Kamala Harris unveils her economic proposals

The New Neo Posted on by

I call them “proposals” because they might just be in the realm of empty campaign promises to appeal to the voters she’s now courting. It’s also somewhat humorous in a bleak way to remember that fresh-new-face Harris has actually been in power for nearly four years.

Here’s the gist of her economic plan:

Harris’s plan calls for beefing up the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to provide a $6,000 tax cut to families with newborn children, as Democrats have sought to drive a contrast with Republicans on the issue in recent weeks.

The plan would allow for “$6,000 in total tax relief for middle-income and low-income families” for the first year of their child’s life, according to a campaign fact sheet. …

The plan calls for what it described as the “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” though it doesn’t offer much detail as to how the proposal would be carried out.

We covered that last bit yesterday.

More:

The plan additionally calls for “new authority” for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general “to investigate and impose strict new penalties on companies that break the rules.” …

Another plan Harris proposed builds upon a previous proposal from the Biden administration that sought to provide first-generation homebuyers with $25,000 in down-payment assistance, along with a tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Congressional Democrats had previously sought to pass similar legislation as part of President Biden’s sweeping Build Back Better agenda toward the start of his presidency, although the larger effort fell apart as the party struggled to unify amid concerns from moderates over the size and cost of the plan.

And then there’s her copycat “no tax on tips” proposal, mimicking Trump.

Is Harris serious about any of this? Who knows. She’s the original shape-shifter.

More here.

NOTE: Wonder of wonders, the WaPo published an op-ed yesterday that was critical of Kamala’s price control proposal.

On Holocaust inversion and other Big Lies

The New Neo Posted on by

When I was a child, my playmates bickered a lot. One of the most common rejoinders I remember from those days was bounces off me and sticks to you, an annoying reversal that my verbal adversaries would use when valid accusations were leveled against them. Another similar one was I know you are but what am I?

If you’re of a certain age you’ll probably remember that sort of thing – a way a person could hurl insults right back in the opponents’ face. Truth didn’t matter in this verbal jujitsu. What mattered was to deflect and annoy.

When my son was a child I don’t recall hearing either of these phrases. Perhaps they’d grown out of style. But they came to mind today when I saw this article dealing with a far more serious problem. It’s entitled, “Holocaust inversion is going mainstream – it’s deeply disturbing: Holocaust inversion transposes the guilt of the abusers, the Nazis, onto the abused, the Jews, and leaves no room for any other possibility. The point, of course, is to legitimize violence against Jews.”

Well, yes. It’s been going on for quite some time, and not just about Jews as the new Nazis. Take a look at the number of times I’ve used the word “inversion” on this blog, nearly always to describe the lies of the left. Inverting the truth, rather than merely lying, is a favorite ploy of leftist propagandists and it has an especially infuriating and pernicious effect on its targets.

Here is a quote from the Holocaust inversion article:

Lesley Klaff explained this particular phenomenon in 2014. “What has been called ‘Holocaust Inversion,'” she wrote in Fathom, “involves an inversion of reality (the Israelis are cast as the ‘new’ Nazis and the Palestinians as the ‘new’ Jews), and an inversion of morality (the Holocaust is presented as a moral lesson for, or even a moral indictment of ‘the Jews’). … The Holocaust … is now being used, instrumentally, as a means to express animosity towards the homeland of the Jews.”

Indeed.

People studying this phenomenon often use the term Big Lie to describe it. It’s not just that it’s an egregiously large lie, however; it’s this inversion of the truth – this act of turning something upside down so that it becomes the opposite of the truth – that is especially evil.

But although most people are aware that the term Big Lie has Nazi origins, it’s my impression that most are also unaware of the fact that when Hitler wrote about the Big Lie it was in the act of telling a big lie – against the Jews, naturally – and not just lying but inverting the truth.

From a previous post of mine on the subject:

Hitler did talk about the Big Lie … [and his words] were couched in an accusation towards others, this time not against the English but against – you guessed it – the Jews:

“But it remained for the Jews, with their unqualified capacity for falsehood, and their fighting comrades, the Marxists, to impute responsibility for the downfall [of the Germans in WWI] precisely to the man who alone had shown a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the catastrophe which he had foreseen and to save the nation from that hour of complete overthrow and shame. By placing responsibility for the loss of the world war on the shoulders of Ludendorff [see ADDENDUM below] they took away the weapon of moral right from the only adversary dangerous enough to be likely to succeed in bringing the betrayers of the Fatherland to Justice.

“All this was inspired by the principle — which is quite true within itself — that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.

“It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.”
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

Hitler displays his knowledge of the workings of the technique, one he had mastered, but he certainly never owned up to his own use of it.

Those who use the Big Lie against Israel and Jews fall into two groups: those who are aware that their own accusations against Jews are themselves a Big Lie, and those who are not aware of it. The relative size of each group is unknown.

Speaking of which, this is as good a time as any to mention once again that the current anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonstrations – some of which threaten to interrupt the Democrats’ convention in Chicago – are a fusion of leftists and Islamists, as Professor Jacobson writes here. These days it’s called the Red-Green Alliance – red for the left, and green for the pro-Hamas wing:

Israel is something around which groups who have absolutely nothing in common can come together in hate. And that would be what’s frequently referred to as the Red-Green Alliance. So the Marxists and the anarchists and the Islamists, who in many ways are the exact opposite ideologically all come together to hate the Jews and hate Israel.

And so that has developed over 30 years. So it didn’t start on October 7th …

It’s been building in this country for at least thirty years. But that same alliance between leftists and Islamists was a main feature of the Iranian Revolution that ended up installing the theocracy that’s been in charge of Iran since 1979. That’s about forty-five years ago. In Iran, the left thought it would be the last group standing. But as we know, the Islamists won the day in the battle of who was more ruthless.

[ADDENDUM: The Hitler quote from Mein Kampf was, of course, written many years before Hitler came to power. Hitler ended up changing his mind on Ludendorff – who was an early supporter of Hitler – and Ludendorff also ended up changing his mind on Hitler. Ludendorff was a fascinating character. Some excerpts:

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff … was a German military officer and politician who contributed significantly to the Nazis’ rise to power. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. After his appointment as First Quartermaster General of the Army General Staff in 1916, he became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship until Germany’s defeat. During the Weimar Republic, he took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and Hitler’s 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. …

After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent nationalist leader and a promoter of the stab-in-the-back myth, which posited that Germany’s defeat and the settlement reached at Versailles were the result of a treasonous conspiracy by Marxists, Freemasons and Jews. …

Tipton notes that Ludendorff was a social Darwinist who believed that war was the “foundation of human society”, and that military dictatorship was the normal form of government in a society in which every resource must be mobilized. The historian Margaret L. Anderson notes that after the war, Ludendorff wanted Germany to go to war against all of Europe, and that he became a pagan worshipper of the Nordic god Wotan (Odin); he detested not only Judaism, but also Christianity, which he regarded as a weakening force. …

Nice guy. And not altogether dissimilar to some of today’s leftists who want to destroy Western Civilization and its Judeo-Christian underpinnings.

When Ludendorff turned against Hitler, he apparently turned hard – if in fact it’s true that he sent the following telegram to Hindenburg when Hitler first became chancellor (it may have been a forgery):

I solemnly prophesy that this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in your grave for what you have done.

Ludendorff’s Wiki entry is very long.]

Harris’ great idea: price controls

The New Neo Posted on by

Trump recently made a taunting joke about Kamala Harris:

I chuckled yesterday when I read that. It’s a reference to the fact that Harris copied Trump’s “no tax on tips” proposal.

But you know what? Harris didn’t suggest that at all. Instead, she came up with price controls:

In a statement released last night, Harris’ campaign said it would enact the “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries—setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” with enforcement power given to the Federal Trade Commission. You heard that right: price controls.

It’s not clear how an “excessive” profit would be defined, nor why policing that would be in the purview of the federal government, nor why food prices in particular ought to qualify. It’s not clear what types of behavior that are currently legal would be outlawed.

Price controls have been disastrous whenever they’ve been implemented. Prices are signals, ways of communicating how much of a good is needed by consumers and how much ought to be produced.

To me it seems odd that Harris would choose this particular method, when she’s been engaged in trying to pretend she’s not a leftist. Then again, the leftists who control the Democrat Party these days have only a few arrows in their quiver, and this sort of “blame evil big business and fix the problem with more federal government control” approach is most definitely one of them. It appeals to envy and ignorance, two commodities that certainly aren’t in short supply.

More here:

Of course, the press lapped it up, with several journalists on social media treating it like Harris had just stepped down from upon high to present the Ten Commandments. Nothing matters on that front. If the Harris campaign says it, it’s going to be spun as “joy” and “optimism” wrapped in abject brilliance.

For normal Americans, though, these policies have consequences, and price controls would be an economic disaster. One only needs to look at the history of the Soviet Union to understand that, or if you’d like a modern day analogue, Venezuela. When government is used to cap the prices, from groceries to rent, it inevitabily leads to stagnation or even regression in the market.

I’m further informed by commenter “sdferr” that Harris’ father was a Marxist economist who proposed just that sort of thing for Jamaica in the 1970s. Interesting. Even Snopes – not a voice on the right – agrees that Harris’ dad was indeed a Marxist economist:

Taking a closer look at Harris’ work and the economics school of thought he professed, we were able to confirm that he inscribed himself in Marx’s intellectual tradition. …

… Donald J. Harris, a professor of economics at Stanford University, also did his research from a post-Keynesian perspective. Fowé was noting his line of inquiry admiringly. Keynesians stipulate that markets alone cannot ensure full employment and instead advocate for government intervention. Post-Keynesians agree, but argue that in intervening, the government should focus on equality and redistribution of wealth. …

Harris was also preoccupied with exploitation and other concepts that came directly from Karl Marx’s theory of capital. For example, The Economist recounts that he once argued that the inequality that beset Black people in the U.S. did not come from a form of “colonial rule” where white people dominate. Instead, he argued that the problem was capitalism. In this sense, Harris was indeed marxist in his thinking.

Of course, children don’t necessarily ascribe to the parents’ ideologies. But in this case, Harris’ behavior is very much in line with leftist economic theories and behavior. My guess is that she’s relying on the supposed ignorance of the electorate on such things, and pandering to the desire of many to blame “corporations” – or maybe it’s her own ignorance being demonstrated here. Or perhaps both.

Trump and Musk as a dancing duo

The New Neo Posted on by

Commenter “Brian E” suggested I would like this, and of course I do:

It’s especially apropos because of Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt.

Note, also, what most people often ignore – the lyrics to the song. I draw your attention to these lines in particular: “We can try to understand/The New York Times’ effect on man.”

The song was released in December of 1977, almost fifty years ago. It was written by the you-know-whos.

The selling of Kamala: Part I – the happy warrior

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: I called this “Part I” because I have so many thoughts on the subject that I plan a multi-parter. The title is a riff on this book.]

In some ways, the Kamala Harris campaign may have been brilliant so far. The Democrats were faced with a really knotty problem – what to do about Joe – and they maneuvered around it without apparently alienating more of their base, and to the relief of those people who were heartily sick of both Trump and Biden.

Whether the resultant bump for Harris is real, and whether it will last, I can’t say. But I do know it’s gone far more swimmingly than I imagined it would, given the raw material with which they had to work.

They’ve tapped into an exhaustion with the previous candidates, a bait-and-switch move accomplished by sleight of hand in which the youngish Harris was substituted for the elderly and doddering Biden, leaving the somewhat-elderly Trump standing alone in the “old white guy” category. Previously, he could present himself as a more energetic and somewhat more youthful alternative to the obviously impaired Biden. Now, in contrast to Kamala, it’s Trump who seems somewhat old. I’m not criticizing him for that; it would be true of any 78-year-old, however vigorous for his or her age.

What’s more, they somehow did it without – at least so far – activating a sense of boredom with the fact that it’s Kamala we’ve just had nearly four years of – and that they’ve been a bad four years, at that. She didn’t just come out of a cave; she’s been the VP all this time. The fact that she’s done almost nothing – and certainly nothing of which to be proud – while in office, is somehow made into a virtue because it means that she can act somewhat as that blank screen Obama used to talk about, despite the fact that she’s been a vice president and associated with the administration’s policy for all these years. It’s a neat attempt at alchemy. If it works, she might win.

And then there’s the “joy” thing. Harris has been a giggler and an inappropriate laugher, but now that’s repackaged as “joy.” It’s her version of “hope and change.” She doesn’t cackle; she’s joyous, and she’ll make you joyous, too. It probably seems real to many Democrats, who are feeling more joy than they have in at least a year, because they’re no longer worried about Biden’s fading health. Biden who? Don’t have to worry about him or his corrupt son anymore. What a relief!

It’s not unprecedented for Democrats to market themselves as bringers of happiness. In fact, there’s quite a history there – for example, FDR, who peddled happiness amidst hard economic times:

Al Smith:

Here’s a possible theme song for the Harris campaign:

Meanwhile, RFK Jr. …

The New Neo Posted on by

… may be doing a slow fade:

New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba ruled in favor of Clear Choice PAC and found Kennedy violated New York state law by listing a New York address as his residence on the ballot access petition despite living in California. Kennedy listed a New York address because his running mate is also from California, and having both candidates on a ballot from the same state could cause electoral problems.

Following the New York high court’s decision against him, Kennedy told reporters his ballot access in other states could also be threatened due to the ruling.

It is unclear at this time if Kennedy used the New York address in all of his petitions to gain ballot access.

It’s also unclear whether RFK’s candidacy hurts Harris or Trump more, but the left seems to want him off the ballot.

Ilhan Omar wins her primary

The New Neo Posted on by

I expected Omar’s victory. It’s just another sign of the times – and not an encouraging one. Here’s an analysis:

But a few factors worked in Omar’s favor this time. She again outraised [her opponent] Samuels by a lot, but this time also outspent him, an apparent acknowledgment of the need to work to ensure an upset win didn’t happen. Just as significantly, AIPAC stayed out of her primary.

Progressives can breathe a sigh of relief with her win, but Samuels did still manage to win about 43 percent of the vote, a significant share for a primary challenger who was well outraised and spent.

I’m assuming that AIPAC stayed out of the race because it wanted to focus on the primaries where it thought it had a very good chance to win: those involving Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, who were both pushed out of the running. All of these district are so deep blue that the Democrat who wins the primary almost certainly will be the winner in the election.

Jewish voting patterns in the US, and in Israel

The New Neo Posted on by

Many people seem extremely interested in this topic, far beyond what might be expected by the sheer numbers.

But it’s not as easy as one might think to poll Jews on their voting behavior. Here’s a discussion about it. The gist of the situation is that the numbers are small, there is no one group doing the polling and results depend on the pollster’s agenda, and a representative sample of Jews is very hard to get. The latter question is an especially important one because results depend on the number of Orthodox Jews polled, and it’s not an easy task to get that right and to get responses from that group.

Another problem with polling is that Jews in big blue cities vote differently than rural Jews or Jews in red states, so the mix of urban and rural, blue and red, has to be calibrated carefully, too.

I don’t think we really know that much about how Jews are voting, except that it’s virtually certain that the majority in this country vote as Democrats.

While I’m at it, there’s something else I’ve been meaning to mention, which is that I don’t think most people are aware of the huge differences between the Jews of the US and the Jews of Israel in terms of personal history and ethnicity. I’m not just talking about growing up in this country versus growing up in that country; I’m talking about background. Jews are far from a unitary group in either country, but in general the Jews of America are much less likely to be the direct descendants of Holocaust survivors. Sure, they have relatives who died in the Holocaust, but for the most part they are not close relatives, whereas the Ashkenazi Jews of Israel have a higher percentage of very close relatives who were murdered or who were Holocaust survivors with direct experience of the conflagration.

Another demographic difference is that only about half of Israel’s Jewish people are descended from European Jewry. The other half are refugees, and/or the children and grandchildren of refugees, from Arab countries. The US contains some of the latter group as well – in fact, I know a couple of them – but they constitute a much smaller percentage of America’s Jewish population than of Israel’s Jewish population.

In Israel:

Nearly half of all Israeli Jews are descended from Jews who made aliyah from Europe, while around the same number are descended from Jews who made aliyah from Arab countries, Iran, Turkey, and Central Asia. Over two hundred thousand are, or are descended from, Ethiopian and Indian Jews.

The Ashkenazi Jews of Israel are more inclined to be on the left and the Mizrahi Jews of Israel (those from Arab countries) are more inclined to be on the right (see this). And of course, as in the US, the more religious Jews in Israel have more children than less religious and/or secular Jews:

Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] women have 7.7 children on average while the average Israeli Jewish woman has over 3 children.

All of this affects voting behavior, and is one of the reasons – IMHO – that the Jews of Israel are to the right of Jewish voters here. It also sharpens the voting issues in Israel that people feel their lives are at stake, day after day, in a way so obvious it can’t be denied.