All That Is Necessary

No Common Ground

I have come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no common ground with about 50% of the US population.  If you are a liberal, democrat, socialist, marxist, communist, collectivist (all the same thing, really), then our world views are so contradictory that there is no possible way we can "co-exist".  I believe in freedom and personal responsibility.  You do not.

It is as simple as that.  Your way is winning, I understand that.  If the worst should happen in November, I will "Go Galt" as much as possible until I can find another place to live.  And I will encourage my children to leave the USA in order to build a better life.  I don't know if such a place exists, but I will be looking pretty darn hard.

Wait & See Until November

I keep trying to think about what the next few years will be like.  No matter what I come up with it always depends completely on what happens on Election Day 2012.

The biggest issue is whether we live or die as a country.

If Obama is re-elected and the Senate remains in Democrat hands, we are done.  Finished.  Kaput.  Why?  Because it will mean we have reached the tipping point where the voting majority of the country wants a totalitarian government.  If that happens there is no point to starting a business or trying harder.  It will all just be taken from you "for the common good".

If anyone but Obama is elected and the Republicans take the Senate it will mean we have a slim chance to pull this out as a country.  A slim chance given the stupidity of the Republicans, but still a chance.  Then it might be worth it to build or expand a business and work harder.

But until November it is wait and see.

Whittle - The Vote Pump - Excellent!

This video is from Bill Whittle and speaks about what money is spent to buy votes.  It is also an excellent lesson on government revenue vs. government spending.

Freedom Is Not Winning

I have been reading the blogs, the WSJ, etc., and I believe freedom, the ability to live your own life without unnecessary interference, is losing ground in a big way.

Freedom/liberty has already been severely beaten over the past 100 years, with most of the damage happening since the 60's.  If freedom were a person she would be lying in the ICU with all sorts of tubes and stuff attached to her.

(Yeah, I know, two days from Christmas, but what the Hell.)

Where are we losing our freedom?

1.  The Department of Justice - Eric Holder should be behind bars.  Instead he is overseeing a DOJ that is beyond corrupt and criminal.  The rule of law is now irrelevant.  We have the rule of men - NOT a good thing.  No freedom there.

2.  Obama - Obama's hatred for the US Constitution, as well as anything remotely considered "American", is evident by every one of his actions.  Nope, no freedom there.

3.  Congress - Democrats are mostly to blame with their never-ending assault on individual freedom.  They simply despise the thought of people living their own lives without government involvement.  The Republicans are almost as bad, as shown by their actions when they had control of both houses of Congress.  Taxes and spending go only one way - UP!  No freedom coming from this place.

4.  Voters - About 53% of voters were stupid enough to elect Obama in the first place.  'nuff said.

5.  Moochers/Looters/Government Employees - These people feed of the government, which, in turn, feeds of the productive part of society.  They will never vote to cut their benefits or income.  This is the greatest danger to domestic freedom, in my opinion.

6.  Islam - This is a worldwide problem, and we are not winning.  As Winston Churchill said, "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Absolutely no freedom in Islam.  I am continuously amazed how the leftists make excuses for the degenerate cult of Islam.  Freedom and Islam are totally and eternally incompatible.

That's enough for now.  I could go on and on, but I am getting bored.  You get the point, I hope.

Always keep fighting for freedom, but recognize that we are NOT winning at the moment.

 

Bill Whittle On Republican History - Not What Is Taught

Bill Whittle of PJ Media nails it on how the republican Party is labeled by the liberals and their media as greedy, fascist and racist.

Awesome lesson:

hat tip: Ace Of Spades HQ

Harry Reid Is Dangerously Stupid

Saw this over at Real Clear Politics:

Reid: "Millionaire Job Creators Are Like Unicorns" Because They "Don't Exist"

Many of our job creators are like unicorns, they're impossible to find and don't exist. That’s because only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than one percent, are actually small business owners and only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction is a traditional job creator."

Is Reid really this ignorant?  Apparently so.  Does he have any concept of the business world?  Apparently not.  Between Reid and that nitwit Pelosi I imagine there aren't even two active brain cells between them.

Yet they keep getting re-elected.  Doesn't say much about the people who vote for them, does it?

 

More Screw U.S. Citzens Abroad

Saw this article over at American Thinker entitled "FATCA: A Ticking Time Bomb for the Economy".

It is a disgusting attempt by the US Government to grab and tax every conceivable source of money that Americans may have, anywhere in the world, regardless of the reasons or consequences.

Read this:

FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) is the brood of FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report).  FBAR requires that U.S. persons divulge foreign accounts to the Treasury Department, but few knew about or ever complied with it.  To stanch the bleeding of U.S. capital into secret bank jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, Congress introduced FATCA into law as part of the HIRE Act.  FATCA requires that foreign financial institutions (FFIs) reveal the accounts of U.S. persons to the IRS.  The FFIs will then have to collect tax withholdings for the IRS from these clients.  If by January 1, 2014 the FFI is unwilling to reveal its U.S. clients' accounts, the IRS will impose a punitive 30% withholding on all payments to the FFIs, on dividends, interest, and gross sales of stocks, bonds, and financial derivatives.

Let's suppose that a foreign investor trades stocks on a U.S. exchange, but his broker is FATCA non-compliant.  One day he buys 10,000 shares of XYZ at $25 per share, and the next day, he takes advantage of a nice uptick of $1.00 in XYZ and sells at $26 per share.  He makes a tidy profit of $10,000.  But because his broker is non-compliant, the IRS now withholds 30% -- not of the profit, but of the gross proceeds of the sale!  So the client now receives the sum of $260,000 minus 30%.  The foreign investor is unhappy because his $250,000 investment has become $182,000.  If he wants his money back, he must file a U.S. tax return.

No investor would accept such conditions.  Hence, an FFI must either comply with the invasive regulations of FATCA or simply abandon the U.S. markets.

US expatriates are the hardest hit by this monstrosity.  It is already hard for a US citizen abroad to do banking and comply with US tax laws.  With this law it will be impossible.  Many US citizens will renounce their citizenship, which is already happening in record numbers. 

The utter stupidity of our government is really beyond belief.  It is nothing more than a criminal enterprise at this point.

 

 

The Main Reason For All Our Troubles

What is the main reason for all the troubles we face in the USA, and what citizens all over the world face?

GOVERNMENT!

I don't care what sort of government you have, communist, socialist, crony-capitalism(USA), whatever.  Virtually all problems can be traced to the impact of government once it goes beyond the very minimal duties required of it.  Even our Constitutional system, which was as close to as perfect a system as the world have ever seen, was almost immediately under attack by the very people who wrote it.

Government does one thing - control.  Under its control it forces private citizens to hand over money or assets to a central authority at the point of a gun, federal state and local.  The central authority then spends this wealth as it sees fit.  Over time the central authority grows and grows.  It never willingly shrinks.  After it gets the money it goes on to rules and regulations. 

As government takes more control of the economy things deteriorate.  Government produces nothing, it only consumes.  It is a dead weight, a drag on the economy.

In the USA we started off with a relatively "clean slate" after much sacrifice.  We have lost freedoms ever since.  Now we are at the point where government is so massive and so powerful that the individual is lost.  Don't believe me?  Today, as you go through you day, pay attention to all the rules and regulations you have to comply with, how much you pay in taxes on everything you buy and any money you make.  Then tell me you are free.

Damn, depressing post.  But all of it true.

The Fix For What Ails Us Is Simple

Frustration is the emotion I feel most these days.  Because the fix for all this garbage going on these days is simple.  Yes, simple!  How?  Some simple steps follow:

1.  Open up ALL sources of US oil and gas to development now.  ALL OF THEM!  The boom in investment and construction would be incredible.  After a few years we would be truly energy independent and keep our energy dollars at home rather than shipping them off to our enemies.

2.  Gut useless federal government regulations.  Government red tape is, next to taxes, the greatest harm to people who want to start and operate businesses, particularly manufacturing companies which we desperately need.  Leave most regulations up to the states, where each state can compete to have the most effective and least intrusive regulations.

3.  Fair Tax - Best solution out there for funding the necessary operations of the federal government.

4.  Cut the federal government in half, yes, half, as a start.  Abolish the departments of education, energy, funding for the arts, etc. Stick to the duties enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

5.  Admit Social Security was a Ponzi scheme from the start.  End it.  Figure out the present value of all contributions from individuals and cut a check for that amount to each individual.  There, you have what you put in.  Be a big boy or girl and learn responsibility.

6.  Medicare/Medicaid/Prescription Drugs - End them on the federal level.  They are not in the Constitution.  Leave it to the states to figure it out.  Fifty states coming up with their own plans based on their own populations.  Should be interesting.

7.  End the Federal Reserve - For an entity that was established to ensure a stable currency they have failed miserably. 

See?  Simple.  I did not say easy.  53% of the population will fight this tooth and nail, so it will never happen until the 47% who would support these fixes divorces itself from the moochers and looters. 

Frustration!

This "Deal" Was NOT A Win For Freedom

Just looking at the highlights, this monstrosity that may be passed by the Senate and signed by President Feckless, is NOT a good thing.

It allows the debt ceiling to be large enough to make it through the next election.  (That was all Obama cared about anyway.)  Big win for Obama.

Any cuts are not really cuts.  Just reductions in planned increases.  And these are years down the road and will never happen anyway.  Big win for Democrats.

It confirms our current level of spending, twice what it was in 2004, to be the new baseline.  Big win for democrats.

The Balanced Budget Amendment is all talk, no action, and will never happen.  Win for democrats.

The "Commission" is a joke and will have no impact, just like the last several "commissions".

More debt, more spending, higher taxes.

Any Republican trying to spin this as a "win" is probably a RINO or a member of the Ruling Class.

All in all, a very bad day for less government, huge win for big government.