A Titan Falls: Politicians Befriend Big Business, Undermine Free Market by Doug Bandow

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For most people politics looks like a game about who is up or down. Sometimes established favorites win big. Other times long-shots burst forth and upset the established order. The horse race tends to most capture public attention.

The recent Republican primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was one of the bigger shocks to American politics in some time. Two decades ago Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley was ousted in the general election. Fourteen years before that House Majority Whip John Brademas of Indiana went down to defeat. However, congressional leaders usually are handily reelected. Once they are known to for bringing home the bacon for local folks, they become as titans bestriding the world.

But Cantor’s loss will have a much larger impact than simply reshuffling who enjoys the biggest offices on Capitol Hill. He gave lip service to fiscal responsibility but was, argued Nick Gillespie of Reason, “atrocious and hypocritical in all the ways that a Republican can be,” constantly voting to grow government.

Indeed, Cantor’s constituency was as much corporate America as it was Virginia voters. Business was counting on his support to push through reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, long known as “Boeing’s Bank” for the extensive benefits lavished on one company; extension of terrorism risk insurance, which transfers financial liability for loss from firms to taxpayers; and preservation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which nearly wrecked the economy while subsidizing homeowners, builders, and lenders.

Cantor’s loss, said the Washington Post, was “bad news for big business.” The New York Times observed that Cantor was “a powerful ally of business big and small, from giants like Boeing to the many independently owned manufacturers and wholesalers that rely on the federal government for financial support.” He was also “one of Wall Street’s most reliable benefactors in Congress.” His opponent, an economics professor, targeted Cantor’s crony politics.

In practice Cantor’s loss changes little. His replacement as House Majority Leader, California’s Keven McCarthy, appears no less political than Cantor. McCarthy also has relied on Wall Street for fundraising. However, while previously voting to reauthorize the bank, he recently said he would prefer to let the institution’s charter expire. He once owned a sandwich shop, and therefore understands the problems of small business.

Suffering near political death was Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who trailed a Tea Party-backed state senator in the initial primary vote and narrowly won the runoff, apparently with Democratic support. Widely viewed as the “king of pork,” Cochran relied on his ability to raid the Treasury to pay off fellow Mississippians. Noted the New York Times, the one-time Appropriations Committee chairman and several predecessors all used “their perches on the powerful Appropriations Committees of their chambers to shower their impoverished state with federal funds.”

Cochran also has been a regular supporter of business subsidies. Which is why corporate America returned the favor. Economic elites surprised by Cantor’s loss “are moving quickly to ensure that Mr. Cochran does not meet the same fate,” reported the Times. The incumbent Senate Republican raised $800,000 at just one fund-raiser targeting corporate lobbyists. Big firms like General Atomics and Raytheon have given generously to groups backing Cochran.

It long has been evident that the greatest enemies of capitalism are the capitalists. Even Adam Smith, the famed author of The Wealth of Nations and great proponent of free markets, warned that businessmen oft gathered together to conspire against the public for their own gain. Today it is hard for them to resist doing so. When “everyone” is doing it, who wants to be left out? Especially with boards and shareholders to satisfy.

Of course, business is not alone in shoving its snout into the federal trough. Big Labor and many other influential interests do so as well. However, the disjunction of simultaneously praising and undermining the free market is particularly jarring when coming from businessmen.

Alas, our entire political system has been corrupted. In April Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) gave a thoughtful speech warning of “America’s crisis of crony capitalism, corporate welfare, and political privilege.”  The victims are every day folks, “the poor and middle class” excluded by government “from earning their success on a level playing field.”

No wonder, then, Americans’ ever greater frustration with politics. Blowback is coming as antagonism grows towards those who treat the federal Treasury as a piggy bank for themselves and their supporters. Moreover, as Cantor dramatically discovered, discontent with the politics of privilege may be as strong on the right as on the left. Explained the Times: “Beyond their priorities in Congress, what has unsettled business executives is what they sense as a growing anger over the ‘corporate welfare’ and ‘crony capitalism’ among the many associated with the Tea Party.”

Anger is the appropriate emotion. Who is the better candidate in any particular race is up to the voters in that district or state. But citizens everywhere should be frustrated with a government driven by interest groups where business leaders who actively subvert the market economy.

The problem is not just the money—roughly $100 billion a year for corporate welfare, for instance. Also disturbing is the message government is sending to all Americans. The way to rise and prosper, to expand one’s business and increase one’s income, is to seize control of the State to loot your neighbors. Gaining wealth by working hard is, well, hard work. It is so much better to hire a lobbyist and whisper sweet nothings in legislators’ ears. No heavy lifting there.

Moreover, the illusion of consent cannot hide the dubious moral principles these players rely upon. If government has as purpose, it is to advance particularly important and genuinely collective interests which cannot be achieved privately. Taking people’s earnings for anything less differs little from theft. Sadly, most of today’s vast transfer state looks like a complex of stolen goods.

Eric Cantor’s defeat is a useful reminder to the political class that even they are ultimately accountable to the people. Only by sharing that message widely is there a chance of rolling back the rampant political privilege and cronyism which dominates Washington today.

dougbandow3540ABOUT DOUG BANDOW

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the author of a number of books on economics and politics. He writes regularly on military non-interventionism.

Obama Encounters an Apex of Anger

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Barack Obama has managed to do something one would hardly imagine a President could achieve by the midpoint of his second term. He has managed to anger most segments of the American populace, including those to the far Left who constitute a significant part of his base. It has taken time for most people to reach this point.

Americans are amazingly patient with their presidents, but Obama has pushed them beyond scandal fatigue. The “final straw” appears to be the illegal alien invasion masterminded by Obama.

What they are seeing and hearing is not what they were sold; a charming man of allegedly extraordinary intelligence. Friday’s press conference regarding the shoot down of the Malaysian commercial aircraft showed us a man utterly lacking any moral outrage and, as always, “leading from behind” by insisting this was Europe’s problem, not one that would be addressed by an America doing anything more than applying a few economic sanctions.

He looked and sounded bored, annoyed that he had to utter a bunch of empty platitudes about Russia; the same Russia with which he and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had declared a “reset” from previous administrations’ relations. Putin took his measure and saw weakness.

Obama’s response to the Middle East was to pull out all our troops from Iraq and a muddled series of actions in Afghanistan topped by the announcement of when troops there would leave, always a very bad idea when the enemy is still in the field. The “Arab Spring” became another Obama nightmare of bad decisions.

Cartoon - Lame Duck

For a larger view click on the image.

It took years, but it eventually became clear to most paying any attention that Obama has told so many lies that whatever he says now is deemed worthless. Then, too, his administration is now subject to congressional investigations that include the Internal Revenue Service and the Veterans Administration.

The Attorney General was slapped with contempt of Congress. A key figure in the IRS scandal, Lois Lerner, has pled the Fifth.

The House of Representatives is getting ready to sue Obama for failing to obey the Constitution’s separation of powers. The President’s efforts to ignore the Constitution have been met with an extraordinary number of Supreme Court rebuffs, many of which were unanimous.

How bad is Obama’s situation at present? One indication is the way the news media has been slowly, but steadily falling out of love with him. As Paul Bedard noted recently in the Washington Examiner, “In unprecedented criticism of the White House 38 journalism groups have assailed the president’s team for censoring media coverage, limiting access to top officials, and overall ‘politically-driven suppression of the news.”

David Cuiller, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said, “It is up to journalists—and citizens—to push back against this force. Hard!” As a member of the SPJ since the 1970s this is a welcome expression of indignation, but it is also been occurring across a full spectrum of Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters as various Obama policies have negatively affected them.

No President has ever much liked the news media. This one, though, took them from adoration to distrust. With the exception of the network news shows and steadfast liberal newspapers, Obama’s news coverage is going to become increasingly harsh. Or should we say “accurate”?

The illegal alien immigration issue has enraged average Americans and Obama is not helped when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claims that “the borders are secure” or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi makes some equally absurd and moronic claim.

In the six years since Obama took office in 2009, Americans have encountered a succession of scandals that began with Operation Fast and Furious when a scheme to transfer arms to Mexican cartels was covered up by the assertion of executive privilege. The Obamacare lies were followed by administration efforts to force corporations and religious organizations to forego their faith-based beliefs. Millions of Americans lost their healthcare insurance plans, only to have them replaced for far more expensive ones.

On top of the problems Americans encountered with the implementation of Obamacare, along came revelations that the Department of Veterans Affairs was letting some veterans seeking healthcare die by falsifying treatment records.

While this was occurring the nation’s debt rose to a historic high of $17 trillion, causing its credit rating to be reduced for the first time. There has been no budget during his first and second terms. There are still more than 90 million Americans out of work and the prices of food and gasoline are rising.

Following the Benghazi attack, the scandal was the lies told by Obama and Hillary Clinton, then the Secretary of State, describing it as a random attack despite the fact it occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. When the administration released five high ranking Taliban leaders at the same time we continue to be engaged in a war against them in Afghanistan, the public really began to take notice. It angered veterans and others.

No one in Congress believes a word Obama says and the House of Representatives is getting ready to sue him for his failure to enforce the laws Congress has passed and his usurpation of unconstitutional power to alter laws whenever he wants. This is unprecedented in the history of the nation.

And the scandals noted are only a small number of the actions Obama and his administration have taken that have finally combined to create a body of evidence that he has been acting against the interest and welfare of Americans he took an oath to protect. How does he expect to do that as he reduces the nation’s military strength to pre-WWII levels?

Obama’s response to the growing level of anger has been to concentrate on fund raising for the Democratic Party, but even those benefitting from it do not want to be seen with him.

In August he will take a long vacation in the ultra-rich environs of Martha’s Vineyard while thousands of illegal aliens continue to stream in and his only “solution” is to ask Congress for billions to care for them. And to blame Congress—Republicans—for failing to pass an immigration bill that amounts to an amnesty no one wants.

The anger that has been building is likely to be expressed on November 4 when Americans go to the polls to clean house and, by that, I mean ridding Congress of as many Democrats as possible and replacing them with openly avowed conservatives. That’s just over a hundred days from now.

The cliché is that “the fish stinks from the head” and it is clear now that the Obama administration reflects the corruption and incompetence of Barack Obama, a Chicago politician who leapt to power despite not even having served a full term as a U.S. Senator. He was elected to be the first black President of the United States and it is no small irony that even African-Americans know he has done little or nothing to address their needs and concerns.

He will not be impeached as he should be, but he will increasingly lack any power other than executive orders. The constitutional system will work, but it will take decades to repair the damage.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

298 souls on MH17 have paid the price for Obama’s “flexibility” [VIDEO]

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Back in his first term, while taking part in a global nuclear security summit in South Korea — and believing the microphones were off –President Barack Hussein Obama was caught leaning over to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to say “This is my last election. After my election I will have more flexibility.” Medvedev replied, “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”

Sadly, hundreds of Ukrainians and 298 souls on MH17 have paid the price for the weakness and abject cowardice of Obama’s “flexibility.”

And here in America we quibble over a lawsuit against this charlatan.

The blood on Vladimir Putin’s hands was poured by Barack Obama who is indirectly responsible, accountable and no different than Neville Chamberlain’s weakness in the face of the 20th Century maniacal dictator Adolf Hitler.

So much for no drama Obama. He is purposefully creating drama globally.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. The featured photo of the wreckage of Malaysian Air flight MH17 is courtesy of the India Financial Times.

Cracks in the Democrats’ Foundation

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In a WorldNetDaily column of July 16, titled, “Why they won’t let us talk to the illegal kids,” talk radio pioneer Barry Farber suggested that, “the reason we in media are not allowed to talk to the children is that the conversation in every honest interview will get around to, ‘What made you all risk so much to get here?’  The answer will be, ‘Oh! Mama and Papa heard it many times. Your President Obama has found many little ways to say, ‘Come on up!  We won’t send you back!’ ”

Barry’s very ominous prediction was that, “The minute that awareness reaches critical mass, Obama, his works, his team, and the Democratic Party will suffer a rejection that will make the Republican years in political purgatory seem like a quick tour-bus jaunt through hell.”

One of my major regrets is that, barring divine intervention, I will not be around to see how historians will chronicle America’s post-constitutional period: the last half of the 20th century and the first 16 years of the 21st century.  These are the years during which one of our major political parties, the Democrat Party, created an ideological plantation on which they cynically attempted to imprison an entire ethnic minority.

Rarely in human history has any civilized nation so offended basic human decency than did the United States during the era of slavery, between 1619 and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1861. In fact, many Americans found the institution of slavery to be so morally repugnant that a new political party, the Republican Party, was spawned out of the abolitionist movement.

The Republican Party was founded in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20, 1854.  Anti-slavery sentiment was so strong in some northern and border states that the party was able to elect its first president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, just six years later.  In the ensuing 104 years, Republicans fought what seemed an endless battle against Democrats who longed for the return of slavery and who opposed basic human rights for former slaves and their descendants.

  • A Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • It was Republicans who drafted and passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, outlawing slavery and giving blacks citizenship and the right to vote.
  • It was Democrat-controlled legislatures across the South who enacted the Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws.
  • In 1866, it was Democrats who created the Ku Klux Klan as a paramilitary arm of their party.  Its purpose was to intimidate, terrorize, and murder black people.  In the years between 1882 and 1951, some 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites, nearly all Republicans, were lynched by the KKK.
  • It was Republicans who authored the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
  • It was Democrats who wrote and passed the Repeal Act of 1894, repealing much of the civil rights legislation passed by Republicans in the years since the close of the Civil War.  In other instances, a Democrat-dominated U.S. Supreme Court declared elements of the Republican civil rights legislation to be unconstitutional.
  • It was a Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who authored the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.  Later, it was the strong support of Republicans that made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 possible… a law that was almost identical, word-for-word, to the Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1875, overturned by a Democrat-dominated U.S. Supreme Court.  And finally, it was a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who signed the Equal Employment Act of 1972.

It was not until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-1950s that Democrats finally decided that, if they could no longer control blacks through violence and intimidation, they would have to buy their hearts, their minds, and their votes with an endless variety of social welfare programs.  Since that time, and to their great discredit, blacks have turned their backs on the Republicans who worked so tirelessly and so valiantly on their behalf.  Instead, they now cast more than 90% of their votes for white Democrats, those who were their oppressors for more than three centuries.  Never in the history of man has a race of people shown such ingratitude toward those who were their principal benefactors.

But now it appears that a schism is beginning to develop in the black man’s love affair with the Democrat Party. For the past sixty years, Democrats have been laying sloppy, slobbering kisses all over our black population. But what blacks are now learning is that, what they took to be undying love and devotion, was nothing more than a prelude to a cheap one-night stand.

Bernadette Lancelin, a black mother in Houston, apparently a former Obama supporter, recently found herself being interviewed by a Houston TV station. She said she was furious that Barack Obama wants to spend nearly $4 billion on Central American kids who’ve entered the country illegally.  She said, “What about the kids here?  What about the kids here in our neighborhood?  And not just in our neighborhood, but in our country? All these (illegal immigrant) kids, really?  Why can’t they go back?” She said, “I’m sorry that their parents are in poor living conditions or surroundings or whatever’s going on out there. I don’t care. I care about what’s going on right here in my own back yard, my neighborhood.”

Mychal Massie, a black writer and talk show host in Los Angeles, has said, “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the media for refusing to investigate (the Obamas) as they did President Bush and President Clinton, and for refusing to label them for what they truly are.  There is no scenario known to man, whereby a white president and his wife could ignore laws, flaunt their position, and lord over the people, as these two are permitted out of fear for their color… Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader.”

She went on to say, “He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed.  Even by the low standard of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequaled.  Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood.”

In a July 14 editorial for Minuteman News, titled “Democrats’ New Trophy Wife,” attorney A.J. Delgado writes, “Democrats have built a brand as the party willing to stand up for black Americans, but the amnesty push (for illegal Hispanic immigrants) shows what a false promise that was.  The message to black voters is: ‘Yes, your ancestors endured unimaginable hardships and helped build this country, and we said we’d help you out.  But now we have a new trophy wife.’  Meanwhile, the harm to African Americans is not limited to reduced wages, greater competition for jobs, and declining household incomes… now even the black history of suffering is being diluted.  Liberal columnist and CNN pundit Sally Kohn penned a column last week arguing that the term ‘illegal immigrant’ is the same as the N-word.”

If there is a silver lining in the current immigration crisis along our southern border, it is that a great many previously disinterested or complacent Americans are being awakened to the evils of Barack Obama and the Democrat Party.  William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC predicts that, on the weekend of July 19-20, more than 300 protest rallies will take place in cities all across the country.  He said, “Our goal is to unify Americans of all races, political parties, and walks of life against the Obama-inspired illegal immigrant invasion.”

What is finally beginning to dawn on African Americans is that Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and other Democrats have long taken them for granted… assuming that, once a black man is bought, he will stay bought.  It is apparent that what Democrats are hoping is that Hispanics will become the most sought-after minority voting bloc.  Add those votes to the black vote, the labor vote, and the public employee vote, along with the votes of trial lawyers, radical feminists, radical environmentalists, gays, lesbians, and transvestites, and they expect to have a winning coalition that will maintain them in power until the end of time.

Delgado likens the Democrats’ current attitude toward blacks to the husband who leaves his wife after 30 years of marriage, saying, “We’ve had a good run, honey, but I’ve found someone new.”  He says, “Yes, black America… it’s closing time and there’s a younger, hotter version of you out there on the dance floor, and the Democrats are laying on the charm, slick one-liners, and cash to buy her affections… and votes.”

But now, in a stroke of irony that not even Hollywood screen writers could have visualized, we find that it is a black president and a black attorney general who are most responsible for the fissures that are beginning to appear in the once-solid Democrat base. Yes, cracks are beginning to appear in the Democrats’ foundation. For the good of mankind, let’s all hope that Barry Farber’s prediction comes true and that Obama and his criminal conspirators will be soon be accorded the ignominy they so richly deserve.

Larry Grathwohl: Remembering an American Hero a Year Later

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Larry Grathwohl was one of a disappearing breed, from the working class, an American patriot, who had a clear moral vision. He fought communists in the jungles of Vietnam and then in their clandestine cells here in America. He was a gentleman, respectful of women, a loving father and grandfather.

A year after his untimely death, I still feel his absence. I hear his corny jokes. When I hear a funny phrase, I can hear him repeating it obsessively. In May 2013, he and Tina Trent and I were speaking to tea party groups in Florida about the republication of Larry’s book about infiltrating the Weather Underground, Bringing Down America. Larry’s sense of humor helped bring lightness to our grim and ugly subject, Bill Ayers and the group he cofounded, Weatherman, which became the Weather Underground.

After a summer break, we were to resume our tour. Then we got the devastating news that Larry had been found dead in his apartment on July 18, 2013.

I had met Larry at one of Cliff Kincaid’s conferences several years ago. Cliff is a fearless advocate for the forgotten victims of communist terrorist groups like the Weatherman. I was discussing my report about how Bill Ayers, terrorist-turned-education-professor, indoctrinated students toward his Marxist revolutionary plan. Larry talked about his experiences as an infiltrator, about Weather Underground’s murderous plans and actions. One of these actions—the bombing of a Detroit police station–he sabotaged.

Larry described such tasks and those he faced while serving in Vietnam matter-of-factly, never with bravado. He used the survival strategies he had learned in Vietnam and applied them to the very dangerous work of living in the cells of these revolutionaries.

During breaks between tea party events last year, Larry was reading Cathy Wilkerson’s “Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman.” Every few pages he’d have to stop because of his astonishment at her lack of remorse. We would compare her account with Bill Ayers’s versions. After serving time in prison, Wilkerson, like most of the other terrorists, went into teaching.

In recalling his days with the Weathermen, Larry repeatedly wondered aloud how such a group of privileged and college-educated young adults could casually discuss their plans for putting Americans into reeducation camps after the Revolution—and eliminate those who refused to be reeducated. Larry recounted Ayers’s lack of concern after Larry had warned him about the number of innocent people who would be killed if Ayers’s bomb intended for a Detroit police station went off. Ayers and these same academics now talk about “white privilege.” But these sons and daughters of real privilege cared not a whit about the victims, black and white, of their bombs, whether those in a Detroit restaurant or the black and white policemen and guards murdered in the 1981 Brinks Armored Car robbery.

Not even a full year after Larry’s death, the blowhard, Bill Ayers, was the celebrity/revolutionary-academic guest on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show. I was sickened by hearing her call him “Professor” and hearing him glibly lie about his past in his put-on soft voice. At an earlier time in America, Bill Ayers’s nonsensical and polemical “scholarship” would have gotten him a firm “no thank you” by a university hiring committee. Instead, he quickly became “Distinguished Professor of Education” at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At another time, his preening and obfuscating would have gotten him hard-hitting questions from the press. Now he is given celebrity status on the only “conservative” cable news program.

Ayers’s “pal” Barack Obama is in the White House and “bringing down America”–not with actual bombs but with a radical transformation: nationalizing healthcare and education, undermining the military and police, using agencies like the IRS to persecute law-abiding citizens, increasing dependence on government programs, flooding the borders with third-world future voters, and choking the middle class.

Be prepared for pardons for the few remaining terrorists in prison, including David Gilbert, serving a 75-year sentence for three counts of felony murder in the Brinks case.

Larry is no longer around to rebut Ayers’s lies. Ayers lied about Larry on Fox News, without a challenge from Megyn Kelly. Larry’s book and testimony are there to read.

Fox could not invite Larry onto the program. But he has many friends and colleagues who knew him and loved him and know the real story. We are celebrating the life of Larry Grathwohl, true American hero, at the website for his book and story.

The event is being coordinated by Larry’s daughter, Lindsay, and Tina Trent, publisher.

They write, “We are asking that bloggers, radio folks, podcasters, and others in the media use July 18th to tell the truth about violent leftist radicals like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” They invite everyone to participate. Contact them at bringingdownamerica@gmail.com.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on TownHall.com.

Obamacare Must Be Repealed

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While the issue of immigration is uppermost in people’s minds right now, it is likely at this point halfway through his second term that President Obama will be identified by historians most closely with his signature, namesake legislation, the Affordable Patient Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

They will do so for two reasons; that he lied to everyone about it and it has been a failure in countless ways from the moment its website was introduced.

Obamacare_Paying_For_It_Poster (1)

For a larger view click on the image. Graphic courtesy of The Peoples Cube.

In April PolitiFact, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, announced the “most significant falsehood of the year” and it came as no surprise it was “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” An April Fox News poll revealed that 61% of respondents said the Obama lies at least some of the time on important issues. Only 15% thought he was completely truthful.

By July 2 a Quinnipiac University poll announced that its survey had determined that 33% of the respondents believed Obama was the “Worst President Since WWII.” The poll also revealed that between 54% and 44% believed the Obama administration was not competent to run the government.

If you want proof of that, you need only follow the horror story of Obamacare.

In September 2013, prior to Obamacare’s implementation the following month, Daniel Henninger, a Wall Street Journal columnist, wisely noted that “Obamacare is the biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on its fundamental beliefs. This thing called ‘Obamacare’ carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams of the entitlement state.”

“If Obamacare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the American people” adding that “only the American people can kill Obamacare.”

The great Prohibition experiment was killed by the American people and it took a Constitutional amendment to do it. It was a monumental failure.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that no Republican voted for Obamacare. It was entirely a Democratic Party creation, one it has wanted going back to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.

What Americans have learned in the short time since Obamacare has been implemented is that virtually everything they were told about it was and is a lie.

People who were insured lost their health plan—six million had been cancelled by May, nor could they keep their doctor because many health care plans sold on federal and state exchanges have a limited number of in-network physicians from whom to choose. The costs of Obamacare plans costs are frequently in excess of those from the previous free market and include elements that do not fit the age or sex of those who sign up, such as maternity coverage for women beyond childbearing age.

Obamacare exists because the Supreme Court deemed it to be a “tax”, but it is demonstrably unconstitutional insofar as it represents the mandate of the federal government that everyone buy something that they may not want and, more importantly, cannot afford. When the government can tell you what you must buy, you are no longer living in a free society.

Sharyl Attkisson, writing in Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, reported one source as saying, “In general healthy people are paying more and unhealthy people are paying less.” There isn’t even a “smidgen” of fairness in this.

At no point before or since its inception has the Obama administration told the truth about any aspect of Obamacare, particularly how many legitimate enrollments there have been thus far. In April the number cited was eight million. Attkisson reported that observers immediately pointed out that “the figure is overstated because it counted people who weren’t actually covered because they hadn’t paid their premiums. That actual enrollment was likely closer to between 6.4 and 6.8 million, both below the eight million figure and the stated target of seven million.”

Arnold Ahlert, writing for CanadaFreePress.com, noted in early July that “A pair of reports released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General reveal ‘internal’ controls for evaluating healthcare applications are ineffective, and 85% of 2.9 million data ‘inconsistencies’ on Obamacare applications cannot be resolved, even after nine months of attempting to do so.” Not only did many of the 39 state exchanges fail to work, but the enrollments are plagued with evidence of both data errors and fraud.

Obamacare - Lipstick on a PigObamacare is so flawed that the President has had to unilaterally and unconstitutionally step in to alter the terms of the law thus far. That is an impeachable offense.

Obamacare is a massive travesty and, hidden below the headlines is the fact that the failures inherent in its implementation are causing some to die because of bureaucratic delays encountered while waiting to receive the care their plans are supposed to provide, if they were even able to secure a plan.

The election in November of enough Republicans to control the Senate and an increase in the House would permit them to act upon the numerous bills the House has passed to end Obamacare and which are blocked in the Senate by Harry Reid, its Majority Leader. Ending Obamacare would truly be a blessing for all Americans.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

GM is alive.Drivers are dead. Any questions?

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Remember the arrogant 2012 bumper sticker based on Joe Biden’s boast at the DNC? “GM is alive. Bin Laden is dead. Any questions?”

GM_Alive_Dead_Sticker.jpg

Actually, I do have a question. Was Bin Laden driving GM’s Chevy Cobalt when he died?

It now appears that many American civilians with absolutely no connection to al-Qaeda have also become dead or injured while driving one of those small, fuel-efficient Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac G5, or Saturn Ion.

The Washington Post reports:

“An investigation into General Motors’ failure to recall millions of small cars containing a deadly ignition switch defect found a corporate culture in which employees failed to take responsibility for the problem, which has been linked to at least 13 deaths, said GM chief executive Mary T. Barra.”

This raises even more questions.

Notice the part about “a corporate culture in which employees failed to take responsibility for the problem.” Was it because the employees knew that they were too big to fail?

How many of them were members of the United Auto Workers? Obama had rewarded this labor union’s political shenanigans and donations to his campaign with 39 percent of General Motors. That alone should have taught the GM employees a lesson that real money comes, not from actual labor but from shady political dealings, and that honest work is for suckers.

General Motors waited more than a decade to recall their 2.6 million defective small cars worldwide. Obviously, the problem started long before the Obama administration decided to bail them out, thus rewarding bad behavior and costing Treasury a loss of roughly $10 billion.

That was yet another real-life lesson from which the GM employees could learn that withholding information is better than honest work, and that those who actually do honest work wind up paying for those who don’t. Now GM is going to establish a compensation program for the victims and their families. How much of that cost will be covered by a taxpayer-funded bailout?

And now for the final question. Using GM chief executive’s own language, who built that “corporate culture in which employees failed to take responsibility for the problem”?

According to her boss, the nation’s chief executive, no one in particular. In president Obama’s mind, businesses just happen to grow and develop their own cultures, like fungus. No one takes credit for a fungus culture; why should anyone take credit for a business culture? Whether you succeed or fail, the administration’s credo is, “You didn’t build that!”

GM officially confirms up to 13 deaths; trial lawyers are likely to raise the number to 60. Is that a fair cost of keeping GM alive? If so, how many lives and billions of taxpayer dollars will it take before the cost of this administration’s meddling with the economy becomes prohibitive? At what point will it stop being fair and become criminal?

Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel Atlas Shrugs has a chapter in which hundreds of people on a crowded train lose their lives because railroad employees have stopped taking responsibility for their actions. Their failure to take responsibility was a consequence of the nation’s new culture of “fairness” and “equality” that was being promoted by an intrusive “progressive” government. In a twist of dark irony, all the participants in the story were fully supportive of that “fair” culture – from the corrupt government officials to the cowardly railroad executives to the clueless passengers who never figured out what had doomed them to die in a smoke-filled tunnel.

It seems that today the Obama administration, the “progressive” politicians, the unions, and all their low-information supporters, many of whom are driving GM’s small, fuel-efficient cars, are writing an updated, real-life version of Atlas Shrugged, in which the story of General Motors is the latest contribution to this man-made dystopia.

RELATED ARTICLE: Documents Show General Motors Kept Silent on Fatal Crashes – NYTimes.com

Nothing Essential About Essence

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I wrote a column three years ago titled, “Black Women No Longer Have Their Essence.” My point was that Essence, the pre-eminent magazine for Black women, had become irrelevant and an embarrassment to the Black community.

Unfortunately, Essence has continued its decent into irrelevancy.

For 20 years, Essence has sponsored an annual party during the July 4th holiday known as the Essence Music Festival (EMF). According to their website, the EMF, “known as the party with a purpose, is an annual music festival which started in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women. It is the largest event celebrating African-American culture and music in the United States.”

According to media accounts, “…In 2008, for the first time since its 1995 inception, the festival was not produced by the original producer team. Instead, Essence Communications, owner of the festival and the Essence magazine, contracted Rehage Entertainment Inc. A new main stage facelift was designed by production designer Stefan Beese.” Essence Communications and Essence Magazine are no longer Black-owned, they are owned by Time Inc.

Maybe this would explain why EMF contracted with Rehage Entertainment Inc. and Stefan Beese to produce the event and to build a new stage. They couldn’t find a Black firm capable of taking on these contracts? If they need some referrals, I would be glad to send them a list of Black people who could do the job, if they are truly interested in the “empowerment” of the Black community as they claim.

There was also no diversity in the programming. Of their 86 “empowerment” speakers during their various daytime panels, all were media personalities, journalist, or liberal politicians. There were maybe three people who one could argue were businessmen, but that’s a stretch. As far as I can tell, there were no Republicans invited to participate, as though Essence has no Black female Republican readers?

One panel was about the hair texture of Jay Z and Beyoncé’s baby. Yes, you heard me right; Essence had a whole panel to discuss a child’s nappy hair. One news account said, “Essence Magazine recently hosted an Empowerment Beauty of Confidence panel to comment on the backlash [over the child’s hair]. Essence asked Cynthia Bailey, Kim Kimble, Chenoa Maxwell, Tomiko Frasier Hines, Soledad O’Brien and Wendy Raquel Robinson to comment on the backlash.”

There were no empowerment panels on the women who work in the White House for Obama being paid less than their male counterparts; there were no empowerment panels on why Obama never interviewed a Black female lawyer for the two Supreme Court nominations he made to the Court; there were no empowerment panels on the number of Black kids languishing in the foster care system while Obama wants to throw billions of dollars to support children coming to this country illegally.

In essence, Essence’s continued march towards irrelevancy has nothing to do with them being White-owned. They were well down that road before they were sold. One could make the argument that the articles in Essence have become less substantive after Time Inc. assumed leadership, not that substance was ever their hallmark. How can you talk about “empowerment” without talking about Lynn Hutchings, a State Representative in the Wyoming legislature? She is the first Black female Republican to serve in the state’s history.

How can you talk about “empowerment” without talking about J’Tia Taylor, who has a Ph.D in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois; she started college at the age of 15. How can you talk about “empowerment” without talking about Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, the State Department’s Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs? Ambassador Jenkins has a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Virginia, an LL.M. in international and comparative law from the Georgetown University Law Center, an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany, a J.D. from Albany Law School; and a B.A. from Amherst College. She also attended The Hague Academy for International Law.

You have such accomplished women – Democrats and Republicans – yet Essence is talking about the texture of a child’s hair.

RELATED ARTICLE: Blacks Should Be Thankful There Was An America To Come To

Anti-Israel Protesters Attack Paris Synagogues: Congregants trapped in building as Bastille Day demonstration turns violent

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Traditionally French people dance in the streets and fire stations on the eve of the Quatorze Juillet, known in English as Bastille Day. This year, however, anti-Israel demonstrators took control of the monument in the center of the Bastille circle Sunday, brandishing Palestinian flags and cardboard replicas of scimitars and Kassam rockets. Described in AFP releases as a well-mannered demonstration except for a few incidents, it was in fact a hate-fest against Israel and the Jews. “Death to the Jews,” “Murderous Israel,” “One Jew Some Jews All Jews are Terrorists” figured loudly among the slogans hurled by kefiyyeh-clad marchers.

According to the police, the 7,000 demonstrators (organizers claimed 30,000) began in the northern quartier of Barbès, which has a large African and Maghrebi population, and marched to the Bastille, where they remained for several hours. A small contingent started to attack the police, and was quickly brought under control. At the same time, hundreds of protesters raced up rue de la Roquette—street of the rocket—and surrounded the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue, which is protected by a tall metal gate. Security guards from the SPCJ (Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive), Beitar, and the Jewish Defense League faced assailants reportedly armed with knives, axes, and iron bars.

Five riot policemen stationed in front of the synagogue, where some 200 congregants happened to be attending a prayer service for Israel’s safety, were unable to handle the crowd. It took a half hour for reinforcements to arrive, and another two hours during which law enforcement combed the surrounding streets before members of the congregation were told it was safe to leave. The chief rabbi of Paris, Michel Guggenheim, was at the synagogue during the incident.

Another synagogue, on the rue des Tournelles near the Place des Vosges, was also targeted, though details of that incident have not yet emerged. Two weeks ago I attended a joyful ceremony there for the more than 1,500 French Jews making aliyah this summer, in the presence of Natan and Avital Sharansky, as well as the Israeli ambassador to France andnewly elected chief rabbi of France Haim Korsia.

Jewish radio stations were abuzz Sunday evening and Monday with testimony from people who had been inside the synagogue and statements from Jewish community leaders. Mainstream media coverage, however, focused largely on the 14 Juillet military parade, with the day’s “death to the Jews” chants neatly overlooked.

Roger Cukierman, the president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jews, and Joël Mergui, president of the Consistoire, met with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve yesterday, and asked for an outright ban on anti-Israel demonstrations due to their blatant disregard for law and order.

Local Jewish community leaders have excellent relations with President Francois Hollande’s government, as they did with the previous Sarkozy administration. During the incident at the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue, Jewish leaders were in contact with the Interior Minister, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and the chief of police. No one questions the government’s sincere sympathy for the Jewish community, or its fervent wish to bring a halt to the incidents, which are alienating French Jews and giving France a bad reputation internationally. The problem is that French authorities are overwhelmed, outrun, cornered, and caught in their own contradictions.

Violent demonstrations under various pretexts have taken place in France since the early 2000s. In 2003, participants in a peace march beat up two young men from Hashomer Hatzair, then tried to break into a building in the Marais where more than 100 young Jews were gathered. There were massive, violent anti-Israel rallies during the 2009 conflict between Israel and Hamas. Sunday’s incident, however, signifies a heightened threat against French Jews. Anti-Israel protestors are more heavily armed and more defiant than before.

French Jews, however, are not cringing. They are standing firm and demanding appropriate government measures. Still, there is a sinking feeling that one day soon the doors will not resist, the mob will enter, the intolerable will occur.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Tablet Magazine. The feature photo of the Don Isaac Abravanel synagogue is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

“Where Missiles Rain and the Divine Reigns”

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“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch.

How do armed Muslim mobs harm civilians other than to kidnap, murder, and bury Jewish children, with their yarmulkahs atop their heads, in the desert under a pile of rocks like lower creatures? Missiles are their weapons of choice to inflict terror upon Israeli children and babies, donned in protective gear, crowded into bomb shelters at less than a moment’s notice by blaring air raid sirens.

Gaza-rockets-map

For a larger view click on the map.

Who amongst America’s populace has survived missile attacks to their homes and at their businesses? Which Americans have grabbed multiple infants and children running from terror to harbor, to save little lives? We know not the heat of hate launched in warheads at our babies. We know not the excruciating decision to choose amongst our children whom to carry and whom to push forward on their own tiny legs.

The popular Qassam rockets, named for the armed branch of Hamas, can tower over 8 feet high and weigh 132 pounds with their payload of TNT and shrapnel, to maximize injury and death to Jewish “infidels” from 90 years to 9 months. Travelling at speeds of 450 miles per hour, the missiles explode upon impact and send their nails coated with rat poison, plus razor blades and screws, through bodies and property alike, slicing and searing them in flames simultaneously.

In 2014, Jewish children fear for their lives on their playgrounds each day. On July 4, while Americans celebrated with fireworks, Israeli children were bombed at summer camp.

After thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel’s civilian populace, piles of missile rubble remain on site as unsightly reminders of terrorism in waiting at all times, forcing the State of Israel to put protective shields over school buildings that cost two to three times as much as the schools themselves and causing Israeli citizens to install bullet-proof glass in their vehicles. While certain Israeli cities are attacked by three to dozens of missiles per day, evil shall not reign upon the Holy Land even as missiles rain down on her courageous People, the apple of the Divine Eye.

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Walter Williams speaks at the Foundation for Economic Education

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Prof. Williams delivered the following to an audience in Irvington, New York, on June 28, 2014. Williams’ lecture is one in a series designed to share ideas, honor FEE’s rich tradition, and say goodbye to the Irvington property.

Let us begin with a discussion of a working definition of markets. Markets are simply millions upon millions, and internationally billions upon billions, of individual decision-makers, engaged in the pursuit of what they determine to be their best interests. We say that the market is free if it is characterized by peaceable, voluntary exchange, private property rights, rule of law, and limited government intervention and control. While some people denounce free markets as immoral, the reality is exactly the opposite. Free markets are more moral than any other system of resource allocation. Let’s talk about the moral superiority of free markets.

Suppose you hire me to mow your lawn and afterwards you pay me $30. The money you pay me might be thought of as a certificate of performance—proof that I served you. With these certificates of performance (money) in hand, I go to my grocer and demand 3 pounds of steak and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced. In effect, the grocer says, “Williams, you’re asking that your fellow man, as ranchers and brewers, serve you. What did you do in turn to serve your fellow man?” I say, “I mowed my fellow man’s lawn.” The grocer says, “Prove it!” That’s when I hand over my certificates of performance—the $30.

A system that requires that I serve my fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces is far more moral than government resource allocation. The government can, in effect say, justifying it with one reason or another, “Williams, you don’t have to serve your fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces. Through the tax code, we’ll take what he produces and give it to you.” Of course, if I were to privately take what my fellow man produced, we’d call it theft. The only difference is when the government does it, that theft is legal but nonetheless theft—which is defined as taking of one person’s rightful property to give to another.

The essence of free markets is good-good exchanges, or what I like to think of as seduction. Exchanges of this sort are featured by the proposition: “I’ll do something good for you if you do something good for me.” Game theorists recognize this as a positive-sum game—a transaction where both parties, in their own estimation, are better off as a result. When I go to my grocer and offer him the following proposition: If you do something good for me—give me that gallon of milk—I’ll do something good for you—give you three dollars. As a result, I am better off because I valued the milk more than I valued the three dollars and he is better off because he valued the three dollars more than he valued the gallon of milk.

Of course there’s another type of exchange not typically, voluntarily entered into, namely good-bad exchanges, or what we might call rape. An example of that kind of exchange would be where I approached my grocer with a pistol, telling him that if he didn’t do something good for me (give me that gallon of milk) I’d do something bad to him: blow his brains out. Clearly, I would be better off, but he would be worse off. Game theorists call that a zero-sum game. That’s the case where in order for one person to be better off, of necessity the other must be worse off. Zero-sum games are transactions mostly initiated by thieves and governments, both are involved in what is euphemistically called income redistribution. The only difference is one does it under the color of the law and the other doesn’t.

The wonders of greed

What human motivation is responsible for getting the most wonderful things done? I would say greed. When I use the term greed, I do not mean cheating, stealing, fraud, and other acts of dishonesty, I mean people seeking to get the most for themselves. Unfortunately, many people are naive enough to believe that it compassion, concern, and “feeling another’s pain” are the superior human motivations. As such we fall easy prey to charlatans, quacks, and hustlers.

Since it’s not considered polite, and surely not politically correct to come out and actually say that greed gets wonderful things done, let me go through a few of the millions of examples of the wonders of greed. It’s a wonderful thing that most of us own cars. Is there anyone who believes that the reason we have cars is because Detroit assembly line workers care about us? It’s also wonderful that Texas cattle ranchers make the sacrifices of time and effort caring for steer so that New Yorkers can have beef on their supermarket shelves. It is also wonderful that Idaho potato growers arise early to do back-breaking work in the hot sun to ensure that New Yorkers also have potatoes on their supermarket shelves. Again, is there anyone who believes that ranchers and potato growers, who make these sacrifices, do so because they care about New Yorkers? They might hate New Yorkers. New Yorkers have beef and potatoes because Texas cattle ranchers and Idaho potato growers care about themselves and they want more for themselves. How much steak and potatoes would New Yorkers have if it all depended on human love and kindness? I would feel sorry for New Yorkers. Reasoning this way bothers some people because they are more concerned with the motives behind a set of actions rather than the results.

This is what Adam Smith, the father of economics, meant in The Wealth of Nations when he said, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests.” In other words, the public good is promoted best by people pursuing their own private interests.

Parity of the market

There is another feature of the free market that often goes unappreciated. That is a sort of parity of the marketplace. The market is an extreme form of democracy: one man, one vote. While the rich have many more dollars than I have, my one dollar is just as valuable as a rich man’s one dollar.  One might assert that common people do not have access to Rolls Royces and yachts. You would be wrong. Microsoft’s Bill Gates is super-rich and can afford to ride in a Rolls Royce and go yachting; but so can the common man—just not for as long. He can rent a Rolls or a yacht for a day, half-day or an hour. This is something often forgotten: People can bid on quantity as well as price.

The fruits of the free market are the best thing that ever happened to the common man. The rich have always had access to entertainment, often in the comfort of their palaces and mansions. The rich have never had to experience the drudgery of having to beat out carpets, iron their clothing or slave over a hot stove all day in order to have a decent dinner. They could afford to hire people. Mass production and marketing have made radios and televisions, vacuum cleaners, wash-and-wear clothing and microwave ovens available and well within the means of the common man; thus sparing him of the boredom and drudgery of the past. Today, the common man has the power to enjoy much (and more) of what only the rich could afford yesteryear.

What about those who became wealthy producing these comforts available to the common man? Henry Ford benefitted immensely from mass producing automobiles but the benefits received by the common man, from being able to buy a car, dwarfs anything Ford received. Individuals who founded companies that produced penicillin, polio, and typhoid vaccines may have become very wealthy—but again, it was the common man who was the major beneficiary. In more recent times, computers and software products have benefitted our health, safety, and quality of life in ways that dwarf whatever wealth received by their creators.

Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to the rise of capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving one’s fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and then produce and market it as efficiently as possible. Here’s a question that we should ponder in light of anti-market demagoguery: Are people who by their actions created unprecedented convenience, longer life expectancy, and made more fun available for the ordinary person—and became wealthy in the process—deserving of all the scorn and ridicule heaped upon them by intellectuals and politicians? Are the wealthy really obliged to “give something back?” After all, for example, what more do the wealthy discoverers and producers of, say, life-saving antibiotics owe us? They’ve already saved lives and made us healthier.

Despite the miracles of capitalism, it doesn’t do well in popularity polls. One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the nonexistent, unrealizable utopias of socialism or communism. Any earthly system, when compared to a Utopia, will pale in comparison. But for the ordinary person, capitalism, with all of its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.

Rights versus wishes

Often people speak of rights to housing, medical care, food, and other goods and services deemed necessary for the sustenance of life. That vision leads to gross violations of most standards of morality. In standard usage of the term, a right, sometimes called negative rights, is something that exists simultaneously among people. A right confers no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech is something we all possess simultaneously. My right to free speech imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference. Similarly, I have a right to travel freely. That right imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference.

Contrast those rights to the supposed right to medical care or decent housing whether one can afford them or not. Through government actions, those supposed rights do impose obligations upon others. Government has no resources of its very own. The money coming from federal, state and local governments to pay for those “rights” does not come from politicians reaching into their own pockets. Moreover, there is no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy who provides the money. The recognition that government has no resources of it very own forces one to recognize that the only way government can give one person a dollar is to first take it from someone else. A government-granted right to medical care, housing or anything else imposes an obligation on another, namely one American have less of something else—diminished rights to his earnings. That is, if one person has a right to something he did not earn, it requires another to not have a right to something he did earn. Let’s apply this bogus concept of rights—some might call it positive rights—to free speech and the right to travel freely. In that case, my free speech rights would require others to supply me with an auditorium, microphone and audience. My right to travel would require that others provide me with airplane tickets and hotel accommodations. Most Americans, I would imagine, would tell me, “Williams, yes you have rights to free speech and travel rights, but I’m not obligated to pay for them!”

As human beings we all have certain unalienable rights, as so eloquently stated in our Declaration of Independence. Of the rights we possess, we have a right to delegate to government. For example, we all have a right to defend ourselves against predators. Since we possess that right, we can delegate it to government. In other words, we can say to government, “We have the right to defend ourselves but for a more orderly society, we delegate to you the authority to defend us.” By contrast, I do not possess the right to take the property of one person to give to another. Since I do not possess such a right, I cannot delegate it to government. If you’re a Christian or simply a moral human being, you should be against these so-called rights. After all, when God gave Moses the Eighth Commandment—”Thou shalt not steal”—I’m sure that he didn’t mean thou shalt not steal unless there was a majority vote in Congress. Moreover, I’m sure that if you were to have a heart-to-heart talk with God and ask him, “God, is it okay to be a recipient of stolen property?” I’m guessing He would say that being a recipient of stolen property is a sin as well. I strongly believe in helping our fellow man in need. Doing so by reaching into one’s own pockets to help him is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pockets to do so is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

The common good

If the common good or social justice has any operational meaning at all, it means that there is a system of governance where the purpose of laws is to prevent one person from violating another person’s right to acquire, keep and dispose of property in any manner so long as he does not violate another’s similarly held rights. In other words, laws should be written to prevent force and fraud. Laws that force one person to serve the purposes of another are immoral.

Today, our government has become increasingly destructive of the ends it was created to serve. Americans have become increasingly hostile and alien to the liberties envisioned by the Framers. We have disregarded the inscription that graces the wall at the U.S. Department of Justice warning, “Where the law ends tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin said, “A frequent reference to the fundamental principles is absolutely necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty, and keep a free government.” That’s the job that the Foundation for Economic Education has done so well over the decades.

Are conservatives serious about blacks?

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“Conservative” means “‘Strom Thurmond,’ ‘Jesse Helms,’ ‘racist,'” to blacks. Above: late GOP senators Helms (N.C.) and Thurmond (S.C.) at left and right, with Elizabeth and Robert Dole. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

Not long ago I had dinner with a very prominent white conservative activist who wanted to talk with me about how to get more blacks involved in the Republican Party and the conservative movement. He and I have known each other for decades, but I still felt compelled to ask him if he truly wanted to have an honest conversation or just the typical D.C. conversation where a black person tells someone like him what they “thought” he wanted to hear just to curry favor with him.

Not long ago I had dinner with a very prominent white conservative activist who wanted to talk with me about how to get more blacks involved in the Republican Party and the conservative movement. He and I have known each other for decades, but I still felt compelled to ask him if he truly wanted to have an honest conversation or just the typical D.C. conversation where a black person tells someone like him what they “thought” he wanted to hear just to curry favor with him.

The first thing white conservatives need to understand is that “meanings are in people, not in words.” When you use the word “conservative,” blacks hear “Strom Thurmond,” “Jesse Helms,” and “racist”; therefore one should define their terminology and not assume your audience knows what your definition of conservative is.

The first thing white conservatives need to understand is that “meanings are in people, not in words.” When you use the word “conservative,” blacks hear “Strom Thurmond,” “Jesse Helms,” and “racist”; therefore one should define their terminology and not assume your audience knows what your definition of conservative is.

What does “conservative” mean, and what is the relevance of it for my life in 2014? Better yet, maybe you should get rid of the word “conservative” altogether when it comes to the black community and use the word “traditionalist.”

In the black community, we have a tradition of pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps because our parents and grandparents had no choice. We have a tradition of valuing education — that’s why we have over 100 historical black colleges and universities. Our parents and grandparents knew that education was the key to the success of future generations of blacks. We have a tradition of living a moral, God-fearing life. Our parents and grandparents were not pro-choice when Sunday morning came around; the question was not, “Boy are you going to church?” but rather, “Are you ready for church?” Children need direction, not choices.

We don’t need anyone to lecture us about values and conservatism; it’s part of our DNA. Getting blacks involved in the party and the conservative movement is easy; the issue is can you make us feel comfortable if we join?

We don’t need anyone to lecture us about values and conservatism; it’s part of our DNA. Getting blacks involved in the party and the conservative movement is easy; the issue is can you make us feel comfortable if we join?

Most conservative organizations are controlled and operated by white males. There are very few, if any, blacks in decision-making positions within these organizations. There are few, if any, blacks in executive-level positions. And there are definitely very few black staffers. This is the 21st century, yet the optics of most conservative organizations still reflect the 1950s or the Flintstones — no blacks.

Speaking of optics, let me mention a few “don’ts.” Never, I repeat never, refer to a black as “articulate” or “attractive;” and never say, “One of my best friends is black” or “I have a friend, who happens to be black.” These are very offensive phrases to blacks.

Just because you have “a” black on staff or are married to a black does not mean you can’t be a racist; just like me owning a pair of Air Jordans doesn’t make me a NBA basketball player.

Blacks constantly vote against their own self-interest — supporting amnesty for illegals, for example, or increasing the minimum wage — because conservatives have not provided a viable alternative.

This cognitive dissonance shows you the power of the value blacks place on relationships.

I operate mostly in a white environment, but spend just as much time within the black community because I have made a conscious choice that it is imperative for me to do so. It’s not an either/or proposition; it’s both/and.

Many conservatives are not comfortable with blacks who refuse to renounce their blackness in order to fit in. Blacks are the most conservative group in the U.S., yet the “conservative” brand is severely damaged in our community — and part of the reason why is because of some of the blacks you have promoted. It’s not enough to simply have a black involved with you; it is just as important to have the right blacks on your staffs.

If you conservatives are happy with your level of engagement within the black community, then keep doing what you have been doing. If you want to tap into the disillusionment created by President Obama, then you really need to rethink the blacks you have promoted as the face of your movement.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in American Current See magazine.

America, the Bullied

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Perhaps it is because as a child, I witnessed Zaggy torturing chubby Butterball every morning at the school bus stop. Consequently, I have an extremely low tolerance for Leftists bullying Americans into submission and getting away with it.

Fear caused Butterball to endure daily humiliating facial slaps, punches and extortion of his lunch money. Frustrated for Butterball, I asked, “Why don’t you hit Zaggy back?” Butterball replied, “He will beat me up”. My retort, “He is beating you up every day!”

One morning to the delight of us kids, Butterball, while crying his eyes out, went wild on Zaggy. Nothing seriously violent, but Zaggy was the one crying and afraid.

My fellow Americans, we are being bullied like never before by Leftists which include Obama and the MSM. We are being forced not only to tolerate, but embrace their liberal far-left radical socialist/progressive agenda. Their agenda is particularly hostile towards Christians, the unborn, American traditions and exceptional-ism. Noncompliance or opposing points of view are not tolerated; either total submission or suffer total destruction.

For example.

Christian twins, Jason and David Benham had their Home & Garden Television (HGTV) show, “Flip it Forward” canceled when the Left learned that the brother’s faith based views were not in step with the Left’s mandated thinking. Even though the twins proclaimed their love for all people and vowed never to discriminate, it still was not good enough for the Left. Every American is required to agree or suffer the consequences.

David Benham’s heartfelt statement: “We love all people. I love homosexuals. I love Islam, Muslims, and my brother and I would never discriminate. Never have we – never would we.”

Despite HGTV canceling the TV show and withdrawing its financial support, the Benham brothers are still moving forward, renovating the homes for the families who would have been featured on their TV show.

Like many Americans, my black brother is a low-info voter. He is not politically engaged and gets his news from the MSM. Consequently, he was not up to speed on the Hobby Lobby case. He was shocked to learn that the case was really about the Obama Administration attempting to bully the business into betraying its Christian faith. He was stunned learning that Hobby Lobby provides 16 of the 20 contraceptives mandated in Obamacare, only refusing to fund the four that kill babies. He replied, “Wow!”

I explained to my brother how the Left is scamming the public. The Left has launched a campaign to disguise its attack on religious freedom; claiming that Christians who refuse to be bullied into betraying their faith are engaged in a war on women. 

In the Left’s relentless efforts to “bully” a 175 year old order of Catholic nuns into betraying their faith, the National Organization for Women (NOW) which is an extreme Leftist group placed the Little Sisters of the Poor on its Dirty 100 list.

It is chillingly evil to call sweet humble elderly nuns who provide loving care for seniors in the late stages of life, “dirty”. Nothing could better illustrate the sick and depraved mindset of this vile organization. Like harden mercenaries, Leftist operatives take no prisoners. Furthering their agenda trumps common sense, compassion and decency.

Even blacks, whom the Left claims to champion, end up on the Left’s excrement list when they get too uppity. A Leftist major union bullied the United Negro College Fund, scolding and placing it on a blacklist for accepting a $25 million donation from the conservative leaning Koch brothers. Now get this folks, $18 million will provide scholarships for 3,000 black youths.

Is this the behavior of true advocates for black empowerment or plantation overlords committed to keeping blacks under their thumb of dependency?

Master connivers, deceivers and manipulators, the Left portray themselves as victims of intolerance while they bully us into submission under the radar; emboldened under Obama.

Leftist “thought police” enforcement has not yet progressed to physical detainment. However, anyone deemed pro-life, too conservative, politically incorrect and too Christian risk losing everything; job, career or property.

We are living in a very scary time in America.

So how do we defeat Leftist bullies? Like battered chubby kid Butterball, we decide enough is enough. We go politically wild on them, sending them packing, crying and afraid.

Why Barack Obama is not a Nazi

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If you go to Google search and type in the words “Obama” and “Nazi” you will get 17,900,000 links. There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of articles, commentary and editorials pointing out the similarities between Barack Obama, leader of the Democrat Party and Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei).

However, there is one key point that all of these commentators miss.

The key point is the word “national.” Hitler served in the German Army during WWI, was awarded the Iron Cross and upon his return to the Fatherland wanted to reestablish and project the power of Germany globally. His intent was to create a pure Aryan race, which would use its financial, military and political powers to form a greater Germany and reclaim the pre-WWI international prestige of the Fatherland. Hitler’s political ideology was embodied in its national anthem, “Deutschland über alles.”

President Obama wants to do just the opposite. His political ideology was from the beginning to “fundamentally transform America.”

President Obama is clearly a socialist, as is his Democrat Party. Obama has repeatedly stated, “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen, ” and “We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.” That is socialism. However, Obama is far from being an American nationalist. Rather his policies, both domestic and foreign, are just the opposite of maintaining a strong America financially, politically and militarily.

For Obama nationalism, national pride and a strong America are all anti-thematic. While he was born in America, he is not in his heart an American.

Since his election, President Obama has a record of siding with America’s sworn enemies against its allies. For example, Obama has repeatedly said, “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear,” and “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” In “Audacity of Hope” Obama wrote, “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”Obama funds, provides political and diplomatic support to terrorist groups like ISIS, the PLO and HAMAS. He willingly negotiates with, if not appeases, Iran, the most prolific exporter of global terrorism.

As Bill Whittle noted in his video “Not One of US“, a Nation is a family. Those that swear an oath to defend that nation form a tighter family — one that depends on the loyalty of each member to protect their very lives. Whittle notes the cultural disconnect of President Obama and his administration from the national American family.

President Obama is a socialist but not a National Socialist. What do you think? Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

How Intelligent are Americans?

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The segments when Jay Leno would take to the street to ask Americans questions about things that one would expect them to know and those when Jesse Watters of the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News does the same thing invariably suggest that those interviewed are appallingly stupid. But how representative are they of the population?

The voters who reelected President Obama despite a first term that included all his policies that put the nation at jeopardy apparently made no connection between those facts and his competence. Voters who stayed home demonstrated indifference.

On July 3, following the latest U.S. Department of Labor June unemployment report, the Job Creators Network responded by noting that “We have more than 3.5 million young adults between 20-24 who don’t have a job, don’t attend school, and don’t have any degree better than a high school diploma—and astonishingly low literacy rates.” The official rate of unemployment was cited at 6.1%, but the Network calculated the real unemployment rate for June at 12.1%. Suffice to say that government data is so politically skewed that it is useless.

In contrast to the view that Americans don’t understand what is actually occurring Rasmussen Reports on July 3rd released the results of its latest poll. “Optimism in the future job market in America is down this month, as fewer Americans believe the unemployment rate will go down over the next year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 23% of American Adults think, a year from today, unemployment will be lower than it is today. That’s the lowest level of optimism since December 2011. Thirty-two percent (32%) think unemployment will be higher in a year, a new high for the 2014. Just as many (35%) think it will stay about the same. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.” The reality has not escaped just under a quarter of the likely voters polled and two-thirds have a dim view of the year ahead.

cartoon - liberals-brain

For a larger view click on the image. Info-graphic courtesy of The Peoples Cube.

A new Reason-Rupe study and survey of 2,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 finds 66 percent of millennials believe government is inefficient and wasteful – a substantial increase since 2009, when just 42 percent of millennials said government was inefficient and wasteful.

This suggests that there is a difference between the kind of intelligence measured in IQ tests and the kind Americans apply to the world around them and to their own lives. I was the director of publications for the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the 1970s and it was evident to me that having a PhD degree was no guarantee of the latter kind of intelligence, often called common sense.

We have seen this in the way so many “experts” with degrees continue to assert that the Earth is warming (now called climate change) when it has been in a cooling cycle of some seventeen years. Recent polls indicate the public no longer assigns any credit to global warming/climate change. Then why do we continue to read about this in the nation’s media? Perhaps because so many who decide what we read and see are the product of the nation’s schools that continue to indoctrinate students to believe the warming lies and the way “climate change” is now being blamed for everything.

There is evidence, too, that our schools have been short-changing Americans for decades. America is now ranked below many other nations with IQ scores are compared. This is documented in Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt’s book, “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.” In March 2013 Joshua Holland noted that “In 2011, Newsweek asked one thousand Americans to take the standard U.S. Citizenship test and thirty-eight percent of them failed. One in three couldn’t name the Vice President.”

Those of my generation that attended school in the 1940s and 50s have little doubt that we received a far better education than those entering in the 1960s and since. Global intelligence quotients (IQs) ratings based on universal tests routinely rank the U.S. as just barely in the top twenty, outranked by nations that include Japan, South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom and Mongolia! U.S. competence in mathematics and science lags too often and too much.

What is at stake is how prepared and how competent Americans are in order to select the political leadership the nation requires in order to be competitive and to respond to its domestic and foreign relations problems. At this writing, the low esteem in which Americans hold the President and Congress suggests they “have gotten the government they deserve” because that’s how democracy works.

Is that stupidity or indifference? I suspect it speaks more to a variety of factors that include education, the news and entertainment media culture, and the way modern communication technologies may be causing Americans to focus only on their personal circle of family, friends and coworkers to the exclusion of the larger issues and trends around them.

It might also reflect the incredible patience Americans show their elected leadership, often taking years before demanding and getting the changes needed to improve the economy and tend to other national priorities. As illegal immigration demonstrates, nothing has been done to address it since the last amnesty in the 1980s and, clearly, Americans do not want to repeat that mistake again.

Are Americans stupid? Some are. To my mind they number among the 30% of the extreme left that can always be depended upon to support Obama and liberal legislation such as Obamacare and other measures to expand the federal government. Add to them those who have currently grant him 47% approval. That number is beginning to decline.

Overall, however, I believe that most Americans are intelligent enough to know that something has been terribly wrong in a nation that permitted the 2008 financial crisis to occur (the government played a major role) and in the present White House that has failed for six and a half years to take the right steps to put the economy back on the road to recovery.

To that extent, I wait impatiently for the results of the forthcoming November midterm elections. Stupid Americans will vote for more of the same. Intelligent ones will vote for change.

© Alan Caruba, 2014