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Category Archives: Nation

Socialism Score Card

08 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by Mark in Common Sense, Nation

≈ Leave a comment

Socialism with all of its egalitarian promises is perennially appealing.  But it is a lie that needs to be exposed for the disaster that it is.

Ludwig von Mises put it this way: “To abolish private property in the means of production, to make the means of production the property of the community, that is the whole aim of Socialism.”

In order to abolish private property it has to be confiscated by the government and only then can it become the property of the community. At this point redistribution of wealth takes place – usually to those at the top.  Indeed, this is what the Socialists are always trying to accomplish.

Once the market system has been broken it is left to planners in the government to decide how much of which items that need to be produced.  Of course, this does not and cannot work.  Consider someone trying to plan how many bagels of which type to produce and distribute to every bagel store in New York City every day that customers want.

Inevitably, the leader decides that their people, their community members, are responsible for this failure of the economy. If only they worked harder, contributed more or were not enemies of the state, then the system would run smoothly.  The people will need to be shown that they must sacrifice for the state.  They must be shot, jailed, starved, put in labor camps or suffer in any number of inhuman ways.  And they did:

  • Mao – 40 million killed
  • Stalin- 20 million killed
  • Hitler – 12 million killed
  • Pol Pot – 2 million killed

The Stalin estimate maybe low, (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, thinks 60 million is closer) but even at the 20 million number that is 1,820 people a day or 12,740 a week killed, every week for 30 years. His own people.

Socialism will always lead to results like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Senator Collins again

29 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by Mark in Maine, Nation

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I am always talking about Senator Susan Collins it seems. But there is a reason for that.  Senator Collins is two things that are really one thing: She is a Never-Trumper and she is a Democrat who self identifies as a Republican.

Neither of these traits bodes well for whoever President Trump may nominate for the Supreme Court.  President Trump has had a list of 25 potential names since 2016. It is not a surprise that an appointment has come up.  Has Senator Collins thought about that list and who might support and defend the constitution as written? The same document she took an oath to defend.

We remember Susan Collins was very concerned that Garland should get a hearing.  Will she be as concerned that this President’s nomination will get a hearing?  Or will  her roots show as a Never-Trumper and a Democrat, and block it?

Let’s hope she defends liberty.

Ten Pillars for SJWs

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Mark in Common Sense, Nation

≈ Leave a comment

I recently came across an article discussing “Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom.”  This was put together by a depression era group (now disbanded as far as I can tell) called the American Economic Foundation.   You can read the full article here, but I wanted to summarize the ten points and then look into each of them in more detail as time permits.

The purpose of this exercise, is to provide a tool kit, or at least a framework, with which to think about the issues as we begin to confront and combat our local SJWs and to help us filter out the nonsense that we are subjected to on a daily basis by those on the left.

A basic grounding in Economics along with the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the structure of the Constitution as written will provide the foundation needed to turn back the leftist dogma as it comes up.

So to begin (my comments in parenthesis like this one):

  1. Nothing in our material world can come from nowhere or go nowhere, nor can it be free: everything in our economic life has a source, a destination, and a cost that must be paid. (Short version – no such thing as a free lunch.)
  2. Government is never a source of goods. Everything produced is produced by the people, and everything that government gives to the people, it must first take from the people. (Think Compulsion and Coercion.)
  3. The only valuable money that government has to spend is that money taxed or borrowed out of the people’s earnings. When government decides to spend more than it has thus received, that extra unearned money is created out of thin air, through the banks, and, when spent, takes on value only by reducing the value of all money, savings, and insurance. (Think Debt, Deficit and Inflation.)
  4. In our modern exchange economy, all payroll and employment come from customers, and the only worthwhile job security is customer security; if there are no customers, there can be no payroll and no jobs. (Government cannot provide job security in a market economy.  And by market economy I mean Capitalism.)
  5. Customer security can be achieved by the worker only when he cooperates with management in doing the things that win and hold customers. Job security, therefore, is a partnership problem that can be solved only in a spirit of understanding and cooperation. (Partners not adversaries.)
  6. Because wages are the principal cost of everything, widespread wage increases, without corresponding increase in production, simply increase the cost of everybody’s living. (Damn those minimum wage increase zealots.)
  7. The greatest good for the greatest number means, in its material sense, the greatest goods for the greatest number which, in turn, means the greatest productivity per worker. (Capitalism. Capitalism is the way this works.)
  8. All productivity is based on three factors: 1) natural resources (NR), whose form, place and condition are changed by the expenditure of 2) human energy (HE) (both muscular and mental), with the aid of 3) tools (T). (Labor and Capital but not the fallacious Marxist use of the ideas.)
  9. Tools are the only one of these three factors that man can increase without limit, and tools come into being in a free society only when there is a reward for the temporary self-denial that people must practice in order to channel part of their earnings away from purchases that produce immediate comfort and pleasure, and into new tools of production. Proper payment for the use of tools is essential to their creation. (Technology is important and better tools make better products and requires Capital accumulation.)
  10. The productivity of the tools–that is, the efficiency of the human energy applied in connection with their use–has always been highest in a competitive society in which the economic decisions are made by millions of progress-seeking individuals, rather than in a state-planned society in which those decisions are made by a handful of all-powerful people, regardless of how well-meaning, unselfish, sincere and intelligent those people may be. (Regardless of how well-meaning, central planning does not work.)

Common Ground Is Possible

28 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ 1 Comment

A while back I was involved in a Facebook war with a very strong supporter of Bernie.

I tried unsuccessfully to communicate that when it came to the “Rich” and “Big Business”, the group that he strongly had an issue with, that I agreed with him. I called them “Corporatists.”

I used a different name, but it was the same enemy.

I think it is important to use clear terms for a group to make it easier to identify the underpinnings of the problem.  In that way, we can arrive at solutions.

Conflating the Rich with Big Business and declaring them the enemy of the little guy does not really lend itself to what is going on.  What “Rich” do you mean?  How much do you have to make to be “Rich”? Is everyone that makes more than you “Rich”? And what is the problem with “Big Business” anyway?

What Rich?

As an example, on the Forbes 500 Bilionaires list for 2016, 221 or 44.2% that were on the list last year are off it now.  198 new people joined the list that were not on it the year before.  I am only trying to point out that the group changes. Things happen in a dynamic world. So what Rich? This year’s list?  Last year’s list? All of them? Does it matter?

How Rich?

The top 1% of income earners pay about 45% of all taxes.  The top 20% pay about 85% of all taxes.  The bottom 80% of income earners pay about 15% and the bottom 60% will pay about 2%.  Approximately 45% of Americans pay 0 tax.

How much do have to earn to be in the top 1%? $450k. Top 20%? $112k. So if you make $45k and marry someone making $70k, combined are you now the rich? Now do you hate yourself?

My point is this: What rich are you mad at?

Does all Big Business suck and stick it to us?

If you are looking at your iPhone while you should be reading this ask yourself does Apple or Google suck? Apple’s market capitalization was about $495B and Google about $498B.  Are they Rich? Too Rich?

For me, the problem is not about the “Rich” or “Big Business” but about the system that allows business to inbreed with the government by using lobbyists and money to get favorable treatment and government funds back into their own pockets at the same time the politicians get rich. Members of Congress make about $175k a year (top 8%), yet, they leave office millionaires.

And how does government earn its money? It doesn’t. It takes it from people who do earn it through taxes and gives it to others.

These corporatists are the real enemy.  Von Mises would call what they do “Interventionalism”, a system that interferes with the free market system (which we can get into later) and spawns socialism.

The thing to remember is that governments have the power of Coercion and Control and combined with the corporatist system, it is the real enemy to all of us.

Common ground.

Vermin or Rats?

25 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ Leave a comment

The Democratic party is a party of tyranny.

They want power above all else.  Why?

Because they want to control you.  Why?

Because they are ideologues and if they control you they control everything.

You will become a tool for them.  And a fund raiser.

It is your tax dollars that they are after.  Why?

Because it will go into their pockets and into the pockets of their friends.

Just ponder for a moment how HRC and Bill, who do not have jobs, have such a high net worth, as much as $31.3 million.

(As an aside, does that put them among the “wealthy” and are they paying their “fair” share? Has HRC actually been contributing more to taxes because she is not paying enough to fund our military, etc.? Has she in fact been following the tax rules but “feels” saddened because she is not paying enough? Unlike the mean Trump who is not contributing to our country? Hmm.)

We have all heard Bill speak and unfortunately, we have all heard Hillary speak.  Would you pay $250k to $500k to listen to either of them?

Put another way, when was the last time a foreign government gave you a MILLION dollars on your birthday? When was the last time a foreign county asked you to speak for $12 MILLION dollars?  (I get it if you don’t speak Moroccrian or is that Arabic?).

So it may be influence pedaling.

Ideologues will stop at nothing to get what they want.  No matter how trivial it may same, everything is part of a plan.

Take ducks for instance.

At Trump rallies, back in August “people” appeared in Donald Duck outfits to stalk and taunt him about his tax returns.  Here. And also here.

All dutifully reported by the MSM.

Where did this come from? HRC of course! (thank you for the head’s up Project Veritas.)

It is all deceit and plunder.

It is all about power, and all of us will suffer.

Think about it! We are running out of time.

 

 

Maybe Vermin

18 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ Leave a comment

O boy!

Worse than I thought.

Video Part II

 

Democrats and Voters (or I Did it My Way)

18 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

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“Q:  … I’ve read reports in Colorado — and you’ve seen these before, I’m sure — dead people voting, and ballot box stuffing, and people voting for family members, and people who are not eligible to vote somehow casting ballots for years.  How concerned are you about this?

MR. EARNEST:  Not at all.”

Hmmm.  Dead people voting?

Well not really.  Unless you count the 19 in Virgina.

Or the 265 in California.  And some get to vote year after year.

Or Colorado.

But, Mark that is not very many. So what?

Ok, lets add run-of-the-mill voter fraud.  (Fake names, dates of birth, addresses, etc.)

In Indiana, the Indiana Voter Registration Project, funded in part by a Democrat led group, Patriot Majority USA, has been closed down and an investigation is ongoing in 56 of the 92 counties.  Of course, after 45,000 folks have been registered.

Texas? Texas.  Mail-in ballots.

Florida?  Well, you know Hillary said hurricane Matthew was so bad because of climate change. And if Hillary said it, it must be true.

So before any landfall, her campaign started pushing for an extension of voter registration.  It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.  So an Obama appointed federal judge is telling the state they have to extend.  As the article notes, “…a victory for Florida Democrat party…”

Democrats.

Are they done?  Sadly, the party of tyranny is never done.

Felons? Yup.

People that should be deported?  (Oops! My bad, no fingerprints!  We made them citizens instead.  O well, I guess they vote!) Only about 1,800 though.

New citizens?  Lets just work overtime and process as many as we can before the election. Go Team!

Already have a green card? Go Team!

All Democrat initiatives to flood as many Democrat voters into the system as they can, by whatever means they can to ensure HRC gets elected.

Democrats.

Is this what we need?

 

Progressives or Vermin?

18 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ Leave a comment

In  a recent post, I said, “Progressives always lie”.

That is becasue they are interestested in only one thing: Power.

I don’t think most people realize to what extent they are willing to go to acquire it.

If Wikileaks over the past week has not clued you in to their cesspool, then check out this video:

 

Video from Project Veritas

100 Plus Years of Crap – Part IV

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ Leave a comment

Wilson – Woodrow or Dick?

SJWs please note – Before you dismiss Wilson as one of those old dead white males you have heard so much about remember that he is on your side so it is ok.

The Declaration of Independence is the foundational document of our country. The Constitution was erected from the bedrock of this document and formed our system of government.  Never in the history of the world was a government formed like ours, born from revolution a government from the consent of the governed: American Exceptionalism.

But what if you don’t believe in American Exceptionalism?  What if you don’t like that the Constitution established a system of government based on a separation of powers? What if you want power that is not constrained? What would you do?

As  I mentioned in an earlier post, you would: “Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

For Wilson, the beginning was a thought that government inefficiencies could be cured by study of the new science of administration.  People were spending too much time thinking about “constituting” governments and not enough time on running them.

In July of 1887, as a college professor he wrote a dreadful essay on the topic. The link is here, but please drink a lot of coffee before reading.

Long story short, he advocated for science to develop more efficient methods of instituting laws, using smooth professionals to administer it. He believed that “…in the oversight of the daily details…and means of government, public criticism is of course a clumsy nuisance, a rustic handling delicate machinery.”

Why a rustic?  Because back when the Declaration and Constitution were written things were simple.

Why delicate machinery? Because now things are complex.  So complex that old documents no longer apply.

Where he is getting all of these great inspirations?  Socialist Europe (primarily Prussia and France).

In his thinking to fully implement this “administration” you need professionals, experts; people who were highly educated and skilled in science and who could understand the complexities of the world and administer laws without the cumbersome dictates of the Constitution to slow them down.

But you could not administer laws by moving around checks and balances provided by the Constitution directly, the clods in the public may not like that. Instead, you should start by kicking the legs out by attacking the Declaration.

In 1911, President Wilson, gave  a speech  where he stated: “If you want to understand the real Declaration of Independence, do not repeat the preface.”  Because the Declaration “…as I recollect, did not mention any of the issues of the year 1911.”  It really is just a listing of grievances against King George which no longer apply and the preface is just not relevant. Individual rights are for simpler times, but we are now in complex times.

Indeed, the Declaration is a problem for Progressives. To Progressives there is no higher power than government, and only it can bestow rights.

If in the “preface” the Declaration talks of rights provided to us by God, then it has got to go.  To Progressives God is competition!  This can be seen currently in the undermining of the 1st Amendment and it flows from Wilson.

If you toss out the “Preamble” of the Declaration and disregard the old list of grievances that no longer apply, what do you have? Nothing really.

And if you have a Constitution built on nothing, then these so-called checks and balances established in the systemic construction of our government are built on – well, air.

And if you don’t really have checks and balances, then it is easier to increase the power of the rulers by using a mechanism of administration.

And if administrators can make the rules, enforce the rules and review conflicts with the rules – well that is the very definition of tyranny.

This is what Wilson was about, and why he is the father of the Progressive movement.  He is the starting point of our 100 years of crap (cutting TR some slack for the moment).

He is not done however, because for Progressives it is never done, but for now lets say:

Wilson – 0                 Dick – 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 Plus Years of Crap – Part III

17 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by Mark in Nation

≈ Leave a comment

On this day in 1787 the Constitution was signed. While it would still take time for it to be ratified, this document, setting out a new form of government, giving rise to the term “American Exceptionalism”, was truly amazing.

So Happy Constitution Day!

But, we can not yet leave the topic of the Declaration of Independence which is the rock upon which the Constitution was built.

One of the pervasive criticisms I hear about the Declaration and the Constitution is that they were written a long time ago (O, and by slaveholders so it is all trash, but I will get to that topic later).  The world has changed, technology has changed, words have changed so these documents by old, dead, white men no longer has any relevance to our times.  Quaint and all but really, lets just move forward.

That logic is the bait for the trap the jaws of which we now find ourselves in.

In answer to that criticism I submit the following:

“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceeding restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well disregard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter.”

“If all men are created equal, that is final.”

“If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final.”

“If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.”

“No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backwards toward the time where there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. ”

“Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress.  They are reactionary.  Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient. than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”

I wish I had said that, but it was Calvin Coolidge in a speech for July 4th in 1926.

The enemies of the Declaration and the Constitution pervert the meanings of words and call themselves Progressives.  But as the above excerpt shows they are really reactionaries.

They are not interested in liberties, they are interested in power.

They don’t say, “Hey everybody, we want to go back to a time where we control you by using coercion and compulsion.” Instead they say,”We are Progressive. We want to move forward and away from these old ideas written by men, who owned slaves, who did not let women vote and who are basically super moldy. Things have changed, we need new answers to new human problems and these guys are, well, just a drag.”

Progressives.

Well, if you ever checked out Ecclesiastes (and if you haven’t you should it’s short) you will know that there is nothing new under the sun.

The principles in the Declaration and the Constitution are timeless.  They don’t change because a few years go by. Your IV amendment rights to be secure in your “…papers, and effects,…” don’t go away because your “paper” is now electrons and your “effects” are now computers.

Their real purpose is reactionary control so they have told a lie.

And Progressives always lie.

They have to.

But to show that takes time, so next time we will try to answer the related question:

President Wilson: Woodrow or Dick?

 

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