The following is adapted from my op-ed via the Patch entitled: “Life Boils Down to Time, Risks, Rewards, Opportunities and Choices.” It includes a follow up to the latest from former World Bank lead economist István Dobozi, who has modified part of his argument, which will be reflected below. Mr. Dobozi’s latest twist is interesting and noteworthy.
Part I
Life Boils Down to Time, Risks, Rewards, Opportunities and Choices
Examples of common sense ideas that make important life decisions, like who should be the next president, congressional rep, senator easier.
All temporal life is by definition limited by time. No one can ‘do it all.’ So, once someone has received the gift of life that life becomes a series of choices.
The question of freedom is caught up in that because for centuries there were – and still are – societies where choices were often made for the individual woman or man.
A revolutionary war was fought to free the American colonies from the dominating control of not only of the British Crown and its government. That British royal government happened to be influenced by corporate power. There was a risk involved in fighting that Revolutionary War against the English king and his armies. Lives, limbs, and money were at risk. But the reward was freedom to choose and the opportunities that came with being part of what after victory was achieved became known around the world as a free society.
The first constitution (the Articles of Confederation) of what became the United States was abandoned in favor of what we have today. Our current Constitution included a bill of rights which were supposed to protect “We the People” against the overarching power and control of a remote federal government.
The ideas behind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were simple. Within reasonable limits of law, let people be free to make their own choices about their lives. Every family had to earn their own living, but what each earned was theirs to keep, sell, trade with or borrow against.
It has been said that no government can give someone anything that it doesn’t first take from others. That is true. Whenever a ‘program’ gives a ‘benefit’ that money first had to be taxed or borrowed. As the inflation of the last 3½ years has proven, when government borrows and spends too much, prices adjust and ‘go higher’ (i.e.: when the value of a dollar is cheapened, prices ‘inflate’). While people like the idea of getting ‘free money’ there truly is no such things as a free lunch. Someone always pays.
Despite posturing otherwise, people pay all taxes. There are no Martians, no animals, no soils that contribute to the U.S. Treasury, nor to state or local governments. People pay all taxes.
If politicians could give people everything that they wanted and no one had to pay for it, then why didn’t politicians do that decades ago? The answer is simple. It can’t be done. That’s just not how life works. The sooner we accept realities vs. fantasies, half-truths, or outright lies, the better off we personally are. The sooner more people accept reality, the better our society becomes. There are no free lunches. Someone always pays.
That someone is routinely the masses of people. We lose opportunities and lose earning power when the government is failing to defend us against foreign competitors (see link here and further below), our earning power as Americans are routinely reduced. A small sliver of the population benefits, and those are usually big corporate interests (see further below).
If the government can just take what it wants from this or that person or group, and give it to another person or group in an unjust manner, then the incentives for the victimized drops. If we risk our work, or labor, our creativity only to have it taken from us by governmental power, then the ‘work ethic’ is eroded and falls.
That’s not mere guesswork. It is a historical fact. Americans became the most prosperous nation on earth back in the day because the people had the ability to keep the lion share of the fruits of their labors. Government was smaller, limited, and often focused on law and order and the court system to settle disputes and enforce the laws.
To be sure, there were inequities. There were white indentured servants and black slaves. There were examples of blacks owning other blacks, and black African slave traders selling other blacks. For those who peddle the story of a pre-colonial America where the ‘native Americans’ were peaceful and free, guess again. They had slaves too, because winners of conflicts were known to enslave others. Part of how the ruling class today keeps the masses less free is by peddling stories that are a series of half-truths or sly deceptions.
What is tragic, and often overlooked, is that illegal immigration results in a range of harms to children and adults who are trafficked. The costs to Americans are huge.
Fueling and exploiting division between racial, religious, and other groups are often aimed at the terrible practice of “divide and conquer” or “divide and rule.”
While we can change our minds in an instant social and political change normally takes time and comes at a price. However we vote in this election, it takes time for good policies to correct bad ones. That said, bad leadership and policies can unfortunately can hit millions swiftly.
For well over a century, there has been a deception peddled as the progressive movement. It sounds good, right? Progress. Everyone likes the idea of progress. But putting a label on something doesn’t make it true. While not all of his ideas are correct, liberal thinker Noam Chomsky had a point that political slogans are designed to sound good and create a feel of attraction to it.
Kamala Harris’ (D) stories and pitches keep changing. Why? Because we the people have already seen what her policies and that of Joe Biden (D) do in practice. When some 65 to 75 percent of the country (+/-) tell pollsters that the country is on the wrong track, no amount of dancing and prancing can change the fact the Harris and her party have been in charge for the last 3½ years.
Some people want to think things through. That is commendable. That’s why this series of fact-packed articles, written by a political independent, have been published on the Patch on a range of topics that impact people’s lives. I get nothing from any campaign. But I invested this time in the hope that enough people of good will can see reality as it is and vote wisely. My future and yours are connected. We should all want a better future for ourselves, our loved ones, friends, family and children.
Democrats have been pushing the progressive movement since the time of Woodrow Wilson (D). Wilson was a racist. The first movie he played in the White House was a pro-Klu Klux Klan movie. Republicans had begun desegregation of the federal government, but Woodrow Wilson reversed that move. The Democratic Party was the party of the Confederacy and slavery. The Republican Party was the party that under Abraham Lincoln fought a bloody and costly Civil War to free blacks and people of all colors so that a better or ‘more perfect Union’ would be possible. Years later, it was Republicans who worked to give women and blacks the vote. Jim Crow Laws were passed by Democrats. These are simple historic facts. Black Professor Carol Swain covers much of that and more in the video posted below.
I’ve said throughout this series of articles that I’m a political independent, not registered with any political party. That is true. Some may wonder, why am I not a Republican? I don’t want to get into that today, it is a longer story and unnecessary for this discussion. But let me be clear. There are some Democratic ideas that are fine. For example, on the need to stop oligopoly style monopoly power often wielded by big corporations. The problem is that in the last 3½ years, there has been more talk than effective action.
But billionaires who are backing Kamala Harris have made it clear that they don’t want Lina Khan to remain. The Harris-Biden team’s antitrust department, for whatever reasons, have delayed their decision in that Google monopolization case until after the November 5 election. Harris fundraisers are trying to influence her to get rid of Khan and Jonathan Kanter.
Dozens of corporate leaders, several linked to media and Hollywood, endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris.
Did those wealthy donors backing Kamala do so because they think Harris (D) is going to tax them more? Did they endorse Kamala (D) thinking that she would empower (or hobble?!) the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division? Isn’t it obvious that they believe she is going to back their influence, economic and political power? When was the last time you gave someone a bunch of money that you KNEW was opposed to your interests?
Quote from the full length and award-winning “Shadows of Liberty” documentary drama. Shadows exposed several aspects of the political, media, corporate, and regulatory nexus by interviewing insiders involved in it. It explores examples from left and right with the impact of money and information manipulation. Glover has served on a Warren Buffett funded board.https://www.manufacturedhomepr…See the Illusory Effect updates linked here: https://www.manufacturedhomepr…when-the-lies-are-so-big-no-one-would-dare-disbelieve-them-mainstream-legacy-or-alternative-media-u-s-public-policies-illusory-truth-and-manufactured-housing-plus-mhville-mark/
Over 700 members of the military-industrial-spy complex endorsed Kamala Harris (D). For years, Democrats understandably called George W. Bush era Vice President Dick Cheney as a warmonger. Kamala embraced his and their endorsements.
I mentioned above the racist and so-called “progressive” Woodrow Wilson(D). It was during his era that the federal income was sold to Americans as a tax on the rich (sound familiar?) and as a way to replaced the revenues the government collected from tariffs.
While it is likely coincidental, former World Bank lead economist István Dobozi has published yet another op-ed via the Herald-Tribune and picked up by the Press Reader. Dobozi did something somewhat different this time, he first took a shot at Kamala Harris for a bad idea. Here is how he framed it.
“Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman famously quipped that bad economic ideas never die.” “Why do presidential candidates continue to embrace wrong economic ideas? The main reason is their fondness for simple, attractive political gimmicks. About 8 in 10 register voters say the economy will be crucial to their vote.” Jumping ahead, Dobozi stated: “Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has dubbed her economic plan as “Opportunity Economy” …targeting higher housing prices, medical debt and grocery prices that have been “artificially inflated by greedy corporations.” Harris would impose the first-ever federal ban on “price gouging”…But is this a good initiative?”
Said Dobozi: “Economists of all political stripes are united in the belief that centralized price controls don’t work; grocers, for example, are notoriously low-margin businesses. Supermarkets also have narrow (2%) margins, and researchers for the Federal Reserve have found no proof that systematic price manipulation has occurred.”
In other words, Dobozi is all but saying that Kamala Harris (D) is attempting to mislead and deceiver her voters. Dobozi is an apparent leftist slamming, with good reasons, Harris’ (D) pitch that price gouging is why prices are too high, which he said the Federal Reserve found “no proof” for her claims.
Dobozi then goes on to say: “The historical evidence shows that administrative price controls risk reducing incentive that produce more – which in turn leads to consumers paying the bill via shortages of supply.” That is a good argument. While it is an exaggeration to say that economists are “united” in that view, he is correct in saying that from across the political spectrum there are those who say this Harris plan is a bad idea. Or as he put it, a gimmick.
Next, Dobozi said: “Instead of populist gimmicks, Harris should focus on the real source of inflation: runaway government spending.” He says her plan isn’t “serious.”
“America’s budget deficit is running at 7% of GDP, a level seen only during wars and severe recessions. Meanwhile, the national debt is continuing to climb above the annual GDP.”
“That’s why Harris must offer a serious proposal to clean up the country’s fiscal picture. Under her [potential] presidency, it could get even worse due to overly generous subsidy programs.”
Overall, good for Dobozi. He made several useful and broadly accurate arguments on why Harris should not be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office as the chief executive. What he didn’t directly say is that Harris and Biden are the ones who have led the country into this current economic, political, and international messes.
Unfortunately, Dobozi then slams Trump for his tariffs. But he offers nothing new, so the two prior reports which are linked below are plenty of reasons to dismiss his thinking against tariffs. Because even though there are many who hold his view, Trump happens to be correct. The evidence is found in the articles linked below.
But let me sincerely thank Dobozi, because his arguments cited above (good against Harris and weak or errant against Trump) make closing the loop on this article easier.
According to left-leaning Wikipedia: Woodrow “Wilson [D] signed the bill into law on October 3, 1913. The Revenue Act of 1913 lowered average tariff rates from 40 percent to 26 percent. It also established a one percent tax on income above $3,000 per year; the tax affected approximately three percent of the population.” The Miller Center said about Woodrow Wilson (D) agenda: “He argued that high tariffs created monopolies and hurt consumers…”
According to Britannica about Wilson’s campaign slogans and pitch to voters, which were dubbed a “new freedom” that promised “unfettered opportunity” and “social justice for all.” Sound familiar? 112 years later, the same kinds of slogans are being used by Kamala Harris and Democrats, still hoping that they will fool enough voters to get her 4 (or 8?) more years of hurting the economy, fueling inflation, and blaming Trump and Republicans for things that they themselves have clearly done wrong.
Per Britannica: “New Freedom, in U.S. history, political ideology of Woodrow Wilson, enunciated during his successful 1912 presidential campaign, pledging to restore unfettered opportunity for individual action and to employ the power of government in behalf of social justice for all. Supported by a Democratic majority in Congress, Wilson succeeded during his first term in office (1913–17) in pushing…tariff reduction, banking regulations…and highway construction using state grants-in-aid…By the extensive use of federal power to [supposedly] protect the common man, the New Freedom anticipated the centralized approaches of the New Deal 20 years later.”
So as noted, Wilson was a racist. But sadly, he wasn’t alone.
Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ-D), was also purportedly a racist, who used the so-called Great Society programs to gain the votes of blacks, who he demeaned and manipulated. Johnson reportedly used the “n-word” with others to describe his feelings toward blacks. Johnson bragged that he would keep the black vote for 200 years with government handouts.
Brent Cooper, J.D., a law school professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law put it this way via Quora.
It was during that era that controversial civil rights activist Malcom X told his fellow blacks that voting for a Democrat made you a “chump.” Merriam Webster defines “chump” as: “a person who is easily tricked: a stupid or foolish person. When you get down to it, he’s [i.e.: the chump is] a sucker.”
The “Forgotten History” series by written and hosted by Colin D. Heaton, a veteran and historian, often brings up useful insights on misunderstood or overlooked topics that we the people should know more about.
If Dobozi and those who oppose Trump would say something like, “Trump has made mistakes. Trump is not a perfect man,” likely most Trump voters would nod their heads in agreement. They know Trump has warts. But the question isn’t is Trump prefect, he isn’t. The question is who will make the better president? Trump or Harris? The answer is easy, hands down, it is Trump.
Trump also is apparently setting the stage of transition the U.S. economy away from the personal federal income tax back to an economy that based on tariffs. Tariffs, as the article linked above demonstrated, protected the higher paying factory and other jobs that once allowed millions in the U.S. to buy a home, raise often larger families on one income (usually, but not always the man). Undermining American industries, which were often small businesses, through trade agreements has demonstrably hurt millions of Americans. On top of that, Democratic policies want to further erode the higher paying energy sector jobs.
The 1 percent is set. They widely support Harris and the Democrats. Wall Street is afraid that Trump will bring back economic policies that will raise incomes. That is why CEOs, past and present, are supporting Harris over Trump.
Trump has been called a “class traitor.” He’s wealthy, but he is working against the interests of other billionaires. That’s an interesting argument made by a senior editor at large for left-leaning Newsweek, Josh Hammer. Hammer’s argument is cited in the report linked below.
McDonald Trump has turned that history of the Republican and Democratic parties on its head. Trump, a former Democrat, who dallied for a while with the idea of running with Oprah Winfrey as a minor party candidate, finally decided in 2015 that he had enough and instead of endorsing a candidate, he ran himself. The tools used against Trump, have been to call him a racist, fascists, Nazi, or Hitler. Millions of Trump supporters lived under socialism and communism, and they are routinely voting for him because he is against those things.
That false use of the charge “Nazi” is often laughable. Or sad. Why? Because Nazis were the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and Democrats are clearly more socialist than Republicans. Fascism was defined by socialist leader Benito Mussolini, who was an ally of Adolf Hiter, as corporatists. The union of state and corporate power. Isn’t that what Kamala Harris is being supported by? Dozens and dozens of corporatists?
As to Trump and racism, if he was such a racists, why is there only faux evidence in support of that claim? Why did people like Oprah Winfrey embrace Trump, right up until he declared for the White House? The video below illustrates how consistent Trump has been on trade deals, even decades before he ran for president.
From January 6, to a string of hoaxes, can be disproven by evidence. The video below is by the daughter of Nancy Pelosi (D).
Trump clearly told the crowd on January 6th to peacefully and patriotically protest. There was no call to storm the Capitol.
The fact that this next January 20, 2025 is designated a national security event and there will be thousands of soldiers there speaks volumes. Trump offered National Guard troops to Pelosi, who declined.
Americans don’t want to have to do everything themselves. We can’t live in cities and be farmers in an urban area, for example. Thank God for farmers. We can’t all be in the military, be EMTs or first responders, in law enforcement, or be firemen. That God for all of those who do those roles well. We can’t all be carpenters, or electricians, or teachers, and thank God for all of those who do those jobs well.
We have to make choices with what we are going to do with our lives. We must take the time God has given us and decide how we can best use that time. Some of that time should be set aside to vote and vote wisely. A sample Polk County, FL ballot with some advice is linked below. If you live anywhere else, that article on the Patch will say how you can get similar information for your area.
If someone is pro-racism, then a vote for Kamala Harris (D), who accepted working for purported racist Joe Biden (D), would make sense.
If someone is a billionaire or a Wall Street insider that doesn’t want to give up their economic influence and power, a vote for Kamala Harris (D) makes sense.
If someone dreams of owning their own home someday, they should vote for Trump and the congressional and senate candidates who will help make his policies possible.
For those who are having a hard times making ends meet, the obvious vote is for McDonald Trump.
For those who want to see small business and personal income taxes cut made permanent, the obvious vote is for Donald Trump and the down-ballot senate and congressional candidates who will help him make that possible.
If someone is among the 64 to 79 percent (depending on the survey) that thinks the country is on the wrong track under Harris (D) and Biden (D), the obvious choice is to vote for Trump (R), and Republicans at the local, state, and federal levels. Or if someone is a person of faith, the hands down easy choice is to vote Trump (R) and “America First” Republicans.
These have been fact-backed and illustration supported examples of common-sense ideas that make important life decisions, like who should be the next president, congressional rep, senator easier. We shouldn’t have to work this hard to vote wisely. But the situation we face is what it is. Take the time to vote wisely. Absolutely, you should vote against Democrats for the over 100 years of reasons shown. You don’t have to be a Republican, I’m not, to vote Republican as the easy better choice. Vote early for Trump and MAGA Republicans if possible. Worst case, vote on November 5th. But vote like your future depends on it. Because it does. To learn more, check out the linked articles. The early voting and polling is favorable, but don’t wait for someone else to do it. YOU and YOUR circle, if you haven’t already done so, need to VOTE wisely.
🚨 BREAKING: Donald Trump just dropped this absolutely heartbreaking ad.
Her daughter was reportedly sexually assaulted for 2 straight hours, and killed, by illegal aliens.
“I woke up to notice [my daughter] wasn’t in her bed […] She was strangled to death. Left with no… pic.twitter.com/LWPgGHuFFw
Our son has grown quite a bit since this 12.2019 photo. All on Capitol Hill were welcoming and interested in our manufactured housing industry related concerns. But Congressman Al Green’s office was tremendous in their hospitality. Our son’s hand is on a package that included the Constitution of the United States, bottled water, and other goodies.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
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