The only national (Republican) figure who is standing up to the racist, fascist PR that has been ginned up around Cordoba House (the “Ground Zero” mosque). I am proud to say that I voted for Ron Paul for President, and hope to again;
Archive for the 'regulation' Category
25
Aug
Ron Paul Is My President
25
Aug
“The Art of the Steal”
I grew up in Philadelphia, and remember the media environment of non-stop propaganda against Dr. Barnes, his will, and his foundation, and I knew, just knew, that someday the people behind it would succeed in stealing his singular collection. Well they have, and in Art of the Steal, Director Don Argott shows us how the powerful interests behind Philadelphia’s arts syndicate did it, all legal-like;
23
Aug
Moloch’s Holy Ground
“Ms. Kagan, whatever her credentials as a college administrator, is absolutely unqualified to sit on the US Supreme Court. Her tenure as Solicitor General has been an unbroken stream of defenses of unprecedented expansions of executive authority. , precisely the sort of person uniquely unsuitable for a role in defending the rights of Americans against the depredations of the President and Congress, in the name of the failed War On Terrorism.
Please oppose Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court.”
Today, on LRC, Fred Reed ticks almost all the boxes (categories) with this one;
“Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost – an enormous, largely useless national codpiece. It is embarrassing. The Pentagon’s preferred enemies are lightly armed, poorly equipped peasants, which makes for a long war and thus hundreds of billions of dollars in juicy contracts for military industries. Yet the greatest military in history (ask it) gets run out of Southeast Asia, blown up and run out of Lebanon, shot down and run out of Somalia, with Afghanistan a disaster in progress and Iraq claimed as an American victory rather than Shiite. Do the aircraft carriers intimidate North Korea? No. Iran? No. China? No. For this, a trillion dollars a year?”
I got involved in a Facebook discussion of Social Security (I know, I know) with a Social Security Disability recipient. He argued against my assertion that SS is not an entitlement, insurance, or investment (but rather is a transfer / welfare scheme) by claiming that SS is an annuity.
took me two minutes, but I came up with the Supreme Court decision FLEMMING V. NESTOR (363 U.S. 603 - 1960) (on the Social Security Admin WEBPAGE) which states ,I think, unambiguously;
…2. A PERSON COVERED BY THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT HAS NOT SUCH A RIGHT IN OLD-AGE BENEFIT PAYMENTS AS WOULD MAKE EVERY DEFEASANCE OF “ACCRUED” INTERESTS VIOLATIVE OF THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT. PP. 608-611.
(A) THE NONCONTRACTUAL INTEREST OF AN EMPLOYEE COVERED BY THE ACT CANNOT BE SOUNDLY ANALOGIZED TO THAT OF THE HOLDER OF AN ANNUITY, WHOSE RIGHTS TO BENEFITS ARE BASED ON HIS CONTRACTUAL PREMIUM PAYMENTS. PP. 608-610.
(B) TO ENGRAFT UPON THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM A CONCEPT OF “ACCRUED PROPERTY RIGHTS” WOULD DEPRIVE IT OF THE FLEXIBILITY AND BOLDNESS IN ADJUSTMENT TO EVER-CHANGING CONDITIONS WHICH IT DEMANDS AND WHICH CONGRESS PROBABLY HAD IN MIND WHEN IT EXPRESSLY RESERVED THE RIGHT TO ALTER, AMEND OR REPEAL ANY PROVISION OF THE ACT. PP. 610-611.”
I guess I should have expected it, but he SAVAGELY attacked me ad-hominem, again and again, while never substantiating his argument with even ONE contrary cite.
So tell me. am I reading this wrong? Do we have a contractual and property right in a Social Security annuity after all? Do I owe this jughead an apology?;
Vince Daliessio: ”(A) THE NONCONTRACTUAL INTEREST OF AN EMPLOYEE COVERED BY THE ACT CANNOT BE SOUNDLY ANALOGIZED TO THAT OF THE HOLDER OF AN ANNUITY, WHOSE RIGHTS TO BENEFITS ARE BASED ON HIS CONTRACTUAL PREMIUM PAYMENTS.”
Unless you can show that this has been reversed or modified by jurisprudence or statute, I rest my case.
Scott (name witheld): “you never had a case as you can not read! That paragraph states that it IS an annuity! What a fool! If you had a 12 th grade reading level you would understand the meaning of the sentence.
Vince Daliessio: Read Justice Black’s dissent, if you want to know the history of the case, the clear violations of Article 1, Section 9 of the constitution, which prohibits the passing of bills of attainder and ex-post-facto laws.
Scott: I have no need to cite anything, YOU are sitting here spewing untruths based on your inability to understand what you obviously can not read. You interpret the fact that congress is the final governing body of the Social Security Administration as congress can limit who can get benefits, yet Scotus stated otherwise, that they only can set ..
Vince Daliessio: Where does it state that? It clearly states the opposite.
Scott: Again you display more nonsensical garbage… you can opt out of Social Security therefore there is no constitutional violation. Do you argue with the wall when you are taking a dump?do you argue with a brick? You ARE NOT a Lawyer, Nor are you anywhere close. Stop trying to act like one
Vince Daliessio: You don’t cite it because you can’t. Congress can set the benefit level at zero. It can set the retirement age at 200. It can set the tax rate at 200%. It can, according to Flemming, pass a law today outlawing behavior that occurred 15 years ago, and use that to invalidate benefits, since they have pronounced that you have no legal property right in SS. No insurance company can do this with a real annuity - they would be sued for treble damages and lose.
Scott: Look IDIOT I suggest you research Schoemann v Social SecurityAdministration of the United States and try your fucking bullshit then. YOU know absolutely Nothing about what you try to speak… you sit here spreading lies and pretending to be the authority. You’re nothing but a know it all punk without an education. Now say good bye boy
Vince Daliessio I CAN’T opt out. I don’t know where you get that idea. Only certain tightly-defined groups under the statute can opt-out.
Scott: Title 26 learn it live it love it
Scott: Gotta love know it alls and troll
Vince Daliessio: You made a statement - that SS is an annuity. Flemming clearly contradicts that. Your argument isn’t with me, it’s with the Supreme Court. I don’t know why you have a beef with me. I stipulated that if you are dependent on the program, you should be taken care of.”
Still A Weapon Pork Barrel In Search Of A Mission
Or rather, what have our supposed representatives done? Among the thousands of anti-Constitutional things they have done this week, we highlight the following;
- passed a permanent extension of the USA PATRIOT Act
- passed a bill spending $30 billion on corrupt foreign dictatorships
- passed a bill combining various government and non-governmental aid workers into an “Active Response Corps“, an appalling name for a group that will subvert the democratic process in nations that we identify
- gave assent to a draft Iraqi constitution that guarantees no rights to anyone except to government and to the Mullahs (Iranian Mullahs)
Along with that, one of our local public servants, Rep Curt Weldon (R - Boeing Vertol) got orders placed by the government for the inherently unsafe, WAY over budget ($24 million $30 million $40 million $71 million $159 million EACH), and Marine-killing (30 so far and counting) V-22 Osprey Hybrid.
Quite a week, even for our normally diligent parasites!
This guy thinks we are stupid jerks. Big surprise - he works for the Fed.
This is rich. Tyler Durden via lewrockwell.com points us to a rambling, anti-blogger rant from some faceless Fed functionary about how people without PhDs in economics should just shut the hell up and allow our betters to make everything all better by a heavy application of Keynsian theory (Durden’s commentary is priceless, and you MUST read the comments).
Well, forgive me if I am being impolite to even mention it, but the esteemed Lord Keynes, did he have a PhD in economics? Why, no, he did not. Did he have a PhD in anything? Why, no, he did not. Well surely he MUST have had an undergraduate degree in economics, at very least. Well, uh, also no, his Bachelor’s degree was in mathematics. Which tells you all you need to know about Lord Keynes’ facility with classical economics, e.g., virtually none.
Meanwhile, the leading figures in the late classical economics movement, Austrians Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, along with Murray Rothbard, Hans Hoppe, Joe Salerno, and a cadre of others, who propound a body of economics colloquially called the Austrian School, are being proved right again and again (as we repeatedly have pointed out) , as stimulus after massive stimulus (as propounded by lackeys like Kartik Athreya) fails to revive the corpse of the Keynsian economy of the past century.
Oh, and all of the major Austrian School scholars had PhDs.
Actually, THIS is the site of the worst environmental disaster in US History
From the Act;
“SEC. 1004. LIMITS ON LIABILITY.
(a) GENERAL RULE.—Except as otherwise provided in this section,
the total of the liability of a responsible party under section 1002 and any removal costs incurred by, or on behalf of, the responsible party, with respect to each incident shall not exceed—
(1) for a tank vessel, the greater of—
(A) $1,200 per gross ton; or
(B)(i) in the case of a vessel greater than 3,000 gross tons, $10,000,000;
(NOTE: This limit is missing from the current reg here)
or (ii) in the case of a vessel of 3,000 gross tons or less, $2,000,000;
(2) for any other vessel, $600 per gross ton or $500,000, whichever is greater;
(3) for an offshore facility except a deepwater port, the total
of all removal costs plus $75,000,000…”
So, let’s see, the federal government, in response to the (now) second-worst worst marine environmental disaster in US History, passed an act which limited any company’s total financial liability for anything bad that might happen to $85 million (completely destroying the property rights of millions of people), in effect subsidizing risky deep-water drilling, and leading directly to THE worst marine environmental disaster in US history.
Yeah, sounds about right.
Repeal section 1004 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
(shout-out to Destination 360 - thanks for nothing, a$$hole$)
Cyranos Journal Online » Why is America suffering so much from a recession that Germany largely bypassed?
Lots of good observations here from a left perspective, particularly regarding the impact of tax policy on the manufacturing sector, though regulation and Fed meddling play a big role as well. But a few quibbles;
1 Teddy Roosevelt was no hero, he was a tool of Morgan, and his “trust-busting” was no more than a smashing of Morgan’s rivals, principally Rockefeller, followed by cartellization of all industries Morgan controlled. FDR was just as bad, but he played on the side of the Rockefeller – Harriman – Kuhn Loeb group, and busted up Morgan cartels.
2 Technically, the US did not see real economic growth until 1946, when the war ended, and pent-up demand and de-regimentation of the wartime control economy erased 17 years of Depression.
3Subsidizing salaries is NUTS. It’s an admission as a government that you have broken the labor market and you refuse to let it clear. Germany’s labor market is vastly different than the US culturally, politically, ethnically, and with regard to harmful regulation. And protectionism just protects inefficient, uncompetitive industries that destroy wealth, and invites trade retaliation. E.G, Smoot-Hawley.
4 On the other hand, a low, uniform tariff, coupled with VERY light regulation of the export sector tends to build wealth. But our economy is so rife with misregulation and cross-subsidy that it is impossible to know anymore what our leading industries should be.
5Gabriel Kolko and many others have shown, beyond refutation that in the US, regulation is written by and for the biggest players in the regulated industry to disadvantage competitors and cartellize most of the business into the hands of a few gigantic firms, who can then run roughshod over everybody, workers and customers alike. This is an important reason we are in the pickle we are in – the game is rigged, There is no free market, except at very local levels.
6 Finally, Keynesianism is not economics, it is not science, it is superstitious voodoo like CDS and the Federal Reserve itself, a gigantic humbug fabricated to provide justification for the evil things the owners of this country want to do to us. Anyone in authority who puts forth such insane Kenesian notions as “stimulus” spending by government should have his head examined. When the government finally defaults on its paper promises, as bad as things MIGHT have gotten, had Hank Paulson not bailed out his buddies, followed by Obama and Geithner doing the same, it will be a thousand times worse when the stimulus fails. We are talking about hyperinflation, like we experienced in the 1970′s, or worse, like Weimar Germany, and we all know how THAT turned out.
7 I want to know why when Hayek won the Nobel prize for Economics, EVERYONE in the mainstream press, but particularly the left put it down, saying it isn’t really a “Nobel Prize”, they are a bunch of cranks, whatever; when Krugman wins, suddenly it’s a prestigious award, filling the winner with Godlike authority. Well Krugman is a Keynesian, and Hayek was not. When Keynsianism is shown up as a failure, AGAIN, will the mainstream and the left hail Hayek, and Mises, and Rothbard, who were right before the crisis hit, and have been proven right again and again?
They will bollocks. There is no way the Austrians will ever be even grudgingly admitted to be right. It doesn’t serve the powers that be.
via Cyranos Journal Online » Why is America suffering so much from a recession that Germany largely bypassed?.