Apology

Sorry for the lack of posts for the last few days. 
We've not had many orders coming in at Jukt Micronics, and have cut staff accordingly this week.  The salaried folks are scrambling to keep everything covered. 
We'll probably do the same thing the week of Christmas. 

Elections have consequences.
If something can't last forever, it won't. 
The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. 

We're living it.  Good luck, everyblody. 

Why Mitt Romney Lost

Here's Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine on why Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election. 

Thank You

Many thanks to the Libertarian Party candidates, door-knockers, sign-posters, phone-callers, Facebook-sharers, forum-attenders and other supporters !! 

This was our best year ever. 

Check out the Tarrant County Elections website when time permits.  Then head over to the Texas site.   A staggering number of Republicans and Democrats voted "straight ticket".  Even so, a lot of Dems and Independents selected our folks when there was a two-candidate race between the LP candidate and a Republican. 

We had a respectable showing in many of the 3-party races. 

If I'm disappointed in anything, it's Gary Johnson's total.  Yes, he doubled the 2008 number, but I would've put money on a 3x performance. 

But dang it, we didn't win anything. 

There's always 2014. 

Why President (insert name here) is doomed.

This is why the next president of the U.S. is going to be a miserable failure, compliments of Simon Black, of the Business Insider. 

1) When the US federal government spends money, expenses are officially categorized in three different ways.

....Discretionary spending includes nearly everything we think of related to government– the US military, Air Force One, the Department of Homeland Security, TSA agents who sexually assault passengers, etc.

....Mandatory spending includes entitlements like Medicare, Social Security, VA benefits, etc. which are REQUIRED by law to be paid.

....The final category is interest on the debt. It is non-negotiable.

Mandatory spending and debt interest go out the door automatically. It’s like having your mortgage payment autodrafted from your bank account– Congress doesn’t even see the money, it’s automatically deducted.

2) With the rise of baby boomer entitlements and steady increase in overall debt levels, mandatory spending and interest payments have exploded in recent years. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office predicted in 2010 that the US government’s TOTAL revenue would be exceeded by mandatory spending and interest expense within 15-years.

That’s a scary thought. Except it happened the very next year.

3) In Fiscal Year 2011, the federal government collected $2.303 trillion in tax revenue. Interest on the debt that year totaled $454.4 billion, and mandatory spending totaled $2,025 billion. In sum, mandatory spending plus debt interest totaled $2.479 trillion… exceeding total revenue by $176.4 billion.

For Fiscal Year 2012 which just ended 37 days ago, that shortfall increased 43% to $251.8 billion.

In other words, they could cut the entirety of the Federal Government’s discretionary budget– no more military, SEC, FBI, EPA, TSA, DHS, IRS, etc.– and they would still be in the hole by a quarter of a trillion dollars.

4) Raising taxes won’t help. Since the end of World War II, tax receipts in the US have averaged 17.7% of GDP in a very tight range. The low has been 14.4% of GDP, and the high has been 20.6% of GDP.
During that period, however, tax rates have been all over the board. Individual rates have ranged from 10% to 91%. Corporate rates from 15% to 53%. Gift taxes, estate taxes, etc. have all varied. And yet, total tax revenue has stayed nearly constant at 17.7% of GDP.

It doesn’t matter how much they increase tax rates– they won’t collect any more money.

5) GDP growth prospects are tepid at best. Facing so many headwinds like quickening inflation, an enormous debt load, and debilitating regulatory burdens, the US economy is barely keeping pace with population growth.

6) The only thing registering any meaningful growth in the US is the national debt. It took over 200 years for the US government to accumulate its first trillion dollars in debt. It took just 286 days to accumulate the most recent trillion (from $15 trillion to $16 trillion).

Last month alone, the first full month of Fiscal Year 2013, the US government accumulated nearly $200 billion in new debt– 20% of the way to a fresh trillion in just 31 days.

7) Not to mention, the numbers will only continue to get worse. 10,000 people each day begin receiving mandatory entitlements. Fewer people remain behind to pay into the system. The debt keeps rising, and interest payments will continue rising.

8) Curiously, a series of polls taken by ABC News/Washington Post and NBC News/Wall Street Journal show that while 80% of Americans are concerned about the debt, roughly the same amount (78%) oppose cutbacks to mandatory entitlements like Medicare.

9) Bottom line, the US government is legally bound to spend more money on mandatory entitlements and interest than it can raise in tax revenue. It won’t make a difference how high they raise taxes, or even if they cut everything else that remains in government as we know it.

This is not a political problem, it’s a mathematical one. Facts are facts, no matter how uncomfortable they may be. Today’s election is merely a choice of who is going to captain the sinking Titanic.

I kinda like that lifeboat that's headed toward New Zealand.....

I gave it my best shot, but the big one got away

Sometimes you win. 
I think the Libertarian Party is going to have its best year ever.  We've brought a lot of important issues to the attention of The Crips and The Bloods. 
It's been pleasant to see LP signs all over the place.  (I have to drive past 5 to get to work, and only one of them is from my stash !)
We've got some excellent candidates running in Tarrant county this year. 
We've made a lot of connections with gun rights groups and anti-prohibition groups.  Attendance at LP meetups has been increasing every month. 
There's been a lot of talk in the media about how the Libertarian Party might take some states away from one of the Obamneys and "give" those states to the other one, as if that matters. 

Sometimes you lose. 
I can probably point to 30 people who are voting LP for the first time because of my efforts. But dammit all to hell, sometimes the big ones get away. 

Go here. 

I tried, folks.  I really tried.  I came so close....

Best Libertarian Election Pics from Facebook, Emails, Reddit, Mom, etc.

What if the 9-11 events had happened elsewhere? And the response had been equally screwy? 

This is my truck bumper.  All the cool kids have one now.

I'll go ahead and say it....The President Of The United States isn't very smart.  Google his college transcripts from Occidental and Columbia. 



A vote for Romney is a vote for Obama.....

fOward !! fOward !! Wear it proudly !!

For the love of God and all things holy, where else does Romney want to put military bases??  The Vatican?  Loch Ness?  Euro Disney?? 

Give a copy of this to everyone you know between the ages of 6 and 18.  Tell them to start working, learning Mandarin Chinese, learning how to clean woks, etc.  They have a huge debt to pay off, and the older generations have a certain lifestyle to support.   

Here's a pic of our Nobel Peace Prize Winner with some of his victims. 

And do you wonder which of our major political parties is considered "the lesser of two evils" by this kid??

Here's the infamous Paul Ryan budget, the one that's supposed to cause economic upheaval.  He spends almost as much as Obama.  Sheesh....  And which one is supposed to be the small government party? 

But in a Libertarian society, who would build the roads???

From the Libertarian Party float in the Alan Ross/Gay Rights Freedom Parade....

A Photoessay On The Detroit Free Press Endorsement Of Barack Obama

The pics are from a bizarre coffee table book called "The Ruins Of Detroit". 
Detroit has had Democrat mayors since 1962.  It has long been a union hellhole. 
Here's the Detroit Free Press endorsement of Barack Obama for president. 

What’s the best case Barack Obama can make for re-election? Let’s start with the stunning record of accomplishments he has compiled over the last four years:

• General Motors and Chrysler are thriving — a long, long way from the edge of insolvency, which is where Obama found them on his first day in office. Bridge loans and managed bankruptcies turned them around, and stable growth followed soon after. Is there anything more important to people here in Michigan?

Actually a true bankruptcy would've given G.M. and Chrysler a chance to drop back, regroup, and re-negotiate their contracts with vendors and unions.  But no....  We're in the bailout presidency.  We've saved nothing but an election cycle.   

• The economy has grown jobs for the past 30 months, after hemorrhaging 4.9 million in 2009. The bleeding began to stop when Obama convinced Congress to authorize $831 billion in federal stimulus funds, and employment has grown, slowly but inexorably, since the beginning of 2010.

Bullshit.  There are fewer people working now than there were in 2008.  Record numbers of people have filed bullshit "disability" claims, and who can blame them?  Nobody is going to start new projects/businesses in a big way until they're sure that they can keep their profits.    The exception, of course, is government jobs, pork, and other boondoggles. 

• The Affordable Care Act, a broad set of private-sector and government reforms, is bringing millions of formerly uninsured Americans under the umbrella of reliable health care. It’s a quantum leap forward that has bested both legislative and legal challenges.

Time will tell, won't it?  ObamaCare won't increase the supply, or decrease the demand, for doctors, nurses, pharmaceuticals or hospitals.  That's the only way to lower the cost.  Time will tell. 

• Of the two costly wars started during the Bush administration, one is over and the other winding down. Osama bin Laden and at least 14 other al-Qaida leaders are dead, and their terrorist network is in tatters. Meanwhile, Moammar Gadhafi, responsible for the deaths of more Americans than anyone except bin Laden, was deposed with U.S. help. Not since the fall of the Berlin Wall have the nation’s geopolitical fortunes improved so markedly.

And we're killing children in Pakistan and creating more terrorists in Libya.  Hillary is still wandering around off her leash. 

• That’s to say nothing of the president’s lower-profile victories: for women, who regained the right to seek legal redress for pay discrimination when Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law; and for the thousands of gay and lesbian Americans who won the right to serve their country without lying about who they are.

Barack Obama suddenly discovered that he's in favor of gay/lesbian equality about 6 months ago.  He's not going to be featured in the next issue of "Profiles In Courage". 
And there's no such thing as "Pay Discrimination".  There's the deal that you strike with someone who wants to purchase your labor.  No more, no less.  Lilly Ledbetter is a feast for lawyers.  No more, no less. 

On the strength of those achievements alone, Obama’s second four-year term ought to be a no-brainer. Most two-term presidents can’t claim to have gotten as much done.

Speaking of no-brainers, the superintendent of the Detroit Independent School District is borderline illiterate.  Go here for details.  47% of Detroit's adult population is functionally illiterate.  Go here for details. 

The country is safer. Its economy and its largest industry have been restored to health. And health care reform, fought out over 50 years in the U.S. Congress, has at last begun in earnest. When Republicans say pejoratively that Obama “can’t run on his record,” they’re peddling partisan nonsense and indulging a myopic fiction.

Well, Obama is running on his record.  People are buying the myth that he saved us from an economic meltdown, that he's improved the Middle East meltdown, and that he's "creating jobs.
He hasn't updated his stimulus report, as promised, for three quarters.   
It's truly insane, by any standard, but he's still running on his record.

 
The Free Press enthusiastically endorses Barack Hussein Obama for four more years as president.

The mind recoils. 
Folks, you can let Barack Obama do for the nation what the Democrats have done for Detroit....

\Or you can vote for someone who is almost the exact opposite. 
Gary Johnson for president !!!

 

See no Benghazi, Hear no Benghazi, Report no Benghazi !!

Your First Time

Ladies, ladies, ladies....
I tell you all the time when your boyfriend/baby-daddy/significant other has done you wrong and you're late for work....

You need to find somebody who isn't going to run up your credit cards, spend a third of your paycheck before you ever see it, and get in fights with everyone in the neighborhood. Especially in Middle Eastern neighborhoods.  

You need someone who will give you a choice.  In everything. 

You don't need a Chicago Machine con artist. 

You need you some Gary Johnson. 

Here's the latest ad from the girls in Barack Obama's stable, and it's the most bizarre thing I've seen in a long, long time....  They say he's going to treat you right, don't they?  But how's he been for you the last four years?  Men ALWAYS pound on the door when you've locked 'em out, and they always promise to change, don't they? 

Wasted Votes Vs. Wasted Time

I live in Texas. 
Mitt Romney is going to carry Texas by something like 9% - 15%. 
That's what's going to happen this year. 

Some Texans will still go to the trouble of voting for Obama, and a vote for Obama isn't a wasted vote.  Their Obama votes still send a signal that they tolerate certain giveaways, particular forms of graft, Middle-Eastern wars, and Prohibition. 
You can say the same for a vote for Romney. 

The election isn't decided by number of votes.  It's decided by which states are carried by each candidate, and their collective Electoral College totals. 

If a Texan voted for Barack Obama in 2008, he sent a signal about his preferences, but had no impact on the election.  If ZERO Texans had voted for Obama, it would've changed nothing.  Texas went for John McCain.  Therefore, 38 Electoral College votes went to McCain.  None went to Obama.

If a Texan voted for John McCain in 2008, he sent a signal about his likes and dislikes, but had no impact on the election.  McCain carried Texas, but lost the Electoral College vote.   

That's what's going to happen this year.  Mitt Romney is going to carry Texas.  As best I can tell, neither Obamney campaign has spent any money here except to raise more money to spend in states that are close.  There are almost no Romney or Obama bumperstickers on Texas vehicles this year.  (I honestly think both sides are embarrassed, but I don't have a dog in their hunt....) 

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming are the states where Romney is so far ahead that there's absolutely no chance of Obama carrying those states.  Those places are redder than my neck.  Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas aren't quite as lopsided, but Obama wins there would be considered a miracle. 

The states that still matter are Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Wisconsin.

So if a voter in a truly "Red" state votes for Obama, is he wasting his vote?  Well, that depends on why he's voting for Obama.  If he's a civil libertarian, he's possibly voting for the party that's supposed to be better on civil liberties, but hell, look at Obama's record.... massive drug raids, domestic spying, Patriot Act, deportations, and allowing corporations to run up massive debts on your bar tab.  He's been horrible.  IMHO, Barack Obama has been our worst president on civil liberties since Nixon. 

I don't think this hypothetical red state voter is necessarily wasting his vote in Texas.  But he is wasting his time.  Yeah, he's sending a signal, but it's a weak one.  There are better uses of his time than sending out a weak transmission that he prefers one Statist over another.  He's using a shovel instead of a bulldozer.  He's drinking from a thimble. 

If you are a Texas (or any other reddish state) civil libertarian, there's really only one way to send a strong signal that you're tired of the domestic spying, the Patriot Act, raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, kids having their lives and educational opportunities destroyed for owning trifling amounts of weed, NDAA, indefinite detention, Monsanto in the FDA, Fast And Furious, and all the rest, I hope you'll consider voting for Gary Johnson. 

Is Gary going to carry Texas?  Hell no. 

Is Obama going to carry Texas?  Hell no. 

That's not the point. 

Please stop voting for the lesser of two evils, and please stop wasting your time.  Send your signal in favor of Gary Johnson.  Hit the link to see Gary's positions on every issue that matters. 

A personal letter from Gary Johnson

Dear Whited,

I hope you are doing well.  How are the dachshunds?  Shipped many fruitstands?  And how was that 45 minute meeting on the impact of ObamaCare that your President and CEO conducted this morning?  Scared the shit out of you didn't it? 

Think many of your fellow supervisors and managers will be voting for the Godfathers of ObamaCare and RomneyCare?  Ha !!  ROFLMAO. 

Just joking.  I've met Gary Johnson 3 times, but he doesn't know me from Hillary Clinton.  Here's the real letter that he sent out today: 

**********

Many of you have been involved in political campaigns before.  Many of you haven’t.  But either way, the amount of campaign material we have distributed all across the nation in the past few months is amazing!

Counting all the home-made signs and literature our great volunteers have created and passed out, well over a million Americans have received or are displaying our message of liberty, small government and non-intervention.  I have more than 300,000 fans on Facebook, almost 80,000 followers on Twitter, and more than a million on Google+ (more than Mitt Romney!).

That has happened because of you.  The kind of grassroots campaign that can distribute a million pieces of literature not only requires thousands of volunteers, but it also requires money.  You have provided that money, and words cannot give justice to my personal gratitude for your support.

Thanks to you, we have also aired almost 1,000 radio spots, and will continue to do so right up to Election Day.   And thanks to you, we will also be airing TV spots across the country.  Go to www.garyjohnson2012.com and help us do even more!

As an entrepreneur who knows the value of the dollars you have contributed, I can safely say that we get more “bang for the buck” than Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, with their hundreds of millions of special interest dollars, can ever imagine.  As you may have read in the press, I don’t even check my suitcase when I fly – which is virtually every day.  I know my plane ticket was purchased with dollars provided by supporters like you, and I refuse to spend the extra $30 to check a bag I can carry myself.

So here we are.  21 precious days until the election – and until we make history.  You and me.

We have come an amazingly long way.  After largely ignoring me, even the New York Times has taken notice, publishing a major story  yesterday on the war being waged  by the Republican Party to keep us off the ballot. 

Now, the final push is upon us --  and I need your help.  Please go to www.garyjohnson2012.com today and make the contribution that will let us keep the literature going out, the radio spots running, and otherwise reach those millions of voters who are right now looking at the Republican and Democrat and – surprise – not finding a candidate who will protect our liberty, get us out of useless and costly wars, and get the government off our backs.

Our task over the next three weeks is simple:  Make sure those voters know there is another option.  I am the only candidate who will stand up for liberty, who will bring our troops home, and who will bring this great nation back from the brink of economic catastrophe.  Your contribution at www.garyjohnson2012.com will let us keep my name and our message in front of those voters right up to election day.

We have come too far to let up now!  I am in New York today and tomorrow, headed to Wyoming Thursday and Colorado on Friday.  Next week, I will be in more key states reaching out to as many people as I possibly can.  Your contribution is what will help me reach those people I can’t see personally in the next 21 days.  Go to www.garyjohnson2012.com and help me spread the word!

Again, as we enter these final hectic weeks, I cannot possibly express my gratitude to you for your support, your confidence and your friendship.  We truly are on the cusp of history, and with your help, this will be the election that changes the political landscape in America for years to come.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Gary