The Looters Are In Control

Taking this directly off ZeroHedge’s website this morning because it’s just so damn important.

[And now it’s time for Mr. Obama to start paying for all those votes by reaching deep into our pockets. If you intend to avoid paying your “fair share,” however, please take note: There will be  few places to hide. For a gimlet-eyed view of what may lie in store for taxpayers and citizens of all political persuasions during the next four years, ponder the guest commentary below, from Wayne Siggard, a regular in the Rick’s Picks forum. RA]

The election was all about new math:  47 = 51. The foresight and genius of the Founders knew no bounds.  Ben Franklin said, “Once the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”  The trumpets have sounded.  The heralds have announced the awakening of the masses to that reality.  The greatest and most free nation the world has ever known has just sold its birthright for a mess of pottage; or, at least, the promise of an Obama phone. The takers have voted to take control over the producers.

Everyone will now get a fair shot — except that those who work in government and those who take government welfare will get a fairer shot.  Obama knows that you didn’t build that company.  You didn’t live frugally and save more money than your neighbor while they spent theirs on drugs or riotous living.  He knows this because he didn’t get anything without government assistance — affirmative action put him ahead of more qualified people who earned a spot that he took, just like Elizabeth Warren. You couldn’t possibly have gotten anything on your own merit or hard work.

“A claim for material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.” – Friedrich von Hayek

Von Mises said that full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties.  Have you ever tried to drill an oil or gas well?  Have you ever tried to build a house or commercial building?  Have you ever tried to manufacture and sell a product?  The International Building Code (IBC) increases in size, restrictions and requirements every year. Why? Because a bureaucracy needs to expand to justify its existence.

 “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton

Have you ever experienced the disdain and contempt of a bureaucrat whose permission you sought?  It used to be that their power to grant a license or permit was retribution for their pay being less than that of the private sector.  Now, you get to pay them 50% more than you would get for the same job, and the disdain has not decreased.  Firemen, police officers, and military personnel can retire as young as 38, many making over $100,000 per year if they work until 50, and many can take another job and collect another pension on top of the first.  Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, the average middle class family’s income has decreased $4,019 during the Obama years, to $50,964.  More than half of the lifeguards in Newport Beach, CA, make over $150,000 per year and can collect more than $100,000 in pension benefits starting under 50 years of age.

So, What’s Coming?

That paradigm of preternatural  prestidigitation, the Federal Reserve Bank, will continue its policy of zero percent interest.  The big banks will mask their insolvency with free money from the Feds.  Greedy speculators and fools who overspent on housing will have their mistakes paid for by those taxpayers who had the foresight to save and invest wisely.  Obama bundlers and other insiders will continue to get billion dollar investments from the government, sucking valuable capital from the private sector. The official inflation rates will miraculously stay low while you are paying 100% more for gasoline and food.

 “History is largely a history of inflation, usually inflations engineered by governments for the gain of governments.” –Friedrich von Hayek

Foreign nations are no longer purchasing U.S. government bonds. The largest purchaser is the Federal Reserve Bank.  In other words, the government is printing money from thin air. In 1970, you could go to Las Vegas and buy a silver dollar for one paper dollar. It now costs around $35. A mansion behind the Beverly Hills Hotel sold for $200,000. It resold in 2004 for $16 million. A house in Flintridge, CA, sold for $115,000.  Its current value is $4.5 million. The base price for a Corvette was $5192.  It is now $49,600, a comparative bargain.  What you could buy for $1 million in 1970 now takes $36 million.  Senator Everett Dirksen in the 1960s is reputed to have remarked,” a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.”  You can now add three zeros.  The bottom line is that if you are collecting 0.15% interest on your CD, you are losing real purchasing value of at least 10%, and that rate will be accelerating in the next four years.  Carlo Ponzi was a hopeless naïf compared to our elected officials.

Harry Reid Has a Plan

Harry Reid already has a bill on his desk which requires that all pension plans (except for the unions, of course), 401Ks, and IRAs be converted to annuities from the government.  This pile of cash represents the largest pile of readily available cash in the world right now.  The money will be gone as soon as it hits the government’s account, and you will be left with empty promises.  There is no money, only a printing press.

Capital export controls will be enacted.  You will not be able to get your money out of the country.  Already you can no longer open a bank account in Switzerland unless you have over $30 million because the reporting requirements are too onerous for a smaller account.  All requests to Switzerland for visas from Americans will be suspended. History will be repeated (shocking, I know), and all gold in private hands will be confiscated.  The Republicans will cave, the tax rates will rise, and anyone making more than the insider politicians and government employees will encounter ever-increasing marginal tax rates.

Payoffs for votes will be made.  Affirmative action requirements will be increased in every field of endeavor.  Women’s abortions and contraceptives will be free. Regulations will stop the advent of fracking and the boom in oil and natural gas will come to an abrupt halt.  Payments to environmental groups for lawyer’s fees will expand exponentially.  Government-controlled lands with oil and gas potential will be declared wilderness or national monuments, just like Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah.  I could go on for another ten pages, but , in a nutshell, the message from Mr. Obama is, “You lost.”

And finally, Israel has recognized that Mr. Obama will offer no succor.  Before the end of January, they will raid Iran.  Gasoline will reach $7 per gallon, and voila, solar and wind energy will be competitive.  No matter that your thermostat is set at 40 degrees, if you can get fuel or power.

The looters are in control.  Set your alarms.

The 2012 Election Outcome Was Predicted in 1857

As early as 1857, Thomas Macaulay, the British historian, predicted what the inevitable results of “the system” would be:

The day will come when (in the United States) a multitude of people will choose the legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of a legislature will be chosen? On the one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for rights, strict observance of public faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalism and usurers and asking why anybody should be permitted to drink champagne and to ride in a carriage while thousands of honest people are in want of necessaries. Which of the candidates is likely to be preferred by a workman?

When Society has entered on this downward progress, either civilization or liberty must perish. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire in the fifth; with this difference, that the Huns and vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and vandals will have been engendered within your country, by your own institutions.

SURPRISE! Obama Campaign Politicizes Trayvon

I just received this email from Change.org, Obama’s petition organization for social justice. Using the death of a teenager to further his agenda, Obama’s team sent out this missive “from” Trayvon Martin’s parents:

We are still devastated by the loss of our son Trayvon Martin, and nothing can bring him back. But today, we are heartened to tell you that justice may finally be served for Trayvon.

This evening, Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced that she will charge George Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder, weeks after he confessed to killing Trayvon — and now he’s in custody.

For weeks after Trayvon was killed, authorities refused to arrest Zimmerman. We couldn’t believe that in 2012, public officials would turn a blind eye to our son’s killing. We couldn’t let that happen.

More than 2 million people joined our call for Zimmerman’s arrest. We are so much closer to justice with the decision to bring charges against our son’s killer. We feel less alone knowing that so many people stood with our family during this impossible time.

When Trayvon was just nine, he ran into a burning house to save his father’s life. He may be gone, but he is still our hero. We are so thankful to all of you who fought to honor his memory.

Thank you for standing with us, and with Trayvon.

– Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton

The man will stop at nothing.

Permit to Kill Bald Eagles Granted by Obama Administration

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken the unusual step of issuing a permit allowing an American Indian tribe in Wyoming to kill two bald eagles for religious purposes.

Read more, here:

Permit to Kill Bald Eagles Granted by Obama Administration.

Barack Obama and the Double-Down on Failure

This was originally titled “Barack Obama and the Trifecta of Failure” because, up until Tuesday, he had three Incompletes on his report card, and last I checked, that does not equate a B+. But already I digress.

Obama has proven himself the empty suited failure many of us suspected he would be. To wit:

1C. Chicago

Obama had the audacity of hope to fly to Copenhagen to pimp the Olympics for his adopted home town of Chicago and couldn’t bring even so much as the Bronze home.

2C. Copenhagen

Another trip to the City of Spires and another failure. Perhaps it should be called the City of Aspires. Climate change will remain exactly where it belongs…where Mother Nature intends it.

3C. Coakley

Investing more than he obviously has, Obama rushed to Boston to invest his unearned capital into an unearned candidate and came away with a big, Brown nosebleed. Not only could he not help Coakley get elected but he’s lost the filibuster-proof Senate…by a nosey.

4C. Cap n Trade

With 3C, above, Cap n Tax is dead in the atmosphere. The wonderfully elusive, positively chilling, ever changing atmosphere that has delivered momentous amounts of snow and cold to the world has abandoned Barack in the most delicious way ever…by proving him wrong, once again.

Obama’s gambles, in one of the most unfriendly-to-gambling times in the history of America, complete the picture of what he has become…and frankly, always was. We love losers in Vegas…they keep our economy alive.

So, I guess I’d like to extend an invitation to our Loser in Chief to come put it all on Harry Reid…you’ll be sure to crap out and America will once again breathe a little easier.

Obama’s Conundrum – Doing What’s Right

Within hours of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, President Obama vowed “full support” from America to the people of that island nation who are in such desperate need of assistance.

And it’s the right thing to do. In fact, it’s the only thing to do. America is still the wealthiest nation on Earth and has a long-standing tradition of helping those less fortunate.

It’s also easily reached with one only truly wrong answer, and that would be to do nothing. Unfortunately, not all of Obama’s decisions appear to be so easily reached.

Point in fact: when the Ft. Hood massacre occurred, Obama, rather than wanting to appear that he was jumping to conclusions, continued to a previously scheduled bureaucratic conference where he gave those famous “shout outs”:

“Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference.”

“I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It’s good to see you.”

How dare you, Mr. President! How dare you continue to appear at an unnecessary conference and then give pep rally praise (complete with appreciate chuckles) before acknowledging that 14 people (yes, I’m counting the unborn child of the pregnant soldier) were brutally gunned down by an Islamic terrorist (yes, I’m going there, too.) How dare you show such insensitivity and then have the temerity to tell us not to “jump to conclusions.”

Second point in fact: another Islamic terrorist tried to blow up Flight 253 on Christmas Day in the skies over Detroit, and had he been successful, would have killed hundreds of people both in the air and on the ground. Obama, not to be torn away from his 10-day vacation in Hawaii, waited three days before gracing us with his television presence on a make-shift “glory to Obama” backed stage. Complete with presidential seal – and sadly missing his teleprompter – Obama stumbled through his statements and made sure we all understood Abdulmutallab was a “suspect” and that it was the previous administration’s fault that his administration didn’t stop the Nigerian pantie-bomber.

Thank you, Keep America Safe, for the great video!!

Again, I say, How dare you!?

How dare you succumb to the paralysis of analysis as you check polls and take the political temperature before you choose to address a country in need – OUR COUNTRY – of leadership and guidance. And where were you AND your staff? Where was Hilary Clinton, our Secretary of State? Shouldn’t this have been a matter for her to have, at the very least, made an appearance?

Now, with a tiny island nation suffering devastating losses but, quite frankly, not a matter of state urgency, we have Hilary Clinton and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceling their trip to the Pacific. Why? Where were they when America needed them? Oh, that’s right…on vacation, too.

When it comes down to the choice of doing what’s right, or of selecting a moment to do what is the most politically expedient for his agenda, Mr. Obama consistently errs on the side of…well…the wrong way to deal with matters of state emergency.

This president seems unable to comprehend that sometimes, doing what’s right isn’t something he may want to do, but must do because, damn it, it’s the right thing to do.

Or am I jumping to conclusions…again?

Reverend Barack, Boss Harry, and the Racist Democrats

On Saturday, January 9th, 2010, it was revealed that, shocker of shockers, Senate Majority Leader – and Progressive Democrat – Harry Reid just “might” be a bit of a racist.

In a new book about the 2008 election entitled “Game Change”, Reid is quoted as having remarked – and apparently with some amazement – that the nation’s highest-ranking black Democrat and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, was notably “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”

The important point here that seems to be missed (most egregiously by the television media) is the last part of that sentence, “unless he wanted to have one.”

I’ve said it before: when Obama speaks to SEIU or OFA or any one of the predominately black demographic groups to which he panders, he takes on the gospel-reading, America-damning intonations of Rev. Jeremy Wright (or Rev. Jesse Jackson, or Rev. Al Sharpton…I guess ‘insert name of reverend here’ would suit our purposes).

Conversely, Obama is quite able to speak without that troublesome “Negro dialect” when directing his oratory to such aristocratic, predominately-white demographic groups to which he panders (like the Nobel Peace Prize organization), enunciating clearly and playing the good puppet “foh all dem white foke”:

Houseboy Obama, ever compliant with the party line, quickly forgave Boss Harry and considers “the book closed.” Good boy. You make us proud. And we’ll forget you wanted to drum Trent Lott out of Congress for his comments about Strom Thurmond ’cause we know you’d never feel the same way about a Democrat saying much worse.

Lt. Colonel Allen West, a Republican candidate running for a 2010 Congressional seat out of Florida, understands the true, disingenuous nature of the Democrats, whom, he says, espouse “the collective progressive ideal of inferiority”:

“The revelation of Senator Harry Reid’s comments referencing “negro talk” is just indicative of the true sentiment elitist liberals, and indeed the Democratic party, have toward black Americans. The history of the Democrat party is one of slavery, secession, segregation, and now socialism. It is this new aged socialism born from the Johnson Great Society programs that have castigated blacks as victims needing government dependency. One need only to look upon the city of Detroit to ascertain what liberal social welfare policies have produced for the inner city…..the new plantation for black Americans.”

You can read Colonel West’s entire letter here.

***

Deny it as they might, Democrats – the party of “slavery, secession, segregation, and now socialism” – have done everything they can to cover their tracks with progressive progroms. The true sheep in wolves’ clothing – I like to call them Entitlement Schemes – have encouraged minorities – and most especially, black Americans – to suck on the government teat because they certainly couldn’t live the American dream if they didn’t.

They have convinced the swarm that their reforms would save them. Yet it has been shown, throughout history – and extraordinarily so in Detroit, Moscow, and Beijing – that a government handout is not a hand up, but rather another soft link in the velvet chain that binds one’s soul. While Moscow’s and Beijing’s ties that bind were cinched in violence, Detroit and other progressive American cities have been drawn by the soft glow of electric sex – a glow that came in the form of a welfare check, “free” education, and 40-acres and a mule. Except in this case, the 40-acres were replaced by a HUD housing project and a bus pass.

And Rev. Obama is another black who has been given his progressive hand out and free ride. From a sabbatical in Bali to “gather his thoughts” so he could write his autobiography to a bought-and-paid-for Harvard education (and subsequently the Presidency of the United States) the Rev. has played into the hands of his white oppressors – the Democratic Party – so much so that he can’t even stand up for himself, blacks, or America when it matters so much.

Good boy, indeed.