It's a Massive Republic Take Down in the Park Thing

Dear America,

Happy Friday.
Our days of real, unadulterated freedom are numbered.

There is shocking propaganda circling the airwaves -- but before I get to that, let us review a quick review of the "Early Signs of Fascism;" it is posted right outside the door of my girl's World History classroom.

And just an idea, if you pretend this bucket list is being projected through a loud speaker echoing from the rooftops, it will be more fun. So ready, steady, let's begin:

Early Signs of Fascism

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Disdain for Human Rights

Identification of Enemies as a Uniform Cause

Supremacy of the Military

Rampant Sexism

Controlled Mass Media

Obsession with National Security

Religion and Government Intertwined

Corporate Power Protected

Labor Power Suppressed

Disdain for Intellectuals & the Arts

Obsession with Crime & Punishment

Rampant Cronyism & Corruption

Fraudulent Elections

whew.
getting queasy yet?

Hitler was considered a fascist, mobilizing his agenda under the National Socialist Party (aka Nazi's).

In the other extreme....we get to Socialism and Marxism...and basically applying much of the same but different tactics aiming to redistribute the wealth, destroy capitalism, and flip the continuum of power from the bourgeoisie to the working class using whatever it takes -- from 'peaceful' protests to inciting total violence and revolution.

It's a private park in NYC where the Occupy Wall Street is taking place; Bloomberg [with the boot to his neck]  backed off his request to the protestors to temporarily vacate in order to allow for the management company to clean it up [oh the irony of the environmentalists destroying the grass under their own feet, to the extent of pissing and defecating wherever they please].

But when it comes to crony-capitalism, we can sit a spell on a park bench and read all about it and the 168 Million dollar loan guarantee tied back to Zuccotti Park...Department of Energy chimes in again.

Why should we even allow the democratic process to go any further, right?
Check this out:





'just get it done' --  very dictator-esque, isn't it.  I'm just gonna do everything in MY power to circumvent the congressional power that's out to get me and obstruct my vision of fundamental transformation...


and he is being fully supported by some real winners, too:
just sit here for a spell.


wow.

Our founders were quick to recognize a certain truth about human nature and power -- it can get the best of even the best of men.  This kind of authoritarian power must be restrained through the power of Law to tether the lawlessness and corruption of man; while our Constitution was written to protect the very freedoms of little men, NOT big government.

"It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go...In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, BUT BIND HIM DOWN FROM MISCHIEF BY THE CHAINS OF THE CONSTITUTION."  From The 5000 Year Leap, taken from The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Annals of America, 4:65-66; emphasis added when quoting the words of Thomas Jefferson.

Our freedom is hanging on our ability to hold certain truths dear, sacred even...untouchable.


I've gone to this next quote often.  From James Madison:

"I believe 

there are more instances 

of the abridgement of the freedom 

of the people by gradual 

and silent 

encroachments of those in power, 

than by violent 

and 

sudden 

usurpations."

And to tie in some straight talk from a bunch of true libertarians, seek refuge under the tree of life @The Daily Bell and read this take while eating that fried baloney sandwich.

it is the strangest thing, watching a REPUBLIC once so strong and so clear about it's responsibility to limit the power of government slip into quiet revolution turning our tried and true principles upside down and ass backwards, with a smelly park to prove it.

This class warfare &$%* has never ever never ever worked; while making money makes more freedom every single time.  capitalism is not the evil super power to blame -- big government is.

And nothing could be more true, or uttered with more passion, when we end this day with one last shining refrain: Power to the People!

Make it a Good Day, G

and have you noticed deeply embedded in the park that we are back to bashing Jews? since when is this okay in America?

It's SOCIALISM Stupid, Among Other Things

Dear America,

happy wednesday. (salutations)

we have a new member of the family.  I like to think of her as a just a girl, her name is Charlotte, a day in the life spinning her world wide web called home.  She sits right outside my kitchen window and every morning she coaxes me into believing she means know harm, as I go about my business making coffee.   

It's just Charlotte.

and just so you know, she is HUGE (I would tell her she's fat, to cut back on a fly or two, but where would that lead?  would it change anything? I think not.  And besides --  then, I would not only be feeling her menacing stare down each morn, wondering what on earth is going on in that puffy little head of hers, I would always be looking over my shoulder after she intermittently retreats during the high noon sun).

as Arachnids go, Charlotte is one of the biggest, fat-est, ugliest little things I have laid my eyes on in a long time.  seriously.

I have to think of her as something out of a storybook or nursery rhyme -- for without making a conscious shift convincing myself that she is the sweetest thing ever, I would be totally freaked out!

oh my goodness. oh my goodness. just thinking about her is making me squirm.

It's just Charlotte; there is nothing to be afraid of G...what is the big f*&@ deal?

She is outside -- you are inside.  
She is wheely, wheely whittle -- you are wheely, wheely big.

oh right, and just where the hell am I going with this this morning?

Let's start over.

happy wednesday.

I am just surprised, if not stunned, of how easily we can be swayed, misguided, duped, by simply giving something a new name.

That's it.
Have a nice day, buh-bye.

ah, who am I kidding.  I'm not done.

So apparently, living in the United States of America, circa 2011 -- in the land of the free and home of the brave, creator of jack be nimble and jane be quick, having given birth to self-reliance and the power of one, maker of true liberty and justice for all -- every ideal and principle we have grown to love and adore, shelter and protect, uplift and respect, has been upended, subverted, usurped or come undone.

HOW?  just by giving it a new name.

ahh don't be afraid, it's just Charlotte.

So the behaviors and actions and policies and regulations we used to consider to be acts of socialism, or communism, or Marxism -- spinning and weaving the very ideals we knew in our heart to be economically and culturally overwhelmingly dangerous -- is now just Progressive-ism.    It's no big deal, right?

ahhh, isn't she so sweet.

Truth is, there are some super scary things going on in America, but the scariest of all seems to be our response to it.

we do not multiply wealth by dividing it.

we do not lift people out of poverty by giving them the fish.

we do not make good money after bad.

we do not reap when we do not sow.

we do not make a good day when we do nothing.

we do not create happiness when we think despair.

we do not grow our good when we plant bad seeds.

stop...enough already...we get it.

AND when it comes to the Republic for which we stand:

WE, The People, DO NOT build a strong America when we lower ourselves to the weakest link, punish success, cease to aspire, stop showing up, make excuses, point fingers, divide the populace by propaganda, extinguish all signs of faith in God, and all but eliminate every single founding principle and value. It just can't be done.

We can call it by any name we want to get us through the day; but by the end of the day, don't kid yourself, it will no longer be a Republic held in high esteem and recognized the world over as the leader of the free world.  We could look out our window all the live long day, but that America would be all gone. buh-bye.

The thing is, what grew over days, weeks, months, totally and fundamentally transforming itself into something else right before our eyes carries the potential of being the shape-shifter of our greatest demise.  One man's sweet, whittle, progressive-ism is another man's socialism, communism, marxism.

BE afraid, people, be afraid.

It's just Charlotte?  I  think not.

Let's call her what she really is -- the big, fat, ugly, menacing beast that she is; the biggest, freakiest, scariest spider I have ever seen in my whole entire life. not exaggerating one bit.  she is butt ugly.  and being a stubborn little thing, she seems to have settled in quite happily under the eaves.

and just look at me now...almost at ease... just popping into the kitchen in the morning, uncharacteristically and strangely excited to see her...

...hello, Charlotte... top of the mornin' to you and even flashing her a little smile.

...she's so cute...ain't she sweet (say it like Paula Deen, ya'll, and ya really got somethin' goin'on)

...by all appearances, Charlotte seems to have grown on me, I'm totally un-phased...

 Yo, G, SNAP OUT OF IT! 

phew, that was close.

happy wednesday, AMERICA!

ARE YOU doing YOUR FAIR SHARE of MAKING it that way?

Make it a Good Day, G


Love that president of ours talking about paying our fair share of taxes lately, don't you?  Catch this from out of Sydney...it's a small world after all....

The AP has done some fact checking.  About 1% of our Wage Earners are considered millionaires -- comes to about 230,000; data shows less than 1,500 of those millionaires did NOT pay their fair share, or any taxes at all.  Having said that, the top 10% pay 70% of the Federal Tax burden -- while the bottom 47% actually pay NOTHING.  If you are one of the 228,500 millionaires who pay the federal tax rate per the IRS schedule, you pay 29.1%; if you are a wage earner making between $50,000 and $75,000 dollars, you pay at a rate of 15%.

If Warren Buffett were to take a salary, he would (rightly so) be paying his fair share according to the tax code; but he chooses to not to.

Last Thing:

WE are talking about MONEY earned -- with blood, sweat and tears of our own doing.

"A wise and frugal government, 

which shall leave men free 

to regulate their own pursuits 

of industry and improvement, 

and shall not take 

from the mouth of labor 

the bread it has earned -- 

this is the sum of good government."  

Thomas Jefferson

and for a great mocking of just how does our garden grow:

"Government's view 

of the economy 

could be summed up in a few short phrases: 

If it moves, tax it.  

If it keeps moving, regulate it.  

And if it stops moving, subsidize it."  

Ronald Reagan

Dear America,

"Isn't there a limit on how many times we raise the debt limit?"

that's my girl

just something to think about as we set out, today, pondering the thoughts and posture of a president.

For starters, I was pretty close now, wasn't I? (referring to my best guess on the king's speech)

Only a guy proposing we continue to spend over one trillion dollars more than what we take in could figure out a way to get away with it.  sure, he started out mighty fine:

"From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.

But there has always been another thread running throughout our history - a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation."

that is a pretty big BUT there, Mr. President.  You know what they say about using the word "but" -- it negates everything that was previously said...and let's move on...

"For much of the last century, our nation found a way to afford these investments and priorities with the taxes paid by its citizens. As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate. This is not because we begrudge those who've done well - we rightly celebrate their success. Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefited most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back."

So all things being fair now, "as a country that values fairness," the "wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden" -- giving us a moment when our president truly values tradition.  And not done, he makes the assertion... well, it's the price to pay for being the ones who have "benefited most from our way of life."  Which is it, Mr. President, do we teach our children to be self-reliant and prosper, or do we teach them that when they do (rest on their own self-reliance, create prosperity, and share it, ultimately, of their own free will) be prepared to give more of that fair share, cause that's only fair?  Where do you preserve and support the genuine motivation and benefits anchored by tradition steeped in self-reliance?

"...we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program - but we didn't pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts - tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade"

Thanks for the drone hit, Mr. President...indeed, because we have sooooooooooo many millionaires and billionaires running around -- and don't you just love how the two are always put together, like, what's the difference?  It's all the same thing.  They are crooks getting away with murder, while women and children are dying out there.  You forgot to point out, that in the last ten years, our government's annual expenditures have ballooned from 1.8 Trillion in 2000 to 3.4 Trillion by 2010.  While the last three years, under your presidency -- bearing in mind that for this year alone, the CBO projects a 1.6 Trillion dollar deficit -- the national debt has gone from 10 Trillion to 14 Trillion.

We are adding to the population of retirees everyday now.  Baby Boomers are no longer booming.  The annual revenue from our current bunch of yahoos no longer supports the 60% of the Federal Budget that currently pays the bills for retirement benefits, as well as a host of miscellaneous entitlements we'll just stipulate for "the poor."  If you add the payment for just our debt service to the bottom line and do the math, only about 10% of our "revenue" is left for discretionary spending.  That's it.  Yes, they say you are brilliant, BUT let me remind you, it will never work out the way it does in your head, Mr. President, for your numbers do not add up...3.7 out with 2.6 in, equals a 1.1 deficit. simple simon.

"And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place. When I took office, our projected deficit was more than $1 trillion. On top of that, we faced a terrible financial crisis and a recession that, like most recessions, led us to temporarily borrow even more. In this case, we took a series of emergency steps that saved millions of jobs, kept credit flowing, and provided working families extra money in their pockets. It was the right thing to do, but these steps were expensive, and added to our deficits in the short term.

So that's how our fiscal challenge was created. This is how we got here."

wow. dripping with arrogance...and after growing our federal government ten percent (fact), and throwing in a failed stimulus package, what I did has nothing to do with it...and with a straight face tells us:

"We have to live within our means, reduce our deficit, and get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt."

Seriously?  Do you even know what living within your means is?  He says this knowing his budget exceeds the means by over a trillion dollars. (This is about the time I believe we lost the second in command, Mr. Joe "can't keep my eyes open a second longer" Biden....snore)

"By the end of this decade, the interest we owe on our debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion. Just the interest payments"

And yet, you are only proposing 4 trillion in cuts/new taxes over the next twelve years.  such a pretty web we weave...
...while he continues to rattle off all the things we like, but really don't like having to pay for, and in the middle of it he says this:

"Most of us, regardless of party affiliation, believe that we should have a strong military and a strong defense."

Should?  Most of us, those of us who respect America's Constitution, recognize that a strong military isn't just an option on the table --  it is paramount to our nation's security,  mandated by our forefathers, and considered non-negotiable by we the people. It isn't lumped in somewhere between food stamps and early retirement benefits. just fyi.

Getting to a bottom, bottom line, "Those are both worthy goals for us to achieve. But the way this plan achieves those goals would lead to a fundamentally different America than the one we've known throughout most of our history."

hmmm where have I heard that before? 

"A 70% cut to clean energy. A 25% cut in education. A 30% cut in transportation. Cuts in college Pell Grants that will grow to more than $1,000 per year. That's what they're proposing. These aren't the kind of cuts you make when you're trying to get rid of some waste or find extra savings in the budget. These aren't the kind of cuts that Republicans and Democrats on the Fiscal Commission proposed. These are the kind of cuts that tell us we can't afford the America we believe in. And they paint a vision of our future that's deeply pessimistic."

and then he simply goes off -- throwing everything on the wall -- a game of paint ball has got nothing on how he proceeded to riddle the right with attacks left, right and up the middle.  Bridges collapsing, no college education, grandma literally getting thrown under the bus...not pretty.  not even the truth.  it's just what radicals do.

and partisan politics in Washington lives on to see another ugly day.

"Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can't afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can't afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy. Think about it."

no, you think about it.  think about what you say, Mr. President.  this is acting presidential?  this is statesmanship?  this is meeting in the middle?  these are words from a leader for all Americans?  this is how low you want to go?

wait for it....

"The America I know is generous and compassionate; a land of opportunity and optimism. We take responsibility for ourselves and each other; for the country we want and the future we share. We are the nation that built a railroad across a continent and brought light to communities shrouded in darkness. We sent a generation to college on the GI bill and saved millions of seniors from poverty with Social Security and Medicare. We have led the world in scientific research and technological breakthroughs that have transformed millions of lives.

This is who we are. This is the America I know. We don't have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where we forfeit investments in our people and our country. To meet our fiscal challenge, we will need to make reforms. We will all need to make sacrifices. But we do not have to sacrifice the America we believe in. And as long as I'm President, we won't."

doink, der it is... the walking contradiction reigns supreme again. halleluja.

and tops it off with this little tidbit:

"If, by 2014, our debt is not projected to fall as a share of the economy - or if Congress has failed to act - my plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code."

"require us to come together"   What is he not saying here?  Is he purposely planning on stripping Congress of their powers -- specifically, as it pertains to regulating taxation?

"This larger debate we're having, about the size and role of government, has been with us since our founding days. And during moments of great challenge and change, like the one we're living through now, the debate gets sharper and more vigorous. That's a good thing...

But no matter what we argue or where we stand, we've always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can't just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country that made those liberties possible. We have to think about our fellow citizens with whom we share a community. And we have to think about what's required to preserve the American Dream for future generations..

This sense of responsibility - to each other and to our country - this isn't a partisan feeling. It isn't a Democratic or Republican idea. It's patriotism."

You can take the organizer out of the community, but you can't take the community out of the organizer.

All in all, for nearly the entire 45 minutes, you pretty much pounce all over the right, one way or another, even injecting class warfare as a main theme; and yet, you still believe you can end on a high note...you sir, must think you are a pretty big deal to think you can really get away with that.

You still don't get it.

We are a country based on individual freedoms, individual liberties, with individual dreams putting individual self-reliance to the test; we are not endowed by our government, but by our Maker.  Sure, collectively, you have it right, in part -- it does make us the strongest, free-est, rich-est, kind-est nation in the world -- and it has everything and nothing to do with the "millionaires and billionaires" and everything and nothing to do with the collective.   think about it. 

Make it a Good Day, G

Definition of Marxism:  "The political and economic ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles as developed into a system of thought that gives class struggle a primary role in leading society from bourgeois democracy under capitalism to a socialist society and thence to communism," from The American Heritage Dictionary.

think about it.

patriotism?  where?