Pithy Economic Truths

1.  You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by

legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

2.  What one person receives without working for,

another person must work for without receiving.

3.  The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

New Energy Realities Emerging

Reality appears to be overtaking the politically correct myth makers and their propagandists, and the truth appears to be:

Back to the Future With Fossil Fuels

according to this report.


Signaling that the reported developments provide a viable path toward American and European energy independence is this call by a Saudi prince for cutting Middle East oil prices. Such cuts and supply increases are implemented by the Arab oligarchs every time the sheiks see a threat to their captive markets.   

Not To Be Missed

Lee Rodgers blog is full of gems today, beginning with this headline:

ECONOMY SICK,  NO SPACE PROGRAM, MILITARY SHRINKING --

WHAT NEXT FOR A NATION IN  DECLINE?

Don't miss it.


It can be reached by clicking here.

Once Again, For Memorial Day

Significant News Absent From Leftrickle Media

With all the glowing Leftrickle Media reports of the "warm welcome" our Chosen One has been getting in Poland, they somehow have failed to let Americans in on the news that the man who led the movement that freed Poland from the rule of the Soviet Union and its stooges spurned an invitation to meet with our President.


That's right, Lech Walesa, who led the Polish Solidarity movement with exemplary courage, intelligence, and integrity, chose not to sit down with our Anointed One. His largely unreported refusal to do so and why he refused is spelled out in this report from Investors Business Daily.


What does it say about us for having chosen as our president an individual with whom a true moral leader does not wish to deal? And what does the lack of reporting on, and examination of this occurrence say about our traditional media?How do you supposed the press would have handled a similar rebuff and snub of George Bush?  

The New False Faith

Adherents of the supposedly civilized world's new religion took great satisfaction and delight in scoffing at the Elmer Gantry type clergyman who has had to revise his doomsday prophecy as well as at  the ignorant souls who believed his now disproved end-of-the-world prediction. 


Nonetheless, the scoffers include large numbers of faithful adherents of the equally dubious prophesies of the modern world's new religion: the supposedly looming global warming catastrophe, which also has had to undergo revision as a result of its encounter with reality. No longer referred to as "global warming," it has morphed into and currently is referred to as  "climate change." This new faith's followers steadfastly refuse to look behind the curtain where they would observe that their leaders just a few decades ago were predicting that mankind would be beset by mass starvations and global cooling and new ice ages by the end of the 20th Century.


The new faith's priesthood is safe in claiming that the climate is changing. It's like predicting tides rising and falling.  The earth's climates always have been, are, and almost certainly always will be changing. Change is constant in the universe and on our earth.


One of the great failings of human beings is the almost universally shared assumption that what we have experienced in the course of our lives is "normal." Thus, we tend to believe that our civilization is normal even though what we deem to be civilization is relatively new. Barbarism and chaos would be considered normal if that term denoted the conditions under which human beings existed for most of our species' existence on this planet.


Change is what is normal and it is the ultimate conceit of homo sapiens to believe that we can know what conditions or changes are the most beneficial in the natural world or that we can control those conditions or changes. All one needs to do to understand the hubris underlying such beliefs is to examine the climate shifts that have taken place throughout our globe's existence or even to look at our recently experienced earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, tornados, floods . . . you name it.


Want something to believe in without phony profit-seeking prophets? Try this one:

NATURE BATS LAST 

Political Timidity

What currently passes for political leadership in the U.S. seems to be terrified by, and passive in the face of the deficits and debts they have created. Unwilling to do what clearly is necessary, our "leaders" go on as they have in past except, in a very few instances, for a bit of tinkering at the fringes.

Were our elites not paralyzed by the crisis into which they have led us, they quickly could enable free Americans to restore the magnificent economic machine that built the U.S. into the most prosperous nation and powerful financial power the world had ever seen. This could be done not by cutting and snipping but by immediately and in one stroke eliminating all:

*  Foreign aid,

*  Contributions and payments to the United Nations, and

*  Federal agencies, departments, activities, and rules and regulations not contemplated and provided for by the Constitution.

It's a matter of having the political courage and will to stop doing business as has become usual.

True Believers No Matter What

One has to give the Obama administration's economic team credit for its members' steadfast allegiance to their ideological commitments. Despite the continuing flow of devastating economic news on almost every front -- consumer spending, employment, housing, home foreclosures, manufacturing activity --  they continue to believe that they "progress is being made" and that they are on the right path . . . .  Evidence to the contrary is ignored or explained away.


Their minds are like those of history's inquisition torturers who faithfully believed that if the racks to which they had their victims tied were tightened just another notch or two the validity of their accusations would come forth, be proven, and shown to be gloriously true and correct.

Boy, Was He Wrong!

Alexander Hamilton was an extraordinarily talented and able individual but he also was wrong about a good many things, including his support of centralized banking and financial powers. Few of his errors matched this gem:


Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.

. . . Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 78, 1788

Today's Great Moving Force

The one thing that currently gets things done in the U.S. is

PULL

or, more specifically PULL in Washington, D.C.


Nancy Pelosi, the ultraliberal member of Congress from San Francisco, who was the squeaker of the House of Reprehensibles in the last Congress, and the equally liberal/progressive American Association of Retired Persons (the AARP) and the Service Employees International Union (the SEIU) had lots of PULL. They PULLED and PULLED hard for, and succeeded in enacting Obamacare, and that gave them even more PULL.


How, you may ask, are they now using their PULL.


Well, both the AARP and the SEIU have gotten waivers exempting them from the mandate provision of Obamacare that their PULL imposed on the rest of us. As for Ms. Pelosi, similar exempting waivers have been granted to a slew of entities in her district -- in fact 20% of all of the Obamacare exempting waivers that have been granted nationwide have gone to Nasty Nancy's congressional district.


That's PULL in a nation in which PULL now makes the world . . . or, at least Obama's federal government . . . go 'round. Isn't it great living in a world in which all pullers are equal but some are more equal than others?

The Obama Incongruity

As victims of the devastating Joplin, Missouri, tornado continue to be pulled from the ruble there, the Chosen One is unmoved and undeterred from continuing his festive partying in Ireland and England . . . although he has announced that he will visit the scene of the Midwest disaster over the coming weekend . . . after he has finished making taxpayer funded whoopee in Europe.


The guy who described the Obamas occupying the White House as

Just another Ghetto Family in Public Housing

had it exactly right. 

Guess Where Our Tax Money Went

Hey there, fellow tax paying suckers: Here's a bit of news about the ride on which we are being taken . . . and being taken is the right expression.


Our government took our tax money and shelled it out in stimulus payments to a bunch of tax cheats and delinquents. Read a thumbnail preliminary account of this latest unsurprising travesty here.


These are the people we are supposed to trust and rely on to provide our health care. 

Worth Two Thousand Words

BiBi Netanyahu and Barry Soetoro in their early twenties

He Does Too Have a Foreign Policy

The world's foremost teleprompter reader this week exposed as false the claim that he has no coherent foreign policy.

He demonstrated that he in fact does have one . . . .  It is clear and easily expressed in a single word:

APPEASEMENT

or, for those who want a more detailed explanation -- he is following the lead of Jimmie Carter in:

REWARDING OUR ENEMIES

AND

PUNISHING OUR FRIENDS

Our Constitutional Scholar

After THE Takedown

Progressive Tax "Fairness"

In their unending efforts to swell the coffers and powers of government, statists continually bleat about tax "fairness," by which they mean that they intend to begin by increasing taxes on anyone and everyone who is better off financially than those they are addressing at the moment.

They ignore the fact that high earning citizens pay a far higher portion of total income tax collections than their proportionate share of the nation's total earnings.  Recognizing the accuracy of the adage that those who propose to rob Peter to pay Paul always can count on the support of Paul, they constantly claim to all the Pauls that they are going to increase taxes on everyone named Peter  (whose earnings exceed those of the more numerous Pauls and therefore are referred to as "the rich"). But they never explain their concept of fairness.

To examine that concept let's use as a model a hypothetical society made up of five individuals, one of whom earns $200,000 a year and four who each earn $50,000 annually.

In the first instance, everyone's earnings are taxed at 10%. Thus each of the four individuals earning $50,000 a year will pay $5,000 in taxes and the more highly paid earner will pay $20,000. Thus the taxes paid by the individual whose earnings account for half of the society's earnings will pay half of the total taxes collected. The taxes paid by the other four will in the aggregate  pay the other half of all the taxes as they collectively earn the other half of the society's total earnings. As each of the four earns a fourth of what the high earner does, they will pay only 25% of the tax that he does.

Nothing about this now old fashioned and outdated system seems unfair to me even though each of the five individuals probably share equally in the services that the society provides to its citizens. 

However, the four Pauls can easily be convinced that it is unfair for each of them to be left with only $45,000 to spend as they wish after paying their taxes while the "rich guy" can do what he pleases with $180,000. So they elect guys who will not tax them at all even though they enjoy their society's benefits and impose the total cost of such benefits on the "rich guy," by taxing his earnings at a 20% rate. So now four individuals contribute nothing while the high earner pays the full $40,000 cost of their collective government.

But wait. Along comes another politician, who points out the unfairness of the four guys having only $50,000 to spend for their needs and desires while the "rich guy," even after paying $40,000 in taxes, has $160,000 available to spend as he wishes.  So the next step -- which gets us to where we are today -- is to tax the earnings of the "rich guy" at a 30% rate, meaning that he pays $60,000 in taxes. The government distributes $5,000 to each of the four Pauls for a total of $20,000 in "earned income tax credits" and runs the government with the other $40,000 it has extracted from the "rich" Peter.

Well now, how can it be fair for each of the four Pauls who make up a majority of the society to have only $55,000 each while even after paying $60,000 in taxes the "rich" Peter has $140,000 at his disposal? After all, doesn't fairness require equality?

Of course it does, and that is what the  current administration is demanding. The "rich" Peter must pay enough to give the government the $40,000 it needs to operate plus an amount that will enable it to equalize what each of its individual members have available for their own use. The total earnings of society's members, net of the $40,000 it takes to run the government, is $360,000, or 72,000 for each of its five members. So the "rich" Peter is going to be expected to shell out in taxes all but $72,000 of his income. Thus the "rich" Peter is going to have to pay $128,000 in taxes from his $200,000 in earnings -- $40,000 for the costs of operating the government and an aggregate of $88,000 to fund the four $22,000 "earned income tax credit"distributions. This will leave him and the four Pauls with $72,000 each.

Who can complain about such "fairness?" 

 *     *     *     *     *

Oops, it seems Peter has disappeared . . . went to Singapore or some such place on vacation and never returned. 

He also appears to have shut down or taken with him his company, at which each of the four now unemployed Pauls used to work for $50,000 a year.

What do we do now?

U.S. Government: Wholly Owned and Subservient

Anyone who doubts that the federal government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the nation's big banks should consider the contrast between their treatment and that of their smaller counterpart institutions.

The smaller ones are being seized and shut down at a record rate on the basis of the slightest hiccup.  The defunct banks' assets are routinely shuffled by government regulators to their mammoth masters. 

Thus, as their smaller competitors are eliminated, the big banks grow ever larger, gaining market share, increasing their control of the nation's economy in the process.

When the big banks falter and teeter at the brink of well deserved collapse, as they did when the real estate bubble they created became unsustainable and burst, taking the country's economy down with it, the failed monsters were rewarded for their malfeasance by their governmental minions (posing as "public servants") with unending infusions of copious amounts of cash extracted from taxpaying citizens.

Jefferson and Jackson understood the dangers and evils inherent in the concentration of economic power in a few humongous banking institutions. Their characters and abilities enabled them to thwart efforts to bring about such concentration in their times. Their modern day successors also understand the game. They understand it very well as they are part of it, having been bought and paid for . . . and the rest of us are paying the price of entrusting them with the powers of government.

A Rare Senator: One Who Understands and Supports the Constitution

Finally -- A Properly Dressed Wal-Mart Shopper

Observation (with apologies to the ladies for this guy thing)

1.  The sport of choice for the urban poor is  BASKETBALL.

2  The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is  BOWLING.

3.  The sport of choice for front-line workers is  FOOTBALL.
 

4.  The sport of choice for supervisors is  BASEBALL.

5.  The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS.
 

and . . . .

6.  The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is  GOLF.
 

THE AMAZING BUT INESCAPABLE CONCLUSION:
 

The higher you go, the smaller your balls become.

There must be tons of people in Washington playing marbles!

A Reader's Reaction

One of this blog's followers has responded to the immediately preceding post with an e-mail musing about whether GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt ever has read Atlas Shrugged or if he and his cronies ever have read anything at all or have any capacity for introspection.

Interesting questions.

Also, it is to be noted that GE is not alone. Big business today is generally in cahoots with big government, as is Wall Street, headed up by Goldman Sachs and the nation's big banks -- the very folks who created the debt bubble that took down our economy when it burst.

Ayn Rand's Amazing Foresight

The recently released Atlas Shrugged movie motivated me to return to and reread the Ayn Rand book. I found it even greater than I did when it was published more than a half century ago.

Ms. Rand anticipated much of what has occurred in the intervening years, particularly the elevation to positions of public authority of individuals with no tangible accomplishments and devoid of any experience in, appreciation for, or knowledge or understanding of the real world. And her depiction of our mindless leftrickle media is priceless. She's spot on there as she also is with respect to the phonies currently posing as intellectuals in the contemptible institutions that most of our country's formerly leading colleges and universities have become.

Particularly amazing is the book's portrayal of the transformation of a once great railroad under a conniving and corrupt chief executive officer into a hollow and useless entity wholly dependent on favors from a bloated governmental bureaucracy that it serves -- initially by choice and then, subsequently, by necessity -- as a handmaiden and supporter. The parallel with the course the once great General Electric Company has been and is pursuing under its current leadership with the degrading path taken by the fictional Taggart Transcontinental railroad under a loathsome CEO is striking. So too is the prescient description of the toadying and totally useless board members of the fictional enterprise and the current too sadly real one.

Losing Our Mojo

When the Heritage Foundation in its last several annual reports on the subject reduced America's economic freedom ranking that provided an intellectual framework for what is taking place in the real world. The practical result, as demonstrated by this account, is that the U.S. no longer is the best place in the world to do business. Entrepreneurs and the best brains are decamping . . . going elsewhere and they are taking their productive innovative businesses and the jobs they produce with them. 

Time To Leave Afghanistan?

All one has to do to assess the prospects for our nation's military venture in Afghanistan is to read the history of the multitude of similar efforts by numerous nation's throughout recorded history. All failed and ended in ignominious retreats. This account from an on-the-ground participant in our Afghan effort may explain the historical record and our current expensive quandary. 

Reversing Course In Battle vs. Nature

After spending untold millions of our tax dollars in protracted and probably futile efforts to prevents the mighty Mississippi River from changing course -- as it repeatedly has throughout history -- our government now is resorting to steps that, according to this report, may facilitate such a shift. It should be noted that this is destroying productive agricultural lands in order is to extend, probably temporarily, the existence of New Orleans, a municipal cesspool on a below sea level bog surrounded by various waters . . . and one that stands on an even lower moral base.

Time To Hang Up the Car Keys May Have Arrived . . . Perhaps Even Awhile Ago

Noteworthy Contrast

George W. Bush speech after capture of Saddam:

The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq . The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force.  Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate 'em.

Barack Obama speech after killing of bin Laden:

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan . And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Hey, Here's An Idea: Just Stop

Taken by itself, our worldwide splurge of foreign aid described in the video posted yesterday seems insane. It is particularly so when we are debt ridden and up to our ears in our own financial problems. Even more egregious is the fact that we are borrowing money to give away as aid to virtually every country on earth, including China, which holds an astounding amount of our debt and from whom we are continuing to borrow.

Let's just stop the foreign aid dole . . . stop it cold turkey . . . stop it right now. Just stop it.

While we are at it, we also should shut down the overseas military facilities in the hundred plus countries in which we have no business keeping American soldiers. Shut the bases down and bring the troops home. It makes no sense to spend and do more to defend a plethora of foreign countries than they are willing to spend and do to defend themselves . . . and, as will be shown in a future post, it is counterproductive to do so.

Worldwide Splurging of Our Tax Dollars

On Taking Flight Today

Combat Effectiveness Be Damned

The Pentagon is playing fast and loose with the nation's combat capabilities by surrendering to the current administration's homosexual agenda. It is abandoning its traditional insistence on conforming behavior to the needs of the military. As is shown in this Washington Times report,  it now is moving to conform the military to accommodate homosexual behavior.  It is doing this without addressing the impact that the politically driven change is likely to have on how effective the transformed military will be if and when it ever again has to fight a real war.

Feeling Secure Now?

Our Navy is down to about 278 ships.

But that's okay because it has about 340 admirals.

Have not confirmed the above numbers but they from a knowledgeable source that usually is reliable.

In any event, it's not important as we don't really need any warships and everything is okay because the chief of naval operations has announced that diversity is the major mission of the sailors under his command . . . and the top heavy command structure is needed for that.

Corruption, Greed, and Vanity on Display

Resplendent in all its wealth and glory, the nation's largest and most successful criminal organization was out celebrating this weekend. In the process, its members demonstrated that like the Bourbon kings of France, although they perhaps never have forgotten anything,  they also never have learned anything -- least of all the lesson of Marie Antoinette.


I of course am referring to the White House correspondents dinner where our gangsters who run the federal government gathered with their servile media sycophants (who doffed their usual pose of serving as watch dogs over officialdom) to congratulate themselves and one another for their success in sucking the economic lifeblood out of the rest of the country and into their own coffers. The revelers were uniformly smiling, self satisfied, sleek, well dressed, well groomed, well fed and well lubricated. No indication was given by even one of the  parasitic celebrants of any recognition or understanding of the deep and extended economic distress that the rest of the country is experiencing under their ministrations.


The sumptuous display of corruption, greed, and vanity and its contrast with the conditions and mood prevalent throughout the rest of the country had a weird reptilian fascination about it -- it had me musing about what a wonderful opportunity it presented were we fly-over-country rubes able to produce a modern Bastille Day or at least a Guy Fawkes of our own.