Emergency! We need more government!

     For as long as the concept has existed - which is essentially all of human history - governments have sought to grow and acquire more power and more money.  Throughout the ages, politicians from everywhere have had an incredibly successful track record of convincing gullible citizens that they, the ruling class, are somehow "better" than us, or that they know best how to run our lives and spend our money.

     One of the most reliable and time-tested ways for governments to expand and seize power is the good ole' Emergency Scam.  It works like this:  the government or the ruler finds something to scare the people, and declares we have a "crisis" on our hands.  The ruler will shed all sorts of crocodile tears explaining how he/she HATES to have to do this, but, it's an emergency!  And so, the government must suspend more freedoms, confiscate more resources, and assume more control over our lives and private affairs in order to "fix" the problem.

     There are so many examples of this all through history that one could make a career out of just reading about them.  And all of these stories and examples end up with the same ending:  the people fall for it - again - and the government gets bigger and more powerful, which itself ends up causing even BIGGER problems than the dubious original problem.  And so with now yet another "crisis" on our hands, the government has a fresh batch of excuses of why it needs still more power, and on and on and on, and the cycle continues.

     Occasionally, as history tells us, somebody somewhere gets wise to the scam, then breaks the cycle, gets rid of their ever-growing oppressive government, and truly makes a fresh start.  The best example of this, of course, is the American Revolution.  For the first few generations of American history, we were blessed with a truly small government, and the freedom and liberty that resulted caused one of the greatest explosions of peace and prosperity the world has ever known.

     But now today, 240 years after that wonderful event, we're pretty much back where we started.  In fact, one could argue that, if you add up the cost of all government in the United States, including state and local, that we probably have much bigger government today than the European ones our ancestors fled all those centuries ago.

     Which brings us to the latest "crisis".  Our ever thoughtful, cautious, mature, diplomatic president Trump has declared that we have an immigration "crisis", and he is preparing to unleash all sorts of massive governmental actions to "solve" it, including but not limited to using the military, the national guard, and any other state entities he can gain control of.  Oh and spending a heck of a lot more tax money, too.

     Get wise, Americans.  It's all just the latest rendition of the oldest scam in history.   And yeah, you right-wing Trump-worshippers, I'm talking to you!

     Let's get one thing straight right up front:  Trump does not care one flying flip about the so-called dangers from these immigrants.  It should be clear from all his tweets and campaign speeches - including the campaign speech he gave to the troops in Iraq, and the campaign speech he gave to the Boy Scouts - that Trump only cares about Trump.

      So DO we presently have a crisis on our hands?  Well yeah, but it's not from immigrants.  The crisis we face today is out-of-control government growth.  It seems everybody can think up reasons to make government bigger and more expensive, but nobody can come up with a reason to make government smaller.

      But what about all those violent crimes that these immigrants supposedly commit?  It is true that violent crime is a growing problem, especially in cities like Chicago and Detroit.  But 99.99% of those violent crimes are committed by native American citizens.  Trump never mentions that.