Rubber Duckie Congress Down The Drain

Note that POTUS never seems to stick around when big things happen. This week saw Benjamin Netanyahu - our only reliable ally ‘east of Greece and West of India’ - come to Washington. Why? Because something is not right in Washington – and all Israel knows it.

We saw two leaders side by side – only one of which is actually a leader in the traditional sense. The other showed himself as a ‘leader’ in name only. The difference between the two men was obvious for all to see. Some stated publicly that our president stood out as an utter embarrassment. While Mr. Netanyahu was still in Washington, Obama fled to Europe - the latest hotbed of anti-Semitism – looking for LTC. Good for him! As the saying goes, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.’

What’s wrong in Washington is not that Obama is not an effective leader; or, as some have suggested, that ‘he leads from behind’. What’s wrong in Washington is that Obama sides with the Palestinians. Many in Congress – even Democrats – have already spoken out, saying they disagree with Obama’s approach. In Europe he will not likely encounter that particular sentiment. Note: While the Palestinians speak openly about what they intend for Israel, our president speaks merely in broad, platitudinous arcs that can be interpreted anyway you want; but his actions are unmistakable. Netanyahu has figured it out. That’s why he is in Washington. Israel is in trouble and Washington won’t help. It’s not even help the Israeli PM is pleading for. All he wants is for America to stop making it worse.

Unfortunately, foreign policy is something that falls totally under the purview of the president. Congress does not have much if anything to say about what the president does. Everyone now seems to accept the president’s contention that he is not subject to the war powers act as pertains to Libya, for example. And on a whole host of other issues, Congress has already been edged out of its traditional ‘checks and balances’ mandate as proscribed by the Constitution.

So, what Netanyahu says to Congress is just talk. Congress has stood idly by while this president has turned it into a rubber duckie stamp; and, along with it, the people have lost their franchise as well. What is never said or even whispered has now become true: The United States of America has become a dictatorship: one vote, one man, one time.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

On A Silver Platter

We now see what the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ – much of which this president has had a hand in – has been all about. In his (billed as a major) foreign policy speech today president Obama essentially told Israel to fall back to its pre-’67 borders as a precondition for peace talks with Palestinians.

We must suspect that it has been Obama’s plan all along to hand Israel over into the hands of its enemies. Reaction should be predictable. He will be praised by Jew haters, which now includes virtually every nation on earth. (It’s nice to know that we’ve managed to sink to the lowest common denominator among nations in less than a single presidential term.) At the same time, it should send shivers through every Israeli (living in Israel).

Such borders are clearly indefensible should Israel be attacked – and it will be. Obama is betting on being able to gain acceptance in the Islamic world by sacrificing Israel. It will not work. Islamists will feel emboldened and will not stop until Europe and America are Islamized as well. Much can happen between now and then, but this nonetheless represents a milestone in the long view of some who are playing the game.

Exactly how long the game has been going on is at this point hard to tell. Perhaps Israel was doomed from the start. But this speech certainly clarifies things. The implied trade-off, of course, is that there might now be a chance for peace were the Arabs to get what they want; that wars and terrorism (and high oil prices) would cease to be a problem and that all the world would prosper.

You know my view. I’ve stated it often enough. We cannot build stability, prosperity and peace on genocide. Others have tried and it has never worked. I view Israel as the keystone of a delicate arch. It should be defended and reinforced – not removed and discarded. The arch is likely to collapse. All else we can survive: socialism; corruption; a broken economy; a broken government; even the unrelenting threat of terror.

A fallen Israel we cannot.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sheer Madness

My dander goes up when I hear people say, “Everybody does it.” Or, “Republicans are the same as Democrats.” It’s like saying, “Everybody is at fault,” when what you really mean to say, “Nobody is at fault.” If there is indeed fault, we need to get specific.

As pertains to the Middle East in particular, it is often said that Islamists target all who are not followers of Islam alike. Therefore, India, Europe and Canada all are in the crosshairs. This trope is spread by Israel for obvious reasons. It is, to my mind, is a simplification; when, in fact, the truth is even simpler than that.

I am an American. I have seen and heard people targeting America for destruction. Likewise, I have seen and heard people targeting Israel for destruction. I’ve seen and heard it as clear as a day in September. I’ve heard it said that anyone with ‘links to America’ must be destroyed. (This is important to understand: ‘links to America’.) I’ve dug a little deeper and learned that primary reason they hate us is because we have a history of supporting Israel. And suddenly, we arrive at the nub of it. It means that if Europe and Canada had no links to America, they would be safe. It means that if America did not have a history of supporting Israel, America would be safe.

These very same people (you all know who they are) have now partnered with the communists. This muddies the picture somewhat. Communists don’t care a whit about Israel. All they care about is that capitalism falls. They are using the first group of malcontents to see to it that it does. After that has been accomplished, the Islamists and the communists will fight it out. We will no longer care what happens, because we will no longer be around.

I’m not saying that we should abandon Israel. My posts have been consistent in their support of Israel; even now, when such unequivocal American support - as Israel has enjoyed in the past - appears to have eroded at the highest levels of our government. For me, Israel has always been a reliable bellwether to forecast our own situation. But, it has become more crucial than ever for us to define our terms precisely if we are to have any chance of prevailing in this struggle that has put our very identity at risk. Israel is a part of our identity.

To seek easy solutions – such as sacrificing Israel – or worse, ignoring the core problem all together, would be sheer madness.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

View from Israel: Netanyahu's Time to Choose

by Caroline Glick

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s response to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority’s peace deal with Hamas would be funny if it weren’t tragic. Immediately after the news broke of the deal Netanyahu announced, “The PA must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both.”

Netanyahu’s statement is funny because it is completely absurd. The PA has chosen.

The PA made the choice in 2000 when it rejected Israel’s offer of peace and Palestinian statehood and joined forces with Hamas to wage a terror war against Israel.

The PA made the choice in 2005 again when it responded to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza with a tenfold increase in the number of rockets and missiles it fired on Israeli civilian targets in the Negev.

The Palestinians made the choice in 2006, when they elected Hamas to rule over them.

They made the choice in March 2007 when Fatah and Hamas signed their first unity deal.

The PA made the choice in 2008 when Abbas rejected then-prime minister Ehud Olmert’s offer of statehood and peace.

The PA made the choice in 2010 when it refused to reinstate peace negotiations with Netanyahu; began peace negotiations with Hamas; and escalated its plan to establish an independent state without peace with Israel.

Now the PA has again made the choice by signing the newest peace deal with Hamas.

IN A real sense, Netanyahu’s call for the PA to choose is the political equivalent of a man telling his wife she must choose between him and her lover, after she has left home, shacked up and had five children with her new man.

It is a pathetic joke.

But worse than a pathetic joke, it is a national tragedy. It is a tragedy that after more than a decade of the PA choosing war with Israel and peace with Hamas, Israel’s leaders are still incapable of accepting reality and walking away. It is a tragedy that Israel’s leaders cannot find the courage to say the joke of the peace process is really a deadly serious war process whose end is Israel’s destruction, and that Israel is done with playing along.

There are many reasons that Netanyahu is incapable of stating the truth and ending the 18- year policy nightmare in which Israel is an active partner in its own demise. One of the main reasons is that like his predecessors, Netanyahu has come to believe the myth that Israel’s international standing is totally dependent on its being perceived as trying to make peace with the Palestinians.

According to this myth – which has been the central pillar of Israel’s foreign policy and domestic politics since Yitzhak Rabin first accepted the PLO as a legitimate actor in 1993 – it doesn’t matter how obvious it is that the Palestinians are uninterested in peaceful coexistence with Israel.

It doesn’t matter how openly they wage their war to destroy Israel. Irrespective of the nakedness of Palestinian bad faith, seven successive governments have adopted the view that the only thing that stands between Israel and international pariah status is its leaders’ ability to persuade the so-called international community that Israel is serious about appeasing the Palestinians.

For the past several months, this profoundly neurotic perception of Israel’s options has fed our leaders’ hysterical response to the Palestinians’ plan to unilaterally declare independence.

The Palestinian plan itself discredits the idea that they are interested in anything other than destroying Israel. The plan is to get the UN to recognize a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel. The PA will first attempt to get the Security Council to endorse an independent “Palestine.” If the Obama administration vetoes the move, then the PA will ask the General Assembly to take action. Given the makeup of the General Assembly, it is all but certain that the Palestinians will get their resolution.

THE QUESTION is, does this matter? Everyone from Defense Minister Ehud Barak to hard-left, post-Zionist retreads like Shulamit Aloni and Avrum Burg says it does. They tell us that if this passes, Israel will face international opprobrium if its citizens or military personnel so much as breathe in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem without Palestinian permission.

These prophets of doom warn that Israel has but one hope for saving itself from diplomatic death: Netanyahu must stand before the world and pledge to give Israel’s heartland and capital to the Palestinians.

And according to helpful Obama administration officials, everything revolves around Netanyahu’s ability to convince the EU-3 – British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – that he is serious about appeasing the Palestinians. If he doesn’t offer up Israel’s crown jewels in his speech before the US Congress next month, administration officials warn that the EU powers will go with the Palestinians.

And if they go with the Palestinians, well, things could get ugly for Israel.

Happily, these warnings are completely ridiculous. UN General Assembly resolutions have no legal weight. Even if every General Assembly member except Israel votes in favor of a resolution recognizing “Palestine,” all the Palestinians will have achieved is another non-binding resolution, with no force of law, asserting the same thing that thousands of UN resolutions already assert. Namely, it will claim falsely that Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are Palestinian territory to which Israel has no right. Israel will be free to ignore this resolution, just as it has been free to ignore its predecessors.

The threat of international isolation is also wildly exaggerated. Today, Israel is more diplomatically isolated than it has been at any time in its 63-year history. With the Obama administration treating the construction of homes for Jews in Jerusalem as a greater affront to the cause of world peace than the wholesale massacre of hundreds of Iranian and Syrian protesters by regime goons, Israel has never faced a more hostile international climate. And yet, despite its frosty reception from the White House to Whitehall, life in Israel has never been better.

According to the latest data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s economy grew 7.8 percent in the last quarter of 2010.

International trade is rising steeply. In the first quarter of 2011, exports rose 27.3%. They grew 19.9% in the final quarter of last year. Imports rose 34.7% between January and March, and 38.9% in the last quarter of 2010.

The Israel-bashing EU remains Israel’s largest trading partner. And even as Turkey embraced Hamas and Iran as allies, its trade with Israel reached an all time high last year.

These trade data expose a truth that the doom and gloomers are unwilling to notice: For the vast majority of Israelis the threat of international isolation is empty.

The same people telling us to commit suicide now lest we face the firing squad in September would also have us believe that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is the single greatest threat to the economy. But that lie was put paid this month with the demise of the Australian town of Marrickville’s BDS-inspired boycott.

Last December, the anti-Israel coalition running the town council voted to institute a trade, sports and academic boycott against Israel. Two weeks ago the council was forced to cancel its decision after it learned that it would cost $3.4 million to institute it. Cheaper Israeli products and services would have to be replaced with more expensive non-Israeli ones.

Both Israel’s booming foreign trade and the swift demise of the Marrickville boycott movement demonstrate that the specter of international isolation in the event that Israel extricates itself from the Palestinian peace process charade is nothing more than a bluff. The notion that Israel will be worse off it Netanyahu admits that Abbas has again chosen war against the Jews over peace with us has no credibility.

SO WHAT is preventing Netanyahu and his colleagues in the government from acknowledging this happy truth? Two factors are at play here. The first is our inability to understand power politics. Our leaders believe that the likes of Sarkozy, Cameron and Merkel are serious when they tell us that Israel needs to prove it is serious about peace in order to enable them to vote against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN. But they are not serious. Nothing that Israel does will have any impact on their votes.

When the Europeans forge their policies towards Israel they are moved by one thing only: the US.

Since 1967, the Europeans have consistently been more pro-Palestinian than the US. Now, with the Obama administration demonstrating unprecedented hostility towards Israel, there is no way that the Europeans will suddenly shift to Israel’s side. So when European leaders tell Israelis that we need to convince them we are serious about peace, they aren’t being serious. They are looking for an excuse to be even more hostile. If Israel offers the store to Abbas, then the likes of Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy will not only recognize “Palestine” at the UN, (because after all, they cannot be expected to be more pro-Israel than the Israeli government that just surrendered), they will recognize Hamas. Because that’s the next step.

It would seem that Israel’s leaders should have gotten wise to this game years ago. And the fact that they haven’t can be blamed on the second factor keeping their sanity in check: the Israeli Left. The only group of Israelis directly impacted by the BDS movement is the Israeli Left. Its members – from university lecturers to anti-Zionist has-been politicians, artists, actors and hack writers – are the only members of Israeli society who have a personal stake in a decision by their leftist counterparts in the US or Europe or Australia or any other pretty vacation/sabbatical spots to boycott Israelis.

And because the movement threatens them, they have taken it upon themselves to scare the rest of us into taking this ridiculous charade seriously. So it was that last week a group of washed-up radicals gathered in Tel Aviv outside the hall where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israeli independence, and declared the independence of “Palestine.” They knew their followers in the media would make a big deal of their agitprop and use it as another means of demoralizing the public into believing we can do nothing but embrace our enemies’ cause against our country.

The time has come for the vast majority of Israelis who aren’t interested in the Nobel Prize for Literature or a sabbatical at Berkeley or the University of Trondheim to call a spade a spade. The BDS haters have no leverage. A degree from Bar-Ilan is more valuable than a degree from Oxford. And no matter how much these people hate Israel, they will continue to buy our technologies and contract our researchers, because Cambridge is no longer capable of producing the same quality of scholarship as the Technion.

And it is well past time for our leaders to stop playing this fool’s game. We don’t need anyone’s favors. Abbas has made his choice.

Now it is time for Netanyahu to choose.

caroline@carolineglick.com

Cucible

If any should doubt that we are deeply entrenched in a clash of cultures - a war, if you wish - I direct you to Caroline Glick’s opinion piece entitled “The West’s proxy war against the Jews” in yesterday’s Jerusalem Post. She lays it out clearly as few can and have. The crucible, in her view, is Israel. That is to say, the fate of Israel is the metric that will define the ultimate winner of the struggle.

To live side by side in relative peace (like sticks of furniture in an otherwise empty room) with the current Islamic/communist coalition assault now in full swing is out of the question. It is now fully in attack mode. One of its goals is to push Israel into the sea. (Envision anything I might mean by that.) It’ll mark the defeat of the West. The victorious coalition will at first gather ‘round to congratulate themselves; then, they will begin fighting each other, for they are only united on one issue: their hatred of Israel and western capitalism.

Whereas America will remain relatively unscathed by the fall of Jerusalem into Arab hands, Europe will likely not be so lucky. To be sure, America will have its own problems. For one thing, it will be difficult to convince the entire country to salute the red flag. This will have to play out over time.

In today’s WSJ, Mark Helprin tells of America’s retreat from the high seas in an article entitled “The Decline of U.S. Naval Power” We see it ourselves in the continuing saga of pirates successfully negotiating ransoms and killing civilians. It seems incredible that we cannot do much about it. Similarly, as pertains to Libya (or any other trouble spot on the globe), our hands appear to be tied by outside interests and internal concerns (and distractions).

The media has been gearing up to tell us just how bad Kaddafi is (and has been). This is the likely view of the Obama administration as well. It makes me suspicious, however. It’s been a long time since either the media or the government has told us the truth about anything. It may simply reflect Obama’s calculation as to what he believes Kaddafi’s staying power to be, and this administration’s scrambling to get out in front of the curve for once (of course hindered somewhat by - as JB points out - Tripoli’s long and well-established connections to radical elements in Chicago (Farrakhan).

Realistically, you’ve got to go all the way back to 1988 when Pan Am flight 103 crashed at Lockerbie following an in-flight explosion, killing all on board and scattering wreckage all over the area to pin anything of substance on Kaddafi. Since then, I’ve been under the impression that Kaddafi has undergone semi-successful rehabilitation and earned his way back into the fold of the human community. In light of what else is going on in the world today, the springing of bombing suspect Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from a Scottish hospital/jail seems more of a prank, designed to redden the faces of the pompous, than a full-blown crime against humanity.

There is no doubt in my mind that the relatively recent upheavals we are witnessing in the Middle East and elsewhere is due to America’s deliberate distancing itself from its traditional international obligations. This has, at the very least, left a vacuum for sinister forces to exploit. The end result continues to be the chaos of birth. We definitely appear to be on the cusp of some momentous change. This (chaos) is only the first step. What will eventually emerge is anybody’s guess.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lions And Ducks And Bears

The Middle East is burning. Protests spreading in Libya; protests spreading in the Middle East and beyond. Once the cat is out of the bag, everything becomes unpredictable. In Libya, the prize is light crude. Many nations - especially in Europe - depend on it. Oil prices rising everywhere - affecting everything. Someone in Libya shouts, “Where is America? Where is the UN? This is a massacre! We need help. Now!”

They don’t ask for Chinese intervention. They don’t ask for Russia - or Europe. They ask for America. An automatic reflex.

“Sorry guys, you’re on your own. We’ve got our own insurrection to deal with. Wisconsin. And it’s spreading to other states.“

“But what about the oil? We’ll pay!”

“Sorry again, guys. We don’t need your oil. We’re ’green' now. Don’t you see? We’re green. Oil is a cancer. We’re trying to choke it off. We’ve got windmills, batteries, solar panels - and mercury light bulbs. Besides ….besides what?

“While we may have started all this mess with the likes of Google, Facebook and the unions, it’s out of our hands now.”

Kaddafi is toast. He burnt us once too often. No sympathy for that dictator. He’s fresh out of IOU’s - and so are we. The rest will fall in place after the dust has settled. Blame it on Israel.
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In the center of the town, opposite the station, is the village green. There, right in the middle, is a pond. The family often goes there to feed the ducks after dinner with the bread that’s left over.

Dad says, “Look kids! They’re over there.” And the kids run over to where they are.

When the parents catch up with them, mother remarks, “My, how they’ve grown!”

Dad is unsure whom she’s referring to - the children or the ducks - and says nothing. When their bags are empty, the children are anxious to leave.

“Say good-bye to the ducks,” Mom says.

“They’re not ducks,” chime the children in unison.

“What are they then,” asks Mom.

“Bears,” say the children.

Mom and Dad laugh. They think it’s cute. From then on, the family refers to the ducks floating silently on the surface of their own reflections on the village pond as ‘bears‘.
----------------------------------------
Later that year, the county proposed a bear hunt to cull the sloth that’s become a nuisance to garbage cans and pets. There were so many people against it that the idea was scrapped.

Mom mentions it one evening to Dad. “They’ve banned duck hunting,” she says.

Dad looks up from his paper. He seems annoyed. He liked to go duck hunting with his friends - in season, of course. “What’s wrong with duck hunting?” he exclaims.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Playing Dead

The sainted revolution over, it’s difficult to understand why protesters are still in Tahrir Square (which is really a circle). Reminds of when Obamacare was passed and the next day people started showing up at clinics and hospitals, demanding medical services.

Today, Egyptians are protesting low wages and high food prices. Anyone to venture a guess when this will change?

Conditions are liable to get worse for Egyptians - not better. For one thing, the army is now in charge. They control streets, not markets. Nefarious elements will begin to disrupt things even more in hopes of positioning themselves just behind the tip of the spear.

After WWII , after Germany had been decisively defeated, there was the U.S. to step in to help. I’m not saying Europe couldn’t have pulled itself out of the muck. I’m just saying, it would have taken them a lot longer without the Marshall Plan and good old American know-how.

Nobody to turn to now if you happen to crash your economy, have a revolution, or lose a war. America has given up on that gig. We’ve become green, taking nothing from the earth and subsisting entirely like Kobo Abe’s fictional, self-contained bug (eupcaccia) which he describes in the opening lines of his novel, “The Ark Sakura”, as subsisting entirely by eating its own feces.

And there is Obama, trying to take credit for what happened. In six months, Egyptians may well take him up on that. Meanwhile, unrest is said to be spreading throughout the Middle East. In his message to the Egyptian people, Obama voiced once again his commitment to stand by them, perhaps not yet realizing that, to the average Egyptian, any interference by America is like the kiss of death. Maybe his message was really directed at us? Oh, I don’t mean the Tea Parties. He can do without them - much too civilized; much too informed; stable. No, he means all the rabble that supports him. He’s been spoiling for a good fight. Republicans, it seems, aren’t really up to it. Much too eager to roll over and play dead.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

How We Came To Be A Day Late And A Dollar Short

The following is taken from a transcript of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s address last Friday to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution as reported by AFP:

"We will soon see a new Middle East materializing without America and the Zionist regime and there will be no room for world arrogance in it."

Addressing the people of Egypt directly, he said, "They (the United States) have adopted a friendly face and saying 'we are friends of people of North Africa and Arab countries', but be watchful and united. You will be victorious.

“(The) Iranian nation is your friend and it is your right to freely choose your path. (The) Iranian nation backs this right of yours.

“(The United States is an) accomplice to the oppression by the Zionist regime.

"Come and take away the Zionist regime which is the source of all crimes... take it away and liberate the region. Free the region and give it to the people and take this regime, which is the child of Satan, out."

This is the second time Ahmadinejad has made such statements since the Egyptian protests began. The first time he proclaimed that every government in the region that has aligned itself in any way with the United States will fall.

This got me to thinking (again) that these people are serious. Their hatred for Israel is the cause they are willing to die for. Israel knows this. It has been in its interest to promote the notion that the destruction of Israel will not be the end of it; that Islamic appetites will also aim to devour Europe and even America.

Nobody has been listening. And I myself predict that once Israel has been destroyed, the West will remain quite safe for a time. Islamic hatred of the West is solely focused on the West’s recognition and support of Israel.

Today Mubarak resigned. The Muslim Brotherhood will assume power. The rest of the Middle East will fall into Islamic extremists’ hands. Ultimately, Israel will be attacked. This time, the Islamists will win.

At this point, the West will mobilize to defend itself. (It has always been in its power to do so. All it would ever have required is tapping its heels together.) There will ensue a great purge of everything Islam. At the same time, the Left - which has aligned itself with Islamic extremism - will be sent packing. The world will return to some semblance of normalcy; now, of course, burdened by the stain of momentous, insufferable guilt.

Already today, the leaders of Europe have come out with a statement proclaiming that multiculturalism is not working. It can only get worse from here.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Being There

It has been duly noted that once again we seem to be on the wrong side of things. We’re supporting a rag-tag army of assorted leftists and Islamic radicals, and throwing Mubarak - a U.S. ally - under the bus (so to speak); that, for all our efforts to help lift the Egyptian people out of the tyranny of what essentially amounts to (we are told) U.S.-sponsored poverty, we are inadvertently abandoning them to another kind of tyranny - one of Islamic fundamentalism which would likely put Israel - another so-called U.S. ally - at risk, as well as the Suez Canal, a major shipping lane (primarily for oil) which is likely to affect even Europe - more U.S. ‘allies’ - adversely.

Nobody asks why the people of the Middle East are in perpetual poverty, despite untold billions pumped in by the West (for oil). Nobody asks why conditions for Muslims in India continue to be markedly worse than they are for Hindus (and others), despite government efforts to give them every possible advantage.

Perhaps we haven’t exactly thought it through all that well; perhaps we haven’t considered all the implications of embracing shariah and treating it on par with what our own sacred texts espouse. Perhaps we thought that by siding with a seemingly ‘popular’ movement all else would fall into place; and we would be loved as we’ve never been loved before.

Such miscalculations are easy to make. Carter miscalculated Iran and we’re still paying the price. They still hate us. But he meant well. At least, we think he did.

We’re also giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in the current situation. We seem to have forgotten his stance on the Iranian popular uprising a year or two ago. We seem to have forgotten his stance when Honduras went through its constitutional travail, as well as so much else that has been plaguing us domestically since this man assumed power. We’ve refused to connect the dots.

I still remember as a child, the seemingly endless wait at restaurants for the waitress to bring our food was made tolerable by the table mats I was given. The ‘connect-the-dots’ game was always a part of it. The game was relatively easy. The dots were always numbered; and I knew my numbers. I knew what order they came in. Yet, I would always hesitate to start, trying to predict before-hand what figure would ultimately emerge.

Today, connecting-the-dots seems to have become a lost art. While it’s true that the dots are no longer numbered, they are self-explanatory nonetheless. We have been reading the newspapers, after all. We can remember what has happened previously and in what order it happened. We have seen enough of it to know what is likely to happen next - and afterwards…

Still, we act like every day is a new day. All events are random and unexpected. Obama has been in office two years - and unpleasant things have happened and are continuing to happen. Where is all this ‘hope and change’ thing taking us?

While all our problems have been attributed to Obama’s inexperience (including, of course, his constant hectoring of Israel to mind its ways), a pattern seems to be emerging.

Heads of state are beginning to notice and draw conclusions. While we gnash our teeth, seemingly finding ourselves at the mercy of unrelated events, our enemies are beginning to take liberties. Our friends are beginning to distance themselves. Our economy is going to the dogs. Our ‘fixes’ only seem to be making things worse. And throughout it all, our government media tells us that all is hunky-dory; that we are doing just fine; and that the light at the other end of the tunnel is straight ahead (under the inspired leadership of Imam Obama).

Things are falling apart. Despite removing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ terminology from U.S. passport applications and replacing it with gender neutral verbiage (‘parent one’ and ‘parent two‘), junior Obama is finding that it still takes either Mom or Dad to drive the fambly (sic) sedan.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Are Building a Religion

As we go back and forth and speculate about what might yet happen (in Egypt), we should go straight to the horse’s mouth. Let’s ask our president directly what it is that he wants to happen. And while we’re at it, let’s ask him straight out what he has in mind for the U.S. Let’s ask him to explain why he is doing what, and what he is hoping to accomplish by doing so. And let’s pretend to believe what he says.

By the way, there’s a great opinion column in the WSJ this morning (Feb. 1) by Bret Stephens entitled “Being Mubarak”. It takes an interesting slant, speculating that the old fox (Mubarak) may yet have some tricks up his sleeve.

It is what it is (and has been for some 30 odd years). There was a reason for why we supported Egypt and, I might add, Israel. With the election of Obama, those reasons have eroded. We turn our backs to both - and things happen. Read Caroline Glick’s column in the JPOST today. What we (in the West) define as ‘success’ is not defined as ‘success’ among Islamists (or communists). Our metrics are not valid there. Any attempt at such comparison may be regarded as ‘category error‘.

What if the revolution succeeds? What if the dominos fall, one by one; and an Islamic Caliphate emerges - one that is hostile to the West? And there is a genocide? Would it end with the destruction of Israel? Maybe so. Or would it gather steam and push into Europe? By the way, would Europe be capable of defending itself?

What if it were found that the American president actively participated in engineering the revolution in the Middle East by withdrawing key supports; manipulating food prices world-wide; deliberately crashing economies by way of monetary policy; supporting radical elements in the name of ‘social justice’? Would we be spared the indignity of shariah? Would he? Not likely. Traitors are universally despised, even under the minimal discipline of chaos.

The twelfth imam is likely to credit his own and pay scant attention to the welfare of foreign accomplices.

In any case, it’ll be the Atlantic that will shield us from the worst of it. Having allowed ourselves to come to this point, however, will haunt us into eternity. We will spend the rest of our lives apologizing, wearing sack cloth, wailing, and tearing our hair. No more arrogance; no more illusions of ‘American exceptionalism‘. We’ll have to rebuild slowly and painfully; our civilization will re-emerge, (this time) stripped of excess and bravado. We’ll have to harden ourselves to the hurled scorn of the betrayed, and forever suffer the weight of insurmountable guilt.

Only the Germans currently have a sense of it. They have been blessed with every attribute that would facilitate achieving unparalleled success; but, at the same time, they know they have forever forfeited their chance at enduring greatness.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lipstick On A Pig

Oh yes, I know, everyone is busy painting lipstick on a pig right now. It’s our version of celebrating Eid. We’re so hoping for Obama to make good, we’re even willing to gauge out our eyes just to make it so. The fact is that more of us still have jobs than don’t. This means that most of us can still be persuaded to pull Obama’s lunch wagon. (By the way, all this talk about us becoming more and more like Europe is a bunch of hogwash. If you ask me, we’re headed straight for Stalingrad.)

If it turns out that those with jobs should begin to feel the pinch, only then will the situation change. Only then will we all begin reading from the same page.

Apparently it’s all been forgotten: health care, the new EPA regs (regarding carbon emissions), higher taxes on the local level, FINREG, net neutrality, gas prices, etc. It’ll all kick in this year. A new norm for unemployment; immigration, border security, foreign affairs, inflation, energy dependence…

I honestly don’t see the optimism. True, the world around us appears to be digging out - at least they’re trying. We’re just digging deeper.

Stocks are up today. They generally rise in the third year of a presidency. Will they this time? The year has barely started. Some people have made money, it‘s true. This is supposed to be a bad thing - so this administration keeps saying anyway. And now they’re claiming a (minor) victory. Make up your mind! Which is it?

The fact is, it’s jobs that drive America. People working - creating value. Nothing I’ve heard will produce more or better jobs as long as Obama is president. Now it could well be that with the ‘net neutrality’ bandwagon gaining ground, there’ll be nothing but good news from here on in. That won’t necessarily mean it’s so. It just means that we'll be suffering in our bunkers - alone.
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Pete Postlethwaite died today. To my mind he was an actor’s actor. Loved the film “Brassed Off”.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Pay-Off

I’m not surprised that the administration has decided to bail out European banks. Europe still sees Obama as the bright, young articulate; noble descendant of slaves who has come (back) to exact his revenge. They don’t yet see him as the radical bomb thrower - too lazy to do his homework - most of us have now come to know.

European bankers are not stupid. They know exactly that the whole financial mess started in the U.S. with the housing crisis; which in turn affected bank balance sheets; which then caused bankers to spread the damage around by disseminating toxic IOU’s all over the world - including Europe - hoping that no one would notice.

European bankers are not lapdogs of the American government. They are free to speak out and expose certain truths, especially in regard to who might have been involved in the initial fraud; and they could name the names of the corrupt institutions (Fannie and Freddie) and politicians (Frank and Dodd among many others) who perpetuated and protected these schemes to their own advantage. These have not gone away and crawled under rocks in abject shame. They are still with us and, in many instances, still formulating policies that rob the American worker of the fruit of his labors - all, in name of some half-baked anti-capitalist notion of ‘social justice‘.

Our paying off the Europeans amounts to a tacit admission that none of it has worked as advertised; that we were essentially at fault for having promoted such claptrap under questionable guise. We are paying them off to buy their continued silence and thus save the skins of our guilty. If they (European bankers) were to talk, the revelations would put even Wikileaks to shame.

The global financial meltdown (which we started) can no longer be blamed on capitalism alone. Socialist and communist countries have not been immune. I am not one to blame America at the drop of a hat, but this has been our fault from the start. If we are to apologize for anything, this is it; if we are on the hook for reparations, this is it. If we should not be able to afford the cost of making amends, or if there is a political price to pay, so be it. What we have done to get this slime ball rolling is criminal - entirely worthy of Interpol investigation and subsequent World Court proceeding - and the Europeans are well aware of it. And we know that they know.

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Man the Water Stations

While the debate rages about how to fix the economy (read today’s opinion pieces in the NYT), things continue to get worse out there, particularly on the jobs front. People are re-entering the job market because they have become desperate. It’s no longer a choice - to work or not to work - it’s become a matter of survival.

Unfortunately, the jobs are no longer out there. They’re over in India, China, the Philippines and elsewhere. Value-based work is fleeing the country, leaving only enforcement-related and administrative (basically government) mandated tasks which themselves face the cleaver as tax revenues continue to fall short of expectations. It’s the classic definition of a downward spiral.

Incredibly, there is a way out. It is to make America business-friendly once again. Europe is trying it - although tepidly - and thus far has had limited success at least in terms of improving the psychological climate that businesses face. The reason that this hasn’t yet happened in America is because at the moment they are freer than we are. Our taxes and regulations are literally choking the life out of us. Add to this, the people’s distrust of government policy overall, and you have the entire country in unison fuelling the tailspin.

Washington has become so toxic, even if the president were to come out tomorrow with a workable plan to solve all the nation’s problems, nobody would pay much attention. For the majority of Americans, Barack Hussein Obama has already torn up his leadership card and thrown it to the wind. We have reached a point where Obama’s government no longer represents us.

How to explain this to people in a foreign country? People tend to assume that countries speak with one voice. If the government, for instance, insists on basing its foreign and domestic policies on the now largely discredited threat of ‘global warming’ while the people themselves have become aware of the hoax, that government can be said to rule against the will of the electorate. The U.S. is not the only nation that has chosen to follow the forked path leading to civil strife. The first fault line to appear, as always, is the one between the classes. The elites have chosen one path, leaving the masses to wander another.

Time to man the water stations in this desert. Many are about to get themselves lost out in the wilds. Great swatches of land have already been ceded to cartel control. It is clear, the American government does not care about Americans. One of the two will fall and there will be blood. In the meantime, maps and survival tips must be distributed.

I open the paper today and read that the Taliban have offered to burn all medical books.

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Yes, Virginia...

It is perhaps unfair to blame the Marshall Plan, the Euro, the Cold War or anything else for today’s geo-political troubles. Everything that America has ever built and nourished over the years wobbles – from Europe to the Middle, near and Far East. For too long now, we’ve let everything coast. We’ve taken our eye off the ball; we’re loosing our grip domestically as well as internationally. God help those who’ve been depending on us; at the very least, to make some noise up in the peanut gallery. Americas has exited the stadium.

It’s sad, really; for what will take its place will not be America-like; will not be freedom, liberty, opportunity, fairness and the human right to dignity. The veneer of civilized behavior will be painted over in blood red: brutality, oppression, and dull endurance.

All those on the Upper East Side who have been hankering for it will be the first to feel it – the blade of the thieving knife; the degradation – their sad sack bones cast into dungeons to rot. “Are we there yet?”

“Hush, hush, Virginia! Can’t you see there’s traffic? Our new driver (What was his name again? I can never remember the names of these damn foreigners) is doing the best he can. – And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Enlightened America

The job was to have been America’s – to hit back in case any one of our allies were attacked. The mere threat of robust America defending its interests kept our enemies from pushing too hard, too often.

Since Obama has been in office, we’ve made it clear that the old template has shattered; that we have become enlightened; that we no longer regard the world as warring camps; that we no longer feel obliged to protect ourselves – much less others.

Our enemies would like this to be true. But they’re not quite certain yet. America had fooled them before. Now they’re probing. No doubt, North Korea’s sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan was a probe. China approved and wrote the check. Now China knows that it has a free hand to do whatever it wants. Look out Taiwan!

Our former friends too are watching. They are troubled – now looking for new alliances. It doesn’t look good for them. South Korea, Israel, the former Iron Curtain countries, moderate Middle Eastern nations, South America, Africa – all are looking for a safe haven. It is slowly beginning to dawn on each and every one of these that they will have to go it alone.

Sucking up to regional tyrants and paying protection is the obvious answer for most. Some may want to take a stand. As much as Israel’s nuclear arsenal has been kept a well-guarded secret, her intentions are being kept close to the vest as well. Conventional wisdom has it that Israel has more than enough firepower to stun any aggressor. (Personally I would like to know if any of its trajectories have been re-calibrated to strike Washington as well.) Iran intends to change that equation. Already, several countries in the Middle East have privately expressed the unspoken wish that Israel will prevail.

Unfortunately, Israel too is shot through with the left fad philosophy that refuses to acknowledge existential danger. (Europe has already succumbed to it.) The question is not whether Israel can retaliate if attacked. The question is whether or not it will.

As America retreats from the world stage to concentrate on bringing about its own Marxist revolution, it leaves a huge vacuum in the world of geopolitical intrigue. Nations will now be forced to take sides. They will have to decide whether they are interested in principle or expediency. For those who choose principle, the danger is clear. They might do well to take moxie from a phrase that has echoed throughout the centuries ever since America’s founding: “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Elections Are Aproaching

If you have read some of my most recent postings, you may have come to recognize that one of the tenets of modern pop-ideology – of which both Bush and Obama are adherents – is that borders no longer matter. This goes along with the trend marked by an erosion of property rights. Hence, we do not defend our borders and we hold the hapless owner - whose home may have been violated by an uninvited intruder - responsible for any harm that may have accrued to the interloper. The condemnation of Israel for attempting to protect its borders is nearly universal.

In truth, it has become impractical to protect one’s borders as nationalism has faded in importance and ideology has taken its place. Ideology knows no borders. It eddies and pools wherever the like-minded happen to reside. For them, borders represent an anachronism that is no longer worth defending.

Trouble along the border has assumed the status of a pernicious video game challenge to which we routinely sacrifice half-measures – as has war in general. Anyway, this is how it reads in the academic texts carefully studied in our colleges and universities. Unfortunately (for us), the rest of the world is not quite so advanced. They are still inclined to play by the old rules. They see our border travails as a breach by which to infiltrate and capture territory. They have plenty of useful idiot help from inside.

Europe has long ago succumbed to this one-world pop-ideology. The Eurozone was the result. Europe now finds itself threatened by economic collapse in Greece [as well as in several other countries (PIIGS)]. The disaster could have been easily predicted. Submarines and oil tankers are built in a series of chambers. Should one chamber rupture, it can be sealed off to prevent catastrophic damage to the rest of the ship.

But, never mind. Chaos along our border areas has become yet another tool in our rogue government’s hands. It represents yet another fuse lit that could ignite the whole nation - giving the government cause to crack down on all of us. Totalitarianism is on the march. No wonder, this administration is so eager to stir the pot where and whenever it can. Elections are approaching.

Myanmar

I've been thinking of Myanmar recently. Myanmar is probably one of the two most repressive regimes in the world. The other is North Korea. I haven't been to North Korea, but I've been to Myanmar. The people there are like people everywhere, inquisitive, gentle, but somehow dispirited. The world doesn't care about what anyone in Myanmar says or thinks. Myanmar is like a black hole on the globe. The whole nation is a prison.

And yet, from the look of things, Myanmar was once a great nation. One can gather that much from seeing its antiquities. At some point, all the greatness ceased; the people's spirit died. The people still exist, but they do not live. They are afraid to speak out, or even enquire. No one seeks their advice; their opinion. There will never be an International Auto Show in Rangoon.

This is what we can expect to happen in America if our present administration gets its way. Even the socialist countries of Europe are scrambling to form alliances with some sense of future in mind. Only our government seems determined to choke of all avenues of progress; hope. It's done so much damage already; it's difficult to gage our chances of recovery. Two and a half years of same should suffice to plow us under for good. The world will turn its back on us. Even the most morbid among us find it painful to watch a suicide. Like Myanmar, it won't even be worth the effort to bury the corpse.

Judas Trees

It's already been decided at the highest levels. Everyone has been promised safe passage - except Israel. Israel will be the first and only target of Iran's nuclear ambition. The world at large, including the U.S., is content to let it happen. Iran has won by attrition. The problems in the Middle East have become needlessly tiresome. It could all be solved if Israel were just to go away.

This is the view of Europe, the Russians, the Chinese and, since the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the United States. Israel will be attacked and the world will bite its lower lip, but do nothing. The only uncertainty remaining is Israel's response.

My view is that Israel will not respond. Its leadership knows that it cannot survive as the world's sole pariah. Responding in kind can only serve to prolong the agony.

The reason it hasn't happened already is that Iran is not yet ready. In the meantime a massive propaganda campaign is underway to demonize Israel. All the familiar radical left-wing groups and figures are busy casting aspersions. They are even hard at work within Israel itself. Conditions are being created similar to those that brought Obama to power. The excuses and blame-shifting after the fact are already in place.

Initially, no one will show much emotion. Only stunned silence will be prevail. Eventually, though, those with some remaining semblance of conscience will find themselves having difficulty sleeping. Remember, it took barely a year for 44% of us to pine for the return of one who was the target of the greatest smear campaign in modern history. Israel too will be sorely missed, especially by her own who plotted against her from within. Like Obama, they won’t find a home among the enemy. Don’t be surprised to see the streets littered with the broken branches of rosebud trees.

Europe: The Maturing Child

Mike - Thank you for this as well. It represents a very reasoned and sober apologia for European anxieties vis-à-vis the United States. No doubt, Europe is aware of the huge debt it owes to America - and they don't like it. The problem is that any time a debt is owed, the debtor's position of inferiority emerges in stark relief. It highlights a degree of dependency that for most proud people infringes on their dignity. In order to counteract this feeling of inadequacy, the normal human response is often quite the opposite of gratitude.

I doubt that today's modern European looks much to what has happened in the last century for guidance. If they did, they would not be so eager to repeat its mistakes - anti-Semitism and appeasement, for example. No, Europeans live in the here and now - as do Americans. I become suspicious of anyone who is all too ready to display a purely curatorial grasp of history in order to support any given point. Nine times out of ten, it is a distraction from the real issue, which is often obscured by its very dominance in a room full of invisible elephants.

In my view, what is shaping European opinion about the U.S. at this moment is our view of ourselves. The orgy of unbridled Bush (and country) bashing that our media and culture have tolerated - and even encouraged - in recent years has not gone unnoticed in Europe. There it has found a sympathetic chord among those whose natural inclination has been to rebel against America's largess. To European sensibilities (as in America) Obama, represents a break with the past, igniting the hope of starting afresh and on equal footing. By our own actions, we have reinforced - for all who crave the dignity of self-reliance - the notion of an American colossus on the wane and no longer threatening voluntary assumption of equality with a part of the world regarded essentially as inferior. We will always be seen as the midwife of Europe’s rebirth (after the wars). Now we must let go of the maturing child that is intent on exposing the cracks and strains in his parent's relationship for an excuse to rebel and take wing on its own terms.