The Mission of Stand Tall Ohio

To promote educated advocates of conservatism by: first educating individual members and their families; second encouraging financial, spiritual, and temporal preparedness; and, third expanding our support system to other like-minded conservative individuals.

Who is George Soros

Ladies, I have been wanting to get this post out for awhile now. I think most people may not know who George Soros is and what his influence is in our country. 

Here are some starting points. Add to it whatever you may know. 

Born in Hungary in 1930. Non practicing Jewish family. His mother was anti-Semetic and was ashamed of being a Jew. When Hitler came to power they severed jewish roots, changed their name and purchased forged papers claiming they were christians. 

Hungary is taken over by communists, Soros family relocates to England, goes to school meets his "tutor" Karl Popper who believes in an Open Society which Soros adopts (open society the way I understand it is a one world order, no one country more powerful than another. He doesn't agree with "closed societies" like America that were based on absolute or "self-evident" truths. He described the "bubble of American supremacy as the greatest threat to world peace). 

In 1956 Soros moves to NYC became a citizen made a bunch of money as a portfolio manager at an investment bank. To make more money he starts exploiting situations. One big one he is known for is short-selling of the british pound, forcing devaluation of the british currency, meaning he was rooting for the british currency to tank, it did and he made a billion $$.

When asked about it he said, "I was taking money out of the pockets of the british taxapayers, but if I had tried to take social consequences into account, it would have thrown off my risk/reward calculation and my chances to be successful would have been reduced". Hmm, nice guy. It's just business right?

He starts a lot of tax-exempt organizations like the Open Society Institute (OSI) in NY (these organizations are in more than 70 countries) and funds and or contributes to countless organizations (ACLU for example) and many news organizations (NBC, ABC, NYTimes, Washington post, and many many more).

Needless to say many liberal leaning type of organizations.

Soros began to target other countries, he personally takes credit for overthrowing are Serbia, Croatia, and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. He told the LA times that he played an "important role" in preparing the country for a revolt against their president. "Im delighted by what happened in Georgia," he says, "and I take great pride in having contributed to it".

The way it works is this OSI sets up and uses the influence of all the organizations that funds, they get activist organizations to that protest in the streets charging the existing regime with corruption and crime. Eventually overthrowing the government and putting in those who believe in a one world order. 

He forges a close relationship with the Clintons while Bill is in office. They try to get Hillary-care passed. It doesn't work. He starts pumping $ into organizations to get them on board. He starts a "shadow party" that was born in 2003 at his home in Long Island. This has to do with "soft money" in campaign finance law. Now huge amounts of "unofficial $" were spent by this party in campaigns. This gave huge amounts of $ to grass roots groups working against conservative ideals. Soros himself contributed 23,700,000 in personal funds in 2004 trying to defeat Bush. So now Democrats, instead of having this soft money, have this source of money through the shadow party, but who is at the head. Now Soros is able to define the agenda of the democrat party. 

Now they start to go after who gets elected as Secretary of State. Putting money into these campaigns. Why? Guess who is the chief election officer in each state? The Sec. of St is responsible for certifying candidates and election results. 

Now 2008. Who does Soros back? You guessed it. Obama. And once elected high level jobs were filled by persons who had formerly been a part of one of the Soros led organizations. Van Jones (communist) Carol Browner, David Axelrod..etc.

A few days after election Soros said, "we need a large stimulus package which will provide funds to state and local government", what is one of the first things Obama pushes through? HUGE STIMULUS PACKAGE.

Remember Hillary Care? Didn't work the first time, so try try again. Here comes Obama-care. Socialized medicine. 

Lastly, Soros, he has shown that his mother's anti-Semitism stuck with him. Continually promoting Hamas. Saying that they will be a part of the peace process. Hamas calls for the extermination of Jews. They are terrorist. He backs the Muslim Brotherhood which is where Al Quaida stems from. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the muslim brotherhoods most important cleric once said, "throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the Jews people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all that things he did to them - even though they exaggerated this issue- he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers (muslims)." Obama also backs the new president of Egypt who is also from the Muslim Brotherhood. You see how well that is going.

Ok sorry that was so long. But really, I just wanted you to know about this guy. I had no idea who he was. I think he sounds very scary.

Fiscal Cliff

The Fiscal Cliff refers to the combined effects of 1) raising the debt limit, 2) the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts (which were re-enacted in 2010) and 3) the sequesteration of spending cuts that take effect in January.

 

1) Raising the debt limit - if you recall, in the summer of 2011, the congress and President Obama were fighting over the debt limit.  For those that don't know, the debt limit is a required legal step that congress must follow to allow debt to be issued on behalf of the government.  It is a step to ensure that the Department of the Treasury (an executive branch department) can not run roughshod over the people (represented by their House of Reps).  After a prolonged fight, they reached agreement to raise the debt limit, but also put in place a mechanism to ensure that congress and the President deal with cost reduction as well - this was called the sequester, where if they could not agree on specific cuts, then massive cuts would take place automatically on 1/1/13 in military and some less severe cuts domestically.  The idea was that the sequestered cuts were so bad, that congress would surely agree to something more reasonable before the sequester was implemented.  Wrong- there was no agreement and the sequetered cuts are expected to be implemented in January.

 

2) Expiration of the Bush Tax cuts - in 2010 (after the house was moved to Republican control), the President and the congress agreed on extending the Bush Tax Cuts for another two years.  Even President Obama suggested that extending the cuts was the right thing to do during the protracted recession - this upset Obama's base as they had expected Obama to remain firm on extending only the 'middle class' cuts and allowing the highest rates to move back to rates prior to 2001, 39.6%.  Fast forward to the election and President Obama made the class warfare argument the centerpiece of his campaign.  His repeated calling for the 'rich' to 'pay their fair share' was a clear effort to satiate his base.  Well, the tax cuts will expire FOR EVERYONE in January if nothing gets done legislatively.

 

3) Sequestered Cuts - as mentioned earlier the sequested cuts equal about a trillion dollars over the next decade.  It is roughly broken down in to halves where half affects the military and half affects domestic spending.  This was considered so draconian that no one thought that legislators would allow them to be implemented.  However, we are still waiting on legislation to make this a more considered cut.

 

All told, if we go over the fiscal cliff, spending for government will be reduced (to the tune of $100B per year or so), taxes will go up for everyone (taking well over $200B out of the economy) and we will still be on a path for a total national debt of $20 TRILLION by 2016.  The only way to to fix this is to reign in ENTITLEMENT spending (Social Security - which includes not only retirees but handicapped and disabled workers, Medicare, Medicaid), which has ALREADY spent $87 trillion more than is expected to be collected.

 

The effects of the fiscal cliff are still not understood.  There are some on the right that want the fiscal cliff to happen because despite the impact on the economy, restraint in spending will be good in the long term and they argue that if the Clinton tax rates were so great and led to such a wonderful economy than why on earth would it be not even better to let all the tax cuts expire rather than just on the rich.

 

The right NEEDS to stay on message about reforming entitlement spending.  If we don't get meaningful changes to entitlements now during these negotiations, then I think the best alternative is to go over the fiscal cliff.  This is what the columnist that Sara found was arguing as well.  What do you think? 

 

Hope this helps

Liberty and Tyranny Chapters 1&2

In chapter 1 Levin is defining the "conservative" and the "statist" which is his term for what we might think of as the progressive liberal? Can anyone else describe the Statist better? (from the internet,"the belief that a government should control either economic or social policy, or both, to some degree" one article claims Obama is a statist not a socialist). Basically the Statist wants more and more control which the conservative feels infringes on the rights of the individual. It's between forced equality from the government or the liberty to make one's own way whether one succeeds or fails. Pg. 8 at the top is talking about how the statist finds more ways to "help" while the wealthy and successful are demonized for what they have, which leads to government intervention. I like what he says at the end of the paragraph, "in this way, the perpetrator and the victim are subordinated to the government's authority-the former by outright theft, the latter by a dependent existence. In truth, both are made victims by the real perpetrator, the Statist". 

In chapter 2 he explains that the Statist utopia can happen in many forms, monarchism, feudalism, fascism, communism, national socialism and economic socialism- all forms of tyranny. Thanks to Natalie, I understood all that! They want equality but not how the founding fathers saw equality. The founders saw equality to mean the natural right of every individual to live freely under self government, to acquire and retain the property he creates through his own labors and to be treated impartially before a just law. However since we are born unique we are inherently not equal in all things, like ability. The Statist, Levin thinks, rejects that idea and wants to level the playing field and have everyone the same regardless of their differences. This reminds me of the helicopter parent that is going to control their child's life. The child IS going to an Ivy league school no matter what the child actually wants to do in life. Not everyone wants to be a doctor, or even go to college for that matter. The idea of trying to make us all "equal" in this way seems to take away and/or not appreciate our uniqueness from one another.

1st Meeting Minutes

1. Mission Statement - we are trying to develop a mission statement. Lisa Call, who has still been in contact with the Kitchen Cabinet and those who helped with the Romney campaign, had been asked to represent our group in a conference call. She gave them our official title of "Stand Tall Ohio, A Conservative Women's Group focusing on Education and Preparedness." So now it's time to get to work. We talked about four purposes of our group; first, to educate ourselves, second to educate our children, third to prepare ourselves for whatever may come and lastly, to expand our group and affecting our communities. Ali Day is working on putting that into one concise mission statement, so if there is anything else you would like to add send her a quick note. That should be done shortly. Every time we meet we hope to be covering in some part each of these topics. Learning as we go.

2. Meetings- Meetings will need a few people's participation. We would like all to participate eventually as the group progresses. We decided the best way to learn something and be able to talk to others about it, is to get ready to teach it to others. Us! The meetings will consist of 1) A preparedness thought. 2-3 min. 2) A thought on how to teach principles we are learning and/or related to our group to children or a personal experience 2-3 minutes. 3) A learning point. A definition. An explanation. Just something that you learning recently while studying. Something you looked up because you were interested and what you found 2-3 min  4)Book and/or article to discuss 50 min. We are hoping meetings stay to no longer than 1 1/2 hours. Mostly will be held at night. Does not have to be held at your house if you are part of the 4 points. Anyone can host. Book discussions should still be held through the group email so we can talk as we read. First meeting discussing Liberty and Tyranny will be held end of January. Any volunteers for pts. 1-3 please contact me (those who are out of town could also email me something to share and we could read it at the meeting).

3. The google group doesn't seem to be satisfying our needs. Is there anyone who is techno savvy enough to create a blog spot for us? Or anyone else have any other ideas that would be better? Let me know. Maybe 2 people could even work together as a team.

4. Our constitution booklets are in. I will try to distribute them as I see you. Get your books "Liberty and Tyranny" at Bertram Branch Library on warrensville. There are many that are in. Get ready. It's not fluff reading!

Thanks gals. Any questions? Please ask. 

Political Ideologies

A little something about ideologies:

An ideology is a set of closely held beliefs and values that affect the way a person (or group) interacts with the world around them.  They can be really specific or general, political or religious, or whatever.  Usually a person holds their ideology to be “common sense,” as in their own mind it is obvious and naturally true. I like to imagine the different ideologies as glasses with colorful lenses that nobody realizes they are wearing.  Imagine that you are wearing pink shades and you don’t even realize it.  Everything you look at is going to be tinged with pink.  That is how an ideology works.  People see the world through the lens of their particular ideology and the things they say, think, and act on are all affected by it.  For example, I think I can safely say that most people believe they have a duty to feed their children.  It is part of the ideology that a human being is responsible for the care of his/her offspring.  I used the most ridiculous example just to be clear. J

Fortunately (or unfortunately – however you want to look at it) not everyone is wearing the same shade of glasses.  There are so many different ideas out there and they are all just as deeply believed as the next.  And they totally conflict with each other.  And this is why I think it is important to look in the mirror, figure out what color of shades you are wearing, and then figure out how other people’s shades affect their outlook on life. When you can understand another person’s ideology and see where they are coming from, you are just going to be able to have a more reasonable and productive discussion with them.   

           

And now on to political ideologies:

Remember, these have all been at one time, or are currently held as “common sense” to a group of people. Some of these ideologies are mutually exclusive.  In other words, you don’t often find a classically liberal fascist.  But others mesh well together especially in American ideologies because they really don’t differ too much from each other.

Anarchism – The best government is no government.  The existence of any government at all is repressive to the individual.

Absolutism – A single person should rule the government, economy, and people.  This used to be the norm – monarchs, pharaohs, sultans…you get it.  So what were the deeply held beliefs of absolutists?

1. A sense of order is imperative – society should be strictly structured.  Any sort of disorder or chaos is hazardous.   

2. Usually in absolutist societies there is a clear cut nature of things, or even law from God.  There is a belief that some people are better than others, and therefore should rule over them. 

3. And last, new ideas are dangerous – they upset order and cause chaos.

Classical liberalism (not to be confused with American liberalism of today) – When classical liberalism started to come about it was really radical.  Now we totally take these ideas for granted as duh – obvious.  Here are the tenets of classical liberalism:

            1.  Freedom – Individuals have an innate right to make decisions for themselves.  The right isn’t absolute (for example, you can’t just go around murdering people) but it was from this idea that we get the freedom to practice whichever religion we choose, or no religion at all.

            2. Equality – no person is intrinsically superior to any other person. 

            3. Rationalism – Humans are capable of thinking and reasoning for themselves.

            4. Individualism – An individual’s interests take priority over the society as a whole.

5. Progress – Traditions should only be kept if they have value.  New ideas are generally good for society.

            6. Free market (capitalism) – An economic system where individuals have ownership of the markets rather than the government. 

It is classical liberalism that made democracy possible.  If you want to learn more about the founders of these ideas read stuff from these guys: John Locke and John Stuart Mill.  They are the founders of the ideas of the founding fathers!

Classical Conservatism – (again not to be confused with current American conservatism) – these ideologies came in response to the ideologies of classical liberals.  Classical conservatives mainly advocated sticking with a monarchy.  People who believed in classical conservatism were disturbed by the violence and revolutions (France and the USA) that resulted in the new liberal ideas.  Here were their thoughts:

1.      Stability – Stability is valuable and should be maintained.  Change results in violence and chaos.

2.      Concreteness – Liberalism is too abstract and forgets about the practical aspects of every day life.

3.      Human fallibility – Humans are imperfect.  Liberalism forgets that they are fallible

4.      Uniqueness – there is no universal human condition and no universal answer to solve mankind’s problems.  Every country is unique.

Want to learn more about classical conservatism?  Read stuff from Edmund Burke. 

Socialism – This new political belief system came in response to the industrial revolution.  People who embraced socialism were unhappy with the results that classical liberalism brought to their lives.  Basically we have unbridled capitalism to thank for the creation of socialism.  Here are the tenets of socialism –

            1. Collectivism – Human beings are social by nature – individualism is destructive.

            2. Public ownership – Society as a whole, not individuals, should own property.  No private ownership. 

            3. Central economic planning – The government should plan the economy – no free markets.  In other words, the government produces the bread and distributes it. 

            4. Economic equality – all citizens should have the same level of prosperity. No rich, no poor.

            If you want to learn more about socialism read stuff by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin. 

Democratic Socialism – A peaceful approach to achieving socialism.  These people believe in a classless society, where all citizens have the same level of prosperity, but they believe it should happen through democratic processes (vote).  They are ok with it gradually coming to pass.  Examples Scandinavia and other European countries have democratic socialist parties who have had a lot of success with the electorate.

Communism – Communists also believe in socialism, but feel like waiting around for it to happen peacefully isn’t ideal.  They call for revolution where the proletariat (lower class) can and should rise up against the bourgeois (upper class) and take control of the government. After the revolution they can create the socialist society.  Examples – China and the Soviet Union.

Nationalism – A strong belief that your nation is great – in fact the greatest of all.

Fascism – One person holds absolute power.  Example, Mussolini in Italy. Fascist beliefs:

1.      Action – Human beings find meaning through action, not reason.

2.      Community spirit – People should be part of a community.  Individualism is dangerous.

3.      Nationalism – the community that matters the most, is the nation.  People should work together to uphold the glory and power of the nation.

4.      Militarism – The nation should have a strong, powerful military, and should use it to expand its territory.

5.      One party – The nation should be united.  Therefore only one party is allowed and it holds absolute power.

6.      Violence – the government rules its people with violence or the threat of violence.

Nazism - A type of fascism – they share most of the values of fascism, but differ in a few ways.  They believe in a mythical past in which they are the good fighting against the evil.  And they embrace virulent racism.  They uphold “racial purity” as an ideal.  Example, Hitler in Germany.

Fundamentalism – Fundamentalists believe in a religious text as absolutely true and any opposition as absolutely wrong. They believe that all behavior for all people should be guided by the text.  Nearly all religions have fundamentalist sects. Examples – Islamic fundamentalists and the Koran, Christian fundamentalists and the Bible. In the United States the “Religious Right” has a powerful impact on politics – especially in the Republican Party.

American Ideologies – Most American political ideologies are variations on Classical Liberalism as it was through classical liberalism that our country was founded!  Most (except socialism) of these ideologies agree on a few things – namely democracy is the best form of government, free market best economic system, individual liberty is important, and government should be limited.  They actually just vary on how best to implement these things. Most Americans actually believe a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Let’s start with:

            1. American Liberalism -   They think the government should act to ensure more equality between its citizens.  They believe in the free market, but feel that it should be regulated to protect those who may be hurt by its faults. They want to protect the poor from the rich.

            2. American Conservatism – They feel that the main purpose of government is to protect freedom and provide security. They feel the best way to achieve prosperity (and security) is to leave the markets alone.  They support limited government – freedom trumps equality.  They value tradition – especially religious tradition.

            3. American Libertarianism – Libertarians believe that personal liberty trumps all.  The government should stay out of the lives of its citizens.  They believe taxes should be minimal, and government programs should be virtually nonexistent.  Their views regarding legalization of street drugs, ending welfare programs, and abolishing income tax are controversial to both the conservatives and liberals.

            4. American Socialism – We do have a few communist parties in America, but most socialist parties are democratic socialists – they believe in creating a socialist economic system through the slow and peaceful process of democracy.

Feminism – Feminists believe women are equal to men and should be treated equally by the law. There are many different feminist ideologies, but the main point for all of them is that they are striving for political, social, and economic equality for women and men.

Environmentalism – Believe that humankind has a duty to protect the planet from the uncontrolled use of human populations. Some believe in using peaceful means (democracy) to achieve it and others believe in violence.  There is a spectrum here as with everything.

I used Spark Notes a lot to help me with the outline – just wanted to credit the source. J