It’s getting progressively more and more difficult for Sen. Rand Paul to ignore his father’s osmium-density baggage.
Former Republican presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul says secession is happening and it’s “good news.” Paul later predicted the states would stop listening to federal laws.
“I would like to start off by talking about the subject and the subject is secession and, uh, nullification, the breaking up of government, and the good news is it’s gonna happen. It’s happening,” Paul, the father of potential Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, told a gathering at the libertarian Mises Institute in late January. The event Paul was speaking at was titled “Breaking Away: The Case for Secession.”
Paul said secession would not be legislated by Congress, but would be de facto, predicting “when conditions break down…there’s gonna be an alternative.”
“And it’s not gonna be because there will be enough people in the U.S. Congress to legislate it. It won’t happen. It will be de facto. You know, you’ll have a gold standard when the paper standard fails, and we’re getting awfully close to that. And people will have to resort to taking care of themselves. So when conditions break down, you know, there’s gonna be an alternative. And I think that’s what we’re witnessing.”
Like the Walking Dead, only with Bitcoin and weed.
Rand’s got it tough. He has to get in the race pretty soon or Jebbie is going to vac-u-suck up all the donors. But the second he does, Stuff Rand’s Dad Says will become the big hit of 2015. All the people on the left currently fawning over his stance on criminal justice are going to have to deal with Ron Paul’s decades of racist, glibertarian assholeism influencing the rest of his policy positions (Yes Cory Booker, I’m looking right the hell straight at you.)
So yeah, that may play here in Kuntucky where we’re constantly trying to run moonshine past them damned revenuers, but nationally? Rand’s chances are deader than the marmot pelt on his head.
SP
“you’ll have a gold standard when the paper standard fails, and we’re getting awfully close to that.”
See Krugman today- just keep saying stuff with no connection to reality and pretending it’s real. How is there any evidence this is remotely the case? Did Ron have a bad run-in with a vending machine that wouldn’t take a crumpled dollar? “See, this here machine, this is why we need gold coins!”
Dolly Llama
In before Spinwheel. :)
srv
Perfect is the enemy of the good son.
Liberals who hate Jeb but think there’s no such thing as Hillary fatigue. Rand just has to win a few swing states, 200-some electoral votes come free with an (R) by your name.
trollhattan
Li’l Rand is such an odd duck I certainly “welcome” him to participate in the Republican debates with dad’s leftover grenade collection. The rest: what you said re. his actual chances.
I’ma going to reiterate my concerns with Herr Walker. Like Rand those who know him think he’s so obviously awful he doesn’t stand the ghost of a chance but I insist that from time-zones away he projects the bland pseudo-competence and doctrinaire stances that establishment Republicans crave (“he’s got electrolytes!”).
Want evidence? Check the California Field Poll.
Scott Walker 18%
Jeb Bush 16%
Rand Paul 10%
Ben Carson 8%
Pretty interesting for a little known governor from a distant state. He just might could be (a favorite Hoosierism) the projection screen they want.
boatboy_srq
We’re about to see the Paulbot v2.0.
Bobby B.
Remember the old WB cartoons with the tiny yipping dog that constantly danced obsequiously around the surly bulldog, only to get swatted away? Ever thus for libertarians and the GOP.
Villago Delenda Est
@Dolly Llama: WIN!
schrodinger's cat
Is he VP material? Or will Republicans throw another token at us, like Rubio or Jindal?
Villago Delenda Est
@srv: Won’t happen. Paul will, as usual, five minutes into the speech, say something so far in the outfield that you need to change area codes to reach it.
nancydarling
TBOGG says it’s a merkin.
Villago Delenda Est
@SP: What pisses me off the most about these idiots is that ALL MONEY IS FIAT MONEY.
You can check in with the Spanish Hapsburgs on just how “stable” gold can be as a currency.
But then, this would require them to read and understand history. Neither of which is a strong suite with them.
Villago Delenda Est
@nancydarling: Tribble.
(apologies in advance to Tribbles.)
boatboy_srq
@schrodinger’s cat: Rubio. He’s more handsomer, and he can see Other People from his house.
srv
@Villago Delenda Est: From what I hear, Hillary may be the same way now. Has she even done a public interview since her ‘concussion’?
Spinwheel
If 2016 comes down to Rand Paul versus Hillary Clinton, all of you are going to hold your noses and vote for Hillary, huh?
trollhattan
@Spinwheel:
Next time, try living on a planet with an oxygen component to its atmosphere.
Paul in KY
He might be able to make hay from this by having a ‘Sister Soulja Moment’ and rebuking his dad. If he really wants to be Pres, he’ll do it.
Tree With Water
“All the people on the left currently fawning over his stance on criminal justice..”.
Name me three such people, I dare you.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
They’re never going to understand anything about history- or anything else- that they don’t want to understand.
Buddy H
Is Ron perhaps subconsciously or consciously sabotaging his son’s chances? Some complex family dynamic going on there we’re not aware of? “You will not outdo your father” or something like that? In contrast to Ted Cruz’s dad, who believes his son was put on earth to save the planet?
Hungry Joe
Sure, it’s a GOP clown car … a clown minivan … a clown Lincoln Navigator, even. But hard as it is to imagine, one of those very clowns — and it could be Rand — is going to be the nominee, and he’ll be handed chips worth around 42% of the popular vote and close to 200 electoral votes before he even enters the casino. A run of luck — or a run of bad luck/bad card play by his opponent — and he’s in the White House. That’s why every single one of those, yes, clowns, should be taken seriously. Whenever I hear somebody say that the FSM doesn’t love us enough to allow X to get the nomination, I think that maybe the FSM is in fact looking after us.
Boots Day
Sarah Palin’s husband flirted with secession, too, but nobody cared, because everyone knows Republicans are ultra-patriotic.
But really, an American can’t do anything more anti-American than secede.
boatboy_srq
@Buddy H: Ron Paul: US representative. Rand Paul: US Senator. So Dad’s already outdone.
Hungry Joe
In moderation? Me? Harmless Hungry Joe?
Roger Moore
@Buddy H:
I doubt it. He’s been saying worse stuff than this for a long time. It’s just that it’s never gotten a whole lot of play in the major media because dad was always a long-shot outsider who didn’t get the full glare of the media spotlight. I doubt this will get any more play, because dad is still an outsider who isn’t even running for anything right now.
Zandar
@Tree With Water: Are you kidding?
There’s a massive push on the left to side with Booker, Rand Paul and the Kochs, FreedomWorks and Ralph Reed’s boys on this.
Center for American Progress and the ACLU are already in and calling for more.
Al Sharpton, Chris Hayes, and Rachel Maddow have all done stories about it.
PurpleGirl
@Hungry Joe: It happens to all of us at least once.
Buddy H
@Roger Moore: Yes, but I thought he’d say to himself “gee, my boy has a real shot at the presidency, maybe I’ll button my lip and play normal until he’s sworn in.”
And maybe the fact his son already rose above him politically bruised his ego…. I really don’t know, I’m just looking for logic where there is none, I guess.
? Martin
Where ‘secure our borders’ runs headlong into ‘drown the government in a bathtub’.
On the upside, Willie Nelson can safely head back to El Paso now.
trollhattan
@Zandar:
How toes this square with the for-profit prison industry? Have they and the Kochs had a falling out, or somesuch?
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: He’s a very sneaky little fuck. Cunning in his evilness. Can not underestimate him.
trollhattan
@Buddy H:
A documentarian would love the opportunity to attend a Paul family reunion, but it would definitely fit my idea of hell on earth. “I want the seat nearest the door.”
? Martin
@Villago Delenda Est:
They’re not going to check with the Hapsburgs, but you might get them to watch ‘Goldfinger’. Set the bar at a reasonable level, here.
dedc79
@Zandar: I’m confused. Are you opposed to criminal justice reform? Should Booker oppose an opportunity for reform just because it’s spearheaded by someone he disagrees with on most other issues?
At a time when Republican obstruction has prevented Congress from doing anything, I don’t see why Booker should turn down an overture like this, no matter who is making it.
Amir Khalid
I predict the world will tremble before the might of such great and powerful nations as Mississippi, Wyoming, (American) Georgia, and Utah.
Brandon
@Villago Delenda Est: Not just gold, but the huge silver strikes in South America disrupted currencies around the world. China was crazy for the stuff, and Spain mined as much as they possibly could.
jl
“Awwww…. Pa… can’t you just try to maintain…. a little… just until I get elected…puuullleeeaassseee?”
On the other hand, you silly collectivist liberals can laugh all you want. Really, Jeb! is one of you, and he will see the truth, but too late. Exactly what is all that ‘money’ that Jeb!’s ‘donors’ are giving him anyway? It’s worthless paper and fictitious electrons managed by them damn central bankers. Wait until that evaporates.
Then Rand can get out his bullion, redeem all that bitcoin down at that place that used to be a comic book emporium, and who will be laughing then? Who will have Freedom Unlimited Campaign Cash then, huh? Who’ll be laughing then? Won’t be Jeb!.
And it’ll all happen de facto, when the rotten hollow system of lies and coercion comes crashing down, just as ol’ Ron predicted. It’ll happen just in the nick of time, like a movie too. I betcha.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: You’re such card, Amir.
debit
@Hungry Joe: Maybe FYWP mistook you for your slovenly cousin, Sloppy.
rikyrah
Rand Paul’s ‘concern’ about the Prison Industrial Complex is a fraud. Just like his ‘stance’ on voting rights. A complete fraud.
I hear ya, Zandar.
rikyrah
@dedc79:
well, considering it’s not genuine, I’d say, yes.
Paul doesn’t give two shyts about real reform. Neither do the Koch Brothers.
Roger Moore
@Buddy H:
Why would he think that, though? His experience is that saying that stuff never interfered with his own candidacy, so there’s no particular reason that his saying it now will interfere with Rand’s candidacy. It didn’t seem to hurt when Rand was running for Senate, after all, or when Ron was running for President.
Dolly Llama
@Spinwheel: You’re a consistent motherfucker, I’ll give you that.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
Why, so they can pick up tips? The whole point of the gold bugs is they have big gold holdings, and they want the government to re-institute the gold standard so those holdings will increase in value.
Jonny Scrum-half
Just to play a little devil’s advocate: Let’s assume that Ron Paul is racist or, if you want to be generous to him, at least doesn’t care about racism or its effects. Let’s further assume that Rand Paul has positions with respect to domestic issues that mirror his Dad’s. Finally, let’s assume that Rand would adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy that’s similar to his Dad’s. (I realize that this last assumption is at-odds with some of Rand’s public statements.)
Finally, let’s assume that Rand runs against Clinton in the general election, and that Clinton’s foreign policy would be as hawkish as it appears to be.
Given those assumptions, why would it be wrong to vote for Rand over Clinton? I realize that his domestic policies are selfish, counterproductive and likely to hurt many Americans, falling most harshly on poor and minorities. But foreign policy is a matter of life and death, and Ron Paul’s foreign policy will result in fewer American deaths, and maybe fewer overall deaths, than Hillary Clinton’s. (I realize that I just wrote Ron Paul, who isn’t running, but my assumption is that Rand will govern according to his father’s foreign policy principles.)
In short, why isn’t the “lesser of two evils” the person whose policies will result in fewer people being killed and maimed in unnecessary military interventions?
inny
I will say this once, and once only…
The only thing that makes living on the other side of the river tolerable is that I can laugh at KY.
Zandar
@dedc79: No, I’m not against true prison reform. I’m against what the Kochs are going to do to it.
jl
@Roger Moore:
We may be able to detect whether both of them are in it for the grift, or maybe not.
Good chance that the more clippings from Ron Paul’s noxious newsletter made it into his campaign coverage, the more he liked it. More would be intrigued and inquiring how to subscribe. The presidency would never be there, but he know that the newsletter, or some subsequent scam, would.
trollhattan
@Paul in KY:
I do believe he’s more frightening than JEB! by a significant margin, and significantly more willing to say anything to anybody in order to elected than even JEB!’s brother was. (“Ah’ma kompassionate konservative–ye-haw!”) Being bland is quite helpful to the professional liar.
Hungry Joe
@debit: Nah. Cousin Shoeless is the black sheep.
Dolly Llama
@Jonny Scrum-half: The President’s power to appoint Supreme Court justices. / drops mic, walks off stage.
srv
Not the terrorism you liberals were hoping for
trollhattan
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Yes, it would be wrong.
Marmot
Hey man! Leave me out of it. ;)
dmbeaster
@Spinwheel: I dont need to hold my nose for the bland alternative to nut-ball rotten with a dead tribble on his head.
jl
@Jonny Scrum-half: I don’t see any reason to believe that anything Rand says on anything is reliable, so no reason to believe him on foreign policy any more than anything else. So far, when push comes to shove, Rand’s GOPerism wins out over Rand’s glibertarianism since he has been in Senate. His talk is very cheap and a poor guide to what he will do.
@trollhattan: Yeah, what trollh says. That was the argument I was trying to make.
inny
@<a href="#comment-526Just to play a little devil’s advocate: Let’s assume that Ron Paul is racist or, if you want to be generous to him, at least doesn’t care about racism or its effects. Let’s further assume that Rand Paul has positions with respect to domestic issues that mirror his Dad’s. Finally, let’s assume that Rand would adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy that’s similar to his Dad’s. (I realize that this last assumption is at-odds with some of Rand’s public statements.)
Finally, let’s assume that Rand runs against Clinton in the general election, and that Clinton’s foreign policy would be as hawkish as it appears to be.
Given those assumptions, why would it be wrong to vote for Rand over Clinton?1174″>Jonny Scrum-half:
japa21
@Jonny Scrum-half: Because that person’s policies will result in far more needless deaths and sufferings right here? And really, as you say, Paul is not really a non-interventionist except when he thinks he needs those votes. He has been as bellicose as Clinton has been and occasionally more so.
dmbeaster
@Boots Day: Or shorter Giuliani, prove how much you love America by supporting succession.
Paul in KY
@Jonny Scrum-half: Because on every other issue (other than foreign policy & assuming your hypotheticals), Hillary would be much better than a GOP shitwad such as Rand.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: He’s working right now to fast-track Wisconsin into becoming a ‘Right to Work’ state. Freaking Wisconsin…
inny
I make one Kentucky joke and I’m stuck in moderation hell…
OK, there was that one typo in my email addy….
Still… OUTRAGE!
To repeat myself… It’s good to see you writing here again. The only thing that makes living on my side of the river tolerable is being able to make fun of your side of the river.
And stop electing Pauls, mkay?
Paul in KY
Zandar, just noticed a typo in your article, last para, name of our state:
‘So yeah, that may play here in Kuntucky where we’re constantly trying to run moonshine past them damned revenuers, but nationally? Rand’s chances are deader than the marmot pelt on his head’
Chris
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Here’s what I don’t get about the “Ron Paul would be better on foreign policy!” thing –
Ron Paul’s proposed response to 9/11 was “issue letters of marque and reprisal” against al-Qaeda. In plain English, that means hiring a privateer. Translated into 21st-centurese, presumably, that means outsourcing the work to Blackwater, DynCorp, and whoever.
How would that be any different from what actually happened under Bush? A ton of Afghans would still have died. The U.S. government would still be responsible, and would still have footed the bill. The only difference is we’d have ended up paying even more for it and probably for worse results.
raven
@Chris: You are drillin a dry hole of you are trying to apply some kind of logic to the little asshole and his band of morons.
Paul in KY
@Chris: I hate to be ‘defending’ Rand’s dipshit dad, but I would assume we wouldn’t have invaded/taken over Iraq, if the ‘letters of marque & reprisal’ stunt had been done.
Adam
@Chris:
But he’d legalize* WEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*not really
KG
I wonder, mostly in an academic sense, if there is a point where some combination o population and territory makes effective government impossible. History is chaulk full of people trying to conquer the world, people fighting for local control, and the more recent trend towards international cooperation. So lots of competing forces.
That said, as much as the south pisses me off, I can’t imagine succession being a net positive for anyone
jl
@Paul in KY: OK, Ron would have paid mercenaries to invade. Not sure how much difference that would make, except maybe a lot more $$ skimmed of tor excess profits, and even more disgraceful and awful consequences for all the people involved, Iraqis and privateers.
Or did Ron mean that privateers would roam the high sees in the galleons to capture all that treasure ’round the world in Iraqi ships?
Steve in the ATL
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Even if he were better in that one area, he’s worse in every other way. Are you trolling or have you genuinely forgotten all the executive branch nightmares from Reagan, Bush, and Bush?
joel hanes
@Spinwheel:
If 2016 comes down to Rand Paul versus Hillary Clinton
Nothing special about that matchup.
If it comes down to [any Republican] vs Hillary Clinton, I’ll vote for Clinton.
KG
@Paul in KY: nah, they’d have fabricated evidence anyway and then had more resources to dump into that hole
zzyzx
@Adam: Weed isn’t legal? I can buy it in stores whenever I want (which admittedly is never but…).
The worst thing to happen to Libertarians would be for the WA/CO (and now AK/OR) experiment to take over the whole country. Without that issue, they’re just more extreme conservatives.
Calouste
@Buddy H: I think Paul Sr. realizes that the family grift depends on running for President, but not actually making the nomination. Jr. doesn’t seem to be so smart and doesn’t realize that winning the nomination and losing the election would cause the marks to look for a different candidate next time around. Of course winning the election would put a full stop to the grift, and might actually involve doing work.
Southern Beale
I think Jeb has already sucked up all the moolah, and I think that’s too bad. Because I don’t think Randy will run. He may be doing a Palin-style campaign “tease” but I don’t think he’ll ultimately run and that’s a shame. Because if he did, he would very quickly distinguish himself from the more “reasonable” Republicans (Jeb, Christie when he’s not having a temper tantrum) and relegate himself permanently to the Crazy Uncle wing of the GOP. He’d become the new Ted Cruz. Nobody takes Cruz seriously, I’ll be shocked if Cruz gets reelected, and I’d love to see the same thing happen to Rand. He’s already headed in that direction.
Woodrowfan
Rand Paul would still have gone to war, he’d just pretend to be heartsick about having to do it…
Roger Moore
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Lots of domestic policies are a matter of life and death, too. Far more poor people in this country die from lack of health care than from serving in our wars. Even more might well die if we cut off access to adequate food and shelter by destroying what remains of the welfare state. That’s why it’s more important to pick somebody with a sane domestic policy than a non-interventionist military policy.
geg6
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Well, if you’re a white male, I can see why it would be better for you to vote for Rand.
If you’re not a white male, it would seem that your own life might be more of a priority than whatever Hilary = Hitler fantasy you have.
geg6
@joel hanes:
This.
gelfling545
@Buddy H: If L’il Rand were my kid I’d consciously sabotage any chance he had to get elected, knowing, as I did, that he was no more fit than a rabbit to be president. The Bush family should have done the same.
Chris
@jl:
I think Paul’s point is that the U.S. would’ve invaded Afghanistan (by merc), but left Iraq alone altogether. Which… fair enough. I buy that.
But then again, I don’t think any Democrat would’ve invaded Iraq, either. So while a Ronulan administration would’ve been an improvement over the mainstream Republican we would’ve gotten, we could as easily have gotten the same result from a Democrat.
Steve in the ATL
@Southern Beale: My sister lives in central Tennessee. She says that Governor Haslam is prepping the state for sharia law and that the Muslim Brotherhood is setting up terrorist camps throughout rural Tennessee that are funded with food stamps and unemployment benefits.
I assume she’s totally not crazy and racist?
srv
@jl: I don’t see any way mercs would cost a trillion dollars. 100B tops, would have been a bargain.
Plus no VA benefits.
mdblanche
Say, what’s Rand Paul up to today?
Villago Delenda Est
@Brandon: Adam Smith has a couple of chapters devoted to the impact of Potosi on the British economy, with pages of stats to back it up, and how the prices of commodities in silver rose as a result.
mdblanche
@Southern Beale: I’m guessing Rand runs, if only to carry on the family
griftcultlegacy.@Roger Moore: This.
Buddy H
@gelfling545: no more fit than a rabbit to be president Now there’s a campaign slogan.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
I disagree. If Dad was interested in making sure not to sabotage Rand, he would shut up. He isn’t.
catclub
@Steve in the ATL: Tell her that turkey sausage is part of the plan.
Jimmy Dean has been converted.
Muslin sheets mean they are taking over the KKK.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
I’d say they might just be against real reform. Noises they will make but real reform that reduces targeting minorities or unequal/unjust prison terms? That’s not in their DNA.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Villago Delenda Est: @? Martin:
Or Mansa Musa’s haj. Gave gold bars out all the way from western Africa to Mecca. Set off a decade’s long economic crisis- and he ended up cornering the gold market while “stabilizing” the problems he triggered.
catclub
@Southern Beale:
I agree, but I think that the far right will realize this and unite early to defeat Jeb with one candidate.
This is why I thought having Mitt in there actually helped Jeb, because the far right would be confused by two RINO squish targets.
My opinion and $3.50 will get you a starbucks coffee.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Seems like a poor assumption.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est:
QFT. The metals that back a currency are steel, lead and depleted uranium, not gold and silver.
Snarkworth
@Marmot: It’s not a marmot. Marmots aren’t tousled.
Aimai
@Jonny Scrum-half: because a person who is a liar about one set of issues is very likely a liar anout another. No one–including rand paul, has the slightest idea how his foreign policy would look. But you can assume his willingness to be racist, sexist, and pro-property to his own countrymen will not lead him to be generous, thoughtful, humane or liberal vis a vis foreigners.
boatboy_srq
@Steve in the ATL: Send her to the border come November ’16 to watch for all the HUD buses bring Fraudulent Voters down from Chicago. She’ll be disappointed, but at least there’ll be one less vote cast for wingnuttery.
boatboy_srq
@catclub:
Brilliant.
glory b
@Dolly Llama: AMEN!
When I taught criminal justice, long, long ago, I told my students every year that the most important thing a president does is appoint judges.
The pres is there 8 years, tops. Those judges will be around a loooooong time.
I’ll admit, Bush’s people were smart in appointing some really young judges. Clinton, not so much (looking at you, even though I love ya, notorious RBG).
Jonny Scrum-half
@Steve in the ATL: I’m not trolling. Isn’t it reasonable to value human life more than whatever domestic policies are being argued about? I’m not saying that I’d vote for Rand Paul, but I don’t know why a person’s poor domestic policies necessarily trumps a foreign policy that likely would lead to fewer deaths.
By the way, if Rand Paul governed like his dad (which is what my assumption was based on, given that the main post tarred Rand with Ron’s words), I don’t think that “executive overreach” would be the problem. In fact, a Ron-Paul-influenced executive would be less likely to overreach than either party’s major candidates.
catclub
Pierce does have a way with words.
Jonny Scrum-half
@Chris: I don’t know that it’s fair to say that the scale would have been the same, and I didn’t see Ron Paul advocating for attacking Iraq at any time.
catclub
@Jonny Scrum-half:
No. Assumes no lives are involved in those domestic policies. Assumes facts not in evidence.
Jonny Scrum-half
@Roger Moore: I hear you, and you could be right about the numbers – even though the cause and effect is more direct with the military interventions. However, I think that it’s much less likely that Paul would be able to dismantle the welfare state (although it certainly would take some hits) than that he’d be able to favorably influence foreign policy.
Of course, I think that Obama came into office pretty non-interventionist, and while he’s certainly better than the alternative I think that his terms show that the momentum for interfering in foreign matters is extremely strong in Washington, and very hard to stop.
Jonny Scrum-half
@geg6: Thanks for making my point into a caricature. Are you saying that Clinton hasn’t been a hawk compared to Ron Paul?
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
Highly enriched uranium and plutonium are also important.
chopper
@SP:
a gold standard makes more sense when the price of gold isn’t subject to the vicissitudes of the world gold market.
Chris
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Why would you think that?
The military-industrial complex, the security state, the neocon/nationalist ideology that goes with them and the whole “DOD as jobs program and public works program” thing have all had seventy years to develop. They’re every bit as well entrenched in the system as the welfare state, probably more so because unlike the welfare state, there isn’t a long line of politicians and businessmen lining up to chop it down.
chopper
@nancydarling:
SEEMS LEGIT
Roger Moore
@chopper:
That would be never. Gold has been subject to a worldwide market- or at least a major international market- since before the invention of coinage. That’s how it was able to serve as money in countries that didn’t have substantial local gold deposits.
chopper
@Spinwheel:
i don’t think, for most people at least, voting against the likes of rand paul wouldn’t necessitate holding one’s nose. that guy is a total shitbird.
tho i might add, good on you for shitting out one single post that isn’t representative of your mentally ill desire to stalk zandar. huzzah!
Jonny Scrum-half
@Chris: That’s a fair point. I think that Obama is proof that (a) it’s possible to have a more sane foreign policy than advocated by the numerous hawks in and out of government, but (b) it’s very difficult to do so, and likely won’t change things as much as many (like me) would like.
Howard Beale IV
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yet we have registered investment advisers like MIke Shedlock and other permabears who claim that gold is money.
Does that mean my Fiat 500 is money?
Howard Beale IV
@Spinwheel: The odds of a Paul the lesser vs Rodham-Clinton general election are like an asteroid hitting Washington DC in the next 100 years.
OTOH, if it was a three way race between Paul, Clinton and Ventura with a entire slate of independents in every congressional and senate election that back Ventura, then that’s an entirely different story.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: Seconded. He’s just the tool – all meanings of that word intended – that the GOP needs if they’re going to have a shot in 2016, Hillary or no. He’s already clearly defined himself (and continues to do so) as someone who ‘takes the fight to the libruls’, the money wing knows he’ll do what they want down to every last crossed ‘t’ and dotted ‘i’, and he can speak enough fundie to pass.
The only thing worse than Walker would be Walker/Cruz: all of the $$$ backing + all of the teabagger & fundie ground troops come election time.
Matt McIrvin
@efgoldman: It would probably put a damper on American empire; we’d be too busy dealing with our society crumbling apart, sort of like the disintegration of the Soviet Union. I could see someone really, really sick of US interventionism cheering it on, especially if they didn’t actually live here.
Just One More Canuck
@Buddy H: I’d vote for the rabbit
Just One More Canuck
@Buddy H: I’d vote for the rabbit
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Thank you for answering for me.
Fewer deaths with a maybe(that’s a pretty big maybe, one I don’t buy in the least) better foreign policy against hugely likely many more deaths and harm at home? Yeah that’s not a hard decision to make. And it is quite possible that Clinton’s time as SOS has made her a bit less likely to jump in with military intervention than she might have been a decade or more ago. Many liberals seem to be able to learn from their mistakes, I’m pretty sure not many conservatives can.
Turgidson
@geg6: Rand, if he was able to do the things he’s said he wants to do (audit, preferably end, the Fed, gold standard, wholesale abolition of numerous departments, and on it goes) would be a total disaster for the overwhelming majority of white men, too. Even a fair number of rich ones, as the non-gold-bugs (which is almost all sane people) get reamed by any attempt to go back on the gold standard.
As has been noted above, Rand’s domestic priorities if successfully implemented would needlessly kill and/or subject to grinding poverty wayyyy, wayyy more people than Hillary’s foreign policy would, unless she bumbles us into a large scale ground war, which I doubt.
Any typically Democratic/Obama voter who would pull the lever for Rand f’n Paul should be immediately deemed irreparably insane and sent to padded cells. There’s no possible justification for it. None. And that’s not even getting into the fact that that slimy asshole has no idea what he’s talking about on most of the issues he gets most of the hype for. The Glenn Greenwaldian clique was so busy fapping during his drone filibuster that they didn’t bother to notice he was making no sense and tangling with ridiculous strawmen the entire time, and immediately stepped on a rake in the following days by saying he was totally cool with a drone shooting down a convenience store robber on US soil. So in addition to having a horrifying ideology, he’s a fucking clown.
J R in WV
Isn’t a Fiat 500 = $15,000 about?
Chris
@Turgidson:
That was worth a repost.
Morzer
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Bad policies have a measurable effect on human lives – and not infrequently shorten them. Think about it.
Ruckus
@Morzer:
Think about it.
I’d bet this would be hard to do with the love interest involved. Either that or the smoke is getting in his eyes.
ETA Or both.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@dedc79:
Paul’s version of criminal justice reform is don’t arrest white Rastafarians.
Don’t be fooled.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Spinwheel: fuck you
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Those assumptions are bullshit.
Thanks for playing.
Paul in KY
@jl: To me, the major fuckup or crime was invading Iraq. I think a Pres. Gore would have invaded Afghanistan in some capacity (if 9/11 had happened while he was Pres.
Paul in KY
@Chris: That would have been my hope.
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: Naw, not at all. I think a big camp will be outside of Manchester TN, in early June.
Paul in KY
@Snarkworth: I was thinking maybe a portion of a cocker spaniel.