Stealing as Policy, from the Iron Curtain to Robert Byrd
History often repeats itself, and if you have lived two lives, as I have done, you may have a chance of seeing that reenactment with your own eyes. “Stealing from capitalists is our duty,” I repeatedly heard Nikita Khrushchev shout. “Don’t raise your eyebrows, Comrades. I intentionally used the word steal. We have a historical duty to steal from capitalists.”
“Stealing from capitalists is our historical duty,” I also often heard my former boss, Nicolae Ceausescu, shout as he banged the table with true Khrushchev-like fervor.
Both leaders rose to lead their countries without ever having earned a single penny in any productive job. Neither man had the slightest idea about what makes an economy work. And each sincerely believed that stealing from the rich was the magic wand that would cure all his country’s economic ills. Their vaunted “historical duty” was rooted in Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party, which urged its followers to “eradicate capitalism” by progressive income taxes and abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Last September, I could hardly believe my eyes. The president of the United States asked the extraordinary joint session of the U.S. Congress to impose an additional super-tax on “rich people.” In other words, to make “stealing from capitalists” an official policy of the United States, whose Declaration of Independence emphatically states that “all men are created equal.”
James Madison, author of the U.S. Constitution, must have turned over in his grave. He once wrote:
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
Samuel Adams, one of the founding fathers of the United States, also clearly stated:
The utopian schemes of leveling [i.e., redistribution of wealth] … are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.
That memorable day of September 8, 2011, when the U.S. president tried to legalize “stealing from capitalists,” marked the 835th day that the Democrat-controlled Senate had failed to pass a U.S. budget. Even a mom-and-pop grocery store has to have a budget to keep its business running. Stealing can hardly be budgeted, however.
The economic collapse of the Soviet Union dramatically proved that stealing does not pay, even if it is committed by the government of a superpower. The Democratic Party’s reliance on redistributing America’s wealth instead of encouraging the production of wealth generated economic collapse as well. The GDP fell from 4.5% to 1.3%.
In my experience, the redistribution of wealth has always been presented as needed to help the poor, but it has usually been used by politicians to buy the votes they need to transform their electoral district or even their country into monuments to themselves.
Lenin pretended that Russia was poor because its wealth was monopolized by its privileged class, and he was able to gather millions behind his flag by promising to redistribute the country’s wealth. Stealing became, indeed, a national policy on the day the Soviet Union was born. After the 1917 revolution, Lenin confiscated the imperial family’s wealth, seized the land owned by the rich Russians, and nationalized Russian industry, banking, and agriculture. By forcing the peasants into collective farms, the Kremlin stole their land, their animals, and their agricultural tools. Within a few years, the entire Soviet economy was running on stolen property managed by bureaucrats who had no clue about how to make their new country work. Some 10 million people died of starvation.
In the mid-1930s, the Communist Party itself became a target for theft. Following a brief period of collective leadership exercised by the Politburo, Stalin stole all the top-level positions in the country and pinned them onto his own chest like war decorations, thereby establishing a dismal new feudalism in the middle of the 20th century. That was exactly what later occurred in Eastern Europe after the Communists took over. When I left Romania, the list of the positions and titles accumulated by Ceausescu and his wife could have easily filled a small booklet.
Once settled in the saddle, Stalin began using the wealth stolen from the people to glorify himself and his political father. The city of Tsaritsyn was grandiosely rebuilt as Stalingrad, just as St. Petersburg was aggrandized as Leningrad to glorify Lenin. The embalmed body of Russia’s newest saint, Lenin, was put on display as a holy relic for adoration by the people in an imperial mausoleum.
In the mid 1930s, the statues and the portraits of Stalin began growing like mushrooms all over Russia, which became a monument to him personally. That was exactly what later occurred in Eastern Europe after the Communists took over. As one might expect in the Balkans, Ceausescu’s cult took on a gloriously Byzantine coloration. Almost every Romanian town acquired its Ceausescu boulevard, Ceausescu plaza, Ceausescu square, and before long the country’s industrial and agricultural organizations acquired similar names. “A man like me is born only once every five hundred years,” my former boss proclaimed over and over.
People everywhere love free lunches, and American politicians also began using the redistribution of wealth to promote themselves. Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” built with America’s tax money, had the secret purpose of stitching together a pro-Democratic voting coalition needed to keep him in power. It accomplished its goal, but it shifted the U.S. budget into the red.
Lyndon Johnson opened a new American era, in which stealing tax money to build monuments to yourself has become a legal policy.
Over his long career in the U.S. Congress, the late Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was able to steal $3.3 billion, with a “b,” of tax money in order to build his West Virginia into a monument to himself. Several transportation projects named after him gained national notoriety. The Robert C. Byrd Highway, also known as the Appalachian Development Highway System, was dubbed “West Virginia’s road to nowhere” in 2009, after it received a $9.5 million earmark in the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriation Act and $21 million more from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. More than 50 buildings erected with tax money stolen by Senator Byrd are now named for him. Here are a few: Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove, WV; Robert C. Byrd Federal Correction Institution, Hazelton, WV; Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, WV; Robert C. Byrd United States R Courthouse and Federal Building, Charleston, WV; Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center, Marshall University in Huntington, WV; Robert C. Byrd Auditorium, National Conservation Center, WV; Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, Green Bank, WV; Robert C. Byrd Library, Wheeling, WV.
Documents obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request show that Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House and currently minority leader, also spent impressive amounts of money obtained from the redistribution of America’s wealth in order to promote herself. Traditionally, the House speaker has flown in a 12-seat Air Force jet. However Pelosi demanded and got a 200-seat C-32 — the military version of the Boeing 757 — because she wanted to take along as many of her voters as possible on her free trips. Pelosi’s air travel costs in 2009 and 2010 amounted to $2.2 million, out of which $101,429 was spent on food and alcohol used on board. Purchases for just one Pelosi-led trip in “her” C-32 included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer, and several bottles of wine.
President Obama’s current redistribution of the country’s wealth caused the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating for the first time in our country’s history, but it helped the young president to start transforming the U.S. into a monument to himself. Below is just a partial list of projects and places already named after President Obama.
California: President Barack Obama Parkway, Orlando; Obama Way, Seaside; Barack Obama Charter School, Compton; Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy, Los Angeles; Barack Obama Academy, Oakland.
Florida: Barack Obama Avenue, Opa-loka; Barack Obama Boulevard, West Park.
Maryland: Barack Obama Elementary School, Upper Marlboro.
Missouri: Barack Obama Elementary School, Pine Lawn.
Minnesota: Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary, Saint Paul.
New Jersey: Barack Obama Academy, Plainfield; Barack Obama Green Charter High School, Plainfield.
New York: Barack Obama Elementary School, Hempstead.
Pensylvania: Obama High School, Pittsburgh.
Texas: Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy, Dallas.
Thirty-three years ago I paid with two death sentences from my native Romania for helping her people to stop thinking of government as a boon bestowed from on high, and to take their lives into their own hands.
On November 9, 1989, as I watched the Berlin Wall being torn down, my eyes welled up with tears. I was incredibly proud to be a citizen of the United States. The whole world was expressing its gratitude to this great country for its 45 years of successful Cold War, the repercussions from which had brought down all those monuments the Kremlin and its viceroys had erected to themselves.
Nineteen years later, I was amused to watch on television as the young Democratic nominee for the White House proclaimed in so many words that he is the one the world is waiting for. And an indiscrete YouTube sequence published by FOX TV showed a picture of Communist idol Che Guevara hanging on the wall of Senator Obama’s campaign office in Houston.
On November 4, 2008, however, over 69 million Americans gave Senator Obama the White House, and gave his Democratic Party both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
A Rasmussen poll taken during those days showed that only 53% of Americans preferred capitalism to socialism; 27% were unsure, and 20% strongly opted for socialism.
Houston, we have a problem!
In his earlier years Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was also a leader in the KKK which always seems to slip out of people’s memories.
“..and 20% strongly opted for socialism.”
The democrat party base.
Mr. Pacepa, thank you for your observations and writings.
Facts? Socialists don’t need no stinkin’ Facts!
But here’s a great little video with a catchy tune just choked full of them. Of note is the bit about Wilson, father of the modern “progressive” income tax, our entry into WW1 which was clearly not our business (and led directly to WW2), and the aborted elder brother of the UN; the League of Nations. Arguabely, it’s a toss up wheather he or Teddy R. was the first true Prog in the white house, but he’ll do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UObEdF_uhaw
Thanks so much for posting that video. It’s great! I have sent it to almost everyone I know.
Amazing article. Totally agree <3!
A great article. Thank you Mr. Pacepa.
Deep Capture: the infiltration of Wall St beginnining with Genovese Cosa Nostra, followed by Russian Mafya and Islamic “Golden Chain” OIC backed mafyas- setting up massive, long-term shorting of our markets – and of our invested savings/pension funds;
Bill Clinton lifting China as Moscow had fallen, over a thousand Chinese govt ‘business’ fronts operating unnoticed in Arkansas while he was governer;
he robbed the state and federal union pension funds of 20% (invested in “red chip” stock) to give a poor Communist country it’s seed money, before they had Favored Trade status or Los Alamos nuclear secrets on ‘lost’ hard drives.
(Those pension funds were now underwater, instead of merely dying a slow bleed with 3% Treasurys; Frank and Dodd ccoked up the enhanced CRA scheme- with an unknown Obama’s ACORN ‘statistics’- to force banks to sell junk mortgages-
repackaged as FNMA junk bonds, their ‘yeild’ quickly began refilling the emptied coffers of government union pension funds.
Yes, you know where those junk MBS’s led… “somebody” shorted the ABX index
$2 Trillion, causing the interbank credit freeze and half America’s savings disappeared into Deep Capture accouts overseas.)
his radical “New Party” faction seizing control of the Democrat Party, leading to the takeover of Congress by Chicago’s Democrat Socialist Alliance (76 members as Committee heads, out of 80 committees, during the Pelosi-Reid Congress);
the DSA and Muslim mafya connections such as Valerie Jarrett, Tony Rezko, Shore Bank and it’s EESA-PPIP temporary ‘banks’ helping Dear President seize much of the economy;
Chairman Mao said that no revolution will succeed without outside help.
I believe our dear Democrats have been availing themselves of “outside help” for a very long time…
Obama was not voted for on his own merits. People voted for ‘not the other guy’.
If the republicans could put up a moderately charismatic person, preferably with a long stride, a wife**, some brain and none too gushy with the religious stuff, they would have a much better chance.
So far the ‘religious’ right seem unable to remember that they are supposed to be the ‘political’ right in a secular country.
** America is not yet ready for a female president, although personally, i would vote for her.
gsw. those who voted not for the other guy are just as STUPID as those who voted for obama. I voted for the other guy while holding my nose. it seems the republican party is trying to commit suicide by going around the peoples choices and nominating someone other than the clear choice of the people. with the help of the lame streem media I might add,
America has never been a secular country and never will be. Perhaps you’ve never noticed all that has been erected and written and inscribed in this country to humble ourselves before God, that he may bless and guide our nation. Such as the inscription atop the Washington Monument.
While you can reject God, you cannot reject the influence of Christian doctrine as the foundation of principles in America, regardless of how many traditional Christian symbols are removed from sight. Christians aren’t symbolicly oriented as are seculars, commies love their symbols and statues, their golden calves so to speak.
While you may believe what you want, clicking your heels three times has never worked for me.
I used to think many Americans were just to selfserving to notice what is being erected all around them. How naive of me. Yes many are simply blind followers of The Benevolent party, (lazy) like many in my family. They simply believe the parties intentions are sincere and for the good, without ever monitoring.
It is sobering to accept it, but a large percentage of Americans are actually
and actively working hard under the radar, to undermine our nation.
“Within a few years, the entire Soviet economy was running on stolen property managed by bureaucrats who had no clue about how to make their new country work. Some 10 million people died of starvation.”
Isn’t this always the case? Name me one, pure, Soviet-style economy that was a success? And the few that are remaining (such as in Cuba and North Korea) are hardly shining examples of economic success. Even in places like Communist China and Vietnam, capitalism has taken hold in a big way. In fact, I don’t really know how China, with it’s stock markets, companies, private property, and special class of rich people, can really still call itself a true communist society. Yet this is what many Americans actually WANT for this nation. They want to throw away the Constitution and be more like the social-welfare states in socialist/communist Europe, which are all broke right now. But I’m sure that even if we became like Greece, that would not be good enough for these people. They want it ALL, meaning they will not be happy until they DO have a Soviet-style government. Because, don’t ch’ya know, they would know how to do it better this time around. They always claim that THEY would know how to do it better, a form of life that has never, ever, worked before.
They are the worst people in our society and now, more than ever, we need to stand up to these degenerates. Any person who would pervert this Constitution for his or her own personal gains is a thief and a fraud, and should be treated as such. The Nancy Pelosis and Harry Reids of this country, people who TALK about socialism on the one hand, but then become rich off of this government with the other hand, are worse than thieves. They are harming this country, destroying people’s faith in our government, and robbing us of the tax dollars that could certainly be better used elsewhere. What does a maggot like that sound like to you, a simple theif? Not only should they be thrown out of Congress, they should be thrown in jail, too, and for a good long time. Swine like that do not deserve mercy or pity, and should rot in some Federal hole for years to come.
And until that happens, until these thieves are thrown out of Congress and thrown into jail, less and less honest work will be done in Congress and more and more money will be wasted. THAT is a crime none of us should stand for.
“I don’t really know how China, with it’s stock markets, companies, private property, and special class of rich people, can really still call itself a true communist society.”
But that’s still perfectly in accordance with Mister Pacepa’s theme. They’ve merely figured out how to allow a form of Capitalism…from which they steal.
“They want it ALL, meaning they will not be happy until they DO have a Soviet-style government. Because, don’t ch’ya know, they would know how to do it better this time around. They always claim that THEY would know how to do it better, a form of life that has never, ever, worked before.”
What I find especially telling is that if you ask Marxists exactly what they would do differently this time if they ever did obtain power, they go silent. They just say “trust me, it would work this time” but completely fail to give you anything remotely specific. They simply don’t have any idea of how to make Marxism work. They are in the exact same position as all the other Marxists from history: they have no idea how to make that system work. What’s worse, they have learned nothing from any of the previous attempts.
Of course this is no suprise. Marx had no real idea how to establish communism himself! He was sure that class antagonisms were the key to everything but he didn’t actually know how to make a communist economy work. That’s why every Communist leader who ever came to power has failed to create a real “worker’s utopia”.
As far as I’m concerned, the communist True Believers need to figure out how to make a communist system work in a non-coercive fashion. If they can get even one village to work in a truly communist way WITHOUT forcing people to act at gunpoint (or via enforced starvation), they’ll have something that can at least be considered. Until then, they don’t deserve a minute of consideration except as an example of what NOT to do.
the communist True Believers need to figure out how to make a communist system work in a non-coercive fashion. If they can get even one village to work in a truly communist way WITHOUT forcing people to act at gunpoint (or via enforced starvation), they’ll have something that can at least be considered. Until then, they don’t deserve a minute of consideration except as an example of what NOT to do.
It is impossible for communism to work. The Pilgrims tried it and they had it in their hearts to act as Christians – helping out their fellow man. Even their attempt at socialism failed. One thing can never be changed by mankind – human nature. Some ppl are very lazy. They will get their share of the pie even if they do nothing. That will cause those with a good work ethic to slack off. Soon everyone is doing the bare minimum because doing more has no rewards. The system will fail. It CANNOT succeed.
Oops me too. I forgot ” …” around the first paragraph which is Sparky’s
I think you are almost certainly right that Communism simply can’t work due to the nature of the human race itself.
But maybe there is a little sliver of idealism (or leftism?) in me that says it’s very VERY unlikely but maybe, just maybe, someone can figure out a way to make it work. Even then, I’m not going to believe it until they show me a working scale model of a village – or better yet a small country – that actually works non-coercively and is still truly communist. I completely refuse to believe any plan for communism that exists only on paper or in someone’s head.
They’re going to have to SHOW ME working, non-coercive communism in the real world, practiced by normal, living, breathing humans, before I’m willing to support or advocate communism. Until that happens, I remain profoundly hostile to an ideology that has destroyed literally tens of millions of innocent lives and done far, far more harm than good.
I’m not willing to give them even that much consideration because I can see that it will never work. It absolutely can’t because of the human nature factor. It’s why charity is one of the great attributes of the Judeo-Christian ethos.
Tell a two-year-old that he has to share his/her toys. “No! Mine!” Sharing has to be taught and some will never learn it and some will which is why charity is much touted by those religions.
P.S. There’s even a Byrd Bird Sanctuary in WV.
Both leaders rose to lead their countries without ever having earned a single penny in any productive job. Neither man had the slightest idea about what makes an economy work.
Could we add a third to that? Obama!
This problem is the result of the 60′s idiots taking over the universities and the parents who pay the bill for higher education not even getting a clue about what is going on.
In most cases – certainly across the Liberal Arts – those degrees are no longer an indication of anything approaching academic accomplishment. Today, they’re union cards, nothing more. “Did you attend the proper place, and follow the party line?”
Whoops forgot quotation marks. “both leaders…economy work”
Thank you for writing this important article, Mr. Pacepa. Your message should be simply emblazoned on a bumper sticker, on message boards, everywhere: “Communism = Stealing As Government Policy,” or perhaps “Redistribution Of Wealth = Stealing As Government Policy,” so as to cement the association with Obama, Pelosi and Reed.
‘Che Guevara hanging on the wall of Senator Obama’s campaign office in Houston’ Is anyone doubt that Hussein Obama is not a Marxist or the entire modern Democrat Party is nothing more than American version of old Soviet Communist Party. Unfortunately the American Public soo full of self guilt, they thought by voting for a Marxist half white man they will be exonerated for the 200 years old sins of slavery. Marxism failed everywhere it had been tried, and the subjects who were forced to live under it paid with their lives. Now is The Americans turns to experience what most of us knew long ago.
Collectivism = Destruction/misery/starvation
American individualism = prosperity for all
It’s peculiar how some things subconciously root in your brain, no matter how you consciously portray yourself. Even in my young mandatory liberal, Carter-voting days, the worship of Che Guevara and the obligatory Che T-shirts and posters made me sick. I could never embrace the prerequisite Communism-loving and Christian-bashing to be a good liberal. I instinctively knew Communism was horrible no matter what my peers were saying.
Thank you for a timely and necessary reminder on the differences between “us” and “them”. There should be a law against any living politician having any public item named after them.
We are in a unique situation now where even the worst we have to offer is better than what we have now. Even if we have to hold our noses when we vote, we have to vote. We can’t let this go on. Ron Paul scares the h e double hockey sticks out of me but I would vote for him if he somehow gets the nomination. I would just pray he picks a great VP as I don’t think he would last out four years. If Romney gets the nomination, at least he will slow down the decline and maybe we could come up with someone better four years later. I could care less myself about Newts’ baggage but it might make him hard to elect. Even so I would be happy to vote for him. I still find it hard to believe Cain is actually serious about running but he would still get my vote if he is nominated. Perry is the one I’m supporting but I’m not sure what is going on with him. Those first few debates pretty much killed him. I get tired of hearing about all of Bachmans’ kids. I usually stop listening as soon as she brings them up. I doubt any of the rest have any chance at all but again, I would vote for them if they do manage to make the cut.
The main thing we have to remember is we have to get this present idiot out of there. No matter who we get in they have to be better than what we have now.
As to the ones that espouse how great socialism is, they don’t see the poor and starving, they just see how great the leaders are living and want some of it for themselves. Pure greed. I can’t believe they really think it would work, they don’t care. They just want a piece of the pie. Steal all you can get your hands on and hope to get out before it all falls apart.
Yes !
The choice will be AnyFreedomLover vs. the totalitarians.
Those who don’t understand this and think that chaos would be better than compromise don’t understand that the totalitarians WANT to create chaos. The present phase of the subversion of America’s Freedom is only the initial stage, although the OWS are the sure sign that the totalitarians are moving to the next phase.
We need to roll them back in 2012.
And then we have to keep spreading information and culture to make something like the present subversion impossible for all the future.
A radical faction takes first the majority party and DC apparatus, then the congress, then the white house, then the banks and economy.
We’ve seen this in how many countries?
The deeper structure is ‘family’ mafias- loyalty to the Family, the Company, the Agency, the Ummah, the Cause of fellow travelers; working across borders, loyalty to the Country or culture is lost.
If we can’t get ahead in this pond, we’ll look to another one!
How many immigrants came here because meaner dogs ruled their societies?
And then their efforts, beginnings forgotten, took on a life of their own?
With regards to the practice of naming public buildings, roads, etc. after politicians, may I suggest that Americans change the laws to imitate something we do here in Canada? In this country, no public building or facility can be named after a living person.
For example, both our Lester B. Pearson Internation Airport (the main airport in Toronto) and Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport (the main airport in Montreal) are named after Liberal prime ministers but both men were DEAD before the facilities got those names.
Naturally, this doesn’t stop the practice of recognizing these individuals entirely but it does tend to reduce the frequency dramatically. I would imagine Robert C. Byrd would have behaved quite differently if he had known he wouldn’t be able to put his name on things while he was still alive.
Also, what’s stopping West Virginians from changing the names on all the public facilities that contain Byrd’s name to remove his name? The Soviet Union had all kinds of places named after Soviet Communist leaders while it still existed but virtually all of those places have either changed to new names or reverted to their pre-Communist names now that the Soviet Union has collapsed. Some of those names were even changed while the Soviet Union still existed. For example, the former city of Tsaritsyn but was changed to Stalingrad in the dictator’s honour in 1925 but was changed to Volgograd in 1961, long before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It’s got to be possible to change the name of the Robert C. Byrd Freeway, for example, to something else like the West Virginia Freeway.
The same could be done with all the things named after Barack Obama.
– yesterday, graft today, graft forever!
best comment ever!
It’s like being in a movie and having super vision.
You can see the bullet aimed directly at your head get closer and closer, but you are encased in a substance that won’t let you more.
You can even see the moment when the bullet will enter your skull…nov 6, 2012.
any man or woman trying to live a good, honest life has traits that you can hold up to the light. no need to hide or constantly attempt to obscure anything, especially information others equally positioned freely offer up.
i saw obiwon as a marxist (to my horror) soon after his election when he secretly, thanks to the msm, tried (unsuccessfully) to overthrow the democratic government of Honduras. he tried, with the help of other south american socialists, to reinstall a legally deposed x-president just before the normal election cycle; and, he came very close to succeeding. it was said if they could just get the x-prez on the ticket, and although he was very, very unpopular, the results would take care of themselves, thanks to some u.s. aided hanky panky with the election machinery. the Honduran officials finally agreed to allow the x-prez. back into the country, right after a legally elected new president was sworn in. it was also rumored that this was just a practice run for what was to come for the Americans.
watching this develop (via the net) i became very aware that just because you don’t read about stuff like this in the msm, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. after all, practice makes perfect.
Well the free stuff crowd and the head in the sand citizens are in for a very rude awakening when the tyrants who have served up this smorgasboard of social engineering pull the rug out from under them.
Useful Dupes!
You asked for it.
Careful what you wish for.
Me I’ll take my Liberty.
And die for it if that is what it takes.
It is amazing that the Americans are mostly blind to this stuff. The pilfering that goes on, the dishonesty, the profiteering, the outright theft, all of it legalized because the culprits are writing the laws, all of it is mostly ignored by the public. It takes an outsider, somebody with some experience from different angle to see it. This is a great article. All of eastern europe was destroyed this way. We must stop it here! Now!
It seems to me that it was a certain historical figure other then Karl Marx who advocated for a progressive tax…. hmmm.. who was it, I remember the quote:
“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
EXPOSING NANCY PELOSI
When Nancy Pelosi became involved in politics, some 40 years ago, her sole purpose was to further the business interests of herself and her husband, Paul Pelosi.
Nancy would like people to view her as being a part of the movement to equalize wealth in America. She would like to be perceived as aligned with the poor, the working class and the disenfranchised, the down-trodden and the underdogs in society. Yet she herself, leads a life commensurate with the royalty of other countries. She attained this wealth in consortium with her husband Paul, a real estate banker and investor, by using her Washington and California influence and connections. The facts and circumstances in Nancy’s life show quite a contrary picture to what she is so adept at portraying.
Nancy Pelosi’s entire life experience is the epitome of Capitalism. She is the poster woman for Capitalism.
Some years ago, Nancy, who is a self-purported champion of the unions, owned a canning factory on the island of Samoa, where she was paying her workers a substandard wage. Later, as the Island of Samoa began to unionize, she tried to thwart the unionizing of her factory, through her political connections. When this effort failed, and Nancy was required to pay her workers a designated minimum wage, she closed the factory, leaving the workers without jobs.
In California, where her sway is quite impressive, she uses undocumented workers in her vineyards and fields This frees her of the requirement to pay the designated minimum wage, and to make the employer’s necessary payments to the federal and state governments.
In San Francisco, where she, together with her husband, Paul, own substantial real estate holdings, she bought a building that was occupied by senior citizens, many of whom were of diverse ethnic origins, forcing them to be evicted so that she and Paul could convert the building for commercial use.
Some years ago, under the Clinton Administration, the City of San Francisco acquired the property of the former Presidio Army Base, overlooking San Francisco Bay. Nancy had her hands all over this deal. With her ties to the City Council of San Francisco, she became involved in the acquisition and development of this prime property.
Having procured a $50 million grant from the federal government, she brought her family members into the project,
as major participants in its development, financing, sales, and leasing. This was no accident or coincidence, as Nancy, her husband Paul, and other relatives such as her nephew, the former mayor Gavin Newsome, have tight control over the San Francisco City Council.
Now they have other federal properties, such as the Treasure Island Naval Base, in their sights as a potential for a similar windfall.
This is the Nancy Pelosi who, with all her wealth, was using the large Air Force C-32 jet transport planes, at her whim, for champagne and caviar “concierge” flights for her and her relatives and friends, back and forth, between Travis and Andrews Air Force Bases, all paid for by the American taxpayer.
Recently, it has been disclosed that Paul Pelosi’s brother had obtained a huge “Solyndra-type” loan for a green project in Nevada, that would provide electricity for 43,00 homes. The project involves an expenditure of $740 million, with a loan guaranteed by the federal government. And, of course, taking into account the not too distant Hoover Dam electric generator plant, that supplies a huge multiple of times that many homes, this appears as an obviously ludicrous waste of taxpayer money, as well as a boondoggle and family patronizing, if not outright fraud.
This is the Nancy, who together with her nephew, Gavin Newsome, oversaw the transformation of the once beautiful City of San Francisco into a wretched, foreboding place, with criminals, pan-handlers, vagrants, and drug-addicts dominating the scene. It has become a city where being undocumented is a benefit, and where gangs roam the streets with impunity. It has become a city where the lawless have assumed presumptive credibility over the law enforcement authorities.
This is the Nancy Pelosi who, for many years, failed to report her share of holdings in the Russell Ranch Properties, within the AKT Development Corporation. Her share, which began as a mere $1 million investment, is now purportedly worth $25 million, as the Sacramento suburb plans expansion projects onto this property.
On this matter, she’s excusing her failure to disclose her holdings as an ‘exemption,’ that comes under the S-Corporation exemption clause for congressmen.
It is estimated that Nancy and her husband Paul, have a net worth in the area of $200 million; much of it gained in the lean years after the housing bubble burst in 2008. Nevertheless, she abides the actions of the Wall Street demonstrators; sanctioning their behavior by making a harsh statement against bankers and Wall Street tycoons.
How blatantly deceptive and hypocritical of Nancy. One can only wonder as to what kind of insider information she has been privy to over her many years in congress.
Thank you Nancy, for all of your transparency, over these many years.
EXPOSING NANCY PELOSI
When Nancy Pelosi became involved in politics, some 40 years ago, her sole purpose was to further the business interests of herself and her husband, Paul Pelosi.
Nancy would like people to view her as being a part of the movement to equalize wealth in America. She would like to be perceived as aligned with the poor, the working class and the disenfranchised, the down-trodden and the underdogs in society. Yet she herself, leads a life commensurate with the royalty of other countries. She attained this wealth in consortium with her husband Paul, a real estate banker and investor, by using her Washington and California influence and connections. The facts and circumstances in Nancy’s life show quite a contrary picture to what she is so adept at portraying.
Nancy Pelosi’s entire life experience is the epitome of Capitalism. She is the poster woman for Capitalism.
Some years ago, Nancy, who is a self-purported champion of the unions, owned a canning factory on the island of Samoa, where she was paying her workers a substandard wage. Later, as the Island of Samoa began to unionize, she tried to thwart the unionizing of her factory, through her political connections. When this effort failed, and Nancy was required to pay her workers a designated minimum wage, she closed the factory, leaving the workers without jobs.
In California, where her sway is quite impressive, she uses undocumented workers in her vineyards and fields This frees her of the requirement to pay the designated minimum wage, and to make the employer’s necessary payments to the federal and state governments.
In San Francisco, where she, together with her husband, Paul, own substantial real estate holdings, she bought a building that was occupied by senior citizens, many of whom were of diverse ethnic origins, forcing them to be evicted so that she and Paul could convert the building for commercial use.
Some years ago, under the Clinton Administration, the City of San Francisco acquired the property of the former Presidio Army Base, overlooking San Francisco Bay. Nancy had her hands all over this deal. With her ties to the City Council of San Francisco, she became involved in the acquisition and development of this prime property.
Having procured a $50 million grant from the federal government, she brought her family members into the project,
as major participants in its development, financing, sales, and leasing. This was no accident or coincidence, as Nancy, her husband Paul, and other relatives such as her nephew, the former mayor Gavin Newsome, have tight control over the San Francisco City Council.
Now they have other federal properties, such as the Treasure Island Naval Base, in their sights as a potential for a similar windfall
This is the Nancy Pelosi who, with all her wealth, was using the large Air Force C-32 jet transport planes, at her whim, for champagne and caviar “concierge” flights for her and her relatives and friends, back and forth, between Travis and Andrews Air Force Bases, all paid for by the American taxpayer.
Recently, it has been disclosed that Paul Pelosi’s brother had obtained a huge “Solyndra-type” loan for a green project in Nevada, that would provide electricity for 43,00 homes. The project involves an expenditure of $740 million, with a loan guaranteed by the federal government. And, of course, taking into account the not too distant Hoover Dam electric generator plant, that supplies a huge multiple of times that many homes, this appears as an obviously ludicrous waste of taxpayer money, as well as a boondoggle and family patronizing, if not outright fraud.
This is the Nancy, who together with her nephew, Gavin Newsome, oversaw the transformation of the once beautiful City of San Francisco into a wretched, foreboding place, with criminals, pan-handlers, vagrants, and drug-addicts dominating the scene. It has become a city where being undocumented is a benefit, and where gangs roam the streets with impunity. It has become a city where the lawless have assumed presumptive credibility over the law enforcement authorities.
This is the Nancy Pelosi who, for many years, failed to report her share of holdings in the Russell Ranch Properties, within the AKT Development Corporation. Her share, which began as a mere $1 million investment, is now purportedly worth $25 million, as the Sacramento suburb plans expansion projects onto this property.
On this matter, she’s excusing her failure to disclose her holdings as an ‘exemption,’ that comes under the S-Corporation exemption clause for congressmen.
Recent reports have revealed that Nancy and her husband Paul profited handsomely from an IPO stock purchase of a credit card company, at the time when she was House Speaker, and was involved in legislation that set regulations for the credit card industry. This is blatant insider trading, and for any person other than a member of Congress, would result in prison time.
It is estimated that Nancy and her husband Paul, have a net worth in the area of $200 million; much of it gained in the lean years after the housing bubble burst in 2008. Nevertheless, she abides the actions of the Wall Street demonstrators; sanctioning their behavior by making a harsh statement against bankers and Wall Street tycoons.
How blatantly deceptive and hypocritical of Nancy. One can only wonder as to what kind of insider information she has been privy to over her many years in congress.
Thank you Nancy, for all of your transparency, over these many years.
In 1962, Ayn Rand wrote an essay, “The Monument Builders” (reprinted in “The Virtue of Selfishness”) that dovetails well with what Mr. Pacepa speaks of, where she named the real nature of this type of parasite:
“…Socialism is not a movement of the people. It is a movement of the intellectuals, originated, led and controlled by the intellectuals, carried by them out of their stuffy ivory towers into those bloody fields of practice where they unite with their allies and executors: the thugs.”
Think of Occupy Wall Street. But to continue the quote:
“What, then, is the motive of such intellectuals? Power-lust. Power-lust —-as a manifestation of helplessness, of self-loathing, and of the desire for the unearned.”
Which gets to the essence of monument builders. Rand goes on,
“The desire for the unearned has two aspects: the unearned in matter and the unearned in spirit. (By “spirit” I mean: man’s consciousness.) These two aspects are necessarily interrelated, but a man’s desire may be focused predominantly on one or the other. The desire for the unearned in spirit is the desire for unearned greatness: it is expressed (but not defined) by the foggy murk of the term ‘prestige.’”
“Unearned greatness is so unreal, so neurotic a concept that the wretch who seeks it cannot identify it even to himself: to identify it, is to make it impossible. He needs the irrational, undefinable slogans of altruism and collectivism to give a semiplausible form to his nameless urge and anchor it to reality—-to support his own self-deception more than to deceive his victims. “The public,” “the public interest,” “service to the public” are the means, the tools, the swinging pendulums of the power-luster’s self-hypnosis.
“Since there is no such entity as “the public,” since …the concept is so conveniently undefinable, its use rests only on any given gang’s ability to proclaim that “The public, c’est moi”—and to maintain the claim at the point of a gun.”
Think of “We are the 99%”. Continuing,
“…Greatness is achieved by the productive effort of a man’s mind in the pursuit of clearly defined, rational goals. But a delusion of grandeur can be served only by the switching, undefinable chimera of a public monument—which is presented as a munificent gift to the victims whose forced labor or extorted money had paid for it—which is dedicated to the service of all and none, owned by all and none, gaped at by all and enjoyed by none.
“This is the ruler’s only way to appease his obsession: “prestige.” Prestige—-in whose eyes? In anyone’s. In the eyes of his tortured victims, of the beggars in the streets of his kingdom, of the bootlickers at his court, of the foreign tribes and their rulers beyond the borders. It is to impress all those eyes-—the eyes of everyone and no one—-that the blood of generations of subjects has been spilled and spent.
“One may see, in certain Biblical movies, a graphic image of the meaning of public monument building: the building of the pyramids. Hordes of starved, ragged, emaciated men straining the last effort of their inadequate muscles at the inhuman task of pulling the ropes that drab large chunks of stone, straining like tortured beasts of burden under the whips of overseers, collapsing on the job and dying in the desert sands—that a dead Pharaoh might lie in an imposingly senseless structure and thus gain eternal “prestige” in the eyes of the unborn of future generations.
“…The great distinction of the United States of America, up to the last few decades, was the modesty of its public monuments. Such monuments as did exist were genuine: they were not erected for “prestige,” but were functional structures that had housed events of great historical importance. If you have seen the austere simplicity of Independence Hall, you have seen the difference between authentic grandeur and the pyramids of “public-spirited” prestige-seekers.
“When you consider the global devastation perpetrated by socialism, the sea of blood and the millions of victims, remember that they were sacrificed, not for “the good of mankind” nor for an “noble ideal,” but for the festering vanity of some scared brute or some pretentious mediocrity who craved a mantle of unearned “greatness”—and that the monument to socialism is a pyramid of public factories, public theaters and public parks, erected on a foundation of human corpses, with the figure of the ruler posturing on top, beating his chest and screaming his plea for “prestige” to the starless void above him.”
And when you consider the agenda of Barack Obama, when you contemplate the faux Roman forum he had built to celebrate his nomination 3 1/2 years ago, you may be sure that what he seeks now is *exactly* what Rand spoke of so 50 years ago: monuments on a foundation of corpses.
I hadn’t thought of it in this way until you noted it. I remember seeing the Julia Carson building here in Indianapolis (and noting that, at that point, she was not yet dead so it didn’t constitute a memorial). The saddest thing in my mind is the bulk of people who actually buy the lie that the money is being re-distributed to help people.
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