Tuesday, October 14, 2014

FOLLOW THE MONEY TO THE ARTICLE V CONVENTION

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.....seems like the apt phrase for this.
The Convention of States / Aritcle V Consitutional Convention / Con Con is appealing to people through deception. That is a fact.  And that is the tragedy of it.

Digging deeper into the Convention of States, I find that there is a Texas billionaire named Leo Linbeck III, who is the champion of the misnamed Fair Tax. Actually, his father who passed away recently, began that scheme, but his son, Linbeck III, is still in the Fair Tax game, only this time through the COS / Article V proposition.

In the midst of upper economic echelons and now in the midst of middle class, disgruntled taxpayers, Mr. Linbeck has found he can manipulate politicians, and policies with his fortune. Sadly, I find some of my conservative tea party friends being sucked into the whirling toilet bowl he is stirring up.  I've been told by some of them that the Fair Tax is why they want the Convention of States / Constitutional Convention.  I wondered why the Con Con was going to be bringing in the Fair Tax, so I went looking for answers.  Mr. Leo Linbeck III is that answer.

Mr. Linbeck describes himself as a "conservative communitarian." (see below)  Don't you love double speak! In the Orwellian method of twisting words and combining opposite philosophies in the same phrase, Mr. Linbeck describes himself as two opposite points of view. (I describe myself as a “conservative communitarian.”) He has hired and convinced some lawyers to do the propaganda tour to convince the grassroots that a Constitutional Convention is the answer to all that ails our nation.

Mr. Linbeck is not the lone wealthy person behind COS, but is a major player. In 2012, Mark Meckler left the Tea Party Patriots to join Linbeck in a PAC called Campaign for Primary Accountability, the purpose of which was to unseat incumbent politicians. There was money from Campaign for Primary Accountability (CPA) spent with Karl Rove who was active in our state of NC, as my friends well know.  (Mike Huckabee was involved with one of the candidates during the primary.  Connection to Huckabee below.) Mr.  Meckler also set up another non-profit called "Citizens for Self Governance."  "Self Governance" is a favorite phrase of Leo Linbeck III.  Now Mr. Meckler, formerly with Tea Party Patriots, is on the sales tour for Convention of States.

According to Mr. Linbeck regarding descriptions of his actions and orgs. "Well, we've been described as conservative, liberal, anarchists, nihilists, right-wingers, and – my personal favorite – both pro-Obama and anti-Obama."

Having it both ways:

So, in North Carolina, perhaps that is why we hear from Thom Tillis (NC Senate Candidate) that Obamacare just needs tweaking...is mostly just fine? And Mr. Tillis is on board with North Carolina P3 toll roads, a "Third Way" financing of our roads.  Is this why we are hearing mixed messages from our Lt. Gov. who says he is against Common Core on the one hand, but then says 95% of it is just great? Perhaps this explains why our Lt. Gov. said something similar to me regarding "sustainability," i.e. "most of it is just great."  This evening, our Lt. Governor is at a promotional  presentation with Michael Farris, the National Director of Convention of Sates.  ("Farris and both Mark and Patty Meckler, founders of the increasingly influential Convention Of States, a division of Citizens for Self Governance. ")

Mike Huckabee tried to have it both ways on Common Core as well...and is all in for the Fair Tax. Now Huckabee is out there promoting the movie, "UnFair," which is nothing more than a propaganda film for the Fair Tax ....which IS the Linbeck scheme.  From what I've seen of Mike Huckabee, he would call himself a "progressive conservative," so being attached to Linbeck's Fair Tax scheme and promoting Common Core would fit like a glove.

Do you wonder who is driving this mind-bending duplicity campaign to the grassroots?  It's positively schizophrenic. 

Again, from 2012, a press release: (Mark Meckler) The Tea Party leader is joining a CPA leadership team that includes the libertarian O’Keefe, the “conservative communitarian” Leo Linbeck..."   

Between the misnamed, so-called "Fair Tax," the Convention of States / Article V / Constitutional Convention, and now finding a Communitarian with large sums of money behind them,  I am seriously concerned that our State legislators are once again being bought and led down a garden path....the wrong way and over a cliff with no return tickets. The Constitutional Convention, these people call a "Convention of States to propose amendments" has no return (to the Constitution) tickets.

Today, I want to hammer home the definition of "communitarianism," so my friends will understand the game afoot. Communitarianism is defined below. I would ask people read and realize who is shoving this Article V Convention at the grassroots tea partiers. And then ask, how does this fit with your beliefs and hopes for our Constitution.

Definition of Communitarianism:

Like Collectivism, which stresses human interdependence and the importance of a collective, Communitarianism focuses on community and society, and seeks to give priority to group goals over individual goals. However, for the most part, communitarians emphasize the use of non-governmental organizations in furthering their goals, and so differ from authoritarian or Communist sympathizers. Its exact premises and policy consequences are difficult to pin down, and most criticism of Communitarianism has come from individualist thinkers concerned that it just provides cover for collectivists.

Although a 20th Century philosophy, the term "communitarian" was coined in the 1840s by the British utopian Socialist Goodwyn Barmby (1820 - 1881) to refer to advocates of a communalist society (which refers to communal living and/or communal property, essentially a forerunner to modern Communism).

Ideological Communitarianism can be seen as a radical centrist ideology (a third way philosophy which includes the belief that, in affirming the core principles involved on both sides of a political argument, the disagreement can be resolved or rendered moot). It is sometimes marked by leftism on economic issues and conservatism on social issues. Communitarians seek to bolster social capital (the value to democracy of social networks and groups) and the institutions of civil society. It also affirms positive rights such as state subsidized education, state subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, extensive public works programs, and often even the right to a job, and laws limiting pollution, gun ownership, etc.

Communitarianism from Philosophy Basics

Sources:
Forbes
New York Times - Huckabee + Fair Tax
Fair Tax - Tell the Truth on Them
="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20120406-point-person-our-qa-with-leo-linbeck-iii-of-the-campaign-for-primary-accountability.ece">I describe myself....

6 comments:

  1. NO Article V Convention. Change Congress, Not the Constitution.

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    1. Thanks, Mickey. We have a long hard way to go, but I think that would be a better solution. :-)

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  2. You're still there! It's so good to see another of your thoughtful posts, my friend.

    The Right has been thoroughly infiltrated and is being manipulated without most conservatives (let alone the establishment Right) being aware of it. What was it that the cartoon character, Pogo, said? _"We met the enemy and it is us."

    Hope all is well with you, Jim, and family.

    Stay well!

    Cheers!

    Jim

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    1. Hey there, Jim! Glad to hear from you, too!!! I just looked at your site and you've changed it! I've been trying to check back with you as the weeks go by to keep up. I hope all is going really good with you and yours, too.

      So.....yes, I am still here. Just swamped with too many things to do.

      Sadly, you are right about the "Right." The more I study, the more I realize that has been gradually coming on for a very long time. It's just that it is so obvious now, you can't even pretend otherwise! National Tea Party orgs. as well. Pogo...such a truism in that statement! The good news is that there are quite a few aware of what has happened. The bad news, is I don't know if there are enough of us. This COS insanity is coming from both / all directions and must be stopped. Working on that here in NC.

      My Jim is doing pretty well, but is swamped also. His mom is still here in asst. living and we are still trying to sell her house in South Carolina. 2 yrs. now.

      Take care and keep it going, Jim. It's up to us!
      XXXOOO
      Cheryl

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    2. Unfortunately it's easier to tear down or destroy than to build up, and that's true for a nation as well as a building.

      Material objects require maintenance or they will be destroyed simply by erosion and corrosion and so on, and the passage of time.

      Unfortunatly, that seems to be another similarity our nation has with buildings. They need proper maintenance.

      The foundation our nation was built on was ideas, revolutionary ideas. And lots of practical ideas which sprung from them. We are deteriorating because we haven't kept our founding ideas and principles alive. Without the left, we'd still be going downhill, but maybe not quite as fast. Just remembered a post I recently made on FB that's applicable. I'll paste it in to avoid having to duplicate the effort:

      The people who have destroyed and are destroying our Constitutional Republic are not smarter than you or me, because the people who have destroyed it are . . . like us . . . THE PEOPLE.
      .

      Geniuses gave us a Constitution. The results were incredible. The world of thousands of years of history BECAME OBSOLETE.
      .

      The Divine Right of Kings was forced off history's stage to make way for the advent of the Unalienable -- and Sovereign -- Rights of Every Single Man.
      .

      Married men too. <-- (Like the famous American Indian princess, this is a mini-haha.)
      .

      The historically (relatively stagnant) population of our species SOARED. Child mortality rates PLUMMETED. Life expectancy rose steadily. Agricultural production SOARED. Real wealth and income (per capita!) SOARED despite population growth, smashing the first "limits to growth-er" Malthus and his theories to smithereens. The Arts and Humanities flourished. Scientific discoveries and technological progress EXPLODED. The energy consumption per capita SOARED -- as labor saving devices did ever more of the drudge labor for the typical American household.
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      We got rich and lazy and complacent. We rose so high we lost sight of our foundation. We took freedom for granted. We lost sight of ITS foundation.
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      We looked for the WRONG traits in the politicians we elected.
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      We were so dumbed down we were easy pickings for the statists, the communists, Progressives, "liberals," etc.
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      From a nation of hardy, self-reliant pioneers and explorers and chance-takers, we devolved into a society of self-pampered babes voting for whoever best answered our cries of "gimme." We changed our names to Paul, and elected politicians to rob Peter for us.
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      The elected reflect the values and judgement of the voters.
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      The elections reveal our nation's problem: there are too few Americans left in America.
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      We few have to convert the others, or events will do it for us, in a much harsher way than they have done to date.

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    3. I like this very much. Thanks for the comment, anonymous....whoever you are!

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