Trump Drops the F-Bomb in Vegas

OMG, Trump swore in Vegas! That’s it! The man’s finished; toast; done.

Show me anybody who’s never dropped trou in Vegas. Yes, but… Trump wants to be President.

Think about it! Who would actually want to be President at this point? Do you really think The Donald needs this to embellish his resume? It’s become an emergency call; a mission of mercy: Saving the country and all. Haven’t you been reading the papers?

Frankly, Americans are feeling they’re under siege. They’re watching their savings diminish; their dollar crashing. They’re being asked to contribute more and more hard-won treasure to bolster the fortunes of their own firing squad.

“We’ll just club you to death if you don’t pay us,” the executioner’s union shouts gaily in unison.

Governors are crying out in fiscal pain. Industry is crying out. Ditto, taxpayers. They say that change must come from the inside. In Massachusetts, they recently voted to curb the unions. That is to say, Democrats voted to curb the unions – in the dead of night, no less. They too were afraid.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a Democrat country. If change is to come, it must come from within. We voted Democrat in 2008 – not this. This is not Democrat. This is tyranny; socialism – by whatever un-American name you want to call it

Republicans still don’t get it. They are not the answer. The nation as a whole has already rejected them and their ideologies. The tea parties consist of Republicans and Democrats. They are alarmed. Nothing like this has ever happened before. The Democrats in Washington are not Democrats. Trump is a Democrat. We can accept that. And he’s a real Democrat – not a socialist masquerading.

So, let’s be clear: The political fight in 2012 is not going to be between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have long since taken themselves out of the game. The fight will be between Democrats and Socialists. Socialists are the enemy of America – Democrats are not. Democrats do not support $6 gas. They do not support Hamas. They do not support a weak dollar; a weakened nation; inflation; wealth re-distribution; chaos; racism. They do not seek to take away our liberties and control every blessed aspect of our lives. It’s the Socialists who support all these un-American things. It is they who must be defeated.

Indeed, if we had true Democrats running the show, we’d be out of the woods by now.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Soros' Collapsing Structures

It is astounding to me: Obama and leftist Democrats are now openly advocating bankruptcy. Just as they marched in lockstep to encourage military defeat in Iraq, they are now doing everything they can to steer our nation toward insolvency. To this purpose, they are willing to take and hold innumerable hostages. The military, old people, children – all are being used as pawns to insure that there is no agreement on the budget, thus forcing a government shutdown (to be summarily blamed on Republicans). The liberal media, instead of portraying this as a welcome respite from reckless government spending, proclaim this to be no less than Armageddon, continuing to do the best they can to let liberals get their way.

While some of us are falling for the ploy, there are indications that the majority of the American people are not. They expect to see at least some glimmer of fiscal reform, and they expect it to start today. They are fully vested in seeing that our nation continue along the path on which it had been (before Obama). To them insolvency is not an option. Yet, insolvency is precisely what Obama and his Democrats are striving to achieve. Stoking fears about the 800,000 (jobless) and Yellowstone closing are merely ancillary adjuncts to grab headlines in the short run. Down the road looms default when everything - including their sainted abortion clinics - shuts down; and that, they expect, will signal that the new (world) order has crawled out of Ahmedinejad’s well.

Nobody can be quite sure what happens next. We envision pure chaos on every front. In chaos there are no longer any rules. Existing contracts and bank accounts all turn to dust and are swept away by the random breeze. This is their goal. They are convinced they can survive even that. They believe that the old system can conveniently collapse into the new one, the structure for which already stands waiting. If you’ve ever been to a union or communist rally, that’s all you hear.

Unelected George Soros knows exactly what this new structure looks like as he is the architect of it. He sees a way forward, even if the rest of us don’t. We do not have any other options. Insolvency ends it. Hence, we feel that we must take steps to avoid it at all costs. Moderate Republicans in the House and Senate do not yet appreciate the danger. They are still willing to compromise. The Dems, on the other hand, are singularly committed. They can already smell the blood in the water. Total collapse is near... and they will have won. They, and their patron saint Soros, are confident that the new structure will be there to catch them – while sweeping away all the non-believers.

At first, there was chaos; and within it (by mere chance) there was an echo, which then opened up the possibility of reproducing something exactly like the first. Then came order and all the rest.

Tell me again that communism is not a religion.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Soros: The Dog That Doesn't Bark

Having had the privilege of witnessing 62 springs in this our glorious northern hemisphere – and, yes, I have already applied to receive Social Security – I have come to the conclusion that there must be a hidden hand directing all this – sorry Lou. How else would one explain the precise timing, the sheer beauty of emerging flora from the tiny snowdrop to the greening of the mighty oak; the return of the Robins and Cardinals; the sap rising in the old Maples that stand guard around the house? It cannot be an accident.

At the same time, it is clear to me that with all this glorious precision surrounding us, there must also be an author behind the political mess we find ourselves in. It can’t just be put down to neglect. If it were due to pure absence, we would hardly take note; we would live like the animals, in perfect harmony with our environment and with each other. We would not feel compelled to envision a God to either worship or deny. No, absence cannot explain the mess that Washington has created.

To put wars, systemic corruption and hatred down to chance is as silly as saying that existence has no father. My obsession with finding the hidden hand that’s guiding our nation to ruin is based on the belief that someone must be held accountable. It’s obviously not Obama. He’s much too visible – a useful idiot. In this case, it must be the dog who doesn’t bark; the dog whose existence is easy to deny, as we find it easy to deny God.

My candidate is George Soros who seems to have his paws into practically everything that stinks. He appears to be a man of many personal hatreds. He has all the money in the world. He can shake up dictatorships as well as kingdoms. Democracies are harder to pry loose from their moorings; this just goes to show you how far we’ve fallen already.

Take Wisconsin, for example. Wisconsin elects a governor with the mandate to get its house in order. He tries to do so amid much vocal opposition, much of it imported from outside the state. Today there is an electoral contest for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court which has up till now held a narrow conservative majority. Today’s election could shift the balance in favor of the liberals. If this were to happen, all the governor’s achievements will likely be overturned.

Tonight, this election is too close to call. Only a couple hundred votes separate the candidates. It is claimed that a lot of union money has poured into the state to defeat the conservative incumbant. Not mentioned in most reporting is that in a survey of attorneys conducted by the Milwaukee Bar Association in February 2011, Prosser, the conservative, received 296 "qualified" votes compared to 112 for Kloppenburg, Prosser’s liberal opponent. In addition, in Wisconsin’s non-partisan Supreme Court Primary, Prosser received 55% of the vote compared to Kloppenburg’s 25%.

This election should not be close. Somebody is pulling strings. If Kloppenburg wins, elections no longer have any meaning in this country.

I do not blame the Dems; their job is to win. The same is true of Republicans. Politicians will do what politicians do. I hold the press responsible. They know full well what’s going on. Yet their coverage overwhelmingly favors Democrats in all things. By it, they tilt the playing field. And who controls the press? Who has all the money in the world to grease the skids with carrot juice and sticks? Why it’s lefty George Soros, of course.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

WAR: Comic Relief

Everywhere I turn today on the radio dial, I hear the usual yuck-yucks and clucks about what Obama did today. The war in Libya is topic number one of course. Japan has fallen to a distant third behind the many marriages of Elizabeth Taylor. Actually, the past few days we’ve seen very little of Obama. It has been Hillary Clinton who’s been out front, trying to explain this and that.

What’s curious about this is that war isn’t at all funny. The yuck-yucks center on the administration’s failure to explain how we got into it and what we can expect. The details we’re given change by the hour and are often contradictory. For instance, Obama claims that it’ll last just a few more days with us in charge, and then we’ll hand it off to some unspecified 'other'. Then, we learn, that nobody else wants it. It’s like watching a group of kids playing hot potato. Or, the kitchen sink gets clogged and we go in with all kinds of ‘shock and awe’ (to borrow a phrase). We ask the kid next door to come over and help. All he brings with him is a screwdriver while we’ve got the 130 ft. snake out. Whom are we hoping to hand off to? It’s comical, in a macabre kind of way. But here we are. The Germans have already pulled out. NATO is hiding in the tall grass. The others were never in. ‘Allies in disarray’ is how Drudge put it.

We’ve seen this before: an administration getting pummeled for deciding to go to war. Whether Kaddafi lives or dies is almost beside the point. It almost seems like the U.S. president is always the ultimate target of our scorn and ridicule; that as soon as any U.S. leader orders military intervention, it’s like, at the same time, he’s holding a loaded gun to his own head.

You might get the impression from reading this blog that I dislike Obama. The truth is I really don’t dislike him at all. His exploits have taken us in many unforeseen (and foreseen) directions. It’s been a blessing to be alive during these times of tumultuous change. The Obamas (in one incarnation or another) have always been with us. We’ve just never put them in charge of anything before. This time we did. And what did we expect? We got exactly what we voted for.
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On today’s Glenn Beck radio program, the name Stephen Lerner surfaced in connection with a union plot to collapse the American economy. Later in the day, Limbaugh also spent a segment on it. This seems consistent with what happened before (just preceding the 2008 election). When the Justice Department was notified, they ignored what must surely constitute a serious threat. Say, the kid with the screwdriver (above) goes home and were to fantasize on Facebook about putting that screwdriver of his through Obama’s eye; he would no doubt get a visit from the Secret Service before sundown. Lerner, apparently is playing for the right team (unions). So, we can assume he can happily fly under the radar, as far as Big Sis is concerned.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Condo Shopping in Brazil

We’re all news junkies; that is, we try to keep up with the news on a daily basis. We read the headlines on various sites, as well as our favorite blogs to get some idea about what other people are thinking. We pretty much know that the mainstream media does not tell us the truth; that partisan consideration causes them to steer their intended conclusions toward some unholy end. The same is true of the conservative, or ‘alternative’, media.

I’ve been having some trouble with the internet, especially when trying to stream Glenn Beck’s morning radio show. It suddenly cuts out and I need to go down to the basement and reset the box. Honestly, it’s become a pain to listen, and I no longer listen very often. I also don’t watch much TV - especially in the afternoon. For our family, Glenn Beck has essentially ‘disappeared’.

While visiting my father, he explained to me the purpose of Brazil's new capital (now 50 years old), the building if which he had been intimately involved in. It was envisioned as a world capital housing the leaders of a single world government. Its planners predicted that there would be a war in which much of the world would suffer utter devastation. The site for the Brazilian capital was deliberately chosen as to be as far away from everything as possible and would therefore not be much affected.

The city has strict building codes as to limit its population. The expected overflow was to be housed in any number of satellite cities some distance away. Only the highest elite - the cream of the crop - were to have permission to live within city limits.

This came to mind when I first heard that Obama would be going to Brazil on vacation (or is it to shop for a condo?). Suppose now, that something were to happen here while he is away. It’s not unusual for the leader of a nation to leave his country and, while abroad, there is some kind of coup back home.

Suppose communications were cut. Suppose all we could get on the radio is old episodes of the Prairie Home Companion. Suppose there were no mention of what had happened. Suppose TV screens remained blank; the internet dormant.

Suppose Osama bin Laden were to order all his sleeper cells into action. Suppose some manufactured economic problem were to close the banks. Suppose union thugs and others took it upon themselves to target random ‘rich people’ and Republican legislators.

In very short order, America would find itself turned on its head. There would be utter chaos in the streets – not to mention, in every American heart.

Suppose that by some prearranged signal Israel and Taiwan were attacked, as well as Americans and American interests oversees.

All this would be digestible, except for radio silence. We could respond to most things, but not this. For years now, we’ve known that our media plays fast and loose with the facts. We’ve learned to be discerning and deal with it. But no news? How could we possibly deal with that?

Only those who had been tipped off beforehand would know what to do - only the best organized. The rest of us would miss the sleight of hand until long after the dust has settled and the now familiar faces of our talking heads have faded from memory.

http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Silver Linings

You know as well as I do that any Republican frontrunner daring to show themselves as such will be trounced by the press. It’s a small wonder that anybody is even willing to call themselves ‘Republican’ anymore. Obama sits in the catbird seat. He has academe, the media and the unions running interference while he plays golf. Meanwhile Republicans are getting their heads handed to them – not by Democrats, but – by their own, for not being able to turn things around on a dime after years of cumulative mismanagement.

We foresaw this strategy and it works. In Obama’s last news conference, he blamed Republicans for forcing the insipid CR dance without mentioning that it was his and his Democrat majority’s failure to pass a budget in the first place. Every unpleasantness from now on will be blamed on Republicans and they will continue to accept the premise while insisting on playing by Queensberry Rules. This puts them in a similar position as the Libyan rebels - their backs to the wall.

Republicans fear Damocles’ sword too much. It is an illusion of their own creation. As government shut down looms like a puffy white cloud, clouds will be clouds and their silver linings will split the darkness equally. Yet, GOP leadership appears prepared to do practically anything to avoid it. Even though some are now saying this is exactly what has to happen. No chance of Republicans not taking the blame. That much is understood. Still, it would show some spine.

Voters are well aware of what happened in Wisconsin. They have identified the players and have taken sides. It is now up to Republicans to decide whether or not they want to take up the fight of saving the country in earnest or remain satisfied with making only symbolic gestures.
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On a previous thread I mentioned the gruesome murder of members of the Fogel family in Itamar. The Israeli government took the unusual step of releasing pictures of the carnage. Missing from these were pictures of what they had done to the woman. We can only imagine. I heard in passing that a memorial service is to be held in New York. It was said to have been organized by the ‘Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’, Malcolm Hoenlein’s group. Stay tuned for details.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cutting Off The Nose

“…he was becoming exasperated with his failure to give him a jobs plan he could sell.”

Is that how these people see themselves - used car salesmen? I thought a president was elected ‘to preserve and protect’; to run things (and not into the ground). I guess I’ve been wrong all along when it comes to this bunch. At least they’re still selling - not yet at gun point. Aside from the fact that governments create only incestuous jobs, they don’t seem to understand that selling always involves no less than two parties. Both have to agree for the deal to go through. So far, there is no deal. The public is not buying.

I heard recently in passing that one of the Federal departments got rid of all their Fords and replaced the original fleet with Chevies. The Chevies were termed ‘junk’ (by the insider) and declared unsuitable to their purpose. Clearly, a conflict. Understandable that the government was wanting to push its own brand - suitability be damned.

When the public favored Ford over Chevy, it did so to make its position clear. All things were not equal. The public preferred one over the other . One accepted a government bailout; the other did not. Buying a Ford proclaimed one’s feeling toward the issue.

No matter how intense the advertising (selling), the public will not buy a ‘socialist mop’ - not the American public at any rate. It’s got to be forced down their throats - gavage. Obama and crew may see us as geese, but that’s not how we see ourselves. We will fight back in our own way.

We know their game: They want jobs so they can trumpet success and collect taxes to fuel their agenda. They make it seem like we are the ones wanting the jobs. We don’t.

If we wanted jobs, we’d get it done. Long before it dawned on Republicans to ‘starve’ offensive government outreach (to Muslims, unions, communists and the like), we the people were already deeply engaged: dragging our heels, holding back, starving (if you will) the government’s ability to proclaim a meaty victory.

We recognized long before the government did - before the media did - that only we could create jobs; that we were the only ones with that power. We could turn off the spigot - and we did. They say socialism fails wherever it‘s tried. Socialism doesn‘t fail; the public rejects it. Cutting off the nose is a worthy sacrifice if the face is no longer the face of America.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Street Fighting Man

I too marched on Washington in my day, ostensibly to protest against the Vietnam war. We fell into one of three groups: professional agitators, self-righteous moralists, and those who just came out to raise a little hell. Though I would never have admitted it at the time, I was part of the latter, the biggest, group. Despite the civic display of tightly choreographed, helmeted phalanx; water cannon and tear gas, I felt perfectly safe for I knew that the government - unlike those of then communist nations - would take utmost care to see to it that nothing would happen to us. If we really had been asked to risk life and limb, I’m sure that 99% of us would have stayed away.

As it was, for most of us, it amounted to no more than a day trip - an afternoon of staged, pot-enhanced high drama - participatory theater under bright skies.

In Britain, the operative word is 'hooliganism'. Behavior after sports events had become so bad, young Britains have been barred from attending similar events in other countries. In Europe, we’ve seen self-respect eroding for a long time. This is fertile soil for agitprop. It is to demonstrate that the government is essentially powerless. The issue of university fees is just pretext. In France, the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62 is just pretext - a reason to come out into the streets in feigned (Street Fighting Man) anger and protest and smash things and poke a stick in the eye of authority for the sake of ritual rebellion alone - to vent, to explode into violence primarily because of some sense of individual dislocation or inadequacy that often accompanies the transition from infantilism.

Don’t tell me these people have any higher purpose in mind; don’t tell me they have any profound agenda - most of them - in their frenzied, out of control, pointless, pathetic pantomime. People with legitimate grievances do not behave like that.

…and it’s coming to America. It’s orchestrated by the Left. It is to undermine the nation, to overwhelm it, score propaganda points and render it utterly impotent. It’s revolution for revolution’s sake; to topple the elite; erase standards; nullify morality - to be replaced by the finality of tyranny. It’s AQ; it’s Al Sharpton; it’s community organizing; it’s the UN; unions; Bill Ayers; Rev. Wright. It’s George Soros. It’s Barack Hussein Obama.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cleanliness Is Next To...

One way one may classify groups and attach labels to them is by the way they behave. There have now been two marches on Washington recently, the first said to have been organized by Glenn Beck; the second by a variety of factions, most loyal to the president of the United States, consisting of union members and a variety of left-leaning organizations, communists, socialists, student groups, community organizers and welfare recipients.

No doubt, there is some significance in who was there first, as there was some significance in the raw numbers of those attending each event. It has been generally acknowledged that the Beck rally was bigger. This could mean that Beck’s followers are more enthused. It could also mean that Beck’s followers have the momentum while last weekend’s rally was no more than an afterthought - a hurried attempt at playing catch up.

Numerical data, however, can be manipulated. Already I hear conflicting assessments. More to the point, perhaps, is the visual part. By all accounts, the people attending the Beck rally were considerate of each other and scrupulously clean, leaving very little (if any) trash behind. Not so the people attending last weekend’s rally. There were said to be literally mountains of trash left behind for others to clean up.

This fact alone clearly betrays a state of mind. Last weekend’s marchers apparently thought of them selves as ‘entitled‘. They seemed okay with leaving a mess.

A common observation by Westerners is that India is ‘dirty‘. This, despite handleless brooms being available in virtually every shop, and those same brooms being in motion several times a day, moving trash from one place to another. Philosophically, it may be attributed to a bias toward maintaining internal spaces (the mind) rather than the street. Culturally, it could indicate the expectation that someone of a lower caste will clean up. Middle and upper class Indians seldom do things for themselves. They employ maids, cooks and drivers. It never occurs to them to pick up after themselves, to wash dishes, clothes, etc.

Dependence is not a circumstance that will get us far. Already, it has a become a problem in India finding help. In Bombay, the maids have organized into unions. It is they who are likely to dictate terms: “I don’t do windows.”

Back in the ‘90’s, I took the kids out West for a tour of the National Parks. We rented a car and spent about three months on the road. I was surprised in flipping through the stations on the radio how many music formats were dedicated entirely to the to the ’60’s and ‘70’s. New music was almost impossible to find. It may just be that Californians have never grown up. What they have term as ‘progressive’ is merely a throw-back to a bygone era - glorious as it was in its certainty of immortal youth, promise and fantasy. It’s always hard to change when one stubbornly decides to dig in one’s heels and swim against the tide. I don’t remember all those Haight-Asbury apartments as having been all too clean.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

POTUS Is Trying His Best

Obama is a big supporter of unions. This is hardly surprising in view of the fact that unions poured untold sums into his campaign. Now they expect something in return. POTUS is trying his best.

What no one seems to realize is that what you do to one, you’re also doing to the other. Favoring the union at the expense of all others will end up bankrupting both. Obama’s vision in this regard is extremely near-sighted. I think he feels that if he can fake it through the next election cycle, he’s home free.

From what I hear - as is the case in the country in general - there’s a split between the rank-and-file and the leadership. The former see their fortunes waning while seeing their leaders supporting policies they themselves oppose. Union membership, where it applies, is mandated; as is the withholding of union dues and all the rest.

Union members understand that if their salaries and benefit packages end up bankrupting the nation, they will find themselves out on the streets as well. At the same time, if their signed contracts are forced into renegotiation, a basic premise of American commerce begins to erode. If existing contracts can not be enforced, who will even bother to sign? Might as well have mob rule (which depends on how many knee caps can be broken), or shariah.

The point is, we’re still pretending that any of this can be saved, when we should be checking our survival equipment. To keep this illusion of ‘plenty’ going will from now on require an ever more intricate complex of smoke and mirrors. The time is long passed for simple solutions.

The stray dogs on Chennai’s Breezy Beach observe a different drummer. They pay no attention to humans, or to the dogs belonging to humans. They pay attention only to themselves. They exist in a parallel universe which one is privileged only to observe. The American public too must prepare for the inevitable break with its leadership. They will not be brutal as the French were in the aftermath of their revolution. They’ll be content to watch their self-proclaimed elite masters spin off into irrelevancy - a pod, crammed with polls, news media and professorial types, all jettisoned from the mother ship to tumble out into deep space has-been.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Used And Abused

We take so many things for granted: a soft, clean bed when we’re tired; a drop of water when we’re thirsty; a praline when we’re feeling peckish; bread when we’re hungry. All this comes to mind while watching Volker Schloendorff’s “The Ninth Day” (German; ’05).

Water is a weapon; food is a weapon; oil is a weapon. We thought it couldn’t get any worse with Bush in office. It’s worse now, and we’re already desperate for a turn-around - after midterms; after 2012. Have we finally hit bottom? Or will our slide continue? Oil is spilling into the Gulf. Fish and birds are dying. Industry is dying. Cities and towns – entire States; the country – are going bankrupt. Services cut. Taxes are up. Public services are struggling to meet ever increasing demand.

Turn-around in November; 2012. New York’s Andrew Cuomo is saying all the right things. Scratch a little deeper and you find he’s joined at the hip with public sector unions.

No budget in New York yet; no federal budget till after elections. Uncertainty. Dead canaries in the mines; on Wall Street; in the stores along Main Street that are closing their doors forever.

People are waking up – even those who initially supported President Obama’s agenda. I found it fascinating when this past Tuesday the influential Business Roundtable issued a critique of a whole host of Obama/Democrat initiatives, concluding, “In our (BRT’s) judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of these policies are simply too significant to ignore.”

Much of America – including business leaders – had been up front shilling for the administration on a variety of issues, believing it best to play ball with what they perceived to be the new reality in Washington. They enthusiastically propagandized for ObamaCare, for ClimateCare, fiscal overhaul, stimulus, etc., believing they could escape the consequences of such potentially disastrous policies by striking deals (with the devil). They did so, often at the expense of support from their own members. AARP, AMA, Big Oil, Religion and Wall Street come immediately to mind. Every one of these is now beginning to have second thoughts. They are beginning to understand that they have been used shamelessly. Red-faced, they now realize that the lowly rank and file had been ahead of the curve all along.

This is how governments fall – when trust between the leadership and those faithfully paying the dues is broken. At that point the leadership becomes illegitimate. In our country too, the unions will find that they are being used and abused; that ‘equality’ in Obama’s view does not mean equality with the fat cats on any American Street but, rather, equality with ‘the workers of the world’, some, earning less than a dollar a day. They will find that their living standard, far from rising, will fall. And all this, despite having carried the water for an administration that is only out for itself.

Conspiracy Nutcase

Do I detect a pattern? I’ve been accused of being a conspiracy nutcase. But there appears to be a pattern nonetheless. Case and point: The so-called near world banking collapse installs Barack Hussein Obama in office amid the jubilant cries of the hopeful. Since assuming office, the crisis is said to have been averted, but every policy decision appears to be having precisely the opposite effect. New York State is said to go bankrupt by Monday. Other states are on the brink. In New Jersey, for instance, we have a governor who says all the right things but risks the wrath of the public sector unions as well as that of homeowners who can be expected to pay higher taxes for lesser services. In our town the local library has cut its hours of operation.

The ‘solutions’ being so vociferously discussed and fought over do not address the fundamental issue. They merely delay the inevitable. Money that is saved will immediately go to plug some other hole. And the whole thing is predicated on the expectation that the economy will gradually improve. Not much chance of that. Looks to me rather like the doubling down on a death spiral.

There has been much talk of ‘disaster’ lately. First there was the constant harangue about what we can expect if ‘global warming’ were to continue. After that particular ploy fell apart, there was the ‘disaster’ in the Gulf. Are these two connected? True, the first was theoretical; the second is real. Question: Was the second concocted to maintain the momentum of the first? Will it now become possible for our government to pass ‘cap and trade’, a scheme to rake untold billions into government coffers, quite without regard to what it will do to the private sector economy?

Additionally, there’s been trouble along our southern border with Mexico. Should it escalate into ‘disaster’, will that be the signal to cram immigration reform onto the books that (some say) would add millions of Democrat voters to the rolls, assuring (for lack of a better word) ‘Democrat’ control of over U.S. governance in perpetuity?

The pattern appears to be ‘disaster’, followed predictably by a blizzard of regulation, all designed to benefit one party. I will go further: These regulations, by the very definition of the word, are designed to limit the people’s freedoms. Whereas it can be said that the Bush administration also spent our money like a drunken sailor, what’s been happening since literally dwarfs all previous spending. It may have still been possible to grow ourselves out of Bush’s excesses by prudent policies designed to encourage economic growth. But now, most agree that even that hope has all but faded.

Lastly: Is it being deliberately done? In my view, yes. If this makes me a nut job, so be it. Just as there are alternate energy solutions out there (to my mind, illusory) - like wind, solar panels and perpetual motion machines – there are alternate economic models as well. There is the Islamic model involving such concepts as zakat and gharar, strikingly similar to communism and the overall concept of wealth re-distribution. There is feudalism and barter – all designed to concentrate power among the elite few. The vast bulk of us, reduced to worker bees, would exist solely for the benefit of the State which then decides whether we live of die.

A frontal assault on the very concept of democracy, I fear, is perilously close. It will assert itself with a vengeance within the next couple of years when we are likely to find that our choices at the ballot box are severely limited or inconsequential. It may also take the form of canceled elections. We remain under assault.

This is not to say that we remain victims. In fact, I believe, our present economic malaise is more due to our own determination to put on the brakes – passive resistance: not buying; not spending; not expanding our businesses; not investing; and, in some cases, not working. We are sitting on our hands. We are refusing to contribute to the success of a government whose policies we despise. We hold the reigns. If things continue to go the way they might, we may even decide not to vote.

Soapbox Derby

Lou - I appreciate your comment. However, you make two assumptions that do not necessarily hold water. First, the market did not ‘recover’. It went down almost 350 points yesterday. Today, it went down another 140 even despite all the optimistic talk about the latest unemployment numbers. Second, there is not only one single enemy attacking us. We are being attacked from all sides by a broad base of bad actors - including from within. We’re quite on the ropes already.

Picture one of those soapbox derby races we used to get roped into back when we were Boy Scouts. We’re going downhill, hoping that our wheels don’t fall off before we reach bottom. They won’t come off this time. The skids have been carefully greased and each little push only makes us go faster. They’re all out there pushing: the progressives, the communists, the unions, the anarchists, the atheists, the illegals, the environmentalists, the gays, the blacks, the browns – every malcontent who’s ever had a hung toenail is pushing. …and while they’re pushing, they’re spitting at our flag.

It doesn’t stop there. Internationally, we’re being pushed as well. Look at the military build-up to our south - courtesy of Russia and Iran - in the fallen dominoes of South and Central America. Look at who’s threatening our allies around the world. Look at the oil exploration about to begin practically in our own backyard by the likes of China, while our own hands remain tied. The Deepwater Horizon ‘accident’ sealed out fate in this regard. Instead, we’ll now concentrate on building windmill farms. Pretty soon it’ll be raining birds.

One plan is to choke off our energy supply. I can’t see it any other way. It’s already been decided at the highest levels of our own government that we should come begging for our energy needs. The rationale is that it would save the planet, but it’s really not that. It’s to diminish our influence and power. Some would say, it is to destroy us as a nation; to reduce us to that gushing wound that once was America; or Greece; or Rome or Great Britain (the empire on which the sun never sets).

The Islamists and the communists are all in this together. Their mission is to destroy America; capitalism. Once that’s done, they’ll sort out the differences amongst themselves by killing each other. We’re so rattled now that every time someone drops a pack of Lucky Strikes on the sidewalk somewhere, we close down Times Square. Don’t tell me it’s not having an effect.

We can be reasonably certain by now that our president is a communist. Until I see his birth certificate you can’t convince me that he isn’t a Muslim as well.

Lighting Fuses

Again, the storm will not pass by November. Wherever there's a Democrat running, the
Democrat will lose. Democrat losses will be so overwhelming, neither the best efforts of the unions and ACORN are likely to make a difference. The only thing of interest to watch for is how many moderate Republicans survive. It is they who will have to run against ill-financed conservatives and tea party types. My prediction is that moderate, reach-across-the-aisle Republican career politicians are likely to meet the same fate as Democrats in general.

POTUS will not pick someone who is acceptable to Republicans for the bench. He will pick a radical and attempt to have his majority in Congress ram it through. It will be a repeat of the health care cram-down. In the end, the Dems will get it done. They are still clinging to the belief that if the public sees results, they will vote Democrat in November. Though counterintuitive at this point, it is nevertheless what both POTUS and their leadership are telling them.

The Democrat's first instinct now is to back off. Obama won't let them. He will squeeze his Democrat majority for all it's worth. The smart ones know this. They have already decided to retire. The rest will be urged to remember that Obama won the election and thus deserves to have his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy approved. Republicans, lacking in numbers, may finally put up a good fight but, in the end, they will fall short.

The problem with most of the Democrat Party today is that they’re in denial. They will not admit that their party has been hijacked by wildly radical elements. Neither do they understand that the American people are aware of it and that they are singularly determined to do something about it.

Democrats are living in an echo chamber. They talk to each other and they talk to the main stream press. They still think that the opposition is limited to a handful of Rush Limbaugh listeners. The money from cash rich foundations is still coming in. They do not recognize the grass roots tsunami that’s building to sweep them away.

The White House knows it, but doesn’t care. For them, November is still centuries away. They’ve got a lot planned between then and now and they will push for all of it. The more outrage and chaos they can create, the better it suits them. It’s all about breaking the nerve of the American people; it’s about lighting fuses so, by the time November arrives, POTUS will be able to declare a national emergency and postpone elections indefinitely.

Tipping Point

I think we have a problem with our indiscriminate use of nomenclature here. I’m referring to the use of the word ‘trigger’. For the second time today this word has come up, first in connection with an event that would bring about civil strife here in the U.S., and now again in connection with something that would seal the financial collapse of a nation or currency. The problem as I see it is that by the use of the word ‘trigger’, you absolve all past sins while placing blame on a single specified (or unspecified) event. This is not fair or accurate.

Greece has been spending money like a drunken sailor for far too long. By doing so, they have managed to maintain the peace and tranquility that its socialist unions are forever threatening to disrupt. This has now reached a ‘tipping point’. Pouring more and more sugar into the weighing pan, the scale will lose its equilibrium and begin to tip. Increasing the weight on the other side will bring it back into balance. If that weight happens to be debt (or negative weight), the only option is to remove a portion of the sugar. The laws of economics are immutable. Gimmicks will only work as long as it is possible to confuse or distract the public.

We here in America are faced with a similar problem. Only here, it was the politicians who were pouring sugar onto the scales. We too have reached and (some say) surpassed our ‘tipping point’. Since our problem was politically driven – government corruption: buying votes, bribery, etc. – the blood you’re seeing is being (figuratively) spilled on the Senate and House floors (while in Greece, the blood is being spilled on the streets). It ultimately filters through and comes to one and the same: blood everywhere.

Time and time again, fancy financial accounting gimmicks were created to facilitate kicking the stink bomb farther on down the road. Well, we have reached a dead end. The damage done can no longer be masked by fancy arithmetic. Simply put, we’ve spent too much and don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever paying it back.

Lost in all the gimmickry is the willful ignorance of the value of money which is maintained only by hard work, prudent risk-taking and talent. If there is no appreciation of value, we might as well scrap the whole system and go back to bartering. But first, we are destined to endure a cycle of blame involving ‘triggers’, political pariahs, and even the trappings of success itself. Meanwhile the scale remains buried.

Along With Everybody Else

A friend of mine is in the middle of a divorce. He realized early on that the marriage is no longer working. He suggested that he and his wife just split up and lead separate lives. To sweeten the deal, he offered to pay her a lump sum.

But no! She wanted a formal divorce in a court of law. She wanted this mainly because he did not want it; and because she thought that, in court, she could win a bigger settlement than what my friend was offering.

During litigation, everything is exposed. It was discovered, for instance, that my friend had been running an all-cash business for all these years; he had never filed income tax.

An accountant was hired to assess the situation. He presented his findings to the judge, to which the judge remarked (addressing the woman in particular), “The only thing that is to be divided up here is debt. You will be expected to pay your share.”

Unions generally make the same mistake. They assume that the company’s financial coffers are bottomless. They typically continue to agitate even after the dregs have been disbursed. After the golden goose has been strangled, they content themselves with staging a puppet show for a while. Once the thrill of that wears off, they find themselves standing out in the breadline along with everybody else.