Category Archives: Politics

Loyalty Means Living by Your Convictions

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Here’s what we’re being told — not asked, but TOLD — to swallow today:

Truth is subjective. Except when the authorities say it. What the authorities say is SCIENCE. What the Party, media and government schools state is unquestionable objective truth. It must and will be followed.

But truth is still subjective. Who are YOU to suggest that gender is fixed? Who are YOU to suggest that 1 plus 1 equals 2, if answering the question wrong leads to social injustice (whatever that is) in the classroom? Who are YOU to suggest that there’s a right and a wrong — unless, in practice, your definition of “right” or “wrong” conforms to the Party’s narrative, and leads to the universal behavior the Party wants from all citizens?

Freedom doesn’t mean sovereignty over your body, mind and individual life or property. Freedom means freedom from want. If you can get $50K from the government a year for FREE, without lifting a finger, then you’re free. If you’re expected to do the work to provide that $50K a year to another who will get that income for free, you’re also free, because self-sacrifice means freedom. Only you’re not allowed to complain.

Liberty means you can have whatever whim you desire fulfilled — so long as you’re a member of the Party and of a protected class. The media will tell you who belongs to the protected class and who does not. White heterosexual males will never, ever belong to that protected class. White women or white gays will belong, but only if they comply with the Party doctrine. Transgendered persons have unlimited rights and privileges without boundaries, absolutely and forever. Nonwhite people will be members of the protected class forever — UNLESS they stray and oppose the views of the Party, in which case they will be shamed, have their bank accounts frozen, their pets and children confiscated and (in the forthcoming regime) imprisoned or executed.

Freedom of speech means freedom ONLY to have what makes you comfortable stated, and NEVER having to hear someone say something that makes you uncomfortable. “Comfort” and “discomfort” are whatever the Party defines those as; the criteria can be contradictory and transient on any given day, faster than a changing position of Party medical chief Dr. Fauci. No matter. Just shut up and take it.

We’re considered racist, misogynist, anti-intellectual, anti-science and anti-freedom if we challenge even one of these points.

It’s nothing new. Tyrannies and dictatorships have always started out as cultural movements (initially in the fringe minority) and eventually morphed into universal, totalitarian government policy. We’re in that transition now. Tyrannies have always been intolerant and brutal while claiming to be the exact opposite. Today’s progressives are no better, no different and potentially a lot worse than any dictators in history. Until we treat them as the evil, irredeemable, uncompromising and lethal opponents they are, we will continue to lose.

For an example, look at Canada right at this moment. And they’re just getting started. [Pictured: Canadian police, just following orders, charge and prepare to open fire, if necessary, on peaceful protesters who don’t wish to be forced to wear mask and obtain vaccinations forever.]

Michael J. Hurd

The Nature and Causes of Wealth

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Adam Smith recognized the nature and cause of wealth; it results from the development and extension of the division of labor. As Smith observed, “It is the great multiplication of the productions of all different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-grounded society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.” This market process is the source of wealth, since it brings individuals freely pursuing their own interests into voluntary cooperation with others. For example, an individual who specializes in mechanics, cooperates, perhaps unknowingly, with those specializing in physics, chemistry, meteorology, mining, steel production, and hundreds of other fields to create travel by airplane and make it possible to fly to almost any major city in the world. It is through the division of labor, peaceful cooperation, and free exchange—the market process—that wealth is created….

The market process is the source of new wealth. It does not redistribute wealth to the powerful at the expense of others, such as in a collectivized economy; rather, it enables new goods and services to come into the marketplace. A free market system is a positive sum system. Remarkably, the standard of living can rise, even though the population is increasing, because the total amount of wealth is not fixed. Transfer payments, on the other hand, come at the expense of wealth creators—workers, businessmen, investors, and successful entrepreneurs.

Contrary to popular sentiment, high incomes and high profits are key elements of the process which generates our prosperity. High incomes and profits are the reward a person receives for serving his fellowmen. More specifically, profits are the reward for reducing costs and using scarce resources most efficiently in the competition to satisfy consumer desires. By rewarding with profits those who successfully satisfy consumer demand, the free market maximizes the incentives to create goods and services. By permitting the accumulation of wealth, it also maximizes the amount of capital available to produce more. Profits direct this capital to where it is most vitally needed in order to meet consumer demand. Even Samuel Gompers, father of the American labor movement, recognized that “the worst crime against working peoples is a company which fails to operate at a profit.”

Envy, covetousness and hatred toward those with wealth is ill-advised. As Ludwig von Mises pointed out in Human Action, “The very principle of capitalist entrepreneur-ship is to provide for the common man…. There is in the market economy no other means of acquiring and preserving wealth than by supplying the masses in the best and cheapest way with all the goods they ask for.” Evidence of this was the success of that creative genius, Thomas Edison, who fulfilled his pledge to make the light bulb so cheap that only the rich could afford candles. As Brian Summers commented in the Spring, 1981 issue of The Lincoln Review, “It is true,… that a few captains of industry accumulated great fortunes, but they became wealthy through mass production of goods and services which raised the common man’s standard of living.”

High incomes and profits, the incentives to invest and produce, are put to work, provided they are not confiscated by government. The motive for wanting a larger income and higher profits should not be a concern of economics; whether for a base reason or a high-minded objective, the only way to get more, in a free market economy, is to serve others. The way to lessen poverty is to create a favorable environment for investment and wealth creation. In fact, when William E. Simon was Treasury Secretary, he suggested to a Senate committee that, “If you really want to help the poor, help the rich. They’re the ones who will invest, build more factories, create more jobs.”

* Excerpted from “What Causes Wealth,” by Roger Ream (August 1981)

Just Following Orders

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Here’s what we’re being told — not asked, but TOLD — to swallow today:

Truth is subjective. Except when the authorities say it. What the authorities say is SCIENCE. What the Party, media and government schools state is unquestionable objective truth. It must and will be followed.

But truth is still subjective. Who are YOU to suggest that gender is fixed? Who are YOU to suggest that 1 plus 1 equals 2, if answering the question wrong leads to social injustice (whatever that is) in the classroom? Who are YOU to suggest that there’s a right and a wrong — unless, in practice, your definition of “right” or “wrong” conforms to the Party’s narrative, and leads to the universal behavior the Party wants from all citizens?

Freedom doesn’t mean sovereignty over your body, mind and individual life or property. Freedom means freedom from want. If you can get $50K from the government a year for FREE, without lifting a finger, then you’re free. If you’re expected to do the work to provide that $50K a year to another who will get that income for free, you’re also free, because self-sacrifice means freedom. Only you’re not allowed to complain.

Liberty means you can have whatever whim you desire fulfilled — so long as you’re a member of the Party and of a protected class. The media will tell you who belongs to the protected class and who does not. White heterosexual males will never, ever belong to that protected class. White women or white gays will belong, but only if they comply with the Party doctrine. Transgendered persons have unlimited rights and privileges without boundaries, absolutely and forever. Nonwhite people will be members of the protected class forever — UNLESS they stray and oppose the views of the Party, in which case they will be shamed, have their bank accounts frozen, their pets and children confiscated and (in the forthcoming regime) imprisoned or executed.

Freedom of speech means freedom ONLY to have what makes you comfortable stated, and NEVER having to hear someone say something that makes you uncomfortable. “Comfort” and “discomfort” are whatever the Party defines those as; the criteria can be contradictory and transient on any given day, faster than a changing position of Party medical chief Dr. Fauci. No matter. Just shut up and take it.

We’re considered racist, misogynist, anti-intellectual, anti-science and anti-freedom if we challenge even one of these points.

It’s nothing new. Tyrannies and dictatorships have always started out as cultural movements (initially in the fringe minority) and eventually morphed into universal, totalitarian government policy. We’re in that transition now. Tyrannies have always been intolerant and brutal while claiming to be the exact opposite. Today’s progressives are no better, no different and potentially a lot worse than any dictators in history. Until we treat them as the evil, irredeemable, uncompromising and lethal opponents they are, we will continue to lose.

For an example, look at Canada right at this moment. And they’re just getting started. [Pictured: Canadian police, just following orders, charge and prepare to open fire, if necessary, on peaceful protesters who don’t wish to be forced to wear mask and obtain vaccinations forever.]

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

The Evil and Malevolence of the Pentagon’s Brilliant Strategy in Ukraine

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by Jacob G. Hornberger

February 18, 2022

The crisis in Ukraine demonstrates the sheer malevolent brilliance of Pentagon strategists. Yes, granted, it’s an evil strategy, but nonetheless one cannot help but admire it (in a negative way) for its sheer malevolent ingenuity.

The strategy has involved maneuvering Russia into having to make a choice between two scenarios, both of which have bad consequences. The choices are these: (1) Russia does not invade Ukraine, in which case the U.S.-controlled NATO absorbs Ukraine, which means U.S. bases, missiles, tanks, and troops permanently situated on Russia’s borders; or (2) Russia invades Ukraine and takes over the reins of government, in which case U.S. officials portray Russia as a horrific aggressor that now threatens the rest of Europe, the United States, and all mankind.

Like I say, it’s an evil strategy but everyone has to concede that it is absolutely malevolently ingenious. 

The box into which the Pentagon has placed Russia reminds me of the equally ingenious (again, in a negative way) strategy that President Franklin Roosevelt employed to get the United States into World War II. Prior to U.S. entry into the war, the American people were overwhelmingly opposed to entering the conflict, especially after the fiasco of U.S. intervention into World War I. 

This was at a time when U.S. presidents were still complying with the constitutional provision that requires them to secure a declaration of war from Congress before being able to wage war legally and constitutionally against another nation-state. Owing to the overwhelming opposition to entering the war, FDR knew that he could not get Congress to declare war on Germany. 

Thus, FDR decided that he needed to figure out a strategy that would induce Germany to attack the United States, which would then enable him to go to Congress and exclaim, “We’ve been attacked! I am shocked! This is a day that will live in infamy! Now give me my declaration of war so that I can begin waging war against Germany.”

Thus, Roosevelt did everything he could to induce the Germans into attacking U.S. vessels in the Atlantic. But the strategy didn’t work. The Germans knew what FDR was up to and refused to take his bait. 

So, Roosevelt looked instead toward the Pacific and embarked on a course of action designed to induce Japan into attacking the United States. FDR hoped that such an attack would give him a “back door” to the European war.

Knowing that Japan’s military needed oil to operate its war machine in China, Roosevelt imposed a highly effective oil embargo on Japan. That left Japan with two choices: (1) Withdraw its military forces from China, or (2) Attack the Dutch East Indies to secure a permanent supply of oil.

Not surprisingly, Japan chose Option 2. But Japan knew that the U.S. Navy was almost certain to interfere with its oil supply after it invaded the Dutch East Indies. Thus, the only way to ensure that a continuous supply of oil was by knocking out the U.S. naval fleet. That’s what the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor was all about. The attack was never about conquering the United States. It was always about simply trying to knock out the U.S. fleet to ensure a continuous supply of oil for Japan’s war machine in China.

The canny FDR left American warships (but not American carriers) in Pearl Harbor as bait for the Japanese. His strategy worked brilliantly in an evil and malevolent way. Sure, he had to sacrifice some warships and some troops at Pearl Harbor (as well as in the Philippines), but his ingenious strategy enabled him to achieve his goal. Soon after the Japanese attack, Germany declared war on the United States. FDR dutifully went to Congress, played the innocent, exclaimed a day of infamy, and got his declaration of war and U.S. entry into World War II.

Yes, Roosevelt’s strategy was evil, but you can’t help but admire it for its sheer malevolent brilliance. Like the Pentagon has done with Ukraine, FDR manipulated the situation so that Japanese officials were put into a box that entailed choosing from two available alternatives, both of which came with bad consequences from the standpoint of Japan.

Today, all that the Pentagon — along with its loyal supporters in the executive branch, including President Biden and the bureaucrats in the State Department, and along with its loyal acolytes in the mainstream press — has to do is sit back and watch Russia squirm. If it invades Ukraine, it will be portrayed as the supreme aggressor nation, which will then be used to justify the continued existence of the U.S. national-security establishment and NATO, along with ever-increasing budgets, power, and influence for the U.S. “defense” establishment. It Russia declines to invade, NATO absorbs Ukraine and the Pentagon installs its military bases, troops, missiles, and tanks on Russia’s border, thereby ensuring a state of constant tension and crisis, which, once again, ensures ever-increasing taxpayer-funded largess for the national-security establishment, its Cold War dinosaur NATO, and the entire U.S. “defense” industry that feeds at the public trough.

The only way out of this evil statist morass lies with the American people. What is needed is a great awakening within Americans, one that comes with both a heightened sense of consciousness of the evil of a national-security state form of governmental structure and a heightened sense of conscience that enables people to recognize the evil and malevolence within their own government, not to mention the danger of playing games with a nation-state that has the potential of unleashing a massive number of mushroom clouds over American cities and towns. If that great awakening were to transpire, America could restore its founding governmental system of a limited-government republic and put our nation back on the road toward liberty, peace, prosperity, morality, and harmony with the people of the world. 

It’s 1984, and people are sitting on their hands

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US President Biden claims Russian troops continue “encircling Ukraine” even as Moscow says they are withdrawing.

The Russian soldiers were never there for the purpose of invading Ukraine. They were in Belarus as part of a training exercise akin to the ones NATO continually conducts on Russia’s borders. The Troops in Ukraine were there to intercede if Ukraine invaded the Donbass republics.

The accusation of a Russian invasion was an obvious lie from the beginning. The purpose of the lie was to scare Europeans about Russia in order to keep them on the US reservation.

Biden claims there is no evidence of troop departure, and the presstitutes claim the Russians are not departing but repositioning for an attack. https://www.rt.com/russia/549485-biden-ukraine-russia-troop-withdrawal/

Western governments and presstitutes are now firm believers of their own lies. The London Times’ defense editor Larisa Brown cites an “unnamed official” who allegedly claims: “We have seen reinforcement of combat and other capabilities close to the border. On balance what we have seen is further reinforcement.”

This from the BBC presstitutes: “A small but politically vocal portion of the American electorate that admires Vladimir Putin’s muscular policies is seeking to undermine US President Joe Biden’s efforts to stand up to the Russian president.” It is Russia encircling Ukraine, not the US encircling Russia. It is the US standing up to Russia, not Russia standing up to the US. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60297302

The British Financial Times reports that “Western intelligence” (an oxymoron) has concluded that the Russians have chosen a former Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleg Tsaryov, to be installed as Ukraine’s president following the Russian invasion. https://www.rt.com/russia/549419-us-ukraine-coup-plot-theory/

The less evidence there is of an invasion, the more we are told it is about to happen. The latest from the British press is that according to US intelligence (an oxymoron) in the early hours of Wednesday morning Russia will invade with 200,000 soldiers after a massive missile blitz. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17655287/russia-set-invade-ukraine-tomorrow/ When Americans arise at 7AM Wednesday, it will be afternoon there. Have a look to see if Ukraine is still there.

My conclusion is that the West will declare there has been an invasion when there hasn’t, and the presstitutes will turn the lie into the truth.

How else are Biden, the Western governments, and the presstitute media going to avoid looking like total fools, victims of their own propaganda?

Putin is taking a somewhat similar risk by holding on to his belief in the Minsk Agreement, when Ukraine, by far the weaker party, demands that the issue with Russia, by far the stronger party, be settled on Ukraine’s terms.

Will this latest excuse for Ukrainian non-compliance with the Minsk Agreement result in the Kremlin finally seeing the futility of this approach? https://www.rt.com/russia/549412-ukraine-refuses-donbass-deal/

The United States has been in totally incompetent hands since the ascension of the Clinton regime. The practice of US manufacturers of offshoring the production of the goods and services that they sell in the US has exploded the annual trade deficit of the US to one trillion dollars.

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US President Biden claims Russian troops continue “encircling Ukraine” even as Moscow says they are withdrawing.

The Russian soldiers were never there for the purpose of invading Ukraine. They were in Belarus as part of a training exercise akin to the ones NATO continually conducts on Russia’s borders. The Troops in Ukraine were there to intercede if Ukraine invaded the Donbass republics.

The accusation of a Russian invasion was an obvious lie from the beginning. The purpose of the lie was to scare Europeans about Russia in order to keep them on the US reservation.

Biden claims there is no evidence of troop departure, and the presstitutes claim the Russians are not departing but repositioning for an attack. https://www.rt.com/russia/549485-biden-ukraine-russia-troop-withdrawal/

Western governments and presstitutes are now firm believers of their own lies. The London Times’ defense editor Larisa Brown cites an “unnamed official” who allegedly claims: “We have seen reinforcement of combat and other capabilities close to the border. On balance what we have seen is further reinforcement.”

This from the BBC presstitutes: “A small but politically vocal portion of the American electorate that admires Vladimir Putin’s muscular policies is seeking to undermine US President Joe Biden’s efforts to stand up to the Russian president.” It is Russia encircling Ukraine, not the US encircling Russia. It is the US standing up to Russia, not Russia standing up to the US. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60297302

The British Financial Times reports that “Western intelligence” (an oxymoron) has concluded that the Russians have chosen a former Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleg Tsaryov, to be installed as Ukraine’s president following the Russian invasion. https://www.rt.com/russia/549419-us-ukraine-coup-plot-theory/

The less evidence there is of an invasion, the more we are told it is about to happen. The latest from the British press is that according to US intelligence (an oxymoron) in the early hours of Wednesday morning Russia will invade with 200,000 soldiers after a massive missile blitz. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17655287/russia-set-invade-ukraine-tomorrow/ When Americans arise at 7AM Wednesday, it will be afternoon there. Have a look to see if Ukraine is still there.

My conclusion is that the West will declare there has been an invasion when there hasn’t, and the presstitutes will turn the lie into the truth.

How else are Biden, the Western governments, and the presstitute media going to avoid looking like total fools, victims of their own propaganda?

Putin is taking a somewhat similar risk by holding on to his belief in the Minsk Agreement, when Ukraine, by far the weaker party, demands that the issue with Russia, by far the stronger party, be settled on Ukraine’s terms.

Will this latest excuse for Ukrainian non-compliance with the Minsk Agreement result in the Kremlin finally seeing the futility of this approach? https://www.rt.com/russia/549412-ukraine-refuses-donbass-deal/

The United States has been in totally incompetent hands since the ascension of the Clinton regime. The practice of US manufacturers of offshoring the production of the goods and services that they sell in the US has exploded the annual trade deficit of the US to one trillion dollars.

Trudeau the Snowflake Tyrant

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Who knew that the 21st Century version of Stalin and Hitler would be a snowflake? Actually, all tyrants are snowflakes. They do irreparable damage, and they might even kill millions. But at root they are parasites. They could never create or produce ANYTHING. Their whole careers are based on pull, intimidation and deception. And they would enjoy NO power without the weakness, gullibility or character flaws of the millions who tolerate or even support them.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason