No. Corporations Are NOT Capitalist!

Dan Bongino, my favorite podcaster, said it best the other day, when he said, “Corporations are nothing but tax collectors for the government.” When he said that, I immediately yelled,”Yes!” I am so happy that there is at least one other person in this world who understands this concept. While Mr. Bongino may be, to some degree, for corporations, I cannot share this sentiment. Corporations stand against everything that conservatism and capitalism both represent. Please bear with me as I explain my thoughts on this matter.

Broken down in simplest terms, I believe conservatism is based on three principles: no more government than is absolutely necessary, personal liberty tempered with personal responsibility, and being fiscally responsible on individual and group levels. Capitalism is, in my opinion, based on three simple concepts: the acquisition and disposal of private property, the individual's assumption of responsibility in dealing with other buyers and sellers in a capitalist system, and (the most defining feature of the three) the principle of risk and reward. Risk and reward is the most important feature because it is the personal responsibility of the individual capitalist to do the research, and make sound decisions based on that research, before consummating any sale or purchase. The idea, as we all have heard, is that the greater the risk, the potential for gain is greater, and the potential for loss is also greater. It is all about the individual assuming responsibility for himself and bearing the gains and losses himself, without putting any burden on anyone else. That, in my opinion is the purest form of capitalism. Since capitalism requires a person to be free enough to make his own decisions about when, where, how, and for how much a transaction may occur, capitalism is the perfect economic complement to conservatism. They both boil down to personal responsibility. When personal responsibility is hindered, discouraged, or even completely removed from the course of a transaction, the capitalist assumes less risk and also reaps less reward, which makes him no longer a true capitalist. Corporations, while well-intended, I must argue, are not capitalist, nor conservative, in nature.

“But,” one may ask, “aren't corporations designed to provide benefits to the individual shareholders based on the assumption of risk taken by merely investing in corporations? Aren't shareholders merely taking advantage of the law of large numbers and associating of their own free will? Aren't the shareholders the ones who assume the risks, and either reap rewards or bear losses?” I must admit that the answer to all three questions is, “Yes.” However, using what I believe are the most basic tenets of both conservatism and capitalism, I argue that while corporations may appear capitalist in nature on the surface, they are, in fact, more socialistic, sometimes fascistic, in their nature.

Currently, the highest rated United States corporate tax bracket is thirty-nine percent of the value of amounts between $100,000 to $335,000, and the lowest is fifteen percent of the value of any amount totaling $50,000 or less. Anything over $18,333,332 is taxed at thirty-five percent, which is commonly known as the topmost tax bracket. If a corporation makes a net profit of, say, $300,000, the United States government takes $117,000 off the top, before any profits are paid as dividends to the shareholders. Think about that. The company pays $117,000 in taxes to the government before any shareholder gets paid. To take it a step further, suppose a corporation rakes in $200,000,000 in net profits. How much does the government get? Take thirty-five percent of that $200 million and one can determine that the government will take $70 million of that $200 million, leaving the shareholders $130 million to split among themselves, provided a dividend is declared and actually paid. It seems the federal government makes out fairly well, does it not? Yet, is it not often the case where big-government advocates deride corporations and call for more corporate taxation, calling for these “super-rich” companies like Exxon-Mobil and others to “pay their fair share?” Heck, looks to me like corporations are already paying more than their fair share!

See, this is how the scam (yes, I call it a SCAM) works. In return for the corporation assuming the form of a separate legal entity and absorbing the personal responsibility that is supposed to be borne by the individual shareholder (as it would be under a truly capitalist system), the corporation pays the government for the right to exist as a corporation. The government, itself, invests no money, takes no risks, regulates by way of fines and fees virtually every aspect of a corporation's existence, and then takes claim to a certain percentage of gains before any of the owners get their bite of the profit pie. Not only that, but the owners i.e., shareholders, have to pay personal income taxes on any dividends paid, and must pay in tax upwards of twenty-eight percent on any gains on the sale of stock in a corporation. In other words, corporations and their owners are subject to a form of double taxation, yet, the money making opportunities can be so great, shareholders continue to let the government extort profits. Corporations are more than monstrous, they are HUGE, and they are a huge business for the United States federal government.

Don't Blame Islam. Blame the Leftist-Progressives!

NOTE: Hey, folks. I know I haven't written much. Life has been hectic and I have spent most of my days either dealing with injury or sickness or both. I would truly appreciate any prayers that any of you may offer on my behalf. It is in my very best intentions to keep up-to-date on this blog, but it is very hard, some days. Keeping up with world events is stressful, and I am having to exercise caution so as not to aggravate my condition. I hope you enjoy this post. My prayers are with the victims of last night's bombing and their families. May their deaths not be in vain and my God heal the bodies of the hurt and the hearts of the broken. Amen.

So, there has been another horrific terrorist bombing in a European city. Parents bought tickets and took their children to see a popular stage performer, only to become victims of a homicide bomber as they attempted to exit the arena. European leaders and other leftist-progressives responded in routine fashion, saying that they are shocked and appalled by such a senseless tragedy. Every time one of these bombings occurs, the same people ask the same question: why would someone do such a thing? What is truly sad is that leftist-progressives know the answer, yet they do nothing to even address the problem.

Despite mounds of evidence, and the repeated patterns of the same terroristic strategies and motivations over and over, the leftist-progressives refuse to acknowledge Islamic terrorism. They cannot understand the fact that Western society and culture have been under Islamic jihadist attack for decades, and it is unfortunate, I dare say, that part of the problem lies with another simple fact: that the leftist-progressives, themselves, are the ones most insulated from exposure to terroristic acts of aggression. They are not the ones who mingle at such things as pop music concerts and Christmas festivals with the common folk. They do not have to walk alone through dangerous neighborhoods at night, the same European neighborhoods that, just a few years ago, were comparatively safe. They do not attend Bastille Day festivities, and they do not frequent discos. And, since they are willfully ignorant of what is occurring in our Western world these days, they do not have to recognize that there is a very serious problem. Admitting that there is a problem would be to admit that their policies have failed. In their view, all they have to do is be goodhearted and kind and generous and implement policies that make them feel good about themselves. They simply believe that if they continue to allow in migrants and refugees from impoverished, war-torn, despotic Muslim hellholes, the migrants and refugees will be eternally grateful and positively add to the good of all mankind. Yet, we who have eyes can plainly see that such is not the case.

How ignorant and blind does one have to be not to see what is occurring in Europe? How does one not notice the changes in one's own country? How does one continue, day in and day out, to ignore the fact that innocent people are dying because some do-good leftist decided that no one can be turned away at a nation's border, despite having virtually no way to closely examine the foreigners and verify who they really are? Gee, that sounds awfully familiar, does it not?

Are we living in a world gone mad? Yes, we are. Leftist-progressives are unwilling to admit that they are wrong about Islamic extremists. They cannot admit that they are wrong in believing that people who despise Western culture will assimilate into it freely and willingly. We are at war with them! Why is it so hard to recognize that and admit it? Islamists hate Western society. They despise personal choice and they hate personal freedom, because such concepts contradict the notion of “submission” to a god who demands his pound of flesh from every human being. This is that to which they dedicate themselves and their children, a god who demands that his followers kill the innocent for him.

Remember this if nothing else: leftist-progressives want power above all else. With power, they can implement any insane policy that their demented minds can conceive. Anything that contradicts their humanistic and Utopian world-view cannot be possible; therefore, it cannot be recognized as real or reasonable. Their logic is skewed and their good intentions are misplaced; meanwhile, innocents continue to die and suffer. The only good news in all of this is that, at some point, it will come to an end. Either Western values will recover and win the day, or they will die, just as the victims of the leftist-progressives have.

The GOP just don't get it.

Societies over the course of recorded history have tended heavily toward monarchical rule. Republican governments and democracies aren't uncommon forms of government, but they do not tend to last nearly as long or be as stable and secure as monarchies. In fact, many a republic has grown unstable and devolved to where one man takes complete power and rules as a dictator. The United States has come close to this several times. Considering how many people put complete trust and faith in Barack Obama, and how many people, now, have placed all of their faith and trust in Donald Trump, I must ask the question: are we really that far from being a dictatorship? No, because we have been teetering on that cusp for roughly 230 years. The only things that have kept us from falling back into becoming part of one man's empire are the Constitution and those of us who defend it. Sadly, some of the people we just elected to serve in the U.S. government just don't get it. I cannot help but wonder if they, somehow, see themselves as benevolent monarchs, trying to do what they think is best for the masses.

Way, Way Down in the Rabbit Hole

Yes, I know that it's been a while since I've posted. Nothing in particular kept me away from here, I was just sick of all the pre- and post-election garbage spewing out of the mouths of dolts and malcontents, and I was trying to stay away from it. You know, to prevent further distress on my body systems. Yes, it has been an interesting first two months (roughly) since Trump became President of these United States, and I have made every effort to simply observe what is occurring from as far a distance as reasonably possible. I admit that I am still hoping the man succeeds at restoring order and civility in this country, but we all know the likelihood of that, don't we? The people who want to literally destroy America and its Constitution from within are not relenting. If anything, they are more vocal than ever, and the GOP, the alleged "conservative" of the two ruling parties, is more progressive than ever. People voted for Trump and they voted for Republican representatives in record numbers because they want two things: good jobs and less government interference in their daily lives. We're not getting that, are we, folks? So far, not really.

I guess I just wanted to run of at the fingers for a minute. Please pray for me, as I have rather severely pulled my lower back, and it is preventing me from doing much. Please, pray for our country and for its leaders, that they grow a pair and stick to conservative principles instead tucking their tail between their legs every time some liberal starts screaming her head off. God bless, you, folks. Maybe I'll write some more tomorrow.

Gonna be a good day, Tater!

Don't ask me why I put that title up there. I suppose I have a Ron White comedy sketch on my brain. One thing is for certain, I am in dire need of some serious laughter. With all of the chaos that the mass media try to get us all to focus on, one gets depressed and bogged down in misery, myself included. I'll go ahead and say it, namely because this is my blog, but the only way to mitigate the endless stream of bad news is to turn it off and focus on God. Yes, God. G-O-D, God. Not just any God, but YHWH, Adonai, the Alpha and the Omega, the Mighty God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we need them desperately.

Do you personally know Jesus? He said it best in John 14:6, He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE, and NO ONE gets to the Father (God) except through Him (Jesus). Focusing on God, through Jesus, and being faithful and relying on Him were important factors in the lives of many of our Founding Fathers, who recognized that human rights do not come from government, but from God, Himself. These are the natural rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and without which the Constitution would never have been ratified and made law. Can a man or woman be a conservative and not believe in God? Of course, and that is their right, but I'd bet even they must wonder if there is someone or something higher than they from which their freedom is granted, otherwise, nature would take its course and the savagery of man's pride would completely dominate the earth until only one person was left standing. True conservatism starts with a belief in the Creator, God. Y'all think about it and have a blessed, productive day.

Progressives: Evil-Minded Control Freaks

Ever since I was a teenager, I have been fascinated with studying communist countries and their governments. The older I get, the more interested I've become with learning about the mindset of the people that live under communist rulers, especially the psychological and sociological reasons why people become enamored with what we Americans see as tyrannical dictators. Cults of personality form around dictators, who sometimes come to be seen as gods, worthy of adulation and worship from their subjects. The country that best exemplifies this attitude, I believe, is North Korea, where the country and its leader are seen as mutual i.e., where one cannot exist without the other and where one symbolizes the other. North Koreans see current General Secretary Kim Jong Un as not just a leader, and not just a father figure, but as their actual father, and they see themselves as his children. Kim Jong Un is not to be questioned or disobeyed. In return for their loyalty, the people are rewarded with housing and other gifts. The more loyal a North Korean is to the Korean Worker's Party and to the “Dear Marshal,” the greater the reward. He supplies them with all that they need, and, in return, they give him their thanks by devoting their lives to him and his cause.

This afternoon, I picked up my son from school, and we were driving home, when a thought occurred to me. So many people in this country, the United States of America, the freest most prosperous nation ever to exist in the earth's history, a country founded upon personal property rights and the natural rights of individuals, have the same slavish mentality that one might find in North Korea. The mindset might be lesser in its application of one's thinking and devotion to the state, but is a slavish mentality, nonetheless. They see no problem with giving up some of their natural rights in exchange for government assistance and safety. They don't see the associated problems with allowing the federal government to take portions of their paychecks every week in exchange for the government taking care of them when they reach official retirement age, only to find that when they do reach sixty-five years old, what they receive in return is but a mere portion of what they had taken from them. They would even relinquish their rights to self-protection, a natural right enforced in writing by the Second Amendment. They become singularly minded in their devotion to a certain political party, and they never question what the government does when it is allowed to overstep its bounds in the name of security, even if it means their personal rights are no longer guaranteed. They firmly believe, in some cases, that government edict, no matter how illegal or unconstitutional, be obeyed, no matter what. These people literally idolize the leaders of their political affiliations and will defend them in all circumstances, despite any crimes and despite any amount of evidence clearly indicates their guilt. It is no stretch of the imagination to presume such people would be happy living in such a place as North Korea, especially since they will have a singular master upon which to focus their love and attention, and receive the essentials of daily living in exchange for their natural rights.

People like this are brainwashed, and I'll go right ahead and name them- they are the progressives and the fools that blindly follow them. One doesn't even have to think hard to know who most of these people are, yet, there are some progressives out there, working in our government and for our government, that aren't honest and open about their intentions and their political ideologies. What it all comes down to is control- they want control and crave control. They want to control every aspect of every person's life, from the cradle to the grave and they will not be happy even if they do gain complete control. Why? Because they will always find an injustice or an inequality to fight against, and those who do not agree with them must be summarily punished. We conservatives have to pay attention, careful attention, and weed out the progressives in disguise, the ones that talk a good game and say the right things, then turn around and perform evil deeds under the cover of darkness. They are evil people hellbent on control, and we conservatives have to understand their motivation and their means of execution in order to fight them. Be vigilant, my friends, and never surrender the fight.

The Constitution is our weapon against tyranny!

Let me explain something. What we have here in America are two opposing ideologies: one that states that our rights are natural, and one that erroneously believes that our rights are granted by government. I am a proud conservative and a life NRA member because I am an adherent of the former ideology, specifically believing that our rights are God-given. Our rights, which our Founding Fathers recognized and knew from where they were derived, were carefully and clearly spelled out in the first ten amendments to the Constitution a.k.a., the Bill of Rights. These ten essential rights, the rights to which all human beings that exist are entitled, are also the very basis of a free society, one in which every person has equal opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, but without the guarantee of equal outcome, which cannot be achieved, even by force, because no human is perfectly equal to any other. All that being said, as long as someone does not adhere to and preach the foolish notion of the latter ideology, that only government can grant and revoke rights, then I personally have no problem with that person. It is when, and only when, someone comes along and insists that I relinquish my God-given natural rights in the name of safety or security, or even peace, that I have a problem with that person.

This will be the last post I ever make on this subject: Hillary Clinton, and those like her, are believers that only government can make life better, and that all people should subjugate themselves to the government. They believe that they can improve society and make it perfect by experimenting with ideas and policies that they, themselves, create, many of which have been tried throughout all of human history, and proven ineffective and often deadly. They run our educational system, a system that has failed to teach our children the very essentials of what the United States means in the world and in history and why our government works the way it does, hence, the ignorance of how such things as the Electoral College functions and the intent behind its implementation. They believe that our Constitution is old, outdated, outmoded, and needs to be revoked. They believe in disobedience to our laws and they believe in employing chaos and social upheaval, all the while declaring that they do it in the name of a just and fair "democratic" society, which is all utter hogwash. In other words, these people are the enemy within our borders, and their shrill voices screech louder and louder each day, their protests increasingly violent.

I cannot help but wonder how this all happened, how it all started. When did it become acceptable to believe that any of us are wiser than our Founding Fathers? These were learned men of means. They were well-off enough to receive educations to which many colleges and universities fall short, today. They contemplated. They deliberated. They fought and argued with each other, but they never came to blows about those things which they all understood the most and held dearly in their hearts and minds, which is the principle that God gave man the drive to learn, to try and to err, to learn from his mistakes, and to handle success as humbly as he handles failure. The Founders understood that our freedoms are born with us, and only those with a desire to control us and do us harm can try to take them away.

Folks, we have to recognize the enemies within our midst. They are there, right next to us. Yes, some people are quite ignorant of our Constitution and of our founder's intent, and they may not know God. We have to try to teach them, and if they refuse to believe the evidence, well, we at east tried and, at least, the seeds of knowledge were scattered upon them. Perhaps, some seeds will find purchase and take root. I implore everyone to, please, take time to read the Constitution and learn about it and why it is written as it is. Read some of the letter from Hamilton and Madison and other, both pro and con, and understand the reasoning and the wisdom that our fathers relied so heavily upon. It is with this that we fight the enemy within, and nothing else, lest we all come to disaster.