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1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
Bouquet Reservoir


You Know I'm Right | Commentary by Betty Arenson
| Friday, Oct 7, 2016

bettyarensonMuch of the following content has been seen in various forms of emails that undoubtedly reached millions of people. The contents of each were billed as “Canada’s Top Ten List of America’s Stupidity.”

I don’t know if it’s factually Canada’s claim, but I am sure it rings true with a whole lot of American citizens – by the way, not the stupid ones.

Parts of the verbiage have been circulated, while parts have been updated, researched and sourced. It’s food for thought.

* Only in America … Could Democratic politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $40,000-per-plate Obama campaign fundraising event (May 2012, host George Clooney); $353,400 per couple for Hillary Clinton (April 2016, host George Clooney); and $33,400 per plate (April 2016, host George Clooney).

George Clooney said in an NBC interview in early 2016: “It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics.” I agree completely … and … “It is an obscene amount of money.”

* Only in America … Could people (Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, progressives in general) claim the government systematically practices wholesale discrimination against black Americans when America has a black president, a black attorney general, a black former attorney general, and 20 percent of the federal workforce being black (Huffington Post, October 2015) – while only 13.2 percent of the population is black.

* Only in America … Could they have had the two people most responsible for our tax code – Timothy Geithner, former head of the Treasury Department, and Charles Rangel, 22-term congressman who admitted to failing to pay his taxes while he was head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee which made him the “top tax writer.” Rangel was censored by his peers for the tax matter and for using his public office to raise funds for an outside venture; and sought to have his censorship overturned because it was, for one, a matter of racism (Washington Times, 2014). Both men, tax cheats, were in favor of higher taxes – on those of us who pay ours.

* Only in America … Can terrorists kill people in the name of Allah, over and over again, yet have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

* Only in America … Would they make people who want legally to become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while elected elitists, leftists and others discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally “magically” become American citizens.

* Only in America … Could the people who believe in balancing America’s budget, enforcing our laws and standing for each and every part of the U.S. Constitution be called “extremists.”

* Only in America … Could you need to present a driver’s license to cash a check, buy alcohol, buy a ticket for any kind of travel, etc., but not to vote.

* Only in America … Could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a the oil and gas sector “generated between 2000 and 2013 … was approximately 10 percent” (Investopedia, June 2015) while the return for Nike (shoes/apparel) was 23.44 percent (CSI Market, May 2016).

* Only in America … Could you collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history; still spend at least $1 trillion more than it has per year (tallied in 2011, five years ago, at $6.85 million per minute) – yet hear cries of complaints the government doesn’t have enough money.

* Only in America … Could the rich people be accused of not paying their “fair share” by many who pay no federal income taxes at all.

Per the IRS tax tables of 2013, published by The Tax Foundation in November 2015, the top 1 percent paid 37.08 of all taxes paid; the top 5 percent paid 58.55 percent; the top 10 percent paid 69.08 percent; the top 25 percent paid 86.27 percent; the top 50 percent paid 97.22 percent – and the lower 50 percent paid 2.78 percent.

America is at a significant crossroads. Do we continue with the progressive destruction of an America that once claimed sovereignty and hard, honest work and responsibility, or the dangerous path of the progressives that have and are fundamentally changing America?

 

 

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.

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8 Comments

  1. Denny NNWofLA says:

    And most of all- Only in this great American vacuum of fairness and balance we find Betty once again blame-shifting and making false equivalencies.

  2. Lee Jenkinson says:

    Unfortunately Betty Arenson only tells at most half of the story and considers that satisfactory. Cherry picking specific “facts” out of any kind of context is disingenuous at best, and simply lies at worst. All done with a nasty, mean spirited streak.
    Nice.
    Perhaps the lowest 50% of the tax payers only pay “2.7%” because their wages are so far below the poverty level? (I understand, that from your “good Christian” perspective, it’s probably all their own fault for being poor, stupid and probably Mexican).

    When exactly does an “opinion” piece become simply propaganda for the Right? “Tell the “big lie” enough and people will eventually believe it.” (Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister for Adolph Hitler).

    Here are some examples of your cherry picking and sophistry;

    As for oil versus Nike; you may not be aware of this Betty, but oil is currently necessary for the continued security of the nation, and pretty much all of us use some form of oil based transport to get to work. I am not aware that Nikes are a national security asset, so comparing oil to Nike is just….. well bizarre, to say the least.
    Last time I checked, you appear to be a white female, so how exactly do you “know” what it’s like to be black in America? So we had a black president…..that went down well with the Tea Party and Congress who suddenly realized that we had a deficit the day he was inaugurated, and on that basis, refused to work with him for the next. eight. years!
    Perhaps you think it’s fair that many individuals and corporations (legally considered to be individuals)pay no federal income tax at all, while earning billions (G.E. for instance) while we peons get to pay every year. I’m sure you believe that’s all our fault too, right?
    I am not aware that people a hundred years (1916, four years before women got the right to vote) ago were required to show ID to vote, so why now? Oh, right! It’s to restrict poor minorities from voting for Democrats….got it!
    The reality is that there are eleven million or so illegal immigrants in this country. The vast majority of whom work really hard to make ends meet at jobs you and I would never work at.
    Please tell me how you plan on deporting them?
    And how much it will cost in up front costs and the subsequent impact their loss will have on the economy?
    Again, I must assume that you are not a Muslim, so you would have no idea of the tens of thousands of Muslims who go to work every day in the U.S. and mind their own business, who fear those who lump them in with the terrorists who have hijacked their religion for their own insane ends, you know, like the Westboro Baptist church did? But do we condemn all of Christianity for the sins of the few? No, we don’t. And, for the record, the Sikh religion is not Islamic, so please don’t kill them, because that DOES show just how stupid some Americans really are.

    When all is said and done, what Betty is actually saying, stripped of all sophistry, innuendo and quotes lifted from Fox news, Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh, is that white heterosexual conservative Christians don’t like not being able to marginalize and control anyone who isn’t a white heterosexual conservative Christian any more, and will do just about anything to obstruct and reject that trend. Kind of sad for people who believe in a man who consorted with thieves, prostitutes and tax collectors and preached unconditional love for all humankind……….(not just the white heterosexual conservative Christian ones).

    • Denny NNWofLA says:

      Lee, that was correct on all counts. Thank you,it should be required reading. Unfortunately this column, minus replies, is a fact-free zone, like Betty.

  3. millie bonazzoli says:

    Give me back Jack Kemp’s Republican party! The Confederate Wing (former Dixiecrats) are rebels who want to destroy the Union, it’s 1861 again! It’s my way. no compromise, or it’s war! Look, there is always a new generation, 1950 was only good for white men, not women and minorities.
    We need birth control, in 1970 some states did have free choice, others did not.People move from state to state, we need national women’s choice. Not everyone is Christian, the founding fathers were deists, Jesus wasn’t mentioned, just God, many were Masons. The U.S. is a philosophy not a nationality, a meritocracy
    for hard work. 3 ears of corn on the door meant there was good harvest, food for the poor. Food stamps is now the 3 ears of corn. When people are fed and sheltered, can find a job to do, all is well. If not, then not.

  4. Allets Zerep says:

    Only in America, could this pointless diatribe get published. Betty, did you forget to take your meds again?

  5. Nadiya Littlewarrior says:

    What a bunch of bunk……….

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