In my new book and prior columns I have described a “radical chic” in academia, faculty who thrill audiences with extremist rhetoric and calls for radical reforms, even revolution. The latest example comes from Arizona State University where professors laid out their dystopian vision of America, a vision that apparently can be avoided by “dismantl[ing] capitalism” and “elect[ing] a female president.”
At the outset, it is important to note two things. First, the program covered by the conservative site College Fix was a small event. Second, these faculty members have every right to espouse these views and it is good for students to have a wide variety of viewpoints on campus.
My objection in the past has not been the presence of far left faculty on campuses but the purging of conservative, moderate, and libertarian faculty.
It is also important to address what are becoming common and extreme arguments on our campuses, including a growing anticapitalist movement.
The event titled “Jenny Irish’s HATCH: A Speculative Future for Reproductive Rights” was held both in person and via Zoom. Jenny Irish, an ASU English professor, was joined by Angela Lober, director of the Academy of Lactation Programs at ASU’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
Lober, who runs major programs at the school, offered some of the most extreme viewpoints, including the assertion that “the United States hates women and everything the female body does.”
It was a remarkable claim for a nation that has been a leader in the world in women’s rights for over a century and has long had major female leaders from the Vice President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to various cabinet members.
Not to be outdone, Irish expressed her fear that the United States could see “forced breeding camps” and “cannibalism.” She told the students and faculty that “so much of our reality points toward those futures.” She was less clear on what specifically is pointing to that future other than the Supreme Court’s decision to leave abortion to the states.
Lober was, however, clear about the solution in calling for the audience to help “dismantle capitalism” and “elect a female president.”
The event was co-hosted by ASU Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, which hosts events that aim to design “a future keyed to human flourishing.”
Putting the hyperbolic rhetoric to the side, the anti-capitalist calls have become ubiquitous on campuses. Socialism has become a rallying cry with polls showing that young people have a more positive view of socialism than capitalism.
There is an interesting dynamic to the push for socialism in the United States. Advocates may have a harder time convincing new migrants and citizens who fled socialist countries like Venezuela.
The draw of a “land of opportunity” has been due to not just our laws but also our economic system. The ability to sustain that growth (or support the existing social welfare systems) depends on a competitive economic system.
The irony is found in comments like those of Fidel Castro who declared that “my idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.” Cuba was (and continues to be decades later) an utter economic basket case without either liberty or prosperity.
Hugo Chavez made the same claim before driving his country into an economic tailspin.
As a student at the University of Chicago, I was fortunate enough to attend lectures by Milton Friedman and, despite being a liberal, I was convinced that there was a connection between capitalism and individual liberty. There are liberty-enhancing economic systems and those that are liberty-reducing. The freedom of economic choice in a capitalist system has historically reinforced individual liberty in my view.
The ASU event captures a rising call for dismantling an economic system that helped drive industrial innovation and massive wealth creation. It has also left great wealth disparities. We have sought to address poverty with social programs that offer greater opportunity for those who have not been able to escape cycles of poverty. We have much work to be done. However, the anti-capitalist movement often offers few specifics on the alternatives, as at the ASU event.
This is a debate that should be welcomed but not in this type of one-sided, jingoistic presentation. Imagine how much more substantive this panel would have been with an alternative viewpoint. Let’s have a discussion on the merits of capitalism and the record of alternative systems. That would offer educational and not merely emotive benefits to our academic community.
Jonathan Turley is a Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).
The word “liberal” needs redefinition. In today’s world, conservatives are the true espousers of liberal values–free speech being THE number one value.
In today’s world “liberal” is NOT synonymous with “left wing”. Being Left means being today’s most rigid thinker. And isn’t that what fascists/communists always sought? For everyone to be in lockstep. It’s the linchpin principle of cancel culture’s movement.
Imagine Anti-American, Anti-Constitutionalist, General Secretary, Maximal Comrade, Dear Leader, Supreme Despot, and Abject Tyrant, Abraham Lincoln, was a Republican.
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“That dudn’t make any sense.”
– George W. Bush
*Some remember the 50s and 60s with American buildings made of marble floors and columns, burnished carved wood and polished brass were common. It was beautiful.
Women have a duty. Women must make the people of a nation, or there will be no nation. America ran out of people because women failed in their duty to make Americans. Americans are now imported. Americans and America are vanishing. “Asylum” immigration is invasion by fraudulent illegal alien invaders. The Great Unwashed covet, bear false witness, and steal American wealth and territory. The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral.” More Americans die than are born. American women have destroyed America’s future. Alternatively, feeble, milquetoast, and dastardly American men allowed American women to destroy America’s future and America.
The ascendance of incoherence means that the End must be near.
AI will be assuming total control soon.
AI has no need for homo sapiens sapiens.
* oh sure, is that reason there’s 7 BILLION people? Yeah, breeding has truly failed.
Correct, 8 billion over the last ~125,000 years.
Bring that forward to a more contemporary context.
* you have written records going back 125,000 years? Do publish them…
These pieces about supposed anti-conservative activity in higher education are becoming increasingly tiresome.
The activities that Turley writes about are minor, trivial things that he blows out of all proportion. The faux outrage that he generates is ridiculous.
Has anyone wondered where he gets these stories from?
They are always obscure minor things involving a very few people with strange views. By no means are they representative of the institutions as a whole. The idea that these very few people represent a major organized movement to subvert higher education is absurd. It is just a very few people exercising their rights to free speech, which seems to important to Turley.
You will not find these trivial, inconsequential stories in the media, so where does Turley get them from???
I think I know.
I will make a bold prediction.
We will soon see an article about a group calling for climate change to be taught in medical schools.
Global warming and climate change are the primary and fundamental courses in “higher education,” and they exist to collectivize students and, by extension, general populations.
The courses must be constrained to the Science Department, where they would be perishable.
The West is down to cattle flatulence and corn sweat now; one ponders what is next.
It’s quite clear from Turley’s post that: 1) he learned about this academic insanity from the College Fix; 2) he states in the second paragraph it was a small event; and 3) he supports the free speech rights of the lunatics to promote their lunacy.
You wrote a whole bunch of words for no reason. Except to whine.
* I need more t-shirt lawsuits!
This type of nonsense is absurd.
What those on the left apparently believe is bat-schiff crazy.
Does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allow women to vote with effect? They’re not that absurd. The Chinese government is structured exactly as the American Founders and Framers intended for America—a Congress and President in a severely restricted-vote republic—turnout in America was 11.6% in 1789, and voters generally must have been male, European, age 21, with a net worth of 50 lbs. Sterling or 50 acres. The critical difference between the two forms of self-governance is the Constitution and Bill of Rights, without which China is a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Of course, the communist proletariat, working class, or hired help are inevitably subsumed by the superior “intelligentsia.”
Professor Turley writes, “Not to be outdone, Irish expressed her fear that the United States could see ‘forced breeding camps’ and ‘cannibalism.'”
My opinion, Irish is normalizing the idea that conservatives are nothing less than an existential threat. For many, it is but a small step to rationalize murdering conservatives on that basis. It’s exactly that kind of thinking that nearly got Trump killed. I’m not exaggerating, nor am I being unfair. Would Irish really mind if Trump had been slain? It’s a question.
Professor Turley, again: “Lober was, however, clear about the solution in calling for the audience to help ‘dismantle capitalism’ and ‘elect a female president.'”
My opinion, the problem today is not with capitalism or male Presidents. The problem is unchecked globalism and immigration, which irony of ironies, the Left is infatuated with. Socialism is a joke. Communism is murder.
Capitalism under the bridle of anti-trust law works. It prevents oligarchy, inhibits wealth concentration, and maintains competition, and yes, I also believe in some trade restrictions. Even Reagan limited Japanese auto imports. Why have we forgotten all this??
Because our universities are run by asses.
* I’d like to flesh out the forced breeding camps and cannibalism mentions…
We cannot have a forced breeding and cannibalism gap.
Thank you, General “Buck” Turgidson!
One of my all-time favorite flicks 🙂
We can’t fight in here, this is the war room.
* Dio, agree
With all due respect, please cite the Constitution for the so-called “antitrust” law. What the Founders and Framers provided were not “capitalism,” the inane pejorative of deranged, sickly, and alcoholic Karl Marx, but freedom, free enterprise, and free markets in the private sector, and the 5th Amendment power to “take” private property for public use with just compensation if and when competition becomes impossible (Google Search must be taken for public use, becoming the cyber highway as basic infrastructure and “general Welfare”).
Also, globalism is anti-nationalism and collectivism. Globalism is communism, by definition. Socialism is communism-in-waiting.
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“The goal of Socialism is Communism.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Women have a duty. Women must make the people of a nation, or there will be no nation. America ran out of people because women failed in their duty to make Americans. Americans are now imported. Americans and America are vanishing. “Asylum” immigration is invasion by fraudulent illegal alien invaders. The Great Unwashed covet, bear false witness, and steal American wealth and territory. The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral.” More Americans die than are born. American women have destroyed America’s future. Alternatively, feeble, milquetoast, and dastardly American men allowed American women to destroy America’s future and America.
The ascendance of incoherence means that the End must be near.
AI will be assuming total control soon.
AI has no need for homo sapiens sapiens.
It’s called Mouse Utopia, George. If you look it up, you’ll find it interesting. There is evidence that suggests when all immediate, existential threats are removed (like famine or invasion), the majority of any mammalian species will become perverse, start imagining absurd threats (like “patriarchy” and “whiteness”), attack their own colony, and cease breeding.
The lunatics Professor Turley describes above sound a lot like Mouse Utopians. Not surprisingly, the Left hates any mention of Mouse Utopia.
“Death Spiral”
_________________
Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
John Calhoun’s Rodent Utopia
Calhoun’s most famous utopia, number 25, began in July 1968, when he introduced eight albino mice into the 4½-foot cube. Following an adjustment period, the first pups were born 3½ months later, and the population doubled every 55 days afterward. Eventually this torrid growth slowed, but the population continued to climb, peaking at 2,200 mice during the 19th month.”
That robust growth masked some serious problems, however. In the wild, infant mortality among mice is high, as most juveniles get eaten by predators or perish of disease or cold. In mouse utopia, juveniles rarely died. As a result, there were far more youngsters than normal, which introduced several difficulties.
Rodents have social hierarchies, with dominant alpha males controlling harems of females. Alphas establish dominance by fighting—wrestling and biting any challengers. Normally a mouse that loses a fight will scurry off to some distant nook to start over elsewhere.
But in mouse utopia, the losing mice couldn’t escape. Calhoun called them “dropouts.” And because so few juveniles died, huge hordes of dropouts would gather in the center of the pen. They were full of cuts and ugly scars, and every so often huge brawls would break out—vicious free-for-alls of biting and clawing that served no obvious purpose. It was just senseless violence. (In earlier utopias involving rats, some dropouts turned to cannibalism.)
Alpha males struggled, too. They kept their harems in private apartments, which they had to defend from challengers. But given how many mice survived to adulthood, there were always a dozen hotshots ready to fight. The alphas soon grew exhausted, and some stopped defending their apartments altogether.
As a result, apartments with nursing females were regularly invaded by rogue males. The mothers fought back, but often to the detriment of their young. Many stressed-out mothers booted their pups from the nest early, before the pups were ready. A few even attacked their own young amid the violence or abandoned them while fleeing to different apartments, leaving the pups to die of neglect.
Eventually other deviant behavior emerged. Mice who had been raised improperly or kicked out of the nest early often failed to develop healthy social bonds, and therefore struggled in adulthood with social interactions. Maladjusted females began isolating themselves like hermits in empty apartments—unusual behavior among mice. Maladjusted males, meanwhile, took to grooming all day—preening and licking themselves hour after hour. Calhoun called them “the beautiful ones.” And yet, even while obsessing over their appearance, these males had zero interest in courting females, zero interest in sex.
Intriguingly, Calhoun had noticed in earlier utopias that such maladjusted behavior could spread like a contagion from mouse to mouse. He dubbed this phenomenon “the behavioral sink.”
Between the lack of sex, which lowered the birth rate, and inability to raise pups properly, which sharply increased infant mortality, the population of Universe 25 began to plummet. By the 21st month, newborn pups rarely survived more than a few days. Soon, new births stopped altogether. Older mice lingered for a while—hiding like hermits or grooming all day—but eventually they died out as well. By spring 1973, less than five years after the experiment started, the population had crashed from 2,200 to 0. Mouse heaven had gone extinct.
– Science History Institute
* that is so great! Different perspective! You get the free speech award today for contribution. Thanks
Agreed. I read the whole thing. Explained more than I had heard before.
Attribution: Diogenes.
A similar but more ‘natural’ setting involved an unpopulated island in the Bering Strait on which a population of an herbivore, probably elk but I disremember, was translocated. With no predators the population grew and then crashed to zero.
Seems the home received a fresh shipment of weed, and Benson got into it.
Diogenes, most people are not familiar with nearly a century of economic studies attempting to prove the effacacy of anti-trust and government regulation of the economy.
Universally these have proven that governemtn regulation of the economy outside of precluding the use of force or fraud and enforcing contracts FAILS.
We have been terrified byt progressives since the so called robber Barron days of monopolies – but in the real world true monopolies do not exist without govenrment support – they can not survive. Study after study has found the free marketr far more self regulating than is beleieved. More recently Economist Elenor Elstrom won a Nobel in econmomics for establishing that the so called “tragedy of the commons” is a myth – that absent govenrment markets on their own work out better dynamic solutions to deal with scarces resources. This should not surprise as the economic foundation fo free markets is turning scarcity to abundance.
Economic studies have found that anti-trust laws protect against things that do not actually happen.
We gat a massive lesson in the futility of trying to rig the market Earl;y in the Obama era with the “JP Morgan London Whale”.
Using JP Morgans vast weaslth the Whale sought to profit by cornering a part of the commodities market. A relatively small hedgefund out in the rust belt figurted out that something artificial was happening in the market and started betting heavily against what the Whale was trying to accomplish – the end result was that JP Morgan lost Billions of dollars.
Coases law – from not only another Nobel economists, but one of the top 4 economists in the past 100 years essentially says that if Government provides strong property rights and the burden on transactions is minimal Free Markets will always provide the best possible outcomes.
Economic Growth in the 19th century in the US was about 7.5%/year – that meant that peoples standard of living doubled atleast twice in their lifetime.
In the 20th century directly in line with growing government and regulation – growth declined to 3.5%.
FDR performed this great experiment during the great depression that so many on the left ludicroulsly think had a positive outcome.
The US is the only country that had a recession int he middle of the great depression. The Great Depression in the US was WORSE in the US specifically because of FDR’s idiotic politices that reflected the loony beleif that “experts” could manage the market better than it could manage itself.
FDR made only ONE sane economic decision during his entire presidency – and that was that as he saw WWII approaching he realized that to produce what was necescary to rapidly win the war he had to revert much of his economic nonsense and unchain free market capitalism.
Post War Two nations embraced free market capitalism – much of the rest of the world embraced the same economic nonsense of FDR or worse still varying forms of socialism. The Two nations that embraced free markets were West Germany and the US. Germany was obliterated by the war.
Today it has the highest standard of living in Europe.
There are myriads of economic studies over the past several daces over a century over several centuries.
The growth rate of a country declines by 1% for every 10% of GDP that countries government spends. Smaller govenrment means higher prosperity and a higher standard of living. This data is consistent accross the OECD, accross the world, accross decades, across centuries.
Though this should not suprise as Adam Smith discovered this 250 years ago.
“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”
Separate studies have found the same robust correlation between freedom and rising standard of living. Probably because less government spending and more freedom are practically a tautology.
I can go on an on with economic studies – but the FACT is that the only “Bridle” that free markets need is strong property rights, Government precliuding Force and Fraud, and enforcement of contracts.
That is ALL that is required.
EVERYTHING else that government attempts regarding the economy comes at the EXPENSE of rising standard of living.
John, I appreciate the civility and thoroughness of your response, but I look at the ever-meddling Google, Facebook, etc. and the growing wealth disparities and I wonder. It is true that Musk got control of Twitter and broke the social-media cartel, but it took too long and got too far for my comfort and it’s not over yet. I saw what they did to Rumble and I have to wonder.
I know you will disagree with this and I’m sure I’m not 100% right, but in the industrial era, I believe free markets don’t always evolve toward libertarianism. I think sometimes they evolve toward oligarchy. Network industries are even more prone to concentration and oligarchy than more traditional industries, IMHO.
I would kind of agree with you that a compelling historical case should be made for anti-trust before it’s applied to an industry (because too much regulation loses transparency and becomes its own corrupt kind of empire building), but I still think we have specific instances in which anti-trust is called for.
“I know you will disagree with this and I’m sure I’m not 100% right, but in the industrial era, I believe free markets don’t always evolve toward libertarianism. I think sometimes they evolve toward oligarchy.”
Diogenes, we are on the same page. My past discussions with John have revolved around this belief. We all share the hope that economic evolution will bring us benefits. I worry about the pace of this evolution from a human perspective, as our lives are finite, and we expect to see some of these benefits in our lifetime.
“John, I appreciate the civility and thoroughness of your response”
Diogenes – While I make arguments bluntly and forcefully, I try not to insult someone who has not insulted others just because of disagreements.
I also try not to insult people who hold views that are common – and even if wrong have a logical if inaccurate basis.
I do not look to make enemies in my arguments of people who have not already decided they not merely disagree, but hate those who do not agree with them.
I have had disagreements with many here – even those on the right – I am libertarian not conservative.
There is a huge difference between Trump is sometimes wrong and Trump is an existential threat.
The threat we face today is from the left.
We are discussing free markets here. Trump is pretty free market for a politician. But he frequently seeks to weild government power in the market inappropriately. He just does so far less than most other politicians.
“but I look at the ever-meddling Google, Facebook, etc.”
Absent government interferance these problems fix themselves. You note Musk taking control of Twitter – while that started a massive backlash from the left, And Musk bought twitter for reasons beyond making money, the FACT is that the behavior of Google FB etc, guaranteed a market for real free speech – the Success of Parlor before Amazon crushed it – BTW while there should have been no anti-trust action against Amazon for that Parlor should have won its contract breach lawsuit and received alteast a billion in damages .
“the growing wealth disparities”
That is another false claim of the left. The FACT is that the GINI index is $hitty measure. It Ranks nations with 95% of people at poverty and 5% of people with vast wealth the same as nations with a long flat income curve, and it favors nations with a large bubble in the middle no matter how poor that middle is. Further the GINI index only measures (badly) the distribution of wealth – it rates countries with a median poverty income the same as those with the highest standard of living in the world – if they have the same approximate distribution curve.
Free markets are ALWAYS going to stretch the curve – that flattens it and moves the media ever higher. Todfay they talk about the destrruction of the middle class – that is because today the range of income that gets you into the middle class is enormous.
Regardless the standard of living of the 2nd quintile from the bottom in the US – usually refered to as the working class is the same as the standard of living of the middle class in europe.
One of the reason for the political conflict we have today is because the US working class is behaving exactly like the US middle class 50 years ago – which is not suprising – they are doing far better.
My father was more “successful” than I am. He was near the top of the 4th quintile from the bottom. I am at the bottom of that quintile or possibly the top of the third quintile – yet My standard of living is higher than his was by almost every measure. In fact the middle class – possibly even the top of the working class lives better than my father did.
The current era is quite odd – Those on the left are ACTIVELY reducing our freedom at a prodigious rate. Yet at the same time the advance of technology and society is giving us greater freedom all the time.
We have never in this country seen greater restrictions on liberty and never had so great a liberty as we have now – BOTH are true.
This is a consequence of rising standard of living.
But we are also seeing the rate of rse of standard of living slow. And that will ultimately mean that we will on net LOSE liberty.
“It is true that Musk got control of Twitter and broke the social-media cartel”
While I agree – and we are still seeing the left fighting back, that fight is not yet over, But in the end whether Musk did it or someone else did, or it happened a different way the outcome was inevitable. The only thing Musks purchase of twitter meant was that the process when FASTER.
“but it took too long and got too far for my comfort and it’s not over yet.”
It did, That is what the actual political fights today are about HOW fast does the lefts domination of many of our institutions collapse.
That is important – Do I have to tolerate the totalitarian left for much of the rest of my life, or just a few more years ?
That is what we are fighting over.
” I saw what they did to Rumble and I have to wonder.”
I would switch to Rumble in a second if they had more of the content I am after. I sitll rely on them for content youtube messes with
That is how the market works. I can not predict the future, but I can tell you that big companies are fragile, it only takes small shifts to change them.
“I know you will disagree with this and I’m sure I’m not 100% right, but in the industrial era, I believe free markets don’t always evolve toward libertarianism. ”
The world does not evolve towards libertarianism – because the alure of power is far to great, but actual power comes from government. Business rents that power at best.
“I think sometimes they evolve toward oligarchy. Network industries are even more prone to concentration and oligarchy than more traditional industries, IMHO.” We can MAYBE debate whether what we have with social media came about naturally – I would note that it is natural for nascient industries to be dominated by a single player.
I would also note that radical change happens very fast. Almost every single major semiconductor company today did not exist 50 years ago.
The only companies in the top 10 of the fortune 500 that existed 50 years ago are oil companies.
Regardless the path to oligarchy passes through government. Not markets.
“I would kind of agree with you that a compelling historical case should be made for anti-trust before it’s applied to an industry (because too much regulation loses transparency and becomes its own corrupt kind of empire building), but I still think we have specific instances in which anti-trust is called for.”
Of all politics Libertarianism is unique in that it is concurrently and ideolgy AND programmatic.
I am challenging you regarding antitrust. I am doing so from a libertarian ideological perspective – but also because the data actually shows Anti-Trust laws accomplish nothing good. There are some edge cases in economics that we do not understand perfectly where it is impossioble to say exactly what works and what does not. But for the vast majority of major propositions – we have pretty good data from the real world – we know what works and what does not.
The bigest problem we have is not knowing ehat works it is overcoming the fact hat the political system is rigged in exactly the opposite way.
Nobel wionning economist James Buchanon developed an area of economics called “public choice” economics – a major area of that field has been the application of all the aspects of free markets and the human behavior that makes it work to govenrment.
And there lies are problems The very aspects of human behavior that improve the lot of humans – often dsipite deliberate attempts to thwart that, mostly work the opposite in government.
One of the trivial examples is how do private business allocate space – as an example parking. It you go to the mall – Customers get the best spaces. Employees and the boss get the worst.
But go to city hall – all the parking is allocated for the bosses first and the customers last.
One of the reasons we MUST keep government out of the economy is that nearly always the way government wants things to work and the way that works best for people are diametrically opposed.
“Because our universities are run by asses.”
– Diogenes
______________
Thank you. Universities are run by communists, or asses from an American perspective, for the purposes of indoctrinating and propagandizing young Americans while incorporating a degree of apolitical academic instruction.
“. . . under the bridle of anti-trust law works.”
Under the arbitrary and capricious antitrust laws, a company can be found guilty, whatever price it charges.
Prices too low = the intent to monopolize.
Prices the same = collusion.
Prices too high = the successful intent to monopolize.
That is not a “bridle.” It is the sword of Damocles.
* sobering comment you’ve made.
The libertines don’t need a rationalization for genocide. Genocide is required for the libertines to be free.
Chickens for KFC
Jonathan: Remember in a recent comment I pointed out that DJT is stealing the the songs from popular artists and playing them at his rallies and other events? Some defenders of DJT on your blog pushed back by claiming he had a license to play the songs. Turns out those claims were FALSE.
Isaac Hayes III posted this on X yesterday: “BREAKING NEWS: Today we received confirmation from BMI in writing from their lawyers that @real Donald , the @NRA, @Turning Point USA and the @GOP DO NOT and HAVE NOT had a Political Use License to play ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ for quite some time”.
This is only part of DJT’s legal problems from the unauthorized use of music. Jack White, Beyonce, Foo fighters, Abba, Taylor Swift and Neil Young, among other artists, have made similar claims against DJT. Next week DJT will appear in federal court in Atlanta over an injunction requested by the Isaac Hayes’ estate and a demand DJT pay $3 million in damages. Why is it that the supporters of DJT on this blog always seem to get it wrong?
When we say nothing DJT claims should be believed here is another example. On Thursday DJT travelled to Potterville, Michigan, population 3,055, to hold a rally. He claimed the streets were filled with “thousands and thousand of people–as far as the eye could see–as we were driving up”. Unfortunately for DJT, a local news station filmed DJT’s motorcade as it arrived in town. The streets were largely deserted with only a few hundred people supporting DJT as he arrived.
DJT lies about everything. He still claims he never had sex with Stormy Daniels. When he is caught in a lie he blames others. After the incident at Arlington National Cemetery in which one of campaign advisors assaulted a Cemetery staffer, DJT falsely claimed the staffer suffered from some “mental” problem. When that didn’t work he tried to blame the Gold Star families for distributing the videos and photos of the event–even though his campaign used the same videos on TikTok. And DJT’s defense? He said: “I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it. It could have been them–it could have been the families”. That excuse doesn’t fly because DJT was told by the Cemetery staffer that filming or taking photos was prohibited. He ignored that warning and his campaign staff pushed aside the Cemetery staffer.
Everything that comes out of DJT’s mouth is a lie or a distortion! Kamala Harris will point that out when they debate on the 10th of this month–unless DJT backs out at the last minute!
Kamala Harris had sex-for-counterintuitive-undeserved-promotion with her political benefactor, Comrade Willy “Married-With-Children” Brown.
I’d love to see a two-pane political cartoon with the first pane showing Bill Clinton being serviced by Monica Lewinsky, and the second showing President Harris performing fellatio on some hunky rapper who has been appointed Secretary of Joy (a new cabinet-level department). It might also be possible to work in some reference to official Oval Office knee pads. Unfortunately, I cannot draw worth a damn.
https://x.com/NicoleShanahan/status/1829291690277966165
Who’re the cult now, Denny-poo?
Dennis -= there is no such thing as “political use license”.
ANYONE can play the vast majority of music that is published today for ANY reason.
There is only a TINY percent of all music that is NOT published under licenses where the only thing you must do is pay to use the music.
Further in MOST instances – Venue’s – such as the stadiums that Politicians use or Radio Stations pay blanket licenses – which is by far the most common form. That allows ANYONE appearing in that venue to play any music – the license already being paid.
This is how BMI, ASCAP, and RIAA work. Radio stations and venues DO NOT pay for individual songs. They play a license based on the number of listeners they have and they provide lists of what was played so that the Industry organizations such as BMI can then distrribute royalities to artists.
You have completely ignored the FACT that your claims are ABSURD – they are NOT how the music industry works.
As a practicvale matter the industry COULD NOT work as you imagine it.
Do you honestly think that artists have the time to approve individual users of their music ?
With extremely rare exceptions no artist that has music that is published has retained the right to control the use of their music.
Next – There are no publishers who “approve” the use of the music whose publishing rights they own.
:Publishers want music played as often as possible – they get paid for that.
“Why is it that the supporters of DJT on this blog always seem to get it wrong?”
Because they DO NOT. This is just not how the music industry works – with Very very few exceptions.
If you have written a song and you have never entered into any agreement with any publisher – as an artist you have total control of your music.
No one else can play it or use it it anyway without your permission – that is basic copyright law.
But the moment that you seek to have your music published you sign a contract that exchanges your right to control the publishing of your music – the use of your music by others in return for money and future royalties. There is probably not one publishing contract in 100,000 that allows the artist to reserve the right to rstrict who can use their music – that would be antithetical to the interests of the publisher and to the artist.
Music publishing like ALL businesses is about making money. Music publishers make money by selling music, not be restricting the use of that music.
There is no such thing as a “political use license”. Of Course TPUSA and Trump confirmed they do not have something that does not exist.
I would further note the NORM is that artists send these legally meaningsless cease and desist letters and the organizations involved – quit using the music – not because they are obligated to, but because it is rarely good publicity to have a major (or minor) artist ranting about your use of their music.
Trump (and others) have ceased to use lots of music – not because they are legally required to. But because if Artists wish to deprive themselves of royalties and piss off their publishers – that is their business.
You claim lots of artists have objected SO WHAT ? I object to all the nonsense you spray on this blog. Yet I am powerless to do anything about it, and would not stop it if I had the power to do so. People object to all kinds of things.
You say there are cases in court – great. Lets see how they turn out.
You seem to presume that everytime someone you do not like – esp Trump is sued that the lawsuit has merit.
Aparentl;y you missed the part in the Bragg Trial where Stormy Daniels admitted that she is obligated to pay nearly a million in legal fees to Trump for filing an obviously bogus lawsuit.
Dennis. let me tell you how this lawsuit will go – if it does not die quickly – like many others.
The courts will examine every song that was played and where and what the size of the audience was. They will determine whether there were licenses either the venue or the participants from the appropriate major p[publishers. In the rare instances there were not – they will assess fees based on the industry norms for the use of that music and TPUSA or the Trump organization will pay those to the publishers and the publishers will pay a fraction of that to the artists.
That will be the ULTIMATE resolution of this. While it is POSSIBLE that you might see a court here or there do something lawless and stupid – courts have been lawless and stupid constantly regarding Trump, in the event that one or two ARE – they will ultimately be overturned.
Absent a very unusual contract between an artist and a publisher there is not a right within the music industry to PREVENT someone from using a song.
The very concept is absurd. The music industry makes money by having music played – not by suppressing it.
Neil Young has begged Trump to quit using his music – he has also Publicly stated that he has no legal ground to prevent Trump from doing so.
With respect to the crowd size idiocy.
Trump exagerates the sizes of his crowds – That sais there is ZERO doubt that Trump is getting between 150% and 200% of the crowds that Harris is.
In every instance in which each has appeared in the same venue, and the crowd size can be documented – Trump’s crowds have been atleast 150% larger.
At the same time as Trump exagerates his crowds – and he has been doing so for a long time – all politicians like to exagerate – Harris Walz exagerate their crowds too – ofent embarrassingly. At the same time the media has been LYING rfepeatedly about Trump’s crowds.
At the Atlanta even kicking off Harris’s campaign with alist rappers – the venue was barely half full, there are rumours that homeless people were bussed in and video shows people leaving after the Rappers performed.
There were no performers at the Trump event a few weeks later – the media reported that the stadium was only half full – and used photos of the press area taken 4 hours before the event. There is plenty of video during the event showing that the even was not only filled to the rafters – but thousands had to watch outside on jumbo trons. We had much the same when Harris and then Trump appeared tat the same venue in Pheonix.
As to Pottersville, MI – there is AGAIN plenty of video of the event.
Whether it is a Trump event or a Harris event – it is ALWAYS passible to check the reporting of the news on crowds using aompletely independent sources
We live in the smartphone era. probably 10% of the people at an event record all or part of the event.
The FACT that YOU the media and the left fixate on this and so often get caught in LIES exposes who the REAL liars are.
Crowd sizes are actually important – they are an independent but imperfect metric that allows us to test the accuracy of polls and elections results.
One of the many reasons that about half the country still beleives the 2020 election was stolen is that Biden NEVER got consequential crowds.
Exist polling – which in a properly conducted election would be another means of testing the results of an election. and also a major independent anti-fraud measure, sdhowed Trump winning massively in 2020. Which is also what we saw on election night. But massive and in most cases illegal mailin voting flipped that often days later.
But we have no means to test the veracity of mailin voting – there are no exit polls for mailin voting that provide a check against fraud.
This is BTW one of the reasons that the claims that 2020 was a secure and fraud free election are absurd.
The left, democrats, you dismanteled all the means of testing whether there was substantial fraud, and independently verifying the election results.
The 2020 Elestion was abysmal and makes 3erd world elections look trustworthy.
You do uinderstand that the Secret Serive clears the path of any Trump or Harris motorcase before any event.
Trying to gauge crows at a motorcade is stupid.
“POLITICAL USE LICENSE”
You’re a fvcking stooge, McIncrier.
Bwahahahahahhhahaaaa
Any actual analysis of the Daniels testimony leaves Daniels less credible than ever before.
She got details of Trump’s suite near perfect – but was unaware of Trump’s bodyman who she HAD to get past to get into the room.
Conversely her recollection of her own hotel and room and even its proximity to Trumps was deeply flawed – She was in a hotel accross the street but testified that she left her hotel, and took an uber to get to Trump.
There is still the enormous problem that Daniels apporoached Trump fro money – not the other way arround, and that her conduct is dancing on the edge of criminal extortion.
But most important of all, is that YOU, She, the LEft all seem to beleive her claim is so important it would have flipped the election.
Yet, she was only asked and was paid 130K and only pocketed about 2/3 of that. Do you think that the Clinton campaign which paid miollions to manufacture the steele Dossier could not have offered her far more ?
There is a reason that you sell your story to the person who wants to bury it rather than those who benefit from its going public.
That reason is that the story is FALSE. If you get Clinton to pay for a false story that is fraud. If you get Trump to pay for a false story about himself that is NOT – because Trump knows the story is false and can not go after you.
And finally in the end – what does it matter ? True or false – Daniels received the money she asked for for her story.
That is legal. The media or Clinton campaign could have offered her more – while we do not know that Daniels tried to shop the story to Clinton,
We do know she tried to sell it to the press and they would not pay what she wanted.
Again all legal.
With respect to Trump’s financial records – he could have called the payments airfare – it would not matter. Judge Merchan and Bragg’s idiot legal theory that the way you record your own financial records can be fraud is unconstitutional lunacy – As the Sumpreme court has found repeatedly,
Fraud is a property crime – there MUST be a tangible loss to another party. Hurt feelings do not count.
You note repeatedly SCOTUS’s rejection of the social media censorship case on the grounds of standing. By the same legal grounds neither the Bragg or the james case are valid. There is no claim of direct harm to NYS in either case – all taxes were properly paid. In both cases NYS is trying to to claim they have a right to stand in for harm done to citizens. SCOTUS rejected the claim the state has standing to do that in Murty. The same is true in the Bragg and James cases. If you have someone who actually experienced TANGIBLE harm can sue Trump – NYS can not.
The Arlington nonsense has been debunked multiple ways – both with respect to the law and the facts.
Trump was invited to Arlington – so were Harris and Biden – the latter repeatedly.
Trump did not make arlington into a political thing, though he was perfectly free to do so.
The many gold star families that invited him have confirmed all the facts – CNN interviewed several and did not get what it wanted.
Again we have lying press and lying government.
You say this was political – well the left has made everything political – what is new.
Regardless Trump did not go to Arlington as a political event. He was invited privately by the gold star families. For the most but he did not speak – but they asked. They wanted and took pictues. THEY actually wanted the publicity and attention to THEIR sons and daughters – whom Biden/Harris sacrificed stupidly.
Further the news story that made all of this public – was because an ANC employee tried to unconstitutionally interfere with a private invent with Trump and Gold Star families.
YOU drove making this news, and then you lost control of the narative and Trump is coming out smelling like roses and the left can not get past their own stink.
The video of the event eventually made it too TikTok – It is not yet clear whether the Trump campaign had anything to do with that, AFTER the story of the ANC employee throwing her weight arround unconstitutionally made the news.
I would further note you have a huge problem with Trump now. Vance has the best military record of the democrat and republican tickets. Walz is next – though he lies.
But of all 4 the only one who has been shot at – is Trump. The only one who has been wounded is Trump. Trump may have avoided Vietnam, But he has gone on stage knowing that someone might kill him. And he is returning to Butler shortly. Post the assassination attempt the SS has made it perfectly clear that Trump is the hardest candidate they have to protect. Far too often he appears places they can not secure, and he must ravel at predictable times on predictable routes to open air speech. The questions about Trump’s courage are over.
Walz agreed to join the military knowing that could put him in harms way. Vance did too. The only one to serve in a combat zone was Vance.
and none of them were ever under fire ….. EXCEPT Trump. Trump avoided service in vietnam. But not only has he risked his liberty from left wing lawfare, but also his life from an assassins bullet to return to serving the country as president.
None of us know what we would do if out physical courage was tested. We now know EXACTLY what Trump would do.
Despite Trumps actual attacks on McCain – the military ones of which were unwarranted, as well as the lies the left has spread about Trump’s views of the military – as opposed to the brass he had to deal with, the FACT is Trump has excellent support from those in the military and their families. And that was BEFORE he got shot.
Sorry you have lost this one.
John Say,
Great comment!
Trump gives interviews and press conferences everyday – as much as 4 times a day. He answers questions from EVERYONE.
Harris went 40 days before a softball interview that while probably not the disaster that it is being painted – was still a DUD.
Possibly her WORST moment – and obviously rehersed line was the claim Harris made that “Her Values have never changed”
I beleive the Trump campaign had a video with her saying that followed by many many radical things she has said in the past.
Regardless, the line sounds good – but it begs the question – “what are your values ?”
Harris has not provided anyone with these “unchanged values” – without a credible answer from Harris – one that is consistent with this claim that her values have not changed AND that is meaningful and pallet able to the american people – therefore people will provide that for her.
While RCP has Harris’s numbers at their best ever – still a dead heat, ALL the recent polls RCP has listed for the past two day favor Trump.
Even in Minesota which was no longer supposed to be in play the race is inside the margin of error.
I do not know what will happen at the debate – on extremely rare instances David slays Goliath. But this debate is a must survive for Harris.
it is just another day for Trump.
Not only has Trump done 6 presidential debates so far, but myriads of primary debates and constant press interviews.
Trump can get through a PResidential debate with Covid and still be in it.
Kamala Harris was taken out of the 2020 race by Tulsi in a round 1 knockout. She is piss poor at debating.
She is piss poor at any off script speaking.
I would note that Trump TKO’d Biden just a few months ago.
While HArris is unlikely to fail in exactly the same manner as Biden, This is not going to be the rehersed and softball interview she just bombed on.
Harris needs to be perfect without a teleprompter. That is unlikely.
But you are free to beleive what you want.
Do you have an example of Harris EVER doing well in a debate ? In an interview ?
The Bar for Biden in June was low. He had the advantage of actually being president – he came with the presumption that somehow the hjob was getting done. Trump comes to the debate with the same presumption. Harris has to prove in the debate that the NSA can wake were at 2am and that she can quickly make huge decisions based on limited information in evolving and dangerous matters.
The bar for Harris is high – not only is she unproven – in fact she has a track record – both as a debator, and as a VP and Senator of failure.
Dennis,
It is alwys interesting for you the left and Democrats try disastrously to warp the narative of most anything.
You lie as you breath.
Video from the Gold star Families that invited Trump
This paints an entirely different picture than You, Harris and the left wing Media attempt to paint.
As we learn more:
Trump was invited by the families.
The video was taken at the request of the families.
It was done respectfully and it was about their dead children – not politics.
Further it is these families that sought to have this video – honoring the sacrifice of their children made public.
Pres. Biden and VP Harris have been invited many times to honor their children even just to speak their names.
Conversely Pres. Trump has been involved with these families since day one. Pres. Bush called every single family of every single soldier that died while he was president. Pres. Obama did not. Pres. Trump returned to that practice – though there were few such calls – because Trump did not treat the lives of US soldiers lightly. It appears neither Pres. Biden nor VP Harris have bothered to even privately express condolences to these families.
I would further note the conduct of this event was all worked out by Rep. Issa’s office and ANC in weeks prior to this event. Nothing was done without the involvement of ANC.
Trump barely spoke publicly at the event. While Trump has OFTEN spoken about the disastrous Biden withdraw from Afghanistan as well as the particularly stupid decision to withdraw soldiers prior to removing civilians,
That was not addressed at this event. The event was about the death and rememberance of these soldiers and their families.
You, VP Harris, the media, and now ANC and the military and the Biden administration chose to make a mess out of this AFTER the fact.
The Video that you rant about did not appear until AFTER the idiotic response by you.
Trump did exactly what presidents and former presidents have done since the civil war. There must be hours of video of presidents and former presidents at Arlington laying wreaths on soldiers tombs and speaking about the sacrifice of those soldiers and the honor they deserve.
None of this is new. What is new is the desparate efforts of left wing nuts like yourself to change the facts to change the truth
Your post above is filled with this kind of nonsense not just over this issue, but every other issue you raise.
But for lies and false spin – you would have nothing to say.
https://youtu.be/ZfgDCNjS48I
If Harris did not want Trump to get the spotlight with Gold Star families at Arlington – she could have come – she was invited, and not for the first time.
She has never been there.
Once again your own efforts to manufacture propaganda are biting you in the ass.
Trump made the withdraw from Afghanistan an issue long ago – it was a disaster.
I would note that while this particular instance of Trump honoring others quietly became a major public issue because of YOUR stupidity.
This is not the first time Trump has done things like this – PRIVATELY. Whether it is soldiers or other good people who deserved better.
Trump has quietly been there, many many times.
Where have Harris and Biden been ?
“Harris wins, I am going long on PMs, commodities, and ammo.”
That might be a bit late to go long on precious metals, I’m afraid. Possibly ammo as well. One problem with pms in the event of a true SHTF scenario that I have not seen addressed even in prepper media are the practical concerns of using it to purchase a small to moderate amount of goods. If 24K gold was at, say, $4,000 per troy ounce, how are you going to buy a weeks worth of groceries with it? (I’m optimistically assuming that expense hasn’t also risen to $4k 🙂 I don’t think using gold dust or dividing a 1 oz bar into smaller pieces would be very well accepted – the required level of trust doesn’t exist. Same issue exists wrt silver at a lower level. Over the long term, local banks might resume the function of holding metals on account, and issuing currency, but is to be done until that happens? I do see that some mints have begun to offer gold and silver in sheets of very small ingots that can easily be separated, with each ingot bearing the mark of that mint. That might help matters some, and I’m considering picking up a few of those.
Ragnar D,
PMs are not for everyday trading, but for maintaining ones wealth till the crisis has passed.
And watching what the BRICS are doing, turning dollars into PMs might be a better value then holding onto paper.
I have PMs as small as 1/10oz. And they are now making bars that can be divided. Not sure if the sliver or gold notes/backs will become a thing, but I might get a few just for fun. A few states have issued their own gold notes.
Just for fun, I have a sliver bullet.
Capitalism tends toward monopolies which drives out innovation, (see the case against Google and Microsoft)). There can’t be competitive pricing or a “free market” with no competitors. “Massive wealth creation” for a few and “great wealth disparities” for many drives populist movements which serve as a regulatory factor. This happens repeatedly, along with predictable and destabilizing crashes. What civilized nation would abide the damage done to so many of its citizens? It’s disingenuous to suggest Venezuela or Cuba are examples of failed socialism while failing to mention the purposefully damaging U.S. economic sanctions. That’s robbing your neighbor and then blaming them for being poor. We can do better than this, but it’s hard to have productive conversations with ideologues of any stripe.
“Capitalism tends toward monopolies”
Only in a system of government that has deliberately been constructed to achieve that result, i.e., corporatism/cronyism. I won’t dispute that the US has far too much of that, and it’s getting worse all the time. In my opinion, the fundamental basis for that here is the doctrine of corporate personhood. That has served to facilitate subterfuge that minimizes the accountability of flesh and blood persons for the actions those persons have caused a corporation to take. Revising that doctrine at this point in history would be extremely disruptive, but I’d welcome ideas on how it might be attempted without destroying the financial system, markets, and the economy in the process (although Fedgov seems to already be doing a creditable job of that).
Thank you for dissembling and employing the deranged, alcoholic invalid Karl Marx’s lame pejorative. It’s not capitalism, comrade. It’s freedom, free enterprise, and free markets in the private sector. Competition is the cure for monopolies. Please do enjoy constitutional freedom as your “pursuit of happiness” and compete if you can. If competition is ineffective and a monopoly is immutable, the Founders provided the 5th Amendment, whereby the government may “take” private property for public use with just compensation (Google Search must be the public cyber highway). So “take” it if you dare.
“ Competition is the cure for monopolies. ”
Monopolies stifle competition. They use their control of the majority of the market to keep competition from becoming THEIR competition. That’s not what free markets are supposed to be.
I smell litigation.
* when the French went socialism under mitterand the usa stopped all imports. Didn’t appear to bother them. You’ve made a leap that may be false in its outcome perhaps.
USA exalts women so much that it gives them control over men’s reproductive choices. Men foced into parenthood are cannibalized by child support they cannot afford to pay, for children whom the mothers teach to hate their fathers. Left is the new right.
“foced into parenthood”..?
Perhaps they should keep their six shooter in the holster, what!
“…focd into parenthood…”
Or perhaps they should invest in a pack of Trojans.
I was wondering if that was intended to be a soft or a hard “C” in “foced”?
Like Cillian Murphy?
Professor Turley, please stop using the term capitalism. Marx invented the term to demean those who raise capital to invest it. Currently there is no common understanding of what the term means. To those on the right capitalism means an improved standard of living and greater opportunities for millions of people from the middle ages to now. For those on the Left capitalism means the exploitation of the working class by the rich. This was Marx’ understanding. He was wrong. But in the current context when you use the term ‘capitalism,’ if you are on the right, will have instantly lost the argument with half your audience. Please use this instead: ‘free market’. People understand ‘free’ and they understand ‘market.’ It is much harder for those on the Left to argue that ‘free market’ is a bad thing; by contrast capitalism is a loaded word.
Hide the realities of capitalism. It’s the only way to make it work.
Kevin, will you explain to me what capitalism means to you.
Face it, socialism/marxism/central authoritarianism is simply capitalism enacted by a coward in a vacuum from competition. It is the benevolent dictator fallacy.
Churchill said it best:
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.
AND
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
Instead of “free market,” which is subject to much verbal abuse, maybe we try a somewhat different and more descriptive calculation.
My nomination (just my $.02):
Private enterprise freely exercised.
Thank you for dissembling and employing the deranged, alcoholic invalid Karl Marx’s lame pejorative. It’s not capitalism, comrade. It’s freedom, free enterprise, and free markets in the private sector. Competition is the cure for monopolies. Please do enjoy constitutional freedom as your “pursuit of happiness” and compete if you can. If competition is ineffective and a monopoly is immutable, the Founders provided the 5th Amendment, whereby the government may “take” private property for public use with just compensation (Google Search must be the public cyber highway). So “take” it if you dare.
Wouldn’t that be bending a knee to the Left’s vocabulary? Yes, Free Market is synonymous with Capitalism– so I guess we can play this “word” game too! It’s the same as “Equal Economic Opportunity for Everyone” is synonymous with Communism to anyone with half a brain. Of course we want everyone to have “equal opportunity”, but we know their words REALLY mean equity–not equal opportunity.
Dear Prof Turley,
You’re in over your head, ‘son-brother’ (an Appalachian term of endearment.) .. . and this is a bit of a word salad about ‘what can be, unburdened by what has been’.
You do realize Cuba has been under a total U.S. economic/cultural Blockade for the past 75 years? .. . that may have something to do with Cuba’s crushing poverty.
(special note. Cuba’s response to the Covid pandemic, and their health care system more broadly, was/is one of the best in the world on a shoe-string, imo.)
I believe in the ‘free marketplace’, of both product and ideas, as an economic force of nature not unlike flowing water or electricity-on-demand. ‘Capitalism’ (in the classical sense.), more often than not, is a perversion of the free market place.
Afaict, the government’s only economic job, for a small nominal fee, is to make sure the market place is *free*. Not the other way around (see also ‘anti trust’ ect., etc.). It’s simply socially/morally untenable for 1 person to control/own the means of production (& the ‘free Press’) living in the lap of luxury, while millions of people remain ignorant and starve to death. Indeed, as the renowned economist Chief Ten Bears noted long ago, ‘no paper can hold the iron, it must come from men’s heart.’
Hitler harnessed the forces of capitalism, and look what happened to him.
*Hitler phones Kamala Harris .. .
Only KamaLaLa can save us from OrangeManBad!
Jonathan: There seems to be a disconnect in your column. You say the event at ASU was “small” but you claim it demonstrates a “growing anti-capitalist movement” on campuses around the country. “Small” events don’t prove your claim. Then you claim the “presence of left faculty” on campuses is due to the “purging of conservative, moderate, and libertarian faculty”. This is a theme you have pushed for years but you have yet to offer any evidence to support your claim.
You also attack Professor Lober for claiming “the United States hates women and everything the female body does”. Is there any basis for Lober’s claim? I think there is ample evidence. First, in the Dobbs decision the right-wing of the SC overturned a 50 year old precedent protecting a woman’s reproductive rights. Since that decision 22 GOP controlled states have banned abortion. In Texas performing an abortion is now a felony punishable by up to life in prison. In these same GOP controlled states they want to ban the abortion pill–all in an attempt to control women’s bodies. If DJT gets back into office he says he will sign a nationwide abortion ban.
As to your days at the University of Chicago as a “liberal” you say Milton Friedman convinced you that there is a “connection between capitalism and individual liberty”. Taking away a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions doesn’t enhance “individual liberty”.
Then you point to Cuba and its socialist experiment as an “economic basket case”. What you ignore is the reason for Cuba’s economic problems. After Castro’s revolution in 1959 the US tried to strangle the revolution through armed invasion. When that didn’t work Kennedy imposed a total economic embargo on Cuba in 1962. That embargo has remained in effect until today. In 2017 DJT imposed further sanctions on Cuba. Despite this draconian embargo Cuba has survived and is trading with the rest of the world. At the end of last year (for the 31st time) the UN General Assembly (187 countries) passed a resolution calling on the US again to end its embargo of Cuba. Only the US and Israel voted against the resolution. If the US were to end it’s embargo of Cuba what might happen? US companies would welcome the opportunity to invest in Cuba. Wouldn’t that be enhancement of “individual liberty”?
The US capitalist system has certainly, as you say, created “industrial innovation and massive wealth creation”. But the Q is for whom? Today, the top 10% of households hold over 67% of total wealth. The concentration of wealth in this country has continued with the very wealthy getting most of the benefits. DJT’s massive tax cut in 2017 for he and his fellow billionaires added to the wealth divide and added over $7.8 trillion to the national debt–one of the major reasons for inflation the past few years.
And if DJT gets back into office would he address extreme poverty in this country? Would he enhance social programs to help those struggling to pay their bills and educate their kids? Nope. He would make the situation worse by cutting social programs like Head Start. He would even abolish the Dept. of Education that creates programs to help the educational disadvantaged poor in this country. There is nothing in DJT’s plan to create “individual liberty”, economic opportunity and independence for most Americans. His plan is to create an autocracy in which only the wealthy prosper!
Dennis, don’t Cuban elections have consequences too? They chose a pathway at odds with the US and they’re paying the price for that. You mean they couldn’t make it with the support of China, Russia, the EU, and the rest of the world? Can’t liberals take responsibility for anything? You won’t even take responsibility for your own failed dictatorships. Communism fails and, wait for it, it’s the fault of those rotten capitalists who just wouldn’t help us out. Do you have any idea how foolish you sound? Dumb question, that would imply that it was just today’s foolishness. I’d blame you, but I know you’re just doing your job as a paid troll. Cuban’s can’t feed themselves, maybe blame Castro?
Blah blah…
I believe that Mr. Turley’s reference was that the conservatives’ event was small–not the other ASU event.
Perhaps you should revisit some of today’s campuses. Most conservative students don’t dare espouse their true views in class for fear of repercussions. To say there isn’t “proof” is plain silly. Please show “proof” that this assertion ISN’T true.
And if the social programs you espouse has moved the needle to eradicate poverty–please prove your point.
With school choice–where the money follows the child–more children won’t be locked into the lousy public school systems–yes–in urban areas. Isn’t a solid education THE way to lift people out of poverty and empower citizens with better job options? Throwing money at the poor keeps them enslaved to a government system that does not work for them long term. It just promotes generation after generation of poverty, and yes, it’s been coined the “government plantation” for good reason.
“And if DJT gets back into office would he address extreme poverty in this country? “
WTF are you even talking about?
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
The world bank puts the number in the US living in extreme poverty (<$2.15/day) at 825,000. There are 650,000 homeless in the US.
BOTH of these numbers have risen significantly under Biden.
Nevertheless, many of these people dont want your help. They live as they do as a matter of choice. Get a grip.
However, in terms of a more relevant group, those living in POVERTY, you lose again.
The poverty rate under Trump was lower, and went DOWN EVERY YEAR of his term.
It has gone UP EVERY YEAR under Harris.
We dont need your predictions. We have DATA.
You can keep making shit up but its not going to change what everyone knows to be true.
..again.. another ludicrous piece of fiction and negative propaganda from one of the resident trolls, ‘Dennis McIntyre,’ who appears to be representing
‘The View..’
It does seem that the far prog/left has gotten out to the Kuyper Belt of reality and are just floundering about, shouting in to the darkness of the universal abyss at this point. They have nowhere left to go except into the madness that is consuming them. It is a shame that si many human souls have been permanently damaged by this ideology of progressivism. I am currently reading 1917 by Arthur Herman and both Wilson and Lenin were narcisissitic madmen pursuing unrealities that have both scarred this globe almost beyond repair.
SPOT ON, WELL SAID, Prof. Turley…!! Absolutely Real that there is a vital pulsing synergy inherent in the Capitalism – Freedom connection..!! Also agree that these extremist, radical and almost comical views are OK on Campus related events… always have been… The big difference between now and when we were college students is: The MSM.. the newer extremist, radical MSM and their baby media offshoots all over the internet, giving these events Headlining Attention and shoving it down our throats…. Thank You for calling this out…
Here comes Erwin Chemerinsky: No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States
To summarize: I don’t like the outcome of the rules, therefore I want new rules. That outcome I want is that wealth is redistributed (shocker there, right?) and that outcomes are equalized.
See Chris Bray’s substack for the hypocrisy of this moron, as well.
I wonder how much of a paycheck one of obamma’s foundations fronted for this reiteration of the same old screed.
PS: #1 new release in amazon, General Constitutional Law (sic)
* I am disappointed that commenters didn’t flesh out the __> breeding camps and cannibalism portion of Professor Turley’s article. One comment did mention aliens, I think. I’m hoping they’re vegetarians.
What’s to flesh out? That seems like it could be a recycled plot from a very low budget 1950s Sci-Fi movie, and merits equal serious analysis.
A friend who works at ASU told me that at a large administrative staff meeting on Friday that ASU’s CFO proclaimed empathy with the anti-Israel protestors on campus. This is the CFO. Even the hard numbers part of ASU’s administration is fully woke.
“This is the CFO”
Might be interesting if someone looked into how ASUs pension funds were invested, eh?
Well the one upside we can take away from the great work of “socialism” is it might end our obesity epidemic. The Venezuela Muduro Diet, the average Venezuelan lost some 19lbs.
I think, perhaps, that the ozempic manufacturer might have a negative thought about going full socialist/marxist.
Whimsicalmama,
You might have a point there.
Harris wins, I am going long on PMs, commodities, and ammo.