It ain't just the "right wing," Krugman

Despite the fact that the hard left pretty much controls American higher education, as well as public education, Paul Krugman wants us to believe that the barbarian right is poised for a takeover of the education process. So, in this column, he points to some Republican attacks on a University of Wisconsin professor who wrote a column in the New York Times that, I guess, praised Democrats (surprise, surprise).

Now, I agree with Krugman that whatever the guy wrote is his business and the tactics that Republicans are using are reprehensible. If Krugman were simply to stop there and defend academic freedom, I'd be his biggest cheerleader.

However, Krugman being Krugman, he cannot stop at that point, and given the viciousness of his attacks on people who disagree with him, I would say that Paul Krugman is little more than someone who believes in "free speech for me, but not for thee." Instead, he then goes to the "Climategate" emails that were made public a couple of years ago and claims that there was nothing in them that smacked of fraud or even bad science.

Not surprisingly, a real scientist has a different take. Professor Emeritus of physics Hal Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara recently resigned from the American Physical Society after 67 years of membership and a distinguished career. He is not a right-winger, nor someone who believes science should be politicized. But it also is clear he does not see the "Climategate" emails in the same way Krugman sees them, writing in his resignation letter:

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

He goes on:

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work. (Emphasis mine)

I would urge you to read the letter in full, as it tells what happens when governments that want certain results throw money at scientists. Now, I am sure Paul Krugman would not mind this one bit, and I doubt he would give someone like Professor Lewis the back of his hand (or worse).

However, since Krugman is talking about academic freedom, what about the case of Pat Michaels, the former State of Virginia climatologist and professor at the University of Virginia. A. Barton Hinkle writes:

They (conservatives) recall how Virginia’s former state climatologist, Pat Michaels, essentially was hounded out of his job at the University of Virginia because—although he agrees with the mainstream view that human activity is warming the planet—he is insufficiently alarmist about it. Gov. Tim Kaine’s administration publicly disowned Michaels. Environmentalists tried to have his funding cut. And the champions of academic freedom now so vocally defending Mann were, back then, conspicuously silent.

Since I never read any defense of Michaels' academic freedom from Krugman or his ilk, I think it is safe to say that Krugman most likely approved of what happened to him. After all, Michaels, in Krugman's parlance, is a "denier," and thus loses any academic credibility or right even to be teaching in a university.

No doubt, this is just another example of the double standard Paul Krugman employs when gracing us with his opinions. If Krugman or people with whom he agrees say something, then it must be supported in the name of free speech and academic freedom. However, disagree with the Master and his opinions on a variety of things, then release the hounds!

Krugman Discovers the Dastardly "Plot" in Wisconsin

No doubt, Paul Krugman makes fun of people who indulge in conspiracy theories, although it seems that he constantly comes up with wild theories of his own. Do you question "stimulus" spending on public works projects? Why, you are a racist who wants to bring back slavery.

Do you have a problem with Ben Bernanke's plan of showering the world with dollars, and with government creating a blizzard of paper money in general? Why, you are a racist who wants to bring back slavery.

Indeed, like a good parrot, Krugman recites the Party Line and calls it argument. So, why am I not surprised when he weaves together yet another conspiracy theory about what is happening in Wisconsin. Yes, it seems that Gov. Scott Walker is in league with Paul Bremer and everyone else who was involved with the invasion of Iraq, or maybe he is part of the world-wide cabal that wants to impose the "shock doctrine" on an unsuspecting world.

He also surmises that this whole thing is nothing more than a plot by the Koch Brothers to take over Wisconsin. Wisconsin today! Tomorrow the world!! (The only problem is that George Soros -- who really does bankroll internationalist groups that believe that what we need is One Single Bureaucracy to rule over us all -- gives more money to his "causes" in a year than the Koch Brothers have given in their lifetimes. Does Krugman get any Soros money? Inquiring minds would like to know. And, no, I don't get Koch dollars. Sorry.)

Krugman gives us the following statement, and I will point out afterward just what a howler it really is:

What’s happening in Wisconsin is, instead, a power grab — an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy.

First, the notion that public employee unions are a "counterweight" to unwarranted "corporate power" is a very sick joke. Keep in mind that the process which he praises consists of a cabal of politicians who are elected through the efforts of the unions of government employees and the unions themselves then imposing their will upon people who are not in that circle.

In other words, we have something akin to a soviet in which the government employees elect their paymasters. The problem is that the arrangement depends upon the people on the outside being able to pony up the cash to pay for the whole thing, and they no longer are willing and able to do so.

Krugman's academic Keynesian mind claims that this is bad because the party being fleeced consists of the Evil People Who Don't Want More Spending. Don't they know that if they just accede to having their bank accounts cleaned out, that all the spending will create new prosperity? Haven't they heard of circular logic, er, flow?

Here is the crux of the problem: government employee unions cannot cannibalize themselves. Like all parasites, they need a host, and they and Krugman are very, very upset that the current hosts are rebelling. In fact, their rebellion must be part of a plot by the Koch Brothers TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

So, in the end, Paul Krugman resorts to conspiracy theories. Now, while I might agree with him about backroom deals and other sorts of cronyism that can occur with privatization, does he really expect us to believe that the current socialistic arrangement is free of such things?

Krugman seems to be one of those folks who believes that union-created socialism is pure, pure, pure. Public employee unions are bravely serving as a counterweight to those evil corporations, and that these unions are the heart and soul of America's middle class. Yes, Paul Krugman really seems to believe that we can have a large and thriving "middle class" that consists of bureaucrats, and the more we expand the bureaucracy, the more we expand our wealth.

And if you are not part of this arrangement, then Krugman instructs that you sit back, let the state insert the needle, and then drain you of your blood. By so doing, you are helping to create prosperity.

Krugman's New Fight Song: "On Wisconsin"

There are a number of college fight songs that have become memorable -- and copied -- throughout the country. There is "Cheer, Cheer, for Old Notre Dame," "Hail to the Victors" (University of Michigan), "Tiger Rag" (Clemson and LSU), and even from my old alma mater, Tennessee, the infamous "Rocky Top."

("Down the Field" was our fight song when I first came to UT in 1971, but "Rocky Top" continued to move into the picture, and now it dominates any UT football or basketball game. At least I can play it on my violin, although not easily in the key that the band uses.)

From what I can tell, Paul Krugman has decided to push "On Wisconsin" for his fight song today, and I cannot say I am surprised that he took on the cause of public employee unions. Once one takes on the viewpoint that all (or almost all) government spending is "good for the economy," then what is not to like about government unions?

At one level, this is something that was inevitable, and we have to separate the politics from the larger picture. First, Krugman is correct when he writes that this is not just about cutting spending. The Wisconsin state union leaders have agreed to engage (at least in principle) to engage in negotiation.

Second, ironically, Krugman is correct when he writes the following, but not in the way that he might think:

Why bust the unions? As I said, it has nothing to do with helping Wisconsin deal with its current fiscal crisis. Nor is it likely to help the state’s budget prospects even in the long run: contrary to what you may have heard, public-sector workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are paid somewhat less than private-sector workers with comparable qualifications, so there’s not much room for further pay squeezes.

So it’s not about the budget; it’s about the power.

In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.

You see, Krugman is painting false picture here, a caricature that began during the Progressive Era and continues to the present time. According to Krugman, we have the Big, Bad Oligarchs on one side and then the poor, downtrodden workers on the other.

By unionizing, these poor workers are able to have a fair say in what is happening to them, so any attempt to weaken the power of unions really is nothing more than an attempt to bring back the Bad, Old Days. There is a problem with Krugman's analysis, however, a big problem.

First, we can see what has happened to those private industries in this country that have had powerful unions, from steel to autos. The only truly competitive industries in those areas today are non-union, such as the various Japanese auto firms that have built facilities in this country.

Now, Krugman would have you to believe that the workers at the various Nissan, Toyota, and BMW plants here are starving, working for mere pennies because they are not organized. Tell that to the employees who are doing just fine. Furthermore, they have jobs, as they have not forced their employers out of business, as has the UAW, which helped drive General Motors into bankruptcy, with American taxpayers being the ones now propping up this bankrupt monstrosity.

Second, we are dealing with another animal, that being government unions. There is a huge difference that Krugman fails to point out, and that is that public employee unions are allied with politicians (mostly Democrats), creating what essentially is a soviet in which the government employees provide enough clout to make sure that their chosen paymasters are elected.

The only problem for them is that the unions cannot extract good pay and benefits from themselves, so they have to go after the people who actually produce something in the real economy. What we have is an arrangement in which the unions elect the politicians who then strip others who are not part of the arrangement of their possessions to give to the unions.

This arrangement works as long as those being fleeced are able to do so and don't gain enough political power themselves to break up this soviet at the ballot box. However, this past year, despite record spending from labor unions to prop up the Democrats, they lost big in the elections and now are taking their big stand.

With the Obama administration taking an active role in organizing and supporting the protests, we can see where lines are being drawn. But there is even more, something more insidious that Krugman ignores but that I cannot and will not ignore.

The Obama administration has aggressively prosecuted and imprisoned doctors whom prosecutors claim write prescriptions that "have no medical purpose." However, at the rallies at the Wisconsin Capitol, doctors (yes, real-live M.D.s) have been handing out fake "sick" excuses to teachers in order to make their unauthorized absences be made to look as though they were away from work for a legitimate reason.

This, people, is fraud, and literally a federal crime. So, we have doctors on camera committing felonies -- and that is what they are are -- to be seen by federal authorities, and I will bet that nothing -- nothing -- will be done. In other words, Obama and his supporters (including Krugman, of course) will support felonious behavior for political reasons.

Krugman may claim that these are poor, downtrodden workers trying to stand up against the Oligarchs, but in reality, what we have been seeing are people who are able to use coercion in order to create pay and benefits for themselves that are not available to others -- the others who have to pay for these arrangements.

Moreover, many public employees have real power over the rest of us, and anyone who has dealt with unionized state and federal bureaucrats can attest to the abuse that they heap on others, and the fact that they are not accountable for that abuse. Let us be honest here, people. Paul Krugman is endorsing what in effect has been a gravy train for those people privileged to be tied to the politicians who have wielded power.

Now that the arrangements are different, the same "public servants" who enjoy pushing others around now are trying to tell us that they are nothing more than poor, oppressed workers toiling for pennies a day. And the fact that Krugman is willing to shill for this tells us a lot about the guy.