Fuck Ron Paul

[RocketMan]

Side note, His son is named 'RandY' as in RANDALL, not after Ayn Rand.

You are correct, sir, except according to Wikipedia it is Randal with a single L. Guess he discovered Ayn Rand all by his own self.

I enjoyed your comments about government, been grappling with the concept of central government myself, given its seemingly constant drift towards looking after the interests of the plutocracy/oligarchy.

[Elihu]

Government is supposed to be the people. Make government adhere to that, don't hate and want to destroy the only recourse we have left to combat fascist control. They seem to respond to that.

as wonderful as that sounds, i think it's mistaken in a key point.

I enjoyed your comments about government, been grappling with the concept of central government myself, given its seemingly constant drift towards looking after the interests of the plutocracy/oligarchy.

i made some comments about the "personhood" of corporations on another thread. these entities have bent the "government is supposed to be the people" (which i agree with) to their own purposes. government is not the last bulwark standing in the way of a mercantilist take over. they are symbiotic partners. neither could usurp without the other. the answer, imo, is to find their common interest and break it up.

imo, it's been with us all along in the Constitution as originally written. i thought that it was intended to prevent this sort of symbiotic combination from the very beginning. imo, the answer is not a leap forward into some new theory of government and/or human nature. i'm fearful of a "kinder-gentler" form of socialism.

[Marie Laveau]

Side note, His son is named 'RandY' as in RANDALL, not after Ayn Rand.

You are correct, sir, except according to Wikipedia it is Randal with a single L. Guess he discovered Ayn Rand all by his own self.

I enjoyed your comments about government, been grappling with the concept of central government myself, given its seemingly constant drift towards looking after the interests of the plutocracy/oligarchy.

Well, that is something I did not know. I have read a bit about him, though not on wikipedia, I will admit; and it always alluded to the fact that he was named after Rand.

He does appreciate the association, though, I guess.

[Searcher08]

Side note, His son is named 'RandY' as in RANDALL, not after Ayn Rand.

You are correct, sir, except according to Wikipedia it is Randal with a single L. Guess he discovered Ayn Rand all by his own self.

I enjoyed your comments about government, been grappling with the concept of central government myself, given its seemingly constant drift towards looking after the interests of the plutocracy/oligarchy.

Well, that is something I did not know. I have read a bit about him, though not on wikipedia, I will admit; and it always alluded to the fact that he was named after Rand.

He does appreciate the association, though, I guess.

He was Randy till he got married (*) then his wife shortened it to Rand.

(*) Poor bloke!

[Luther Blissett]

Is the rumor true that he signed a pledge that he would cut all federal funding to Planned Parenthood if elected?

[Marie Laveau]

I know someoneon the nets (maybe it's posted here, I don't know) has put together a fact sheet, with references, of everything he' said.

It ain't good.

[elfismiles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rLVOh1dfFc

[barracuda]

[SonicG]

Is the rumor true that he signed a pledge that he would cut all federal funding to Planned Parenthood if elected?

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/09/06 ... arenthood/

Paul says:
“I will veto any spending bill that contains funding for Planned Parenthood, facilities that perform abortion and all government family planning schemes”, he said.

“Like millions of Americans, I believe that innocent life deserves protection and I am deeply offended by abortion. It is unconscionable to me that fellow Pro-Life Americans are forced to fund abortion through their tax dollars,” Paul added. “As a Congressman, I’ve never voted for any budget that includes funding for Planned Parenthood. Instead, I’ve introduced the Taxpayers’ Freedom of Conscience Act to cut off all taxpayer funding of abortions, so-called “family planning” services and international abortionists.

What Paul doesn’t seem to understand is that not one penny of federal funding is used to perform abortions. All of that money comes from private donations. Using government funds to perform an abortion is against the law. But Ron Paul doesn’t think so. What kind of a Congressman doesn’t know the laws of the land? Another aspect lost upon Paul is what the federal funding is actually used for. Planned Parenthood provides medical services such as pap smears and cancer screening among other necessary care for women. Abortions only account for 3% of medical procedures performed. Last time I checked, doctors are supposed to care about the health of women, and by stripping federal funding for Planned Parenthood, millions of women will go without medical attention. So not only is Ron Paul ignorant, he’s a lousy doctor too.

[wordspeak2]

Rocketman wrote:
"But his admittedly principled stand on non-intervention is unfortunately amply offset by his fanatical hatred of any and all central structures aimed at providing for the less well off. "

That's the best one-line sum-up of Ron Paul I've seen yet. Fuck Ron Paul. Great thread. But....
Does this also mean, "Fuck the Ron Paul support base"? Because I'm going to disagree. IMO the Paul campaign is more of a good thing than a bad thing it's galvanized a lot of anti-fascists. And these people are all different; some are hard-line libertarians like Ron Paul, while others aren't. Essentially all of them are anti-imperialist and oppose the Drug War. I've speaking as a leftist who's worked for years in the drug policy reform movement, so I've worked with plenty of libertarians or quasi-libertarian types. Micro-capitalists and the like. In my opinion a populist anti-fascist movement isn't going to get anywhere until traditional leftists unify with people like this. I know that's an extremely broad statement. The former may be easy to define, but the latter isn't, and in many cases homophobic fundamentalist Alex Jones listeners are not worth allying with. However, imo in many more cases libertarian "patriot" types *are* worth allying with, and a wide populist tent is absolutely necessary in the realpolitik of contemporary fascism.
Exactly how to do this? I don't know. But if you want to end foreign wars and the Drug War we have a good starting point. Let's run better anti-fascist candidates, maybe even start a new party (let's face it- the Green Party is pathetic. Better to start from scratch.) I think that people who want to abolish Social Security and Medicare entirely are a distinct minority out there. At least, I haven't met many, but I do live in a very blue state.
Actually, in the very general sense I feel strongly about this. I'm looking at a book right now by CIA agent Chip Berlet called "Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close For Comfort." It's an attack on the historical roots of what we see manifesting in the popularity of Alex Jones and Ron Paul, etc. "Right-wing populism" is a funny term, but if Chip Berlet is concerned enough to write a book attacking it, that means the intelligentsia sees it as a threat. It's not about the left unifying with the Tea Party, per se, as was proposed on a different thread- there are plenty of people out there who are not Tea Partiers, nor socialists, but decent people who are opposed to the insane onslaught of fascism. They're desperate for something to connect with, and right now what they have is Ron Paul. We need them all if we're going to have any chance of winning.

[Gouda]

Ron Paul: Africa has famines because they aren’t capitalists

Posted on 09.14.11
By David Edwards
Categories: Biz/Money, Featured

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul explained Wednesday that famines in Africa were a result of a lack of a “free market systems.”

“All I know is if you look at history and if you compare good medical care and you compare famine, the countries that are more socialistic have more famines,” Paul told CNN’s T.J. Holmes. “If you look at Africa, they don’t have any free market systems and property rights and they have famines and no medical care. So the freer the system, the better the health care.”

(...)

“This whole idea that they world will not provide for people if you don’t depend on government — freedom provides more prosperity and better health care than all the socialism and welfarism in the world,” Paul said. “Nobody can compete with me about compassion because I know and understand how free markets and sound money and a sensible foreign policy is the most compassionate system ever known to mankind. So if you care about people you have to look to the freedom philosophy and limited government.”

[Nordic]

Magical thinking.

Magical thinking does not belong in politics. It's religion.

[Searcher08]

Just about every country in Africa that is characterised by two things -

First - it has a structural parasitic infestation of Western crony capitalism and financial hit-men.
Second - it is full of all-pervasive violence-driven systemic corruption in nearly every aspect of commerce.

The nearest thing I have seen to a de-centralised free market is Cuba, where my understanding is that there is a very geographically localised and (from circumstances) recycle/resource driven economy.

[elfismiles]

GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul wins California straw poll
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 18, 2011 12:33 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Paul wins 44.9% of the 833 votes cast in the straw poll
* Rick Perry comes in second; Mitt Romney comes in third
* Paul has gained momentum in recent weeks, according to a CNN/ORC poll

(CNN) -- Texas Rep. Ron Paul won a California straw poll, the state Republican Party announced in a statement Saturday night.

A total of 833 ballots were cast during the straw poll, the statement said.

Paul won with 44.9% of the votes, Texas Gov. Rick Perry came in second with 29.3% of the votes, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came in third with 8.8% of the votes.

The California Republican Party, associated members and registered guests were allowed to vote in the straw poll, according to the statement.

Paul was scheduled to give speeches in Los Angeles on Saturday, including the keynote at the Republican Liberty Caucus of California.

He has gained momentum in the race for the White House in recent weeks, according to the latest CNN/ORC International Poll. Among current GOP candidates, Paul placed third in the poll with 13%, following Romney in second place with 21% and Perry in first with 32%.

His win came the same day he celebrated Constitution Day with another one of his "money bomb" fundraisers.

The online event attempts to raise a large sum of cash in 24 hours, a tactic that's proved successful in the past for Paul.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/09/17/ ... traw.poll/

[Simulist]

A cat coughing up a fur-ball promises a more positive effect on history than Ron Paul winning an election.