Rebane's Ruminations
November 2011
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George Rebane

VanJonesWe know that this formerly proud communist has been busy since he had to be jettisoned by Team Obama, but all that has been relatively sub-rosa.  Now the newly-minted Marxist in mufti is on his ascent to the top of the pile located somewhere beyond the American Left.  The man again deserves a feature article – ‘The Return of the Rabble Rouser’ – in the 21nov11 Time magazine that celebrates his political rebirth.

Mr Jones has been working on his American Dream Movement to bring socialist change to America.  His message has been embraced by no less than the Center for Community Change, “one of the left’s most active institutions”, and funded by Soros’ moveon.org.  Cheered on by a slew of Democratic notables like Nancy Pelosi (“Van Jones has made it his life’s work to speak truth to power.”), Jones is looking at the occupiers of OWS as his next legion of action-ready acolytes.

Joining in with labor unions and various leftist NGOs, Jones plans to organize and focus the occupiers into a cohesive voice akin to the tea party movement, and then make an impact on the 2012 elections.  His vision for our country is more than scary, “You talk about the Arab Spring, we could be on the verge of an American Autumn.”   Now American Autumn is about as open and as stark a translation of the promised “fundamental transformation” that I have heard.  This man and his fellow ideologues do not like what they see in our land (“banksters … the worst people in the world”), and they intend to finally marshal the masses to do something about it.

So there will be movement afoot.  One of the more significant asymmetries between the Left and Right is how they evolve in times of stress.  Leftwing movements transit through various stages of collectivism into regimes that finally dispense with their opponents through wholesale slaughter programs like the ‘Kulak liquidation’, ‘Final Solution’, ‘Re-education Camps’, ‘Great Leap Forward’, ‘Cultural Revolution’, or simply the ‘Killing Fields’.  The Rightwing efforts that promote values based on preserving the Bastiat Triangle of rights are co-opted by movements that trade individual liberty for promises of economic security, or the Right just fades away because its people are busy minding their own business.  Collectivists march, conservatives mumble.

So in the coming months we can look forward to that handsome, energetic, and loquacious Van Jones, organizing and leading those upturned faces with fuzzy minds not able to formulate the crisp thoughts and obvious conclusions with which he will provide them.  And then they will seek to be the next generation that is again dissatisfied with the pace and direction of human progress, and in the process militating for a change that they will make their own.

Yesterday they started with a nationwide series of coordinated strikes and demonstrations.  They are on their way, it would be foolish to dismiss him.

[update]  Communism (11%) is more popular than Congress (9%) in America.  These CBS poll results were highlighted this morning on NPR, not once, but from two journalists’ reports in a single segment.  The fringe of communism always becomes more prominent when socialism establishes itself.  The duty of progressives high and low is to turn up the volume of denial when this happens – ‘No, no, no, don’t look behind the curtain!’.  Desperation and ignorance join to make this evil extreme of collectivism again look good.  One out of nine people believing anything is a significant faction in a society.

OWSimage

Posted in , , ,

103 responses to “Van Jones – he’s baaaack! (updated)”

  1. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    “Gee, King, you’ve discovered that there are some folks who believe that the Global North (yes largely white Europeans)have exploited the Global South (largely people of color) Man, you are really onto something…”
    No Mike, what I’ve discovered is that progressives in this country, right now, have a lot to answer for!

    Like

  2. mike thornton Avatar

    Lots of people, have lots to answer for!
    The thing is that you only want some of them to pay and largely it’s not the ones who have done the real damage!

    Like

  3. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    OK, Thornton, GED. Maybe. Probably needed that to get the county drug rehab job.
    I was smart enough to both be accepted into MENSA and then to stop sending them money. You?
    Education isn’t about being “smart”, I’ve known some fairly uneducated geniuses. Education is about learning how to think as clearly and as well as one can, to gain an understanding of what is and what was and to communicate complex ideas. As far as I can tell, your communication style is pure streetfight. Forget logic, forget chaining together thoughts in order to reach an enlightened conclusion. It’s tribal ad hominems from start to finish. Sad.

    Like

  4. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Greg, excellent points. I have watched some interviews of OWS thugs today and I must say their rhetoric mirrors Thornton. He sure seems to be secretive about his educational level. Perhaps one gained against his will?
    Anyway, he seems to have a hate for white Europeans and since I know he is a descendant of them, I am curious why?

    Like

  5. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    BTW, I am curious how Thornton can make the statement about who pays what and how much when we all have the facts only 1/2 pay federal income taxes and the top 1% pay 38% of the total federal bill. That includes those evil corporations. I guess we just have to put up with the bombastic and foolish rhetoric of liberals like Thornton. At least we have the truth on our side.

    Like

  6. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    “Lots of people, have lots to answer for! The thing is that you only want some of them to pay and largely it’s not the ones who have done the real damage!”
    It appears that since folks with light colored skins and European ancestry screwed over folks with darker colored skins in the past, the peoples of color are owed reparations by people of pallor.
    Hmmm. Thornton, I’ve a great great grandfather who ran away from home to join the abolitionist Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Does that buy me any absolution? I’ve a very possibly delusional cousin who generated a family tree that puts Pocahontas as my great-great-…-great grandmother. Does that buy me any Indulgences. If it does, does the status of her husband John Rolfe as the founding US tobacco farmer take that away?
    In short, can my ancestors write any check that I must cash? Can distant relatives not in my genetic line write checks that I must cash? Who decides how much I need to give, and who decides when the debt is paid?
    Just how does this all work in Thornton’s world?
    I was forced to read Locke’s 2nd Treatise on Civil Government a few decades ago. Thornton, give it a spin.

    Like

  7. George Rebane Avatar

    Memo to file re GeorgeR 1002am – well, I guess that little exhortation didn’t work. They’re at it stronger than ever.

    Like

  8. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Along the lines of Greg’s thoughts. My relatives came over on my mom’s side in the late 1600’s. They never owned a slave nor did they have anything to do with colonial power in the rest of the world. They were simple folks, carpenters, store keeprs etc. So can I claim them as a “get out of Thornton’s jail card”? My grandaddy fought in WW1 for the freedom of the folks there. My daddy in WW2. He beat those fascists,you know the ones that murdered fifty million people. The people they called sub-human. Well Thornton, does that give me a pass?
    You see Thornton, your phony outrage is what I call a simple race hustle. Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, they use the phony outrage to make money off their race hustle. You fell for it. Too bad.

    Like

  9. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    One more thing, Thornton… I regularly send zingers in Todd’s direction. Here’s one…
    Todd, the working poor and middle class get a large percentage of their wages skimmed off the top by the feds. They pay payroll taxes, and the money they pay in payroll taxes is considered income they’ll have to pay income taxes on, even though they’ll never see it. Then an equivalent chunk of money is sent by their employer to the government for the right to rent a body for their labor; the difference is the employer doesn’t have to pay income taxes on that chunk.
    The Congress takes that money and pretends to put it into the pocket they pay benefits from and not the pocket they pay out for defense, the patent office, justice or the other enumerated powers that are actually in the Constitution.
    Congress takes their money and gives it to someone else, with a promise that they’ll take from their children to give to them in the future. Sorry, but everyone who works pays a big chunk of their income in Federal Income Taxes. Social Security and Medicare are big fat federal income taxes. Come to grips with it. Stop with the fiction they are not.

    Like

  10. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Todd said:
    “Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, they use the phony outrage to make money off their race hustle.”
    Watch this video on Margaret Sanger and note the part where she talks about using reverends to keep the black folks inline; very illuminating!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEja-1emRic

    Like

  11. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Scan to min 5:40 in the video Todd.

    Like

  12. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    DK, Sanger’s legacy has killed far more babies of pallor than babies of color. However, PP has killed many more black babies than the KKK would have ever dared dream.
    Religion is the opiate of the masses. Pro football, too.

    Like

  13. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Greg,
    So, I can’t figure out why progressives throw the race card all the time. Is it a diversion or a lack of knowledge?

    Like

  14. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    That Sanger chick was bad news. She sure called it though for the race hustlers.
    Greg, I just have to disagree with you on your fiction about Social Security and Medicare. Those are programs of pay and purchase. The money paid into their”trust” funds is totally different than a “income tax”. As the Constitutional Amendments states, the Congress shall tax all “income” and I know you know the difference. Now, if the federals take the money and leave an IOU then place the money into the general fund, you could have a point.
    The income tax comes in many forms ut not SS or Medicare.
    The working poor and others pay into a fund they are supposedly going to use at old age. A unemployment check is paid for by income taxes.

    Like

  15. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Sorry, Todd, but there is no “Trust Fund”, just a checking account where the workers pay in and retireees and junkies get checks. It’s still money taken from Peter to pay Paul levied on their income. That they pretend to tax Mary in the future to pay Peter back isn’t even a legal promise. There is no contractual obligation for anyone to get paid back.
    The Feds DO take the money and leave an IOU. That’s how SS has always worked.

    Like

  16. George Rebane Avatar

    Re the Trust Funds – I believe that the claimed trust funds do exist (else too many in Congress have perjured themselves), but they have nothing but Treasuries in them (that is IOUs) that the feds gave back when they immediately took out the cash from payroll deductions for SS and Medicare, and put the same cash into the general fund to be spent immediately. The Treasuries are to be redeemed for spendable cash out of God knows what – perhaps some combination of taxes, borrowed money, and/or payroll deductions (the latter making it all a Ponzi scheme).

    Like

  17. Mike Thornton Avatar

    You know GG, it sounds to me like you’ve got a bit on an insecurity complex.
    It’s OK man. Maybe you should hit up the United Negro College Fund, they say “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” And clearly you’ve got real issues, when it comes to minds, money and people of color. Knock yourself out homeboy!

    Like

  18. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    I have always been told there was a trust fund! OMG, did they lie? LOL. We have all dutifully paid our “fairshare” over our lifetimes and even the Supreme Court has defined those “trust funds” as entitlements, not to be messed with. No, we allowed the politicians to take that money and replace the funds with IOU’s. I say, let us rent our people out to the Chinese to get our money returned. We could build them a new Great Wall!

    Like

  19. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Todd,
    “That Sanger chick was bad news. She sure called it though for the race hustlers.”
    Oh wow!
    http://vanjones.net/

    Like

  20. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Yes, Todd, calling it a trust fund made it easy to gain folks trust. Your money isn’t in an account earning interest from real investments. Some got given to prior retirees, the positive balance got swept into the general fund where it is now part of the national debt. They loaned the money to themselves and spent it. It’s now just more debt your kids and grandkids need to pay off.

    Like

  21. Mikey McD Avatar

    Ditto: “Memo to file re GeorgeR 1002am – well, I guess that little exhortation didn’t work. They’re at it stronger than ever.”
    Posted by: George Rebane | 16 November 2011 at 02:50 PM
    George, we may need to brainstorm (over a bottle of vino?) how to focus the comments. I am glad that I did not hold my breathe when I asked my SS question of the left (“What should be the punishment for a 30 year old father of 3 who knowingly chooses not to contribute 10.4% of ‘his’ wages to social security?”).

    Like

  22. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Greg we are on the same wavelength,the bottom line is they swiped it.

    Like

  23. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    “You know GG, it sounds to me like you’ve got a bit on an insecurity complex.”
    You know, Thornton, I figured you’d skip out on any discussion of real ideas and go back into your familiar dark side. I think what you’re doing here is called “projecting” by all the best pop psychologists.

    Like

  24. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    No Todd, they didn’t “swipe it”. The Feds did exactly what they said they would.

    Like

  25. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    No Greg, they legally swiped it. Right in front of us.

    Like

  26. bill tozer Avatar
    bill tozer

    I think I got a case of the craps down at OWS. Darn, I was told those little horny tents are not safe and now I know why. But I digress. If Obama was a principled man, he would have stood by Van Jones and the o so reverend Reverend Jeremiah Wright. They spoke his language and expressed his thoughts. Obama turning his back on those who shared his core beliefs is a crying shame and proves he has no backbone. Anyway, nothing says “sorry about the craps” like flowers. Guess I won’t hold my breath waiting for the florist.

    Like

  27. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    “George, we may need to brainstorm (over a bottle of vino?) how to focus the comments.”
    Curb your Thornton. I must say I find his little happy fun slanders have no place in any blog. Defamations should be deleted.

    Like

  28. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    From the update:
    “Desperation and ignorance join to make this evil extreme of collectivism again look good. One out of nine people believing anything is a significant faction in a society.”
    The young didn’t have the first hand experience that we did George, you more so. BTW, I don’t believe the numbers from these Bozos any more. I also think that younger people will figure things out faster than we did. Once they find out, the progressives had better find a good place to hide.

    Like

  29. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Todd, when they started boosting SS tax rates and limits in the 80’s, where did you think the excess “contributions” were going? Into a vault under Ft. Knox where all those dollars would somehow multiply in the dark like so many mushrooms?
    Anyway, sorry George, this is way off the Van Jones subject.

    Like

  30. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Greg, I was bamboozled by the silver tonged devils called democrats. LOL

    Like

  31. Mike Thornton Avatar

    GG, how come you never apply that same standard to your buddies, or more pointedly to yourself?

    Like

  32. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Thornton, you’re in pure ad hominem mode today, which tells me you’ve run out of ammo. This “buddies” thing is especially silly; I don’t share an ideology with anyone here, except maybe RL Crabb, a fine fellow who I generally share chuckles with talking about the blogosphere when our orbits intersect.
    D. King, to answer your question, why do the Thorntons of the world like to slander folks with the racist charge? Giving it some thought, I think it’s because it’s fun, easy, and akin to “when did you stop beating your wife?” in making people squirm. He probably also is bigoted enough to think that only the hard left are without the original sin of bigotry.
    Decided to look further for something of interest, so I googled “racism of conservatives”. The very first hit was a paper from Frisco State, Frisch’s alma mater (probably one of his professors), entitled “Conservatism and Racism, and Why They are the Same in America”. That’s probably as good an introduction of how these guys think as anything else.
    http://bss.sfsu.edu/rsmith/americanpolitics/conservatism%20and%20racism.pdf

    Like

  33. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    That wasn’t a paper, apparently was an intro to the book the good professor wrote:
    http://www.amazon.com/Conservation-America-African-American-Studies/dp/1438432321/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321512155&sr=1-2
    From the Back Cover
    “In this provocative, wide-ranging study, Robert C. Smith contends that ideological conservatism and racism are and always have been equivalent in the United States. In this carefully constructed and thoroughly documented philosophical, historical, and empirical inquiry, Smith analyzes conservative ideas from John Locke to William F. Buckley Jr., as well as the parallels between the rise and decline of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1970s and the ascendancy of the conservative movement to national power in 1980. Using archival material from the Reagan Library, the book includes detailed analysis of the Reagan presidency and race, focusing on affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act, the Grove City case, welfare reform, South Africa policy, and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same goes beyond a focus on the right wing, concluding with an analysis of the enduring impact of the conservative movement and the Reagan presidency on liberalism, race, and the Democratic Party. ”
    Ain’t tenure great?

    Like

  34. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Rereading the thread, one more little loose end… Frisch used the term “dyn-o-mite” to bring to mind another black tv character. The comedian Jimmy Walker who had that as a catch phrase is a libertarian, not a democrat:
    http://server.theadvocates.org/celebrities/jimmie-walker.html

    Like

  35. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Thanks Greg,
    I guess eugenics is just like crack to progressives, they just can’t stop.

    Like

  36. RL Crabb Avatar

    Well, Greg, not exactly…The Republican party did quite a bit to earn its racist cred. Billy Buckley, back in 1957, said this about southern white’s right to dominate areas in which they were the minority…
    “The sobering answer is yes…The white community is entitled because it is the more advanced race…It is more important to affirm and live by civilized standards than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority.”
    And I do recall the resistance of the Reagan administration to ending apartheid in South Africa, at least until public opinion forced the issue. The same with Arizona’s refusal to observe MLK day.
    This isn’t to say that the Dems hands are clean, but most of them changed their positions or party after the sixties.
    The Repubs have come a long way since those times. Just ask Condi Rice or Colin Powell or even Herman Cain. Is there still racism in the GOP? Of course, and it doesn’t help when yahoos like Dixon toss out terms like “jigaboo”. But I still contend that most conservatives are not racist.

    Like

  37. Mike Thornton Avatar

    Bob:
    I agree with you that most conservatives are NOT racists!
    My point here is that on RR there can be almost no discussion of any topic where one of the “gang of 8” doesn’t throw out some racially based statement as part of their argument. Frankly, I believe that they (more often than not) think they’re being clever and have little awareness of what they’re doing. What it really shows is not so much that they hate Black people, but that they are so immersed in their own White “privilege” that they don’t see how they’re perpetuating the structural racism that this country has been built upon, and has continued operating under since its inception Are things better (for some Blacks) than they were in 1776, or for that matter 1956? Of course. But the other aspect is that there has been no improvement in the economic “wealth” held by Blacks (in general) in America in the last 40 years.
    This is the real issue that the “Gang of 8” refuses to deal with and it doesn’t apply simply to Black Americans. 1% of Americans control 40+% of the entire wealth of the country. Does anyone really believe that this has happened based on “merit”?
    People are standing up and demanding a bigger share of the pie. And the response of the police is to beat them back down into submission. Why? Because the police (in the end) work for the wealthy and to protect their property, their priveledge and their wealth.
    So are conservatives racists, largely not. But are they seeking to perpetuate structural inequality that disproportionally effects Blacks and other people of color?
    Absolutely! The sad thing is that most of them are too ignorant to be able to understand that is what they’re doing.

    Like

  38. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    RL, I’m not sure where the not exactly applies.
    I get an impression Buckley wasn’t talking about a genetic superiority there; for a lot of mostly bad reasons, the Southern whites he wa referring to were probably much better educated, and it’s not like blacks were particularly welcome in a lot of Democratic and white Boston neighborhoods in those days, either. Or now. And until recently, a former Grand Cyclops Klansman was the senior Democrat in the Senate.
    I’ve also had quite literate and educated blacks tell me they preferred the open racism they’d see in the South over the soft and often hidden racism of the North.

    Like

  39. Mike Thornton Avatar

    Greg: I don’t want to fight with you today, but you’re proving my point. I agree with what you have said in your last post until you get too: “I’ve also had quite literate and educated blacks tell me they preferred the open racism they’d see in the South over the soft and often hidden racism of the North.”
    It seems for you that there are the “deserving” Blacks, that meet your standards of credibility and the the rest of them that don’t.
    I believe that you don’t consciously think that, but don’t you see how it perpetuates a negative system and hurts more than helps?

    Like

  40. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    The difference between the Thornton’s and the rest of us is simple, we love everyone as people, he sees colors.

    Like

  41. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    You really know how to mangle a thought, Thornton. “Deserving” blacks? I don’t think articulate and deserving are the same thing.
    You apparently invent your own reality and your images of the players there.

    Like

  42. Mike Thornton Avatar

    Forget it it, Greg…
    I gotta tell ya, I’m losing respect for the credibility of Mensa by the minute.
    And TJ, you’re just ridiculous.
    I’m done for now. I actually have to go to work.

    Like

  43. Steve Frisch Avatar
    Steve Frisch

    I agree with Bob, most conservatives are not racists; but conservatives that turn a blind eye to race baiting and inflammatory language, intentional use of stereotypes, and the use of racially charged terms, disguised as subtle jokes, with the intention of fomenting a racially charged discussion, are. That is exactly what Todd did, and you guys still have not taken him to task for it. As long as you harbor bigots and racisists, instead of calling them on their nonsense, you will be seen in the same light.
    By the way, since my last comment yesterday was censored, please don’t quote it. Readers will not be able to place the comments in context.

    Like

  44. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Well here I go, I am moving on up, headed for a better life here on the planet. I find it typical of liberals like Frisch and Thornton (in my opinion exhibitors of closet racism and projecting) looking for those code words in every para and sentence. Their lives have to be extremely vacuous.

    Like

  45. Greg Goodknight Avatar
    Greg Goodknight

    Frankly, Thornton, anyone who follows ‘I don’t want to fight today’ with a clear slander doesn’t know if they want to sit or go sailing.
    You’ve dodged all the substance and went straight for the slander.
    Frisch, there’s a difference between censored and edited. The government does one, your publisher does the other.

    Like

  46. George Rebane Avatar

    SteveF 817am – Please remind me, what comment of yours was censored??

    Like

  47. mike thornton Avatar

    Steve Frisch sums up my arguement regarding race issues at RR very well.
    The thing I find disturbibg (as does Steve) is that you guys never admit the obvious, regardless of how many times it’s pointed out to you.
    And then at the same time you turn around and make grand pronoucements about how you and only you should be able to dictate the direction that America should go in.
    The inability to admit one’s own mistatkes is pathological and leads to serious problems for everyone concerned. So the fact that the “Gang of 8” exhibits said pathology on a daily basis, catagorically makes them unfit for any decision making role or leadership.

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  48. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    God you are funny Thornton. When you start writing something of substance we might start paying attention. Childish drivel is all you have.

    Like

  49. mike thornton Avatar

    I’ve told you before Todd, I don’t care what you think!

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