All you need to know about the latest Trump trial, which starts today; more intel on the WWIII-adjacent Iranian strikes confirms Biden meddling; and Bill Maher's conservative conversion continues.
I learned a new word for theft thanks to tax time this year: recapture. We sold a rental house that had been converted to personal use because our daughter rented it, so the govt took back our nearly 20 years of depreciation even though it was personal use for only a few of those. Mailing a hefty check to the US Treasury on top of what we had already paid in and knowing what the foolish ones do with it is its own kind of frustration.
I just saw more withdrawn in tax than my taxable income was last year, with an additional penalty for having not paid estimated taxes, for which it wasn’t determined I owed, based on last year’s income. I am semi-retired and still consult for a few a few clients. Since they print money at will, I really don’t see why they need our tax dollars anyway!
They don't 'need' your taxes; as you say, they either print or borrow at will. The point is to continue your indebtitude to the machine, to only have a increasingly smaller portion of your own income.
As the saying goes, we are simply free range slaves on a tax farm...
Can’t afford to live on social security so am also semiretired. But I now have to pay taxes on money I was required to pay into all those years? Money that was mis-managed and should actually be worth a million or more? I refuse to take money out of my investments, goodness knows how long I’ll live, my folks are in their nineties and all the grandparents lived that long too!
The only good idea Bush proposed was to phase out social security. It went nowhere nationally obviously, except that one county in Texas. And it probably wasn’t even his idea! 🤣
Cool straw man. SS does not prevent elderly from starving. Especially with Big Govt inflating money’s value away.
Private charity is the correct way to deal with elderly and others’ misfortune and/or stupidity, not the Ponzi scheme theft SS program we currently have.
Privatizing the funds gives people power to be in control of the product of their own industry and thus their own destiny. Sorry that offends you to the point you need to mislead or lie about it.
Okay. Just look at the historical chart of the DJIA and overlay a ~40year block of time anywhere on it.
Imagine all of the SS money had been "mandated" for private retirement pensions instead of general fund govt promises. Have a simple age requirement before being able to make withdrawals from the pension and voila!
We could have been creating true generational wealth for all citizens. Instead, we have the current system. Money paid in cannot go to the children upon death of the parent. The govt keeps it.
Truth there. According to G. Edward Griffith in his book, The creature from Jekyll Island, they conspired to pass the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 so they would be able to print unlimited money, and then passed the income tax, 16th amendment, to have a cover for all the money they were going to have to spend.
Except, if you read Article 1 Sec. 9 of the Constitution it might leave you scratching your head. The two provisions (Art. 1 Sec. 9 and 16A) on the surface appear to contradict one another. They don't. The clear, in-depth explanation is in 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 by Peter Eric Hendrickson. See my longer comment in this thread for more info. If your income is not tied to the federal government, and you aren't a US Citizen as defined in US Code Title 26 (unraveling of all done in the text of 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦) you likely don't have an income tax liability. Crazy idea, right? Learn the truth.
Under the FairTax, illegal aliens, pimps (and their subordinates), drug dealers, and anyone else getting paid under the table get to pitch in! The fun doesn’t stop there! Monday could have been just another Spring day. www.fairtax.org
Took a quick look at your link, viewing about half of first embedded video on landing page. I get your point, to a point. Leaving out the black market/underground economy, there is a knowledge gap.
These well-intentioned people who want to repeal the 16th Amendment do not understand the crafty way definitions in US Code Title 26 (the tax code) were written to confuse and obfuscate. Careful reading and u.n.d.e.r.s.t.a.n.d.i.n.g. of the legal scholarly information laid out in 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 brings home what the 16th Amendment is and what it is not.
I can state this here, but the aforesaid understanding (with full stops after each character) will escape anyone who has not been educated on the legalese in the tax code: The 16th Amendment does not create a new tax on the labor (private sector wages, salaries, tips, etc.) or private sector passive or investment income, etc. of ordinary Americans. Way too much to explain here. Thus, the book title provided, now available to read for free on the author's website. Again, for reference: https://www.losthorizons.com .
I'd say the book can be more emotionally challenging to read than intellectually, the lie is so egregious. The lie that has been programmed into our framework of the way the world works in our personal economy (Americans). I first read several years pre-plandemic. If your eyes are now open to all sorts of lies that have been perpetrated for generations the read might not cause so much cognitive dissonance. Your mileage may vary.
Thinking I might write a letter to the FairTax folks to help them out...
Thanks, I’m genuinely interested to see how that goes. For now, does anyone else have a better idea? If we need to work incrementally, so be it. It’s certainly worked for the Dems.
The tax code had to be written to conform to the Constitution. Had to. If you go back to where I began, the seeming conflict between Art. 1 Sec. 9 and 16A, the code does conform. There is no conflict. It's the craftily worded 16A with the addition of propaganda that allowed for the three million plus word tax code. There is no tax liability on the private sector labor of ordinary Americans via what has been twisted to be perceived as "income." "Death and taxes" is a marketing product, like "safe and effective." Understanding does require digging and connecting dots. The connect-the-dots picture is so clear. Might have to act on that thought I had about writing to the FairTax folks...
This is all by design tobankrupt the middle class and leave nothing for their children. Generational wealth only for the super wealthy. Only question no one asks is what happens when all the middle class are bankrupted? Probably will be confiscation of private property I think.
The WEF and Bill Gates start controlling the population, that’s what. Read Margaret Anna Alice’s guest post from last year. They have waking dreams about this.
Call paying “taxes” what it is - protection money paid to criminals. This makes every taxpayer complicit in all the crimes perpetrated on US citizens as well as peoples around the world.
The blood is on OUR hands.
“When the government fears the People, there is Liberty; when the People fear the government, there is tyranny.” Do you recognize which side of this statement you fall in?
Great points, Traveler, and well said. However, that quote was probably written before there was a Deep State. Before them, we probably knew who was governing us.
at least a far back as the Whiskey REbellions of early 1800's. I also am convinced that the Louisiana Purchase was either a deep state move in its own right, or a major part of beginning the deep state.
President Jefferson sent a delegation to France to buy for $10M the port city of New Orleans. They ended up buying for a "public price" of $15M all of the "Louisiana Purchase" lands much of which Napoleon had recently won from Spain by conquest of Spanish lands in Europe. Biggest ever to that date a sovereign state loan floated on international markets. Some immediate cash to Napoleon from banks in Holland and London while he had a cash crunch and was still fighting the UK. Bottom line: international bankers and investors funded both sides of the Napoleonic wars and the USA money was a crucial part of funding Napoleon cash as the USA injected millions in interest payments for the US bonds backing that purchase and the primary loan bank in Holland (a strawman small potato bank for bigger banks) used the US interest payments to pay regular payments to Napoleon for many years. With interest payments due, the final settlement made the total price for the USA $27,267,622. I connect some dots and name names for the Louisiana Purchase here:
I would not be surprised. But unless there’s some law I don’t know about that restricted the use and ownership of cannons to government forces, the citizens had access to the same weaponry that the government did.
Not quite as much here, but same. Beyond infuriating. To pay through the nose all year long, and then have to STILL pen a big check to the thieving swine is just a kick in the teeth. Especially when you know it’s just going to be completely wasted. 😠
My “refund” has now turned into $00.00. CA must be sending that zero out letter to EVERYONE just hoping we don’t respond?! They lose millions of $ and can’t find it, run this state into the ground in soooo many ways and then take what I’m due? The fight has only begun…….CA is a joke more than ever. Yes, I’d love to move but I’m staying for my grandkids. Someone needs to indoctrinate them the “right” way!
As a resident of the Free State of Florida, I often wonder how wonderful these blue states would still be if people like you had the guts you do. But then I remember all the creativity we saw this last election and understand. Still, I am in awe of people like you.
Barry Goldwater...hmmm. Wasn't he the nut that was going to nuke innocent children? Oh wait, that was 1964-style demoncrapper's propaganda. Would have taken the country in a better direction than LBJ did.
The wealthy can afford tax specialists who figure out how to avoid paying taxes. Only the working plebes who can't afford accountants end up paying much.
This happened to us 3 years ago. SUPER PAINFUL for sure! it was a defining moment of newfound hatred i developed for our government because I knew all that $ was being used to intentionally coerce and murder people via propaganda and shots.
Not market value could be a problem. Keep in mind that a CPA is not necessarily a tax expert.
Capital gain? Did you sell it also? If so, that could be the reason for the depreciation recapture.
Depreciation recapture has been around a long time. The idea behind it is to encourage investment by accelerating the write off of the asset and reducing the short term tax burden. However, if you dispose of that asset before its normal depreciation life, you'll probably need to return some of that benefit (short term reduction in taxes). This prevents investors from buying something, writing it off, then selling it right away (unless you are a DC politician...).
Again, this is my understanding of the concept and not tax advice in any way shape or form.
I’m with you. Also hate the lawmakers who made and passed these laws!!!
The problem is always that they make a law trying to get X result and then have to add convoluted conditions to prevent people from going around it. Our whole tax system is a byzantine mess.
That's because they have savvy financial managers develop "shell corporations" and "foundations" for them to funnel their income into--financial managers are MUCH BETTER resources to save on taxes than a CPA. CPA's are glorified accounting people!! They just know how to enumerate and redistribute.
If the governments were minimal in what they do (meaning that if
the governments were truly constitutional governments old America style), there would be no involuted, convoluted need of involuted, convoluted tax codes. This would also mean that capital, in private hands, would not be continually misallocated into non-productive country destroying uses.
Remember 'smart' Susie Orman with all that 'smart' clever advice and tips? The Dumb thing about Little Susie is that people think they really need her Dumb advice. What people really need is to get rid of as much Dumb Government as they can.
No argument from me. Ted Cruz has the right idea on taxes.
Ironically, or is the correct term "indicitavely", accelerated depreciation and recapture rules were written, I think, about 25 years ago. We had a few reasonable folks in control back then, not the numnuts we have now! Although, these are the same folks that gave us the Patriot Act, so maybe not...
I hired a CPA to do my taxes when I first started my business in 1989. She made a huge and glaring omission that would have cost me a lot of taxes except that I, her paying customer, caught the error.
I know this will read nutty, but I suspect you don't have a business as defined in US Code Title 26 (the tax code). There is a special definition for business in the tax code. You can't read said definition as written, assuming the meaning/definition of common words. There are pretzel-like legal terms throughout the code, only nobody recognizes them as such. Most people think they're reading English words. Legal terms are not the same thing as English words. See my comment in this thread about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.
Several weeks ago another C&C commenter who has become educated about the truth (via 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦) used the phrase, "starve the beast." Well worth the investment of your time IMHO.
And I’m not sure you save anything by seeing a tax layer. They are quite expensive. You may end up paying just as much to them as you would on your recapture, but at least it wouldn’t go to the government.
If I recall my business years correctly, it’s not the personal use that causes recapture. Any time you depreciate something down to nothingness and then sell it for something, you have recaptured the depreciation and that’s profit.
Remember Biden claiming the new IRS agents wouldn't go after anyone who makes under $400K? I saw a piece last night about how something like 67% of the audits are on people who make under $70K.
We have gone broke on the money 'we' allegedly gave the Pentagon. And all we have to show for it is 'the bio-weapon' and a failing military transitioning in high heels.
Skunk, that's not even remotely the biggest consumer of our federal budget - Social Security and Medicare dwarf it. Very soon, our interest payments on our debt will outstrip the defense budget.
I often wonder how the Beltway gang spent the funds taken out of my wages for Social Security & Medicare. At least, I would like to know which conflicts I funded.
You should have kept your rental house as a passive-income property and continued to rent it out - either to your daughter or maybe to someone else. Then put all of your real estate into a trust and hand it down to your kids or other family members.
Wisdom. Glad you posted. More people should know. Actually, land trust first, for your homestead as well, then rental contracts, but in reality you can retitle the property at any time.
You might appreciate learning the truth about the federal income tax. See my longer comment in this thread (1st level reply to Based Florida Man) about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.
Wiser is each property in a separate land trust. Once you have a template it's lather, rinse, repeat. There's a bit more to it, all for protection from both government (probate, SoS entities) and from becoming a target for things like frivolous lawsuits, even if all you "own" (even if you have no mortgage) is a homestead property.
Yes, the government has put him through the mill. No argument. That said, consider the source. I suspect it ranked near the top of your search results. I don't know what search engine you used, but suspect it might be among the list I, personally, have expunged from my life. Caveats abound. Have you read the book? In its entirety?
Some people, carefully, thoughtfully, with a great deal of patience in the pursuit are living tax-free because they don't have a tax liability.
Have you seen Aaron Russo's documentary From Freedom to Fascism? It's nearly 20 years old. In the context of the film people were having their eyes opened. Jurors, in one case. Deciding in favor of a defendant that argued he had no tax liability. People are waking. Slowly.
I can see that. I, on the other hand, choose not to live in jail. There are all kinds of laws I find inconvenient or even disagree with, but I'm not going to flout them. Allowing each individual to live by his own laws is what's known as "anarchy."
I don't live in jail except in the sense that I haven't escaped the constrictions of man-made systems on the planet, systems I find objectionable in some respects. Nor do I flout man's laws or codes. I use my insatiable curiosity, discernment and best judgement on whether to comply or educate myself to know that I am being bullied and subjugated under color of law. The federal income tax as it is known culturally is a glaring example of color of law. Not for me to convince you. And not advocating anarchy; apologies if anything I wrote gave you that impression.
Another thought. She buys it from you, you get a mortgage for the value of the house, and she makes monthly payments on the debt. In accordance with the annual gift tax exclusion, say $17,000 in 2023, forgive that amount of the loan each year. Just spitballin'. Ask someone who knows stuff.
Your comment is relevant to the sale of a house, which was not what I was commenting on. My point was the original poster did not have to sell her house, so it was a different topic, she could have kept the property as a passive-income property.
In the original-poster's situation, the IRS is seeking recapture of the property's past depreciation, which has nothing to do with the gift tax or the effort put forth to qualify for the exclusion.
My concern with your scenario is the US Treasury, and its policing entity the IRS, might take issue with that scenario.
Also, if you forgive HER monthly payments on HER debt, that is a taxable event for HER, after all she is buying the house, according to you so, there would be escrow documents involved in that transaction, i.e. a paper trail.
I'm not sure what you mean by "ask someone who knows stuff," in light of the fact I was talking about another type of scenario; but perhaps I'm misunderstanding you.
Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just throwing out one of my half-baked ideas, of which I have many. (Something to look forward to?) I see you are someone who knows your stuff, and no one can responsibly advise her on what to do unless they see her estate plan, income, assets, etc., and those of her beneficiary. It's possible the loan forgiveness would not result in tax liability for her, depending on how much it is and how much income she already has. Or, like you said, maybe it would. It's complex, isn't it? How did you get into it?
The loan would have to be documented for one in order for the IRS to find it and pitch a fit over it and it's too hard to say how any of their property is structured, we are not their accountants let alone their tax accountants. Any escrow documents would be a dead giveaway to confirmation of a loan forgiveness.
Oh how did I get into this - let me count the ways. True story: I was a very poor teenager, 19 years old and new mother. No work or schools skills. I couldn't rub two nickels together to save my life.
To give you the short version, I decided to go to school one day and fell in love with accounting. I loved accounting and school so much I refused to leave my university and ended up writing a thesis, receiving an MSA in that discipline.
I love auditing more, but tax is just fine with me as well.
Please don't misunderstand me, I don't consider myself an authoritative figure in my field. I humbly consider myself a perpetual WIP - Work In Process.
You seem like you are in the know. Do you work in the accounting, finance, or estate-planning business?
That's a great American success story! When you love your work it doesn't seem like work. I admire the tremendous focus it takes to do that kind of work.
I'm retired. I stumbled through two semesters of accounting in college, but in summer school so I could condense the torture. "You'll get through it," my mom would tell me.
Did you ever start watching a bad movie that was so terrible, you had to watch it to the end so you could see if it was going to somehow redeem itself? Well, that was those two semesters. I got through them, and don't remember much. There's still a question about why treasury stock isn't treated as an asset, but my instructor ordered me to quit asking about it.
I know what you are talking about, I had a few "torture classes" when I was in college.
Treasury stock is really a contra-equity account. Treasury stock is stock the company has repurchased from shareholders; thus it replenishes the company's inventory of stock although as a treasury record. Since it transitions back into the company's inventory, it is no longer outstanding stock.
Treasury stock is negated from the calculation of dividends paid and is also negated from the calculation of Earnings Per Share (EPS).
That's a MUCH better explanation than I ever got from anyone, including my instructor. Do you realize that most accountants aren't all that articulate? But if you're on the auditing side, you probably do more than crunch numbers. Are you the ones who write the footnotes?
Janice, My husband and I had a very similar experience. We sold a rental property and immediately invested the majority of the money into a piece of land to build our final home. We knew we would have to pay the capital gains taxes but we ended up with "depreciation recapture". No real estate person ever told us about this when buying rentals. This was our first sale of a rental and wow! What a shock that was. We too had to stroke a hefty check to the IRS (while uttering certain expletives). We decided to NOT to sell the other rental.
I am not sure which one of us you’re asking, but we did have a tax guy do ours. Although it seems the gov’t has only one guideline: You made money? Send it in.
I owned a couple of companies nearly 10 years ago. One year, we made a killing. The government also made a killing. After all of my expenses, and even with a tax attorney, they took 49% of net.
Or not lay out anything at all. See my longer, first level (second level?) comment in this thread about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. Apologies if I haven't shared previously. Well, I have, just maybe not so's you caught it in the mix. You're on the right track for sure.
Exactly right. Our government’s view….what more can we steal from every person who tries to create a decent life?
My guess is the recapture was due to sale (capital gains) and not doing a 1031 exchange which protects profits by rolling them into another property (also on 1031 all deferred taxes are essentially forgiven on death and heirs can sell based on value at time of death). They’ve also been after 1031 exchanges as well because it allows for generational wealth to be created…..which they don’t want to allow.
I never had a tax attorney. But also, I never had a car payment or a house payment, and I 'own' a modest brick ranch house and two cars. And only once did I have credit card debt payments on 2,000 of borrowed dollars (lesson learned and never again). The two grand was for sandpaper, saw blades and bits, etc. which I needed to finish up on a house I was building for my mom. And by the way, I still have some of that left over sandpaper in a tin box from some twenty-seven years ago.
The credit card company is a strange thing. And for some reason the credit card company sent me a credit card which I have kept all these years. The first strange thing is that the credit card company never asked me to disclose what my income was, which I would have refused to do. The next strange thing is that years later the credit card company lower my credit rating ... and then later lowered the amount I could 'borrow' from 20K to 15K. I could never figure that out. Because you would think that a guy who never borrowed any money for any purpose would have the best 'credit rating' of anybody. (Okay! I know how they think. Someone has to borrow and repay to have a 'credit history'. Well, that makes me a-historical a far as the Credito Companie is concerned.)
My motto has always been: if you want to have everyone else's results, do what everyone else does. If you want something different, do something else. This, of course, has ramifications. I'll never be a billionaire. But on the other hand, Bill Gates, George Soros and Elon Musk, et alia, were never my object of aspiration. Instead, I am content to be a little guy with no debt.
best thing to do with a credit card is to put your monthly expense items on the card, then zero the balance every month that way you maintain the available spending amount, incur no interest, have an active account.. and if it is a rewards account a few sheckeles dribble in to your pocket. amske sure its a "no annual fee" card, too.
Exactly! I have done this for my entire adult life. I also froze my credit with all 4 agencies, which works quite well and I don't get any of those continual credit card offers, plus no one can open a card in my name.
I am sure that you Cleaver Cleavers are the smarter ones. And I am the hopeless, but not hapless one. My wife pays all the bills, she jumps through the coupons hoops, and saves the five percent with the Lowe's card or whatever. Not me! And I do have a 'rewards' credit card rewards in the thousands stacked up to the moon. I refuse to use them. It's against my religion!
As a kid, a very young kid, my Dad took us to the circus. It was the big one in Madison Square Garden. Back then the beared lady, the fat man, these were still okay. And they would have had a three headed man or woman if they could have found one. As well as these, and in the big three ring circus, I saw the dog and pony shows, tigers and/or lions and the cracking of the whip ... and from them on I knew one thing. I never wanted to be someone else's trick pony or dog hobbling along on two legs and acting so-undog-edly absurd. No cracking whips for me.
I use the credito card for eBay and whatever few trusted e-merchants is use. That's it.
I do look for deals, bargains and the such. I was always fortunate enough say past the age of fifty to make money enough to buy whatever I wanted new. And I remembered my first new trucks and cars very well ... and how nice to no longer be riding around in wrecks.
Thanks for writing. I always find you interesting.
The best thing I learned from my parents was to only buy what you have the cash for (except for a house and perhaps a car). I owe nothing except what I have spent in the last 30 days, and while I have a couple of cards for convenience, I have paid them off each month since....forever. I never carry a balance, and have never paid any interest. What I learned from my sister, who once worked in a bank's credit card division, is that they all encourage you to accumulate debt so you will have to pay them interest and get ensnared in the whole credit system. The more credit you have available compared to the amount of that credit in use, as well as your on-time payment history, determine your credit rating AND the amount of credit they extend to you. It's a criminal system that a lot of people get caught up in, especially young people.
My parents taught me the same thing. But the best was the thing about, If Johnny jumps off a bridge, would you do it too?" That one served me well when C19 Terrorism reared its ugly murderous head. Well, a lot of Johnnies ... Dick and Janes jumped of the Covid Bridge. And maybe they never got the lesson. Who knows?
Just curious . How did the IRS know it was your daughter who rented the house? Unless you diverted it to personal use without knowing the consequences?
shouldn' have declared it was your daughter living there, just another tenant. What, are they gonna nip round and check her birth certificate to verify she IS your offpsrig?
too bad these gummit dweebs don't actually EARN their "living". More like poltiical welfare. but I know, I'm only singin' to the choir here.
I’m sorry Janice!! I have rental properties too and while not an accountant, I attend tax seminars yearly to stay up to date on those pesky laws. Primarily due to a weird situation that happened to me, that could have been avoided if I’d done the paperwork differently.
I understand that recapture only occurs upon a sale. But does having the property in a Trust, now occupied by the successor trustee, solve the problem of recapture (from use as a rental property a decade or more ago)?
This is the supreme irony. We are now the Soviet Union. And Russia is more like us in the years of my childhood.
We now live in fear of hunger (destroyed food supply) and freezing our asses off in the winter (broke Woke everything policy).
It's amuses me no end how someone like Bennie Two Noodles hates the Putin who is no puppet president, but is okay with the little house of horrors we have in the form of the now United Sates, including Mr. Puppet President Pedo. Ironies abound and horrors only grow.
I’m self-employed. I don’t make a huge amount, but it does help pay our bills. Between state and federal, they took nearly 30% of my income.
So, why do I have to pay taxes on the sale of my property if I already pay property tax? I mean, I’ve been paying taxes on it for decades now. Although not as much as in other states, they inch up every year. I feel that anything I make (capital gains) belongs in my pocket where it will be used judiciously rather than theirs.
It's called Babylonian Money Magic, and the Babylonians started it way back in OT times. It's basically holding your coinage (gold and silver back then) for convenience use with tokens or paper); chaging you for the priveledge and then loaning your currency to others and charging them interest. Earliest form of fractional banking reserve. Usary was prohibited by God in the OT for it's evil basis. They accumulated wealth for themselves. It was fueled by evil, gods Baal and Molack and they required child sacriface to fuel the power they gave to their adherents. The Khasarian Family (from Egypt anf Phoenicia)that established this gained power as "bankers" and they spread through history and spread from country to country gaining wealth eventually reaching the English Crown and then America and now we have our current corrupt system. Do an internet search (NOT Google) for the Kharzarian Mafia and see what you find.
it is sort of like wning a car. You pay tax on it when you first buy it, you pay their annual bribe for the priviledge of driving it on the roadswe are overtaxed to build and, in some rare cases, manitain. We pay tax on the fuel we burn to make them go, when when it gets sold they collect more tax on that sale. not to mention tax on every part you purcjase tp kaap it rolling, and any labour you hire to fit those bits to the car. On tope of that, they hold their hand out every few years for a new Mother May I Drove My Car ticket to keep in your pocket, indicaating you are deigned worthy enough to actually get behind the wheel of that motorcar.
All of that is to feed the corrupt monster thus enabling it to torture and deplete us further each year.
that's why I buy and drive old junkers.. far lower tax to get in, nowhere near as complex to keep running, and when possible I buy the parts in a neighbouring state which have no sales tax. Further advantage is they are far less a target for theft or jacking. Not to mention far simpler to keep them running. NO confusers to mangle, er, I mean manage, the fuel feed systems they;ve mandated of late.
Get a lot of comments and questions on them, too, which is fun. And NO this one is NOT for sale........
Yeah, I’ve been thinking lately of buying an older car that doesn’t have all the fancy computers in it because I’m tired of it all and I want a stick again. (No one will steal it then. LOL) They are complicated to maintain and expensive. The newer ones have kill switches and now companies like Ford, BMW, and one other have agreed to put in this GPS device that limits you to where you can drive and when. Sounds like a free country, doesn’t it?
I have replied elsewhere in this thread with the seemingly unbelievable news that 1) you likely don't have a business as defined in US Code Title 26 (the tax code) and 2) you likely don't have a federal income tax liability. The kooks are out posting on C&C? Not so.
See my longer 1st level comment in reply to BFM about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. It is eye-opening. The book, not my comment. 😜 You deserve to understand the truth it reveals.
Honestly, I have been aware that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified, and, therefore, income tax is not constitutional. I don’t know if I will be too surprised. It will be just how not to pay taxes without being harassed.
The truth is actually not about ratification at all. Not even about the Constitution per se, though it's a reasonable place to start. All such arguments are null, never, ever under consideration in administrative courts or with the IRS directly.
The truth lay in US Code Title 26 (the tax code). The code 𝘩𝘢𝘥 to be written to conform to the Constitution. (Can't remember if the author talks about law as opposed codes and statutes. They are different, though most of us are in the dark since we didn't go to law school. Nor are lawyers forthcoming about such information. Probably tmi leading to confusion in a reply comment -?) It comes down to use of language, something crafty lawyers revel in. Corporations are persons and such. Disgusting.
The journey to getting back $ from the IRS - there is a statute of limitations, you can't go back over a lifetime; used to be 5 years, might only be 3 now? - and ultimately not paying tax that you do not owe is not for the faint of heart. It's for the educated, prepared to come back and back and back and back again at the IRS (all by hard copy) with their education. There's no way around it for the agency because their code is the only reference you will ever point to. Harassed? It might feel like it in the beginning, but once educated you will have some measure of inner calm, know what to expect, and will be ready to respond. Yeah. Not for the faint of heart. Cojones. Even ladies got 'em 😆🤣
Follow link provided by @Garden Lover. The author released the text for f*ree last summer on his website. I suspect he is no longer having print copies made. I prefer print, works better for my brain. Got my copies several years pre-plandemic. You could write to the author to inquire if he has any hard copies left. Snail mail address on website for his other books, all of which are educational but with less practical impact than 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦. I believe you can also find his email on the website? Might take some looking around?
Though I might suggest sharing, with discretion. Not everyone is ready as you can imagine. --
Dogged scholarship. He's not a lawyer. Just a smart dude. (A couple of lifetimes ago I had to do some legal research. Well, didn't 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 to, but was damned if I was going into the thing blind. Learned a lot. Helped my case. The lawyers were totally surprised but encouraging. Encouraged me to go to law school! Hahahahaha!!)
You're right, not everyone is ready. As with any new information I've discovered, I plan to test this plan on myself by filing my taxes according to the prescribed method in the book and we'll see what happens. This will end my current experiment on myself...which was refusing to file for the last three years to see what happened. I know that isn't considered a wise decision, but I have my reasons. Previous experiments have resulted in federal agents coming to my home and work to 'interview' me, so I am not a novice at this game. Grace and peace to you.
Amen brother. You're on the right track. You'll get pushback. Likely hard copy snail mail since you're filing. See if they try "frivolous" for starters. 🙄 Use the author's website for supporting info (such as https://losthorizons.com/Documents/LegalNotes.htm and https://losthorizons.com/tax/faq.htm ) and examples from other folks with successes for inspiration on how to respond to their tactics, round by round. It's a great resource. Hope it all feels as good as I know it can. 💪
The back and forth process, several rounds, will take months. I doubt there's any way to grease it. A word in C&C comments couldn't hurt by way of encouraging other folks. Should you do so, can I suggest referencing the source material? So folks will know where to investigate? Your call. Brightest blessings.
When I got taxes prepared, I opted to have the pirates 🏴☠️ withdraw it from my account on the last possible day, 4/15. I’m sure many others did the same, so ya…everyone’s accounts are being drained at the same time😒
Or, simply don't pay tax when you don't have a tax liability. I know, sounds crazy. But... the truth, for you truth-seekers, is that most Americans (not all, just most) don't have a federal income tax liability. Who the h am I to make such a statement? Essentially it's not my statement.
Like Turtles All the Way Down, Dissolving Illusions, The Truth About Cancer and other titles and websites have done for revealing the truth about medicine, 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 by Peter Eric Hendrickson lays out the fascinating and enraging truth about what has been perpetrated on Americans regarding income tax under obfuscation and propaganda. The author has now made the text available for free on his website:
Caveat: Not an easy read. Dense text, but in-depth and thorough. Y'all have been through a plandemic, indeed a lifetime of crafted illusion. You know without doubt THEY (The Hierarchy Exploiting You) lie. Expect perhaps yet another emotional ride, perhaps some cognitive dissonance as you uncover yet more truth. Highly recommended. Take your time. It's a lot to take in and digest. Cojones required to follow through with action once you have landed on the truth.
No crimes are committed by not paying taxes when they are not owed.
When the truth is understood and one stands by their d͟u͟t͟y as an American (not a US Citizen with its particular, specific definition in US Code Title 26) there is perspicacity even IRS agents or lawyers have no tools to surmount.
BTW if you read the particulars of the court case against the Hendricksons you would understand that it rings like the persecution of a former president - love him or hate him - that our esteemed host writes about. Prosecutors and judges paid off by unseen masters, making things up as they go along. If you were faced with the choice of 1) being under an order of the court to sign a statement not of your own words but of words crafted by the court, a statement which you knew was not true leaving you faced with prison time if you didn't sign 𝘢𝘯𝘥 open to the charge of perjury, or 2) putting yourself in the position of perjury another way by signing a statement on a tax return form you knew not to be true, a form whose text clearly states you sign that it 𝘪𝘴 true under penalty of perjury, which would you choose? That was the choice given to Pete Hendrickson's wife, Doreen, in her trial. (She signed neither.) Be careful when considering source material.
I understand your argument, and that the courts have rejected it. Anyone who asserts those arguments is on shaky ground before the IRS and the courts. Both follow judicial precedents.
I understand your concern, your fear in the face of the bully. I present no specific arguments above that would be presented "before the IRS and the courts." Very careful, thoughtful presentation of facts as presented in US Code Title 26 when done correctly in interactions with the IRS, are irrefutable. There are thousands of Americans who can attest. You should visit the author's website. Or not. You have fear. I can understand why it feels justified given the history of the IRS's bullying. If you follow the law (US Code Title 26) there is nothing to fear. God is in the details. Blessings to you.
Since this seems to be the "tax thread", reacting to Jeff's opening comment...
"...when our federal income tax forms are due, and last year’s income taxes either paid or partly refunded"
Seriously? It takes the IRS a WHOLE YEAR to actually pay refunds? I knew the US govt was inefficient, but not that bad...
(Ok, so I'm guessing they figured out that if they keep the refund until the last minute they're legally allowed to pay it, then they can keep the interest on it? "Public Service" really is dead in the US.)
Doesn’t Bill know a 2010 progressive is a right-wing extremist Nazi fascist today?
“I’d be especially interested to hear from our democrat converts in the comments: what finally did it for you?”
I just realized all of the left’s claims that it represented my values were a lie. As I shared in a piece last year:
“I used to call myself a progressive because I was anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.
“I stopped calling myself a progressive because I am anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/my-two-year-stackiversary-lattice)
I agree fully with all except “pro-freedom of choice” if it means abortion. We give no freedom of choice to the unborn, often up to birth. We are also taking away parents right to choose for their children.
No, I mean the freedom to choose what does or does not go into our bodies, for example. Freedom of choice does not give one the right to terminate an innocent life.
MAA, may I suggest a change of wording to clarify that you meant Freedom of Medical choice? Unfortunately, the phase Freedom of choice has long been associated with pro abortion. I thought you meant pro abortion too.
I was actually quoting something I wrote years ago after awakening to my indoctrination, so it’s not something I can change, but I do include a list of core values in the “In Praise of Dangerous Freedom” portion of that piece you may find clearer:
The biggest thing holding back most people from standing up for their real convictions is they are literally terrified of not being liked, ironically by people they often don't even know. Once you grew a pair and realize what truly matters is being respected, not liked, you'll find you end up respecting yourself a lot more too.
Another funny little twist the lefties threw in: "choice." Who can be against "choice?" Isn't that what conservatives want, freedom and choice? They are pretty good at turning language against itself to mean basically the opposite of what the words mean. We need to reclaim the language. Abortion is the #1 issue which IMO can unite a large voting bloc on the right. We don't even need to specify exactly what we want, we just need to point out the insanity of the Dem's infanticide platform. Virtually no one, including (D) voters, wants 9 mth abortions, and yet for all intents and purposes, that is their platform. And they know it is unpopular, which is why they try to squirm out of questions about it. We have to stop letting them squirm.
Anti-war. Yes, that was me too, a while back. But now, with Obiden, the left is starting the wars and funding them. I thought Republicans were all... I don't know what I thought! That they were my dad or something? I voted for Trump for one reason-- because he wasn't Hillary!-- and haven't looked back!
Where is the military hardware we left in Afghanistan? It’s like we challenged somebody to a baseball game and then gave them the ball, bats, uniforms, and stadium. Was the Iran attack on Israel some Middle East umpire calling “batter up”?
Jeff brings up a good point: "Like many democrats I know personally, Bill claims to be a progressive, but he lives like a conservative." There's a lot packed into that statement, I think.
For most liberals and lefties, it's mindless virtue-signaling. Belonging to a crowd. Not rocking the boat in school or at work. Going along to get along...but also NIMBY. Unquestioningly accepting what the authorities and "experts" told them...unless it applies to their personal favorite things. Wanting to tell others how to live...but not have those laws applied to themselves. Note the self-centeredness of leftists - my view SHOULD BE everyone's view - and also note how that's what they accuse the right of.
Also, not applying any logic to the stream of inane Orwellian propaganda: "a woman's right to choose," "criminal justice reform," "climate change," and so on.
Not willing or able to look at the truth, as defined by real-world outcomes of ideas and policies over time. (E.g., who could possibly be FOR public schooling in the US given its cost and outcomes, and the fact that it's the #1 source of child predation in the world?)
Also, being historically ignorant, if not outright hostile to history itself (the arrogance of "WE weren't there then, but WE are here now, so it WILL work out differently this time").
They never stop to think that Orwell is writing about the left. Maybe Orwell didn't even know that? The Soviets, the Fascists...all leftists. The major wars seemed to be leftists fighting with other leftists about whose version of leftism is "correct." Which is about as ironic as it is sad.
The thing that's struck me about conservatives - genuine small government, Constitutional conservatives, not the fake leftists-posing-as-conservatives sold to us by the MSM - is that they're not operating from "ism" ideology. People of that conservative bent generally don't ask themselves things like "what is the communist/socialist/capitalist response to this issue?" They respond from either logic/reason or intuition, in alignment with actually held (and valued) values. So, the response is natural and spontaneous, not contrived. This naturally leads to more, not less, openness (and is also a soft spot the leftists attack).
As an aside, this is why all "art" that comes from a leftist place or mindset is such cringeworthy crap. As another aside, this is why capitalism actually is better - it's a system that accounts for human nature in the same way that nature accounts for nature (selection), rather than trying to impose a Utopian vision of "fairness" and a system on top of natural processes.
FWIW, I've come to think of liberalism as an impossible position. It's always got to evolve one way or another. Hold onto "experts" and it devolves to leftism. Hold onto individual responsibility, common sense, and the natural order, and it evolves to small-c conservatism.
There is no way to sit on the fence forever saying "anything goes, we can all get along, all people and all ideas are valid." This is b/c the hard truth is that not all people nor all ideas are valid. Some are very bad and very destructive. Some cultures really are better than others in every meaningful way. To allow them into civil society is to dismantle civil society. And guess what the first thing they will get rid of is? Liberal ideas.
Well said! So many of your points resonated with me, but this one probably the most:
“Not willing or able to look at the truth, as defined by real-world outcomes of ideas and policies over time.”
It is abundantly clear that leftists generally operate from a mindset of, “This *feels* like it should work, and it makes us look kind/virtuous/whatever,” but they never go back and do an after-action review. When things don’t work the way they hope/promise, there’s never any introspection. There’s never any true effort to find root causes and address them. They always move on to the next thing that “feels” right.
Maybe it’s my very “engineer” mindset, but I simply cannot wrap my brain around the unwillingness to look at outcomes and evaluate their effectiveness. “This didn’t work out like I hoped, so maybe my assumptions/approach/methods are incorrect.” With the Left, it’s more like, “This didn’t work out like I hoped/promised, so I just need to do it more/faster.” (This is, of course, in parallel with, “Which group can I blame?”)
Facts vs. feelings. Open mindedness over tunnel vision. Real world vs. fantasy. Will we ever bridge that divide, or are we just too fundamentally different?
Exactly. I always go to public education as an example. The left has had a hold of it for generations now, probably, what, 60+ years? And they spend an enormous amount of money, last I looked, about $16k per student per year, near the top in the world. And the results are laughably horrific. Among the worst in the developed world. In some districts, not one student can read, write, and do math. Not even one out of thousands. Think of the disservice to these kids!
But, do they ever go back and evaluate what caused this (extremely expensive) failure? No way! It's always "systemic" this and "structural" that, which are themselves outdated 1970s ideas from post-structuralist / post-Marxist thinkers. IOW, they're using their own ideology to explain away why their own ideology has failed. Circular logic. If only they could do it more!
And when you ask what they want to do differently, it amounts to "spend more money." "Corporations have more money than us..." etc. Total non sequiturs that shouldn't fly among even elementary school educated people. Where is the feedback loop? Where is the willingness to try different things? The open mindedness? The ability to accept criticism, evaluate failures, and adjust one's own strategies and tactics accordingly?
Instead, they go with "everyone else is wrong, reality is wrong, the outcomes are actually good, and we need to make people see how right and great we are." Which has turned literally all of our intellectual fields of work and study into Potemkin villages. They're all fake, completely composed of manufactured "research" to support a failed 50-year old ideology.
"The first step in understanding the state of education today is to review how government came to be the dominant force behind schooling in the United States. From the outset of the first settlements in the New World, Americans founded and successfully maintained a decentralized network of schools through the 1850s. Then, beginning in New England, a wave of change swept across the country, which soon saw states quickly abandoning the original American model of decentralized, private education in favor of government-funded and operated schools.
"This movement not only altered the direction and control of elementary and secondary education in the United States, but it also contradicted many of the principles Americans had fought for less than a century earlier:
- A country founded in opposition to central governmental authority allowed for bureaucratic management of its schools.
- A country synonymous with "free enterprise" and distrust of legally protected monopolies built a government monopoly in schooling.
- A country that stretched the exercise of individual choice to its practical limits in nearly every sphere of life severely limited the exercise of choice in schooling, assigning the responsibility for education to the discretion of government authorities.
"The system of K-12 government schooling that exists to this day clashes with the political, economic, social, and cultural traditions of the United States to an extent unparalleled by any other institution in American society."
And then they have the unmitigated gall to wring their hands about homeschooling parents being unqualified to teach their children and worrying about said children’s learning 🙄
I don't think leftists think it feels like it will work, they just want cover to do what they want with no repercussions, so they will take any & every excuse to cover up their depraved lifestyles.
There’s a lot of that, for certain. But I am friends with a lot of liberals (wha? 🤣), and the ‘average’ lib really does operate on feelings. They want to continuously do things that “feel” good or “look” like they care. They don’t want to confront the facts that prove their solutions are crap. Now, if we are talking about Liberal leaders, you are spot on. They take advantage of the feelz of their followers and promise all good things will happen if they will only keep them in charge. For them, it’s all about power and control.
Even worse, liberals never seem able or willing to realize that their solutions are pure crap and don't work. They just do the same things over and over and over....
I’ve often thought this way. Leftist thinking is best left out of engineering schools as physical laws tend to not lend themselves to being ignored. Conservatives are better thinkers and get better results because they deal with reality.
I have certainly found this to be true. I know that we need all sorts of people in this world. How boring would it be if we all felt the same about everything! But I really can’t understand people who continually do the same thing over and over - with consistently disastrous results - just because it seems like the ‘compassionate’ thing to do. Education is a great example. As is the homelessness situation. The good news is that it seems (at least to me) that a lot more people are getting a clue.
I *have* found that most people in STEM fields are more conservative (as a general rule). I agree that it’s because we live in ‘reality’. The theoretical is interesting, and certainly worthy of study and investigation. But reality is reality. Too many people don’t like ‘reality’.
That is at the top of the list of what I feel is wrong with the Leftist zealots. come to mind: Climate change and gender dysphoria. When either of those topics are shown to be problematic, the left just doubles down.
"They never stop to think that Orwell is writing about the left. Maybe Orwell didn't even know that?"
Actually, Orwell knew that precisely as INGSOC stands for English Socialism. "Animal Farm" was also a harsh critique aimed at communism. Although Orwell considered himself a democratic socialist, he was actually one of socialism's fiercest critics as evidenced by the steelman arguments against it he presents in the requisite "The Road to Wigan Pier."
i have always been on the left until recently, since the pandemic they have definitely been the orwellians. plus, it seems to have robbed them of any sense of humor and increasingly they remind me of the saying, frequently wrong but never in doubt. i watched a comedy special done in scotland to protest their new censorship law, and it made me think of the left here and how it is possible to be concerned, serious and dedicated about issues without becoming censorious, uptight, smug, humorless twat
Well, they were the Orwellians in the past as well. The opposite of what our media and professors told us. Fake news, propaganda, entire fake towns to cover up what they were doing and what life was actually like. Struggle sessions. Public humiliation rituals. Repression. Mass graves. There are even pictures of Mao's red guard wearing medical masks like we had during covid. (Read or listen to Michael Malice's book about the Soviet Union for a taste.)
The thing is leftist ideologies are all aimed at reordering an already ordered world against its natural ordering principles. They are hubristic in assuming people know better than God/nature. So, they will always fail. Where I've landed is that what is real (as opposed to what is ideological) is all that really matters, throw the labels aside: authoritarianism vs. self-reliance; subservience vs. personal responsibility; micromanagement vs. freedom; confinement (incl. confiscation) vs. liberty; collectivism vs. free association; tyranny vs. rule of law; and so on. I don't need "isms" to tell me which side of those dichotomies is better for society.
The left here has an arrogant self assurance that their ideas and only their ideas have any validity. They believe that others have nothing to contribute and God forbid, they would never consider modifying their positions in any way. To paraphrase, being a leftist means never having to say you're wrong.
Excellent article in our small independent monthly paper showing how the Nazis were socialists (It's in the acronym NAZI), using Goebbels as an example. So, by no extension really, the fascist NAZI's were also leftists, as most certainly this government is today. Tell a Democrat this if you want to see their head explode.
Yeah, I mean, it's in their name: National Socialist German Worker's Party. The propagandists on the left will say "that's b/c they wanted to recruit leftists to their cause." Uh-huh, sure. And devout Christians call themselves satanists to woo lefties to church.
It's big government. It's government micromanaging the economy. The Nazis believed in - and carried out - confiscation and nationalization of private property, including taking a manufacturing co. and forcing it to make "the People's car" (Volkswagen).
So, then the propagandists will say, what about the "nationalist" bent. Well, as I understand it Stalin was also a "nationalist" of sorts. So, were the Soviets then "right wing?" How about the Castros? No, the whole fascism = right wing was a leftist media invention from the very start to deflect blame from leftism for the destruction caused by leftism. Our media was always on the side of the left. Even as they were murdering 100s of 1000s of people.
Sowell has written about this. Fascism came from Mussolini, who was a Socialist, whose father was a Socialist as well. As such, it's an evolution of Socialism. As Sowell says, it's of the left. The point of Fascism is more or less to use "private co's" to run cover for the government, so the government can do what it wants w/o facing the consequences when things go south.
Very, very much like current times. "It's those d@mn Rx co's who 'captured' regulatory agencies!!" Uh, no. Other way around. Rx has been drafted into the MiC, which is headed by the government entity called the security state.
I recall hearing that the main difference between Nazis and Soviets was "National Socialism" vs "International Socialism". The Nazi party wanted Socialism to benefit Germans specifically, whereas the Marxists/Soviets intended it to be a worldwide "revolution of the proletariat" for "the benefit of all oppressed workers".
They did hate each other, but it was because Hitler was convinced that "The Jews" were behind Marxism, not because they weren't both socialists.
I believe that split also existed within the Soviets, where there were two schools: the Stalinists and the Trotskyists (Troskyites?). Stalinists wanted communism to stay in Russia, Trotsky's followers thought it needed to be global. What we call neocons and neoliberals today are basically Trotsky's followers, decades later. Still, they're all leftist ideologies, whether socialism, communism, fascism, or the "neos." I guess leftists are just miserable, humorless people who are obsessed with power and war.
It's why the Bible exists. The How-To instructions for living. The Ten Commandments. Why there can't be YOUR truth and MY truth (that's what we call opinion). Events happened, documents were signed, laws were passed, shots were mandated. Until "leftists" can learn to accept that truth exists, and be willing to turn off their MSM and root around for the actual TRUTH, there's very little hope for converting them. "bees don't waste their time telling flies that flowers taste better than sh"t" etc etc
It's the same reason why so many Americans are "Christians" but don't really act as though they believe it. "All the good people around me are 'X' [Christian, Progressive, whatever] therefore I need to be 'X' too in order to be a Good Person."
It's a matter of social approval for certain "good" and "bad" beliefs.
What I find interesting is that I've always felt I was "anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all"...pretty much everything except countercultural, and I always considered myself to be conservative. (not "A" conservative, just conservative)
Being conservative *is* countercultural as “cultural” means the all-encompassing propagandizing, social engineering, and mass indoctrination into socialist ideology most people are oblivious to like fish swimming in polluted water.
Ditto. I was shaped by the 60s and was extremely liberal through the 90s. Then, during the Obama years, and after becoming a business owner, I changed dramatically. I still have many classic liberal values that diverge hugely with the one world order freaks. Isn't it ironic that the music groups of the 60s who were so anti establishment and counter culture are now thoroughly politically correct and shilling and beholden to their overlords. Maybe it's too many drugs, but probably just fundamental stupidity.
It took me several years recently to realize that liberal ideas have shifted so dramatically from the 60s and my idea of "liberal." I'm still having trouble with the shift! Liberal, in my mind, is still the anti establishment and counter culture. And about Antifa being anti-fascist? That's a new and bizarre idea.
I think this is where MAA was unclear. The values she **and I** held haven't changed. Those who we had shared them with have changed. Their brains were broken by TDS and the pandemic psyop. See Dr. Michael Nehls, The Indoctrinated Brain.
This is why my favorites these days as a former Progressive are Jeff and Tucker, along with Matt and Glenn. Horseshoes, anyone?
And, Peace, it’s been shocking to see old friends come out in support of Pharma & censorship & - in practice - oppose the Nuremberg Code. Mind-blowing.
Maher is shifting positions for sure. Ideologically unstable Democrats have been doing that since Reconstruction, but he’s still a whack job. “You’re not going to like” conservatives solving problems such as puberty blockers and violent 3rd-world gangs for neighbors? Isn’t that like Bill cutting off his generous nose to spite his smug face?
FWIW, all the dems I know - which sadly is mostly everyone I know except RFK supporters - have considered Maher conservative for several years now. It's only people "on the right" who keep saying he's a democrat and liberal who is changing his mind and counting it as a "win" for us. I'm so out of it I didn't even know who he was until somewhere during the pandemic when I saw a post on X, and thought, he's right!
There was a story about the red shoes a few years back. There's nothing alarming about women wearing red shoes; it's common. You don't see many men in red leather shoes.
Yes, he argues that the problem with extreme left-wing ideology is that it might provoke an extreme right-wing backlash. He can’t bring himself to argue the problem with extreme left-wing ideology is that it’s ANTI-SOCIAL: anti-freedom, anti-prosperity; anti-SANITY.
Maher is not the only one shifting. There are others like Jeffery Sachs (WEF connected, head of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University). The Smarter Ones notice the big shift in the new multi-generational Narrative being engineered and they don't want to be left without a seat on the new gravy train leaving the station. These chameleons are very, very slick and crafty in how they craft their word shifting vocalizations. Such don't really stand for much excepting that they value most living well. And I about this, and their 'beliefs', I am sure they lie to themselves without really being aware of doing so.
People like Maher have been taken mind captured captive the same as most of us have. Such are well capable of being blind to themselves.
Who knows? And you are right, some of them wake up. But I think they are the few who embark upon a truly new course. I notice, for example, that Jeffrey Sachs hasn't quit the Sustainability Center at Columbia. A lot of them want the cushy life such as comes with subsidized Woke.
Lifelong leftie here. It was the pandemic lies + trans agenda (as a close 2nd) that finally woke me up (pun not intended).
If there's a silver lining to the pandemic it's that I and many of my lefty friends now question EVERYTHING from the (previously trusted left wing) media, not just Fox News anymore.
KC - same here lifelong leftie until the pandemic. My eyes were opened when people were being fired for not taking the jab, up to an including, someone who worked for the fire department who not only got fired, but they stole their pension too. That and many other pandemic regimes opened my eyes.
Few months back they had a great documentary about the horrible conditions the child miners in The Democratic Republic of Congo work under. Heartbreaking...all for the fake green agenda.
It's my go to daily news site, and ha been for years. Not perfect for sure, but they couch they especially sensitive topics sometimes in order to keep from the government cancelling them, as much of the fascist EU has done. Blew me away when ~5 years ago a local good old boy hunter told me it was his site too.
The pandemic absolutely woke me up too. If you’re ready for it, watch/listen to WarRoom with Steven K Bannon. Find him on GETTR, Rumble, and Real Americas Voice. Mon-Sat 9-11 central time. Your mind will be blown.
I watch RAV, Real America's Voice. It comes in on broadcast tv channel 25. They have regular news and talk shows. But, I rely on Jeff's C&C for clarity.
Have you checked out redacted.inc? That’s Clayton Morris’s outlet. Whether it comes in blue or red, he calls out the BS right quick. You might also like Russell Brand, if you aren’t already familiar with him.
After the last few articles I’ve read at epoch, I’ve noticed they have a few new faces. And they are being infiltrated. Just like the former republican’s Party were conservatives, they’ve been infiltrated by criminals, liars and thieves. And progressives. So epoch had better do some good digging. I dropped them, been a subscriber for years, because of these mamby Pamby by little men they have employed, that tow that soft line. So they made an offer for just digital for some ridiculous low price so I got back on. But I warned them, and pointed out specifics. Maybe they’ll get it.
I did the same thing. I took the low price offer, thinking I'd stick with them for this election year. I'm disappointed in some of their shallow analyses and the ads sprinkled in between paragraphs that make me feel like I'm reading one of those "free" sites with more ads than content. If you like their shengyung coverage, though, you'd probably stick around for that, because it is quite extensive.
I remain open to all of those possibilities. I do listen to Tucker's guests, and many have been quite interesting. Naomi Wolf seems to be climbing out of the liberal pit she's occupied for decades, and is squinting toward the light. She has moments of clarity. I read her because she's a good writer. It's the same reason I read Margaret Atwood -- best writer ever, though I agree with her on almost nothing.
Just listened to another Naomi Wolf interview with Tucker. As Tucker said, she had a lifetime membership in lefty land, but boy, did she get a wake up call when she went off the taliking points reservation.
And now many of us on the right no longer trust Fox News( they had a much more ominous take today on Trump’s current trial than Jeff). Sounds like one of the unintended consequences of the nefarious pandemic orchestration was to bring a diverse group together in agreement. I like it.
I was so pleased when I heard Left-Wing Jimmy Dore talk about the pandemic and the shots to a freedom crowd and I discovered that he didn't say one word that I didn't agree with the whole time!
It was wonderful to know that someone from the other side, so to speak, and I could agree 110% on this whole issue.
I transitioned in 2016 after watching our state legislators in action. (Colorado) Spent some time at the capitol building being a parent lobbyist for disabled children (I have one) and medical freedom. I watched the dems smile, nod and lie about supporting us and then vote against everything we had talked about. I watch a House committee chair shove a mom of a disabled child (in front of her child) because mom was pro vaccine choice and the dem didn't want to talk about it. I watch the dems cry fake tears for one dad who lost his son to meningitis, and disrespectfully scoff parent after parent who told stories of horrid vaccine injury, including death. (Picture the soup Nazi saying "Next") I watched dems schedule important hearings with 2 hours notice so we wouldn't show up, but when we did in numbers over 2000 to testify, they limited our testimonies to 1 min and only 1.5 hours total for each side. They were literally wondering the halls of the capitol searching desperately for anyone to fill the 1.5 hours of testimony supporting their bill, while 2000 people sat around wanting to testify against it. They passed it.
Horrified by their antics, I started voting conservative.
Welcome to the club of those who've seen their legislators be moron tools of lobbyists. Your Colorado reports make me want to pray those callous idiot legislators all got jabbed a lot with the bioweapon and every possible vaccine. I am done having any pity for all who enabled this "medical care" carnage. How many bodies must literally pile up for more tp wake up?
I feel your pain. It’s a demon possessed party, especially in CO. I guess The Blueprint is a must read on the disaster that has befallen my state I grew up in.
Why? You actually think they're different? They are all lying psychopaths, and to all of them, we (citizens) are their enemy. Chandler's fixation and fawning over the orange blob is baffling.
In '08, I wanted to bring back hanging the bankers from lamp posts. Now I want to feed the fake rep's to hungry lions in the Colosseum. If they charged $10/ea PPV, we could likely eliminate half the U.S. debt. Do it again for the plandemic evil ones, debt erased!
I converted during the Reagan years (my late 30s to early 40s) when I saw how well the country ran. I have no liberal/leftist tendencies at all now and haven't had any since the conversion. I wish I had not been so naive earlier. I actually came to realize that my natural political sentiment was as a conservative. Just didn't know it initially.
Bragg may be inept and the case may be weak at best but you forget one thing: the jury will consist of BRAINDEAD NYC RESIDENTS who won’t even be able to follow the logic but they will know Trump is guilty.
As a NYer, I used to really enjoy jury duty, but I haven't been called since I switched my registration to (R). Strange, that. I have some funny tales about jury duty but I'll spare you.
I had a colleague, child of a cop, who said that anyone connected to a policeman was not going to get chosen for jury duty, but that the "selectors" loved getting teachers. Maybe because most of them are left-ward feeling?
When I was a college professor in Berkeley I was always rejected for jury duty. I was told by an attorney friend that they don't want people who are too smart or persuasive as they could manipulate other jurors. Meanwhile my neighbors who are Chinese immigrants and don't speak or understand English very well have been chosen multiple times.
Lawyers would prefer someone without strong opinions and without knowledge of the subject matter. They want you to know only what you hear in the courtroom. If it's a criminal case, they don't want a cop. If it's a civil case about a design defect, they don't want an engineer. And so on.
Just the other day I was watching theTV trying to find something other than the OJ Simpson blabbering when I happened upon a story about 3 black women jurors that were admitting the voted not guilty verdict as a retaliation for the Rodney King verdicts against the white cops that beat him. The women said all the jurors not guilty votes for OJ was purely based on the fact he was black and was retribution for King. They SAID this back then and SAID this again just the other day! On national TV! How is that even legal? And further, how many more cases were tried where black jurors found a black criminal guilty of terrible crime not guilty as justification for retribution "bc they black?" This really angers the crap out of me. Although OJ was *found* innocent, everyone knows he killed Nicole Brown.
Wow, they’ve really got things wired up there, haven’t they? I think you called it. Not that it matters much, nowadays. They just turn everyone but guys like Daniel Penny loose.
Unfortunately in my experience most teachers nowadays (not all but a majority) are very easily led and not critical thinkers. They are also easily manipulated emotionally. Again, just my personal experience so I can’t generalize widely but it would make sense in that case to favor teachers for juries.
If SAT scores function as indicators of intelligence, then those going to state teachers' colleges are not very intelligent. Thus, not disposed to think carefully or critically. Guess I had better re-phrase my first sentence: putting into a past tense.
Yes, they love teachers. I was hoping it was because we understand the difference between fact and opinion, but maybe I am wrong. They are disappointed with me then.
My opinion of public school teachers is not high. My elementary school was a teachers' college training school: 3 new student teachers every marking term. In senior year of high school, I observed that the lower students on the "college track" were going to that same teachers' college. [BTW, learning that the author of "White Fragility" was employed at that non-august institution, I felt it reasonable to dismiss anything she might propose--without question]. Reading yearly, in USNews, the SAT scores of students entering college was yet another dart hitting the center of the target.
When my daughter was 8 in 1978, we lived in Ireland and she went to a little country school there. Her grade level in Ireland was at least 2 years ahead of her in math compared to what was being taught in the U.S. Thank goodness she has always been a good reader, we taught her to read well at 4 and 5 because even back then they had abandoned phonics in teaching.
I did the same with my 3: 'whole language' was the thing in the 80's. I wanted my children to be able to read well(and, as noted above, I had attitude about public school teachers). I used the old McGuffey readers for all three--lovely little stories. We did arithmetic together--especially with colored milk jug caps so the girls could "feel" as well as see, how addition and subtraction work.
You might be surprised how many conservative teachers there really are. At my smaller rural district, most are conservative. I think it's really the large districts that are mostly liberal, but even there, there are many conservative teachers. There are a couple of conservative teacher FB pages where we commiserate.
I agree. My daughter was a middle school teacher for 11 years, and we are in the foothills of Northern California. Almost all of her fellow teachers were conservative. I'd guess the California cities are different, though.
She left teaching about 7years ago because she was sick of California's laws about dealing with behavioral issues. You could no longer really deal with disturbed kids, rather, they were just shuffled from school to school. You couldn't discuss it much with the mostly defensive parents of disturbed kids because the parents were messed up too and they took criticism of their children's bad behavior as an indictment of their bad parenting. It got ridiculous and my daughter was sick of it. She was a great teacher, and many of her fellow teachers left teaching as well.
As a public school teacher, I was called for duty about every other year--which was really annoying, because I had to request a substitute (which district had to pay for) and then on every occasion but one, the night before jury day my duty was cancelled. But the sub couldn't have her job cancelled. The only time I actually had to show up was after my retirement. And registered R always.
I'm a white, middle-aged, college-educated female living in (north) Fulton county Georgia and I get called (and regularly selected!) for jury duty almost yearly. I'm both amazed and disappointed at the incompetence of the DAs.
I've lived in my CA county for 37 years and have probably gotten a jury summons postcard only about 5 or 6 times. You call the night before to see if you should come in for jury selection, and every single time I didn't have to go. I'd actually LIKE to be on a jury just once, to see how things are conducted!
Oh...and it seems like after age 70 they kind of "opt you out" of serving.
Ditto in Calif but have been called to a jury voir dire exactly once in over 40 years. Made it to the Q&A where I flamed out of the pool when the judge asked me if I'd ever been a victim of a crime. Said I'd chased down a purse snatcher who got 5 years in a state penitentiary and had seen both the defense and prosecution lawyers do things for which they should of been disbarred for life. Like witness tampering with the defense attorney showing his client my name and home address.
I felt creepy bad vibes from the judge who seemed to be royal and the smartest person in any room. Glad not to stay one second longer in his courtroom. A short time later in 2018 he, Aaron Persky, was recalled by voters for grossly favoring a fellow college frat boy-athlete who was convicted of rape by giving him the lightest possible slap on the wrist jail stint. The very next year the ex-judge was fired from a job teaching girls high school tennis after his identity was exposed.
Janice (and other readers) we discussed Isaiah 28 in our Bible class yesterday. I know the passage was directed to rulers of the people in Jerusalem, but I was struck by how much verse 15 sounds like present day realities! Then, it goes on to tell us that these evil deeds will not go unpunished; they will ultimately fail.
Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,
Interesting timing. I like to listen to J Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible", a 5 year study. As I say, interesting timing because he's currently in Isaiah. When I read Chapter 1 I was thinking the Hebrews of that day sound a lot like today's Israel.
I know many Christians are of the opinion they are supposed to support Israel, and I basically agree. But today's Israel is, from the Christian perspective, a Godless nation just as they were in Isaiah's day, and God punished them. With that in mind, how blindly should Christians support Israel in these days?
The covenant God made with Israel is an "everlasting covenant". God gave them the land. That's what you support. The right to their land. It's those who try to divide it that are cursed. You don't have to like their government to support them. It's also not blind if you know the history and realize how much propaganda has been twisted against Israel.
Think about it this way. Satan hates what God loves. God loves Israel. Not because of who Israel is, but because of who God is. A covenant keeping God. When you agree with dividing the land God gave them, you come in agreement with the devil. That is not a place any professing Christian wants to be.
Agreed, Amy. As Christians we are not blindly supporting the Godless government of Israel, we are seeking obedience to scripture. Over and over we see the disobedience of the Jews and recognize that God chose them because they ARE a stubborn people, not because they were so good they deserve His grace. Just like our own government, we should be holding them to account.
”And he said, “O Lord, if it is true that I have found favor with you, then please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins. Claim us as your own special possession.”“
Perfectly said. God's faithfulness to keep His covenant with His chosen people (however stubborn and wayward they are!) confirms that He will faithfully keep His word to all Christians who've trusted in Jesus for salvation. We know from Romans 11 that the remaining Jewish people will eventually turn to and trust in their Messiah, but it will take the horrible days of the Tribulation to finally open their eyes.
I'm pretty stubborn too. I am thankful God is merciful to those of us who have been stubborn with Him. He is patient, merciful and full of grace. He never gave up on me just like he never will give up on his people. I am so thankful we have such an amazing God!
I completely agree and this is perfectly said. God is and will be dealing with Israel (to the point they finally turn back to Him during the tribulation and recognize Jesus as Messiah)regardless of their faithfulness or lack thereof. He will bring his people back to Himself according to His commitment thru covenant. Just like with us as individual believers , our relationship with him does not depend on our faithfulness, but His.
“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh’aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered
them among the nations, and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it….”
There are far too many Haaman and Hitler spirits posting here. They say Jews are behind all the evil in the world. So one has to think they are advocating for the end of all Jews. Just like Hitler.
Before He was crucified, Jesus warned the faithful of the judgement to come.
Luke 21: 17 "And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19 By your patience possess your souls. 20 But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written (in the OT) may be fulfilled."
He then warned them again through the vision given to John in Revelation so that when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, the church had already vacated Jerusalem.
Rev 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place... 3 Blessed is he who reads... for the time is near... “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia:..."
As Paul described in the parable of the two olive trees in Romans 11, those of the good olive tree (Israel) that rejected their Messiah were BROKEN OFF because of their unbelief suffering "the severity of God" (the judgement of God at the closing of the Old Covenant as all things of the Old Covenant were fulfilled). This was the great tribulation and the Days of Vengeance and He saved His church, which is now Israel of the New Covenant composed of ALL believers Jew and Gentile alike, from this judgement who then went forth in the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to carry the gospel to the Gentiles of their King and Savior who now sits on the throne of God, ruling and reigning in history; and of His kingdom there will be no end.
So, you're saying the Jews who now live in the area of ancient Israel under a modern political state called Israel are the people that God made an "everlasting covenant" with regardless of the fact that they do not worship God and do not accept the change in the Covenant as a result of the coming of the Messiah? In fact, when the Messiah came to His own, they rejected Him and crucified Him. Yet these are the "special" people He is covenanted with? Is this what Jesus was saying in the Gospels and what Paul was saying in Romans?
Surely Moses would have qualified as one of God's chosen people yet he was not allowed to inherit the promised land. Why was that? Was God unfaithful? Moses represented all of Israel. The "Rock of Israel" in 2 Samuel is the Messiah. When Moses (Israel) struck the rock, he disobeyed God and God cursed him for it, saying he would not be allowed to inherit the promise land. Moses striking the Rock was a prophetic type of Israel rejecting and crucifying the Messiah when He came to His own. As a result, the curses (judgments) of the Old Covenant that the Messiah took upon Himself on the Cross also fell upon apostate Israel being unable to enter the promise land of the New Covenant established by Christ's shed blood.
There is only one Covenant and only one Israel of God and it is only through faith in God and His Son that one is counted among His covenanted people and ever has it been so.
As a label, "replacement theology" is a misnomer that mischaracterizes an understanding of God's covenant. From Adam onward, the focus of God's covenant with man has always been the coming of the Messiah, the Second Adam who as the Son of God would take away the sins of the world through His sacrifice. When trying to understand the prophetic passages of the Old Testament, one must first understand the explanations given by Jesus in the Gospels as well as Paul in Romans etc. If an interpretation of the OT passages does not reconcile with what Jesus said then it is time to reconsider why our understanding is not supported by His Word.
The most common mistake is to use current headline events as the basis for interpreting OT prophecy. This is a mistake that has been endlessly repeated over the last century. We must allow Christ's words to guide our understanding of these passages or we will be tempted to apply our own understanding to the prophecies. Satan is famous for using the line, "Hath God not said...?"
As I said, the promise of the coming of the Messiah has, from the beginning, been the focus of God's covenant. With the incarnation of the Son of God, there is necessarily a change in the administration of God's covenant as the promise of the coming Messiah has been fulfilled and now the covenant of God is expanded to include the whole world with Satan now dispossessed and the Son of God glorified. For the first time, the Holy Spirit of God is sent to indwell believers as the body of Christ on earth thus establishing Christ's kingdom in history. There is no "replacement covenant". It is all one covenant with a singular focus on the Son of God, provisionally given through OT Israel and now expanded to include the whole world through the ascended and glorified Christ. This has necessitated a change in the priesthood and new wine skins are used to contain the new wine and wild olive branches are grafted into the native olive tree as the Gospel is carried to the Gentiles bringing them into the kingdom of God of which they were aliens before.
2 Timothy 4: 3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Yes, a great many teachers who are very popular in the church today teach dispensational rapture theology and the coming of the end of the world in our time and they gain in popularity with each new sensational headline from the middle east. Matt 24:36
Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs TOGETHER with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ".
I don't disagree but I do note God has allowed the Godless Hebrews to be removed from the land of the covenant several times. That's the unknown, to me anyway, will they be removed again before "the last days"? I don't know.
Oh. You said it out loud. I've wondered myself how I'm supposed to"blindly support" Israel. It's a subject on which I'm not real versed. So I mostly stay quiet and watch and listen.
Great thing about not being Christian: you don't have to blindly support anyone or anything. You don't have to advocate genocide because those doing it are supposedly God's chosen people. You don't have to justify the murder and displacement of millions of people because of an old book. It's nice.
I hear what you are saying. I agree that it seems many Christians do blindly support Israel. I liken it to how I feel about this country. I love it. I love the premise on which it was founded. I love the Constitution. I would not choose to live anywhere else. However, I am not blind to the grossly distorted governmental system we have now. I do not support most of the things that our government does. But I still believe in our country.
The same is with the people of Israel. As a Christ follower, I believe God has made them His chosen people. I believe God does not change. Psalm 21 says He doesn't suffer His foot to be moved. But I'm not sold on the fact that the government of Isreal, like the government of these United States, is not greatly flawed and has greatly departed from the relationship and plan that God has for that nation.
I'm using too many words, I know. But please hear my heart. GOD has never been wrong. He has never failed to be all He promised me He would be for me. My Savior, Redeemer, Friend, the All Knowing Alpha and Omega. He has proved Himself to be True and His Word is true as well. People. Family. Governments. They all have failed me. But my Jesus never has. He gives me peace that passes all understanding in this crazy world and I trust Him always. The best news is that he can be that for you, as well. The Bible tells us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Being a Christian doesn't give me 100% clarity on the Isreal thing. Or the American thing. But it gives me 100% clarity in Him. I have never regretted receiving His forgiveness and His guidance for my life.
I think we're not all that different. I believe in God as well, but not organized religion. I can't believe that there is a God out there who would condemn most of the population of the earth to hell, or who would choose any one kind of people over the rest. I can't imagine thinking that you have to excuse genocide in order to be saved in the afterlife. So I'm happy that I don't feel I have to.
Yes, if one looks at it from a standpoint of God condemning so many it is hard to swallow. However, the truth is we are all condemned to hell because of our sin. The Bible, in Romans says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. John 3:16, 17 says For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be saved.
Yes, but according to your mythology, god created man, in whatever condition. So god created beings so sinful that they deserve eternal torture, because millions of years ago someone ate an apple, and then had his own son killed so that he would not choose to torture his own creation the way that they deserved? Interpreted as modern christians do, it really makes no sense.
God created humans with free will, not 'so sinful that they deserve eternal torture'. You are free to choose to believe or not. Your theology does not align with the Holy Bible or its teachings. The pain and anger you feel are real, but someone has deceived you.
Rowantree, I would like to invite you to read the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible. John shows us so much about who Jesus is and what His purposes and desires for us are. Then if you're still intrigued, read the book of Romans. I think you can find an understanding of God if you'll read those books. People like me can too easily confuse and confound in this kind of format.
What kind of God would create sinful people from the get go? That is absolutely the biggest delusion Christians suffer from. The second delusion is that God would choose a certain group of people as his favorites. These are not the teachings of Jesus or any other Great Enlightened Being. We are the ones who choose God when we respect all of humanity and live with compassion, and when love is the moving force of our existence. God is there for anyone who wants to know Him as the Supreme Love. Men made religions, not God!
I would say the Bible is pretty clear that God didn't *create* sinful people, rather he created people, who then decided to do the wrong thing. (And I don't think you can deny that people DO do the wrong thing to one another.)
God also chose one people (according to the bible), not because they were 'better' than anyone else, but because he was trying to teach them His ways (which, by the way, they repeatedly failed to learn) as an example to everyone. And in the end, he used them to bring us Jesus as the truest example of His ways -- as you put it, respecting all of humanity and living with compassion (and self-sacrifice).
Exactly. A lot of kind people here trying to help reform us in our ways, but really, my problem is with religions and the people who create them, not the concept of god. God can be experienced with the help of any religion, or in a more powerful way with the help of none. Religions are just outsourcing your spirituality.
It’s the Jews who have been subjected to genocide. The ‘Palestinian’ population flourished and grew because of Israel.
And the ‘Palestinians’ have ethnic roots in the surrounding Arab nations. They began as refugees from those nations, because of the numerous wars Israel has had to fight for her preservation. But no-one would take them back because it’s so convenient to have them be a constant threat right on Israel’s doorstep.
The history and truth of this situation is far more complicated than the slogan lies taught by the Marxist universities.
If you base your stance on that simple minded propaganda, you’re an idiot. If you’re indulging yourself in Jew hatred, you’ve got more serious problems.
You know, I'm pretty educated and the whole Middle East situation is totally beyond my ability to be sure about as it is so complicated, with powers that are utterly invisible no doubt involved. Jewish poets and writers, no matter their politics or stance on Israel, are being rejected by publishers and thrown from performances, because they are Jewish. Near me in Dearborn, they are chanting "Death to America Death to Israel," and some of the students are claiming to stand with Syria and Iran. That's Syria of Assad's torture chambers, Syria where they order people into the streets to protest when the regime says they must. In the long history of forced religious conversions, there is only one incidence of forced conversion to Judaism, sometime in the MIddle Ages whereas all the other faiths, in their coalitional political power forms, have forced conversions over 2 millennia. Reverend Rainbow Viagra in the White House is trying to forcibly convert us all to the rainbow cult and keep us off balance by making us take a simplistic position with regard to the Middle East. What they tell us is going on, is not what's going on, that's my conclusion, but persecuting people not for their actions, but for their religion or race is evil.
Yes. Actually Wikipedia had an accurate synopsis of modern Israel’s history last time I checked. The country was absolutely born out of the holocaust. When Hitler’s plans and actions became widely known, I think the nations who had turned a blind eye and refused refuge to Jews who tried to flee were greatly embarrassed. They certainly didn’t want a focus on ‘who knew what, when’.
I think this drove the U.N. action to create a new Israel in the Jews ancestral, God given homeland. It was not out of the goodness of any hearts. In fact, at first the plan was to give Israel all the land that is included in God’s gifting. But then it kept getting whittled down.
Immediately after the Jews declared themselves a nation, they were attacked by the Arabs surrounding them (who had allied with Hitler), and basically the Jews have been fighting ever since. The ‘Palestinians’ are largely refugees from these wars that never went back home. Israel has taken care of them for all these decades, while being constantly threatened by them. A welfare state.
This latest little experiment forced upon them by the deep state to open their borders and employ Arabs and accept them in their society, that just resulted in the horrendous, barbaric attack is over. The Obama/Biden administration is trying to create a color revolution to change the government back to leftists that will comply with their demand to experiment endlessly with Jewish lives. But the people aren’t buying it.
War is hell. It’s too damned bad that Hamas is supported and protected and hidden by the most of the ‘Palestinians’, who allow themselves to be human shields, while betraying the Jews who tried to coexist with them, by spying and helping to create the plans for the October 7 massacre.
All over this globe there are a number of wars and conflicts happening right now. Several in Africa, where the innocent are being slaughtered. But you just have a special soft spot in your heart for those who share your hatred of the Jews. Telling.
another great thing about not being Christian? You willingly choose to go to hell versus heaven where there is a God who loves you! Oh, wait, that is not the party you were told it was? Will thank satan for that!!!
I'd rather go to hell and burn with 90 percent of the earth's population than bend the knee to the god who created hell and condemned most of the people he created there. I don't believe in hell or a god who would create such a place. But if it were real, I would still make that choice.
God created hell for satan and his minions, not for people, but sadly, people choose to go there themselves by refusing to ask Jesus into their lives and mean it when they do. You truly do NOT know what you are saying, hell is not a place to party. There are many people who have encountered hell on YouTube, check those out if you want to get a glimpse of your next home if you don't repent and seek forgiveness of your sins, sins Jesus willingly took upon His cross!!!
If this were true, He would not have provided a way of escape through the sacrificial death of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Who did not stay dead, by the way…
A way of escape from his own wrath?? The story of Jesus makes no sense unless viewed as the archetypal myth that it is. Every culture has a very similar story of their own god who dies and is resurrected. The story of Jesus is not really all that unique, except for the fact that a lot of people take it more literally than other mythological stories.
Rowan tree, if you haven’t already, spend time or a year reading & understanding the Bible. There are plenty of ways to do that in an organized way - Bible in 365 for example. Or take some of the free & excellent Hillsdale courses. The Genesis & Exodus courses are excellent. It’s a fascinating journey that may or may not change your mind & heart but will increase your understanding.
I am reading the Bible, alone, interpreting it myself, and I am learning. But I really don't see the god of the Bible as an entity worthy of worship based on my study.
If I may suggest, consider communicating with God as well, through prayer. Ask God to open up the scriptures to you and show you what he wants you to see. It's ok to use plain speech and he doesn't mind questions, lol. Fancy words and eloquent prayers don't impress him anyway. At times, I have yelled and complained to him, he doesn't get offended when you are upset.
Actually I feel that I am pretty in touch with God already. I am studying religion including scripture but I believe in a God that transcends man-made constructs like religion, and I believe that that God is always available to all of us, regardless of the things that seem to divide us.
Lol. I'm not really even interested in theology at all, nor have I ever claimed to be, but my perception of Christian belief comes from conversations with Christians. I am reading the Bible, and have read several books by Christians about Christianity, while most Christians, the ones I know anyway, would never even consider picking up a religious text from another religion or a book by someone with a different point of view.
Great thing about being a human, religious or not...you can choose to be literate in history, or you can willfully bastardize that history so that the people who have been targets of genocide for millennia, become the aggressors, and the aggressors---who are open about their pursuit of genocide of Jews---become the *oppressed*.
It seems to me that the opposite is true when it comes to the narrative. They are being funded and defended by the most powerful nation in the world. What more could you want for them?
What you're seeing is that people are overemphasizing one passage that says God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse them.
It's not a blessing to give the government of Israel a blank check to do whatever they wish.
You've said elsewhere that you are reading the Bible. You might find Numbers 14:39-45 interesting.
It would not have been a blessing to encourage Israel to go into Canaan after they had been told not to.
Israel was told in Exodus 22:21 "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Dispossessing the locals without compensation when Israel became a nation does not seem to be in keeping with this, and this has been held against them. It also would not have been a blessing to encourage this behavior at the time.
However, the kidnapping and murder of civilians is not an appropriate response. I wouldn't expect anyone to tolerate this.
You bring up a very good point in mentioning the narrative. I'm convinced that the narrative going forward will be to vilify Israel, no matter what they do. This may be provoked by those in power in Israel, who I don't conflate with the people. Just like I don't want the world mistaking me for a supporter of Joe Biden.
In any case, I find exchanges like these with you pleasant enough, rowantree. Many seek an excuse to lash out over these issues. It's a complicated enough subject in a world that is rapidly deteriorating.
Certainly people are often more likely to lash out than try to see the other person's point of view. That seems less common in the C&C community than other online discussion forums though.
we don't need to play 'God' for anyone else, we each direct one another to God(to their right minds and their best selves). Playing God is what the corrupt govts/politicians and liberals(and the religious) want to do, trying to control everyone else because their own lives suck. The ppl trying to tell others what to do, how they should live and control others comes straight from satan. It forever keeps ppl from their own personal relationship with God. The ppl giving all of the advice arent't even doing it themselves, they're miserable self-hatred ppl and want everyone else to be miserable too....narcissists.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee, what a precious teacher of the Word of God, from days gone by. Just seeing his name here, I can instantly hear his distinctive voice & it calms my heart❤️ Thanks for the memory jog~I’ll listen today!
Ireal is the hub of trafficking, organ harvesting, pedeo haven...and greed at the expense of life itself. They KM controls the world and the US government.
The "Rock" that would be struck and from which the "Water" of the Holy Spirit would spring forth to sustain all of covenanted Israel, the Messiah of God whose blood would wash away all our sins who now sits on the throne at the right hand of God reigning over all of history against which no evil spirit can prevail.
We saw Mike Pompeo being interviewed for 2 hours at a local church last night and I just love the personality he exudes. Calm, in control, grandfatherly personality. This verse reminded me of him and how blessed we were to have him in the cabinet. He even mentioned that he was told a group of Muslim Leaders in the Middle East preferred to deal with a committed Christian like him instead of someone who wasn't a Christian and was more like what the Biden administration is sending out these days. Fascinating
Jeff asked the question so I will respond: What did it for me who never ever voted for a republican was the covid op. Oh, I thought political correctness was bs and I had long ago stopped listening to npr and thought the pandering to lifestyle groups was stupid, I just started voting for 3rd parties. What I was against was corporate corrupt control of the government and I could see during Obama that all the talk was lies and he was part of it all with refusing to do anything about bankstering rackets. Covid illuminated and brought into sharp focus the real issue, either your for freedom or your a commie serving commissars. Really everyone I know/knew who I thought were bastions of no nonsense turned into blithering covidiots. Covid resistance was a gateway drug to fully exploring and embracing liberty. It is simple really and it takes one phrase to sum up: “life (i.e. resist those trying to kill you), liberty ( you can live your life as you see fit), and the pursuit of happiness. (The whole notion of which is subversive to purityranicals of all stripes).
I think that it is really government (elite factions political) controlling corporations and thereby all of us. I really think that a lot of the corporate elite (all but the very Woke) would be glad to be rid of the government controllers.
I hear you, but I see the "government controllers" as bought by the corporations. I see the corporations writing laws, with maybe a little back and forth since the politicos know what they might be able to get away with, in round 1. Then down the line comes round 2 when the shortcomings - in the eyes of the corps - play out = lo$t. Well, with the exception of the 1986 National Vaccine Childhood Vaccine Injury Act; products are "unavoidably unsafe." Is that so? Ok, sez the gov't, we'll go along with that. Yadda. But oh yes, no government controllers is the wet dream of the corporations. 2¢
I think it is really a bit of both, especially with the large box corporations who want a high entry cost so as to freeze out upstart competitors. Small guys with little companies, often family owned, don't like all the BS.
Yes. The lack of punishment of these crooks and his subsequent wimpy attitude cooled my jets for sure. As for this and the Iraq war disaster I hoped he would go in guns blazing. But soon saw the red Ryder BB gun on his belt. Bet he got it for Christmas from Soros. I just didn’t yet know the deceit behind it all yet.
Part of the plan indeed but these people are total idiots as they are trying to control events that are not controllable. The really stupid never understand their limitations.
It all looks like theater. I wonder if people are getting complacent with all the screaming about WWIII, and saber rattling, or drone firing….whatever. And the stock market was way up today, what’s up with that? It’s a crazy world with crazy, corrupt maniacs in charge. And we wonder when it truly will get real. Scary.
Death Cult is running things. I double down in my comment that the people running things aren’t just stupid, they are spiritually and mentally retarded.
Kathleen, read substack by Sasha Stone “Free Thinking Through The Fourth Turning”. She’s a prior Hollywood leftie, a good writer & provides the Tucker interviews.
Unless we kill them first. Revolution 2.0. If this current piece of shite gets us into another war, it will be time for those of us able and willing to destroy that which is destroying the world.
Jeff- I appreciate your posts every day. You, like Trump, have a way a making it seem like we are going to be ok. It might not be tomorrow but here is hope. You have such a fun way of putting all this craziness into perspective. I appreciate you, the time you put into this, and devotion to making these crazy events understandable. Thank you Jeff, from the bottom of my heart.
It just means that "you" got to use your money last year and not just get back a dribble from your interest free loan to the feds so that "they" could use your money last year.
That, too, totally. However, one of the few things I remember listening to from my dad when I was younger was that you always wanted to owe the IRS money, not necessarily a lot mind you, but enough withholding to leave you to pay a little because then you weren't giving uncle sam an interest free loan of your money for the year.
Not yet. that is coming after 2025 There were no real changes this year. Except there was a bitty COLA increase allowed for the standard deduction and the bracket amounts to the next marginal tax rate. So if your income and deductions if itemizing were the exact same in 2023 as 2022 your taxes would have been slightly less.. As a tax preparer, what I saw this year was people owing (or smaller refunds due to their withholding dropping and also to an increase in income such as interest earned as rates have increased.. And some people have been the lucky one's to have salary increases. Though one hear's stories the reality is that most peoples salaries seem to have only increased slightly, not nearly enough to counter inflations effect.
True, but you're paying for it whether you get tax refund or have to make payment. It's just a matter of withholding amount. Your tax rate is unaffected. Not that that makes it feel any better.
Or studying penis size and STDs. "Parsons and his colleagues did publish a study on men's penis size and its link to the risk of sexually transmitted disease — but Parsons says no tax dollars were used to collect the data." You believe that, right?
"In reality, he says, those millions of dollars went to a government program to train scientists, and that program gave a small educational grant to a researcher who happened to write the paper." Why is the government training scientists?
That's what I said when I had to go through great pains to reset my password for Intuit, just so I could load Turbo Tax on my laptop. I finally just set up a new account with a different e-mail.
Here's what Iran's leader said to Iranians: "Israel will pay a heavy price for their aggression! We will unleash hundreds of drones guided by Allah to destroy the infidel!"
Here's what Iran's leader said behind the scenes to international leaders: "We have a few hundred lumbering targe...I mean...drones that don't exceed a couple hundred miles an hour and will be in flight a really long time. We've informed Turkey (an EU member, right?) that our assault will start at 10:30...I mean at a time of our choosing."
I always think, when I read about these criminal prosecutions against Trump for process crimes, how much the Democrats are going to scream and stomp their feet like 3 year olds when this new precedent gets used against their political candidates in the future. They’ve set the precedent and created this monster, but they’ll be the victims.
I think that, too. But then I realize the Republicans are all talk and no bite. They have missed many opportunities to step up and hold people truly accountable. I'm pretty jaded these days.
I don't believe Maher has ever been married or has children which, may explain his tardiness to adulthood. He's been his own top priority his whole life.
"If you don't vote Democrat in your 20's, you're heartless; If you don't vote Republican in your 40's, you're brainless. "--at least, that's how I heard it 30 years ago.
Drugs do that do people. It slows down the maturity process. Maher has always been extremely immature. As, it seems, are most in the entertainment/disinformation community
If Dems don’t think they can win the presidency I’m betting they make sure he doesn’t have the house or senate or any other lever of power open to a president. They have plenty of time to do it. IMO.
As an American living in Canada with his canadian wife, all I can say is O Whoa-k Canada. Some people here have that American spirit, moreso each day with each cell tower that pops up, but some are still asleep.
As one who lives just south of your border, I have many, many C friends. What I find interesting is that they always sounded vaguely center-left to me...then along came Covid and almost to a person, they all veered far left. Don't know if it was the convoy or Trudeau's antics in general, but something happened.
Another interesting thing is their attitudes about their healthcare system. They always talked about how good it was, but not any more...long waits mostly, but some quality issues. Anyway, good luck to you all, dear friends!
From my perspective of having lived most of my life in southeast Michigan and spending a lot of time in Windsor, Toronto, and the surrounding areas I always found Canadians to be proud of their culture of acceptance and tolerance. I admired it, actually.
I think Canadians are discovering to their detriment that this may have been a weakness that continues to be exploited by Trudeau and his puppeteers. While it has been happening for decades, the lights should have gone on in 2018 when the lyrics of "O, Canada" were changed from "True patriot love in all thy sons command" to "True patriot love in all of us command," to be more "inclusive."
That being said, I read the National Post fairly regularly and, perhaps not an entirely accurate gauge of Canadian public opinion, I do find most of the National Post comments to be on the conservative side.
Like their American counterparts who are predominantly disgusted with our 'uniparty' reality, conservative-leaning Canadians appear to be unified in their patriotism, their sense of opprobrium for all that is Justin Trudeau, and in their frustration with the apparent fecklessness of Poilievre and the conservative so-called "opposition".
It was difficult to find any media outlet in Canada that wasn't all-in on the shots but that was also true of the U.S. and pretty much everywhere else. Even now very few have been brave enough to do a full mea culpa. National Post wasn't quite as egregious as the Toronto Sun with its "Kill the Unvaccinated" banner headline (or something to that effect) and the value, for me at least, of the National Post is in the comment section.
Agreed. I'm still annoyed with the NP and no longer read it, as I expected more from them. After Conrad Black pulled out of it (another set-up by the US deep state) it just became another branch of the MSM. True North and Rebel News are far more in tune with non-Liberal Canadian opinion. And BTW - it was the Star (not the Sun) had the headline "let them die". And of course, our unhinged PM who called us all "misogynists who have no place in society" then recently denied he ever said that.
Bad form that I don't have a link to the conversation, not to mention that I can't remember the parties in the conversation, but a recent watch somewhere presented the following perspective: the people on social media 1) have some kind of expendable time (they're not engaged in work or with family and friends - not living or even attempting to engage in life to its fullest - in fact, on their chosen platforms in pursuit of likes (how sad)) and 2) don't necessarily represent a majority opinion. Not an answer to anything, just got me thinking about many needy people on social media. Not all. Not an indictment or judgement. Just provoked thought. As Jeff has advised repeatedly, local, local, local. Said to self: Check in with those people. In interactions I often lead with a relatively benign comment, delivered with good cheer and sometimes self-deprecatingly. I know nothing (channeling Sargent Schultz?). Plenty are still asleep, but surprisingly I have found an open mind here and there. An opportunity to educate not on a raft of subjects, just one. I silently bless the person, and the opportunity. Throwing spaghetti at the wall here. 2¢ or not even.
Why didn’t he just put the retainer on credit cards to get the points? No memo lines, and he would have gotten points perks! Geez, it’s like nobody’s thinking over there.
Fun April 15 prank: Everyone withdraw all their money from the banks at the same time.
I learned a new word for theft thanks to tax time this year: recapture. We sold a rental house that had been converted to personal use because our daughter rented it, so the govt took back our nearly 20 years of depreciation even though it was personal use for only a few of those. Mailing a hefty check to the US Treasury on top of what we had already paid in and knowing what the foolish ones do with it is its own kind of frustration.
Just watched $26,000 disappear from my checking account this morning myself and I sympathize and share your pain. I hope they choke on it.
Did you write Ukraine in your checkbook for that transaction?...:)
good one
Pay to the order of the Biden Crime Family.
🫠
I just saw more withdrawn in tax than my taxable income was last year, with an additional penalty for having not paid estimated taxes, for which it wasn’t determined I owed, based on last year’s income. I am semi-retired and still consult for a few a few clients. Since they print money at will, I really don’t see why they need our tax dollars anyway!
They don't 'need' your taxes; as you say, they either print or borrow at will. The point is to continue your indebtitude to the machine, to only have a increasingly smaller portion of your own income.
As the saying goes, we are simply free range slaves on a tax farm...
More truth! (See my comment just below.)
Can’t afford to live on social security so am also semiretired. But I now have to pay taxes on money I was required to pay into all those years? Money that was mis-managed and should actually be worth a million or more? I refuse to take money out of my investments, goodness knows how long I’ll live, my folks are in their nineties and all the grandparents lived that long too!
The City of Galveston, Texas <puts hand on heart>, has a nice little solution for that. https://www.texastribune.org/2011/09/18/how-privatized-social-security-works-galveston/
The only good idea Bush proposed was to phase out social security. It went nowhere nationally obviously, except that one county in Texas. And it probably wasn’t even his idea! 🤣
Yeah let’s let the elderly starve again like before the new deal. Nothing inhuman about that.
Cool straw man. SS does not prevent elderly from starving. Especially with Big Govt inflating money’s value away.
Private charity is the correct way to deal with elderly and others’ misfortune and/or stupidity, not the Ponzi scheme theft SS program we currently have.
Privatizing the funds gives people power to be in control of the product of their own industry and thus their own destiny. Sorry that offends you to the point you need to mislead or lie about it.
Especially when our loon like government is planning to cover illegals’ medical insurance…..send the parasites back to whence they came
Didn't read the article, did ya?
Okay. Just look at the historical chart of the DJIA and overlay a ~40year block of time anywhere on it.
Imagine all of the SS money had been "mandated" for private retirement pensions instead of general fund govt promises. Have a simple age requirement before being able to make withdrawals from the pension and voila!
We could have been creating true generational wealth for all citizens. Instead, we have the current system. Money paid in cannot go to the children upon death of the parent. The govt keeps it.
It appears you haven’t given this topic much thought. Emotion doesn’t solve problems.
Me too!
Truth there. According to G. Edward Griffith in his book, The creature from Jekyll Island, they conspired to pass the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 so they would be able to print unlimited money, and then passed the income tax, 16th amendment, to have a cover for all the money they were going to have to spend.
Except, if you read Article 1 Sec. 9 of the Constitution it might leave you scratching your head. The two provisions (Art. 1 Sec. 9 and 16A) on the surface appear to contradict one another. They don't. The clear, in-depth explanation is in 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 by Peter Eric Hendrickson. See my longer comment in this thread for more info. If your income is not tied to the federal government, and you aren't a US Citizen as defined in US Code Title 26 (unraveling of all done in the text of 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦) you likely don't have an income tax liability. Crazy idea, right? Learn the truth.
Peter Eric Hendrickson had an injunction entered against him and both he and his wife went to jail. Caveat emptor.
https://www.justice.gov/archive/tax/Gray_TroOpinion.pdf
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/apr/wife-of-antitax-author-sentenced-to-prison-201512122.html
If you want to read it to find out what NOT to do, it's posted here:
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-QeVmVA9r959Y04A2/page/n7/mode/2up
Under the FairTax, illegal aliens, pimps (and their subordinates), drug dealers, and anyone else getting paid under the table get to pitch in! The fun doesn’t stop there! Monday could have been just another Spring day. www.fairtax.org
Took a quick look at your link, viewing about half of first embedded video on landing page. I get your point, to a point. Leaving out the black market/underground economy, there is a knowledge gap.
These well-intentioned people who want to repeal the 16th Amendment do not understand the crafty way definitions in US Code Title 26 (the tax code) were written to confuse and obfuscate. Careful reading and u.n.d.e.r.s.t.a.n.d.i.n.g. of the legal scholarly information laid out in 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 brings home what the 16th Amendment is and what it is not.
I can state this here, but the aforesaid understanding (with full stops after each character) will escape anyone who has not been educated on the legalese in the tax code: The 16th Amendment does not create a new tax on the labor (private sector wages, salaries, tips, etc.) or private sector passive or investment income, etc. of ordinary Americans. Way too much to explain here. Thus, the book title provided, now available to read for free on the author's website. Again, for reference: https://www.losthorizons.com .
I'd say the book can be more emotionally challenging to read than intellectually, the lie is so egregious. The lie that has been programmed into our framework of the way the world works in our personal economy (Americans). I first read several years pre-plandemic. If your eyes are now open to all sorts of lies that have been perpetrated for generations the read might not cause so much cognitive dissonance. Your mileage may vary.
Thinking I might write a letter to the FairTax folks to help them out...
Thanks, I’m genuinely interested to see how that goes. For now, does anyone else have a better idea? If we need to work incrementally, so be it. It’s certainly worked for the Dems.
The tax code had to be written to conform to the Constitution. Had to. If you go back to where I began, the seeming conflict between Art. 1 Sec. 9 and 16A, the code does conform. There is no conflict. It's the craftily worded 16A with the addition of propaganda that allowed for the three million plus word tax code. There is no tax liability on the private sector labor of ordinary Americans via what has been twisted to be perceived as "income." "Death and taxes" is a marketing product, like "safe and effective." Understanding does require digging and connecting dots. The connect-the-dots picture is so clear. Might have to act on that thought I had about writing to the FairTax folks...
Same situation here! Back to paying quarterly taxes! On top of check we wrote! As if inflation hasn’t taken enough!
This is all by design tobankrupt the middle class and leave nothing for their children. Generational wealth only for the super wealthy. Only question no one asks is what happens when all the middle class are bankrupted? Probably will be confiscation of private property I think.
The WEF and Bill Gates start controlling the population, that’s what. Read Margaret Anna Alice’s guest post from last year. They have waking dreams about this.
Been sayin it for Decades now.....
Print all you want! Leave me out of it!
Using only .GOV products is way too one sided.
Call paying “taxes” what it is - protection money paid to criminals. This makes every taxpayer complicit in all the crimes perpetrated on US citizens as well as peoples around the world.
The blood is on OUR hands.
“When the government fears the People, there is Liberty; when the People fear the government, there is tyranny.” Do you recognize which side of this statement you fall in?
Great points, Traveler, and well said. However, that quote was probably written before there was a Deep State. Before them, we probably knew who was governing us.
pretty sure there has always been a deep state. Trust me on this one.
at least a far back as the Whiskey REbellions of early 1800's. I also am convinced that the Louisiana Purchase was either a deep state move in its own right, or a major part of beginning the deep state.
President Jefferson sent a delegation to France to buy for $10M the port city of New Orleans. They ended up buying for a "public price" of $15M all of the "Louisiana Purchase" lands much of which Napoleon had recently won from Spain by conquest of Spanish lands in Europe. Biggest ever to that date a sovereign state loan floated on international markets. Some immediate cash to Napoleon from banks in Holland and London while he had a cash crunch and was still fighting the UK. Bottom line: international bankers and investors funded both sides of the Napoleonic wars and the USA money was a crucial part of funding Napoleon cash as the USA injected millions in interest payments for the US bonds backing that purchase and the primary loan bank in Holland (a strawman small potato bank for bigger banks) used the US interest payments to pay regular payments to Napoleon for many years. With interest payments due, the final settlement made the total price for the USA $27,267,622. I connect some dots and name names for the Louisiana Purchase here:
https://ajvalleyheartsdelight.substack.com/p/us-presidents-day-2024
The U.S. Corporation was created by the “deep state”.
I would not be surprised. But unless there’s some law I don’t know about that restricted the use and ownership of cannons to government forces, the citizens had access to the same weaponry that the government did.
Doesn’t make it less so, does it?
Not quite as much here, but same. Beyond infuriating. To pay through the nose all year long, and then have to STILL pen a big check to the thieving swine is just a kick in the teeth. Especially when you know it’s just going to be completely wasted. 😠
Same here.
wasted, or worse yet, used to oir direct hurt.
My “refund” has now turned into $00.00. CA must be sending that zero out letter to EVERYONE just hoping we don’t respond?! They lose millions of $ and can’t find it, run this state into the ground in soooo many ways and then take what I’m due? The fight has only begun…….CA is a joke more than ever. Yes, I’d love to move but I’m staying for my grandkids. Someone needs to indoctrinate them the “right” way!
As a resident of the Free State of Florida, I often wonder how wonderful these blue states would still be if people like you had the guts you do. But then I remember all the creativity we saw this last election and understand. Still, I am in awe of people like you.
Been there done that, I am sorry and it does hurt.
Same.
Same here! Big check! Plus quarterly taxes!
Me, too. A big check for me.
Just think, it’s going for more $$ cards and phone for all the ‘new-comers’😡😡😡
"The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government."
- Barry Goldwater
This is the nub of the issue in this country. The rest is sequela imo.
Barry Goldwater...hmmm. Wasn't he the nut that was going to nuke innocent children? Oh wait, that was 1964-style demoncrapper's propaganda. Would have taken the country in a better direction than LBJ did.
For sure
Government is an extraction tool....
don't worry, you can find 535 LoopHOES in congress
The wealthy can afford tax specialists who figure out how to avoid paying taxes. Only the working plebes who can't afford accountants end up paying much.
Then they sell us out to China for their own gain
This happened to us 3 years ago. SUPER PAINFUL for sure! it was a defining moment of newfound hatred i developed for our government because I knew all that $ was being used to intentionally coerce and murder people via propaganda and shots.
Government is our enemy.
If your daughter rented it, that is a business transaction. If it was arms length, market value, documented by contract, etc...
Unless you still claim her as a dependent, I guess. I'm not a tax lawyer/consultant but if you haven't already done so, check with one on this topic.
My son rented a house we owned . He passed d us rent. No tax problems
A CPA did our taxes this year. Not market value. Plus capital gain. 🙄😒😔
Not market value could be a problem. Keep in mind that a CPA is not necessarily a tax expert.
Capital gain? Did you sell it also? If so, that could be the reason for the depreciation recapture.
Depreciation recapture has been around a long time. The idea behind it is to encourage investment by accelerating the write off of the asset and reducing the short term tax burden. However, if you dispose of that asset before its normal depreciation life, you'll probably need to return some of that benefit (short term reduction in taxes). This prevents investors from buying something, writing it off, then selling it right away (unless you are a DC politician...).
Again, this is my understanding of the concept and not tax advice in any way shape or form.
fwiw...
Maybe it sort of makes sense, but if it’s all the same to you I’m gonna just go ahead and hate the IRS. 😎
I’m with you. Also hate the lawmakers who made and passed these laws!!!
The problem is always that they make a law trying to get X result and then have to add convoluted conditions to prevent people from going around it. Our whole tax system is a byzantine mess.
And yet, individuals with highly-paid CPAs still mange to get around the tax laws.
That's because they have savvy financial managers develop "shell corporations" and "foundations" for them to funnel their income into--financial managers are MUCH BETTER resources to save on taxes than a CPA. CPA's are glorified accounting people!! They just know how to enumerate and redistribute.
Good point. It's quite difficult to find this type of competent financial manager!
Yes it is - we have a wonderful supply of them in southcentral PA--where are you located, Peace?
I think the laws are designed that way—so people “in the know” can find ways to get around them 😕
If the governments were minimal in what they do (meaning that if
the governments were truly constitutional governments old America style), there would be no involuted, convoluted need of involuted, convoluted tax codes. This would also mean that capital, in private hands, would not be continually misallocated into non-productive country destroying uses.
Remember 'smart' Susie Orman with all that 'smart' clever advice and tips? The Dumb thing about Little Susie is that people think they really need her Dumb advice. What people really need is to get rid of as much Dumb Government as they can.
No argument from me. Ted Cruz has the right idea on taxes.
Ironically, or is the correct term "indicitavely", accelerated depreciation and recapture rules were written, I think, about 25 years ago. We had a few reasonable folks in control back then, not the numnuts we have now! Although, these are the same folks that gave us the Patriot Act, so maybe not...
Janice - Words Beyond: Go for it! Hate away. Hate as much and as long as it feels good to you. LOL !
I hired a CPA to do my taxes when I first started my business in 1989. She made a huge and glaring omission that would have cost me a lot of taxes except that I, her paying customer, caught the error.
I know this will read nutty, but I suspect you don't have a business as defined in US Code Title 26 (the tax code). There is a special definition for business in the tax code. You can't read said definition as written, assuming the meaning/definition of common words. There are pretzel-like legal terms throughout the code, only nobody recognizes them as such. Most people think they're reading English words. Legal terms are not the same thing as English words. See my comment in this thread about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.
Several weeks ago another C&C commenter who has become educated about the truth (via 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦) used the phrase, "starve the beast." Well worth the investment of your time IMHO.
Yeah, see a tax lawyer. There are some creative ways to structure this.
And I’m not sure you save anything by seeing a tax layer. They are quite expensive. You may end up paying just as much to them as you would on your recapture, but at least it wouldn’t go to the government.
I hate that we can’t do edits on our posts.🤦♀️
If I recall my business years correctly, it’s not the personal use that causes recapture. Any time you depreciate something down to nothingness and then sell it for something, you have recaptured the depreciation and that’s profit.
With it being personal use, we lost the expense deductions for those years.
Zelensky thanks you and said to give you his regards from one of his many multi-million dollar properties 🙄
Remember Biden claiming the new IRS agents wouldn't go after anyone who makes under $400K? I saw a piece last night about how something like 67% of the audits are on people who make under $70K.
CMCM - Source for that info? I'd love to quote it!
So often, I think how ashamed of us the Founders would be.
The Pentagon needs the $$$$
So does Zelensky and his corrupt cronies! 😡
We have gone broke on the money 'we' allegedly gave the Pentagon. And all we have to show for it is 'the bio-weapon' and a failing military transitioning in high heels.
Skunk, that's not even remotely the biggest consumer of our federal budget - Social Security and Medicare dwarf it. Very soon, our interest payments on our debt will outstrip the defense budget.
I often wonder how the Beltway gang spent the funds taken out of my wages for Social Security & Medicare. At least, I would like to know which conflicts I funded.
You should have kept your rental house as a passive-income property and continued to rent it out - either to your daughter or maybe to someone else. Then put all of your real estate into a trust and hand it down to your kids or other family members.
Just a thought...
Wisdom. Glad you posted. More people should know. Actually, land trust first, for your homestead as well, then rental contracts, but in reality you can retitle the property at any time.
You might appreciate learning the truth about the federal income tax. See my longer comment in this thread (1st level reply to Based Florida Man) about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.
Brightest blessings.
Agreed. That's why I said she should continue to rent it out, then she shouldn't have to retitle it no matter who who she rents it to.
Putting all her real estate into the trust would include her homestead properties as well.
Thanks for the suggestion on your article, I did not see that earlier; but perhaps you had not yet posted when I was reading through the comments.
Have a good day...
(I'm assuming you are a male, but I think you might be female, so I will adjust the closing salutation)
I'm late. You probably didn't miss.
Wiser is each property in a separate land trust. Once you have a template it's lather, rinse, repeat. There's a bit more to it, all for protection from both government (probate, SoS entities) and from becoming a target for things like frivolous lawsuits, even if all you "own" (even if you have no mortgage) is a homestead property.
Education is priceless.
Female.
Brightest blessings.
If you follow the advice in this book, you could wind up like its author. Here's a short history:
http://tpgurus.wikidot.com/peter-hendrickson
Yes, the government has put him through the mill. No argument. That said, consider the source. I suspect it ranked near the top of your search results. I don't know what search engine you used, but suspect it might be among the list I, personally, have expunged from my life. Caveats abound. Have you read the book? In its entirety?
Some people, carefully, thoughtfully, with a great deal of patience in the pursuit are living tax-free because they don't have a tax liability.
Have you seen Aaron Russo's documentary From Freedom to Fascism? It's nearly 20 years old. In the context of the film people were having their eyes opened. Jurors, in one case. Deciding in favor of a defendant that argued he had no tax liability. People are waking. Slowly.
To each his own. I choose not to live in fear.
I can see that. I, on the other hand, choose not to live in jail. There are all kinds of laws I find inconvenient or even disagree with, but I'm not going to flout them. Allowing each individual to live by his own laws is what's known as "anarchy."
I don't live in jail except in the sense that I haven't escaped the constrictions of man-made systems on the planet, systems I find objectionable in some respects. Nor do I flout man's laws or codes. I use my insatiable curiosity, discernment and best judgement on whether to comply or educate myself to know that I am being bullied and subjugated under color of law. The federal income tax as it is known culturally is a glaring example of color of law. Not for me to convince you. And not advocating anarchy; apologies if anything I wrote gave you that impression.
Okay, stay out of jail, and consider using a disclaimer when you recommend that tax book.
Disclaimer? It's not my book. There's nothing to disclaim.
I am referring to the statements you made -- in your recommendations of that book.
Another thought. She buys it from you, you get a mortgage for the value of the house, and she makes monthly payments on the debt. In accordance with the annual gift tax exclusion, say $17,000 in 2023, forgive that amount of the loan each year. Just spitballin'. Ask someone who knows stuff.
Your comment is relevant to the sale of a house, which was not what I was commenting on. My point was the original poster did not have to sell her house, so it was a different topic, she could have kept the property as a passive-income property.
In the original-poster's situation, the IRS is seeking recapture of the property's past depreciation, which has nothing to do with the gift tax or the effort put forth to qualify for the exclusion.
My concern with your scenario is the US Treasury, and its policing entity the IRS, might take issue with that scenario.
Also, if you forgive HER monthly payments on HER debt, that is a taxable event for HER, after all she is buying the house, according to you so, there would be escrow documents involved in that transaction, i.e. a paper trail.
I'm not sure what you mean by "ask someone who knows stuff," in light of the fact I was talking about another type of scenario; but perhaps I'm misunderstanding you.
Apologies if that is the case.
Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just throwing out one of my half-baked ideas, of which I have many. (Something to look forward to?) I see you are someone who knows your stuff, and no one can responsibly advise her on what to do unless they see her estate plan, income, assets, etc., and those of her beneficiary. It's possible the loan forgiveness would not result in tax liability for her, depending on how much it is and how much income she already has. Or, like you said, maybe it would. It's complex, isn't it? How did you get into it?
The loan would have to be documented for one in order for the IRS to find it and pitch a fit over it and it's too hard to say how any of their property is structured, we are not their accountants let alone their tax accountants. Any escrow documents would be a dead giveaway to confirmation of a loan forgiveness.
Oh how did I get into this - let me count the ways. True story: I was a very poor teenager, 19 years old and new mother. No work or schools skills. I couldn't rub two nickels together to save my life.
To give you the short version, I decided to go to school one day and fell in love with accounting. I loved accounting and school so much I refused to leave my university and ended up writing a thesis, receiving an MSA in that discipline.
I love auditing more, but tax is just fine with me as well.
Please don't misunderstand me, I don't consider myself an authoritative figure in my field. I humbly consider myself a perpetual WIP - Work In Process.
You seem like you are in the know. Do you work in the accounting, finance, or estate-planning business?
That's a great American success story! When you love your work it doesn't seem like work. I admire the tremendous focus it takes to do that kind of work.
I'm retired. I stumbled through two semesters of accounting in college, but in summer school so I could condense the torture. "You'll get through it," my mom would tell me.
Did you ever start watching a bad movie that was so terrible, you had to watch it to the end so you could see if it was going to somehow redeem itself? Well, that was those two semesters. I got through them, and don't remember much. There's still a question about why treasury stock isn't treated as an asset, but my instructor ordered me to quit asking about it.
Yes, I love my work.
I know what you are talking about, I had a few "torture classes" when I was in college.
Treasury stock is really a contra-equity account. Treasury stock is stock the company has repurchased from shareholders; thus it replenishes the company's inventory of stock although as a treasury record. Since it transitions back into the company's inventory, it is no longer outstanding stock.
Treasury stock is negated from the calculation of dividends paid and is also negated from the calculation of Earnings Per Share (EPS).
That's a MUCH better explanation than I ever got from anyone, including my instructor. Do you realize that most accountants aren't all that articulate? But if you're on the auditing side, you probably do more than crunch numbers. Are you the ones who write the footnotes?
No good deed goes unpunished, or underappreciated or unpenalized?
IRS
Janice, My husband and I had a very similar experience. We sold a rental property and immediately invested the majority of the money into a piece of land to build our final home. We knew we would have to pay the capital gains taxes but we ended up with "depreciation recapture". No real estate person ever told us about this when buying rentals. This was our first sale of a rental and wow! What a shock that was. We too had to stroke a hefty check to the IRS (while uttering certain expletives). We decided to NOT to sell the other rental.
that is terrible! did you not have a tax attny??
I am not sure which one of us you’re asking, but we did have a tax guy do ours. Although it seems the gov’t has only one guideline: You made money? Send it in.
I owned a couple of companies nearly 10 years ago. One year, we made a killing. The government also made a killing. After all of my expenses, and even with a tax attorney, they took 49% of net.
You can buy Investment Tax Credits (ITC) on the secondary market for 60 cents on the dollar.
I haven't paid taxes in 17 years by doing that.
Or not lay out anything at all. See my longer, first level (second level?) comment in this thread about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. Apologies if I haven't shared previously. Well, I have, just maybe not so's you caught it in the mix. You're on the right track for sure.
I would suggest caution in following the methods outlined in this book. It could result in an indictment.
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1504910/united-states-v-hendrickson/
Exactly right. Our government’s view….what more can we steal from every person who tries to create a decent life?
My guess is the recapture was due to sale (capital gains) and not doing a 1031 exchange which protects profits by rolling them into another property (also on 1031 all deferred taxes are essentially forgiven on death and heirs can sell based on value at time of death). They’ve also been after 1031 exchanges as well because it allows for generational wealth to be created…..which they don’t want to allow.
Or more accurately, "you made the money....most of it is ours."
I never had a tax attorney. But also, I never had a car payment or a house payment, and I 'own' a modest brick ranch house and two cars. And only once did I have credit card debt payments on 2,000 of borrowed dollars (lesson learned and never again). The two grand was for sandpaper, saw blades and bits, etc. which I needed to finish up on a house I was building for my mom. And by the way, I still have some of that left over sandpaper in a tin box from some twenty-seven years ago.
The credit card company is a strange thing. And for some reason the credit card company sent me a credit card which I have kept all these years. The first strange thing is that the credit card company never asked me to disclose what my income was, which I would have refused to do. The next strange thing is that years later the credit card company lower my credit rating ... and then later lowered the amount I could 'borrow' from 20K to 15K. I could never figure that out. Because you would think that a guy who never borrowed any money for any purpose would have the best 'credit rating' of anybody. (Okay! I know how they think. Someone has to borrow and repay to have a 'credit history'. Well, that makes me a-historical a far as the Credito Companie is concerned.)
My motto has always been: if you want to have everyone else's results, do what everyone else does. If you want something different, do something else. This, of course, has ramifications. I'll never be a billionaire. But on the other hand, Bill Gates, George Soros and Elon Musk, et alia, were never my object of aspiration. Instead, I am content to be a little guy with no debt.
best thing to do with a credit card is to put your monthly expense items on the card, then zero the balance every month that way you maintain the available spending amount, incur no interest, have an active account.. and if it is a rewards account a few sheckeles dribble in to your pocket. amske sure its a "no annual fee" card, too.
Exactly! I have done this for my entire adult life. I also froze my credit with all 4 agencies, which works quite well and I don't get any of those continual credit card offers, plus no one can open a card in my name.
I am sure that you Cleaver Cleavers are the smarter ones. And I am the hopeless, but not hapless one. My wife pays all the bills, she jumps through the coupons hoops, and saves the five percent with the Lowe's card or whatever. Not me! And I do have a 'rewards' credit card rewards in the thousands stacked up to the moon. I refuse to use them. It's against my religion!
As a kid, a very young kid, my Dad took us to the circus. It was the big one in Madison Square Garden. Back then the beared lady, the fat man, these were still okay. And they would have had a three headed man or woman if they could have found one. As well as these, and in the big three ring circus, I saw the dog and pony shows, tigers and/or lions and the cracking of the whip ... and from them on I knew one thing. I never wanted to be someone else's trick pony or dog hobbling along on two legs and acting so-undog-edly absurd. No cracking whips for me.
I use the credito card for eBay and whatever few trusted e-merchants is use. That's it.
I do look for deals, bargains and the such. I was always fortunate enough say past the age of fifty to make money enough to buy whatever I wanted new. And I remembered my first new trucks and cars very well ... and how nice to no longer be riding around in wrecks.
Thanks for writing. I always find you interesting.
The best thing I learned from my parents was to only buy what you have the cash for (except for a house and perhaps a car). I owe nothing except what I have spent in the last 30 days, and while I have a couple of cards for convenience, I have paid them off each month since....forever. I never carry a balance, and have never paid any interest. What I learned from my sister, who once worked in a bank's credit card division, is that they all encourage you to accumulate debt so you will have to pay them interest and get ensnared in the whole credit system. The more credit you have available compared to the amount of that credit in use, as well as your on-time payment history, determine your credit rating AND the amount of credit they extend to you. It's a criminal system that a lot of people get caught up in, especially young people.
My parents taught me the same thing. But the best was the thing about, If Johnny jumps off a bridge, would you do it too?" That one served me well when C19 Terrorism reared its ugly murderous head. Well, a lot of Johnnies ... Dick and Janes jumped of the Covid Bridge. And maybe they never got the lesson. Who knows?
Just curious . How did the IRS know it was your daughter who rented the house? Unless you diverted it to personal use without knowing the consequences?
Because there are criteria to meet as a rental with deductible expenses and I’m a rule follower. 🤷🏻♀️
shouldn' have declared it was your daughter living there, just another tenant. What, are they gonna nip round and check her birth certificate to verify she IS your offpsrig?
too bad these gummit dweebs don't actually EARN their "living". More like poltiical welfare. but I know, I'm only singin' to the choir here.
I’m sorry Janice!! I have rental properties too and while not an accountant, I attend tax seminars yearly to stay up to date on those pesky laws. Primarily due to a weird situation that happened to me, that could have been avoided if I’d done the paperwork differently.
I understand that recapture only occurs upon a sale. But does having the property in a Trust, now occupied by the successor trustee, solve the problem of recapture (from use as a rental property a decade or more ago)?
You’re my kind of people, the idea of this makes me gleeful.
We have become the old Soviet Union.
This is the supreme irony. We are now the Soviet Union. And Russia is more like us in the years of my childhood.
We now live in fear of hunger (destroyed food supply) and freezing our asses off in the winter (broke Woke everything policy).
It's amuses me no end how someone like Bennie Two Noodles hates the Putin who is no puppet president, but is okay with the little house of horrors we have in the form of the now United Sates, including Mr. Puppet President Pedo. Ironies abound and horrors only grow.
Yes, this! 😢
I’m self-employed. I don’t make a huge amount, but it does help pay our bills. Between state and federal, they took nearly 30% of my income.
So, why do I have to pay taxes on the sale of my property if I already pay property tax? I mean, I’ve been paying taxes on it for decades now. Although not as much as in other states, they inch up every year. I feel that anything I make (capital gains) belongs in my pocket where it will be used judiciously rather than theirs.
It's called Babylonian Money Magic, and the Babylonians started it way back in OT times. It's basically holding your coinage (gold and silver back then) for convenience use with tokens or paper); chaging you for the priveledge and then loaning your currency to others and charging them interest. Earliest form of fractional banking reserve. Usary was prohibited by God in the OT for it's evil basis. They accumulated wealth for themselves. It was fueled by evil, gods Baal and Molack and they required child sacriface to fuel the power they gave to their adherents. The Khasarian Family (from Egypt anf Phoenicia)that established this gained power as "bankers" and they spread through history and spread from country to country gaining wealth eventually reaching the English Crown and then America and now we have our current corrupt system. Do an internet search (NOT Google) for the Kharzarian Mafia and see what you find.
it is sort of like wning a car. You pay tax on it when you first buy it, you pay their annual bribe for the priviledge of driving it on the roadswe are overtaxed to build and, in some rare cases, manitain. We pay tax on the fuel we burn to make them go, when when it gets sold they collect more tax on that sale. not to mention tax on every part you purcjase tp kaap it rolling, and any labour you hire to fit those bits to the car. On tope of that, they hold their hand out every few years for a new Mother May I Drove My Car ticket to keep in your pocket, indicaating you are deigned worthy enough to actually get behind the wheel of that motorcar.
All of that is to feed the corrupt monster thus enabling it to torture and deplete us further each year.
that's why I buy and drive old junkers.. far lower tax to get in, nowhere near as complex to keep running, and when possible I buy the parts in a neighbouring state which have no sales tax. Further advantage is they are far less a target for theft or jacking. Not to mention far simpler to keep them running. NO confusers to mangle, er, I mean manage, the fuel feed systems they;ve mandated of late.
Get a lot of comments and questions on them, too, which is fun. And NO this one is NOT for sale........
Yeah, I’ve been thinking lately of buying an older car that doesn’t have all the fancy computers in it because I’m tired of it all and I want a stick again. (No one will steal it then. LOL) They are complicated to maintain and expensive. The newer ones have kill switches and now companies like Ford, BMW, and one other have agreed to put in this GPS device that limits you to where you can drive and when. Sounds like a free country, doesn’t it?
I read the Market Ticker blog and Karl has long been a proponent of older cars for the very reasons you cite.
I have replied elsewhere in this thread with the seemingly unbelievable news that 1) you likely don't have a business as defined in US Code Title 26 (the tax code) and 2) you likely don't have a federal income tax liability. The kooks are out posting on C&C? Not so.
See my longer 1st level comment in reply to BFM about 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. It is eye-opening. The book, not my comment. 😜 You deserve to understand the truth it reveals.
I also looked this book up. It’s available with annotations at this website for free:
https://www.losthorizons.com/CtC/FrontMatter.htm
And thank you. 😊
As said elsewhere, well worth the investment of time, despite any roller coaster of brain exploding along the journey.
Honestly, I have been aware that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified, and, therefore, income tax is not constitutional. I don’t know if I will be too surprised. It will be just how not to pay taxes without being harassed.
The truth is actually not about ratification at all. Not even about the Constitution per se, though it's a reasonable place to start. All such arguments are null, never, ever under consideration in administrative courts or with the IRS directly.
The truth lay in US Code Title 26 (the tax code). The code 𝘩𝘢𝘥 to be written to conform to the Constitution. (Can't remember if the author talks about law as opposed codes and statutes. They are different, though most of us are in the dark since we didn't go to law school. Nor are lawyers forthcoming about such information. Probably tmi leading to confusion in a reply comment -?) It comes down to use of language, something crafty lawyers revel in. Corporations are persons and such. Disgusting.
The journey to getting back $ from the IRS - there is a statute of limitations, you can't go back over a lifetime; used to be 5 years, might only be 3 now? - and ultimately not paying tax that you do not owe is not for the faint of heart. It's for the educated, prepared to come back and back and back and back again at the IRS (all by hard copy) with their education. There's no way around it for the agency because their code is the only reference you will ever point to. Harassed? It might feel like it in the beginning, but once educated you will have some measure of inner calm, know what to expect, and will be ready to respond. Yeah. Not for the faint of heart. Cojones. Even ladies got 'em 😆🤣
Cheapest I can find it is $79 on eBay but that was not an exhaustive search. But far better than $179 on Amazon.
Follow link provided by @Garden Lover. The author released the text for f*ree last summer on his website. I suspect he is no longer having print copies made. I prefer print, works better for my brain. Got my copies several years pre-plandemic. You could write to the author to inquire if he has any hard copies left. Snail mail address on website for his other books, all of which are educational but with less practical impact than 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦. I believe you can also find his email on the website? Might take some looking around?
I just read it for free on the website. No copy, print, or share…just read it. What a gift!
Agreed. --
Though I might suggest sharing, with discretion. Not everyone is ready as you can imagine. --
Dogged scholarship. He's not a lawyer. Just a smart dude. (A couple of lifetimes ago I had to do some legal research. Well, didn't 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 to, but was damned if I was going into the thing blind. Learned a lot. Helped my case. The lawyers were totally surprised but encouraging. Encouraged me to go to law school! Hahahahaha!!)
You're right, not everyone is ready. As with any new information I've discovered, I plan to test this plan on myself by filing my taxes according to the prescribed method in the book and we'll see what happens. This will end my current experiment on myself...which was refusing to file for the last three years to see what happened. I know that isn't considered a wise decision, but I have my reasons. Previous experiments have resulted in federal agents coming to my home and work to 'interview' me, so I am not a novice at this game. Grace and peace to you.
Amen brother. You're on the right track. You'll get pushback. Likely hard copy snail mail since you're filing. See if they try "frivolous" for starters. 🙄 Use the author's website for supporting info (such as https://losthorizons.com/Documents/LegalNotes.htm and https://losthorizons.com/tax/faq.htm ) and examples from other folks with successes for inspiration on how to respond to their tactics, round by round. It's a great resource. Hope it all feels as good as I know it can. 💪
Thank you, I'll try to share my progress.
The back and forth process, several rounds, will take months. I doubt there's any way to grease it. A word in C&C comments couldn't hurt by way of encouraging other folks. Should you do so, can I suggest referencing the source material? So folks will know where to investigate? Your call. Brightest blessings.
Go here: https://www.losthorizons.com/CtC/FrontMatter.htm
Sadly, not that much money in the banks.
DO NOT CLICK ON BARB! bot spam MALWARE
Barb?
When I got taxes prepared, I opted to have the pirates 🏴☠️ withdraw it from my account on the last possible day, 4/15. I’m sure many others did the same, so ya…everyone’s accounts are being drained at the same time😒
OK, sounds good...but if you're really going to do it, let me know just before you start.
The annual government perpetual lie.
yes. that way we can corner the market on wheelbarrows.
it'll be the second best secondary market right after unvaccinated gametes.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha Hahahahahahaha!
That would be so spectacular! LOL
Or, simply don't pay tax when you don't have a tax liability. I know, sounds crazy. But... the truth, for you truth-seekers, is that most Americans (not all, just most) don't have a federal income tax liability. Who the h am I to make such a statement? Essentially it's not my statement.
Like Turtles All the Way Down, Dissolving Illusions, The Truth About Cancer and other titles and websites have done for revealing the truth about medicine, 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 by Peter Eric Hendrickson lays out the fascinating and enraging truth about what has been perpetrated on Americans regarding income tax under obfuscation and propaganda. The author has now made the text available for free on his website:
https://losthorizons.com/
Caveat: Not an easy read. Dense text, but in-depth and thorough. Y'all have been through a plandemic, indeed a lifetime of crafted illusion. You know without doubt THEY (The Hierarchy Exploiting You) lie. Expect perhaps yet another emotional ride, perhaps some cognitive dissonance as you uncover yet more truth. Highly recommended. Take your time. It's a lot to take in and digest. Cojones required to follow through with action once you have landed on the truth.
Don't commit crimes to avoid paying money.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/michigan-resident-sentenced-prison-criminal-contempt-involving-federal-tax-obligations
No crimes are committed by not paying taxes when they are not owed.
When the truth is understood and one stands by their d͟u͟t͟y as an American (not a US Citizen with its particular, specific definition in US Code Title 26) there is perspicacity even IRS agents or lawyers have no tools to surmount.
BTW if you read the particulars of the court case against the Hendricksons you would understand that it rings like the persecution of a former president - love him or hate him - that our esteemed host writes about. Prosecutors and judges paid off by unseen masters, making things up as they go along. If you were faced with the choice of 1) being under an order of the court to sign a statement not of your own words but of words crafted by the court, a statement which you knew was not true leaving you faced with prison time if you didn't sign 𝘢𝘯𝘥 open to the charge of perjury, or 2) putting yourself in the position of perjury another way by signing a statement on a tax return form you knew not to be true, a form whose text clearly states you sign that it 𝘪𝘴 true under penalty of perjury, which would you choose? That was the choice given to Pete Hendrickson's wife, Doreen, in her trial. (She signed neither.) Be careful when considering source material.
I understand your argument, and that the courts have rejected it. Anyone who asserts those arguments is on shaky ground before the IRS and the courts. Both follow judicial precedents.
I understand your concern, your fear in the face of the bully. I present no specific arguments above that would be presented "before the IRS and the courts." Very careful, thoughtful presentation of facts as presented in US Code Title 26 when done correctly in interactions with the IRS, are irrefutable. There are thousands of Americans who can attest. You should visit the author's website. Or not. You have fear. I can understand why it feels justified given the history of the IRS's bullying. If you follow the law (US Code Title 26) there is nothing to fear. God is in the details. Blessings to you.
One person's fear is another's common sense.
You mean, so that our Lords and Masters cannot confiscate it first?
Or try cashing a check into USD Fed Reserve Notes, for twice the amount in the account.
Haha
I wish we would!!
Since this seems to be the "tax thread", reacting to Jeff's opening comment...
"...when our federal income tax forms are due, and last year’s income taxes either paid or partly refunded"
Seriously? It takes the IRS a WHOLE YEAR to actually pay refunds? I knew the US govt was inefficient, but not that bad...
(Ok, so I'm guessing they figured out that if they keep the refund until the last minute they're legally allowed to pay it, then they can keep the interest on it? "Public Service" really is dead in the US.)
Oh I do like it!
Doesn’t Bill know a 2010 progressive is a right-wing extremist Nazi fascist today?
“I’d be especially interested to hear from our democrat converts in the comments: what finally did it for you?”
I just realized all of the left’s claims that it represented my values were a lie. As I shared in a piece last year:
“I used to call myself a progressive because I was anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.
“I stopped calling myself a progressive because I am anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, countercultural, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all.” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/my-two-year-stackiversary-lattice)
I agree fully with all except “pro-freedom of choice” if it means abortion. We give no freedom of choice to the unborn, often up to birth. We are also taking away parents right to choose for their children.
No, I mean the freedom to choose what does or does not go into our bodies, for example. Freedom of choice does not give one the right to terminate an innocent life.
MAA, may I suggest a change of wording to clarify that you meant Freedom of Medical choice? Unfortunately, the phase Freedom of choice has long been associated with pro abortion. I thought you meant pro abortion too.
I was actually quoting something I wrote years ago after awakening to my indoctrination, so it’s not something I can change, but I do include a list of core values in the “In Praise of Dangerous Freedom” portion of that piece you may find clearer:
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/i/51525621/in-praise-of-dangerous-freedom
I later refined these values and include a simplified list in the footnotes under the categories of LIBERTY, COURAGE, LOVE, REALITY, and CREATIVITY:
• https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/my-two-year-stackiversary-lattice#footnote-3-51525621
The biggest thing holding back most people from standing up for their real convictions is they are literally terrified of not being liked, ironically by people they often don't even know. Once you grew a pair and realize what truly matters is being respected, not liked, you'll find you end up respecting yourself a lot more too.
I agree Freebird
Thanks for the clarification. At first, I thought you meant pro abortion.
Another funny little twist the lefties threw in: "choice." Who can be against "choice?" Isn't that what conservatives want, freedom and choice? They are pretty good at turning language against itself to mean basically the opposite of what the words mean. We need to reclaim the language. Abortion is the #1 issue which IMO can unite a large voting bloc on the right. We don't even need to specify exactly what we want, we just need to point out the insanity of the Dem's infanticide platform. Virtually no one, including (D) voters, wants 9 mth abortions, and yet for all intents and purposes, that is their platform. And they know it is unpopular, which is why they try to squirm out of questions about it. We have to stop letting them squirm.
I agree and yet the GOP will stay far away from it and the Dems are ramping up to use it once again as a cover for corruption in the election process.
They want some choices, but not all. Look at all those states trying to eliminate Donald Trump from the ballot, so that you couldn't choose him.
I can be against 'choice' when the choice is between suicide and suicide. But I get what you are saying.
"Freedom of choice" to commit murder.
Anti-war. Yes, that was me too, a while back. But now, with Obiden, the left is starting the wars and funding them. I thought Republicans were all... I don't know what I thought! That they were my dad or something? I voted for Trump for one reason-- because he wasn't Hillary!-- and haven't looked back!
They've always both been pro-war, with few exceptions. War is the funding mechanism for the Uniparty and its deep state masters.
Used to be that nobody was openly "pro war." It was like being "pro abortion."
Good times.
Where is the military hardware we left in Afghanistan? It’s like we challenged somebody to a baseball game and then gave them the ball, bats, uniforms, and stadium. Was the Iran attack on Israel some Middle East umpire calling “batter up”?
Jeff brings up a good point: "Like many democrats I know personally, Bill claims to be a progressive, but he lives like a conservative." There's a lot packed into that statement, I think.
For most liberals and lefties, it's mindless virtue-signaling. Belonging to a crowd. Not rocking the boat in school or at work. Going along to get along...but also NIMBY. Unquestioningly accepting what the authorities and "experts" told them...unless it applies to their personal favorite things. Wanting to tell others how to live...but not have those laws applied to themselves. Note the self-centeredness of leftists - my view SHOULD BE everyone's view - and also note how that's what they accuse the right of.
Also, not applying any logic to the stream of inane Orwellian propaganda: "a woman's right to choose," "criminal justice reform," "climate change," and so on.
Not willing or able to look at the truth, as defined by real-world outcomes of ideas and policies over time. (E.g., who could possibly be FOR public schooling in the US given its cost and outcomes, and the fact that it's the #1 source of child predation in the world?)
Also, being historically ignorant, if not outright hostile to history itself (the arrogance of "WE weren't there then, but WE are here now, so it WILL work out differently this time").
They never stop to think that Orwell is writing about the left. Maybe Orwell didn't even know that? The Soviets, the Fascists...all leftists. The major wars seemed to be leftists fighting with other leftists about whose version of leftism is "correct." Which is about as ironic as it is sad.
The thing that's struck me about conservatives - genuine small government, Constitutional conservatives, not the fake leftists-posing-as-conservatives sold to us by the MSM - is that they're not operating from "ism" ideology. People of that conservative bent generally don't ask themselves things like "what is the communist/socialist/capitalist response to this issue?" They respond from either logic/reason or intuition, in alignment with actually held (and valued) values. So, the response is natural and spontaneous, not contrived. This naturally leads to more, not less, openness (and is also a soft spot the leftists attack).
As an aside, this is why all "art" that comes from a leftist place or mindset is such cringeworthy crap. As another aside, this is why capitalism actually is better - it's a system that accounts for human nature in the same way that nature accounts for nature (selection), rather than trying to impose a Utopian vision of "fairness" and a system on top of natural processes.
FWIW, I've come to think of liberalism as an impossible position. It's always got to evolve one way or another. Hold onto "experts" and it devolves to leftism. Hold onto individual responsibility, common sense, and the natural order, and it evolves to small-c conservatism.
There is no way to sit on the fence forever saying "anything goes, we can all get along, all people and all ideas are valid." This is b/c the hard truth is that not all people nor all ideas are valid. Some are very bad and very destructive. Some cultures really are better than others in every meaningful way. To allow them into civil society is to dismantle civil society. And guess what the first thing they will get rid of is? Liberal ideas.
Well said! So many of your points resonated with me, but this one probably the most:
“Not willing or able to look at the truth, as defined by real-world outcomes of ideas and policies over time.”
It is abundantly clear that leftists generally operate from a mindset of, “This *feels* like it should work, and it makes us look kind/virtuous/whatever,” but they never go back and do an after-action review. When things don’t work the way they hope/promise, there’s never any introspection. There’s never any true effort to find root causes and address them. They always move on to the next thing that “feels” right.
Maybe it’s my very “engineer” mindset, but I simply cannot wrap my brain around the unwillingness to look at outcomes and evaluate their effectiveness. “This didn’t work out like I hoped, so maybe my assumptions/approach/methods are incorrect.” With the Left, it’s more like, “This didn’t work out like I hoped/promised, so I just need to do it more/faster.” (This is, of course, in parallel with, “Which group can I blame?”)
Facts vs. feelings. Open mindedness over tunnel vision. Real world vs. fantasy. Will we ever bridge that divide, or are we just too fundamentally different?
Exactly. I always go to public education as an example. The left has had a hold of it for generations now, probably, what, 60+ years? And they spend an enormous amount of money, last I looked, about $16k per student per year, near the top in the world. And the results are laughably horrific. Among the worst in the developed world. In some districts, not one student can read, write, and do math. Not even one out of thousands. Think of the disservice to these kids!
But, do they ever go back and evaluate what caused this (extremely expensive) failure? No way! It's always "systemic" this and "structural" that, which are themselves outdated 1970s ideas from post-structuralist / post-Marxist thinkers. IOW, they're using their own ideology to explain away why their own ideology has failed. Circular logic. If only they could do it more!
And when you ask what they want to do differently, it amounts to "spend more money." "Corporations have more money than us..." etc. Total non sequiturs that shouldn't fly among even elementary school educated people. Where is the feedback loop? Where is the willingness to try different things? The open mindedness? The ability to accept criticism, evaluate failures, and adjust one's own strategies and tactics accordingly?
Instead, they go with "everyone else is wrong, reality is wrong, the outcomes are actually good, and we need to make people see how right and great we are." Which has turned literally all of our intellectual fields of work and study into Potemkin villages. They're all fake, completely composed of manufactured "research" to support a failed 50-year old ideology.
"The first step in understanding the state of education today is to review how government came to be the dominant force behind schooling in the United States. From the outset of the first settlements in the New World, Americans founded and successfully maintained a decentralized network of schools through the 1850s. Then, beginning in New England, a wave of change swept across the country, which soon saw states quickly abandoning the original American model of decentralized, private education in favor of government-funded and operated schools.
"This movement not only altered the direction and control of elementary and secondary education in the United States, but it also contradicted many of the principles Americans had fought for less than a century earlier:
- A country founded in opposition to central governmental authority allowed for bureaucratic management of its schools.
- A country synonymous with "free enterprise" and distrust of legally protected monopolies built a government monopoly in schooling.
- A country that stretched the exercise of individual choice to its practical limits in nearly every sphere of life severely limited the exercise of choice in schooling, assigning the responsibility for education to the discretion of government authorities.
"The system of K-12 government schooling that exists to this day clashes with the political, economic, social, and cultural traditions of the United States to an extent unparalleled by any other institution in American society."
https://www.mackinac.org/3249
Reminds me of John Taylor Gatto!
And then they have the unmitigated gall to wring their hands about homeschooling parents being unqualified to teach their children and worrying about said children’s learning 🙄
Absolutely! The left is driven almost entirely by feelings, emotions. Dr. Laura always says "Feelings have no intellect."
I don't think leftists think it feels like it will work, they just want cover to do what they want with no repercussions, so they will take any & every excuse to cover up their depraved lifestyles.
There’s a lot of that, for certain. But I am friends with a lot of liberals (wha? 🤣), and the ‘average’ lib really does operate on feelings. They want to continuously do things that “feel” good or “look” like they care. They don’t want to confront the facts that prove their solutions are crap. Now, if we are talking about Liberal leaders, you are spot on. They take advantage of the feelz of their followers and promise all good things will happen if they will only keep them in charge. For them, it’s all about power and control.
Even worse, liberals never seem able or willing to realize that their solutions are pure crap and don't work. They just do the same things over and over and over....
and don't forget it's it's usually all about the money.
Yes, well said, and this has been my experience as well.
I’ve often thought this way. Leftist thinking is best left out of engineering schools as physical laws tend to not lend themselves to being ignored. Conservatives are better thinkers and get better results because they deal with reality.
I have certainly found this to be true. I know that we need all sorts of people in this world. How boring would it be if we all felt the same about everything! But I really can’t understand people who continually do the same thing over and over - with consistently disastrous results - just because it seems like the ‘compassionate’ thing to do. Education is a great example. As is the homelessness situation. The good news is that it seems (at least to me) that a lot more people are getting a clue.
I *have* found that most people in STEM fields are more conservative (as a general rule). I agree that it’s because we live in ‘reality’. The theoretical is interesting, and certainly worthy of study and investigation. But reality is reality. Too many people don’t like ‘reality’.
Also “it didn’t work out because of ___” (insert favorite scapegoat).
“Unwillingness to look at outcomes.”
That is at the top of the list of what I feel is wrong with the Leftist zealots. come to mind: Climate change and gender dysphoria. When either of those topics are shown to be problematic, the left just doubles down.
“…the left just doubles down.” All. The. Time!
Thank you for those astute observations, RU.
"They never stop to think that Orwell is writing about the left. Maybe Orwell didn't even know that?"
Actually, Orwell knew that precisely as INGSOC stands for English Socialism. "Animal Farm" was also a harsh critique aimed at communism. Although Orwell considered himself a democratic socialist, he was actually one of socialism's fiercest critics as evidenced by the steelman arguments against it he presents in the requisite "The Road to Wigan Pier."
i have always been on the left until recently, since the pandemic they have definitely been the orwellians. plus, it seems to have robbed them of any sense of humor and increasingly they remind me of the saying, frequently wrong but never in doubt. i watched a comedy special done in scotland to protest their new censorship law, and it made me think of the left here and how it is possible to be concerned, serious and dedicated about issues without becoming censorious, uptight, smug, humorless twat
Well, they were the Orwellians in the past as well. The opposite of what our media and professors told us. Fake news, propaganda, entire fake towns to cover up what they were doing and what life was actually like. Struggle sessions. Public humiliation rituals. Repression. Mass graves. There are even pictures of Mao's red guard wearing medical masks like we had during covid. (Read or listen to Michael Malice's book about the Soviet Union for a taste.)
The thing is leftist ideologies are all aimed at reordering an already ordered world against its natural ordering principles. They are hubristic in assuming people know better than God/nature. So, they will always fail. Where I've landed is that what is real (as opposed to what is ideological) is all that really matters, throw the labels aside: authoritarianism vs. self-reliance; subservience vs. personal responsibility; micromanagement vs. freedom; confinement (incl. confiscation) vs. liberty; collectivism vs. free association; tyranny vs. rule of law; and so on. I don't need "isms" to tell me which side of those dichotomies is better for society.
🎯🎯🎯
The left here has an arrogant self assurance that their ideas and only their ideas have any validity. They believe that others have nothing to contribute and God forbid, they would never consider modifying their positions in any way. To paraphrase, being a leftist means never having to say you're wrong.
And that they have the right and the duty to tell everyone else how to live their lives.
Wonder if there will be a similar comedy special from Kanada, since the gvmt there just adopted censorship as well?
Excellent article in our small independent monthly paper showing how the Nazis were socialists (It's in the acronym NAZI), using Goebbels as an example. So, by no extension really, the fascist NAZI's were also leftists, as most certainly this government is today. Tell a Democrat this if you want to see their head explode.
Yeah, I mean, it's in their name: National Socialist German Worker's Party. The propagandists on the left will say "that's b/c they wanted to recruit leftists to their cause." Uh-huh, sure. And devout Christians call themselves satanists to woo lefties to church.
It's big government. It's government micromanaging the economy. The Nazis believed in - and carried out - confiscation and nationalization of private property, including taking a manufacturing co. and forcing it to make "the People's car" (Volkswagen).
So, then the propagandists will say, what about the "nationalist" bent. Well, as I understand it Stalin was also a "nationalist" of sorts. So, were the Soviets then "right wing?" How about the Castros? No, the whole fascism = right wing was a leftist media invention from the very start to deflect blame from leftism for the destruction caused by leftism. Our media was always on the side of the left. Even as they were murdering 100s of 1000s of people.
Sowell has written about this. Fascism came from Mussolini, who was a Socialist, whose father was a Socialist as well. As such, it's an evolution of Socialism. As Sowell says, it's of the left. The point of Fascism is more or less to use "private co's" to run cover for the government, so the government can do what it wants w/o facing the consequences when things go south.
Very, very much like current times. "It's those d@mn Rx co's who 'captured' regulatory agencies!!" Uh, no. Other way around. Rx has been drafted into the MiC, which is headed by the government entity called the security state.
I recall hearing that the main difference between Nazis and Soviets was "National Socialism" vs "International Socialism". The Nazi party wanted Socialism to benefit Germans specifically, whereas the Marxists/Soviets intended it to be a worldwide "revolution of the proletariat" for "the benefit of all oppressed workers".
They did hate each other, but it was because Hitler was convinced that "The Jews" were behind Marxism, not because they weren't both socialists.
I believe that split also existed within the Soviets, where there were two schools: the Stalinists and the Trotskyists (Troskyites?). Stalinists wanted communism to stay in Russia, Trotsky's followers thought it needed to be global. What we call neocons and neoliberals today are basically Trotsky's followers, decades later. Still, they're all leftist ideologies, whether socialism, communism, fascism, or the "neos." I guess leftists are just miserable, humorless people who are obsessed with power and war.
Well said!!
Great comment RU!! 👏👏👏
It's why the Bible exists. The How-To instructions for living. The Ten Commandments. Why there can't be YOUR truth and MY truth (that's what we call opinion). Events happened, documents were signed, laws were passed, shots were mandated. Until "leftists" can learn to accept that truth exists, and be willing to turn off their MSM and root around for the actual TRUTH, there's very little hope for converting them. "bees don't waste their time telling flies that flowers taste better than sh"t" etc etc
It's the same reason why so many Americans are "Christians" but don't really act as though they believe it. "All the good people around me are 'X' [Christian, Progressive, whatever] therefore I need to be 'X' too in order to be a Good Person."
It's a matter of social approval for certain "good" and "bad" beliefs.
My in-laws were staunch Democrats but definitely lived like conservatives. Haha
What I find interesting is that I've always felt I was "anti-authoritarian, anti-war, anti-corporation, tolerant of diverse viewpoints, pro-truth, pro–freedom of speech, pro–freedom of choice, pro-justice, and pro-equality for all"...pretty much everything except countercultural, and I always considered myself to be conservative. (not "A" conservative, just conservative)
Being conservative *is* countercultural as “cultural” means the all-encompassing propagandizing, social engineering, and mass indoctrination into socialist ideology most people are oblivious to like fish swimming in polluted water.
I used to say I was a progressive, but now that just means that I am progressively disappointed.
Good one, Ned 😂
Ditto. I was shaped by the 60s and was extremely liberal through the 90s. Then, during the Obama years, and after becoming a business owner, I changed dramatically. I still have many classic liberal values that diverge hugely with the one world order freaks. Isn't it ironic that the music groups of the 60s who were so anti establishment and counter culture are now thoroughly politically correct and shilling and beholden to their overlords. Maybe it's too many drugs, but probably just fundamental stupidity.
It took me several years recently to realize that liberal ideas have shifted so dramatically from the 60s and my idea of "liberal." I'm still having trouble with the shift! Liberal, in my mind, is still the anti establishment and counter culture. And about Antifa being anti-fascist? That's a new and bizarre idea.
I think this is where MAA was unclear. The values she **and I** held haven't changed. Those who we had shared them with have changed. Their brains were broken by TDS and the pandemic psyop. See Dr. Michael Nehls, The Indoctrinated Brain.
This is why my favorites these days as a former Progressive are Jeff and Tucker, along with Matt and Glenn. Horseshoes, anyone?
And, Peace, it’s been shocking to see old friends come out in support of Pharma & censorship & - in practice - oppose the Nuremberg Code. Mind-blowing.
Yep. Neil Young......Pharma fan.
With his long history of seizures and a child severely mentally disabled, that singer/songwriter is likely vax injured and thus also brain addled.
Welcome to the tolerant, generous, sensible, anti-war, freedom loving, free choice and speech conservatives! 🤩
Maher is shifting positions for sure. Ideologically unstable Democrats have been doing that since Reconstruction, but he’s still a whack job. “You’re not going to like” conservatives solving problems such as puberty blockers and violent 3rd-world gangs for neighbors? Isn’t that like Bill cutting off his generous nose to spite his smug face?
FWIW, all the dems I know - which sadly is mostly everyone I know except RFK supporters - have considered Maher conservative for several years now. It's only people "on the right" who keep saying he's a democrat and liberal who is changing his mind and counting it as a "win" for us. I'm so out of it I didn't even know who he was until somewhere during the pandemic when I saw a post on X, and thought, he's right!
I've wondered if he isn't trying to backpedal before he goes down with the rest of the red shoe club. https://x.com/MarcACaputo/status/1031263632167002112
There was a story about the red shoes a few years back. There's nothing alarming about women wearing red shoes; it's common. You don't see many men in red leather shoes.
https://ellacruz.org/2018/05/02/is-this-the-mystery-of-the-red-shoes/
Yes, he argues that the problem with extreme left-wing ideology is that it might provoke an extreme right-wing backlash. He can’t bring himself to argue the problem with extreme left-wing ideology is that it’s ANTI-SOCIAL: anti-freedom, anti-prosperity; anti-SANITY.
Or is he just exploiting the easy laughs? The left has become a joke. We've all laughed our way through the news, without the aid of a comedian.
Maher is not the only one shifting. There are others like Jeffery Sachs (WEF connected, head of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University). The Smarter Ones notice the big shift in the new multi-generational Narrative being engineered and they don't want to be left without a seat on the new gravy train leaving the station. These chameleons are very, very slick and crafty in how they craft their word shifting vocalizations. Such don't really stand for much excepting that they value most living well. And I about this, and their 'beliefs', I am sure they lie to themselves without really being aware of doing so.
People like Maher have been taken mind captured captive the same as most of us have. Such are well capable of being blind to themselves.
They seem like the types that just re-position to take another bite. Let's hope they're sincerely waking up a la Naomi Wolf.
Who knows? And you are right, some of them wake up. But I think they are the few who embark upon a truly new course. I notice, for example, that Jeffrey Sachs hasn't quit the Sustainability Center at Columbia. A lot of them want the cushy life such as comes with subsidized Woke.
It's nice to see Biden and Co. bringing us all together albeit unintentionally.
😆
Nice to see that I am in good company, MAA. The Republican establishment also had me going there, for a while.
this is excellent!!
100%! Same here!
Margaret AA - Ditto/Ditto!
Both parties are controlled by AIPAC. It’s right there in the numbers.
Like most of us Vietnam war-era babies.
Lifelong leftie here. It was the pandemic lies + trans agenda (as a close 2nd) that finally woke me up (pun not intended).
If there's a silver lining to the pandemic it's that I and many of my lefty friends now question EVERYTHING from the (previously trusted left wing) media, not just Fox News anymore.
KC - same here lifelong leftie until the pandemic. My eyes were opened when people were being fired for not taking the jab, up to an including, someone who worked for the fire department who not only got fired, but they stole their pension too. That and many other pandemic regimes opened my eyes.
I hope that person is suing them now for every penny they took and then some!!!
Fox News took money from the Biden regime to push the covid DeathVax.
So did Newsmax.
...and they forced their employees to take the shot.
Right now I struggle to trust any media source, save maybe Epoch
Epoch is doing some great reporting. Also Children's Health Defense, The Highwire, Tucker, Infowars.
Dont tar and feather me, but I go to RT as a trustworthy news source as well!
Agree. I go to RT all the time.
Few months back they had a great documentary about the horrible conditions the child miners in The Democratic Republic of Congo work under. Heartbreaking...all for the fake green agenda.
saw that, and many other great documentaries and editorials. Some of the stories from the Donbass and Lugansk over the years have been heartbreaking.
I've been pleasantly surprised by RT over the years!
whats RT?
Russia Today.
Somewhere NN is rolling in his future grave.
Lol.
Obviously you're a Putin lover who should be ostracized and put in jail.
Just kidding--just wanted to find out what it feels like to spew leftist talking points. 🤪🤪
It's my go to daily news site, and ha been for years. Not perfect for sure, but they couch they especially sensitive topics sometimes in order to keep from the government cancelling them, as much of the fascist EU has done. Blew me away when ~5 years ago a local good old boy hunter told me it was his site too.
You’re safe with me, but I doubt you’ll get such a promise from the Deep State lurkers.
RT?
Russia Today
Hooray for Russia ???
🤔
Ah yes, CHD and the Highwire are high on my list too!!
The pandemic absolutely woke me up too. If you’re ready for it, watch/listen to WarRoom with Steven K Bannon. Find him on GETTR, Rumble, and Real Americas Voice. Mon-Sat 9-11 central time. Your mind will be blown.
Hanson is always so right on in his analysis. Brilliant man.
I watch RAV, Real America's Voice. It comes in on broadcast tv channel 25. They have regular news and talk shows. But, I rely on Jeff's C&C for clarity.
A recent add for me is Mike Benz, especially on censorship issues
Yes!
Have you checked out redacted.inc? That’s Clayton Morris’s outlet. Whether it comes in blue or red, he calls out the BS right quick. You might also like Russell Brand, if you aren’t already familiar with him.
Yes! Huge Russell Brand fan. He's always been a truly critical thinker
I am amazed at how different Brand is today from what I once thought of him. I guess time and events change us all.
I can't stand Brand's presentation - constant yelling and wild gestures!
Agreed. Love the message. The delivery... not so much
Will check out Redacted; sounds fantastic
I hope you like it! 😄
After the last few articles I’ve read at epoch, I’ve noticed they have a few new faces. And they are being infiltrated. Just like the former republican’s Party were conservatives, they’ve been infiltrated by criminals, liars and thieves. And progressives. So epoch had better do some good digging. I dropped them, been a subscriber for years, because of these mamby Pamby by little men they have employed, that tow that soft line. So they made an offer for just digital for some ridiculous low price so I got back on. But I warned them, and pointed out specifics. Maybe they’ll get it.
Alan, please name names here, for those of us who still subscribe.
I did the same thing. I took the low price offer, thinking I'd stick with them for this election year. I'm disappointed in some of their shallow analyses and the ads sprinkled in between paragraphs that make me feel like I'm reading one of those "free" sites with more ads than content. If you like their shengyung coverage, though, you'd probably stick around for that, because it is quite extensive.
I like Epoch's "Fallout" programs. Definitely not shallow.
I don’t trust Epoch fully either. Look at there constant click bait titles overstating and fear mongering! “Grave news” etc etc
Listen to everyone. Trust no one
I do not grant blind trust to anyone anymore. I listen, I evaluate what I see or hear, and I always remain tentative.
Exactly!
Some allege that Epoch is a deep state op. Also Tucker. What was Naomi Wolf doing on Tucker anyway? Rebel News Canada and RT will not pull punches.
I remain open to all of those possibilities. I do listen to Tucker's guests, and many have been quite interesting. Naomi Wolf seems to be climbing out of the liberal pit she's occupied for decades, and is squinting toward the light. She has moments of clarity. I read her because she's a good writer. It's the same reason I read Margaret Atwood -- best writer ever, though I agree with her on almost nothing.
I do like Rebel News Canada
Always knew fox and news max were garbage. Seems the only true news out there is oann, and they’ve been canceled everywhere. Wonder why?
That's why Steve Cortes was let go at Newsmax. Very sad. I really liked the Cortes/Pellegrino Show.
I'm pretty sure Emerald Robinson also.
Accepting money meant accepting the terms - like pushing jabs and requiring masking. Same thing schools were held to.
Glad the red pill went down easy for you. Welcome to Team Reality!
Thank God for you!
Never forget what The Left did to children for two years during c19.
Depravity.
Just listened to another Naomi Wolf interview with Tucker. As Tucker said, she had a lifetime membership in lefty land, but boy, did she get a wake up call when she went off the taliking points reservation.
Her courage is inspiring. She's lost so much through her truth telling
Same - red pilled by the plandemic and trans movement, specifically being told to pretend males can become women.
And now many of us on the right no longer trust Fox News( they had a much more ominous take today on Trump’s current trial than Jeff). Sounds like one of the unintended consequences of the nefarious pandemic orchestration was to bring a diverse group together in agreement. I like it.
Absolutely! That IS the silver lining. And that many many families do not trust the school system anymore and found what kids were being taught.
I was so pleased when I heard Left-Wing Jimmy Dore talk about the pandemic and the shots to a freedom crowd and I discovered that he didn't say one word that I didn't agree with the whole time!
It was wonderful to know that someone from the other side, so to speak, and I could agree 110% on this whole issue.
I transitioned in 2016 after watching our state legislators in action. (Colorado) Spent some time at the capitol building being a parent lobbyist for disabled children (I have one) and medical freedom. I watched the dems smile, nod and lie about supporting us and then vote against everything we had talked about. I watch a House committee chair shove a mom of a disabled child (in front of her child) because mom was pro vaccine choice and the dem didn't want to talk about it. I watch the dems cry fake tears for one dad who lost his son to meningitis, and disrespectfully scoff parent after parent who told stories of horrid vaccine injury, including death. (Picture the soup Nazi saying "Next") I watched dems schedule important hearings with 2 hours notice so we wouldn't show up, but when we did in numbers over 2000 to testify, they limited our testimonies to 1 min and only 1.5 hours total for each side. They were literally wondering the halls of the capitol searching desperately for anyone to fill the 1.5 hours of testimony supporting their bill, while 2000 people sat around wanting to testify against it. They passed it.
Horrified by their antics, I started voting conservative.
Wow. GULP. Just horrifying. Thank you for standing up!!!😢
Welcome to the club of those who've seen their legislators be moron tools of lobbyists. Your Colorado reports make me want to pray those callous idiot legislators all got jabbed a lot with the bioweapon and every possible vaccine. I am done having any pity for all who enabled this "medical care" carnage. How many bodies must literally pile up for more tp wake up?
I feel your pain. It’s a demon possessed party, especially in CO. I guess The Blueprint is a must read on the disaster that has befallen my state I grew up in.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7803748
Why? You actually think they're different? They are all lying psychopaths, and to all of them, we (citizens) are their enemy. Chandler's fixation and fawning over the orange blob is baffling.
So they were just like our national "rep's," eh?
In '08, I wanted to bring back hanging the bankers from lamp posts. Now I want to feed the fake rep's to hungry lions in the Colosseum. If they charged $10/ea PPV, we could likely eliminate half the U.S. debt. Do it again for the plandemic evil ones, debt erased!
I converted during the Reagan years (my late 30s to early 40s) when I saw how well the country ran. I have no liberal/leftist tendencies at all now and haven't had any since the conversion. I wish I had not been so naive earlier. I actually came to realize that my natural political sentiment was as a conservative. Just didn't know it initially.
Bragg may be inept and the case may be weak at best but you forget one thing: the jury will consist of BRAINDEAD NYC RESIDENTS who won’t even be able to follow the logic but they will know Trump is guilty.
As a NYer, I used to really enjoy jury duty, but I haven't been called since I switched my registration to (R). Strange, that. I have some funny tales about jury duty but I'll spare you.
Wow, that is a fun fact. That would make for an interesting study. Someone up there has got to have access to that data.
In any case, glad to have you!
I had a colleague, child of a cop, who said that anyone connected to a policeman was not going to get chosen for jury duty, but that the "selectors" loved getting teachers. Maybe because most of them are left-ward feeling?
When I was a college professor in Berkeley I was always rejected for jury duty. I was told by an attorney friend that they don't want people who are too smart or persuasive as they could manipulate other jurors. Meanwhile my neighbors who are Chinese immigrants and don't speak or understand English very well have been chosen multiple times.
Lawyers would prefer someone without strong opinions and without knowledge of the subject matter. They want you to know only what you hear in the courtroom. If it's a criminal case, they don't want a cop. If it's a civil case about a design defect, they don't want an engineer. And so on.
Just the other day I was watching theTV trying to find something other than the OJ Simpson blabbering when I happened upon a story about 3 black women jurors that were admitting the voted not guilty verdict as a retaliation for the Rodney King verdicts against the white cops that beat him. The women said all the jurors not guilty votes for OJ was purely based on the fact he was black and was retribution for King. They SAID this back then and SAID this again just the other day! On national TV! How is that even legal? And further, how many more cases were tried where black jurors found a black criminal guilty of terrible crime not guilty as justification for retribution "bc they black?" This really angers the crap out of me. Although OJ was *found* innocent, everyone knows he killed Nicole Brown.
I've heard that juries are the "wild card" in a trial. No way to predict what they'll do or why.
Wow, they’ve really got things wired up there, haven’t they? I think you called it. Not that it matters much, nowadays. They just turn everyone but guys like Daniel Penny loose.
Unfortunately in my experience most teachers nowadays (not all but a majority) are very easily led and not critical thinkers. They are also easily manipulated emotionally. Again, just my personal experience so I can’t generalize widely but it would make sense in that case to favor teachers for juries.
And not engineers, who analyze problems with critical thinking (the brain) instead of emotionally (the heart).
If SAT scores function as indicators of intelligence, then those going to state teachers' colleges are not very intelligent. Thus, not disposed to think carefully or critically. Guess I had better re-phrase my first sentence: putting into a past tense.
As a wife of a MI state trooper I was never selected for jury duty.
Thank you for your and his nonjury service.
Yes, they love teachers. I was hoping it was because we understand the difference between fact and opinion, but maybe I am wrong. They are disappointed with me then.
My opinion of public school teachers is not high. My elementary school was a teachers' college training school: 3 new student teachers every marking term. In senior year of high school, I observed that the lower students on the "college track" were going to that same teachers' college. [BTW, learning that the author of "White Fragility" was employed at that non-august institution, I felt it reasonable to dismiss anything she might propose--without question]. Reading yearly, in USNews, the SAT scores of students entering college was yet another dart hitting the center of the target.
When my daughter was 8 in 1978, we lived in Ireland and she went to a little country school there. Her grade level in Ireland was at least 2 years ahead of her in math compared to what was being taught in the U.S. Thank goodness she has always been a good reader, we taught her to read well at 4 and 5 because even back then they had abandoned phonics in teaching.
I did the same with my 3: 'whole language' was the thing in the 80's. I wanted my children to be able to read well(and, as noted above, I had attitude about public school teachers). I used the old McGuffey readers for all three--lovely little stories. We did arithmetic together--especially with colored milk jug caps so the girls could "feel" as well as see, how addition and subtraction work.
I think you are the exception rather than the rule unfortunately 😕
I also did not go to a state teachers' college.
You might be surprised how many conservative teachers there really are. At my smaller rural district, most are conservative. I think it's really the large districts that are mostly liberal, but even there, there are many conservative teachers. There are a couple of conservative teacher FB pages where we commiserate.
I agree. My daughter was a middle school teacher for 11 years, and we are in the foothills of Northern California. Almost all of her fellow teachers were conservative. I'd guess the California cities are different, though.
She left teaching about 7years ago because she was sick of California's laws about dealing with behavioral issues. You could no longer really deal with disturbed kids, rather, they were just shuffled from school to school. You couldn't discuss it much with the mostly defensive parents of disturbed kids because the parents were messed up too and they took criticism of their children's bad behavior as an indictment of their bad parenting. It got ridiculous and my daughter was sick of it. She was a great teacher, and many of her fellow teachers left teaching as well.
I agree there are some. But sadly they seem to be vastly outnumbered by the liberals from what I have observed 😕
I would indeed be surprised. 2000-2021 gave me awareness of conservatives being like hens' teeth.
Same 😕 Even in the very rural area where I grew up, most of the teachers are not conservative. Though a lot more probably were when I was a kid.
You should watch Jury Duty on Prime! It was so damned funny. Pausing-the-show-to-cry-laughing funny.
Hilarious and well made show. 🤣
Hilarious! I still wonder how they pulled that of. And got such a nice, sweet guy as the patsy. Not really. More like a hero.
As a public school teacher, I was called for duty about every other year--which was really annoying, because I had to request a substitute (which district had to pay for) and then on every occasion but one, the night before jury day my duty was cancelled. But the sub couldn't have her job cancelled. The only time I actually had to show up was after my retirement. And registered R always.
Oh, I meant to mention that I put NY conservatives/Republicans right up there with black conservatives. That takes guts.
I'm a white, middle-aged, college-educated female living in (north) Fulton county Georgia and I get called (and regularly selected!) for jury duty almost yearly. I'm both amazed and disappointed at the incompetence of the DAs.
I have never, not once, been called for jury duty. I’ve always wondered if it was because of my voter registration.
I've lived in my CA county for 37 years and have probably gotten a jury summons postcard only about 5 or 6 times. You call the night before to see if you should come in for jury selection, and every single time I didn't have to go. I'd actually LIKE to be on a jury just once, to see how things are conducted!
Oh...and it seems like after age 70 they kind of "opt you out" of serving.
Ditto in Calif but have been called to a jury voir dire exactly once in over 40 years. Made it to the Q&A where I flamed out of the pool when the judge asked me if I'd ever been a victim of a crime. Said I'd chased down a purse snatcher who got 5 years in a state penitentiary and had seen both the defense and prosecution lawyers do things for which they should of been disbarred for life. Like witness tampering with the defense attorney showing his client my name and home address.
I felt creepy bad vibes from the judge who seemed to be royal and the smartest person in any room. Glad not to stay one second longer in his courtroom. A short time later in 2018 he, Aaron Persky, was recalled by voters for grossly favoring a fellow college frat boy-athlete who was convicted of rape by giving him the lightest possible slap on the wrist jail stint. The very next year the ex-judge was fired from a job teaching girls high school tennis after his identity was exposed.
How long has that been?
15 years, maybe? At the end of service you get a letter stating that they won't bother you again for 6 years.
You beat me to this point. Any conservative tried in NYC, DC, or any other deep blue city doesn’t stand a chance.
Only spent tax money matters.
Yeah unfortunately that is the reality 😕
The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me,
‘He who rules over men as a righteous one,
Who rules in the fear of God,
Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
From brightness of the sun after rain.’
— 2 Samuel 23:3-4a LSB
Janice (and other readers) we discussed Isaiah 28 in our Bible class yesterday. I know the passage was directed to rulers of the people in Jerusalem, but I was struck by how much verse 15 sounds like present day realities! Then, it goes on to tell us that these evil deeds will not go unpunished; they will ultimately fail.
Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,
and we have an agreement with Sheol;
when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,
it will not touch us,
because we have made falsehood our refuge
and have hidden behind treachery.”
16 Therefore the Lord God said:
“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will be unshakable.
17 And I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the mason’s level.”
Hail will sweep away the false refuge,
and water will flood your hiding place.
18 Your covenant with Death will be dissolved,
and your agreement with Sheol will not last.
When the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,
you will be trampled.
Interesting timing. I like to listen to J Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible", a 5 year study. As I say, interesting timing because he's currently in Isaiah. When I read Chapter 1 I was thinking the Hebrews of that day sound a lot like today's Israel.
I know many Christians are of the opinion they are supposed to support Israel, and I basically agree. But today's Israel is, from the Christian perspective, a Godless nation just as they were in Isaiah's day, and God punished them. With that in mind, how blindly should Christians support Israel in these days?
https://partner.ttb.org/listen/51e3534c-b8ad-4f82-98f0-c962fb546055/?title=Isaiah%2011
The covenant God made with Israel is an "everlasting covenant". God gave them the land. That's what you support. The right to their land. It's those who try to divide it that are cursed. You don't have to like their government to support them. It's also not blind if you know the history and realize how much propaganda has been twisted against Israel.
Think about it this way. Satan hates what God loves. God loves Israel. Not because of who Israel is, but because of who God is. A covenant keeping God. When you agree with dividing the land God gave them, you come in agreement with the devil. That is not a place any professing Christian wants to be.
Agreed, Amy. As Christians we are not blindly supporting the Godless government of Israel, we are seeking obedience to scripture. Over and over we see the disobedience of the Jews and recognize that God chose them because they ARE a stubborn people, not because they were so good they deserve His grace. Just like our own government, we should be holding them to account.
”And he said, “O Lord, if it is true that I have found favor with you, then please travel with us. Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forgive our iniquity and our sins. Claim us as your own special possession.”“
Exodus 34:9 NLT
Perfectly said. God's faithfulness to keep His covenant with His chosen people (however stubborn and wayward they are!) confirms that He will faithfully keep His word to all Christians who've trusted in Jesus for salvation. We know from Romans 11 that the remaining Jewish people will eventually turn to and trust in their Messiah, but it will take the horrible days of the Tribulation to finally open their eyes.
I'm pretty stubborn too. I am thankful God is merciful to those of us who have been stubborn with Him. He is patient, merciful and full of grace. He never gave up on me just like he never will give up on his people. I am so thankful we have such an amazing God!
I particularly needed to see this today! Thanks Amy!
I completely agree and this is perfectly said. God is and will be dealing with Israel (to the point they finally turn back to Him during the tribulation and recognize Jesus as Messiah)regardless of their faithfulness or lack thereof. He will bring his people back to Himself according to His commitment thru covenant. Just like with us as individual believers , our relationship with him does not depend on our faithfulness, but His.
So well said!
This feels like where we are.
Joel 3:1-3
“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh’aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered
them among the nations, and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it….”
There are far too many Haaman and Hitler spirits posting here. They say Jews are behind all the evil in the world. So one has to think they are advocating for the end of all Jews. Just like Hitler.
Here’s something helpful for you Jew haters. Some advice from Bill Maher.
https://youtu.be/KP-CRXROorw
Before He was crucified, Jesus warned the faithful of the judgement to come.
Luke 21: 17 "And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. 18 But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19 By your patience possess your souls. 20 But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written (in the OT) may be fulfilled."
He then warned them again through the vision given to John in Revelation so that when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, the church had already vacated Jerusalem.
Rev 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place... 3 Blessed is he who reads... for the time is near... “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia:..."
As Paul described in the parable of the two olive trees in Romans 11, those of the good olive tree (Israel) that rejected their Messiah were BROKEN OFF because of their unbelief suffering "the severity of God" (the judgement of God at the closing of the Old Covenant as all things of the Old Covenant were fulfilled). This was the great tribulation and the Days of Vengeance and He saved His church, which is now Israel of the New Covenant composed of ALL believers Jew and Gentile alike, from this judgement who then went forth in the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to carry the gospel to the Gentiles of their King and Savior who now sits on the throne of God, ruling and reigning in history; and of His kingdom there will be no end.
Israel = the people. People have a covenant with God. Land doesn't/can't have a covenant.
So, you're saying the Jews who now live in the area of ancient Israel under a modern political state called Israel are the people that God made an "everlasting covenant" with regardless of the fact that they do not worship God and do not accept the change in the Covenant as a result of the coming of the Messiah? In fact, when the Messiah came to His own, they rejected Him and crucified Him. Yet these are the "special" people He is covenanted with? Is this what Jesus was saying in the Gospels and what Paul was saying in Romans?
Surely Moses would have qualified as one of God's chosen people yet he was not allowed to inherit the promised land. Why was that? Was God unfaithful? Moses represented all of Israel. The "Rock of Israel" in 2 Samuel is the Messiah. When Moses (Israel) struck the rock, he disobeyed God and God cursed him for it, saying he would not be allowed to inherit the promise land. Moses striking the Rock was a prophetic type of Israel rejecting and crucifying the Messiah when He came to His own. As a result, the curses (judgments) of the Old Covenant that the Messiah took upon Himself on the Cross also fell upon apostate Israel being unable to enter the promise land of the New Covenant established by Christ's shed blood.
There is only one Covenant and only one Israel of God and it is only through faith in God and His Son that one is counted among His covenanted people and ever has it been so.
Yes. I am. Israel is where all end time prophecy is fulfilled. Ezekiel 36:24-32 is coming to fruition right in front of our very eyes.
The Bible does not support replacement theology. Everlasting means everlasting.
As a label, "replacement theology" is a misnomer that mischaracterizes an understanding of God's covenant. From Adam onward, the focus of God's covenant with man has always been the coming of the Messiah, the Second Adam who as the Son of God would take away the sins of the world through His sacrifice. When trying to understand the prophetic passages of the Old Testament, one must first understand the explanations given by Jesus in the Gospels as well as Paul in Romans etc. If an interpretation of the OT passages does not reconcile with what Jesus said then it is time to reconsider why our understanding is not supported by His Word.
The most common mistake is to use current headline events as the basis for interpreting OT prophecy. This is a mistake that has been endlessly repeated over the last century. We must allow Christ's words to guide our understanding of these passages or we will be tempted to apply our own understanding to the prophecies. Satan is famous for using the line, "Hath God not said...?"
As I said, the promise of the coming of the Messiah has, from the beginning, been the focus of God's covenant. With the incarnation of the Son of God, there is necessarily a change in the administration of God's covenant as the promise of the coming Messiah has been fulfilled and now the covenant of God is expanded to include the whole world with Satan now dispossessed and the Son of God glorified. For the first time, the Holy Spirit of God is sent to indwell believers as the body of Christ on earth thus establishing Christ's kingdom in history. There is no "replacement covenant". It is all one covenant with a singular focus on the Son of God, provisionally given through OT Israel and now expanded to include the whole world through the ascended and glorified Christ. This has necessitated a change in the priesthood and new wine skins are used to contain the new wine and wild olive branches are grafted into the native olive tree as the Gospel is carried to the Gentiles bringing them into the kingdom of God of which they were aliens before.
I wish more Christians understood this; it would quickly resolve a lot of the bizarre misunderstandings regarding the modern, secular state of Israel.
2 Timothy 4: 3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Yes, a great many teachers who are very popular in the church today teach dispensational rapture theology and the coming of the end of the world in our time and they gain in popularity with each new sensational headline from the middle east. Matt 24:36
Ephesians 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs TOGETHER with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ".
Exactly my point.
I don't disagree but I do note God has allowed the Godless Hebrews to be removed from the land of the covenant several times. That's the unknown, to me anyway, will they be removed again before "the last days"? I don't know.
No because they are dwelling in Israel in safety when it happens.
Oh. You said it out loud. I've wondered myself how I'm supposed to"blindly support" Israel. It's a subject on which I'm not real versed. So I mostly stay quiet and watch and listen.
Great thing about not being Christian: you don't have to blindly support anyone or anything. You don't have to advocate genocide because those doing it are supposedly God's chosen people. You don't have to justify the murder and displacement of millions of people because of an old book. It's nice.
I hear what you are saying. I agree that it seems many Christians do blindly support Israel. I liken it to how I feel about this country. I love it. I love the premise on which it was founded. I love the Constitution. I would not choose to live anywhere else. However, I am not blind to the grossly distorted governmental system we have now. I do not support most of the things that our government does. But I still believe in our country.
The same is with the people of Israel. As a Christ follower, I believe God has made them His chosen people. I believe God does not change. Psalm 21 says He doesn't suffer His foot to be moved. But I'm not sold on the fact that the government of Isreal, like the government of these United States, is not greatly flawed and has greatly departed from the relationship and plan that God has for that nation.
I'm using too many words, I know. But please hear my heart. GOD has never been wrong. He has never failed to be all He promised me He would be for me. My Savior, Redeemer, Friend, the All Knowing Alpha and Omega. He has proved Himself to be True and His Word is true as well. People. Family. Governments. They all have failed me. But my Jesus never has. He gives me peace that passes all understanding in this crazy world and I trust Him always. The best news is that he can be that for you, as well. The Bible tells us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Being a Christian doesn't give me 100% clarity on the Isreal thing. Or the American thing. But it gives me 100% clarity in Him. I have never regretted receiving His forgiveness and His guidance for my life.
I think we're not all that different. I believe in God as well, but not organized religion. I can't believe that there is a God out there who would condemn most of the population of the earth to hell, or who would choose any one kind of people over the rest. I can't imagine thinking that you have to excuse genocide in order to be saved in the afterlife. So I'm happy that I don't feel I have to.
Yes, if one looks at it from a standpoint of God condemning so many it is hard to swallow. However, the truth is we are all condemned to hell because of our sin. The Bible, in Romans says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. John 3:16, 17 says For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be saved.
Yes, but according to your mythology, god created man, in whatever condition. So god created beings so sinful that they deserve eternal torture, because millions of years ago someone ate an apple, and then had his own son killed so that he would not choose to torture his own creation the way that they deserved? Interpreted as modern christians do, it really makes no sense.
God created humans with free will, not 'so sinful that they deserve eternal torture'. You are free to choose to believe or not. Your theology does not align with the Holy Bible or its teachings. The pain and anger you feel are real, but someone has deceived you.
but believing wrong means you deserve eternal torture. Also I have heard many Christians say that we are born sinful and deserving of hell.
Rowantree, I would like to invite you to read the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible. John shows us so much about who Jesus is and what His purposes and desires for us are. Then if you're still intrigued, read the book of Romans. I think you can find an understanding of God if you'll read those books. People like me can too easily confuse and confound in this kind of format.
Well, I plan to read the Bible cover to cover, so I will certainly cover those books as well.
John is so good but Romans…and then there’s…😊
What kind of God would create sinful people from the get go? That is absolutely the biggest delusion Christians suffer from. The second delusion is that God would choose a certain group of people as his favorites. These are not the teachings of Jesus or any other Great Enlightened Being. We are the ones who choose God when we respect all of humanity and live with compassion, and when love is the moving force of our existence. God is there for anyone who wants to know Him as the Supreme Love. Men made religions, not God!
I would say the Bible is pretty clear that God didn't *create* sinful people, rather he created people, who then decided to do the wrong thing. (And I don't think you can deny that people DO do the wrong thing to one another.)
God also chose one people (according to the bible), not because they were 'better' than anyone else, but because he was trying to teach them His ways (which, by the way, they repeatedly failed to learn) as an example to everyone. And in the end, he used them to bring us Jesus as the truest example of His ways -- as you put it, respecting all of humanity and living with compassion (and self-sacrifice).
Exactly. A lot of kind people here trying to help reform us in our ways, but really, my problem is with religions and the people who create them, not the concept of god. God can be experienced with the help of any religion, or in a more powerful way with the help of none. Religions are just outsourcing your spirituality.
It’s the Jews who have been subjected to genocide. The ‘Palestinian’ population flourished and grew because of Israel.
And the ‘Palestinians’ have ethnic roots in the surrounding Arab nations. They began as refugees from those nations, because of the numerous wars Israel has had to fight for her preservation. But no-one would take them back because it’s so convenient to have them be a constant threat right on Israel’s doorstep.
The history and truth of this situation is far more complicated than the slogan lies taught by the Marxist universities.
If you base your stance on that simple minded propaganda, you’re an idiot. If you’re indulging yourself in Jew hatred, you’ve got more serious problems.
You know, I'm pretty educated and the whole Middle East situation is totally beyond my ability to be sure about as it is so complicated, with powers that are utterly invisible no doubt involved. Jewish poets and writers, no matter their politics or stance on Israel, are being rejected by publishers and thrown from performances, because they are Jewish. Near me in Dearborn, they are chanting "Death to America Death to Israel," and some of the students are claiming to stand with Syria and Iran. That's Syria of Assad's torture chambers, Syria where they order people into the streets to protest when the regime says they must. In the long history of forced religious conversions, there is only one incidence of forced conversion to Judaism, sometime in the MIddle Ages whereas all the other faiths, in their coalitional political power forms, have forced conversions over 2 millennia. Reverend Rainbow Viagra in the White House is trying to forcibly convert us all to the rainbow cult and keep us off balance by making us take a simplistic position with regard to the Middle East. What they tell us is going on, is not what's going on, that's my conclusion, but persecuting people not for their actions, but for their religion or race is evil.
Yes. Actually Wikipedia had an accurate synopsis of modern Israel’s history last time I checked. The country was absolutely born out of the holocaust. When Hitler’s plans and actions became widely known, I think the nations who had turned a blind eye and refused refuge to Jews who tried to flee were greatly embarrassed. They certainly didn’t want a focus on ‘who knew what, when’.
I think this drove the U.N. action to create a new Israel in the Jews ancestral, God given homeland. It was not out of the goodness of any hearts. In fact, at first the plan was to give Israel all the land that is included in God’s gifting. But then it kept getting whittled down.
Immediately after the Jews declared themselves a nation, they were attacked by the Arabs surrounding them (who had allied with Hitler), and basically the Jews have been fighting ever since. The ‘Palestinians’ are largely refugees from these wars that never went back home. Israel has taken care of them for all these decades, while being constantly threatened by them. A welfare state.
This latest little experiment forced upon them by the deep state to open their borders and employ Arabs and accept them in their society, that just resulted in the horrendous, barbaric attack is over. The Obama/Biden administration is trying to create a color revolution to change the government back to leftists that will comply with their demand to experiment endlessly with Jewish lives. But the people aren’t buying it.
Seems you're the one indulging in hatred. Wherever they come from, they are being slaughtered now, men, women, and children.
War is hell. It’s too damned bad that Hamas is supported and protected and hidden by the most of the ‘Palestinians’, who allow themselves to be human shields, while betraying the Jews who tried to coexist with them, by spying and helping to create the plans for the October 7 massacre.
All over this globe there are a number of wars and conflicts happening right now. Several in Africa, where the innocent are being slaughtered. But you just have a special soft spot in your heart for those who share your hatred of the Jews. Telling.
And you think the US should support and defend Israel and no other beleaguered countries.
Love your comment Tew. Please see my previous comment....
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/the-pugilist-monday-april-15-2024?r=u78oh&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=53980573
another great thing about not being Christian? You willingly choose to go to hell versus heaven where there is a God who loves you! Oh, wait, that is not the party you were told it was? Will thank satan for that!!!
I'd rather go to hell and burn with 90 percent of the earth's population than bend the knee to the god who created hell and condemned most of the people he created there. I don't believe in hell or a god who would create such a place. But if it were real, I would still make that choice.
God created hell for satan and his minions, not for people, but sadly, people choose to go there themselves by refusing to ask Jesus into their lives and mean it when they do. You truly do NOT know what you are saying, hell is not a place to party. There are many people who have encountered hell on YouTube, check those out if you want to get a glimpse of your next home if you don't repent and seek forgiveness of your sins, sins Jesus willingly took upon His cross!!!
You have certainly confirmed the existence of a deceiving devil who desires to see you suffer in hell forever. Please turn to Jesus.
Well, it would seem that your idea of God desires to see people suffering in hell forever.
If this were true, He would not have provided a way of escape through the sacrificial death of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Who did not stay dead, by the way…
A way of escape from his own wrath?? The story of Jesus makes no sense unless viewed as the archetypal myth that it is. Every culture has a very similar story of their own god who dies and is resurrected. The story of Jesus is not really all that unique, except for the fact that a lot of people take it more literally than other mythological stories.
You need to read what Susan said. God does not send people to hell, nor does he desire that they be there. Those who are there have chosen it.
Rowan tree, if you haven’t already, spend time or a year reading & understanding the Bible. There are plenty of ways to do that in an organized way - Bible in 365 for example. Or take some of the free & excellent Hillsdale courses. The Genesis & Exodus courses are excellent. It’s a fascinating journey that may or may not change your mind & heart but will increase your understanding.
I am reading the Bible, alone, interpreting it myself, and I am learning. But I really don't see the god of the Bible as an entity worthy of worship based on my study.
If I may suggest, consider communicating with God as well, through prayer. Ask God to open up the scriptures to you and show you what he wants you to see. It's ok to use plain speech and he doesn't mind questions, lol. Fancy words and eloquent prayers don't impress him anyway. At times, I have yelled and complained to him, he doesn't get offended when you are upset.
Actually I feel that I am pretty in touch with God already. I am studying religion including scripture but I believe in a God that transcends man-made constructs like religion, and I believe that that God is always available to all of us, regardless of the things that seem to divide us.
Eternity is a long time, maybe you will get lucky and you will have the opportunity to listen to Hillary's cackling laugh, literally for ever.
You don't know what you are even talking about. You are as illiterate in theology as you are in history and geopolitics.
Lol. I'm not really even interested in theology at all, nor have I ever claimed to be, but my perception of Christian belief comes from conversations with Christians. I am reading the Bible, and have read several books by Christians about Christianity, while most Christians, the ones I know anyway, would never even consider picking up a religious text from another religion or a book by someone with a different point of view.
Great thing about being a human, religious or not...you can choose to be literate in history, or you can willfully bastardize that history so that the people who have been targets of genocide for millennia, become the aggressors, and the aggressors---who are open about their pursuit of genocide of Jews---become the *oppressed*.
Christians don't have to blindly support Israel. Neither do they have to advocate genocide.
It's not a blessing to advocate that a nation do a thing that will end in disaster.
That being said, anyone who thinks it's appropriate to kidnap and murder civilians for the sake of terror is deranged. No matter the reasoning.
And no matter what Israel does, the narrative moving forward will be that they are villains. Whether they employ a measured response or not.
It seems to me that the opposite is true when it comes to the narrative. They are being funded and defended by the most powerful nation in the world. What more could you want for them?
What you're seeing is that people are overemphasizing one passage that says God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse them.
It's not a blessing to give the government of Israel a blank check to do whatever they wish.
You've said elsewhere that you are reading the Bible. You might find Numbers 14:39-45 interesting.
It would not have been a blessing to encourage Israel to go into Canaan after they had been told not to.
Israel was told in Exodus 22:21 "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Dispossessing the locals without compensation when Israel became a nation does not seem to be in keeping with this, and this has been held against them. It also would not have been a blessing to encourage this behavior at the time.
However, the kidnapping and murder of civilians is not an appropriate response. I wouldn't expect anyone to tolerate this.
You bring up a very good point in mentioning the narrative. I'm convinced that the narrative going forward will be to vilify Israel, no matter what they do. This may be provoked by those in power in Israel, who I don't conflate with the people. Just like I don't want the world mistaking me for a supporter of Joe Biden.
In any case, I find exchanges like these with you pleasant enough, rowantree. Many seek an excuse to lash out over these issues. It's a complicated enough subject in a world that is rapidly deteriorating.
Certainly people are often more likely to lash out than try to see the other person's point of view. That seems less common in the C&C community than other online discussion forums though.
C&C is the only place online that I've ever had someone apologize for responding too harshly in an initial comment.
So.
So.
we don't need to play 'God' for anyone else, we each direct one another to God(to their right minds and their best selves). Playing God is what the corrupt govts/politicians and liberals(and the religious) want to do, trying to control everyone else because their own lives suck. The ppl trying to tell others what to do, how they should live and control others comes straight from satan. It forever keeps ppl from their own personal relationship with God. The ppl giving all of the advice arent't even doing it themselves, they're miserable self-hatred ppl and want everyone else to be miserable too....narcissists.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee, what a precious teacher of the Word of God, from days gone by. Just seeing his name here, I can instantly hear his distinctive voice & it calms my heart❤️ Thanks for the memory jog~I’ll listen today!
Ireal is the hub of trafficking, organ harvesting, pedeo haven...and greed at the expense of life itself. They KM controls the world and the US government.
The "Rock" that would be struck and from which the "Water" of the Holy Spirit would spring forth to sustain all of covenanted Israel, the Messiah of God whose blood would wash away all our sins who now sits on the throne at the right hand of God reigning over all of history against which no evil spirit can prevail.
Amen!!
Janice - thank you reading Sam 2 : all of chapter 23 now (David’s last words)
We saw Mike Pompeo being interviewed for 2 hours at a local church last night and I just love the personality he exudes. Calm, in control, grandfatherly personality. This verse reminded me of him and how blessed we were to have him in the cabinet. He even mentioned that he was told a group of Muslim Leaders in the Middle East preferred to deal with a committed Christian like him instead of someone who wasn't a Christian and was more like what the Biden administration is sending out these days. Fascinating
Mike Pompeo is part of the deep state. He betrayed DJT. He’s looking for his next opportunity.
Jeff asked the question so I will respond: What did it for me who never ever voted for a republican was the covid op. Oh, I thought political correctness was bs and I had long ago stopped listening to npr and thought the pandering to lifestyle groups was stupid, I just started voting for 3rd parties. What I was against was corporate corrupt control of the government and I could see during Obama that all the talk was lies and he was part of it all with refusing to do anything about bankstering rackets. Covid illuminated and brought into sharp focus the real issue, either your for freedom or your a commie serving commissars. Really everyone I know/knew who I thought were bastions of no nonsense turned into blithering covidiots. Covid resistance was a gateway drug to fully exploring and embracing liberty. It is simple really and it takes one phrase to sum up: “life (i.e. resist those trying to kill you), liberty ( you can live your life as you see fit), and the pursuit of happiness. (The whole notion of which is subversive to purityranicals of all stripes).
I say all the time that “they” are trying to kill us. 🤦🏻♀️ unfortunately I’m being proven correct daily.
I say this all the time too! And it is the truth.
I think that it is really government (elite factions political) controlling corporations and thereby all of us. I really think that a lot of the corporate elite (all but the very Woke) would be glad to be rid of the government controllers.
I hear you, but I see the "government controllers" as bought by the corporations. I see the corporations writing laws, with maybe a little back and forth since the politicos know what they might be able to get away with, in round 1. Then down the line comes round 2 when the shortcomings - in the eyes of the corps - play out = lo$t. Well, with the exception of the 1986 National Vaccine Childhood Vaccine Injury Act; products are "unavoidably unsafe." Is that so? Ok, sez the gov't, we'll go along with that. Yadda. But oh yes, no government controllers is the wet dream of the corporations. 2¢
I think it is really a bit of both, especially with the large box corporations who want a high entry cost so as to freeze out upstart competitors. Small guys with little companies, often family owned, don't like all the BS.
Regulated and controlled out of profitability. I hear you.
Yes. The lack of punishment of these crooks and his subsequent wimpy attitude cooled my jets for sure. As for this and the Iraq war disaster I hoped he would go in guns blazing. But soon saw the red Ryder BB gun on his belt. Bet he got it for Christmas from Soros. I just didn’t yet know the deceit behind it all yet.
The war is not intended to be won but it is intended to be continuous. Anyone else had enough of this total bullshit?
It is intended to get worse so that people will accept one-world government as the solution.
Part of the plan indeed but these people are total idiots as they are trying to control events that are not controllable. The really stupid never understand their limitations.
While they're distracting us with playing war games, our rights are being dispensed with. We are becoming medieval rabble.
Exactly my own thoughts as well.
It all looks like theater. I wonder if people are getting complacent with all the screaming about WWIII, and saber rattling, or drone firing….whatever. And the stock market was way up today, what’s up with that? It’s a crazy world with crazy, corrupt maniacs in charge. And we wonder when it truly will get real. Scary.
Dangerous
Gold is way up too!
wargames where both sides get in some good realistic practice over the landscape where the real deal will one day go down
Idiots who will kill us all.
Not enough of us died with the covid bioweapon, or the covid DeathVax bioweapon.
Death Cult is running things. I double down in my comment that the people running things aren’t just stupid, they are spiritually and mentally retarded.
Pure Evil is running things.
Kathleen, have you watched the Carlson-Wolf conversation? On this very topic.
I was only able to watch the shorter version on Tucker.
Always enjoyed Dr. Naomi Wolf when she appeared on Bannon's Warroom in regard to the Pfizer documents and the covid DeathVax.
Kathleen, read substack by Sasha Stone “Free Thinking Through The Fourth Turning”. She’s a prior Hollywood leftie, a good writer & provides the Tucker interviews.
Thanks for the info!
She’s a smart woman.
I wanted to watch it but I’m not a subscriber and haven’t found a way to watch all of it.
They too will die.
And will be judged accordingly. Death won’t be the end for them.
Unless we kill them first. Revolution 2.0. If this current piece of shite gets us into another war, it will be time for those of us able and willing to destroy that which is destroying the world.
Everyone who is not a defense contractor or a congressman making money off of this racket. Now, please excuse me while I wait for the FBI to show up.
Sad times. Self Destructive times.
It’s money laundering just like the billion dollar elections are.
Jeff- I appreciate your posts every day. You, like Trump, have a way a making it seem like we are going to be ok. It might not be tomorrow but here is hope. You have such a fun way of putting all this craziness into perspective. I appreciate you, the time you put into this, and devotion to making these crazy events understandable. Thank you Jeff, from the bottom of my heart.
💯!
This was the 1st time in 15 years that I owed money to the IRS.
Just have retirement income...no wages.
Normally keep my withholding lower, and it worked just fine in the past.
Really, really, don't want to pay for Ukraine.
Or experiments giving blowfish cocaine, or giving animals gin and tequila to see who gets more angry..or money for massaging bunnies...I could go on.
Shrimp on underwater treadmills is a classic.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I just went and looked that up. There is a video. Oh ...my.....goodness...
The really disappointing thing about tax day is that it isn’t Oct 15th. I sure hope people remember tax day come Nov…
It just means that "you" got to use your money last year and not just get back a dribble from your interest free loan to the feds so that "they" could use your money last year.
I think it is more like the Trump tax cuts have gone totally away.
That, too, totally. However, one of the few things I remember listening to from my dad when I was younger was that you always wanted to owe the IRS money, not necessarily a lot mind you, but enough withholding to leave you to pay a little because then you weren't giving uncle sam an interest free loan of your money for the year.
Not yet. that is coming after 2025 There were no real changes this year. Except there was a bitty COLA increase allowed for the standard deduction and the bracket amounts to the next marginal tax rate. So if your income and deductions if itemizing were the exact same in 2023 as 2022 your taxes would have been slightly less.. As a tax preparer, what I saw this year was people owing (or smaller refunds due to their withholding dropping and also to an increase in income such as interest earned as rates have increased.. And some people have been the lucky one's to have salary increases. Though one hear's stories the reality is that most peoples salaries seem to have only increased slightly, not nearly enough to counter inflations effect.
True, but you're paying for it whether you get tax refund or have to make payment. It's just a matter of withholding amount. Your tax rate is unaffected. Not that that makes it feel any better.
Me too!
Or studying penis size and STDs. "Parsons and his colleagues did publish a study on men's penis size and its link to the risk of sexually transmitted disease — but Parsons says no tax dollars were used to collect the data." You believe that, right?
"In reality, he says, those millions of dollars went to a government program to train scientists, and that program gave a small educational grant to a researcher who happened to write the paper." Why is the government training scientists?
So they will be obedient to the bio-medical security state.
Same for me… first year to be retired and paid way too much.
Just wanted to mention that identification (drivers license) was requested to efile my taxes. Smh…
But not required to vote. 🤷♀️
And everything else! Forget abortion, Biden, how about a federal law requiring Photo ID to vote??
"If someone else wants to step up and pay my taxes, I'm cool with that!"
That's what I said when I had to go through great pains to reset my password for Intuit, just so I could load Turbo Tax on my laptop. I finally just set up a new account with a different e-mail.
Same here!
The fact that everyone knew this Iran attack was going to happen on Israel only goes to show that there are so many conversations that happen in secret that are all part of an elitist agenda that we may not necessarily know about: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/how-wars-happen-or-how-theyre-let?utm_source=publication-search
Looking forward to your work on the government's secrets.
And the only reason for the “attacks” is to manipulate the emotions of the masses. Both there and here!
100% Correct! That's all its about: manipulating of the energy and emotions of the masses!
So many things occur simply to get legislation passed. Afyer something big occurs, I now immediately look to what they are trying to pass in Congress.
Exactly! Distraction at its finest: Look at what's happening HERE -- while something gets passed THERE!
Here's what Iran's leader said to Iranians: "Israel will pay a heavy price for their aggression! We will unleash hundreds of drones guided by Allah to destroy the infidel!"
Here's what Iran's leader said behind the scenes to international leaders: "We have a few hundred lumbering targe...I mean...drones that don't exceed a couple hundred miles an hour and will be in flight a really long time. We've informed Turkey (an EU member, right?) that our assault will start at 10:30...I mean at a time of our choosing."
I always think, when I read about these criminal prosecutions against Trump for process crimes, how much the Democrats are going to scream and stomp their feet like 3 year olds when this new precedent gets used against their political candidates in the future. They’ve set the precedent and created this monster, but they’ll be the victims.
I think that, too. But then I realize the Republicans are all talk and no bite. They have missed many opportunities to step up and hold people truly accountable. I'm pretty jaded these days.
Same here. My disdain for republicans is almost neck & neck with democrats. They're all just one, huge blob.
The left wing and the right wing belong to the same bird.
Stealing this. Maybe I've been under a rock. Never heard it used before. Yikes.
Old Indian saying, as I was told.
I hope they get some comeuppance but not holding my breath…
It will never happen. Look at Ron Johnson and his efforts. Has Fauci been charged with lying to Congress?
I’m thinking more directly… when a candidate for federal office gets indicted during their campaign specifically to affect the election.
What’s the saying? Liberal in your 20’s but once you reach adulthood you become conservative? I think Maher is just starting to become an adult.
I used to hear “in your 20’s, if you aren’t a democrat, you don’t have a heart; in your 40’s, if you aren’t Republican, you don’t have a brain.”
THAT’S IT!! Horrible recall 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
I don't believe Maher has ever been married or has children which, may explain his tardiness to adulthood. He's been his own top priority his whole life.
"If you don't vote Democrat in your 20's, you're heartless; If you don't vote Republican in your 40's, you're brainless. "--at least, that's how I heard it 30 years ago.
Drugs do that do people. It slows down the maturity process. Maher has always been extremely immature. As, it seems, are most in the entertainment/disinformation community
This was me! I was liberal in 20s until prob 30. Then flipped.
If Dems don’t think they can win the presidency I’m betting they make sure he doesn’t have the house or senate or any other lever of power open to a president. They have plenty of time to do it. IMO.
As an American living in Canada with his canadian wife, all I can say is O Whoa-k Canada. Some people here have that American spirit, moreso each day with each cell tower that pops up, but some are still asleep.
As one who lives just south of your border, I have many, many C friends. What I find interesting is that they always sounded vaguely center-left to me...then along came Covid and almost to a person, they all veered far left. Don't know if it was the convoy or Trudeau's antics in general, but something happened.
Another interesting thing is their attitudes about their healthcare system. They always talked about how good it was, but not any more...long waits mostly, but some quality issues. Anyway, good luck to you all, dear friends!
Anyone with any independent wealth started coming to the USA for their medical care long ago.
From my perspective of having lived most of my life in southeast Michigan and spending a lot of time in Windsor, Toronto, and the surrounding areas I always found Canadians to be proud of their culture of acceptance and tolerance. I admired it, actually.
I think Canadians are discovering to their detriment that this may have been a weakness that continues to be exploited by Trudeau and his puppeteers. While it has been happening for decades, the lights should have gone on in 2018 when the lyrics of "O, Canada" were changed from "True patriot love in all thy sons command" to "True patriot love in all of us command," to be more "inclusive."
That being said, I read the National Post fairly regularly and, perhaps not an entirely accurate gauge of Canadian public opinion, I do find most of the National Post comments to be on the conservative side.
Like their American counterparts who are predominantly disgusted with our 'uniparty' reality, conservative-leaning Canadians appear to be unified in their patriotism, their sense of opprobrium for all that is Justin Trudeau, and in their frustration with the apparent fecklessness of Poilievre and the conservative so-called "opposition".
I wonder what Don Cherry thinks.
Don’t be fooled by the National Post. That rag was all in on the jabs.
It was difficult to find any media outlet in Canada that wasn't all-in on the shots but that was also true of the U.S. and pretty much everywhere else. Even now very few have been brave enough to do a full mea culpa. National Post wasn't quite as egregious as the Toronto Sun with its "Kill the Unvaccinated" banner headline (or something to that effect) and the value, for me at least, of the National Post is in the comment section.
Agreed. I'm still annoyed with the NP and no longer read it, as I expected more from them. After Conrad Black pulled out of it (another set-up by the US deep state) it just became another branch of the MSM. True North and Rebel News are far more in tune with non-Liberal Canadian opinion. And BTW - it was the Star (not the Sun) had the headline "let them die". And of course, our unhinged PM who called us all "misogynists who have no place in society" then recently denied he ever said that.
"it was the Star (not the Sun) had the headline "let them die".
Thanks. I stand corrected.
"True North and Rebel News are far more in tune with non-Liberal Canadian opinion."
I agree. I read them both.
Bad form that I don't have a link to the conversation, not to mention that I can't remember the parties in the conversation, but a recent watch somewhere presented the following perspective: the people on social media 1) have some kind of expendable time (they're not engaged in work or with family and friends - not living or even attempting to engage in life to its fullest - in fact, on their chosen platforms in pursuit of likes (how sad)) and 2) don't necessarily represent a majority opinion. Not an answer to anything, just got me thinking about many needy people on social media. Not all. Not an indictment or judgement. Just provoked thought. As Jeff has advised repeatedly, local, local, local. Said to self: Check in with those people. In interactions I often lead with a relatively benign comment, delivered with good cheer and sometimes self-deprecatingly. I know nothing (channeling Sargent Schultz?). Plenty are still asleep, but surprisingly I have found an open mind here and there. An opportunity to educate not on a raft of subjects, just one. I silently bless the person, and the opportunity. Throwing spaghetti at the wall here. 2¢ or not even.
You must be a Maxime Bernier supporter? Just a guess.
I have supported Maxime for several years--but as an American cannot do so financially. I asked his campaign.
Which means what, exactly?
Why didn’t he just put the retainer on credit cards to get the points? No memo lines, and he would have gotten points perks! Geez, it’s like nobody’s thinking over there.
LOL
Proud member of 10x travel! Hey-o