Government

Tools To Be Used

The headline reads: “Apopka daughter asks for fair chance after parents detained, father deported.” The left uses emotion to manipulate people. It doesn’t matter if it’s a shooting, a deportation, or even attempting to quote the Bible, the left wants to use your own feelings against you.

In this case, the leftist who wrote it wants you to believe that a little girl is being deprived of her hardworking parents. The reality is different- the daughter is old enough to drink, and her parents entered the country illegally, applied for residency 20 years ago, then never showed up to their appointment. A deportation order was entered against them.

In the intervening decades, he “ran a successful business.” What they don’t mention is that the reason the business was successful is because they are illegal. The name of the business is Juarez Investments, LLC. It was operating without licenses or registration until 2021. Meaning that they likely weren’t paying taxes for nearly 20 years. If I didn’t have to pay taxes, my business could be more successful as well. They aren’t law abiding, they are tax evading freeloaders who are making the lives of people legally living here even harder in the form of lower wages and higher costs.

This pair has been flouting the law for more than 2 decades. It’s about time they are sent home to Guatemala.

By Divemedic, ago

Ownership and Free Trade

You own things, and ownership of property was originally one of the three ‘inalienable rights’ mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Yep, it was originally ‘life, liberty, and property’ before it was ‘life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.’ To own something means that you, as the owner, get to decide what is to be done with it, whether or not you keep or somehow dispose of it, and how much you will get for it if you should decide to dispose of it.

The thing that I ultimately own is my life. I can sell parts of it in exchange for things, for money, or for the services of others. That’s what labor ultimately is- the trading of portions of my life for things. I can make those portions worth more or less, depending on what I do with them. If those portions of my life are spent doing things that anyone else can do, that time is worth less than if I am the only one who can perform a certain task AND that task is one that others need or want done. That’s why Michael Jordan was paid as much as he was to play basketball, and why people who push brooms for a living don’t make much at all.

I can also own things. Those things can be acquired by selling my labor, they can be gifted to me, or I can trade for them.

I can sell or trade those things (or my labor) to others and use the proceeds from those trades to acquire the goods and services of others. The free trade of goods and services is a representation of free trade.

There is, of course, another way to acquire things. We can take them, either through deceit, through fraud, theft, or even through force. It doesn’t matter if I take them myself, or I coopt others into doing the taking for me, it is still not free trade.

Governments, as the paper says, are instituted among men to defend your right to ownership, with those governments deriving their just (moral) powers from those who would be governed. For many of you, you will recognize the preceding paragraphs as the philosophies of John Locke, referred to as Lockian Liberalism, or classical Liberalism if you prefer. For those of you who know the philosophy, you also know that it was this philosophy that was the basis for the founding documents of this nation.

The reason this is important to me is that, like our Founding Fathers, I believe that the main purpose of government is to defend people and their right to ownership. That ideal is one that our nation has unfortunately moved far, far away from.

There are even readers of this blog who somehow feel that the government’s job is to help them acquire the property of others at gunpoint. For example, the landlord who charges market rates for the temporary use of their property. Some feel that the law should force a property owner to rent it for some other rate, a rate that is inevitably to the benefit of themselves.

Likewise, their labor, the labor of others, and other goods. People will nearly always find a way to rationalize taking someone else’s property by force, especially when that force is being applied by an agent of government. After all, when a police officer does violence on your behalf to force a property owner to sell at a lower rate, it doesn’t really feel like robbery, does it?

Now that doesn’t mean that a landlord can cheat you. The contract (lease) should lay out the circumstances under which things will be handled. Air conditioning? The amount of rent? Who pays utilities? All of these are laid out in the contract. The only role that government legitimately has in such a situation is to ensure that both parties follow that contract.

This is true of other goods as well. If a seller represents a gold ring as being 22 grams of 22 karat gold, but it turns out to be merely gold plated pot metal, then the government has a role in regulating that fraud.

Try using that yardstick anytime you find yourself saying “there ought to be a law,” and see if your statement is morally correct.

I can already hear the argument that “what if no one will sell me that product for a price I want to pay” or “what if all properties’ rents are higher than I want to pay?”

Well, one of two things will happen-

  1. no one will buy or rent those goods, which will eventually force sellers to lower their prices or face being stuck with a product that isn’t selling
  2. someone else will buy or rent that property, proving that someone else thought it was worth it

So if you can’t afford a good or service, you either have to come to the realization that you need to lower your expectations, or you need to come up with more money.

That is true whether you are dealing with renting an apartment, hiring a lawyer, or buying a gold ring. You sell those things for the most you can get, and buy them for the least that you can. That’s how markets work, unless you are willing to lie, cheat, or use force to acquire them.

Which is, of course, not free trade.

By Divemedic, ago

Subsidized

If you pay women for getting pregnant, you get more pregnant women.

That’s why I think that, in order to be on public assistance, any woman who is getting it should be required to get a Depo shot. If you can’t feed the crotch fruit that you already have, you shouldn’t be out there getting creampied by every random dude you can find, just to get more government cheese.

By Divemedic, ago

On the Epstein Files

Attorney Andrew Branca says it best:

one could believe what the Trump administration is explicitly telling us–they HAD good reason to EXPECT that a careful review of the Epstein “files” in the possession of the prior administration would lead to evidence of criminal conduct that could be prosecuted–but that the ACTUAL review of what is available to them does NOT amount to evidence of prosecutable criminal conduct.

That could be because the criminal conduct was much more limited than imagined–perhaps it was largely Epstein who was the actual monster, and he’s already facing the forever consequences of that conduct?

Or it could be because the monstrous conduct WAS widespread but that the EVIDENCE of that widespread criminality has been stripped from the “files” available to the current administration, due to no fault of Trump.

After all, Trump’s most vicious political enemies have been in possession of these “files” for years. If the conduct largely implicates those enemies, why would they NOT strip the evidence of their criminality from the files they knew would be available to Trump?

We can also be certain that if the “files” in the possession of Trump’s enemies had so much of a hint of Trump himself engaging in any of the alleged offenses against children, we would have learned of this notional evidence many, many years ago.

And yet we have not.

When there are hypothesis consistent with Trump acting in good faith, why does everyone who is purportedly a supporter of his administration so quick to jump to the conclusion that Trump is acting in bad faith?

I think that those files had a lot of high ranking people on them- from both political parties. I used to say that certain politicians like SCOTUS judges were acting oddly, as if someone had videos of them with Vietnamese prostitutes.

Blackmail only works if the information being used as leverage remains secret.

By Divemedic, ago

Thieving Politicians

The San Francisco Parks Alliance was a nonprofit NGO that partnered with the city government to solicit donations to build parks. They are under fire for spending $3.8 million in donations on staff bonuses, lavish pay, and swanky parties. No parks, though.

The CEO was a friend and assistant to the Mayor. His web page brags about how he ran non-profits all over the country. This is the kinds of NGOs that have been funneling taxpayer money to the left for decades. We are the ones funding the let’s subversive activities.

By Divemedic, ago

Property Taxes

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that property taxes are nonsense, in that you are essentially paying rent to the government in exchange for owning property.

“You should own your property free and clear,” DeSantis said at a recent roundtable in Jacksonville. “I think to say that someone that’s been in their house for 35 years just has to keep ponying up money — you don’t own your home, if that’s the case.”

He’s right, but at the same time, things like police, fire, and schools need to be funded. The thing that surprised me about this article was that the state’s tax on real property accounts for 18% of county revenue, 17% of municipal revenue and between 50% and 60% of school district funding.

So the elimination of property taxes would mean that counties would have to cut 18% of their expenditures. Using Orange County (where Orlando is located) as an example, they have an annual budget of $7.2 billion. (pdf alert) That would mean that the county needs to cut $1.3 billion from its annual budget. From their budget, they spend money on:

In this budget, we have purposefully allocated resources to address critical areas that are essential to ensuring the well-being of our residents by investing in affordable housing, preserving the environment, fueling economic development, strengthening public safety, improving transportation, expanding mental and behavioral health services, and enhancing children and family services programs. We will also develop a plan for expanding services to homeless people.

Orange county’s property tax proceeds total about $969 million of that budget. Can they make some cuts?

  • $16.1 million is for affordable housing programs
  • Neighborhood Centers for Families (NCF) $7.5 million for mental health, early childhood development, youth empowerment, family support, and youth recreation.
  • The Citizens Review Panel (CRP) recommends grant funding for small and large nonprofit organizations that provide vital services to Orange County children, youth, and their families. CRP funding is budgeted at $4.1 million for the fiscal year 2025.
  • resources to advance environmental initiatives $100 million per year
  • Tourist Development Tax revenue budget for fiscal year 2025 is $345 million. Let businesses fund their own development.

Without even trying, I have found $472.7 million in cuts. That’s halfway to eliminating property taxes. It can be done. Government shouldn’t be an endless source of pork that is being used to buy votes. Government should stay out of our pockets and provide only essential services through taxes. They should ask for donations for any extra services.

By Divemedic, ago

Lies

 Two years ago, the Republicans caved by giving President Biden a blank check to borrow whatever and how ever much money he wanted to spend. On that day, the US debt stood at $31.46 Trillion. Within a month, the US had borrowed another Trillion dollars. Here we are with $36.21 Trillion in debt. (By the way, our national debt is the same now as it was on inauguration day, FYI)

They are borrowing money at incredible rates. We now are borrowing $1.5 Trillion each and every year.

It took this nation over 200 years to borrow a trillion dollars. Trump did it in seven months, Obama did it in only 6 months. It took Biden 9 months to borrow his first Trillion dollars, but he soon got better at it. His second trillion took three months, borrowing $2 trillion in his first year. In fact, he has increased the national debt by 118% in just two and a half years.

Biden increased the National Debt by 30% in four years, a total of $4.5 trillion.

President Trump increased the National Debt by 141% in his first four years.

Obama increased the debt by 194% in eight years.

President George W Bush borrowed his first trillion dollars in two and a half years. He borrowed his second trillion a year and a half later. Another two years, another $1 trillion. All told, President Bush borrowed $5 trillion in 8 years, increasing the national debt by 187%.

It took President Clinton 3 and a half years to borrow his first trillion dollars. All told, he borrowed $1.2 trillion in his first term, and $600 billion in his second. He increased the national debt by 140% in eight years.

George HW Bush borrowed his first trillion in 3 years, and he increased the National debt by 170% in four years.

Reagan borrowed his first trillion in 6 years, and doubled the National debt during his eight years in the White House.

Carter increased the National debt by 150%, but “only” borrowed $300 billion in 4 years. I guess that was when $1 Billion was real money.

Ford increased the debt by 147% in 3 years., Nixon by 135% in 5 years, Johnson by 116% in 6 years, Kennedy by 106% in 2 years, Eisenhower by 108% in eight years.

Democrats, and Republicans, both in a contest to see who can spend the most in our society of “how much can you give me if I vote for you.”

Remember when the Biden spokeswoman told us that borrowing trillions didn’t cost anything because it was already accounted for? Note that we weren’t really allowed to increase the debt until we divorced from the gold standard during the Nixon administration. Ever since then, spend, spend, spend. This nation creates money as fast as computers can create the 1′ and 0’s at the Fed. This can’t continue. By definition, anything that can’t continue, won’t. There is no amount of voting that will fix this.

By Divemedic, ago