“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”
— Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (1949) edited by Paul A. Schilpp
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Albert Einstein
Tag: meme
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America After November
Yesterday, I bemoaned the disaster that is this year’s presidential race. But big whup. As the LifeLock commercial rightly asks, “Why monitor a problem if you don’t fix it?”
Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be the next president. That means we have our work cut out for us. And we can’t wait for the 2020 presidential race to fix the problem. We must immediately assert citizen power to create an effective check on government-gone-wild.
So, what to do?
First, let’s admit that fixing Washington isn’t easy. We must fight the Feds through national organizations, of course, but we actually gain greater leverage by working closer to home — at local and state levels.
We need to elect mayors, governors, legislators and councilmembers in 2017 and 2018, men and women who will fight for free markets and against cronyism. And stand up to the federal government.
And where we have the power of ballot initiatives and recall, let’s use it.
By Inauguration Day, we can be changing the conversation in most of the top 25 media markets. How? By petitioning the right issues onto the ballot. By April and May, voters in those cities and counties can directly enact those reforms. Next November, Ohio and Washington state voters can weigh in with ballot initiatives.
Sadly, tragically, it’s too late to stop campaign 2016’s tornado from doing damage. The next disaster of an administration is on its way. But we can create a competing agenda to the Hillary Clinton or the Donald Trump agenda.
A pro-liberty agenda. Starting now.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Original (cc) photo by Niklas Hellerstedt on Flickr
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Bernie’s Principled Recommendation
Bernie Sanders, man of principle, translated:
Sure Gary has taken a stand against endless war, the drug war, our insane justice system, overcrowded prisons, police militarization, police abuse of civil rights, corporate cronyism, government surveillance…
…but he’s not offering any free stuff, so you’d better vote for Hillary!
Here’s what will continue under Hillary:
More war
More drug war
More police militarization
More rampant police abuse of civil rights
More overcrowded prisons
More government surveillance
More corporate cronyism
More national debt
More taxes to pay for all of this madness.
How do we know they will continue? Because she has helped to create and promote policies that have given us all of these things in the past.
There was a time when a liberal would have been appalled by these prospects. Now these are casually dismissed as acceptable as long as they get to have their progressive agenda… and she’s not even a consistent progressive!
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Acceptable Brain Freeze
Quick, name a lying crook that you admire!
In Europe, some large programs (like “free” healthcare and college”) appear to work for some countries and are a complete disaster for other nations. In many southern European nations, citizens look on state provided healthcare with horror, and make every effort to insure that they don’t have to depend on that system.
American progressives are strangely incurious about what makes some systems work and other systems crash and burn. In many cases, the explanation is cultural and institutional. 
(As it happens, Scandinavians had a well-established culture of hard work and self reliance and social cohesion, which is what made the establishment of a large welfare state even possible. When the Scandinavians began their ambitious welfare programs, it was a point of honor among many to NOT USE IT. This attitude has been eroded over time).
The Scandinavian models also have had better success rates because they have focused on maintaining a VERY FREE business environment, with corporate taxes LOWER than are found in the US, and limits placed on unions (a practice that would be abhorrent to the average American progressive).
When large government programs are established in the U.S., they 
quickly become bloated, inefficient and corrupt. The government is currently $21 trillion in debt.
Why not demonstrate that they can do the job they already have before being given control of the healthcare industry (an estimated 1/5 of the economy)?
Opponents of the progressive welfare state believe that considerable damage could be done to the American system (which has always been a powerhouse of innovation and expertise), and many people could be hurt.
More War, More Cronyism, More Corporate Give-Aways, More CrowdedPrisons, More Taxes, More Regulations, More Drug War, More PoliceMilitarization and Civil Rights Violations, More Assaults on Free Speech, More Economic Bungling, More Debt, More Control, More Corruption.
“Political tags such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”
–Robert A. Heinlein
“No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other.”
—Hannah Arendt
(in her 1967 essay, “Truth and Politics.”)
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
Quote (from Paine’s “Common Sense”) verified here.
How does that old, pithy anti-term limits slogan go, again? “We already have term limits, they’re called indictments!”
Wait . . . is that it?
Must be. This election year — the year of the outsider, the year of unbridled contempt for establishment, Washington, D. C., politicians — has seen only one incumbent congressman defeated by the voters.
Just one. It came late last month in the wake of a 29-count felony indictment charging Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) with bribery, theft, bank and mail fraud, racketeering, and more.
In all the other congressional primary contests pitting incumbents against challengers across the country so far this year, a solid 100 percent were won by the incumbent — zero won by challengers.
Rep. Fattah, whose corruption trial began in federal court on Monday, has pled not guilty to all charges, proclaiming his innocence. “Chaka Fattah’s lifestyle is not on trial,” his defense attorney told jurors. “Philadelphia politics are not on trial. [Congressional] earmarks, donations, grants to nonprofits are not on trial.”
But Congressman Chaka Fattah certainly is.
The incumbent’s previous re-election had been a breeze — completely unopposed in the all-important Democratic Primary, and then garnering 88 percent of the vote against his sacrificial GOP challenger. That was in 2014, before the felony charges.
Following the indictment, the Washington Post reported that Fattah “found it difficult to raise money after the party establishment all but abandoned him.” So, even in this single instance, the FBI and the party establishment, more than voters, sent this 22-year incumbent packing.
I have a new slogan: “We don’t have term limits, and we need ’em!”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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