Why Tea Time Won’t Work This Time

Not only was this populist tea fest diffuse, it was also as much a same-old "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" game. Everyone was attacking Obama either explicitly or implicitly, when the whole boondoggle ― and the thing you're paying $42k for ― and seeing 25-cent returns on the dollar for ― started way before he ever took that oath to the Constitution. We've really got to grow up, get smart, and dig ourselves out of the manure heaped on us. Seeing Network last weekend made me wonder, did we ever even begin to get away from the Carter-era slump? Or did we just get buried under a pageant of free-market falsity, global asset bubbles, and great showmanship? (We went on to elect an actor in 1980, after all.)

Is it just a simple matter of "voting all the bums out" ― as a few signs advocated?

I don't believe in man qua corporation as having a soul ― and that's a sticky snaggle for libertarian conversions in my book. We've got these corporations on our hands. Lots of them. And we're saving them right now. Of course, we don't wanna, because in the world according to Darwin, they don't deserve it. And that's what a couple of signs said.

Yet other than taxes, what pitchfork have we with which to attack this capital gains-loving Marie Antoinette of Manhattan? If one were to write Revelations today, one could send the Whore of Babylon with Roman corruption and kings at her breast into early retirement. The Whore of Manhattan, we'd make, with Blankfein and Vikram, sucking away.

Examine this pseudo-biblical snatch from Network and its corporate demon, Arthur Jensen:

"Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx?…We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that...perfect world...in which there's no war or famine, oppression, or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will h old a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused."

You see, tea baggers, We the People are not the Geneva-loving Rousseau's Corsica or Poland, starting with a new constitution afresh. We have no democracy. We have only the media, chattel of the corporations that are hoping to eek one last ounce of profit from the old dead horses called newspaper and broadcast TV. Why do you think we see so much of Obama on our late night and Geithner on our sacred Sunday mornings?

How do I know that Mr. Jensen's speech is not what pure libertarianism would look like if thrust atop this ugly, brutish state? Would I be happy there? Would I be tranquilized?

I'm thinking the best you and I can do, dear reader, is defect…make nice paper-dollar profits on the IBMs and Dows and their tiny brethren…and depart after turning it into gold. Go somewhere with cheap land…and buy cattle, sheep, goats.
 
After all, who among us really has the nads, the arms, or sufficient belief in mankind to rewrite the social contract of these United States?

(Hush, Texans like Rick Perry, we hear your clamor…but do we believe it?)

How the Rest of the World Sees Tea Baggers

Always ask: What do our fellow nation-states make of all this? After all, what is diplomacy but a massive PR campaign? And how will we know which country will harbor us gold-bearing exiles the best?

Here's a headline courtesy of Agence France-Presse: "Anti-Barack Obama 'Tea Party' Protests Mark U.S. Tax Day." The article juxtaposed the words "modest crowds" with "several thousands." It admitted the protest had a "catchy theme," but questioned the strength of the "mostly Republican forces" whose party has "been in disarray since Sen. John McCain lost the White House" ― a party whose senior figures "appear lukewarm" to the tea parties.

Maybe that's just because they have issues with verbal jokes that mix them up with "tea bagging" ― the sex act ― which we all laughed about the morning after. Strategically, there's no reason for the Republicans to ignore the voice of the Ron Paul fringe, which is getting louder…they're still doing worse than Obama in Gallup polls, and they're up for re-election first.

We all know it's good to ride the faux-populist express… Just look at who ran it straight up to the door of the White House last year.

I know die-hard Dems who voted Reagan into office his first year…for fiscal conservatism, and fiscal conservatism alone. Look how well that turned out! Running from one platform and party to the other is as dizzying as a dog chasing its own tail.

Americans need to stop being twits first and foremost. Posthaste, Patriot…keep your brain for yourself!

Here's another report from Salt Lake City…

Hey, Gary ―

Kudos to all of you who attended a Tea Party with the rest of us patriots! My friend and I, both of us mothers and grandmothers, attended our event in Salt Lake City, Utah on the steps of the Federal Building with 1000 others in the freezing cold and rain.  It was amazing to be there with other like-minded individuals who believe in the Constitution, love their country, and want it back!!!  The most impressive thing by far, however, was the number of young mothers and fathers in attendance with their babies and toddlers in tow.  I mean, it was cold and wet (I had on my long johns) and yet, these determined individuals came out, brought their children all bundled up in their strollers, backpacks, and snowsuits, and stood there in the crowd for hours.  Each time the organizers would ask if we should cut things short due to the wicked elements, the cr owd would shout, "No!"  These were not the "sunshine patriots" you hear about ― these were people you want to have next to you for the long haul. 

God Bless America!!

Indeed, Shooter, but someone doesn't agree with you…

Hi Gary

These "teabaggers" are delusional. Fun to watch and chuckle at for sure, but delusional none-the-less. They rail against the federal government but, in the next breath, shout the Pledge of Allegiance while they weep for their blessed Constitution ― the very same fatally-flawed document that has enslaved them. All government is force, a constitutional one as much as any other.

Hmm…we agree that government is by its nature force. The Constitution was meant to restrain that, but governments are experts at overcoming restraint. It's what they do. It would be downright unnatural if they didn't!

So what are we to do as things run their course? Stay at home and tell ourselves that all is well?  Write our local congressman and insist, "More taxes…please!"

The world gleefully marches to hell…regularly. We've past those fiery gates yet again. Everything is proceeding as it should…and things are going to get more interesting.

And here is the inevitable complaint:

It is a little disheartening after working so hard to glean a few nuggets and pearls from your enewsletter these last few years, to have to disconnect now.

I am a liberal but that's not the basis of my complaint.  The tea bag movement is not and cannot be about the taxes, the TARP the future deficits ad infinitum.  The tea bag movement is just a continuation of the Hope Obama Fails movement, the I can't believe we elected a black movement.  And now Limbaugh and Hannity and their kind are laughing that you and others like you, suckered in, are doing their legwork for them.

We trusted you for good investment and economic analysis.  What are you? ...a new version of TV's Cramer..?  Another Ditto Gasbag for Rush and his sad ilk...?

Yours could have been a voice of reason.

Instead you choose to paint some kind of cause into this Hannity gag.  While you try to spin some clean clothes for the so called tea bag "movement," you just disappoint the trust so many of us had in you to be above that kind of pro-taxpayer disguise. This is no cause, no movement, man.  It is a scam direct from the desk of Rove, a collaboration of the usual suspects.

The corruption is there.  You know the connections.  Plenty to "tea bag" about.  And you choose to do drumbeats for FOX's Hate Obama campaign and their transparent efforts to keep the bankrupt GOP afloat.

So Yes, I am disappointed in you for taking the low and easy road.  Did research tell you that your readers would like you jumping on this phony bandwagon?  That research was plain wrong.  Use your head.  If not your heart.  And do your job.

Looks like I offended your god.

We're not drumbeating for Fox or Hannity or the GOP, nor do we personally hate Obama. Your fevered mind is seeing the enemies of your god wherever you look. You'd have made a fantastic Inquisitor.

Allow me to direct your attention to Sam's opening line in this missive:

Not only was this populist tea fest diffuse, it was also as much a same-old "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" game. Everyone was attacking Obama either explicitly or implicitly, when the whole boondoggle ― and the thing you're paying $42k for ― and seeing 25 cent returns on the dollar for ― started way before he ever took that oath to the Constitution. We've really got to grow up, get smart, and dig ourselves out of the manure heaped on us.

Complaining about a single politician is like plucking a single weed. Doesn't really get to the root of the problem.

We've no qualms with Obama per se. The man is just fulfilling his destiny as head cog just like his predecessors did. No hate here, but neither any rapture over the mass enlightenment his election is supposed to represent.

In the end, he's just the latest charming sociopath in a nice suit. He'll continue to oversee the taxing and redistribution and manage our foreign entanglements. Bread, circuses, butter, guns. There's nothing new here to see.

Our collective slide into economic calamity and social disorder is as natural as our individual journeys to death and rot.

But you Shooters come here for solutions, not maudlin rhapsodizing.

It just so happens that this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. Agora Financial is offering a conference call that will be bursting with solutions…and not just any solutions, either…

Our executive publisher has spent $532,000 over the past two years to keep the legacy of Dr. Kurt Richebacher alive. The good doctor was just about the greatest contrarian-investing mind on the planet and it's our pleasure and privilege to be offering access to his best ideas.