The topic du jour in the mainstream media and other media outlets is the fiscal cliff. There’s not a single news channel or internet news site that isn’t talking incessantly about it. In the Dysfunctional City the political kabuki theater is nearing the end of Act I. The actors portray themselves as upstanding and righteous; defending positions due to Party politics and ideology. Act II — the final capitulation — will come as we near the date where everyone says we’ll go over the fiscal cliff.
Hogwash.
It’s time to check your premises as Ayn Rand would say. The premise is whether a deal can be struck to avoid the fiscal cliff. It’s too late! Our Wile E. Coyote moment has come and gone. We are already over the fiscal cliff and free falling towards the canyon floor. Our dear leaders are lying, deceiving, and evading reality. In fact, the President is still campaigning. Democrats are unwilling to discuss spending cuts and entitlement reform. Democrats are fixated on tax increases. Meanwhile, Republicans appear disorganized and confused like a deer in headlights.
What the DC’vers won’t state publicly is DC is broke and broken. It is the quintessential Dysfunctional City. The masses continue with their herd-like mentality and follow their leaders blindly and loyally. It is a cult-like devotion to Party and ideology forming a human cohesion that inculcates the individual from critical and independent thinking. If it is good for the herd it must be good for me.
This is merely propaganda and programming from the two political parties. They must keep up appearances. The façade must be beautiful and immaculate while life in America rots from the inside out. The people must scurry about like mice searching for the crumbs left to them by the government while the house is crumbling around them.
The question isn’t whether the fiscal cliff can be avoided because we’ve already went SPLAT! The DC’vers are trying to manage the collapse and disintegration of the country, the economy, and civil society. As conditions deteriorate we should anticipate more laws and regulations, more powers usurped, and an increase in the police and surveillance state. These increases in government power and activity will be offset with a decrease in liberty; both personal and economic.
The Union was birthed from a system of despotism. What was created was a Constitutional Republic consisting of free and independent states joining together in an Union – creating a federal government – of few and defined purposes. Over the decades that has slowly changed to a system where the will of the majority is enacted over the rights of the minority. I refer to this as Managed Socialism.
In my opinion, we will witness the final metamorphosis of the Union. Act II — final state — is what I call Benevolent Despotism. We will have a Potemkin government where the façade of legitimacy and freedom is given lip service by those in government and the sycophants in the media. The people, knowingly or unwittingly, will clamor for more government to keep the system together. The judiciary will continue to act as the enabler for a government that tramples upon your rights and liberty under the guise of some collective national imperative. For all intents and purposes the Bill of Rights is a dead letter. But, more on that later.
The benevolence part of the final state is that government will to be generous and caring. Government will continue spending money. Government will continue borrowing money until it dries up. Government will continue printing money. Government will grow the debt. Government will expand entitlements. Government will be position itself as the one and only entity that can provide for the needs of 310 million people. This is the benevolence part. Sounds pretty good wouldn’t you say?
The despotism part is what has started and will accelerate in the final state. As the Potemkin government slowly exposes its inner-self the unvarnished truth will be revealed to all. In fact, this has already started. Since 9/11 all of this has happened. And, both Republicans and Democrats are culpable. Note, this list comes from an article written by Professor Johnathan Turley that was published in the Washington Post in early 2012.
1) Assassination of U.S. Citizens - Both Bush and Obama claim they have the power to order the killing of a U.S. citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism.
2) Indefinite detention – Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) anyone suspected can be detained indefinitely without due process and trial. The government decides arbitrarily which citizens it can strip of their constitutional rights and legal protections.
3) Arbitrary Justice – The president decides who will and will not receive a trial if they are suspected of being a terrorist.
4) Warrantless Searches – Under the Patriot Act of 2011 warrantless searches were enacted. Under new powers in the Patriot Act of 2011 the government can “force” organizations to provide information on citizens’ finances, communications, and associations. The government can use “national security letters” to obtain information on citizens without probable cause and without the order being disclosed to the affected party.
5) Secret Evidence – Government uses secret evidence to detain individuals. It is also used for dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would result in the government revealing classified information that would harm national security. Legal opinions under both Bush and Obama have even been classified. This allows government to use secret legal arguments to support secret proceedings using secret evidence. The federal judiciary – as the enablers of these crimes – routinely deny constitutional challenges.
6) Secret Court – The government uses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to issue secret warrants against individuals deemed to be aiding and abetting hostile foreign governments. In 2011, these powers were expanded to include secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group.
7) Immunity from Judicial Review – Both Bush and Obama have pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens and they block the ability of citizens to challenge this in court as a violation of privacy.
8) Continued Monitoring of Citizens – The Obama administration has defended its claims that it can use GPS devices to monitor the moves of targeted citizens without and court review. Due to technological advances coupled with government acts the surveillance state in the U.S. has far surpassed anything that Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler ever imagined
9) Extraordinary Renditions – The government has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system called extraordinary rendition. This allows for the transfer of citizens or non-citizens to countries where they can be tortured.
These are a handful of the actions government has taken against its citizens in complete violation and contradiction to the Rule of Law, the ideal that the Constitution protects the people from arbitrary and capricious acts by the government. In addition to the aforementioned violations and usurpations consider the following:
1) RICO statutes.
2) There has not been a single constitutionally declared war since WWII. In fact, we are now in a perpetual state of war with an elusive enemy that transcends any national boundaries.
3) Asset Forfeiture Laws.
4) Laws against personal choice — Light bulbs. Raw milk or cheese. Shower heads. Appliances. Food. Clothing. Automobiles.
5) Forced or compulsory purchases – Health Care.
6) Unabated printing of money.
7) Legal tender laws.
8) Bailouts of private companies and/or industries.
9) Subsidizing (though grants, loans, tax credits, etc) certain business and industries based on government centric preferences.
10) Domestic use of drones.
11) Laws forbidding assembly near elected officials.
12) Confiscatory taxes.
13) Unsecured borders and government assistance for those here illegally.
14) Agenda 21.
15) Corrupt and fraudulent elections.
The very reason the colonists separated from Britain was due to despotism. Today we are defined only be the discretionary benevolence of autocratic rulers to take way your rights or your life under their authority. Rights are not simply abridged, they are obliterated! Why are people vested with the political right to choose their representatives, yet the people are not capable of making personal and economic choices in their lives. If people are not capable of making these choices in their everyday lives it is ludicrous to believe that others are capable of making those choices on your behalf. Just like self-governance, if man is not capable of governing himself then what makes anyone believe that man is capable of governing others?
Benevolent Despotism is the final stage. I believe it is unavoidable at this point. Perhaps then we can start anew as the colonists did in the 1770s. Perhaps then we can rediscover we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That these truths are self-evident, transcendent, immutable, and unchanging. That the proper role of government is to secure those rights – nothing more and nothing less. That free people in civil society are responsible for their own personal and economic liberty, and their choices are theirs alone to make and to live with the consequences. That government is not benevolence or compassion. Nor is government virtuous. Government is force. People are compassionate. People are virtuous. People can voluntarily do for themselves and others what government can never do. This is the creed of a free people and a free society. This represents the desire to live with dangerous liberty instead of peaceful slavery.
http://sas4liberty.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/benevolent-despotism/
There is no "fiscal cliff" we are already in a hole so deep we can see daylight, it is time to get real or call it quits.
Obama's opening "fiscal cliff" bid seeks debt limit hike, stimulus
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's opening bid on Thursday in negotiations to avert a year-end fiscal crunch included a demand for new stimulus spending and authority to unilaterally raise the U.S. borrowing ceiling, a Republican congressional aide said.
The proposal, made by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to congressional Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, was seen as offering little the Republicans could agree to and was greeted with laughter, the aide said.
"We can't move any closer to them because they're not even on our planet," the aide said. "It was not a serious proposal."
Obama and congressional Republicans are returning to the bargaining table to prevent across-the board tax increases and deep spending cuts, the so-called fiscal cliff, from taking effect next year.
The president wants Bush-era tax breaks to be extended for all but the wealthiest earners, but Republicans have balked at tax hikes of any kind.
In the maiden bargaining session, Geithner, the president's lead negotiator, proposed raising tax revenues by $1.6 trillion, congressional aides confirmed. That figure is in line with what Obama has said is necessary to achieve long-term deficit reduction of $4 trillion over 10 years.
The administration also sought at least $50 billion in new economic stimulus spending.
Obama's negotiators also sought the ability to raise the nation's borrowing limit unilaterally. Currently, Congress must approve an increase in the debt ceiling, and it was an impasse over that issue that brought the country perilously close to default in 2011.
The administration's proposal would put off across-the-board spending cuts for a year.
In exchange the administration agreed to make $400 billion in spending cuts to entitlement programs, an aide confirmed.
The White House had no comment on the details of the offer.
"The only thing preventing us from reaching a deal that averts the fiscal cliff and avoids a tax hike on 98 percent of Americans is the refusal of congressional Republicans to ask the very wealthiest individuals to pay higher tax rates," a White House official said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/30/us-usa-fiscal-offer-idUSBRE8AT02C20121130
Just wrong on so many levels
Feds: $100,000 to teach teen girls 'condom negotiation'
The administration is funding a $100,000 study of pregnant and "at-risk" 14-17-year-old girls on probation in Houston, Texas, to determine ways to help them choose safer lifestyles and avoid pregnancy, including better "condom negotiation" tactics.
The National Institutes of Health, part of the Health and Human Services Department, is providing a University of Houston researcher the money because of the lack of study of female teen juveniles in trouble with the law.
The school said the study, "Choices - Teen: A Bundled Risk Reduction Intervention for Juvenile Justice Females," will include 30 at-risk girls, ages 14-17, on intensive probation with the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department.
The goal, said the school, is to determine if intervention programs will help the kids make better life decisions.
According to Danielle Parish, the assistant professor at the school's Graduate College of Social Work who is conducting the NIH-funded effort, one of the big problems young girls need to learn is how to talk their boyfriends into using condoms.
According to the school's release, "Parrish notes one of the big issues for this population of adolescent girls is condom negotiation. They may have a boyfriend who says it isn't 'cool' to use a condom. To prepare the girls for these types of situations, the counselors and pediatricians will teach them how to negotiate condom use with their partner. The intervention also helps empower and motivate girls to make healthier choices regarding their alcohol use, smoking and prevention of unplanned pregnancy."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/feds-100000-to-teach-teen-girls-condom-negotiation/article/2514683#.ULe12UbCz8B
Congress is supposed to use coins, but coins that have value.
Congress looks at doing away with the $1 bill
.....WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers have shown about as much appetite for the $1 coin as kids do their spinach. They may not know what's best for them either. Congressional auditors say doing away with dollar bills entirely and replacing them with dollar coins could save taxpayers some $4.4 billion over the next 30 years.
Vending machine operators have long championed the use of $1 coins because they don't jam the machines, cutting down on repair costs and lost sales. But most people don't seem to like carrying them. In the past five years, the U.S. Mint has produced 2.4 billion Presidential $1 coins. Most are stored by the Federal Reserve, and production was suspended about a year ago
The latest projection from the Government Accountability Office on the potential savings from switching to dollar coins entirely comes as lawmakers begin exploring new ways for the government to save money by changing the money itself.
The Mint is preparing a report for Congress showing how changes in the metal content of coins could save money.
The last time the government made major metallurgical changes in U.S. coins was nearly 50 years ago when Congress directed the Mint to remove silver from dimes and quarters and to reduce its content in half dollar coins. Now, Congress is looking at new changes in response to rising prices for copper and nickel.
At a House subcommittee hearing Thursday, the focus was on two approaches:
—Moving to less expensive combinations of metals like steel, aluminum and zinc.
—Gradually taking dollar bills out the economy and replacing them with coins.
The GAO's Lorelei St. James told the House Financial Services panel it would take several years for the benefits of switching from paper bills to dollar coins to catch up with the cost of making the change. Equipment would have to be bought or overhauled and more coins would have to be produced upfront to replace bills as they are taken out of circulation.
But over the years, the savings would begin to accrue, she said, largely because a $1 coin could stay in circulation for 30 years while paper bills have to be replaced every four or five years on average.
"We continue to believe that replacing the note with a coin is likely to provide a financial benefit to the government," said St. James, who added that such a change would work only if the note was completely eliminated and the public educated about the benefits of the switch.
Even the $1 coin's most ardent supporters recognize that they haven't been popular. Philip Diehl, former director of the Mint, said there was a huge demand for the Sacagawea dollar coin when production began in 2001, but as time wore on, people stayed with what they knew best.
"We've never bitten the bullet to remove the $1 bill as every other Western economy has done," Diehl said. "If you did, it would have the same success the Canadians have had."
Beverly Lepine, chief operating officer of the Royal Canadian Mint, said her country loves its "Loonie," the nickname for the $1 coin that includes an image of a loon on the back. The switch went over so well that the country also went to a $2 coin called the "Toonie."
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., affirmed that Canadians have embraced their dollar coins. "I don't know anyone who would go back to the $1 and $2 bills," he said.
That sentiment was not shared by some of his fellow subcommittee members when it comes to the U.S. version.
Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., said men don't like carrying a bunch of coins around in their pocket or in their suits. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the $1 coins have proved too hard to distinguish from quarters.
"If the people don't want it and they don't want to use it," she said, "why in the world are we even talking about changing it?"
"It's really a matter of just getting used to it," said Diehl, the former Mint director.
Several lawmakers were more intrigued with the idea of using different metal combinations in producing coins.
Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said a penny costs more than 2 cents to make and a nickel costs more than 11 cents to make. Moving to multiplated steel for coins would save the government nearly $200 million a year, he said.
The Mint's report, which is due in mid-December, will detail the results of nearly 18 months of work exploring a variety of new metal compositions and evaluating test coins for attributes as hardness, resistance to wear, availability of raw materials and costs.
Richard Peterson, the Mint's acting director, declined to give lawmakers a summary of what will be in the report, but he said "several promising alternatives" were found.
http://news.yahoo.com/congress-looks-doing-away-1-bill-083418974--politics.html
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