Wisdom from the usual suspects.

Numerous actors, musicians, writers, and DJs – the really deep thinkers of this country – have endorsed a "new vision for our country," which "pushes for a progressive economic agenda."

Specifically, it's "a vision that creates jobs, raises wages, protects the environment, and gets big money out of politics." Consequently, they are endorsing the socialist candidate for president, Bernie Sanders.

Never mind the totalitarian slaughter in the last century carried out by those who were positively besotted with socialism.

That's so yesterday.

Jim Kunstler has an amusing piece where he elaborates on the idea that the media has the memory of a dog living only in the eternal present. These guys rooting for Bernie ought to be checked for mange and fleas if there's any connection between press stupidity and the thinking of clueless celebrities.

A short course in economics and American constitutional law for people like Will Ferrell, Danny DeVito, Susan Sarandon, Steve Wozniak, Brad Terrence "Scarface" Jordan ("Geto Boys"), Brandon Christopher “Lil B" McCartney, and Michael “Killer Mike” Render would look like this:

1. The desire to create jobs isn't one found only in the progressive (totalitarian) bosom. Any moron who runs for office says he, she, or it wants more jobs. Some politicians who appreciate the ability of government officials to destroy jobs and who get out of the way of the private sector usually manage not to interfere with job creation and should get double retirement. The rest are contemptible unhelpful oxygen thieves.
2. Jobs "created" by politicians are crap jobs and, in the absence of government funding, have no roots that allow them to survive in the actual economy. The jobs "created" by throwing money at "renewable energy" enterprises, for example, no longer exist because the government has no clue about creating jobs that will endure.

   What politicians want is to shovel money into the hands of people who will send them campaign contributions when their need is great and, if some pie-in-the-sky leftist experimental boondoggle can get money in the process, well so much the better. Genuine productive activity is the least of the politicians' concerns when there's government money to be thrown around.

3. Bernie Sanders is running for a job in the federal government. The federal government has no constitutional authority under Article I, Sect. 8 to create jobs. You can look it up.
4. Nor does the federal government have any constitutional authority to raise wages. Government officials do not have the ability as human beings to set prices for pencils, frozen turkeys, aspirin, or Barbie Dolls. Ludwig von Mises has the story. Like 95 years ago.

5. Soviet environmentalism.

   Protection of the environment is not one of the powers enumerated in Article I, Sect. 8.

   Many wonderful things might, hypothetically, be undertaken by the federal government but wonderfulness is not the only criterion. The Founders and Ratifiers were concerned above all else with limiting the power of government so that we could be free, i.e., free of tyranny. Every tyrant works to gain power over the people – not by promising hard work, draconian punishment for dissenters, and thug police with the power to smash your teeth down your throat – but by promising wonderful things. For FREE! But these fools will never read the warning label on that. If it looks good it must be good.

6. Getting big money out of federal elections probably is a power that the federal government has. That's a thicket I'm not learned enough to explore with any confidence but the Supreme Court has validated restrictions on contributions.

   The ability of Adelson, Saban, Soros, Buffett, and the Koch brothers and a host of other fabulously wealthy people to influence elections is a disgrace to our system of representative government. The so-called "Adelson primary" in Las Vegas is just horrible black mark on our electoral system.

   That said, it's silly to think this is a concern only to "progressives" and that other Americans are satisfied by having their votes discounted, diluted, and discarded. Where do these people get off thinking that they alone have some kind of saintly, rarefied, refined, enlightened grasp of what ails America?

   If there's anything to what I've written above, it's safe to say these people bring nothing but economic and constitutional ignorance to the table. God, we so need the political opinions of guitar players and DJs. The go-to guys to find out how to get things back on track.