Stinks To High Heaven

‘Purposeful’? Please! The (UK) Telegraph reports that Barack Obama is set to release up to 2000 photographs of prisoner abuse by U.S. military personnel. This comes at a time when he decides not to release pictures of the dead Osama bin Laden. While it is likely that both issues are still in flux – as the WH has been known to waver – the fact that this is even being discussed at this time is nothing short of a slap at America.

There is your reason for why former President Bush will not be seen with Obama (at Ground Zero or anywhere. I would even go so far as to suggest that everyone stay away from today’s wreath laying.) I have often said that the primary aim of this post-American administration is to sow chaos. We have chaos in our financial markets; we have chaos in our energy sector; we have chaos in our government… Everywhere you look there is chaos and no attempt is being made to steer away from what appears to be total collapse.

This incident involving the release of photographs shows as clearly as anything I have seen what Obama is up to overall. It can no longer be regarded as isolated happenstance; a mistake; second thoughts; inexperience – what have you. The pattern is unmistakable.

There is now an attempt to pull Pakistan into it. It is said, they couldn’t possibly NOT have been involved. Pakistan could actually be cleaner than we think. Maybe Pakistan knew that bin Laden was already dead. They were simply paid not to interfere with Obama’s Hollywood photo shoot. I’ve seen the pictures purported to be of the dead bin Laden. I see a dead man. I don’t necessarily see bin Laden. For all I know, it could all be a hoax. The argument against it, of course, is that too many people had to have been involved. Somebody would be bound to talk.

It’s not that there haven’t been hoaxes before. Do I have to list them? ‘Global warming’, for one. Many also suspect the financial meltdown just before the 2008 election. What about the current American presidency itself? You would have to agree that the way in which Obama was elected was highly unusual. (No background checks; no checks at all.) And you’ve got to ask yourself: Would America really have elected a Marxist, had they known? Come to think of it, the last thing I saw on television that was real was the World Trade Towers coming down. Since then, it’s all been pap, and us trying so hard to believe that we haven’t been played for fools.

BTW, I continue to be astounded by Larry Kudlow’s continued optimism. I see nothing on the horizon that would justify this. I agree that if a proper election were held in 2012, our skies would brighten. At this point the leg of a stool would be an improvement over the current WH occupant. And yet, every day we are told that Obama could and will win reelection. I, for one, am wondering if we’ll even make it that far.

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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.

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Sheep

I can envision several scenarios by which our current president could secure for himself a second term.

1. From our recent experience in Egypt, we have learned that the most organized party usually wins. The Left (or Democrats) are organized to the hilt. The in-fighting among Republicans has already begun.

2. A third-party candidate (like Trump) could enter the race and split the Republican Party. Result: Obama is president for another four years.

3. Things between then and now could become so chaotic, we might decide to postpone elections indefinitely.

4. Or, the media could re-cast Obama as the prodigal son, now embracing all the ‘right’ policies while, at the same time, demonizing Republicans and painting them as dangerously cruel and ‘extreme‘. Obama himself could help his cause by tracking to the right in public pronouncements, and promises which he obviously never intends to keep. You and I know that, but the drones will go for it in droves. Besides, we’re constantly hearing what a super guy Obama is; that it’s only his policies that are misguided.

There are probably several other ways Obama could get himself ‘re-elected’, ways that I haven’t even yet thought of. Outright election fraud comes immediately to mind. It could even be a combination of some or all of the above. I wouldn’t be surprised if the strategy has been already scripted (like the last election was) and is sitting in some lib bureaucrat’s bottom drawer somewhere. What we can be sure of that it’s there, just waiting to be implemented (if it hasn’t been already).

Remind, there were people in our country who applauded after the World Trade Center was hit. Those same people have exponentially increased in numbers. They see themselves as having momentum (they won’t let go), while the rest of us are becoming more and more marginalized.

Obama’s election wasn’t a fluke. Everything that brought it about is still in play. There has been no epiphany among the great unwashed (sheep).

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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.

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Governor Scott Walker: Not Intimidated

Wisconsin is the clearest indication yet of a game that has been unfolding for some time. The object of the game is to win. Thank God, in Scott Walker we have a governor who is intent on winning this battle! He seems not to be about kicking the can down the road; he is not easily intimidated; and he appears to remain focused on the job at hand despite threats and ungainly public displays (by vocal minorities).

This drama is bound to repeat itself in other state capitols as well. It’s good that this happened first in Wisconsin where, I predict, Walker will win in the end.

The game pits public service unions against taxpayers. Any reasonable observer must know that, in our system, the taxpayer cannot simply be shunted aside. States, unlike the federal government, cannot print money to gloss over fiscal carelessness. The good health of the private sector taxpayer remains essential to the good fiscal health of the state. Inequities must be addressed.

Democrats, their union supporters and welfare clients, continue to be ill informed about basic economic principles. They seem equally ill informed about the job they were hired to do. Teachers, for instance, are supposed to teach our children. I suspect that most are trying to make an honest go of it, but are constantly undermined by a bureaucracy whose only aim in life is to fleece the public, protect its turf, and promote agendas. In essence, you have the tail wagging the dog. Despite all the money spent, Wisconsin’s record of achievement in public education remains far from exemplary.

Democrats, too, seem uninformed about the basics of the democratic process. As such, elections mean nothing to them. They are quite willing to block any legitimate legislative process by outlandish tricks. We’ve seen the same on the federal level.

It struck me today that I’m not in the habit of counting my change before sticking it in my pocket. I realized that’s because it never made much difference to me. Now I wonder how many times I’ve been cheated; how much money I might have thrown away in this fashion over the course of a lifetime? Had I ever had to budget carefully (as most do), I might not have been so flippant.

Our governments have been doing the same. They’ve played fast and loose with our money for years. Now, suddenly, the wolf is at the door. A million here, a million there - it all adds up when you no longer have a million.

Wisconsin represents an important milestone in the fight to return to some semblance of fiscal sanity. There’s a minority among us who do not agree that this has now become important. They may be ignorant; or, they might well believe themselves to be operating under a system that has not yet been adequately explained. A third possibility is that they are deliberately trying to collapse our existing system and create chaos.

No matter who ultimately wins in Wisconsin, at least one thing will be clear: the players on both sides have had to show their faces. POTUS has demonstrated a definite preference. Might this not also explain our current approach to foreign policy?

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'Ajami': The Dark Ages

Excellent summary of what’s happening in the Maghreb, and analogy to ‘LA wildfire’ or wildfires in general. As in a wildfire, there’s not much fire departments can do. They’ll make a brave show of it, but their biggest partner in ultimate success is either concrete or a squall. Summary excludes the firebrands. We are looking forward and wondering how the chaos will end. Speculation in the middle going forward is never helpful. It’s like crossing a busy street with one’s eyes closed.

The same thing happened (and is still happening to some extent) with regard to our own housing meltdown. Our chronicle of same invariably starts in the middle, with the banks. Mention of the government’s role still lies buried in the bin of unmentionables (unless it’s Bush, of course).

Who stands to benefit from the chaos in the Maghreb and elsewhere? Who started it? Answer those questions and you arrive at the solution to the riddle of how it is likely to end. Who is the most organized; the most brutal? If the timeline going forward is predictable, the start and finish of the thing is apt to involve the same player(s).

For those who still believe that nothing has essentially changed; that things will return to some semblance of stability; that the next U.S. president will restore us to our former selves, take heed. Events, both here and abroad, are not unrelated or reversible. Houses burnt in a wildfire remain burnt. Rebuilding is arduous and there remains the question of whether homeowners would even retain an appetite for risking going through the whole thing again. Many will, of course. But many others will decide to relocate, leaving a scar of abandonment on the land.

Saw “Ajami” (2009), a film by Scandar Copti (a Christian Israeli Arab) and Yaron Shani. Critics compare this film to ‘Boyz N the Hood’ (LA), ‘The Wire’ (Baltimore) of ‘City of God’ (Rio de Janeiro). I’ve only seen the latter. All are said to be about gangs and gang justice. “Ajami“ happens to be set on the outskirts of an Arab ghetto in the Israeli city of Jaffa.

“Ajami” is not a great film, but certainly better than average. What jumped out at me was that it represented what many fear will be the “new world order” in which there still are people, money, and crime. Whereas in our system, the value of money is based on work, talent and the ability to innovate, in the “new world order” money will be based on protection. It will be a violent world and not one in which most of us can easily compete. It is the world of brutality, domination, oppression and ever changing players. This does not bode well for the individual, for human rights, dignity, and progress. The Dark Ages come immediately to mind - and, once initiated, it can last for a very long time.

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Too Big To Fail?

The prevailing sentiment in America today is that we are ‘too big to fail'. Failure, in fact, is no longer an option. It is off the table. So if there should be a failure, the task is not to find out why, reverse course, and try again; but rather to clothe failure in some semblance of success by introducing such terms as ‘new norm’, ‘outright lie’, and ‘unexpected’. Metrics, like ‘consumer confidence’ and ‘jobs saved’, come to the fore as being the lynchpins in maintaining the illusion of life in what is essentially dead.

As such, we overlook the fact that our government has failed, that our economy is failing, that our media and system of education are not doing the job despite the billions poured into them. We also overlook overwhelming public sentiment that we are fooling ourselves and projecting an image that is paper thin where substance is concerned.

We spend huge sums on Super Bowl half-time shows that are bereft of talent; and, as such, embarrassing. The person hired to sing our National Anthem never even bothered to learn the words properly.

Our economy has become so much paper-mâché, it would take a mere breeze to punch through it. All the signs of pathology are there in plain sight. A house bought in 1960 for $36,000 has not been improved or grown in size. Yet, on today’s market it would fetch 10 times as much. Same with cars, a gallon of gas, milk, cigarettes - you name it. Nothing has essentially changed. A house is still a house, a car is still a car, milk is still milk, etc. What has changed is the money it takes to buy these things. It has lost value. It has become wholly arbitrary, relative to the value of any given item.

Money is the only metric it is still possible for us to manipulate; to give the impression that we are doing well. The ‘fixes’ have become wildly irrational (the HuffPost-AOL deal, for example). People no longer have confidence in what we’re doing is right. They’ve decoupled. They’re sitting on their hands, hobbled by uncertainty, distrust, and a sense of revolution. This is something taking place within our own country right now - that no one wishes to acknowledge. It’s a bloodless revolution, but no less effective. And it will ultimately bring the house down.

It no longer matters what Bernanke does, or how much or little he does. It doesn’t even matter if he’s there or not. Ditto, Obama. What matters is that the people are no longer behind any of it. And, without popular support, the whole system winds down and descends into chaos.

There is now some question as to if it’s being done deliberately or not. It might just be that America’s enemies are riding a wave, claiming credit.

In a world turned upside-down, the relative vitality of a thing is now measured by how much enthusiasm can be drummed up to destroy it. This would put Hosni Mubarak right up there, along with Sara Palin and Michelle Bachmann.

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Too Civilized

It seems we have become too ‘civilized’ to fight wars with guns. In fact, guns are now classified as being pretty much in the same category as Chinese toxic toys. So, what do we do now? How do we fight?

We now use food, currencies, unemployment, propaganda and promises as weapons. And even so, there must be blood. We haven’t yet given up entirely on the puritanical idea of requiring the blood of a sacrificial lamb - a price paid - to give substance to any effort. Israel.

America is losing. America will survive, but in greatly diminished state. Our anachronistic weapons will no longer save us. Our money is worthless. We are dispirited. We are forever reacting. We have no plan. Go with the flow; jump aboard. Better late than never. The flow is toward chaos. Hang on! We are going down.

It is now our official policy, to draw back; to hide in the reeds, watching as our house of cards collapses. We have no strategy, no will - only ideology; ideology which says that whatever anybody else does is good. We have been wrong all along. Bush. The terrorists are right. They, at least, are fighting for a cause. We have no cause. We have no religion. The almighty dollar crashes and burns like the twin towers in Lower Manhattan.

We hate ourselves. We promote the chief haters to important positions. We teach our kids to hate themselves - their country, their parents, their heritage.

Change. It’s coming. It’s been coming for a long time. We hope for the best: collective salvation; deus ex machina in the form of Islam, perhaps?

It no longer matters how we got here. The dominos are falling. I’m currently reading a delightful book, a novel by R. K. Narayan, “A Tiger for Malgudi”. The headmaster of the school is hiding in the rafters, watching the the sage lead the beast to safety. The town’s folk, skeptical at first, marvel at the ease with which their humble ‘savior’ handles the animal which turns out to be smarter than all the bureaucratic heads, paralyzed by fear, put together.

So we fight; for fight we must. To get what we want; or to keep what we believe to be ours. We use all our modern tools to our best advantage, even while we now openly question which side our general is on.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cowering In Egypt

Egypt is in the grip of a classic revolution. It begins with chaos and ends in tyranny. This is not to say that Mubarak represented anything other than tyranny. He knew that it was the only way he could keep his country together - that is, to keep it from descending into the even deeper hell of Tehran’s sadistic hordes. In his particular neighborhood, Mubarak knew, he was essentially spitting into the wind. Not much use in pretending that he would not eventually succumb either to death by natural causes or to go down swinging. He held up his end as long as he could.

When the Left decided to join up with the Muslim Brotherhood, he knew it was over. When the West - and, especially, the United States - turned its back on Israel, he knew it was twice finished. He sent his successor son and his family to safety. He himself would stay and fight and, if need be, go down with the ship.

Not much help from Obama who would pepper his stammering response to the chaos with “the people” to the point where it became embarrassing to listen.

In the past, the U.S. could always be counted on to intervene. It was Mubarak’s reward for making peace with Israel. With Obama’s rise to power, the contract became null and void. Mubarak would have to go it alone.

The plague haunting the world remains anti-Semitism. It’s what unites all the players in the Middle East. Once it became apparent that no one would be spared, the faint-hearted veered to the dark side. Israel was declared a pariah nation and even the West would follow suit.

Israel reminds of an Islamic woman who has sinned. Her fate is determined by shariah. They will want to dig a pit for her. And the bloodlust of their god will be satisfied (now that the secularists have also joined in the clamor).

Besides the Israelis, the secularists will also be losers. They confuse secularism with a total ban of religion. They think that this would help them escape the twin burdens of guilt and duty, not realizing that these, in the hands of men, would become even more oppressive and arbitrary. They further delude themselves in that their 'secular humanism' is much different from religion. It is as crude and intolerant as Islam itself. And its high priests are every bit as extreme as the most radical jihadist.

If you want true 'secular humanism', you need only look to India where it is not unusual for an extremely competent high-tech worker to stop at a temple on his way home to circumambulate the idol of his choosing (always keeping it to the right of him) three times before receiving the priest’s blessing and be sent on his way; or, a humble rickshaw driver inviting his priest to bless his brand new vehicle; or the bus driver stopping at a temple to have his upcoming journey blessed… Religion is woven into daily life. No one mocks it. No one feels slighted. No one is cursed, even if they choose to shun ritual.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not like that. They insist on shariah (for everyone). Atheists are not like that. They insist on religious ritual being hid under a bushel. Communists are not like that. They ban any religion, not understanding the concept of ‘giving unto Caesar…’

Islam is not celebrated for being enlightened or tolerant. It is fear that spreads it. It gives off the illusion of power. Who can resist cowering before madmen after the doors of the asylum are thrown wide open and it becomes no longer possible to avoid them?

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Hall Of Mirrors

The world is like a room of mirrors. You look at an old person and you are reminded that you too will be old some day. You look at a baby and you know that you too were once young.

So it is with nations. They look at themselves in these mirrors which essentially reflect the times of a single observer; or, as Jorge Luis Borges would put it, a “garden of forking paths”.

The history of nations is always the same. All are birthed in blood. It’s just that each one, at any given moment, exists in its own time. This gives the illusion that each one is different.

Egypt is in the grip of revolution. There are good people on both sides - people with vision. It’s the chaos that kills - and even more so: indifference. It’s a time when nihilism prospers, when opportunists make their move, when things can go either way. It’s the reason NFL games are so popular with American viewers, that sense of not knowing; that sense of wishing, praying, wanting so desperately to see what happens and to be on the right side after the dust has settled. It’s been declared a crime to affect the outcome from outside betting parlors. Unless, of course, the outcome you're hoping for is chaos itself - chaos without end; containment - as it now appears to be.

Obama has nothing to add after having set the wheels (of fire) in motion. He is presenting us with a poignant historical spectacle. And yet, we are not amused. Chaos simply isn’t our cup of tea. We reject it in ourselves as we reject it in others. If chaos is Obama’s objective, he must go there alone.
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Perhaps historians were wrong. Perhaps Clinton wasn't the first black president after all. Perhaps it was Jimmy Carter who presided over the first Middle Eastern domino to fall. How long before Obama appears on our TV screens wearing a sweater?

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It's Just Beginning

Today, the training wheels are set to come off - helmet, knee pads, and all. The depth of trouble in which the Obama presidency finds itself will be fully exposed and amplified. This is when Obama will be shown at his most vulnerable - politically speaking. In the short run, his ace in the hole will be foreign affairs. Not surprisingly, the president will be leaving the country soon (with an entourage filling no less than 40 aircraft) to seek safe refuge on non-partisan soil (to give his ego a chance to heal).

Furthermore, after today, expect a full-blown circus the likes of which we haven’t seen since Bush - Gore 2000. As we speak, there are lawyers and activists thick on the ground, ready to contest every vote. Close election results will be challenged. Things will be said that are patently untrue or contrived (similar to the Rachel’s Tomb controversy that was discussed on the JBS for the past two nights). It will serve to throw our whole election process into high confusion. I doubt if the new Congress will be ready to seat for some time to come.

There will be accusations, recounts, court challenges, hanging chads - the whole works, including the proverbial kitchen sink. Expect to be dazzled by the drama, and thoroughly disgusted as well. This election will serve as the template to further discredit our electoral process. It will amount as a textbook case on how to go about overwhelming and rendering useless a system that is essentially based on good will and trust.

The Left will not quit. It will do anything it can, not so much to address legitimate grievances, but to pile on and inject lunacy in order to bring about utter and complete meltdown.

Hang on, folks! It’s only just beginning.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We're Cooked

One does a disservice to Obama to call him a rock star. The proper identifier should actually be ‘revolutionary’. As such, Obama represents far more than a rock n’ roll opera - entertainment for fiberglass-filled talking heads. He represents a clear and present danger to the Republic.

JB has already noted that Obama is likely to turn hard left after Tuesday’s midterm trouncing. He will do so, not only for ideological reasons, but to throw this nation into such chaos the likes of which it hasn’t seen since the Civil War. By the time 2012 rolls around, we will no longer have a functioning representative government, and elections will likely be a thing of the past.

We look at the man and ask, How could a nice young man be doing all that within the span of a single term in office? It is indeed tempting to focus on the lanky figure with the Dumbo ears and draw one’s conclusions. In truth, he has a whole cadre of powerful allies, both foreign and domestic.

We’ve heard - but don’t yet believe - that Islamists want us either dead or shariah-bound. We’ve heard what they say about us, and witnessed first-hand their determination to bleed us dry. We’ve seen our own official reaction to their challenge as tepid. We console ourselves by saying that these are the hateful words and actions of a handful of crazies, not realizing that this is precisely the same thing they say about us.

We taunt them at every turn. On a stop-over in Brussels last month, I once again had to go through extensive security. After gathering my things together, we were herded to an incline that took us to the departure lounge one flight up. At the end of the incline - directly in front of us - was a huge poster of a pretty lingerie model. I noted that a good portion of my fellow ascendants were Arabs, whose sensibilities were no doubt offended.

They offend us equally, by stoning women, blowing up worshippers, severing heads and hands; paralyzing spinal columns, etc. We have excuses to overlook such things. It’s their culture. It’s thousands of years old. Who is to say that, barring our addiction to Twinkies, we would not be doing the same?

As far as the upcoming elections are concerned - forget about Democrats vs. Republicans - right now, we have three groups in this country: (1) those committed to overthrowing our nation; (2) those consisting of what Stalin once referred to as ‘useful idiots’; and (3) those (and this now comprises an ever expanding majority) that are just beginning to sense an existential danger.

Nobody can yet be certain to which of the first two groups our president belongs to. In view of the complete lack of transparency with regard to Obama’s background, I have long suspected that Obama belongs to the first. I have previously stated my belief that Obama represents the third attack on our nation (the first and second being the attacks on the World Trade Center They used our own planes...; they used our own election system to plant a Trojan horse among us.) It’s difficult to come to any other conclusion given all he has managed to do thus far. Our system of governance remains at high risk; as does our economy. If any one of these should fall, we are cooked.

We already have so much on our table domestically, it’s difficult to focus on international affairs. Suffice it to say, it doesn’t look good for Israel, historically speaking, our most loyal and trusted ally.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Will Soon Find Out

Larry Kudlow seems finally to have understood (by his comment that ‘POTUS will go Left for his new economic team’) that Obama couldn’t care less about the economy. The question remains: How far left will he go? Will he go all the way to spark a communist revolution in this country? I suspect so. What better way to achieve it than to precipitate complete economic collapse?

The price of gold on the upswing is not so much a consequence of gold becoming more valuable. It is rather an indication of the dollar depreciating. Pretty soon we could be taking whole wheelbarrows of money to the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread. Don’t you think this would end in social upheavals of the kind this nation has never seen? Don’t you think that this would pulverize the foundations of every institution in this country, reduce them to dust to be blown away by the wind? POTUS would remain the only functioning authority over the ruin of a once great nation.

When Argentina suffered through its period of severe inflation in which the price of common products rose every day, the people themselves pegged the value of commodities on the value of a gallon of fuel. Money became irrelevant. Gas stations in effect became banks.

‘Growth recession' is an oxymoron. There is either growth, or there is recession. The two terms are mutually exclusive. POTUS himself is the one who continues to talk this nonsense. By it, he hopes to gain time to perfect his economic nuclear program. We’re all slow to figure it out. POTUS is banking on it. The majority of us still refuse to believe that the man we elected president would actually do this to us. Meanwhile, every day our economy wanes. The trigger will activate when the promise of new leadership will release all our pent up demand. By that time the guts of the system will have been so totally wrecked. Stepping on the gas will cause the economic engine to explode. …and then, nothing. The old car will stall, never to move another inch.

Already we see the signs of what’s coming. Investors in large numbers have abandoned stocks. Money and jobs are leaving the country. Bonds are shaky. Real estate is collapsing all around us. The last refuge is gold. What comes after gold? Nobody knows. Chaos, perhaps. The abyss. We’ve never been there before. Increasingly it becomes apparent that we will soon find out.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Fear Is A Cage

Monday night, Labor Day, my brother went to get some Chinese take-out near where he lives not far from Princeton. He was brutally attacked by a group of (non-English speaking) under-age marauders. Fortunately, someone must have called the cops who arrived within minutes. Nevertheless, he suffered a black eye as well as a broken nose.

I am reminded of the beating death of the unsuspecting Dabbawalla dishwasher in Summit a couple of months back. And also of the numerous attacks on Hispanic men over in Staten Island (11 by last count) where the Mexican authorities have since become involved. And also the attack on the Indian professor (I forget where) in South Jersey. The MO is always the same: the victim’s head is targeted for punishment. Often one of the gang video tapes the assault.

My brother is the gentlest, most unassuming person you’d ever want to meet. He’s the last one to pick a fight in any situation. This was a random thrill attack if there ever was one. Our social fabric is tearing apart.

Why are these things this happening…? I ask myself. What is there to be gained? Plenty! Random attacks on citizens destabilize society. Random attacks give targeted attacks cover. Chaos is also something that is desired by some. The legal system is fully primed to lean over backwards to accommodate criminal activity. Our Justice Department has made it clear that certain minorities are exempt from prosecution for certain crimes. At the same time, our southern border remains wide open.

So, what would anyone expect? Islam and Black Liberation Theology are the religions of the poor. Therefore, whatever anyone does in their name is protected. The double standard has been duly noted and legitimized at the highest levels of our hierarchical social structure.

It is not against current law to burn a Koran or piss on a cross. It is still against our law, however, to assault or murder innocents. Fear is a cage. The law is a carefully braided rope. Why do we use it to hang ourselves, when we could be using it to set ourselves free.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Horse Latitudes

"My routine mistake in reading the news is presuming that there is a best outcome. There is just an outcome. You survive, then you deal with it." - John Batchelor

I can’t really argue with that. Der Mensch denkt, und Gott lenkt. English translation: Man makes plans and God laughs. Still, there’s the narrative to consider. You can’t build a narrative on chaos. There has to be some underlying principle pulling it all together – a frame. Whether it’s socialism, tyranny, or preserving the American way (of life), at least it’s a narrative. Right now we have nothing. We’ve lost our identity and, with it, our direction.

We’ve created a vacuum. Vacuums are unsustainable. It’ll fill up with something. None of us can agree on what to fill it with. A trophy president won’t cut it anymore. Oil spill. The air has gone out of our balloon. It drifts; it falls.

The chaos of uncertainty. It’s killing us. We’re not a dumb people. We know what’s (not) happening. We’ve taken our foot off the gas. It’s always been a race; and we’re slowing down. Even the seventh century Islamic jalopy is gaining on us.

Dead in the water. The horse latitudes. What else can we throw overboard? The economy stalls again. ‘Green’ is out of reach and will continue to elude our grasp even if we insist it won’t.

Tired is no excuse. We’re tired of carrying the load. Whether anyone admits it or not, America has been a great stabilizing force in the world. We’ve extended our hand to so many. All they had to do was ask. We even went so far as to extend our hand to those who spit in our faces. Now we’re overextended. We’re torn. We’ve got nothing left to give.

Who will ride to our rescue when the curtain falls for the last time? Will they be celebrating in Gaza? In Tehran? In Caracas? In Havana? In Pyongyang? In Harare? - shooting their guns in the air. And what happens in the capitals that once shared our vision? They will curse us for our tiredness.

And what will happen to us? You say we “survive, then deal with it”. But what if we don’t?

Erebus and Terror

At this point, what's in it for BP to fix this thing? Zip. What's in it for POTUS to fix it? Zip. They’re both on the same page (but for different reasons). Obama can now comfortably proceed with his no-growth agenda while Heyward is hung out to dry. The Gulf will recover. BP will not.

I read somewhere that Heyward could exit with a substantial golden parachute. He could go to New Zealand and have his life back. Unless, of course, Holder has him extradited to The Hague and tried as a world-class criminal. Anything is possible these days. Before the East Anglia e-mail scandal broke there was talk about treating ‘global warming’ skeptics on par with Holocaust deniers. After it all fell apart, what was left for these folks to do? Answer: GIGANTIC OIL SPILL.

What we have yet to broach is (and this is critical) How did it happen? ‘Why’ seems another word struck from our pc no-fault lexicon – replaced by ‘accident’ or ‘Act of God’, presumably the same God who kept Obama from saying things he doesn’t believe in at Memorial Day services in Chicago. I hear the weather at Arlington was just fine.

Clearly, our country is suffering through an accelerating litany of disasters, each benefiting only one man; only one cause. It makes me suspicious. Heyward’s best bet is to just sit back and let the Obama administration destroy itself. Obama’s best bet is to keep grabbing power. What Heyward and the rest of the country don’t yet seem to realize is that, far from weakening our current president, disasters (foreign or domestic) only tighten the noose that’s already around our collective necks.

Erebus (the darkness) was born of Chaos. Erebus went on to sire Hemera (goddess of day) and Aether (god of sky). So far so good. But he wasn’t finished. Cer (goddess of death) was next, followed by Oneiroi (god of dreams), Hypnos (god of sleep), his twin brother Thanatos (god of hell), Momus (god of satire), Nemesis ( goddess of revenge), and Charon, the ferryman who ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx, to the land of the dead.

…and there’s our future all laid out for us to see,
as foretold in ancient Greek mythology.

John Batchelor said...

>”There is only one issue that moves the White House, and that is the issue of money.”

I actually don’t think so. I think this White House runs primarily on ideology. Granted, there are some – Axelrod, perhaps – who look to polls and ‘Jewish checks’ in order to gage how the Administration is doing relative to previous administrations. This is their job. But the president does not listen to them. He may respond reluctantly to repeated harangues from such people, but ultimately more money or less money means nothing to Obama.

No doubt, Obama is preoccupied – perhaps even obsessed – with Israel as previous administrations have been. He knows that if he were able to facilitate a solution during his terms in office, he would be lauded until the end of history. The question is by whom? The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a hard nut to crack. On a scale of challenge it ranks with Mt. Everest – or, better yet, K2. The reason there has been no solution is because there are too many opportunists – especially on the Arab side - who do not want it solved. It is their bread and butter. It represents their access to the trough.

Obama and America in general are seen as the trough. Previous administrations all have accepted their role as that trough. They married themselves first and foremost to the task of keeping the trough filled. Not so Obama. He appears to be prepared to hand over an empty trough to all those feeding from it and inviting this hungry brood to partake of the main meal: Israel.

He knows it will erupt in conflagration. But, as one trained in community organizing, this is his ultimate aim. His bias tends clearly toward the Arab side of the equation. Note: Obama has not demanded that Arab nations recognize Israel’s right to exist. To be fair, neither have previous administrations. However, Obama’s motives are markedly different.

Whereas previous administrations were primarily troubled by the possible disruption of Middle Eastern oil flowing to the free world, Obama would welcome such a development as it would likely plunge the Western democracies into chaos. I still say that Obama’s ultimate aim is chaos.

Expect him to agitate; expect him to do all he can to bolster the chances of America’s enemies to emerge unscathed. This is how he aims to enhance his global street cred to the point of where he can no longer be ignored. He ultimately hopes to be embraced as the one responsible for having slain not only the Little Satan, but the Great Satan as well. What better resume for a man who is consumed by his own self-importance – to have been the one to have crafted a solution to what was widely seen as an impossible project!

Naturally, the world – including the Arabs – will shun him. Even they know that there is nothing on this earth lower than a traitor.

Shutdown

Not so fast! Gingrich may have a point. Government shutdown may well be the only answer at this point. It may end up being chaotic. It would send the press howling; the unions demonstrating; the rabble throwing bricks, but who can predict at this point that chaos can be avoided? It’s gone too far already. We have been speeding towards our financial and subsequent political abyss at breakneck speed for more than a year. We’re almost there now. Personally, I think we’ll reach there well before November. No Dem can hope to win without it. You can bet your socks Obama and the Dems are working on something right now. Whatever it is, it will be duly trumpeted and endorsed by the state-controlled media. It will be portrayed as a ‘crisis’ that only the smartest men (Obama, et al) on earth can solve. Elections postponed.

Outrage among the public will build to a fever pitch. Despite what The New York Times says, the people will not believe that the ‘crisis’ is anything other than manufactured for Obama’s benefit. They will have been pushed beyond the edge of reason as they see their only chance for retribution slipping away. This is when the real crisis starts: the revolution.

Now, it is still possible that the Dem’s timetable will not be met – not before November anyway; that Obama will somehow be denied a reason to postpone elections and (in effect) declare a national emergency. This is where Newt comes in. Republicans will have a majority in both houses of congress. They will have the power to shut down government. It will be their only power. It would effectively stop Obama who would presumably still be in office for the next two years.

I believe most Americans would support a government shut-down. They would understand that no governing can take place for as long as Obama remains in office. Most would understand that the runaway train simply has to be stopped, even if just inches away from the washed out bridge; that there will be a need afterwards for some time in which to reflect, gather thoughts and steady nerves; that they had been granted a reprieve – however brief – but a reprieve nonetheless.

Two consecutive years of gridlock governance will be a hell in itself. It’ll require a hunkering down and waiting out the storm. Perhaps, the troops will be withdrawn from overseas and charged with keeping the peace here at home. (On whose orders?) Perhaps the president will be impeached. More troops. Which side will the military take? Will there even be sides to take?

In November, God willing, the train will be stopped. Time will have been bought. What happens next is critical. It will do no good to compromise on this and that and let the train creep forward. The bridge is still out. As long as Obama and his gang are still in office, they can be counted on to sabotage any bridge repairs. Can we afford to lose another two years of governance? Actually, with this bunch in office, we can’t afford to win.

Passive Aggression

I agree with everyone that the job situation does not look good. Asians who have come here to work are returning back home where American 'outsourced' jobs are plentiful and gaining. Obviously, not one of Obama's policies does anything to help the economy. As I've stated many times before, Barack Hussein Obama is not stupid. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is a virus that has been deliberately introduced into the American body politic – Trojan horse style, if you wish – to infect it and to morph it into a neo-Marxist model.

The American people have also caught on. The entrepreneurs are keeping their powder dry. Small business is holding off expanding. Those who can afford it, are not working. Consumers are not buying. Yes, some of this is due to all the things we routinely mention: economic uncertainty, high taxes, government imposed regulation and crushing bureaucracy. I happen to believe that a lot of this is proactive on the part of Americans as well. They appear to have collectively decided that they will do nothing to help this current government succeed. They've resolved to sit on their hands and wait it out. They do not like where we’re being herded. They want this government to fail.

It goes way beyond the economy. The economy is just a convenient obvious measure by which administrations are commonly judged. Beyond that, most Americans abhor the political philosophy espoused by this administration. They mean to make their displeasure felt by not doing; holding back, by denying this government the tax money that is wantonly ripped away from them during every economic transaction.

We've become passive-aggressive. We see this as being the only thing we can do to get our country back. We understand that all the other (obvious) ways are booby-trapped. Marching (on Washington), for instance; tea parties; attempting to talk to elected representatives - all have resulted in being ignored, ridiculed, demonized and marginalized. Resorting to violence is the most dangerous course we could take. Americans know this instinctively. It would result in a clampdown followed by utter and complete chaos. Chaos would usher in the classic Marxist revolution. There is now considerable evidence that this may be the administration’s ultimate goal.

There is, however, a proven alternative: the Gandhian example: non-violence; passive resistance; not being a part of; not doing. This appears to be the strategy the American people have chosen. It is reflected in the economic numbers. It represents a sacrifice, to be sure; but if it serves to slow down this administrations ‘flat earth’ agenda, it may be well worth the effort.