Thursday, September 17, 2015

Communist Policies

In a previous post, I quoted a passage from the Communist Manifesto. Now, I'm going to be using that passage again. A lot of people would be surprised at how many Communist policies that our nation follows
The original words are bolded block quotes.

Karl Marx, one of the founders of Communist philosophy, wrote:
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.
That is to say, in order to achieve Communism, you've got to engage in economically unfeasible policies. 
These measures will of course be different in different countries.

Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
This ones pretty self explanatory
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
Communal/government ownership. We don't have this yet, but try telling that to someone who's suffered from eminent domain abuse. We're on the way there. When you take everyone's property away, it all goes to the government, which then manages it well and gives everyone a place to live. Just don't expect it to be livable.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
 16th amendment to the Constitution. We're already there. And some people want to make it worse. "Take from the rich give to the poor". The end goal here is equal pay for everyone. So that doctors who go to school for a minimum of 12 years and people with useful STEM education, get paid the same as useless Sociology drones and unskilled fast food workers. The end result is "as long as they pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work".
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
This is the end goal of the "inheritance" or "death" tax. We're lucky it keeps on getting neutered, otherwise people would start retiring before they got too rich.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
 If you don't like it we get your stuff. Not yet a problem, although, given how they're going after people who move their money offshore to avoid taxes, it might not be much longer for this one.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
If you control the money, you can control the people, at least to a degree. It's a lot harder to flee to a free country when people want real money to get you out and all you've got is useless fiat currency. Moreover, it gives some (illusory) control over the economy. Just look at China right now, and ourselves way back when the recession hit. People tried to use money to control the economy - and failed.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
Up until the fall of the Soviet Union we thought they were going strong. People thought that the Soviets were a permanent part of life. Then the Soviet Union fell, and we discovered that almost everything we knew about them was a lie. Because they controlled communication and transportation and could prevent the truth from getting out.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
These three really need to be dealt with together, because this is the basis of everything from Stalin's Five Year plans to Mao's Great Leap Forward, leading to shoddy products, ecological disaster, and millions of people starving to death. Fortunately, we're still no where close to these three. 
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
 Public schools are the perfect place to indoctrinate children into the narrative, and as such, this is one of Marx's more important thoughts. Unfortunately for us, this is one of his more successful ideas, and one which is enforced here.

 We're not communists yet, but we can see the mass graves from here.

Progressive Taxation, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, and Karl Marx

So, Trump and Carson are in disagreement over whether or not a progressive income tax counts as Socialism.

Karl Marx, one of the founders of Communist philosophy, wrote:
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.
These measures will of course be different in different countries.
Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.

These are the means by which Marx proposed to bring Communism to the poor deluded masses. Note number 2 - A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 
If a progressive income tax is a requirement for Communism, then it's definitely tied closely to Socialism, which is, in effect, Communism Lite.

In other words, Carson was wrong, but only because he didn't go far enough.


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

"Your Family Came from Someplace Else"

Mr. Obama made one of the most hopelessly inane statements that I've ever encountered, stating
 "If You're not Native American, your family came from someplace else." 
Obviously he did this in an attempt to trash "anti-immigrant" sentiment (I prefer "anti-illegal", since I'm very much for legal immigrants).

This is highly amusing, given that even the "Native Americans" aren't really native to this continent, unless you allow for people born here to be "native". If you're going to exclude people whose ancestors came from somewhere else, you'll find that there's really only one place in the world where anyone really counts as "native" - Africa, the birthplace of humanity.

"Native Americans", for the most part, came over the Bering land bridge to America from Asia. There were multiple groups of such migrants until the Bering land bridge became the Bering Strait - and even then, it wouldn't surprise me if a few people still got across by boat.

If you must include the "Native Americans" (more properly referred to as "American Aboriginals" using definition one) then you've got to include everyone else born here, unless you want to place an arbitrary date, past which no one counts as "native".
Mr. President, unless you are a native African (and since Africa's a pretty big place, sometimes not even then) your family came from somewhere else.


As for illegal immigration, it is a definite problem. Our porous border allows far more than just Jose who just wants a few bucks in. It allows the cartels, La Eme, and other criminal organizations in. It's only a matter of time before terrorists join the flow. And the illegal immigrants are problem enough. It costs significantly less to hire an illegal than to hire a citizen or legal visiting worker. Illegals don't give a shit about minimum wage - 4 bucks an hour is enough for them to live on and still be able to send enough money home for Grandma to live well, and without all the mandatory insurance, social security, taxes, etc. that add to the cost of an American citizen. Then you account for all the social services that they use - welfare, Medicare, food stamps, etc.- and you'll find that illegals are a significant burden upon society
.
The solution is easy, but not particularly nice. Require legal residency for any benefits (personally welfare should be completely defunded, but I'll settle for this). Deport illegals, lower the federal minimum wage, increase patrols on the southern border, bring the hammer down on large corporations that hire illegals, and make legal immigration somewhat easier.


Monday, September 7, 2015

Throw the F***ing book him

That's what they're doing to Bowe Bergdahl. And the little turdblossom deserves it.
They're bringing him up on desertion (Article 85 of the UCMJ) and misbehavior before the enemy (Article 99), both fairly serious charges, but the punishment is different. While both are technically punishable by death, Art. 85 is only punishable by death during time of war, whereas Art. 99 is always punishable by death.
Now, IANAL (Any experts on military law please feel free to correct me), but if Bergdahl had done like most other chuckleheads that desert, and done it in CONUS (CONtinental US) he wouldn't be facing the possibility of a death penalty because that only applies during a formal declaration of war (which hasn't happened since WWII). However, because he deserted in a combat zone, and other soldiers had to risk their lives searching for him, he can get charged with Art. 99, and as such, could get the death penalty. It's highly unlikely, and far more probable that he'll just get life - which, I might note, I'm just fine with, unless they find out that Bergdahl is an even bigger shitbucket than he already appears, in which case I'm all in favor of a short drop and a sudden stop.