themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

An Illustrative Twitter Chat with David & Glenn

by

The social justice people are always on the side of compassion and ‘victim’s rights,’ so objecting to anything they do makes you instantly a perpetrator. The thing is if you replace compassion with resentment, then you understand the authoritarian left. There is resentment, fundamentally. – Dr. Jordan Peterson

I had planned on another topic for the day but a debate on twitter caught my attention. And my initially one-sided participation.

The two engaged participants were both journalists – David French of National Review and Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept.

David French had written what I found to be an articulate and thoughtful article in response to twitter outrage over an earlier article on Chelsea Manning – the trans soldier pardoned by Obama. French’s first piece, titled Chelsea Manning’s Release is Nothing to Celebrate, took issue with the release of Manning. I agree with French’s position. But that wasn’t what sparked the outraged responses. It was French’s refusal to use the pronoun “her” when describing Chelsea Manning – previously Bradley Manning – in his initial article.

And the backlash was fierce.Continue Reading

Judge Bork’s Olympians & the Danger of Judicial Activism

by

“Liberals attempt through Judicial Activism what they cannot win at the ballot box” – Rush Limbaugh

“A Constitution is not meant to facilitate change. It is meant to impede change, to make it difficult to change.” – Justice Antonin Scalia

“The role assigned to judges in our system was to interpret the Constitution and lesser laws, not to make them. It was to protect the integrity of the Constitution, not to add to it or subtract from it – certainly not to rewrite it.” – Ronald Reagan

What is Judicial Activism?

Elizabeth Slattery of the Heritage Foundation offers the following from her article, How to Spot Judicial Activism:

“A simple working definition is that judicial activism occurs when judges fail to apply the Constitution or laws impartially according to their original public meaning, regardless of the outcome, or do not follow binding precedent of a higher court and instead decide the case based on personal preference.Continue Reading

The EU’s Two Intractable Issues & Election Anxiety

by

Brussels is breathing a sigh of relief. The first round of the French elections have passed with Marie Le Pen, the anti-immigration, anti-European Union candidate, and Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, pro-open borders and pro-European Union, heading for a runoff election on May 7th. Macron is heavily favored to win the runoff election according to polls. It is telling that both candidates are effectively outsiders – candidates from the French establishment parties were defeated.

But Brussels should not feel overly confident with this short-term respite. While Le Pen is likely to lose the runoff election, she will remain a political force. If she somehow pulls off an upset win, the shock to the EU will be severe – perhaps fatal. Italy, however, may be the true test for the EU. Indeed, Italy may be the place where the fate of the European Union is decided.Continue Reading

Why Socialism Fails

by

“Democratic socialism is legalized theft in the name of the people against the vilified few. It is a battle against income inequality by means of collective immiseration. It is the subjugation of private enterprise and personal autonomy to government power.” – Bret Stephens

“To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.” – Joseph Goebbels

In yet another move of socialist brilliance, the Venezuelan government of Maduro announced the seizure of the General Motors plant located in Valencia. GM immediately announced the layoff of the division’s 2,700 workers. Venezuela has seized more than 1,400 companies since the socialist rise to power in 1999 under Hugo Chavez. Almost all seized companies have ceased operation.

As noted by Ana Quintano, “forty years ago, Venezuela was the fourth richest nation, per capita, in the world. Today, its economy is collapsing. Such are the wages of Chavismo.”Continue Reading

The Globalism Threat – Socialism’s New World Order

by

Capitalism – a social system based on the principle of individual rights. Politically, it is the system of laissez-faire (freedom). Legally it is a system of objective laws (rule of law as opposed to rule of man). Economically, when such freedom is applied to the sphere of production its result is the free market. – capitalism.org

And so I give to you my favorite definition of Capitalism. It encapsulates much of everything that is great about Capitalism – individual rights, freedom, rule of law, free markets. It stands defiantly against the definition of Globalism. Read on.

I’ve always found it ironic that Liberals have feared global rule by a handful of giant corporations yet they would willingly turn over leadership to a handful of elitist politicians in the name of Globalism. But it makes more sense if you view Globalism for what it is – a political goal with Marxist origins.Continue Reading

The Goal of Political Correctness

by

“The point of Political Correctness is not and has never been merely about any of the items that it imposes, but about the imposition itself.” – Angelo M. Codevilla

“The conversations that are the most curative are simultaneously the ones that are most difficult and most dangerous.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson

“What we’re learning from Trump is that a lot of people have been biting their lips, but not changing their minds.” – William Galston

What is Political Correctness?

A simple question with complicated answers.Continue Reading

Gramsci, Alinsky & the Left

by

“Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society” – Antonio Gramsci

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters” – Antonio Gramsci

“Every State is a dictatorship” – Antonio Gramsci

Our nation has been pushed inexorably towards the left for decades. Has this been caused by a simple evolutionary process – a normal outcome of a wealthy and successful society falling into middle age? Or does it have some deeper cause – a more active agent of change?

This question seems to of particular relevance today as the Cultural Wars have broken open – Progressives in near-hysteria, protests ongoing. Watching these events unfold I am reminded of a simple truth.

The present always has a past.Continue Reading

Women’s March – Hidden Agendas

by

My youngest daughter told me that she planned to take part in a “women’s rights march” in Los Angeles while we were having dinner at a restaurant several weeks back. I asked if it was primarily a march against Trump’s Presidency and she noted that element existed but it was really supposed to be about unifying women and their concerns. Her comments got my curiosity piqued.

The Women’s March attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters and was solidified by an underlying theme of distaste for the Trump Presidency but seemed to splinter into thousands of personal causes from there. Breanne Butler, the march’s global coordinator, stated “It’s a march on Washington…Hear our voices, we’ve been silenced. You need to take us into consideration. . . . We are America.”, thereby summing up sentiments that sounded remarkably similar to those voiced by most Trump voters.

But there also appeared to be a more hidden agenda lurking in the shadows.Continue Reading

De-Funding the United Nations

by

The United Nations (UN) was created in 1945 as a replacement for the ineffectual League of Nations. Membership was originally comprised of 51 nations – today there are 193 member nations. The UN has five primary organizational branches: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice (a sixth branch – the Trusteeship Council – has been inactive since 1994). These five branches comprise the “core” United Nations. The UN also has numerous agencies that are often autonomous or semi-autonomous. These agencies include the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program, the Education, Scientific and Cultural Foundation (UNESCO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Continue Reading

Merry Christmas Reclaimed

by

The other day someone told me to “Have a Merry Christmas”. But that’s not what they really said. What they really said was “Have a good Holi….Have a Merry Christmas”. That’s a direct quote – and a good sign.

Last night I turned on the news to watch the Trump Rally in Wisconsin – in order to see what new announcements and appointments were forthcoming (think on that statement for a moment). To my pleasant surprise I saw a podium flanked by Christmas Trees with the words “Merry Christmas” emblazoned across its top. President-Elect Trump came onto the stage amidst chants of “USA, USA”, and he spoke these words;

“When I started eighteen months ago, I told my first crowd in Wisconsin that we’re gonna come back here some day and we are going to say Merry Christmas again. So Merry Christmas everyone. Happy New Year – but Merry Christmas.“

And I applauded.Continue Reading