Statist Tools: Do Not Love Your Brother

STOP with this Death Panel stuff.

It's not true. 

In response to this plaint from a loved one, I offered the following video.



I do not yet know what response I will get. I am not hopeful. At some point it must become clear that an ostrich likes to stick its head in the sand.

In general I am forced to come to the following two major conclusions about those who back ObamaCare despite all the dangers inherent within it.

First, there are those who ideologically like the idea of government running of all things. As you know, I am convinced that those at the top of this ideology see Statism's threats to individuals not as a bug but a feature.

And then there are those who  have a problem or expect a problem or have been made to fear a problem for themselves or others under the current system and are expecting the new arrangements to bail them out. They fail to see the role of government is bringing about the current problems because those in government place all the blame on "the free market." Those who believe our current health care system is "free" of government regulation, and not see that the problems as consequences that are significantly tied to those regulations, cannot be that ignorant. They had to be "educated" to be that blind.

a despot easily forgives his subjects for not loving him, provided they do not love each other. -- De Tocqueville

Dear Lord, lead us in the ways to thwart those who divide us.

The Left Hand of Statists

Where merit and valor are sneered at, you get less of it.

That is the ending to the last comment at the Belmont Club thread about awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Hussein Obama.

Wretchard, ever proving to be one wise cat, chose that line to cut off further comments to his post that began with this sentence The Nobel Committee thinks that President Obama is advancing the cause of peace. 

Today, this item by Just A Grunt helps explain further what the Left leaning world means by peace.

Aiding Persian persecution

Last week Barack Obama decided to defund an organization called the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and it hasn't taken long to see the effects. Yesterday the Iranians announced the sentencing to death of 3 people who participated in the street protests in the wake of the recent elections.

In fact, about the only complaint I have with Just A Grunt’s presentation is that he underplayed the role of he who must by now be the leading vote getter for the Heisman trophy.

I've said it before in various ways, and sadly I'll continue to find news that exemplifies it and provide me new ways of saying it:

Global Statists believe you and those you love are members of a herd overly large in numbers. For them, the only real peace comes after a rapid increase in graves.

Borrowing from Wretchard's observation and taking it one step further: Within the halls of our mutually elevated elites, expressing any real love, pity and sorrow for individuals is sentiment beneath contempt.

This is the consequence of there being no well organized opposition to what Thomas Sowell called The Vision of the Anointed. Inflated egos have carried too many souls into that inhuman condition of which C.S.Lewis warned in The Abolition of Man.  Made ever more brazen by baseless accolades of those who rule the media, those at the helm of state are being encouraged to act as rulers. "You own the White House and both houses of the legislature, so ram your will through." From a perch that is above humanity, what rights does a mere human possess that megalomaniacs will recognize?

That's the Left hand of Statists. The Right hand doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, so they work incessantly to still your concerns. "Just shut up and take it."

Speak out whilst yee still may.

Sitting President Accepts Big Money Gift

[Updated]As this is the Age of Obama, I am sure President Barack Hussein Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize is legal.

How do I know? Because in the few hours this has been bandied about I've not yet heard anyone raise ILLEGAL GIFTS as an issue.

That is all for now.

*********Update*********
I just Googled and came up with

 No results found for "dilbert principle presidency".

For those unfamiliar with the Dilbert Principle, it states (roughly): Take the Peter Principle one step further: the Dilbert Principle is exemplified by someone being raised all at once to his level of incompetency without ever having experienced a level of competency first.

I think in our crazy postmodernist world, this is my favorite explanation for how those crack Norwegians could bestow their Nobel Peace Prize on BHO: they eagerly recognized one of their own. /sarcasm [tag added for the incompetent.]

*********Update 2*********
Posted at the comments to The Smallest Minority 
10.09.09 - 10:14 am | # 

It's slowly dawning on others too. If Congress allows the gift (which I think they can and only they can allow -- how did Barack accept so quickly?) will that be Obama's Augustest moment? All hail Cæsar.

*********Update 3*********
I posted the text of this thread and its link at the Belmont Club as post 109.

Later, JM at post 130 provided me a reason to follow up

132. Pascal Fervor Oct 9, 2009 - 12:11 pm:

jim Nicholas @ 130: he was given the prize in an attempt to influence geopolitics.

To be fair, that IS inherent in the name of the prize.

That’s why I raised the issue. Money given to the American top dog (are we to believe it was not given to affect his policy decisions?) is what makes an issue of it. The money should not have been offered directly — that is if anyone in world politics still gave a damn about appearances.

APPEARANCE of corruption was once enough to drive a leader from office. What a joke! When the media is in the government’s control, expect two minutes hate to be directed at those who spot the conflict of interest.

I’ve been informed [Thank you Ed Bonderenka] that Obama will pass the gift off to charity. It was still given to him directly so he can choose the charity. Gee, I wonder what "charity" he’ll pay off? Rev Wright? Planned Barrenhood? ACLU?

Then 134. Tcobb (12:36 pm): spotted Bama's most favorite: ACORN most likely–probably through the back door.

Yep.

Left and Right: Not What You Think They Are

Left and Right are not what most people think they are.

I've tried to write on this many times. I usually get sidetracked. So before I get bogged down in my attempt to lay this out, here is what I am trying to prove.

1. Neither the terms Left nor Right represents a camp that speaks for the majority of Americans.
   
2. The two main parties, Democrats (Left) and Republicans (Right), are scripted opponents.
3. For the rest of this exercise, Left or Right will be referring to the the leaders of the respective party. 
   
4. It is not true that one of the main parties is as bad as the other. One will take us where most Americans will disapprove faster than the other.
   
5. However, both parties are headed in the same direction: larger government and lessened individual liberties. (How personal freedom diminishes as Statism increases will be examined later.)
6. The Left pretty much accepts its extremists (avante garde, shock troops, selected victims of some ism) as it rarely, if ever, speaks against any of them. (In fact, Leftist media never uses the terms "radical" or "Left-wing extremist," making it clear they don't believe someone can be too far left.)
   
7. The Right condemns and marginalizes as extremists any person or group who question the party leadership, and thereby trashes its most impassioned forces that easily could counter balance the Left's extremists. The Right even gets angry with any of its "moderates" who call for plain common-sensible slowdowns. (In fact, Leftist media always uses the term "right wing" or "extreme right wing" for any person or group it does not recognize as left of "center.")
8. Both parties are determined to drag the rest of the country with them whether you like it or not.

Those in control positions know what Left and Right effectively means. All eyes are on the professional wrestlers in the ring while the promoters have been slowly moving the arena in the direction of the Soviet Union.

Lately the promoters are convinced they can't be stopped. So they have begun rushing the changes. As a consequence, many more of us are feeling the earth move beneath us. I hope that is reason enough for you to read more of what I have to say on this topic and pass along the ideas to those you speak with.

Jotting all this down without too many excursions is tiring, and I tire easily. With much help from my friends, I hope to continue this soon.

In the meantime, here is Ronald Reagan agreeing with the message I aim to convey to you.

Choose between left or right sound bite

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down: up to man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

Typical RNC Response to Conservatives

Conservatives and libertarians. Let the following prepare you for the response to expect of a serving Republican, particularly a Senator, when you request they act more conservatively.

Click to see your senator's response to your request.

Whereas I've seen Democrats respond like that to Republicans, I've only seen Republicans respond like that to their own constituency.

The Sound of Rulers

Should we Americans not find the key to the lock that moneyed influence has on our primaries and elections, we better get used to hearing: "Whether you like it or not!"

Pleasant Predictions

Stick with this thing until the last 20 seconds.


Better yet, fast forward.

For the lighter side, try this.

Forced By Swine to Vaccinate

Where are the all those loudmouth activists who insist on labels on just about everything we consume? Just about?

How come with all this commotion to force us to get vaccinated, there are no labels on vaccine contents?

Is that because you swine at the top are trying to force down our throats what you would never allow private companies or lower level governments to do? You are going to try and get away with this even though Constitutional powers do not give you the authority.

Why? Are you trying to kill us?

Following on with this thought.
You pass laws requiring manufacturers provide every bit of information on food packaging from soup to nuts. Similarly for fabrics used in underwear to curtains to mattresses; even for most pharmaceuticals, including prescriptions that are delivered with fine print a mile long. On everything. Except! Except for those questionable vaccinations you've been forcing kids to endure for years before being let into schools.

I am appalled that it took me this long to notice.

Boy, you guys are good!

But you, like so many of the power mad who came before you, are blowing it now.

For now we are seeing another new wrinkle in this total lack of disclosure.

Doctors and nurses have been trained at great expense to them in time and money. They are very valuable assets to us individually and as important societal elements. If anyone knows how badly people can react to whatever is in vaccines, they would know.


Let me put aside your threats to our school children and their parents if they don't knuckle under to you (link1) and to our military personnel (link2) -- as if the connections between gulf war syndrome and squalene were easily whitewashed.

Our doctors and nurses are being threatened to be shut out of their trades (link3) They are put in danger of being bankrupted by not being able to pay back their investments in education, insurance, equipment, etc., unless they give up their rights and accept a top down demand to be vaccinated. It is allegedly for swine flu this time. But it could be in answer -- your answer -- to whatever new crisis you self anointed swine at the top dream up. Is that why you don't want us to call it swine flu, but rather H1N1 -- by official edict? Too negative? Too close to Orwell's depiction of you?

Who among us are better suited to understand that many recipients of vaccinations are injured or killed from what is in the vaccination? And you swine don't even want to disclose what's in it? Once again, all your secretiveness makes you suspects in my book.

So, I'm with them should they offer you all a collective "up yours." You want a national strike? You will surely get one.

You swine at the top: who the hell do you think are fooling? We know you love power just because you have it. You love that you are on the brink of stealing the ultimate power -- the statist power to control every aspect of life -- and you simply cannot contain your joy.

Let me remind you how your Napoleon disclosed what you all think

"We are God's partners in matters of life and death."

I got it. I got it. What -- you think you're something new? Throughout history more people have been put to death by their own governments than all the minor criminal activity that ever existed. So your dealing out death is really no big deal. What is a big deal is that you think you are gods... Boy, you really are that stupid.


**** Update ****
So you power-mad pigs know that many of your subjects are on to you, and you want to mute our warnings. You weren't satisfied after the moron at MSNBC, Ed Schultz, charged only the GOP with what I'm charging you. You saw you weren't making any headway in stifling the charges? So, for your next attempt at muting the truth, you let loose a freshman congressman from Florida, Alan Grayson, to level the same charges on the floor of Congress against the GOP alone. And that still wasn't enough -- because that's viewed only on little watched C-SPAN. So you had your Left-wing Ministry of Truth give Grayson fuller exposure to attack the GOP alone.

After all this, your rotten plans are still crumbling. Why? Because in trying to force vaccinations on us unwilling free men, you power-mad pigs remind us that this flu "crisis" fittingly bears your name -- SWINE.

Restoring the Joy "Watermelons" Steal From Our Kids

If you have kids who come home from school terrified and turned against America, it may be due in no small part to a Marxist agit-prop video (likely blessed by Bill Ayers) making the rounds at about the fourth grade level.

Or even if you don't, you may still love watching this.


(Thanks to The Smallest Minority for spotting this.)

Has anybody seen a similar video demonizing American health care? Quick! Send it to this fisker and lets see what he can do to pee in Obama's punch. (Unless he's already too busy demolishing Algore's Academy Award winning toxic effluent that's a full-scale partisan promo for cap and trade.)

Public Employee Unions Grip Our Politics

The lack of responsiveness of politicians and the parties to which they belong was brought up at Eternity Road Saturday. One solution -- the banning of parties -- was whimsically suggested by Mark Alger.

I intruded with my wet mop.

"Whatever we might do to prevent political parties, it would infringe on the first amendment’s free association clause."

I then allowed that perhaps limiting the free association of those working in government might supply us the answer.

"So would it only be in government where free association would be not allowed?"

Well, I revealed that my last question was clearly rhetorical with my next question:

"Then wouldn’t there be a de facto party formed outside—which is kind of what has happened now given the power of vested interests?"

You might well ask: "Well, wasn't it due to concerns about the power of vested interests which brought about, over a period of about 40 years, the various laws passed under the label 'campaign finance reform?' Why didn't that fix the problem?"

Well, considering it was politicians -- already working under the influence of various special interests -- who passed those laws, whatever gave you the impression that any laws would be passed that would exclude those who were already wielding the strongest influence?

Who wants to bet me, with you taking the position that it was better angels who were permitted access under the new campaign finance laws? I'll try not to laugh -- promise.

Anyway, I made the observation that there was one kind of special interests who have more access to the politicians than any other. And somehow they are constantly overlooked as lobbyists all together. It's the public employees unions (PEUs).

Their members are scattered in all arms of government. Where they are not actively talking with elected members, their eyes and ears are collecting information about everyone. Some are certainly innocent of being moles, but it is a certainty that their union reps know how to find out what the rank and file knows or they are not long for their jobs.

How could such a spy system go on for so long without anyone ever making mention of it? Well, they did. Back in the 1950s, public employees could not be unionized. The inherent conflict of interest between being a public servant and making demands on the public was a primary reason for preventing it.

Here is how I put it at Eternity Road:

"SEIU (Service Employees International Union), though a late-comer to political power brokering, has proven to have great power—little doubt by dint of it posing a relentless threat by proximity alone—to sway both parties. They are lobbyists with muscles and omnipresent.

In fact I believe we started to see party differences narrow even more, especially regarding government growth, when the public employee unions recognized their power and started acting.

We are discussing how parties are bad because they constrain outsiders and become gate keepers.

Well, the PEUs are determined to keep it that way; we witnessed them being bussed (we suspect while on our clock) to many venues, and most notably at the congressional town halls in August, where their strong-arm tactics were no longer merely threatened."

Government growth becomes nearly impossible to check when PEUs became legal. It is clear that the two political parties, as I pointed out in Self Preservation, are both statist parties. Their primary difference are one of speed to statist tyranny, not direction.

And as an added bonus, one nutcase at the Huffington Post actually helps make my case. He knows that PEUs are apt to come under attack, and the most prominent one of these is SEIU due to its strong-arm tactics we witnessed at congressional town hall meeting during the month of August. In his sophistic whine today, this is how he began:

First ... they came for ACORN, and the Democrats did not speak out—because they were not ACORN.

Then they came for SEIU....

This is the nothing more than Leftist projection mixed with chutzpah. The statists are telling us where they are most vulnerable by trying to depict their most fascist elements as—victims of fascism.

With public servants well on their way to becoming despotic rulers, only a statist lapdog media would have the gall to label as fascists any citizens on the verge of rebellion.

Political Parties with the Humility of Henry Ford

"Our leaders come with any color heart you want — as long as it's black."

Moral Considerations

Due to my reviewing an important new book that will be published shortly, I had cause to contemplate all that the word morality implies. ("This could be entertaining." think the moral relativists .)

I hope to finish shortly. Consider this in the interim.

Everything you do has consequences. What have you chosen as your measure of yourself?

How many of you, after having risen to heights that even surprised you, regret how much you sold yourself short?

Pity.

Not Til 1909

Coinage honoring kings and tyrants were relics of the Old World, something foreign to these shores. This was a constitutional republic, one that respected laws and not the public servants who administered that law.

Before 1909, not a single coin put out by the U.S. Mint contained the image of an actual person.

In 1909, the first year of the Taft presidency, the Lincoln penny made its appearance. But the wheels had been put in motion for the design years before during the administration of that most "Progressive" of Republican presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. No doubt Teddy, a man who nurtured the lore about his own-self, would have loved the coin to have been of perhaps another president. But these were the days of decorum and avoidance of shame, and so it simply would not have been proper for that sort of presidential deference if not reverence.

Over the years our coins started to lose the images of Liberty and American Indians in various poses, to be replaced by respected presidents and founders. So it's not too surprising to see that the notion that we were a nation of laws and not of men started to become a foreign concept to the children of today -- or even those my own generation. Those of our coins that carried that implication are now essentially out of circulation.

Is the noble concept they implied now also lost to antiquity?

Look how far you have "progressed" America. It's not about coinage and dead presidents any longer. Aren't you proud?



********* UPDATE 10/17/09 ***********

The notorious "mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm, Barach Hussein Obama" School-Children Indoctrination Worship Song was blocked, apparently due to the extreme embarrassment it gave to the President who was simultaneously just overcoming the infamous "I am God's Partner in matters of life and death" that he had been overheard saying.

So here is a new version. If anyone notices that this one is also removed, please inform me. Thanks.

Rot, More Rot, and the Totally Deaf

Pascal just took a call from the leading conservative non-profit.

They thanked him for his membership, and wished him to continue this year.

P asked: "Well, now that we have a completely radical White House, when are you going speak to them in language that is fitting to that reality?"

Voice: "Oh we hear you sir. We have to get the economy moving again so that all these other issues will take care of themselves. Would you....?"

P: "Take care of themselves! Even if by some miracle the economy started chugging along again tomorrow, the "Green" legislation and the healthcare bill alone would torpedo any nascent recovery."

Voice: "Oh we hear you sir. But we need to fund our economists so that they are available to the White House when they...."

P: "And you still believe the White House gives a damn about anything you have to say? I'm not convinced many Republicans even give a damn about you or us. And that's the problem right there. The Democrats and the Left-wing media have been dragging the whole agenda left, and the GOP and your organization meekly follow along in the same direction rather than get angry and force a showdown. The majority of the country is to the right of every one of our institutions, and that includes yours. You know we're angry because we know that we can't play nice with radicals because they view that as license to walk all over us. We are waiting to hear you get angry too. Are you even aware of how angry we are out here?"

V: "Oh yes. We hear it all the time. You know we would like you to renew your membership at $500. We need...."

P: "Your needs will be filled when you start showing some spine. I'm looking for a new organization that is not going to stand still while those in power drag the country down into this all-controlling tyranny. Are you going to force me to start a new organization of my own?"

V: "[Laughs] Yes sir. We would like you to renew...."

P: "[sigh] You're wasting your time."

V: "Thanks for taking my call."

Cut Off His Nose to Spite His Face

Troll says: "I want a public option, because I am tired of getting screwed by health insurance companies."

Holy mackerel.

After the fold in "Self Preservation - pt. 2," I showed how the UN's World Health Organization could rank the USA as 37th in health care: their criteria gave favorable ratings to any social democratic regime who forced workers to pay for the health care of the indolent and destitute. But for quick access to aid when you need it, the USA is second to none in health care -- using the UN's own criteria.

That is, the UN biased ranking system -- undoubtedly hanging a facade that proclaims "better than the Americans" on something the rest of the world's people are victimized saddled with -- smiles favorably upon heathcare as financed along the lines of Karl Marx. How could anyone be surprised? (I can answer that too if asked).

Troll did not disagree. In fact, said troll says he's a working stiff and doesn't favor such handouts.

However, troll "wants a public option" because one must presume he believes he'll get less screwed by Uncle Sam.

Virtually nothing the government provides today that is also available from private sources is better than the private sources. Be it mail services, or schooling, or roads, or medicare without medicare gap insurance. So is he nuts?

Why would he want a public option for himself knowing that however disappointed he is with his current CHOICE of medical insurance provider, he has more choice now -- and probably better coverage -- than he would ever have under "government is your only choice" system?

So I have got to conclude that he so hates his current CHOICE of insurer, he'd rather take a sure-fire worse option as long as everybody else (politicians and family excluded of course) has to suffer too.

Trolls are renowned to be ugly and ill-tempered. So it should be no surprise that our troll would like you to cut off your nose to suit his face. Misery likes company.

Self Preservation - pt. 2

For no apparent reason other than what passes as normal trollicity (to distinguish from troll idiocy), a troll threw out this factoid in the midst of his response to something unrelated.

Why are 37 countries ranked as having better health care than we do?

For those unfamiliar with this factoid, it arose from a study, World Health Report 2000, produced by the World Heath Organization (WHO) of the United Nations.

Of course this is a conclusion favorable to those who wish to use it to push for health care reform insurance destruction in the United States, a factor that ought to promote inquiries as to who helped fund the WHO study.

But that is not the point that is arousing my Pascal fervor today. The instinct that is reflected by the title of this thread -- self preservation -- is driving me. Are you listening troll?

When looking at the study, one finds that five factors went into WHO's calculation:

• Health level, as defined by a measure of life expectancy, which shows how healthy a country's population is. This factor gets a 25 percent weight.
• Responsiveness, which includes factors such as speed of health services, privacy protections, choice of doctors and quality of amenities. This factor gets a 12.5 percent weight.
• Financial fairness, which measures how progressive or regressive the financing of a country's health care system is — that is, whether or not the financial burdens are borne by those who are economically better off. This factor receives a 25 percent weight.
• Health distribution, which measures how equally a nation's health care resources are allocated among the population. This factor receives a 25 percent weight.
• Responsiveness distribution, which measures how equally a nation's health care responsiveness (which we defined above) is spread through society. This factor gets a 12.5 percent weight.

The choices and definitions of the weighting factors clearly have a qualitative bias in them. That means someone, or most likely a select group of someones, chose the factors and decided what weight to assign to them. Of course that has provoked controversy. Yet that also is not my point today.

To advance the cause of self preservation, I am highlighting a single point that was raised by PolitiFact.com:

For instance, judged on responsiveness alone, the United States ranked No. 1 in the world.

What I am suggesting is that if you understand how health care and insurance operates in the United States, and if you make provisions to address what it takes, it means that you can get the quickest and most certain care here -- in the United States -- as it now stands.

That seems to me to inhere the essential aspect of "self-preservation." No third party can currently get between you and your chosen solution. Your healthcare provider is free to say: "the color of your money looks fine to me."

Are there other issues currently in play? Yes. But has self preservation always been your goal? That means you are not now a johnny-come-lately to that realization and are not now demanding others pay for you squandering your earlier opportunities to make proper arrangements. Then one happy circumstance remains true. It is even now true for emergency room care even if you were a foolish youngster. And it even is true if you are an illegal alien. That is, for the most part, you are in the number one place on the planet to get a quick response in your moment of need.

Key word: SELF Preservation.

Oh, and one more observation and a question for my readers below the fold.
MORE....

Government is the Solution

Really?

(hat tip to ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ at Eternity Road)

Tell me how impressed you are with the Fed's inspector general.

Now go on from here to explain to me how you think the federal government is the best all around solution for health care, and environmental management, and education and a whole host of issues.

Maybe -- just maybe -- the men who intended for our federal government's powers to be strictly limited were a wee bit smarter than our contemporary politicians megalomaniacs?

Click here for follow up.

Self Preservation

If what you seek is self preservation, and I mean that in the longest sense possible, then start planning to abandon the concept of Left versus Right, and start thinking in terms of tyranny versus liberty.

The concept of Left and Right was derived from the fact that opposing factions in revolutionary France were seated on either side of an aisle. Now both sides of the aisle have become dominated in various ways by forces that are dragging our government relentlessly towards total statism; i.e., every aspect of your life under control of one government bureaucracy or another. Essentially there is no "side" that takes the position that government growth favors top down tyranny and government dissolution favors individual liberty.

You town hall and "Tea Party" participants and supporters represent the individual liberty faction that remains in our society. Were you to continue to get scant respect from either side of the aisle, it becomes pretty clear that there is no aisle. Government becomes clearly of and for itself, and not "of, by, and for the people."

It is safe to say that the Left includes the vast majority of shock troops. Either those on the dole, or those who pass out the dole, provide bodies, and usually while they are being paid by government. They come out at your expense and demand more and continued government payouts at your expense. (It is only this year that we are seeing tea-partiers turn out in record numbers.) So the large numbers of Leftist shock troops, aided and abetted by Leftist Media, have generally led the Left further left, and dragged the Right with them.

This has been going in one way or another for all of my long life, and at a variety of speeds at various points. But today it is happening at alarming speeds, and more and more of us who are targeted to become subjects are seeing it. What we have not heard yet is language sufficient and clear that identifies the problem so we can fight it adequately.

Instead of a constitutional republic which allows government among men to exist only under limiting constraints, power seeking forces seem now to feel pretty comfortable that their creation of a Platonic republic of mutually recognized elites is now beyond prevention. That is, they believe that there is no way any resistance to them can succeed.

These wannabe rulers will succeed if you continue to think only in Left or Right rather than freedom or slavery.

The Only Remaining Liberal Things...

about "Progressives" that I can see is their application of government to "solve" everything; their brazenness in lying about what they have done when caught; and their gall at projecting their own lies and misdeeds onto their critics.

Not Taking Anything For Granted...

When troll "Reaper" (surprisingly? diffidently? jealously?) asked me:

GD, how many trolls do you have?

it required a bit more information before I could answer:

Including The One in the White House? [rimshot]

****Update****
Including this one too?
Be forewarned. One reader said they were sorry they clicked on the above link! LOL