Jul

7

Approaching Despotism

Filed Under History, National | 1 Comment

“For one thing, avoid the comfortable idea that the mere form of government can of itself safeguard a nation against despotism.”

“When a competent observer looks for signs of despotism in a community, he looks beyond fine words and noble phrases.”

It has been 63 years since this film was created and that begs the question—what direction is your community and country headed in?

Feb

10

Woods and Folsom on Glenn Beck

Filed Under Economics, History, Thomas Woods | Leave a Comment

Thomas E. Woods, author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse and Burton W. Folsom Jr., author of New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America on Glenn Beck


Feb

7

Alexander Hamilton: The Founding Father of Economic Statism in America

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The Future of Freedom Foundation
Thomas J. DiLorenzo at the Economic Liberty Lecture Series


Economic Liberty Lecture Series: Thomas J. DiLorenzo from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo.

Jan

18

A Dummy for Keynesian economics

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Jan

18

Keynesian economics is for dummies

Filed Under Economics, History, National | 6 Comments

Jan

16

Ponzi Scheme Propaganda Film

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Your Social Security

Dec

30

Obama is like FDR, only dumber

Filed Under Economics, H.L. Mencken, History, National | Leave a Comment

Like F.D.R., Only Worse
by A.W.R. Hawkins
12/23/2008

When F.D.R. took office in 1933, our country had been in a depression for approximately three and half years. Not unlike today’s severe recession, the depression he faced was international in scope, but the faltering economy of the United States predominated. F.D.R.’s “solution” to the economic hardships we faced was a socialism-made-simple approach that included everything from an expansion of government through more regulatory oversight and tax increases to the creation of employment opportunities via jobs for which the private sector saw no need.

READ ON AT HUMAN EVENTS

Mr. Hawkins does a pretty good job comparing Obama’s New New Deal with FDR’s New Deal at Human Events. Dumb ideas always manage to find their way back to bring ruin on a new generation of victims, reborn new and improved—usually even dumber than the original. As H.L. Mencken wrote, “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” There’s an important distinction there, a man with idiotic ideas that would effect a large number of other people typically wants to use the force of government to impose his ideas on others. If he could only rely on voluntary participation in his dumb ideas, practically nobody would listen. Government on the other hand can do what no sane and moral person could ever do; they can give idiocy—legitimacy. Why anybody would allow some idiot elected by idiots to have control over their lives and property I’ll never understand.

Dec

19

Governor Paterson invokes the spirit of FDR

Filed Under History, National, New York State | 5 Comments

When it comes to unprincipled politicians, what they say and what they do are more often than not two different things. What makes me even more suspicious is when they invoke the spirit of FDR in an attempt to strengthen their proposals. Governor David Paterson of New York did just that in his article in the Daily News.

In March of 1933, when New York Gov. Franklin Roosevelt left Albany for the White House, he told the nation in his inaugural address that: “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.”

Now most Americans wouldn’t give this a second thought, after all most Americans, most of who are ignorant of real history would rate FDR at or near the top of the pantheon of former presidents. FDR said it so it must be good, he spoke the truth, frankly and boldly —right?
The facts are quite different from the myth when it comes to FDR’s much quoted speeches. With a little truth seeking you’ll find that what he said he stood for on the stump is most times the opposite of what he really stood for and did.

John T. Flynn exposes this one amongst many FDR contradictions in his book “THE ROOSEVELT MYTH” first published in 1948:

“He called Herbert Hoover “the greatest spender in history” He cried out against the Republican party: “It has piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission . . . at the expense of the taxpayer.” He told the people: “For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government—federal, state and local—costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching.” The statement is a curious one, since I can find among his published addresses while he was governor up until the time of his nomination, not one reference to government deficits. And for a good reason, of course, since as governor he took New York State from the hands of Al Smith with a surplus of $15,000,000 and left it with a deficit of $90,000,000. He was against Big Government. “We must eliminate the functions of government . . . we must merge, we must consolidate subdivisions of government and, like private citizens, give up luxuries which we can no longer afford.”
He repeated this over and over: “I propose to you that government, big and little, be made solvent and that the example be set by the President of the United States and his cabinet.” Toward the end of the campaign he cried: “Stop the deficits! Stop the deficits!”
Then to impress his listeners with his inflexible purpose to deal with this prodigal monster, he said: “Before any man enters my cabinet he must give me a twofold pledge: Absolute loyalty to the Democratic platform and especially to its economy plank. And complete cooperation with me in looking to economy and reorganization in his department.”

This government belt tightening, deficit halting platform was in fact the original Roosevelt New Deal. It was the New Deal that most modern day Americans never heard of. Of course the reason why is— this was not the New Deal as it was carried out after he took office.

John T Flynn explains:

“In the first hundred days of his administration, Mr. Roosevelt put into effect a program of very large dimensions. But it was a program built on a wholly different principle from that which was described as the New Deal.
First of all, his central principle—his party’s traditional principle of war upon BIG government—was reversed. And he set out to build a government that in size dwarfed the government of Hoover which he denounced.”

The question is now “Is Governor Paterson cut from the same cloth as the real FDR?” Faced with the largest deficit in New York history, a whopping $15.4 billion, he has been calling for massive government cutbacks, something that has had small government types panting with approval.
The reality is that his own budget proposal only includes some token layoffs of state workers, some budget increase cuts for some already bloated institutions like schools and elimination of a few failed state government agencies and programs. Why stop there governor? There are so many failed state government agencies and programs to choose from in New York State. How about some real slash and burn before the bankrupt state really crashes and burns? Too much to ask for in the Vampire State I guess, its many decades long big spending New Deal has bleed population and employers, and the political class has grown accustomed to it, for they’ve never made any meaningful attempt to reverse it as long as their golden goose downstate was laying golden eggs. Paterson laments that “Maybe we should have thought about this when we were depending on what we thought was inexhaustive collections of taxes from Wall Street - and now those taxes have fallen off a cliff.”. Good thinking bucko, if only the Albany den of thieves had a brain to think with this could have all been avoided, but their tiny power greedy brains were more occupied in keeping their gerrymandered districts secured so their bloated pensions were maximized, their largess seeking special interests fat and happily funneling campaign contributions to their campaigns and their dependents securely poor and dependent on the state.

Are we to believe Governor Paterson’s denouncing of the big government liberalism that sunk NYS into a fiscal abyss? Like FDR’s original New Deal, there’s no real evidence to support that belief. In the Cascading Collapse of Liberalism “the liberals’ answer is ever greater doses of liberalism!”

Dec

14

Alistair Cook on the National Socialist New Deal and FDR

Filed Under Economics, History, National | Leave a Comment


Alistair Cook History of America Clip - Funny bloopers R us

Dec

14

1930’s New Deal Keynesian Propaganda Film

Filed Under Economics, History, National | 1 Comment

That’s right America. Happy Days are here again. The Gold Standard is bad! Roosevelt will save the nation with inflation!
Your dollar will buy less, but the stock market, employment and your income will rise! Huh?
This is the kind of pablum the people were fed back then, same as the crap the Keynesian New New Dealers are feeding us today. It didn’t work back then, the economy was practically the same wreck at the end of the 1930’s as it was in 1933. Didn’t work then and it won’t work now either. Another stupid generation.


Vintage Keynesian Propaganda - The funniest bloopers are right here

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