Donald Trump: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

For the record, I Stand With Rand and will vote for him in the primary.  However, on some level I'm not the least bit perplexed by the meteoric rise of Donald Trump. The fact that a boisterous and even arrogant billionaire is romancing and captivating the hearts and minds ordinary working stiffs who are far removed from his glamorous world of power and privilege may be difficult to fathom but Trump and his 'in your face' style is making it happen.

Michael Scheuer, a foreign policy advisor to the Ron Paul campaign and a former CIA intelligence officer who penned the piece for Time Magazine in the above photo cover, wrote "If you want to understand what is happening in the country right now, to get at its shifting id, its calcifying frustrations, its guttural demand for change,...you need only listen to that message of disgust, for the political system, its falsehoods and failures, which has taken Trump to the top of the Republican polls."

Tucker Carlson, a libertarian leaning conservative bluntly blamed the Republican Party and its elites for the rise of Trump in a scathing piece titled Donald Trump Is Shocking, Vulgar and RightAnd, my dear fellow Republicans, he's all your fault. 

He Exists Because You Failed....

Conservative voters are being scolded for supporting a candidate they consider conservative because it would be bad for conservatism? And by the way, the people doing the scolding? They’re the ones who’ve been advocating for open borders, and nation-building in countries whose populations hate us, and trade deals that eliminated jobs while enriching their donors, all while implicitly mocking the base for its worries about abortion and gay marriage and the pace of demographic change. Now they’re telling their voters to shut up and obey, and if they don’t, they’re liberal. It turns out the GOP wasn’t simply out of touch with its voters; the party had no idea who its voters were or what they believed. For decades, party leaders and intellectuals imagined that most Republicans were broadly libertarian on economics and basically neoconservative on foreign policy. That may sound absurd now, after Trump has attacked nearly the entire Republican catechism (he savaged the Iraq War and hedge fund managers in the same debate) and been greatly rewarded for it, but that was the assumption the GOP brain trust operated under....

If you live in an affluent ZIP code, it’s hard to see a downside to mass low-wage immigration. Your kids don’t go to public school. You don’t take the bus or use the emergency room for health care. No immigrant is competing for your job. (The day Hondurans start getting hired as green energy lobbyists is the day my neighbors become nativists.) Plus, you get cheap servants, and get to feel welcoming and virtuous while paying them less per hour than your kids make at a summer job on Nantucket.

THE GOOD

Foreign Policy

Trump is not a neocon; in fact the neocons hate his guts.  He's on record opposing the Iraq War and way back when Bush started the damn war.  Trump opposed the Iraq War when it was popular and long before the horrors of Abu Ghraib emerged.  The US government was running a brutal torture operation in Iraq.

Not only is Trump on record opposing the Iraq War, during a GOP debate he blasted the Iraq War, its cost and the horrid damage to the Middle East: 

"We've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that, frankly, if they were there and if we could have spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems — our airports and all the other problems we have — we would have been a lot better off, I can tell you that right now.

We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East — we've done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have been wiped away — and for what? It's not like we had victory. It's a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized, a total and complete mess. I wish we had the 4 trillion dollars or 5 trillion dollars. I wish it were spent right here in the United States on schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart!"

For a Republican candidate to make such an anti-war statement during a Republican primary debate is no less than astounding but what is even more astounding is that his remark didn't hurt him in the least and he continued to rise in the polls despite the consternation of the neocons.  I remember when Ron Paul got dissed in a South Carolina debate for suggesting that America follow the Golden Rule on foreign policy.  He got booed.  But the times they are a changing!  Even Republican voters seem to have finally lost their appetite for never ending wars.  Trump doesn't suffer in the polls when he attacks US foreign policy and on GOP sacred turf no less.

Trump has been vocal on other issues.

TPP and Trade Agreements America's nasty job destroying trade agreements that began with NAFTA and are now ballooning have decimated US manufacturing and those good paying middle class jobs. Trump is on record vociferously opposing these trade deals.  Trump said "I am all for free trade, but it's got to be fair" and the "TPP is a horrible deal; no one has read its 5,600 pages".  For more on Trump and the trade agreements, see Donald Trump on Free Trade.

Immigration: Trump has raised the issue of immigration.  America keeps getting flooded with low wage immigrants and many of them are taking jobs from Americans who are actually getting fired and replaced with cheap labor.  Moreover, many of those comprising the 'cheap labor' are in fact so impoverished by low wages that they are entitlement dependent.  I blogged about the immigration issue in depth - Let's Talk IMMIGRATION.

Vaccines I personally oppose forced vaccinations and do share Trump's concerns over their safety. Trump has stated that vaccines cause Autism, here, and there is ample evidence to support his assertion. Trump obviously isn't owned by Big Pharm who peddles poison.

GMO It's not clear where Trump stands on the issue of Monsanto, GMO and food labeling but he tweeted back in October a statement that fired up the food labeling, anti-GMO and anti-Monsanto folks with  "#BenCarson is now leading in #polls in #Iowa.  Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain?".  The tweet was perceived as so outrageous and insulting to Iowans that Trump withdrew it and blamed it on an intern.  Since that tweet,  Trump has opted to avoid the issue, something he does on issues that can backfire and hurt him.

Populism Trump has the uncanny ability to market himself on a platform of a rising populism as if he's screaming to the folks "Hell yeah, I'm one of you and I'm on your side".  In fact, it's fair to say that Trump has definitely brought populism back into politics after a long absence.  Voters are so damn angry at their party elites that their political masters within the RNC and DNC machines are rapidly losing power, control and influence.  That's a good thing.

THE BAD 

Nobody can really predict what Trump will or will not do. He's kind of a seat of the pants autocratic entrepreneur with a big ego and he relies on his gut instincts.  That personality trait is excellent when it comes to attacking his POTUS competition and dissing the GOP establishment but it really doesn't offer much in the way of what Trump would actually do if elected president.  However, America, it's economy and all its moving parts are hugely complex as well as deeply entrenched within systematic corruption and cronyism.

What is clearly evident is that folks are flocking to Trump because he isn't a traditional politician, he's never held elected office, he shoots from the hip and he's basically campaigning on "Trust me, I will make America great again".  That's quite a promise!


THE UGLY 

Trump sucks on civil liberties and clearly endorses Police State USA, the NSA, the National Security State and obscene 4th amendment shredding surveillance.  Unlike Rand Paul who considers civil liberties one of the core issues of his campaign, Trump just trumps civil liberties as an issue by ignoring it.

It's highly unlikely that there will be smaller government or less government spending under Trump.  He's promised a single payer healthcare system (no details) and he's also promised more defense spending and appears to want to build the military industrial complex into a bigger nightmare that it already is because Trump claims that a big bad military will keep the bad guys away through the power of intimidation.

BOTTOM LINE: Voting for Trump carries risk.  However, voting for the 'same old, same old' creeps who are proven to be wholly owned subsidiaries of corporatists, fascists, defense contractors and banksters, corporate welfare queens etc. is an even bigger risk because America's ship is sinking FAST, America's middle class is vanishing and the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. Obama was supposed to be the Man of Change in 2008 but he turned out to be a big fail.

It's not likely that Trump will perform miracles but it's entirely possible that Trump would work to end the wars, reign in the neocons, change foreign policy, nullify job destroying trade agreements, restore US manufacturing and improve the economy for the working class. That's a risk many believe is worth taking at the ballot box because if voters fail to act to change course, America's deterioration will only accelerate.

A McClatchy article summarized the mood of the American people in a piece titled America 2016: We’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore

MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA Craig Ziemke has voted for Democrats all his life, including twice for President Barack Obama. Not this year. 

“The whole country is going to hell,” the 66-year-old retired factory worker said, standing against the bleachers at a high school gymnasium while waiting for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to arrive. Ziemke’s fury is deep: Roads and bridges in the U.S. are falling apart, jobs are scarce and the U.S. border is wide open, he says. 

 “We’re letting all these people into the country. No one even knows who the hell they are,” he said. “We don’t need any more Arabs. The United States, anymore, is just a dumping ground for everyone.” 

Ziemke plans to caucus for a Republican on Monday – and likely for Trump, “the only one with brains,” he said..... 

In interviews with dozens of voters in both parties, the driving motivation across the state is anger and uprising. They’re fed up with lawmakers in Washington, who seem to work two or three days a week and get little done aside from raising money to stay in office. They’re mad about stagnant wages, companies sending jobs overseas and terrorists sneaking in across the border.

And there you have it - the voice of the people and how they intend to use the power of their vote to effect change.  It's 2008 all over again except that the new man of HOPE and CHANGE is now Donald Trump.  Call it a wing and a prayer vote that Trump won't turn out to be another Obama or Bush.  I understand the desperation of the poor and middle class - they've been royally shafted by a system criminally stacked against them so firing somebody is all that they've got left.

Folks are taking their cues from Trump himself when it comes to the Republican and Democrat party elites.

Let's Talk IMMIGRATION!

As a hot potato political issue, immigration ranks near the top of contentious issues. Immigration could even be the defining issue of the 2016 elections. Some folks just really, really hate all immigrants and demand that all of them be deported. I'm definitely not in that camp and I absolutely do subscribe to the view that nations benefit from immigration. Healthy immigration and sane immigration policies are a win-win for everybody.

Heck, America is a nation that was built by industrious and hardworking immigrants. I know how hard immigrants work because I've witnessed it up close and personal. Most immigrants are here because they want to work, they do work and Americans seems to have gotten lazy about working.

In my opinion, the immigrants who are here that are productively working should be legalized, given green cards and have the opportunity to apply for citizenship. They earned it and they deserve it. However, I draw the line at entitlement dependent immigrants. The immigrants who built America were not provided with food stamps, Medicaid cards and other entitlements. They asked for NOTHING, they GOT NOTHING and they toiled for long hours at nasty jobs. There are indeed immigrants in America who mooch of the taxpayers and the welfare system.

This is where the issues gets very ugly.  In the absence of truly free markets including labor markets, the corporatist-statist system is comprised of big companies who fill campaign coffers (bribe congress critters) in exchange for hoards of cheap foreign labor. These foreign labor pools are paid wages so low that most of them qualify for welfare.  Effectively, the current immigration system is a taxpayer subsidy to business because it's the taxpayers who are picking up the social costs of folks who literally earn slave wages.

Entitlement dependent immigrants are not the kind of immigrants that America needs or should want. There has been explosion in what has been termed the minimum wage economy. America has off-shored so much domestic manufacturing that once was the bedrock of a thriving middle class with decent wages that it's going to be a nightmare to rebuild the middle class and lift the poor out of poverty.

The problem is so bad that some US companies are firing American workers and replacing them with cheap foreign labor.  Disney fired American workers and forced them to train their foreign replacements.

Pink Slips at Disney. But First, Training Foreign Replacements.

Lawyer For Displaced Disney Workers: 1,200 American Workers In N.Y. Are Training Their Foreign Replacements

Stories like this are not unusual.  In fact, they are common place.

Government policies and the welfare state have made the problem far worse.  Any nation that treats its domestic labor like America treats its workers is doomed.  The open border folks literally have no problem with opening American borders to all 7 billion on the planet regardless of the damages inflicted by the welfare state and corporate welfare queens.

There is no way that America can even proceed with a sane discussion on immigration so long as the welfare state exists and the biggest beneficiary of the welfare state is corporate America.  They spend a ton of money lobbying to import millions of slave wage entitlement dependent folks. This isn't capitalism or free markets, it's a form industrial feudalism where the serfs are barely given subsistence level wages and are so impoverished that they must go begging to their feudal masters for food and necessities.

40% Of US Workers Now Earn Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage

Way back when the Congressional Gang of 8 was attempting to pass an open border immigration bill, open border Libertarians were wild about it. With Libertarian leaning think tanks like CATO advocating for legalizing all illegals and opening our borders to everybody to create a borderless nation, none of them ever take into account the gargantuan cost of the welfare entitlement state and subsidizing corporate profits.

Much has been written about the economic effect of open borders and the welfare state.  With hoards of low wage entitlement dependent folks, we increase the labor pool of tax consumers vs. tax contributors.  In other words, low wage immigrants consume more in benefits than they contribute to the economy and tax base.  A nation that is economically built upon such a system is destined to fail. The taxation and debt required to support such a system will implode.  It's already imploding.

Until the entitlement state is demolished, re-engineered and/or massively downsized, there is no way to separate honest hardworking immigrants from the moochers who come here to mooch and many of them are caught up in the spiral of low wage jobs and poverty - folks just trying to survive in a global economy that has turned against them.

Between the non-working folks on welfare and the working poor on welfare, America has morphed into a hideous industrialized feudalistic society consisting of the rich and the serfs who serve them.

Want wages to rise? Abolish the entitlements and force businesses to compete for unsubsidized labor in a free labor market. Maybe then we could talk about immigration.

Still, it makes no sense to flood America with tens of millions of immigrants when our own people are profoundly suffering from an economy that had hit the skids and put many Americans on skid row.

My immigration plan is simple: deport the entitlement dependent and keep those who work and demand nothing except the right to work.

The US Economy - The Mother of All Hot Button 2016 Election Issues and Why #Trump is Winning.

As an advocate for peace, liberty and prosperity, in that order because you can't have liberty without peace and you can't have prosperity without liberty, I'm shocked that so few American even care about such vitally important issues.  Sadly, the voting habits of the American people scream "I want more wars, more bankster power, more corruption, more military industrial complex, more prison industrial complex, more corporate welfare and more of the ongoing destruction of the 4th amendment and civil liberties".  But some folks seem to be waking up to various degrees and for the first time in a long time, Americans are scared enough to pay attention to some issues.

The economy sucks and largely because the US is an unfriendly place to do business; hence America is no longer a desirable place to park and utilize capital, the mothers milks of economic prosperity and free markets.  It doesn't matter if you are a small to medium business overrun with onerous regulations and taxes or a sole entrepreneur like Eric Garner who was choked to death by NYPD on a NY street while selling loose cigarettes (illegal in NYC). Every time a citizen does something to try and earn a living, the government goons are there to swoon down upon him like a bird of pray or to crucify work with taxes, regulations and even death.

CORPORATE TAX RATES

The US has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the industrialized world. Therefore, jump starting the economy requires some politically unpopular decisions like  ELIMINATING THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX.  Besides, there really is no such thing as a corporate tax because it's just an indirect consumer tax - as a cost of doing business the corporate tax is built into the price of goods and service.  Therefore, eliminating the corporate tax will indeed result in lower costs of American made goods and services.  The corporate tax is punitive, anti-business and is responsible for the off shoring of US manufacturing and the loss of millions of good paying jobs.

If you want to 'Make America Great Again', you have to make America a business friendly place.  I understand that such a proposition is offensive to some, especially those pickpockets who can't keep their grubby thieving fingers out of the pockets of individuals and businesses.  Freeing America and entrepreneurship from strangulation and oppression is the easiest and best method to achieve a goal that will restore middle class prosperity and lift the poor out of poverty.

US CORPORATE TAXES SITTING IN FOREIGN BANKS

But abolishing the corporate tax isn't the only thing that can be done to Make America A Great Place To Do Business,  Our criminal congress has actually passed laws encouraging US business to offshore by offering corporations lower tax rates if they earn their profits on foreign soil.  The US workers be damed!  The net result of this criminal congressional enterprise is that some $2 trillion in corporate profits are sitting in foreign banks and cannot be repatriated back to the US without a crushing tax liability.  US corporate profits should be repatriated back to America TAX FREE because trillions in capital would go a long way toward building or rebuilding businesses in America.

Combine tax free repatriation of trillions in corporate profits with a zero corporate tax rate and the US economy will be free to grow, restore prosperity and lift the poor out of crushing poverty.

Right now we've got the Democrats screaming for higher corporate taxes (the equivalent of higher costs for consumers and the loss of more jobs) and the Republicans are screaming for more corporatism and crony capitalism.

I don't know if Trump even understands the economy or what needs to be done but he definitely has built his campaign on the economy and nothing sings louder and clearer better than his MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN campaign slogan. It's simply brilliant in its simplicity.

IMMIGRATION

Trump has raised the issue of immigration which is an important issue to many Americans because they know their wages aren't going up while the cheap labor lobby bribes congress critters to load America up with millions and millions of more cheap foreign laborers. Americans have seen their wages either plummet or go nowhere.  Even worse, many of those comprising the 'cheap foreign labor' pools are paid so little and are so poor that they qualify for welfare.  Entitlement dependent workers are a core attribute of globalization.  Corporations demand that TAXPAYERS pay the social costs of an employee and the welfare of the the poor working immigrants.

This is INSANE.  American workers are being fired and replaced with cheap entitlement dependent foreign workers but are sent the bill for their welfare.

I've heard many Libertarians literally scream for open borders and the free movement of labor but they could care less that their version of open borders is in fact statist, corporatist and actually encourages the growth of the welfare state and government power.

Solving the immigration problem starts with ending welfare for immigrants. I personally endorse deporting all welfare dependent immigrants.  We can't afford the welfare state for American citizens so extending it to encompass all imported foreign labor is fiscal and economic suicide.

America has always been a welcoming place for hardworking immigrants and that's something we should be proud of and continue but only so long as immigration benefits America, Americans and the immigrant. Neither Americans nor Trump are the evil zenophobes as portrayed by the corporatist paid political class and its lapdog media.

TRADE AGREEMENTS

Trade agreements like NAFTA, TPP and TTIP are nothing but the corporatist takeover of the world's economy. These agreements are anti-free trade and requires that nations who are signatories to them relinquish significant national sovereignty.

NAFTA was a nightmare that was shoved down our throats by Bill Clinton and his Republican co-conspirators but the TPP and TTIP are NAFTA on steroids.

The Kleptocracy of Cannibal Crony Capitalism. Bill Clinton and his Republican NAFTA Baby Co-Conspirators

NAFTA resulted in the loss of millions of high paying US manufacturing jobs.

The TPP has been ferociously criticized by America's right and left because it creates tribunals controlled by multinational corporations that will have dictatorial powers over all trade.  National sovereignty will be rendered illegal.

TPP Secret Trade Agreement Puts International Tribunal Above U.S. Law

If these corporatist anti-free trade boondoggles are solidified into law, the takeover of the planet by big government and big corporations will be complete.  There are no voter referendums, just the sellout of national legislatures whose elected members have been bribed by corporations to pass these rotten economy killing deals.

THE REGULATORY STATE

The Competitive Enterprise Institute does an annual assessment on the economic cost of America's draconian regulatory state.

Regulation: The Hidden Tax....Based on the best available federal governmentdata, past reports, and contemporary studies, this report highlights estimated regulatory compliance and economic costs of $1.88 trillion annually.....Per employee regulatory costs for firms of fewer than 50 workers can be 29 percent greater than those for larger firms.....Societal regulatory costs amount to up to 29 percent of the typical household’s expenditure budget.

Read the entire well documented economy killing report here.

If America fails to reign in the regulatory state and the power of federal agencies, our economy is doomed.  Therefore, deregulation must be a top priority.  American businesses and entrepreneurs can't do business with a regulatory noose around their necks.

WHY IS TRUMP WINNING? 

Trump isn't way ahead in the primaries because his ideas are so brilliant.  Besides, brilliant isn't something that Americans can grasp.  Americans know they are hurting, even if they can't fully comprehend why, and Trump understands this and is a master at capitalizing on the failures of the political class. Therein lies the genius of Trump.

Can Trump fix America, restore the prosperity of the middle class and raise the poor out of poverty? Well, the issue is so hugely complex that the simple answer is NO, nobody can, at least not singlehandedly.

What can Trump do?  Trump runs businesses, he build buildings and hires workers and has even had a popular TV reality show.  Generally, he's been very successful and has amassed a net worth in the billions from his entrepreneurial projects. The Trump name is so well known that it's legendary in America and globally.  But Trump's success with the voters isn't just his success; after all a lot of folks are successful and even more wealthy and successful than Trump.

Yes, Americans value the fact that Trump is successful but they yearn for a president that would aspire to teach America and Americans how to become successful and even great.

On some level, I do believe that Trump even cares, unlike the crass and cold political class of buffoons and liars.  For Trump it's not just about power - the dude is already powerful.  His immense ego propels him to succeed and that's an attribute that transcends the failing and fading lies of the Republican and Democrat parties.  A man like Trump can't handle failure and yes it's entirely possible that he will work very hard to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

Trump is winning because he's perceived by voters as sincere and Americans are so damn desperate and fed up with politics as usual that they will gamble on a man they want to trust and probably already do trust far more than the rest of the political heap.  The beauty of the whole Trump thing is that Trump is royally bitch slapping the establishment elites and that is definitely fun to watch.

To win, all Trump has to do is continue to do what he's doing and run a 100% economic campaign because that's all Americans really care about right now.  He needs to be addressing those issues that are harming the economy while offering solutions to big problems.  He needs to focus on restoring the battered US manufacturing industries and most importantly, he needs policies that will help everybody, especially businesses, the poor and the middle class.

Trump is a man who THINKS big so I consider him qualified to tackle big problems.  It's what he does. It's what American voters want him to do.

Disclosure:  I Stand With Rand and will vote for him in the primary.

Dear Muslims: Why Nobody Wants You In Their Country

Disclosure:  I have nothing but contempt for all organized religions but Islam is especially vile, intolerant, violent and wretched.  I am not an atheist but I absolutely believe that if Jesus and the Prophet Mohammad suddenly visited planet earth today that they both would be appalled by the brutality and inhumanity of both religions.  Because of my knowledge of Islam, I oppose Muslim immigration into western nations because Islam is a symbol of oppression, violence and intolerance.

Furthermore, I 100% oppose US interventions in Muslim nations because as a defender of human and natural rights, I absolutely abhor violence, especially the violence of the US and its rabid neocon psychopaths.  The US is guilty of horrific crimes against the Muslim world.

I'm sure that Muslims are perplexed at the rising resistance to Muslim immigration into western nations.  I've studied Islam since 911 - its theology, its culture and its history, and there is nothing that even remotely suggests that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant theology and culture.

Anyway, I will let loose with a few my complaints against Islam and why Islam is so destructive and grotesquely out of touch with modern concepts of human and natural rights.

1. FGM.  Islam leads the world in female genital mutilation (FGM) or slicing off the clotoris.

Prevalence of female genital mutilation by country

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is practised in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa,[5] in parts of the Middle East[6][7] and Asia,[8][9] and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia.[5][10] The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." 

According to a 2013 UNICEF report covering 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Egypt has the region's highest total number with 27.2 million women having undergone FGM, while Somalia has the highest prevalence rate of FGM at 98%.

Sane and humane societies do not do indulge in such barbarism in the name of a deity, culture or religion. I don't want these folks anywhere near America.

2. Honor Killings.  Muslim women who are not virgins and even rape victims are frequently honor killed by their own families.  Honor killings are proliferating in the west as Muslim immigration increases. Only a savage people will brutally murder their females in the name of a deity and family honor.  Honor killings in Muslim nations is rarely even prosecuted.

Honor killing in America: DOJ report says growing problem is hidden in stats

The estimated 27 victims of so-called "honor killings" each year in the U.S. don't fit neatly into the FBI's exhaustive Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics.

Hidden among thousands of nondescript murders and cases labeled as domestic violence are a mounting number of killings motivated by a radical and dark interpretation of Islam. Honor killings and violence, which typically see men victimize wives and daughters because of behavior that has somehow insulted their faith, are among the most secretive crimes in society, say experts.

3.  The Muslim female dress code is a symbol of female oppression and male patriarchy and domination. In Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations, women are forced to wear those hideous abayas and Muslim women in western nations wearing the abaya or burka is rapidly multiplying, indicating their devotion to Muslim theology and culture while shunning western models of female emancipation.

 4.  Arranged marriages. Muslim women and girls are considered the property of their husbands and fathers, and they are literally sold like cattle into arranged marriages. Many young Muslim women are literally forced into arranged marriages by their families. Few can escape their fates and are threatened with death.  Many are so severely abused that their only way out is suicide.

Her parents, who have subsequently died, also forced her other sisters to enter into arranged marriages, she said. "As a young person growing up in Britain, going to their houses, you'd see horrific stories of them being beaten and abused," she said. "Yet my mother's response was to tell them to stay there because it was their duty to make the marriage work for the sake of our honor."

Sanghera wept as she recalled the fate of one of her sisters, whom she said was beaten by her husband. "She went to my family, for help. But at the age of 24 she set herself on fire and committed suicide, here.

 5. Child Brides.  It is not unusual for young girls to not only be forced into marriages to older men but some even die from being so violently raped by their savage Muslim husbands.  Stories like this are indeed disturbing.

Yemeni child bride dies of internal bleeding

A 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding following intercourse three days after she was married off to an older man, the United Nations Children's Fund said.

The Huffington Post also documented several cases of child brides.

Yemen Child Brides

While stories like this make me cringe in horror, they are not unusual in the Muslim world.

6. Muslim Men Consider Non-Muslim Women Whores and Rape Them.  There is a rape crisis in Europe and European women are increasingly raped by Muslim men and even gang raped.  Because Muslim society is probably the most sexually dysfunctional society on the planet, these men will seek a sexual release and with a strong prohibition against non-marital sex with a Muslim women, they just rape non-Muslim women; besides Muslim men view infidel women as whores.

Sweden Opened Its Doors To Muslim Immigration, Today It’s The Rape Capital Of The West.

Sweden began opening its doors to Muslim immigrants in the 1970s. Today it pays a high price for having done so. The group suffering the severest consequences of such an open door policy has been Swedish women.

As Muslim men immigrated to Sweden, they brought with them an Islamic culture sanctioning rape.

REPORTING WHAT THE MEDIA WON’T: Massive Increase in Rape Spreading Through Europe – Muslim Immigrants Plan to Make Rape of Non-Muslim Women Legal When they Take Over the West

7. Murder and brutality toward gay folks. The plight of homosexuals and lesbians in Muslim nations is pretty horrific.

79 countries where homosexuality is illegal

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, or ILGA, lists 75 countries with criminal laws against sexual activity by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people (LGBTIs), but that’s an understatement.

The death penalty can be imposed for same-sex intimacy in eight of them.

According to the Washington Post, there are 10 countries with the death penalty for homosexuality. They are: Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and United Arab Emirates. Read the Washington Post article here.

A gay man writes about how terrified he is of Muslim immigration. I'M A GAY MAN AND MASS MUSLIM IMMIGRATION TERRIFIES ME

8. Extreme intolerance against every imagined or perceived insult to Islam. .The Christian world has endured endless insults against its religion including taxpayers being forced to fund the Piss Christ and the Virgin Mary Covered in Elephant Dung.  Christians didn't go out murder anybody but Muslims go on a murderous rampage for every perceived insult to Islam.  In free nations, freedom of though and freedom of expression are highly valued rights even if they insult somebody.  Hurling insults is just a national pastime in free societies whether it's at politicians, religions or anything.

Muslim violence against those who insult Islam is deeply disturbing.

The Danish cartoonist who survived an axe attack

Soon after the attack on the Danish cartoonist by a Muslim, stories started surfacing about attacks on non-Muslims all over the world over a silly cartoon. There were indeed murders attributable to the cartoon incident.

Cartoon controversy spreads throughout Muslim world

Then there is the infamous Charlie Hebdo attack in January, 2015 that resulted in 11 folks being massacred by pissed off Muslims, here.

9. Food and Booze Muslims are religiously banned from consuming alcohol or pork.  However, western nations are booze swilling and pork choming nations.  Why would Muslims even want to be in nations where pork and booze liberally flow?  Well, Muslims have so intimidated westerners that they are demanding that pork be removed from public schools and other places because it OFFENDS Muslims.  This is not only bullshit but compliance with such insane demands constitutes and act of appeasement and capitulation to Muslims which only empowers them.  Muslim demands are exploding.

Muslim flight attendant sues after she’s suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

Booze, dogs too much for some Muslim cabbies

Last year, the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society saying "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam."

In the Quran, Muslims are barred from consuming intoxicants — generally understood as alcohol, though the prohibition also extends to narcotics. Devout Muslims interpret the ban to include carrying, buying or selling alcohol. Additionally, dogs are considered unclean. 

Muslim Costco employee refuses to touch pork; sues after getting transferred to different department

The above are just a few incidents and hundreds more routinely occur because some damn Muslim is demanding NOT to be offended by what he/she perceives as an affront to their religion or they are filing lawsuits against companies who don't go along with their Islamization schemes.

10. Shariah Law  The thought of living under intolerant and barbaric Shariah law is too horrifying to contemplate.  Non-Muslims are treated like sub-humans, along with women; Shariah Law is theological totalitarian tyranny for Muslims and non-Muslims.   It's like America's fundamentalist Christians who would welcome Old Testament Law but thankfully, they are a pitiful minority.  Yet, polls in Europe and America disclose that a frightening percentage of Muslims would impose Sharia Law if they had the votes to impose it.

Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK

4 out of 10 Danish Muslims want Quran-Based law 

POLL: MOST U.S. MUSLIMS WOULD TRADE CONSTITUTION FOR SHARIAH - 'Quran should be highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion'

51 percent of U.S. Muslims prefer Shariah

There are now an estimated 3 million Muslims residing in the United States as citizens or with permanent legal status, and more than 250,000 new Muslim residents enter the U.S. per year as refugees, on work visas and student-based visas, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

A poll commissioned in May 2015 by the Center for Security Policy showed that 51 percent of American Muslims preferred that they should have their own Shariah courts outside of the legal system ruled by the U.S. Constitution. And nearly a quarter believed the use of violent jihad was justified in establishing Shariah.

11. Terrorism Murderous acts of terrorism committed against non-Muslim is epidemic.  Let's review the extremely abbreviated SHORT list.  100% of these attacks have been attributed to Sunni Sanafist Wahhabist, a vile and violent sect of Islam that was spawned in Saudi Arabia and is rapidly and globally proliferating with money from Sunni gulf monarchies (and even the US).  Sunni Salafist Wahhabists consider the Kurds and Shiites infidels, as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus and all other folks who do not subscribe to the radically intolerant views of the Wahhabists.

The largest death tolls from Sunni Salafist Wahhabist terrors arise from attacks on Kurds and Shiites but the western media ignores the bloody carnage.  In Nigeria, an oil rich nation that is roughly 50% Christian and 50% Muslim, Sunni attacks on non-Muslims, mostly by Boko Haram that operates in several African nations and is funded by wealthy Sunni Salafists.

Very recent Islamic terror attacks.

November 21, 2015 – Suicide bombers affiliated with Boko Haram kill at least 10 in northern Cameroon.

November 20, 2015 – Bamako hotel attack. Gunmen yelling "Allahu Akbar" storm a hotel in Bamako, Mali. At least 27 killed, and more than 80 were taken hostage.

Although Mali is 98% Muslim and Sunni, Mali Muslims follow a benign form of Islam and are non-violent and have never participated in jihadism or terrorism.  Apparently, Mali has been infiltrated by Sunni Salafist Wahhabists.

An estimated 90 percent of Malians are Muslim, mostly Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence influenced with Sufism. Religion of Mali, here. 

Sufism is a deeply spiritual form of Islam with no history of violent.

November 17, 2015 – A suicide attack at a market in Yola killed more than 30 people and hospitalised more than 80. The attack is thought to be the work of Boko Haram.

November 13-14, 2015 – Simultaneous terrorist attacks in Paris kill 136, and wound 352.

November 12, 2015 – Twin suicide bombings kill 42 people in the capital city of Beirut.

October 31, 2015 – Bomb on board a Russian jet brings it down in Sinai, bound for St Petersburg, killing 224 people.

October 22, 2015 – 20 people were killed in the northeast state of Borno, Nigeria in a Boko Haram attack.

October 10, 2015 – Multiple suicide bombings in Chad killed 33 people and injured 51. The attack is believed to be the work of Boko Haram.[

October 3, 2015 – In Baghdad, two suicide bombings in Shiite majority neighbourhoods kill at least 18 people and injure 61. Attack claimed by ISIL.

October 1, 2015 – Multiple suicide bombings by Boko Haram in North-East Nigeria killed 14 people (including the bombers) and injured 39.

September 24, 2015 – A bomb attack on a Shia mosque in Sana'a killed 25 and injured dozens more during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Claimed by ISIL.

September 17, 2015 – Two suicide bombings in Baghdad killed 10 and injured 55. ISIL claims responsibility.

August 13, 2015 – 2015 Baghdad market truck bombing A truck bomb in a Baghdad market killed more than 70 and injures 200.

The above list goes on and on but from here on I will just list major Sunni Salafist attacks on non-Muslims.

November 5, 2009 – Fort Hood shooting, at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas. 13 dead, 33 injured
June 1, 2009 – 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting by Abdulhakim Muhajid Muhammad. 1 killed and 1 injured
November 26, 2008 – Muslim extremists kill at least 166 people and wound numerous others in a series of coordinated attacks on India's financial capital, Mumbai.
July 11, 2006 – 2006 Mumbai train bombings: Seven bomb blasts over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 killed and over 700 injured.
July 7, 2005 – Multiple bombings in London Underground. 53 killed by four suicide bombers. Nearly 700 injured.
September 1, 2004 – Beslan school hostage crisis, approximately 344 civilians including 186 children killed.
March 11, 2004 – Madrid train bombings, killed 191 people and wounded 1,800.
August 25, 2003 – Twin car bombings killed 54, and injured 244 people in Mumbai.
October 23, 2002 – The Moscow theater hostage crisis was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by Islamists. 170+ dead (including 40 perpetrators) 700+ injured.
October 12, 2002 – 2002 Bali bombings in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people and injuring 240.

September 11, 2001 – 4 planes hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda members: two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, New York; one into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia; and one into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 2,977 victims killed.

December 24, 2000 – Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings of churches in eight cities, 18 killed. October 12, 2000 – Attack on USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, 39 injured.
August 7, 1998 – 1998 United States embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. 224 dead, 4000+ injured.
November 17, 1997 – Luxor massacre, 6 armed Islamic terrorists attacked tourists at the Luxor ruins. 62 killed, 26 injured.

June 25, 1996 – Khobar Towers bombing, 20 killed, 372 wounded.

The Sunni Salafist Wabbabist attacks in Syria have led to a bloody civil war with death tolls topping 200,000.  The victims have been Kurds, Shiites, Alewites, Christians, Yazidi and other non Sunni Salafist Wahhabist sects.

Source of above terror attacks here.

Conclusions: It's impossible for any sane person to conclude that Islam is a peaceful religion and that Muslims are nice folks.  Yeah, some Muslims may be decent folks but if decent Muslims fail to rise up and fight the murderous jihadists and the scourge of Sunni Salafist Wahhabism, they really aren't much different.

The real tragedy is that wherever Islam lands, bad things happen and human rights are non-existent.

To be continued.......

2016 GOP Primary Schedule and My 2 Cents

I Stand With Rand and will vote for him in the primary. That's said, he doesn't stand a chance of winning the nomination. Like his awesome father, Rand will not win the theocon-neocon vote and he doesn't appeal to statist Rockefeller Republicans.  The liberty wing of the Republican Party remains weak, very weak.

I believe that Iowa is pretty much irrelevant. Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 and Sanitorium won it in 2012. Cruz will probably win Iowa in 2016 because of the strong religious right advantage, followed by Trump (it could be close). I also predict that Rand will have a respectable finish in IA - Ron got 21% in 2012.

After Iowa it's on the NH where Trump is polling strong.  New Hampshire is not a religious right friendly state so the advantage goes to Trump.  RCP averages (here) have Trump polling at 24.3 in NH followed by Carson (13%), Rubio (11.3), Cruz (9.0), Kasich (8.7), Bush (7.3), Christie (7.0), Fiorina (5.0), Paul (3.7).

Trump should clean up in New Hampshire and then it's on to Bible Belt South Carolina for the real Trumpster test because the real primary starts in SC. If Trump can win hardcore Bible belt SC and clean up on Super Tuesday in Bible Belt states like Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas he will most probably be the nominee because a primary is a momentum game. Many believe that the nomination process is more or less over on Super Tuesday.

The Republican primary schedule:

2/1
Iowa

2/9
New Hampshire

2/20
South Carolina

2/23
Nevada

Super Tuesday 3/1

Alabama
Alaska (GOP)
Arkansas
Colorado caucuses
Georgia
Massachusetts
Minnesota caucuses
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia

3/5
Kansas caucus
Kentucky (GOP caucus)
Louisiana

3/8
Hawaii caucus (GOP)
Idaho (GOP)
Mississippi
Michigan

3/13
Puerto Rico

3/15
Florida
Illinois
Missouri
North Carolina
Ohio

3/22
Arizona
Connecticut
Delaware
Maryland
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah

4/5
Wisconsin

4/19
New York

4/26
Connecticut
Delaware
Maryland
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island

5/3
Indiana

5/10
Nebraska
West Virginia

5/17
Oregon

6/7
California
Montana
New Jersey
New Mexico
South Dakota

6/14
District of Columbia

States with no firm dates: North Dakota, Maine, Wyoming

Source: US Presidential Election News

Spoiler Alert: The online gambling sites have been dead on accurate in the past and Pivit is considered one of the best.  Right now the gamblers are predicting that Rubio will be the Republican nominee:

Rubio: 44% probability of winning
Trump 17%
Cruz 15%
Bush 9%
Carson 5%

The online gambling results are very fluid and subject to rapid change.  A Rubio primary victory would constitute yet another HUGE victory for the establishment, neocons, defense contractors, NSA, open border advocates, TPP supporters, banksters, crony capitalists and just about everything that has ruined America, destroyed the middle class and made America a debt ridden, bankrupt empire.

Are Republican voters stupid enough to nominate Rubio?  Yeah.  They nominated 2 Bushes, McCain and Mittens.

What will happen?  I really don't know but right now it's looking like Trump has the advantage in the polls and Rubio has the advantage with the gamblers.

Rand Paul - Truth and No Bullshit

To understand Rand Paul, you've got to go back to the earliest days of January 2011 when he was sworn in.

Rand Paul on spending:

Rand Paul was sworn into Congress on January 5, 2011, along with his father Ron Paul.  Within weeks Rand introduced a proposal to immediately reduce federal spending by $500 billion and predictably MSM and Congress went ballistic.  In government speak, reducing government spending is the equivalent of outlawing God.

Rand Paul's Plan To Slash Spending By $500 Billion Immediately

Paul targets projects and agencies dear to liberals. It defunds completely the Affordable Housing Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

But it goes much farther than that.

It calls for rescinding all funds to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (that's the agency that offers protection from unsafe cribs and lead paint). It dramatically reduces spending to nearly every government agency. It rescinds most of the Department of Energy's funds and transfers the remaining dollars and accounts to the Department of Defense. Paul targets projects and agencies dear to liberals. It defunds completely the Affordable Housing Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. But it goes much farther than that. It calls for rescinding all funds to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (that's the agency that offers protection from unsafe cribs and lead paint). It dramatically reduces spending to nearly every government agency. It rescinds most of the Department of Energy's funds and transfers the remaining dollars and accounts to the Department of Defense.

Paul would reduce Health and Human Services funding by over $26.5 billion, including over $5.8 billion in reductions for the National Institute of Health. He'd slash defense spending by over $47 billion, and defund all Department of Education programs immediately, while capping Pell grants at just over $16.2 billion. He does not, however, propose to touch Social Security between now and the end of the fiscal year. 

Rand's bill was immediately rejected and laughed at.  Undeterred,  Rand went back to the drawing board and unveiled a plan with more modest spending cuts - $200 billion (not a lot of money for a government that pisses away nearly $4 trillion a year).

US Sen. Paul proposes $200B in spending cuts

That proposal was also laughed at by both Democrats and Republicans - there would be no talk of spending cuts in the US Congress.  Period! Rand was alone in his request to reign in spending, although he continued to talk about the need to cut spending which of course fell on deaf ears.

That's how Rand got indoctrinated into how Congress really works but I doubt that he was surprised.  He was acutely aware that his father constantly fought the big spenders in Congress but Ron Paul was also alone.

I give Rand Paul and A+ on trying to reign in spending.  He has a long record of voting NO spending that he considers unconstitutional.

I believe that Ron and Rand are ideologically quite similar even though their strategies and tactics differ considerably.  Rand holds the potential to succeed where Ron Paul failed. Ron Paul simply could not sell small accountable constitutional government to the voters.  Liberty is a tough, tough sell.

To understand Ron and Rand, you've got to view government as one giant poisonous tree that is spewing poisonous fruits. Ron Paul wanted to grab a buzz saw and just cut the whole rotten tree down. Clearly, Rand learned from Ron that such a strategy doesn't work.  Accordingly, Rand's strategy has been to hack away at the roots of the poisonous tree and slowly kill it (or slowly reduce the magnitude of government power).

Rand's voting record on liberty issues is quite impressive.  Even so he has been castigated and accused of nasty things including outright lies.  I don't know if they are intellectually lazy or even controlled opposition but Rand has been brutalized by some of the so-called members of the liberty movement.

Rand Paul on civil liberties:

There has been much hysteria on social media accusing Rand Paul of voting YES on NDAA. First of all, there was never an NDAA bill. NDAA was merely a very tiny component of the monster  Defense Authorization bill but that tiny component included highly combustible and contentious language on the right of the federal government to indefinitely detain American citizens without due process or charges. Because of civil liberties concerns, Rand Paul fought for language that would have weakened or neutered the right of the government to indefinitely detain citizens. Once that amendment was included in the Defense Authorization bill, Rand Paul voted YES on the bill.

It is not unusual for the senate and house to pass competing versions of a bill. It happens frequently and when it does happen a Conference Committee is created to include members of the house and senate to iron out the differences. Yes, the Conference Committee is always rigged.

Let's back up to the 2012 Defense Authorization bill (passed in Dec. 2011) when the same civil liberties issues were raised. Rand Paul voted NO on the final Conference Committee bill along with 14 other senators in an 86-13-1 vote. The 12/15/11 roll call vote is here.

Fast forward a year later to December 2012 and the vote on the 2013 Defense Authorization Act. In an 81-14-4 vote that easily passed, Rand Paul voted NO. The 2013 Defense Authorization official roll call vote is here and the vote occurred on 12/21/12.

In the 2011 and 2012 final votes on the Defense Authorization bill, Rand Paul voted NO, as documented above with the official roll call votes. Since Rand Paul was elected in Nov. 2010 and was sworn into office in January, 2011, he had no votes prior to being sworn in.

Yet, there is a firestorm brewing that falsely alleges that Rand Paul voted YES on NDAA. It's simply NOT true. However, what is TRUE is that Rand Paul voted YES on the 2013 Defense Authorization bill (senate version) on 12/4/12 because it contained an amendment restricting NDAA indefinite detention but that amendment was kicked out of the final bill in Conference Committee.

Still, the Rand Paul haters are circulating the 98-0-2 roll call vote as proof that Rand Paul voted YES on NDAA. That roll call vote is here. Rand Paul NEVER voted for NDAA.

The Huffington Post wrote a piece on Rand Paul's furious dissent.

NDAA Indefinite Detention Bill Passes Senate After Rand Paul Calls It An 'Abomination'

RT.com documented Rand Paul's position on NDAA.

'Abomination': Rand Paul slams NDAA as bill passes US Senate

Another lie that is circulating about Rand Paul is that he voted YES on the Patriot Act. He did no such thing. The Patriot Act originally passed shortly after 911 with a sunset date of 12/31/05, meaning it was supposed to be TEMPORARY but since government tyranny is NEVER temporary, Congress and Bush renewed the Patriot Act in 3/06 for 4 more years. In February, 2010, Obama signed a one year extension of the Patriot Act. On 5/26/11, Congress passed and Obama signed a 4 year extension of the Patriot Act. Senate bill 990 (PATRIOT Sunsets Extension Act of 2011) cleared the Senate on 5/26/11 in a 72-23-5 recorded vote, here. Rand Paul voted NO.

Rand has been consistently solid on civil liberties. In June 2015, the Patriot Act was replaced with the USA Freedom Act, a bill that actually expands NSA snooping powers.  Rand Paul voted NO on the USA Freedom Act and his filibuster to kill it failed.

Senate Clears USA Freedom Act After Ending Rand Paul Filibuster

The USA Freedom Act is especially egregious because a federal court had ruled that NSA snooping was not specifically authorized by the Patriot Act.  Congress corrected that flaw with the USA Freedom Act!  How anybody call call a Nazied styled 4th amendment crushing bill the "USA Freedom Act" is appallingly reprehensible beyond belief but in attention deficit America, Congress loves flexing is totalitarian muscle because they know there are no ballot box consequences.

I give Rand Paul and A+ on civil liberties.  He's even worked with Democrats and introduced bills to reform the criminal justice system that would release non violent drug offenders from federal prison.

Rand Paul on Mitch McConnell and Audit the Fed

Rand has been criticized for endorsing Mitch McConnell in his bid for re-election to the senate and I understand that criticism.  McConnell is a worthless piece of corrupt statist shit. Audit the Fed is so important to Rand Paul that YES, he did cut a deal with the devil.  He knew that McConnell would be Senate Majority Leader and McConnell promised Rand an up/down vote on his Audit the Fed bill.  If slime ball McConnell lost his senate seat, who knows who would be Senate Majority Leader - definitely Harry Reid if the Dems kept the Senate but also possibly nutjobs like Lindsay Graham or John McCain.

McConnell promises to push Paul’s Audit the Fed bill

Audit the Fed cleared the House in September, 2014, 333-92.  However, it is languishing in the Senate and not because of Mitch McConnell.  It doesn't have enough co-sponsors to clear the senate and the last thing Rand wants is to bring Audit the Fed up for a vote and have it fail.

I give Rand Paul and A+ on what he had to do for the cause of Audit the Fed because Audit the Fed is that important. However, Audit the Fed won't clear this congress (probably any congress) and it definitely couldn't survive a presidential veto if it miraculously cleared both the house and senate.

Foreign Policy 

The neocons hate Rand Paul and view his foreign policy as very similar to Ron Paul's foreign policy.  I don't believe that Rand is a neocon.  What Rand has done is attempt to gently persuade the GOP base and Republican elites that foreign policy must change if the Republican Party is to win a presidential election.  Yeah, some view it as a wimpy gutless strategy but going back to hacking at the roots of the poisonous tree and considering the bloodlust of the GOP voting base, as a matter of politics Rand is forced to romance warmongers and war lovers (something Ron refused to do).  On that I don't criticize him too badly - he's in a very awkward and delicate position.

However, where Rand did lose me is on his neocon turn on the Iran Deal, a deal endorsed by Ron Paul. In fact, I was so infuriated that I made the decision to no longer #StandWithRand.  Although Rand does support a deal with Iran, he doesn't support this deal and opposes ending the sanctions right away.  Iran is suffering heavily under the weight of sanctions and agreed to this deal providing sanctions were lifted immediately upon ratification.

I don't understand Rand's issues with Iran.  Shiite Iran is not a terrorist nation and neither Iran nor Shiite Muslims have ever committed acts of terror against the US and the West.  If you take into accounts 911, the bombings in Bali, London, Madrid, Moscow, Mumbai (and other places), and the bombing of the USS Cole, all the evidence clearly documents that every one of these Islamist terror attacks were committed by Sunni Salafist Wahhabists. Wahhabism is a radical Sunni sect of Islam that is practiced on the Arabian Peninsula and quickly spreading globally with Saudi and Gulf money. Yet, America and America's neocons are in bed with the biggest terrorist nation on the planet - Saudi Arabia, something even Rand Paul has acknowledged.

Rand Paul: Declassify 9/11 report pages on Saudi Arabia

Sen. Rand Paul calls for Americans to boycott Saudi Arabia

Rand Paul Bill Would Unhood Saudi Role in 9/11

Iran had a functioning democracy until the CIA engineered a coup in 1953 that ousted the popular Mossedegh and installed the dreaded shah, a US puppet, a situation that paved the way for the Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah rule, here and here.

Rand's insane position on Iran, a nation that has never been involved in Islamist terror, makes no sense.  Rand certainly isn't earning any brownie points with the neocons - they hate his guts.

Insiders: Rand Paul's foreign policy views are a serious liability - While the Kentucky senator’s positions help him stand out in a crowded field, Republicans believe they likely preclude him from winning the nomination.

In my opinion, Rand never stood a chance at winning the Republican nomination because the GOP primary voters are just as hardcore neocon as the GOP's most dangerous psychopaths like John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Tom Cotton and others.  Still there is an anti-war liberty wing within the GOP that is growing and Rand just lost it.

Presently, Rand's vote on the Iran Deal may be irrelevant because it's being reported that Obama has the votes to pass it, although Harry Reid and Democrat neocons are teaming up with Republican neocons to kill it via a filibuster.

I don't know if Rand is shamelessly pandering to typical Republican warmongering primary voters by opposing the Iran Deal but if he is, he's crossed a dangerous line and lost the respect of those who love and support his father.

I give Rand Paul and B on foreign policy simply because he would be a whole lot less dangerous than the rest of the Republican and Democrat POTUS aspiring heap who all deserve big F's.

Rand has done a lot of good things, even if he lost the battles.  But it's not Rand fault that he stands alone on spending, civil liberties and other issues.  He's even visited black colleges and given speeches on the benefits of liberty, something Republicans never do.

Rand has stepped out of the establishment box on a lot of issues and for that he has earned the respect of many conservatives, if not Libertarians who justifiably are suspicious of him.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is trumping all the Republican candidates. While Trump may be a narcissistic rabble rouser with a non-stop motor mouth and years of TV reality show experience to sharpen his showmanship, he's way short on the issues.  Trump has been mostly silent on big issues while brandishing his "Make America Great Again" theme (no disclosures on how he intends to accomplish such a lofty feat).

I do believe that Rand is the best hope for liberty and I can't see where Trump would in any way advance the cause of liberty.  If anything, another election season that is upon us once again proves that voters are idiots and they seek sleazy entertainment rather than an honest debate on the difficult issues that we face.

However, a Rand Paul presidency wouldn't bring much change because all his vetoes would be overridden by a traitorous Congress.  Rand would be a lame duck president but there is one area where he would excel - as Commander in Chief, Rand would be far less likely to march off to war than any president in my lifetime.  I trust Rand more on foreign policy than any other of the other psychopaths running for president.

Until this congress is fired by the voters and replaced with liberty leaning congress critters, the cause of liberty is dormant.

With the shit hitting the fan in the financial sector, the economy in steep decline, endless wars, massive deficits, mountains of unsustainable debt, a bankrupt military empire and public corruption on steroids, I can't see where our decline can even be reversed at this junction without massive suffering (not that we won't ultimately experience suffering). Who in their right mind would even want to be president?

The next president will be under immense non-stop pressure.  Rand should just sit out 2016 - America isn't ready for him but Americans might be in 2020 when they are desperate for a leader who will help lift them from misery by empowering them with liberty.

The GOP is old, white, gray and dying.  Every election cycle there are fewer and fewer of the Republican geezer brigade but right now they control primaries because they vote in huge percentages. There is no way that these folks will nominate Rand.  Maybe some day the younger liberty wing of the GOP will take over but for now it's just not going to happen.

Unhappy Labor Day: How the Federal Reserve, Monetary Policy and Congress Robbed the Poor and Middle Class

As liberals, progressives, Democrats, Republicans, conservatives and assorted others comprising the ideological spectrum ponder the acute decline of the American middle class and the hopeless suffering of the poor, it's not likely that the true reason for such national misery will be addressed.  In fact, truth is universally ignored in America.

Yes, there are a lot of moving parts to our economic woes ranging from nasty corporatist trade agreements (outsourcing US manufacturing) to massively increased socialist-statist entitlements (the welfare state) to endless wars that are bankrupting us but one factor leads the pack as the chief culprit: the destruction of the dollar attributable to Nixon de-tethering the dollar from gold in 1971 and its horrific effect on the poor and middle class.  Purchasing power has nosedived and wages, which never keep pace with inflation, have also nosedived.

Source:  Zero Hedge

Worker wages and purchasing power peaked in 1971 just before Nixon churned the dollar into a 100% fiat currency that became the chief tool to transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich.

Why Inequality Started Soaring in 1971 - Going Off the Gold Standard Encouraged a Financialized Economy … Which Caused Inequality to Soar

Why would going off the gold standard increase inequality? Financialization of the economy is one of the main causes of inequality. And going off the gold standard greatly increased financialization.

The debt based 'fiat money' economy or financialization replaced sound money.  Just to maintain their standard of living, families started borrowing and stopped saving money became saving became nearly impossible. Effectively, Americans became debt slaves as wages remained stagnant and their wage dollars bought less and less.


Median Wages Have PLUMMETED Since 1969 - Real Wages Much Lower Than They Were Four Decades Ago

Wages need to rise to keep up with inflation, especially since the value of the dollar has been trashed,,,

The interests of Wall Street, corporations and the rich are served at the expense of the poor and middle class.  It doesn't help that tens of millions of low wage immigrants have flooded America and most of these folks are collecting welfare while creating the 'Minimum Wage Economy'.  It doesn't help that Congress has passed tax laws that actually encourage the destruction of US manufacturing by taxing corporations at lower rates if they earn their profits on foreign soil.  It doesn't help that American and western workers can't compete with 3rd world slave wage nations.

According to CNN's online global wage calculator, which uses data from the International Labor Organization, the average annual salary of a worker in China's private sector was 28,752 yuan (about $4,755) in 2012, or 38% of the global average. Jan 24, 2014

While globalization has indeed benefited 3rd world nations by fostering massive industrialization and rising standards of living, it's come at the expense of western workers who can't compete in high tax and high cost of living nations.  No American can house or feed themselves on earnings of $4,755 a year. Such wages automatically qualifies a person for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits.

It's as if the globalization economy has churned the world into a form of industrial feudalism consisting of subsistence level serfs and their corporate masters.  Western corporations lobby heavily for the low wage welfare state because it effectively transfers the social costs of an employee to the taxpayers who are already severely financially stressed.  Clearly, it's a form of corporate welfare but corporations love it because it lowers their production costs and makes their exports cheaper in foreign nations.  China keeps its currency permanently devalued so that it's goods remain cheap when exported.

These are not good times for labor who is being crushed by globalization and financialization but Wall Street and the rich are doing well as the wealth of the 1% continues to grow.

Just about everybody claims to have a political solution.  Bernie Sanders is campaigning on transferring wealth from the rich via high taxation to fund a bigger entitlement state.  Sanders doesn't believe in sound currency or simply creating economic conditions wherein the poor and middle class have the opportunity to create and keep their own wealth.

The Republican nutjobs running for president are obsessed with endless wars, the American empire, growing the corporatist fascist state and the creepy social issues that fire up the war loving GOP base. Donald Trump is campaigning on "Make America Great Again" but offers absolutely nothing on how he intends to achieve such a lofty goal.

Well, there are solutions, solutions that the power hungry statist politicians despise.  There is only one way to make America great again.  Restore sound money (which effectively kills corrupt Wall Street power) and making America a safe and desirable place to park and utilize capital.  Capital will always seek and find capital friendly places - it's like a law of financial physics. We need a revival domestic manufacturing because nothing jump starts a sick and ailing economy like a factories and manaufacturing.

It's been estimated that literally trillions of dollars in corporate profits earned by US corporations are locked up in foreign banks and cannot be repatriated back to the US because of oppressive taxation. Ron Paul addressed this issue several times.  The statist liberal progressive approach is to force those profits back to American where they can be taxed and expropriated.  The free market approach is to abolish the tax penalties and allow that big pile of capital back into America to work its job producing magic.

Moreover, abolishing the corporate tax would enormously benefit America because we happen to have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, here, which is why US corporations keep their profits stashed away in low tax off shore banking havens.

American corporations aren't exactly paragons of morals and ethics.  They spend billions bribing (lobbying) congress and state legislatures for special privileges, special tax breaks and protectionism.  If we give them a tax free paradise from which to operate, then they get no special privileges and would be subjected to the rigors of the free market and competition, something many corporations abhor. We have to get the corporate money out of politics and kill the scourge of corporatism.  The marriage of big business and big government is simply evil.

However, we can't stop at just abolishing corporate taxes, all the corporate welfare and subsidies must also cease and desist including worker entitlements. food stamps, Medicaid etc.   Businesses must be forced to compete for labor without the drug of entitlements (corporate welfare).

Finally, making America Great Again is a splendid idea but also a minefield for power seeking politicians whose logo infested suites literally resemble NASCAR drivers.  In America, there is no such thing as bribery, it's all a legal campaign or PAC contribution.

You can't make America Great Again without making the American worker great again.  Every American worker deserves the opportunity to work, earn, save, provide for his family and all without dependency on the thieving government that keeps him poor.

Let's work to make Labor Day a day to truly honor and be proud of.  Making America Great Again and Labor Day go hand in hand.  You can't have one without the other.