Shorter SCUTUS

Apparently,the federal government is not a state, but it identifies as one.

In this Caitlyn Jenner / Rachael Dolezal world, why not?

If laws can mean anything, regardless of what they say in writing, why have written laws at all?
Beats me.  

Scientology and The Clintons?

The Daily Caller ran a piece on 6/21 on the Clinton's connections with Scientology.  More of the same we've come to expect:  big money for the Clintons in exchange for big favors from the US Government.  Yawn.  What difference does it make?

Funny thing is, I had no idea any of this was going on when I made this video about Scientology and Hillary!  Watch, laugh, and enjoy:



Here's the Daily Caller piece in its entirety:    

The Church of Scientology started a big-money lobbying relationship with the U.S. State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
What do you think?
Greg Mitchell, proprietor of The Mitchell Firm, is Scientology’s official Washington lobbyist. A church member, Mitchell works to help the church gain mainstream credibility and to lobby on behalf of issues the church cares about, like criminal justice reform and religious freedom in foreign countries.
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Mitchell features a photograph on his firm’s website that shows him posing with Bill and Hillary Clinton.
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The Mitchell Firm
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Church of Scientology International spent $80,000 over three quarters to have Mitchell lobby the State Department in 2011, during Clinton’s tenure as the head of the agency. The church had never lobbied the State Department before the second quarter of that year.
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The church’s lobbying continued in 2012, as it spent a total of $80,000 ($20,000 per quarter) to lobby Clinton’s State Department.
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Scientology lobbied for religious freedom issues, opposing efforts by foreign governments to stifle minority religions like Scientology.
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Mitchell fought against a new religion law in Hungary that legally de-registers minority religions in the country, and “urged the Secretary to raise this issue with the Hungarian Prime Minister and with leaders of the Hungarian Parliament,” according to lobbying disclosure forms.
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Mitchell also circulated a letter to the secretary of state and others “to express our deep concern about rising government restrictions on religion in France” and to fight a religious extremism law in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, among other similar issues.
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Scientology continued to lobby John Kerry’s State Department in each quarter of 2013 and 2014 after Clinton left office.
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Scientology’s links to the Clintons predate Hillary’s term at the State Department.
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The Clinton administration’s Internal Revenue Service granted Scientology its status as a tax-exempt church within Clinton’s first year in office in 1993.
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Actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise personally called Bill Clinton to get him to influence his friend, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to help Scientology’s charity status in Great Britain, according to former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun.
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Actor and Scientologist John Travolta once received “an unsolicited offer of presidential help” from Clinton as Scientology fought the German government on issues of religious persecution, according to The Los Angeles Times. Clinton administration national security advisor Sandy Berger personally talked to Travolta about the issue and the administration’s efforts to resolve it.
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As TheDC reported, Mitchell also lobbied President Obama’s White House four times during Obama’s first term, in 2009 and 2012.
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The State Department and the Church of Scientology did not return requests for comment by press time.
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Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/21/church-of-scientology-lobbied-hillarys-state-department/#ixzz3dnqbVuLp

Charleston, Guns, and Obama

The Charleston massacre was bad enough.  Barack Obama made it even worse.  Within 24 hours of the event, he got in front of the cameras and politicized the tragedy, making it all about the tool used by the killer.  That would be like blaming the holocaust on gas chambers, 9/11 on box cutters, and ISIS on daggers and matches.

There is a "first law of Obama", much like there is a first law of physics:  "for every negative event, there is a politically convenient scapegoat to attack, which is designed to rally the liberal base but solve nothing. " For Charleston it's guns.

Not only did Obama attack guns as the culprit, he also attacked the country he leads as being the only developed country that experiences mass murders.  He must not consider England, France, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Finland, Germany, or Canada developed.

He may really believe our legal right to own guns makes us more violent.  He seems blissfully unaware that we've always had guns, but we didn't always have this kind of violence.  He's also blissfully unaware that some of the highest homicide rates, 1000% higher than ours, are in Central American countries that have no 2nd amendment and very few guns.  Countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and Mexico are some of the most violent in the world.   Good thing Obama is not importing illegals from these countries.  Oh wait, that's exactly what he's doing!

Look, I could talk about how Obama's disregard for life (ie: late term abortions) has contributed to a cheapening of the value of life and led to more violence, but that would be theoretical.   What's not theoretical is that in Obama's first term, he and the Democrats had filibuster proof control of the entire government. They could have passed a total ban on guns if they wanted to.  They did not, because even most Democrats know legal guns are not the problem.

The fact is we have some violent and insane people in our country, and their violence will not magically disappear if guns magically do.  They will find another tool.  They always have. Ironically, the best way to minimize gun violence is to deregulate them.  It is not a coincidence that killers like the Charleston guy, the Batman guy, the military base guy, and the school guy, all sought out gun-free zones to accomplish their evil.      

Obama knows this but sees a political opportunity.  The damage that this cynical, petulant, arrogant, and divisive man is inflicting on our nation proceeds apace.

(At the time of this writing, the gun that the Charleston shooter used appears to have been illegal.)

Hillary is Awesome!

Friends discuss Scientology and Hillary Clinton.  
(Had to post this on the occasion of Hillary's big rollout show on Roosevelt Island, NY yesterday.  Please share it if you enjoy it!)

The TSA is Perfect!*

This week it was revealed that 95% of the really bad stuff (bombs, guns, knives) that inspectors tried to sneak past TSA security made it through and onto airplanes! (Cue boilerplate outrage from politicians, etc.)  We've seen this movie before folks, and frankly it's boring.  And tragic.

TSA is doing exactly what it was designed to do!  Sure, some of the votes for nationalizing airport security were naively made with good intentions.   And George W Bush, bless his progressive naive heart, may have actually believed the federal government could do a better job than the airlines. (Never-mind that on 9/11, the only people who actually did their jobs perfectly were the private airport security folks!  They were instructed by federal regulations to allow box cutters onto planes, and that's what they did.)  But that's all water under the totalitarian bridge.  Today, the TSA has almost nothing to do with providing security; it is just another cog in the Democrat Party union jobs program and kickback machine.  

Add it to the list.  TSA is just like The VA, IRS, Postal Service, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.  Every one of these agencies is an abject failure at their ostensible mission, but they are performing exactly as designed for their true purposes; political power and money for Democrats.    

You would think the VA is a healthcare system for veterans.  You would be wrong.  The VA is first and foremost a jobs program and a union money machine for Democrats.  Sure, it was originally set-up to treat veterans, but now does so only as an afterthought.  You might think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were mortgage companies for the poor.  You would be wrong.  Fannie and Freddie are first and foremost political operations that were originally set-up to provide mortgages for the poor, but now do so only as an afterthought.  This goes for the IRS, Amtrak, USPS, and every other agency and corner of the federal government - except for the uniformed military who are not yet unionized.  (see my related piece on the recent Amtrak accident here.)  

The sad thing is that naive Republican "progressives" have too often bought into this scheme.  The essence of progressivism is to view the constitution as an impediment to "progress".  Progressives seek to move past those pesky constitutional limits and exert total power wherever they can.  Limited power just doesn't cut it.  Progressives want it all.        

The framers of our constitution knew this could happen.  They knew totalitarianism and all-powerful government would politicize everything and turn it into a horror show.  That’s precisely why they gave us a “charter of negative liberties”, (to borrow Barack Obama’s derisive words) which says “what the federal government can’t do to you…”.  The constitution specifically limits federal power for a reason.  It was a check on totalitarianism and a wall against nationalizing and politicizing everything.  Well, it used to do that anyway.  Not so much anymore. 

Next time a story comes out about some federal agency miserably failing at it's core mission, remember:  its true mission is votes, power, and money for the Democrat Party, and for that it is perfect. 

Ramadi, Baltimore, and the Obama Power Vacuum

Sometimes events are just events.  Sometimes they are related and show a trend.  But sometimes events are so linked, they paint a vivid picture worth well more than a thousand words.  So it is with Ramadi and Baltimore.

 

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest manifestations of the Obama power vacuum.  (No, the Obama power vacuum is not like a Hoover or Dyson.  It won’t help you clean your house.  The Obama power vacuum is actually quite deadly and claims lives on an hourly basis..)   All the ISIS chaos, Putin’s imperialism, Iran’s aggression, as well as the chaos befalling cities across America essentially share the same pathology as Ramadi and Baltimore.  And Obama’s hand in all of it is undeniable.  (For a black Democrat president with a Muslim name who identifies as a Christian, he sure is presiding over the death and suffering of a lot of blacks, Democrats, Muslims, and Christians!) 

       

In Ramadi, and Iraq in general, Obama’s precipitous withdrawal of all US forces left a power vacuum which ISIS has filled with tragic effect.  When George W Bush turned things over, US soldiers were no longer fighting in Iraq.  Our role was as a stabilizing force.  Serving in Iraq in 2009 was actually safer than walking the streets of Baltimore is today!  Now, just a few years into the Obama power vacuum, and the whole place is a tragic mess.  We fought, died, and prevailed in a bi-partisan effort, only to have it squandered by an irresponsible, arrogant, and petulant pol.

  

In Baltimore, and cities across America, the Obama power vacuum resulted from the same kind of behavior. Again there was a long effort which had largely prevailed against rising inner-city crime and murder.  Enter Obama.  Instead of using his bully pulpit to encourage the rule of law and allow the criminal justice system to play-out, he jumped in and inserted himself into every high profile case implying the police and criminal justice system were racist and criminal.  He deployed his de-facto race czar, Al Sharpton, to stir animosity.  He deployed his Department of Justice to charge police departments with civil rights violations and impose onerous restrictions.  In every high profile case so far he’s been proven wrong.   Nevertheless, Obama’s assault on local police and criminal justice systems persists.  Cops have realized that being pro-active is not worth the effort.  They have stopped doing what works and left a power vacuum into which chaos and murder have flooded.

A vacuum is not a thing.  It’s the absence of things.  Obama’s principles are also not things.  They are the absence of things.  Obama’s approach to foreign affairs can best be described as “not Bush’.  In domestic affairs it can be best described as “not the Constitution”.

“Not Bush” is how we get a troop surge and a tripling of casualties in Afghanistan, a complete withdrawal from Iraq, appeasement with Putin, Nukes for Iran, intervention in Libya, an overrun embassy, and chaos in Ramadi.  “Not the Constitution” is how we get a virtual takeover of local police departments, criminalization of routine police work, federalization of everything, executive takeover of the legislative function, and chaos in Baltimore.

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest examples of the Obama power vacuum from “not Bush” and “not the Constitution”.  Into those vacuums have rushed ISIS and inner-city mayhem across America.     

Why Democrats deserve blame for the tragic Amtrak accident

(UPDATED)
"Why Democrats deserve blame..."  Provocative title, no?  But I can prove it.

Democrats are screaming that the tragic Amtrak train wreck in Philadelphia is due to funding.  If only those stingy Republicans would give Amtrak enough money, we could have saved those lives.  This is a lie.  The problem is not money.

The problem is unions.  Railroad Workers United (RWU) is kind of an umbrella union for all railroad union workers.  RWU does not exist to ensure safety to riders, nor to provide excellent service, nor to run efficient railroads.  RWU's mission is to preserve jobs and money for its members.  How do I know this?  I read their  "Statement of Principles" .

Here's the smoking gun:

"The carriers are degrading and deskilling our crafts, implementing new technologies that threaten our jobs..."

This is from paragraph number one of their principles.  They exist to fight against "technologies that threaten our jobs" -  technologies like the ones that could have made that curve on the tracks safe and automatic.

Google has a self driving car.  Tesla is about to have one as well.  Next year, your new car will likely have an option that will automatically slow down in response to speed limit signs.  Even airplanes fly by themselves most of the time today.  Yet Amtrak trains, which run on a track and are easy to automate, still require human operators.

The reason Amtrak trains are unnecessarily dangerous today is the same reason Johnny can't read and GI Joe can't get quality healthcare at a VA hospital.  Unions run the VA, the public schools, and the trains. They also run the IRS, the Post Office, and every other government agency except the military.  Quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction are not union priorities.  I'm sure you're shocked to hear this.      

You may also know that unions are the biggest funding source for the Democrat party.  Unions give billions every election cycle, practically all of it to Democrats.  Your safety, health, education, and constitutional rights take a backseat to the union agenda because that is how Democrats get money, votes, and power.

It doesn't matter how much we spend on government union agencies like Amtrak, they can never provide quality, cutting-edge service.  That's not what they are designed to do.  They are designed to be de-facto jobs programs and kick-back slush funds for the Democrat party.  Period.

(UPDATE:  Recent reports suggest that this train may have been hit by an object before it crashed. That may explain why the operator has no memory of what happened.  He could also be lying. The fact remains though that if this train had been automated, an incapacitated operator would not result in dead passengers, or even a derailment.)  

Je Suis Pamela

Let's review, shall we?  In America today, if you mock Muhammad you go to prison like Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the hapless guy who made a YouTube video, which Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him, decided to use as a scapegoat for the deaths in Benghazi, Libya.  Or, you will be blamed like Pamela Geller when radical Islamists come gunning for you while you are pointing out that radical Islam is a threat to our safety and our constitutional rights.  

If however you mock Mormonism, you will get Tony Awards and rave reviews in the New York Times.  That would be OK, if the New York Times didn't have different standards for Nakoula and Pamela.  

Baltimore & The Peanut Butter Joke

When I was a kid, my uncle told me a joke that I've loved to this day.  I think it applies to the Baltimore riots.  It goes something like this:

Three construction workers open their lunch boxes.  The first one says; "Chicken parmigiana!  I love chicken parmigiana!"  The second one says, "Beef stroganoff!  I love beef stroganoff!  The third opens his lunch box and says, "Oh no, peanut butter sandwich.  I hate peanut butter sandwich!  (Of course, there were accents when I was told the joke, but hey this is 2015; can't do that anymore...)

This goes on for two more days, with the first two loving their lunches and the third complaining about his peanut butter sandwich.

Finally, the first guy says to him, "Why don't you tell your wife to make you something different?"  To that, the third guy says,"Who's got a wife? I make it myself!"

Baltimore has been electing Democrat mayors for at least three generations.  The people have been choosing the government.  The people have been choosing their police chief.  The people are essentially rioting against themselves!  They have finally come face to face with their own tragic choices and failures.  This is why they are looting and burning their own town.  They know who has been making the sandwiches, and it is them.

This same irony applies to Ferguson, Detroit, NYC during the Crown Heights riots, Asbury Park and Newark, NJ, LA, and on and on.  Only it's no joke.

Capitalism Sucks!

When was the last time you saw a movie where a businessman was the good guy?  (If you are one of the dozen or so people who saw the Atlas Shrugged movies, you can sit down now.)  Maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong people, but it seems to me most of my contemporaries lean anti-capitalist.  It gets even worse when I listen to younger generations.  Like our current president, it seems more fashionable in America today to be a Marxist, socialist, or communist.

This is no accident. 

    

Ask anyone who the father of communism or modern socialism is, and they will be able to name Karl Marx and explain Marxism in detail.  Next, ask them who the father of capitalism is.  I doubt you’ll get the right answer.

 

I contend the correct answer is again... Karl Marx.  Yes, I’m saying that Karl Marx is both the father of communism AND the father of capitalism.  In fact, Karl Marx was the guy who defined capitalism for the masses in a scathing critique of capitalism called Das Kapital.  In other words, the word most people use today when describing economic liberty, “capitalism”, is actually a Marxist epithet!

Many would credit Adam Smith as the guy who had the most influence in shaping America's economy. On that I agree.  Adam Smith’s book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” was conspicuously published in 1776.  That date rings a bell, no?  But the word capitalism didn't exist in Adam Smith’s day.  He never used it!    

If everyone knows what Marxism is, why doesn't everyone know what Smithism is?  Because it’s not taught.  Marxism is taught everywhere all the time.  If you want to learn about Adam Smith, you have to go looking.  If you go to Wikipedia and look up Marxism, you’ll find plenty.  If you go to Wikipedia and look up Smithism, you’ll get crickets. 

Similarly, if you go to Wikipedia and look up communism, Marxism, or socialism you’ll find exhaustive explanations.  If you look really, really, hard you might find a brief criticism near the bottom of these entries.  If you look up capitalism, you’ll find a long section titled “Criticisms of Capitalism”.  Moreover, most of the entry is laced with subtle and not so subtle digs at capitalism.  This is not surprising because the word capitalism itself is a straw-man.

How about some of the more modern terms, like Supply Side Economics?  You are probably familiar with many criticisms of supply side economics.  But can you accurately define it?  Can you define its opposite, Demand Side Economics?

 

·         Supply side economics is the theory that people will enthusiastically SUPPLY their efforts and capital if they are free to realize the rewards.   

·         Demand side economics is the theory that people will enthusiastically DEMAND the efforts and capital of others if they are subsidized to do so.

 

These are opposite approaches for achieving economic goals:  Supply Side seeks to optimize overall economic vitality (Smithian).  Demand Side at times seeks to stimulate economic consumption (Keynesian stimulus), and at times to achieve egalitarianism (Marxist redistribution).

If you look up supply side economics on Wikipedia, you’ll find a thorough entry.  You’ll also find plenty of criticisms.  Look up demand side economics, and you’ll find nothing.  No definition, and certainly no criticism.  Again, the language is controlled by anti-capitalists.  (I made an attempt to define Demand Side Economics in a tongue-in-cheek cartoon a while ago:  See it here.  (language warning!))

I understand why Marxists, communists, socialists, and Keynesians use Marx’s term, capitalism, for our economic system.  What I can’t understand is why others use the term also.  

I’d love to see supporters of economic liberty use terms like Smithist, Smithism, Smithian or just plain "liberty" to describe their ideas.  Let the critics argue against economic liberty for a change!