It seems like those blue-city-states are running out of other people’s money… and the hated top 10% are taking their money & heading out.
One thing I know for certain is the Dems running said cities into the ground will blame everyone else but themselves for the shit show they’ve created & perpetuated.
Quite true. And they are going to do their damned best with their hands out to get the rest of the country to pay for their vote buying schemes and FAILED economic policies.
Not so sure about the “white” part, or the “men” part, but property owners should be the only people voting… Husband and wife own real property jointly, one vote each.
Voters should have some “skin in the game,” but to keep developers from running away with the vote – no matter how many properties you own in how many different states, you get one vote and your spouse gets one vote in national elections. …and you have to own the property as a single or joint tenancy owner with a spouse, not a member of a corporate board that’s a holding company. Yes, you can be involved in that kind of corporate ownership and investment, but it doesn’t give you the vote unless you can stake down the corners of a livable property and say “THIS IS MINE! NOT not a part of the corporate hoding
I agree in principal, but moderized
PRODUCERS get the vote, regardless of gender or race.
Military also, but no one else who gets a check from the Government.
And the military vote goes beyond time in service
I think you should have to pay for your vote. Put a better way, the only way you get to vote is if you are a taxpayer. If you get “earned income” then you don’t qualify because you only take from the government without any buy in. Not working? Sorry, welfare is another bribe payout. In College? Then you are not supporting the government, you have no say to what money gets spent.
It would end the Democrat party.
Get rid of the lobbyists as well. Make it so no law can be passed that wasn’t personally written by a member of congress, unlike we have now with K-Street writing every single piece of legislation. The last bill that was written by someone elected to Congress was in the early 90’s.
Where you see “failure” I see successfully planned and executed destruction.
Before you can declare something to be either a success or a failure you must first have determined, beyond reasonable doubt, the intent behind it.
In this case I don’t believe, given the evidence of history, that you can determine the intent behind authoritarianism to be peace, prosperity and security (except for the security of the power of a few rulers). When their doctrines and policies produce mass destruction, and even mass death, everywhere and every time they’re put into practice, and they double down afterward, and they’ve kept it up for generations, and keep at it now, never giving an inch on their doctrines, one can only conclude that the destruction is intentional.
Stagnation, degradation and destruction are features, goals, ideals, not some unpredicted, unforeseen or unimagined bugs.
Of course there are those who have been fooled into believing that “central planning”, coercive redistrinution and an authoritarian cult-of-personality will produce happiness; “peace”, “safety” and “Unity” and all that claptrap, but in such a case of mass deception there must be a deceiver, or a whole army of deceivers, behind it.
Another aspect of all this is the lack of adult influence, which Chris has mentioned many times. Part of what we’re seeing is a Lord of the Flies scenario, where the deceivers and their ranks-of-the-deceived are running rampant and no one is stepping in giving them the facts of life. We’ve been compromised, our principles no longer clear.
The Republican Party for example only wants to share in the spoils of the authoritarian system. The best they have to offer is a different style of authoritarianism; a cult of personality which appeals to a different audience than the one the Dems appeal to. Pick one, pick the other; it makes no real difference in the end (but of course they have us believing that it will make a difference no matter how long it’s failed to make any difference).
So who is to blame for the trajectory this country has been on for over 120 years, and is still on, even this very day; the tricksters, or we suckers or cowards who either embrace or tolerate their tricks?
Enjoy your Trump stimulus checks. The suckers of the Dems got their Obama Phones and we suckers of Trump got our Trump checks. God help us all.
The original settlers of this land, from the Old World, by the way, may have been predominantly white, but their pertinent feature was Protestantism. Race has absolutely nothing to do with that. That’s a history most of us never learned, and without that particular history one can never understand what’s going on today.
May 24, 2020 at 5:00 am
Henry
But if you cut off people on Social Security, you put a major dent in the Republicans, too…
I collect social security, but still pay a load of income tax. Because i saved and invested, now not only pay on income from that but ALSO pn my social security because i saved and invested. get ridof social security and make it a 401 type account where you actually own that money and congress can’t tape and borrow from it. If you were to get a monthly statement of the value of your new “social security” 401 account a lot of people would suddenly be concerned about the economy and government spending
May 25, 2020 at 7:14 pm
Bunker Builder
Social security would only be held against one when you had exhausted the current value of your entire lifetimes payroll taxes, including teenager payments to SSI/Medicare .
the Demos biggest success in the last 70 years is the taking away from the individual the CONTROL of their retirement savings and funds saved up for end of life expenses, now all funds end with the Feds taking possession at death instead one’s heirs and spouses…Tax free company benefits have fettered millions to dead end jobs since WWII, With rational low taxes, sticking with a dead end job becomes sillier as the tax free carrot shrinks.
May 24, 2020 at 6:13 am
The Real Paul Bunyan
The order of battle for deconstructing the national government/restoring the federal, would necessarily require voiding the Code of Federal Regulations prior to nullifying the lobbyists efforts. This would inflict pain or euphoria to everyone on right, left or center to varying degrees they would all see the value in doing so. The CFR is the permanent bureaurcracies okygen. This one action would defeat both groups and substantially decrease the need of most executive orders that are meant to override the CFR/Perm Bureaucratic Rule.
Once federal administrative law (unconstitutional before the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883) is dealt this death blow, then congress is the sole originator of legislation again and the President actually controls the executive branch again. Whatever ills the 1883 act was meant to cure they pale in comparison to what has been wrought in its name since then. This would be the major part of a peaceful return to a future USA with the constitution as the supreme law of the land once again. The concerted extra-federal actions of the several states would be need to be curtailed dramatically or banned altogether by abolishing the three governors associations.
The left wants and needs a civil war similar to Russia 1917-1925 since they control the admin state and its MSM advertising arm along with some police/military. Clearly police/military leadership have been sporadically trending to the lefts pro gun confiscation camp since the 1930’s & 1960’s.
See Generals Petraeus, McInerny, and i believe even Flynn’s (he should still be released as he may have recently revised his stance on govt power over the individual) past statements on civilian ownership of weapons of “war”. They and some boys in blue would have no problem ordering order a future nationwide house to house search for “illegal” weapons.
May 24, 2020 at 10:49 am
Old Codger
Once federal administrative law (unconstitutional before the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883) is dealt this death blow, then congress is the sole originator of legislation again and the President actually controls the executive branch again.
Pipe dream. Sorry, but that’s all your (very appealing) scenario truly is. Bureaucracies share many traits with living organisms and like living organisms will fight tooth and nail for survival. There have always been – AND THERE ALWAYS WILL BE – Mandarins. It is the nature of government. Niven and Pournelle shared their take bureaucracy in “Inferno”. Their description of the fate of Hammurabi’s scribe (the one they credited with the invention of bureaucracy) is beautiful to read and totally apt.
Any organization can become bureaucratic. The essence of bureaucracy is the exchange of means for ends. When an organization loses sight of its raison d’etre and makes measures originally meant to further the organizations purpose ends in themselves, the organization becomes a bureaucracy.
An example is appropriate. Several years ago, the local metropolitan transit (city bus) company had all its (office) workers get together to brainstorm ways to increase ridership. One section had the idea to mail out fliers extolling the virtues of riding the bus. Within a very short time those workers were getting merit raises based not upon any objective measure of the success of their flyer campaign but simply upon the number of fliers that section had mailed out. The means (mailing out flyers in hopes of increasing ridership) had become an organizational end in itself. An entire new section was created solely to mail out fliers.
A couple of final observations. 1) I have often observed that “Those who can, do. Those who cannot go into government service so they do not have to.” Also, when was the last time you encountered “civil servant” who was either – civil or a servant?
May 24, 2020 at 8:35 am
John D. Egbert
Also, every bill written should have as its first paragraph Constitutional justification, citing Article, Section and Clause and stating how they apply.
Addendum: The above should be applied retroactively to every law currently on the books; those that fail the grade to be summarily and immediately repealed.
May 24, 2020 at 10:52 am
Old Codger
And if the resulting law is ultimately overturned on constitutional grounds the bill’s sponsor(s) should be removed from congress and permanently barred from holding any office – federal, state, or local, elective or appointed – in perpetuity.
May 24, 2020 at 11:22 am
The Real Paul Bunyan
Yes these things should happen to the bills and their authors/sponsors. Maybe three strikes and they’re out, retroactive to their first ever day in office. Goodbye leftists and squishy repubs. The bureaucracy might not disappear by eliminating the CFR & the rule of perm bureaucracy but it would be far smaller and far more controllable by the executive branch which is what DJT could use right now. Yes, the commies would take advantage when they retake the executive but it easier to counter than the incestuous wife swapping arrogant totalitarian cabal we have had running the country into debtors prison for a century now.
May 25, 2020 at 7:05 pm
Bunker Builder
It would return the Democrat Party to the center of Mass politically of the USA.
Voting for ANY law or regulation an office holder has not read and understands completely should automatically bring an Impeachment proceeding. We need a generation of Law erasers that removed generations of over regulation and superfluous Law enactment, instead passing evermore freedom taking laws and wealth destroying Regulations.
You have a right to vote if you are:
An American citizen
You are over 18
You are paying taxes that year
You have served or are serving society as a soldier, sailor, guardsmen, or first responder
You get one vote and one vote only. Any abuse of this right will result in the loss of that right and possible jail time.
I think that convicted felons and democrats be disqualified by one of the above.
Apply the 14th Amendment properly. 30,000,000 or so mostly potential and actual Democrat voter base would be disenfranchised or outright exported or expelled back to their own nations that they are subject to the jurisdiction of.
This is being mostly ignored for strategic reasons on both sided. I say expel DNC Chairman Tome Perez, after a due process fulfilling hearing, of course.
This is now a sort of quiet gorilla in the room now. Most Americans understand and agree on the principles involved. The enemy invaders and locals supporting them have worked hard to change the meaning of words and people’s understanding. So. Just ignore what I stated, for now.
I always comment locally. I don’t act as much as before. I am in a new local. I have leftists who would hate me if they knew what I have done. I still poke things for the better when I can free myself up. Act local. Act national. Act world. Be ready if you have to go into the game. You may not recognize it is the game if you are just acting normally. But major advantage is often gained in that war of ideas and minds by just stating your facts, analysis, opinions, jokes, understanding (and ridicule per Rules for Radicals and also good people), and what you believe and sometimes are emotional about.
The original idea of tying the franchise to the ownership of real property was brilliant. It gave the vote to persons with a stable relationship to the state and county wherein they lived. No such relationship can be assumed about renters and persons similarly detached from their places of residence.
That having been said, in our era those who own no real property — for concision’s sake, let’s call them renters — are more likely to vote than property owners! Moreover, they’d raise a world-class stink were it to be suggested that they be denied the franchise. They’d certainly oppose such an amendment to the Constitution. So returning to the original design seems unlikely.
Again, the federal Constitution did NOT restrict the franchise to men or whites.
Some state constitutions might have done so. Restrictions on owning property in many states also worked to restrict the franchise. And the federal Constitution does not (until the 14th Amendment) stop the states from doing so.
I have long advocated that those who take payments (that are not compensation for goods or services rendered, nor an insurance payout) from the gov’t should have their franchise restricted for the duration of those payments, and for up to half that time after stopping receiving payments.
Given our current state of affairs, it would deliver some jurisdictions into the hands of a small group of people. Which really wouldn’t be any different than now.
I’ve maintained for years now that those on welfare or various forms of “the dole” should not be allowed to vote. They may again vote when they get back on their feet.
I don’t have a problem with temporary welfare, but this generational thing we have going needs to end. To start, no additional bennies for new births. Bennies are fixed the moment of enrollment. No more farming your daughters so grannie can keep it rollin’ in.
I’m afraid the ONLY way to make a return to the Constitution is through revolution. Those in power won’t willingly relinquish it. We’d have to replace the entirety of Congress with patriots in order to roll back the administrative state. That seems unlikely to happen through the ballot box.
Kindly define “the dole” My wife and I are both drawing Social Security and I am drawing (a minuscule) disability pension from the Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs. Are we “on the dole” in your book? I know we are in Kurt Schlicter’s. Also, we own our own home although we are paying a mortgage. Does that count as real estate ownership?
Not trying to start anything; just want to know where I/we stand.
But you paid into the system for years, sending your SS taxes every year you were employed, That isn’t “the dole”. That’s a benefit you paid for.
“The dole” is something provided by the government regardless of whether you ever worked or paid taxes,
May 24, 2020 at 2:30 pm
JTC
As DCE says you paid into a purported insurance program rightly or wrongly intended to provide a modicum of support in old age. It is something of a ponzi scheme but that’s not your fault or mine (took SS at 62, coming up on four years, partly because my family tends to croak early and partly as a hedge against said ponzi scheme unraveling in my lifetime) so we deserve and will likely receive what we were promised.
That is not to say it is all “our money”…I paid in the maximum since I was 18 working a union mill job until they essentially eliminated the maximum and took a percent of all earnings, and I still will receive far more than I paid in even if I do bite it by age 75, and many (most?) recipients will collect many times their contributions.
Forget trying to add in accrued interest; it’s an insurance policy not a retirement account remember? Although that brings us to a revamping that I have long favored wherein Social Security becomes an actual retirement investment that would feature compounded tax free interest but would also quit making disbursements when the money runs out…could be harsh in some cases but that would be the only free market method and is one method to attain a sustainable program which the status quo certainly is not. Probably won’t directly affect most of us sexygenarians here, but if our kids and grandkids want to be provided for in retirement they better be providing the means for that right now one way or the other.
I’m betting our Renaissance man in the big chair in DC has his eye on it and a working framework of a plan to address it, among his myriad other responsibilities, I’ve said before I don’t know how he does it but I’m glad he does and pray that he will for at least another five or so years.
May 25, 2020 at 9:58 am
Precision270
that is issue is easily rectified. Change the scam of SS to a 401K type system where the money is YOURS not a ponzi scheme that isn’t well maintained. Then when the money is being drawn upon, it is your money, not .gov’s. Pre-becoming my wife, the late wife went a year on food stamps and some variant of direct money transfer welfare due to a cancer diagnosis and a divorce where he played dirty. Took all the money while she attempted to get treated. For that year, she should have been ineligible to vote. Once she went back to work, the vote comes back. Will NEVER happen as that is the death of the Democrat party.
May 24, 2020 at 8:09 am
tom ploszaj
Just a bit of wondering out loud…
Do the same groups who read Day By Day Cartoon look upon it the same today as the groups who read Common Sence did in yesteryear?
Another thought; it’s not necessary to mention the honoring of Memorial Day to this crowd but the Feds corrupted its meaning when they declared May 30th no longer the day of solemn remembrance by making it a long Federal weekend to celebrate the beginning of summer. Now that the States removing Confederate statues will the Days of Remembrance to the Confederate fallen be next for elimination? In NH there are more and more like thinkers who are attempting to use the first three boxes before the need of the reset box.
My wife mentioned an article citing Kalifornia had in excess of 340,000 Public employees that have salaries of at least $100,000/yr.! I thought, that can’t be true! 1% of the total population, at a minimum, getting paid like that from taxes?!? I think “unsustainable” is the word! And that doesn’t account for all the others that are under 100k/yr, HFA! No wonder the governor is trying to balance the books with an extended KungFlu overreaction to grab from the Federal coffers.
As for “Trump checks”, agree it was a bad idea, but it pales compared to the bad idea for greater unemployment benefits that are twice that amount monthly, and ongoing, another HFA (Holy Fcuk All, if translation) needed! I’m retired and relying on a productive economy for ongoing income, not one that is being hogtied, and not Social Security either, the 2400 one time payment means mostly nothing in the scheme of things, since if it were actually “needed” it would be gone immediately and then what?
I think PDJT made a mistake in listening to those that want to destroy the country and finally found something far enough outside his expertise to capitalize on. I find it hard to blame him, after all “Do no harm” is supposed to be a Doctors FIRST duty. Now we need to figure out WHO should be held accountable for the planned destruction of the economy and hold them up to public scrutiny and punishment. If they continue to get away with anything they do, these psychopaths will never, never, ever give up.
The events have shifted the wealth curve to fewer and fewer people since the opening of China (and before). The plan for the few to own all continues. Kings and royalty are determined by new means today. Few royalty deserved the reputation of good princes. The financialization and the boom busts with only the central banks and policy from various sources determining who would have wealth. The reward of good work was mostly taken from the equation. Few are free to survive the traps set to move money to the few. The wealth curve shift creates the owners and slaves system we have been melting into.
The few have taken the fiat and given it to themselves. Shifting some of that fiat wealth to the ones who have been dispossessed of wealth by the few is not wrong. It is returning the favor to those who by fraud and trickery and government policy, but I repeat myself, shifted wealth to themselves. It is kinder than the noose and pitchfork. It is also fair. The fiat only exists because of the value the work of all creates.
The damage by this shutdown is all across society. To transfer wealth by a series of payments across the society is not wrong. The banks were given the central bank power claiming that they would end the unfairness of booms and busts and other government and banker shenanigans. The few small businesses unconsolidated into the large corporation structure have been forced into bankruptcy or near bankruptcy by the recent events as well as the fictionalization of everything over the last 50 or so years.
Now the Central banks, the fed, can possibly buy the whole world in this crisis. maybe a slight exaggeration. Maybe not. (recall old quote about waking up as impoverished in the land their ancestors won. Does the fed own the treasury or vice versa? We should buy the fed at the price the fed owners paid using money borrowed from the fed. Equity across the board demands it. The Fed should and must and equitably belongs to the people. The Fed permitted and encouraged the fiction that the Fed was owned by the people to exist most of the years that the fed has existed.
So that $1200 payment was justified. Many more are justified as the value of the nation has been shifted by the fed to the few in a very unfair and inequitable manner. Common law still exists in this nation. Enough for now. But more checks should be sent to those in the area of the wealth curve that have been subjected to the wealth stripping.
“Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – there’s plague everywhere! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – the economy’s a cesspool and you lost your job! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – racism everywhere, even pandemics are racist! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – we’re less unified since the Civil War! We told you so.”
The Left – Apocalypse Now & Forever – got its New Normal, and Election Fraud 2020 is rolling as planned…
Very insightful panel by Chris. And spot-on. Rearranging the franchise to what the Founding Fathers intended would *save* America, not merely make it great again. Here are the requirements for voting: You may NOT vote *in a federal election* if you…
* Can’t prove that you are who you SAY you are.
* Are on welfare or public assistance of any kind (food stamps, housing, Medicaid, free-anything-at-the-taxpayers’-expense).
* Are not a “net taxpayer” (i.e. government employees and politicians paid by the government cannot vote; ditto for all welfare recipients; unsure about social security recipients and active-duty military).
* Are illiterate.
* Can’t pass a minimal IQ test.
* Can’t pass a minimal citizenship test.
* Won’t pay a small poll tax to vote *out of your own pocket* (no vote-buying) of, say, $2 or $3.
* Are not yet age 21 or over.
Some states may want to make their eligibility to vote in state elections more lenient or more stringent, but the above are minimal requirements to be discussed for eligibility to vote in federal elections.
Well, since the USSC has already declared a poll tax to be unconstitutional, that ain’t gonna fly. SS recipients who paid into the system should reap the benefits therefrom, so they get a vote. Active duty military, retired military, veterans, and all reservists have written a check to the people of this nation for their very lives, so yes, they get a friggin’ vote!
But wish lists are good, it requires you to do the research on what is desirable and why, and it requires a cold hard eye on priorities…see “ain’t gonna fly” above. Pick the primary (heh) requirements that will require at least claimed fealty to America and eliminate the fraud that will determine the outcome all by itself if allowed.
Proven citizenship is the number one qualifier. Whether you were born here or took the right path to becoming a true American you deserve a say…a good part of why the big battle over the question on the census is the socialists desire to hand out the vote like they hand out our money.
A sworn statement of loyalty to our country and its founding principles and willingness to defend it as needed.
Voting in person or otherwise only by notarized mail ballot.
Guaranteed police security at the polling place.
Lock those in and it will be a fair election; pursuit of additional qualifiers that can be spun as exclusionary wastes time and energy while these are unassailable without exposing an agenda.
Fair. That’s all we can ask for and all that Trump needs in 2020.
May 24, 2020 at 1:54 pm
JTC
Also, this is your day off Boy! Can the whining for now and drawn that BMG down on a target that you can barely see with that spotter…now THAT’s relaxing!
In order to vote; 3 questions are chosen at random from the citizenship test that immigrants have to pass to become citizens of the United States. If you can’t answer those, you are not informed enough to vote.
I noticed some commenters see their SocSec payments in dollars in dollars out straight across. Not quite. You need to calculate the diminished value of the dollar through the years. How much has that been? I like the comparative structure: In 1913 when all this started gold was about $25 an ounce. Close to the price of a 1911 .45 Colt. Now gold was at $1500 an ounce last Dec. before the CCP put their thumb on the scale. Really close to a new 1911 at $1200. The dollars you put in were actually worth a lot more than they are now. You aren’t getting more back at all.
Might as well throw in compounded interest too. The problem with those arguments is that while interest can be tallied and the Time Value of Money (TVM) is easily demonstrated with guns and gold (or cars or groceries or paychecks or anything else) it is an irrelevant exercise here as it is with all of those.
SS is a half-assed ponzi masquerading as insurance, skimmed like crazy and poorly administered but one of the few gov programs that on average does pay recipients more than was collected and assumes the risk of paying for life regardless.
Should be an easy exercise for some nerd; find and figure the maximum that a worker could have paid in from 1945 until 1990, double it for employer or self-employed contributions, and then find the tables of benefits he would be due for those years, assume he collects for 15 years, add and compare.
But like all Pom is it will collapse and is rickety as hell. It should be abolished by attrition in favor of individual savings with all of the benefits and risks that would entail.
William “Bill” Ayers has said in the past that everyone in the world should be able to vote in USA elections as we have an effect on the world.
Chris, Nice for you to be on the opposite side of such a person as that founder of the Weather Underground of the Students for a Democratic Society, and he is a committer of terrorist acts against the United States of America.
54 Comments
It’s a mad mad mad mad mad world…
It seems like those blue-city-states are running out of other people’s money… and the hated top 10% are taking their money & heading out.
One thing I know for certain is the Dems running said cities into the ground will blame everyone else but themselves for the shit show they’ve created & perpetuated.
Communists: taking everything but the blame, since 1918!
Quite true. And they are going to do their damned best with their hands out to get the rest of the country to pay for their vote buying schemes and FAILED economic policies.
Not so sure about the “white” part, or the “men” part, but property owners should be the only people voting… Husband and wife own real property jointly, one vote each.
Voters should have some “skin in the game,” but to keep developers from running away with the vote – no matter how many properties you own in how many different states, you get one vote and your spouse gets one vote in national elections. …and you have to own the property as a single or joint tenancy owner with a spouse, not a member of a corporate board that’s a holding company. Yes, you can be involved in that kind of corporate ownership and investment, but it doesn’t give you the vote unless you can stake down the corners of a livable property and say “THIS IS MINE! NOT not a part of the corporate hoding
I agree in principal, but moderized
PRODUCERS get the vote, regardless of gender or race.
Military also, but no one else who gets a check from the Government.
And the military vote goes beyond time in service
I think you should have to pay for your vote. Put a better way, the only way you get to vote is if you are a taxpayer. If you get “earned income” then you don’t qualify because you only take from the government without any buy in. Not working? Sorry, welfare is another bribe payout. In College? Then you are not supporting the government, you have no say to what money gets spent.
It would end the Democrat party.
Get rid of the lobbyists as well. Make it so no law can be passed that wasn’t personally written by a member of congress, unlike we have now with K-Street writing every single piece of legislation. The last bill that was written by someone elected to Congress was in the early 90’s.
Also, every law passed applies to everyone.
Kongress kritters, unions, rich, poor, no cut outs, no set asides, no exemptions or exceptions.
Where you see “failure” I see successfully planned and executed destruction.
Before you can declare something to be either a success or a failure you must first have determined, beyond reasonable doubt, the intent behind it.
In this case I don’t believe, given the evidence of history, that you can determine the intent behind authoritarianism to be peace, prosperity and security (except for the security of the power of a few rulers). When their doctrines and policies produce mass destruction, and even mass death, everywhere and every time they’re put into practice, and they double down afterward, and they’ve kept it up for generations, and keep at it now, never giving an inch on their doctrines, one can only conclude that the destruction is intentional.
Stagnation, degradation and destruction are features, goals, ideals, not some unpredicted, unforeseen or unimagined bugs.
Of course there are those who have been fooled into believing that “central planning”, coercive redistrinution and an authoritarian cult-of-personality will produce happiness; “peace”, “safety” and “Unity” and all that claptrap, but in such a case of mass deception there must be a deceiver, or a whole army of deceivers, behind it.
Another aspect of all this is the lack of adult influence, which Chris has mentioned many times. Part of what we’re seeing is a Lord of the Flies scenario, where the deceivers and their ranks-of-the-deceived are running rampant and no one is stepping in giving them the facts of life. We’ve been compromised, our principles no longer clear.
The Republican Party for example only wants to share in the spoils of the authoritarian system. The best they have to offer is a different style of authoritarianism; a cult of personality which appeals to a different audience than the one the Dems appeal to. Pick one, pick the other; it makes no real difference in the end (but of course they have us believing that it will make a difference no matter how long it’s failed to make any difference).
So who is to blame for the trajectory this country has been on for over 120 years, and is still on, even this very day; the tricksters, or we suckers or cowards who either embrace or tolerate their tricks?
Enjoy your Trump stimulus checks. The suckers of the Dems got their Obama Phones and we suckers of Trump got our Trump checks. God help us all.
The original settlers of this land, from the Old World, by the way, may have been predominantly white, but their pertinent feature was Protestantism. Race has absolutely nothing to do with that. That’s a history most of us never learned, and without that particular history one can never understand what’s going on today.
But if you cut off people on Social Security, you put a major dent in the Republicans, too…
I collect social security, but still pay a load of income tax. Because i saved and invested, now not only pay on income from that but ALSO pn my social security because i saved and invested. get ridof social security and make it a 401 type account where you actually own that money and congress can’t tape and borrow from it. If you were to get a monthly statement of the value of your new “social security” 401 account a lot of people would suddenly be concerned about the economy and government spending
Social security would only be held against one when you had exhausted the current value of your entire lifetimes payroll taxes, including teenager payments to SSI/Medicare .
the Demos biggest success in the last 70 years is the taking away from the individual the CONTROL of their retirement savings and funds saved up for end of life expenses, now all funds end with the Feds taking possession at death instead one’s heirs and spouses…Tax free company benefits have fettered millions to dead end jobs since WWII, With rational low taxes, sticking with a dead end job becomes sillier as the tax free carrot shrinks.
The order of battle for deconstructing the national government/restoring the federal, would necessarily require voiding the Code of Federal Regulations prior to nullifying the lobbyists efforts. This would inflict pain or euphoria to everyone on right, left or center to varying degrees they would all see the value in doing so. The CFR is the permanent bureaurcracies okygen. This one action would defeat both groups and substantially decrease the need of most executive orders that are meant to override the CFR/Perm Bureaucratic Rule.
Once federal administrative law (unconstitutional before the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883) is dealt this death blow, then congress is the sole originator of legislation again and the President actually controls the executive branch again. Whatever ills the 1883 act was meant to cure they pale in comparison to what has been wrought in its name since then. This would be the major part of a peaceful return to a future USA with the constitution as the supreme law of the land once again. The concerted extra-federal actions of the several states would be need to be curtailed dramatically or banned altogether by abolishing the three governors associations.
The left wants and needs a civil war similar to Russia 1917-1925 since they control the admin state and its MSM advertising arm along with some police/military. Clearly police/military leadership have been sporadically trending to the lefts pro gun confiscation camp since the 1930’s & 1960’s.
See Generals Petraeus, McInerny, and i believe even Flynn’s (he should still be released as he may have recently revised his stance on govt power over the individual) past statements on civilian ownership of weapons of “war”. They and some boys in blue would have no problem ordering order a future nationwide house to house search for “illegal” weapons.
Pipe dream. Sorry, but that’s all your (very appealing) scenario truly is. Bureaucracies share many traits with living organisms and like living organisms will fight tooth and nail for survival. There have always been – AND THERE ALWAYS WILL BE – Mandarins. It is the nature of government. Niven and Pournelle shared their take bureaucracy in “Inferno”. Their description of the fate of Hammurabi’s scribe (the one they credited with the invention of bureaucracy) is beautiful to read and totally apt.
Any organization can become bureaucratic. The essence of bureaucracy is the exchange of means for ends. When an organization loses sight of its raison d’etre and makes measures originally meant to further the organizations purpose ends in themselves, the organization becomes a bureaucracy.
An example is appropriate. Several years ago, the local metropolitan transit (city bus) company had all its (office) workers get together to brainstorm ways to increase ridership. One section had the idea to mail out fliers extolling the virtues of riding the bus. Within a very short time those workers were getting merit raises based not upon any objective measure of the success of their flyer campaign but simply upon the number of fliers that section had mailed out. The means (mailing out flyers in hopes of increasing ridership) had become an organizational end in itself. An entire new section was created solely to mail out fliers.
A couple of final observations. 1) I have often observed that “Those who can, do. Those who cannot go into government service so they do not have to.” Also, when was the last time you encountered “civil servant” who was either – civil or a servant?
Also, every bill written should have as its first paragraph Constitutional justification, citing Article, Section and Clause and stating how they apply.
Addendum: The above should be applied retroactively to every law currently on the books; those that fail the grade to be summarily and immediately repealed.
And if the resulting law is ultimately overturned on constitutional grounds the bill’s sponsor(s) should be removed from congress and permanently barred from holding any office – federal, state, or local, elective or appointed – in perpetuity.
Yes these things should happen to the bills and their authors/sponsors. Maybe three strikes and they’re out, retroactive to their first ever day in office. Goodbye leftists and squishy repubs. The bureaucracy might not disappear by eliminating the CFR & the rule of perm bureaucracy but it would be far smaller and far more controllable by the executive branch which is what DJT could use right now. Yes, the commies would take advantage when they retake the executive but it easier to counter than the incestuous wife swapping arrogant totalitarian cabal we have had running the country into debtors prison for a century now.
It would return the Democrat Party to the center of Mass politically of the USA.
Voting for ANY law or regulation an office holder has not read and understands completely should automatically bring an Impeachment proceeding. We need a generation of Law erasers that removed generations of over regulation and superfluous Law enactment, instead passing evermore freedom taking laws and wealth destroying Regulations.
Democrat plan is one stamp one vote.
Why is Sam’s second finger through the trigger guard and on the trigger?
Unless that is a reflection of light bouncing off the dawn highlighting her finger…. you’re right.
Btw, whats the dawg for? Retrieving?
flicking off the safety?
Forefinger works the bolt, second the trigger.
You have a right to vote if you are:
An American citizen
You are over 18
You are paying taxes that year
You have served or are serving society as a soldier, sailor, guardsmen, or first responder
You get one vote and one vote only. Any abuse of this right will result in the loss of that right and possible jail time.
I think that convicted felons and democrats be disqualified by one of the above.
Apply the 14th Amendment properly. 30,000,000 or so mostly potential and actual Democrat voter base would be disenfranchised or outright exported or expelled back to their own nations that they are subject to the jurisdiction of.
This is being mostly ignored for strategic reasons on both sided. I say expel DNC Chairman Tome Perez, after a due process fulfilling hearing, of course.
This is now a sort of quiet gorilla in the room now. Most Americans understand and agree on the principles involved. The enemy invaders and locals supporting them have worked hard to change the meaning of words and people’s understanding. So. Just ignore what I stated, for now.
I always comment locally. I don’t act as much as before. I am in a new local. I have leftists who would hate me if they knew what I have done. I still poke things for the better when I can free myself up. Act local. Act national. Act world. Be ready if you have to go into the game. You may not recognize it is the game if you are just acting normally. But major advantage is often gained in that war of ideas and minds by just stating your facts, analysis, opinions, jokes, understanding (and ridicule per Rules for Radicals and also good people), and what you believe and sometimes are emotional about.
DJT has taken Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals” and flipped it, using those same principles against the Left.
Ever notice how his 80s era book “The Art Of The Deal” is like an updated version of Sun Tzu’s “The Art Of War”? Hell … even the titles are alike.
This is why the Left hates and despises him so much. They can’t stand taking their own Progressive medicine.
Personally, I think the Qualifications for Registering to Vote should be EXACTLY the same Standard as those that obtain for legally buying a Firearm.
After all, what reasonable person (OK, that lets all Democrats out, right there) would want anyone so Disqualified in a Voting Booth anyway?
The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of cause.
William James.
The original idea of tying the franchise to the ownership of real property was brilliant. It gave the vote to persons with a stable relationship to the state and county wherein they lived. No such relationship can be assumed about renters and persons similarly detached from their places of residence.
That having been said, in our era those who own no real property — for concision’s sake, let’s call them renters — are more likely to vote than property owners! Moreover, they’d raise a world-class stink were it to be suggested that they be denied the franchise. They’d certainly oppose such an amendment to the Constitution. So returning to the original design seems unlikely.
Again, the federal Constitution did NOT restrict the franchise to men or whites.
Some state constitutions might have done so. Restrictions on owning property in many states also worked to restrict the franchise. And the federal Constitution does not (until the 14th Amendment) stop the states from doing so.
I have long advocated that those who take payments (that are not compensation for goods or services rendered, nor an insurance payout) from the gov’t should have their franchise restricted for the duration of those payments, and for up to half that time after stopping receiving payments.
Given our current state of affairs, it would deliver some jurisdictions into the hands of a small group of people. Which really wouldn’t be any different than now.
I’ve maintained for years now that those on welfare or various forms of “the dole” should not be allowed to vote. They may again vote when they get back on their feet.
I don’t have a problem with temporary welfare, but this generational thing we have going needs to end. To start, no additional bennies for new births. Bennies are fixed the moment of enrollment. No more farming your daughters so grannie can keep it rollin’ in.
I’m afraid the ONLY way to make a return to the Constitution is through revolution. Those in power won’t willingly relinquish it. We’d have to replace the entirety of Congress with patriots in order to roll back the administrative state. That seems unlikely to happen through the ballot box.
Kindly define “the dole” My wife and I are both drawing Social Security and I am drawing (a minuscule) disability pension from the Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs. Are we “on the dole” in your book? I know we are in Kurt Schlicter’s. Also, we own our own home although we are paying a mortgage. Does that count as real estate ownership?
Not trying to start anything; just want to know where I/we stand.
But you paid into the system for years, sending your SS taxes every year you were employed, That isn’t “the dole”. That’s a benefit you paid for.
“The dole” is something provided by the government regardless of whether you ever worked or paid taxes,
As DCE says you paid into a purported insurance program rightly or wrongly intended to provide a modicum of support in old age. It is something of a ponzi scheme but that’s not your fault or mine (took SS at 62, coming up on four years, partly because my family tends to croak early and partly as a hedge against said ponzi scheme unraveling in my lifetime) so we deserve and will likely receive what we were promised.
That is not to say it is all “our money”…I paid in the maximum since I was 18 working a union mill job until they essentially eliminated the maximum and took a percent of all earnings, and I still will receive far more than I paid in even if I do bite it by age 75, and many (most?) recipients will collect many times their contributions.
Forget trying to add in accrued interest; it’s an insurance policy not a retirement account remember? Although that brings us to a revamping that I have long favored wherein Social Security becomes an actual retirement investment that would feature compounded tax free interest but would also quit making disbursements when the money runs out…could be harsh in some cases but that would be the only free market method and is one method to attain a sustainable program which the status quo certainly is not. Probably won’t directly affect most of us sexygenarians here, but if our kids and grandkids want to be provided for in retirement they better be providing the means for that right now one way or the other.
I’m betting our Renaissance man in the big chair in DC has his eye on it and a working framework of a plan to address it, among his myriad other responsibilities, I’ve said before I don’t know how he does it but I’m glad he does and pray that he will for at least another five or so years.
that is issue is easily rectified. Change the scam of SS to a 401K type system where the money is YOURS not a ponzi scheme that isn’t well maintained. Then when the money is being drawn upon, it is your money, not .gov’s. Pre-becoming my wife, the late wife went a year on food stamps and some variant of direct money transfer welfare due to a cancer diagnosis and a divorce where he played dirty. Took all the money while she attempted to get treated. For that year, she should have been ineligible to vote. Once she went back to work, the vote comes back. Will NEVER happen as that is the death of the Democrat party.
Just a bit of wondering out loud…
Do the same groups who read Day By Day Cartoon look upon it the same today as the groups who read Common Sence did in yesteryear?
Another thought; it’s not necessary to mention the honoring of Memorial Day to this crowd but the Feds corrupted its meaning when they declared May 30th no longer the day of solemn remembrance by making it a long Federal weekend to celebrate the beginning of summer. Now that the States removing Confederate statues will the Days of Remembrance to the Confederate fallen be next for elimination? In NH there are more and more like thinkers who are attempting to use the first three boxes before the need of the reset box.
My wife mentioned an article citing Kalifornia had in excess of 340,000 Public employees that have salaries of at least $100,000/yr.! I thought, that can’t be true! 1% of the total population, at a minimum, getting paid like that from taxes?!? I think “unsustainable” is the word! And that doesn’t account for all the others that are under 100k/yr, HFA! No wonder the governor is trying to balance the books with an extended KungFlu overreaction to grab from the Federal coffers.
As for “Trump checks”, agree it was a bad idea, but it pales compared to the bad idea for greater unemployment benefits that are twice that amount monthly, and ongoing, another HFA (Holy Fcuk All, if translation) needed! I’m retired and relying on a productive economy for ongoing income, not one that is being hogtied, and not Social Security either, the 2400 one time payment means mostly nothing in the scheme of things, since if it were actually “needed” it would be gone immediately and then what?
I think PDJT made a mistake in listening to those that want to destroy the country and finally found something far enough outside his expertise to capitalize on. I find it hard to blame him, after all “Do no harm” is supposed to be a Doctors FIRST duty. Now we need to figure out WHO should be held accountable for the planned destruction of the economy and hold them up to public scrutiny and punishment. If they continue to get away with anything they do, these psychopaths will never, never, ever give up.
The events have shifted the wealth curve to fewer and fewer people since the opening of China (and before). The plan for the few to own all continues. Kings and royalty are determined by new means today. Few royalty deserved the reputation of good princes. The financialization and the boom busts with only the central banks and policy from various sources determining who would have wealth. The reward of good work was mostly taken from the equation. Few are free to survive the traps set to move money to the few. The wealth curve shift creates the owners and slaves system we have been melting into.
The few have taken the fiat and given it to themselves. Shifting some of that fiat wealth to the ones who have been dispossessed of wealth by the few is not wrong. It is returning the favor to those who by fraud and trickery and government policy, but I repeat myself, shifted wealth to themselves. It is kinder than the noose and pitchfork. It is also fair. The fiat only exists because of the value the work of all creates.
The damage by this shutdown is all across society. To transfer wealth by a series of payments across the society is not wrong. The banks were given the central bank power claiming that they would end the unfairness of booms and busts and other government and banker shenanigans. The few small businesses unconsolidated into the large corporation structure have been forced into bankruptcy or near bankruptcy by the recent events as well as the fictionalization of everything over the last 50 or so years.
Now the Central banks, the fed, can possibly buy the whole world in this crisis. maybe a slight exaggeration. Maybe not. (recall old quote about waking up as impoverished in the land their ancestors won. Does the fed own the treasury or vice versa? We should buy the fed at the price the fed owners paid using money borrowed from the fed. Equity across the board demands it. The Fed should and must and equitably belongs to the people. The Fed permitted and encouraged the fiction that the Fed was owned by the people to exist most of the years that the fed has existed.
So that $1200 payment was justified. Many more are justified as the value of the nation has been shifted by the fed to the few in a very unfair and inequitable manner. Common law still exists in this nation. Enough for now. But more checks should be sent to those in the area of the wealth curve that have been subjected to the wealth stripping.
“…..WHO should be held accountable……”
I see what you did there. Well played.
(golf clap)
“Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – there’s plague everywhere! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – the economy’s a cesspool and you lost your job! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – racism everywhere, even pandemics are racist! We told you so. Look how horrible Trumps’ Amerikkka is – we’re less unified since the Civil War! We told you so.”
The Left – Apocalypse Now & Forever – got its New Normal, and Election Fraud 2020 is rolling as planned…
So many of these comments have said what I was intending to say myself. However, that’s why I am a consumer of this excellent product.
Voter ID at an absolute minimum, with the NICS as a sort of basis to validate.
Very insightful panel by Chris. And spot-on. Rearranging the franchise to what the Founding Fathers intended would *save* America, not merely make it great again. Here are the requirements for voting: You may NOT vote *in a federal election* if you…
* Can’t prove that you are who you SAY you are.
* Are on welfare or public assistance of any kind (food stamps, housing, Medicaid, free-anything-at-the-taxpayers’-expense).
* Are not a “net taxpayer” (i.e. government employees and politicians paid by the government cannot vote; ditto for all welfare recipients; unsure about social security recipients and active-duty military).
* Are illiterate.
* Can’t pass a minimal IQ test.
* Can’t pass a minimal citizenship test.
* Won’t pay a small poll tax to vote *out of your own pocket* (no vote-buying) of, say, $2 or $3.
* Are not yet age 21 or over.
Some states may want to make their eligibility to vote in state elections more lenient or more stringent, but the above are minimal requirements to be discussed for eligibility to vote in federal elections.
Well, since the USSC has already declared a poll tax to be unconstitutional, that ain’t gonna fly. SS recipients who paid into the system should reap the benefits therefrom, so they get a vote. Active duty military, retired military, veterans, and all reservists have written a check to the people of this nation for their very lives, so yes, they get a friggin’ vote!
Pretty much all of it ain’t gonna fly, MAJ.
But wish lists are good, it requires you to do the research on what is desirable and why, and it requires a cold hard eye on priorities…see “ain’t gonna fly” above. Pick the primary (heh) requirements that will require at least claimed fealty to America and eliminate the fraud that will determine the outcome all by itself if allowed.
Proven citizenship is the number one qualifier. Whether you were born here or took the right path to becoming a true American you deserve a say…a good part of why the big battle over the question on the census is the socialists desire to hand out the vote like they hand out our money.
A sworn statement of loyalty to our country and its founding principles and willingness to defend it as needed.
Voting in person or otherwise only by notarized mail ballot.
Guaranteed police security at the polling place.
Lock those in and it will be a fair election; pursuit of additional qualifiers that can be spun as exclusionary wastes time and energy while these are unassailable without exposing an agenda.
Fair. That’s all we can ask for and all that Trump needs in 2020.
Also, this is your day off Boy! Can the whining for now and drawn that BMG down on a target that you can barely see with that spotter…now THAT’s relaxing!
Wonder what Damon thinks about Zed’s idea.
In order to vote; 3 questions are chosen at random from the citizenship test that immigrants have to pass to become citizens of the United States. If you can’t answer those, you are not informed enough to vote.
I noticed some commenters see their SocSec payments in dollars in dollars out straight across. Not quite. You need to calculate the diminished value of the dollar through the years. How much has that been? I like the comparative structure: In 1913 when all this started gold was about $25 an ounce. Close to the price of a 1911 .45 Colt. Now gold was at $1500 an ounce last Dec. before the CCP put their thumb on the scale. Really close to a new 1911 at $1200. The dollars you put in were actually worth a lot more than they are now. You aren’t getting more back at all.
Might as well throw in compounded interest too. The problem with those arguments is that while interest can be tallied and the Time Value of Money (TVM) is easily demonstrated with guns and gold (or cars or groceries or paychecks or anything else) it is an irrelevant exercise here as it is with all of those.
SS is a half-assed ponzi masquerading as insurance, skimmed like crazy and poorly administered but one of the few gov programs that on average does pay recipients more than was collected and assumes the risk of paying for life regardless.
Should be an easy exercise for some nerd; find and figure the maximum that a worker could have paid in from 1945 until 1990, double it for employer or self-employed contributions, and then find the tables of benefits he would be due for those years, assume he collects for 15 years, add and compare.
But like all Pom is it will collapse and is rickety as hell. It should be abolished by attrition in favor of individual savings with all of the benefits and risks that would entail.
“Like all ponzis…”
William “Bill” Ayers has said in the past that everyone in the world should be able to vote in USA elections as we have an effect on the world.
Chris, Nice for you to be on the opposite side of such a person as that founder of the Weather Underground of the Students for a Democratic Society, and he is a committer of terrorist acts against the United States of America.
Free speech on the social media is required to ensure a true vote in 2020.
As to Fed buying the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHTUQTCyBmo&list=UUoOhzyG-i7IMBEMbyRlI66g&index=3&t=0s
Also Peak Prosperity had a good explanation of the shifting of the wealth curve and the buying of the world by the Fed
Poor seated position, on Sam’s part. Looks like she’s using muscle to hold the knees up. We teach more stable positions at Project Appleseed events.