To Vote, Or, Not To Vote, That 'IS' The Question

[M]

To mis-quote a line from Shakespeare, and then to twist it to my point about this coming election.; 

Whether To vote or Not to Vote, that is the question! Tis it nobler in the mind to make a moot point, have a Pyrrhic Victory, and/or go down in flames, losing everything we hold dear, or, Tis it nobler to bite the bullet and fight against the coming darkness, and by opposing it, to end it? Wouldst thou do what must be done to start restoring the Constitution and the Republic? This question we all have to decide for ourselves! 

 

OK, so I'm not Shakespeare. The point is, either we vote or we lose everything!

 

The most crucial issues in this election, and the most influential in blocking the Elitist Controlled Progressive/Socialists in the Democratic Progressive Caucus, will not lie with the President alone. Remember this, the Progressive Democratic Caucus members hold dual positions in the Democratic Socialist Party and the Democratic Party. They are deliberately masquerading as simply Democrats, and hiding the fact they are card carrying members of the Democratic Socialist Party too. There are some very valid reasons to block either Hillary or Bernie, and tantamount to all of them, is the FACT that the next President will probably be able to nominate THREE Supreme Court Justices and maybe more if the winner serves two terms in the Presidency.

We need to put in place some sort of insurance policy against the potential for damage/disaster to our Republic for these reasons; 

 

The current U.S. Senate has 54 Republicans and 45 Democrats (including one independent Socialist, Bernie Sanders). There are 34 seats up for grabs in 2016, 24 are held by Republicans. Democrats will need to gain 4 or 5 seats to take control.  A total of 469 seats in the U.S. Congress (34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats) are up for election on November 8, 2016, so we don't have much time to unite to block the Progressives from gaining another disastrous "Super Majority" that will in all probability finally destroy the Constitution and with it the Republic.. 

 

 Twenty-six (26) Republicans are retiring from their seats in 2016, and that means we will have to try and replace them with Conservative Leaning Replacements who are Pro-Constitution or as close to that as we can find in the fields of candidates who are running. Hopefully Maintaining or Increasing Republican/Conservative/Constitutionalist Representation in Congress.  We can't do that if qualified voters stay home like they did in 2012. If they do, we face the same upset we had then with Obama, and no clear potential for a majority in the House and Senate. Remember the damage to the Republic the Democrats did, and how they totally ignored the majority of American citizens wishes when they forced through their agendas during the 111th Congress having had a "Super Majority" and how damnably arrogant they were to anyone who questioned their agendas then? Do we want to risk that happening again?

 

This means we must field a strong support at the polls for the most Constitutionally minded and Conservative oriented candidates who are running. We only need to do this within our own local precincts and not for the entire Country. 

First, We must fully Vett the candidates we can personally vote for by using their past voting records, Bills they supported, Bills they originated, and Bills they were against by checking their records at; 

(  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes  , the US Senate page; http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/how_to_votes.htm  and finally, the Congressional Index page; https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=CRI ) 

Second, We must promote them and go vote for them. 

Third, We must help get other like minded voters to the polls to vote or help those needing it, absentee ballots. 

Fourth, We must keep in contact with our County Clerks and insure they get the ballots to our Military personnel in a timely manner so their votes can be counted.

 

It is my considered opinion that while the President is the most highly visible office, it's the Congress that determines which way the Country will move. Consider this; The President can not spend one cent unless Congress has appropriated the funds for him to spend. The President can not raise or lower taxes, only Congress can do that. While the President can issue executive orders, they only affect Federal institutions and they can be readily overruled and removed by Congress. The President can not originate laws, only Congress can do that. The President can object to a law and veto it, but Congress can override that veto. The President only sets the tone, it's Congress that decides what to do with it!

 

The conclusion to this is simple, we must find out who the most Constitutional and Conservative candidates running for Congress are. Those may not be the perfect choice, and in many instances they will only be marginally better than the ones in office. However would it not be better for the Republic if we removed the worst of the worst from office even if, at this time, we can only replace them with someone even marginally better? That's a beginning step in the right direction. This also holds true for the State Legislatures and even Local Offices.

[jack ludwig]

I will and have always done that my entire voting experience.

[charles royer]

Check out the video below by Numbers USA, which compares statements Clinton made during his 1996 State of the Union address to some of Trump’s rhetoric about immigration on the campaign trail.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2016/05/18/flashback-bil...

[charles royer]

The GOP Establishment Has Learned Nothing From Its Failure
You would think that after the complete repudiation of the mainstream GOP establishment by its own voters that it might do some soul-searching. You would think that it might ask itself what it did wrong to facilitate the rise of Donald Trump. And you might also believe in unicorns.

No, instead of learning the lessons from 2016 that might help it avoid pain in the future, the establishment has chosen to learn different lessons, lessons that – shockingly – reinforce the same pre-existing notions that got us into this mess in the first place.

Who in the Republican establishment has stood up and said, “Hey, you know, the base really doesn't want millions of illegal aliens flooding into this country, so we need to stop trying to make amnesty happen.” Is there anyone who doesn’t think we’d have Marco Rubio as our nominee today if he hadn’t decided to ignore the voters and cozy up to Chuck Schumer?

Who in the Republican establishment has stood up and said, “Gee, maybe all these trade deals are great for the giant corporations who write us checks, but our base is made up largely of people who see themselves getting a raw deal.” Don’t fool yourself – Donald’s Trump’s resonance has less to do with him being a reality TV star than with his addressing the economic issues the Chamber of Commerce groupies hand-waved away. Dismissing him as some idiot box novelty bedazzling the proles with his glittering glamour is super-convenient – you both get to feel superior while avoiding having to consider the possibility that you might have to change.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/05/19/the-gop-es...

[charles royer]

Here's Why Trump Tap Dances on Taxes
Donald Trump has reason to be reluctant to release his tax returns. In a New York Times piece about Ben Rhodes, President Obama's deputy national security adviser, Rhodes cynically explains that today's journalism consists of young people whom he flat-out describes as ignorant. "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old," Rhodes said, "and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That's a sea change. They literally know nothing."

What do 27-year-old reporters know about how wealthy big-business people file their taxes? In the real world, moguls like Donald Trump hire accountants and tax attorneys to file what are known as "aggressive" returns -- seeking every possible deduction, exclusion, tax break or deferral.

Given this, Donald Trump is likely audited nearly every year, with the IRS settling with him on some of these issues, often for less than the IRS initially claimed he owed. If Trump releases his taxes now, the IRS -- to avoid embarrassment or public criticism that they are giving a rich guy a break -- might be reluctant to negotiate down from what they initially argued he owes. Therefore, Trump is likely telling the truth that his attorneys advised him not to release his tax returns until after the audit had been settled.

There's another legitimate reason that Trump may be reluctant to release his tax returns: media bias. During the 2012 presidential race, ABC News' Jonathan Karl falsely reported that at 14 percent, Mitt Romney paid a lower effective federal tax rate -- the percent of your total gross income paid in taxes after all deductions, exemptions and credits are applied -- than a $75,000/year auto mechanic.
CARTOONS | Glenn McCoy
View Cartoon

This would be true only if the mechanic had zero exemptions, deductions, etc. -- which, rich or poor, never happens. The IRS gives you a standard deduction just for breathing. Assume Mr. Auto Mechanic is married, with two children. After offsetting gross income with exemptions, deductions for things like mortgage interest and assorted tax credits, Mr. Mechanic's effective federal income tax rate -- the percentage of income actually paid in taxes -- is much lower than Romney's rate.

At that time, the liberal Tax Policy Center reported that 91.4 percent of individual taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) between $50,000 and $100,000 paid less than 15 percent in taxes. And 43.9 percent of the $50,000-$100,000 AGI taxpayers paid an effective rate between 5 and 9.99 percent, while 4.6 percent of this group paid no federal income tax at all.

Also not lost on Trump is how then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., flat-out lied about Romney's taxes on the floor of the Senate. Reid said, "The word's out that (Romney) hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years."

Later, post-election, Harry Reid admitted he said this without any evidence.
http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2016/05/19/heres-why-trum...

[M]

Consider this;

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: "A democracy is always Temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent Form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until The time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous Gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority Always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from The public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally Collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a Dictatorship."         "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the Beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 Years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:         From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." The Obituary follows:         " United States of America ",  Born 1776, Died 2016 It doesn't hurt to read this several times. Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning The last Presidential election:         Number of States won by:         Obama: 19               Romney: 29 Square miles of land won by:    Obama: 580,000      Romney: 2,427,000 Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million  Romney: 143 million Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:                                           Obama: 13.2             Romney: 2.1         Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.         Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low Income tenements and living off various forms of government Welfare..."         Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of Democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population Already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase..         If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million Criminal invaders called illegal’s  - and they vote - then we can say Goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years  .         If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.         Please help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our Freedom.. That is the most compelling of reasons as to why we must put our primary focus on the races other than the Presidential race. Vote your conscience for President, but Please Vett and vote for the most Conservative and Constitutionally Oriented Candidates, as verified by proper Vetting of their past voting records, who are running for Congress, State Legislatures, and Local Offices.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M, a strong demurral w/the nonsense uttered by Tyler; who will never be conflated w/either Gibbon or Von Ranke.

* Greek 'democracy' had hardly anything in common w/modern democracy. In fact, the form of governance preferred by many Greeks, including Aristotle, was Monarchy. In contrast, Plato argued for Oligarchy, the rule of the few. He rejected the nostrum of egalitarianism; recognizing that men are not and never would be equal. So a natural hierarchy has always existed, divided by class. It was the genius of the Greeks to choose the wise in order to identify their leaders; the common form of governance in City/States such as Athens, Corinth, Thebes and so on.

* As for the remark about citizens voting themselves largess from the Treasury; that is a modern residue of socialism, having nothing to do w/either Greece or Rome.

* Lastly, the Ancient cultures/societies endured for the years below:

Babylonia / 138

Persia / 952

Egypt / 1631

Greece / 356

Carthage / 504

Rome / 1056; longer in the east at Byzantium.

India / 922

China / 2133

Democracy had nothing to do w/their rise and fall.

[M]

Thomas,

As much as I do agree with you about the differences between what we now call Democracy and the ancient form, we are kinda stuck with the modern form and that will destroy the concept of the American Republic. We are still a Republic, mostly in name only, but if we really tried we could restore it to what it should be.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

Hm.................. so we need to fear China and Russia, do we??? Emphatically disagree!!!

In the immortal words of Walt Kelly's Pogo,"We have met the enemy and he is us". Gibbon would certainly concur.

* Regarding China, they may indeed be an economic power but they are hardly a military one, either now or at any period of their long tenure, as the record of history clearly shows. And as for technological superiority, unless they can steal and apply the ideas of someone else, they are hardly a technological powerhouse.

*Regarding Russia, their battlefield performance from the Czars to the present is laughable, summarized below:

> Against Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1788-90. they were continually outfought and outmaneuvered.

> Against Napoleon, they were chronic losers.

> In the Crimea in 1853, they were no match for either Britain or France.

> In 1905, the Japanese sunk the entire Russian Far East Fleet in the Straits of Tsushima.

> In 1914, Germany annihilated two Russian Armies at Tannenberg, East Prussia; effectively driving Russia out of WW1.

> In 1940, their invasion of Finland failed.

> In 1989, they retreated from Afghanistan in the middle of the night.

As for technology for every satellite they launch, another blows up on the launch pad.

Grit, resolve and will to change are the necessary ingredients for our rejuvenation; not fear of the Chinese Dragon or the Russian Bear!

[M]

Again, if you are referring to what Jack said, he was talking about the economic war that Russia and China would wage against us and not a military aggression. 

Don't sell China short militarily, Remember how they so quickly overran UN troops 1 Nov,1950 and we lost fully a third of a regiment to their onslaught? China now has Nuclear capabilities and delivery systems to use them as well as we can use ours. So does Russia. Thankfully they don't want to turn the world into a radioactive wasteland any more than we do.In 1956 the AEC put out a technical booklet about the damage to the ecology that the air burst tests of atomic weapons was causing was putting the world at a tipping point. The closest to that booklet's information can be found in the Restricted data at; http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/12/06/trouble-airbursts/ With the last Nation testing Atomic Weapons in air burst tests was China in 1980.