Kabuki Theater: The Birth Certificate

Peter Koelliker | April 27, 2011 11:23 AM | Reply
Judging from last night’s show, Larry Kudlow has finally jettisoned his phony optimism and declared Obama’s policies to be all wrong. He, like everybody else, is basing any residual optimism on the assumption that Obama will not be reelected in 2012. All the talking heads agree that this is now inevitable.

The picture that immediately comes to my mind is one of a thief having broken into the jewelry store and set off the alarm. He knows that the cops will arrive in just a matter of minutes and is desperately trying to grab all he can before he hears the sirens. Then he plans to make his escape out through the back door and jump into a waiting get-away car.

What if the cops never arrive? What if there has been some sort of diversion that sent the cops to some different place where they get all tied up? What if the thief has all the time in the world to clean out the place and saunter away? What if the thief gets away with all of it?

Obama does not act like he’s concerned about his reelection. What if he knows that something of such magnitude will happen that it would be impossible to hold elections? Or, what if he knows that the elections are rigged? Who is to question the result?

To say that Obama has been the most unorthodox commander-in-chief we’ve ever had would be an understatement. I’ve never fallen in with the crowd that says he’s stupid. If he’s not stupid, he is smart. Does anyone really think that he, as a smart man, hasn’t thought of everything?

Does anyone really think that what he’s done so far is due to stupidity? He has declared from the start that he means to transform America. We should by now know what he meant. He’s been entirely consistent. Every move he has made has had the effect of diminishing the power and influence of America and pushing her towards chaos. At the same time, he has increased his own standing (the opposition is hopelessly fractured).

I maintain that none of this is accident. We’re all sitting through the slow-moving initial part of a kabuki play, wishing desperately for it to be over. Then, just before the end – before the election – we are suddenly jolted awake. The music grows louder. Trap doors slam open and shut. Actors appear and disappear. How acrobatic and agile they all are! …and then it’s over. We see Obama taking a bow. Time to gather our coats and go home. But there’s no longer a home to go back to. Obama is still president.

Whom can we turn to? Dazed and confused, we walk the streets. All the signs have been changed. America is transformed.

All the while, we’ve watched as the fuses were being lit. Economic collapse. Fuel and food shortages. Civil unrest. War. All the while we’ve sloughed it off. All the while we thought it can’t happen here. All the while we’ve watched the right hand while ignoring what the left was doing.

Obama knows exactly what he’s doing. Unless it rains, his pyrotechnics will catch us off guard. It’s timed to happen before election night 2012. (2008 was just a dry run.) This promises to be the big deal.

I’m telling you, the man won’t just simply go away. He’s following the playbook to the letter. It’s the playbook of revolution. The rest of the world knows it. That’s why they’re all heading for the tall grass. Only we, dullards, sit here. Bored beyond endurance, we still hope to be entertained, even while the furniture is slowly being moved around to accommodate the fancies of our dear leader.
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Today, Obama released his long-form birth certificate. He merely did something that he people have long been entitled to. Good for him. Fake or not, this should put the issue to rest. Still not resolved is just who exactly our president is. Given his track record, we cannot be sure. In his statement after releasing his birth certificate, the president couldn’t help but take a swipe at all those who raised the question. “Birther” is once again a dirty word, used to smear and discredit (Trump), when it is he (Obama) who instigated the whole controversy in the first place.

Of note perhaps is the timing. What else is happening today that the president does not necessarily want us to examine too closely? “Watch the flourishes of my right hand and miss what my left is doing.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lipstick On A Pig

Oh yes, I know, everyone is busy painting lipstick on a pig right now. It’s our version of celebrating Eid. We’re so hoping for Obama to make good, we’re even willing to gauge out our eyes just to make it so. The fact is that more of us still have jobs than don’t. This means that most of us can still be persuaded to pull Obama’s lunch wagon. (By the way, all this talk about us becoming more and more like Europe is a bunch of hogwash. If you ask me, we’re headed straight for Stalingrad.)

If it turns out that those with jobs should begin to feel the pinch, only then will the situation change. Only then will we all begin reading from the same page.

Apparently it’s all been forgotten: health care, the new EPA regs (regarding carbon emissions), higher taxes on the local level, FINREG, net neutrality, gas prices, etc. It’ll all kick in this year. A new norm for unemployment; immigration, border security, foreign affairs, inflation, energy dependence…

I honestly don’t see the optimism. True, the world around us appears to be digging out - at least they’re trying. We’re just digging deeper.

Stocks are up today. They generally rise in the third year of a presidency. Will they this time? The year has barely started. Some people have made money, it‘s true. This is supposed to be a bad thing - so this administration keeps saying anyway. And now they’re claiming a (minor) victory. Make up your mind! Which is it?

The fact is, it’s jobs that drive America. People working - creating value. Nothing I’ve heard will produce more or better jobs as long as Obama is president. Now it could well be that with the ‘net neutrality’ bandwagon gaining ground, there’ll be nothing but good news from here on in. That won’t necessarily mean it’s so. It just means that we'll be suffering in our bunkers - alone.
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Pete Postlethwaite died today. To my mind he was an actor’s actor. Loved the film “Brassed Off”.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Surviving the First Wave

Larry Kudlow is a brilliant economic analyst. That’s why I listen to him. For some time now I’ve been frustrated with him (and others) for saying all the right things but being unwilling to pull the trigger. It’s always Obama’s policies that are misguided, never Obama himself. He consistently subscribes to the notion that if voters were to send the president a loud enough message (as in the midterms) he would then turn it around and begin to pursue policies designed to actually stimulate economic growth.

Kudlow has a ‘shtick‘. His signature approach to the economy as well as to politics in general is optimism. He recently interviewed Tim Geithner who told him that taxes would indeed increase but not by as much as everyone expects. Larry took this as a cause to trumpet his legendary optimism and told the story over and over again. It was simply infuriating. But, I have since noticed that Larry Kudlow - like any amateur poker player - has a ‘tell’.

Larry takes an awful lot of calls from people who are telling him exactly how it is; that Obama is a Marxist whose ultimate aim is to destroy the U.S. economy. He allows them to talk but always lets them know that he is unwilling to dip into the realm of anybody’s motivation. But I’ve come to recognize his ‘tell’. When someone begins to articulate their deepest suspicions about Barack Hussein Obama, he always makes that peculiar laugh of his that tells me that he basically agrees with the caller.

I now understand that that Kudlow knows precisely what’s going on and why. He maintains his shtick to keep from getting lumped in with the political shock-jocks. Given our present circumstances, it’s probably also a good idea to remain within the good graces of the FCC.

It’s a good bet that new rules for over-air broadcasting are in the offing. At first only the most forthright critics of the government will be directly affected. Kudlow, like anyone smart enough to read the writing on the proverbial wall, is simply making sure that he survives the first wave.