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March 15, 2013

Karl Marx and the American Dream

By Jeremy Meister

You cannot use Karl Marx's ideas to help the middle class.

You can't do it.

Anyone who claims otherwise is stupid, ignorant, crazy, a liar, or some combination of the above.  Even the laziest student can open a copy of the Communist Manifesto and read the first page, where Marx launches into an attack on the middle class (the "bourgeoisie," as he calls them) -- an attack that continues to the end of his article.  At no point does Marx say anything good about the middle class.  Never does Marx propose a way to help the middle class.  The whole Manifesto is a recipe for destroying the bourgeoisie and the economic system that creates and supports them (capitalism).

Basically, Marx advocated a return to the medieval lifestyle: a time when the barons and princes looked out for and took care of the happy serfs, who spent their days dancing around the maypole and praising their lords.  Marx saw it as a time when everyone shared, everyone took pride in what he did, and everyone looked out for his neighbor.

 

But there was a problem in this paradise.  It was the evil middle class who, unhappy and ungrateful in their place, rose up and destroyed the perfect social order.

The only problem with trying to return to the middle-age way of doing things is that Marx and his friends might not be at the top of the pecking order.  Thankfully, Marx had a solution for this, too: "the people" would get together and, after voting, put Marx (and his friends) in charge.  After all, someone has to lead these unwashed idiots.  There would be only one vote: the one where Marx is elected king.  After that, everything would be said to be the "will of the people."

This is why you'll never run into a follower of Marx.  Communism/Socialism are completely followerless movements.  If you ever talk to a Communist or a Marxist, you'll get the same story -- when the revolution comes, my friends and I will be in charge.  You'll never hear a Marxist smile and say, "When the revolution comes I'm going to polish the leader's boots".

Marx wanted his system immediately -- preferably consisting of a violent destruction of the middle class, with blood running like rivers in the streets.  But being a pragmatic man, he was willing to wait.  

The true genius of the modern Marxists is that they have managed to convince a majority of middle-classers that Marx's ideas really can help the bourgeoisie.  And it's hard to distinguish between those who actually believe that Socialism is a viable system and those opportunists who are simply planning to use such a system to their own ends.

How many of these modern Marxists are really this ignorant of their document?  How often do we hear that "[this Marxist idea] needs to be done to help working families" or "[that Marxist idea] needs to be implemented to help the middle class"?

 The Marxists espouse this nonsense because people believe it.  Middle-classers have now become the ones voting for and supporting these ideas.  Arrest records from the Marxist celebration of Occupy Wall Street show that most of those involved in that movement are from comfortable (dare we call them "bourgeoisie"?) backgrounds.  But it goes deeper than that.  In any given poll, middle-class people overwhelmingly like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, government subsidies of education and housing -- the list is endless, and the demands are never-ending.

But none of these programs is designed to help the middle class -- not any more than a drug dealer despite giving out medicines is interested in the health and well-being of his clientele.  A little bit always leads to a demand for more.  And after decades of calls for more, more, more, we get what we're looking at in 2013: the imminent total collapse of the capitalist system.

When was the last time you heard some politician calling for any of the following?

 

1)      A heavily progressive income tax.  The more you make, the more they'll take.  The rich are to pay their "fair share."  We just had one of the biggest tax increases in American history starting January 1, but this hasn't stopped liberal politicians from demanding more hikes.

2)      Seizing of inheritances.  One of the most insidious taxes around is the death tax.  Grieving families are forced to give half or more of their loved ones' property to the government.  Interestingly enough, this idea is now working its way into gun control legislation.  There are calls for "assault weapons" being forfeited at their owners' death.

3)      Government takeover of the credit system.  Already the government owns loans on a lot of houses.  ObamaCare mandates that only the government can now give student loans.  Meanwhile, the government is its own biggest debtor, swelling the amount we owe to levels never before seen in world history.

4)      A takeover of the media.  From "non Citizen" legislation, which would stop groups and businesses from speaking during elections to media "bailouts," which would come with government strings, or just outright nationalizations of media outlets, the government has big ideas for a "transformation" of the meaning of "free speech."

5)      Overhaul of transportation.  How often do we hear the phrase "shovel-ready jobs" or "roads and bridges"?  They are pushing a train from Las Vegas to LA and another train that will run down the California coast.  Transportation projects are a popular subject, even as the government coffers shrink and the costs of such projects explode.

6)      Regulations of industry, especially in an environmental sense.  Obama has one of the most active and overbearing EPAs since that agency was founded.

7)      Expansion of education.  Everyone shall go to school -- kindergarten through college -- and it will all be paid for by the government.

8)      Government ownership of business.  We've already watched the government gobble up the banks and auto-makers.  Now we're watching them take over the medical system.  Gun companies are probably on the horizon as well.

 

How many of these ideas sound familiar?  Every single one of them is laid out in the Communist Manifesto as a way to destroy the middle class.  Every single one.  Forget good-sounding talk about "fair shares" and making the evil rich pay.  They're coming after you, Mr. and Mrs. American.

Marx gave those ideas above their own bullet points in the Manifesto, but he had other ideas.  Would you like to hear some of those?

1)      Abolition of borders.  The lower class (the "proletariat," as Marx called them) need to be free to move to other nations -- the better to corrupt the vote in those places.

 

2)      A takeover of education.  Not just through government ownership, but through like-minded Communists and Socialists populating the educators and lecturing students about the goodness of Marxism.  The results have made a profound difference in our culture.

Every single time these ideas are implemented, the middle class takes more damage, which in turn leads to the bourgeoisie Marxists calling for more Marxism -- and the little merry-go-round keeps spinning in the halls of our government.

 

All of this is culminating exactly as Marx envisioned: a healthy, prosperous ruling elite lording it over a rapidly growing population of serfs.  This hasn't been lost on the people paying attention: California is becoming a feudal society.  There are stories leaking out that the same thing is happening in other liberal Marxist enclaves like New York and Washington, D.C.

 

This is a huge problem for our government, our system, our culture, and our society -- namely because the United States is a middle-class dream.  The Founding Fathers were all from the "bourgeoisie" who rebelled because the government in England didn't feel that it had to respond to the concerns of peasants and underlings.

 

The idea that someone can start with nothing and, using hard work, creativity, and ingenuity, raise himself to a higher level is the American Dream.  

 

To own one's own house, own one's own car, to start a business, to work where one chooses, to take risks and reap the rewards of those risks -- that's the American Dream.  It's why immigrants used to sacrifice everything to come here: the idea that one's birth wouldn't dictate his entire life and how far he could go.  People are still willing to risk their lives for this.  People are not locked into a caste system in America. 

 

And all of that is anathema to the Marxist vision.  Even Marx himself admits this:

Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. (The Communist Manifesto)

There is a small bright spot, however.  Right now, we're still mostly a middle-class society.  In a system where the vote is everything, there is still a chance to stop all of this destruction.  But the first thing we as a society have to do is start being honest with ourselves.  We cannot use Marx's ideas to obtain the American Dream.

The first step to fixing a problem is to admit that you have one.

Jeremy Meister works in film and radio in the Midwest.  He can be reached at Meister@windstream.net.

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The Truth About Immigration

The early immigrants wanted nothing but a chance at freedom and the American Dream.

 

The current batch of immigrants want something for nothing, and they want to ship some of the money we give them back to their relatives in their mother country or ship their relatives in here to live for free off you and me.  T

 

hat is not immigration, it is illegal entry into our country, and it is supported by Democrats for votes and Republicans for cheap labor for big business.

 

And you and I get the damn bill for it all.

 

It’s sickening…and we're powerless to stop it unless we replace virtually everyone in Congress and the White House and start over.

Just a Coincidence?

Top 10 States for Business all led by Republican Governors

 

 

Chief Executive magazine releases its ninth annual survey of CEO's opinions about the best and worst states for business – and Republicans are governing in all of the top 10.

“In the minds of most leaders, a state’s friendliness is closely aligned with its tax and regulatory regime. Similarly, workforce quality also measures the perceived cooperativeness of workers with management, as well as the people’s general work ethic and education attainment,” the report write-up states.

Only three Republicans govern in the bottom 10 states – Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey (ranked 46th), Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan (ranked 44th), and Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania (ranked 42nd).

California is ranked at 50, the worst state for business in America.



Thank God for the Constitution!

Americans Deserve the IRS

By Walter E. Williams

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Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do. Let's look at it.

Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal spending is 25 percent of our GDP. State and local government spending is about 15 percent of the GDP. That means government spends more than 40 cents of each dollar we earn. If we add government's regulatory burden, which is simply a disguised form of taxation, the government take is more than 50 percent of what we produce.

In order to squeeze out of us half of what we produce, a government tax collection agency must be ruthless and able to put the fear of God into its citizens. The IRS has mastered that task. Congress has given it powers that would be deemed criminal if used by others. For example, the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protects Americans against self-incrimination and being forced to bear witness against oneself. That's precisely what one does when he is compelled to sign his income tax form. However, a Fifth Amendment argument can't be used as a defense in a court of law. The IRS will counter that you voluntarily provided the information on your tax return.

If you're in debt to Bank of America, Wells Fargo or any other private creditor, in order for it to garnish your wages as a means of collecting debt, it must first get a court order. By contrast, the IRS can garnish your wages without having to get a court order first. If your employer doesn't obey the IRS and send it a portion of your wages, he will be held accountable for what you owe. At the minimum, some IRS collection procedures violate one of the basic tenets of the rule of law -- namely, the law of the land applies equally to individuals (and other private entities) and the government (and its officials and agents).

Our Founding Fathers feared the emergence of an agency such as the IRS and its potential for abuse. That's why they gave us Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, which reads: "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken."

A capitation is a tax placed directly on an individual. That's what an income tax is. The founders feared the abuse and the government power inherent in a direct tax. In Section 8 of Article 1, they added, "But all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." These protections the founders gave us were undone by the Progressive era's 16th Amendment, which reads, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

If federal spending were only 5 percent of our GDP ($750 billion) -- instead of 25 percent ($3.8 trillion) -- there would be no need for today's oppressive and complicated tax system. You might ask, "How could we be a great nation without all the government spending?" When our Constitution was ratified in 1791, we were a weak and poor nation. One hundred forty years later, with federal spending a mere pittance of what it is today, we became the world's richest and most powerful nation. No small part of this miracle was limited and nonintrusive government.

The bottom line is that members of Congress need such a ruthless tax collection agency as the IRS because of the charge we Americans have given them. We want what the IRS does -- namely, to take the earnings of one American so Congress can create a benefit for some other American. Don't get angry with IRS agents. They are just following orders. 

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/walter-e-williams/americans-deserve-irs

The Dollar – and the USA – is Toast

Exclusive: Lord Monckton sees China prepping for final collapse of America

by Lord Monckton Email | Archive

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, high priest of climate skepticism, advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wrote leaders for the Yorkshire Post, was editor of the Catholic paper The Universe, managing editor of the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, assistant editor of Today, and consulting editor of the Evening Standard. He invented the million-selling "Eternity Puzzles," "Sudoku X" and a promising treatment for infections. See the Science & Public Policy Institute.

Obama has done it. He has brought America down. It only took him just over four years. The Republicans could have stopped him. They didn’t.

How did the nihilistic left succeed in destroying America? Simple. They learned just a little of the capitalism they hate, and they drove your nation into outright bankruptcy.

And here is what the GOP has to say about it: just about nothing.

The once-mighty United States is now the most indebted nation on Earth. In round numbers, here are just some of the vital statistics as the patient dies:

National debt: $17 trillion, or $50,000 per man, woman and child, or $150,000 per taxpayer. Annual federal deficit: $1 trillion. Medicare/Medicaid/Obama”care”: $1 trillion a year. Social Security: another $1 trillion a year. Defense: two-thirds of a trillion. Unemployment handouts: $2 billion per working day. Debt interest: $1 billion per working day. Federal pensions, ditto.

Now for the big numbers. Your government’s Social Security liability is as big as the national debt: $17 trillion. Its prescription drug liability is $22 trillion. Then there’s the Medicare liability of $86 trillion. Total unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government are $125 trillion.

Net assets for each U.S. citizen are $300,000. The net liability of the U.S. government, shared among its citizens, amounts to almost four times that: $1.1 million a head. And the government’s debt is growing at $1 million every 45 seconds. To cover its annual deficit, it is printing $1 trillion a year of currency that is not backed by any asset whatsoever.

Here is what will happen next. When the crash comes, don’t say you weren’t given fair and clear warning.

First, the dollar will cease – no, make that “is already ceasing” – to be the world’s reserve currency. China, as I have been warning you she would, has realized the dollar is finished. So she is quietly making startling progress with bilateral and multilateral deals to replace the dollar with the yuan as the world’s currency of choice.

Sterling, once the world’s reserve currency, went precisely the same way in 1967 under orders from Moscow, which then largely controlled the governing Socialist Labor party in Britain.

After the Second World War, the Socialist/Communist governments of Attlee and Wilson bankrupted Britain with health-care and welfare programs and nationalization of industries. Inflation rose to 27 percent.

Obama’s copycat policies are different in only one respect. Moscow is no longer calling the shots. International totalitarianism no longer needs direction. Its cruel, hate-filled, destructive mission now advances on autopilot.

Watch some of the straws in the wind. China and Korea have come to a little-noticed agreement that international trade between them will no longer be denominated in U.S. dollars, but in yuan, or Won.

Behind the closed mahogany doors of the world’s finance houses, elaborate and secret preparations are being made for the upheaval and international financial collapse that will follow the deliberate printing-out and consequent implosion of the dollar.

Your GOP representatives should be, but are not, asking the administration to reveal to them the ever-tougher terms on which the Chinese continue – with ever-greater reluctance –to lend money to keep their communist ally in the White House afloat.

Do not believe China cannot afford to let her biggest creditor fail. She can, she will, and she is making careful preparations to do just that.

If you thought the crash of 2008 was bad, think again. The crash that is coming –I cannot put a date on it, but it is not far away now – will be orders of magnitude worse.

So, what should you do to protect yourself and your family? First, get rid of every dollar you have. Dollars are now all but worthless. When the crash comes, they will have no value at all.

In hard times, most financial instruments – currencies, stocks, bonds – are not worth the paper they are printed on. Get rid of them now. Buy silver coins. They will quintuple in price once the crash sets in, and they are small enough to be fungible when the dollar dies.

Buy land, some of it well-wooded, some of it arable, some of it grassland. You will need the timber to power your steam tractor. Gasoline will be a costly rarity. And make sure you can defend yourselves. Starving mobs are no respecters of persons. Do what the Mormons do: Get three months’ supply of imperishable foodstuffs and hide them in the basement.

Absurd though this advice may now seem, there is a real danger that the crash will sudden. If so – perhaps for several months, and even for years – the fabric of civilization, including the food-supply chain, will fail.

It is not my custom to write in millenarian or apocalyptic terms. But the very best that can be said for your current administration is that it simply has no idea what damage it is doing. It is printing money in the vain hope of buying itself time. Yet every fake dollar that comes off the printing-presses makes the problem worse and the solution harder.

At worst, what is now happening to your nation may be deliberate. In that event, your current “president” will go down as history’s greatest villain. In any event, he will go down as history’s greatest incompetent.

Do not believe none of this can happen. Psychiatrists study what they call “normalcy bias.” People expect that everything will carry on and that America is too big to fail. She is not. She has failed. You will pay a heavy price for her failure, unless you act now to defend yourselves against what your government, with the culpable, silent acquiescence of the GOP, is doing to destroy your nation.

Finally, pray.