A New Beginning, or the Last Gasp of America?

[4est_4est_Gump]

Our economy is failing, and politics is in complete gridlock. Democrats can't articulate the difference between Democrats and Socialists. Republicans have no idea how to defend capitalism or even if they should. We have reached what Ayn Rand predicted 50 years ago in "The Obliteration of Capitalism": "It is true we are not a capitalist system any longer: we are a mixed economy, i.e., a mixture of capitalism and statism, of freedom and controls. A mixed economy is a country in the process of disintegration, a civil war of pressure-groups looting and devouring one another."

We are reaching the end of the mixed economy's utility and support. The poor no longer see further gains in benefits, as entitlements are going bankrupt. The middle class have been looted and have not seen wage increases in years. The rich face the highest tax rates of the world. Cronyism has evolved from simple pork-barrel spending to buy votes to complex structures like the Clinton Foundation. With $18 trillion in debt, $100-plus trillion in unfunded liability, and the end of quantitative easing, cronyism is now fighting over a shrinking pie. The intensity of the fight is creating even more gridlock.

Offered for the 2016 election are three conventional options of Bernie Sanders's Socialism, Hillary Clinton's mixed economy with more statism, and a Republican mixed economy status quo....

...

Ayn Rand said that if America is to be saved from destruction from the statists, she will be saved by her sense of life. The Trump campaign may be the beginning of what that process looks like.

Trump appeals to the America I knew growing up. Americans are optimists. They take initiative, they have a can-do attitude, they can solve and create anything, and they admire achievement. Americans are independent, proud, and generally happy. America is the home of the self-made man, where money is made, not looted or obtained through political favor and plunder. Americans are not blindly obedient, and they are defiant and will not be pushed around. That is the attitude that Donald Trump has captured.

...

I want to vote for a presidential candidate who can make with conviction this statement from Ayn Rand: "[T]he United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world." Donald Trump is showing the way and stimulating the real debate for the survival of America. If others follow his lead, it could be a new beginning for America. If not, it could be our last gasp before we sink to a full totalitarian state with only an illusion of freedom.

Craig Schwartz

http://www.americanthinker.com/arti...r_the_last_gasp_of_america.html#ixzz3jRkhzeSd

Gasoline meet spark.

 

[Ishmael]

Trump is certainly changing the dialog. He's even causing the media to "fact-check" their own long held 'beliefs posing as facts' and they're surprised at what they're finding.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

They are also surprised at their poll results with the voters including Democrats and legal "Hispanics" despite having written "The Story" for several generations now. What does it say that only one community in particular has decided that in their case "The Story" is true whereas some other groups are rejecting in based upon the reality that they have to face every day as their communities are eroded by the hands out for handouts from the south.

 

[Ishmael]

They are also surprised at their poll results with the voters including Democrats and legal "Hispanics" despite having written "The Story" for several generations now. What does it say that only one community in particular has decided that in their case "The Story" is true whereas some other groups are rejecting in based upon the reality that they have to face every day as their communities are eroded by the hands out for handouts from the south.

Back in 2011-12 I posted the results of polls here in NM about what the legal Hispanic community felt about the illegals, ie. they want their asses deported and by a huge majority (64%). But the press and the Dems continued to drone on about how the repubs were going to lose the Hispanic vote if they didn't embrace amnesty. As if the press and the dems really care about giving the repubs valuable information. Obviously more than a few repubs bought the narrative.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Clearly they have.



They have to prove their tolerance, inclusiveness, love of diversity, yada yada yada...

 

[Ishmael]

Clearly they have.



They have to prove their tolerance, inclusiveness, love of diversity, yada yada yada...

Prove it to who, the dems?

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The press...



They forget the lesson of Cap'n John McQueeg.

The darling of the press right before becoming their target of hate. THAT! woman???

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Back in 2011-12 I posted the results of polls here in NM about what the legal Hispanic community felt about the illegals, ie. they want their asses deported and by a huge majority (64%). But the press and the Dems continued to drone on about how the repubs were going to lose the Hispanic vote if they didn't embrace amnesty. As if the press and the dems really care about giving the repubs valuable information. Obviously more than a few repubs bought the narrative.

Ishmael

The GOP wants Hispanics because its elites are WALMART-Silicon Valley sycophants.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

magine that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was a corporation, with its shares owned by the nation's major pharmaceutical companies. How would you feel about the regulation of medications? Whose interests would this corporation be serving? Or suppose that major oil companies appointed a small committee to periodically announce the price of a barrel of crude in the United States. How would that impact you at the gasoline pump?

Such hypotheticals would strike the majority of Americans as completely absurd, but it's exactly how our banking system operates.

The Federal Reserve is literally owned by the nation's commercial banks, with a rotation of the regional Reserve Bank presidents constituting 5 of the 12 voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the body that sets targets for certain interest rates. The other 7 members of the FOMC are the D.C.-based Board of Governors—which includes the Fed chairperson, currently Janet Yellen—and are nominated by the President. The Fed serves its owners and patrons—the big banks and the federal government, while the rest of Americans get left behind.

The Federal Reserve has the ability to create legal tender through mere bookkeeping operations. By the simple act of buying, for example, $10 million worth of bonds, the Federal Reserve literally creates $10 million worth of money and adds it into the system. The seller's account goes up by $10 million once the Fed's monies are received. Nobody's account gets debited for $10 million. This is a tremendous amount of power for an institution to possess, and yet the Fed shrouds itself in secrecy and is accountable to no one.

...

No matter how much the Fed protests to the contrary, it shows little regard for the average Joe or Jane. Consider the types of assets it bought as the Fed's balance sheet exploded from $905 billion in the beginning of September 2008 to $2.2 trillion by the end of the year. (The Fed currently holds some $4.5 trillion in total assets, after the various rounds of "quantitative easing.")

Rather than bailing out struggling homeowners who were underwater, with higher mortgage debt than their homes were worth, the Fed instead loaded up on U.S. Treasuries (its own IOUs) and mortgage-backed securities—the very same "toxic assets" that reflected the horrible judgment of many investment bankers and the ratings agencies that signed off on the shenanigans. It is no coincidence that the federal government was able to run trillion-dollar-plus deficits for four consecutive years with no concern from the financial markets; everyone knows the Fed stands in the wings, willing to "print" new legal tender and sop up Uncle Sam's IOUs (which eventually come due, as we are now seeing in Greece).

When it comes to money, politicians are often seen as the least trustworthy. But in the debate over income and wealth inequality, few people point the finger at the biggest benefactor of the wheeler dealer crony capitalists: the Federal Reserve.

Rand Paul and Mark Spitznagel
Reason.com

 

[Saint Peter]

Last Gasp.

Put a fork in it.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

I can't count how many times Cap'n Forked-Tongue has echoed various forecasts the American "Thinker" of the end of America, an economic collapse, the rise of "conservatives". etc. etc. etc.

I'm beginning to think he's the result of mixing the DNA of Harold Camping and Herbert Armstrong to produce a hybrid clone gone horribly wrong.

 

[miles]

UD, shut the fuck up.

Uninformed moron.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

UD, shut the fuck up.

Uninformed moron.

No, you shut the fuck up, Miles.

Benighted buffoon.



(((last gasp)))

hyuk!

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

UD, shut the fuck up.

Uninformed moron.

Miles! Hey buddy!
Do the world a favor will you?

Fuck off and die in a fire.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

How does your stock portfolio look today?



Say thank you Fed!

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

How does your stock portfolio look today?



Say thank you Fed!

Mine is in great shape.

How about your gold reserves (gold price per oz. is down 10% from a year ago)? Or are you back to stock this week?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

UD, shut the fuck up.

Uninformed moron.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Never tire of looking like a tool eh Cap'n Forked-Tongue?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

On a recent Saturday, I walked into my financial advisor's office for our annual checkup.

As we were closing down the session, I expressed my concern that we were due for a major correction, we we moved all of our remaining pure stock funds into safer vehicles. That following Monday, when my trades were executed, the market began to gradually fall back and give up ground. I've even posted about it long ago. That's because I understand what the Fed is doing to our economy and how the only people profiting are the crony capitalist government too big to fail stooges.

But U_D is probably still demanding show me the next recession and high-fiving Obama for his brilliant recovery. But I don't know; he's on ignore for being a "partisan economist."

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

On a recent Saturday, I walked into my financial advisor's office for our annual checkup.

As we were closing down the session, I expressed my concern that we were due for a major correction, we we moved all of our remaining pure stock funds into safer vehicles. That following Monday, when my trades were executed, the market began to gradually fall back and give up ground. I've even posted about it long ago. That's because I understand what the Fed is doing to our economy and how the only people profiting are the crony capitalist government too big to fail stooges.

But U_D is probably still demanding show me the next recession and high-fiving Obama for his brilliant recovery. But I don't know; he's on ignore for being a "partisan economist."

So you are back into the stock market. Did the 10% drop in gold over the last year drive you away?

The only people profiting are the crony capitalist government and too big to fail stooges?

That's funny, because the ROI on my 401k over the past 12 months is still up by nearly 20%. 2014 was nearly 40%, 2013 was 36%, 2012 was 18%..

I guess I'm one of those crony capitalist government types? Nope, just an average working stiff who invests wisely.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Shut up U_D.

I don't care.

Only the other loathsomes give a shit about what you think.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

All it would take is a Republican win next year and U_D will go right back to where he was 8-9 years ago...

It's the worst economy since Marcus Aurelius!​

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

You just never get tired of looking like a fool huh?

Just keep assigning positions to me and beating those straw men Cap'n Hypocrite. It's easier than facing the fact that you know nothing. But everyone else sees.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

You do know that it was Marcus A. who first inflated the Roman coins by reducing the silver content...



He was the precursor the the Keynesian Fed.

It did not end well then either.

 

[rosco rathbone]

It's a reaction to globalization/liberalization, so the more appropriate choice would be "doomed noble protest" or "pathetic squeaking of the losers".