Arbitrary Power, Dictatorship, and Health Care
Officials may gather whatever taxpayer information they decide is necessary. “The secretary shall collect such data as may be required to establish premiums and payment rates for the public health insurance option and for other purposes under this subtitle” (Sec. 321). Section 412 requires employers to submit “such information as the commissioner may require” to multiple federal agencies.
The bill institutionalizes such coercions by establishing over one hundred new commissioners, boards, committees, and programs, each with its own area of control. (For a list, see here.)
America is not a dictatorship. These bills are available for us to read, and we are able to discuss them openly, to agree or to disagree, and to speak and write about them in forums both public and private. But we will not be free to escape either the regulations which a faceless bureaucracy will write in order to enforce its edicts, or the decisions made by such bureaucrats over our lives.
If you are an employer, you will not escape punishment if a bureaucrat decides that your health plan is not “acceptable” and that you must be fined for your failure to meet his decision. If you are an individual who does not want to purchase full-coverage health insurance, but would rather buy catastrophic insurance that covers hospitalization only, your decision will not be “acceptable” and you may face a government audit and a new tax.
Do you have a serious disease? Does your doctor wish to readmit you to the hospital? A bureaucrat will decide whether or not you get treatment, based on a statistical analysis of the number of such readmissions by the bureaucrats: “excess readmissions shall not include readmissions for an applicable condition for which there are fewer than a minimum number (as determined by the secretary) of discharges for such applicable condition for the applicable period and such hospital” (Sec. 1151).
The scope of power here extends to the very definitions of terms within the law. This leaves the meaning of the law fluid and subject to the will of the bureaucrats. Section 1151 continues: “The term ‘applicable condition’ means, subject to subparagraph (B), a condition or procedure selected by the secretary among conditions and procedures for which (i) readmissions (as defined in subparagraph (E)) that represent conditions or procedures that are high volume or high expenditures under this title (or other criteria specified by the secretary).”
No, America is not yet a dictatorship. But we can ask ourselves whether the essence of such a dictatorship — and its institutional foundations — are not being built into federal law now. The scope of action available to federal administrators is widening today at a blinding speed. No proper reform of health care — or any other area of life — can be accomplished by the progressive, open-ended empowerment of government officials against defenseless American citizens.
Well, Doc, I think you missed one of the most important parts of this legislation, Section 3403. This is the road to dictatorship. The Senate has the hubris to tell the House that it cannot change its mind and ever amend this bill. Wow!!
To change the rules of the United States Senate, there must be sixty-seven votes.
Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment requires that “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.” The good news is that this only applies to one section of the Obamacare legislation. The bad news is that it applies to regulations imposed on doctors and patients by the Independent Medicare Advisory Boards a/k/a the Death Panels.
Section 3403 of Senator Reid’s legislation also states,
“Notwithstanding rule XV of the Standing Rules of the Senate, a committee amendment described in subparagraph (A) may include matter not within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Finance if that matter is relevant to a proposal contained in the bill submitted under subsection (c)(3).” In short, it sets up a rule to ignore another Senate rule.
This can only end in bloodshed. The voting booth is a joke. Glad I’m in my last quarter.
..and ‘Are you serious?” is the pathetic/derisive answer we get when we deign to question the numbskulls responsible for this farce.
Another example; the EPA has just declared the very breath we exhale to be a dangerous pollutant. Can either punishment or extra taxation for breathing be far behind? America needs to wake up to the fact that we are on a very slippery slope when bureaucrats and their minions can make such arbitrary judgments that affect our everyday lives.
In his first year in office, Obama has initiated three programs, (bills), which scare the crap out of me. The TARP stimulus package, (porkulus), an obvious political payback scheme designed to entrench the Dem-o-craps into a permanent power base and to impoverish future generations. Next is the Energy Cap and Trade plan designed to deprive America of needed resources for progress, industry, and wealth. Finally, the Health Care Reform bill whose only real purpose seems sure to steal health care from the most deserving and productive generation, and give those benefits to those who engage in high risk behavior. Why is it a good idea to restrict doctor visits by a 65+ y.o. who has worked his/her entire life in order to earn their retirement, in order to give improved benefits to hip-hop gangsters, whores, drug users, high risk HIV individuals, the criminal element, and sooner or later, extend benefits to illegal immigrants? They say there are approximately 12 million folks in this country without health insurance, if you add up all those in the categories listed above, that number is probably about right. Everybody else has insurance they either buy or earn through employment.
Thanks Obama, not only have you stolen my grandchildren’s lunch money and allowance, you also got 35 years of their income and their retirement as well.
Mm-mmm-mm.
Time to break out the pitchforks and torches. Some tar and feathers would be good too.
America was built by people who felt sorely pressed by conditions in Europe, mostly politically imposed conditions and not mere poverty. The children of those people will leave or fight for their individual freedoms. The only question is which will they do, leave or fight. Perhaps a bit of both. Naturally, the government will prefer their leaving. I wonder how they will actualize that preference?
With all due respect Dr. Lewis I am even more tired of reading all of the brilliant analysis about what is going, where we’re going and the difficult road ahead with a big “IF” at the end of every line.
There is one thing that could stop and reverse the entire downtown Washington, DC mess in less than one day flat.
Where are the women of the United States of America? God gave you the instinct to see, understand and protect yourself, your unborn and living children from any and all kinds of predators that could or would do your world harm. If you don’t believe in God you still have every one of these powers.
You also have something that wars among men and nations, small and mighty have been fought over since time began. What it is is located between something and it isn’t your ears.
For the most part American women have been as silent as any Willa Wall Flower that ever walked the surface of the Earth.
How in the world can you, then women of America not only idly sit by while President Obama and the 111th Congress rapes and ravages you, your children, grand children, family, relatives and friends, but in way, way too many cases you’ve laid down and willingly submitted yourself to entire seduction process.
How can you continue to put up with a worn out sea hag like Nancy Pelosi or a smelly excuse for a man like Harry Reid telling you everything from when you can go to the bathroom to who your next lover won’t be. And then to make matters even worse, there is no outrage coming from the women of America when every last Democrat in Washington, DC cannot run soon enough or fast enough to kiss Obama’s rear end.
Where in the hell are the women of Earth? Why have you allowed this thing to get so far out of control that it borders on insanity?
It is time for the goofy soap opera romancing to stop. Women of America shut down the playpens until the chick-a-fide men of our nation understand that there will be no more fun or Christmas presents until they do their jobs.
Just say, “What part of NO is it that you don’t understand, Slick?”
Any questions?
According to an article today in the Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/12/reid_bill_declares_future_cong_1.asp) the Senate bill contains language buried in it changing the Senate’s rules, and making it virtually impossible to repeal parts of Obamacare, particularly the “Death Panel” that has already been set up, been funded and is operating, courtesy of other language that was buried in the prior Stimulus bill.
Just another way point on our “journey” to becoming Venezuela, if not worse.
The Constitution began being ignored under FDR…the slide is now much quicker. One more Obama appointee to the SCOTUS otta do it. Justice Kennedy is now the swing vote…if one of the conservatives quits or dies Kennedy becomes a defacto conservative and the new majority will grant The Messiah whatever he needs to complete the federal take over of the states.
It’s not a pretty picture.
Don’t know about you, but I am not being represented. I am being taxed however. I did not think either house of congress could pass legislation which could not be modified or repealed. I suppose if the SCOTUS does not act it is up to the citizenz to do what citizens have always done when government gets out of hand. Vaughn is correct. But then freedom is not free.
The key element of the proposed health care legislation is the establishment of a giant government bureacracy that is empowered to slice and dice in an intentionally designed arbitrary fashion.
Boards and decision making commitees are intentionally insulated from the tax payer, the person paying the freight.
Even if Congress is able to pass this legislation, and it looks likely now that something will pass, the final chapter has yet to be written. Over many coming months odious details of the legislation’s provisions and prohibitions will seep out. Congress has a 21% approval rating and the President’s approval numbers are sinking quickly, 46% as of this morning. Congress is banking on an uptick after the legislation passes. Charles Shummer specifically expressed the expectaion yesterday. Congress is about to go on an extended recess as details of the Senate bill drible out. The uptick will prove ephemeral as negative information from the 2300 pages of legislation hits the internet over the next several months. Remember, we are still learning negative details about stimulus spending 10 months after the President signed it into law.
The majority of Americans are against this legislation and as they become more knowledgeable, that number will increase. Take a look at the Senators who are up for reelection this year, the majority are Democrat. If the taxes required for funding the legislation go into effect in the summer of 2010, this will prove to be the most sweeping election since 1932. Voter anger will boil over and seemingly untouchable bulls will be cast aside by the electorate.
The final chapter regarding health care nationalization is yet to be written. All indications are it isn’t going to result in anything the Democrats are imagining, as they plunge headlong towards the cliff edge. I don’t recall a time when I have seen the Democrats more tone deaf or more bent upon self destruction. It is truly remarkable.
You guys seriously don’t have a clue. Might I suggest you try Googling this:
George Bush +”Directive 51″
And yes, use the quotes and the “+” sign as is. Also note that the people complaining and warning about this little thing, which got very little corporate media coverage at the time (aside from the Boston Globe’s mild coverage of it) came from both the left and the right. Bush finally leaving office, however belatedly, was the best that has happened to this country in decades.
Our current crop of legislators are lawyers and do what lawyers are trained to do: redistribute wealth as opposed to creating it.
Vagarities in the law work to the advantage of lawyers. When a lawsuit is prolonged, the billable hours increase. Thus, it’s in the interest of those in the legal industry for the law to be vague.
what really surprises me is there has not been a call to arms.
there is no democracy left in the USA. all the unconstitutional laws that are not challenged and when challenged dismissed. I have little hope for improvement.
This is most distressing. And there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it — I mean 60% of Americans are against this bill and they are going to pass it anyways. Amnesty will probably be next. They won’t pass Cap and Trade; instead the EPA will just regulate the same outcome. Great judgement, Obama voters, you’ll have turned the USA into a Banana Republic in a single term.
Quinnipiac just released a poll showing 36% approval for Obama care and 23% for government funding of abortion. If Congress keeps its current course, imagine what the protest will be in November of 2010.
If you want to effect change start supporting conservative candidates for the House and Senate with cash today. Every dollar helps.
“Is the essence of dictatorship — and its institutional foundations — now being built into federal law?”
Look who’s talking . . .
To comment #7, No Means No:
Women are rising up. Go to asamom.com. It was started this past fall and now has almost 60,000 moms as members, including me. There are other online groups as well. Check it out.
To those doom and gloomers,
I will express this again; this is not the time for woe is us and a pity party. That attitude amounts to surrender and I will be damned if I will ever surrender to the incompetent college profs who happen to be running things now.
If you don’t like the direction the government is taking us in you need to get off your a@% and be useful. In order to effect change we first need good conservative candidates for congress. Those candidates need financial support. Next we need campaigns that appeal to independent voters who are leaving Obama as fast as their legs can carry them. Finally, come election day we need massive voter turnout and educated monitors to watch the nuts and bolts of the vote so fraud by the Marxist/Democrats is ferreted out and exposed.
If all you are capable of doing is complaining, then you deserve another two years of Reid and Pelosi. You need to join me, put your money where your mouth is, get off your butt and spend the next 11 months making life on the Democrats as difficult as possible. The socialists are actually doing us a favor by pursuing their legislative agenda. It is so out of whack with what people actually want that it offers an endless stream of issues for the opposition. It is going to be very hard for the Democrats to defend turf in 11 months.
Stop whining and get in the game.
16. Samizdat:
“Quinnipiac just released a poll showing 36% approval for Obama care and 23% for government funding of abortion.”
Allow me to quote Dick Cheney, “So?”
Thanks, Dr. Lewis, for this excellent essay!
The health care debate shows that the issue goes far beyond simply health care. Our politicians want to *control* us (for our own good or for some nebulous collectivist “greater good”).
And they think they know better than us ordinary Americans, dadgummit.
This is completely antithetical to core American principles and to the principles of individual rights as advocated by thinkers such as Ayn Rand.
Quinnipiac has ObamaCare favorables at 36% & only 23% approve of government funded abortions:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1408
What does this say for the dictator wannabe & his cronies? Expect a huge electoral shockwave to sweep the country in the mid-term elections. We the people will not take kindly to a dictator president & the Democrats will pay & pay big.
Some posters don’t understand that poll data represents pubic opinion. They also don’t understand that citizens who are of the age of majority can vote in these United States. They will develop a fuller understanding of the importance of these factors on November 3, 2010 after the election is over.
“Allow me to quote Dick Cheney, “So?””
so I will always be in favour of the abortion of leftist like yours. I am for selective abortion.
“Some posters don’t understand that poll data represents pubic opinion”
But it is difficult to measure passion. Passion is getting high.
To the trolls who keep bringing up George Bush,
1. Bush has been out of office for more than 11 months now.
2. I am certain that I speak for a majority when I request that you keep bringing Mr Bush up. I am sure the electorate gives a good damn about who was President 11 months ago.
3. Please keep running against Bush, it will help increase our margin of victory in November 2010.
Health Care Crosses the River Styx at the Asheville Tea Party blog.
We give the ballot box one more chance. If they cancel the election or steal the election, or if they refuse to leave office, we take up arms and overthrow them, and we establish a government in exile until the revolution is complete. Unless of course the military steps in, does its job, and gets rid of the tyrants for us. Hopefully, it won’t come to that, and hopefully if things do fall apart, the military remembers whose side it’s supposed to be on, but if worse comes to worse, we are in the right to rebel against this illegal, illegitimate government.
Americans should be very concerned about how much power these Democrats are about to have over our lives. Hannah Arendt noted that Totalitarians control the population through exploding bureaucracies and these Democrats love to do just that.
Representative Griffith of the Hunstville area of Alabama just switched parties from Democrat to Republican.
Seems that as a Doctor he was having a great deal of difficulty generating enthusiasm for Obamacare. He was also unenthusiastic about the stimulous and the administrations abrogation of the Eastern Europe missile defense agreement.
I am willing to bet that he is the first of several more to come. Eventually, when some of the fence sitters get back to their districts and figure out just how unpopular this Congress and President’s policies are they will decide they like the Republican’s prospects better than the Democrats.
Griffith is apparently better at reading poll data than Now and Then.
When that pack of jackals in congress and president O took over the ship of state, they spun the direction of the country hard left. It was spun so hard left that it remains to be seen that the hull will crack.
President O is clearly on record as the most expensive president ever. Egos and greed are on the line with pushing through the new socialist agenda. The laws of economics, ecology, advise and consent, common sense, and criminal intent are being shattered by the rush to put through monsterous legislation for a government controlled power grab. How did bribery become de facto politics as usual?
Ben Nelson sold out his principles for $100 million/yr every year to convert his state into the Medicaide capitol of America. Reid said that every senator had benefits in his new mostly secret package. Obama lies to say that his agenda will help the economy in the long term and creat jobs by taking away resources.
The debt ceiling has been breached. America gets to become Europe again after a failed 1776 Revolution and the nut jobs will still claim that Bush did it. This era must be the entitlement era and grand mark of the nihilist generation x.
Obama has more significant obligations to those who got him elected, ACORN and the SEIU. He promised them many, many good paying government jobs. Those folks will be appointed to be the bureaucrats who make the decisions on the local allocation of health care and health services; they will be the members of the death panels.
There may be some death panel members who are not of color but, in the big picture, most beneficiaries will be of color, in large part, out of historical compensation for the bad health caused by years, nay, generations, of bad health support from the largely white medical community. For example, in some areas, almost all health resources will go for the treatment of diabetes, including pay and benefits for family members who care for the person of color who has diabetes. This will clearly reduce the resources available for, say, cataract surgery.
These death panel members will, in addition to generous salaries and benefits, will be eligible for significant bonuses for meeting their allocations, e..g., 12 hip replacements budgeted, only 12 or fewer performed equals a maximum bonus. About the only good thing is that these death panel members will be as bribable as any other democrat.
Embrace the Rule of Law.
Where cops can bring guns to snowball fights and taser old ladies and little children.
Where the ruling elite can exempt themselves from the laws and regulations they force others to embrace.
Where bureaucrats can arbitrarily interpret the law to punish dissent and reward their cronies.
Where corruption is the Rule and where honesty is punished.
The Rule of Law…the Rule of Men.
a bureaucrat that over-rules your readmition to the hospital is a “death panel”.
To Samizdat: Well, you guys keep making up stuff to blame Obama with while ignoring all the real, bad things *your guy* did while he was in office. And considering all the problems that Bush left behind, it will be legitimate fair game for a while to blame him for all the repair and fixing that Obama has had and will have to deal with on top of trying to move forward with his ideas against a bunch of absolutely useless, obstructive and crybaby Republican Congresspeople.
Myth buster: I agree. We have the 2010 elections, but after that… I do not want violence. Violence is clearly the last resort, but it increasingly seems that we will have no other choice. We the people are being dictated to, marginalized and ignored. People will die, but progressivism ensures that: some 50 million dead under Mao, around 40 million dead under Stalin, all killed in the name of some rigid utopian ideology.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson. “Give me liberty or give me death,” but I never imagined I’d see it in my lifetime.
“Is the essence of dictatorship — and its institutional foundations — now being built into federal law?”
Yes.
“Do you have a serious disease? Does your doctor wish to readmit you to the hospital? A bureaucrat will decide whether or not you get treatment, based on a statistical analysis of the number of such readmissions by the bureaucrats:”
And this is different from the way the insurance companies handle it…how?
38. Joe:
“Do you have a serious disease? Does your doctor wish to readmit you to the hospital? A bureaucrat will decide whether or not you get treatment, based on a statistical analysis of the number of such readmissions by the bureaucrats:”
And this is different from the way the insurance companies handle it…how?
the difference is the insurance company is probably not run by a narcissistic lying person by the name of Obama.
the DMV will now be processing your claim …pick a number
John Cooper, the plan does not take effect until 2014, but the tax increases happen as soon as the bill becomes law; therefore, I have no doubt Harry Reid & Nancy Pelosi & President Obama & every other Democrat who sold their soul for this bill have crossed the River Styx; however, America has not & we will take back our Liberty & our Freedom–including healthcare–from the totailitarians in Congress & the White House. 2010 is just the beginning to smash the Dems ObamaCare “starter house” at its foundations. ObamaCare will have lasting negative effects well past 2010 as the Democrats try to rationalize their traitorous, treacherous votes.
The fix is in for the Democrats–not America. Not by a long shot.
38. Because if the insurance company refuses to pay your claim, you could always pay cash or negotiate a payment plan, or beg for alms if need be. The insurance company bureaucrat may refuse to pay for your treatment, but he can’t tell you that you can’t have it if you can muster the payment some other way. The government bureaucrat, however, is empowered to say not only, “We won’t pay for this,” but also, “You are not allowed to pay for this yourself.”
For Joe:
Someone: “Do you have a serious disease? Does your doctor wish to readmit you to the hospital? A bureaucrat will decide whether or not you get treatment, based on a statistical analysis of the number of such readmissions by the bureaucrats:”
Joe: And this is different from the way the insurance companies handle it…how?
Hyphenated American: You have the individual right to pick and choose your insurance company, but you have no power to pick and choose the government buerucrat that will be making your medical decisions. It’s very simple, comrade Joe. Trust me on that, you WILL know the difference.
A few of my articles to your attention…
What should conservatives do now?
At this point in time we are all breathlessly watching the amazing spectacle of descent of the Anointed One from the Garden of Eden into the crap-hole of history. What should the American conservatives do to accelerate this fall and make sure that our country gets back on track?
Read the rest of the article here:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-should-conservative-do-now.html
He jumped! He jumped!
A few days ago, our Glorious Leader, Barack Hussein Obama has sobered up and made a surprisingly astute observation about his Medical Care bill: “From the discussions we had, it’s clear we are on the precipice of achievement that’s eluded Congresses, presidents for generations — an achievement that will touch the lives of nearly every American.” For those unclear about the usage of the word “precipice” – let me remind you that it means either “an overhanging or extremely steep mass of rock, such as a crag or the face of a cliff” or “the brink of a dangerous or disastrous situation”.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2009/12/he-jumped-he-jumped.html
BC,
I make up nothing. Healthcare reform was brought forth by President Obama and this Congress. Get your facts straight.
Here are a few more facts for you. Keynesian economic policy does not have track record of pulling economies out of recession, yet your party chose to tie it’s fortunes to a Keynesian “Stimulus” filled with pork and payoffs to your various political friends. The bill did not even meet Advisor Summer’s admonition that to be effective stimulus needs to be timely, targeted, and temporary. The stimulus selected was entirely a creature of Democrat construction and your friends are, therefore, entirely responsible for it’s selection, success or failure.
Finally, it is absolutely pathetic that you are blaming Republicans for a damn thing when your party has complete control of governments executive and legislative apparatus. You have filibuster proof control of the Senate and 50 seat majority in the House. It is a stunning development that the policies being advanced by Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are so unpopular in your own party that every conceivable form of bribary must be employed just to shut off debate and bring matters to a vote. Your pathetic party can’t even put something together that attracts socialists like Olympia Snowe and Sue Collins.
There are a few facts for you to digest.
Why don’t you grow up, take responsibility for your parties actions, and govern if you are so convinced of the correctness of your policies? You control everything yet your still sniveling. Take your Pampers off and be an adult for once.
Its difficult for me to see where more of our citizens will now be able to get health coverage (many for the first time) and it being illegal for insurance companies to drop you when you need to use their services as being so terrible. I just do not see the problem that so many have supporting things like that. And when 2010 comes around I just hope nobody on the right says they supported reforms. Of course, not being honest can be an asset for a politician cant it?
DUH!
45. Poor Citizen:
you should add stupid to your moniker as well.
of course those things you mentioned are not bad …unfortunately that is not what this reform will bring and if you don’t know that then at least you are just stupid. if you do know that then you are dishonest too.
We all must elect conservatives to state legislatures and governorships who will support nullification (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/12/21/health-care-nullification-things-have-just-gotten-underway/)
If even half a dozen states nullify Obamacare it will collapse. Emboldened by this move I believe more states will nullify Obamacare and then start nullifying other unconstitutional legislation forced upon us to push us/US down the path to serfdom and socialism. We can’t continue to out all of our eggs in the federal basket.
44. Samizdat:
great post …not that I condone responding to trolls.
PC: If you can’t see what is happening, I suggest you remove your brain from your anus.NO ONE on the Right has supported this atrocity, unlike the demtards,which is why they’ll be re-elected.Incidentally, have you seen the Ohole’s poll numbers? Looks like the american people are really backing the “reforms”.
Excellent column, thank you for your reflections.
The totalitarian forces that have taken control of the Congress and of the White House thanks to their absolute control of the media and thanks to the large funds received from foreign powers are doing all they can to transform the life of the American People in the kind of half-slavery typical of Europe.
It seems that they are succeeding.
The forces of Freedom must prepare for a long fight to roll back totalitarianism.
Soon every aspect of our lives will be regulated by the half-wits under state-control.
We need a long work to win all the future elections, and we must expect that the totalitarians will try to predetermine the electoral results with tricks and provocations.
Godspeed America !
Just say no to socialism !
Poor Citizen at 45,
I guess I will have to help you see what the problem is. It’s cost, and likely unconstitutional legislation, to identify two potential problems amoung the many. Did you know that young peoples insurance premiums will soar by more than 100%, as will certain elderly healthcare expenses when the legislation gains complete control in 2014? How do you think all those twenty-fifty somethings who voted for Obama last year are going to react to that?
Can you show me the specific provision in the Constitution that permits the Federal government to levy a fine on a citizen for not buying a commodity? I know of no such requirement in the 230 year history of this republic. It will be a case of 1st impresssion when the Supreme Court reviews it.
That’s two things that are wrong with the legislation, legislation that was designed to insure everyone (20,000,000 will remain uninsured) and lower costs.
Does that help you understand?
#45POOR (excuse)for a CITIZEN: I suggest you remove your brain from your anus and take a look.Calling this atrocity “reform” is Orwellian Have you seen the Ohole’s poll numbers,those who backed this garbage will be gone in 2010.See ya at the revolution libtard!
If what we are seeing today is the implementation of a plan (yes, a conspiracy) begun long ago, and I do mean *long* ago, as in the early years of the 20th century, what chance do we have of arresting the movement forward of their plan for world government? We’ve accepted most of it already, haven’t we? Aren’t we pretending that the destruction of our country actually has occurred already? That is, hasn’t the struggle between collectivism and the inalienable rights of individual human beings already been lost by us?
I have little hope that the military will do what *we* consider right; there are many in the military who love the collectivist vision of humanity and would think nothing of killing us all.
Look, the education system for the last 100 or so years has molded the minds of generations of Americans into something that we all just witnessed in the last election. It wasn’t just the kids who went gaga over Obama; it was every age group — that’s how long they’ve been indoctrinating us.
I suppose you could accuse me of buying into a crackpot’s view of the universe, but it certainly seems rational to me to look at the world in terms of the struggle now going on before our very eyes.
The problem for us is that thinking about it in terms of individual particular instances is a symptom of not understanding the nature of the problem. They have succeeded in creating the robots they set out to create. What we are up against are robots who are programmed into the anti-life view of the world. They cannot respond to reason.
So what are we to do?
Of course, I meant to write: “Aren’t we pretending that the destruction of our country actually has *not* occurred already?”
George S at 49,
Thank you for the compliment. I have often admonished others for reacting to trolls.
The statements being advanced by the socialists need to be rebuked. This issue is too important for those of us in opposition to remain silent in the face of disassembly by the Democrats or to accept hand wringing from friends.
We need to treat this as a long campaign. Let’s get motivated and get in the game.
Short of tar and feathering every politician in Washington or any variation of armed rebellion, the only way out of the mess known as Obamanation will be through the states and the courts. The courts can be loaded. In the states there are circulating petitions for enforcing the 10th admendment. Please educate your fellow citizen and representative that socialism fails when the money is spent. There is no such thing as a government deficit neutral program. The unyielding 20% of true believers of entitlement before liberty can just go join the matrix.
The perfectly clear example of no Bush fingerprint and the rule of contract law broken was with the Chrysler reorganization. Big brother government voided contract law with the investors to give the dieing company to the unions and campaign contributors. Therein the rule of law was superceeded by arbitrary power.
Thank you Dr. Davis for the excellen summary of, what will undoubtedly be called, “An Historic Christmas Gift to America.” (Wait a minute – Make that “Holiday Gift” – Can’t give prominence to one particular faith. That’s not a diverse thing to do.) I teach college classes dealing with public administration and I know that when a bureaucracy is exposed to massive amounts of cash it grows and mutates like some 1950′s movie monster exposed to plutonium. The new “Halth Care Act” will soon send out tendrils into every aspect of our personald and economic lives rather like the snakes ensnaring Laocoon and his sons. We can be sure that the trade-off for the massive reductions in personal liberty sure to come will be a mind-numbingly ineffective “national” health system that will deliver services and half the efficiency as at present. Fat-cat bureaucrats will replace fat-cat HMO executives in administering this creaking edifice. Add this to the massive restrictions about to be passe din the name of “saving the planet” and we have the ideal prescription for an all-encompassing totalitarianism that Orwell himself would have found astonishing.
New Years Resolutions:
1) Join the NRA, exercise my second amendment right
2) Join the Tea Party, find good honest candidates, support the hell out of ‘em
3) Make my current congressional delegation miserable, make them accountable to the people in open forums.
(2 outta 3 so far..)
“You know why there’s a second amendment? In case the government
doesn’t obey the first one.”
— Rush Limbaugh, August 17, 1993
To Samizdat: The title of this article is “Arbitrary Power, Dictatorship, and Health Care” and along with it is a picture of Hitler. The discussion conflates Obama’s health care reform plan to tyranny, “loss of Liberty & our Freedom,” and all sorts of right wing BS. The rising costs of health care had to be dealt with for real, and past half-ass attempts by Bush, Reagan and others did not work. Obama has a plan he and his experts came up to deal with it, and now he’s trying to get it passed in some form. It’s an attempt to solvw a serious problem, no more, no less. Would you accuse your mechanic of taking away your rights if he tells your brakes need repair before your car is safe to drive again?
BC at 60,
This ain’t about healthcare, it’s all about government control.
80% of people in the US like their current healthcare insurance.
Where the government doesn’t regulate health care, plastic surgery, costs are going down, not up.
I have seen no independent study published by a reliable media source that shows the plan will reduce costs, provide superior quality and provide better choice for the consumer. In fact just the opposite is true.
Only 36% of the country agrees with you that the proposed legislation is a good idea, probably because they understand the above.
I have no doubt that you socialists will be able to wrest control of 1/6 of the economy if you wish to. You will have to be adult enough to live with the consequences of your poor judgement.
Next fall those of us who make up the productive part of the economy are going to unleash our considerable resources and send you a message that you will not soon forget if you chose to continue on your fools errand. You have no chance if you keep digging.
TO: All
RE: BC & BS
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…..
When in the course of human events….. — Some ‘right wing BSers’, in 1776
I’m particularly taken with their ideas about what to do when governments violate the concept of rights relating to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. -- Abraham Lincoln]
Dictatorship goes right along with Socialism,so what do you think? The first thing you have to get through your head BC, is Obama’s Liberal adgenda is to destroy our country. When you can do that,you’ll see the truth.
60. BC.
“…and along with it is a picture of Hitler.
Gee, isn’t that Mr. President all dressed up?
62. Chuck Pelto:
“I’m particularly taken with their ideas about what to do when governments violate the concept of rights relating to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
How timely and accommodating of you. From elsewhere here:
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
And that is EXACTLY what we did. You’re on the wrong side of history, and of the principles of our founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, and the rest? They’re my homies.
64. Mr Lucky:
“Gee, isn’t that Mr. President all dressed up?”
Actually, if you look closely, it more resembles McCain.
TO: All
RE: The ‘Picture’
This is just too funny.
BC is obviously showing either his lack of ‘age’, e.g., as in immature, or knowledge. Probably BOTH.
That picture is NOT ‘Hitler’. It’s Charlie Chaplin in his classic send up of Hitler, The Great Dictator.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Lord, what fools these progressives be. -- Puck (paraphrased)]
54. Who among the military personnel would think nothing of killing us all for the purposes of the collectivist mindset? That, to me, says you don’t know any military personnel. The overwhelming majority of them would only ever take such attitudes toward jihadis and the like, if anyone. There’s a reason the candidate that got the most money from the military last year was Ron Paul. Now some of the Generals might hold such attitudes, or more accurately, be willing to do anything to advance their careers, but when it comes to rebellion, Generals mean next to nothing. What matters is what the enlisted members and junior officers think, and they won’t be firing on American citizens.
65. What does that mean? How have you altered the government due to it being destructive to basic freedoms?
To put on trial the lies and distortive language of confusion built into StealhCare, a Bill of Particulars wide as the sky and long as the long arm of the law would be required. For the Democrats have lawyers so slippery that to catch each devious sentence visited upon the American health needing public will like catching ten thousand greased pigs.
This ambiguous, confusing language woven together to create a fabric of deception is designed to obliterate the health care system we now have (highest quality in the world) and replace it with one that puts bureaucrats in charge whose loyalty is to the government. Not to good medicine.
The nefarious results include: diminution of Medicaid Advantage by 600 billion dollars, putting health care for the elderly on the endangered list.
Tax increases on the working class on everything from band-aids to cat scans to open heart surgery. Public money spent on abortion. Sky high premiums. End of life decisions in the hands of government workers, not Doctors and patient’s families. A public option designed to morph into a single payer system. Doctors forced to be selective about the patients they accept; like no medicare patients. Forcing patients to drive as many as sixty miles for a doctor who accepts medicare patients. A thousand dollar fine for anyone without medical insurance. The list of patient unfriendly results of this medical monstrosity of a piece of legislation goes on and on.
For the elderly, especially, this piece of legislation, to my way of thinking, goes way beyond unwise and unaffordable. It’s unconscionable. For it’s like seeing a group of elderly patients and lobbing a hand grenade in their midst. And then refusing the medical treatment needed to save their lives because they don’t have the bureaucratic required life expectancy.
StealthCare. President Obama’s crowning achievement. No wonder 67% of the American people hate it like the plague.
Dr. Lewis,
Thank you for your thoughtful warning and for your overall analysis of the health care bills. I agree 100%.
America is in a precarious state when there is so little mention of individual rights, which should supersede the whims of legislators and their constituents. Thinking and living must be done by each person, for himself, and not by a health czar. We violate this fundamental truth at our own peril.
Some of this discussion seems to be taking place in the context that the ‘rules’ remain the same and this is just another conservative low like the 70′s (which I remember well). In my considerably long life, I have never seen anything in the U.S. like what is going on with the Marxists now in power. And, make no mistake, they ARE Marxists, and they will do anything to further their fanatical (religious) vision of a temporal utopia.
As a formal student of history and traveler in the former USSR and Eastern bloc, who knew and still knows party members there, and who was in my youth a Marxist, I believe that Obama and company are EXACTLY these people. Some of his followers may not completely realize this, but many definitely understand perfectly well. It was my familiarization with the implementation of Marxism ‘on the ground’ that led to a huge shift in my political perspective.
So, given that, while I am refreshed by some of the comments on this thread, I think that too many people are still talking about this situation without grasping its gravity. And too many conservatives are so comfortable they would not know how to take action that may be required to preserve their liberty, especially if the action threatened the comfort to which they are accustomed. If the situation were reversed, the left would be in the streets… not just a Tea Party here and there, but filling the streets until ‘something happened’. I fear we on the right, despite our words, don’t have that committment.
These people don’t care what you think. Until you are willing to stand up, prepared to physically stop them, they will proceed with their agenda without a care for what you think. And at some point you will be unable to break out of the controls that they put on every aspect of your life. We in a death spiral, and most of us don’t even understand what’s happening.
Neither Liberals nor Conservatives are fit to lead the government, as they are 2 sides of the same coin. They all want to control you; they just differ on what aspects of your life should be controlled.
Conservatives want to moralize, and control your personal life – sticking their noses in things like abortion, same sex marriage, stem cell research, etc.
Liberals want to control your “economic life” and redistribute your wealth to those who didn’t earn it.
Instead of these false alternatives, I want RATIONAL leaders who will stick to the constitution. Military, Police, The Courts — these are the ONLY proper functions of government in a free society. EVERYTHING else must be privatized. Until that happens, we will never be a fully free nation.
OK, let the irrational knee-jerk reactions begin!
Angry at 72,
Very thoughtful post. I did not travel in the eastern block, but I spent 3 years studying the Soviets and communism. You are correct that the current regime exhibits strong Marxist traits. At first I thought they were maosit bottom up types as I believe Bill Ayers is, but now they appear to exhibit more bolshevick behavior, more top down soft path stuff. This healthcare debacle is definitely fitting into the latter category.
There is an election coming that will give us an opportunity to reestablish some more traditional constitutional control over the Democrats. If they continue to over reach as they are currently doing and if the economy stays in it’s anemic condition the American people are going to step up and correct the imbalance. I spoke today to a former Bush 41 campaign manager who told me that he thought this election offered some of the most favorable conditions for Republicans since Reagan. I think it could actually be better than that, even though I am no longer a Republican.
As I said previously, conservatives need to run good, business oriented, candidates, the disaffected need to financially support those candidates,and the platform needs to appeal to independents along economic lines. If that happens and there is solid monitoring of the election to ferret out mischief, the Democrats are going to suffer a terrific beating.
All this talk of armed insurection is way premature and unnecessary. We already know that if such an effort was required the right has far superior resources from which it can draw from.
The left needs to respect our process of election and I believe they will with a little encouragement. Despite their tendencies, I am confident that our political system will be intact after November and President Obama will have to figure out a new way of governing. Conservatives are the most motivated I have seen them in a very long time, maybe the most motivated I have ever seen. We know our childrens future is literally in the balance. That will bring out our best, the socialists are going to find themselves unable to compete sucessfully, especially if they continue on their present path.
Oh, Dr. Lewis — Thank you for a brilliant analysis; I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Angry, the reason the Left is able to do that is because so many of those protests are from people who don’t have real jobs. They’re either unemployed, students, or they’re paid to protest. What is unusual about the TEA Party movement is that people are taking time off from work or committing Saturdays and evenings to it while holding down a regular job, and they are participating at their own expense. We have the resolve, don’t you worry. We just don’t have as much time on our hands.
wow what a bunch of hysterical partisan mashed potatoes! I am sure people all hate their social security, and medicare, yeah its so horrible with all the wealth of this nation to have to help take care of the American people who would die without the help of the health reform, it helps the whole society. a third world model is not a model of strength, security or ethical righteousness. really pretty disgusting to see the good people foaming at the mouth during the Christmas time of year because we will raise our country up to be better and to protect Americans, almost in line with the rest of the wealthy nations of the world.
What wealth? Our unfunded liabilities are $30 Trillion greater than our national assets.
I’m glad the conversation is ongoing about exactly what we are facing as a nation. As I have said many times, the biggest problem with being inside a revolution is one of perspective. You can’t get far enough away to see the whole picture. For example, early on I compared Obama to Mussolini in the 1920′s and 30′s. There are some similarities, including Obama’s grandiose head back tilt, like he was seeing over the crowd, a man of vision. (No kidding compare photos of the two.) Now, other have also said that we are being led by those who would love nothing more than to turn us into a statist nation like some in Europe, and that is also true. Some just flat hate us and want to see us brought to our knees. This link is to my first post on the subject trying to figure out all the players and their agendas:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/08/23/why-socialize-america-lets-play-the-agenda-game/
However, a MENSA bright buddy of mine, who I bounce thoughts off of pointed to me one day and said, “Try Mao and the last great cultural revolution. I think you’ll see something there.” He is rather suggest than lead, so I took his advice and picked up a book on Mao’s revolution from 1966-76. The book is thick in pages and in names and information, it was a struggle at first to get exactly what was going on in 1966. As I started to grasp the players and the actions, I began to blog about it. To say I get a feeling of deja vu about every page now is almost an understatement. I see familiar actions between how the Mao led communist party handled workers, art, media and politics and what we see happening today. For example, the big NEA deal. Not a huge issue, until you read how Mao and his supporters used the arts to attack their enemies and amp up the masses to revolt. Now, you have to understand, Mao was in charge. He was literally revolting against the nation he was leading. He wanted to purge those who did not agree with his revolutionary ideals. Great idea except he kept changing those ideals as he went along sowing confusion and fear. Here is an example:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/12/17/talking-about-revolution-war-and-the-current-characters-in-office-why-they-cheat/
Mao held his ultimate goal close to his vest during the initial run up to the revolution. Many of his advisers would complain saying the confusion caused chaos. To which Mao replied that chaos was good. He believed that revolution for revolution’s sake was not a bad tool to use. Now, we have Maoist in the administration. People who were students and young professors during Mao’s revolution, and they have studied him, learned from him, and as one woman put it, admired him. Make no mistake, they will follow his lead.
I’ll continue to blog about the book as I work my way through it. Frankly, it is a little unsettling. Especially when I see how Obama is trying to work his way into the minds of the children. Mao had two generations to get to that point, but when he did he unleashed them as the “Red Guard” and they killed, beat and robbed thousands “for the cause.”
Scary stuff. I think we are seeing a hybrid forming here. A group of people wanting European rule using Maoist techniques. I would admire them, if they weren’t trying to kill me and my family’s future. Remember, they don’t play by any rules except one. “Win at all costs.”
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/12/16/harassing-the-families-of-political-leaders-who-are-no-longer-in-favor-democrats-no-maos-cultural-revolution/
Samizdat #74, and myth buster #76. With due respect for your obvious careful consideration of events, I must submit that we disagree as to the seriousness of the situation. Samizdat, a Republican victory in 2010 is meaningless unless the nature of the party changes dramatically before that time. The behavior of the Rep leadership for many years now simply facilitates our deterioration into socialism and tyranny at a slower pace than our Marxist ‘friends’. It is becoming clear to many (42% ‘tea party’, 28% Rep polls) that we are in a struggle with ‘elites’ of both parties (and Wall St) who have eviscerated our democracy and clearly no longer care about the consent of the governed.
This is not going to be solved by a mere election. To use a cliche, we must ‘reset’ the entire political landscape, or we might as well just roll over now and let government determine our standard of living and the length of our lives. Now, believe me that I don’t take this lightly. I have some understanding of the cost that could be incurred. I have known people who have paid this price, and not sure we have the guts for it.
I also will admit that I am not clear about exactly how this would come about. The only thing I am certain of is that our traditional two party system, with shared respect for constitutional and procedural constraints, and with at least a somewhat shared worldview and respect for our traditions, is no longer tenable. You cannot make peace with Marxists. There is no compromise, there is only winning and loosing. Our worldviews are incompatible to an extent that makes governance, shared between us, impossible.
myth buster, I understand your point. I also have those constraints, as I remain a contributing member of society and the economy. However, in the context of which I speak, these constraints ring hollow. We will have none of the things you imply, if these people are allowed to fulfill their plans.
Lives, fortunes, sacred honor. I think it is time for us all to reflect on these things that we honor and the legacy that we have inherited. My forbears fought in the revolution, and in the civil war. Some of them died in those struggles. The revolution was fought for less, by far, than what is going on now. I won’t look up the exact stats, but a large number of the ‘founding fathers’ did not survive the revolution, and even more lost their families (I mean dead because they were killed or because of the duress they were subjected to). Another large number lost their fortunes in the struggle. I believe the majority of the signers of the Declaration are in one of the previous two categories. Relatively few preserved their lives and their fortunes. Do we deserve the ‘blessings of liberty’ if we lack the fortitude to preserve it ? Are we ‘up to it’ ? Time to examine our souls, no ?
Lacking a more active outlet for my concern, I will continue working hard in my organizations, and continue my financial support to bring about the best possible outcome. However, again, I don’t think this will be resolved without more direct action, and I am trying to prepare if that becomes a reality… though I am not religious, the thought about ‘take this cup from me’ crosses my mind. The people who rule us simply don’t care… need I convince you of that ? Seems to me that current events are self explanatory.
You are obviously very bright people, and truthfully I have realized the ramifications I discuss fairly recently. Before then, I trusted the integrity of the system assumed that nothing could fundamentally alter the ‘social contract’ (or I would say ‘political contract’) within our country.
So I will leave you with some questions: What if I’m right ? What if you are overconfident and have not yet realized the bigger picture ? And, what if it transpires that the next number of months turn out to be the ‘tipping point’, where, as with Kerensky, we could change the outcome of a great tragedy if only we took timely action ?
Arthur at 77,
Do you have any idea that Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs are so underfunded that they will be bankrupt in a few years. They are in this sorry financial condition because they were set up in an unsustainable manner. These programs are top heavy with beneficiaries who will bleed funds from the younger population. It is a sad fact that you don’t understand the economic dynamic behind the eventual collapse of the post WWII welfare state.
I agree with #72, and would also like to add that we have advantages here that the Left doesn’t when it protests–the anti-war crowd really had no way of stopping the war, or affecting military decision making–all they could do was affect the political environment over the long term, and if the war had gone better they wouldn’t have succeeded at that either. And their attacks on business and traditional morality have likewise had to proceed slowly and indirectly. But the Left in power means to interfere very thoroughly with all aspects of our lives, which means they will be giving us lots of opportunities to make things very difficult for them. Once we start getting creative, we will invent all kinds of ways of carrying out civil disobedience, various forms of active and passive resistance, black markets in health care and anything they try to control and ration, and so on. The Left has in fact written the playbook for us–Alinsky and the Pliven-Coward strategy, which we have heard so much about over the past year. I think things will likely get very bad, but we should keep in mind that no totalitarian regime has yet succeeded in stabilizing itself. But it is very important that we recognize that we are essentially in a state of civil war, in the sense that the two sides don’t recognize the same regime or terms of legitimacy: we adhere to the Constitution of the United States and seek to restore it, while the Left adheres to a transnational progressive utopianism that has contempt for national sovereignty and individual freedom–the Constitution is only meaningful to them insofar as they can read the precepts of what is in effect a new feudalism into it. Hopefully, it won’t ever become a shooting war, but we do need to be aware that the problem is not how to persuade or convince them, but how to make things as difficult as possible for them and then, if possible, destroy them–winning elections is part of this, but only part, because they will still have the judiciary, much of the media and the bureaucracy. We will need to gum up the works, and this doesn’t come naturally to conservatives.
“As philosopher Ayn Rand put it….”
So much for Visiting Professor Lewis.
Upside-Down, Inside-Out
Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you–if you’re naïve and stupid.
Those may not be all the original words of Sinatra’s “Young at Heart,” but they’re more realistic than Frankie’s.
Maybe it’s the age–or just my age–but I’ve been getting uneasy, queasy feelings, vibes in the current vernacular, that believing our nation will always be the great nation in which we grew up is wishful thinking, a fairy tale if you will.
Do forgive the purplish prose but I also firmly believe that we collectively stand at a precipice, a hazardous cliff overhanging an unforgiving plunge into chaotic change, into changes that threaten to forever alter who Americans are and what America is.
We were warned of this by candidate Obama, of change we could believe in, and it’s in progress although it may not be the warm and fuzzy change we were misled to anticipate.
As Harry Reid dishes out unprecedented bribes to win senatorial votes, as China gives fair warning that the world’s financial well is running dry, as the president’s new bff’s abuse and ridicule him, Obama blithely keeps marching on with his permutation campaign.
The essence of Obama’s change is that we now seem to be living in a world not merely turned upside-down but inside out.
Previous absolutes are given a relativistic spin, traditional values and understandings are reduced to the level of antiquated absurdities, America is gradually being transmogrified into just one more nation in the United Nations’ mob rather than Ronald Reagan’s shining city on the hill.
It’s worthwhile to read and consider Reagan’s words in his Farewell Address: “In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1383
While I have serious problems with Newt, you really need to listen to this. He gets it right sometimes. This really sort of captures a lot of what needs to be said.
http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/25989138
To Samizdat: the problem with those types of polls is that you have to deal with a large chunk of people who don’t have a clue, thanks mostly to idiotic and malicious “news coverage“.
There is little doubt that there is a problem, so what do you do? Put up with it until it becomes debilitating? Try some half-baked idea that didn’t work in the past? Or come up with a plan you and the best people you can find think will work?
TO: Berlet98
RE: [OT] Frankie?
Actually, Jimmy Durante sang that Young at Heart in the 1930s.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The classics never grow 'old'.]
TO: BC
RE: Heh
You mean like HillaryCare in Tennessee? Or RomneyCare in Massachusetts?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. This ObamaCare goes FAR BEYOND either of those programs with it’s death panels…..
The Indians (feather, not dot) should start making plans to convert their casinos into hospitals… they will make far more money.
Actually, the could do both… a slot machine in every patient room.
Beauxdog
Read this blog from India……… ha ha …….. i found a reason behind HR 3962.
http://lpowatch.blogspot.com/2009/11/impact-of-new-health-care-legislation.html
And as I was trying to make the point earlier about the Maoist influence, Big Gov. brings us this:
http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/22/transvestites-mao-and-obama-decorate-white-house-christmas-tree/
At this point all I can say is if anyone sees the white rabbit running by, late for an appointment, tell him I’m finding a way out of this madhouse.
I’ve talked about the characters in the book I wrote back in 1997. One included a Senator afraid of losing control who went along with the President’s plan to takeover the nation. I never thought I’d see him in real life.
The book will be out soon. http://www.revoltthebook.com
76. myth buster:
“What is unusual about the TEA Party movement is that people are taking time off from work or committing Saturdays and evenings to it while holding down a regular job, and they are participating at their own expense.”
No, Tea Baggers are retired old fogies living off the government who have nothing better to do so they pull out the Sharpies and draw a few swastikas and tar babies on cardboard signs in a desperate attempt to fill their vacant repetitive lives with some small slice of purpose or meaning, no matter how misguided.
(Sorry, was that unfair? Incomplete? Irrational? False?)
TO: All
RE: Heh
It’s kind of ‘funny’ how when I respond to Now and Then, the responses never appear.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
TO: All
RE: For Example….
….demonstrates their ignorance and arrogance all in one ‘failed swoop’….tongue firmly in cheek.
Earlier they were claiming ‘homies’ with Jefferson. And now this.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. The answer to their question is ‘All of the above’.
“Would you accuse your mechanic of taking away your rights if he tells your brakes need repair before your car is safe to drive again?”
If that mechanic was the one who cut my brake line, I would ignore his advice and seek another.
93. Anonymous:
You forgot your Sharpie . . . update your sign with “Chuck Pelto.”
TO: All
RE: Heh
Good thing I captured those posts before they became part of the ‘disappeared’ here.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
TO: All
RE: [OT] This ‘System’….
….is TRULY ‘FUBAR’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]
93. Chuck Pelto:
“It’s kind of ‘funny’ how when I respond to Now and Then, the responses never appear.”
Careful, your paranoia is showing. That or PJM is actually an elaborate conspiracy constructed to allow me, your humble harpooner, to dash about unfettered and foist my liberal propaganda on vulnerable weak-kneed Mensa members. That’s it! PJM is merely a facade of conservative rage and regret.
Glad we worked that out. Hey! What’s that behind you . . . ?
TO: Now and Then
RE: Let’s See….
….if the previous one gets through. It hasn’t yet…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out.....]
P.S. What’s behind me is a love-seat full of documents, computer cables and empty shipping boxes.
What do YOU see there?
TO: All
RE: Back On-Topic
There’s an interesting article over at The American Thinker.
And it exemplifies the situation we’re encountering with THIS ‘administration’ and our Democrat-dominated Congress.
I’ve had multiple occasions with which to verify the thesis of the article over the last week. Only ONE office of MY Senator has had the courage to answer the telephone. And as for the other offices, including the DC office, NONE of them have taken a voice-mail. They always give me a blurb about how the voice mail system was either (1) full or (2) failed to get the message.
And as the article states, all this does is raise the sense of ‘anger’ towards outright ‘rage’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. I think I’ll watch Riddick (the Furion)…..tonight….
….instead of how the Grinch Stole Christmas or It’s a Wonderful Life.
TO: Now and Then
RE: Well….
….it looks like the item I posted BEFORE #100, didn’t quite make it.
‘Imagine’, that…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out.....
....this system has 'issues' with reliability.]
100. Chuck Pelto:
“RE: Let’s See….if the previous one gets through. It hasn’t yet…..”
Witness the Chuck Pelto equivalent of the fake limp, a common conservative practice when threatened by the truth nipping at their heels.
So, allow me to clarify . . . what do I see behind YOU, or what do I see behind ME? If it’s you, i’ll take you at your word. If it’s me, well I see a couple bales of Northern Sensimilla, a stack of Mad Magazines, and a stripper named Rose I picked up from the local jiggle bar. Hi, Rose. Yeah, in a minute. First I gotta debug this data base.
Bottom line is that we need to win this battle in the primaries. If that fails, running third party candidates becomes a justifiable long shot, because though it is very difficult for them to succeed, the only alternatives are tyranny and civil war. Still, if it should come to civil war, I’ll be there. The US military won’t take me, but the Patriots sure will. Let us pray it doesn’t come to that.
Problem is, at the moment, I don’t have a rifle, nor a place to store one if I bought one. I’m not a very good shot either. Chalk this up to the list that the Patriots will need should bullets start flying- spare rifles and firing ranges to train and equip new recruits. Still, I’m a trained nuclear engineer, there’s bound to be something useful I can do, even if it’s just mixing explosives. Want peace? Prepare for war.
Another excellent article by Dr. Lewis, getting to the essence of what is going on.
Speaking out and calling our legislators to account, even after this draconian bill is passed, is still going to be the most important thing we can do, more important than talking amongst ourselves. Dr. Lewis and others are giving us the ammunition we need to speak out – on principle.
Thank you, PJ Media, for publishing this article.
TO: myth buster
RE: Actually….
….if it DOES come to that. And I suspect the probability is now at .5…..
….we’ll ALL “be there”, in one capacity or another.
The upside is that those of US who served in the armed forces—specifically the combat arms formations—will be better prepared than the likes of some of the others around here.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Advantage....experience.....]
103. Now and Then.
“So, allow me to clarify . . . what do I see behind YOU, or what do I see behind ME? If it’s you, i’ll take you at your word. If it’s me, well I see a couple bales of Northern Sensimilla, a stack of Mad Magazines, and a stripper named Rose I picked up from the local jiggle bar. Hi, Rose. Yeah, in a minute. First I gotta debug this data base.”
Getting wee weed up?
The Modern Liberal Turkey speaks. Lame, lame, lame, and lame. Another attempt to mojo up some manufactured coolness. Where the hell does the Handsome Mixed European – American Too Loaded Turkey With a Touch of Black get the idea that “Northern Sensimilla” comes in “bales”? “Bales”? You mean…”BALES”? Have you been completely Modern Liberalized and don’t know? And “Northern Sensimilla”? Sure, “bales” of Windowpane too.
What, a stack of Time magazines with Mr. President on the front? Yeah, that’s “Mad”. Have they been basted? Are feathers growing in the palm of your claws? Like Mr. President got “Mad” at that poor Chief Commie from China at the Climate Climax for Kleptos. That’s “Mad.” Mr. President is so cool. Why is he so unpopular?
“Rosie”? When did Ms. O’Donnell get released from the Aquatic Park Rehab she’s been habituating lately? Her jiggling can and will cause the Modern Liberal Globals to warm. Bar hopping in Full Modern Liberal Turkey Mode. Yeah, that’s living. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Gobble gobble too? That’s a baster experience you can savor! “Long live” the “Rosie” Bast a Turkey Stimulus! Whole Lotta Rosie! Move over rover, let Turkey take over.
And by all means, have “Rosie” pick those mites out of your feathers. “Debug”, “debug”! They might get loaded on Turkey Juice and then PETA with be at the cage door demanding money, right behind the Government. Those mites do need freedom from the Modern Liberal Carcass before they get juiced and taxed to death. How non-Human Centric of you.
B.C. and his Hitler wish have been topped by the Handsome Mixed European – American Too Loaded Turkey With a Touch of Black. And McCain? The whiteness…. Of course! The uniform fits Mr. President much better. Move “Rosie” over, get out from behind those “bales” and take another Turkey’s eye view. You may just discern Mr. President’s white half.
Well, Anvil would disown you. On the Now defunct Hipness Scale, Now the Hen rates only, “Who here smokes weed?”
12-23. Sweating hatchets, or avoiding?
Merry Christmas, “dazzling intellect”. “Amen. Brother.”
Gobble gobble Goebbels!
106. What I meant, sir, is that I will not shirk from this responsibility. I, too, took an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and like you, I understand that this oath has no expiration date. And if called to command said rebel forces, I will embrace the duty of being a Lieutenant for the Patriots, and it would be an honor for me to serve as your subordinate.
107 Mr. Lucky . . . “Windowpane too.”
That explains everything . . . another victim of the permatrip, unable to handle his recreational indulgence . . . or as we called him back in the day . . . Crispy Critter.
TO: myth buster
RE: I….
….was not thinking you would. Rather, I was pointing out to some ‘fools’ around here that maybe they should be more concerned about who was behind THEIR ‘back’.
RE: That ‘Oath’
Yeah. It has no ‘expiration date’….until WE ‘expire’. [Note: In all truth....I'm on 'extended play' right now. But that's another topic, best discussed over fine scotch and great tobacco.]
Things are likely to get ‘messy’. But heck. I’ve been prepared for ‘messy’ since 1970. I’d rather it hadn’t had to happen amongst US, but what the hay….I got kids I gotta keep this place ‘open’ for…..
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Good hunting and good luck. -- combat commander's words to his troops as they enter the fray]
P.S. I….
….don’t need ‘subordinates’. I need soldiers.
If you’ve got a good idea, bring it forward…..
health care reform,The expected victory for President Obama’s top domestic priority. guess what the republicans were so stupid they left themselves completely out of the picture of helping america with the most important bill in years. the republicans have no leadership at all. Obama is doing A great job.
111. In any scenario of usurpation unto totalitarianism, I am confident that the military would turn on the regime. Nevertheless, we need to be prepared for the contingency that they won’t, and while some, even most, of the military may desert if that happens, we could still wind up fighting a large portion of the US military. More threatening than regular military (for reasons of numbers and ruthlessness, not training) are the purple shirts who will back the regime under any circumstance, and are prepared to use violence even for trivial reasons.
To deal with infantry and purple shirt thugs, we need superior numbers. We can’t possibly have superior firepower to the US military, so we need to replace skill with numbers. Many rebels will bring their own rifles and ammo, but it won’t be enough. Vietnam vets like yourself have great experience, and thus would make great regiment and battalion commanders, but we need able bodied men between the ages of 16 and 25, most of whom won’t own their own rifles. This means many Patriots will need to bring at least two rifles- one for themselves, and one a new recruit who needs a weapon. The Patriots will also need plenty of food and medical supplies.
Now to obtain recruits, the best source is veterans and deserters from the regular and reserve military forces. However, the regime will be too powerful for us to take down with just vets and military personnel loyal to the Constitution. We will still need to recruit a lot of teens and young adults. Some will join simply to rebel against the establishment; others will join for treasure, given that civil war means hyperinflation and total devastation of the economy, leaving them with no means to earn a living. We can’t endorse these motives, but we can’t afford to turn them away, either. Most of our recruits will be true believers, who only need someone to organize and arm them.
The biggest problem is dealing with tanks. The only things that can take out a tank are heavy artillery and nuclear weapons. A tactical nuke isn’t hard to build, but the materials are very hard to come by. I doubt heavy artillery could be considered to be any easier. The only thing effective against a tank without artillery or nukes is human wave tactics. Use explosives to take out their tracks to immobilize them, and then plug up the cannon to prevent it from firing. That will be bloody; nigh suicidal.
What do we have on our side? Popular support will turn martyrs into recruiters. Also, we can make makeshift WMD. Poison gas is easy to make- mix nitric acid and a base metal and you’ll get NO2, a poisonous and highly corrosive gas.
Taken together, I figure the regime can’t hold out forever, and would eventually fall. However, if any significant portion of the military sides with the regime, we could be looking at casualties in the millions. Only a fool would welcome this scenario. Therefore, I implore all my fellow Patriots to be patient. Only after exhausting all peaceful means shall we take up arms. Meanwhile, let us prepare ourselves morally, mentally, spiritually and physically for the contingency that we do need to take up arms. Our founders built in three barriers against tyranny: 1. separation of powers and a free press to check all three branches of government, 2. a military that swears loyalty to no man, but to the Constitution, and 3. an armed population. Pray that the first two render the third unnecessary, but prepare for the scenario that they don’t.
Does water run up hill ?
Congratulations, myth buster. Great prose. Now I understand that you completely get it. I can’t disagree with anything you said. Actual events could be better… or worse. But, you clearly have thought it through and your scenarios are likely realistic, and nothing I would argue with.
I think we need, as you say, to begin to mentally and physically prepare for the hopefully unncecessary dramatic actions that you describe. We cannot let ourselves be subjugated for what, with the current state of technology, could be generations or perhaps even virtual perpetuity. If we aren’t prepared for that, we cannot justly expect to continue to enjoy the ‘blessings of liberty’, which are much more than mere rhetoric. The founding fathers never promised it would be easy.
We are, after all, a huge exception in world history, which has been mostly dark and brutal. As I have told you, I am a serious student of history, with academic credentials and extensive practical experience. More than anything, I wish I could communicate to large numbers of people who lack the knowledge, just how brutal and miserable most societies and human lives have been in the history of the world, in contrast to the general American experience (despite dark aspects of our own history, which we have tended to correct over time).
Lets hope we can keep… no… reclaim, that which has drawn so many here and enabled them to realize their dreams.
114. What does that mean?
Guess Obama will have to start rounding up and arresting all of the homeless first if they don’t sign up for Medicaid. The prison business will be booming.
Resistance must be done legally and properly for the right reasons. If this does pass I would wholeheartedly support the Union to be dissolved considering the contract has been grossly trod under.
The power of the federal must be broken and the states allowed to regulate themselves and compete against each other for human resources. Most important should be maintenance of our liberty and the protection of the ability to worship God.
To get back to this may require forming a new federal involving the states where the populations generally still love their freedom. I’m convinced there are those states where most no longer do.