maximum.  We must have a government, for without one, we would lose the protection it provides to allow us the freedom to do what we want with our money.  And of course, at a minimum, we need an army and navy to provide that protection.”

George raised his hand, was recognized, and spoke up.  “Bull.  We don’t need the government to provide us with a military.  We can hire our own.  It’s cheaper that way.  There’s plenty of mercenaries around and no one gives a shit if they get killed.”

“George, thank you for your comments.  That’s something to consider, but let’s get on.  Even though the maximum tax rate is down to 35%. that's still a big hit.  Even with deductions and shelters, it takes a lot out our wallets.  The Democrats would like to see it go back up to 39%, like it was under Clinton.  I would love it back down to 25% or even lower.  Single digits would be fine.  And paying into Social Security is something we must avoid.  That’s a bottomless pit. We only pay into it on a miniscule fraction of our income but I would hate to see that changed, and there are those out there who want to do exactly that.”

“Look at the numbers, though. There are only ten of us in this room and there are maybe another 100,000 top-bracket taxpayers out there who are almost in the same boat as we are, and we are speaking for them too.  Our task is to make sure the government keeps doing it our way.  We have to get the country behind us.  That Norquist fellow did a fine job getting a lot of Congressmen to pledge never to increase taxes nor get rid of our blessed loopholes, but he’s beginning to lose his credibility.  Bush helped him a lot to connect to the conservatives out there, but that’s history now.”

The discussion leader paused briefly, looked out of the massive picture windows at the spectacular scenery surrounding the chalet and continued.  

“As I see it, we must do everything to promote the idea that tax increases, in any form whatsoever, including removing loopholes and deductions, are extremely bad for the country.  We must drill it into the heads of all Americans that taxation removes incentive to invest and grow the economy at all levels and kills jobs.  That gets them every time.  We have to get that into the schools at all levels, even kindergarten.” 

“Ha,” someone laughed.  “Maybe we should put out an Ayn Rand inspired comic book for kids.”

“Great idea,” the leader chuckled. “But this is no laughing matter.  We must convince America that the Laffer curve, the economic ideas of Milton Friedman and of course, of Frederick Hayek, are irrefutable truths, deserving of as much respect as the Ten Commandments.  And that the Keynesian policies of using government spending and higher taxes as tools with which to manage the economy, and to provide an unearned safety net, are poisonous.”

“The way to do this is to convince a majority of Americans of the validity of our positions.  And this is a great time to continue to do this.  The citizenry is hurting and they, like us, are taxpayers.  We need them on our side. They will buy this argument that taxes are the cause of all of the country’s problems, if we shove it down their throats hard enough and often enough.  Put the blame on the government.  It spends too much.  On anything and everything.  As a wise person out there has said, ‘we have to starve the beast.’"

"If the funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and every government spending program out there were cut at least in half, we would never again need to even think about raising taxes.  We might even cut them significantly.   Frankly, I know people would be hurting and some might even die, and things the government does, like roads and dams and research, would have to be eliminated.  But it is far more important that this nation preserve our freedom to accumulate wealth without having to share it with anyone else through excessive taxation.  It’s our money. We cannot have anything that would even hint at the Marxist concept of wealth redistribution.  That’s what high taxes really are. The French cut off Louis XIV’s head to start this God damn leftist ball rolling and we aim to make sure it is stopped right here.” 

All those around the table rose and applauded the speaker.

“Okay, here is the way we do it.  And it has to be done so convincingly that even the Congressmen and local politicians who come aboard actually believe this stuff with all their hearts.  That won’t be easy, because some of them are really smart, but we need to make them believers.” 

1. We must control the media.  We have to have at least one or two major TV networks in our pocket whose programming we can control.  We must dominate talk radio, internet web sites, newspapers, particularly in smaller cities and towns, and magazines.  Once they get our message out, it gets E-mailed all over the country, multiplied ten-fold.  


2. We must fund foundations and institutes which provide legitimate appearing material and documentation, telling our story, to be provided to the media.  Generously endowing a few hard-up colleges or universities can result in strong support for our position from the academic world.  


3. We must ally ourselves with groups who seem susceptible to adopting our ideology because they are already single-mindedly devoted to one cause or another.  This blind devotion can be easily transferred to our cause. This will increase our numbers and believe me, this is very applicable to members of Congress and local legislators.  The groups with which we must ally ourselves are endless.  They include pro-Israel groups, pro-life groups, creationists, anti-fluouride groups, home schooling and pro-educational voucher groups, evangelical Christian groups, anti-immigrant groups, chambers of commerce, some professional societies, sporting groups, bankers associations and Second Amendment groups.


4.  We must repeatedly attack any opposition to our positions.  Innuendo and stretching the truth can be used to discredit any who disagree with us.  Guilt by association and lies, even ones easily disproven, are effective tools since refuting them takes the opposition’s eye off of the ball.  Individuals who are in financial distress can be coerced. Anything questionable in an opponent’s personal life should be capitalized on.

“Gentlemen, to embark on this program, we have established an off-shore funding center with access to all of our accounts in this country.  Everything is cryptographically protected to a degree beyond the capability of any government in the world to decipher.  You will never be identified as being involved in this program. Take a deep breath, gentlemen, for here is the price tag to do this job properly." 

"If any of you are not willing to contribute $200,000,000 to this effort right now and commit to that amount each and every year for the next ten years, you may get up and leave this room right now. All of your jets out there have been refueled and are ready to take off with you if you so choose. Remember though, what I propose  is not only for your good, but for the good of the country as we know it.  You see, I am firmly convinced of the truth of every word that I have said.”  

He rose and looked at all of the men sitting around the table, making eye contact with each of them individually.  None of the nine other men even budged nor made any motion to leave their seats.  He paused for half a minute and only then, smiled.

“Okay, then.  Let’s have lunch and afterwards, I want to introduce you to a few people who will make sure every penny of the two billion dollars that you have just pledged is well spent … and turn over the chair of our group for the next year to whomever is next in alphabetical order.  That’s you, George, right?”                                                                                                                                                 
Everyone leaned back as white-jacketed waiters entered the room, laid down fine bone china and sterling silver table settings and prepared to serve a lunch which did not come from McDonalds.                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                              

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