Politics From the Dark Side

 

I came across a fascinating article in The Telegraph yesterday which cited Britain’s most recent census figures; these show that almost 180,000 people in the UK identify themselves as “Jedi Knights” (from the Star Wars films), making this the most popular faith in the “Other Religions” category on the Census and the seventh most popular “religion” overall.

 

I’m not going to use this as an opportunity to beat up on the Brits for how far they’ve fallen culturally; in fact, it served to remind me of an analogy that sprang to mind with regard to the Star Wars phenomenon and America.

 

This one might even be more humiliating than the British Jedi Knights story, in fact…

 

In the second three-film installment of the Star Wars franchise (this would be the one that actually took place before the original three-film installment in the characters’ chronology), all of the evil being perpetrated (which leads up to the establishment of the Empire and subsequent rebellion from the first installment, if you’re still following) is of course being brought about by the mysterious dark Sith lord and his surrogates. In the last film (of the second installment), if the viewer hasn’t figured it out by then, we discover that the aforementioned dark lord is none other than Palpatine, the Republic’s trusted and beloved senior senator, who, throughout the series, had ostensibly been working with the Jedi protagonists.

 

Does any of this sound familiar?

 

via Politics From the Dark Side
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Morning Bell: Welfare Spending Hitting the $1 Trillion Mark

It’s been a pretty big year for welfare—and a new report shows welfare is bigger than ever.

The Obama Administration turned a giant spotlight on the welfare system in July when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proclaimed it had the authority to gut the work requirements from the welfare reform that had helped lift so many people out of poverty after 1996.

This morning, a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) shows the staggering reality of the growing welfare state—echoing Heritage’s own research that reveals welfare spending is approaching the $1 trillion mark.

via Morning Bell: Welfare Spending Hitting the $1 Trillion Mark.

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AFLC Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Review Appellate Court Decision Upholding Taxpayer Funding of Sharia | AFLC – American Freedom Law Center

Today, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, asking the Court to review an appellate court decision which held that a federal taxpayer lacked “standing” to challenge the constitutionality of the federal government’s use of taxpayer funds to support sharia.

This past June, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a federal taxpayer lacked “standing” to challenge the government’s use of taxpayer funds to support sharia-based activities. The case, Murray v. United States Department of Treasury, et al., was brought by AFLC Co-Founders and Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise on behalf of plaintiff Kevin Murray, a taxpayer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq.

via Home | AFLC Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Review Appellate Court Decision Upholding Taxpayer Funding of Sharia | AFLC – American Freedom Law Center.

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O says private sector fine but unions need help

For The Americans Struggling Under Obamanomics, The President Has A Message For You – You’re Doing Fine.

Want’s to spend 10s of billions on public employee union jobs.

RNC Research Briefing.

 

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• Obama hits Republicans for lack of action on jobs – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
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The Fed’s Con Appears To Be Working But The Curtain Is Rising On The Third Act | ZeroHedge

That and the fact that the economic data was coming in relatively perky, at least in terms of the headline data, made it highly unlikely that the Fed would do any more money printing.But here’s the thing. They are what the Fed and Wall Street casino owners want you to think. The Fed wants the market to go higher, but it doesn’t want commodities to go with it, so its story line is that the economy is healthy enough to continue growing without more QE. That gives traders reason to continue buying stocks, and no reason to buy commodities, which everyone “knows” go up when the Fed prints, in spite of Bernanke’s denials. We won’t know the real story until February 2018 when the Fed will release the transcripts of this year’s FOMC meetings. The decisions the Fed wants you to make are to buy stocks, bay and hold Treasuries, and sell commodities.The Fed’s Con Appears To Be Working But The Curtain Is Rising On The Third Act | ZeroHedge.

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• Fed To Take Propaganda To The Schoolroom: Will Teach Grade 8-12 Students About Constitutionality Of… The Fed | ZeroHedge (genomega1.wordpress.com)