Category: Politics

Loyalty to the Party

Anybody familiar with communist regimes knows that loyalty to “the party” is imperative to one’s survival. Members of “the party” usually have access to food, alcohol, and other amenities not offered to outsides. Unfortunately party members run a risk; their loyalty may be called into question by another party member. At this point a vetting process is likely to follow where the accused will be tested to determine whether or not they are truly loyal to “the party” (more often than not the inquisition ends with a verdict of disloyal).

This behavior is often shown in American media. You know who the bad guys are because they play sinister party politics. The frightening truth is party politics in the United States mirror those of communist nations. Anybody who has attended a Republican or Democrat Party event has seen some of this. People are called out and cheered for their service to “the party.” The more one volunteers and advocates for “the party” the more likely they are to be noticed and rewarded by the higher ups. Anybody who displays disloyalty to “the party” is shunned and attempts are made to run them out.

What’s scary about this behavior is that is revolved around loyalty to “the party” and not to any ideals. For instance, the Republican Party platform talks a great deal about free markets and deregulation. If a candidate is nominated who doesn’t support these ideas you’re still expected to support him or her. No questions are supposed to be asked and no dissidence is tolerated.

This behavior isn’t isolated to the Republican Party. Take a look at the Democrat Party and their support for Barack Obama. While the Democrats talked about peace during the Bush regime they are not silent when their candidate is waging war. Remember how much the Democrats decry the banker bailouts? We heard nothing by crickets from them when Obama did the same thing, in fact man Democrats are cheering Obama’s latest bank bailout.

Whenever I participated in party political events I was sickened by what I saw. People openly stated that they would support any Republican candidate, in fact it was expected that everybody at the event would fully support the Republican candidate regardless of that candidate’s views or values.

Now I’m seeing this with the Ron Paul supporters. Every candidate that Ron Paul endorsed is supposed to have the undying support of the Ron Paul supporters. I’m constantly bombarded with requests to support Kurt Bills here in Minnesota and when I say I’m not interested I’m treated like a heretic. Answers are demanded of me, “How can I not support him?” When I say I don’t know anything about him, he hasn’t officially stated his position on a great number of issues, and he’s demonstrated nothing that warrants my support. The response I get are always various of, “Well Ron Paul endorses him, that’s all you need to know.” No, that’s not all I need to know. I need to know where Kurt Bills stands on numerous issues including gun rights, foreign relations, economics (merely using one of Ron Paul’s books in an economics class doesn’t cut it, I want to know if he actually believes in free markets and divorcing the state from economics), jury nullification, and other libertarian issues.

Party politics scares the living shit out of me. It appears to exist solely to separate people form critical thinking. We’re told to support any nominee of “the party.” If you disapprove of the candidate you will be called out as a bad party member. Once you’ve been denounced any influence you had within “the party” is likely to vanish.

North Dakota Looking to End Property Taxes

I’m rather torn when it comes to deciding which is more evil between property taxes and income taxes. While income taxes are a direct theft of your labor, property taxes make it impossible for one to actually own property. When a locality implements a property tax they are turning you from a property owner to a property renter, and failing to pay the rent will lead you to losing your property. This is incredibly insidious when you apply it to a homeowner who falls on hard times. Being unemployed sucks but owning a home would at least ensure you have someplace to sleep. That is unless you fail to pay your property tax and your kicked out onto the street with no job.

Thankfully North Dakota is looking at ending property taxes in its state:

Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting forth plans to even them, simplify them, cap them, slash them. In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that — one that abolishes the property tax entirely.

I hope this goes through because it would be a step towards absolute property rights. The state shouldn’t be able to take your property because you are unable, or merely unwilling, to pay an extortion fee.

Some People Don’t Want to See the Truth

You know the “Rand Paul is actually a secret libertarian who knows how to manipulate the Republican better than his father” group? Some of them are still lying to themselves:

Time to tell which Paul supporters are intelligent enough to read between the lines and which will allow their knee-jerk reaction be to abandon Rand Paul and call him a traitor to the cause of liberty.

So, tonight Rand Paul endorsed Romney for president. I think it was a good move on Rand’s part seeing as party loyalty runs deep for the sheeple of our country. Deep down, however, I’m sure he knows it will garner exactly zero votes for Romney from the Liberty movement… in fact, with that in mind, I see no danger in the move at all.

After Romney loses in a landslide to Obama, Rand can run in 2016 without being blamed for contributing to the margin that caused Republicans to lose in 2012. I’m sure the faint of heart will abandon Rand, will cry foul play, will call him names, but that’s ok. So far, he’s given me no real reason to mistrust him. Besides, it’s not like he says he agrees with his philosophy (as if he Romney has one) – just that they have similar family values and agree on like 4 policies (none of which Romney will actually do anything about).

I’m sorry that I’m the one who must tell you this but… you’re in an abusive relationship.

I know you believe politics truly loves you. After all it offers you liberty, freedom, and all the other sweet things a lover has to offer. Unfortunately when you’re not around politics is cheating on you with tyranny. It’s offer of this entire Rand Paul announcement being nothing by a clever ploy to lower Romney’s guard is enticing, and I know you want to believe it but… it just isn’t true. Politics is just lying to you again in order to stop you from leaving. Please, for your own sake, leave politics. Until you do the cycle of abuse will continue and you’ll find yourself constantly hurt.

I Hate Being Right Sometimes

I did say I wasn’t a fan of Rand Paul:

Another common theory being put forth by those desperately trying to continue believing in the campaign is that the way is merely being paved for Rand Paul’s run next election cycle. To that I say woopty fucking doo. I’m not a big fan of Rand. Many neocons will claim they like Rand better than his father because Rand makes sense. For the same reasons neocons like Rand I don’t. If the master plan has been to pave the way for Rand then I’m sorry I had any involvement in this campaign.

It appears as though my concerns were justified:

That’s right, Rand Paul just endorsed Mitt Romney. This didn’t surprise me at all, Rand has always struck me as a man who wanted the ring. His rhetoric has been very neocon and I haven’t heard him say much about actual liberty.

While I should be mad about this announcement I’m actually kind of happy it happened, and not because it proves I was right about Rand. The aftermath of this announcement has been nothing short of amazing. Many of my friends in the liberty movement are pissed. They spent their time and money getting Rand Paul elected and now he’s gone and stuck a knife in their backs. This appears to be waking them up to the reality of politics and they’re looking for another way to achieve liberty, a way where they don’t face the constant threat of being betrayed by politicians. This may be one of the most effective agorism recruiting videos ever produced.

Soon to be Blacklisted in Europe

Several European governments are coming together and pondering the development of an Internet blacklist:

Internet users could contribute to an official blacklist of suspected terrorist content under the European Commission’s budding ‘Clean IT’ project.

The project aims to create a text that commits the internet industry (web hosts, search engines and ISPs, among others) to helping governments weed out content that incites acts of terror.

As I often discuss counter-economics I’m sure my site would certainly qualify as “inciting acts of terror” as the “black market” has already been tied to terrorism. Needless to say this site will likely be blacklisted in Europe if this censorship project moves forward. What’s interesting is the claim that such a blacklist would be used to block sites that “incite acts of terror” in one paragraph and is claimed to be used to report “illegal sites” in the next:

Among those 13 courses of action is a proposal for a system that will allow users to ‘flag’ content they believe to be illegal when surfing the web. These alarms would be sent for review to the service provider and in turn, a government agency.

Which is it? Will the reporting mechanism be used solely for sites “inciting acts of terror” or will it be used to report all illegal content? I guarantee it will be the latter.

If this goes through I’ll feel a bit bad for the people tasked with sifting through all of the reported sites because I intent on reporting every site I go to. That should keep the thought police busy.

The Meetings

It’s pretty well known that I’m a staunch individualist. Collectivism isn’t my thing. One of my biggest gripes with the collectivist philosophy is the whole idea of needing to reach consensus.

For those who haven’t observed collectivist decision making I can sum it up as this: it’s a big meeting where nobody is allowed to leave until everybody agrees on something. One example of this are the general assemblies made popular by the Occupy movement. I actually went and observed several of these assemblies and they were amazingly efficient at being entirely inefficient. Nothing of importance could get done because it’s impossible to get everybody to agree on anything. If you have a group larger than one simple decisions, like deciding where to eat during lunch, become more complex. While you may want Mexican food the other person may have a hankering for Chinese food. Expand this now, imagine you have 50 or 100 people trying to decide where to eat. Change up the scenario a bit more and instead of deciding where to eat now our group of 50 to 100 people are trying to decide what to use their collective funds on.

While I understand meetings are periodically necessary I hate them. They eat into time that could be used more productively and often accomplish nothing of value. Imagine if every societal decision had to be made by holding a meeting. Do you think Henry Ford would have been able to introduce the masses to the efficient assembly line if he needed the approval of everybody in his community? Do you think Apple would have been able to built the first personal computer if they needed everybody’s approval? Probably not. Innovation comes from individuals with drive, and nothing kills drive like long meetings. If you want to shutdown a go-getting quickly schedule him for consecutive back-to-back two hour meetings. Before you know the go-getter will be making a difficult decision between hanging himself or shooting himself.

I could never survive in a collectivist society because I couldn’t stand the fucking meetings. When I want to do something I do it. The last thing I want to do is sit on my ass, twiddle my thumbs, and wait for everybody to decide on whether or not I can do what it is I want to do.

In my opinion the ultimate downfall of collectivism are the meetings. I witnessed the failure of collective decision making at OccupyMN, decisions that appeared to be simple matters often took days of arguing between any decision was finally made, and often people voted in favor of it solely because they were sick of arguing and wanted to move on to other things. The only time anything notable was accomplished was when a few individuals said, “We’re doing this! Anybody who wants to join us do so.” Consensus decision making doesn’t work with me, I don’t even want consensus. In fact I won’t even attend the pointless meetings, while people are wasting their time trying to decide on how they’re going to make decisions I’ll be busy doing something. If you need me I’ll be in the shop.

Being a Statist is Stressful

The news came down yesterday that Scott Walker won in the Wisconsin recall election. Needless to say my progressive friends are livid, my neocon friends jumping for joy, and I don’t recognize the state as a legitimate entity so I gave no shits. What’s interesting to me is watching the reaction of my progressive friends.

After both the Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton vs. Tom Emmer election results rolled in the neocons start claiming voter fraud. Expensive time wasting recounts were held, which put the Minnesota Republican Party into a rather precarious financial situation. In both cases my progressive friends were demanding the neocons just conceded and stop acting like whiny children. Now that the tables have turned, now that the neocons have won a round, my progressive friends are starting to scream voter fraud. I’ve seen this link circling. It was written before the recall election but makes a case for possible voter fraud occurring due to one company’s tight control over the voting machines used in Wisconsin.

As additional evidence my friends have been putting forth the fact that more Republicans showed up than is traditional. No shit. You guys were moving to recall their team’s governor, you can guarantee they’re going to show up. It’s like the increase in Christian voters when gay marriage bans are up for vote, there is a vested interest in the group winning so more of them show up to vote than normal. It’s not a sign of fraud, it’s a sign of self-interest.

Worrying one’s self over these matters is very stressful, which is partially why I gave it up (even though I do admit to having a relapse once in a while).

I Think Obama is Officially Insane

It finally happened, I think Obama has finally falled off the deep end. Perhaps all the power of the presidency has driven him mad, perhaps he was mentally disturbed before every running for office, who knows? Either way the words coming out of his mouth aren’t making any sense:

Republicans “have gone from a preference for market-based solutions to an absolutism… [to] a belief that all regulations are bad; that government has no role to play,” said Obama…

As an individual who actually believes the government has no role to play, I must call bullshit on this. Republicans, in general, are just as statist as the Democrats. The Republicans claim they support “deregulation” and “free markets” but what they really support is cronyism and tightly controlled markets, same as the Democrats (granted, the Democrats are actually honest about their intentions to control markets). While the Democrats believe the government should provide welfare, subsidized contraceptives, healthcare, education, and protection the Republicans believe the government should provide welfare, make the use of contraceptives illegal, healthcare, education, and protection. Neither party believes the government has no role to play, that belief lies with those of us who dare oppose the state in its entirety.

The president’s divisive strategy is designed to persuade swing-voters that the former governor of Massachusetts is a radical libertarian…

Good luck with that, tell us how it turns out for you.

Considering the evidence at hand it seems wise to have Obama committed to psychiatric care before he does something really crazy like launch a nuclear weapon at China.

Louisiana Moving to Privatize Public Education

Many people in the libertarian sphere have been jumping for joy over the news of Louisiana moving to privatize public education:

Louisiana is embarking on the nation’s boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.

Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.

Obviously the progressives are already screaming bloody murder. Many people seem to assume I’m joining other libertarians in celebrating this apparent victory, I’m not. How could an advocate of the free market oppose this? Easy, this isn’t going to be a free market in education, it’s going to be tightly controlled at best and cronyism at worst.

The state didn’t say, “Hey guys, were removing all regulations dealing with education and turning it over to you!” What they said was, “We’re going to give you vouchers so you can attend any number of state sanctioned private education facilities.” There’s a huge difference.

A free market in education would mean no regulations, no state approvals, and no money being handed out by the state to those in its favor. Unfortunately the state has an approved list of some sort as the story states the vouchers will be usable” at more than 120 private schools.” That indicates there is some kind of state approval process, which means there is no free market.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the state approved schools are run by politically well-connected cronies. The state wouldn’t make this move unless it benefited its benefactors. Don’t be too quick to cheer this news as a libertarian victory, it’s merely a statist package wrapped in a very thin layer of mock liberty.

Liberty Will be Crushed

First the Republican National Committee (RNC) threatened to prohibit Nevada from seating any delegates if the state sent “too many” Ron Paul delegates, then higher ups in the Massachusetts Republican Party moved to invalidate votes because “too many” Ron Paul delegates were elected, now members of the Old Guard in the Louisiana Republican Party sicked the dogs on Ron Paul supporters are a conventions:

“I’m handicapped! I need a doctor!” “Sir, this is the chairman!” The Louisiana State Republican Convention descended into chaos Saturday morning, with several delegates being arrested and the convention chairman being thrown to the ground by police. Sources report that state party officials panicked when it became clear that Ron Paul delegates commanded a decisive majority of the delegates on the floor – at least 111 of 180 (62%).

[…]

At this point, a motion was made to elect a new convention chairman. Henry Herford, Jr., was elected by an overwhelming majority. Nevertheless, Mr. Villere – who had appointed himself the convention chairman – refused to relinquish control of the gathering. As the delegates began turning their chairs around, Mr. Herford, the newly elected chairman, rose to call the convention to order. Sources report that, in an act of desperation, Mr. Villere and state party officials then ordered police to attack Mr. Herford.

Video footage shows an older gentleman in a blue shirt being violently dragged away by police and then shoved to the ground. When Mr. Herford protests that he is handicapped and would like to press charges for assault against the police officers, a Shreveport police officer is seen smirking in response. Sources report that Mr. Herford, 57, has a prosthetic hip that was dislocated during the assault.

There are videos at the link as well. Needless to say this demonstrates how the state works, when it starts feeling threatened it unleashes violence in a desperate attempt to protect its power. When people said Ron Paul was unelectable they were correct, but not for the reasons they believed. They thought Paul wasn’t electable because of his ideas and philosophy, in reality he’s unelectable because the Republican Part has actively rigged the game, they’ve gone so far as to use actual violence to stop Ron Paul from getting delegates.

I hope everybody remembers this election because it is the first one, that I’m aware of at least, where the Old Guard has openly flaunted its power. Previously they rigged the game through procedure, now that they lack the people to continue this task they’re outright lying, cheating, and using violence. We no longer have a government by the people, it’s a government by the government.