I did not bother to watch the President give his annual State of the Union, I saw excerpts of the transcript and it sounded much like all of his other speeches. He spoke of working with both parties, which he has shown repeatedly that he does not and continued to blame others for problems, he may not have entirely created the problems but definitely made worse. He spoke of amnesty and education and the need to spend more money. He spoke on the need to create jobs and spend more on green energy. President Obama did not stop there; he attacked the oil companies and the banks and continued to drive a wedge into the class warfare argument. After I saw the excerpts, something sounded familiar, very familiar. It wasn’t the campaign style delivery of the speech; it wasn’t the reliance on the teleprompter or members of Congress fawning all over the rock star President seeking autographs. I’ve gotten used to his speech delivery, it always sounds like a campaign speech, a whole lot of promise and very little substance. I’ve even got used to the teleprompter; you certainly can tell when the President is not using it. What sounded so familiar was the actual message; it was almost verbatim from his previous State of the Union address, which was almost identical to his 2010 address.
The only “accomplishment” Obama could mention was the banking bill. I find it almost amusing that there was no mention of his health care reform bill, since polls show a majority of Americans oppose the bill and more join the ranks as more “gems” are uncovered. Obama’s State of the Union sounded like more campaign rhetoric, filled with plans of jobs for everyone, homes for everyone a leaner and more efficient government. Another glaring example of his hypocrisy; Obama asked for more power to eliminate wasteful bureaucracies and cut burdensome red tape to trim down government but then in at least three instances he announced a new bureaucracy. The first was the Trade Enforcement Unit; the next was the Financial Crimes Unit and the new slew of federal prosecutors to prosecute those in the banking industry, the new panels to coordinate jobs for Veterans, altering college programs and lending/borrowing practices.
Finally, like in every other Obama speech, he played the class warfare card again. Demonized companies for trying to make a profit, wanting to implement windfall profit taxes to oil companies. The President continued attacking “the rich” for not paying their “fair share.” No one can seem to explain what their fair share is, or what qualifies as rich. Is 35% a fair share? Is 75% a fair share? What’s rich, $250,000 a year, $5 million a year? President Obama even stuck to the same old misleading democratic talking points; the importance of tax payer funded green energy, the misstatement on the amount of oil reserves in the United States. He continues to make false claims about energy production and border security. I can only hope that the people are seeing through all of the smoke and mirrors and see that the hope and change was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Please see my examiner article here for links.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Occupy: a communist movement?
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. These two German political philosophers are credited with authoring what has been described as one of the most influential political manuscripts in the world. They predicted the “evils” of capitalism would be eventually replaced by communism. Marx also developed a “test” to see if a country was practicing communism. This test consisted of 10 planks.
I’ve written a couple of articles in my series on the Occupy Las Vegas movement and in this one, I wanted to focus on my biggest disagreement with the Occupy Las Vegas movement and it ties in with the 10 planks of communism. The list of redresses against the government has been taken down the Occupy Las Vegas and replaced with a request for resolution to be delivered to the City Councils and Commissioners of the various local entities.
One of the redresses was the forgiveness of student loans and free education. Free education is the tenth planks of communism. The state controls the educational content and uses it much like the former Soviet Union or modern China to indoctrinate the young to reinforce the communist ideals. Another redress was the increased regulation of the banking industry. A central bank and the centralization of credit is the fifth plank of communism. Government spending in the infrastructure and transportation of the country, which the Occupy crowd favors, is the sixth plank. The seventh plank of Marx’s test is the state control of the means of production, which if you have the government guarantee full employment, they will have to control and that would include the eighth plank, which is equal liability of all labor. The Occupy movement has been pushing for “the rich” to pay their “fair” share (no one can seem to explain what is fair), or a heavily progressive income tax and no surprise that happens to be the second plank of communism. Protestors have started occupying foreclosed homes and private parks, private businesses and private homes showing a total disregard of private property rights. Karl Marx’s first plank of communism is the abolishment of private property. That is seven out of the ten planks from the Communist Manifesto that the Occupy Las Vegas movement was pushing. I would have liked to copy their redress of grievances before it changed to their resolution to the local governments to see if they were promoting the last three which is the confiscation of property from emigrants and rebels, a heavy inheritance tax and finally the equal distribution of people throughout the country. I feel safe to say that if you are for a progressive tax, you probably support the inheritance tax and the confiscation of property of emigrants and rebels. It would not surprise me if they supported the equalization of population density.
This is my major problem with the Occupy Las Vegas group and from what I’ve seen, most of the Occupy movements across the country. They claim to be for the working man and the union, but then they shut down a port keeping a couple hundred middle class union workers from earning their pay. They claim the government is broken and the only way to fix it is to give them more power and let them try and fix the problem they created. They complain about the 1%, but have leadership groups compromising a small percentage of the movement controlling the resources of the “people” or the collective. They are pushing for government control over our lives. From the indoctrination of the young, to the government career that’s selected for you and even where you live and what you use for transportation. Communism has failed everywhere it has been tried and I really don’t want to see the United States of America turn into the United Socialist States of America. Both the Communist Manifesto and Rules for Radicals calls to incite class warfare to bring about a revolution, to make the poor and middle class hate the wealthy and convince them that what they have should be distributed to the people. American guarantees equal opportunity, not equal results. America is for the individual, where you are only limited by your imagination, not stifled by government rules and regulations.
I’ve written a couple of articles in my series on the Occupy Las Vegas movement and in this one, I wanted to focus on my biggest disagreement with the Occupy Las Vegas movement and it ties in with the 10 planks of communism. The list of redresses against the government has been taken down the Occupy Las Vegas and replaced with a request for resolution to be delivered to the City Councils and Commissioners of the various local entities.
One of the redresses was the forgiveness of student loans and free education. Free education is the tenth planks of communism. The state controls the educational content and uses it much like the former Soviet Union or modern China to indoctrinate the young to reinforce the communist ideals. Another redress was the increased regulation of the banking industry. A central bank and the centralization of credit is the fifth plank of communism. Government spending in the infrastructure and transportation of the country, which the Occupy crowd favors, is the sixth plank. The seventh plank of Marx’s test is the state control of the means of production, which if you have the government guarantee full employment, they will have to control and that would include the eighth plank, which is equal liability of all labor. The Occupy movement has been pushing for “the rich” to pay their “fair” share (no one can seem to explain what is fair), or a heavily progressive income tax and no surprise that happens to be the second plank of communism. Protestors have started occupying foreclosed homes and private parks, private businesses and private homes showing a total disregard of private property rights. Karl Marx’s first plank of communism is the abolishment of private property. That is seven out of the ten planks from the Communist Manifesto that the Occupy Las Vegas movement was pushing. I would have liked to copy their redress of grievances before it changed to their resolution to the local governments to see if they were promoting the last three which is the confiscation of property from emigrants and rebels, a heavy inheritance tax and finally the equal distribution of people throughout the country. I feel safe to say that if you are for a progressive tax, you probably support the inheritance tax and the confiscation of property of emigrants and rebels. It would not surprise me if they supported the equalization of population density.
This is my major problem with the Occupy Las Vegas group and from what I’ve seen, most of the Occupy movements across the country. They claim to be for the working man and the union, but then they shut down a port keeping a couple hundred middle class union workers from earning their pay. They claim the government is broken and the only way to fix it is to give them more power and let them try and fix the problem they created. They complain about the 1%, but have leadership groups compromising a small percentage of the movement controlling the resources of the “people” or the collective. They are pushing for government control over our lives. From the indoctrination of the young, to the government career that’s selected for you and even where you live and what you use for transportation. Communism has failed everywhere it has been tried and I really don’t want to see the United States of America turn into the United Socialist States of America. Both the Communist Manifesto and Rules for Radicals calls to incite class warfare to bring about a revolution, to make the poor and middle class hate the wealthy and convince them that what they have should be distributed to the people. American guarantees equal opportunity, not equal results. America is for the individual, where you are only limited by your imagination, not stifled by government rules and regulations.
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