POLITICAL: Go to Mars, but keep the Gooferment out of it

Saturday, February 4, 2017

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/put-people-mars-2033-good-nation/

AUTHOR: NORM AUGUSTINE, MARK KELLY, AND SCOTT HUBBARD. NORM AUGUSTINE, MARK KELLY, AND SCOTT HUBBARD
SCIENCE  DATE OF PUBLICATION: 01.28.17.01.28.17 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM.7:00 AM
PUT PEOPLE ON MARS BY 2033—FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION 

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And exploring Mars is achievable under reasonably expected future budget allocations for NASA. During the space race under President Kennedy and then President Johnson’s leadership, NASA claimed 4 percent of the overall federal budget. Today, NASA’s budget is 0.5 percent of the federal budget; the agency receives about $19 billion per year, of which about $8 billion is spent on human space flight. With the right approach and planning, including a potential handoff of the International Space Station to a commercial entity, these funds could be redirected for a successful human mission to Mars. Our leaders in Washington could speed up the timeline for a successful mission, and national victory, with additional investments.

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I don’t see NASA as a spectacular success story.

Having read all the Heinlein books in my youth, I keep wondering where we went wrong. 

I grew up “believing” and still no nuclear power, no folks in space, and a debauched fiat currency that has lost most of its value in my lifetime.

Argh!

I conclude it’s ALL Gooferment’s fault. The politicians and bureaucrats have robbed the people blind. The Crony Capitalists have feathered their nest and left the ordinary people in tatters.

So let entrepreneurs lead us to space. Let them risk their capital and lives for the benefit of mankind.

I firmly believe that is the only way we will get there.

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RANT: I don’t dismiss DJT45’s concern about illegal voting

Friday, February 3, 2017

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2017/tle908-20170129-03.html

The Unapologetic Falsehoods of the Increasingly Discredited Associated Press 
by Vin Suprynowicz vin@catscuriosities.com
Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

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In an otherwise unrelated Jan. 24 news story about President Donald Trump signing executive orders to get some major oil pipelines (purposely stalled by Barack Obama in his ongoing effort to cripple America’s energy industry and thus drive up our electric bills) back on track, The Associated Press couldn’t help themselves, adding:

“Yet even as Trump moves to implement his agenda, he is still making false claims.”

*** and ***

(In Nevada, as in many states, unions can and do instruct their members to request absentee ballots. There’s no longer any need to prove—or even claim—you’ll be out of town or in the hospital on election day. Union shop stewards can then collect the completed ballots—no safeguard prevents them from checking to make sure they’re filled out “correctly”—and mail or deliver them in bulk to the county clerk’s office for counting. So much for the “privacy of the voting booth.”—V.S.)

“In Nevada you never have to prove you’re a citizen to register to vote or cast a ballot,” Cook explains. “Forget about showing government-issued photo identification at the polls, as several states now require. You don’t have to show a photo ID at any point in the process. The immigrants I met could vote Tuesday just by showing a Culinary health insurance card and a power bill.

Evidence? Cook went to the source.

“‘One would establish identity and one would establish residence,’ Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said of state standards. ‘Just like every other voter in Nevada, they will not be asked to prove citizenship.’

“You can’t cash a check in this town with such flimsy identification,” Cook concludes.

But you can vote.

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Sorry, but I am concerned about this issue.

Funny that it seems to be the “specialty” of Unions and Democrats.

Those are the same folks who protest voter id laws and yell about disenfranchizement.

Wonder what an “honest election” would look like?

If you need id to get on a plane, then you need id to vote.

Seems simple enough to me

Seniors get non-drivers licenses to get discounts at restaurants.

And maybe if some one is unable to figure out how to get id, then maybe they shouldn’t be voting anyway.

Argh!

Personally, I think only vets should be allowed to vote or be in politics.

Not that vets are better, but (1) they have taken up arms and can do it again; (2) they understand what the implications of war are; and (3) they have answered their Nation’s call and so have a in stake in the results.

But that’s just my opinion.

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LIBERTY: CAL-EXIT is fine as long as we can have NH-exit; plus all the other exits people want

Thursday, February 2, 2017

http://nhindependence.org/historical-precedents-peaceful-independence/

Historically, independence has led to peace
January 28, 2017 

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What do these new nations have in common? The majority of the people in these regions felt that their larger parent state did not represent the values of their region. They stood up against it and took things into their own hands. Washington D.C. doesn’t represent us. The motto that New Hampshire holds dear, “Live free or die”, is deep rooted in the veins of the people that live and grew up here. It seems each and every day our values are being taken away. Let’s make a stand.

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I think it is most interesting that the Liberal Left in California is asserting their State’s “rights”. They want to stop funding the Federal Gooferment and leave.

Of course, I wish they could “go in peace”. But we have that pesky “War of Northern Aggression” precedent to deal with.

And, of course, California is underwater with its finances, pension plans, and who knows what else.

In factual terms, all that has to happen is for folks — there, here, or anywhere — just refuse to cooperate.

And of course, someone has to go first.

When I was a kid and being bullied, I just made sure that I took out whomever was first. A heavy book bag right up the legs to the “eggs” ensure that no one after that wanted to be first. Sure, I would up in the principal’s office — to spell it right remember that the principal is your friend — but those bullies never bothered me after the first one or two times. Unfortunately, I changes school three times, so the lessons had to be repeated. 

Remember the Zen maxim: “Lessons will be repeated until the student learns”.

So why cant we all go our own way?

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ECONOMICS: Janet Yellen and the “FED” should go to the trash pile of history

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

https://dailyreckoning.com/91851-2/

POSTED JANUARY 25, 2017
Trump Missed His Biggest Chance to Drain the Swamp
BY DAVID STOCKMAN 

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Janet Yellen insists that she would serve out her full term (until January 2018) and has rather cheekily lectured Congress about the dangers of political interference with the central bank.

Oh, my.

Before December — after the election — the Fed spent the past year sitting hard on interest rates for no plausible reason whatsoever. The main reason was to perpetuate the stock market bubble and thereby ensure the election of Hillary Clinton and a perpetuation of the current Wall Street/Washington regime.
To his credit, Donald Trump called her out on this blatant political meddling during the campaign, calling it “shameful” and designed to keep the stock averages levitated through November 8th.

He was exactly right. Yet notwithstanding his shocking victory, Yellen has the temerity of a pot calling the kettle black. Her Keynesian-statist party has been rebuked by the American public, but the terminally grating school marm who occupies the big chair in the Eccles Building petulantly insists that her right to rule has not been diminished by an iota.

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The Federal Reserve Bank is a misnomer. IT ain’t “federal”. It reserves nothing. And, it ain’t a “bank”. It is a private cartel of the elite banks run for their benefit and that of the entrenched politicians.

It’s designed to corrupt Americans and the world into accepting a unbacked fiat currency.

The benefit of a real gold standard is to restrict what the Gooferment can spend. Imagine if it couldn’t borrow and spend beyond what it could steal from the taxpayers. A lot less war and welfare spending, for sure.

Argh!

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