Thursday, February 28, 2013

A lock only keeps an honest man honest.

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Dad, Stand up Philosopher. AKA Bullshit artist.
My father was a thief. A car thief to be exact. Not the best one, he spent a number of years behind bars, until he met my mother. He didn't get so much as a parking ticket after that. One of the things he always did was leave keys in his cars and trucks and never locked the doors. He always told me that 'Locks only keep an honest man honest, it'll only slow a thief down until he figures a way around it'. Those words are more poignant now than ever before just applied to a different rule. We can make all the rules and laws we want pertaining to guns, but the people who choose to break the law, will find a way around them.


Some of the gun laws that are being mulled over in Washington and passed in some states across America are currently in practice elsewhere in the world. Senator Dianne Feinstein's gun ban bill specifically targets 'any gun with a detachable clip and one military characteristic'. This broad definition could include something as benign as any gun with a barrel shroud. The shroud doesn't make it any more deadly or improve it's function, it's merely cosmetic. Or how about Governor Andrew Cuomo's law in New York state banning high capacity clips. So now the criminals are going to have to drive to New Hampshire for the clips and their booze. Like that's going to stop anyone from having high capacity clips. What about gun registration? Or in California where they are trying to put together a 'gun insurance' bill, where if you own a gun you need to carry liability insurance..on the gun. Of course all this noise created by them begs the question..will any of it work?

Big Fat NO people.

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Let's take a look at South Africa. Recently thrust into the new with the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, gun control in South Africa is almost oppressive. The path to gun ownership is a bureaucratic maze of testing, licensing, registration, background checks, competency and even objective approval from police. Waiting for approval for gun ownership can routinely be 2 or more years. There are about 49 million people in South Africa but there is over 9000 private security firms. Sounds like a safe place to me. There are over 300 million people in America and normal people don't need security firms watching their every move. To use a phrase by the patriarch on Duck Dynasty Phil Robertson "In the subdivision, when somethin' goes wrong, you call 911. In the woods, I am 911."

South Africa, with some of the most oppressive gun control laws in the world, boasts one of the highest gun crime statistics. Does gun control work? You be the judge, the truth is out there.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

More on the gun debate

A person guns down a bunch of school kids then takes his own life. A horrible tragedy that should have never happened...but it did. Now we have to deal with the sensationalism of the media. The coverage we now see on this tragedy has nothing to do with saving lives, championing gun control or respecting the dead.

Why does it dominate the airwaves? Why is it on every channel? 

Ratings. Pure and simple. Ratings. That's all those people care about and if they say any different they are full of shit. I'm guilty of it myself. To see the number of hits climb on this very blog is exhilarating, but to profit on misery is part of the sick joke that society has become. The very people that use gun incidents to push gun control secretly hope for more incidents. I'd imagine that Andrea Mitchell or Chris Matthews get all excited when they have something to shoot their mouths off about and the more sensational the better. They feed on controversy. This isn't to say that the conservatives don't do it too. I've seen the same bullshit on Fox. The old saying goes, that you don't want to look at the train wreck, but you can't take your eyes off of it.

We've broached this subject time and time again. Gun control. When, in our lives, has control of anything by the government actually improved anything? I charge any of my readers to bring to my attention anything that the government has regulated that has improved..barring environmental issues because if you bring up cleaner air and water, I'm going to counter with the global warming argument that I don't really buy into. Everything the government touches turns to shit, pure and simple.

Let's just compare the two that gun control activists always bring up. Regulation of driving as compared to guns. With driving you have to get a license, insurance, and register your vehicle. With guns you need none of these. But if the government tries to impose tyranny over us, are we going to grab our gun or get in our cars? Regulating driving is not a constitutional right put in place as a deterrence to TYRANNY as owning weapons is. Constitutionally we are given the right to bear arms specifically as a deterrence to a take over by our government. Look at what regulation of driving does though, it controls how we move about in our own country. Any and all laws and regulation are put in place to control the masses. The only viable control we have is to remain independent. The only way we retain that independence is to be feared by those who would push their control onto us.

Gun control advocates try and say that a man with a gun is no match for a tank, or an armed drone, or a bomb, that our Military can't be countered by the armed citizens. Did anyone see the resources it took to take down ONE man in California? Chris Dorner, the cop gone rogue, tied up millions of dollars worth of resources and he was ONE MAN. Could you imagine the resources it would take to take the collective weaponry from all LEGAL gun owners? Go ahead and try. This is why gun advocates fight any type of registry of gun owners. Currently there is no way to effectively put together a concerted effort to disarm Americans quickly. Look up gun registration in Nazi Germany and see how that played out. 

Society is broken. We've created a system that rewards mediocrity and punishes excellence and innovation. It's a society that covets entertainment over education. Our country needs to return to the ideal of  "We The People", not "To Each According To Their Means" (a communist ideal).

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

How will you be remembered?

President Obama plans to embark on a 100 city tour to support more government spending. A tour to support more and more spending of money that our government doesn't have. This years budget deficit is projected to be more than $900 Billion and our President wants to spend more? I will ask again as I have so many times before, how many of you out there can routinely spend more than you take in EVERY SINGLE YEAR AND NOT GO BROKE? Currently our government sees fit to spend $37 per citizen EVERY DAY. That's almost $11 Billion a day for those with a calculator. Or if you look at it another way, only 50% of the populace pays taxes, so that would break down to $74 dollars a day per tax payer!

President Obama would have us believe that Washington doesn't have a spending problem, that it has a revenue problem. That Washington needs to tax the rich more in order to balance it's spending to revenue ratio. Looking at all the facts out there, economists that say more spending won't work, countries that have failed with similar policies and not to mention actual FACTS that deny this direction...I wasn't sure of why there was not an uprising against this sort of leadership.

Then, it hit me. They don't want to be wrong. They don't want to be remembered as the people who didn't try! They don't see the issues and problems because they are attempting to build a legacy, but they are completely unaware that they are building it out of straw. A structure that will not withstand the winds of change.

Now I don't believe that Obama's supporters our truly blind to his antics but I do think they make a subconscious choice to not look any deeper than the surface. It's like a weird cloaking force field over all his bullshit. Kind of like the SEP field used in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. If you paint an elephant pink with polka dots and put it in a room full of people..the majority of people will refuse to see it because it's absurd. It's 'somebody else's problem' (SEP). Obama's bullshit is a huge pink, polka dotted elephant!!

Let's take, for example, President Obama's little 100 city tour to promote more spending. If we assume that it's going to take Airforce One two hours to reach each destination and use the military's estimation of hourly cost to operation Airforce One, than we come up with 2x100x $180,000 that figures out to $36,000,000. That's $36 Million people and that's only travel!! To have the President run around the country spending money to extol the virtues of spending more money. No ones looking at the pink elephant in the room.

I believe history will show that Obama's supporters will be remembered as people that looked the other way while our future was raped, pillaged and sold off to the highest bidder. They believed in this administration to be a modern day Robin Hood, to take from the rich and give to the poor. History will show that they stole from the future poor to finance their power over the populace. They are not helping the poor by taxing the rich, they are hurting the poor through higher prices of commodities due to higher operating costs passed down to the consumer. Ultimately any tax that is not across the board will trickle down to the people that can least afford it.

But that's somebody else's problem ain't it?

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

By My Calculations



So, if we adhere to the liberal way of thought, then if we tax the rich more then all of our fiscal problems would be fixed. The liberals would have us believe that if the government takes in the money, then the government is best equipped to dole out the revenue to the appropriate entities that need said monies.

Let's break it down a bit to better understand it how Obama put it in a recent interview. Our wonderful President stated: "I think it's only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that's doing so well to give up that tax break. I don't think that's real radical." So, if we are to understand it, if we tax the living shit outta that oil company for certain business expenditures that are currently tax deductible due to self investment that creates jobs, or tax that corporate jet at a higher rate than any other business vehicle then ALL of our problems will be solved.

Smells like class warfare to me.

Currently in the United States, the oil and gas industry contributes to over 9 million direct and indirect jobs. Every year the oil and gas industry contributes close to A HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS to the united states economy. I couldn't find definitive numbers on the number of people that work in support of corporate jets but it's none the less significant. What this paragraph illustrates is that any tax breaks that these entities garner have a net effect of creating jobs! The President stated that people could just use the regular airport instead of corporate jets, in his words “Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it."

Let's look at those tax breaks for jets. Let's look at a high end jet, Bombadier $150 Million. Now let's give that a tax break of 10% accellerated depreciation, so it's going to loose $15 Million a year in TAXABLE value, equipment deductions if you will. Now, it's been stated that this change would net the government $3 Billion dollars over 10 years. There are about 12,500 Business class jets in the United States. I'm just going to pull a number out of my ass on this one, but let's say that it costs an average of $1 Million dollars a year in upkeep each jet (it may actually be more, but numbers I've found suggests this to be about the average). So, by my math that would be $12,500,000,000 a year in expenditures just to keep up these planes! That's pilots, ground crews, mechanics, flight personnel, fuel and storage. $12.5 Billion per year in job stimulus! What in the hell is the government going to get out of that $3 Billion over 10 years?


Sounds like another case of...Nothing to see here folks, move along.

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Taxes already disproportionally penalize the top earners in our national monetary structure. The job creators carry the bulk of the cost of government. The Liberals say that they can afford it. I call shenanigans. The liberals can't see the future past the present. It's riduculous to pay for the present with money from the future. Ain't got money for some liberal whack job, feel good social program..let's just borrow more. Need even more money? Screw it..tax the rich..they can afford it. What the idiots don't understand is that they don't cut their own pay when their costs rise..they cut people. Job.

So...go ahead ya liberal whack jobs, cut more jobs..pretty soon the system will be crushed under it's own weight and the people you profess to champion will be those who suffer the most.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.




Tuesday, February 19, 2013

It's not the guns it's the Democrats!

The Bangor Daily News filed a request for the information of all concealed weapons permit holders in the State of Maine following on the heels of a bill proposed to block all requests for the information. It took less than 24 hrs for public outcry over said request to prompt the Bangor Daily News to rescind it's request. Emergency legislation brought forth by the governor and two gun friendly democrats quickly passed and was signed into law. I'm not sure that the BDN moved quickly enough to stop the bleeding however, there's alot of people who have distanced their affiliation with them and countless subscribers lost.

I'm all for freedom of information. We as a people need to understand what our government is doing with our money. But...not at the expense of the safety of others. The Bangor Daily News said it would not publish "wholesale" lists in its pages. Then why would they want the information? They state it's for research..what exactly are you researching? You can get the number of licenses probably broken down by township and or sex. Why would you need the names of these individuals who took all the necessary steps to abide by the law? This type of information grab served no purpose. What next BDN, you going to ask for a list of the Gay and Lesbian marriage licenses? Or how about EBT card holders? Where does it end?

All these laws that the Democrats and Liberal Left try to champion does little to take guns from the people that should not have them. It does however remove guns and access to certain types of weaponry from LAW ABIDING CITIZENS. Any wonder why the centers of gun violence happens to be in Democratically saturated areas? If I were a criminal I'd prey on the helpless...and to me someone with less access to weaponry is helpless. If you look at the correlation between gun ownership and violent crimes you will see a marked downturn in communities that champion responsible gun ownership. Metro centers like Chicago, New York and Washington DC with there draconian gun restrictions have huge increases in gun violence despite legislation that the Democrats would have you believe should prevent it. We don't have a gun problem..we have a Democrat problem!!



The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. FACT. I'm not afraid to say, I'm a good guy, I have a gun and I'm licensed to carry. 

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

How do you know when a politician is lying?

President Obama's State of the Union address is full of half truths and rabble rousing. We can not even touch on all the bullshit he's slinging.

In the first minute...

"After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years and less foreign oil than we have in 20." President Obama.

Let's take a closer look at that...we've collectively lost roughly 8.8 million jobs. So where in the hell did he come up with a 'creation' number of 6 million? By my rudimentary math I'd say we're still down 2.8 million, but what the hell do I know? I've never been really good at math and Washington 'fuzzy' math is worse than calculus! This 'job creation' number on top of the 12 million new employment age adults entering (well trying) the work force. Just because you bought 6 new windows and smashed out 9 doesn't mean you've filled all the holes. Especially since new holes just keep popping open (the 12 million). Job creation? More like filling holes that were already there.

We buy more American cars...does that count all the cars authorized throughout the this administration to be purchased? Creating your own talking points on the taxpayers dime Mr. President? General Motors alone touted a 32% increase in total government sales. While some of the import companies like Toyota and Honda saw sales increases, the American companies stayed essentially flat due to falling truck sales. They did see an increase in the passenger car sales but that was offset by the loss in truck sales. The total increase in American car sales is because he asked the right question. Have we bought more American cars in relation to imports than in previous years? Of course..but that's drive largely by government sales and purchase of cheap compact cars. We can say that there's been 1 million more American cars sold, but if those were $13,000 crappy sub compacts instead of $35,000 trucks and luxury vehicles..what's that say about the economy?

Oh...can't forget the oil comment...I suppose that a GOVERNMENT MANDATED increase in the use of ethanol and the COST of oil had nothing to do with our DROP in total fuel used/imported, but it did have alot to do with our increase in food costs. How about the wonderful new exploration in natural gas, that I might add your EPA is all over like stink on poo? Or the fact that your not allowing the pipeline from the Canadian oil sands? I'm sure that effects our use since your not allowing it.  I personally know of people that use alternative heating methods to cut back on the steadily rising cost of heat. Guess what Mr. President? The people that suffer the most are the poor. The one's that cannot change their source of heat to save money. Many of them still burn oil, oil that 5 years ago cost them $150 for 100 gallons and now costs $400 per 100 gallons. We're using less because we can't afford it you idiot! The fact that your administration authorized the purchase of biodiesel for the Navy at a cost of...hold your breath readers...$16 per gallon ain't helping us get any closer to affording the stuff.

I could continue to poke holes in his entire speech, but I'm not the only one out here that thinks he's full of shit. We deserve better, but we voted for the same.

Oh..and how do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A coming revolution

A student of history once remarked, ""Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". That man, George Santayana, was a philosopher, poet and 'man of letters'. Raised and educated in the United States and moved away to Europe after age 42 never to return. His quote above is often brought forth in conversation as a descriptor for the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany. The mass murders of million of Jews for no other reason than their religious beliefs. But this quote can be applied to all history. A history that is being re-written by omission by an ideology that believes it knows 'whats best' for us as a whole. This blogger charges that by re-writing our history to further an agenda amounts, no less, to slow erosion of a belief. Murder of our ideals and insidiously stripping a nation of it's core values through re-education. There's nothing to see here folks, move along.


Looking back through history, I looked for the reasoning behind the American Revolution. While this is history, it's not exactly an easy task. Portions of our history has been edited in a liberal view. Very seldom is the British Monarchy viewed as the oppressor to the Colonies that it was. To me it was as if the written history was framed as if Britain was the 'Parent' and the Colonies were the 'Petulant Child', that Britain was just doing what it needed to do to further it's relevancy. We students of history view our relation with the government more of Oppressor/Oppressed.  Sounds alot like our current government. Britain levied taxes, created rules and regulations that the colonist had to live by. They had no voting representation in parliament. The laws, rules and regulations effected the colonists without any input from them, many of the colonist didn't understand nor were notified of these changes but were bound by them. Taxes, laws, rules and regulation drove our forefathers to revolution and it's coming back around.



Over 40,000 laws, rules and regulations were instituted in 2010. Another 40,000 in 2011..and guess what happened in January 2012? If you answered another 40,000 laws rules and regulations that give yourself a pat on the back. Welcome to the United States of Oppression. Does anyone know all these laws, rules and regulations? You do realize that ignorance is no excuse of the law? If you run afoul of any of these laws rules or regulations you could be fined, jailed, lose property, forced to comply (even if it's unreasonable and could result in the closure of your place of business) or in some places in this great country, put to death. Laws on top of laws, rules that make little sense and regulations that regulate what other regulations regulate. These are the same conditions that drove our forefathers to the extreme actions that resulted in the birth of a nation.

We've forgotten our past and we're repeating it. Different time, different circumstances, but it will be the same result. Students of history will see the repeating nature of history but students of government feel it can be different. That these different times allow the mistakes of the past to be the triumphs of this future. Just time and technology separates these points, the human condition never changes. Our current administration and it's party condemns an entire movement, the TEA Party, as being extremist. That the movement's ideals are not those of our nation's. What they don't realize is that these ideals, that the TEA Party adheres to, are the very same ideals that built this nation. These ideas and ideals are not antiquated and cannot be easily cast aside as illustrated by the popularity of the ideas put forth by the TEA Party. This administration's disregard for a political movement is a thin veiled attempt to illegitimate it. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

We are at a tipping point in the history of the United States of America. Don't believe what our government tells you. Our government is doing things that we think only other governments do.  They are telling us that the economy is improving when, well what do you think? Are you any better off than you were five years ago? They tell us that unemployment is falling, but they have 'adjusted' employment levels to hide a drop in total jobs by close to a million. All this in the face of 12 million new employment age adults over the same time frame. And they institute laws. And rules. And regulations. So many in fact that no one person can possibly read or understand them all. We are required to adhere to these though we know nothing about them until we step out of line.

There's a coming revolution...who's with me? Don't listen to the people who champion one side or the other. Look for the underdog, it's usually they who have the right views. This great country was established by people who questioned the status quo. By individuals who were ready, by simply signing a Declaration, to put their lives in jeopardy for their ideals. I'm not saying run right out and start a TEA party chapter, but don't cast aside their values for some of them may in fact be your own. The government wants you to believe that the TEA Party is a small, fractured faction of nut jobs because they stand against everything big government stands for. You've been duped.

That's my two cent's, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.  
   

Friday, February 8, 2013

Don't feed the animals.



I recently read an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News by Heather Denkmire  that tries, quite poorly, to justify welfare by including safety services and municipal services under the umbrella of welfare. You can access this article here. The National Parks Service under the Department of the Interior states "Do not feed the animals." The reasoning behind this statement is that "animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves." Welfare isn't a dirty word...but it's the massive fraud and abuse that makes it fair game for critique.
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The first thing to address in the article are the portions of it that she used to try, valiantly I might add, justify welfare. Her qoute "There is no such thing as a self-made man or woman in this country" is how the left perceives us Americans. She goes on to say that municipal services such as water, sewer, fire, police and rescue and road building/maintenance are services that amount to welfare. I was unaware that these services amounted to welfare. These some of these services are payed covered by property taxes some generate an outright bill. As a matter of fact, some fire and most rescues have taken to billing the insurance of homeowner/individuals for services rendered. Police fine people who break the law and confiscate property. Water and sewer...these are paid for by the individual home owner/business unless that homeowner/business gets their water from a well and have an onsite septic. Let's add one to her list that she missed...public school. All of these services are paid for by the people. Some of these services are administrated by the government but none of them can be construed as welfare. Infrastructure is not welfare and for some reason, prior to the 1960's the United States of America was doing quite fine without a majority of welfare programs.

wel·fare  

/ˈwelˌfe(ə)r/
Noun
  1. The health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.
  2. Statutory procedure or social effort designed to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need.

Synonyms
well-being - prosperity - weal - good

Many of the Americans that are critical of welfare are critical of such programs as Temporary Assistance for Needy Familys (TANF), the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP),  Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicaid/Medicare (When used by people under retirement age and over adolescence) do so because we all know someone that is screwing the system. ALL OF US KNOW AT LEAST ONE. So let's break it down a bit. For the fiscal year 2011 federal welfare spending was pegged at $1.03TRILLION. That number doesn't include the programs Medicare, Social Security and Veterans benefits. In 2011 about 146 Million people filed tax returns, about 46 Million of those had no tax liability..in other words they got their money back or paid in none. So, if we estimated that 10% (I know, rather small estimation) of welfare was subject to fraud or abuse (like I said WE ALL KNOW SOMEONE ON WELFARE and we've all witnessed some form of abuse or fraud) we could begin looking at the bigger picture or see why Conservatives have a fit about them. Let's start here.
  • $1,030,000,000,000 = cost of welfare to taxpayers
  • 146,000,000 (taxpayers) minus 46,000,000 (people who file but don't pay any taxes) =100,000,000
  • $103,000,000,000 = 10% of fraud or abuse in the system
So, if we do the simple math, 103,000,000,000 divided among the 100,000,000 taxpayers we come up with a very simple $1030. Are we to just accept the fact that every year, out of  EACH our tax receipts the government pisses away $1030 JUST ON FRAUD AND ABUSE?? Before any of you Moonbats start crying at my numbers the author of that piece used her creative liberties in her column and most of my numbers are culled directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Internal Revenue Service. I took liberty with the 10% but I'd be willing to put my ass on the line that it's actually higher than that. I know college kids that can live off $40 a week for food. If we look at these numbers, $40/wk X 26 = $1040, then just the fraud and abuse could feed 100,000,000 College students! That's 100 MILLION people!! That's a lot of ramen!!

These people think that taxing the rich more will solve the problem. When the government taxes the rich, the people that offer the goods and services, they just raise the cost of those goods and services on people that use the goods and services, who in turn have to either raise their prices or lower their standard of living. Any tax on the rich causes a TRICKLE DOWN of costs to the people at the bottom. Don't believe me? Fill your tank lately? How about buy a gallon of milk? Wow...that loaf of bread sure has gone up hasn't it? Jeesh...it seems we're paying a whole lot more for goods and services lately, I wonder why? Why is my check smaller I thought I got a raise?

Keep living in your fantasy world  Heather Denkmire I bet it's a happy place. The very people that your kind profess to help are forgetting how to help themselves. When the bottom falls out those people will be knocking on your door to eat you. Be kind, don't feed the animals.

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person.





Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Distract Divide and Defeat.

Riding home this morning in the car, I was listening to a local talk radio show take calls on a proposed new helmet/motorcycle law here in Maine. Listening at the passionate replies to the hosts questions from the callers made me ponder, why can't we apply that fervor to our growing national problems like the economy, debt and security? Then it hit me. STRATEGY!

Politics have become a game of strategy. I'd wager that politicians utilize more strategists than professional sports franchises. Think about it like this: Football isn't just about throwing the ball for a touchdown, it's about fooling the other side to think you've thrown the ball while you move the ball on foot, or vice versa. Same with basketball, fake out then pass. Of course there is offense and defense as well, but the best plays are made when you don't see them coming. Looking at the disarray we face in the political landscape doesn't seem to make any sense on a local and state level, but when we apply all those state/local issues to a national issue it becomes a little more clear. DISTRACT, DIVIDE AND DEFEAT. This is the game of the POLITICIAN. Not a game of left or right, conservative or liberal, it's a game they ALL play in order to further an agenda! And we the American people can't get our collective shit together to keep on one issue long enough to influence a positive outcome. WE GIVE THEM THEIR VICTORY!

The current issue in Maine about helmet laws has been tried over and over again. This time is no different. Same issues different player. At first I couldn't really understand the reasoning behind revisiting a topic that has been played out before. It was soundly defeated before because of the collective disdain for the legislation. Why would this make any difference right now in our current political climate? Then a caller came on the radio and said something that put it all in place. The caller stated, "The United Bikers Of Maine are stronger than the National Rifle Association". That statement put it all together. Conspiracy theories are  not usually a topic for that I subscribe to or propagate, but if I was the coach for the national team...this is exactly what I'd be looking to do. Tying up a large, vocal, powerful voting machine with a hot button issue. They want them to think that they have the ball, but there's a bigger game being played outside of their view. Distract, divide and ultimately DEFEAT.

If we look across the local political landscape state to state, numerous hot button legislation is coming to the table. Even nationally the current administration is touting gun control an issue that has even pulled the wool over my eyes. At many times it's distracted me from the policies that are being ferreted thru on an administrative basis. No vote, no legislation, no input from the people these policies govern. In essence, taxation without representation. The very same issues that drove our forefathers into declaring our Independence from the British Monarchy. This administration will push through executive policies through entities like the Environmental Protection Agency, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Justice Department and others really too numerous to list. Go here for list. All of these policies will take effect unbeknownst to the American people, at least that is until you cross the government.  

All of this legislation seems like it's not connected and on it's face, it's not. But step back and look at the whole picture. Look at it like a strategist would. Take all of the information to form a game plan. That's when it starts to make sense. In this world we're all connected electronically. We get our news from numerous sources. Information is widely disseminated quickly and efficiently over the internet and politicians are losing control of that information. So what better way to control the information people get by creating noise? They are solidifying their political power simply by clouding the issues with so much crap we can't come together collectively to support or defeat their policies. We also are the ones making the noise, but instead of a collective crescendo, we just add to the white noise that clouds the subject. I'd like to think I'm a clear voice in the noise, but I'm not sure about that now. I may be a shill in the political strategists game. Maybe they are one step ahead of me.

Now I know why conspiracy theorists are seen as whack-jobs...I'm beginning to question my place in the grand scheme of things! I'm not sure if this is really my two cent's or if I'm just the next guy in line OR IF THOSE TWO CENTS HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO ME TO SPEND AS THEY SEE FIT!

That's my two cents, spend 'em or put 'em in the dish for the next person?