The greatest challenge to our democracy.

Mediacrats fill the airwaves with rantings about corporate influence on politics. The 800 pound gorilla of corporate influence on politics is the media. Candy Crowley's employer, CNN, is owned by Time Warner, the second largest media conglomerate on the planet. Not the country, the planet. The only media conglomerate bigger than it is the one that owns ABC News. But the Mediacrats never report on their own influence, never turn the camera back into the studio while warning about the danger of corporate lobbyists. But the corporate lobbyists sitting in the CNN studio don't just want to chat with a few politicians in a closed room, they do their best to dictate the outcome of elections.

* * * *

The greatest challenge to the integrity of our democracy may be the coup of the media corporations. Information is the lifeblood of a free society and the consolidation of information outlets in the hands of a small and powerful elite with no ethics and no boundaries is leading us down the road to a virtual tyranny that will maintain the illusory workings of a democratic society without any of the substance.

The old institutions of elections are becoming a charade . . . .

Daniel Greenfield has some trenchant observations about the role of Candy Crowley in one of the last election's presidential "debates." Who the hell was she and how did she inject herself in the debate as an equal or superior of the actual candidates undergoing a grueling process of vetting from which she was exempt?

The perplexing aspect of her presence -- to now depart from the major point of this post -- is that not one of the candidates objected to her selection or role. It seems that, time and time again, the supposed stellar lights of Republicanism simply blink out. Is border control one of the most important public issues imaginable? It most surely is and, yet, what do Republican leaders focus on but the amorphous – and treacherous – stellar lie of "comprehensive" immigration "reform." Why legislative action needs to be "comprehensive" is never stated. Similarly, the exact intention of immigration laws to keep illegals "in the shadows" for @#$% ever, or until they give up and go home, whichever comes first, is inexplicably billed as something needing "reform."

Were the Republican leaders all gelded at birth? So it would seem.

Mediacracy and gelded Republican leadership. God help us.

"Crowdsourcing the End of Free Speech." By Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish, 12/28/13.

Who rules America: Useful bibliography.

As the childish notion of a rational AND patriotic ruling elite necessarily fades before the irrefutable evidence of an animating governmental agenda fundamentally at odds with the spirit of America's founding document and the interests of America's founding people, and as we approach the point in our history

A sus ordenes.

where political reality will most closely resemble the card game "52 Pick Up," a little "back to the drawing board" thinking is in order:

Power Elite Analysis (also called Libertarian Class Analysis or Establishment Studies) is a theme I have repeatedly stressed at LRC to understand both present-day and past historical events. Knowledge is power. Empower yourself by learning about Power Elite Analysis and how it impacts specifically upon the welfare-warfare state and the parasitical elites which benefit from this leviathan within our midst.

In July of 2010, Angelo Codevilla's magnificent manifesto, "The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It" was published initially online in The American Spectator (and later in book form). It immediately went viral on the Internet and started a widespread national conversation about America's hubristic power elite and the arrogant way they reign over the rest of us.

When Codevilla's article appeared I stated that it was the most important essay I had ever read. I still believe this because it is a superb synthesis of class analysis with keen insights on contemporary power elite relationships regarding today's rulers and the ruled.

This class division of present-day America into two factions, Court and Country, has absolutely nothing to do with any Marxian view or analysis. It is a reaffirmation of the seminal insights of Bernard Bailyn's Pulitzer Prize winning volume, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, and Murray N. Rothbard's Conceived in Liberty.

"Who Rules America?" By Charles Burris, LewRockwell.com, 1/18/12 (bibliography at this link).

New reality show.

A&E is now canceling Duck Dynasty and replacing it with a new reality show about life in the White House. It will be called Duck Responsibility.

Schadenfreude comment on "Quotes of the day." By Allahpundit. Hot Air, 12/20/13.

Are we there yet?

In the 21st century, the federal government, in its quest to actualize equality, consumes (during peacetime) about ten times more of the American economy than it did a century ago. And yet economic inequality, in the President’s words, still amounts to “the defining challenge of our time.”

"No Man for Himself, And The Devil Take Most. American people vs. American government." By David Corbin and Matt Parks, The Federalist, 12/21/13.

What else do you want to know?

Breitbart.com: So, Obama’s mentor worked in communist fronts and activities with Valerie Jarrett’s father-in-law and grandfather?

Kengor: Precisely.

"Big Mentor: The Troika—Obama, Axelrod, Jarrett." By Breitbart News, 8/8/12.