Maoist in the White House – Media Is Silent

A current White House official explicitly endorses one of the greatest tyrannical butchers in the history of the world, and the main stream media is silent (surprise, surprise).  I think we had better move that moral doomsday clock forward.

It is now 11:57:00.

Maoist in the White House – George Reisman – Mises Institute.

“The greatest enemies of the Constitution are… right here at home…”

If you value liberty, you have to see this powerful video of Adam Kokesh.

Can the media really be this clueless about the Tea Parties?

I watched the video posted here of the Rachel Maddow show–a piece from MSNBC, and I was amazed at how apparently clueless these ladies were about the ideas behind the tea parties.  They revealed a slight amount of knowlege in linking them to Ron Paul’s supporters, but other wise they appeared to have no idea what they were all about.  There are two possibilites:  either these ladies are too lazy to simply pull up the reteaparty.com website, or they are purposely trying to confuse people and misrepresent the movement.   Their strange fixation/obsession  on the word teabagging was a notable.  Journalism is truly dead.

They also engaged in the standard “crazy ideas” assessment of Ron Paul and his movement.  I believe it may seem crazy to them.  As Carabini writes in his new book:

 

I have often wondered why those with strong opinions about social affairs are always attracted toward one of two opposing poles. There are those inclined to liberty—freedom of the individual to live his or her life in any peaceful way. And there are those who are inclined to mastery—permitting others to live their lives only as another sees fit. 

 

 

 

 

Ron Paul Tea Party? « America’s Independence Day Tea Party.

 

Leaked Missouri report links libertarians with “militia groups”.

A leaked Missouri report warns police about the “militia movement” and suggests they watch out for cars with  libertarian and anti-abortion bumper stickers (buy yours here).

It’s crazy that the government of the US would fear those who want to uphold the constitution.

They are worried about people preparing to defend themselves against an increasingly tyrannical government.  But such defense was exactly the purpose of the second amendment .

I’m going to have to move the moral doomsday clock forward for this one.  It is now 11:56:30.

Thanks to Andrew S. for the links.

Free America!

Last Night’s Speech: Snake Oil for Sale.

I tried to read through Obama’s speech this morning, even though I knew what he was going to say.  I am amazed that anyone watches this stuff–the same old attempts at salesmanship, the same old faulty interventionist ideas designed to increase government power and devoid of any real effectiveness.  Here’s what I took from the first part (I didn’t make it all the way through): 

The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before.

Wait, is he saying alternative energy will be cheaper?

The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform.

So health care costs are why our economy is in a shambles?

Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for.

Our economy is in a shambles because our schools fail to prepare our children properly?  Here I would agree in part, but not for Obama’s reasons, I’m sure.  Our schools fail to teach children to think and to be able to see through empty rhetoric and government manipulation.  They fail to teach them the real laws of economics.  They cannot teach them responsibility and virtue, and this is a crisis of character.

And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.

I agree. 

A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market.

Then he sneaks in his socialism.  Wrong.  In fact the opposite is true.  Intervention caused the present crisis, and intervention always weakens the economy.

People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.

The banks were forced (by the government) to loan to people who could not afford it.  And now Obama wants banks to do more of the same.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

And that’s what government action cannot do, and will not do.  It will make it worse.  Who says we need the government to save us?  Obama says.

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President’s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t. Not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited – I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. That’s why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law.

Keynesianism is wrong.  The economy will recover on its own (if Obama can stop messing with it).

Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector – jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.

This is nothing more than a redistribution of money–it cannot create wealth…  or jobs.

I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort …

That’s why there are thousands of earmarks on the new spending bill.

You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy.

Wrong.  Productivity is the lifeblood.  

But credit has stopped flowing the way it should. Too many bad loans from the housing crisis have made their way onto the books of too many banks. With so much debt and so little confidence, these banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or to each other. When there is no lending, families can’t afford to buy homes or cars. So businesses are forced to make layoffs. Our economy suffers even more, and credit dries up even further.

Banks were not allowed to be careful with lending.  That’s why we are in this mess.

But that does not mean we can afford to ignore our long-term challenges. I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.

Wrong, the freer the markets, the stronger the economies.

For history tells a different story. History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas.

Damaging actions, faulty ideas.

In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry.

The government laid the railroad tracks?  Though they did provide subsidies, those were damaging, not helpful.  And I though burning fossil fuels was bad?

From the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution came a system of public high schools that prepared our citizens for a new age.

Turmoil of the industrial revolution?  Were public schools created to boost the economy?  Rather they were a conspiracy of the rich and elite to sujugate the citizenry (see John Gattos books).

In the wake of war and depression, the GI Bill sent a generation to college and created the largest middle-class in history.

The GI Bill created the middle class?  He thinks we’re stupid.

And a twilight struggle for freedom led to a nation of highways,

And greater and greater use of fossil fuels, don’t forget. 

an American on the moon,

And why was it important to go to the moon?

and an explosion of technology that still shapes our world.

Which wouldn’t have happened without the moon shot?

In each case, government didn’t supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise.

He was right the first time.  It replaced it and hindered it.

It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive.

How?  The only way the government can do that is to stay out of the way.

Snake oil.  Fuzzy thinking.  Government power grabbing.  I’ve heard enough.  (Boy, this guy is windy. )

Obama’s economic planning: This should be interesting… and painful.

Obama and his administration apparently think they can successfully plan the economy.  Of course, this is impossible.  A healthy economy is a self-organizing process, the result of unthinkable numbers of interactions among individuals acting in their own self-interest.  Oh, they can certainly plan an economy, but not a healthy one.  It is nothing short of arrogance to imagine that a person or group of persons could plan such a thing.  It’s like thinking we can plan the ecology of the planet, or the weather, only it’s even more ridiculous than those examples, since we’re working here with autonomous, free individuals.  It is impossible and arrogant, but it will be interesting to watch them try.  It would probably even be funny… if it were not painful.

A rough tally of recent “stimulus” spending. What am I doing in this handbasket?

The following is a sampling of recent government expenditures for stimulating (nationalizing, socializing, centralizing) the economy from US BudgetWatch. 

SELECT GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO THE FINANCIAL & ECONOMIC CRISIS 

Economic Recovery Provisions	Max. Amount	Amount Spent	Deficit Impact
TARP (details)	$700 billion	$296 billion	$80 billion
Fannie/Freddie Takeover (details)	$400 billion	$14 billion	$238 billion
February 2008 Stimulus (details)	$168 billion	$168 billion	$124 billion
Fed Loan Facilities (details)	unlimited	$836 billion	n/a
FDIC Bank Takeovers (details)	$56 billion	$16 billion	$16 billion

We can now add the $793 billion from the “stimulus” bill (Amer. Recovery and Reinvestment Act).  And now we also have the mortgage bailout at $75 million.

The site says you can’t meaningfully add up the subtotals to get a grand total, but let’s do it anyway, just for fun:  $3 trillion.   That’s nearly $10,000 per person (given a total US population of about 306 million).  And of course, that’s just the beginning, not only of the spending, but of the damage that it will do to our economy).  Folks, we are being taken for a ride, and we’re not going to like the destination.

Bank Nationalization? The Communist Revolution in America, Part II

Apparently, the US Government is looking to increase its holdings in Citibank (Nationalization? Feds, Citi at the table.).  It is time to revisit the ten measures that Marx said would be taken by the rising proletariat in order to overthrow the capitalist system:

1.  Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2.  A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3.  Abolition of all right of inheritance.

4.  Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

5.  Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6.  Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

7.  Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8.  Equal liability of all to labour.  Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9.  Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population
    over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools.  Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form.  Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.

Bank nationalization?  See item #5 above.  Actually, we are already well on our way to #5 even without more nationalization.  What other items have we got covered?  #2 is well underway and sure to increase under Obama.  #3 is sure to increase under Obama through increased estate taxes. #6 is already well underway, but the “stimulus” should move us further toward “goal” here.  #1, 7 and #8 are down the road a bit maybe.  #9 is not relevant–they actually want us all in the cities so the earth doesn’t have to be polluted with our presence as much.  And of course #10 was accomplished more than a century ago. 

So there you have it, we have covered more than half of the items.  I’d say we are on the road, wouldn’t you?

I think it is worth revisting the rest of my original post on this topic as well, with special attention to Bakunin’s thoughts (emphasis mine):

Marx believed that this tyranny of the state was only temporary: 

When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character.  Political power, properly so called, is merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another.  If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organise itself as a class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a class.

In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.

That last scentence actually sounds a bit like libertarianism, though I am not sure what he meant by the last clause, “the condition…”  But don’t be fooled, the tyranny of the State does not go away, as we have seen in Russia, China, and in every other Communist country.  No, rather it is as Bakunin warned.  Read it carefully and tell me you don’t already see it in our America:

But in the People’s State of Marx there will be, we are told, no privileged class at all. All will be equal, not only from the juridical and political point of view but also from the economic point of view. At least this is what is promised, though I very much doubt whether that promise could ever be kept. There will therefore no longer be any privileged class, but there will be a government and, note this well, an extremely complex government. This government will not content itself with administering and governing the masses politically, as all governments do today. It will also administer the masses economically, concentrating in the hands of the State the production and division of wealth, the cultivation of land, the establishment and development of factories, the organization and direction of commerce, and finally the application of capital to production by the only banker – the State. All that will demand an immense knowledge and many heads “overflowing with brains” in this government. It will be the reign of scientific intelligence, the most aristocratic, despotic, arrogant, and elitist of all regimes. There will be a new class, a new hierarchy of real and counterfeit scientists and scholars, and the world will be divided into a minority ruling in the name of knowledge, and an immense ignorant majority. And then, woe unto the mass of ignorant ones!

- Critique of Economic Determinism and Historical Materialism, by Mikhail Bakunin

Woe, indeed.

And can you believe how much Bakunin’s description sounds like the direction of the European and U.S. governments today?  Administering the masses “economically”, administration by a “hierarchy of scholars”:  Think bank bail outs.  Administration by a scientific elite:  Think global warming.  Think stimulus and car czars.

Must See Video: Rick Santelli on the Mortgage Bailout

Click the link below to see Rick Santelli hit a nerve on Obama’s mortgage bailout plan:

Campaign For Liberty — Member Blog Spotlight.

Peter Schiff vs. Chris Dodd: Money Bomb Today!

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