"The executive power in our Government is not the only, perhaps not even
the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the Legislature
is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for
many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its
turn, but at a more distant period."
Thomas Jefferson.
Have we reached the day of tyranny by the executive branch?
I would argue that if your a liberal/Democrat/progressive, a person getting theirs, the answer is no.
To the rest of the country, the answer certainly looks different.
"I would argue that if your a liberal/Democrat/progressive, a person getting theirs, the answer is no."
ReplyDelete"Getting theirs" what exactly does that mean Louman. I am democrat/progressive and you probably are "Getting more" then me.
What am I getting from the Federal Government?
DeleteI get no welfare of any kind.
I get no unemployment benefits, training, educational benefits even though I am qualified as a veteran and rejected their help and paid for it myself.
I pay for my own healthcare outside the ACA.
I pay for my daughters college, cash, no loans, private college not a state run mess.
I have no house or auto payments.
I collect no Social Security.
I collect no medicare/medicaid.
What is it I get for the money I pay the idiot in chief?
Peace of mind that he;s destroying the nation?
Peace of mind that we have open borders?
Happiness that rule of law is non-existent?
Again, what is government giving me?
Yes you are clearly an unthinking progressive/liberal. One of the many unthinking democrats/republicans that would vote the straight party ticket regardless of who is running to be a good little soldier and follow as told by the party.
DeleteThe rest of you post is as meaningless as your claim to fame.
You forgot Iouman, you didn't build that. You live on the government's land, you drive on the governments streets, you drink the governments water, you breath the governments air.
DeleteCommon now, you didn't build that.
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DeleteLou my friend,I submit that you do the things on your list, not because you wish to but because you can. Material success Lou is normally attained by personal effort and I know enough about you and your history to applaud the personal effort you made to reach your present financial position. Pretty much the same story as myself and I am sure we agree that there is some pride to be felt that we can look after ourselves and also pay some to the government as well.
DeleteNot for us Lou the park bench at night, the soup kitchen and the mountain of debit. Simply a comfortable life in the country which has been so good to us. In your case the strongest country in the world and in mine, the land of opportunity.
Cheers from Aussie.
Personal effort fed by the trait of personal responsibility.
DeleteAn interesting thing, I have never collected unemployment insurance. I have from time to time been without work but by choice. When ready, I always found suitable work.
As a country the US has lost pride in itself and personal responsibility has become but a memory. That is pretty much gone as people continue with their hand out as it's far easier than beginning at the bottom and working your way up.
Please sir, I want some more-Oliver.
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DeletePlease sir, I want some more-Oliver.
DeletePerhaps this is why we never argue on important subjects. Dickens used the phrase in his book that will last for as long as civilization is arranged as it is today. I use it constantly in writings and talks simply to illustrate the problems which have arisen and become embedded into our culture since the industrial revolution.
During the age of mechanization, workers were downtrodden and factory owners reaped the wealth from the developing industries. Owners of coal mines or cotton mills became the giants of commerce and the labor force starved under the yolk of capitalist doctrines and practices.
Conditions changed and the Tollpuddle martyrs in the UK fueled the movement and labor became organized throughout the industrialized world. The problem as I see it now is that the "Left" have become too powerful and the balance has shifted too far to the left. As you say, everyone has a hand out to receive that which they consider themselves entitled. I see little evidence however of a willingness to push the broom or the shovel to produce income for the employer. What seems to have been forgotten is that money from which the welfare checks are drawn must at some point be legitimate income for the employer/State
Cheers from Aussie
K,
DeleteThe reality in America today, why work when the government provides more than the fruits of our labor. Our government has flooded the country with illegals willing to work for minimum wages providing stagnant wages for the masses. The government also allows a number of H1B visa's for technical workers while Americans sit on the bench watching them work for less. Then we complain about the wages offered instead of looking at the reason why wages are stagnant. Supply and demand also applies to labor.
Free trade has allowed imported products to flood the market killing manufacturing, i.e. solar panels. Americans demand cheap imports and fail to realize the impact of importing cheap goods which is exporting middle class jobs.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe “Progressive” Notion Seems To Be… that if each individual can, on his or her own, choose which offerings of private businesses to accept and which to reject, and all without having to coordinate these choices with other individuals, people are slaves to corporations – but that individuals regain their freedom and dignity only by voting to use government power to regulate businesses, with every individual forced to abide by the ‘will’ of the majority.
As notions go, this one is among the weirdest.
HT - Prof. Don Boudreaux - CafeHayek.com
Yeah, that is perfectly written conservative catnip, but I have to admit it's not an entirely unfair view of progressive thinking. As I was growing up, life at my house was nothing but chaos. Because I was the youngest, I had no choice but to absorb the dysfunction of everyone around me and I became well aware of what it is like to be forced to abide by the will of the majority, a toxic and dysfunctional one at that. Reading people like Rand and Hayek in my early 20's undoubtedly changed my life, or at the least, changed my outlook enough to give me enough confidence to completely alter the trajectory my life was on. On the way to becoming successful, however, I found several "flaws" with the thinking of people like Rand and Friedman.
DeleteYou can continue to post things like this TS and as long as we never discuss the reality that all individuals do irrational things at times, you will always have the perfect argument. You write well and support your beliefs, and many conservatives do. Neither conservatives nor liberals wholly address what is important to me.
I am ready and willing to talk about the irrationality.... I am willing to talk about the realities of personal decision... I am willing to talk about life before the income tax... and central banking. I am willing to talk about the premise that the state can shelter and uplift a rather small and unfortunate group and not debilitate, denigrate and incapacitate a much larger segment of society in the process...
DeleteI don't see many fishing schools run by the government... only indoctrination centers.
But we would likely not address reality. The reality is that taxes and central banking exist, and neither is going away. Many things I dislike about the current presentation of the United States could not have happened without the reverse Robin Hood help of the Fed. That wasn't the intention of course, but it was the result nonetheless. And of course, the same can be said of many safety net programs that are taken advantage of by a small segment of society who would rather live on handouts than be self sufficient. Yet, we chide the poor for taking advantage of food stamp programs but say nothing of the investor who is making a living trading stocks in a market vastly inflated by the Federal Reserve and who pays a lower tax rate on their income than the person who works forty hours a week.
DeleteIn any such discussion, I would inevitably refuse to be nailed down to any position or solution, depending on the context, and as an opinion, I believe this is what pisses off conservatives to no end; the refusal of liberals to stick to one point and stop wavering. I dont' believe the constitution, or government at any level, should be used to shape the thinking, per se, of society. That said, I do believe the government can be used as a tool that limits extremes and "promotes the general welfare". I don't pity the person who has buried themselves in debt by living beyond their means. But, it pisses me off to no end that we had to have a financial meltdown in this country because of asshole bankers who saw an opportunity to create billions in bonuses for themselves in real time while creating a bomb that blew up long after they had cashed in. Is it really a nanny state when we regulate how much money a person can borrow or regulate a separation between banking and trading? We did so for decades after the Great Depression and seemed to do just fine.
In my irrationality, I will always believe that context matters and that a particular view or solution may fit in one circumstance, but not hold true in another.
To be clear, every administration is inherently dishonest by out right lies or lies of omission. Think the ACA would have been passed of the politicians would have told the truth? Think O would have been re-elected if he would have said millions would lose their insurance?
DeleteThe above is but 1 example, I did not inhale. Every administration will lie or omit the truth to move their agenda forward.
The problem, Americans just don't get it and demand integrity from their elected officials from the mayors to the president. We as a people expect dishonestly.
What is government giving me? The Interstate Highway System, Pure Food and Drug Adm., Air Traffic Control, Center for Disease Control, OSHA, to name a few.
ReplyDeleteThe government is giving you absolutely nothing Mick. We the people fund everything and the infectious disease called inflation sucks it out of everyone of your savings, and pension checks. Nothing exists without the industry of we the people.
Delete
ReplyDeleteThe interstate highway system???
Interstate highways and their rights of way are owned by the state in which they were built. The last federally owned portion of the Interstate System was the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Washington DC Capital Beltway. The new bridge was completed in 2009 and is collectively owned by Virginia and Maryland[48] Maintenance is generally the responsibility of the state department of transportation. However, there are some segments of Interstate owned and maintained by local authorities.
About 70 percent of the construction and maintenance costs of Interstate Highways in the United States have been paid through user fees, primarily the fuel taxes collected by the federal, state, and local governments. To a much lesser extent they have been paid for by tolls collected on toll highways and bridges. The Highway Trust Fund, established by the Highway Revenue Act in 1956, prescribed a three-cent-per-gallon fuel tax, soon increased to 4.5 cents per gallon. In 1993 the tax was increased to 18.4 cents per gallon, where it remains as of 2015.[49]
The rest of the costs of these highways are borne by general fund receipts, bond issues, designated property taxes, and other taxes. The federal contribution comes overwhelmingly from motor vehicle and fuel taxes (93.5 percent in 2007), and it makes up about 60 percent of the contributions by the states. However, any local government contributions are overwhelmingly from sources besides user fees.[50] The portion of the user fees spent on highways themselves covers about 57 percent of their costs, with about one-sixth of the user fees being sent to other programs, including the mass transit systems in large cities. In the northeastern United States, some large sections of Interstate Highways that were planned or constructed before 1956 are still operated as toll roads.
Seems we the taxpayers are responsible for paying for the Interstate highway system.
Everything the Federal Government does is paid for by taxpayers of which you may or may not be.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152026828766336
ReplyDeleteThe tyranny spoken of here is a false flag. The real tyranny is rotting in our public schools. The rotting stench of misguided common core crap eats away the freedom of all our kids. We grew up with freedom of expression, now we have the bonds of ignorance destroying our children. I have the twins, almost 8 now, and I have a 24 year old. I long for my twins to get what my oldest son got. Freedom of expression.
ReplyDelete