Of course it goes without saying, the government should cut about 90% of its spending on subsidies personal and/or corporate.  Pay for actual things of value, a real return-on-investment.  No more welfare fraud scams.  Institute non-profit health insurance (which even socialist healthcare doesn't do).  Create a REAL social security fund that cannot be raided whenever the government wants to (and replaces it with interest-bearing IOUs).  Return to REAL capitalism — i.e. trading in capital, holding capital, not the exact opposite trading in IOUs and holding IOUs.

It's not only possible, it's the law.  The price for cheating is servitude!

Certainly, return to an economic system that allows for cash (hard) and credit (fiat) currencies whose values float against each other as the market demands.  Let sellers demand cash payment in lieu of credit.  Let government print up its own money (fiat) interest-free.  No need of taxes, since government prints what it needs.  The only tax is inflation which would affect the credit holders, not cash savers. People can save using hard currencies, can invest with credit (fiat) currencies. 

Make the distinction between cash and credit — cash transfers ownership, credit transfers equitable interest (learn the difference).  If I buy a house with an IOU, the house is 'owned' by the issuer of the IOU, I own the equitable interest (the right to buy/sell).  Once the debt is paid, the IOU is ripped up, and I become the actual owner with no more tax liability on my property.

This is how things worked prior to 1913.  The only taxes were tariffs (i.e. excise taxes). Property taxes were temporary in times of war.  Funds to build the US Capitol were paid by running a lottery, the winner got a hotel. 

There is more than enough charity in the world — Reston even admits he is happy to 'tithe' a portion of his money out of his grateful abundance (in so many words).  Would he only do that if compelled?  Why?  That is the real question.

Hear, hear!

This is a perfect demonstration of the destructive effects of socialism.  Those that demand it have no idea that their submission is the goal.  Show me a prosperous socialist state!  All are perpetually in debt with never-ending inflation.  "You will own nothing and be happy."  Ha!  Once you have nothing, you can do nothing, you are powerless — that's the goal!  There's no way to later say, "hey, I have nothing, and I am even more miserable than before" — too bad, you have been conned, and there ain't any way to get out. All you can do is beg for better conditions of your slavery, or if that's not possible, demand that anyone with freedom/power that you don't have give it up to be 'fair'.

A nation that uses a hard currency and exports more than it imports will have many enemies in the West scheming on ways to take them down.  That ought to be clear enough.

Aren't the rich spending their own money?  But I agree that those getting rich off government subsidy or contracts should be supervised diligently, as we have seen racket after racket of fraudulent schemes soaking the government

NO, Reston, we can't (and shouldn't)!  Let's stick to the original common law meaning of a 'crime' — mens rea — an act committed with a malicious intent or an intentional act that results in violating another's rights (including one's body or property).  We need no legislation to regulate behavior — if you or I cannot regulate our neighbors behavior, neither can the representative government.

I believe those that prefer disharmony and disunity are 'progressive liberals' — yes, misanthropes, I agree.

I would say that if Liberty is a fruit, constant vigilant husbandry is required for continuous yields.  Liberty cannot be handed off to the next generation on a platter.  That tree of Liberty requires constant attention and care.

The whole world is longing to breathe freely.  Go ahead and break those binds! Don't wait for someone to do it for you.

The battle for 'hearts and minds' is either on the side of Truth, which is to unshackle minds, or Power which aims to keep minds indoctrinated to dependency and disempowerment.

It appears that, too, is just an illusion.  Ballot fraud is widespread, and if it weren't for the Trump card, most would remain oblivious to the fact.  But watch how our government will not even pass legislation to require voting in person by citizens only with valid ID — neither GOP or Dems are willing to pass it.  We can only assume why.  The same reason they will never vote for term limits or to prevent insider trading.  All they can do is count the days until Trump is gone, and everything can return back to 'normal.'

Let's remember that "the moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture" are the basis of our 'code' to live by.  Why?  Because of 'The Law': As you sow, so shall you reap. Even atheists can agree on that, if they have any intelligence about reality.  No matter the amount of corruption of scripture, it should be acknowledged that the people have inherited the blessings from our ancestors who followed these principles and precepts.  The world would be a very different place otherwise — just look to those nations that do NOT adhere to 'the way.'

Not true.  Wars for socialism have far surpassed the death tolls of those over religion.  Socialistic ideologies like communism and fascism (yes, fascism is a form of socialism) murdered hundreds of millions of their own citizens and those fighting against it.

I agree with Felipe. ;-)  There is a difference between those in the game and the spectators that critique them.  Courage is required by those in the arena, risking life and limb.  Sure, their cause may be just or unjust, but their honor is in tact.  That's why we often honor the valor of a fallen enemy.

Yes, Mike, that has been my experience as well.  AI bias is indeed built-in, it can't help it by sampling everything it can from all spheres.  Sources like Wikipedia are used, as well as very biased news sources.  What you have to do is first tell the AI what role they are playing and the arguments to make in favor of the work being tasked to them.  And, yes, previous discussions/questions will play a role in the context of the answer.

I am working with AI in my work.  Like any tool or weapon, it's use is entirely dependent on who is wielding it.  If you ask it to list the benefits of communism, it will provide them in great detail. 

Better to tell AI what arguments to favor when asking for assistance.  AI is dumb!  It is artificial, even though it speaks with authority.  But I have found it very helpful with writing, outlining, summarizing, expanding upon ideas and research.  Other AI models also have their strengths like Claude and Perplexity.  There are hundreds of models out there now to choose from.

AI is here, and it isn't ever going to go away.  For me, I wanted to know how it worked and to be able to recognize AI content when I see it.  I admit it is getting harder to do, but there are definitely tell-tale signs.

Americans have yet to awaken to their lost freedoms — yet.  But if and when they do, and roll back all that holds their servitude in place, it will be a lot harder to reimpose the cunning tricks politicians use for wheedling power from the people.

Let's look to Iran (and Venezuela, Cuba), and see if the people will regain their freedom, or merely exchange one tyranny for another...

If it were easy, everyone would do it!

Being anti-war myself, I understand Mike's clarification.  But if you intend to fight, with violence or non-violence, absolute commitment is required.

Looks like Trump is the first president in my lifetime to go to war with the absolute intent to win.  War is a racket otherwise.

Courage is rarely encouraged when the politicians are counting on fear to be the driving factor for their usurpations.  When fear trumps courage, oppression is not far behind.

We have seen the enemy, and it is us!

That's a mouthful!  Mike, I suggest asking ChatGPT to rewrite this as an article entitled "Is Socialism a Religion?"  There's a lot of good info in there. ;-)

Taxes are merely to create classes to fight against each other, and justify stealing the fruits of the labors of others.  The inconvenient truth that over a lifetime, 99% of your labors are taxed through the use of fiat currency.  The 'dollar' has lost 99.93% of its value since 1972.  Just look at the cost of living now compared to then.  It's because our trading medium becomes worthless over time.  It's still amazing what we can do with 1% of our labors — imagine if we still used a hard currency instead of interest-bearing debt for money!!  We are slaves paying for our own servitude!  Sure the conditions have improved, but we have no idea how much productivity has been passed on to our masters in exchange.

It is my understanding that the 'income tax' collected by the IRS is assessed by assigning various excise tax codes to a person's payments for labor — because excise taxes are the only lawful taxes that the federal government may collect. 

I remember reading many years ago that people could order the IRS to remove those tax codes from their file as they did not apply to anything that they were doing — like importing liquor, selling tobacco or drugs for which the excise taxes apply.

'Income' was originally defined as gains from investments, and only 1% was the rate on incomes greater than $500,000 in 1913 money (when the dollar was still pegged to gold — that would be $125 million today!).  The truth is that income taxes were a condition by the Federal Reserve for issuing fiat currency (i.e. Federal Reserve Notes).  The price for paper money has always been perpetual debt upon the people forever.  The nation is in fact in a state of perpetual bankruptcy to the Fed, which governs the use of 'temporary' script until the US becomes solvent (which it can never do, by design).  The issue is that for those that know how the system works, the profits are too immense to turn down — they would never be possible with a hard currency. 

Just as an aside, a nickel in 1972 when the dollar was still pegged to gold at $35/oz, is the equivalent to $7 today!  Income taxes are issued only to keep the common man down.  They are entirely unnecessary since the government funds itself by printing up money.  $15/week salary (with a very low tax rate also) is equivalent to $2142/week now.  The entire western world has been duped!!

The slick creation of the 'US citizen' via the 13th Amendment clouds the issue.  I think in actuality, state citizenship has never been revoked, just as the sovereignty of each state hasn't been revoked, just ignored (see the War Between the States).  Statism has become the de facto norm as a result.  But, yes, there are no 'common law' writs that grant the US government to manage immigration (and a whole host of other things they do like issue birth certificates from the US Treasury, etc.).