How Bad Can It Get?

Okay, I get it! Back in 2008, when Bush and Republicans were sent packing, we thought it couldn’t get any worse. We had hit bottom, we were told. We ignored all the signs - the storm clouds gathering in the distance: questions about the birth certificate, grades, allegiances, past associations, past affiliations - all the warnings. We accused those who counseled caution of alarmism or worse. A new day was dawning after all. The new administration would bring the economy back, heal racist divides, solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fix health care, lower the tides, etc. In fact, the new president was said to be able to walk on water. People would literally swoon in his presence. We referred to him as ‘the messiah'.

It didn’t take long for the veil to slip. We became concerned. We phoned and e-mailed our elected representatives in Washington. No response. We attended town hall events. No response. We marched en masse on Washington, hoping somebody would notice. No response. We voted…

At each juncture we were brimming with hope. Obama would hear us. He would change direction and pull us away from the brink. Instead America’s decline accelerated: jobs lost, inflation (though nobody is willing to admit it), mortgages underwater, ‘for sale’ signs sprouting like mushrooms, 401k’s drying up, dollar down.

Now we’re asking ourselves, “How bad can it get?” Plenty. Just look what’s happening over in Europe, in the Middle East, in S. America, in the Far East. Could all this be in anyway connected? I would have to say yes. All of it started right here at home. Anyone who fails to note the trench warfare aspect of what’s going on in Congress right now has their head buried in the sand. America is slipping.

And we’ve done it to ourselves. We haven’t done our homework. While we’re mindlessly humiliating grandmothers and cripples at our airports, we would never insist that our highest elected official produce all relevant papers.

Folks, we still don’t know who he is. And we’re growing increasingly suspicious. We leave things hanging to fester. Fact: North Korea and South Korea are literally - not technically - at war! China is at war with us. Iran is at war with us. Half the nations in South America are at war with us. The Left is at war with us. All have said so.

Which side is our president on? The answer gets murkier with each passing day. The implications are enormous. It’s the elephant in the room that everybody tries to ignore. It’s like trying to impose peace in the Middle East while one side refuses to recognize the other.

In a way I’m sorry that I shamed the Azulia Restaurant in Chennai into changing their menu that had a map of the Mediterranean region on its cover. It had left out the State of Israel. On my last visit there I noted that they had corrected the oversight. Now I realize it might well have been right in the first place. How much longer will they be printing maps with America on them?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Post-Modern Maps

Both Russia and China have come to recognize America's present weakness and are making strategic moves to divide up the world between them. Their aim is to position themselves as to make it so that America will never again be able to act as an obstacle to their expansionist plans. Both countries recognize that now is their chance to set the table to their liking. America will not interfere as long as Obama remains in office. Chances are that after the next presidential election America’s leadership will not be quite as forgiving.

As such, China has been positioning itself in Asia and Africa, forming alliances and settling scores; buying up all the natural resources it can get its hands on with what it knows will soon be the worthless dollars it has stashed away in its vaults. In addition, China has its jaundiced eye set on Taiwan and India.

Russia continues to lust after the eastern block which it seeks to bring back under its influence. It also 'owns' Europe as the West continues to be so shamelessly dependent on Russian gas.

Trouble in the Middle East is tolerated - even stoked - for now as it serves to keep the U.S. distracted. After the two heirs apparent have successfully dispatched of the U.S. economically and politically, and put their own affairs in order (vis-a-vis each other), the Islamists can expect to suffer a virtual bloodbath. Radical Islam will no longer be appeased. It will be stamped out. There will be no pretense of observing human rights; no ponderous crafting of a two-state solution. Russia and China will tolerate no hint of trouble. They will wipe them out should they find it expedient to do so. They won't even send in their soldiers; they'll just bomb them back into stone.

Americans will be forced to work to pay off their debt until so diminished as to allow open entry to their new masters. And a new age will have begun, with old books re-written and maps re-drawn to reflect new realities.

I remember going to a fancy new restaurant in Chennai that featured Mediterranean food. The printed menu showed a map of the region. It was a post modern map in that it did not include Israel. I’m now wondering if similar maps (of the world) would also fail to include America.