Thomas Paine: An Open Letter To President Obama

This actor is convincing and extremely popular on Youtube.  His video on the stimulus has 4 million views.  I take issue with some of his beliefs (not really discussed in this clip but in others I've seen), but he understands the bailouts, which is nice.  We say it all the time (cuz we only post great stuff), but this clip is outstanding.

• "Bailing out failure and taxing success."

Comments

[DailyBail]

Has anyone watched this yet?

[Ain't Bullshittin']

Yes, but he should have saved his breath to cool his soup because NONE of the founders principals are even wanted by those in power much less adhered to. Good clip........need more like Thomas Paine. We have become more like Thomas PAIN........due to the "burnin' and lootin" happening to our treasury and civil liberties.

[Angry Jones]

Ho hum - end the welfare state and "ethnic policies." Sounds like the same old conservative line to me, but the puffy shirt definitely adds credibility - costumes are fun!

I believe an evolved society cares for its most vulnerable citizens.

[Ain't Bullshittin']

At the expense of improverishing the rest? Sounds like the same old "gimme" mentality that got us where we are today.

"The poor will be with you always"....The Bible

[S. Gompers]

He was doing good till he got to the "globalism" part. I beleive in "America First". Globalism will only lead to our demise and a loss of Sovereignity, which I choose not to give up. Despite the offerings of our government who works towards that which will destroy America. The "burnin and looting" have been going on for a long time (1913). Bailouts began in September 2008, and the party with that money started immediately.

@ aint bullsittin

perhaps you could honor the Lord and give me a verse for that. Or clarify yourself.

Biblical attitudes for believers toward the poor


Prov. 29:7. The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor; the wicked does not understand such concern.
1 John 3:17. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Luke 6:33ff. "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same."

2 Cor 9:7. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Mt. 6:2-4. "When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Mt. 6:24. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money."

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Gal. 2:9ff. Recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John... gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor-- the very thing I also was eager to do.

Lev. 19:15. "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly."

Acts 2:44. All those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began to sell their property and possessions, and share them with all, as anyone might have need.

Acts 4:32-35. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need.

Eph. 4:28. Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.


How do you tell if you're worshipping Money? Well, how do you tell if you're worshipping anyone? What do you spend your time on; what do you worry and talk about the most; what do you make sacrifices for? I often wonder how people can read these verses on Sunday, and on Tuesday go vote for the Money Party. James and Peter and John don't exhort Paul to remember the tax cuts.

Acts 4 is a mini-description of the proverbial Christian Nation. There was not a needy person among them. Why isn't that said about us? We have a lot more resources than a mob of mostly poor first-century Palestinians.

Another excuse sometimes used to ignore passages like this is Dispensationalism-- roughly, the idea that since we have Scripture, we can ignore large parts of Scripture. It doesn't make much sense when you state it in plain English, does it? There are some good reasons that we need not follow the Jewish Law; but the obligation to help the needy has not been repealed. It's found throughout the New Testament, with a good deal more emphasis than many subjects that Christians prefer to focus on.

With the prohibition on stealing, we may feel that we're on more familiar ground. But note the actual advice; it's not "Build so many jails that you rival the worst dictatorships for the percentage of your population in prison." Simply let the thieves stop stealing and do honest work.

When you think "thieves", by the way, do you picture a poor person? The Bible doesn't assume that the poor are especially prone to sin; on the contrary. Rich thieves as well should put aside their thievery: accountants swindling stockholders, corporations cheating taxpayers, CEOs making millions while their companies fail, presidents spending money they don't have to benefit their wealthiest contributors.


Like a good king, the Lord is concerned with his poor subjects. In the passages below, we see that His heart goes deeper still: he identifies with the poor; he puts himself in their place.

2 Cor. 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Prov. 19:17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed.

Prov. 14:31. He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

Mt. 25:31-46. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'
Then they themselves will also answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

God isn't a conservative; he's a revolutionary. He not only takes the side of the poor; he puts himself in their place. In the very alarming parable of the sheep and the goats he speaks of salvation as depending on how we treat the poorest and the most afflicted.

According to prosperity theology (and according to the best Pharisaical opinion) Jesus should have come as a lord, a tycoon, a cult leader. Some of his followers today act as, presumably, they felt Jesus should have acted, building multi-million-dollar cathedrals. But Jesus came as a poor man.

There's all sorts of meaning in that, but at the very least we can say that Jesus takes the issue of poverty personally. A church or a nation that ignores its poor or places stumbling blocks in their way, whose supreme good is Money, is very far from the spirit of God.

[DailyBail]

Good post Gompers. I am an atheist but enjoyed it nonetheless. I was raised Greek Orthodox and still consider the study of the actual life of prophets to be the only interesting thing about religion.

No offense to any believers. I am strictly speaking of my personal beliefs and I support every person's chosen path. Whatever it takes to make you happy is the RIGHT choice for you. That's essentially how I look at religion. It is a means to happiness for millions and since happiness is the ultimate goal and meaning of life, then I'm all for it. No matter how one arrives.

[S. Gompers]

@ DailyBail

Thank you, and I am very familiar with your upbringing, there are still many valuable lessons in the book whether you are a believer or not. What makes America great is "Freedom of Religion", even if that is your personal choice of non- religion.

I was reading your "about" section, as copied below:

"The Daily Bail launched in January of 2009. We exist to fight the immoral transfer of trillions in debt from private banks onto the backs of future generations. If not stopped there will be $10 trillion of debt created by our government in the next five years, and most of it given to the banks. That amount is equal to our entire national debt for our first 232 years as a nation.

We're here to keep tabs on the heist. To provide an official daily record of the generational pillaging. The site is still raw and nobody knows us yet. Yet almost 100,000 of you stumbled your way here in our first 18 days, via word of mouth, some support from bloggers and the calm words of one concerned taxpayer. Though we're grateful for the traffic, we realize it's going to take millions of angry, Congress-dialing taxpayers to stop this well planned heist."

And I'm curious whether most people think the "immoral transfer of trillions in debt from private banks onto the backs of future generations" began in January 2009, or September 2008.

As Piasa Bird said: "Neither political party is to blame. We, the electorate, behave exactly as we do because we are too lazy to actually do some real research, try to figure out what is in our intrests, and vote the best individual representing that intrest into office and hold them accountable by us paying attention. Since we in effect only allow two parties, as not to overload our feeble brains, democrats and republicans pillage our treasury as they please while 1/2 the public stands by self-satisfied and the other 1/2 howls, then the wistle blows and we switch again."

As you can see in the chart below, changing parties in power is not the answer. As debt has increased with each administration. And increasing debt is always a guarantee of increasing future taxes on our children.

US National Debt by Presidential Term, Percentage of GDP,1976-2008

National Debt, Total Gross Domestic Product
Year % Change Debt
Ending President Current $ (1) YoY During Presid. Avg. Annual Current $ (2) as % of
12/31/1976 FORD $ 653,544,000,000 $1,825,300,000,000 35.8%
12/31/1977 CARTER $ 718,943,000,000 10% $2,030,900,000,000 35.4%
12/31/1978 CARTER $ 789,207,000,000 10% $2,294,700,000,000 34.4%
12/31/1979 CARTER $ 845,116,000,000 7% $2,563,300,000,000 33.0%
12/31/1980 CARTER $ 930,210,000,000 10% 42% 10.6% $2,789,500,000,000 33.3%
12/31/1981 REAGAN $ 1,028,729,000,000 11% $3,128,400,000,000 32.9%
12/31/1982 REAGAN $ 1,197,073,000,000 16% $3,255,000,000,000 36.8%
12/31/1983 REAGAN $ 1,410,702,000,000 18% $3,536,700,000,000 39.9%
12/31/1984 REAGAN $ 1,662,966,000,000 18% $3,933,200,000,000 42.3%
12/31/1985 REAGAN $ 1,945,912,000,000 17% $4,220,300,000,000 46.1%
12/31/1986 REAGAN $ 2,214,835,000,000 14% $4,462,800,000,000 49.6%
12/31/1987 REAGAN $ 2,431,715,000,000 10% $4,739,500,000,000 51.3%
12/31/1988 REAGAN $ 2,684,392,000,000 10% 189% 23.6% $5,103,800,000,000 52.6%
12/31/1989 BUSH $ 2,952,994,000,000 10% $5,484,400,000,000 53.8%
12/31/1990 BUSH $ 3,364,820,000,000 14% $5,803,100,000,000 58.0%
12/31/1991 BUSH $ 3,801,800,000,000 13% $5,995,900,000,000 63.4%
12/31/1992 BUSH $ 4,177,009,000,000 10% 55.6% 13.9% $6,337,700,000,000 65.9%
12/31/1993 CLINTON $ 4,535,687,054,406 9% $6,657,400,000,000 68.1%
12/31/1994 CLINTON $ 4,800,149,946,143 6% $7,072,200,000,000 67.9%
12/31/1995 CLINTON $ 4,988,664,979,014 4% $7,397,700,000,000 67.4%
12/31/1996 CLINTON $ 5,323,171,750,783 7% $7,816,900,000,000 68.1%
12/31/1997 CLINTON $ 5,502,388,012,375 3% $8,304,300,000,000 66.3%
12/31/1998 CLINTON $ 5,614,217,021,195 2% $8,747,000,000,000 64.2%
12/31/1999 CLINTON $ 5,776,091,314,225 3% $9,268,400,000,000 62.3%
12/31/2000 CLINTON $ 5,662,216,013,697 -2% 36% 4.4% $9,817,000,000,000 57.7%
12/31/2001 BUSH $ 5,943,438,563,436 5% $10,128,000,000,000 58.7%
12/31/2002 BUSH $ 6,405,707,456,847 8% $10,469,600,000,000 61.2%
12/31/2003 BUSH $ 7,001,312,247,818 9% $10,960,800,000,000 63.9%
12/31/2004 BUSH $ 7,596,165,867,424 8% $11,685,900,000,000 65.0%
12/30/2005 BUSH $ 8,170,424,541,313 8% $12,433,900,000,000 65.0%
12/29/2006 BUSH $ 8,680,224,380,086 6% $13,194,700,000,000 65.7%
12/28/2007 BUSH $ 9,229,172,659,218 6% $13,927,000,000,000 66.3%
12/31/2008 BUSH $ 10,699,804,864,612 16% 89% 11.1% $13,692,160,000,000 78.1%
12/31/2009 OBAMA PENDING

Mccain wasn't the answer neither, as a member of the "Keating 5" in the 80's, he successfully had his hand in the collapse of the savings and loans, which cost Americans dearly. It was the greatest banking scandal in history, till now.

Study the lists of campaign advisors of candidates, and you will see a who's who of banking interests that are controlled by the Fed.

It is after all, "The Greatest Show On Earth".

[DailyBail]

Trust me in my statement that I despise both political parties and hold them EQUALLY responsible for our accumulated national debt...

Neither side has been willing to actually make the difficult choices...all talk...

[S. Gompers]

I believe you do, it's just that I see many people who have not elevated themselves beyond the old magic of "distract with the left hand, so you don't see what the right hand is doing" trick.

But I do enjoy all this mental stimulation, and it is good to see many people starting to see the reality and question it.

All talk, because that is all their true masters allow them to do.

[Tesh]

The Biblical notion of charity and serving those less fortunate is rooted firmly in individuals stepping up and caring about others, of their own free will. The welfare state removes choice by giving control of the "charity" money to the State. It undermines the point of charity, which is sacrificing of yourself to help another by a conscious choice to do so.

The end goal, taking care of people who can't take care of themselves for whatever reason, is a worthy one, but as in so many other things, the end does not justify the means.

[LiberatedCitizen]

Well said Tesh people should remember that to give to one you must first take from another.

I am down on the globalization and loss of sovereignty as well Gompers.

Freedom of religion includes the right to be religious just as much as the right to be free from religion I believe that point has been forgotten of late. I'm not speaking personally I just view the subject that way over all because personally I don't care whether someone is or not.

I've seen that video so what I really came to post is oh oh

$6 Gas? Could Happen if Dollar Keeps Getting Weaker

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42683030

[Oberon4life]

often posts are considered to be driven from those representing the "right wing" when i believe this isn't the case. Paine said many things right, none more than "we are city hall." therein lies the issue. There is no way to believe that members of a more conservative way of thinking could possibly believe that "we the people" could/would possibly turn our backs on the needy, not at any price.

this is why a comment like "I believe an evolved society cares for its most vulnerable citizens." from Angry is so sad. Do you really think that you are somehow further along in the process? This has nothing to do with conservative v liberal. Or your religious belief. Humanity is a natural common thread. Politics is contrived.

The single party represents itself. Sadly, too many (even those self described 'advanced' beings) don't get that. We are city hall, only very few know that.

[G Street]

Hi, I went to school with Tom Pain, and I can tell you a few things about him that the clip glossed over. One, his name really was Pain, the e was added perhaps in recognition that his given name would not help the cause.

Secondly, the actor above focused on entitlement issues and gave little weight to larger entitlements like finance and warfare. Mr. Pain would not have agreed. As a British citizen he saw the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as incomplete, saying it left "the base remains of two tyrannies," i.e., the monarch and aristocracy. The House of Commons could not - as one part of three - provide checks and balances on the other two. And even those odds presumed the house of the commoners was virtuous, which ours most certainly isn't.

He surmised that whichever power has the greatest weight will govern and said, "For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle - not more just." (I think Chuck I lost his head in the Glorious Revolution.) But the power that rules remains the same one that ruled then. Adding a commoner's house with one third the weight and then auctioning it off to members of the other two parts has done nothing to deprive money of its power. Nor has Pain's proclamation that "the law is king" given us the self-determination hoped for, as the law, like the rest, also serves money.

I don't agree with the increasing refrain of conservatives that it is all about entitlements. An element, yes, but it is being used to distract from much more potent entitlements.

[DailyBail]

funny comment g street...enjoyed it...and you also know i agree on those other entitlements you mentioned...witness my front page...another complaint i will make about the GOP and entitlement reform - i have heard nothing about Means Testing entitlements...

[DailyBail]

this is why a comment like "I believe an evolved society cares for its most vulnerable citizens." from Angry is so sad. Do you really think that you are somehow further along in the process? This has nothing to do with conservative v liberal. Or your religious belief. Humanity is a natural common thread. Politics is contrived.

The single party represents itself. Sadly, too many (even those self described 'advanced' beings) don't get that. We are city hall, only very few know that.

---

Awesome comment oberon...