“Honesty is the best policy.” Several examples of this will be shown in these pages. Crafty men and statesmen will be shown misled by all their elaborate calculations. But this is the signal instance. Only twenty-two months were to pass before Stalin and the Russian nation in its scores of millions were to pay a frightful forfeit. If a Government has no moral scruples it often seems to gain great advantages and liberties of action, but “All comes out even at the end of the day, and all will come out yet more even when all the days are ended.”

Winston S. Churchill
1948
The Gathering Storm (The Second World War Volume I)
Page 352
[Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Hillary and her supporters appeared to gain great advantages from their lack of moral scruples and, in the end, those apparent advantages did not gain her the prize she so greatly desired.—Joe]

To get anything done in a culture of entrenched interests, one must either have an overwhelming political mandate to dismantle the entire machine–Trump does not–or you need Insiders who know the pressure points of the system and its key players–in effect, Insiders who know how to slip a political stiletto into the kidneys of key players and twist the blade to get done what would otherwise be impossible.

Charles Hugh Smith
January 18, 2017
Why Outsiders Need Insiders To Get Anything Done
[It sounds plausible.

But I’m not entirely sure I understand why the legislature and president couldn’t just say, “The ATF no longer exists. The FBI will enforce any of the laws that need to be enforced. The FBI may hire up to 10% of those newly unemployed people if they pass the normal selection criteria. ATF Office space and equipment will be reallocated, rented and/or sold during the next 60 days.”

Why would there be a burning need for “insiders” in that sort of situation?—Joe]

It’s not easy losing to the most unpopular candidate in history while outspending him nearly 3-1.

I propose Hillary deserves a lifetime achievement award. Her noteworthy performance may never be broken.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
January 18, 2017
Did Fake News Help Trump? New Study Says Ads More Important
[The one big take away I have from the spending reports is that money apparently isn’t as important as it was thought to be.

I like that.—Joe]

Now some of this is just adolescent play-acting, even if many of those involved, being professors, are far beyond the chronological limits of adolescence.  Academia has an infantilizing effect. I understand that. Many professors dress and act like adolescents right up to the time they are ready to hand in their tenure and live off their generous pensions. The Peter-Pan aspect of academia is not entirely the professors’ fault.  After all, the points at which the real world intrudes upon academia are so few and so tenuous that academics may be forgiven for some of their hyperbole and inadvertently comic displays of self-importance.  They exist, like kept women of yore, entirely at the pleasure of an affluent society they despise. So in a way it is not surprising that they endeavor to transform their entire campus into a sort of existential boudoir, which is French for “room for pouting in.”

Roger Kimball
January 15, 2017
A Modest Disposal
[Interesting observation.—Joe]

We don’t expect a collapse, we expect organic growth that isn’t all fear-driven. We are likely to see the market normalize, which is better for the industry long term. It is hard to respond to constant spikes. Slow and steady wins the race.

Lawrence Keane
Senior vice president, government and public affairs
National Shooting Sports Foundation
January 20, 2017
Though champion of gun rights, President Trump could jam firearm sales
[I understand I’m not exactly normal but my purchases pretty much stopped after the election. I have lots of stockpiled ammunition and components that I’m going to “burn” through before I make many more purchases. Still, it’s good to hear a subject matter expert believes there won’t be an industry crash.—Joe]