ENCOURAGING: Swiss Say ‘No’ to Soaking the Rich

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

‘Inequality in Opulence is Better than Equality in Poverty’ — Switzerland Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutte 

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https://reason.com/2025/12/03/switzerland-just-overwhelmingly-rejected-a-new-wealth-tax-will-california-lawmakers-learn/

Switzerland Just Overwhelmingly Rejected a New Wealth Tax. Will California Lawmakers Learn?

  • The hammer of heavy wealth and inheritance taxes falls hardest on those still climbing the economic ladder.

J.D. Tuccille | 12.3.2025 7:00 AM

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California progressives are pushing a wealth tax that would skim 5 percent of the assets of billionaires to cover the state government’s fiscal gap. That is, it would hit billionaires to start—there’s no telling who would come to be regarded as wealthy enough to be fleeced as the state’s spending likely continues to outstrip its revenues. But before Californians proceed down the path of chasing high earners out of the state, they should consider the example of Swiss voters, who just rejected a billionaire tax of their own.

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Unfortunately, all the “We, The Sheeple” in the Pepuls Republik of Kaliforkneeah are NOT smart enough to realize that, like the Federal Gooferment’s income tax, eventually in a few years will come “down” to include everyone. 

Argh!

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POLITICAL: The Young Democrats and Young Republicans of Connecticut issued a joint statement

Friday, September 12, 2025

https://reason.com/2025/09/11/after-charlie-kirks-murder-politicians-can-back-away-from-the-brink-or-make-matters-worse/

After Charlie Kirk’s Murder, Politicians Can Back Away From the Brink, or Make Matters Worse

  • The political class has been pushing the country towards a conflict nobody should want.

J.D. Tuccille | 9.11.2025 3:00 PM 

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The Young Democrats and Young Republicans of Connecticut issued a joint statement denouncing the murder.

“What happened at Utah Valley University this afternoon is unacceptable,” it reads. “We reject all forms of political violence. There is no place in our country for such acts, regardless of political disagreements.” 

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Finally a little bit of sanity returns to politics.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/quotes/

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    Nehru: Think of what you can do by living, that you cannot do by dying… What do you want?

    Gandhi: That the fighting will stop. That you make me believe it will never start again.

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This quote is preceded.  By a line, something like, “I will fast until the violence stops to atone for my part in stoking it”.  Something like that.  It’s seems that ALL politicians need to take this example and tone down the posturing.

No one should be stoking the flames of violence for any reason.  Certainly not for their political gain.

Argh!

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GUNS: The FGC-9 (Fuck Gun Control 9mm) was designed by Jacob Duygu and the genie is out of the bottle big time

Friday, August 15, 2025

https://reason.com/2025/08/08/making-the-world-freer-with-homemade-guns/

Making the World Freer with Homemade Guns

  • DIY firearms aren’t just an end-run around the law; they represent a libertarian political movement.

J.D. Tuccille | 8.8.2025 7:00 AM 

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Recently, while touting gun seizures in a city that has some of the most authoritarian gun laws in the United States, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch lamented, “the number of illegal guns that we’ve seen used in New York City has exploded since 3D technology has come about.” She’s not alone. Homemade guns are increasingly sophisticated and available almost everywhere. That’s a good thing.

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Summarizing events at June’s MoneroKon conference in Prague, an annual meeting devoted to “privacy-enhancing technologies and distributed systems,” security expert Zoltán Füredi described a presentation by the pseudonymous Zé Carioca, designer of the recently unveiled Urutau, a 9mm select-fire firearm designed to be constructed with a 3D printer and components purchased at any hardware store. Rather than focus on his creation, Zé Carioca instead championed 3D-printed firearms as companions to cryptocurrency in challenging the power and reach of governments.

“His speech blurred the lines between technology, ideology, and extreme libertarian politics,” commented Füredi. He added of the speakers’ message, “Just as the freedom to transact (via cryptocurrency) is now seen as a fundamental human right, so too should be the right to bear arms—worldwide.”

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The (God given) Human Right to self-defense is essential the embodiment of the little L libertarian First Principle of Self-Ownership.  If we don’t “own” ourselves, then who does?

Somewhere in the Libertarian An-Cap literature is the recognition that “rights” are: (a) something we have all agree that every human has; or (b) those things that an individual will die defending.  To me, either definition is acceptable.  There might be be another criteria around somewhere that a “right” is whatever and whenever a human can asset and defend it.  Not so sure about that; do babies and fetuses have rights?

Interesting that the gun grabbers (i.e., politicians and bureaucrats) can NOT keep guns out of the hands of criminals.  Sometimes they even get into their “jails”.  And, like drugs, they can keep humans from finding way to get what they want. 

So too, guns are merely tools and as such can’t be kept away from any human who is motivated and wants one.

I’m interested in how the WWII “liberator” handgun was used to arm the Nazi resistance.  Why is today’s Gooferments beginning to look like Nazi Germany?   (Remember the Japanese internment?)  Tyrants and their regimes can not exist if the population just refuses to be terrorized.  Ghost guns are the perfect solution to prevent that.  Even here in the USA.

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