Sold Down The River

Get this!

I may be slow on the up-take, but I’m still way ahead of the American public that still believes that by simply substituting a few political heads on Election Day, we can set things right again.

Scanning the headlines this morning, I happened to run across one that said “New Call To Greece To Sell Off Its Assets”. With all that’s going on, why did this particular item set my alarm bells ringing?

How much land does the U.S. government own? According to www.answerbag.com, “The United States government owns approximately 650 million acres of land, according to NationalAtlas.gov. That total amounts to about 30 percent of the total land area in the U.S. Some large categories of federally-owned land include national parks, national forests and national wildlife refuges.” Even if this answer is wrong, we all know it’s a lot. Out West, the percentages are even higher. In Nevada, for example, privately held land amounts to barely 20%.

Who owns or controls most mortgages? Don’t know the exact answer to this one, but you can bet the Feds have their fingers in this one as well (via Fannie and Freddie).

Who is it that keeps private industry from mining and drilling, keeping our land pristine and valuable to the max? Again, the answer is government.

After our currency has collapsed under the dead weight of unserviceable debt, what will be left to trade? Answer: land.

We’re being set up to be sold down the river, folks!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Flammable Fashions

It makes no sense to talk about anything else today. 5000 degrees. It seems like the very gates of hell are in danger of bursting wide open. I remember the cyclone that hit Burma some time back. The government (or junta, as it’s called) would not accept western aid and barred western reporting. What we did manage to see was horrible enough, though soon forgotten.

Japan is different. It is a cutting edge society that mirrors our own in many ways. We run similar risks; risks we never dare contemplate until it happens. I saw a man running away from an advancing wall of water. The water was way faster than he. The camera panned away before showing what likely took place.

I picture tsunamis of all kinds draped in political garb: Islamic aggression; unsustainable spending and debt; the steady advance of liberalism (progressivism, socialism, communism) and, of course, ignorance.

Things in general are in flux and moving - which is not necessarily a bad thing. The stock market generates money whether it’s moving up or down. The puzzle is to predict correctly which way it’s going to go. When all signs point one way, it’s usually a good idea to run the other - unless, of course, one happens to get struck by traffic.

The nuclear power industry is likely dead (if it wasn‘t already). Indian Point will likely be shut down and buried. Rolling black-outs will become a part of our lives. We’ll build back-up systems for hospitals and the like. Homes too will have some kind of configuration of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines (for those who can‘t be without).

Perhaps this will be the shot in the arm the green army needs to get off the ground. In the meantime, we will review our teaching moments and spin them to suit our asbestos egos while insisting on wearing the fetching colors of government issued hazmat forms and labels, praying to God they might catch fire and burn.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Music Of the Primes

A guitar can be considered both, a musical instrument as well as percussion. Therefore a man alone with a guitar can often make credible music. Percussion came first - the big bang - then another, and another (echoes)… Then came a more gentle sound, probably in the form of wailing. When the wailing adapted itself to the beat, music was born. Finally, there was the ‘word’ and history began in earnest.

Similarly, harmony is a blend of the secular and the spirit. For the spirit to soar, it needs the discipline of a steady pulse. There has been undue emphasis on just pulse lately. Sound has been allowed to become discordant - the din of people expressing disparate agonies - every nation divided, pulling both ways. Voices shouting slogans in short, bumper sticker bursts mimic the staccato of an incomplete drum set. It has become a lingering sign of our times - 'The WHO' destroying their instruments at the end of the set. Drumsticks tossed into the audience. What are they going to do with them except clobber each other?

We are regressing. The drums of war are heard all around. Even God has been roused from his lofty abode and is seen hurling lightning bolts mindlessly here and there. The ground under Haiti trembles, and over a year later we still cannot cope. Iran threatens, and we shrink from our duty to stop it. And today, Japan stands helplessly while watching a wall of water advancing.

America too watches helplessly as it is being consumed by a tsunami of debt. In New York, the most expensive musical ever is being kept off-line while the bodies drop from the wires.

Curious about Spiderman: The day before Glenn Beck quit the airwaves in New York, he delivered and impassioned endorsement of Spiderman. He claimed that it represents a huge step forward in live theater, akin (perhaps) to switching from watching black and white to color TV. He spent a full half hour praising this show, saying (and I paraphrase) it is definitely worth the price of an over-inflated ticket and even the added cost of a flight from anywhere.

I remember thinking that Beck might simply be honoring some contractual obligation. Or, did he really believed what he was saying? I was torn, but leaning towards the latter. For one thing, he had high praise for the script (and music). He warned that liberals - especially New York liberals - would not like the story. Ticket sales spiked immediately after Beck’s show. Then, other reviews started filtering in. These, as expected, were overwhelmingly negative.

It is entirely possible that a conservative narrative cannot survive on Broadway. In today’s hyper-partisan climate, even the skeletal music of Bono, it seems, cannot endure the drumming of the ideological fist.

While in many ways the staccato bursts of gunfire in the Middle East seem to dominate our own narratives, 'The WHO’s classic coda to “My Generation” comes immediately to mind. And with it, the final scene of smashed guitars and sparking amplifiers.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

CPAC blah, blah, blah...

McCotter has it exactly right. He gets it. Unfortunately, nobody is listening. Or, those who are listening have nothing to say about what our government is presently doing. Actually, there’s now a consensus in this country on a wide range of issues. The problem is that the tail continues to wag the dog.

You mean to say that passing Obamacare was a good idea? No. I do believe hardly anyone agrees with it - especially the people in the health care field. Yet, it was shoved through in a nasty, unconstitutional way, and now we’re apparently stuck with it. There’s virtually no chance of repeal. Republicans will try, but will run into so much static; it almost won’t be worth the effort. Same with every other bill that has become law during the Obama administration’s first two years in office.

Even after it came out that ‘global warming’ was a hoax, Obama and Democrats are still pushing their ‘green’ agenda. Gas is now well above $3.00 a gallon. (I believe they want it to go up to around five.) Food prices are rising. U.S. debt is rising. Internationally, dominos are falling… It’s all going to hell in a hand basket, much of which, despite what anybody says, is the direct result of our current administration‘s policies. It would now take but a feather to knock us down and out for good.

What is our government’s response? More of the same. Everything is fine. Prosperity is just around the corner. Voices, like McCotter’s are routinely ignored, discredited and marginalized by our own media. Any attempt to fix things is continually upstaged by events, sidetracked amid the din of ever escalating crisis.

There’s little chance of making headway now and for at least the next two years. By that time, it could well be over for us.

This winter alone, we’ve had to dig our cars out of snow banks no less than three times already. This was even before we could make it out into the street. Each time took longer to set things right. It wasn’t impossible. But each time the city plows passed by, they managed to throw even more snow into our driveway.

So too it is with a government seemingly determined to diminish our once great nation. We ought to be doing more than just make speeches. ‘Organizing For America’ (emphasis on ‘organizing’) still seems to be the only game in town. The rest is just endless talk about polls, put-downs, and ratings. Truly, I don’t see how we can last another two years, much less six.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Laughing Gas

As we face new threats to our economy almost every day, it becomes clear that socialists really don’t much care about it, or even care to understand it. They see it either as some immortal golden goose or as something diabolical that must be destroyed. It remains unclear what would replace it as communists (as well as Islamists) have been pretty much riding piggyback on our financial system as it stands.

I have never heard or read of a viable alternative to capitalism. I guess we’re experimenting with that now. Printing money and joblessness, both seem to play some part in it. Most economists (bar Krugman) agree that this will not end well. Still we persist, seemingly deliberately driving the economy into the ground. I suspect that after everything has been said and done, the basic outlines of capitalism will emerge once again. I just don’t see what else could possibly work.

We’ve gone too far to go back to herding and growing our own food, and bartering for services. People will not accept a communist or Islamic solution, unless forced to do so.

Pol Pot emptied the cities and drove people into the fields. Those needing glasses were summarily shot. Mao had a similar idea when he emptied the hospitals of qualified staff and sent them off to dig ditches. And the Taliban has vowed to burn all medical books.

I don’t believe it will come to that here, but the danger is that fewer and fewer of our people understand the workings of an economy, believing that money is simply manna from heaven and quite unrelated to perseverance, talent and work. Our schools, with few exceptions, are mostly left-oriented. They endlessly preach the evils of capitalism, but refuse to advance alternatives.

That’s why it takes until young people are already working for them to notice the scale of the tax bite they must endure - if they even know enough to look at their deductions.

Similarly, global strategy and defense appear to be barely understood going forward. Anything having to do with the military is distained by popular culture. This is yet another aspect of what has made America great in the past that has come under attack. The fact that it’s raining birds in Louisiana becomes yet another excuse for us to be scratching our heads, blaming Bush, Republicans, Congress, Big Oil (and industry in general), jihadis, China and patriotic fireworks in that order.

Just breaking: “Hundred of thousands fish found dead in the Arkansas River”.Also: “former Pentagon aide found (dead) in landfill; FBI only assisting - not investigating“. Also: “Navy fires Captain Owen Honors over raunchy videos.”

Does anyone understand any of this? Does a self-respecting country really behave this way? Meanwhile, by no means rattle the Chinese cage. They have a choke hold on our debt, after all. They’ll buy whatever they can with it before they prick the balloon and we are left with nothing but laughing gas to defend ourselves.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Taking First Aim

China is in the process of consolidating its power in its part of the world just like Iran is doing in the Middle East. China is confident it can get away with this now because it no longer views the U.S. as a credible roadblock. Obama’s foreign policy is seen to be aimless and lacking any and all conviction. Additionally, China feels it holds the trump move (two queens acting simultaneously) in what we regard as this, our interminable chess tournament of nations: the U.S. debt. The newest strategy for success holds that those who control the debt always win. China has situated herself so that she could wreck the U.S. economy with a single word. Obama is well aware of this.

Unappreciated by China, perhaps, is the likelihood that the present U.S. administration does not care in the least about the U.S. economy; that it is possible that it will at some point even goad China into pulling the plug and purposely send our economy into a tailspin, thus removing the debt threat weapon from the board entirely.

Still, for China, it would come out to one and the same: America voluntarily quitting the world stage and leaving China to do what it wants.

It has often been said that familiarity breeds contempt. China and Japan, both intensely nationalistic, will never see eye to eye. There are factions in the Middle East for which this is equally true. Even the European Union will not survive as the big players, Germany and France, will always plot to secure advantage. This truism is so deeply ingrained in the human condition, we even see it played out on the mean streets of American urban centers where black on black crime is rampant.

The tendency to see ourselves - or those who look most like us - as our primary enemy never fails. It comes to the fore particularly in times of social and economic stress. It is always those that most closely resemble us at whom we take first aim; not realizing, perhaps, that we are sticking our fingers into profoundly intimate wounds that have long since bled dry.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Governments Fail

In many ways, India finds itself in the position of Israel. It has intractable neighbors hell-bent on drawing it into a vortex of dysfunction. The grand puppet master is China of which Pakistan is a client state. China has made it no secret that it wants to see India broken up into separate and competing regions that would be helpless in the face of a Chinese advance. The best way to accomplish this is to drain focus and resources away from what it takes to maintain India’s identity.

India has fashioned itself as a western-style democracy which by definition requires the participation - economically and politically - of all its people. If large segments of its population could be persuaded to opt out, India would no longer exist as a nation.

Pakistan is a failed state, created by the good will of the Indian power brokers after the British colonialists had been forced to retreat. It was determined that each of the two countries would pursue separate paths and that these would prove incompatible within the confines of a single laboratory. Still, it was hoped that the two nations could exist side by side in relative peace. Israel’s desire to live side by side with a fully-functioning Palestinian state reflects a similar desire. In both cases, this goal looked achievable on paper. In reality it was not to be so.

While India prospered, Pakistan disintegrated into a failed state. Failed states typically fall under the control of more powerful regional actors. These then determine their fate and function. Pakistan has become a tool in China’s hands to destabilize India just as the Palestinian conflict has become a tool in Iranian hands to destabilize Israel.

It is easy to be distracted by the flashpoints in the world and dismiss the role of the grand puppet masters. Every time there is a problem between Pakistan and India we should be looking at China. Every time there is a problem between Israel and Palestinians we should be looking at Iran.

Success and failure cannot exist side by side. The words ’success’ and ’failure’ are interchangeable. What one side deems as ’success’ is ‘failure’ from the other’s perspective. Totalitarianism does not tolerate democracy. Islam does not tolerate infidels and so on… Therefore we have a problem that can only be resolved by power and the willingness to use it. We have reached the limit of what can be achieved by appeasement alone.

America’s challenge is to rediscover what it stands for and then to fully support those of like mind who may find themselves in trouble: in this case, India and Israel.

I find it fascinating how we kowtow to the Chinese. We are afraid that they will stop buying our debt. They are well aware of the power we allow them to wield over us; that we will do nothing to provoke them. Why don’t we just turn it around and use the same weapon against them? Why don’t we just come out with it and say we are broke and are no longer able to service our debt; that the U.S. paper they hold is worthless? Why don’t we just tell them outright that if they don’t call of their attack dogs - North Korea and Pakistan - we will announce to the world, making it official, that we’re broke, thus putting an end to the charade?

Their government would likely fall; as would ours. The question then becomes: What would take its place? My bet is on the American people who would make a fresh and positive start of it given their present advantage. China, Pakistan, India, Israel, Iran - who knows? One thing is for certain: We’ll have to get ourselves right before we can even think of doing anything for anybody else.

The Good Samaritan

Political? No question. "Punish winners on the downside?" Most definitely. But why split hairs? Punish winners, period. By then, the whole mortgage market had been polluted. Pretty paper printed, with no value behind it. All those freebee mortgages simply were never going to get paid. They should have been trashed and written off as welfare expense immediately.

Instead, all those young geniuses from university economics departments were recruited to obfuscate the fact; to design paper, in effect; with the intent of prolonging the fiction that these securities held any semblance of value. All the while, everyone was fully aware that 'value' was the only essential ingredient that was missing. They then proceeded to contrive a path so complex, no one could trace it back precisely - certainly not to the government's meddling in the system that had effectively sucked all the value out of the mortgage market in the first place.

Once the ploy had been exposed - when investors demanded their money - the system collapsed. Now the race is on to assign blame. The effort to maintain the fiction of ‘valuable’ securities no longer wins applause. These (securities) were then labeled 'toxic' [a misnomer - nothing toxic about them; 'toxic' implies they were imbued with some secret (value) ingredient when, in fact, they were simply ‘valueless’ as they had always been and would always be].

A similar fate can be expected to befall the dollar as the national debt rises so high that no amount of taxes – even generations out - can suffice to offset it. Reminds of the mob that, after having stripped the victim (value) of his valuables, fits him with cement shoes and pushes him off the bridge. The Good Samaritan sees what's happening, jumps in the water and tries to save the victim - but fails. The Good Samaritan is blamed for the victim’s demise - while the mob continues to operate as before.

Collapsing Puppet Theaters

Civil War? About what? Who are the antagonists? All these are questions that are unanswerable to most Americans. If asked, they would hesitate; they'd stumble. And yet, all would feel the answers just on the tip of their tongues. It's just that if they were to allow them to slip (out), they would invariably be made to sound foolish.

The truth is, although Americans know something momentous is underway, most have no idea of what's truly at stake. A 'Civil War' implies at least two sides. Most Americans are reluctant to take sides. Taking sides implies a commitment similar to adopting the mindset required after just having been told one has cancer. One problem is that the sides in this nascent struggle cannot be defined by visible – geographical or racial - markers. Neither is it a war between Republicans and Democrats (which is usually the first default answer given). It's not even between conservatives and progressives; or between blacks and whites, young and old, male or female, etc. All these are purely proxy skirmishes that are always enlisted in service to a greater cause. The real war pits the American people against big, bloated, arrogant, unresponsive and corrupt government.

Whereas one might say that a ‘conservative progressive’ or a ‘totalitarian democrat’ are oxymorons and cannot be; I would say, all these can and do exist as long as they exist in the right measure. Nobody (in theory) would mind a small Marxist dictatorship in Washington if that dictatorship would not intrude on our (the peoples’) liberty and hobble the private sector. But that is exactly what we’ve come to. Our political leadership – right and left alike – have brought us this nightmare whereby we, the people, are being literally enslaved to irreconcilable debt for generations to come. Washington has broken our savings plans, our business plans and is trying to interfere with our natural instincts for self-preservation.

We, on the other hand have refused to cooperate. We have decided we will break Washington even if it means we break our own legs in the process. We will stop doing what we do best. We will not expand our businesses. We will not create jobs. We will not spend our money. We know we’re the ones who keep this big economic engine running – not Washington (that keeps promising better times ahead). Washington has nothing to say about it. Washington will have to backtrack on that promise time and time again because we will see to it that nothing happens. We will only resume pulling our share again once Washington becomes more acceptable to us – and that means primarily ‘smaller’ and less intrusive into our personal lives.

So far, neither side has blinked. Washington thinks it’s in charge. Career politicians of both parties think that if they can just choke the golden goose a little bit harder, it’ll cry ‘uncle’ and begin genuflecting. The people are beginning to understand that they themselves are in charge. They know they alone can bring this government to its knees by simply sitting on their hands.

Little by little, as the truth of it leaks out, the antagonists reveal themselves. On one hand there’s a handful of puppet masters with strings attached both to themselves and their fingers; on the other, there are the good people of the America who have vowed that they will no longer bother to come to the show. Once the elites finally get it, their puppet theater will collapse and they will be forced to move out of town.

Riot Act

It's possible that Obama was read the riot act while in China. He might well have been told that he can't just take his ball and go home; that there are others still out there who are entitled to play. “America can't just be permitted to retreat behind some smoldering economic ruin just because it happens to please the Utopian academics of that country; just because someone claims to have discovered the Holy Grail that would create some socio-economic arrangement that has never been seen before.

“No thank you, Mr. (American) President. By the way, how did you ever manage to get elected? Surely the whole country couldn't be as loony and bitter as you are? Go back there and fix what your administration has already wrecked. While we recognize that the some of the problems stem from what you inherited, there's no denying that, since you’ve been in office, you've made everything many times worse. Now, you've put us all at risk.

“Remember, we own you as we own your debt. We could demand our money back at any time. We know what you're doing: driving the dollar down, so we will be left holding the bag. Well, it won't work. We'll come over (if we have to) and claim your land; your women; your resources; the labor of your people - until we feel we have fair value in return for all that we've already invested there.

“And, by the way, don't even think of making any noise about Taiwan, Tibet, Pakistan, Africa or any other place in which we decide to exert our (admittedly) pernicious influence. China is a big country; we've got way too many people; we desperately need to expand. …and right now, we find, you’re in our way."

I Will Go to Prison

It’s sad to know that the gravity of all these lessons of history remains unknown and unappreciated by the young people here in America. The other day, I happened to read an account of the fall of the Berlin wall on the opinion page of our local NJ newspaper (which continues to show up at our doorstep like an abandoned child). In it, all the credit went to Gorbachev; the name, Ronald Reagan, was never mentioned once. I understand too that our president refused an invitation by the German government to represent America in ceremonies commemorating the liberation of the East German people.

Meanwhile, here in America we're going precisely in the opposite direction. Our people (including the unborn, the ones we will choose not to abort) are being systematically enslaved to outrageous debt. It won't be long before the walls along our own borders will go up as well. These will be built to keep us in, not to keep others out. For once, our government will not dither as it has.

I will go to prison rather than comply with the health care mandate passed by our representatives last night.