Morning Joe 4/27/2012 -- Juvenile humor

I hate to appear as if I think there's no  reason to laugh at the political class, because God knows there are myriad reasons to roll on the floor laughing, but when recession still lingers, unemployment remains stubbornly high, our government blocks energy production which could create tens of thousands of jobs, we are bogged down in a mideast war which needlessly puts our troops in danger and causes death and physical mangling in order for the President to save face, we're wasting billions on alternative energy bets which aren't panning out, the SS is unraveling with charges of cavorting with prostitutes, GSA is mocking tax-payers by laughing at the money they've stolen and wasted, our Federal agencies are involved in scandals like Fast and Furious and are fast and furiously lying about involvement, it's not so funny for Obama to yuck it up with Jimmy Fallon over student loan debt which threatens a trillion dollar default, or to snicker at Biden who for some unknown reason has no self-awareness. Yes, the political class deserves to be laughed at, but it's not funny anymore.

I think that was the uncomfortable tension felt on Morning Joe this morning with guests Sam Stein and John Heilemann. Donnie Deutsche, of course, jumped in with juvenile humor as Joe and Willie acted like mischievous accomplices snickering as the joke marinated. Biden said Obama has a Big Stick. The grown ups on Morning Joe, like Dan Senor and Jeffrey Sachs and John Heilemann and Sam Stein let it slide -- the others didn't.

Sachs and Senor set the stage for the split between Democrats and Republicans heading into the 2012 elections -- whether to raise taxes and invest in infrastructure to help alleviate the recession, or whether to cut taxes and abolish regulations which are blocking economic growth. Scarborough jumped on Senor and made it clear that he, Scarborough, is for raising taxes on the rich. Scarborough's said in the past that America should invest in infrastructure like the Chinese, praising FDR for his bold investments in the 30s. I agreed with Senor on economics, but I disagreed when the subject changed to foreign policy and war.

Senor is a neo-conservative who thinks we should intervene in Syria and do whatever is necessary in Iran, which means military action. First, Senor makes the mistake of framing the rebels in Syria as freedom fighters when all the evidence shows they are would-be dictators trying to overthrow a the present dictator. Not another America soldier should die in a civil war in a foreign  country. It's insane. Senor said we are isolated internationally because we aren't intervening enough -- this is really insane. We've intervened way too much -- it's time to come home and allow our economy to recover. We can defend against the remainder of terrorists with special forces and intelligence. America has to retire as Global Police -- it's not what we should be about. We should be about innovation, creativity, economic growth, charity, technology -- not these drone missions and wars in nations that never change and only waste the lives of brave men and women who deserve better leadership. War should not be undertaken so superficially and extended for political reasons. It's abusive to our military, and it only creates resentment in the region -- nothing changes for the better.

Morning Joe 2/22/2012 -- Greece, Gas and God

I've been incredibly busy lately, and in the last few days I can only get out posts on Morning Joe after watching the first could of hours -- then I'm off to make a dollar. This would be okay if Morning Joe presented more diverse, pertinent topics and less political analysis of the Republican primary. It appears the primary will grind out a while longer until a real front-runner emerges. Everyone is realizing what they should have known all along about Santorum -- he's a moralistic, statist prick on the Right who gives the Right a bad name. Forget about Santorum --  media built him up and now they're tearing him down. Republican voters should stay focused on our real problems.

In the meanwhile, the US faces serious problems with high gas prices, Greece in crisis and, thus, the EU in crisis, Iran blustering and Israel threatening Iran, plus we still have troops in a dangerous, unstable part of the world in which the people we are spending money on and sacrificing the lives of our young people on hate us and work against us and would watch gleefully if we were wiped off the face of the earth.

The propaganda flowing from administration and media has nothing to do with our reality. Approximately a million and half American workers have dropped out of the work force because they can't find work, yet Obama praises his economic progress. No one in media is truly portraying the problems facing America. But, the White House is partying with Jagger as if we're on a roll.

Jeffrey Sachs and Joe Scarborough got into an argument this morning about money in politics and the new influence of Super Pacs. Sachs fears that wealthy individuals are buying the country and will control policy. Scarborough called Sachs out on Sachs' denigration of Shelby Adelson and lack of condemnation of George Soros who has been pouring money in the political process through dummy organizations for decades now. Now that the Right has rich individuals entering the game, the Left is crying about the influence of billionaires. The entire conflict is bogus, because no one is addressing the fundamental problem. If our statist government had not been allowed to control our entire economy, no wealthy business people could buy influence, and it wouldn't be so damn important who's elected to President. In other words, if we had a limited government and a free market, all this money could be invested in the private sector and put to productive use, and perhaps create jobs.

Morning Joe 2/14/2012 -- three budgets and two are anti-economic growth

On Morning Joe today Jeffrey Sachs presented Mika with the President's budget -- Mika kissed the budget, leaving her lipstick impression as a signature. Mika has been told by the White House that the budget attempts to achieve balance, so that's what Mika says. Sachs says the budget is good as far as it goes, but it needs to go much further. Steve Rattner was on the Morning Joe panel, and he believes that tax and entitlement reform are needed, as does Scarborough -- Sam McKinnon was on and I think he believes we need to reform taxes and entitlements, but it's hard to tell what he believes.

Jeffrey Sachs is the only honest Leftist on Morning Joe, and he represents where the President and the Left want to go, and Centrists are willing to follow -- with single payer, State run healthcare and much higher taxes on rich people. Sachs and Rattner, two Leftists, disgreed on the budget issues regarding mandatory, entitlement spending and discretionary spending, such as military, education, energy, etc. Sachs believes that entitlement spending will be fine if we fix healthcare by turning it completely over to the management of government so that costs are driven down. Rattner believes entitlements need to be reformed because mandatory spending is squeezing out discretionary spending -- Rattner believes the rich should pay more in taxes, but I think he's open to any plan that increases revenues. Scarborough is basically in tune with McKinnon and other Centrist Republicans -- they believe that tax reform which brings in more revenue by getting rid of loopholes, and a curb in the growth of entitlement spending, will be the budgetary path that's most effective.

Scarborough got in his dig against Tea Partiers by going back to the smear made against them early on that they want a limited government, but at the same time they don't want government touching their Medicare. This smear against the Tea Party came early on when some older participants who've heard the Left's scare tactics of Medicare elimination and the Right's claim that Obamacare contains Medicare cuts protested that they don't want government taking what they've paid into. These were  older Americans who've paid into the Medicare system for over 40 years, and who've been promised that if they paid in they'd have coverage in retirement. These older Americans didn't create Medicare, it was created by government and it's the system that Americans are forced to pay into. Scarborough is making fun of these hard-working Americans, even mimicking their accents as he perceives them, who are approaching retirement for defending what they've been promised and that they've paid into. You can't blame these older Americans for being confused about what Government has planned -- Scarborough looks like a petty prick trying to make points with his liberal friends when he makes fun of older Americans who've been jerked around and are tired of it. 

So there are three budgets -- the Left's budget, the moderates' budget, then there is Ron Paul's budget. We've seen compromises between the Left and the moderates for decades, and now we're 16 trillion in debt with the deficit running a trillion dollars a year as far as we can see. Scarborough and the Centrists, if  Republicans win in 2012, will propose what looks like a balanced budget which satisfies the Left and the Right --this budget will promise to curb entitlement spending and it will tax the rich at a higher rate. This is th balanced approach that Scarborough and moderates have promoted, criticizing the Left for not wanting to touch Entitlements, and criticizing the Right for not wanting to raise revenues. The moderates will say that they are "reforming" the tax code in order to bring in more revenue, but in order to bring in more revenue, no matter how the tax code is reformed, the rich will have to pay more, because any plan that's not strongly progressive will be excoriated in the media and Republicans will be cast as patsies for rich Fat Cats. So, Scarborough and Republican moderates will do what they've always done, capitulate to the culture war against the producers in America, those now called disparagingly the 1%.

You can see it from the Left and the Center, the "1%" will be blamed for all our problems, and, if only they are regulated and taxed more, we'll be okay. In the mean time, though, corporations favored by the current party in power will be protected and favored -- sometimes it's the same corporations for either party. Only Ron Paul and true limited government representatives are calling for real government cuts in spending that reduce the debt and end wasteful programs. the Left and the Center are not far apart -- the Left only wants to move more quickly to full government control over the economy. The Left and and the Center are almost there, but there's still resistance to a complete takeover. 2012 will tell how strong this resistance has become and which budget we'll use going forward.

Morning Joe 1/16/2012 -- Finally, Joe speaks up

On Morning Joe today, Scarborough sounded as if he's running for President to the right of Romney and the other Big Government candidates, except Ron Paul who is the only liberty candidate. To start the program, Morning Joe had on the usual bored and boring suspects -- Al Sharpton, Tina Brown and Jeffrey Sachs, then later Suze Orman was on. The entire first segment was a Republican-bash, along with private sector enterprise bashing. Actually, what the Leftist guests were bashing is government intervention in the economy, but they don't see it that way. Sachs made the incredible claim that deregulation came about before the housing crash.

 Government was up to its elbows in the housing crash. Government has heavily regulated all industries for a long, long time. It's ludicrous to suggest that free market principles have been at work ever in America's history. From the start, Hamilton won in designing a system controlled by the combined interests of the elite from business and government -- A Merchant-State.

After about an hour or so of this, when Sachs had gone on to claim that private enterprise had also ruined healthcare, Scarborough, I suppose, had had enough, and whatever connection he has to free market philosophy inspired him to respond -- what Scarborough condemned is statist growth. Now in the 21st century we're drowning in debt along with Europe. Sachs and the other Leftists blamed practically all our problems on private sector enterprise, yet all they can propose is higher taxes on the rich. What then? They don't know and never have known. The Left wants more money to pay for their past failures and to fund their central planning going forward which will also fail. It's time to stop the madness. Kudos to Scarborough for standing up.

Update on Monday, January 16, 2012 at 08:52AM by M. Farmer

I forgot that the first part of Morning Joe was spent talking about Huntsman dropping out. They all repeated the conventional wisdom that Huntsman was the most conservative candidate in the race -- so, conservative Huntsman endorses Centrist Romney. I'm not sure what a conservative is anymore, but Huntsman, in DC, out of Utah, would be a Big Government Republican. A Big Government Republican is a statist, like Obama is a statist -- they only focus on different areas of central planning and control.

Morning Joe 12/30/2011 -- Iowa prognostications

In other words, as Matt Lewis admitted, on Morning Joe today, no one knows who's going to win, so they all guessed some more about the results. Joe Klein was a guest and he gave his Leftist slant, suggesting that Paul supporters are somehow unbothered by the racist content in the newsletters written under Paul's name in the early 90s. This subject has been beaten to death, but Klein took it a step further. To Matt Lewis's credit, he confronted Klein, since no one else on Morning Joe found it a little unbelievable. As Lewis said, Paul supporters like the non-interventionist, limited government positions that Paul has championed consistently for decades. Paul supporters have been following Paul long enough to know that whatever mistakes in judgement he made not overseeing the newsletters pale in comparison to the ideas he's promoted since that time, none of them having anything to do with racism.

Earlier, Klein had said that the liberal press presents facts, and that Republicans like Paul supporters ignore the facts and live in their own hermetically sealed world. This is liberal projection at its finest -- just look at the Obama apologists, which leads right into Paul's positions on foreign policy. Obama was elected in large part by Americans concerned with civil liberties and war, but Obama has continued State disregard for civil liberties, or individual rights in general, yet, aside from a few grumbling liberals, most Democrats are not making a big deal of it -- however, liberals are pounding Paul who is the only true civil libertarian running. So much for facts and hermetically sealed worlds.

The Republican establishment is also pounding Paul for his foreign policy and civil libertartian positions. Even Klein admitted that Paul's position on Iran is solid, that Iran is not itching for war -- Iran wants nukes to protect itself from nuclear powers in the region. Plus, the US will allow Iran to develope nuclear weapons in the end, but, in the meanwhile, hawks will use Iran to scare Americans in order to justify expansion of the war machine. Iran doesn't want a war with America -- it's ridiculous to think that this shaken and weak regime would invite total destruction. Iran is blustering to maintain influence in the mideast -- it's none of our business, and Paul is the only one with the integrity to say so. Some say Iran has sponsored attacks on our troops in the mideast -- we shouldn't have troops in the mideast in 2011. As long as we place troops in region in which we're hated and unwanted, there will be attacks on our troops. The administration hasn't justified our continued presence in the mideast. We haven't even left Iraq -- we still have an interventionist presence there, and will have for a long time to come, unless someone like Paul can get us out.

Jeffrey Sachs was on Morning Joe and, of course, he had to get on his high horse regarding income disparity. Sach's solution is higher taxes on the rich. As has been shown by many economists, raising taxes on the rich only hurts the middle class and eventually the poor trying to enter the middle class. The rich will either pass the costs along, reduce production and employment or find ways to avoid the taxes. If Sachs wants a strong welfare state he shouldn't be so intent on attacking the very production and wealth creation which will fund the welfare state. At some point, taxing the rich is counter productive and insufficient to fund the welfare state -- so, with the liberal mindset of an ever-expanding welfare state, we'll have a situation where the poor are put at risk because there is no longer enough money to meet the growing demands. Paul wants to promote economic growth through free market principles so that we can grow our economy and create jobs. Poor people need good jobs, not more welfare and dependency.

These are the issues that need to be front and center, but what we get is superficial analysis and propaganda meant to build up Obama and tear down the Republican candidates -- and newsletters written in 1990. Romney has the nomination, you know. Did you hear about Bachmann's campaign manager?