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!

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Cornerstone

For a long time now, money has trumped ideology. This is no longer the case – especially now that every dollar essentially amounts to an IOU. The ideologies of China and the Islamists share only a disgust of corrupted capitalism. Otherwise, they differ in significant ways. After the West has been defeated, these differences will come to the fore and begin to cause problems. China will have to tread pretty carefully for their alliance with Pakistan to work. In the Islamist’s eyes, they too are infidels, tolerated only because they are now brothers in arms.

Seldom discussed (except on Thursdays on The John Batchelor Show) is the pivotal role of Israel. We can pretty much predict how Israel is likely to react to an imminent existential threat for it shares our own sensibilities. Since Obama’s one vote-one man-one time election, it is rather our reaction to an attack on Israel that remains a question. I predict we will do nothing – this despite the clamor of the American people to step in to help.

Whether by its own effort or with the aid of someone else, Israel will survive. India may rise to the role of Good Samaritan. It has a strong a spiritual tradition and will inherently understand what is at stake. Do not summarily reject the spiritual dimension in all this; and don’t rule out China. They might well jump in as well, seeking to profit from the purely practical aspect of doing so. The Islamists will be defeated as they have defiled their religion. America will stand disgraced on the sidelines for the same reason.

And ‘the stone the builders rejected will once again become the cornerstone’ – Psalm 118:22.

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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.

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Cornered Dogs Bite

Every human thought leaves an imprint. When I look across my front lawn in the morning after a freshly fallen snow, I see it crisscrossed with animal spoors. Each one is different. It is not the difference in the appearance of the tracks that is significant; rather, it is the fact that there was movement: each animal wanted to get from one place to another. It is doubtful that two or more animals ever met because each track was likely made in its own time. If there had been some threat, all the tracks would show the animals running in one direction – away from the danger. In the absence of a threat, the pattern is quite random.

Reading this morning’s headlines, we find that the stampede against the U.S. dollar continues, now with the IMF chiming in. We read that long-standing alliances are rupturing with nations fleeing U.S. entanglements and influence, seeking something more stable, more predictable. They do not make a value judgment as to what’s right, wrong or fair. They simply look to attach themselves to what they perceive as power that would serve to protect them.

The USS America is sinking – whether by benign neglect, sabotage or by deliberate design – and the whole world is running away from the disaster that has become rap America. The pattern in the snow is now discernible. Argentina is now embracing the Venezuelan model. Venezuela has adopted the Tehran model (as have Turkey, Syria, Egypt, etc.) Israel remains undecided. She finds herself cornered. What Israel is likely to do remains a mystery. India too is at a loss to know which way to turn. China faces internal problems. She is keeping her powder dry, knowing that chaos will arrive at her doorstep soon enough. She is doing her best to shore up her defenses (while the West views it as aggression). Japan has her own problems.

We can sit here and evaluate each turn of the screw within its own frame. Every happenstance is quite worthy of a tome or two – even an entire library of tomes. We can go back in history and learn what has happened before, how it developed and the ultimate result - all of it, simply to keep the blogs pumping out words like the ash from a volcano that obscures its source.

The source is America’s continuing disintegration. It’s not true, as some would proclaim that America’s sinking would leave nary a ripple. It has and will produce wave after wave and the result is all but certain: chaos, dislocation and bloodshed. Cornered dogs have been known to bite. We all will be tempted to bite in a last-ditch effort as we dig deeper and deeper down into our emptying pockets to appease those with tyrannical intent - the ones with the biggest clubs and the willingness to use them. Thoughts of freedom and liberty – even dignity - will become subservient to our will to survive.

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Circling the Bases

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Not surprising that Joe Biden fell asleep. We’re in a holding pattern. Our plane has been circling the airport for two and a half years. With the air traffic controllers asleep, will the pilot figure out how to land this plane already? There is no indication of that. The passengers are divided. “Should we attempt this landing anyway, or should we go back and try again with a different (flight) crew?” It’s no wonder that some of the passengers have been dozing off.

There’s been round condemnation of the president’s speech this morning. And this too is not surprising. As soon as the president - of any party - utters a word, the sports fans arm themselves with tomatoes. Clinton, Bush, Obama - it’s been all the same: The incredible shrinking American presidency. Sure, there’s always the inevitable cheering from out in the bleachers, from those too drunk to know any better.

The rest of us are out for bear, thinking we matter; while all the action takes place in the club house - and not on the field.

“Dysfunctional?” you ask. Not dysfunctional at all. You do keep coming after all - to see the games - and paying through the nose for tickets, hot dogs, souvenirs, and beer.

Let’s think for a moment, what if the president actually were able to land this thing. Where would you think we’d be? Would we now be able to balance our budgets? Strengthen our dollar? Would we now love each other more? Would peace break out in the Middle East? Could we all go home now and get a good night’s sleep?

The answer, most would agree, is a resounding no. We now know enough of our president’s skills to not dare risk it. Every day we delay is a gift. Will we be able to last long enough till the weather clears? How much fuel do we have left anyway?

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Looking Beyond Corpses

Broadly speaking, there are four groups that are currently trying to overthrow the United States: anarchists, communists, Islamists and opportunists. Anarchists are in it just to wreak havoc; communists harbor an ideology that borders on religious fanaticism; ditto, Islamists; and, finally, opportunists, those who seek maximum profit for themselves in the wake of upheaval. The latter can be compared to those who during past wars haunted battlefields, looking for corpses from which to extract dental work.

All four have united and are waging war against the rest of us. While anarchists and Islamists still hide their faces, the other two have revealed themselves fully. They no longer feel the need to hide their intent. It’s just that we do not believe them. We do not believe that anything could possibly pose an existential threat to the country we hold dear. And, for the time being, they are right to exploit our willful – almost child-like - ignorance to their advantage.

All the important thresholds have already been crossed. We’ve crossed the threshold of ‘how bad can it get’ and accepted ‘new norms’. We’ve accepted the public media lynching of upstanding citizens. We’ve accepted turning our backs on faithful allies. We have discounted the importance family, religion and work. We’ve stood by while our system of education teeters on the brink of total failure. We’ve watched as our investments as well as our currency continue to operate on life support.

The next step, most would now agree, is collapse. And we are compelled to ask the question: “How do we protect ourselves?”

This question is key. It points the way to what we can expect afterwards. The word “protect” is telling. Already, ads responding to this very concept abound: buy gold; buy food (food storage); protect your computer; protect your identity; your health; etc. The protection rackets (opportunists) are already out in force. They signal collapse. What they don’t tell us is what will come after, when none will be left standing, when the rules totally change and revert back to basics: faith, family and the overwhelming desire to rebuild.

Rebuilding is embedded in our DNA - like language. Strength of character and goodness cannot be erased. Neither will talent, and a willingness to overcome adversity. Together we will build ourselves up and even surpass heights previously achieved - because that’s who we are.

Some say I’m a pessimist. I am not. I believe that goodness will triumph over evil every time. I believe the pendulum will continue to swing. Take heart, we’re about to reverse course.

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Burning Down Through the Core

For the Left, recent and ongoing disasters as we are currently witnessing in Japan, America’s economic meltdown, ever increasing turmoil in the Middle East - all are proof positive (to paraphrase the now famous words of the Right Rev. Wright and others) that the chickens are coming home to roost.

The White House is caught up in a fever of partying; at the State Department, they are busy toasting each other while barely suppressing smiles; the greens are celebrating the death of the nuclear power industry; and in Ramallah, they’re handing out sweets.

As long as I can remember, I’ve had no facility with numbers. If you were to ask me to give you our town’s exit number (on Rt. 78) - even after having lived here more than 50 years - I would first have to consult a map. Only (the) names (of towns) make sense to me. Similarly, all the dates JB tries so hard to familiarize us with in his quest to imbue us with some level of historical perspective mean nothing to me. As such, I have only a rudimentary concept of time. I have to make do simply with past, present and future. As such, time’s metrics are of no use in my own calculations - and neither are Kudlow’s numbers.

I can close both eyes; I can close my right while keeping my left one open, but I can’t close my left eye alone. There’s simply nothing there to do it with. I do not consider myself ‘retarded’. It’s rather that I’ve had to accept the fact that I am missing a faculty that most others take for granted, much like sight or hearing, etc.; senses, that often are said not to enhance, but to limit our perception. We are doomed to see only a narrow band of light. With sound it’s pretty much the same. Anything outside the narrow frame that constitutes our reality, though it exists, we cannot perceive and often will not acknowledge.

Such blind spots and many others - such as a failure to recognize God - are common.

The Left’s failure to recognize the difference between good and evil is nonetheless astounding to me. They’ve managed to blur the line so much as to put both on equal footing. A crisis, such as the one currently unfolding in Japan (admittedly still in its early stages); the crashing of the dollar; rising food and fuel prices; etc. seem not to be regarded as tragedy but rather as an opportunity to advance ideological agendas. Any crisis can be used as an interlude in which to decide which way the dust will settle and then to side with the most likely outcome - and declare victory. Therefore, the end game is always the same: “revolution” (without principle or morality).

This, it seems to me, is where we are today. I think the word for it is ‘opportunism’. It is rank fecklessness and seems to guarantee success in reaching the lowest level (at which water collects and then stagnates). The lowest level is always easiest to ‘achieve', even if it were to involve the seldom perceived extreme of burning down through to the core.

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No Joy In Mudville

Whereas in dreams landscapes often change and even faces merge into rough composites of people we may have known, the dreamer always remains the same, encompassing all that we understand the core of ourselves to be. It therefore behooves us to make some modicum of effort in making inquiries of anyone we aim to enter into a contract with. If we should want to get the garage roof fixed, for instance, we would normally first seek references before deciding on a roofer.

Society, even a democratic society, always breaks down into a hierarchy of leaders for the rest of us to follow. Leaders are freely chosen on the basis of their resumes and our assumption that their intentions are similar to ours. When the actions of a leader approximate what we would do under similar circumstances, we can pretty much take it for granted that the leader has our best interests at heart.

Last night, on the John Batchelor Show, John ran a segment in which three of his guests were asked to recall their personal experiences back in the late 70’s, waiting in gas lines (on alternate days) to have their tanks filled. Curiously, all three drove Pintos. We all were so much younger then, but we all remember having participated in some capacity in the drill. Back then, we blamed OPEC and, to a lesser extent, president Carter’s ineffectiveness. It made for large headlines all over the country but never rose to the level of existential concern. After all, Ronald Reagan stood in the wings.

Today, a similar situation earns barely a whisper. True, so far there have been no shortages; only the price of fuel is spiking. Enough money will buy you anything. Still, it’s worrying as we are coming face to face with our own limitations in our need to keep up.

We’re not talking about it because we fear we already know the truth. And we’d rather not know. Every dollar we spend on oil goes to fuel our own destruction. And it’s being orchestrated by our own White House. Every policy decision our current leadership has made seems specifically designed to make us more vulnerable. There can no longer be any doubt: this re-distribution of our wealth in the name of atonement is fast approaching the limit of our endurance. Our dependence on oil remains constant even as our sources and options decline. We have been rendered literally powerless to save ourselves.

With Carter in office, we at least knew that things could possibly turn around with the next election. Now, we’re no longer so sure. Obama appears to have his second term well in hand. We may never get another chance.

That’s why we don’t talk about it. Instead, we grin and bear it. Two years - even one - seems like an eternity. Any plan to unseat Obama seems like a long shot. And though spring is approaching after a long hard winter, there’s not much joy in Mudville as the driving season commences.

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What's In A Name

There are the drawbacks to globalization. When the fabric begins to tear in one part, expect the whole thing to be in shreds soon thereafter. Printing money won’t fix it; buying gold won’t fix it; whatever Kaddafi or Mubarak or Obama do is irrelevant. We can abandon the dollar and use chopsticks instead - nothing is likely to work and no one is immune from the hammering storm that has been gathering for some time in the heart of darkest Africa.

Of course, the world’s most fragile will be the first to suffer - the hallowed poor, for the sake of whom anything and everything is done. The fact is that all of us are in trouble - collectively.

Everything is always in balance. We may not necessarily like some of the items that are used to keep our world in balance, but balance is still preferable to chaos. For some still unexplained reason America has decided to jump off the see-saw. This has sent the see-saw and all who were on it crashing to the ground. The chaos will no doubt coalesce, and whatever emerges will be in balance. It will likely not look the same as what we are used to seeing. There are many ways in which things can be balanced.

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of re-naming things without really making any changes. We put a lot into a name. We name streets and airports after people we may have heard made a (positive) difference.
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It was another beautiful sunrise at the top of the world. Mt. Everest awoke and decided that he no longer wanted to be a mountain. He wanted to be a man and move about on his spindly legs. He no longer wanted to block the winds trying to move willy-nilly from here to there; he no longer wanted to anchor the earth’s crust to keep it from moving; he no longer wanted to stop the magnetic poles from shifting erratically as the earth groans on its axis. No, he wanted to be a man, digging inconsequential holes in the ground.

By it, he would satisfied two desires simultaneously. He would satisfy man whose boundless egotism is always eager to embrace both praise and blame for anything that has ever happened. And he satisfied himself, as he was tired and bored with performing his traditional functions.

Of course, it was all just a matter of semantics. Nothing was to essentially change; except that what had been called ‘mountain', was now called ‘man’ and vice versa.

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Doorstop

There’s a door in our hallway that naturally closes. It has to be kept open with a doorstop - in our case, an antique Chinese casting of small dog.

I remember back around the time when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Pakistan was regarded as ours, to do with as we wished. We had been conducting drone strikes (inside Pakistan) as a part of our effort in Afghanistan. Pakistan had been voicing its objections, but our foreign policy experts chose to continue with the strikes anyway because, they reasoned, Pakistan couldn’t do much about it. We essentially viewed it as a failed and deeply divided state - the lesser half, heavily dependent on U.S. foreign aid. Since then, Pakistan has made strides in coming together - and not necessarily in our favor.

The Ray Davis affair shows that things have changed significantly; that Pakistan is now asserting itself in a way it has never done before. It doesn’t do to declare any nation a failed state simply because we happen not to like it. And , yes, we do not like the Taliban; and, yes, we do not like AQ; and, yes, we do not like Islamic extremism; shariah; and, yes, we do not like people who do not like us and pray daily for their god to hasten our demise.

At some point, Pakistan had to chose between itself and us. It has chosen itself. The Ray Davis affair has brought the rift between us into sharp focus. Surely, we have offered untold sums to settle the matter quietly. And, while this might have worked in the past, it’s not working now. The people of Pakistan see America as a hated intruder; as interloper; as propping up illegitimate and corrupt governments that only serve to oppress to undermine their true desires.

The rulers of Pakistan have had to go along with the people’s wishes in order to remain in power. Another factor is the money we’ve been doling out. It doesn’t buy as much as it used to. Even the lowliest Pakistani citizen senses that America’s power is waning; that it will no longer do to try to keep themselves warm in the fading glow of dying embers.

On the other hand, Islam is on the rise. In order to survive, it has become necessary to throw in with Islam which appears to have even the once great America shaking in it’s boots.

Hanging the bastard publicly will serve as yet another signal that America’s days in the region are essentially over.

Things have indeed changed since Obama took power in America. Some would argue it was inevitable; that the door had been torn from its hinges long ago (translation: Bush). And now the doorstop has been discarded as well.

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Before They Gouge Out Our Eyes

Obviously it won’t be Obama who rides to our rescue. He’ll be the one seen as having run the country into the ground. No doubt, accusations will continue to fly from both sides. So who will it be? A Reagan-like figure? Or someone more centrist? Left? Anybody (again)? Will it even matter?

Hard to say at this point. I maintain we’re already ‘landing softly’. This is not enough for these people. The plan appears to be global. The action will center on the Middle East. That’s where the die will be cast. Everything will radiate out from there. Oil.

What struck me was how desperately Obama wanted to take credit for what happened in Egypt. It’s not yet over. If the worst should happen (and I don’t see how the worst can be avoided under our present leadership), will our president again seek to claim credit? Probably. But it won’t wash - not here, anyway.

A war in the Middle East, whether America is involved or not, will act as a ‘reset’ button for - not Russia, but - America. (How the Russians must have laughed!)

It’ll happen soon enough. While economic collapse could drag on for years, the Middle East - from Turkey to Pakistan and down into North Africa - has reached the boiling point. I have no clue if Israel is even prepared to defend itself. In any case, it’s probably out of Israel’s hands as well.

The era of cheap oil is be over. We hear it over and over again - like self-fulfilling prophecy. Oil has been the lifeblood of American ‘success‘. Our worthless dollars will no longer buy oil from the Middle East. And then there’s the matter of retribution. Venezuela will go along with it and cut us off.

Cloward-Piven has already achieved its aim. This can be illustrated in any number of ways. We’re now into our post-revolution. The point is, we no longer control the ropes. Who will come to our rescue (with some version of the Marshall Plan) should we stumble? (Again, we have already stumbled.) The sainted Brotherhood? The Chinese? The Russians? It’s likely that we’ll continue to wallow in our own stew for some time to come.

Doubtful too that Obama will be granted a villa in Shiraz (believe me, I tried to find some sort of beach resort for the family) to live out his miserable life. Though, it might be thrilling to catch a glimpse of Michelle’s ankle just before they gouge out our eyes.

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The Nightingale And the Rose

Pardon me while I don’t quite bite. Anything can be spun, including facts and numbers - like ‘the economy is improving’ and ‘unemployment is decreasing‘ and ‘green‘ jobs are the future. It’s generally done by introducing a ‘new’ method of counting, using ‘new’ parameters and a different basket of assumptions. In education, overall results are generally improved by lowering the bar and dumbing down tests.

All this frantic fudging does not change a single thing of significance. Obama is still a socialist (whether we say it or not). And he may even be a card-carrying member of the Muslim Brotherhood for all we know (whether we even dare ask the question).

Partisanship has nothing to do with it. The proof is in the pudding. America is slipping, the dollar is slipping, our educational system is not producing and we are making mistakes in every area of endeavor relative to the rest of the world.

Whether we point it out or not, whether or not we’re turning off our radios because we’re sick of hearing about it, it’s happening at an alarming rate.

I note that the Batchelor show has one big advantage over everybody else in the business: he doesn’t take calls. Therefore he’s spared the tedious bleating of the inarticulate, the partisan poisoned, and the uninformed. Batchelor only talks to ‘experts’; meaning, that what has made them experts is in large part their familiarity and comfort level regarding language. This translates well to radio. It does not mean, however, that the ‘great unwashed’ - the rest of us - have nothing to say.

While everyone likes to claim the people’s support for whatever murderous scheme they might find themselves accessories to, they remain prepared to drop public opinion for expediency’s sake. In Beck’s case, I am not so sure his being dropped from major markets has so much to do with poor ratings as with his fingering of the great puppet master himself: Soros, who seems to have his fingers in every conceivable pie - just as I never believed that the re-elections of Reid and Pelosi were entirely free of electoral fraud.

I just finished reading ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Oscar Wilde. It is one of the stories that came in a volume published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin. Like Grimm’s fairy tales, the themes in these stories are not necessarily all clover and honey. Some serious issues are explored here under guise of clear language and simple metaphor. ‘Nightingale’ for instance explores the notion of personal sacrifice for a lost cause. It can bring tears to a child’s eyes and continue to haunt into adulthood.

In America, there have been many more such sacrifices than those currently living here. In fact, it could even be said, that every grave in America holds the remains of a martyr who had some sense of the eternal. What would any of them say if they were to come back today and watch the rose tossed carelessly aside to be crushed by an unseeing wagon wheel? Would they be impressed by the gloss of manipulated polls and surveys? Or would they be moved to weep at the flag (they fought and died for in some cases) being dragged through the muddy streets of our relentless discontent?

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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.

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Flores Para Los Muertos

For weeks now we’ve been hearing different people in the Obama administration obsessing about China, alternately calling them out as either ‘failure’ or ‘success‘; threat or ally (in the fight against terrorism and/or maintaining stable currency markets). We are left with a picture of China as seriously schizophrenic, split between its political wing and its military.

What we have failed to do is look in the mirror. Is it not possible that we ourselves are divided about China? It is clear that they have made significant progress in the past number of years. And they have done so on their own terms without bowing to Western frills such as giving undue attention to human rights, individual freedom, transparency and such.

Of perhaps most obvious significance, they have managed to veer their economy away from its traditional ‘dependent almost entirely on exports’ model to turn on the effectiveness of its very own consumer base (if indeed their numbers can be believed). One must remember that China is a communist, authoritarian nation that tightly controls information and its dissemination. And, even more significant for us to understand is, that in such a nation, metrics and standards by which to gage economic (or any) activity are meaningless to begin with.

There can now be little doubt that the narrative that has been created shows China as rising and America in sharp decline. In this light, Hu Jintao’s upcoming visit to Washington may be regarded more as a hospital visit to a sick friend. It is unlikely that the Chinese leader will give any ground - only sympathy. It is equally unlikely that Obama does not know he is in no position to demand more. Already, China holds the fate of America’s economy in its hands. It can collapse it with a single word.

China won’t do this now. It is presently deeply engaged in buying everything it can with U.S. virtual dollars. For the time being, it is to its advantage to keep the dollar alive. It will make its move once it feels it is fully prepared to handle any (and all) fallout in the wake of America’s final collapse (which it feels is inevitable).

For whatever reason, we’ve managed to destroy our systems. Can we really blame China for putting up theirs against ours? Can we really expect them not feed off what’s left of the dregs of ourselves we’ve left scattered and unprotected, adding more and more each day to the scrapheap of failed illusions?

No, we’ve gone off track. High-speed trains, mercury light bulbs and windmills won’t save us. And, as with the dying, cut flowers are the only consolation.

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Is Democracy Dead?

Is democracy dead? That’s the point, isn’t it? If Washington should prove to be dysfunctional, the argument could be made that democracy is dead - rigor mortis; gridlock, anything you want to call it. When government no longer functions, what more can one say? There’s no use pretending it works when it doesn’t.

This ‘compromise’ that’s now under threat of unraveling would effectively saddle Americans with higher taxes they can’t afford. People forced to make decisions about when it’s best to die.

Maybe the death of democracy goes hand in hand with the death of capitalism. The crashing dollar; total reliance on monetized (future) debt. Consumer confidence. “Don’t worry, when things pick up…”

Capitalism relies on some degree of adherence to protocol: balancing budgets; honoring contracts; etc. - much of it thrown out the window to favor those who hate the system anyway; to get them aboard (the green-powered ark, only half built). To be replaced by what? No standards, no constraints; only bounced checks, compensation for services never rendered - relating only to the need for protection.

What would replace democracy/capitalism? Degrees of brutality; of corruption, theft, servitude, illusion. Enter the tyrant, the dictator to make the trains run on time. He then can make the rules any way he wants them - until he too is strung up. Et to, Brute?

No way to run a railroad.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

A Sputnik Moment

I understand that the title ("George W. Obama") of JB’s post above is meant as a dig at Democrats. It is they who shrink from any comparison with Bush like Dracula shrinks from daylight. There’s no way that Obama and Bush can in any way be seen as the same. Though both are despised equally, it must be noted who is doing the despising, calling to mind the adage, "You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies." (Wilde)

In this morning’s WSJ, there is an opinion piece by Chester E. Finn, Jr. entitled, “A Sputnik Moment for U.S. Education”. The pull quote reads, “China delivers another wake-up call to those who think American schools are globally competitive.” Mr. Finn is referring to the results of the 2009 PISA test in math, reading and science which shows Shanghai’s 15-year-olds topped every other jurisdiction in which the test was given. Hong Kong was also in the top five, while the U.S. was somewhere in the middle of the pack of sixty-five. The article closes with the question, “Will (this news) get us beyond the excuse-making, bickering over who should do what, and prioritizing adults over children?”

It remains unclear what the former assistant secretary at the DOE wants us to do. Finn points out that Beijing has made education a high priority, especially in key cities like Shanghai (population, 20 million); that this success will likely be duplicated in 10 cities by 2019 and 50 by 2029; or even faster. I know, for example, that qualified, native English teachers willing to work in China can command considerable perks. At the same time, they are exporting teachers to teach Mandarin all over the world.

It would be interesting to know just how much the PLA is paying (per student) to be able to exhibit such success. I expect it’s much less than we pay to keep the doors of our own failing schools open. For too long now we’ve been under the impression that money can buy anything - literacy, peace, love, respect, politicians, immortality, solvency and the like - without the effort and discipline involved in actually maintaining such things hands-on. With the dollar buying ever less these days, we’ve run out of money. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for the dregs, we’ve managed to choke off opportunity for generations to come.

Time to reassess the root of what defines 'value'. IOU’s just don’t cut it anymore.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Revolution # 9

It’s not about the Euro. It’s about revolution. The Left has seized the day. It will not allow cuts to the welfare state. It does not care about the Euro. It does not care about capitalism. All the Left cares about is bringing down the system which is now teetering on the edge.

As in the U.S., it was the Left that had been pushing for freebies that were essentially unaffordable. There was some semblance of affordability as long as economies kept growing. Now, that the slump cycle has set in, what had seemed affordable, is suddenly unaffordable. To the Left, this is a distinction without a difference. It is not that the ‘educated’ Left could not foresee this. They saw it alright. It was a set-up. It was planned. All they had to do was wait.

The waiting is now over. For the Left it is now time to act; to take to the streets; shout slogans; raise the red flag; do some damage; open some heads. For the Left the worst thing that could happen now is for the economies to recover; for people to go on as before. “Barack will not allow…”

Even recovery is now booby-trapped. All that pent-up demand. All that consumer spending would just show up the Euro (dollar) for what it’s really worth - nothing; or, at the very least, considerably less than what people expect.

Any way you look at it, the Euro is finished. The dollar is over; even though it may appear marginally better off than the Euro. People will not allow themselves to be taxed out of existence - in North Korea, maybe; but not in the West.

Still - taxation or inflation - it all comes out to the same: civil unrest, which will lead to political chaos. Left or Right, it won’t matter. The solutions are the same for both. There will be blood. The revolution is here. The Left has won.

In America, we think the revolution has already happened; that it happened at the ballot box - nice and neat - with the Republicans taking charge of the House. The verdict is already in: NO COMPROMISE; no solution. The old ‘evils’ are beginning to crumble one by one: the Bush tax cuts; the Bush wars; American exceptionalism; global alliances. Revolution is the end. It is here. After that, …who knows?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bringing Down the Roof

Ordinarily, the agreement between China and Russia to abandon the dollar might be met with a certain skepticism and seen as just another poke in the eye, all in good fun, by our traditional irritants. Today, however, I don’t see it so.

For months now, both China and Russia have been begging the U.S. to get its economic house in order. No response. In fact, we’ve been doubling down on destroying our own currency, claiming that it’s all the others’ fault for the world’s economic malaise. We’ve already forgotten that it was we who exported toxic financial instruments all over the globe after our housing bubble burst. We’ve forgotten that the still spreading financial mess started right here in America.

I don’t have to go into all the details. Others have done so far more effectively than I ever could. And it’s not, as the Soros-sponsored documentary “Inside Job” suggests, that all our nation’s bankers should be frog-marched to the wall and shot. Rather, that it was the result of left-leaning politicians who, in a concerted effort, succeeded in deliberately bringing our economy down in order to elect their own.

China and Russia are not stupid. They know perfectly well what’s been going on here, and they’re simply protecting themselves. The dollar is heading toward worthless and the world has lost confidence in it. They see no attempt being made to rescue it. In fact, they see just the opposite.

Politically, economically and militarily our nation is in steep decline. It no longer makes sense for anyone to align themselves with us. We have ceased to be reliable partners. Even our enemies are torn between euphoria and fear. We’ve always been able to project ourselves as a worthy opponent. Under Obama’s leadership, our nation is seen as rogue and unpredictable.

The world looks ahead and see no change in our crazed suicidal stance for at least the next two years. They rightly assess that, at our current pace, two years is quite enough to bring down the roof.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Funeral Procession

Midterm elections over. The people have spoken. The results are being spun as a repudiation of Obama’s policies - yet, perhaps not as strongly as might have been envisioned. Many legislators - particularly the ones representing the coasts - should have been ousted. In Nevada, Reid’s win looks more than suspicious. As does Boxer’s win in California. I believe these elections, among others (involving Democrat wins), were fraudulent. There’s no way to prove it, of course. And nobody will even try.

A more accurate depicter of the mood of the nation is the economy. The health of our economy remains poor and a key indicator is the unemployment rate. The political argument goes round and round: The lack of jobs is due to the poor economy; and the poor economy has produced joblessness. How to improve the economy? How to reduce joblessness to tolerable levels? One way is to define a new norm.

The Fed is poised to print money and inject more liquidity into the system. It is generally acknowledged that this will hurt the dollar. Yet, the Fed - prompted by the White House - is willing to risk inflation just to show a bit of improvement on the labor market. It won’t work. What the White House does not understand - or does not want to understand - is that the government cannot manipulate the economy like they do elections. They cannot yet dictate what the people should do with their money. They cannot yet compel the people to spend, save or hire, and then finesse the numbers to suit. Short of rendering the currency worthless (in which case there is no economy) they are powerless to arbitrate economic solutions.

As such, the economy remains the only venue which allows people to express their confidence (or lack of it) and overall support of the government and its policies. Expect the economy to remain on life support as long as Obama remains in office. I believe that the president knows this. That is why the Fed, at the direction of the White House, is pursuing a course which will ultimately lead to the dollar’s collapse.

Obama’s trip to India can be seen as the first act in the pomp and circumstance of a funeral (procession) that is yet lacking a corpse.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Thinking Outside the Box

It has been noted that if the Chilean mine collapse had happened in the U. S., the trapped miners would have died. After a suitably scripted period of rhetoric and hand-wringing, Obama would have imposed an immediate moratorium on all mining operations, and appointed a committee to propose a series of new regulations; and another to determine ways of exacting damages (fees) for the government to exploit. Such assessment is an obvious slap at our current administration and can obviously never be substantiated . It nevertheless is based on what we have come to know about our leadership thus far - thinking strictly inside the (wrong) box.

It’s the same with our current fiscal problems. Our government’s only solution appears to be beggaring the dollar (as in printing more money). This policy is sure to cause dislocation worldwide. It is likely to hurt us even more than others by making things more expensive, killing jobs even further, and reducing our influence abroad.

Some say that this is actually what Obama wants to happen. If it is so, he’s on the right track. If not, he’s barking up the wrong tree. The only thing that can turn things around in the U. S. is not mere smoke and mirrors; but a single-minded emphasis on growth. Growth is the only sane way of absorbing our debt. Yet every policy proposed by this administration so far, without exception, has been is anti-growth. Go figure!

In order to stimulate our economy, we have to, first and foremost, bring back confidence. This would involve primarily an all-out political effort. We have to convince the business community that the government is not out to destroy it. We have to erase uncertainty by stating in plain English what government policy toward business across the board will be going forward. We have to make investment in American businesses attractive. We have to improve the business climate to attract the best minds along with capital from overseas. We have to quit punishing success. We have to reduce taxes. And we have to stop bad-mouthing capitalism.

To turn our economy around, it will require bold, decisive action. This is what Obama promised us during his campaign for the presidency. Thus far, we have seen only small thinking; tinkering on the margins and all of it wrong. Perhaps he’s aware of the Vedic parable which claims to show that ‘every act of ours reverses itself in its results‘. But I doubt it.

When Shankaracharya (Hindu theologian; 8th or 9th Century), was still young, he decided to renounce the world and become a wandering monk. Monks are never allowed to return home. When his mother died, none of her relatives came forward to cremate her body. Shankaracharya then decided to break his oath. As his mother’s body was too heavy for him alone to carry to the pyre by the river, he is said to have cut it up into portable pieces.

He was a man credited for his ability to think outside the box in search for solutions

He would later be credited with the revitalization of Hinduism which had become corrupt and ineffective and Buddhism was rapidly gaining ground. He established four mutts (monastic schools), one in the north, one in the south, east and west of the sub-continent. These still exist today.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/