William Thien

I am a believer in conspiracy theories, at least until there is some solid evidence to prove otherwise.

I recently saw several 9/11 conspiracy theories roll across one of my social media feeds and it caused me to laugh a bit. I doubt I need to explain the theories here. I’m sure we’ve all seen them or something quite similar, probably many hundreds of times.

What most people don’t understand, and that is probably due to their age, is that the 9/11 attack with the two planes was not the first attempt to take down the World Trade Centers. For some reason it is not discussed generally in the mainstream media.

I recall sitting on station in Germany in 1993 when the first attempt was made to take down the World Trade Centers. That time a truck bomb was put in the parking structure beneath the WTC towers with the intent of getting one of the towers to topple over on to the other tower and then to the rest of the City of New York. The damage to the towers was devastating but the terrorists didn’t achieve their objective. Repairs were completed and people eventually went back to work in the WTC towers.

So, the terrorists behind the 9/11 attack on The World Trade Centers were not the first to make an effort at it. The first attempt was in 1993.

Terrorists were going to keep trying if they could to bring the World Trade Centers down and as we all know, they were successful on 9/11.

Conspiracy theorists are not going to like what I have to say but I think it is unlikely that The U.S. government or some secret organization was directly involved in the attack. As to whether bombs were placed inside the building to amplify the damage caused by the impact of the aircraft on 9/11, as some have theorized, that is unlikely, though I would not rule it out completely. Clearly nobody is 100 percent certain as to how it all happened, even some of our own agencies.

I only write this because I believe 9/11 is the mother of all conspiracy theories from our day and age and it has spawned hundreds if not thousands of conspiracy theories that may or may not be true. Along with false reports of weapons of mass destruction, 9/11 was used by George Bush Jr to rile up support for the second entry in to Iraq in 2003, a criminal act that he should have been prosecuted for but was not, less than two years after 9/11. Many soldiers lost their lives for that fiasco and many, many more were wounded.

Ultimately, I believe analytical oversights were made by our government regarding possible threats from members of the the terrorist cell that was involved in the 9/11 event. But if one were to see how much data our governmental agencies have to review on a daily basis, such oversights are going to happen and one can only hope eventually something does not make it through the filter and gets noticed. It just didn’t happen that way with 9/11 in my opinion.

Personally, I think it is time to put the 9/11 conspiracy theories to rest instead of revisiting them each and every year. Not because it isn’t possible…

The terrorists were going to keep trying. They will still keep trying. You can bet on it. That’s what we need to focus on, possible terrorists, not elderly American ladies at the airport, not each and every American with a grievance (I think 9/11 was used as a lever to pry into the American household’s personal activities). Conspiracy theory or not, half or more of the world hates America (we’ve senselessly bombed some countries completely into the stone age on behalf of false WMD reports and other false agendas) and 9/11 could just end up looking like a day in the park.

Copyright © William Thien 2023

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You know if Dr. Fauci and other “experts” would simply just preface their commentary on the subject of Vaccine Hesitancy with something to the effect of, “Yeah, we know all of the drug ads during the evening news are bullshit with all of the fast talking at the end of the ad that the drugs themselves can actually cause death and injury, and we know you don’t trust a medical industry that bankrupts sometimes 25 percent of the people that need medical attention, sometimes more, and we understand that you think the entire medical profession has shifted from a business model designed to provide cures to one that keeps you on a drug regimen for the rest of your life ever since Reagan deregulated it, and we know that we should have found cures for untold diseases by now because of the shift to a business model that offers perpetual pharmaceutical treatments instead of cures because it makes for higher profits, we know all that, and as a result, we know you don’t trust doctors and the medical industry any longer. We know that.”

“But getting a Covid-19 vaccine is really a good idea.”

If the experts and doctors would just make that distinction, then perhaps more would get the vaccine.

Copyright © William Thien 2021

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Recently I had a charming conversation about what amounted to socialist handouts to families and how the tax code sticks it to the single tax payer.

Someone I know recently remarked they thought someone I work with was better at managing money than I am because the person owns a house and a nicer set of cars. I rent and I drive a single vehicle. A while ago I would have said, yes, it appears so, that they are better at managing money than I am.

Today after hearing of another family stimulus payment of nearly twelve times what I received as a single tax payer, twelve times for a normal sized family of six, including the two parents, after hearing that I have a completely different take. Now before I proceed, let me say that I do not begrudge families for taking the stimulus. But like myself, they usually only have one or two car payments to make and a mortgage or rent bill to pay and then it is the utilities and so forth, so why give them twelve times the money? They are not feeding twelve mouths, only six, and only two of them probably are paying any taxes, so why are non-tax payers getting tax payer money in this form?

You see it is easy to look like you are good at managing money when the government keeps giving you substantially larger tax breaks than I and massively larger stimulus payments than I receive. If we make the same hourly wage and work the same number of hours, the family person also takes more home on each and every paycheck because of withholding.

The employee with the family always has more cash coming in the door from work and the government, always, in relation to the single renter who makes the same wage. It pays for the family to comply with the tax laws also because in doing so they make themselves eligible for a lot of cash in return, cash from the pockets of America’s tax surrogates, the single renter who uses the least amount of government services, no public schools for the children they don’t have, less use of the roads, you name it, a substantially lower cost to society yet paying the lion’s share.

So, actually I believe I am the better candidate at handling money. Not only is the current system unfair, you made an observation based on a lack of facts of the matter and only on what you could visualize with your own eyes, that the person we speak of has a house and a nice set of cars, when I can only afford to rent and only have one vehicle. Makes you wonder, if they are doing that to you financially, and they ARE doing it, what else are they doing? Are they following you on the street or using those ever present traffic cams and watching where you are going? Fiddling with your tax return? Is this some decades long government program of eugenics implemented through the tax code? Because what something is, is what something does, and that is exactly what the tax code is doing. The tax code is a form of economic genocide.

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Is this some decades long government program of eugenics implemented through the tax code? Because what something is, is what something does, and that is exactly what the tax code is doing. The tax code is a form of economic genocide.

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Now, in doing the math we see that we, myself and my co-worker, make the same amount of money and work the same hours and we see now how my co-worker is doing so much better than I. The government over the years we have worked together has given him in the form of tax refunds, and stimulus payments close to $190,000 more than I have received, and that is probably less than the actual amount. That’s how he does it. That’s how he looks so good at managing money. The government is cutting me off at the knees and giving my shoes to him while feeding my shinny, stagnant wages of flesh and bone to the snarling dogs of inflation.

Of course I am going to look like an economic cripple next to Mr. Money Bags. Of course he is going to look like a financial genius next to me, the government has given him quite nearly a quarter of a million dollars more in tax refunds and stimulus than it has given me. The government is systematically crippling me and others like me financially! And you keep saying Yes! “Do it again,” every time you vote with no idea what you are introducing your children into!

This form of socialism I discuss here is not money management. It is not a “necessary redistribution of wealth.” It is theft.

Theft doesn’t quite fall into the category of “money management,” at least in any classical or technical understanding any economist that I’ve met or studied would have as socially acceptable behavior (and I studied under economists at The Lubar School of Business who were taught by Milton Friedman himself, the economist who won the Nobel Prize).

I am the better candidate for handling money.

Copyright © William Thien 2021

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If the tax code is a form of economic genocide, which everything indicates that it is, does that mean that everyone involved in perpetuating it is a willing accomplice? Accountants? Tax Attorney? Lobbyists?

The gun control issue in America has two distinct dimensions which are not discussed in the media at the same time as the other.

Since anti’s like to compare other countries while quoting statistics about gun violence, I shall do something similar, though from a different perspective.

With a vastly different, and I think we can all agree superior constitution to that of many other countries, no doubt with a massive daily influx of immigrants from THE ENTIRE WORLD as proof of that fact, our country continues to be attractive to others from around the globe. People around the world recognize the freedoms that we hold and they yearn for such a life. I have been to 25 countries and can tell you I have met someone in each one of them who would like to move to America. We were at war with some of those countries at one time in our history. America is still a magnet for people around the world.

Part of that magnetic attraction is our constitution and part of the magnetic field of our constitution is The 2nd Amendment. Not for the reasons you think, though. People who are attracted to America for that reason don’t want to just come here and shoot guns. No, it is completely different. You have it all wrong.

In war torn countries, for example, any immigrant in flight will tell you it could never have happened had there not been such a chasm of strength between the state and the people. Either the public was without arms or the public’s arms were so antiquated that the government just ground them into the earth. Or a neighboring country attacked another and was successful in its campaign.

These immigrants, these particular immigrants recognize that our constitution has a brief but powerful statement in it that works like a switch that they can turn on and say it is not going to happen that way again. It is called a gun. Without question that is a major part of the magnetic field of our constitution.

That is from an immigrant’s perspective. You say want proof of that fact? Well, did you know what one of the first things immigrants to America do when they are granted their citizenship? They buy a gun.

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That is from an immigrant’s perspective. You say want proof of that fact? Well, did you know what one of the first things immigrants to America do when they are granted their citizenship? They buy a gun.

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Americans are no different. But there is another dimension to the gun debate in America and that is crime. We not only must contend with the possibility of an overbearing government (our country’s forefathers stated that multiple times, immigrants have fled here from it) but we have substantial crime in America.

Where maybe in the country from which the immigrant has fled prior to war there was peace and little crime, guns were not needed to maintain one’s safety. America of course would look quite differently in the mirror. At once we were a frontier and guns were needed. Today, in many larger cities we have a wilderness of crime. We have major crime happening daily in America. It is in the news and much of it is not reported. People in certain areas generally don’t trust the police and they will not utilize them. The statistics they are reporting are significantly understated, though not by design. There is no law enforcement interaction and as a result, no statistics are kept. There is substantially more crime in the U.S. by definition than what we are told but it is primarily because our system of law enforcement was not utilized in those circumstances. Therefor, no statistics for such crimes can be compiled.

Let’s face it, law enforcement is not the end-all-be-all to crime. I would be honored to fight beside the men and women in law enforcement that I know and am acquainted with though I could not match their level of skill. But we can only afford as a society to pay for so many and keep them trained and healthy and the manner in which we employ them is dangerous to them and they can be injured or killed and then what? Furthermore, we restrict their right to defend themselves, almost on a daily basis which also decreases their effectiveness by installing physical and additional legal limitations to action. This is why we have states with right to carry laws. Americans are slowly transferring the right to defend themselves back from the state which has for the last 100 years constantly and successfully restricted such rights and taken that authority from the individual, home AND automobile.

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Americans are slowly transferring the right to defend themselves back from the state which has for the last 100 years constantly and successfully restricted such rights and taken that authority from the individual, home AND automobile.

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The statistics anti’s quote about peaceful, non-firearm owning countries, it is due to some geographical barrier such as an ocean or mountain range that is preventing wars between countries or some economic advantage, much like that of The United States. Yet we have the crime.

So gun rights advocates must not forget that though the right to keep and bear arms was designed to prevent transgressions against the public by the state, gun rights advocates must also remember that the right to keep and bear arms is inherently designed for men to control their own destiny (and something tells me the state and related donors _ahem_ is much more afraid of that, you having more control over your own destiny than the gun violence), to not be run over by the state or some mugger in the shopping center parking lot. Because I have to say, when I see how much they are taking from me in taxes, what kind of gyrations they make us go through just to get to work, who they are giving my money to and for what, I cannot tell the difference any longer between the mugger in the parking lot and the state.

I just can’t and I’ve tried. You can see me trying. Everyone can see me trying. Everyone can see you trying now, too.

Gun control is really a multidimensional issue that the anti’s don’t understand and it will probably be too late before they get it.

Copyright © William Thien 2021

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I’ve heard it several times recently and many times in the past. “It would be better if the Democrats won one presidential election and the Republicans would win the next and it would go back and forth that way to maintain some political balance in this country.”

That would be great, except for one thing.

The two parties are not politically and diametrically opposed.

That sentiment takes into account that the two parties are politically and diametrically opposed and one party’s transgressions against the public would be counteracted upon by the other party’s transgressions against the public as the political pendulum swung balanced through its arc.

The problem with that sentiment is that the two parties are not politically and diametrically opposed and it is also a common sentiment that candidates from the two parties are difficult to distinguish from one another or that legislation created by one party or another sounds alike. The political pendulum of the two-party system is not achieving its full arc.

My grandmother used to put a level on the wall clock every time she would wind it up. “If you don’t let that pendulum swing its full path,” she would say. “You are either going to lose time or you are going to get there late.”

I ask, based on the current political situation, how much time would you say the country needs to make up?

Copyright © William Thien 2020

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When you think of the damage caused to The US economy and the environment as a result of trading with China, it is almost as if China has been waging a strategic war against the US while our leadership has sat blindly, fat and happy, letting it happen ever since Clinton granted China most favored nation trading status when the Chinese began flooding our markets.

But it is not just the production of goods I’m talking about here, or the delivery of virus after virus after virus into our populace.

After all of that is it even a coincidence that The Chinese Beetle, for example, has decimated much of the forests in the intermountain west devastating a substantial portion of the lumber and tourism industries in at least 20 states, denuding the landscape of living trees and leaving vast forests of ghostly sticks?

How come children were getting lead poisoning from Chinese made toys sold on the shelves of big box retailers? Are big box retailers which get most of their inventory from China that important to our economy that during the Chinese Virus, as Trump calls it, they were allowed to stay open but the independent stores and little shops on main street were forced to close?

Why are the Chinese constantly being blamed for hacking into the computer systems of our medical facilities and defense contractors resulting in massive amounts of technical expertise being stolen and potential lives lost?

It is a long list and not entirely necessary to enumerate. What is significant is this.

How can such a devastating series of events not be the actionable result of some form of strategic calculations on the part of The Chinese Communist Party meant to undermine The US?

Ask yourself that question. If you think it is all a big series of coincidences, I have an answer for you.

Copyright © William Thien 2020

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If there is one lesson to be taken from the Corona virus pandemic it is that the world needs to begin cleaning up and shutting down its biological weapons laboratories. We live too close together these days globally.  In most parts of the world you can’t go a mile without seeing a person or dwelling and we are traveling like never before. That wasn’t the case 50 years ago.

Early on in 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic here in The US it was rumored in the media that the virus was developed in a laboratory in Wuhan, China (it is still thought so) and it was also suggested more than once through media innuendo that it may have been released by the Chinese military.

There may be something to that. It seems to me that every time The US has some sort of surge in economic activity, such as during that of the present Trump administration, some unusual pathogen arrives, almost always from China, and it has the affect of throttling our economy downwards, most significantly with the Corona Virus while the country takes precautions such as self-quarantining, mask wearing, closing schools and businesses.

It is possible we may never know the origin of Covid-19.

One thing is for sure, though.

If the nations of the world stop tinkering with such biological “devices,” it would reduce the chances and the risks of such a pandemic dramatically.

I understand a need for various military deterrents, to be sure. But unlike a nuclear bomb, for example, or an air strike, the sheer surreptitiousness of such killer biological weapons makes it easy to adjust the balance of both economic and geopolitical power at relatively low cost and with complete anonymity. We are seeing that right now as the country and world attempt to figure out what is happening and what will happen when winter arrives again and there still is no vaccine.

Perhaps it is time to consider some global method or mechanism to police and control such activities, before there is nobody to police and control such activities, anymore.

Shutting them down altogether makes perfect sense to me.

Copyright © William Thien 2020

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It is good that steps were taken by The US early on to prevent the spread of Corona Virus, steps such as a ban on travel from China. I think such efforts will lead to a return to routine lifestyles and improving economic activity sooner than later. There is clearly a lot of cooperation within the government at all levels along with industry.

I think we should do this more often, minus the virus. Not so much as shut everything down but simply stop normal production for a period of a week or so. Here is why. I live near a watershed, a large area of tall marsh grasses and vegetation that a river runs through. It is a travel route for all kinds of animals with birds in particular and they are in there making more noise than I ‘ve ever heard them make in several years. There are flocks of birds everywhere.

The drop in the combustion of fossil fuels that has resulted from the decrease in travel and commuting has cleared the air of a lot of pollution. I think the animals recognize the improvement in the air quality and perhaps the drop in human activity and they are as a result very active. I walk along the river and jog there and I have never heard it this active. Geese, water birds, ducks, song birds are flying in various flocks.

There seems to be an awful lot of the dramatization of events in the media concerning things that are happening with the Corona Virus and I hope policy is not being determined by media sensationalism, such as the government over-reacting to something based on what they think the public is thinking based on a story that has been dramatized, media dramatizations skewing government responses, particularly in a negative manner.

So I think there is something to learn from that. If the timing was planned, sort of like a vacation for everyone, it could be like a vacation for the planet as well. Wherever you were at that time, you had to stay there and wait for the seven days to be up and then normal travel would resume, you could get on a plane and fly home if you were somewhere else, vacationing or maybe work related, and things would start right back up again.

Yeah Bill, that’ll go over just great.

Just sayin’, that’s all. Just sayin’.

Copyright © William Thien 2020

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Now that the holiday season is almost upon us I want to remind everyone not to forget the less fortunate, those who serve the country and our communities, and also to consider the natural future of our planet and its environment. The following are some organizations that I support regularly or volunteer with that could use your support, too.

You may donate by clicking directly on the links in this text. In no particular order, here they are:

The USO https://secure.uso.org/?sc=WEBDONTRIL  Supporting the morale, welfare, and recreation of troops around the world and helping them stay connected.

Paralyzed Veterans of America http://www.SupportVeterans.org  A great organization dedicated to serving veterans suffering from spinal injuries.

Disabled American Veterans http://www.dav.org  DAV will help you get to the VA for medical visits or complete paperwork associated with VA claims and specializes in working with veterans injured in combat.

Homes for Our Troops  http://hfotusa.org is an organization with an excellent goal, “To build mortgage-free, specially adapted homes nationwide for severely injured Veterans Post-9/11, to enable them to rebuild their lives.”

I have worked as a volunteer on one of these homes doing general things, handing roofing shingles up to the roofers, carrying wood to work locations, that kind of thing. They always need people. You can see if there is a home scheduled to be built in your area and volunteer by visiting their website.

Audubon http://www.audubon.org/  One of the most active organizations in seeing that our natural world is monitored and conserved. The Audubon Society does some incredible things when it comes to helping to restore and conserve natural environments. Take your kids to an Audubon Conservation Center for a guided hike and you will see what I mean.

The International Crane Foundation https://www.savingcranes.org/  Eleven of the fifteen crane species face extinction, eleven of the fifteen species!

And don’t forget about your local food pantry. There is one in every town.

Copyright © William Thien 2019

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Here is my solution to the border crisis. Select all of the single females ages 18 to 30 and allow them entry in to The United States and send every one else back.

Why?

For quite some time now close to and occasionally exceeding fifty percent of the children in The United States have been born to single mothers, nearly half of all babies. Women are not compelled to get married any longer because of the social safety net.

Yet, when I examine the various places I work and have worked, there are often large numbers of single men aged thirty, forty, or fifty years old, many older, never having settled down and gotten married, never seeing over the period of decades a tax break for having a family or greater withholding on their pay checks, tax surrogates instead they are for the sexual proclivities of a nation.

Why are there so many single men?

Social welfare, the so-called social safety net, promiscuous single women having children out-of-wedlock because often the government benefits stack up to more in terms of dollars than a decent job pays, pays particularly in an economy that has seen stagnation of wages for close to thirty years or more.

Social welfare pays many single women better than their were-to-be husbands could make because wages haven’t risen for so long and so consequently many make the conscious decision to f!@# and s!@# until they get pregnant and then go on the public dime. That public dime is all of the single men out there in the work force, the tax surrogates for the socialized system that straps them with the sexual outcomes of hordes of women they have never met, what once would have been called “whores” but now are just “unfortunate.” Yeah, right.

And I’m not just talking about women of one color, what were once called “welfare mommas.” At fifty percent of the children born out-of-wedlock, women of all colors are doing it (pun intended).

“Bill, yer getting really harsh.”

So, my solution to the border crisis is to select from the throngs massing at the border all of the single females from 18 to 30 of age (consent could be lower in some states, I don’t know) and let them come in to the country and send the others back.

Those females are fleeing a violent situation, which they claim anyway with their applications for “asylum.” They claim they are fleeing violent gangs, rapes, murders, starvation, you name it. They all put it on their applications for asylum. So if they are coming here anyway, let’s keep them off of the public dole and make good on The American Promise to all of those men who have supported the “American Way” (now known to many as the socialist f!@# and s!@# economy). We, or should I say the single men of America are going to pay for them, anyway.

Let’s pay back those single men who have supported the promiscuity of a nation with their single male tax surrogate status paying a disproportionate amount of taxes for years so women could have children out-of-wedlock and families could write off their children, for years, for decades!

Let’s pay those men back for all the money they were forced to pay in the form of taxes to support those social welfare programs which provide assistance to the new American socialist whore but for which those men who have paid for a long time but are ineligible to receive the benefits, what I call America’s “selective socialism.”

That’s my solution to the border crisis. Those females are coming here anyway. Chances are, since nobody is speaking for them, they will be looking for a government check at some time or another. That appears to be the plan. I haven’t heard any others. Work for cash? Undermine the American worker who hasn’t seen a wage increase in eons? That, too.

Use the border crisis to make good on a promise. Fulfill a promise to the men of America, that now rusting, now rotting on the vine socialist promise, what once was called The American Dream.

That’s my solution. I think it is a good one.

Next you’ll see the media will take it off the air. There will no longer be coverage of “the crisis at the border!” Nobody likes a solution in a socialist country. That would mean they don’t need socialism any more.

Copyright © William Thien 2019, 2020

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I support a flat income tax because I think if everyone pays at the same rate, everyone is equally invested in seeing that government is run efficiently and taxes are kept in check.

Instead, they have us all divided up into separate tax classes with the middle class paying more percentage-wise than both the wealthiest Americans and the poorest.

That’s not fair.

In my opinion it’s a form of economic genocide. Why should the wealthy care if the government is running efficiently if their tax rates are lower than most after deductions and loopholes? Why should the poor care about the tax rate if they effectively pay little or no taxes?

A flat tax is the fairest tax, plain and simple.

Copyright © William Thien 2019

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The reason the Mueller Report took so long to complete is that the investigation needed to go beyond the mid-term elections. The Democratic Party knew there was no Russian collusion. The objective wasn’t to discover any collusion, rather it was to install Socialist-Democrats during the mid-term elections, almost two years after the investigation began.

The objective of The Mueller Investigation was to create doubt in the minds of those voters on the fence and force them over to the Socialist-Democrats. It worked. We now have avowed socialists in office throughout the country and as many Democrats who probably don’t even recognize that they are socialists.

By indicting anyone and everyone surrounding the President on whatever charge they could levy, the opposition sent the voters to the ballot box with a big question on their minds and many changed their ideology. That is clear by the results of the election.

So, it is my opinion that the reason the report took so long to complete was so that it went beyond the mid-term elections and threw the election in favor of the Socialist-Democrats.

It worked. Remember that the next time you go to vote.

Copyright © William Thien 2019

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Some like to refer to Social Security as an “entitlement,” because you pay in to it all your life and so when you retire, you should benefit. It’s therefor in their minds an entitlement.

Wrong! You never see the principal again. Unlike when you contribute to a 401K (which is taxed all to hell before you get back at it to remove the principal or receive payments), or an IRA for that matter, unlike both of them with Social Security you only ever see your payments, if you live long enough to get them. Therefor, Social Security is a tax, not an entitlement. You will never see your principal again.

You might have contributed many tens of thousands of dollars or more which upon death your offspring or siblings will never see again in the form of money willed to them. And throughout your life you must pay Social Security Taxes on your income. You have no choice.

Social Security is not an entitlement, it’s a tax. Add it to your Federal and State income tax to see your total tax liability. Call it what it is. You can’t change it until you realize what it truly is, a tax. It’s a tax because you never see your principal again. Gone are thousands and thousands of dollars that you could have prospered with upon retirement. Instead, you get a measly monthly payment.

Don’t let the communists fool you.

Copyright © William Thien 2019

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Undoubtedly the Democratic Party’s desire to have Michael Cohen testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform undermined President Trump’s ability to negotiate a safer America during his summit with Kim Jong Un.

It is likely that North Korean adviser’s informed the dictator that President Trump is in no position to negotiate a nuclear deal, something that would make all of us safer, due to the political infighting going on here in The US and the simultaneous testimony of Michael Cohen publicly discrediting The President, political behavior that would not go unpunished in North Korea, severely unpunished, something they probably can’t even comprehend there, and probably would not even consider.

In the future one would hope that the Democratic Party would refrain from its unwavering desire to gain control of all branches of government by emasculating American global political authority and let our elected leadership work effectively and unhindered to protect the citizens of the country.

Those nukes aren’t pointed at The Democratic Party Headquarters. They are pointed at the people. That’s where most nuclear weapons are pointed. That’s what makes them a deterrent. And yet it is primarily the Democrats that want to take away the people’s guns. I guess now we know why. It kind of makes you wonder whose side they are on? When you think about it, how the repeated actions of The Democratic Party support a potential adversary, it’s not a real stretch to reach that conclusion, if you know what I mean. It’s not right there on the surface, but if you uncover a few layers, there it is right there staring you in the face.

Copyright © William Thien 2019

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When I see how diametrically opposed the two major parties are in values and how the country’s tax dollars are to be spent I must admit I am a bit perplexed as to why our elected are not more combative when it comes to addressing the needs of those who voted for them, party by party for that matter.

In other words, when you see that even some of the simplest tasks can take years for Washington to merely approach and even then nothing gets done, you have to wonder if both parties haven’t secretly met in a secret place and decided which party will take which issue off of the table and call it their own and when the secret meeting is over they’ve secretly agreed with a secret handshake not to truly undermine the other party by totally making them look like buffoons so they can all get re-elected the next time. Sure, there is obstruction. But merely so nothing gets done.

Such issues as simplification of an unfair tax code or making certain there is clean water for the population to drink you would think would be first and foremost but instead they want to confiscate firearms or restrict people from self medicating.

That Congress is an effective body is somewhat of a ruse. Congress appears only to be able take and restrict and it has been in that mode for decades. Take and restrict. Take and restrict. It must be a  chant or a mantra newly elected politicians have to repeat at the secret meeting between both parties where they decide what issues each party is going to take off of the table, when they get to Washington, that is.

Ultimately it is as if both parties have the same goal and that is not to let the individual within the public have control over their own lives. They keep picking at it, regulating it (while deregulating medicine and corporate America), and selling us out.

They just seem too sedate to me to really be in it for what they say they are in it for.  Some fists should be flying, to be sure. There is some secret handshake stuff going on there in Washington. There just has to be.

President Trump on the other hand has been all in as far as I can tell. I don’t agree with everything he says or does, but there is very little glad handing going on there. And I can appreciate that.

Once, just once, as a start, I’d like to see some of them cross the aisle and smack some of the opposing party and smack them good. If an all out brawl broke out I wouldn’t mind it a bit, not one bit.

Because you know what, if after years of obstruction, after years of obfuscation, after years of taking my hard-earned tax dollars and giving it to some woman having sex out-of-wedlock to get her vote, if someone crossed the aisle and decked that sumanobotch who for voted for publicly financed whoring, I’d know that they had their heart in it, especially if they landed a good one. Ooooooooooooo. Aaaaaaaaah! Now them’s fireworks. There’s a politician with heart.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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Here is a copy of a letter I sent to the guest speaker, an expert on taxes who appeared on talk radio this afternoon and I had to call in to state my position on flat taxes. The speaker, Carolyn Bruckner, favors a progressive tax on wealth and doesn’t support a flat tax. I stated when I was put on the air that a flat tax was the fairest form of tax. Bruckner responded that it wasn’t, at 35 percent a flat tax taxes the poorest much more severely than the wealthy. The problem, in my opinion, is that you never hear the poor complain about a flat tax. The wealthy complain about it all the time because there are no ways to hide income. And most flat tax proponents, Steve Forbes for example, describe scenarios at half of that tax rate, 17 percent for example, a rate that would actually pay down the national debt!

Here is a copy of my letter responding to her one-sided response. You are not allowed to debate the guest, you can only pose a question.

Hi Ms. Bruckner,

My name is William Thien. I called in during your appearance in WP Radio today, 02/05/2019.

I stated I support a flat tax because I think it is the fairest form of tax and because everyone is equally invested in seeing that their tax dollars are properly spent.

Your response was to refer to some obscure studies (no references) that flat taxes aren’t fair because a rate of 35 percent to someone making $10,000 is much more substantial than 35 percent to someone making six figures, or something to that amount, I had the radio turned down and I was driving so I didn’t quite catch your figure.

I get it.

You will recall that I stated that the wealthy probably don’t use as many services as the lower-income brackets and as a result, why should they have to pay more? It is somewhat unfair, to be sure.

My problem though primarily is why does the rate have to be 35 percent, that flat tax rate you quoted? I think that number is arbitrarily high and many in the past who have favored a flat tax such as Steve Forbes (17 percent) and others have done the math and concluded the percentage would be close to half of that, that number at 17 percent also effectively diminishing the national debt rather quickly.

I realize a number as high as 35 percent you quoted shuts down the discussion about a flat tax immediately and the host, a good guy to be sure didn’t quite pick up on what you were doing, but 35 percent is really an outrageous number when you consider that most truly wealthy Americans, were they to actually pay at a flat tax rate of more like 15 to 20 percent with no deductions and/or write-offs, would pay down the national debt in a few years.

I realize it is important to keep the bean counters in beans and the tax theorists such as yourself theorizing, but a flat tax really is the fairest tax as again, everyone is equally invested in seeing that their tax dollars are properly spent. As it is now, the wealthy can hide their income with tax deductions and tax breaks and could care less how the rest of the crowd endures and the poorest pay very few taxes leaving the middle classes strapped with the burden.

A flat tax IS the fairest tax.

Thanks again for taking my call.

Sincerely,

William Thien

https://williamthien.wordpress.com/

CC: Mr. Rob Ferrett, Central Time

Here are Ms. Bruckner’s credentials: https://www.american.edu/kogod/faculty/cbruck.cfm

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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Lovely discussion today with some acquaintances who claimed they didn’t care about illegal aliens working on a construction project I happen to be associated with indirectly.

One of the construction workers said he didn’t care if some of the employees were illegal aliens, it made no difference to him.

That type of talk of course got him a lecture about illegals not paying taxes like the rest of us and still using services, in a sense costing us twice what it costs to provide government services to someone who in fact does pay taxes. But he didn’t care. The conversation digressed to the socialist redistribution of said tax dollars for dependents and mortgage interest deductions, points of contention with me.

In comparing two employees, one married with four kids and one single with no dependents or property, but both making the exact same income and working the exact same hours throughout the year, that employee with dependents and a mortgage payment will receive a significantly larger tax refund than the single employee with no dependents or property. That same employee will take home more on their pay checks throughout the year because it is likely they will have multiple reasons to have less taken from their pay throughout the year, their dependents. Both employees made the same earnings during the year but the government is taking money from that employee with no dependents or property and giving it to the employee with the dependents and property. Socialism, heck practically communism in a sense, the worst kind of socialism, socialism that’s primary function (f)n is unfairness.

When I explained that scenario to the construction worker who claimed he didn’t care about illegal alien employees working on the project, his response was, “well I guess I should have more kids, then.”

Therein lies the flaw in socialism, a system designed to help humanity in fact stimulates self-interested behavior on the part of the recipient of social benefits.

Instead of saying, “yeah, that’s kind of screwed up that the government is taking tax dollars from the employee with no dependents or property and giving it to the employee with the “write-offs,” who aren’t even related to him, his response was in a sense, “well if I want more from the system, I must have more children so I can strap the childless employee with more of a tax burden,” an obvious display of self-interest.

Socialism actually doesn’t equalize, it stratifies the population, creates social classes with access and burdens the rest.

I guess you can’t blame the construction worker for not having any control over his own self-interest. Why should he care about his fellow man (what socialism claims to be about, caring for your fellow man)?

But therein lies the flaw in socialism. It’s one of those ideas that sounds good on the surface, almost perfect in a sense, but when it is put to use and combined with human nature, it is incredibly flawed, creates substantial instances of unfairness, and perpetuates itself through stimulating divisions in the various social-economic classes it is supposed to unify.

Socialism in a sense is supposed to sound like this: How can we help you get over your rough patch in life? Instead, this is what socialism in America has become: what can I get? Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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If there is one thing that I gain from hearing about the partial government shutdown over and over again in the news it is that there are 800,000 federal government employees furloughed that are considered “non-essential.”

When I heard that number at first on talk radio yesterday I didn’t comprehend it completely. But then I did some basic math. 800,000 divided by 50 (the number of states) comes out to 16,000 federal employees per state, so-called non-essentials that are on furlough. Now the number begins to have some significance.

Sixteen thousand employees per state seems like a huge number to me, especially if they only make up a small portion of the total number of federal employees per state, a number which we do not know exactly.

The news commentator on the radio was interviewing someone while I drove home yesterday and the guest stated that from an economic standpoint, the shutdown will only have a minor impact on the economy if any. That was good news, but if the employees on furlough only make up a small amount of the total number of federal employees per state, how many total federal employees are there? A quick search reveals that there are as many as 9.8 million federal employees with about 22 percent being full-time, the others part-timers and contractors receiving a federal payment of some type but working for a private company contracted out to do the work required. Twenty-two percent of 9.8 million is 2,156,000 full-time employees, or 43,120 employees per state. Add to that the non-essential employees on furlough and you have a total of 43,120 plus 16,000, equaling 59,120 employees per state.

Wow! Holy you know what! Now, many of those are related to the military which by definition is made up of large numbers due to the nature of the task. And without taking the 800,000 non-essential employees from the total number of federal employees is kind of an accounting trick, but for the sake of demonstration it makes an excellent point illustrating the size of the federal work force.

On the other hand, that to me is a staggering number of people involved in the governance of each state (not what they are all involved in but for the sake of drawing a picture of the tax burden for each state), roughly 60,000 federal employees in each state.

Add to that the state employees and local and municipal employees and it makes you wonder how many people in each state work for the government or governments? The media never really comes up with a solid number on the matter and we are left with only vague indications as to the total number of employees.

But lately the media has reminded us constantly that 800,000 employees are furloughed during the current partial shutdown and I can only conclude that the reason for the shutdown is not the wall any longer, the shutdown is so we can see how truly massive our government has become.

I don’t begrudge anyone for working for the government. Most government jobs are usually good jobs with benefits and the people are usually of a very high caliber. I myself have been in the military and at one point was attached to a federal government agency, and I have also worked at the municipal level for a year. I’ve also taught in public schools (educating is not really governance). But after seeing those numbers, nearly 60,000 people per state at just the federal level, I no longer have any question as to why the government takes so much from my pay and I never see it again.

Though I see a need for the wall, for me the shutdown isn’t about the wall entirely any longer, not since I heard that number, 800,000. For me the shutdown is becoming more and more about my pay check, what’s being taken from it, and what’s left.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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Though I myself here in this blog have been critical of The FED’s seemingly perpetually low interest rates unnaturally stimulating inflation and pricing the middle class out of its lifestyle and sustenance, I think Trump is right that The FED is raising interest rates too quickly. There is no need to ruin the entire economy simply because they have been discovered in what appears either to be an attempt to undermine an entire sector of the working classes or simply to increase the value of another sector’s capital. Either way, the fact that they have been discovered in such irresponsible management of the country’s finances does not indicate overcompensation as a response. Trump is right that The FED is raising interest rates too quickly. Perhaps The FED needs more oversight.

On the matter of Trump’s apparent economic isolationism, of which I have read and heard about in the media not too infrequently, in a global economy where economies are seemingly and inextricably intertwined, maybe too a certain extent a little isolationism isn’t such a bad thing. Why should our economy take a hit every time that of another country which may not have such a robust economy falters? Now I am not certain that is Trump’s motivation in the “suspected” or “suggested” isolationism (the media is grabbing at whatever they can, whatever they can call), but a little shoring up of the national position might not be a bad thing. So if Trump is in fact somewhat isolationist, that could be a good thing in certain circumstances. In my opinion, though, Trump is merely sticking up for the country’s trade imbalances and defending The US against the unfair and protectionist trading practices of other countries that have become accustomed to America’s seemingly unlimited benevolence, the result of poorly managed trade agreements that have undermined our own industrial and production sectors.

Two issues Trump is correct about in my opinion.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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There was a point when I decided I couldn’t support Donald Trump for the very reason that he supports the buying and selling of our private internet activity. I also don’t agree with his position on a number of environmental issues.

But after seeing General Jim Mattis’s decision to step down as Secretary of Defense as well as a number of other high-ranking officials, I have decided that many of those stepping down are simply jumping ship. Mattis may not be doing so, but in my opinion, most of the others are.

That being said, one thing to note is that when you work for somebody, the American People, The President of The United States, an employer for that matter, your job is fairly well-defined usually and you are there to do that job, not implement “your” vision for America. Yes, if you disagree with something at your job you can walk out the door, but when it comes to serving the country, that’s an entirely different mater.

Aside from The President’s position on what our internet service providers can do with our private information and his position on environmental issues, I don’t believe Trump is that far off when it comes to what needs to be done to improve the economy of this country and take care of its safety and security.

Military activity is expensive as I have said before in my essay titled Should The United States be the world’s police force? and withdrawing our forces from countries where there seems to be no progress occurring, such as in Syria for example, makes a lot of sense for The United States financially, if not militarily. I think Trump is looking at the cost of maintaining troops in Syria and the region and saying there is little return on investment (ROI).

Trump on the other hand seems to be hell-bent on protecting the country’s southern border from mass invasion from Mexico and Central America and I think he is on to something. We do need a border wall. It is not that Americans don’t like Mexicans or people from central America, rather they are sick of paying for benefits for people who are not citizens of The United States and having their jobs taken by undocumented aliens willing to work for pennies on the dollar under the table and paying no taxes on those incomes to boot. Americans simply can’t afford it any longer. They need jobs and for employers to pay living wages in an economy that has not supported the American worker for decades. Trump knows that and is acting on it even though many in corporate America are countering his every move, offshoring jobs like GM has recently or others. But the left and the media have falsely turned the narrative to one of racism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Trump may look like the bad guy on such issues as how the military should be managed financially or how the country’s borders should be protected but if you ask me, all of the preceding Presidents have spent too much time trying to look like “the good guy” and have either exacerbated the problem for the citizens of America or increased the country’s financial burden.

T.S. Eliot said, “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” Samuel Johnson said, “Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Unlike the previous presidents of late, Trump is just doing the public’s dirty work and doesn’t care what the media, the left, or naysayers say about him. Clearly, unlike previous Presidents, his first priority isn’t about earning the “good guy” label. And for those of us who have done and do the dirty work of the country, you know how thankless it can be. Imagine being President Trump and the burden he is facing with all the corporate media and organized socialist resistance. Imagine the mud storm!

After seeing all that, I am like alright, okay, I’m going to have to put my deltas aside for now. That is why I am setting aside my differences and supporting President Trump once again. Because the guy has still cut my income taxes and that of corporate America, a miracle of incredible magnitude in modern American politics. That hasn’t happened at the federal level in like “forever.” In a sense, that is and will be priority number one for a long time for all elected officials, cutting our taxes. If I hear that you will have my complete and utter attention. What Trump has accomplished in that regard is a significant thing considering the drive of governments at all levels in The US to tax. It is seemingly insatiable.

Now, Mr. President, on the issues of internet privacy and the environment, we need to talk. You or I might not have a problem getting dirty on behalf of the country but let’s keep the public safe and clean. Thanks to your tax breaks, corporate America will do just fine without having access to everyone’s personal data.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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Word to the “politically wise.”

As the midterm elections approach the media and many in the political power classes would have us all believe that if there is a massive shift from red to blue, right to left during the election, it is because of President Trump.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What is happening with the voter is that so many laws have been created, so many people have suffered through the last “great recession” financially, and there has been a massive expansion of the “surveillance state” * (see note at conclusion) both state sponsored surveillance and corporate surveillance of the citizen that a large, generational and criminal class has been created by the system lead by a class of do-gooders and holier-than-thous that carry little, real social weight, work little compared to the guy in the trenches, but have been able to position themselves, primarily through clever use of the media, as “the righteous” when in fact they are merely flinging their excrement around like a bunch of primates in a glass cage at the zoo.

Many consensual behaviors have also been regulated for so long and driven into a dark corner by the political classes and the mainstream media that we are witnessing a backlash from the voter. And who can blame them?

So many people have had run-ins with the law in some capacity or another and so many have lost everything for no good reason except greed and excessive taxation pulling the final piece out of the American puzzle that it all came down for so many and now the voter is reacting to it. Ssssslowly. But America is a sleeping giant. Watch out!

The political elite would like to blame somebody for their transgressions against the public on behalf of special interests, certain corporations, religious rightists and certain belief systems, you name it, whomever and whatever contributed the largest sums, and they’ve picked Trump as a convenient scapegoat.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Trump and his administration have probably done more good for the finances of the people of this country than the last five consecutive presidents, maybe more.

The political right, and many on the left, have painted themselves into a corner with the voter.

Luckily we have a democracy and the change in leadership can happen at the ballot box and it doesn’t happen on the town square with the guillotine.

It’s not about Trump and the political elite know it.

If there really is even a shift from right to left in this midterm, from red to blue as so many fear, the political elite created the voter that is about to displace them and they have nobody to blame but themselves.

Note: I changed “police state” to “surveillance state” as I believe that is  a more accurate description of the circumstances and I believe the police in general are not themselves responsible for a “police state” and have acquired a negative image recently, mainly for political expediency and media assertion into the marketplace. In other words, the police have been made a convenient fall guy.

Copyright © William Thien 2018

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