Cigars and Legs Politics

Because I haven’t written enough of this bullshit

It seems that, other than a post about bumper stickers, I haven’t actually laid down the politics I hold. I’ve identified as a conservative and libertarian, sure, but those words don’t have much meaning anymore. Everyone labels themselves and others, but I’ve tried to get away from that and that’s part of why I don’t like terms like manosphere or alternative right. It creates a box for people to stick us in and that’s not good policy. What do I believe?

Foreign affairs are an extremely important aspect of our daily lives. It’s a global world with a global internet and global commerce. We import a great deal of our products — many from China, but also from Vietnam and Thailand and others. Foreign relations and trade are very important. But when it comes to general policy I am as much of an isolationist as can be. If we can avoid getting involved then we should, and we should stop getting into alliances with foreign powers — George Washington was correct about that.

But when push comes to shove and we have to act? Act without mercy. Machiavelli wrote that if violence must be done to a man it should be severe enough that his vengeance isn’t feared — and that’s how we should treat other nations. We don’t want to hurt anyone, but if provoked our reaction will be devastating. Quick, brutal, final strikes. Then there are two options: either we set up a friendly government and let the locals staff the security and keep themselves protected, or we just take over in an imperialist way. There is no room for allowing a vacuum of power that gives a haven to lunatics.

From a Christian perspective we should make sure Jerusalem is a place Christians can always go. Whatever the government there is up to the people who live there so long as they play by that one rule.

If you don’t already know how I feel about guns then you haven’t been paying attention. We have too many rules in place as it is and I do not support any further rules. We should begin to scale it back. However, we should also reform the way felons are treated with regards to their rights — if a person is still violent enough to be barred from gun ownership they are too dangerous to be among us. Which brings me to…

There are too many damn felonies. A felony should be a serious crime, a grand crime that leaves a permanent impact on at least one person. Not the ridiculous number of them that are out there now. Rape? Felony. Murder? Felony. Screwing people out of their retirement? Felony. But selling drugs? Never a felony. That’s a nice segue, actually:

The war on drugs is over and drugs won. Release the POWs. Drug addiction should be treated like any other mental health issue. If you commit a crime on drugs the punishment for that crime should be sufficient — does it really make a difference if you are murdered by a high person or a sober person? You’re still dead. That means hate-crime laws have to go, too. That is an egregious set of rules that can and will be used in an unfair manner that upsets the level playing field the justice system needs to be.

Taxes are too damn high and so is the national debt and the deficit. The government must be cut drastically and the first place to start is the non-DOD, non-science arms of the government. There are close to or over four million non-DOD federal employees. That means over one out of every hundred people works for the federal government. That is ridiculous! That’s not counting state employees, that’s just federal! No, this cannot stand.

As for the science and DOD, NASA needs to be instructed to focus on space travel and space science, NOAA needs to be focusing on weather (and not climate change), and the DOD can probably be reduced, too. But we should never forget the advances that the government made possible: GPS is a prime example. Compare that to the iridium satellites (private company). Iridium is a communications satellite and not positioning but the turn-over and issues with the company that operates it are mind-blowing.

Easy targets for reduction: federal arts programs, the education trolls, the EPA, and the IRS.

The Bill of Rights is non-negotiable, and while I talked about guns the other amendments are extremely important: speech and religion, due process, a right against self incrimination, the right to be secure in our papers. All of these have been neglected in some way or at least given the stink-eye because they offend people. Digital privacy can be enforced by understanding the way violating it violates these amendments (and possibly the third, with regards to the government having a presence in our homes).

We should put an immediate pause on all immigration and sort it out from there. The bill put forth by Sessions and Cruz to reform the H1B visa program is excellent. To sum up: it would put an end to companies having Americans train their foreign replacements who must then work for peanuts or get sent home. The H1B system is being abused by billionaires to make themselves richer, billionaires who already abuse the tax system by hiding their money as much as possible. They bring in people looking for opportunity and pay them less than the market because those looking for opportunity will put up with anything to stay here.

This isn’t even doing the jobs Americans won’t — it’s doing the jobs Americans were until some rich guy decided to fire them. This drives down wages and would be a much bigger deal if middle-class white people weren’t the hardest hit (hey that might have something to do with the shrinking middle class!). But it isn’t even hurting the middle class for the benefit of the lower class, as liberals and the media love to portray as necessary. It’s hurting the middle class for the upper class, which liberals and the media secretly love.

As an aside, this is where a lot of the Establishment Party (that being the media, Republican establishment, and Democrat establishment — there’s not a nickel worth of difference between them) don’t seem to understand how they are losing people left and right. The economy stinks for most everyone right now. Wages are down, employment is down, full time employment is in the shitter. There’s unchecked immigration and a push for even more of it. Then snobs that don’t actually have to worry about money and will never have to worry about money mock the concern of these people with that whole “they took our jerbs!” Thing. People like Graham call those people racist.

Fuck you. You have done your damnedest to decimate the middle-class for the betterment of the super rich using the inherit threat of violence that is the government. They’ve spend years passing laws and giving their friends benefits — like the bank bailouts — and it has eroded the middle-class down to nothing. That’s not “conservatism.” But it comes from Republicans, and it comes from Democrats (so all you Occupy Wallstreet weirdos should aim some hate their way).

I am not one of those people saying “burn the rich!” But I damn sure am saying we should stop burning the middle for the rich. That’s disastrous policy and it will eventually end badly. Eventually people will lose hope to the extent that they’ll start doing things the rich really won’t like — for example, storming their neighborhoods and burning their houses down. Meanwhile Graham and his ilk will be telling them to eat cake.

All people want is for the government to treat everyone fairly and stop passing sweetheart deals. We’re not talking about a hand-out to the middle class here. We’re talking about getting your hand and your regulations out of our damn pockets.

And a safety net is necessary, mostly because the government can’t create wealth but it can damn sure create poverty. At the same time, the net is not a permanent solution. The government will have to stop tripping on its own feet to help people get back on theirs, though.

Those are really the important issues. Everything else is just noise at this point.