Why I had a hard time celebrating the 4th of July

First off, I am a vet. I have a duty to defend my country from enemies foreign and domestic. I truly believe right now we are fighting domestic enemies and no that doesn't mean I am going to take any violent actions and you shouldn't either. We do however need to take control of the IRS, the central banks, the judicial branch of government and essentially everything happening right now.

NCpedia

By 1774, the year leading up to the Revolutionary War, trouble was brewing in America. Parliament (England's Congress) had been passing laws placing taxes on the colonists in America. There had been the Sugar Act in 1764, the Stamp Act the following year, and a variety of other laws that were meant to get money from the colonists for Great Britain. The colonists did not like these laws.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament on 22 Mar. 1765, incited many public protests in North Carolina and other colonies. The act placed a duty on all legal and business documents, licenses, cards, dice, and published materials in the American colonies. The duty stamp, long used in England as a source of revenue, was intended to raise £60,000 annually to meet the expenses of maintaining troops in the colonies to ensure their safety after the Seven Years War (1756-63). In an attempt to make the imperial system work more efficiently in America, England had established the New Colonial Policy in 1763. Under the policy, old laws were more vigorously enforced and new regulations were put into place. As a result, widespread feelings of revolt began to develop in the colonies.

This was one of the reasons for the war in the first place.

Now let me ask you, what isn't taxed in today worlds??

I look at my paycheck and I lose about 35% of my check to taxes and it pisses me off.

But beneath this calm surface there were problems. Just three years earlier at Great Alamance Creek, 2,000 Tar Heel farmers called Regulators had led an uprising, the largest armed rebellion in any English colony to that time. They wanted to "regulate" the governor's corrupt local officials, who were charging huge fees and seizing property. The royal governor, William Tryon, and his militia crushed the rebellion at the Battle of Alamance.

Like asset forfeiture laws in the US? If you have a lot of cash on you they steal it from you without trial?

Or how about oh I don't know... violation of parking laws or having to get licensed to start a business or Osha or the million other ways they extract your money to support our ginormous infrastructure and pension plans?

Another problem beneath the surface calm lay with the large African and American Indian populations. Many in these two groups hated their low positions in a society dominated by powerful whites. Some white colonists believed that if a war with England broke out, these other Tar Heels would support the king in hopes of gaining more control over their own lives.

Sound familiar?? "minorities" felt oppressed by the government. I get it I can see how in today's world it can be misconstrued as a racist issue when it's really about the rich vs the poor. With limited upward mobility and the sheer cost involved in starting a business and the massive block into entry into the middle class (college) I get why they think it's us vs them when it's really the wealthy people who get to enjoy freedom in this country and not the poor.

NPR

The common thread in these cases, and scores more like them, is the jail time wasn't punishment for the crime, but for the failure to pay the increasing fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system. A yearlong NPR investigation found that the costs of the criminal justice system in the United States are paid increasingly by the defendants and offenders. It's a practice that causes the poor to face harsher treatment than others who commit identical crimes and can afford to pay. Some judges and politicians fear the trend has gone too far.

I understand that guilty people need to bear the cost of their sins but here in the US it's out of control.

You can have your life ruined by minor infractions, not only because of the cost but because of the stigma of background checks and having to show up for court dates and appointments that cause you to lose your job, in many cases for things that I personally think shouldn't even be on the books. Not only that but we all know that the only way to assert your rights in this country is to hire an expensive lawyer, so even though the DA may be leveraging you with trumped up charges you won't be able to do anything about it short of 10k in the bank. It's disgusting and many of our laws are BS and it really looks like they were designed to target the poor.

Guardian

Since the election, a lot has been written about the widespread anger people feel about the economy. Many think it is rigged in favor of the rich and worry that working Americans put in longer hours for less money. America does not feel fair any more for millions of ordinary people whom the political elites ignore. Working people are slipping behind. I know all about that. I work a low-wage job at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I endure long hours of difficult and physically demanding labor. I am about to graduate from college and I help support my parents after my father lost his job at a factory. But even though I work hard and live at home, I barely have enough money to pay my bills.

On top of all that we all know that the system favors those with wealth as stated above but in more ways than one. I like many of you work longer hours for less pay and higher taxes. It's disgrace. Many people in my generations (Millennials) work long hard hours for nothing in return, we can't buy a house a car afford college and many with quality degrees can't find gainful employment in their fields. Many others are slowly being replaced by machines. All while doing jobs that used to afford a family a nice home, new car and money for your kids education, all gone. Meanwhile corporate fat cats and government officials rake in the dough.

I am leaving a lot out here but I think this should get the discussion started on why I feel like we are no longer a free country and how we have lost our independence.

Once the revolutionists gained enough ground, they were allowed to and even bet on to win by the European central banks, which simply began positioning themselves retain influence.

a reply to: rexsblues

They knew that too.
Website

Thomas Jefferson

[The following has long been attributed to Jefferson, but was actually a compilation of his quotes with “by inflation and then deflation” added later by others (see below)]……“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

George Washington, in letter to
J. Bowen, Rhode Island,

Jan. 9, 1787 “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.”

John Maynard Keynes:

In 1919, John Maynard Keynes, later an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote in his book The Economic Consequences of Peace: “Lenin is to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency … By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens … As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless…”

a reply to: toysforadults

Unfortunately you're putting faith in apathetic citizens to immerse themselves in current events.

They're to focused on supporting their team. You see a lot of people don't have an interest or the time to keep up with it all. On top of that, the media is doing a disservice and distract people from the issues.

These same corporations have more money in politics than people have interest. Lobbyists are writing bills and politicians are playing ball.

I think it will happen, but not soon. It will take some crisis to wake people up.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Good point. I totally forgot about lobbying. It's so gross and so all encompassing it's hard to cover everything in 1 topic.

a reply to: toysforadults

I agree with everything you said, and there is no way any of us to sum it in a few pages.

Capitalism works so long as it's not corporatism. That much money an influence in a corruption encourages system is a very toxic environment.

What concerns me is we have a small window. The patriot act is surveillance that would make WWII Germany jealous.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

The thing that really disgust me the most is the fact that the system only works for you if you can afford it.

It's so sick.

a reply to: toysforadults

You hit the nail on the head... there are SO Many issues that we need to start facing head on, otherwise us citizens will continue to get pushed further into a corner with less ability to defend ourselves or our freedoms. I do think a larger percentage of people are waking up, but it definitely is nowhere near critical mass. Traditional protests and grassroots movements just won't cut it...

a reply to: FamCore

When you lose your life over a minor infraction it's a major wake up call.

I am not saying this happened to me as I have had a major infraction but I have seen it with my own eyes and I know what it can do.

I think this is the biggest issue with minority communities as well as poor people tend to have minor infractions at a higher % per capita. They feel it more and see it more.

It's insane.

This is commie talk and I'm reporting you all to Homeland.

a reply to: toysforadults


Your Federal Tax bill will go WAY DOWN if Republican leaders wake up from their Obama nightmare. They're still cowering in the closet.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: CriticalStinker

The thing that really disgust me the most is the fact that the system only works for you if you can afford it.

It's so sick.

Indeed, my old man said to me a long time ago that the bank will only lend you money's once you don't really need to borrow it.

originally posted by: toysforadults
First off, I am a vet. I have a duty to defend my country from enemies foreign and domestic. I truly believe right now we are fighting domestic enemies and no that doesn't mean I am going to take any violent actions and you shouldn't either. We do however need to take control of the IRS, the central banks, the judicial branch of government and essentially everything happening right now.

NCpedia

By 1774, the year leading up to the Revolutionary War, trouble was brewing in America. Parliament (England's Congress) had been passing laws placing taxes on the colonists in America. There had been the Sugar Act in 1764, the Stamp Act the following year, and a variety of other laws that were meant to get money from the colonists for Great Britain. The colonists did not like these laws.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act, passed by the British Parliament on 22 Mar. 1765, incited many public protests in North Carolina and other colonies. The act placed a duty on all legal and business documents, licenses, cards, dice, and published materials in the American colonies. The duty stamp, long used in England as a source of revenue, was intended to raise £60,000 annually to meet the expenses of maintaining troops in the colonies to ensure their safety after the Seven Years War (1756-63). In an attempt to make the imperial system work more efficiently in America, England had established the New Colonial Policy in 1763. Under the policy, old laws were more vigorously enforced and new regulations were put into place. As a result, widespread feelings of revolt began to develop in the colonies.

This was one of the reasons for the war in the first place.

Now let me ask you, what isn't taxed in today worlds??

I look at my paycheck and I lose about 35% of my check to taxes and it pisses me off.

But beneath this calm surface there were problems. Just three years earlier at Great Alamance Creek, 2,000 Tar Heel farmers called Regulators had led an uprising, the largest armed rebellion in any English colony to that time. They wanted to "regulate" the governor's corrupt local officials, who were charging huge fees and seizing property. The royal governor, William Tryon, and his militia crushed the rebellion at the Battle of Alamance.

Like asset forfeiture laws in the US? If you have a lot of cash on you they steal it from you without trial?

Or how about oh I don't know... violation of parking laws or having to get licensed to start a business or Osha or the million other ways they extract your money to support our ginormous infrastructure and pension plans?

Another problem beneath the surface calm lay with the large African and American Indian populations. Many in these two groups hated their low positions in a society dominated by powerful whites. Some white colonists believed that if a war with England broke out, these other Tar Heels would support the king in hopes of gaining more control over their own lives.

Sound familiar?? "minorities" felt oppressed by the government. I get it I can see how in today's world it can be misconstrued as a racist issue when it's really about the rich vs the poor. With limited upward mobility and the sheer cost involved in starting a business and the massive block into entry into the middle class (college) I get why they think it's us vs them when it's really the wealthy people who get to enjoy freedom in this country and not the poor.

NPR

The common thread in these cases, and scores more like them, is the jail time wasn't punishment for the crime, but for the failure to pay the increasing fines and fees associated with the criminal justice system. A yearlong NPR investigation found that the costs of the criminal justice system in the United States are paid increasingly by the defendants and offenders. It's a practice that causes the poor to face harsher treatment than others who commit identical crimes and can afford to pay. Some judges and politicians fear the trend has gone too far.

I understand that guilty people need to bear the cost of their sins but here in the US it's out of control.

You can have your life ruined by minor infractions, not only because of the cost but because of the stigma of background checks and having to show up for court dates and appointments that cause you to lose your job, in many cases for things that I personally think shouldn't even be on the books. Not only that but we all know that the only way to assert your rights in this country is to hire an expensive lawyer, so even though the DA may be leveraging you with trumped up charges you won't be able to do anything about it short of 10k in the bank. It's disgusting and many of our laws are BS and it really looks like they were designed to target the poor.

Guardian

Since the election, a lot has been written about the widespread anger people feel about the economy. Many think it is rigged in favor of the rich and worry that working Americans put in longer hours for less money. America does not feel fair any more for millions of ordinary people whom the political elites ignore. Working people are slipping behind. I know all about that. I work a low-wage job at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. I endure long hours of difficult and physically demanding labor. I am about to graduate from college and I help support my parents after my father lost his job at a factory. But even though I work hard and live at home, I barely have enough money to pay my bills.

On top of all that we all know that the system favors those with wealth as stated above but in more ways than one. I like many of you work longer hours for less pay and higher taxes. It's disgrace. Many people in my generations (Millennials) work long hard hours for nothing in return, we can't buy a house a car afford college and many with quality degrees can't find gainful employment in their fields. Many others are slowly being replaced by machines. All while doing jobs that used to afford a family a nice home, new car and money for your kids education, all gone. Meanwhile corporate fat cats and government officials rake in the dough.

I am leaving a lot out here but I think this should get the discussion started on why I feel like we are no longer a free country and how we have lost our independence.

I agree, we do not have justful taxes anymore, i believe our gov has created this division we have now because we were moving to a tax revolt, the division stopped that. The revolutionary war started because of a 2% tax increase on a breakfast beverage. Back in the good days man just wanted to live free, take home his full check, own a home and never have to owe on it when its paid off. Ya know, the simple things in life. Now people demand more, people want to take from everyone else, people demand others to pay for tgeir benefits and what not. i dont want anything from anyone, i just want to work, pay my home off and raise my boys to be self sufficient man, i want my boys to learn the appreciation of hard work, self reliance, integrity, and selfless

a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

It kills me when I look at my overtime checks and I enter the next tax bracket and I have to realize it wasn't even worth it in the first place.

We have been at war for 16 years. How will congress pay for it giving the rich yuge tax cuts? Why you, the worker, of course.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: toysforadults


Your Federal Tax bill will go WAY DOWN if Republican leaders wake up from their Obama nightmare. They're still cowering in the closet.

What are you talking about?

I mean look at this - first four years of Obama's presidency (2009-2013) were all at or lower than pre-2008 total average federal tax rates save for the highest quintile in 2013 for every quintile in every year back to 1979

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: xSEEKxNxSTRIKEx

It kills me when I look at my overtime checks and I enter the next tax bracket and I have to realize it wasn't even worth it in the first place.

This is almost never true.

Tax brackets are marginal rates - the tax percentage applies to the money earned in that bracket. If you go from 10% tax bracket to 15% tax bracket by earning more, you're still earning more money.

With 2012 married joint rates... if you earned $17,400 your tax burden would be $17400*10% = $1,740; net = $15,660. If you earned $18,400, your tax burden $17400*10% + $1000 * 15% = $1,890; net = $16,510. Yes, your effective tax rate increases slightly when crossing brackets, but you definitely still take home more money in almost every case.

It is a rare situation that arises where this claim is true, and doesn't have to do solely with tax brackets but instead with subsidies.

The obvious problem is that practically NO ONE exercises their rights effectively!!

Yes, Amendments 1 through 10 are hot buttons, but nobody takes the freaking time to research the USC, the IRC, etc. We all put our very lives in the hands of turncoat lawyers who will defend the system over you to protect said system so they can maintain their jobs and the illusion that we are all infants in court without legal representation.

A century ago, knowing and exercising your rights was common knowledge and highly respected as a form of patriotic duty and civic responsibility.

Nobody really gives a sh# anymore until guns, speech, and self incrimination come into play. We all should be piping furious about the patriot act and everything that has transpired because of it.

But no....we are fu#king dummies....self serving idiots that are merely corralled into a more sh!trier existence DAILY.

INSTITUTIONALIZED APATHY is absolutely our means of personal and social destruction.

a reply to: EternalShadow

Seriously. Today, good #ing luck representing yourself in court without an attorney. The judge wont even take you seriously. Oh, and that whole 'if you cant afford an attorney the court will appoint one for you' is a joke at best and an outright lie at worst.

At best you will get a public defender who you do not meet or have contact with until your arraignment court appearence where said defender will push you to take a plea deal. At worst the courts will look at your income and whether you could afford to bail yourself out or not as an indicator that you could in fact afford an attorney whether or not you have the spare cash lying around and you are denied one and screwed.

Then you show up for court and the first thing that happens is the system and prosecutors have you sign a bunch of paperwork full of incomprehensible legal mumbo jumbo before your name is even called. Little do you know you just signed away your innocence and in essence already admitted guilt to any charges as well as signing away your rights.

The patriot act was a serious turning point. And regarding our rights, you have none as soon as you come into contact with the system or are stopped by law enforcement. People say that when you are pulled over you have the right to only crack your window and hand your paperwork to the officer without saying a word. True, but lmfao - try it and see how quickly you end up on the ground with a knee, taser, and batton in your back while your vehicle and possessions are searched and siezed.

Well, the American Revolution just enabled the US to levy their own taxes and (sadly) put in place a political system that had a president with more powers than the British monarch.