Apple and its CEO Tim Cook are making history, superseding very serious Administration scandals from the MSM’s consciousness and from the front pages, as they endure a very public assault by Congress for having obeyed corporate and tax laws of the countries in which they conduct business.
For decades international corporations have used all tools available to them which might strengthen their business, their health, their market penetration, and their profitability. For decades most corporations, even small companies, when licensing intellectual property, have followed the rules Congress established, just as Apple has done. Now, Congress, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), sees an opportunity for righteous indignation accusing Apple of exploiting a tax loophole.
Levin is doing his limited best to countenance Apple into a corner of unAmerican darkness and of antipathetic mien to all taxpayers. Levin is hard on the heels of what, really? Simple tax avoidance – legal tax avoidance. Surely Levin has never deducted anything he was fully ‘entitled to’ on his income tax filings, has he? Surely not, or he would be a hypocrite.
This year Apple expects to pay $7 billion in United States taxes, more than any other company. It also intends to leave over $100 billion offshore, away from U.S. tax rates.
Listen up Tim:
With your personal money, with your vote, and with your company’s money, you supported a political party which is a former shell of what it was when you were a kid growing up. It is today a party which institutionalizes jealousy of anyone who has ‘more’ – not ‘much more’ necessarily, but just ‘more’. You have encouraged and endorsed a political party which has repeatedly assaulted all businesses, and particularly large companies, with socialist castigations from the teleprompter, and intimidations through over-reaching bureaucracies. You have advocated for a political agenda which sidestepped laws of the land to consolidate power in the hands of union bosses against their rank and file, and against the companies which employ them. Now you, Tim and Apple, you wonder why you are being publicly flogged for sport by the very people you mistakenly placed in power. Get your political, social, and economic priorities straight. You are not a too-big-to-fail bank protected by The Fed. Quit appearing surprised that the snake has coiled and is turning to bite. You are now getting a taste of the ideology toward which you have so readily allocated so much energy. Stop thinking you will ‘influence’ the Administration or the liberal Congress. Just Stop it. They’re not on your side. Never will be.
Listen up Congress:
Ignore Levin’s legislation, and ignore McCain who says, Congress “can effectively close the loopholes used by many U.S. multinational companies.” Quit acting like you work for the tax lawyer’s lobby, and act in the best interest of the millions who pay the taxes which pay you to do your jobs, and act in the best interest of the millions who wish they had jobs enabling them to pay taxes. Drop the corporate taxes all together, or reduce them to the single digit percentages. Give all companies on Earth a desire to base their headquarters in the United States. Corporations, little ones, medium ones, big ones, and giant ones like Apple, are vehicles which can enrich a society. That enrichment is felt through fulfilling jobs, through stimulation of creativity, and through enhancement in standards of living. Corporations have neither hearts, nor minds, only their people do. Don’t allow companies to play any role in the political process. None. Terminate lobbying. The taxes paid by more FULL TIME employees will more than make up for any elimination of corporate taxes. Relegate the term “loopholes” to the toxic trash heap. Apple is sending you, Congress, a very clear message. Listen. Don’t try to increase the bureaucracy to prevent the Apples of the Nation from reducing their tax exposure. Invite them to the table to tell you the truth on job creation. Right now, no-one is telling you the truth. This Administration and its flatterers in Congress, have been allowed to instil fear in those who aren’t cheering them on. Listen, then change that climate, and change the tax structure to reduce the massive financial and bureaucratic burden on all businesses. The small businesses will all love you for simplifying their lives. The partially employed and the unemployed will leap for joy.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.
Apple keeps $100 billion offshore so as to avoid taxes BUT look at Delaware.
1209 North Orange Street
Wilmington, Del.
That is the legal address of no fewer than 285,000 separate businesses!!!
For instance:
American Airlines,
Apple,
Bank of America,
Berkshire Hathaway,
Cargill,
Coca-Cola,
Ford,
General Electric,
Google,
JPMorgan Chase,
Wal-Mart.
Delaware’s cozy corporate setup robs their states of billions of tax dollars.
Most of the businesses incorporated here are legitimate and many are using all legal means to reduce their tax bills.
Delaware is the biggest corporate haven of all in or out of the country.
Last year Delaware had more corporate entities, public and private, than people — 945,326 to 897,934.
Delaware today regularly tops lists of domestic and foreign tax havens because it allows companies to lower their taxes in another state — for instance, the state in which they actually do business or have their headquarters — by shifting royalties and similar revenues to holding companies in Delaware, where they are not taxed.
And better-known offshore tax havens as the Isle of Man, Jersey and the Caymans, require greater disclosure.
Thus more than 50 percent of the major corporations in the world are incorporated in Delaware.
You can have companies in Delaware that have no U.S. bank accounts, no requirements for documentation and no one knows who owns them.
PS, Delaware allows tax-free shopping, too!
APPLE:
Puts its corporate headquarters in Reno instead of Cupertino where the company is.
WHY?
By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.
California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent.
Nevada’s? Zero.
Everything Apple does, tax-wise, is legal.
More legal than what the IRS did to TEA Party organizations.
Everything Apple does, tax-wise, is also appropriate.
More appropriate than what the IRS did to TEA Party organizations.
@Nan G: #1,
Yup, having been principally in high tech industries, I used all of them throughout the years, Nevada, Delaware, Isle of Man, Jersey, the Caymans and others, for one reason or another – all legally, all above board, but all to reduce total tax exposure. A half dead monkey would do the same. It’s the hypocrisy that is impossible to swallow from guys like Levin, or Obama, who deduct everything they can, but shit on businesses from the teleprompter, or from the bully pulpit of committees in Congress.
Outstanding article, I hope it is passed around management at Apple and many other bewildered corporate offices.
@Skookum: #3,
Thanks Skook, from your lips to, . . . . Companies such as Google and Apple are in serious need of wake-up calls. Their execs seem to have lived in echo chambers.
But you know this already, dealing with some of their equine challenges. Strangely they have rapidly (as soon as they got suddenly rich) lost connection with those on the ‘other side of the track.’ Yet, the other side of the track seem to think they care.
Apple cheated honest American tax payers plain and simple. Perhaps not legally, but certainly by any other standard, moral or ethical. Through overseas shell companies (notably one in Ireland where they negotiated a 2% tax rate) they avoided paying US taxes on income generated in this country. The End. This impacts any honest US tax payer since your relative burden of supporting the US government and paying off our debt is higher, much higher, than it would be otherwise if Apple simply paid taxes on the their US income the same way you and I do. Excusing it, nay, celebrating it, is especially galling coming from the same people who, in Romneyesque fashion, heap scorn on the working poor in this country for allegedly not paying enough in taxes, when they too are simply obeying the tax codes of the land (and for the most part paying a higher effective tax rate than many millionaires). What a charming double-standard: Corporations heroically and ingeniously play the system to their benefit, since paying more taxes than one has to is inherently un-American, while the American poor pathetically and parasitically play the system to their benefit, since lazily not paying your fair share is inherently un-American.
Sadly Tom, you neither demonstrate capacity for reading, for comprehension, or for reasoning, although it is entirely possible that you possess such competence, and refuse to put it on display here.
If you actually read the post and present a position counter to any posited, I’d be pleased to oblige, engaging in debate on any elements.
However, if you’re going to start with “Apple cheated honest American tax payers,” don’t bother. If I responded, . . . such would only lead to the suspicion that more than one of us is misusing oxygen.
The Obamas claimed a $47,564 home mortgage interest deduction on their house in Chicago. Thus the Obamas saved more than $10,000 in 2011 by claiming a tax break that favors the wealthiest Americans.
Legal, but cheating the rest of us, right?
Almost all of Romney’s earnings come from investments, which are taxed at a only a 15 percent rate.
Legal and NOT cheating in any way.
PS, The Romney’s just bought a home in my little town of Holladay, Utah. (We just moved here, too.)
Does that make ME rich?
@James Raider:
Why do you assume I was presenting a position counter to yours? I don’t think I’m abusing the spirit of the comments section by placing my thoughts on the Apple situation here. If it makes you feel better, I think you’ve written a very thought provoking piece, though typically reductive in terms of Right/Left. One of several things you’re missing is that it’s not all about tax rates. If that was the case, almost all entrepreneurial high tech start ups and innovation wouldn’t still be happing in the same few blue states.
Riiiight.
It’s more about tax BREAKS!
For instance:
Silicon Forest’ Sprouts From Oregon Tax Breaks
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950222&slug=2106348
Washington County, Oregon gave multimillion-dollar tax breaks to Intel and IDT.
Multnomah County, Oregon gave multimillion-dollar tax breaks to Fujitsu and SEH America Inc.
Corvallis, a Hewlett-Packard Co. division moved to Oregon because of tax breaks.
H-P, too.
Computer software company Mentor Graphics, Trilobyte Co., and many others only came for the MONEY!
Oregon is BLUE, right?
@Nan G: #9
I think you’d discover that most companies who have offices in progressive enclaves like Silicon Valley have actually been incorporated in either Nevada or Delaware. As for the sanctimonious Hollywood deviants, look to other places like Singapore, for instance. There are armies of lawyers on retainer in the Bahamas, Switzerland etc., just sitting in offices, incubating thousands of companies/cash/assets, on behalf of loyal and patriotic Californians and New Yorkers. Even the illustrious New York mayor has an ocean front mansion in Bermuda – nothing else to see there, move along, it’s just a weekend retreat. They all are.
@Nan G: @James Raider:
As I said, it’s not all about tax rates. Both of you are apparently conceding the point that high tech entrepreneurs, and the types of skilled workers they need to employ, are still drawn to California, or Cambridge, MA, or NYC, where regardless of the corporate structure, their skilled workers are still paying state and local taxes. Wouldn’t a company fare far better in a red state with lower taxes, less government regulation and red tape? Again, it’s not all about taxes. Companies have to go where qualified workers will follow. These same blue states offer other enticements, ones, frankly, you won’t find in Mississippi or Alabama. And some of those enticements are actually directly related to ‘big government’ largesse, like excellent public transportation and education. The government pays for that stuff and guess what, people actually like it. Let’s not discount the impact of social liberalism, diversity and inclusion on attracting a robust and highly skilled work force.
And in this Conservative Libertarian no-tax dream-world, who is going to pay for natural disaster relief for instances like Oklahoma or Sandy Hook, and repair our depleted infrastructure? Maybe we could rely on the generosity of the corporations who have paid minimal taxes for years to donate what they think should be enough. I’m sure they would be glad to donate for the wars of their choice. Then we could be governed as a Fascist Republic, and perhaps Rand Paul could be our Fuhrer.
@Tom: @Liberal1 (Objectivity):
I’ll give a local example.
Utah.
The ”recession” has been over in Utah for quite some time.
We have what, even a contrary media during Bush would call, full employment.
Not just that, but Utah is the most generous state in the nation as per capita charitable giving is concerned.
Far and above even the very next state.
True out minimum wage is lower than in other states.
But that leads to MORE people employed.
And with no lottery (which is a drag on other state economies) that means our cash keeps circulating inside the economy.
We see virtually no beggars on the streets.
You would not believe the vibrancy of the economy here.
HELP WANTED signs are up all over the place.
@Nan G:
An example of what? That may be an example of something, but it’s not an example of a state that would draw high tech entrepreneurs and their typically diverse highly skilled and educated workforces away from Palo Alto.
@Nan G:
Your statistic is completely misleading, since it’s almost certainly completely skewed by Mormon tithing. While I’m sure they do many good things with their money, that’s ‘charitable contributions’ going directly to an already super wealthy church, not money going to soup kitchens or disaster relief.
Ummm, it might be one thing if Apple was lobbying to change the law in order to do this, but this is the tax law AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS. Until and unless they are not in compliance with the law, this should be a non-issue.
But I do have to ask, if the socialists think it’s a *BAD* thing for companies to take advantage of tax breaks and/or credits, why do green energy advocates (statistically weighted highly socialist) lobby so hard for the continuation of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind and solar energy companies?
Particularly in the 30 or so states with a Renewable Portfolio Standard (http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4850), it is now mandatory for utilities to supply a set amount of their power from ‘qualifying’ renewable energy. Once renewable energy has been mandated, why is a tax incentive still required in those states if not to generate more profit for those companies?
As I like to put it, once you bring out the stick, there is no longer a need for the carrot…
Fair is fair…if *some* corporations are bad for taking advantage of the tax law to their profit, why aren’t *all* corporations bad for maximizing their profit at the expense of taxpayers?
@Jay:
My point exactly: Giant multinational corporations follow tax laws. The working poor follow tax laws. And from what I hear, Conservatives consider both situations to be, as you put it, “a non-issue”.
Except of course when it’s the single biggest issue defining a party and (arguably) deciding an election:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. … These are people who pay no income tax. … and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
I understand consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, but it’s telling where people end up while being inconsistent. I also understand that every giant, profitable corporation’s job is to pay as little taxes as possible. Good for them, but as much as it might break Mitt Romney’s heart, I sure as hell won’t share a tear for them when it doesn’t work. But heaping scorn upon the poor has an actual existential impact upon their lives. Makes you wonder if every school yard bully is a young Republican in training. I think it’s an interesting study in inconsistency actually, how people think they have “principles”, when what they really have is a principle in a silo.
@Nan G: #13,
Low business tax rate environments stimulate businesses and entrepreneurs – the lower the rate the better. There are few things more important to a successful society than support of vibrant energy invigorating the entrepreneurial spirit. One of the reasons I strongly feel corporate tax rates should be at or near 0% is that for the most part, company founders, managers, owners, no matter how small, understand how to most effectively invest and allocate capital for the growth of their enterprises.
I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that Apple has a better idea of how to create jobs for the long term, than buffoons like those sitting the W.H. or on Capitol Hill.
@ Tom
Which was pretty much my point…the very folks with their undies in a twist over Apple having the temerity to actually try and retain as much of the money they earned as they can nevertheless argue the exact opposite when it comes to maximizing the profit of the alternative energy companies, I.E. more tax dollars – in more than half of the states on top of a mandated market for their product. Can you imagine the sturm und drang if Apple had such a captive market and was still clamoring for more tax incentives on top of it?
Perhaps it’s as simple as a friend once noted to me “they (socialists) don’t understand math or science”. Whether it’s someone not putting in enough or someone else taking out too much, the net result on the equation is the same.
Rather than shaming the corporations, why not play the game. These are all (or mostly all) publicly traded corporations. Buy stock in them and when you make money, go ahead and give it all to the government. Assuming you have any left, since, given your stance you wouldn’t take any of the allowable deductions related to the investments, nor are you using any of the other tax deductions you’re allowed. And capital gains can be a killer. Otherwise, you get the scarlet ‘H’ for hypocrite.
It seems much more likely to me that the bullies tend to be attracted to the party of ‘ban everything I don’t like’. Or that agrees with statements such as “if they bring a knife, we bring a gun…get in their faces”, etc.
OOPS! Tom!
Only about 1/2 of Utah’s population is made up of LDS (Mormons).
So, for them to ”skew” the numbers they’d have to be giving far more than 10% per household.
See, the entire population per capita is about 10%.
Since the next highest per capita state is less than 7%, your logic would mean the LDS’ers must be giving about 15% to make their state look so good.
But this is NOT the case.
Regular folks like me (not an LDS) give no matter where we live.
It does help when your own neighbor asks you to sign on at $XX/mile for a run or bike they are doing for a charity, however.
And, no.
The charities include health issues, women’s issues, environmental issues and so on.
They are NOT just giving to the church.
@James Raider:
I am sure you’re correct. But companies aren’t born into vacuums and to pretend this vibrant entrepreneurial climate you reference can exist in 99% of the nations on this Earth is a fallacy. Criticize the government all you like (I think it’s great, as criticism can be wonderful inducement to improvement) but don’t let your rhetoric fool your mind into thinking that this non-government utopia can actually exist.
True.
Look at Chavez’s Venezeula.
It became a basket case under him.
Not even toilet paper is available.
It had been a vibrant economy under leaders before him.
Look at Obama.
First thing he did was ”save” GM partly by putting 2,000 dealerships out of business.
Thousands lost jobs as a result.
Just not Obama’s old buddies in the UAW.
Now, four years later, Republicans Mike Kelly (PA-03) and Jim Renacci (OH-16) are circulating a letter requesting Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents detailing the process and methodology the Automotive Task Force used to shut down General Motors dealerships in 2009 during the automotive industry crisis.
I wonder if Lew will EVER bother to answer that letter.
Obama doesn’t care about jobs.
Obama only cares about jobs for his union buds.
And lately even they are finding themselves at odds with Obama!
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group — is very worried about how ObamaCare law will affect its members’ healthcare plans.
Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling “for repeal or complete reform of ObamaCare.”
UNITE HERE, a prominent hotel workers’ union want major changes in ObamaCare.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters are also pushing for changes in ObamaCare, too.
@Tom:
You and Lib1 seem to be riding in the same boat. The problem is that your narratives just aren’t true.
No one, not even the most “radical” conservative, believes in a “non-government utopia”. Please point out in any of the above comments where anyone has supported that.
What we do believe in is limited government, particularly on the federal level, as the founders envisioned and their writing supports (see the Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers for clarification).
The trick in having government is to ensure, to the people, that laws will be just, fair, and equitable, without becoming too burdensome and without creating too much power within a centralized location.
Today, in my opinion, the federal government has too much power over our lives and the laws are not just, fair, or equitable, either in theory or in practice. And when that power is used in a political and biased manner, as the IRS scandal demonstrates, political persecution is right around the corner.
Do I think that the GOP is immune from such power plays and grabs? Heck no I don’t. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, Tom. The next time it could be the GOP, or GOP supporters, believing they have carte blanche’ to use government as a bludgeoning tool to get their way. That is something we should all be wary of, and the entire reason behind conservatives such as I calling for smaller and more limited government.
@johngalt: #23,
This may be possible, but IMHO, remotely so. This is not generally the tendency of the ‘conservative’ mind.
There is a very distinct, blatant and presumptuous ingredient in the liberal progressive mindset, which convinces it that it knows better what is good for others. When it looks in the mirror, it may have the self-confidence of a slug, but it is convinced that the juice which has been impulsed to flow across its neurons are a nectar with which all other humans must be infected.
To the detriment of the rest of us, there are always narcissistic leaders creeping around the gutters prepared to round-up these sad malleable minds to aggregate them into a colossal amoeba willing to discharge their bidding. Current events and recent history are full of evidence.
@James Raider:
As a courtesy I feel compelled to ask, does any of this have basis in empirical fact, or is it more reductive mumbo jumbo? Honestly, are you measuring peoples’ heads with calipers to come up with this nonsense?
The Investor’s Business Daily has an editorial:
Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/052313-657569-gibson-guitar-raid-like-tea-party-intimidation.htm
Great case made that it was political persecution plain and simple.
[T]he feds raided Gibson and found materials imported from India, claiming they too moved across the globe in violation of Indian law. Gibson’s response was that the feds had simply misinterpreted Indian law.
Interestingly, one of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood,” which is the exact same wood in at least 10 of Gibson’s guitars.
So why were they not also raided and their inventory of foreign wood seized?
Gibson’s chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, contributed to Republican politicians.
Chris Martin IV, the Martin & Co. CEO, is a long-time Democratic supporter.
The feds strong armed $350,000 out of Gibson then agreed to let Gibson resume importing wood while they sought “clarification” from India!!!
@johngalt: When the power structure does a 180, like it always does in due time, I can’t help but wonder if Leftists will appreciate the power of the IRS to persecute anyone who contributes to the Left or writes inflammatory articles against the administration. Will we pursue this tact? If nothing is accomplished and Obama’s Administration is given a pass on its destruction of the First, I don’t think it is practical to assume those of us who have paid tens of thousands and have been under threat of prison will be altruistic about “Punishing Our Enemies.”
Leftists seem to think turning our country into a banana republic is a good idea, let’s see how loud they squeal when the shoe is on the other foot.
@Skookum: #27,
That’s about right and the threats Jarrett made have become a reality from coast to coast:
If there was any doubt of that story, it has been vaporized. Well, that is unless the cool-aid tasted good.
@James Raider: The only part we are missing as a banana republic is the political assassinations, but what the hell, Obama still has 3.5 years to make the complete transition.
Don’t worry, our Republicans are still grandstanding in front of the cameras instead of pursing criminal indictments. Lerner is one of the most corrupt we have seen and she will oversee the IRS and its function within the Health Care Act for Leftists. If I were you, I’d pick up your old British Columbia Health Care and just pay the fine and stay as far away from Obama’s Brown Shirts in the Health Care/IRS corruption. This is my plan. I will be up there next month to start setting it up. It’s government health care, but you won’t have the IRS breathing down your neck or giving you substandard care because you are a Conservative and not a Liberal boot licker.
Anyone who trusts this bunch is connected or delusional.
@Skookum: What they seek is one party rule with no checks and balances.
@another vet: I think we have seen some of that in Cuba, China, the Soviet Union, and a few other cess pools around the world.
@Skookum: #29,
You’re hilarious, . . . . and right on point as usual – done and done. With kids living on both sides of the 49th its been a toss-up, plus the fact that in the aggregate, Uncle Sam received many more pounds of my flesh than Queeny, but I still straddle the line because I just enjoy the attitude of Americans better than that of Canadians.
I find Canadians supremely apathetic and without much gratitude for the uniquely rich environment and still comfortable standard of living which they have been provided by a wealth of natural resources. As a result, they’re pissing it away. They’re selling off their natural resources without value added. They’re allowing some insane amount of fraud to take place in their Immigration Industry, which has placed a very serious cost and structural burden on their welfare/healthcare system.
My son in California has a doctor, while my granddaughter in Canada can’t get one. Personal anecdotal evidence says that even critical medical problems requiring operations sit in holding patterns for over a year and often two years – and if it’s not life/death critical, then forget about it, just get old if you can. Many people die needlessly – waiting. The system is breaking. Too many people abuse it who never paid into it, and do not now pay into it. One senior doctor, for example, told me that there are twice as many CanadaCare Cards in B.C. as there are residents. Everyone knows of the fraud, but there is no will to fix it (the 6 banks don’t want it fixed). The socialists have corrupted Canada much more than they have the U.S. – so far, and the 6 banks are thrilled – Canadians are more personally indebted than are Americans. And keep in mind, Canada doesn’t have a military – depending instead on the fact that the United States does and will defend it. We’ll see how that works out around the North Pole now that Putin is laying claim to underwater land banks which straddle the North West Territories and as well as Alaska. It’s also not escaped notice that Vancouver is under the flight path of North Korean missiles which might attempt to reach the N.W. U.S.
Anyone who wants to know the future of America if it continues down its current path can just look North. However, America does not have the ‘natural resources per capita’ which Canada sits on. That gives Canada much room for Basic Stupid, and to still remain afloat.
Hey, perhaps the 2 million+ miles I registered on planes circling this globe have darkened my rose lensed glasses, still, I detect a distinct aroma of apathy floating across this continent which is foul.
Good luck in your endeavour and all the best finding a doctor. In the meantime, remain under the radar. No need to allow fomenting of jealousies.
@James Raider:
Much of it is apathy. But a lot of it is ignorance, willful and otherwise. And it is helped along by people we as Americans put up on pedestals, above the masses. People like John Stewart. People like Matt Damon and George Clooney. People like Warren Buffet and Bloomberg. And, of course, people like Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.
And that “hero” worship is infectious, spreading to even more people who take the word of people who don’t really know, simply because of the status those people have achieved.
As a result we get masses of people cheering on Obamacare, or AGW, or “green” technology, or asinine gun-control proposals, or taxing the rich, or any number of other liberal/progressive ideas that are doomed as failures or cons.
@James Raider: I doubt whether our fellow readers realize the depth of this statement:
It needs further explanation, like giving away billions in coal, lumber, and minerals to foreign nations so that a handful of people will have temporary jobs and the resources will be loaded onto ships and processed overseas. It is a curious form of resource suicide.
The immigration “experiment” has no way to reverse itself and everyone assumes that all the immigrants will become part of the weave of Canadian culture. Unfortunately, the incident in London with the London born Nigerians expressing their rage toward the country that has protected them from genocide and starvation may well come to the streets of Canada and the US, excluding the Boston Marathon, of course, it was an aberration of welfare violence.
Perhaps we have enough violent people without bringing in more weak minded fools who will be used by hate mongers.
@johngalt: #33,
I agree with everything you wrote here. I do find that where there is ‘apathy’, there is a lack of gratitude and there is insufficient protection of those freedoms we cherish. Often people don’t even see the freedom with which they are gifted, and they squander it.
We are witnessing the erosion of that freedom from front-row seats. It’s a sad spectacle.
@James Raider:
And the real sad thing is that unless people are involved intimately in engaging in a particular freedom, they either don’t see the erosion, or they don’t care that such a freedom is being removed. Or, as in the IRS scandal, since it hasn’t affected them, personally, or a side they support, they think that they still have a freedom, not even thinking ahead and realizing that the head of the federal government won’t always be a Democrat, nor will it necessarily be a GOP politician with scruples. Leftists want the scandal swept under the rug, but will scream bloody murder when/if it is liberal/progressive groups targeted by a government agency influenced by the boss’s words.
Our government was set up by the founders as protection for everyone’s rights, even the smallest minority of us, and even if one doesn’t particularly agree with that minority. The political atmosphere in DC is such that the smallest minority’s voice doesn’t matter, if it isn’t the “right kind of people”. Obama said this explicitly in his address at Ohio State when he told those students to “reject their voices”.
And that is the point that our resident liberal/progressive friends do not get, if they even attempt to try and understand it in the first place.
@Skook: #34,
I know you’ll appreciate the bizarre nature of this one – just in case you missed it, . . . . a recent Chinese immigrant card carrying member of China’s Communist Party and writer for them living in Richmond, B.C., ran for election to office to represent his riding in Parliament for the NDP (socialist) party. How the hell does Canada allow a clown like this get in? Easy, . . . the head of CSIS, (Canada’s CIA) told Canadians two years ago that the Chinese government had infiltrated the governments, including provincial governments, at the highest levels. He was immediately castigated by the overwhelmingly liberal media and slaughtered for saying anything against China. What does that say about the average Canadian’s psyche? Crickets & apathy. We are witnessing the exact same thing spread across America.
As you probably know, if this isn’t bad enough, Canada has been selling off the Companies which exploit its natural resources to the Chinese government. Australia has been doing exactly the same thing. That is the ultimate in short term thinking. PLUS, if that isn’t hilarious enough, the Chinese government is sending in its own workers to operate the mines, in the thousands, . . . . . . . . . excuse me, I just had to pick myself up from having fallen to the floor as I wrote this. You can’t make this stuff up.
@johngalt: #36,
I never thought I’d see the denigration and disparaging of the Constitution we have witnessed by this Administration and its minions, plus I despise the vilification we have seen of the framers as being a bunch of fat, racist, slave owning, tax-evading white guys. This President has made this OK, and that is a first. It’s insane. This President and Jarrett have no respect for either the Constitution or the framers, and evidently their sycophantic devotees don’t either. The Constitution has been twisted by lesser men through the years , acquiescing to special interests, and while there is no doubt that if it was being written today, it could be enhanced, it still remains as one of the greatest examples of the heights which human achievement can reach.
This hateful Administration never intended to make this a better Nation. I’m of the opinion that if you hate it that much, then get the hell out. Some work to fix, other work to destroy.
@Skook: There are those in this country who would view those types of governments as progress. Think about the left’s beliefs compared to those countries: big government bureaucracy (Obamacare, expansion of the welfare state); redistribution of the wealth (straight from Obama’s mouth, expansion of the welfare state, the desire to raise taxes on others); government control of the economy (Obamacare, tax dollars for green companies); seizure of private industry (GM); the creation of “too big to fail” entities (AIG, the big bank bailouts); encouraging citizens to report those who are politically opposed (attackwatch); banning of private firearm ownership (look at recent statements made by Party members); the employment of thugs at the street level (“take those son-of-bitches out” Hoffa and the unions, OWS behavior at their rallies); labeling opposition as threats to society (DHS terrorist watch list); mass propaganda (MSM); a disregard the traditional liberal beliefs in individual liberty and small government which this country was founded on (the Constitution is a “living, breathing document” and is hindrance to “progress”); a leader who can do no wrong in the eyes of his supporters and is blindly followed (Obama), and abuse of power to silence those with opposing viewpoints (ongoing scandals).
The framework is all there just not on as massive of a scale- yet.
@johngalt:
As John Stuart Mills would have called it, “The tyranny of the majority.” It already served as a rallying cry for war in this country on one or two occasions even before he wrote it. You’d think some would learn from history.