Anti-War

They shot JFK, and LBJ escalated the war in Vietnam. When Martin Luther King, Jr, came out with his anti-war feelings, they shot him, too. His family has publicly said the man in jail didn't do it. 

Anti-war feelings grew and Eugene McCarthy [D] won a primary against LBJ funded by deep pocket democrat donors who would be punished by the party if their names were revealed. After McCarthy won, anti-war RFK jumped in and won in California. They shot him, too. Then they passed the FEC which 'Clean Gene' McCarthy [D] said was to silence [by defunding] dissidents.  

An owner of a major truck stop once said that donating to a third party candidate could cause road construction to close his exit off the Interstate for months. Now we know that's never done to punish ... no one would ever close lanes on a bridge to cause traffic jams, right? A woman whose family owned a grocery found their street closed with a 2 block detour for access until their store went broke and her husband died of a heart attack. He had openly opposed the current Mayor as being corrupt and he won reelection.

FEC Campaign records are scoured by people like you and me to find out who funds our favored candidate, right? Wrong; they are scoured by political party hacks. 

Along came the Internet and money bombs, and even before money bombs, Dr. Dean collected funds from the Internet. Those populous candidates are crushed by the main stream media who can take one 'scream' from Dr. Dean or a political dirty trick from Christie and turn it into an anchor.  They miscaracterize Dr. Ron Paul as an isolationist rather than a Jeffersonian 'Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations...entangling alliances with none!'

While Dr. Ron Paul was speaking at the University in New Hampshire, outside on the steps in the falling snow because the room was too small, John McCain was in the State visiting a munitions plant. McCain kept his powerful seat in the Senate signing those contracts over to suppliers of war and won the New Hampshire primary.  

Now, will the GOP do the right thing and let the next Ronald Reagan be nominated. Reagan was not the presumptive nominee, Gerald Ford was, and Reagan won only after several ballots. Ford was a good man but would have either lost or compromised so it would be the same as a loss for the anti-war majority. 

Hillary voted for the Iraq war and helped stage Libya for the chaos and bombing they've faced. We saw not one injured Libyan child after dropping 1000s of bombs a day. What? Hillary directed our ambassador in Syria to assist rebels in an attempt to overthrow Assad. Stop a moment and think: What if the Syrian ambassador to the USA assisted rebels in attempt to overthrow OUR leader? Look at the refugees and the carnage in Syria yet Kerry sent rebels funds February, 2013, and then later sent them HUGE military weaponry. The Benghazi visit may have been about shuffling some of the Libyan weapons to Syrian rebels.  

We invaded and occupied two of Iran's neighbors, deposed Iranians' elected leader and installed the Shah and shot down a domestic airliner by accident. We tell them they can participate in UN talks about another neighbor, Syria, only if they agree to the verdict first; trial later. Assad must go??? what? 

I'm beginning to believe our foreign policy isn't about peace but is about funding the military industrial complex so they don't shoot our elected leaders. And I'm beginning to think NSA data may be more about coercing votes from any elected leaders and/or justices of the USSC than security. 

How can we possibly know the truth anymore?

• 
  

  Reagan’s greatest achievement is hawks worst fear

  rare.us
  

  Republicans who want war with Iran shouldn’t be invoking Reagan.

Community Chest

How can we, as Americans, recover from the current spiral in newly created federal reserve notes, low interest rates that encourage debt, not saving, and the military industrial complex putting our troops into situations to breed hatred, local strife, and as on 9/11, result in harm?

How can we recover from the boomers' loss of social security retirement to inflation even as they've been lied to about a trust fund?  How can Medicare, after Boomers have added 40% to the number of seniors by 2015, stay solvent paying for $50,000 knee replacements twice per patient?

How can we use community efforts, de-funding the bulk of the federal government, to help those left behind?  Can we create Community Chests close to the needy and avoid the strings of federal government involvement?

------------------------

A couple decades ago when I was quite naive, I wrote a proposal for the Omaha Housing Authority.  My suggestion would eliminated offices, duplication of overhead and clerical workers around the city that administer the goals of the multitude of federal programs.

I'm sure it quickly hit the trash.

I suggested to OHA that they consolidate their grants and programs and buy a modest home near K-6 schools.  Those in need of assistance would be required to bring their children and spend 40 hours a week in the home.  Their school age children would attend the nearby school.  Rather than chasing down recipients, the Visiting Nurses drug test, give inoculations, and provide child health care advice at the community owned home.  A visiting nutritionist from the University designs healthy menus to be prepared.  A neighbor donates time to help prepare meals, another teaches sewing or knitting and later rocks the babies while the [mostly] single moms, looked for work or worked at the community home or school.

In other words, for at least 40 hours a week, the children are fed and cared for in a safe environment away from the streets, crime and danger.

Reading skill tests would assess kids and parents alike and the Spalding method used to start at the beginning to teach reading comprehension for those who have fallen behind.

Work at the Community home depends on actions.  If a parent brought their children on time and was dressed appropriately, their job assignment may be learning to search for dead-beat-dads on the Internet.  They learn computer and office skills which would help in a job search.  If they came late, slovenly or inappropriately dressed, they might instead rake the playground at the school or clean the bathrooms. Children would never face the embarrassment of being dirty or inappropriately dressed at school, as those conditions would be corrected before they left for school.

Moms would be encouraged to select a roommate and work shifts to pay rent helping them become more independent.  Every step toward independence would be encouraged.  Food would be prepared for recipients to take home for the weekend. No funds would change hands.  In order to marry or live with another, they would have to prove financial responsibility for themselves and for the family.  Too many today move in with a mom on welfare and contribute little or nothing to the household expenses.

A volunteer can take parents to garage sales shopping for kids clothes.  On the weekend, a kids movie might be rented, shown at the community house with popcorn.  No one is allowed inside the home without an appropriate ID.

Those who found a job might use the home for daycare, contributing some of their income, until they are on their feet.  Social workers and early childhood educators work at the home, too, charging for daycare, including overnight for shift workers, to buy food and essentials for those without jobs.

Sending checks for disability or unemployment from government should end.  Private disability insurance is available and unemployment in the States is paid for by the employers, not the government.  For all who fall through the cracks, the community chest becomes their benefactor.

Merkel isn't buying excuses

Merkel isn't buying excuse that recording her phone was unintentional. She is one smart COOKIE!
Remember years ago, the G12 demanded she 'stimulate' the economy to help save Greece! She declined and which nation in Europe again has seen an improving economic outlook? Answer: Germany
She said it all in a PBS interview, (paraphrasing:)
Since Luther, Germans have known how to succeed. We work hard, we save and we live thriftily.
Considering that Germany has recovered from the loss of two World Wars and reunification, I'd say she is onto something. With interest rates at under 1%, way below inflation, we turned our backs on savings years ago. We replaced bank loan officers paid by the bank to protect our assets with brokers paid by percentage and had no interest in whether the loan could or would be repaid. Bush thought the poor would grow the economy if he cut their taxes. He raised child credits and EITC until almost 50% paid no federal income taxes by 2008. They didn't save, invest or start businesses, though, they could barely pay the cable bill. And Bernanke just kept manufacturing new money which of course mainly benefits the 1%. Now Bernanke is replaced by a woman, and I have to say this, sorry, she may be left to 'clean up' in the end.
The Brits lost the world currency, their pound sterling; so it can happen. We are not immune. Its the middle class and poor who are paying the piper, sadly.
The money and power, the lobbyists, and the shakers and movers mostly live in ‘This Town,’ by Mark Leibovich. I recommend it.

"The Lakota have an even stronger concept than tribal sovereignty, namely personal sovereignty. I have been told by the author of “Atlantis“, Robert Klassen, that “tawamiciya” is a word in the Sioux language, meaning to belong to oneself, free of other men." Michael S. Rozeff

Society

Society's Choices vs Top Down Rules and Force

President Obama, recently said; "I think it's important to understand that you can't have 100 percent security and then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society."

I'd like to deconstruct the last sentence. Who makes the choices? He implies its 'society' but its not us making those choices and none of the choices will be voluntary. Society is voluntary or it once was....

from Nana's 1950 unabridged dictionary, 'society' meant:

1. Companionship and association with one's fellows, usually, friendly and intimate intercourse; company.
2. One's friends and companions collectively.

While today, a web search came up with, 'society' meaning:

1. The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. 
2. The community of people living in a particular region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations. 

Who benefits when we think of the government as a 'society' of voluntary interactions and not the power to exercise authority directing and controlling our actions? I think we know the answer.

Human Action A Threatise on Economics by Ludwig Von Mises

Human Action: A Threatise on Economics
by Ludwig Von Mises

FOREWORD TO 4TH EDITION 

Mises’ contribution was very simple, yet at the same time extremely profound. He pointed out that the whole economy is the result of what individuals do. Individuals act, choose, cooperate, compete, and trade with one another. In this way Mises explained how complex market phenomena develop. Mises did not simply describe economic phenomena — prices, wages, interest rates, money, monopoly and even the trade cycle — he explained them as the outcomes of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals, each of whom was trying as best as he or she could under the circumstances to attain various wants and ends and to avoid undesired consequences. Hence the title Mises chose for his economic treatise, Human Action. Thus also, in Mises’ view, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was explainable on the basis of logic and utilitarian principles as the outcome of the countless actions of individuals.
Sprinkled throughout Mises’ scholarly and erudite explanations of market operations are many colorful descriptions of economic phenomena. For instance, on the difference between economic and political power: “A ’chocolate king’ has no power over the consumers, his patrons. He provides them with chocolate of the best quality and at the cheapest price. He does not rule the consumers, he serves them. The consumers ... are free to stop patronizing his shops. He loses his ’kingdom’ if the consumers prefer to spend their pennies elsewhere.” (p. 272) On why people trade: “The inhabitants of the Swiss Jura prefer to manufacture watches instead of growing wheat. Watchmaking is for them the cheapest way to acquire wheat. On the other hand the growing of wheat is the cheapest way for the Canadian farmer to acquire watches.” (p. 395) For Mises a price is a ratio arrived at on the market by the competitive bids of consumers for money on the one hand and some particular good or service on the other. A government may issue decrees, but “A government can no more determine prices than a goose can lay hen’s eggs.” (p. 397)
In Mises’ view, the inequality of men was the beginning of peaceful interpersonal social cooperation and the source of all the advantages it brings: “The liberal champions of equality under the law were fully aware of the fact that men are born unequal and that it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization. Equality under the law was in their opinion not designed to correct the inexorable facts of the universe and to make natural inequality disappear. It was, on the contrary, the device to secure for the whole of mankind the maximum of benefits it can derive from it. . . . Equality under the law is in their eyes good because it best serves the interests of all. It leaves it to the voters to decide who should hold public office and to the consumers to decide who should direct production activities.” (pp. 841-842)
Mises’ 1949 comments on Social Security and government debt read as if they had been written yesterday: “Paul in the year 1940 saves by paying one hundred dollars to the national social security institution. He receives in exchange a claim which is virtually an unconditional government IOU. If the government spends the hundred dollars for current expenditures, no additional capital comes into existence, and no increase in the productivity of labor results. The government’s IOU is a check drawn upon the future taxpayer. In 1970 a certain Peter may have to fulfill the government’s promise although he himself does not derive any benefit from the fact that. Paul in 1940 saved one hundred dollars.... The trumpery argument that the public debt is no burden because ’we owe it to ourselves’ is delusive. The Pauls of 1940 do not owe it to themselves. It is the Peters of 1970 who owe it to the Pauls of 1940.... The statesmen of 1940 solve their problems by shifting them to the statesmen of 1970. On that date the statesmen of 1940 will be either dead or elder statesmen glorying in their wonderful achievement, social security.”(pp. 847- 848)
In the “Foreword to the Third Edition” of Human Action Mises mentioned the Italian and Spanish translations of this book. Since then it has been translated by Tao-Ping Hsia into Chinese (1976/7), by Raoul Audouin into French (1985), by Donald Stewart, Jr., into Portugese (1990), and by Toshio Murata into Japanese (1991). Its German-language precursor, Nationalokonomie (1940) has also been republished (1980).
The publishers of this new edition of Human Action have tried to correct the typos that inevitably creep into almost any book, especially one of this size. They have also included a completely new index, which they hope will help make the ideas in this book more readily accessible to readers.

Bettina Bien Greaves

Irvington-on-Hudson, New York
February 1996

Legitimate Authority

Today, a man with rudimentary pipe bombs was charged, I presume, with terrorism. Sixty years ago, could most of my cousins who loved playing with (researching properties of) dynamite be there, too?
The man was also labeled on the news as a militia-type. As an admitted anti-authoritarian,  like most, including Einstein, I respect legitimate authority.  To evaluating whether authorities know what they are talking about first, I plead guilty. If questioning can become an argument of guilt (you hate taxes and government,) I'm in trouble.
Unlike Thoreau who went to jail instead of paying a tax he opposed, I'm not THAT dedicated. I do hate paying taxes are used by Kerry, millions, to fund Islamic terrorists who now it seems staged Sarin gas 'victims' in attempts to push Obama over the red line in Syria.  Israel, after shuffling the WMD proof from the rebels to the US and finding Obama unwilling to act (smart move,) has bombed Syria twice.  If that doesn't start military conflict (we no longer call it war,) what will? Of course, like Libya's pounding by 1000s of bombs/day for weeks, we see no collateral damage on our compliant media.
Did the IRA stop putting bombs in London pubs because Brits sent MORE troops?  No. the more sent the more they bombed. Blowback is the weapon of the vastly overpowered.

Musings and Hodge Podge

A new Pope named Francis has progressives buzzing as Francis of Assisi gave up wealth to follow the Church.  Wikipedia concurs: "While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life. On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter's Basilica. The experience moved him to live in poverty."

In 12th century Rome, a religious center of power, disagreement meant being burned at the stake literally.  Our Constitution protects the individual's inalienable rights to disagree with any majority, regardless of how extreme or mainstream, as long as we do not violate the rights of others.  Ludwig von Mises: "If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action." So why do we assume a government bureaucrat can design a better system for spending our funds than we can?  As some priests abused their power, so do some who administer DC's progressive ideas.  Great wealth is leaving the centers of commerce like New York City and settling in DC where unemployment is 3%.  Rome became rich, as well, as peasants paid priests to release their loved ones from purgatory.

Washington, DC wages wars worldwide by invading and occupying nations or covertly training Libyan and now Syrian Islamist rebels with funding from the monarchies in the Middle East.  What if American militias were being funded by Middle Eastern monarchies and trained by the Chinese military to unseat Obama?  What if a drone had hit the home of our Anthrax terror suspect in Maryland and then hit the first responders with a military 'double-tap?'

Charity comes from the heart not from DC or Rome.  Compassion comes from humans not from drone operators.  Don't confuse society with government or caring with confiscation of earnings or military actions.

GE paid zero corporate taxes last year and submitted a 52,000 page tax return. Imagine the loss in brain power and advancements in our economy if those tax attorneys had not been slaving away on that return but had started a business of their own?   Zero out corporate taxes and watch the growth that follows.  Corporations don't pay taxes, after all, as they only add them to the cost of their products or services.