Immigration Reform

Posted on December 22, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the immigration bill that is winding it’s way through the legislature, should be called “The wage suppression act of 2013.” Let’s face it, the United States does not have a shortage of workers, we have a shortage of jobs. The labor participation rate in the US is falling at an epic rate. The US is in fact the only industrialized country that has a falling labor participation rate. Couple that tidbit with the fact that unemployment is still high by historic standards, and one can only conclude, that for some reason jobs are not being created in America today. Now, to a person with normal thinking, when a country is hemorrhaging jobs, that would be a bad time to introduce millions of new workers… wouldn’t it? Unless the elite think that the reason jobs are becoming more and more scarce is because wages are too high. If that is the case then those in power would do what they can to lower the wages of workers, for example, bring in millions of new workers to compete for fewer and fewer jobs, IE the wage suppression act.

 

Are wages too high in the US today? If we look at wages for skilled and unskilled work in the US, adjusted for inflation, we find that wages are at a historic low. All wage categories, except upper management, bureaucrats, and politicians, have been on a slide down. Wages in the low skilled sector have taken the biggest hit but the high skilled sector has been stagnant for years as well. Engineers in the US, back in the nineteen eighties were at about one hundred thousand a year, and are still at that rate today. Many argue this is because companies like Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM, etc… have been hiring immigrants instead of American engineers. These firms claim there are no Americans capable of doing these high skilled jobs, and that is why these high tech companies are pushing so hard for immigration reform, but facts fly in their faces.

 

Today colleges and universities in the US are turning out record numbers of high skilled people. These new college grads are entering the workforce at a time when there are few jobs and less opportunities. As a case in point, ask the waiter next time you go out to eat, if he or she has a college degree. More likely than not they do. When a college graduate must wait tables, he or she dislocates lower skilled workers, and so lacking a job they fall out of the workforce. So, we must ask ourselves, why are so many skilled people working so far below their potential? Moreover, with wages so low and opportunities so rare, no wonder recent college graduates are depressed and angry, therefore they have the time and are willing to participate in the Wall Street protests.

 

This would seem to indicate that it is not wages that is negatively effecting job creation but some other factor. When Ronald Reagan was elected there was a similar dearth of jobs. Unemployment was high and wages had stagnated. The course Reagan put the US on was not one of raising taxes, regulation, government stimulus and creating new entitlements, what Reagan did was lower taxes, deregulate and ratchet down the entitlement mindset. Calvin Coolidge did the same thing. What was the results of these policies? High GDP growth, rising wages, lower crime, low unemployment and the creation of the term “yuppies.” If you don’t remember what a Yuppy was, it meant a young upwardly mobile person… an all but extinct species today.

 

Since Obama has taken office he has raised a whole slew of taxes, from income to fees and introducing a whole new tax regime, Obama care. His party has regulated everything they can find. Our banking system reels under the weight of Dodd Frank, and the trillion dollar stimulus went entirely to rich political hacks, who went bankrupt as soon as the government check cleared, with not a job to show for it. The Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars, to counter the negative effects of Obama’s policies, to no avail. The only people making out well are the uber rich, (you know, the people Obama claims to hate, but spends all his time on Martha’s Vineyard with), government workers and politicians. Washington DC is a boom town awash in money and power while Main Street USA crumbles.

 

So why import millions of new workers who will work for far less than Americans can? The only logical answer to that question is to lower the wages of Americans. Why would the government do that? To diminish the political power of the people and create disquiet in society. Remember, the worse conditions are for the people, the more power politicians get. Since power is their goal, not creating the conditions for a stable wealthy society, the unrest that… diminishing wages, resentment of immigrants, and the crime these beget, drives demand for more regulation, more government oversight, more police, more surveillance, in short, more power to government and the elite. Our compassion for the children of illegal immigrants, is being exploited to lower our standard of living, therefore enhancing the political power of the elite. This should come as no surprise, the new class’ goal has always been to reestablish the power they lost to the bourgeoisie a few centuries ago. Back to the good old days, when there were only two classes, the aristocracy and peasants.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Incentives, in the Long and Short Term

Posted on December 19, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, incentives count, in every facet of human existence. People can be relied on to do what is in their immediate interests. Long term interests however, have less bearing on what we do, because the consequences are distant, while the consequences of short term actions are at hand, so they count more. As more negative incentive build up in society we can reasonably expect more negative actions by people. This is a fundamental fact of economics. That is why the incentives in a society are possibly the most important factor in the real standard of living of that society.

 

If the building you are in is on fire and you are trapped in a room on the 20th floor, what can you do? Jump out the window, landing is simply the next problem you have to solve. The world we live in demands immediate actions and our thinking has evolved to satisfy those needs. When we get up we think about the day at hand and not so much about the coming year. It is mere human nature. So when our immediate needs and wants are blocked by regulation, or encouraged by culture, we react within those constraints. The long term results of those actions are rarely considered.

 

Governments around the world have taken on a new role in the lives of people, to mitigate the negative consequences of negative behavior. Even a cursory look at the goal of most modern regulation and laws illustrates the point. Abortion free of charge and for any reason is one such example. It’s sole purpose is to allow people to engage in socially damaging conduct without short term consequences. What is the welfare state except a means to encourage men to abandon their families? Even a seemingly benign law like Social Security encourages profligate spending during the high earning years of a person’s lifetime, despite the fact it leaves people with insufficient funds to actually retire on.

 

Economic incentives that are socially damaging abound. Regulations that demand banks lend money to people who cannot pay that money back directly led to the banking crisis of 2008, environmental laws that drive businesses into bankruptcy fill thousands of pages, while unemployment benefits are extended regularly, the Federal Reserve is printing billions of dollars a month to mask the negative effects of government policies, like high taxes and stifling regulations, savers are punished by the low returns driven by the Federal Reserve’s monetizing the debt while spenders are encouraged, class warfare are encouraged by the elite, while government officials are allowed to skirt their own laws with almost total impunity.

 

These are just the tip of the iceberg of negative incentives government rakes our virtues with. Many are a crass means to grasp political power, by manipulating our compassion, only serving to increase the very things they are supposed to eliminate. Perhaps the most pernicious thing about negative incentives is the way they lower the outcomes of individuals. There is a story about a woman in her 60s who lives in her father’s basement, while her father, in his 80s, travels the world. If we apply that story to the next generation, their economic outcomes will be lower than hers, and the next’s will be even lower. As government creates more and more negative incentives the economic future of each generation gets worse and worse. Eventually lowering the economic outcomes of Americans to that of the third world.

 

Young people, who are most negatively effected, get to have their immediate wants met. Sex with strangers at any time anyplace fueled by changing cultural mores and free birth control, if that fails, (or they fail to use it), free abortion on demand is the backup. This clearly leads to a promiscuous society. Those babies that slip past the abortionist’s knife are born fatherless, because the State is ready to step in and take his place. This leads to men who never mature. Why save when the savings of others are at your disposal? The elite have created a system where virtuous behavior is punished and bad behavior is rewarded. Is it any wonder there is so much bad behavior? It can truly be said that today’s young people will pay the highest price.

 

Now we stand here, reading the latest results of the negative incentives our society and government promote, aghast at the news we are assaulted with daily. The knock out game both horrifies and befuddles us, school shootings become more common, people have less money for retirement, wages get lower even as jobs get fewer, 60 year old women live in their father’s basement, while he travels the world, and our own government monitors us with increasing intrusiveness, to counter the negative incentives… and we sigh, how could this happen? In our hearts we know, but we are loathe to do what it takes to turn the ship around. The right thing is always the hard thing, because it is painful in the short term, for rewards in the long term.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Principles Versus Party

Posted on December 16, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, most folks will give up their beliefs for their team, but very few will give up their team for their principles. We all want our team to win. It is merely human nature. When we allow that want for connection to supersede our self interests then we become our own enemy. This happens in many places in life but no place more so than in the arena of politics. Too often we will subvert our principles for our party. If our party is caught lying, we forgive them, but if another party lies, we hold a grudge forever. While it is natural it is counterproductive. We follow out of a sense of connexion but as we do we do great damage to our self interests. It is through following principles that we protect our self interests, and the interests of society as a whole, party is only a means to that end.

 

Human beings need to be connected with others. Team sports is an example of this paradigm at work. We root for our team against all others. Like people in ancient times, and in less advanced societies allegiance to their clan. To a person raised in a capitalist society, where allegiance to clan is out moded we don’t understand their thinking on an intellectual level, but as human beings we are subject to it nonetheless. Those of us that live in a market system weigh the good against the bad and keep a mental tally sheet that guides us as to the right course of action. When we root for our party over our principles we fall back to a less evolved way of thinking.

 

We all would rather believe a glittering lie than an ugly truth but it is in facing ugly truths that we grow and mature. It is in indulging in glittering lies that we devolve as human beings, becoming a force for evil, regardless of the loftiness of the principles we have abandoned. Those that shriek about freedom to do this or that need to do the math. Weigh what we are all loosing for their team to win. Because what is a principle, if we don’t hold ourselves and our team, to them? They become nothing, but an egoistic means of controlling others, that we eschew ourselves. When we abandon our principles for political expediency, for the team, we participate in the destruction of those very principles. It is a hypocrite that expects others to follow his principles when he won’t follow them himself.

 

Without values society crumbles. A society that is devoid of any real principles is a society cast adrift. Great nations, societies and civilizations rise in virtue and fall in vice. This is the sole lesson of history. A great people rise to power, wealth and prominence by following their principles and fall into weakness, poverty and ignominy when they abandon those principles. It follows like water flows down a hill. There is not one example where a people rose to greatness without principles, in other words a societal myth, or where a society thrived by ignoring those principles.

 

Apparently this is a lesson of history that needs to be taught over and over. The results are always the same, the factors that lead up to the fall are always the same, but humanity refuses to learn the lesson. The vast majority of human suffering that has been experienced has been due to this. Today we are no better than the Athenian who abandoned Solon’s laws, the Spartan who turned his back on the laws of Lycurgus, or Rome when it embraced an emperor instead of the consular system. We are no different when we abandon our founding principles, the market system, limited government and individual liberty.

 

Our society is no stronger than the Athenian, Spartan or Roman, because our system is made up of flawed human beings, who are more than happy to give up our principles, for political expediency. The new class seek to regain the power they lost to the bourgeoisie, when the new class was called the aristocracy, and so they need to destroy the principles that gave rise to the bourgeoisie, the market system, limited government and freedom. They seek to restore the old system of political favor, total government and oppression.

 

When we the people participate in abandoning the principles that brought us to such a height of technology, wealth, and freedom, we are as villainous as the politician who lies, connives and usurps. If our team is part of the problem, it is our duty to sand up and demand our leaders return to our foundational principles, else those principles will wither away leaving a destitute society that is controlled by the few using violent oppression, which is the normal case in human affairs. We will have delivered our children into slavery, by abandoning our principles for the team. So I ask you… is the victory of your team worth the enslavement of your children?

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Republicans Need to GO!

Posted on December 12, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the Republican leadership simply does not get it, and they need to go. They stab their base in the back as soon as they are elected, then compound the wound by twisting the knife. They argue we must vote for them else a progressive will get elected. The republican elite must think us stupid. No matter who we vote for we get a progressive. Republicans have had ample opportunity to prove they are different from democrats and fail at every turn to do so. Tea Party republicans have tried to hold the line but are bleeding from multiple stab wounds in their backs as well. No democratic republic can last with only one party rule. Unfortunately that is what we have in the US, One Party Rule… progressive.

 

There are so many examples to cite I am at a loss as to which ones to bring up. Possibly the most egregious were the Bush years. Not the lying H, inheriting Reagan’s economy and an excited electorate, and who ran on, “read my lips, no new taxes,” then raised taxes as soon as possible, but W. He had a plurality of republicans in the House and a near majority in the Senate. What did he do with that political power? Did he lower regulations, taxes, put limits in place to the growth of government, or cut the deficit? No on three of those counts. He did lower taxes but that scrap came with a whole new entitlement and more regulations along with gobs and gobs of deficit spending.

 

Scott Brown was elected in the very liberal Massachusetts to stop Obama care. His election was made irrelevant by the Senate deeming the bill passed without a real vote or debate. Brown went on to stab his base in the back by voting for Dodd Frank, the stimulus and the assault weapons ban. Then was soundly defeated in his next election, by a communist who had fraudulently claimed to be an American Indian, to get special opportunities due to affirmative action! I will say this, not one republican voted for the monstrosity of Obama care. For that I give them some kudos. That was largely why republicans won the House in 2010. What have they done with the power that control of the House gave them? They have attacked… the Tea Party!

 

The ascension of Obama to emperor of America rang in a new era for the US. We now have a President who committed fraud, when he went to Columbia and Harvard claiming to be a foreign student, or is committing fraud now by claiming to be born in the US. We might never know. The birth certificates he has released have all been forgeries. Despite this obvious weakness the republicans have eschewed any oversight of his actions. The cave man, Bohener, caves at every opportunity. Where are the House hearings on Fast and Furious? What about Benghazi? The IRS scandal? These are only a very small number of the impeachable offenses Obama and Holder are guilty of, yet the republicans spend their time attacking their base, and the Tea Party, while they negotiate with Obama to lower our wages, by adding millions of illegal aliens to the immense number of people seeking work. Ouch, my aching back!

 

The republican elite along with an abetting unbiased media destroyed every conservative republican so the fatally flawed Romney could run against Obama. With Romney at the top of the ticket, the republican elite took Obama care off the table as a campaign issue, since it was based on Romney care in Massachusetts. Romney ignored his base and instead went for the “independents,” which he got by a land slide, but his base didn’t turn out, so he lost the election. Why should a conservative vote for a progressive? Because another progressive will get elected if we don’t? No matter who wins the base looses. So we didn’t turn out and Obama got back in. I wonder if that wasn’t the plan all along.

 

Meanwhile the republican elite attacked conservative candidates during that election while denying them funds. Then pointed to their loss as a reason not to even allow a Tea Party republican on any ticket! The latest example of the republican party stabbing a conservative/libertarian in the back was the Virginia election. The republican branch of the progressive party denied Ken Cuccinelli funding and backing. Cuccinelli had zero backing from his party, while the uber progressive Terry McAuliffe got unconditional patronage from the democrats… and still almost lost! The Tea Party republican came within a hair of winning despite being outspent six to one! (While being attacked by his own party as unelectable).

 

The republican elite are destroying that party more effectively than Obama and the New Class could ever hope to. The IRS scandal was child’s play compared to the efforts of the republican elite. (Perhaps that is why there are no hearings on that abuse of power). Recent history is littered with lost opportunities for republicans to prove their worth. The destruction of Herman Cain, Michele Bachman, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, and even Newt Gingrich, by republican hit groups, so that Romney could run, was despicable. Republicans deny Tea Party conservatives/libertarians funding, while they vilify their campaigns as unelectable, despite which, Tea Party republicans are the only republicans winning elections. Yes, the old guard republicans need to go. Put up serious candidates in the primary process and give the rinos the boot. Once the republican party stops stabbing it’s base in the back, republicans will start winning elections, and, I pray to God, will pull us back from the precipice Obama and the progressives have led us to.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Mandela’s Passing and South Africa’s Future

Posted on December 9, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, with the death of Nelson Mandela, the future of South Africa is in jeopardy. This was of course inevitable when that great man died, but now that his mortality is manifest, it is incumbent upon the forward looking to foresee what the results of his passing will be on the nation he loved. His Christian faith tempered his actions and thereby the actions of the African National Congress (ANC). Without his humanity at the helm, or at least mitigating the various political factions vying for power there, I am afraid South Africa will now start down the well trod path of oppression and violence.

 

It is interesting that South Africa went a different way than did it’s neighbors. When Rhodesia gained it’s independence it fell under the spell of socialism and retaliation. The white farmers were attacked in their homes, their land seized by the government and redistributed to poor blacks. The result of these policies of retribution and redistribution were universally bad. The country splintered and what had been the bread basket of Africa descended into world renowned poverty. To this day Zimbabwe, and Zambia are poster children of how to destroy a country and it’s economy.

 

That South Africa didn’t follow the path of it’s neighbors is a testament to Nelson Mandela. He mitigated the natural human instinct for revenge and instead channeled it to peace and reconciliation. The results speak for themselves. South Africa has the highest GDP of any sub Saharan African nation and continues to grow, albeit at a limited pace, due to structural problems related to regulation, taxation and political favor. As long as Mandela lived his cult of personality kept South Africa on the path of peace and prosperity. His demand for reconciliation further enhanced the wealth of South Africans.

 

The death of Nelson Mandela will result in a power vacuum. All the heretofore limited political players in South Africa will struggle for supremacy. Without Mandela’s Christian moderation I believe South Africa will descend to the atrocities that characterized it’s neighbors. The communist party is strong there and will now start to exert it’s political power. Power that was kept in check by Mandela. Communists brooch no sharing of power and will happily use violence to gain total supremacy. If the history of communism shows us nothing else it shows us this. It may take a year or two but political upheaval will result in violence.

 

Political violence never comes without cost. The fragile economy of South Africa, that was largely held together by Mandela, will collapse under the weight of the coming political upheaval. While the poorest have not gain much under the ANC’s rule they have at least not starved. When civil war breaks out famine will rear it’s ugly head. Communists care nothing for the predicament of the poor or workers. Communists, (the New Class), care only about their own political power. So the plight of the people will not effect their calculations one iota. Except to exploit that suffering for political leverage.

 

I pray I am wrong and that clear heads will prevail but history is adamant. The death of Nelson Mandela will show the World the weakness of the South African constitution, you know, the one Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court Judge… said would be a better example to follow for a new Republic, than the US model. The nation that great man worked so hard for, will be torn asunder by the same political forces that destroyed Rhodesia, Angola, and Mozambique, with the same results… poverty, oppression, civil war and famine. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s comments not withstanding.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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The Commodification of Human Suffering

Posted on December 5, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, human suffering has become a commodity, to be traded and exploited for political power. If someone’s suffering can be misused to that end, it is displayed in neon lights, but if it serves no political purpose, or works against the elite’s design, it is ignored. In this truly diabolical scheme, the media are the major players, acting at the behest of the political elite. Both of which are members of the “New Class.” Our innate repulsion at suffering is being played upon, to steer us into a course that is profoundly against our own interests, but in the presumed interests of the elite… or in other words, the New Class.

 

We have an innate revulsion to suffering be it human or animal. It is a human thing, that when we see someone in pain we are made uncomfortable, (except for the sadist). When something makes us uncomfortable we try to make it go away. In the case of human suffering we turn our eyes from it or we do something about it. The political elite know and understand this vulnerability of human nature and use it to manipulate us as best they can. It is up to us then, to be rational in our assessment of what we are shown, judging what is real and what is being used for political purposes and act accordingly.

 

The commodification of suffering is why we are reminded of certain misery constantly, often fictitious ills, like the tragedy of a lack of unlimited access to birth control paid for by someone else, but true human suffering, like the deprivations of Mao, are ignored. The “war on women” is an example of fictitious human suffering, while the genocide against Christianity, that is happening around the World right now, is ignored. The first serves the new class’ objectives while the second undermines it. The fact of illegal immigration is abraded like a perpetual cold sore, so the elite can lower our wages and water down our vote, while the evil of abortion and the suffering it causes, is not only ignored but anyone who points it out is vilified. Our compassion for the uninsured was the tool the elite used to jamb Obama care down our throats. These are only a very few examples of human suffering that the new class uses to promote a political agenda, and that which they keep us ignorant of.

 

Yet the political elite constantly use the suffering of others, to guide us to making decisions that are not only against our interests, but will actually create more suffering of the type they propose to stop! The war on poverty, was ostensibly a means to eliminate poverty, but the results are the opposite. Despite spending trillions of other people’s money the war on poverty has created more poverty than has ever existed in the US before. This misguided program, where the State took the place of the father in the familial relationship, has led to an explosion of out of wedlock births. Out of wedlock births are the biggest source of poverty there is! This malicious program has made millions of people incapable of engaging in the market system, and thus escaping their poverty, locking generations into a cycle of dependency and want. Yet our society was guided to making this terrible decision by the elite playing on our compassion for the impoverished.

 

It seems reasonable that those in the new class, who have had the benefit of the very best education, should have known the logical outcome of disrupting the nuclear family. Otherwise they are stupid and shouldn’t be allowed in charge of a MacDonalds. If they did know, and used our compassion as a tool to get us not only to damage our own interests, but to damage the interests of the very people they purported to help, then it is clear evidence they have malevolence in their hearts. If we look into this one example further, we can see that the only people to really benefit from the war on poverty, are the elite and their minions…. the bureaucracy.

 

To exploit human suffering as a political tool is evil. Human suffering is not a tool like a hammer or wedge, it is a wrong that good people should try to stop. Those that exploit the pain of others to forward an agenda are psychopathic. To do so requires a certain level of malevolence and enjoyment of that suffering. Moreover, to purposefully ignore true human suffering because it is damaging to a political agenda, is sociopathic. To lack a conscience. I think we can all agree that sociopaths and psychopaths should be barred from holding any power over the lives of other human beings at all.

 

I am sure you can easily think of many other examples, where human suffering has been exploited for political advantage, and where human suffering that works against an agenda has been ignored. The pain of another human being is never a tool and to make it such is diabolical. To make suffering a commodity, like oil, gold or lumber, is the very definition of evil. Those that exploit human suffering for their own narrow objectives, should be thrown out of office and barred from holding any power over our lives ever again, and in a sane World… they would be.

 

 

Sincerely

 

John Pepin

 

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The Persistence of Prejudice

Posted on December 2, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, people today have no real concept of racism, bigotry and prejudice, in fact our definition of these terrible social ills has been corrupted by bigots who peddle prejudice, by calling others racists. Prejudice has been with us since the dawn of time. It is rooted in the human ability to group things. We recognize similarities and group things, and people, according to what we see as their basic properties. That is how we come up with the grouping of various plants and animals. What is a mammal, a reptile or a sedge? They are artificial human descriptions based on our innate human ability to group things. In many ways this has served us well, but in others it holds us back and more perniciously, stifles debate and is a means to illegitimate political power.

 

The fundamental definition of prejudice is to group people. We all do it to a greater or lesser extent. Those Red Sox fans are all… or, those darn lawyers are all… . As I explained above grouping people and things is an innate human trait. It becomes prejudice when we interact with people we have pigeon holed based on our narrow definition of the group we have tossed them in. If we hate Red Sox fans, because they are Red Sox fans, we are being prejudiced. Moreover, when we hate someone due to the group we define them as being in, we are engaging in bigotry.

 

Bigotry is prejudice based in hate, envy or in a false sense of superiority. When we hate someone solely due to an artificial categorization then we are being bigoted. No matter if that bigotry is rooted in envy, or superiority, we are being bigoted. This social and most human of evils is part of why people can justify slavery. Those that are enslaved are inferior, because of some group they belong to, IE… Romans enslaved Aqueans and Aqueans enslaved Romans, despite their both being Italians. At least “they” don’t belong to “our” group. This allows all sorts of evils into the world, justified by bigotry. When this bigotry is based on a person’s race it is racism.

 

Racism is perhaps the oldest form of prejudice. We categorize individuals as members of a race and give all members the same attributes, wants, motivations and morality. This is simply another form of prejudice, and when it results in hate for members of that artificial group, then it is bigotry. As I said earlier, this has been used many times and in many places to justify all sorts of deprivations, slavery, forced migrations, and genocide along with many other evils. All these evils are based on bigotry rooted on a racially defined group.

 

Prejudice doesn’t always have to be negative. We group ourselves into virtuous classes and sometimes castes. We polish our own egos by saying to ourselves “we are superior because we don’t do this or that,” or “we are better because we do this or that.” We might say this race is better at math, that race is more athletic, or those people are more philosophical. These are all false categorizations because no human defined group is a monolith. We are all individuals and to be truly virtuous we must interact with all people as individuals. The moment we group people we are engaging in prejudice, whether for the good or the bad.

 

This is why prejudice, bigotry and racism are evils that we should strive to eliminate. It may not be possible, like it is not possible to actually be as godly as Jesus, but it is the duty of all Christians to try. We are called to act kindly to one another and ignore our artificial groupings. Grouping people, and then interacting with them based on our narrow definition of the group we have tossed them into, is despicable, and lowers us.

 

Today, prejudice, bigotry and racism are at the same time less obvious and more pernicious than they were in the past. Bigotry is still acceptable… if it is against politically disfavored groups, as it has always been. “The rich” are despised in many sectors of human society. “The Jews” have been the subjects of racism and bigotry for millenia and still are. In many places on this planet today it is still acceptable to call for the extermination of the Jewish people. “Tea Baggers” are vilified as racists and bigots proving the claimant a bigot him or her self.

 

Around the World and throughout time, the political elite have regularly grouped people, vilifying all members of that group, simply to amass political power. Communists have done this extremely effectively. Bigotry can also be a tool to silence discourse… by the artificial charge of bigotry and racism to a group, when a reasonable observer could only come to the conclusion, that the person who groups others… is the real bigot. Hate has always been a powerful tool to gain political leverage against one’s political adversaries, especially when it is rooted in emotionally based prejudice, because emotions cannot be reasoned with.

 

To categorize people as, those greedy rich, conservative hate mongers, tea baggers or homophobes, and then limit debate on important social and political issues, based on that artificial grouping and derogatory definition, is no less bigoted than to openly hate Jews, Blacks or Hispanics. In fact, it is worse, because it is pernicious. Burning a cross on someone’s lawn is an unmistakable evil, and almost everyone sees it, but calling someone a tea bagger is politically acceptable. (Even President Obama has made this defamatory claim about American Citizens without public outrage). Yes, racism, bigotry and prejudice are evils, because grouping human beings is sinister… and should not be exploited by bigots to stifle the free speech of individuals or amass political power.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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Obama’s Deal With the Ayatollah

Posted on November 28, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me Obama’s deal with Iran over it’s nuclear program is the absolute height of stupidity and will usher in human suffering like the World has never seen before. The Iranian regime is not made up of sane people. To abet insane people to get a nuclear bomb is insane at best diabolically evil at worst. No good can come of this deal. The unbiased media are claiming it is a historic agreement… and yes, I agree. It will be historic in that it will be the end of history unless someone who is sane intervenes.

 

The Ayatollah who runs Iran’s theology is not shared by the majority of Muslims or even Iranians. It is called Twelver theology. In it they believe there is the twelfth Imam who is at the bottom of a well. He will remain there until the Earth is washed with blood, chaos and violence. Once this happens he will come out of the well and usher in the end times. It is the duty of those who follow this sect within the Shiite community to bring these things about. It is no matter if they die in the process, because it will be the end times and they will be richly rewarded for their part… washing the world with blood.

 

The Ayatollah may be insane, and following a theology that is on the face of it insane, but insanity does not require stupidity. In fact often the insane are geniuses. The Iranian regime is following in the footsteps laid out by North Korea. The “Dear Leader” of North Korea did exactly the same thing. He played Clinton for a fool. Clinton would sign a deal with North Korea, (to distract from some scandal), supposedly to stop the weapons program, it would appear to stop, and the North Koreans would get billions of dollars of aid. Aid that would flow into the Army and the nuclear weapons program. This continued until North Korea detonated a bomb.

 

George Bush then tried to get North Korea to relinquish the A bomb. They played him for a fool too. They would shut down a plutonium plant, for a few billion in aid, then turn it back on when it suited them. This game went on for the entire term of Bush’s Presidency. Today North Korea is a nuclear state that abuses it’s people with famine, oppression, forced labor, dissidents are punished for three generations, while North Korea acts defiantly, by sinking South Korean ships, shelling South Korean cities and threatening all out war every few years.

 

Every dictator on the planet saw and learned the lesson of the North Korean nuclear program… including the insane theocrats who run Iran. They have learned the lesson well, but to our mutual detriment, Obama and the unbiased press haven’t. The USA Today reported that Iran has “only” enriched five hundred pounds of uranium to within eighty percent of what would be needed to produce bombs. They claimed this would only be enough for one bomb. That is amazing because Little Boy only had fifty six kilograms of uranium, (about 140 pounds) but obliterated Nagasaki. The bomb design the Iranians got from A Q Khan is far more efficient. This implies that Iran has the nuclear pile to create at least three or four bombs.

 

It would only take one bomb fashioned into an Electro Magnetic Pulse Weapon, (EMP), to wipe the US from the map. Detonated in the center of the US at sufficient altitude it would burn out every electronic device in the country and most of Canada and Mexico. Two could be used, Launched in International Waters off each coast, it would accomplish the same thing and would be far easier to accomplish. We wouldn’t even hear a bang. Our cars would stall in the middle of the road, every transformer would fail causing a national blackout, water pumps would stop, farm machinery would stop, pharmaceuticals would rot in warehouses, and we would instantly be thrust into the preindustrial era. The Department of Defense has estimated that if this were done a third of the population of the US would be dead in six months! Over a billion people World wide would be dead within a year from starvation. (the US produces such a large portion of the World’s food supplies). This would indeed wash the World in blood and cause world wide chaos and suffering… sufficient to bring the Imam out of the well.

 

When the Iranians were testing their delivery system, the missiles would go up to the altitude an EMP would work best at, and explode. The media decried these tests as failures but Ahmadinejad laughed and said they were successes. The path Iran is on was trod and mapped by North Korea and it only takes one or two EMP bombs to wipe the US out, and five to end all civilization. Now Obama has basically given Iran the green light to enrich uranium and soon enough, create plutonium, then build the bombs they need to wash the World in blood. Unless Israel, Saudi Arabia or some sane actor intervenes. So, yes, Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal will in deed be historic… like Neville Chamberlain’s deal with Hitler. Millions will die for Obama’s stupidity… if it is in fact stupidity.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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John Kennedy’s Legacy

Posted on November 25, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, John Kennedy was a great man, for the very same reasons today’s democrats are not and never will be great. Every aspect of Kennedy’s Presidency was the antithesis of progressivism, which made him a curse to the progressives, and so he had to be taken out of the picture. This is a blog I have been mulling writing for a few years and on the 50th anniversary of his murder I thought would be a good time. JFK was a man, with all that being a man implies, he had failings and failures. We are imperfect, we make mistakes and we disappoint, but to be truly human is to strive to be more than we are, we ask others to join us and be great, and we achieve things that are so far beyond what we are, it is certain proof we are the children of the divine. This has special import today in that the world we live in has become earthly and base, our leaders have lowered us to a level below the animals, by their perversions of our founding ethos, their actions and rulings lower us more every day. We are in sore need of another JFK.

John Kennedy was a patriot. He fought for his country in the Second World War on a PT boat. When his boat was sunk John Kennedy swam, carrying a wounded man on his back, for miles to an island. This well known story illustrates several things about the man. He cared for other people, he had a deep endurance, he persevered and he took responsibility. The last thing his war record shows is that he was indeed an American patriot. Being a patriot should be the first qualification a person needs to be President, to lack that important quality, in fact to openly avow the founding documents of our country are deeply flawed, in a sane world, would mean disqualification for any office let alone President.

John Kennedy was an anathema to the democratic party. He didn’t coddle people, instead he urged us all to do more. His famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country…” is not a whine to go on the dole but a call to greatness. He urged us to go the extra mile and to be excellent. The democratic party of Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and later Presidents like Carter and Obama, urge us to be less, to demand from our government, and to hate those groups they tell us to. JFK never urged hate or promoted class warfare he uplifted mankind in his words and his deeds.

John Kennedy was a deeply spiritual man. Yes, it is reported he had affairs and was a womanizer, but this simply points out he was a mere human being. His spirituality shone through his words and speeches. Another famous quote, from his inaugural address, ”The world is very different now…and yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” This quote not only illustrates his faith but shows his understanding that our Rights come from God and not from government. How wonderful it would be if this basic American concept were understood by the democratic party today.

He had a far sightedness that is lost in our politicians today. His call to put a man on the Moon and return him safely by the end of the decade was inspiring and insightful. This forward looking goal made people look outward instead of inwards. Today Obama has changed the goal of NASA from space exploration to making Muslims feel good about themselves. We have even ceded the ability to put a man into orbit. Every statement from the modern democrat party is a call to look inward and reject big ideas… unless they empower the State. Kennedy’s grand idea, to strive to the future because it is hard, to seize the initiative propelled us, not into the space age as the thought of the time was, but to lay the foundation for the computer age we now live in.

When the US went into recession JFK lowered taxes. His tax cut got the US out of recession, while today Obama uses a recession as an excuse to raise taxes and regulation, ushering in a new normal of low labor participation, high unemployment and economic stagnation, worthy of Carter’s stagflation, FDR’s great depression or Wilson’s economic collapse. Kennedy believed in economic freedom. When Obama was elected the unbiased media declared, “we are all socialists now!”

During the Cuban missile crisis JFK took a strong stance when he knew that to back down would mean certain death for millions. He had learned the lesson of Neville Chamberlain and was loathe to repeat it. Contrast John Kennedy’s strong stance against nuclear missiles being placed in Cuba, to Clinton’s allowing North Korea to gain nuclear technology, or Obama’s placating Iran in his latest bumble, which will certainly result in the deaths of hundreds of millions of human beings, in the inevitable nuclear war, once Iran finally gets nuclear arms. JFK stood up to tyranny and hated communism while Obama was raised by a communist and promotes tyranny. John Kennedy was murdered by a communist domestic terrorist, and Obama is good friends with a communist domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers.

While I don’t agree with every stance JFK took, I recognize the greatness of the man. He was in many ways the opposite of his brother Teddy who rode John’s coattails until they were tattered and worn. We as a nation are indebted to John Kennedy for his patriotism, faith in God, his tough stance on communism, his out of the box thinking, and his insight. Today he wouldn’t be allowed in the democrat party for his stance on abortion, God, defense, economic freedom or space exploration, but these are the very things that made him a legend. These stances were the antithesis of progressive ideology, based on the Frankfurt School, and was reason enough for him to be assassinated. Not saying that it was LBJ who had Kennedy killed, like the Soviet Archives claim, but John was an anathema to them back then as much as today.

God bless John Kennedy, forgive him his sins, and take him into heaven… Amen.
Sincerely,

John Pepin

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Manipulating Economic Data for Crass Political Gain

Posted on November 21, 2013 by john

Dear Friends,

 

It seems to me, the latest revelation about the ongoing Obama scandal machine, is perhaps the most egregious. The New York Post has reported that the Census counterfeited the employment numbers just before the 2012 election! No President has ever been reelected with unemployment over 8%. The census lowered the unemployment statistic to 7.8%… when the real number was far higher! This has a profound effect on the economic well being of you and I.

 

The bureaucracy is supposed to be absolutely non partisan. The power of the bureaucracy today dwarfs that of the rest of government. The executive branch, which the bureaucracy falls under, is tasked with enforcement of the laws and rules pertaining to it. This cuts the legislative as well as the judicial branch out of the loop when it comes to bureaucratic oversight. The bureaucracy gives the executive branch has almost unlimited authority over our day to day lives. That the Obama administration is using the power of the bureaucracy to manipulate economic numbers to get reelected is an abuse of power of the highest order.

 

The IRS scandal was egregious but this latest scandal is far worse. The IRS scandal was where the Obama administration was using the taxing authority of the government to limit the speech and punish his political adversaries. That in and of itself is a high crime due to the clear Constitutional infraction, IE limiting free speech. Manipulating economic numbers has a more pernicious effect however.

 

The United States is a capitalist nation. In a capitalist country businesses depend on economic data released by the BEA, Census and other departments of the bureaucracy, to make profoundly important decisions. Decisions that effect employment, wages, GDP growth, investments, pensions and the list goes on. These decisions effect the economic well being of every American citizen deeply. Now that we all know that the numbers the government releases are in some cases fiction no one in their right mind can count on any of them.

 

Even if 99% are true, who is to know which of the thousands of statistics the US government releases are true or politically motivated? The wise person who knows there are lies mixed in with truths will not believe anything unless it is independently verified. Now we all know there are at least some lies designed based on political machinations. To make an economic decision based on false data could cause a person to go bankrupt. When it comes to a person’s own economic well being, we are all rational maximizers.

 

Therefore, this latest scandal has a greater effect on the economic well being of the American people and people the World over, than any scandal by any President yet. The World will be effected because the US is still the economic engine of the World. Since the US is the engine many economic decisions made in other countries are based on the US economic statistics. Now that they know at least some are politically based, no country can rely on them. This makes the economic foundation not granite but quick sand.

 

Perhaps this is part of the reason the World’s economy is faltering. Oh yes, Britain is seeing an economic rebound and Germany is going full bore, but the rest of the nations around the World are either in recession or teetering on it. The US economy is on life support through a trillion dollars a year printing and monetizing the debt by the Federal Reserve. Taking money from savers and giving it to spenders. China is faltering as is all of Asia. The recent uptick in the Japanese economy is a mirage based on, again, monetizing their debt too. Most of the nations in Europe are in economic free fall. Italy is in it’s third year of recession and the picture is no better in Africa. Thousands are drowning in the Mediterranean sea trying to get to recession torn Italy!

 

The excuse the bureaucracy is giving is the manipulation wasn’t systematic! Lies compounding lies. To manipulate such statistics for the crass reason of holding political power is criminal. It will inevitably further lower the economic lot of Mankind. Regardless if the unbiased media pick up this latest scandal or try to cover it up is irrelevant because the monied elite and the world’s bankers know. Rest assured they knew before the Post reported it. They will react accordingly, without regard to the well being of the World’s working people, let alone the impoverished. Yes Obama has really done it this time. There will be no negative consequences for Obama but for you and I the results will be dire. But at least now we know with certainty… the connivers in government cannot be trusted with anything!

 

 

Sincerely,

 

John Pepin

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