Going Galt

The Left seems to think the Going Galt thing is funny, they might be surprised. Those Portland folk don't look to be Far Right.

Also, apparently bartering services have grown by 100 percent recently on Craig's List. It'll be interesting to watch Timmy Tax Cheat Geithner try and explain an eventual IRS clamp down on bartering given his own taxing past.

In these tough economic times, an ancient form of trade is making a comeback. “Bartering” is booming, thanks in part to web sites that make it easier than ever to exchange services.

Just type in "barter" on Craigslist in the Portland area and you’ll find a long list of ads, from gardeners to electricians, all posted by people are offering to trade their services for things they want or need.

Comments

[Reaganite Republican Resistance]

What Barack Obama doesn't understand is that he can't force his Stalinist controls on Americans, nor can he just snake whatever money he wants out of them by ordering it so. Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of statist economies knows that black markets arise, people hide income, and anybody clever enough to be successful in the free market system we formerly enjoyed will be able to skirt Obama's misguided diktats.

Someone needs to tell Barack that he can’t put his class enemies on the rack and wring all their money out of them- regardless of what his Marxist professors told him. The AIG resignations due to demonization of them with a broad brush should be instructive to all. The executives he targets know how the world works, unlike Barack as he employs his long ago disproven zero-sum class warfare strategies to an economy who’s only real advantage in the world has been freedom and low taxes.

Without a healthy, free market… America is doomed.. it's our only competitive advantage in the long run. Europeans make better stuff, then the Asians make better AND cheaper.. All he is doing is scaring away talent with repressive measures that will not work. The only loser here will be the compainies, and of course the USA- Obama can’t control these people in defiance of market forces… they’ll just do something else.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

[steveaz]

So right, Reagan.

You hinted at one fringe benefit of Obama's policies: the EU repatriates its pensioners' investment capital. I think this gift to Europe is intentional.

Up to now, the EU and its currency have been unratified paper tigers. The voters of Scotland and France have yet to sign on the dotted line. And the EU-philic elite in "Europe's old men" like France and Greece who labored to erect the EU's formats out of tongue-depressors and matchsticks know it is a hollow shell so long as America continues to attract enormous amounts of European investors' capital.

I think Obama's crew is nursing its own secret "Davos" contract with the likes of Chirac, DeVillepin, Eason Jordon, Soros and Rich (a contract that, interestingly, would suffer mightily if submitted to the same sort of "third-party intervention" that they're foisting on financial companies' hiring contracts right now): you get me elected, and I'll bring America's markets in line with your nations'.

I can't help feeling that Obama's agenda doesn't want the electorate's input. In this, he's simply cutting the voter out of the loop, and modeling the Euro-Left's effective institution-arrogation techniques.

[Bob]

And why exactly would Obama's tax plan that will CUT taxes for 95% of Americans somehow encourage people to evade taxes by bartering? Or do you mean, like, Rupert Murdoch and Richard Mellon Scaife striking a deal to lube the landing gear on each other's Gulfstreams?

[southdakotaboy]

Well Bob,

There are many Americans who do not believe Obama when he says things like that. So we are just getting ready and making contacts now for when he does raise taxes on us. Even if he doesn't we will get the added benifit of watching his plans fail because he needs the economy to grow at a certain rate to make his buget work. I personally don't make any where near 200,000k, but I have changed my spending habits drastically just to make sure I'm not contributing to the economic growth. It is not much, but whne you add us all up it is "death by a thousand cuts".

[Bob]

Southdakotaboy, I don't understand why Obama isn't entitled to good-faith cooperation from regular people. If I understand you correctly, it sounds like what you're proposing is a sort of deliberate economic sabotage (not that you could hope to do a fraction of the damage that the financial sector has already done). We're in a national crisis, and Obama has put forth a set of good-faith proposals to deal with it that isn't requiring any specific sacrifice from people like you. And your response is to wish for him to fail and even to actively contribute to what you hope will undermine his efforts. As I recall, even in the midst of unprecedented national unity and cooperation after 9/11, Democrats couldn't even ask legitimate questions without being called traitors. Why should Republicans see their current non-cooperation in any different light?

Pardon me for saying so, but it all seems like a sour-grapes, "I'll hold my breath until I turn blue" mentality because some die-hard Republicans are apparently incapable of respecting the results of a free and fair election. Obama won, and he's entitled to be given a fair chance for his plans to work, especially since it's costing 95% of us LESS than it did under the Bush administration.

[southdakotaboy]

Well Bob there are several reasons for this. First I deeply believe that what Obama and the left are trying to do is bad for the US in the short and long term. Think of it this way, if you had a family member who was a drunk would you and buy them booze or give them rides to the bar and then hand them money? Or would you do every thing in your power no matter how limited to keep them from ruining their lives?

Now as far as the whole idea that we need to " all pull together in this time of crisis" and give hima fair chance thing. Well Bob for eight long years I sat and listen to people on the left openly call for Bush and Conservatives to be killed. I've watched on TV as we conservatives have been called racists every time we disagree with Black people on matters of public policy (it seems that people on the left can't seem to wrap their minds around the idea that we think the best way to help minorities is not to make them dependents of the Government). People on the left ridicule us for our beliefs in tradition and family.I'm sick of seeing the double standards applied to us in the media and on College Campuses. On Campuses throughout this country our speakers are physically attacked on a regular basis by people from the left. I could go on with the examples, but most people on the right already know what I'm talking about and people on the left don't care.

So no Bob I'm not really interested in giving the left the benifit of the doubt and giving them a "fair chance" they have burned to many bridges with me. The left in this country needs to learn the lesson that you need to treat people with respect even if you disagree with them. If it takes watching our mutual "home" burn to the ground to do so I'm ok with that and it seem so are many other people on the right.

I hope that answers your question.

[Bob]

Do you actually believe this stuff yourself? Tell me what Democrats openly called for Bush or conservatives to be killed. Take the most leftist people you can think of, like Al Sharpton or Noam Chomsky. Did they call for Bush to be killed? Did Nancy Pelosi or Russ Feingold call for Bush to be killed? Saying things like that is beyond preposterous. Tell me what conservatives are attacked on a regular basis. What you're doing is making up juvenile fantasies about your own victimization as a way to justify your otherwise unreasoning hatred of non-right-wingers. Because if you couldn't pretend that they were being unfair to you, you'd have no excuse for such hateful feelings. People like you really should examine their own feelings and do a little soul-searching. I honestly think you're getting too carried away with your own rhetoric.

[southdakotaboy]

Ok Bob here are just a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb45riuH9WQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D74Xs1VuYAE&feature=PlayList&p=C20E954A7632DCFD&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEoLJGyCAo

There are three quick little videos.
Here are some more for you to look at (you have to scroll down and click on each link):http://michellemalkin.com/category/unhinged/assassination-chic/
Now I could go on digging this stuff up and showing it to you for hours. All the protest marches with the effigies of Bush being hung or killed in some way. However it is just not worth my time to sit and talked to you about cases that have been well documented on this and many other sites.
Take the time to watch any large left wing protest it is filled with these kind of things. Nothing I show you will change your mind. However you will notice that we on the right aren't treating you this way, we just plan on not helping you. From now on you can carry the load and we will sit by and lets be clear the left depends on us for its plans to have any chance of working. Have fun!

[North Dallas Thirty]

"And why exactly would Obama's tax plan that will CUT taxes for 95% of Americans somehow encourage people to evade taxes by bartering?"

What Oblahblah has never explained to us is how he can "cut" taxes for all but 5% of Americans when, according to the IRS, 38% of all American households in fact pay no income taxes at all. Can't subtract from zero, son.

Of course, the Oblahblah astroturfers like Bob will whine "but these people pay payroll taxes, they pay gasoline taxes, they pay energy taxes, etc."

Where has Oblahblah stated he's going to cut any of those? In fact, Oblahblah wants to RAISE the payroll tax, RAISE the gasoline tax, RAISE the tobacco tax, RAISE the energy tax, and add sales tax to services that have historically not been taxed before. Do you think 95% of all Americans don't pay for any of these things and won't be subject to Oblahblah's new taxes?

[southdakotaboy]

And let us not forget the fact that prices on everything will get more expensive when the corporations get "taxed". They will just tack it on to the cost of doing buisiness and pass it on to the consumer.

Oh well North Dallas Thirty we just need to kick back and watch it all come to a crashing halt. As Glenn Beck, the Tea Parties, and sites like this one show us that we are not alone. If we all just stop helping the left their plans will fail from "death by a thousand cuts".
Switch to cash only, find friends who have hobbies or jobs that you can barter with, if you can't barter just use cash (Government can't tax what it can't find), don't put to much money in the banks where the Government can find it, don't make big purchases unless you absolutely have to. Don't go to movies, the money just goes to the left anyway. Only do business with people who you know are Conservatives.
Obama needs us to pull the "free ride wagon" for his supporters, if we just sit down and stat put he and his buddies will fail.

[Bob]

As jihadists selectively choose the passages from the Koran that they believe gives them license to murder innocent people, so anyone wishing to show that there is a supposed broad-based conspiracy against them can find isolated incidents by out-of-control extremists to "prove" their point. You give examples of an unsuccessful attack with pies (!) against Ann Coulter and case where some Fox News film crew waded into a crowd of protesters to provoke a confrontation and got yelled at (nobody received even minor injuries in either case). Big deal. If I wanted to make claims of persecution against liberals, I might choose a recent incident such as this (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-27-442570771_x.htm), where a man shot up a Unitarian congregation and actually killed two people because he didn't approve of what he claimed were their liberal political views. But I'm not trying to fabricate a phony rationale for hating conservatives. I don't believe that most conservatives are violent extremists, or even that most of them are actually as hostile towards the other side as some of you seem to be.

And I'm not sure how you can keep claiming that Obama is somehow raising taxes when only a small minority of very wealthy individuals will see tax increases and everyone else will either see no increase or will see their taxes reduced. Obama is not raising taxes on businesses (http://www.rep-am.com/news/401138.txt). So all this business about "death by a thousand cuts" is not only not going to happen (because the majority of people aren't that stupid, petty and self-defeating) but is completely unjustified by any change in the tax structure.

In short, you guys just go ahead with your un-American hate campaign. Justify it to yourselves however you want. But your extremist movement is becoming more and more marginalized as more people realize that you have nothing positive to offer.

[Bob]

Oops . . . I posted my links wrong and they don't work right. Try the following links instead of the ones in my previous post:

Man kills churchgoers:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-27-442570771_x.htm

Obama tax plan:
http://www.rep-am.com/news/401138.txt

[North Dallas Thirty]

Obviously, Axelrod's training for astroturfers is getting worse and worse.

Notice how Bob first claims this:

"And why exactly would Obama's tax plan that will CUT taxes for 95% of Americans somehow encourage people to evade taxes by bartering?"

But the source that Bob quotes then says this:

"An independent analysis estimated that 75.5 percent of all U.S. households would get his tax credit for workers."

75% ain't 95%. Moreover, that isn't a tax cut; it's a tax credit. They're merely being forced to extend a no-interest loan to the US Treasury for a year.

If Obama supports cutting taxes, he should cut taxes by reducing the tax rates people are required to pay. But he doesn't; he supports wealth redistribution, which involves keeping the rates the same and then paying OTHER people back for the taxes they paid by raising the rates on the wages for YOUR work.

Meanwhile, Bob tries to use a source that makes the following claims:

"But for one thing, most small businesses don't create jobs."

Followed by:

"Small businesses are defined as having fewer than 500 workers each."

Oh, we see; you don't create jobs unless you have more than 500 workers. Got it.

[southdakotaboy]

Bob you asked me for examples of what I was talking about so I provided you with a few and a place to start doing some more research on your own. You then of course switch to talking about conspericy therories and Muslim extremists and other such stuff. Bob I knew going into this that you wouldn't listen and would make all sorts of excuses as to why I'm wrong and your right. It doesn't matter. Many of us on the right are tired of arguing with you guys when you refuse to listen or even use logic in your arguments.

[Bob]

So we've gone from your blanket assertions about Obama raising taxes to you now quibbling over whether it's ONLY 75% or 95% of people who will get a tax cut. Whether it's 95% or 75%, by the way, appears to involve who you're talking about. Taking the whole paragraph from which you got the sentence you quoted, it says, "An independent analysis estimated that 75.5 percent of all U.S. households would get his tax credit for workers. A higher percentage of working families would get it." So if you're talking about "working families," the percentage is higher than 75%. The same article also says:

"Republicans and other critics, knowing they will get little mileage from defending the rich, instead are casting the plan as a tax hit on people who run industrious little companies driving job growth.

That's not likely, according to one in-depth analysis, which found that more than 95 percent of small business owners would be off the hook."

So, once again, 95% of small business owners will not see any tax increases with Obama's plan. Of course, regardless of the facts, you'll still find a way to be outraged about it. That's what it's all about with conservatives who've been voted out of power for their failure to pay attention to the needs or ordinary Americans.

I wouldn't be so arrogant as to insist that everyone had to agree with me. But I believe that an important element of a democratic society is a certain basic level of respect and tolerance. I think that when people try to deny the legitimacy of a democratically elected president and seek to actively sabotage (however ineffectually) him carrying out his duties, they are going too far. And if they're going to make claims to justify their actions, they should be honest claims, not unfair and often imaginary assertions that are made up as excuses for hatred and extremism. Having been handed two devastating electoral losses in two years, I think that Republicans should spend their time analyzing their own faults and not make up fantasy scenarios to continue justifying a wrong-headed ideology.

[southdakotaboy]

Again Bob even when presented with some examples of the proof you saked for you say it isn't enough. As for denying him legitimacy, when exactly did I say he wasn't President or that he won the election? I didn't. You seem to have this blind spot Bob. My sister in law is the same way, you can show her something in black and white and if she doesn't want to believe it she won't even acknowledge that it is there.
Face it Bob we aren't going to be ineffectual and you know it deep down. You know that what I say about the left is sadly true but you can't bring yourself to admit it. The left need conservative to keep slaving away to make all their plans happen. Well if you've been watching the growth of the Tea Party movement you can tell that we aren't going to be following your game plan. At this time and place it won't take much to derail Obama and his left wing agenda.
To shorten and paraphrase the old saying "For want of a nail the battle was lost".
Maybe after everything has fallen apart the people on the left will realize that if you want the other side to play fair you should play fair.

[Bob]

Southdakotaboy, what does the evidence say? You present a couple of videos where left-wingers insulted people but did no physical harm to them as "proof" that there's widespread oppression against conservatives. I countered with an incident where a right-winger actually DID kill people because he claimed that they were liberals. So, if anything, my example where people were actually killed over their supposed liberal politics trumps yours where people were merely insulted. But let's say it's a draw and that there are extremists who do or say stupid things on both sides. In other words, your claim to a particular grievance against liberals for their supposed unfairness doesn't seem to stand up to scrutiny because there are conservative extremists who've done even worse things. On the other point, about taxes, all the available evidence says that most peoples' taxes are decreasing under Obama. You can say you don't believe it, but is it fair to blame someone for something that they say they don't plan to do and haven't actually done?

Well I don't want to beat this discussion to death, so I'll give you guys the last word if you care to use the opportunity. Take care, fellers. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[southdakotaboy]

Ok Bob I'll take you up on the last word. Again I've shown you where you can lookup the evidence to your heart's content. After years of knocking myself out showing all the evidence and proof to people on the left and not getting anywhere with it because they refuse to listen or open their eyes.
Did it never occur to you Bob to follow the links I provided and then dig deeper at each site? The link I provided to Michelle Malkin's site had dozens of catagories where with a small amount of effort you could have found hundreds of examples. But you didn't dig did you, you never took the effort because you might find things that didn't conform to your world view and things that would burst that little bubble you've built around yourself.
The left will no longer get away with their behavior without a price. We on the right are no longer going to just sit there and take it. You guys can try and make things work without our help, we are just going to sit on the sidelines and watch. Have fun.