Value vs. Money

Again, this assumes that government can create jobs. Government cannot create jobs. It can create a climate conducive to job creation or it can do the opposite. The jobs government creates are not ‘real’ jobs. They are jobs dependent on political patronage.

Government can insert itself and re-distribute the wealth created by real jobs in the private sector, but it cannot create or re-distribute ‘value‘. The honest money poured into unproductive sectors is money wasted. The tipping point is reached when too much wastage starves the private sector (where value is created) out of existence.

With the rise of autocratic dictatorial regimes at the expense of democracies, it is inevitable that job creation suffers. This political trend has now also taken root in Washington.

America was well known throughout the world as a place where it was still possible to come and make something of oneself. The business climate was considered to be ‘friendly‘. This is changing. High taxes and regulations have virtually ground business in America to a halt. In order to stay in business these days you have to first ingratiate yourself to the party in power and then wait for them to give you your arbitrary allotment of wavers and handouts. It’s called crony capitalism and it never works well.

There’s no mystery as to how capitalism functions and how ‘real’ value is generated. A man goes to work for a firm and receives a salary. His salary is predicated on how much he can be expected to contribute to the firm’s bottom line. If his skills are independent of the firm’s structure, he can eventually go out and start his own business. He will then begin to hire people keeping the same principle in mind: he will pay them a percentage of what they can be expected to contribute to the new firm’s success.

An athlete is paid according to how many people his presence can bring into the stadium. An actor is paid according to how many people his talent can attract to movie theaters. It is their talent that is valuable. The money generated by any such transactions can go up in smoke in an instant. The value of individual talent, skill and perseverance remains. A good actor will always eat.

Not many of us are blessed with outstanding attributes such as John Batchelor’s golden-throated voice and keen wit; or even with the ability to think effectively on our feet. Yet, we too can be a part of the system. We have other, perhaps less spectacular, attributes to deal. And we too, if we apply ourselves, can earn a modest, but secure, living.

Enter big government that blocks all normal processes and throws the whole system into confusion. Now nobody can be secure. The rules change with the political winds. It’s difficult to plan and even harder to trust - and the whole thing breaks down to be replaced by … what?

At this point, it could be anything - a new currency, gold, indentured servitude, work camps. With capitalism discredited, one’s work can no longer save one. Things are apt to become a whole lot more arbitrary and complicated. For one thing, America may soon not have to worry about its immigration problem as opportunity continues to fade; and there won’t be much left to bother blowing up anymore.
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A note about education: Education no longer teaches discipline and skills. Education has become so devalued in America (and elsewhere) that it represents little more than a (hall) pass for entrance into the entrenched elite classes‘ washrooms. Additionally, education nowadays consists primarily of learning to spout political propaganda points.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Eli's Comin'!

All posturing aside. I, for one, am growing increasingly uncomfortable with our political situation. Our deepest fears are never spoken. When in the past I have written of America devolving into some Venezuelan-type autocracy, I have done so as a warning of what may be in the mind of our president, keeping in mind that there is yet another side that may serve to counter it. Incredibly, what I have been saying about Obama’s Democrats has come true by degrees. Incredibly, the Dems have shown a willingness to go along with almost everything, progressives and Blue Dogs alike. Incredibly, the MSM has not yet turned against them. Incredibly, Republicans are still taking the bait.

It is all well and good that there is now a third party that seems to have some grip on reality. The Tea Party reflects the nation’s general unease. Yet the pundits dismiss it as a flash-in-the-pan; as either amusement or poison that has the real potential to split Obama’s opposition.

The continued criticism of our own is, frankly, disheartening. But, what is even more ominous is the unwillingness to realistically assess the man in The White House and to acknowledge that, no matter what happens in November, he will still hold all the cards.

Even the Dems are running from him this political season. Should not also Republicans be running? And yet I see no sign of it. They are happily snapping up the bait, taking good advantage of the voter’s mood.

I have previously spoken of the tsunami that hit the eastern coast of India some years ago. The water was said to have been sucked out to sea as far as the eye could see. The curious walked out there in blind wonder. I remember when Route 24 was first being built, the kids and I would go out there and innocently play ball and ride our bikes. Meanwhile, the deer already knew not to go there - like the beach dogs in Chennai, racing up our street en masse, away from the ocean. The people had a nasty surprise coming when the sea returned. Most didn’t survive it.

It’s the same with our Republican candidates. They don’t seem to have a clue about what they’re getting themselves into. They seem to think they’ll be going to the market for some normall horse trading. It never occurs to them to question how easy it was for them to get in(to the trap).

The Pledge to America was a naïve attempt to give some purpose to their mission. Haven’t they noticed that nobody paid much attention? That they had missed the mark? Horse trading is no longer the issue. The fuses are lit; the big tent is on fire. The Blue Dogs are howling and pulling on their chains. Eli’s comin‘!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Rats Fleeing

The departure of key personnel from the White House also marks the abandonment of the last vestige of any relevant metrics with regard to polls, vote count (Rahm and Axelrod), the economy (Summers), the war in Afghanistan (Gates) by which to evaluate the success or failure of the Obama administration. From now on the White House will be operating purely on faith. Faith does not require data, logic or reason as a basis for decision making. All it requires is the blunt outline of an ideology.

This, simply put, means that Obama will likely continue to do what he alone feels is right. He will no longer be required to pay attention to voters’ concerns or to statistics that define traditional economic realities, or actual conditions on foreign battlefields.

This shifts our Republic to an autocracy. If the president, even after elections, refuses to work with Congress, or even bypasses Congress altogether; if he refuses to listen to the wisdom of experts; if he chooses to ignore the complaints of the electorate, then we are all at the mercy of a single, possibly mad, mind.

As Hermann Hesse so eloquently puts it in “Steppenwolf”, his true magnum opus (as opposed to “The Glass Bead Game” which is commonly considered as such), “All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require a medium of theories, mythologies and lies…”

We now know that Obama is not the 'savior'. He may not even be the smartest among us. To trust any single man to steer our nation of 50 States is pure madness. The one item that was missing from the Republican plan - the most important item - was to immediately initiate impeachment procedures.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lindsey Graham Speaks

I see it differently. For two years now, POTUS has not paid any attention to us. We called, we e-mailed, we marched, we participated in town hall events, we voted for opposition candidates (and we will do so again). There is no indication that anyone is listening. It’s almost as if we don’t exist. We can vent on talk radio and write endless letters to the editor, blogs - all in vain. We buy gold and save our money. We refuse to hire, expand our businesses or start new ones - none of it makes any difference.

So what makes you think it matters a tinker’s cuss what Lindsey Graham says. He talks precisely because it makes no difference what he says, or even if he says anything at all. Anyone holding elected office in Congress right now is completely irrelevant. That’s why congressional elections in November are irrelevant.

Face it folks, we are now living under an autocracy! Obama is king. Nothing anybody else may say has meaning. It may be either ignored or punished, depending on the autocrat’s mood. It may well be that midterm election results will tick him off. It may nudge him from aloof to retaliatory mode. The America we once knew is over. We can’t mock Bush anymore.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Moratorium

Man is by nature a deceptive animal. We wear masks which, if we were to let slip, would show us to be the same as everyone else. We are literally obsessed with masks to the point of confusing the mask with what lies beneath. This is good news for politicians who survive by division. They use what is obvious (and, at the same time, not so obvious) to divide us into indefensible camps in order to build a political base for themselves. POTUS is no different.

We are most sensitive about that which we cannot change. The indelible mark of gender and race are primary in our struggle to maintain the appearance of dignity. Culture and religion come in a close second; political orientation comes in third, and so on… By such superficial factors we allow ourselves to be herded into separate rooms, to be used and abused in the privacy of someone’s yawning void. When, in fact, biologically speaking, the differences between us are so minute, they hardly bear mention.

We are all equally human, though this is hardly apparent from the masks we are given and compelled to dance in accordance with. We are taught to hate, act fierce and threatening; or to seduce with words and delicate pirouette; smile; march; kill (always, we are told, for a higher purpose).

Our various protocols are constructed to hide the fact that we are predatory by nature. Our masks mask that aggression is ugly and hides inadequacy - which once again makes us victims to someone’s political ambitions - someone whose own inadequacy compels him to commit ever greater crimes to which we willingly accept the role of accomplice.

There can no longer be any doubt that Obama is not as was advertised: the benign ruler of a complex nation. He would fit much more comfortably into an autocracy (of which, sadly, there are many). But even this eludes him. ‘He is slender and flaccid at the same time; and gives the uncomfortable impression of being invertebrate. In private, he makes use of dialectical materialism to put an end to any discussion.

‘The reasons one can have for hating a man - or loving him - are infinite. Obama reduces the history of the universe to a sordid economic conflict. He affirms that the revolution is predestined to succeed. He dictates opinions with scorn and a certain anger.’*

If Barack Hussein Obama were an American president in the true tradition of American presidents, he would impose a moratorium on mosque building - not oil drilling.
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*Again I am compelled to borrow from Jorge Luis Borges; this time, from “The Shape of the Sword”.

The Resurrection of Michael Mann

Mann, after seeing himself totally discredited, suddenly realizes that all is not lost. The intelligentsia, the powerful, the establishment, the irascible ueber-elite still support him. They do so, perhaps, in the attempt to mitigate the embarrassment of having been duped. Or by an unwillingness to abandon what they have long considered to be one of the indispensable tenets that supports their nihilism. Even as Mann sees popular support eroding, he has confidence that political realities have progressed sufficiently toward autocracy in which simple (and, in this particular case, blatantly false) declarations hold sway.

Mann must feel as a man reborn to serve a higher cause; one, that can no longer be said to be dominated by the mere search for truth. At the time, nobody foresaw what Obama meant when famously proclaimed in his inauguration speech, “We will restore science to its rightful place…”. Now we know. Science was to become merely a tool - not to beat back the frontiers of ignorance, but - to advance political agendas.

The agenda is to underline that America from its inception has always been wasteful and corrupt; so much so, in fact, as to deserve being knocked down a peg or two; that America’s illegitimate wealth must now be taken away and shared with others, worldwide. The theory of ’climate change’ was to be the narrative that draws it all together and justify the outright theft of our nation.

Back when Dan Rather made up stories about Bush’s military service in order to discredit him, the excuse was that the spirit of the broadcast segment remained essentially on point: that the president is and had always been an ignorant and lazy bum. Dan was made to retire because of this. Today, even the pretense of accurate reporting seems to have slipped by the wayside.