Reagan's Iran-Contra vs. Obama's Iranian Ransom Deal

A couple of weeks ago, PBS ran a documentary on the life of Ronald Reagan.  When the Iran-Contra Affair segment came on, it was almost shocking to be reminded at how brutal the media were in pursuing the president in a manner unseen during both Clinton and the Obama administrations.  Here is an excerpt from U.S. History.com describing this scandal.

The transactions that took place in the Iran-Contra scandal were contrary to the legislation of the Democratic-dominated Congress and contrary to official Reagan administration policy.

Part of the deal was that, in July 1985, the United States would send 508 American-made TOW anti-tank missiles from Israel to Iran for the safe exchange of a hostage, the Reverend Benjamin Weir.

After that successful transfer, the Israelis offered to ship 500 HAWK surface-to-air missiles to Iran in November 1985, in exchange for the release of all remaining American hostages being held in Lebanon. Eventually the arms were sold with proceeds going to the contras, and the hostages were released.

Contrast that with Obama’s Iranian hostage deal.  The press is practically apologetic.  Sure, we have a couple of outlets that have shone some light on what is obviously a ransom payment to a terrorist regime, but nothing like the treatment Ronald Reagan got.

Stars and Stripes published an article stating Obama’s Iranian ransom deal as unprecedented in American history.  Here is an excerpt:

The money was sent to Iran on Jan. 17, the same day Iran agreed to release the prisoners. The Obama administration claimed for months the events were separate, but recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. Only then, did the U.S. allow a plane with euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency loaded on pallets to take off in the other direction for Tehran.

"There's actually not anything particularly unusual about the mechanism for this transaction," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said this week of the initial cash payment.

But diplomatic historians and lawyers with expertise in international arbitration struggled to find any similar examples.

Asked to recall a similar payment of the U.S. using cash or hard money to settle an international dispute, the office of the State Department historian couldn't provide an example.

Man, those crickets are loud.

Source:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1889.html

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/little-precedent-for-400-million-cash-payment-to-iran-1.425849

The Truth About Detroit's Bankruptcy

H/T: Muskegon Pundit

'Trumpocrat' explains why he's ditching his party's nominee

Hillary Clinton: Fundamentally Transforming America by Importing Failed Cultures

If Western civilization is so evil and oppressive then why is the whole third world trying their damnedest to get there?  I don’t believe we’ve seen this kind of massive migration in all of human history.  Worse, we have so-called leaders inviting a people whose cultures are epic failures.  What else could explain this worldwide exodus?

The Center for Immigration Studies stated Hillary Clinton will invite millions of Muslim refugees within her first term as president of the United States.  Here is an excerpt from Brietbart.com.

Camarota explained that this large expansion in Muslim migration would be part of a massive increase in overall immigration, which the U.S. could experience under a President Hillary Clinton. Camarota noted that Clinton could potentially add as many as 10 million new immigrants to the U.S. during her first term alone, on top of the millions of illegal immigrants to whom she would grant immediate amnesty.

Camarota’s analysis is based on recent data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Census Bureau. According to the most recent DHS available data, nearly 150,000 immigrants from the Muslim world permanently resettled in the U.S. in 2014

This kind of immigration policy will fundamentally transform the United States into a third world hellhole.  You simply cannot expect this massive amount of humanity to assimilate into an American culture.  One can only assume this is part of the Democratic Party platform.

Source:

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/26/immigration-expert-u-s-resettle-nearly-one-million-muslim-migrants-one-term-clinton-presidency/

Democrats Outsource Internet to a League of Tyrants

The internet has been the bane of the Democratic Party since its inception.  Conservatives have used this vehicle to expose their lies and nefarious activities for decades.  Anchorman Dan Rather lost his job because a website demonstrated that he and his team fraudulently manufactured evidence in an attempt to damn President George W. Bush’s National Guard service.  Many a democrat has been embarrassed by the free flow of information and they want it stopped. 

The best way to censor free speech is to outsource the internet to a league of authoritarians who will do the dirty work for the Democratic Party.  One only has to look at how Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Microsoft have colluded with the European Union and China to stifle free speech.  Believe me; the Democratic Party is just as authoritarian as these regimes.  

The internet is scheduled to be handed over to an international organization on October 1^st of this year.  We can expect a crackdown on freedom of speech shortly after.  These tyrants will do the hit-job Democrats want them to do.

Source:

 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/31/facebook-youtube-twitter-microsoft-eu-hate-speech-code

Colin Kaepernick is Another Spoiled Self-Loathing American

Sometimes, I’m amazed at self-loathing Americans who revel in their hatred for this country.  Professionals who play football, baseball and basketball should be especially grateful since these sports were created in the United States.  They have been provided opportunities and wealth that is the envy of the world.  That’s why athletes from all walks of life come here to play.  America is where they want to display their talents.

But here we have another punk whose ingratitude knows no bounds.  Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, refuses to stand for the national anthem because he’s “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”

 Well, that’s okay.  In America, a talented scumbag can make millions of dollars playing a child’s game while denigrating the most generous and selfless country this world has ever known.  We can take solace that the Colin Kaepernicks that contaminate this country are few. 

Thank God, we have citizens who take pride in their heritage and are willing to make sacrifices.  These patriots live the American creed and are not ashamed to display it even when they’ve lost the ability to stand.

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Nick Short @PoliticalShort

Kaepernick refusing to stand for natl anthem is his right. Here's a Marine, who can't stand, because he defended it

2:33 PM - 27 Aug 2016

Source:

http://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2016/08/27/hey-colin-kaepernick-check-out-this-marine-who-didnt-stand-for-the-national-anthem-either/?utm_content=buffer8f0b8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Democrats Impose Third World Corruption on Americans

A hallmark of third world countries is corruption.  Bribery is pervasive at all levels of society.  Nothing can get done without paying to play.  Mexicans have a word for it: Mordida. 

Mordida is a way of life for our southern neighbors.  Politicians and public servants are expected to be corrupt.  This is why crime and chaos are pervasive.  Here is an excerpt from Townhall.com:

 For angry and disenchanted Mexican citizens across the political spectrum, "impunity" means two things simultaneously. It signifies the deep and embedded injustice within their nation's governing institutions and society. When shouted by protestors, it expresses deep distrust of and disgust with political and economic leaders who cannot -- or worse, will not -- combat it.

How bad is the "impunity" Mexicans despise? In February, the Center for Impunity and Justice Studies published an "impunity index" that indicated only 4.46 percent of reported crimes in Mexico resulted in convictions. The report estimated that only 7 percent of crimes in Mexico are actually reported, which meant 99 percent of committed crimes were not punished. Why? Mexican citizens told investigators that it took a lot of time to report a crime -- which is a way of saying police and judicial branches were unresponsive to average citizens. Citizens also lacked faith in these authorities --another way of saying they lacked faith in institutional and organizational leadership. The study's statistics have been criticized, but the reasons given for citizens' reluctance to report crimes are beyond dispute.

Is this where we’re heading?  The Obama administration has thoroughly politicized every aspect of American life right down to our bathrooms.  He has polluted our bureaucracies with ideologues and grafters.  One only has to look at Hillary Clinton, the Justice Department and the FBI to see “impunity” for those who belong to a specific party and hold positions of power.

This president, along with the whole Democratic Party apparachik has made a mockery of the law just like the third world.  The EPA is a perfect example.  Under President Obama this agency has been turned loose on the American people with impunity.  Here are a few examples provided by Investor’ Business Daily:

A 2014 report, again by the EPA's inspector general, found that the agency had actually done dangerous human experiments to test tolerance of various pollutants, without informing the participants of the dangers involved. As science writer Steve Milloy, who first reported on the illegal tests, noted, "EPA failed to tell these study subjects it believed the experiments could cause death."

The Environment & Energy Legal Institute, a private watchdog, last year revealed "records showing illegal activities by EPA staff, colluding with certain environmental-group lobbyists, to draft EPA's greenhouse-gas rules behind the scenes and outside of public view." EELI Senior Attorney Chris Horner told the Daily Caller that the emails "prove beyond any doubt that EPA conducted its campaign to impose the global warming agenda unlawfully, making the rules themselves unlawful."

The Government Accountability Office released a report late last year calling the EPA's social-media campaign for stringent water-use rules — which have drawn powerful opposition from the farming and energy industries -- "covert propaganda" and a violation of the law.

Former EPA chief Lisa Jackson had her own email scandal but at least she didn’t have a personal server in her basement.  But that’s not all.  Apparently, the EPA has an untraceable slush fund for environmental groups that’s been going on since 2009.  Here is an excerpt from the Daily Caller:

The Department of Treasury’s Judgment Fund database tracks how much federal agencies have paid out for lawsuits and court settlements, but doesn’t track the names of the individuals or groups that are actually suing the government.

More than $49 million in taxpayer funds was paid to lawyers suing the Obama administration under three major environmental statutes, TheDCNF found. Environmental activists have gotten millions from taxpayers suing the government to expand federal regulation.

After watching the corruption in the Democratic Party, it begins to make sense as to why Democrats want to flood the United States with third worlders.  These people come from a culture that loves centralized government and one party rule.  They expect their leaders to be corrupt and act with impunity.  Barack Obama and the Clintons are the ones illegal aliens have been waiting for.

Source:

http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/15/exclusive-feds-hiding-25-million-in-payments-to-lawyers-suing-under-environmental-laws/#ixzz4Iaud85zo

 

http://www.cjjohns.com/lawpowerandjustice/commentaries/mordida.html

http://townhall.com/columnists/austinbay/2016/07/27/the-word-that-haunts-mexicos-president-n2198421

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/the-rogue-epas-shocking-disregard-for-the-law/

Darth Soros Strikes Back!

The Death Star didn’t waste any time striking back at DCLeaks.  This website released 2,500 internal documents revealing the machinations of Darth Soros’s Open Society Foundation.  Now, DCLeaks’ twitter account is shut down and any trace of the evil empire’s designs on American sovereignty has vanished from their website.  Here is an excerpt from the Daily Caller:

By mid-Saturday afternoon, the DCLeaks page with the Soros documents was no longer online. The rest of the DCLeaks site was running smoothly — only the Soros pages appeared to be offline.

The @DCLeaks Twitter account was suspended by Twitter around the same time with no explanation.

The Foundation strikes back!

Source: 

http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/27/dcleaks-has-website-shut-down-twitter-suspended-after-releasing-soros-docs/#ixzz4IadnqyXH

The Death of Journalism in an Age of Aggressive Liberalism

The lamentations of a bygone era when journalism was an objective and respected profession have reached its zenith in an age of aggressive liberalism.  You can’t help get soaked by crocodile tears bubbling up from the editorial pages in both national and local newspapers.  Leftist pundits are wondering if we, as a people, are capable of a dialogue.  The answer is no. 

Leonard Pitts, Jr. opined on the right vs. left schism in the United States.  If his op-ed was an attempt at starting a dialogue, it sure as hell missed the mark.  Here is an excerpt:

That’s one example: There are others. But instead of calling out biases in the mainstream media structure or simply creating a parallel media structure to tell their side of the story as women, African-Americans, LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities have done, conservatives sought instead to raze mainstream media to the ground.

Sykes, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others advanced a narrative in which no institution or authoritative source — not statistics, not science, not history, not polls, not CBS, CNN, The Miami Herald, or The New York Times — is legitimate if it contradicts conservative orthodoxy or simply questions the latest harebrained conspiracy theory.

The result has been nothing less than the unraveling of the American mind. We have become a nation of junk history, junk science, junk fact, junk logic, junk thought, a nation where not knowing things is no longer a bar to high office and may even be an advantage, a nation where it is necessary to debate whether a birth certificate is really a birth certificate and Donald Trump followers think the election will be “rigged.”

First of all, we have been calling out the biases of the mainstream media for decades.  Second, conservatives have created an alternative media.  I’m surprised Mr. Pitts is unaware of it.  Third, we are razing the mainstream media to ground.  But I assure you, it wasn’t us who lit the match.  And finally, the sources Mr. Pitts cited are no longer an authoritative source, or a respected institution.  Progressives saw to that.

Mr. Pitts is right in one sense: A generation of Americans have come of age in ignorance, intransigence, and incoherence as their daily norm.  I call that the Age of Obama.  Be sure to check your underwear before entering a public bathroom.        

 Source:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article97537432.html#storylink=cpy

http://nypost.com/2016/08/21/american-journalism-is-collapsing-before-our-eyes/

150 Year Olds Have Already Voted in North Carolina

The next time a libtard tells you there isn’t voter fraud happening in North Carolina, you tell them the Carolina Transparency project has found over 2000 registered voters that are 110 years old and still voting!

Many are even older than 110. In fact, it seems that NC has an awful lot of voters that are 112, too. The Carolina Transparency project did a review of the voter rolls this year and found that there are 631 Democrats who are 112 or older. By contrast, the Republicans can only find 229 over 112 voters in the state (and “unaffiliated” found 39).

And it gets worse. Two voters — and, yes, they’ve already voted in early voting — are over 150! One in Gaston County is 154 and another in Granville County is an astonishing 160!

Nothing to see here.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.

Source:

http://nevo.news/index.php/2016/08/18/north-carolina-finds-2214-registered-voters-over-the-age-of-110/

David Clarke's epic rant against Progressives, Democrats 2016 - Black Li...

Progressives Scheme to Nationalize the United States

The nationalization of the United States is well on its way.  Progressives are attacking our Constitution and federalist system at every turn.  We see it in our major cities.  Obama’s Justice Department has taken over local police departments based on specious claims of racism. HUD is forcing affluent communities to change zoning laws to accommodate Section 8 housing at taxpayers’ expense, of course.  But the holy grail of nationalization is voting.  Progressives want to take away States’ rights of self-government by attacking the integrity of the vote.

 

The Obama administration, along with various progressive organizations, has sued states that have abolished same day voting and require voter ID, again, on specious claims of racism.  The dirty little secret is they want non-citizens to vote and one of the biggest advocates of open borders is George Soros.  His Open Society Foundation is hell bent on destroying the premise of citizenship and a nation-state.  Leaked documents reveal a plan to flood the United States with 10 million “voters” by 2018.  Here is an excerpt from the Free Beacon: 

  

The guide covers strategies and tactics the group will employ in the United States from 2015 to 2018. The top goals listed by the guide are to “advance electoral reform” and “combat suppression.”

“The following four goals form the scaffolding of U.S. Programs’ work,” the guide states. “1. An American democracy strengthened through increased meaningful participation, inclusive practice, and accountability.” The third strategic goal expands upon this, calling for “Full political, economic, and civic participation of immigrants and communities of color by dismantling the barriers and strengthening the conduits to opportunity.”

Later, the guide discusses expanding the electorate by “at least 10 million voters” in the United States. This would be accomplished “by lowering barriers to voter registration through the various forms of modernization and increased ballot access while sustaining and expanding the franchise by establishing strong protections against vote suppression, denial and dilution.

The best way to destroy our republic is to demean citizenship and nationalize elections.  George Soros’s Open Society Foundation isn’t so open about their real intentions.   

Source:

http://nypost.com/2016/05/08/obamas-last-act-is-to-force-suburbs-to-be-less-white-and-less-wealthy/

http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/un-backs-secret-obama-takeover-of-police/

 http://freebeacon.com/issues/soros-aims-to-enlarge-electorate-by-10-million/

Democrats Build Castles Upon Modern-Day Dust Bowl

The Charlotte Observer published an op-ed in last Sunday’s edition entitled, Addressing the Problems of the Modern-Day ‘Okies.’  Clark G. Ross, a professor of economics at Davidson College, presented a clever dichotomy of democratic vs. republican economic policies by contrasting the travails of Steinbeck’s Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath with today's displaced working-class.

Once again, we have an academic extolling moral equivalency as a means to mitigate the corrupt and self-serving policies of the Democratic Party.  If this sounds partisan, so be it.  I for one will not mince words.  Trade policies such as NAFTA and GATT directly contributed to the demise of the textile and furniture industry in the Carolinas along with taxation and regulatory mandates from overzealous bureaucrats in Washington D.C.  How can any country compete with a third world hellhole when the rules are lopsided?  

Here is an excerpt from Mr. Ross’s op-ed:

As we listen in July 2016 to the national political conventions at which the powerless are courted by both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, I ask myself whether either candidate really has a message of hope for the Joads of 2016. For we have such people today, they just do not come from small, formerly sharecropped farms. Where do they come from?

Some had been coal miners in West Virginia. From environmental regulations to attractive and competitive energy alternatives to public unease with coal, that industry has lost significant production and employment. The former textile workers of central and eastern North Carolina, as well as those in South Carolina face bleak job prospects. Imported textile items dominate our markets. The producers of steel and autos of the mid-west or Rust Belt also face challenges from imports. To the three examples mentioned above, others can be added. What are these workers to do? The Joads at least had the illusory promise of migrating westward, hoping to find a better economic life. Today’s “displaced migrants” have fewer options. There is always the overcrowded service sector, that unskilled labor market, where wages are pushed down, by the same competitive pressures that Steinbeck showed lowering the wage rate for fruit and vegetable pickers. Ironically, activity in this market has contributed to a very low rate of unemployment with a high rate of part-time, low-wage jobs.

What do we tell these workers, the “Okies” of today? Ironically, in this election, it is the Democrats who are essentially arguing the merits of free trade. Their answer for today’s displaced workers is that we no longer have “comparative advantage” in your field. How helpful is this? Does articulating this economic principle and reality generate new jobs for them? The Trump Republicans are saying that the government with poorly negotiated trade deals exploited them, as hapless workers. With better trade protections, we will recreate these jobs. And, with the Trump immigration policies, Mexicans will not steal them, they say. Are these the same type of misleading offers like the 1930s handbills, promising good jobs and high wages?

Every one of these assaults on industry is the result of Democratic Party policies.  The attack on coal is an Obama policy.  And believe me, there is nothing attractive, or competitive about solar and wind energy.  It's not even sustainable.

NAFTA and GATT were results of the Clinton administration.  The only bipartisan policy is illegal aliens stealing jobs from American citizens.  And believe me, these people are not picking vegetables and fruit from farms.  They are in the trades.

The only misleading handbills being promulgated are Democrats promising they’re looking out after the middle-class.  Only a fool would believe that.

One must wonder, what is the intent of this article?  What is this exercise in economic moral equivalency all about?  It can be summarized in this one paragraph:

The remedy for their cause and their plight may first need the 21 century equivalent of a compassionate and gifted individual who can articulate the depth of their challenge. Then a true bipartisan consensus, formed out of good will and without the anchor of political expediency needs to formulate effective policies. Such policies must recognize that the current beneficiaries of our societal changes must share some of the gain with those upon whose shoulders our past affluence was built.

Well, if that is the case, the current beneficiaries of our societal changes are the politicians, federal bureaucrats and the crony capitalist in Washington D.C. who has built castles upon the sands of our Dust Bowl.

Source:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article96761192.html#storylink=cpy

Big Health Insurers Suck Medicaid Teat

The Obamacare deaths knell maybe sounding for individual policy holders.  Aetna announced that public exchanges are unsustainable and they may have to forgo further participation despite federal government subsidies.  However, there is a profitable teat this crony is all too willing to suckle from: Medicaid.

The Affordable Care Act udder is full of taxpayer dollars.  Insurers are finding out it’s much more profitable to do business with a federal government single-payer system than it is forcing citizens to buy their product.  Here is an excerpt from the Charlotte Observer.

Aetna regretted its decision, said CEO Mark Bertolini in the statement, but doing business in the Obamacare marketplaces created “significant sustainability concerns.”

It’s the same complaint other insurers have voiced about Obamacare, and it mirrors what Bertolini said just two weeks ago in a second-quarter earnings call. But earlier this year, Bertolini let slip another figure that didn’t make it into Monday’s six paragraphs: Aetna enjoyed a record $6.5 billion in government program premiums in the first quarter.

In other words, doing business with the government isn’t so bad after all. In fact, it’s gotten especially good since Obamacare came along, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid in most states (but not yet North Carolina.) Medicaid, like Medicare, offers the best of most worlds for insurers – it’s single-payer, government-financed insurance, and it has low enrollee costs. So while insurers like to gripe about the individual Obamacare exchanges, they have no issues with the big Medicaid profits that Obamacare helps provide.

A single-payer system has been the end game all along.  Is it any wonder Democrats, big hospitals and insurers have advocated states expand their Medicaid rolls? 

If they can’t force us to buy an overpriced, crappy product; they sure as hell will find a way to force us to enroll on a government program with crappy service.  Crony capitalism is expropriating the American way of life.

 

Source:

 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article96217822.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/31/the-1-part-of-obamacare-insurers-dont-want-to-chan.aspx

Venezuela's Democratic Party Platform

The Venezuelan government is carrying out the Democratic Party platform.  Both expropriate industry, property, and the sweat off people’s brow.  Now, the Maduro government is confiscating guns and marking ammo.  It’s a progressive wet dream! 

"We are going to bring disarmament and peace," Reverol told reporters, while police officers drilled and sawed at rusty shotguns, home made pistols and some newer weapons.

Other guns were crushed in truck-mounted presses. Some members of the public watched, although more danced to a nearby sound system playing salsa music

Venezuela has also bought laser technology to mark ammunition, Reverol said, in an attempt to keep a registry of the bullets given out to the South American nation's many state and municipal police forces.

Experts say that much of the ammunition used in crimes in Venezuela is made at the country's government munitions factory and sold on by corrupt police.

Now that’s how a dictator uses a pen and a phone.

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-crime-idUSKCN10S2I9

Welcome to Progressive North Carolina: A Poorer and Unequal State

I have to admit, I enjoy reading the opinion pages in our state’s regional rags.  There isn’t an Observer in North Carolina that doesn’t reek of progressivism.  But hey, these people are objective professionals looking after the best interest of the citizens of North Carolina.  Yeah, right.

I especially get a kick when these rags quote studies from nonprofit organizations and try to pass it off as nonpartisan, as though we’re incapable of looking up these organizations on the internet and see who is running them.  What is surprising is how many progressive nonprofits there are in this state.  I believe the Civitas Institute mapped around 170 at last count.  I only know of two conservative think tanks in North Carolina and I just cited one of them.

Think First NC is a new progressive organization.  I’m not exactly sure who is funding them, but we shouldn’t be surprised if Z Smith Reynolds Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society is involved along with a few other suspects.  Money is fungible when it comes to these organizations.  Only the mob is more creative.

Think First NC sponsored a study that was presented by one of their minions in the News and Observer entitled, What Carolina Comeback?  NC a Poorer, More Unequal State.  Here is an excerpt:

Take what should be the central feature of any recovery: widespread improvements in the income levels and living standards of ordinary households. In 2014, the last year with data, the typical (median) household in the state had an inflation-adjusted annual income that was significantly lower than when the recession started in 2007. Over that period, inflation-adjusted median household income fell by $4,449, dropping from $51,005 to $46,556. The income of the typical household fell by $2,814 during the recession and then dropped another $1,635 during the recovery. In short, the typical household lost ground during the recession and then kept losing ground even after the recovery took hold.

The fall in median household income levels has affected every major racial and ethnic group, all of which were, at a minimum, no better off in 2014 than in 2007. Specifically, the typical non-Hispanic white, African-American and Hispanic households all saw their incomes fall significantly over that period. And place has provided no protection against falling median household income levels, which currently are statistically unchanged or lower than their pre-recessionary values in 98 of 100 counties.

This is supposed to be an indictment on Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration and the republican General Assembly.  However, one cannot separate the policies of the Obama administration with the economy in general.  No state has escaped the machinations of Washington D.C.  As a matter fact, North Carolina has improved its economic standing in spite of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s power grab.

The decisions Gov. McCrory and the republicans in the General Assembly made improved the state’s fiscal solvency.  The Mercatus Institute noted the only state in the Union to improve its service-solvency ranking was North Carolina.  We were also ranked 8^th in budget solvency and trust fund solvency.  That wouldn’t have happened under a Democratic administration.  Had they taken over we would’ve ended up like Puerto Rico.

Progressives love to talk about median income while failing to discuss the purchasing power in individual states.  The Tax Foundation mapped the price levels of goods and services throughout the United State and contrasted that with per capita-income, adjusted for taxes and prices.  As of 2015, North Carolina had a 35^th ranking a 4+ improvement in ranking.

Another factor progressives don’t consider is state to state migration.  North Carolina always ranks in the top 5 as we did in 2015.  If North Carolina is a poorer and unequal state maybe somebody should tell all these people who are moving here.

Source:

 http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article95371847.html#storylink=cpy

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2016/06/north-carolina-named-big-mover-in.html

 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435093/barack-obama-economy-jobs-ugly-truth

http://www.aei.org/publication/adjusting-state-incomes-for-taxes-and-price-levels-may-change-our-perceptions-of-which-us-states-are-poor-or-rich/

http://teammovemortgage.com/2016/01/05/reasons-for-influx-of-buyers-moving-to-north-carolina/

The Elites Psychological Assault on Common Sense and Decency

Politics is the art of deception.  The successful are master manipulators of language and perception.  They are a combination carnival barker and magician and we, the perceived country bumpkins, are the mark.  Back in the day, politicians campaigned with a wink and a nod.  It was all about a good show and sometimes you have to laugh at the antics of some of these characters.  North Carolina has had its share.  Senator Robert Reynolds is one of them.  Here is an excerpt from Rob Christensen’s The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics:

Reynolds left Asheville in the guise of a poverty-stricken man of the people.  He donned a ragged suit and worn shoes and drove a broken-down Tin Lizzie.  Before entering a town, Reynolds often emptied his radiator so that when he arrived steam would be pouring from under the hood.  Feigning poverty, Reynolds asked the crowd for gas money to help him get to the next town, or borrowed an automobile, or asked for a place to stay since he could not afford a hotel.  He would take a couple of dollar bills out of his pocket and wave it to the crowd, calling on God to witness that it was all the money he had in the world.  So phony were his pleas of poverty, Reynolds never bothered to cash hundreds of the small campaign checks he was given although he framed some as campaign souvenirs.

Bob Reynolds was a character and he genuinely liked the people.  We can’t say the same of today’s politicians.  Today’s politicians are elite, paternalistic snobs who aren’t content on lying and deceiving the public; they want to run our lives.  They’ve transitioned from sideshow Bob to an Orwellian mind controller.

This attitude is pervasive throughout Washington D.C., progressive think tanks, and academia.  According to our wannabe overlords, the people are the problem and if we don’t agree with their world view, the people have to be re-educated or nudged by psychological assaults on common sense and decency. 

National Interest.org published an article about elitist attitudes on the great unwashed:

How? By replacing the elite’s language. If you look back at the articles I cited, you'll see a common language. A language not of rational discussion, of pros and cons, but of psychology. A writer explains the public based on its emotional or intellectual qualities. "The public is angry,” or "the people are ignorant.” In other cases, such as when discussing Trump's supporters, the writer will usually use adjectives from psychology. "The Republican nominee is manipulative, his supporters xenophobic." You will rarely find a writer addressing the arguments against the elites plans and values. Why is that? Well, if the people are ignorant, they should be educated. If they are angry, they should be medicated. We do not need to address people's concern about immigrants, because their concern is xenophobic and—again—ignorant. The language of psychology opens no discussion. In the writer's mind he is a therapist, helping his opponent understand the hidden reasons for his arguments. Once the opponent recognize his problem, he can be treated, “educated.”

Educated?  They mean re-educated.  That’s how totalitarian regimes handle a recalcitrant citizenry.  And it all began with; ‘It depends on what your definition of “is” is.’

Source:

 http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-are-elites-out-touch-look-what-theyre-saying-17258

 https://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Tar-Heel-Politics-Personalities/dp/0807831891