Trends

Mr. Batchelor increasingly presents himself as the gold standard of old-time gum shoe reporting. He presents a situation within a neutral frame and proceeds to define the action. If speculation as to a likely outcome is required, he will quote others prepared to take that leap. He himself will steer clear of predictions. This, of course, is in marked contrast to today’s template by which (say) a newspaper views its opinion pages as its heart and soul and allows its bias to bleed over into its reporting.

In this case, JB reports on the most prominent challenge to Obamacare to date. It has gained traction to the point of having become newsworthy. He correctly points out that it’s fate hinges entirely on how the Supremes determine the status of the mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance. If viewed as a tax, government may be well within its rights to proceed; if viewed in terms of the commerce clause, government may have overstepped its reach. JB goes on to correctly point out that the whole matter will likely go to the High Court where a close decision can be expected to close the argument.

That much is indisputable fact. Any speculation about how Obamacare would (or would not) affect the economy or health care in general, would fall outside the purview of an honest broker. At the same time, JB does give us the opportunity to take the plunge. Our own comments are welcomed in an effort to reflect our feelings in any such matters. As these, however, may be based entirely on gut-reflex partisan leaning; wishful thinking, and/or healthy self-interest, they could tend to run afoul of what’s actually out there. We might, for example, point to a recent survey of doctors which predicts that anywhere from 45 to 75% of doctors would walk away from their profession if Obamacare were ever fully implemented. This would bolster our own argument that Obamacare itself is self-defeating, opening up the speculation of why any president would deliberately pursue a policy that is bad for the nation. This is a direction that most people (including JB) will never be reckless enough to take.

By sticking to the straight-and-narrow of reporting, Mr. Batchelor has carved out for himself a niche that is likely far longer-lasting than the resolution of current squabbles and trends.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Where Are the Republicans?

Good news indeed! But, unfortunately, the bad news overwhelms it. America is now effectively out of the oil business. Without oil, America’s economic engine grinds to a halt - like a car that will coast for a while after it’s run out of gas.

It doesn’t seem like anything can stop this president. He will soon sign legislation that effectively transfers Wall Street from New York to Washington; this, without having read even a single line of it’s 2000+ pages (just like every Senator and Congressman who voted). He will also get comprehensive immigration reform (amnesty) passed and more. Each turn of the screw will be hailed a blessed victory for a president determined to bury America six feet under. (They’re already out shopping for the marble slab.)

Not one Republican member of Congress has spoken out against Dodd-Frank - not that I‘ve heard anyway. (Maybe some have and it was just never reported.) On the contrary, three Republicans voted in support of the effort. That makes it bi-partisan. Everyone can now smile and pat each other on the back, and look forward to going home to brag about all the wondrous things they’ve accomplished for their indentured constituents. Meanwhile, Kagan advances like greased lightning.

Congress has been marginalized to the point where what it says hardly matters anymore. We might as well scrap it and save our money. The same can be said of the Supremes; media and education. Curiously, every dictator who’s ever lived has found it useful to maintain the fiction of justice and representative (rubberstamp) government.

Our Justice Department has gone erratic and rogue. We are left without recourse. We are living under a dictatorship. People are saying it openly now; admitting that the executive branch holds all the reigns. To think otherwise is delusionary.

At this point, what matters most about elections is what Obama thinks about them. If he thinks they’re good for his image, he’ll make an effort to turn the results in his favor. If not, he’ll just ignore the whole thing and pretend it never happened. Either way, it comes out to the same.

Will They Have the Guts?

China and America are in the process of trading places. Both are set to experience massive dislocation by significant segments of their populations. There will be blood on both sides. Indications are that the carnage on the American side will be greater primarily because America seems to have lost its identity. China has not. A second factor may play an even greater role: Whereas America seems resigned to continue its march toward atonement and subsequent obligatory punishment for past sins, China in general appears confident that its future remains bright.

Listening to Larry Kudlow, and anyone else who keeps talking about the November midterms as being our nation’s salvation, is starting to get on my nerves. Let me say categorically and unambiguously that the midterm elections - no matter how they turn out - will have absolutely no effect in stopping Obama’s hard left re-distributionist agenda.

Any legislation that a Republican-dominated congress is likely to advance will be immediately struck down by Obama’s veto pen. This would apply to any rollback of existing legislation as well as any legislation that can yet be expected to pass in the ‘lame duck’ session. We’ll be stuck with that. In many ways, the barn door is already wide open and the horses are long gone. There are numerous confiscatory tax increases in our immediate future that will absolutely cripple our already anemic private sector. More will surely be added during ‘lame duck’. Expect ‘cap and trade’ to pass; expect VAT; increased health care costs can be expected to add to our already insupportable deficits. Individual states will begin to default.

Republicans can shout all they want but they will not be able to do anything to change even one iota of the spending, tax policy, and regulations that are already in place. Add to this the fact that the president retains the use of the executive order in all matters; he will continue to make interim appointments and possibly even float a Supreme Court choice. Even if successive SC appointment are not approved for the remainder of this president’s term, it’ll make for devastating headlines, and the Court itself would now consist of eight. Not sure to what extent 4-4 decisions count.

Best of all, when things go wrong, as they surely must, Obama can and will blame Republicans.

Let me put this as delicately as possible: There is only one way we can get back on sane footing. And that is to impeach the president. A Republican congress may actually have the power to do just that. But will they have the guts?

People like Kudlow (which includes most of our media - right, left or in-between) are still assuming that the midterms will send such a powerful message that the White House will have to change course. Think again. Obama does not listen to messages; he does not play at politics in the usual sense. Obama has a dictator’s mentality. It is filled with rage toward any opposition. He will not rest until he sees this country destroyed or bent to his will.

No, my friends, we cannot survive another two years of this. We would end up like the Thanksgiving turkey left in the oven to defrost when someone decides to run the (oven) cleaning cycle without first checking if anything’s been left inside.

A Bad Joke

Secession. An interesting idea; one, among several, the states may have to consider if they are to have any hope of rolling out from under our suffocating government monster. Expect a slew of law suits originating from within our various states, challenging federal mandates. As long as the Supremes remain split 5 to 4 we have a chance. We’re hanging by a thread.

Those of us who predicted this back during the last presidential campaign were called all sorts of names. Now it’s happened. What to do? Secession? Impeachment? It’s not that McCain would have been better. In some ways he might well have been worse. It would have given the Left even more time to arm and organize. Just the fact that they don’t yet own the Court means that they jumped the gun.

The problem with the Left is that ‘they have distilled a kind of world history to suit certain purposes. It consists of nothing but the chronology of ideas. It is bloodless and lacking in reality …nothing but laws and formulas, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow academic construct‘.*

‘Suppose an anatomist is dissecting a body. He does not confront wholly surprising discoveries. Rather, he finds beneath the epidermis a assemblage of organs, muscles, tendons, and bones which generally conform to a pattern he has brought to his work. But if the anatomist sees nothing but this pattern, and ignores the unique, individual reality of his object*, he has lost touch with an essence.

Similarly, today’s Leftist relies on the power to manipulate data (the bones) to suit some highly improbable Utopian purpose, quite without regard to the spirit that girds it.

When we elected Obama, we essentially decided to attach a Rolls Royce logo to a Yugo. It made people sit up and take notice without making the car run any better. Now it’s become just a bad joke.
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*roughly translated from passages in Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game.

Elena Kagan

One of the perks of being elected POTUS is that you get to choose candidates to fill Supreme Court vacancies. It gives the president the opportunity to extend his personal influence beyond his tenure. When Republicans were in power, the emphasis was always on compromising with Democrats by half. Democrats don’t compromise. They go full tilt. Republicans have accepted this paradigm for as long as I care to remember.

Kagan comes from Obama’s inner circle. She was chosen because she espouses Obama’s views. There is not much of a paper trail. This should make it easier to overlook her deficiencies and confirm her. Should something untoward emerge and she is rejected, Obama will first blame Republicans. While Republicans are still celebrating their pyrrhic obstruction skills, Obama will then double down and appoint someone even more radical. Republicans, still punch-drunk and exhausted, will give the next candidate a pass. He or she will also likely be even younger, ensuring that Obama’s quest to transform America into a socialist Utopia will survive even after the political winds have shifted.