Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Why People Keep Falling for Socialism, Despite the Evidence
The poverty line that the Census Bureau used in 2016 for a single person was an income of $12,486 that year. For a two-person household, it was $16,072, and for a four-person household, it was $24,755.
To beat those poverty thresholds is fairly simple. Here’s the road map: complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen.
How about some numbers? A single person taking a minimum wage job would earn an annual income of $15,080. A married couple would earn $30,160.
By the way, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 4 percent of hourly workers in 2016 were paid the minimum wage. That means that over 96 percent of workers earned more than the minimum wage.
Not surprising is the fact that among both black and white married couples, the poverty rate is in the single digits. Most poverty is in female-headed households.
Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign garnered considerable appeal from millennials. These young people see socialism as superior to free-market capitalism. Capitalism doesn’t do well in popularity polls, despite the fact that it has eliminated many of mankind’s worst problems, such as pestilence and gross hunger and poverty.
One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the nonexistent, nonrealizable utopias of socialism or communism. Any earthly system, when compared with a utopia, will not fare well. Indeed, socialism sounds good but, when practiced, leads to disaster.
Those disasters have been experienced in countries such as the USSR, China, most African nations, and, most recently, Venezuela. When these disasters are pointed out, the excuse is inadequacies of socialist leaders rather than socialism itself.
For the ordinary person, free-market capitalism, with all of its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.
Here are a couple of questions: Does an act clearly immoral when done privately become moral when done collectively? Does legality or majority consensus establish morality?
Before you answer, consider that slavery was legal; South African apartheid was legal; the horrendous Stalinist, Nazi, and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality or a majority consensus cannot establish morality.
You might ask, “If you’re so smart, Williams, what establishes morality?” That’s easy, and you tell me when I make the wrong step.
My initial premise is that we own ourselves. You are your private property, and I am mine. Self-ownership reveals what’s moral and immoral. Rape is immoral because it violates private property. So is murder and any other initiation of violence.
Most people probably agree with me that rape and murder are immoral, but what about theft? Some Americans would have a problem deciding whether theft is moral or immoral.
Let’s first define what theft is. A fairly good working definition of theft is the taking by force of one person’s property and the giving of it to...
COLLUSION: Boston Herald Lays Out Stunning Connect-The-Dots FBI Collusion Scenario
READ. SHARE. EDUCATE.
FISA documents reveal FBI collusion
Our media’s valiant efforts to distract us notwithstanding, information continues to seep out that underscores how badly a housecleaning is needed in Washington, D.C.
Last week saw the release of the applications used to obtain warrants from the FISA court to spy on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump presidential campaign. Obtained by Judicial Watch, the 400-plus pages of (heavily redacted) documents support the conclusions earlier drawn by the House Intelligence Committee (and denounced by Democrats as hysteria): the FISA warrants were obtained through obfuscation and deceit. (emphasis added)
As various commentators predicted would be proven, the bulk of the information that formed the basis for the FISA warrant applications was the “dossier” of allegations about Donald Trump’s activities in Russia. This dossier was provided to the FBI by British spy Christopher Steele. Steele was hired during the 2016 presidential campaign by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, who was paid by Hillary Clinton’s law firm Perkins Coie, who was paid by the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The allegations were scandalous and completely unverified, in violation of federal statutes and FISA court rules.
In other words, the FBI used oppo research paid for by the Democrats as justification for government spying on a political opponent and other Americans.
But there’s more. In another incredible coincidence, Fusion GPS had hired scholar and professor Nellie Ohr as a “paid Russian expert.” Nellie Ohr happens to be married to...
SPLC Founder Accused Of Trying To Rape Teenage Step-Daughter
The co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sexually assaulted his teenage step-daughter, according to recently-uncovered court documents.
Maureene Dees, ex-wife of SPLC co-founder Morris Dees, filed for divorce on March 8, 1979 . According to the divorce documents obtained by Big League Politics, the SPLC founder repeatedly tried rape his step-daughter with a sex toy.
The document was filed by Maury Smith, Julia S. Waters and Charles M. Crook, attorneys for Maureene, in the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals:
According to court testimony, among other perverted sexual behavior, Dees attempted to molest his 18-year-old step-daughter with a sex toy. Holly Buck was Maureene Dees’ daughter from a previous marriage.
“Holly testified that, in the summer of 1977, Morris attempted to molest her in the following incident: One night Maureene and Morris were sitting drinking wine and discussing a case Morris was trying,” the brief says. “[Holly] was with them. Around eleven or twelve o’clock, Maureene went to bed and Holly stayed up with Morris discussing the case. Morris kept offering Holly wine, some of which she...
Noncitizens across U.S. find it easy to register to vote, cast ballots
Ms. Shuvalova said she didn’t even know her name was added to the San Francisco voter rolls in 2012, when she was a 21-year-old Russian citizen living legally in the U.S. but ineligible to vote.
“I’ve never registered for anything in my entire life,” said Ms. Shuvalova, who became a U.S. citizen early last year. “This is news to me.”
The Washington Times obtained a San Francisco County voter log that detailed Ms. Shuvalova’s registration history and presented the document to her.
It showed that she signed up as a Democrat in July 2012 and that her registration was canceled in May 2016 after she told election officials she wasn’t a citizen. Her registration, as a Republican, was reactivated in March 2017.
“This is definitely a shocker to me. It is like an identity fraud because this is not coming from my end,” said Ms. Shuvalova, who now lives in New York, works as a personal trainer and calls herself a Democrat. “Like I told you, I haven’t even been a citizen during that time frame. So what can...
ROBINSON FREED!! Tommy Robinson freed after winning appeal over contempt of court sentence
The English Defence League (EDL) founder was sentenced to 13 months in prison earlier this year after broadcasting footage of trial defendants on social media.
Tommy Robinson was arrested outside Leeds Crown Court in May
But the 35-year-old, who did not appear for the hearing, is a free man again after the Court of Appeal ruled there were technical flaws in the ruling of the judge who jailed him.
The original judge was found to have rushed Robinson’s trial and as a result the court did not hear which parts of his offending footage was problematic.
This meant that he could not defend himself properly, the Court of Appeal heard.
The allegations against Robinson will be reheard at The Old Bailey later this year - possibly as early as September.
Tommy Robinson was told his actions may have caused the sensitive case to be abandoned
Announcing the decision to free Robinson, Lord Burnett told the court: "The appellant is granted bail and the matter of contempt at Leeds Crown Court is remitted to be heard again."
Robinson supporters wearing 'Free Tommy' t-shirts cheered outside the Court of Appeal today, after months of campaigning for his release.
Judges were urged to overturn the original findings against the free speech activist, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon.
There were also mass protests against his sentence, with scenes turning ugly on the streets of London as campaigners called for Robinson to be freed.
At a hearing in July, his QC Jeremy Dein argued that procedural "deficiencies" had given rise to "prejudice".
Mr Dein also submitted that "insufficient" regard had been given to Robinson's personal mitigation - factors which could reduce sentence, like an early guilty plea - and as a result his sentence was "manifestly excessive".
Robinson's footage was watched 250,000 times within hours of...
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