Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-48D Secession Part II

Posted on 2012-11-16 by TPOL Nathan

The numbers continue to climb, and at least some people see it my way. Though meaningless in terms of process, it is valuable to do for many reasons, including especially educating people about secession.

Secession has a long history, and as Oleg Volk points out in one of his wonderful photos, sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it does not.

Its history has grown fatter in recent decades, but lets glance back to the past:

In the Bible, we see all kinds of examples of secession, including those we call emigration:

  • Abram (Abraham) and his family emigrated from Ur of the Chaldees and later from Haran, eventually ending up in Canaan, where he refused to come under ANY government.
  • The Children of Israel, after 400 years of slavery, seceded and emigrated from Phaoronic Egypt, returning to the ancient home of their ancestors.
  • Following the death of Solomon and the idiotic actions of his son and successor Rehoboam, the Ten Tribes of the northern kingdom (to be known as Israel) seceded, led by new King Jeroboam.
  • Led by a family of warrior-priest-kings (the Maccabees – sons of the Hammer), the Judeans seceded from Selucid-ruled  Syria.  (This is considered to be a revolt against imperial invaders, but according to Syria and modern Arabs, “Canaan” (including Judea) has always been an integral part of Syria.)

In the ancient world, we see countless attempts and successes at secession.  Here are a few that come to mind (even though conventional and Marxist historians classify many as revolts or revolutions or such):

  • Portugal was once a county of Spain but became separate in the 1300s
  • The Swiss Cantons were once part of the Holy Roman Empire but rebelled and gained independence in the 1400s
  • The thirteen American colonies were an integral part of the British Empire, considered Englishmen, until they rebelled and after eight years of war, finally gained their independence
  • Brazil was an integral part of Portugal (or the Portuguese Empire) and was at one time the capital, but seceded in the early 1800s.
  • Virtually all of the Arab states and North African states seceded over the course of two hundred years from the Islamic Ottoman Empire
  • Texas was a state of the United Mexican States until its revolution in 1836.
  • Although still officially an Empire until the fall of 1918, Hungary had seceded from Austria centuries before.
  • An integral part of the Netherlands, Belgium seceded in 1830, due mostly to religious differences.

In very recent times, we’ve seen a very large number:

  • Norway seceded from the Kingdom of Norway and Denmark, rather peacefully, in 1906
  • Northern Ireland seceded from the rest of Ireland in 1919 to remain part of the United Kingdom.
  • Taiwan, finally giving up the claim to house the government of all China, de facto seceded in the 1960s.
  • Biafra (“River State”) in Nigeria tried to secede and was bloodily suppressed.
  • Kinshaha Province in Republic of the Congo also failed to secede back in the 1960s.
  • The mostly Turkish northern part of the island of Cyprus seceded in the 1960s.
  • After the end of the Cold War, various chunks of Yugoslavia split off.
  • Also at that time, Slovakia left Czechoslovakia, which became the Czech Republic.
  • Very recently, the South Sudan won its freedom from the Sudan.

Currently, secession is being actively and in large numbers pursued by:

  • Catalonia, the eastern part of Iberia, is autonomous and seeking full independence from Spain
  • Scotland will be voting on secession from the United Kingdom soon.
  • Northern Italy (Padania, I believe it is called)
  • Quebec has tried more than once to secede from Canada
  • An Alaska Independence movement has existed for decades and has seats in the legislature
  • New England looked long and hard at secession during the War of 1812 and afterwards

This fresh interest in secession in the US just publicizes other, generally very small and poorly organized secession movements in the US, many of which involve secession from another state and NOT from the Union as a whole.  Still there are several that have been around and trying (sometimes very trying) for some time:

  • Alaska (mentioned above)
  • Texas has multiple secession organizations
  • The League of the South advocates for a new Confederate States
  • Vermont has a small but growing movement for a 2nd Republic
  • Hawai’i has a small movement
  • Cascadia (parts of WA, OR, CA, and perhaps ID) has tried now and then
  • Puerto Rico’s independence movement seems to have pretty died out
  • Russell Means’ Republic of Lakotah was first proclaimed several years ago and “re-proclaimed” a couple of months ago before his death

These are all the serious attempts: there are a good many farce and fun claims for secession, from the Conch Republic (Key West Florida) to some very strange excuses for parties in the Colorado Rockies.

The truth is that Americans have always been fascinated by secession, and with growing success worldwide, the time may be approaching.

To end this article, let me touch briefly on some personal matters related to secession. Why is an Army officer (reserve) and a christian man even advocating ANY form of secession?  For ANY purpose?  Am I not betraying my oath?  My oath (affirmation) is to the Constitution of the United States, specifically to protect and defend it.  I am to obey the lawful orders of the president and my superior officers.  I haven’t received many recently, I might add, although that has nothing to do with the fact that the Constitution is a dead letter.  As a dead letter, in which virtually every right supposedly protected by the Bill of Rights is repeatedly violated by federal and state and local governments, on a constant basis, what is there to defend and protect?  It was supposed to protect the liberties of our people, and therefore defending and protecting it protects my people: my nation, and my home.  But when it is no longer in force, when it has become the undead remnant of a “living document” instead of a covenant that means something, the Union is dead.  As I have stated again and again in my columns.  Therefore, all of us today face the same quandary that men such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson and their comrades faced in 1861:  do they stand with defending liberty and their own state, or do they become (or remain) part of the machinery of tyranny?

It is a decision each of us must make for ourselves.  As Garry Reed, the Dallas Libertarian Examiner pointed out, secession is NOT automatically going to lead to liberty’s restoration, and great risks are involved, whether the attempt succeeds or fails.  As others have pointed out as well, these funny-cute petitions on the First Citizen’s website are really meaningless in any sort of legal or political way.  There is a danger to even anonymously sign those, given the current state of technology; and these may even be a form of entrapment.  But like so many, I hope the concept goes viral, just because of the value of educating people and showing those who have destroyed this nation that not everyone is willing to sit down and shut up.

If you are serious, and have counted the cost, about getting your state or region or county or city to secede from this undead monster called the Federal Government, or its parasitic partner in your local state capital, with all its occupation forces, then do it for the right reasons and in the right way:  get your paper and pens out and start with your name, written like John Hancock in big bold letters, with your name and address and state of residence clearly stated, and then go to your family, your friends, and your neighbors and tell them to put their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” on the line.  As Heinlein pointed out decades ago, it is hard to beat the prose of Jefferson and all from 236 years ago: just the specifics of the charges and the object of our wrath has changed.

No, it is not the First Citizen or the Congress that we need to secede from: they are officially only hirelings: the secession is “We, the People of South Dakota” [or which ever state] or better yet, “We, free and self-governing individuals, residing in the State of South Dakota” are stating our charges against “We, the People of the United States and those who claim to represent, serve, and lead them.”  But however you do it, count the cost and do it in the best way you can.  Remember Patrick Henry’s words, and if you are a christian (or Jewish), remember Joshua’s words:  and value liberty more than security or life or fortunes or honor.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-48B: Secession Part I

Posted on 2012-11-15 by TPOL Nathan

In a column last week, I noted that the smell of secession is sweet, and in the air.  (Read it here!)

I have been castigated for supporting this week-long fad, and condemned for various things, including abandoning the ideals and dream of “America” and my oath.  I disagree and shall answer those accusations.

Meanwhile, I recall saying that I wished EVERY state would get this petition going, and sometime in the last three days, apparently all fifty states have such a petition going – or several  (some so low in signatures yet that they don’t show up on the main website).

And at least eight states have more than the White House-mandated magic number of 25,000 to be “responded to.”

All of the states so far (in essence one week into the month-long period they have to gather signatures by the White House rules) that have reached the magic 25,000 number are all states of the Old Confederacy.  That should come as no surprise, if for no other reason than the people of those states already did it once: they know what it means.  But there are many states OUTSIDE the South that are at or near the number, and the numbers keep climbing.

It looks as if the petitioning voters of Puerto Rico get their wish and have results of their vote last week put into effect (a constitutional convention and Act of Annexation by the United States: statehood), they may not have a lot of sister states if the more than 800,000 people who have signed these petitions so far get their way.

But I am joking, because the entire thing is a farce: there is no legal status for these petitions, and they will be given a token “response” and it will then be placed in the circular file.  But that doesn’t mean that the entire thing is a total waste of time.  This is a key phase in any political or social movement: people need to hear and talk about the idea, ingest it and make it their own.  And inevitably, opposition to it needs to develop.  This is what is happening: this petition idea is a joke, but it is also a fad.

MamaLiberty joined into the spirit of the thing when she asked me, “Did you see this: New petition: “Deport everyone who wants to secede”
She continued: And the governor of Texas is totally against the whole secession thing, of course. I’m sure all of the governors of the affected states feel the same way.

As I told her this morning, I was just perusing the list of petitions and signature totals at White House.gov.  There are two petitions against the secession petitions that have been up since the weekend: one wants to deport everyone and one wants to strip their citizenship and then exile everyone who signed them.  Right now, that is at a very rough count, about a half-million people, with at least 40 states having petitions (some have more than one); at least six of these states have gone above the “magic number” of 25,000 to “force” (by their own rules) the White House to “respond” to the petition.  The leader is Texas, with 95,000+. Others include Louisiana (the first petition), Alabama, North Carolina and Florida (first state NOT to go to Romney to hit that 25K), Tennessee, and Georgia. [As I stated above, as of about 1700 Mountain Time on the 14th, the number was up to more than 800,000 signatures on petitions for all Fifty States, and eight now have the magic number, with at least five more close.]

I am a bit surprised that Texas Governor Perry has come out against it, since he is the most prominent politician to first float the idea, several years ago, and the popular perception is that Texas has the “right” to do so enshrined in treaty law.  But even in a large state like Texas, more than 100,000 people doing this is an attention-getter, and I think he is worried about the known predilection of the First Citizen to punish people.  He may also be getting pressure because the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) has enjoyed quite a surge of support and publicity in recent days and weeks.

Of course, there are several things to keep in mind about these petitions:

(a) They have no legal standing whatsoever.

(b) They were created as part of the White House’s public involvement strategy, and give the appearance of democracy with no substance.

(c)  They help identify the rabble’s troublemakers, but also serve as a filtering mechanism to help identify those so stupid that they are not a threat.

(d)  They are one more version of “circuses” by allowing people to blow off steam.

(e)  Their influence is easily curbed by the introduction (a natural reaction) of opposing petitions, such as the two “deport/deny citizenship/exile” petitions, the one calling for Austin to secede from Texas if Texas secedes, and the two very new ones that call for a state to “remain” part of the union, another one calling for a “united” United States, a spoof calling for a national pizza party when Missouri leaves the Union, and similar silliness, including a demand that the seceding states pay “their portion” of the federal debt (whatever that “portion” might be).  And a new one appeared on Thursday, petitioning to let El Paso secede from Texas even if Texas doesn’t secede from the US.

At the same time, I am encouraged and support this silliness and the original silliness of petitioning the White House to secede for these reasons:

(a)  It is fun! And silly: sometimes that is a big help.

(b)  It raises awareness of the entire issue and the split nature of the country even more. This is MUCH more interesting and apt to bring much more general attention to it than some Russian professor claiming that the US is going to break up in 2012.  All this is educating people about secession, and in more general terms, liberty; I would imagine that the various Texan secessionist movements are all getting a lot of inquiries and even recruits.  I think this kind of riling people up is great, all by itself.

(c)  The more people that sign them, and the more states that are listed, the more likely it is that the White House will do something stupid out of anger AND the less likely that they will be able to go after a lot of people personally.  (This leaves mass punishments, and since the administration is demonstrating in Ohio and elsewhere that it is willing to punish a state that VOTED for him, clearly states that didn’t vote for him are fair game and likely to be punished with or without a bunch of their people petitioning for secession.

(d)  It wastes media and government time – just like the “mail your used teabag” thing did a couple of years ago.  And it makes them look foolish, also.  In less than a week the list of petitions on the White House site has gone from about 80 to more than 180.

But if we think that this sort of thing will change ONE SINGLE MAJOR ACTION of the Federal Government and the controllers, we are foolish and naive. Nevertheless, I think it a valuable (and fun!) step in the right direction.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-48A: This and That

Posted on 2012-11-14 by TPOL Nathan

With more and more screaming and moaning and whinging about the election and the fate of American civilization, there are LOTS of things to talk about.  Here is a spattering from the beginning of the week.

Crash of 2009 – Looming Crash 2.0? – Theft by Government
The Fiscal Cliff: A Primer
(TAX FOUNDATION ) The federal government is borrowing an average of $2.7 billion a day; the debt is expected to approach the ceiling by the end of 2012…

Nathan: And spending at least $4 billion a day: aren’t we special, we American people, to deserve that much spending and borrowing all for us?  If it were, it still would be evil and wrong.  But don’t worry, things WILL get worse because there is NO solution that can be gotten through the various levels and branches of government.  Not that a lot of politicians won’t use this as an excuse to raise taxes and gain more power, like Kristol, below.

Islamic wars: Canaanite front
Israel fires guided missile into Syria
(Chicago Tribune) “Israel fired a guided missile into Syria on Sunday in a potent ‘warning shot’ after mortar fire from fighting between Syrian troops and rebels hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the second time in four days. Israel Radio said it was the first direct engagement of the Syrian military on the Golan since the countries’ 1973 war.” (11/11/12)

Nathan: Meanwhile, as other stories reported over the weekend, Israeli warplanes wantonly attacked peaceful facilities and people in the Gaza Strip.  It wasn’t until the first spat of stories were published that the media thought to mention the attacks (which on Wednesday were claimed to have killed a key Hamas war leader) followed a 100-rocket attack on Israeli targets (target: anything the rocket could hit) fired out of Gaza.  Is the Israeli response excessive?  Probably.  What else is new?  Neither side has pure intentions or pure actions: it is the way of feuds.  But bad as the Israeli government and society is, the “Palestinian” Islamic one is worse.

Stupid government tricks – Health
Medicaid Patients Have Worse Access and Outcomes than Privately Insured
(HERITAGE FOUNDATION ) A 2001 study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved reports that pediatric Medicaid patients were more likely to be discharged on subpar medication routines…

Nathan: Notice it only took 11 years to publish this study.  There are many reasons, but all should scream alarms for the lovers of ObummerCare and for the state of government-dictated/controlled health care in general.  These things KILL people.  And the people are key participants in their own deaths.  I think that if you have to pay for it yourself, you are far more likely to do what you need to do: take that expensive medicine, stop eating what you should not and stop being lazy and unconcerned.  Of course, we are not surprised if Medicaid patients are less-educated, less aware of what they should and should not be doing, and likely to do the wrong things for their health care.

Congress in action
Boehner: ‘I Don’t Want to Box Myself In’ On Reducing Deficit
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Boehner is one of the big reasons the GOP shot itself in the foot.  This sort of game playing and fence-riding is one reason the GOP needs to collapse.

Stupid local government
Los Angeles Endorses ‘Meatless Mondays’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: So, is a prohibition on eating meat on Mondays one of the next steps, ala Bloomberg’s New York City?  By having it on Monday instead of the traditional Catholic meatless Fridays, there is no religious connection – at least not to the old, traditional religions.

Theft by government – GOP shakiness
Bill Kristol: ‘It Won’t Kill The Country If We Raise Taxes a Little Bit on Millionaires’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan:  This “conservative” (like Boehner) is a pragmatist: he is more interested in keeping GOP political power than he is in standing up for the principles that the GOP supposedly exists to support and implement.  Hopefully enough GOP members will be as grossed out by this as those I’ve heard and split the party completely.  And I saw at least ONE positive response from an unlikely source, Dominationist Gary Lamar headlined his commentary on this statement by Kristol:  “Let’s call taxation what it is: THEFT!”

GOP shakiness
Jindal Tells GOP, ‘Stop Being the Stupid Party’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Give it up, Bobby.  The GOP is no more capable of that than of winning elections or of solving the nation’s problems.  I am more and more convinced that the total fragmentation of the GOP (which would be followed inevitably by that of the Democratic Party) would be a GOOD outcome, and in the long run lead to far better conditions – economic, liberty, social.

World wars – Stupid government tricks
Panetta: ‘Advance Notice’ Needed for U.S. ‘To Be Able to Move Quickly’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan:  An oxymoron, of course.  A pitiful excuse for the lack of real effect (other than killing people and destroying property) that recent US actions around the world have produced.  A justification for MORE, not less, intervention around the world.  I’ve heard conservatives try to sugar coat the First Citizen’s re-election by claiming that he would be better than Romney at foreign policy and dealing with conflicts and threats abroad.  This sort of statement by Panetta indicates just how wrong that idea is.

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Prepping Follies and other fun

Posted on 2012-11-13 by MamaLiberty

I moved to Wyoming in 2006…

No, that’s going back too far. I’d have to write a book to cover even part of that. Suffice it to say that I left behind a great many things I wish I had now… and brought many things I found I’ll never need.

But I digress, already. I’ve been reading too much L. Neil Smith lately – he does that a lot.

Anyway… I’ve been slowly, but surely getting my life and gear squared away to face the future the best I can, whatever comes. Not knowing what’s actually coming makes this quite difficult, and I’m happy for all of the folks who think they KNOW pretty certainly just what they are prepping for… makes it so much simpler. But I suspect they will be in for just as many surprises as those of us who don’t think we know.

Oh, there are trends and some fairly clear consequences to the current insanity in our economy and politics, but the specifics will be the killer, and they won’t be the same everywhere.

Anyway, I digress again. Sorry.

Several years ago I bought a grain mill, several hundred pounds of whole wheat berries, and decided to make my own wheat and other whole grain flour products. A friend built me a table for the mill out of an old plant stand and a leftover chunk of formica countertop stuff, but it was always wobbly and deteriorated fast.

Last week, one of my new “Wyoming sons” built me a new table of new wood, beautifully constructed and finished. We got it into the house yesterday, but I told him I’d need to take everything off the old one and vacuum the floor, etc. before I could put it into place. So it was left in the middle of the kitchen. Today I decided to get that job done.

Then the fun began. Did you ever start a project where everything went wrong and you wound up doing a dozen other jobs so you could get anywhere near the project you started? If so, you have an idea of how my day went.

First thing I did was to attempt moving a tall metal shelf unit so I could vacuum under it. No real weight on it, and I forgot that the darn thing comes apart in the middle. I also didn’t think about the plant on the very top since it doesn’t weigh anything much… and lifting weight is something I don’t do well, so it’s usually up front in my thinking.

Not good. Priorities in thinking usually mean having a number of steps in mind… not concentrating on the first one.

The top of the unit came off and the plant shot over the rail and down the staircase to the basement. Black dirt on a tan carpet. Oh me. I swept up what I could and saved the plant, then decided to vacuum up the black soil because the dog was tracking it everywhere.

OOPS. The soil was wet and clogged the vacuum before I could get more than a tiny fraction of the stuff picked up. I had to take the vacuum apart and clean the brush head and the intake for the hose. I found other garbage that needed cleaning out then, so it turned into quite a process.  I hope there is no other blockage because I have no idea how to clear it. (Seemed to work fine later).

Ok… put the dog outside (and thank goodness it’s not snowing). Take everything off the shelf unit and tighten all the screws, reassemble, move it, put stuff back on – after cleaning it and everything that was on it.

Back on track. Removed everything from the old work table, cleaned it and put it into its new position after vacuuming the floor thoroughly. DARN, had to pull it out to plug in the multi outlet thing I’ll need there. Thank goodness I hadn’t loaded the shelves yet.

Vacuumed the floor where the old table had been. Ugly! Need to pull these things out and vacuum more often.

OK then… time to put the new table in place… except that all the stuff from the old table had been put onto the dining table… which was between the new work table and the place it needed to go. TOO heavy to budge.

ARGGGH  Unload the dining table, putting things on the old table and the floor in the kitchen. Move dining table. Move new work table… HEAVY! But I made it. Move dining table to new position. Forgot to vacuum first – but nuts to that. I can do that later.

Finally vacuumed up the last of the potting soil strewn down the steps and pooled at the bottom of the staircase. Let the dog back in…

Spent the next few hours cleaning all the stuff and putting it back onto the shelves of the work tables, wishing for another shelf on the new one, but tickled that my supplies and equipment all now much better organized and available for use.

There are small piles of stuff left on the floor and the dining table that aren’t giving me a clue just where they should go… but I think I’ll leave that for tomorrow. The glass of brandy I’m enjoying now seems much more relevant to my happiness at the moment.

Now I have to figure out what in the world I’d do without electricity for the vacuum, among other things – not to mention the brandy! I don’t know how to make brandy!

Back to the drawing board!

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The Scent of Secession is in the Air

Posted on 2012-11-11 by TPOL Nathan

Courtesy of Liberty Outpost, a “funny” little story showed up in my inbox this afternoon:

Freedom Outpost: White House Petitions for Secession

First there was a petition to “Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.” The petition was created November 7 and already has 3,521 signatures [When the F.O. story was written; at 2300 hours CT on Saturday, as I write this, it had almost doubled to 7,000]. It needs 25,000 by December 7 of this year in order to garner a response from Barack Obama. [I am sure we can all imagine the response.]

The petition is clear and to the point:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…”

… A petition was begun on Friday for Texas to peacefully withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government. [This petition now has more than 3,600 signatures in less than 36 hours.] The petition reads:

The US continues to suffer economic difficulties stemming from the federal government’s neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending. The citizens of the US suffer from blatant abuses of their rights such as the NDAA, the TSA, etc. Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it’s citizens’ standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government.

Texas does not really need a “new government” – at least not legally and technically (morally may be a different matter), since their State government could convert quite simply back to what I suppose would be the Third Republic of Texas (the Second being in place for that brief period between leaving the US in 1861 and joining the Confederacy – probably a big mistake on Texans’ part instead of just resuming their independent status).  But it might be best to make it truly a new government: most of the officials in Austin have compromised their integrity so badly that an independent Texan Republic would not want them to stay in power if at all possible.  And with a new government, it is always possible that a more libertarian (minarchist) form of government could be established, similar to the original republican government in 1836 and to the US under the Articles of Confederation.

One possible minarchist constitution has been around for close to two decades.  You can read it here: it has several interesting and thoughtful ideas for better local government and preserving liberty.

Now, do I think these petitions are going anywhere?  Hardly.  Indeed, anyone who signs on to these, even just giving e-mail, name (first and last) and zip code, may be signing their own death warrant.  Especially if more than 25,000 people sign: that is a pretty good indicator that some folks are serious about it.  And this administration has made it pretty clear that even someone who secedes by moving out of the country and trying to give up their United States citizenship is going to be harassed, persecuted, prosecuted and robbed blind.

The fact that 25,000 out of the millions of residents of Texas (not all of whom are Texans, and these petitions can be signed by people both inside and outside of the state) want to give up their enslavement to DC and are willing to put their name (or someone’s!) and address (or part of it) down, will cause the same sort of reaction a cop nowadays has when a ten-year-old won’t wash his car or when a deaf pedestrian fails to obey his screamed order or a farmer tries to sell raw milk to a friend.  The reaction ain’t pretty (unless you’re are a flatfoot trying to get a bit more attention to get that promotion and raise).

Several people (including F.O.) have compared the man currently living at 1600 PA to another Chicago lawyer and politician, name of Honest Abe (apparently sarcastically, because he couldn’t stay bought by his big railroad clients).  And we all recall what THAT bloodthirsty monster did when South Carolina and a few other states had it up to HERE with DC tyranny.  About 121 years ago, as I recall.  Remember that even those states that stayed loyal to Dear Leader and his tycoon and Red-Republican buddies in Congress got a raw deal: look at the casualty lists and you will see what I mean.

You could have 250,000 signatures, or 2.5 million, and the only difference would be that the reaction would be more terrifying and more bloody.

So if you must sign one of these, let me suggest your best approach might be to find the name and address (and get an e-mail account) for some distant and safely dead relative in Texas or Louisiana.  After all, if all those dead folks in Chicago and Philadelphia got to vote last week, why shouldn’t the dead in New Orleans or San Antonio get the same chance?

I’d dearly love to see EVERY state of our former Federal Union start up a petition on WhiteHouse.gov that starts out “When in the course of human events…”  Secession has a sweet smell to it: ask those people in 1776 and 1836 and people in places like Slovakia and Scotland and Catalonia.

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Petraeus and Conspiracy Theory

Posted on 2012-11-11 by TPOL Nathan

Petraeus Resignation due to FBI Investigation
(Newsmax) The investigation began last spring, but the FBI then pored over his emails when he was stationed in Afghanistan. The woman who was having an affair with Petraeus is a journalist who had been writing about him.

Given his top secret clearance and the fact that Petraeus is married, the FBI continued to investigate and intercept Petraeus’ email exchanges with the woman. The emails include sexually explicit references to such items as sex under a desk. Such a relationship is a breach of top secret security requirements and could have compromised Petraeus.

A lot of words have been written about this already: more speculation than reporting, perhaps.  The truth is, we have very little to go on: the FBI is hardly an objective news source these days, if it ever was.  Many have wondered at the timing and the entire set of supposed events, such as this story at Freedom Outpost.

I have commented on this already, because it seemed strange to me that he would do something like this, in essence betraying his oath.  However, several people have pointed out that he is behaving like a typical political general  (consider, for example, the very POOR example of General of the Army D.D. Eisenhower and his driver, in World War 2.  Others have pointed out the steep decline in morality of all types in the military in the last 20 years, accelerated by recent White House and Congressional actions and now almost certain to go unreversed.  Colin Powell and Alexander Haig are both cited as examples.

Actually, being involved with a reporter is even more disgusting and surprising, given the antipathy of senior military officers towards the press in both Mesopotamia and Afghanistan in the past decade.

And to be truthful, the idea that such a thing demands a resignation as far as the White House is concerned is a little baffling.  The administration is so well known for its double-dealing, its lies, its broken promises, and numerous illegal and unconstitutional actions, that I cannot see a mere adulterous love affair triggering anything at all except a few winks and nods and grins from the palace guard surrounding the First Citizen.

The Freedom Outpost article and others handily dismisses the idea that this has anything to do with Bengazi, although there are still so many questions to be answered on that, and Petraeus could be a key witness in that mess.  So is this some sort of backhanded way of bribing him NOT to spill the beans, by letting him step aside gracefully?  Or is this a way of making sure that he becomes the fall-guy for what happened in Libya, now that he is no longer the CIA’s boss?  If he DID have the affair, then his morals are obviously highly suspect, if not completely discredited.  A man who betrays his wife is capable of ANY betrayal, of ANY sin, of ANY breach of trust and faith, with nation, comrades, family, and all else.  (Yes, I know that some do truly repent of a one-time mistake and sin, but those seem to be in the very small minority.)

Of course, this is 21st Century America:  not that far removed from the times of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero in spirit (if not in time).  Was this

Of course, this is 21st Century America:  not that far removed from the times of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero in spirit (if not in time).  Was this a modern version of the Princeps dealing with a dangerous but useful tool who was finally too dangerous to keep around, and must be sent into exile, or worse? Was this journalist actually a honey-trap used to create a way of dealing with such a dangerous but useful tool?  Given the recent press revealing salacious details about several general officers who are accused of sexual misconduct more serious than the usual claims “he leered at me,” and the close ties between the press and the current regime, I have to wonder if these recent revelations were part of a set-up to conveniently shuttle a dangerous man off the stage?  Or is it even more Roman in nature than that?  Will the disgraced officer soon “commit suicide” in remorse over his behavior?  The press can spin that anyway they (or the regime) want.

If, on the other hand, he did NOT have the affair, then what did the administration (or some other unknown party) have to hold over him or threaten him that he would admit to a sin that damages his reputation and service so badly?  Perhaps we are seeing a version of Hitler’s demand that Rommel save his family by disposing of himself? And perhaps for the same reason: a plot to remove a tyrannical, lawless “elected” dictator?

We know that the current administration is a past master at manipulating the media (in part because the media WANTS to be manipulated by them), and this is a perfect situation to do that.  One thing that is clear is that the timing is very good:  Petraeus waited (or was made to wait) to resign until after the election was safely over.  So, what is next?

Whatever it is, I don’t think we’ll like it.

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Ebony Magazine: Racism alive and well in America

Posted on 2012-11-10 by TPOL Nathan

A few weeks ago, the USPS mistakenly put the wrong magazine in my post office box – I didn’t realize it for some time, as I sorted out all the magazines and catalogs and such and got to them several weeks later.

It was Ebony.  I know (or knew) almost nothing about it, but of curiosity flipped through it.  It seems to be oriented towards both men and women:  LOTS of cleavage and boobage (you know, the body parts they didn’t let Star Trek (TOS) show) and lots of hunk-type chests and such.  Ads for both men’s and women’s products.

But then I realized what was strange:  This magazine seems to have come from some strange alternate universe where 99% of the American population is BLACK – or if you prefer, “African-American.”  All kinds of shades of African-American (EXCEPT that Afrikaaner  and the Mediterranean Arab-Berber type), but definitely of that racial-cultural group.

Get this: in 154 pages plus covers:  SEVEN non-black faces: two Asians in a group pix, two white folks in a Girl Scout ad (in the background), a husband-wife pix where the husband was Anglo (white), two pix of the cover photographer, and a caricature of Romney beside Obama in an opinion piece (“Vote Obama,” of course)

What IS this?  ANY mainstream magazine in OUR United States – for that matter, even in OUR Canada – would have ten times more black and Asian (and even a few American Indian) faces in a slick glossy mag like this.  None of the dozens of major corporate advertisers in Ebony would EVER dream of putting one of their ads (for tens of thousands of dollars) into a magazine that showed 99.5% Anglo-European faces.  Even the AmerInd press doesn’t show so pure a color population slice as this.  Can you IMAGINE a magazine with the title “IVORY” that did this – but in reverse?

I know, you are saying that minority population publications and institutions can be as color-pure as they want, and it AIN’T RACIST!  Because THEY are a poor, disadvantaged, historically (and/or currently) oppressed minority population and we must compensate in every possible way for centuries of discrimination, bias, racial-hatred, and lack of slick paper magazines.

Sorry, I don’t buy it.  No one is alive who owned or sold or bred slaves; indeed, I don’t think anyone is alive whose PARENTS or GRANDPARENTS could have done that, at least not in the United States – and at least not legally. (There HAVE been slaveholders, even people who owned blacks, who lived during that period.  And last I checked, MOST of the States and MOST of the population lived in those States, did NOT “allow” people to have human property.  Even IF we could be held accountable for the deeds of our ancestors.

I know that this is all part of a pattern.  We can have “black” colleges and we can have “black” civil rights groups and “black” associations of you-name-it: educators and preachers and government workers and the like.  But even hint at a “white” organization and watch the wrath descend upon you.

Is it not time that government AND society were color-blind?  And isn’t it time for us to call people out when they are doing something that they decry so loudly when done by others?  All these businesses that advertise in this trampy magazine were the very same ones that condemned South Africa and now condemn the Israelis, but are doing the same thing themselves.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-47C: This and That

Posted on 2012-11-10 by TPOL Nathan

Elections took the headlines this week, of course, and many of the major stories are tied somewhat to them.  But there are lives and problems and opportunities outside of politics, so here are a few stories and commentary for the end of the week.

Government-run, tax-funded schools
We Need a Brand New K-12 System
(Daily Policy Digest) The American education system is in a dire need to revamp. Digital learning can be an instrumental operation toward capturing this nation’s enormous intellectual potential. However, this will require reshaping the reform agenda, specifically school finance and governance. By extension, increasing student achievement — as well as individualizing instruction and creating quality options for children and families among, within and beyond schools — will depend to a considerable extent on how deftly our K-12 system can exploit this potential, says Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

There are three potential barriers.
First are the self-centered interest groups.
Second is the question of organizational capacity.
Third are the fundamental structural flaws.
Source: Chester E. Finn, Jr., “First, We Need a Brand New K-12 System,” Education Next, Winter 2013.

The entire point is being overlooked.  Yes, we DO need a brand new K-12 system: one that is based on the complete separation of school and state: one in which PARENTS have THE major role in educating and deciding how their children are educated, and one in which GOVERNMENT at ANY level (federal, tribal, state, local) have NO role – or as little as possible.  One that is based on liberty and NOT on how docile a citizen or how malleable an employee is produced, and one where “permission to teach” is not based on how well a would-be teacher can regurgitate the inane liberal maunderings and pet theories of people who teach teachers because they can’t do anything else, or who want to control the minds of new generations.

Theft by government – Spending binge continues
CBO: Corporate Taxes Up 34% in FY12; Individual Taxes Up 4%;Deficit Still Tops $1T
(CNSnews.com) The Congressional Budget Office officially reported on Wednesday that the federal budget deficit in fiscal 2012 (which ended on Sept. 30) topped a trillion dollars for the fourth straight year even though federal taxes paid by individuals increased by 4 percent during the year and federal income taxes paid by corporation increased by about 34 percent.

Nathan: The devil is in the details, but despite the continuing depression, we are paying more and more and the government is spending it faster and faster.  Defense spending was down, but never fear, there are a LOT more things that the Congress and the First Citizen can squander our future on, as Reid boasts in the next story.

Mama’s Note: The defense spending might be slightly less than before, but it continues to drive both the deficit and world wide disaster.

Congress in action – Spending binge continues
Harry Reid on Raising Debt Limit to $18.794T: ‘We’ll Raise It’
(CNSnews.com)

Nathan: Clearly, post-election, it is business as usual for the DC fat cats.  He considers the election to be a “mandate” for more spending (waste), more borrowing (theft), more taxes (theft), and more government control (tyranny).

World wars
Russian Leaders Pleased Someone Who Views Russia as ‘Enemy’ Won’t Be President
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Well, who can blame them?  Russia has gotten more than a decade of reprieves from its leading rival, and in essence is watching US do the same thing that they did to themselves in the 1980s: dragging ourselves down to doom.  Truth is, the First Citizen is still their enemy, because his Tranzi controllers and followers see ANY independent nation-state as a threat and as something to be taken down completely, sooner or later.

World wars – Politics 2012
David Petraeus resigns as CIA director
(Washington Post) CIA Director David H. Petraeus resigned Friday and admitted to having an extramarital affair, bringing a shocking end to his brief tenure at the spy agency and highly decorated national security career.

This smells to high heaven.  A man like Petraeus is VERY unlikely to have broken his vows like this, and so it makes me wonder if this is an excuse for getting rid of him, and some kind of “compromise” was reached to have a “valid” reason to booting him out. AND to essentially neuter him and anything he says about the inner workings of the regime.

Mama’s Note: The eternal question in situations like this: Did he fall or was he pushed?

Theft by government – Politics 2012
Obama calls for immediate freeze on middle-class tax rates
(Washington Post) President Obama called on lawmakers Friday to immediately freeze income tax rates for most Americans while allowing taxes on the wealthy to increase, in his opening bid in the high-stakes struggle with Republicans over the nation’s ballooning debt.

Nathan: Sure he does.  He may talk about it, but it is clear that it is talk only:  the administration will do everything it can to steal from the middle class because that is about all they can do.  Note (as I discussed elsewhere) that tax revenues were UP significantly from both personal and business income in FY 2012 (which ended on September 30th), but this isn’t enough, because they “have” to spend more and more.  The additional billions which will be stolen starting in January with the end of the temporary tax cuts are a very tiny fraction (2-4%) of what they “have” to spend.  But this lets him again lay the blame on others: and as this election shows, blaming everyone else is a winning strategy for this regime.

War on some drugs – Politics 2012
Legalized marijuana initiatives leave federal government wrestling with policy
(Washington Post) Senior administration officials acknowledged Friday that they are wrestling with how to respond to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, which directly violates federal drug law and is sparking a broad debate about the direction of U.S. drug policy.

Nathan: Again, don’t hold your breath.  Sure they are going to do something about it: crack down even harder on marijuana, just as they have been doing already to MMJ providers and users in Colorado, California, and elsewhere.  They won’t attack directly, but you can be assured that the pressure is already on the governors, bureaucrats, and legislators of both Olympia and Denver to do everything they can to thwart the voters wishes.

Border Jumpers – Politics 2012
New momentum for path to citizenship, but it won’t be easy
(Washington Post) A growing number of conservatives are softening their views on immigration in the wake of President Obama’s dominating performance among Hispanic voters, giving new momentum to a years-long push by advocates to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.

Nathan: Are they?  I haven’t heard any of the real conservatives do that, just those in power in the GOP who pretend to be conservative.  The GOP defeated itself before the election, and now is defeating itself AFTER the election as well.  For the Dems, this is a big advantage: this election again showed that if they can reinforce this immigrant/Hispanic leg, they can dominate politics nationally and in many states for decades, and have a good chance of turning states like Texas, Florida, Arizona and Louisiana permanently blue.

Theft by government
‘Survivor’ Contestant Complains Prize Money Only ‘600 Grand by the Time Obama Takes It’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Maybe more and more people will think it through and place the blame on the First Citizen and Congress where it belongs.  Of course, that 600 Grand is only worth about 60 Grand if measured in 1972 dollars: the government steals in many ways.

No self-defense
Police Ask Public to Help ID Man in Alleged Rape of Mentally Disabled Woman

Mama’s Note: First question is why someone with a mental capacity of a 10 year old was alone on a bus at all, much less in that area. Then there’s the question of why this could happen in public, with none actually SEEING it except too late. The reliance on cameras is sinister, to say the least.

Nathan: I suspect that many people (including the driver) didn’t see it because they didn’t want to: they were fearful of the man doing the rape.  Conveniently, the assistance came AFTER the man left the bus.  People just do not think about ALL the consequences of letting something like this happen.  Of course, if the driver had been armed, or the other passenger had been armed, perhaps the opportunist would have decided it was not a good time.

Welfare state – Theft by government
Record 70.4 Million Enrolled in Medicaid in 2011: 1 Out of Every 5 Americans
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: A record soon to be broken, I’m sure.  As more get laid off (many a direct result of the election on Tuesday), and as new taxes (old taxes in new skins?) pop up the first of the year, and the economy grinds ever more slowly, and as the government steps up the advertising enticing new clients, new millions will join the Medicaid ranks. And remember, all of us NOT on Medicare/Medicaid must support those who ARE, so we lose twice.

Stupid government
6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days–Average 68 per Day
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Ah, that is WAY too slow.  I’ll bet this picks up to more than 100 a day, now that they don’t have to worry about opinion polls and electoral polls. ALL of us are criminals, if you check through enough regulations to see what we’ve done that is now “illegal.”

Home front – Stupid government
DOJ: ‘School Bullies Become Tomorrow’s Hate Crime Defendants’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Yes, but also tomorrow’s DOJ bosses too: look at all those portraits on the walls of DOJ offices around the world.  People like Reno, Ashcroft, Gonzales and Holder are just the top of the pyramid: those under them are as much corrupt bullies as the ones that make all the headlines.  Expect yet another Ruby Ridge and Waco and such in the very near future.  Even if Holder does leave, as the next story relates.

First Citizen’s minions
Holder Not Sure He Will Stay on as Attorney General
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan:  If I were him, I’d be worried about losing my immunity.  Of course, he might already have a presidential pardon tucked away in a back pocket for when… Of course, with Clinton leaving, Holder maybe going, Petraus departing, perhaps even Panetta, it gives a chance to ram through the Senate a bunch of newer and nastier types.  Aren’t we lucky?

Mama’s Note: Recent buzz has “big sis” Janet Napolitano tagged to take Holder’s seat if he leaves. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

Culture wars – Congress in action
Harry Reid: Americans Aren’t Interested in Issues of Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion
(CNSNews.com) Nathan: Frankly, I would just as soon never hear another thing about them, but that is not the same.  Reid, the court jester (second to Biden), is one of those people who is sure that if he says it loudly and often enough, it will come true.  If the GOP had offered a less mixed message (starting with the person they nominated), this would have meant more.

Culture wars – First Citizen’s chief minion
Biden’s Bishop Silent on Pro-Abortion Biden Receiving Holy Communion
 (CNSNews.com)Nathan: All I can conclude is that the RC hierarchy is all talk and no action:  not true to God or their faith or even common decency.

War on some drugs
Marijuana Law Changes Won’t Put NFL Drug Policies Up in Smoke
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: That is fine – they are (theoretically) private companies and can set their employment requirements as they see fit.  But what, pray tell, about having their players do OTHER healthy things, like not DRINKING alcohol?

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Libertarian Commentary on the News #12-47D: Election Analysis?

Posted on 2012-11-10 by TPOL Nathan

This week, the news of course has been dominated by the elections, and the pundits are concerned with the future of the nation and the political parties.

But from a LOT of people, I am hearing new, louder, and more bitter grumblings: too many of those grumblings are based on fantasy of what “could have been,” and too many are STILL based on the idea that if “we” just do “this” or “that” some magic will happen.  It is easy to get discouraged, even depressed.

The stock market news is certainly promoting that attitude: The S&P index had its steepest decline of the year in the last two days. It was the biggest drop in the two days following a presidential election since 1896 (because Bloomberg’s records don’t go back any farther). McDonald’s has reported its first monthly slump in sales since 2003. (clip from http://politicaloutcast.com/2012/11/the-obama-economy-starts-to-show-again/) This could be due to many things, but the election campaign and the election results have a lot to do with it, I’m sure.  Two of the few stocks to show life this week are Smith & Wesson and Sturm Ruger.  Gee, I wonder why?

Debby sent me a map which I think originally came from CNN or some other news service, showing the gradations of the vote on Tuesday for presidential electors.  The subtle nuances that can’t be seen in a state-by-state summary are very visible, and it is both encouraging and scary.

When you compare it to the state-by-state view, it helps us understand the way the nation is fractured.  Badly fractured.

First, look at the West Coast.  All three states went Blue, but NONE of WA and OR east of the mountains did so.  Northern California (except the coastal counties, heavily impacted by carpetbaggers from the Bay area) was also Red.  Nevada is Red EXCEPT Reno and Las Vegas: the two major population centers.  That all makes sense to most people.

But now lets look at the Rockies and Plains:  Idaho had two counties: BOTH Indian Reservations, go blue.  Montana had SEVEN counties go blue: Missoula (a university town) and the Indian Reservations.  In Wyoming, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho seem to have gone red along with the rest of the state, the only exception being Teton County, or Jackson Hole: LOTS of rich carpetbaggers and of course a lot of government employees.  And Albany County (home of Laramie and University of Wyoming) was pink: academia and liberalism.  Utah had NOT ONE COUNTY go blue: its two pink areas are the Rez and the carpetbagger ski enclave around Park City.  Arizona looks like a lot of blue, but those consist of two areas:  Liberal Tuscon and the Reservations.

It is in Colorado and New Mexico that we see the split very well:  In New Mexico, which went blue overall, the blue counties are the urban and reservation areas: Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, and the areas around El Paso.  The reddest is Catron County, that infamously rebellious county bordering Arizona, filled with mean, nasty ranchers and such.  New Mexico’s urban areas (despite strong military presence and influence) are hotbeds of blue-ness: new Hispanic migrants, Indians off the Rez, and New Age and wealthy retirees make it difficult.  Colorado, shows even a more definite split, if you know the geography and demographics. You have the big urban mess of the Front Range, where Metro Denver and Boulder and Fort Collins all helped take the state, and you have the poor and Hispanic counties and the old industrial city of Pueblo in the south.  But the darkest blue is one dirt-poor county in the San Luis Valley and San Miguel County in the southwest.  Why San Miguel?  It is the home of Telluride: where the “poor rich” that can’t afford to live in Aspen or Vail come to live and ski.  That is why you see that strip of blue in the Western Slope:  Steamboat Springs, Vail, Aspen, Gunnison, and Durango:  big ski resorts with lots of wealthy and wanna-be wealthy plutocrats, and large hispanic and collegiate “servant” populations providing service and skiing.  The anger this brings to the majority of people on the Western Slope and the Eastern Plains, as well as the conservative religious-military culture of El Paso County (Colorado Springs) is immense.

The Great Plains, on the other hand, is an enormous swath of red:  the blue areas are easy to pick out.  In Oklahoma, like Utah, NADA.  In Kansas, a single county: home of the University of Kansas.  In Nebraska, a single county: home of two Indian Reservations.  In Texas, the bluest are the heavily-immigrant occupied Hispanic areas along the Rio Grande, from El Paso on the west to Brownsville on the east.  The others stand out pretty strongly:  Houston and Dallas and San Antonio are Texas’ shame: urban areas.  Austin is the core, though: government and academia and hippieville all rolled into one.  Texans need to reclaim their own capital from those who are, indeed, Anti-Texan as well as against liberty.

The Dakotas, of course, I know best, and EVERY one of the blue counties except one lone one in East River North Dakota are the Indian Reservations, who still refuse to understand that the Democratic Party has been using and abusing them for more than a century, and buy into liberal lies that they aren’t as hated by people with (D) after their name as they are by those with (R).

The states along the Mississippi repeat the West Coast mantra:  urban and reservation areas are blue, most rural areas are red: the big exception is eastern Iowa, where urban and university and strong ties to the industrial cities (and probably a lot of farmers who like ethanol subsidies) all combined to give the state to the blue.  In Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, despite the blue urban areas, conservatism won out  – misguided though that conservative vote was in voting for Romney.

Much has been made of the evils of the Deep South – the media all seem to agree that racial hatred kept those states red.  The county map may actually provide some support for that claim, but more likely for claims of reverse racism: that Romney failed to make his case to conservative black voters.  The counties that went blue in an arc stretching from the Mississippi to southern Virginia are those with the largest black populations, plus the usual urban and academic area.  In Florida, it is more clearly an urban (retiree carpetbaggers from the North) versus rural (crackers and military) split.  Tennessee and Kentucky, once strong Democratic states, have only spits of blue; West Virginia, home of Robert Byrd, has NO blue: his legacy is dead (at least for now).

Now we come to the “Old Union” – a far nastier place than the “Old Confederacy” – the evils of Abe Lincoln (who would be a Democrat if not a Socialist today) have seeped into the water and the soil:  But here, in the Rust Belt, we see that West Coast, Mississippi Valley thing:  the blue are found in the urban areas: Madison (also academia), Chicago, East St. Louis, Indianapolis, the urban archipelago of Ohio, and of course Detroit and its ‘burbs.  Pennsylvania is similar: Philly, Pittsburgh, Scranton-Wilkes-barre and Harrisburg, especially that part of PA that is in the great Atlantic Seaboard BosWash complex, dragged the rest of the state to the Blue.  As happened in Virginia, where the combination of the Northern Virginia beltway bandits and the urban (and heavily black) populations of Richmond and Hampton Roads took the state for the Blue.

It is only the Northeast: the Mid-Atlantic States and New England; where the county map is really tinged blue:  people there have forgotten what their ancestors bled and died for, and escaped from across the Atlantic.  And the margins were tight even in many of those states, outside the big cities.

So what happened?  Here are my thoughts:

(1)  The GOP had it to lose, and they did, just as happened when Clinton won his second term against Dole in 1996.  They hired a liberal-moderate instead of a conservative, trying to appeal to the middle, and in doing so alienated their right: the Goldwater-Paul followers.

(2)  They wimped out on their platform, and on their failure to address essential problems: spending and borrowing and the deficit, taxation, regulation, and military adventures overseas.

(3)  Therefore, they drove a lot of voters away: people just didn’t VOTE:  they still buy into the “lesser of two evils” and “not wasting your vote” by not voting for a third-party candidate, but decided that there was so little difference between Romney and the current resident of 1600 that they decided to vote “none of the above” in the only way it can be done most places: by not voting.

(4)  The Frankenstorm, Sandy, did not help at all because the GOP didn’t try to use it and the Dems did:  they used it to castigate Romney, and at the same time, a lot of people figured that they had better things to do than vote.

(5)  We will never know if the hacking of ballots and voter fraud ever really were involved, because when votes are relatively lopsided, no one fights to find the truth.  But with the Dems controlling more and more State Secretary of State positions, if not through the elected official then through the employees, it would not surprise me that voter fraud and hacking are the reason the vote total came out as lopsided as it did.

Will the GOP learn?  Probably not:  look at the record:  Ford, Bush I, Dole, McCain, Bush II, Romney: not a real conservative in the lot of them.  The one exception is Reagan, and he was seen as NOT being as conservative as he was, because of his past in Hollywood and as a defector from the Democratic Party.  The Dems are not repeating that mistake.

A lot of rank-and-file GOP types that I’ve talked to are VERY angry – not that they weren’t in 2008, 2010, and during the primary season this year.  But they are learning, and now have bitter experience:  they know that the elites have once again sold them out.  Tea party movement or not, these people are getting older and wiser and plan to rip the party apart.  And more than one has said that just might happen: ripping the party in two or even three pieces.

What about the rest of us?  I will have to cover that in a separate commentary, as this is long enough.  But as I told people on the night of the election, they put their hope into the wrong people, and Romney was no more capable of dealing with this nation’s problems than the current regime.

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ObummerCare? Is the Abominable Act still on track?

Posted on 2012-11-10 by TPOL Nathan

Richard Walker of the National Center for Policy Analysis claims that ObummerCare will not succeed, and that the Abominable Act (my own name for this piece of trash law that finally shoved about the last bit of dirt into the grave of the old Republic) will die.

Here are his reasons:

There are 6 major flaws in the legislation that are so serious that Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — will be forced to face them, whether they want to or not.

  1. ObamaCare is not paid for. At least not in any politically realistic way.
  2. ObamaCare promises what it cannot deliver. In order for the country as a whole to get more medical care, there must be more doctors and nurses and hospital personnel – something that ObamaCare does not create.
  3. ObamaCare mandates and subsidies will destabilize entire sectors of the economy. We could see entire firms dissolve and re-combine, just in response to health insurance subsidies, rather than based on economic considerations.
  4. ObamaCare creates perverse incentives that threaten the quality of care. Within the newly created health insurance exchanges, insurers will profit from healthy enrollees and incur losses on the less healthy.
  5. A weakly enforced mandate will undermine the health insurance marketplace. The fine for being uninsured will be small, relative to the cost of insurance. And there is not much the IRS can do to people who ignore the mandate, other than withhold refund checks.
  6. A strongly enforced mandate will strain almost every family budget. If we are required to buy coverage and denied the right to scale back benefits, choose higher deductibles, etc., health insurance premiums will crowd out more and more of the average family’s budget.

Looking at these, my first thought is that these six “reasons” could be applied to virtually EVERY Federal Government legislation:  they aren’t paid for (except by stealing MORE money), make promises that can’t/won’t/haven’t been kept, destabilize entire sectors of the economy, create perverse incentives that damage the quality of the services (or goods) provided, undermine the health insurance market, AND strain almost every family’s budget.  So if these flaws don’t stop us from having the Post Office, TSA, DHS, SNAP, and all the rest, why will they stop the PPACA?

The answer?  They won’t.  Richard is (publicly at least) the same as a lot of other people: find the right words and the right wand waved in the right way, and all will be better.  Well, it didn’t work on Tuesday and it won’t work next Tuesday.  I suspect that the wonders of ObummerCare will go away at exactly the same time that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP go away.

It is just one more burden: a log on top of a hundred other logs on the camel’s back.  The camel is dead from a broken back, but you just can’t tell because of all the logs stacked around it. But the GOP really doesn’t care – at least not the powers that control it.

Or as economist Paul Craig Roberts put it: “What the two parties fight over is not alternative political visions and different legislative agendas, but which party gets to be the whore for Wall Street, the military-security complex, the Israel lobby, agribusiness and energy, mining and timber interests.”

The object for the GOP powers-that-be (including 95% of those in Congress) now will be “how can we profit from this” rather than getting rid of it.  So they won’t fix these things, just paper them over enough to last another two or four years.  And we will ALL look like those skeletons in the waiting room that you see in the cartoons.

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