Every candidate negatives; it is no secret that Ron Paul has his. He has the obvious one; he is fighting an uphill battle running in the GOP as libertarian. In addition, he is on in his years and has the charisma of jagged broken glass. The GOP base loves his domestic policy but cannot stand his foreign policy. Nonetheless, after 20 some years of running for president, it looks like he may at least win the first two primaries. He is holding the steady lead in Iowa is and cleaning up in New Hampshire. This is for the other states primary goers who are still dead set against Paul.
About Those Newsletters
If there was one thing Paul had going for him, it was his reputation as being squeaky clean. There was no flip-flopping or Tiffany’s accounts in his past to muddy the waters. As his gains seemed to be legitimate, the GOP machine went digging for some dirt in an attempt to turn the tides onto one of their chosen candidates, and in doing so came across some awful newsletters baring Paul’s name.
Some have pointed out that Paul could have profited up to one million dollars on the newsletters. While I have not seen an evidence to lend evidence to this claim, even if it were true, I am not sure that should matter. After all, Paul is a self-described capitalist and anyone who is concerned with the GOP primary ought to be as well, so the concern of the profit is thrown out. Now, it is no secret that these were written by Lew Rockwell and Paul has addressed them in the past; this time however he got all senile and retorted that he had not written them. If had just taken responsibility, and brushed them off nonchalantly it would never have mattered. We all know the other candidates have far worse things in their mcmansion sized closets, and since republican politics is often about the lesser of two evils, I would have found a way to make it about the other guys and their problems.
That Icky Foreign Policy
I like pieces of Ron Paul’s foreign policy. I like the idea of ending foreign aid and getting rid of our bases on other countries and bringing our troops home from all the entanglements were are currently engaged in. I for one like what Obama did to kill UBL. To heck with international law, to heck with Pakistan, we found our man and we clipped him. That’s America and Pakistan should know that if the hold a guy we want dead then were will trespass wherever the heck we dang well please to send him to the virgins.
Ron Paul is nothing if not a man of principle. So his crazy notions of isolationism would not go far in congress, that whole thing about checks and balances is starting to make sense, isn’t it? Yes, we are surely guaranteed some gridlock, but that is better than the extremes both sides offer. If we must go to war, it will be done the constitutional way and that seems to a notion that most humans like.
Like I said, every candidate has their drawbacks. Most of Ron Paul’s policy drawbacks would get checked by another branch of government making them a non-issue. As to those newsletters that Lew Rockwell wrote – well at least he didn’t create the system that underpins obamacare, flip-flop on social issues when it suited his political advancement. Nor did he vote to create ANWR, the Federal Department of Education, or sit on a couch with Nancy Pelosi and talk about how concerned he is about global warming. Sure, Dick Morris and Karl Rove call him a liberal, but that is simply because they realize that a Paul presidency would put an end to the shenanigans they engage in that make themselves rich at the expense of the taxpayer. Not to mention the fact that most of Paul’s stances are common sense and they cannot combat them with their arsenal of weapons, so they just call him liberal. Its the conservative equivalent of calling someone racist. After all, do we want a guy like Karl Rove dictating who we are allowed to have as our candidate? Is that not why we have the primary process? As for Dick Morris, I am not sure the lisper cares what happens so long as he can plug his new book, whatever it happens to be called.
Vote Paul or America dies, it is just that simple.
My first ever interview with a candidate?
Would you vote for him if he was running in your district? How was I as an interviewer? Can he win? DISCUSS!
Cain is on his way out, but I hope remnants of his tax plan stay with us. No other plan offered attacks our highly discriminatory system and creates equality in taxation much like the oh-so memorable 9-9-9 would.
His detractors suggest that the plan would magically be increased in the future, however Cain made the salient point that his plan would never increase taxes, rather a politician would. Not acting because some future politician may or may not increase the rate of taxes is not a valid reason not to at least consider the benefits of his plan.
First off, I will say I take issue with the corporate tax. Perhaps it shows how DC Herman Cain really is; of all people a businessman like him ought to know that corporate taxes are just passed on to the consumer. That’s why when other presidential hopefuls criticized the plan for creating a new sales tax I knew none of them would be the fix America needs right now. How can any of them claim to remotely understand what plagues our economy if they cannot understand the simplest of taxation principles? This would eliminate the hidden nature of government and taxes and make it very real to consumers just how expensive big government can be. I think his opponents were just mad they did not come up with something so simple and so catchy before he did. Oh well.
I think a plan more like 15-15 would work better; a 15% tax on all goods and a 15% tax on all income. That is right, all income. Everyone, even the “poor” would be included in my plan, and that would insure the plan would never change. No self-interested politician (is there any other kind?) would dare hike up the rate because of the toll it would take on the poor. I would suggest this plan until America is all caught up on its debt, and then I would trim it to a single 15% national tax on all goods, no exceptions, write-offs, credits or waivers. Everyone must pay. When everyone is included in a tax plan, it shackles the hands of future politicians.
Whats this? Glenn Beck sells key chains at my local Wal-Mart? These are not exactly his, nor are the terms exclusively Beck’s but I cannot help but think that he is not responsible for the modern resurgence of the three ideas. Okay, maybe it has nothing to do with Glenn Beck at all, but I am going to give him the credit. How many of you own your very own network? That is what I thought.
This seems like a good a time as any to ask how the super-rich-multi-billionaire types come into existence. There are some who are marching on cities citing the egregious concentration of 40% of wealth within the 1% as a problem of the so-called free markets, but it’s all a lie.
Radical leftists are hell bent on bringing socialism to America claiming that our system is unfairly tilted in favor of the rich, and I just might agree with them. That is clearly a symptom of a much larger disease. What ails us is big, anti-market government. I have long contended that America has not had capitalism for 80-100 years, starting with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, yet we are constantly hearing capitalism blamed for all and every economic woe.
Government Intervention Creates The Super Rich
When government intervenes into the market place, it often time creates a new set of mandates by which corporations that wish to be seen as law abiding must adhere to. The problem is, the market is then unable to innovate as fast because smaller upstart competitors cannot keep up with the rising cost of never ending government interventions. 
Considering how quickly government spending has gone up enforcing regulations, the only players equipped to battle to government are large, established businesses and business people.
Lets say you are Amish and want to sell fresh, unpasteurized milk to neighbors and others who believe that major nutritional value is lost through this government mandated process. The FDA can come and shut you down. In fact, all across America the FDA has been shutting down small town farmers and Amish who sell unpasteurized milk to an educated public who want the product as it is being sold. No one is being duped, tricked or forced. However, the federal government in all its wisdom has shut down a small dairy businesses, leaving milk customers to take their dollars elsewhere. While there is no evidence to suggest that the FDA was in collusion with Big Dairy, it inadvertently helped out that 1% group. If something like this were to happen to a major dairy farmer, they would have the fiscal staying power to combat accusations in court, and if the demand for unpasteurized milk was great enough, hire a lobbyist to get the needed laws overturned to protect their share of the unpasteurized milk market after the federal government did the dirty work of eliminating their low level competition. Sounds like something out of a mob movie does it not? In this and most scenarios, the government essentially acts an enforcer, protecting the turf of the five families and putting any enterprising start-ups down, or at the very least leaving the new comers with no choice but to be bought out by the big dogs.
It comes as no surprise then that as 
government intervention grew, the wealth gap widened significantly.
The same could be said of banking regulations. Massive regulations were put into place to protect the consumer, starting with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and several subsequent usurpations of power by the federal government can directly be attributed to the financial collapse of 2008 and the destruction of smaller banks leaving the consumer with little or no choice in some regions and higher banking costs all around. Yet, who does the consumer blame? The CEOs making billions of dollars, not the government who illicitly cultivated the banking environment, unintended or otherwise.
Isn’t This Capitalism?
No. This is not capitalism, this is something far different. The basis for our current system lies in the idea that the consumer needs protecting because all who are profit seeking are automatically dangerous. The basis of all government interventions into the market are considered to be heroic and not thuggery. What the little guy gets, however, is thuggery rebranded as heroism. There is a legitimate case to be made that certain nutrients are lost during pasteurization. Yet the government steps in to protect the consumer to the detriment of the small business person and against the natural choice of the consumer.
Obviously, the examples could go on in perpetuity. The government creates the environment for the super rich to spawn by muscling out small timers with heavy handed laws and regulation , and then blame the free market. The government creates laws, mandates and regulations to protect the consumer, but ultimately remove the greatest mechanism for consumer protection already built into the market, a market correction. Sure, in the past corrections did create small bubbles and recessions once every decade, however the market was organically repairing itself at the will of the consumers. Now bureaucrats have that control, not the people. Free market capitalism is a system in which an individual is free to make choices regardless of the opinion of the government, yet that is not what we have. Can it even be called capitalism anymore? Are we ready to finally hold the real thieves accountable?
This is a response to a Facebook Note by Mark Cuban. It seems to me that Mark is suggesting things to close the market furthermore and move towards even more central planning. It is cute for him to suggest such measures, as a billionaire he would never be negatively affected by them like people like me. In fact, if he is really smart, he is suggesting these actions as a way to limit his competition because his massive ego could not deal with someone superseding his moderate success.
I may not know it all, but I know that elitists, intellectuals and those like Mark Cuban do not have the answers, the market always does. There are three categories that celebrity entrepreneurs, celebrities and business people fall into when they open their big mouths and make public statements about politicians, politics and economics.
The Great Lie of Wall Street
Perhaps it is not a lie. They are beyond their own self-interest, looking at the health of their company, longevity and bottom line. The 47 along with their best ally and friend Obama are not providing the most stable economic conditions, leading evil greedy Wall Street types to hoard cash.
Perhaps the most intellectually honest thing to say would be “We are here to make a profit, and after that we are here to make a bigger profit. Thirdly, we are concerned about shareholders.”
But what people like Cuban and the 47%ers really want is a massive shift in human nature. Rather than being concerned about their own well-being, the 47%ers want successful people to be concerned about whining 47%. Do not get me wrong, they want companies to go about creating massive profits, but rather than then let those who created those profits decide how they will be spent, they feel that it is their right to determine how those dollars will be distributed.
The argument about government spending money on the unemployed is vastly circular, since no fare minded free market thinking would support it to start. So using that as the basis for an argument in support of increased regulation and taxation is utterly misguided.
Make All Financial Institutions Partnerships
Perhaps the hazard starts with the government requiring banks to create loans for those we all knew could not repay it, then having the government’s own banking and lending arms acquiring those loans as an investment instrument. It seems silly to be mad at the middle man, who by law was required to take the risk. But let’s not talk about the facts because that would make it less fun to riot in the streets. We are the 47%.
Limit Student Loans to $2,000 Per Year
Good idea. I think it is high time to put institutions of so-called “higher learning” in their place. I am not sure if you are suggesting the government come in an regulate this, but it would be the only way to make it happen. Banks control very little of student loans. The government controls the vast majority of loans since Obama became supreme chancellor. Why? Simple, it makes it easier for him to forgive the loans of his voting base. It is not a bribe though, even suggesting it makes you racist. Anyone who has ever needed a microloan will tell you they are hard to come by because the bank does not need to risk their capital for such a lousy return. Maybe Mark plans to offer the Mavericks up as a thug security force to make banks do this?
Mark Cuban has no understand of markets. The lack of loans did not make houses cheaper, the over production of homes due to cheap lending required by the government put to many expensive homes on the market. In an effort to dump bad debt, people/lenders sell them at cheap prices.
Mark, like many elitist snobs misses the point. If you want to make college cheap, you encourage students to drop out and those graduating high school to join the military, the work force, go to a trade school and start a business and work on the side.
Finally, students do not need a free pass, they need a reality check. In the face. Colleges do not make successful people, and they do not make a successful economy does. Mark Cuban, of all people, should have a grasp of this concept.
Tax the Hell Out of Wall Street; Give it to Main Street
When Cuban willingly and freely hands me the reigns to vast fortune and his corporate holdings, then we can talk about the ideas laid out here.
The Bailouts
I hated bailouts as much as the next liberal. We were told that our financial system would have collapsed had we not had them. While I approach that idea with much hesitation and reservation, if it is truly the case then that system deserved to fail and a new, free market based capitalist one built it its place. Think about this though: The money that was lent to the banks has been paid back, in full with interest. The TARP fund has remained open however with those funds being willed to whomever the Obama administration sees fit.
The auto bailouts are something no 99er or progressive wants to touch because it involves the teat of big labor, the buyer of presidential seats and purveyor of progressive dreams. Not a single soul who is currently in the UAW voted to unionize nor asked to be represented by the UAW, they are forced into it, however when two of the three American auto manufactures were failing, big labor was given top billing over investors. Obama even appointed a new CEO for GM. Right there, is the most transparent of the unholy unions between big labor dollars and the government. That money has not even been paid back, and many say it cannot be paid back. Where are progressive occupiers on that issue? They dare even broach the subject as some of them as now being paid to occupy by big labor.
TIN FOIL HAT CONSPIRACY THEORY
The bailouts were not necessary except for their revolutionary purposes. I think that many progressive saw bank bailouts as a spark to revitalize their lost communist revolution from the 60s. What else could provide so much violent vitriol as loans to billionaires? What could provide better coverage than a rising of the proletariat? Big labor and big green energy are walking away with our dollars, and there just are not enough hours in the twenty-four-hour-news cycle to cover that because there are smelly college students making children on private land they have occupied.
THEY WANT TO PRIVATIZE THE GLOBE
Like the use of the term “Tea Bagger”, liberals have propagated this notion that all Republicans want to privatize everything. They repeat the meme often enough, I am starting to think they believe it.
“The government builds roads, schools and the military, that is socialism too!”
Listen you half-brained mcnuggets, there is a very, very slim population of people who identify themselves as private-party anarchists. I personally do not see that as the intent of our framers, but that aside, if the whole or even the vast majority of the republican establishment showed this level of clear headed thinking, we would never be in such dire straits. The fact remains that most republicans are far too moderate to even believe a flat tax could work. Republicans are far too progressive.
Elizabeth Warren recently stated that the public at large had a right to the wealth of the rich because they got rich by shipping goods on public roads and using public schools. While I fail to see how public schools innovate anything, the truth is the rich pay for those roads. Their shipping trucks use diesel fuel, which is taxed heavily to keep roads paved, they also pay for them when the fill up the gas guzzling luxury SUVs, thefore using her logic, one could even make the argument that the rich own more of the roads than anyone else.
Roads, interstate infrastructure development, and military. These are things government should do. Progressives cannot deal with such common sense thinking, can they?
The hacker group Anonymous who is responsible for the Occupy Wall Street protests and other city occupations set to begin today has called for college students to walk out of their classrooms because of high student debt and rapidly rising tuition.
There are several lessons here. First, we can understand something about Anonymous and their flock: They have no understanding of market economics (human nature). Walking out of a classroom will not help their debt concern, only make it worse. Paying tuition and walking out of class is like buying a movie ticket and never walking in the theater. Due to the overrated value placed on attending college in addition with displaced workers that have decided to take this time to go back finish degrees, demand has soared. The supply of degrees has always remained the same. Thus, tuition goes up. However, since there is more fancy parchment on the street, a simple four year parchment is no longer in high demand as it once might have been. In addition, there are displaced workers with real world experience and knowledge of the world who have just printed themselves a parchment. Competition is now fierce.
Second, they do not understand the root cause of their surface problem. Their surface problem is the lack of jobs, competition to get those jobs, mounting debt, and inflation. Like all progressives, they cannot find fault within themselves or their sacred cows of universities or government. Most in my generation chose to believe that a parchment will lead to lasting employment that would someday make them wealthy. It does not. Hard work leads to wealth. Most of these kids do not understand that concept. Capitalism has allowed our society to advance to a place where the average human need not feel certain pressures. However, it is pressure that makes coal into a diamond. What we have here are graduates who are finally feeling the pressure of their decision to get a Master of Fine Arts in musical theater writing, with a minor in German. Any old degree will not do get you a $250,000 job. But they cannot blame their university for charging them so much and they cannot blame government for spending us into recession. They blame the banks because that is what in vogue. However, blaming the rich, who are most likely their parents, does not resolve the root cause: YOU HAVE NO PURPOSE. Free markets do not necessarily make us happier; they just ensure misery will come by our own hand and not by force.
Dear Sheeples,
If you want to send a real message, not just to colleges, but also to Wall Street, you drop out of college and never return. By walking out, you tell us that you believe that your degree will something and you do not know why, but you know you need it. By dropping out, you tell us that know that your degree is worthless and that you really have no idea what you want from life. The current path leads to your mothers couch anyway. Skip the lecture you will most likely Facebook through and just get the mixing bowl and Captain Crunch going, it will save you plenty in the long run.
There is a vast right-wing conspiracy to keep people fed and housed through meaningful work, perhaps even work on Wall Street. Thanks to the choice that capitalism allows you, you do not need to participate in that if you do not want to. Think for yourself, if you walk out the college keeps your tuition. Most of you are still early enough in the semester that you can recoup most of your loan money if you quit now. Do not protest in the streets and crap in a depends for six months just because a Guy Fawkes mask with a digital voice scrambler tells you should. You followed that logic once and it lead to the debt and insignificance you now suffer from. Will it be any different this time around? No.
Hearts & Handguns,
Daniel K. Thomas
P.S. You are all stupid. Get bent.
P.P.S. When you do not hit you kids, they grow up and leech off of you and then protest your place of work. Moral of the story? Beat your dang kids.
They call themselves the 99%. The protest seen throughout Europe and Africa are finally on our shores. The hacker group Anonymous has gone political and they are organizing nationwide protests to occupy capitals and city squares. They have been occupying Wall Street for days now. They are mad as hell and they not going to take it anymore. They say that this is their Tahrir Square moment.
Mad about what? No one exactly knows. But what we do know is they call themselves revolutionaries and anarchists. They clearly take major issues with social order, personal hygiene and employment. Nonetheless, this is spreading like wildfire. Protests are currently planned for cities all across America.
Young people are clearly upset that they were duped into taking massive student loans and indoctrinated by their professors into thinking that holding a degree entitled them to a job. Now, short of joining the Peace Corps they have little in the way of productive prospects. Sure, there are some geriatric protesters, such as the always insane Frances Fox Piven, however the footage suggests the vast majority of the occupiers are young folks.
The fact is, we are the freest nation in the world. While that status is up for grabs, we still hold the title. However, the kids of my generation lack a cause, so naturally they latch onto anything when it comes along. They want to be seen as hip and with the zeitgeist. As you may recall, there was a black kid who cried out in front of Chase Bank that they were “taking” his parents’ home, when it turns out that it was not the case whatsoever. His parents live in a $500,000 home and were indeed short selling it. Not to mention the fact that he had an education that costs several hundred thousand dollars, if he was so concerned about their home, he surely could have dropped out and flipped burgers to help.
I liken these protestors to the character Britta Perry from the NBC comedy Community. They hope to be the oppressed and victimized minority. They have trouble reconciling the fact that their lives are not horrible. They lack direction, and feel its societies fault. The funny part is that most of these kids are middle class and white. They do not know what it is like to have to choose between living under an oppressive regime or dying for freedom, although they would like have us believe it is the same as having to choose between making a car payment or buying a new Coach bag. They simply cannot deal with the reality that they represent the big bad wolf to most underprivileged nations. We are the bad guy. You own shoes, seriously stop whining.
Most of them are very delusional when it comes to how the world works. They attend college with the understanding that it would prepare them for adulthood, and it cannot. The facts are simply this: Like all things, there is a science to the economy and motivation. Free markets work. Liberty works. Choice works.
This may seem far away, however I think the timing is just perfect. I hope that free thinking, pro free markets folks can gather around to show and teach everyone and anyone who will listen that we need capitalism, now. I firmly feel that the sun could set on America, however if we return to the system that made us who we are, we can thrive once again.
Tea Partiers, 912 Projects, Libertarians and Capitalists:
On Friday, November 25, 2011. Gather.
Respond. Make America capitalist again.
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