Chucks

We basically see what we want to see. In the process we miss what is actually there. In 2008, we pinned our hopes and dreams on Barack Hussein Obama. It soon became apparent that we had grossly miscalculated.

In her column, entitled, “Turkey’s Cautionary Tale”, in today’s Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick cites Turkey as just one example of ’Dreamland’ having been hyped by the western media as the modern face of Islam and portrayed as an example of an Islamic country that the West can actually work with. Not so fast. Glick skillfully ticks off the steps that Turkey has taken since Erdogan’s election in 2002 that puts the lie to any idea of Islamic rapprochement with the West that the western media incessantly claims. I urge you to read it.

Similarly, we’ve been steadily backsliding into the ‘Dreamland’ fantasy of ‘global warming‘, even after the whole thing has been exposed as a hoax.

We continually hear that our economy is improving. But is it? Is this even within the realm of possibility given our present leadership?

Which brings me to Trump. The Left has launched an all-out assault against Trump. This is because it fears him. Again today, on Glenn Beck’s program, Beck’s sidekicks were hammering him, replaying old sound bites in which Trump bashes Bush. Let me remind you, in those days everybody was bashing Bush. In fact, it became our national pastime (sans hot dogs and beer). You could instantly advance to your 15 minute celebrity status by bashing Bush. That’s how we got Obama.

Obama now pretends that all the criticism he’s receiving is just a part pf presidential scenery. Not so. Bush bashing was fun. Now things have turned serious and most of us have sobered up.

In those days, Trump did not speak as a politician. He spoke as himself in the current vernacular. Now he speaks as one of us, alarmed by what has happened. Sure, he knows Schumer and all the rest. He sat at their tables, and they at his. They did not speak politics per se; they spoke deals.

As I’ve said before, Trump seems a patriot; he does not seem ideological. He appears to love America. He understands what has gone wrong. He is confident inside his own skin. He feels he can make a difference.

There are those who say he would split the Republican party and hand a win to Obama. It may well happen that way. But then again it may not. Look at it as a ’hail Mary pass’ by our side; one last chance for us to throw chucks under the runaway chuck wagon. If the wrong Republican is elected, we lose anyway.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dilma Rouseff: The Most Powerful Woman in the World

Cathy pines for a forgotten era. It is woman who is now celebrated in all walks of life (except homemaker). Women dominate the political scene. They are heads of corporations and institutions. They are policemen, spokesmen, and Secretaries of State.

Every time a new exciting political star pops up, it is a woman - or so it appears. To me it seems contrived and calculated. Personally, I don’t ascribe to the bias that says women are smarter or more effective than men or vice versa. What is troubling is that we as a nation seem to have reached a consensus that gender affirmative action is the way to go. And I am not a supporter of affirmative action on any level.

My most fervent wish is to be proven wrong about everything. I could turn to reading the liberal blogs, but they are despairing as well (though not for the same reasons). We seem to be caught in an eternal twilight of general nausea. It’s as if the sun has decided to rise only barely above the horizon each day, leaving us in darkness for much of the time.

One of the most significant elections will be taking place in Brazil on October 3rd. Their current president (Luiz Inacio Lula) rose to power on the strength of his effectiveness as a union organizer. His rule can be described as having been center-left. It was significant in that he managed to allow market forces just enough space to breathe to vault the country to the stature of a rapidly emerging global player.

There was always a hint of trouble (for the U.S.) on this horizon however. An avowed leftist, he joined hands with the likes of Chavez, Erdogan and Ahmadinejad. The gap between rich and poor, though improving, continues to be enormous. The well-off in his nation live in constant fear of kidnapping and assassination. Should someone blow out a tire on some lonely road, it’s advised to keep moving rather than get out to change it. Reminds of what I’ve been told about stopping for red traffic lights in Philadelphia at night.

Brazil is under intense development. There is construction everywhere. The money for this has come not so much from taxes as from its abundant natural resources. Cronyism and corruption are suspected to be epic. The new capital (Brasilia/DF) is spacious and impressive. The long-term goal was to create a center where the elites make their homes. As such, those who comprise the service sector are in the process of being quietly moved out to satellite cities where poor-on-poor crime continues to be rampant. Brasilia was envisioned as an international oasis - a hub - for global powerbrokers to strike deals.

The person who is expected to win Brazil’s election is a woman (Dilma Rouseff) who has been carefully groomed by the current president. Though initially trailing in the polls, she has suddenly - some say unexpectedly - emerged as the candidate who will win easily. She is said to be an avowed Leftist and flamethrower. Her magic formula has been simply to say over and over again that she will help the poor. Because she is appears matronly, perhaps, people believe her.

Obama has seen the writing on the wall. He’s been doing everything he can to ingratiate himself with these people. They will not accept his overtures no matter how many concessions he is prepared to grant. They will continue to portray the U.S. as an adversary to rally the home folk; to blame things on when things go wrong. The same is true for dictators all over the world. They can rest easy now, knowing that the piñata has been cracked open; that America will no longer defend itself.

This leaves America’s (former) allies in the lurch. They must now scramble to coalesce around some nation, or band together as a group of the like-mind, that will not shirk the responsibility of fighting to maintain Western ideals. Much more likely though, they will find themselves pressured to abandon their principles in favor of protection.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bashing the Tea Parties

Another day, another swipe at the Tea Parties to build up your lib creds - just in case the power of legitimized corruption wins this round. It’s easy to swipe at Tea Parties - just like it was easy to swipe at Bush. There is literally no down-side. You’re practically guaranteed a ring-side seat while Mom & Pop America are being drawn-and-quartered publicly.

I didn’t even want to reply to this one. I don’t think it deserves a reply. Like I said, it’s too easy and not worthy of your talents - which may well be considerable. Besides, it’s not true. And, oh yeah, you’ll get your 30-40 comments. Whoopee! Much more of this and the JBS website will begin to approximate tumbleweeds; crickets and The New York Times.

You’re right, of course: I had a tough time explaining Tea Parties to Raman over coffee last week. I’m not sure I was able to convince him. He didn’t believe me about POTUS either. Why should he? All the Americans over here are big time libs; the papers are communist; the mayor’s name is Stalin. The principal meeting place is the Russian Cultural Center. The American Consulate is a fortress. I’m lucky Ram didn’t strike me from the mailing list.

No downside should the Tea Parties win out either. You know very well they’re not about reparations or revenge. And that, admittedly, may be a failing. A little fright night thrown into the mix wouldn’t hurt at this point.

Nothing like if the ACORN types should win out in the end. Or Erdogan. Or that little Hitler in your ancestral place. They’d surely see to it that you and me, along with everybody else, 'd have our asses in a sling. Like if the Palestinians should prevail over Israel; or AQ over everybody too fat to wear a belt.

What’s got you so upset at the Tea Parties anyway? Is it because you think that because of their civilized ways they can’t win? This could be true - but still, siding with the likely winners of this contest is not a principled stand. Remind that principle is all that some of us got left in this country.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Tehran Won't Have to Lift a Finger

Even Israel’s ‘friends’ are now blaming Israel for what happened. It’s spirit broken, Israel is even blaming itself. The whole thing amounted to a huge victory for Israel’s enemies. It reminds us of how during the Iraq war every suicide attack – every death - was blamed on the U.S. At home, Democrats made sure that every American casualty accrued to Bush personally. The networks made it their business to keep a careful daily count. It is a tactic that makes it impossible for an enemy to lose.

In America, there were huge consequences. It is what brought Barack Hussein Obama - an avowed vocal critic of western values - to power. It inspired the re-write of history. It helped create a core of opposition to everything American within America itself.

In Israel, the tactic succeeds in isolating the country and making it into a pariah state. Israel is now primed for a huge military defeat. It can do nothing to help itself. Like a rat in a corner it can only bite a finger or two in anticipation of the final blow. Facts no longer matter. Nobody will ride to Israel’s rescue amidst the cheering of the bloodthirsty crowd.

Erdogan knows this. He is determined to save his nation. He will not allow himself to be caught on the losing side. His actions are designed to ingratiate himself to the Ummah. For far too long Ankara has been playing footsie with Europe to no avail. Turkey has watched both Europe and America fading in power and influence. He knows that the center of the western-style secular state has been hollowed out and cannot hold. In order for his own nation to survive, it became essential that it forge links with the strong men of the world. Currently, Tehran and Brasilia look strong.

For Turkey’s past association with the West to be forgiven, Ankara must bring something to the table. Israel is the scalp Turkey is hoping to deliver to Ahmadinejad, the Kurtz of the Middle East. Obama has been trying to do the same. As America’s influence continues to erode, you will see every nation comprising the Ummah and beyond coming forward to enthusiastically participate in this project. Tehran will not have to lift a finger.

Brutality

This morning the front pages of newspapers are all decked out with men hugging, clasping hands, and smiling broadly. The men were Tehran’s Ahmadinejad, Brasilia’s lame duck Lula, and the rising star of the Islamic world, Ankara’s Erdogan. I would think that Harare’s Mugabe, Caracas’ Chavez and Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-Il were smiling as well, only they likely couldn’t scrape enough money together to make the trip. It’s always good to see the world’s leaders smiling. It says that the rest of us will yet get to see another sunrise or two.

The occasion, of course, was to celebrate the successful diplomatic effort that allows Iran to proceed with its nuclear ambitions while at the same time satisfying UN demands to do so with outside participation. Notably absent from the merry-making was our own illustrious president, Barack Hussein Obama, who had proposed a similar roadmap only last October which Tehran promptly rejected outright and which was then left to languish in the ‘open’ file.

So much for Obama’s outreach to America’s enemies. He does not appear to understand that these have now recognized America as a toothless tiger, and that it remains in their best interest to maintain the fiction of casting us as a worthy opponent despite our having offered our unclenched fist, and made known in no uncertain terms our endless willingness to grovel.

Netanyahu will now be forced to act as he sees himself cornered. We have already fully exposed our bias against him. He knows Israel is being set up as the next domino to fall in Tehran’s bid to establish its hegemony over the entire Middle East and East Asia.

The larger lesson to be learned from this is that the dollar is no longer the dominant currency governing geo-political adventurism; that it has now been replaced by brutality. It is now clear that all those whose primary concerns are centered on tolerance, freedom, ecological purity, democratic participation, human rights, racial and gender equality, etc. have drawn the short straw. From now on we can expect the crane hooks to be wheeled back out into the market square - the knives sharpened, the holes dug, the stones at the ready - to signal the perhaps less-than-optimistic start of oppression, enslavement, feudalism, arbitrary law enforcement, threats and coercion. The death of the dollar means that economic laws have failed; that sharia – which in itself is a throwback to Hammurabi’s Code – is now back in style.

How much Obama had wanted to be a part of this deal! Instead he’s been left on the outside, looking in. What else can a poor man do? He’s already driven a wooden stake through our economy. He’s already succeeded in perverting the functioning of our constitutional republic. He’s already managed to beggar his constituents. What more indeed!

We can be certain that he’ll think of something. His only real enemy is the American people themselves. It is they who will bear the brunt of his frustrated flailing. Obama has been described as a racialist. It’s not a good time to be born white in America – or black for that matter. Zimbabwe is the model for what can happen. Once it was the bread basket of Africa. But that wasn’t good enough. Now its people are starving.