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freshwest
freshwest's Journal
freshwest's Journal
October 17, 2013
Obama has been faced with a lynch mob since Day One and let them have enough rope to play with. But they hung themselves instead!
ZOMG!
A fan of Cruz, the anointed one, to take the wealth of the wicked for the righteous, Gawd's will to
shutdown the evil gubermint, default and bring it all down so help us Sister Sarah, R-amen chicken noodles...Obama has been faced with a lynch mob since Day One and let them have enough rope to play with. But they hung themselves instead!
ZOMG!
October 17, 2013
Reporter asks at end:
Will this happen again in a few months?
Obama answers:
NO!
Original post:
Live streaming IMAGE from the House:
See, streaming with tears. Okay, just fooling! But I know you guys wanted to see that one!
http://theobamadiary.com/
Click the link to enjoy the tweet feed from Joy Reid, David Corn, Bette Midler with others. David's story is particularly touching.
Thanks, Sheshe!
UPDATED: President Obama gives the good news!
EDIT: The video here:Reporter asks at end:
Will this happen again in a few months?
Obama answers:
NO!
Original post:
Live streaming IMAGE from the House:
See, streaming with tears. Okay, just fooling! But I know you guys wanted to see that one!
http://theobamadiary.com/
Click the link to enjoy the tweet feed from Joy Reid, David Corn, Bette Midler with others. David's story is particularly touching.
Thanks, Sheshe!
October 16, 2013
It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!
http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/famous-short-speeches/oliver-cromwell-speech-dissolution-of-the-long-parliament.htm
Great time to hear Martin's quote of Cromwell's words on your thread, Hekate!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023864890#post4
We must heed these words, now:
A few lessons to be learned by the GOP, and all of us! Thanks for the find:
Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God...It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
In the name of God, go!
http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/famous-short-speeches/oliver-cromwell-speech-dissolution-of-the-long-parliament.htm
Great time to hear Martin's quote of Cromwell's words on your thread, Hekate!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023864890#post4
We must heed these words, now:
October 16, 2013
In the winter of 1795-96 Thomas Paine wrote his last great pamphlet, "Agrarian Justice." The pamphlet was first published in French in Paris. An English edition was brought out in 1797.
In this pamphlet Paine advocated the creation of a social insurance scheme for the aged and for young people just starting out in life. The benefits were to be paid from a national fund accumulated for this purpose. The fund was to be financed by a 10% tax on inherited property. A tax on inherited property was used due to Paine's general philosophy of property rights. Although he based his social insurance scheme on a line of argument that might sound quaint in the present era, in other respects his plan was quite modern, recognizing the problem of income security for the elderly, and the desirability of creating a national fund for this purpose.
The text link there:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/tpaine3.html
But here is a better one, on its Wikipedia page. All of this is public domain, no restrictions:
Agrarian Justice
Agrarian Justice is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, published in 1797, which advocated the use of an estate tax and a tax on land values to fund a universal old-age and disability pension, as well as a fixed sum to be paid to all citizens on reaching maturity.
It was written in the winter of 1795-96, but remained unpublished for a year, Paine being undecided whether or not it would be best to wait until the end of the ongoing war with France before publishing. However, having read a sermon by Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, which discussed the "Wisdom ... of God, in having made both Rich and Poor", he felt the need to publish, under the argument that "rich" and "poor" were arbitrary divisions, not divinely created ones.[1]
Proposed system
In response to the private sale of royal (or common) lands, Paine proposed a detailed plan to tax property owners to pay for the needs of the poor, which could be considered as the precursor of the modern idea of citizen's income or basic income. The money would be raised by taxing all direct inheritances at 10%, and "indirect" inheritances - those not going to close relations - at a somewhat higher rate; this would, he estimated, raise around £5,700,000 per year in England.[2]
Around two-thirds of the fund would be spent on pension payments of £10 per year to every person over the age of fifty, which Paine had taken as his average adult life expectancy, with most of the remainder allocated to making fixed payments of £15 to every man and woman on reaching the age of twenty-one, legal majority. The small remainder would then be able to be used for paying pensions to "the lame and blind".[3] For context, the average weekly wage of an agricultural labourer was around 9 shillings, which would mean an annual income of about £23 for an able-bodied man working throughout the year.[4]
Additionally, "a one-time stipend of 15 pounds sterling would be paid to each citizen upon attaining age 21, to give them a start in life."[5]
Philosophical background
The work is based on the contention that in the state of nature, "the earth, in its natural uncultivated state... was the common property of the human race"; the concept of private ownership arose as a necessary result of the development of agriculture, since it was impossible to distinguish the possession of improvements to the land from the possession of the land itself. Thus Paine views private property as necessary, but that the basic needs of all humanity must be provided for by those with property, who have originally taken it from the general public. This in some sense is their "payment" to non-property holders for the right to hold private property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice
http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Agrarian_Justice&printable=yes
We cannot undo the effects of conquest and injustice without creating more of the same by those methods. But we did free people through the Commons, allowing social mobility and community in which to be creative, advance or fall on an fair playing field or a bottom to stand upon.
Privatization is theft of the Commons, an engine of economic apartheid. Only those with wealth will be able to travel certain roads, obtain education to improve their lot or to keep safe, travel to enlarge their fortune and minds and refresh their spirits.
Note in the writing of Paine and others of our Enlightenment, that property holders were considered to be only temporary in this view, not landed oligarchs with no responsibility to compensate those they had disadvantaged in their labors, certainly not allowed to hold in perpetuity the resources of the Earth for only their group, on the basis of race, religion, etc.
The Swiss have just set the monthly stipend for each citizen at $2,800. If we did the same, what a change it would be, and less likely that inequality would still be promoted as the engine of wealth which it is now. The hate being taught us is a tool of social inequality, not rational, not practical for those who hold it.
Equality of all not based on birth gives individuals the freedom to innovate and look to more than just brutish survival. We have reversed the trend that the Founders began. I'm not sure if we will survive the regression.
Just a little to think about.
Here are snippets and also links to the full document.
Thomas PaineIn the winter of 1795-96 Thomas Paine wrote his last great pamphlet, "Agrarian Justice." The pamphlet was first published in French in Paris. An English edition was brought out in 1797.
In this pamphlet Paine advocated the creation of a social insurance scheme for the aged and for young people just starting out in life. The benefits were to be paid from a national fund accumulated for this purpose. The fund was to be financed by a 10% tax on inherited property. A tax on inherited property was used due to Paine's general philosophy of property rights. Although he based his social insurance scheme on a line of argument that might sound quaint in the present era, in other respects his plan was quite modern, recognizing the problem of income security for the elderly, and the desirability of creating a national fund for this purpose.
The text link there:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/tpaine3.html
But here is a better one, on its Wikipedia page. All of this is public domain, no restrictions:
Agrarian Justice
Agrarian Justice is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, published in 1797, which advocated the use of an estate tax and a tax on land values to fund a universal old-age and disability pension, as well as a fixed sum to be paid to all citizens on reaching maturity.
It was written in the winter of 1795-96, but remained unpublished for a year, Paine being undecided whether or not it would be best to wait until the end of the ongoing war with France before publishing. However, having read a sermon by Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, which discussed the "Wisdom ... of God, in having made both Rich and Poor", he felt the need to publish, under the argument that "rich" and "poor" were arbitrary divisions, not divinely created ones.[1]
Proposed system
In response to the private sale of royal (or common) lands, Paine proposed a detailed plan to tax property owners to pay for the needs of the poor, which could be considered as the precursor of the modern idea of citizen's income or basic income. The money would be raised by taxing all direct inheritances at 10%, and "indirect" inheritances - those not going to close relations - at a somewhat higher rate; this would, he estimated, raise around £5,700,000 per year in England.[2]
Around two-thirds of the fund would be spent on pension payments of £10 per year to every person over the age of fifty, which Paine had taken as his average adult life expectancy, with most of the remainder allocated to making fixed payments of £15 to every man and woman on reaching the age of twenty-one, legal majority. The small remainder would then be able to be used for paying pensions to "the lame and blind".[3] For context, the average weekly wage of an agricultural labourer was around 9 shillings, which would mean an annual income of about £23 for an able-bodied man working throughout the year.[4]
Additionally, "a one-time stipend of 15 pounds sterling would be paid to each citizen upon attaining age 21, to give them a start in life."[5]
Philosophical background
The work is based on the contention that in the state of nature, "the earth, in its natural uncultivated state... was the common property of the human race"; the concept of private ownership arose as a necessary result of the development of agriculture, since it was impossible to distinguish the possession of improvements to the land from the possession of the land itself. Thus Paine views private property as necessary, but that the basic needs of all humanity must be provided for by those with property, who have originally taken it from the general public. This in some sense is their "payment" to non-property holders for the right to hold private property.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice
http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Agrarian_Justice&printable=yes
We cannot undo the effects of conquest and injustice without creating more of the same by those methods. But we did free people through the Commons, allowing social mobility and community in which to be creative, advance or fall on an fair playing field or a bottom to stand upon.
Privatization is theft of the Commons, an engine of economic apartheid. Only those with wealth will be able to travel certain roads, obtain education to improve their lot or to keep safe, travel to enlarge their fortune and minds and refresh their spirits.
Note in the writing of Paine and others of our Enlightenment, that property holders were considered to be only temporary in this view, not landed oligarchs with no responsibility to compensate those they had disadvantaged in their labors, certainly not allowed to hold in perpetuity the resources of the Earth for only their group, on the basis of race, religion, etc.
The Swiss have just set the monthly stipend for each citizen at $2,800. If we did the same, what a change it would be, and less likely that inequality would still be promoted as the engine of wealth which it is now. The hate being taught us is a tool of social inequality, not rational, not practical for those who hold it.
Equality of all not based on birth gives individuals the freedom to innovate and look to more than just brutish survival. We have reversed the trend that the Founders began. I'm not sure if we will survive the regression.
Just a little to think about.
October 16, 2013
He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.
~ Charles Sanders Pierce
A comment where I found it read somewhat like this:
Death can be seen as a blessing. One can still hold onto one's ideals and beliefs and not become embittered by the way life treats that which one held so dear.
Of course we can take one path or another. Either road will be equally difficult.
Thanks. I've quoted this before:
If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when every thing in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery.He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.
~ Charles Sanders Pierce
A comment where I found it read somewhat like this:
Death can be seen as a blessing. One can still hold onto one's ideals and beliefs and not become embittered by the way life treats that which one held so dear.
Of course we can take one path or another. Either road will be equally difficult.
October 16, 2013
Belle Isle Commonwealth Proposal Would Convert Detroit Park Into Private City-State
Huffpo - 01/15/2013
A Detroit-area developer has proposed a bizarre and controversial solution to the Motor City's monetary problems -- sell off the city's Belle Isle park to private investors so they can transform it into a privately-owned bastion of free market capitalism...
Under Lockwood's more utopian proposal, the Belle Isle city-state would print its own money, write its own laws and accommodate a population of 35,000 people. A website promoting the plan draws parallels with the principality of Monaco, a sovereign city-state located on the French Riviera, saying it supports a comparable population on about half the landmass of the island...
"The setting is Belle Isle, 30 years in the future, " reads a blurb for the book on commonwealthofbelleisle.com. "The construction of this remarkable new nation by private money provided years of economic boost for Detroit and Southeast Michigan, and the sparks generated by the fires of 'can do' optimism and a new social pact jumped the river, causing factories and farms to be built in Detroit, restoring it to its former glory."
Deadline Detroit's Jeff Wattrick goes even further, calling the proposal "unhinged":"If Belle Isle could be extracted from Michigan to form a tax-free Puerto Rico-like 'commonwealth,' then why couldn’t other parts of the country secede from their respective states?" he said. "The possibility of balkanizing these United States for the sake of ideological purity is to effectively dissolve what our Founding Fathers called 'a more perfect Union'."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/belle-isle-commonwealth-city-state-detroit_n_2478922.html
What the hell is this with the money from taxpayers? The 'producers' can't fund their paradise now?
Belle Isle Commonwealth Proposal Would Convert Detroit Park Into Private City-State
Huffpo - 01/15/2013
A Detroit-area developer has proposed a bizarre and controversial solution to the Motor City's monetary problems -- sell off the city's Belle Isle park to private investors so they can transform it into a privately-owned bastion of free market capitalism...
Under Lockwood's more utopian proposal, the Belle Isle city-state would print its own money, write its own laws and accommodate a population of 35,000 people. A website promoting the plan draws parallels with the principality of Monaco, a sovereign city-state located on the French Riviera, saying it supports a comparable population on about half the landmass of the island...
"The setting is Belle Isle, 30 years in the future, " reads a blurb for the book on commonwealthofbelleisle.com. "The construction of this remarkable new nation by private money provided years of economic boost for Detroit and Southeast Michigan, and the sparks generated by the fires of 'can do' optimism and a new social pact jumped the river, causing factories and farms to be built in Detroit, restoring it to its former glory."
Deadline Detroit's Jeff Wattrick goes even further, calling the proposal "unhinged":"If Belle Isle could be extracted from Michigan to form a tax-free Puerto Rico-like 'commonwealth,' then why couldn’t other parts of the country secede from their respective states?" he said. "The possibility of balkanizing these United States for the sake of ideological purity is to effectively dissolve what our Founding Fathers called 'a more perfect Union'."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/belle-isle-commonwealth-city-state-detroit_n_2478922.html
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