an excerpt from John Ross's Blog

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by tacmotusn, May 30, 2011.


  1. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    John Ross wrote an excellent book called Unintended Consequences. A book I am still trying to lay my hands on, but then that is another sad story.
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    Here is one single posting from his blog dated 11/08/2008. To me it is amazing how insightful a person can be in one case, and how far off base in another.
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    Included is his permission for electronic reproduction. I am pretty sure I have crossed all the tee's and dotted all the i's to post it here.
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    Hallelujah! The Nightmare Is Over!, or
    Thank You, Mr. Obama, for Putting So Many Bad Things Behind Us
    By John Ross

    Copyright 2008 by John Ross. Electronic reproduction of this article freely permitted provided it is reproduced in its entirety with attribution given.

    Tuesday night I listened to President-elect Barack Obama's powerful acceptance speech, and as I felt myself moved by his words, I realized that now America has many of her worst problems behind her. We are now truly in a new era.

    With President Obama, the nightmare of the Vietnam War will be over. Just as Teddy Roosevelt was the first President or Presidential candidate since 1860 to have no tie to the Civil War, so too is Barack Obama our first president in over 45 years with no ties to our losing campaign in Southeast Asia during the 1960s and '70s. That misguided war, and the resultant long-standing memories of unwilling draftees, "fragging" of officers, and listless, disillusioned troops is behind us now. Our new Commander-In-Chief was born too late to be tainted by that disastrous conflict, and he takes control of a modern fighting force comprised entirely of fighting men and women that are there by choice. These motivated soldiers want to be in the military, and they believe in our cause. By his own admission, former President Bill Clinton "loathed" the military, and this loathing took a tremendous toll on the morale of our brave troops.

    Under President Obama, the nightmare of the Clintons will be over. The Dogpatch crowd will never again get anywhere near the White House. Having wisely avoided selecting Hillary as his running mate, President Obama won’t have to deal with what would have undoubtedly been Bill's constant presence in and around the Oval Office. Hillary won't get the nomination in 2012, and she'll be too old in 2016. Obama’s lovely and loving wife Michelle and their two adorable children are breaths of fresh air compared to the Clintons' sham marriage of political convenience and Bill's penchant for an endless series of trysts with women you'd expect to see on Jerry Springer.

    With President Obama, the nightmares of Civil Rights Era racism, segregation, separatism, and Jim Crow are over. Black America has almost unanimously embraced mulatto Barack Obama as one of their own, and tens of millions of whites are gaga over him. The notions that blacks cannot hold their own in competition with whites or that white Americans hold blacks down and keep them from succeeding have been utterly obliterated with Tuesday’s election results. As black comedienne Wanda Sykes said, "We can't complain about ‘The Man’ when we is 'The Man.'" Well put. Barack Obama's winning the Presidency of the United States in a free election shows that we can now rid ourselves of the nightmare of Affirmative Action and racial quotas. No longer will less-qualified job applicants be hired because of race or ethnicity. Employers will once again be allowed to hire the best workers. Patients will never again have to worry that the person examining them and prescribing life-affecting treatment got into med school and became a doctor for any reason other than talent and ability.

    With President Obama, the nightmare of a Republican Party littered with "Moderates" and "Mavericks" and country clubbers like John McCain and George W. Bush has been rejected. Sarah Palin energized the free-market, low tax, and less-nanny-state base of the Party like no one since Ronald Reagan, but it wasn’t quite enough to make these freedom-oriented Americans swallow John McCain. Yes, President-elect Obama holds (or appears to hold) Socialist beliefs that are diametrically opposed to the beliefs of people like me, and that's fine. We all know what he stands for. It's not a surprise. He's the general of the Communist Army we're trying to defeat, or the quarterback of the opposing football team we're trying to beat. Such a person represents a known threat, unlike someone we think is an ally but who is really a deep-cover sleeper agent who's just been activated after a decade, or one of our own running backs who's been bribed to fumble the ball or run for the wrong goal line. Give me a straight-ahead opponent over a spy or saboteur any day.

    Barack Obama campaigned largely on vague promises of "change," unification, affirmations like "Yes, we can," and skilled (when scripted) oratory. During his campaign, the media and much of the public gave him a pass on policy and issue specifics because they so desperately wanted him to be the answer they were seeking.

    Joe Biden put it this way in late January of 2007 while commenting on the Obama Presidential candidacy to Jason Horowitz of the New York Observer: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

    In September of 2007, Bill O'Reilly expressed similar sentiments about his observations of modern Black America. Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." Later, talking with NPR senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap music on culture, O'Reilly asserted: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-F'er, I want more iced tea!'"

    Now that the election is over, it won't be enough for President-elect Obama to be "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." The media and his other fawning supporters are going to have to address the specifics of his vision for America. They're going to have to address the fact that it was the Socialist Democrat policy under Clinton in 1995 that expanded the Community Reinvestment Act of the Carter years to force banks to write mortgages for nothing down to people who couldn’t afford them, and gave us the present financial crisis.

    They're going to have to reconcile Obama's desire for a middle-class tax cut and more taxes on "the rich" (including a massive increase in the Death Tax) with the fact that it is the rich who now pay most of the taxes, and when you give them a tax cut, tax revenues go up, as Reagan proved in 1982.

    They're going to have to reconcile Obama's hatred of the Second Amendment (ban handguns, no concealed carry, etc.) with the Supreme Court Heller ruling upholding the Second Amendment.
    They're going to have to address the fact that feel-good promises of "alternative energy" aren't going to get your car to run on solar or wind power. We have huge untapped oil reserves in our own country. Free-market champions from Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin have urged the development of those assets, while Socialist Democrats like Barack Obama and RINOs like John McCain have consistently blocked accessing those reserves.

    They're going to have to address the fact that if we withdraw all troops from Iraq, eloquent oratory may not be enough to prevent a nuclear Iran from controlling Iraq, and later Saudi Arabia. Iranian power directed into the Saudi oilfields would be a disaster for America.

    Finally, they're going to have to face the fact that there is no engine for growth and prosperity nearly as powerful as that of the free market. Individuals striving to better their own lives by the free use of their talents and imaginations, succeeding or failing with their own resources at stake, will always bring more prosperity than government programs where results are disconnected from actions and the decision-makers are disconnected from accountability. Socialism has failed and been rejected throughout Europe and Russia, and it’s going to fail and be rejected here.

    President-elect Obama, you have tremendous challenges ahead. You're not much younger than I am, and I've learned a lot over the course of my life. One lesson I've learned is that the incentives of the free market raise everyone's standard of living, while government programs that distort the free market benefit a few people who have figured out how to rig things for their own benefit, to the detriment of everyone else. I've also learned that evil is rarely placated by discussion and reason alone, if the means to back up your reasoned points with force is not there.

    President-elect Obama, I wish you all good fortune as you embark on your Presidential career. I suspect that you will come to realize (if you haven't already) that Socialism and Communism don't work, that we can't tax our way into prosperity, and that punishing motivated people who succeed on their own by forcing them to support those with little or no ambition is a recipe for disaster. If you don't figure those things out, that's okay too. We might have to wait for the midterm elections of 2010, but one way or another, because of you, the nightmare of Socialism will finally be over for America.


    John Ross 11/08/2008

    John Ross Article
     
  2. beast

    beast backwoodsman

    i am speechless
    probly cuz im vomitting
     
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  3. Falcon15

    Falcon15 Falco Peregrinus

    That sound you just heard was me gagging on my brisket. I should have stopped at the first sentence, but I was praying it was satire...
    I was never more wrong...unless you count that time in Rome. . .
     
    Brokor likes this.
  4. capt45

    capt45 Monkey+

    I heard similar arguments made by well intentioned people during the 2008 campaign.

    My response was that if Obama was elected, he would empower the radical left in ways no one could imagine.

    I truly believe if he gets re-elected in 2012, he will show himself to be 'the closer' who, by executive order or contrived circumstances (or some natural catastrophe he and his can take advantage of ) will bolt the door shut on what's left of the Republic.
     
  5. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    I have said it before and I will probably say it again. If the above comes to pass, it will truly prove to be the last straw. Some people can only be pushed just so far. Read into that whatever you will. Patrick Henry said it best, I will leave it at that.
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    What is the worst about this post, is that John Ross probably voted for Obama, and patted himself on the back for being so progressive. What a fool!
     
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  6. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I have to agree with most of what John Ross said but since have come to realize that our president isn't really elected, he's decided by the bankers and we get to hold a mock-election to amuse the the powers that be and distract the rest of us. Our Republic hasn't really existed since Lincoln gave our money to the Rothshilds. We are allowed the illusion of freedom only as long as it does not conflict with the master plan. Don't believe it, push the limits and see who disappears.
     
  7. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    I betcha young Mr. Ross had his tongue firmly between his teeth when he wrote that. Very heavy on the irony and lots of sarcasm.
     
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  8. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    If you go to his blog with the link I gave and then read some of his other blog posts, I don't think you would say that. He is a Democrat. I think he is an Obama Koolade drinker. jmho
     
    Falcon15 likes this.
  9. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I don't know if your reading something that I'm just not seeing, but I have met John on several occasions and he is very well spoken and intelligent man. Every thing he is saying here in the excerpt that you posted is pretty much wishing Obama the best now that the race card has been trumped and challenging him to get rid of the socialist ideas, give up on gun control, get rid of affirmative action and preferential treatment of blacks, forget about taxing us into prosperity or face being replaced in the mid-term. I totally agree with that.
     
  10. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Reading that pap, even considering it was written BEFORE the illegal alien got into the Whitehouse, it makes my stomach queazy.......
    Can Mr. Ross be that stupid? He writes like a true Koolade Drinker.

    I had intended to get his book (VERY expensive just now, IF one can be found!), but if this is the level of his writing, I will consign him to the trashbin unread.......
     
  11. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Get the book and read it. Top shelf regardless of politics.
     
  12. Hispeedal2

    Hispeedal2 Nay Sayer

    What I read in the article is a few goods that could come from Obama being elected such as:
    Unfortunately, I don't think that is the case. As indicated in the thread about the pharmacist sentenced for murder, parts of black America do still use the same old, tired excuse.

    I don't blame John Ross. He was duped. A lot of Americans were. In the Anti-Bush fever that was sweeping the nation, starting about a year into OIF, McCain wasn't enough of an alternative for most people- especially the independents. I would love to hear what he thinks post-Obama care or in the wake of Gunrunner. I'll bet he has a slightly different outlook.
     
  13. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    Maybe the first blog post was meant to be satire, maybe not. I prefer that people just say what they mean. If you truly are being satorical, then your very last words should be, "just joking"!
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    Ask and you shall receive. Here is something he had to say about health care. BTW, all that I have posted by him can be found at the link on the bottom of the first post. Top left click on .... "Ross in Range"
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    After Scott Brown, or
    A Short Proposal for Health Care Reform
    By John Ross

    With the upset in Massachusetts, the 2000+ page health care monstrosity appears to be DOA, thank God. While our President seems hell-bent on spending our children into oblivion, with laughable talk of “spending restraint” thrown in to add insult to injury, I decided to take the high ground and avoid falling into the trap of being just a critic (or “community organizer,” if you will) and offer some constructive suggestions.

    Even more odious to the American public than the way the Health Care bill was crafted in secret was the sheer mass of its 2000-plus pages. No one really believed that anyone in Congress had actually read the whole thing. The Tea Party movement, though largely ignored (or ridiculed) by the Mainstream Media, showed us that average Americans were not going to quietly submit to the nationalization of one-sixth of America’s economy.

    Ronald Reagan insisted that his daily briefing be limited to a single 8 ½ x 11 page. I’ll try to adhere to that excellent standard with a four-point plan. Keep in mind that it meets the test that should be applied to ALL legislation: That people have MORE FREEDOM after its passage, rather than less.

    1. Allow people to enter into binding agreements with their doctor if they so choose to waive tort claims for simple negligence. This is currently prohibited, and needs to be changed. They should also be allowed to agree to limit claims to the cost of services provided, and agree in advance to binding arbitration on claims, if they so choose.

    2. In situations where liability has not been waived, cap attorney fees on claims to 10%. We cap Workmen’s Comp fees, and we cap Veteran’s Administration claim fees at TEN DOLLARS(!) per case, so a 10% fee cap on medical malpractice claims is reasonable, and means that only good cases will be filed.

    3. Permit people to buy their health insurance from any company in any state (or country) that they choose. More competition always results in better products at reduced cost.

    4. Permit an individual to deduct healthcare premiums from his income tax bill. Not his income, but his actual tax due. This would encourage people to have coverage and sever the unnatural link between health insurance and employment, which only came about when FDR enacted wage controls during WWII, and factory owners resorted to offering health insurance as an incentive to lure skilled workers. Let employers give the money to employees as salary, and let those employees buy the insurance THEY want (see 1, 2, and 3 above.)

    I’d like to see a forward-thinking legislator introduce this kind of reform legislation, which is easy to understand, and would improve most of the health care issues while avoiding a massive increase in the federal “nanny state” bureaucracy.



    John Ross 2/3/2010

    John Ross Article
     
  14. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    That don't sound democrat to me; it sounds Tea Party. I will never be a Republican again and likely will never be a Democrat but I am a Tea Party member and vote Libertarian. I guess that I don't have the Republican's vehemance towards the Socialsts, just a viable disapproval of their policies being foisted upon my Republic. The Republicans, remember, sold our Country to the international bankers and allow policy to be written by the military industrial complex and have us all standing at attention saluting our dead children that somehow, they have convinced us, died preserving our Freedom? I have never heard a single viable argement that demonstrates how any war we have engaged in since the War of Northern Agression, has defended Freedom in any way, if fact, I'll go as far as to say that every war has taken more Freedoms away from us. Don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's liquid sunshine. Any flag waving arguements about this opinion should start in justifying the "Patriot Act" to have any credibility.
     
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  15. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    He wants to run under an established party. Seems like democrat is what he is comfortable with, and has run under before. His own words to follow ...
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    Maybe Running for Congress Again, or
    Is the Tea Party Movement Republican Only?
    By John Ross

    In 1998, I was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Missouri’s 2nd District. (I ran as a pre-Roosevelt Democrat, which is what I am: a Democrat without the Socialism.) In one of my television spots, I explained that most candidates run with the underlying message of “Elect me, and I will steal for you. I’ll use the power of government to tax someone or something else, and whittle off a little money to be used for your benefit.” I explained that this philosophy went contrary to all that America stood for. Don’t you wish now that I had won?

    It is now twelve years later, and a number of my friends and acquaintances are urging me to run again. (With redistricting, the race would now be for Missouri’s 3rd District, a seat currently held by Democrat Russ Carnahan.) All the people I’ve talked to have pledged financial support, some with very serious commitments. I have to say that I don’t much want to live in Washington or be a Congressman, but with the train wreck that is our government right now, I feel a moral obligation to my daughter and any other eventual descendants to at least explore potential support for my candidacy.

    For those of you who don’t know my public political history, my grandfather was Charles Ross, lifelong friend of and Press Secretary to President Harry S. Truman. I am appalled at how the Democratic Party of Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan has slowly yet inexorably been hijacked by extremist elements that want to turn America into a dismal Socialist nanny-state, with crushing debt and little promise of personal betterment for ourselves or our children.

    Yes, I said the Democratic Party of Truman and Reagan. Reagan was a registered Democrat when Truman was President, but endorsed the presidential candidacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 before formally switching to the Republican Party in 1962. He said, famously, “I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.” I wish that Reagan had remained a Democrat and prevented the Socialist disaster that developed in the following decades.

    The question I’d like to know right now is whether the Tea Party people consider themselves to be a part of the Republican Party, or not? Is a Tea Party candidate who is a Democrat an oxymoron, someone who would be shunned or ignored by Tea Party members, or someone they might support?

    The Tea Party strikes me as a group of people primarily focused on lower taxes and smaller government—mainly money issues. My sense of this movement is that it is largely comprised of ordinary people who have felt compelled to get involved in politics for the first time in their lives (other than just voting), and are focused on money and not yet seeing the larger issue at stake. I have been involved in political issues for twenty years, and those of you who have read my book and other writings know that low taxes and small government are just two important elements of the larger overall issue of freedom.

    If anyone reading this is involved in the Tea Party (especially in Missouri) in any significant way, I need your opinions on the following:

    1. Will Tea Party people support a Democrat, ever, or do they by definition only support Republicans?

    2. If Tea Party people would support a pro-freedom Democrat, then here’s the next question: Since I would be running in the Democratic PRIMARY against Democratic INCUMBENT Russ Carnahan, would the Tea Party people support me, or would they feel it’s a waste of time and money to try to knock off an incumbent Socialist Democrat in the Primary, and prefer to spend all their efforts in the General election by backing only the Republican?

    I need answers to these two questions before committing myself any further. For those of you who haven’t read my writings, I’ll have a list in a day or two of my positions on the issues, as well as some other relevant information. Read my last column for my take on how to address Healthcare in a reasoned, pro-freedom manner.



    John Ross 2/11/2010

    John Ross Article
     
  16. Hispeedal2

    Hispeedal2 Nay Sayer

    Interesting. I have no idea if it was satire either. He could have been duped and that doesn't change him in my eyes. I have not read the book (cost is the biggest factor for me), but I have heard all about it. I do believe John Ross is a decent fellow and agree with 99.99% of his beliefs. I certainly agree with him on Obama care.

    (Note- Anyone that wants to sell me Unintended Consequences at a decent price or knows where to get a near free digital copy, I would love to hear from you.)
     
  17. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    A short while back I looked online for a copy of the book, but prices were insane! Anywhere from $80 to a couple hundred bucks! Maybe best to try finding it in a library...?
     
  18. capt45

    capt45 Monkey+

    I believe you can get a pdf of his book at scribd dot com. You pay something like $5 for a "24 hour pass" and you can download it (and other material they have).

    I didn't feel bad about that; the book is no longer in print, so Ross doesn't make any money off used book sales.

    I wish he'd make it available on-line via "Click bank". He could offer it for a reasonable price and make a little off it that way, if he can't just re-issue it for whatever reason.
     
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