Body of Lies

If POTUS antagonizes major media, what’s left? Who will be there to carry his water? POTUS is wavering. On one hand, his first impulse is to batten down the hatches and contain them completely. He forgets that he is entirely a media creation and that their fate is inextricably linked to his own. They will not abandon him. On the other, POTUS needs scapegoats. Republicans aren’t enough. POTUS’ need of scapegoats is insatiable. It is the mark of a tyrant.

POTUS will scapegoat friends. This is not something that’s lost on the media. They know they are skating on thin ice no matter which way they turn. POTUS knows the media won’t turn against him. The incident in question (San Francisco Fresh Juice guerilla theater) was covered playfully and in good humor. If anything, it made appear POTUS more human.

POTUS is thin-skinned. Others have remarked on it as well. This will be his undoing. And that too is a fact that can be taken to the bank.

The media will go down with POTUS. The illusion of media relevance is practically imperceptible. 2012 is set to tear open the curtain and expose all. The 44th presidency will be shown as a fraud. How we deal with it will expose the nation.

Reminds of a scene in the film ‘Body of Lies’ (2008) where Ferris is brought out into the desert in exchange for his girlfriend. He is immediately surrounded by a group of SUV’s which drive around him in a circle, kicking up so much dust, it becomes impossible for the ‘eye in the sky’ (Ferris bosses) to see. The vehicles all split up and drive off in different directions.

POTUS will have to orchestrate something big to distract from what is already known to be true. That is why I continue to predict a substantial diversion before we’ve even had a chance to vote in 2012.

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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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Dilma's Dilemma

Another teachable moment. Another glimpse into the mind of our president, Barack Hussein Obama. How he is handling Libya could have been foreseen long ago. Other commanders-in-chief have done as much at the mere drop of a hat. It’s not what happens there that should be of concern to us. Of far greater concern should be what we ourselves have become.

We have become a nation of lawless and corrupt governance. Our Constitution specifies that Congress must be consulted, and be made to approve any deployment of American troops overseas. Barack Hussein Obama is the first president to bypass this convention. Instead, he claims to derive his power from what he refers to as the ‘international community’ (UN). As such, he has further shredded the Constitution of the United States. At the same time, he is continuing to marginalize the role of Congress. So much for representative governance.

Again, all this could have been foreseen. Months back, I wrote that the deliberate chaos in the 111th Congress would serve to discredit the institution irreparably. Here we have it in black and white. What does this say about the sanctity of our vote? In a short two years we have devolved from a constitutional republic to a tyranny.

Our media does not appear to grasp the enormity of what has happened to us. Small wonder. The success or failure of any quasi-democratic setup depends on an educated public. Our schools have become mere cookie cutters. The level of understanding among recent graduates is astoundingly below par. It cuts across the board from math through English. “When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”

I understand that polls are often skewed to elicit certain answers; to show specific results, most likely ones that grab headlines and spur magazine sales; and, don’t forget, of course, to promote the urgency for more money for favored institutions (such as teachers unions) and in NEWSWEEK’s case, Democrats. In this particular survey, published this week, I suspect, the numbers are probably even worse. The teaching of civics and history has perhaps suffered most in recent years. It’s natural that these would be edged out by an ever greater emphasis on ideologically based solutions. Let’s face it, Marxism is now in vogue.

As our president travels splendidly throughout Brazil, burnishing his Marxist credentials, his unconstitutional behavior with regard to Libya goes almost unnoticed. Obviously, most Brazilians have not yet gotten the message that he is one of them as evidenced by the feisty street demonstrations against him. But Dilma knows why he’s come. She’ll let him grovel and beg for her validation. Still, she must weigh her ultimate approach to him against her own need for a demon. The U.S. has always served admirably in this regard.

Even if the new Brazilian president should withhold her favors, the trip should still be regarded as a success. When things go wrong in Libya, Obama can always say, “It wasn’t me. It’s all Hillary’s fault. I wasn’t even there.”

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Organized Water

Zuidplaspolder marks the lowest point (-7 m) in The Netherlands (Holland) which is famous for its dykes. In fact, much of the landmass of this country lies below sea level. Were there no dykes, even Amsterdam could not have been built.

Similarly, about 50% of New Orleans lies below sea level. Levees have been built to protect the city. As we have so painfully learned during Katrina: when the levies are breached, the city floods.

Much money is required to maintain dykes and levees. When this money is diverted to corruption and other uses and the levees are allowed to deteriorate, it puts protected areas at severe risk.

Hosni Mubarak represented a political dyke in the Middle East. He stood between the radical Islamization of the country and what we see today - a semi-modern society exhibiting western friendly values. There is some question as to just how successful Mubarak actually was. Just last week I happened to see a picture (it might have been in the WSJ) showing an Egyptian beach some 20 years ago with an insert showing that same beach today. The first showed a typical middle class family picnicking on a beach blanket dressed in western swimwear; the second showed that same beach haunted by the dark shadows of women in burkahs.

Water is 'organized' as to always pool in the lowest places. The Muslim Brotherhood, is said to be the most 'organized' faction in Egypt. Many predict that with Mubarak gone - the dam is broken, and - the Brotherhood will come to dominate the country, turning it into a harsh, restrictive, anti-western, anti-Israel theocracy.

We have seen this before in the Middle East: Iran.

The people, so enthusiastic and hopeful in anticipation of a loosening of shackles, will have little to say about how the worm ultimately turns. They are not (nuts and bolts) 'organized'. They will fall victim to the demands of 'organized' water that always seeks the lowest point in which to pool. Tyranny is always the lowest point.

It’s the same here in America. The Left is organized beyond belief while the Tea Parties are not. The Tea Parties are merely united by a vague sense of tradition and fear. They are being swept away as we speak by 'organized' political water. Like the Facebook warriors of Egypt, they do not stand a chance.

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Being There

It has been duly noted that once again we seem to be on the wrong side of things. We’re supporting a rag-tag army of assorted leftists and Islamic radicals, and throwing Mubarak - a U.S. ally - under the bus (so to speak); that, for all our efforts to help lift the Egyptian people out of the tyranny of what essentially amounts to (we are told) U.S.-sponsored poverty, we are inadvertently abandoning them to another kind of tyranny - one of Islamic fundamentalism which would likely put Israel - another so-called U.S. ally - at risk, as well as the Suez Canal, a major shipping lane (primarily for oil) which is likely to affect even Europe - more U.S. ‘allies’ - adversely.

Nobody asks why the people of the Middle East are in perpetual poverty, despite untold billions pumped in by the West (for oil). Nobody asks why conditions for Muslims in India continue to be markedly worse than they are for Hindus (and others), despite government efforts to give them every possible advantage.

Perhaps we haven’t exactly thought it through all that well; perhaps we haven’t considered all the implications of embracing shariah and treating it on par with what our own sacred texts espouse. Perhaps we thought that by siding with a seemingly ‘popular’ movement all else would fall into place; and we would be loved as we’ve never been loved before.

Such miscalculations are easy to make. Carter miscalculated Iran and we’re still paying the price. They still hate us. But he meant well. At least, we think he did.

We’re also giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in the current situation. We seem to have forgotten his stance on the Iranian popular uprising a year or two ago. We seem to have forgotten his stance when Honduras went through its constitutional travail, as well as so much else that has been plaguing us domestically since this man assumed power. We’ve refused to connect the dots.

I still remember as a child, the seemingly endless wait at restaurants for the waitress to bring our food was made tolerable by the table mats I was given. The ‘connect-the-dots’ game was always a part of it. The game was relatively easy. The dots were always numbered; and I knew my numbers. I knew what order they came in. Yet, I would always hesitate to start, trying to predict before-hand what figure would ultimately emerge.

Today, connecting-the-dots seems to have become a lost art. While it’s true that the dots are no longer numbered, they are self-explanatory nonetheless. We have been reading the newspapers, after all. We can remember what has happened previously and in what order it happened. We have seen enough of it to know what is likely to happen next - and afterwards…

Still, we act like every day is a new day. All events are random and unexpected. Obama has been in office two years - and unpleasant things have happened and are continuing to happen. Where is all this ‘hope and change’ thing taking us?

While all our problems have been attributed to Obama’s inexperience (including, of course, his constant hectoring of Israel to mind its ways), a pattern seems to be emerging.

Heads of state are beginning to notice and draw conclusions. While we gnash our teeth, seemingly finding ourselves at the mercy of unrelated events, our enemies are beginning to take liberties. Our friends are beginning to distance themselves. Our economy is going to the dogs. Our ‘fixes’ only seem to be making things worse. And throughout it all, our government media tells us that all is hunky-dory; that we are doing just fine; and that the light at the other end of the tunnel is straight ahead (under the inspired leadership of Imam Obama).

Things are falling apart. Despite removing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ terminology from U.S. passport applications and replacing it with gender neutral verbiage (‘parent one’ and ‘parent two‘), junior Obama is finding that it still takes either Mom or Dad to drive the fambly (sic) sedan.

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Staring Us In The Face

As Egypt’s travail progresses, I increasingly hear glowing reports in the media about the demonstrators and their ‘legitimate’ grievances. This may all be well and good. There hasn’t been a legitimate election in Egypt since Mubarak assumed office in 1981 (following the assassination of Anwar Sadat). In all that time it would not be an overstatement to say that the Egyptian people have gotten the short end of the stick.

However, Egypt is not America or any other nation where elections have paved the way for a smooth transfer of power. (We let it happen it in Gaza and it didn’t work out so well.) It might even be said that Egypt has been held together by ten-cents worth of salt water taffy and glue, courtesy of (who else?) Uncle Sam.

There are those who now joyfully opine that this may not have been our best policy - especially now that the jewel in our Middle East crown (Israel) stands somewhat tarnished by events. This view contends that Israel should be left alone to see to itself, allowing for serious reform to develop among its neighbors.

There is every indication that the current American administration is now prepared to do just that. This would release a lot of water currently dammed up. Not sure if Israel could survive the flood.

Leaving the issue of Israel’s survival aside for the moment, there’s now a different, more ominous narrative emerging. Increasingly one hears about this initially noble revolution (throughout the Middle East) being hijacked by extremist elements. No doubt Iran and its proxies, as we, have a stake in its eventual outcome. We hear that we shouldn’t worry; that Iran will never get a foothold (in Egypt) because their population differs from Egypt’s in significant ways. We can only hope.

When Obama was elected, we also had hope. Now, we might say that, first, our Democrat party was hijacked; and, then, our government. We look around and might say that our universities and our media were hijacked by a radical fringe. We might even say that our financial institutions, our churches and our unions were infiltrated and hijacked while we weren’t paying attention. Now, even though we still think of ourselves uniquely as Americans, we find it difficult find a solid hold to steady ourselves. We’re just ‘the people’ who sense that something has gone terribly wrong. We speak out, but our voices trail off into the ether. We gather to show our solidarity with what? - Some guy on the radio? Ourselves?

Meanwhile, the government grinds on along its merry way with seemingly no regard for us. In fact, it is ruling against our will. We find ourselves working for it, even as we thought it was working for us. This is tyranny.

Not exactly sure how long it’s been this way. It’s just that we woke up one morning and saw it staring us in the face.

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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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Tunisia: From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

I don’t claim to know the particulars, but the pattern seems set: corrupt governance the world over, often supported by the West (particularly the United States) and kept in place for its own geopolitical game-board advantage; the locals - as always, getting the shaft - are unhappy. They seek alternatives. The alternative in that part of the world is invariably state(Iran)-sponsored Islam. (Note: the words “state” and “(any)religion” used in the same sentence always amounts to an oxymoron.)

Islam offers the illusion of escape from tyranny while imposing its own tyranny, but the people do not yet know it. They embrace the notion of a caliphate which promises liberation from outside influence. In a single stroke, they think all their ‘enemies’ will now be humbled - and, for now, that is enough to rally in support.

Home-grown tyranny is always preferable because its home-grown.

Why all this now? Because the U.S. under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama has made it clear that America will no longer fight to preserve old ways; that, frankly, it no longer cares who is in charge or what happens. Algiers, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon are all on the chopping block, along with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Turkey has already decided to place its bet with the strong horse. You bet “Israel is watching closely”. She will soon find herself surrounded by an ever-rising (green) tide. She watches in despair as her ship takes on water: Islamic fervor from without; liberalism from within, while Gibraltar America fades in the distance.

As I continue to say, America’s break with the past - brought to the fore in its last presidential election - will continue to reverberate around the globe. No one will be spared. No one can anticipate where the chips will end up when it’s over. No one is prepared. All are in deep denial. Only China is trying. You’ve got to give them credit.

The irony is that America will be blamed for whatever happens. Despite our considerable resources, we seem to have adopted a deliberate stance of not caring - primarily about ourselves.

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A Bridge To The Future

It must be kept in mind that everything is always in balance. Cancer, for instance, is a precise response to some other condition - as is tyranny. Now it may be that the environment we create by attempting to right perceived imbalances is not conducive to the survival of concepts such as freedom or liberty - or even to the continuance of human species, or life (as we know it) overall - but the system nevertheless remains in perfect balance. Perfect balance is an absolute requirement for existence.

Therefore, it is unwise to jump heavy-handedly from one extreme to another in an effort to equalize things. For one thing, Republican and Democrat, rich and poor, black and white, etc. are not opposites. They are merely different aspects among many. Heavily weighting one over another merely induces momentary displacement or shock. It has long been duly noted that deliberately induced rapid weight gains and losses are harmful to a person’s health. Any such measure of health does not mean that things are out of balance overall. It merely means that the environment that has been created is toxic to our well-being (in our present state); the same as the environment on the moon could be considered toxic to man. At the same time, it would be wrong to say that the moon is out of balance. It is and remains in perfect balance with itself. (If the moon were the only entity in the universe, both God and man would be there.)

A while back this blog mentioned the discovery of a new life form not based on carbon. Scientist were said to be surprised to find such a thing. It had heretofore been thought that life can only be carbon-based. Wrong! Life is and will continue to be, and seek expression of itself. Liberty is and will continue to be, and find a way to express itself. The path may lead inward or outward. It ultimately does not matter what we do to tinker around the edges where existence has already been established as fact.

The addition of Bill Daley to the Obama team would definitely have an impact on the WH operation. It remains yet to be seen exactly what impact it will have. Again, as something is lost, something else is gained in equal measure. The argument could be made that nothing will essentially change as long as POTUS does not listen, or if POTUS should refuse to adjust his aim.

Aim is the key here. We have watched POTUS long enough to know who POTUS is and what he wants. All pretty much agree that we can’t get there from here. America will never be a socialist nation. It will never consent to being an Islamic nation. It will not tolerate dictatorship. POTUS must take stock and understand the limits of what is possible. Pragmatism always works - miracles most often do not.

No doubt, America has changed over the years. There are those who would want it to reverse course. Reversing course, however, is also not acceptable. Genies can never be put back into the bottle. The only path for America (or any nation) is forward. A president can influence; he can articulate. He can shape by degrees. He can be a bridge to the future. What he cannot do is sever the continuum. Attempting to do so would shatter not the nation, but himself. And in so doing he would bring disappointment and hardship to the people who placed their trust in him.

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The Invisible Man

I just finished reading “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells. It is said to be one of the forerunners of today’s very popular science fiction genre. Though told in a straight-forward manner, focusing primarily on keeping the plot moving, there is more here than meets the eye: the mechanics of 'invisibility', for instance. Take a piece of glass and insert it into water, and it becomes invisible. Take a red piece of glass and insert it into that same water and it will still show red. To make it invisible, the water would have to be red as well. This could easily translate into a metaphor for cultural shifts as well. As long as a foreign or alien concept is introduced stealthily (or invisibly) into the culture, it will not be rejected outright. This is the way Marxism has been introduced in America, cloaked in the thoroughly traditional American corpse: the Democrat Party.

As the host begins to die, Marxism becomes visible in stages just as Wells’ lead character, Griffin, becomes once again visible after he has been killed. First socialism reveals itself; then communism; proceeding through all the subsequent stages all the way up to and including authoritarianism. Tyranny is always the final stage. In it, there is only one authority to determine the path forward.

In Wells’ novel, the people band together to capture and kill Griffin before his invisibility can prevail and metastasize into crippling terrorism. They still cannot see him, but they understand what he has done and aims yet to do. Instead of shrinking from the unseen, they attack it.

This is in contrast to Ralph Ellison’s work of the same title. The situation here is reversed. Blindness is deliberately nurtured by the seeing. They willfully ignore a whole class of people and pretend it doesn’t exist. This also is relevant today. The likes of Limbaugh and conservatives in general are routinely ignored by the media, on college campuses, in Hollywood, etc. For all intents and purposes, their views, their solutions, their very army of eager supporters do not exist despite their steadily intensifying impact (which, of course, does not exist as well).

In these two titles you have the dual aspects of invisibility. On one hand you have invisibility as a deliberate disguise for nefarious purposes; while, on the other, you have, the deliberate ’ignoring the elephant in the room’ syndrome. Both are at best dishonest. While the first can be excused as betrayal, the second amounts to willful act of cowardice. Both represent an exercise in delusion.

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The Panic Room

Everything Obama has touched during his first two years in office has gotten demonstrably worse. Sure, he’s been successful in passing significant legislation - perhaps more so than any other president in U.S. history. But where has it led? I challenge anybody to tell me how any policy thrust of Obama’s has led the nation (as a whole) to a better place?

Then there’s the way it was done. Some would even call it illegal. Certainly, it was done against the will of the people. Certainly, every underhanded trick was used to pass Obama’s legislative agenda. In every case, bills were rushed through Congress without members knowing what they were voting on. There is even evidence to suggest that the president himself didn’t know (or care).

Bolton makes a good point. If Obama’s goal in all this is to marginalize Congress (and, by extension, the people’s input to governance overall) he is succeeding. It is a point not to be overlooked. It usually ends in tyranny.

Now we stand on a precipice once again; and this time it actually does involve our national security. Bolton makes any number of cogent arguments against passing START. He is in a position to know, having served as UN ambassador under Bush. His caution should at the very least be considered in open debate.

Bolton’s larger point is equally compelling. Who in their right mind would keep going to the same plumber over and over again once he has proven himself to be dangerously inept?

In India, self-styled sidewalk dentists sit on straw mats with their box of unwashed implements. They provide basic service to the poorest of the poor for scant compensation. But would anyone of the middle class avail themselves of their services? America is at the very least ‘middle class’ I should hope.

Then, one might also consider why Obama would risk once again being accused of operating with a total lack of transparency? Perhaps the deal does not bear scrutiny. Perhaps, after all is said and done, it is bad for America. Perhaps that’s the point. (Oops! I have just inadvertently entered a room into which few would venture.)

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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.

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Even As Everything Else Lies In Ruins

The unspoken voice in every region (of the world) is the U.S.’s It is the dog that isn’t barking. Every one of our foreign policy thrusts in recent years has failed precisely because we have refused to back it up with sufficient resolve, especially in terms of military power. In an effort to appease the anti-war crowd, we have hamstrung ourselves, bending our worldview into utopian hookah smoke rings. We have come to rely solely on empty rhetoric, endless negotiations, and paying out IOU bribes and/or ransom.

It’s all come to a head under Obama who will not even defend America’s political parties, its people and borders. He asserts time and time again that war is never an option; that we can and should not interfere; that our interference is (and always has been) intrinsically evil; that he will now lead by example; that we will disarm unilaterally; get out of the Middle East; continue to whittle down Israel’s defenses; and leave Asia to sort out its own. The planet can ultimately only benefit if mass slaughter should ensue.

We have boldly retreated from the world of Maya. If there are battles to be fought, they are to be fought here at home. We must accommodate the lecherous demands of thieves and tyrants. We must abandon our principles. We must surrender.

Any opposition to our new, progressive policy of appeasement must be severely dealt with; backbones surgically paralyzed. We must shun nationalism - especially our own. Tyranny is relative and will play itself out when one of the combatants - under spell of epiphany - voluntarily leaves the ring.

The world has noted the change. Though it’s been long in coming, under Obama it’s now official. This is why now all the would-be tyrants are making their moves. They’re out looting the granary while the going is good.

I’m not saying there’s not a kind of textbook elegance to what Obama believes. However, it’s a fiction. It can never be real. While the people can absorb a good fight for God and country, they will never stand idly by and watch their identity be trampled. In this, the leaders of Russia, Japan, China and Iran are far more ’democratic’ than our highly ‘enlightened’ ivory tower policy wonks. They are playing to their people directly, while we leave ours dangling over the abyss - with nothing to believe in; nothing to fight for or hold dear.

The end game is at hand. Both, the king and queen are in mortal danger. Once the queen is sacrificed, checkmate is at hand. Game over never involves the actual taking of the king. Obama is betting that this last convention will hold. He means to remain, even as everything else lies in ruins.

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Follow the Leader

It has become generally accepted lore that the northern part of a region is more prosperous than the southern part. This is because, we are told, the harsher climate in the north forces its people to be more resourceful than those of the lazy horse latitudes. There are exceptions of course.

North Korea has essentially become a prison in which weather and food are weapons. If one were to elect to serve one’s time in the custody of men, one might well choose a place like Cuba because in Cuba the weather is not one of the weapons that can be used against you. The jailers too can be counted on to be of a somewhat gentler disposition because of the climate thing as - again, we are told - gentler climates breed gentler people. Again, there are exceptions.

Still, prison is prison no matter how often you paint its lips. There are two kinds of people in this world: leaders and followers. (We’ll disregard loners and misfits for the time being.) Followers are far greater in number. They will happily cleave to any given leader as long as the leader does not make their subservient position too obvious. Leaders, once again, break up into two groups. There are leaders who are natural born, and leaders who are actually followers (with no leadership skills) who pretend to be leaders. These will lead by threat and deceit. Nations in which this happens are called ‘tyrannies‘. They are hollow and exceedingly fragile.

In our country false leaders have become so inept that their leadership has come to depend increasingly on threat. As we are still much better educated than the norm, the deceit of our so-called leaders no longer works. The feared uprising, therefore, must be curbed by threat. If you do not pay your share of confiscatory taxes; if you speak out against dear leader Obama, you’re automatically on the outs; blackballed; ostracized; ridiculed; excluded; marked ‘failed’. You will be expected to correct your ways or suffer impotence on the fringes of society.

You will make it your life’s work to support the regime. If you are a scientist, for instance, you will obediently go along with the theory of ‘global warming’ no matter what the data shows. If you are a doctor, you will support a woman’s right to abort and the standards set by the state for denying healthcare to the aged. If you are a landowner, you will submit to government regs that limit the use of your own land to favor the snail darter, and possibly even agree to give up your holdings by random declaration of eminent domain. If you are a driver, you will adhere to the posted speed limit even though your car and conditions permit twice that. If you are a smoker, you will try to quit - or lie about trying - while scurrying around in back doorways and alleys.

In North Korea, the game played is considerably more basic than that. Here, both the weather and food are weapons. I suspect that if Kim Jong-Il were to die and we were to go in to check it out, we would find nothing. It’d be like one of those scenes in countless prison escape movies where the warden enters a cell, throws back the blankets and finds only a dummy there.

The Beginning Of A Tyranny

"What does Obama make of manned space?" Obviously not much. Frank Gaffney has it right. The ultimate aim is to transfer of knowledge, wealth, power (especially) to the (Muslim) world, thereby diminishing the U.S. position overall by an administration hell-bent on pay-back.

I think it may be time to go into the archives of ‘The John Batchelor Show’, download and print a hard copy. In this way we might just be able to explain to our children and grandchildren what has happened to our country after the government decides to scrub the web clean. This thought was sparked by the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute the (New) Black Panthers on charges of voter and poll worker intimidation in Philadelphia, a clear violation of current law. Obama’s refusal to comment on the matter shows where his own sympathies lie.

This has not been the only indication of this administration’s unwillingness to abide by tradition. From the outset, Obama and his Democrat-controlled congress have sought to enact a virtual blizzard of incomprehensible (and unenforceable) laws and then proceeded to go about enforcing same selectively. This is not justice; this is the beginning of a tyranny.

The American people have thus far gritted their teeth and born every Democrat overreach. To the administration’s considerable consternation, they will likely continue to do so, waiting patiently for their chance to clean house in November. We may never get that far.

The pattern that is emerging is clear. The administration is bent on achieving total control over every aspect of American life from soup to nuts. The only ingredient that still eludes it is an outbreak of violence which would then provide the excuse to clamp down hard on media, the internet, gun rights and the freedom of assembly. There might even be cause to cancel (or postpone) elections.

No doubt, the administration is banking on the final shoe to drop. They are prodding and poking the electorate into taking a defensive stance which would then be interpreted as aggression (hence justifying a crackdown). In light of the fact that Democrats do not seem at all concerned about getting re-elected, it can be assumed that they feel they still have an ace up their sleeves. This ace could be violence. Since it hasn’t happened so far (and there have already been several reported attempts at incitement), it is fair to assume that the administration is growing desperate. I would not put it beyond them to engineer some kind of incident out of whole cloth before the November midterms. Keep an eye on Glenn Beck’s August rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC which is expected to draw huge crowds Even the Black Panthers have promised to attend. Note that permits for the event have not yet been issued by the Parks Department. May cooler heads prevail.

When King Samir Shabazz screams about killing white babies on a public street and our black president does not denounce him immediately; when incidents of blatant voter fraud are no longer prosecuted by the Justice Department; when a clear and present Islamic threat must never be mentioned by name in polite company; when defending one’s (Arizona) territory becomes the object of a Justice Department inquiry and suit, it means we have crossed the fine line into chaos. In chaos everything becomes possible; nothing is improbable, and we are all at severe risk.

Should we survive this presidency, it might do to be able to show what it was that has brought us to this low point in our history. The past year and a half has produced plenty of omens, few of which were taken seriously. Now that it’s happening, it behooves every one of us to prepare ourselves for the worst. Let’s begin by preserving the record for future generations to ponder.

Animal Farm

Not much is known about North Korea these days but it may in fact mirror George Orwell’s classic “Animal Farm” to a tee. I recommend this slim volume to anyone who may be tempted to believe that central planning is the answer to all the world’s ills. All the elements and personalities of Marxist lore are uncannily brought into sharp focus in this dystopian spoof that was originally meant to bring the brutal reality of Stalinism home to the general reading public: the pigs; the useful idiots; the need for an enemy; food and health rationing; weapons development (the windmill); the re-write of history; propaganda; corruption; oppression, and more.

Many of these very same trends are rapidly developing within our own nation today. The slide into Marxism seems easy at first. Later, the mix of delusion and raw power tends to turn lethal when issues of succession are at stake. We are now seeing this in North Korea.

The West (including much of America) has already capitulated to Orwell's pigs. Barack Hussein Obama represents the closest we have ever come to tyrannical rule. You might ask yourselves, Who is Obama’s designated enemy? Who is the one, we are constantly told, that is keeping the central planners from achieving their Utopian goals? The answer is YOU.

Metrics

We do not have an economic crisis. We have a crisis in leadership. The ‘bad’ economy is merely a symptom of the crisis in leadership world-wide. The economy is not fragile. It is not failing. It is telling us precisely about the state the world finds itself in.

If you use a thermometer to check your child’s temperature and find he has a fever, a reasonable response should not be to blame the thermometer; to pack it in ice or throw it down in a rage. Yet this is exactly what we’re doing. The economy is merely a metric - a tool - a device to measure the relative health of a nation(’s overall policies). A tool can never exceed its function. As policy is always contingent on mercurial political demands, the economy can be said to reflect the relative soundness of political realities as well.

In an effort to build (false) constituencies, politicians have taken the value out of work. They’ve taken winning out of the game. They’ve taken the truth out of history. They’re taking the killing out of war. They’re taking the people out of governance. In doing all that, they’ve taken hope out of the future. What they’re attempting here amounts to no less than a man-made contingency operation; attempting to change the world into what it has never been before – into what it can never be. It’s no wonder alarm bells are going off everywhere you look.

If it were merely theft, it might be a blessing. The thief is caught and punished. The victim either writes off his loss and begins again, or he is in some way compensated. Either way, there is closure. What we’re witnessing at the G8 summit in Toronto is not theft. It is trying to change the way things actually work; it is trying to upend the laws of gravity. It is going against nature without the temperance of conscience, without an understanding of trespass onto the sacred ground of reality.

You don’t go about building a machine in which every module is wholly dependent on every other. You build it so that failing modules can be easily swapped out. You don’t build an oil tanker (or submarine) without breaking it up in to compartments. If one should be breached, it can be sealed off and the rest of the ship survives. “Too big to fail” spells disaster and worse. In fact, if “too big to fail” should become the norm, we will no longer be able to tell what is disaster and what is not. There will no longer be anything to compare. Every traditional standard loses its meaning. What is is. No further argument is possible. This, plain and simple, is the definition of tyranny.

The reason America’s economic metrics are bad is not because of some vague notion of the failure as relates some equally vague academic construct. (“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”) It is a failure that originates and is maintained by the people themselves. In our set-up it is the result of people rebelling against a self-serving, wrong-headed, oppressive, ruling class. The people themselves produce all the metrics needed. Governments ultimately serve at the will of the people. Without their acquiescence, government is illegitimate. The metrics tell us that this has now become the case.

Obama Has Already Failed

There is no story here. The White Houses itself is in total sync – as is the opposition (the American people). Bottom line: Obama and his crew of clones have been unable to sell the agenda to the American public. They will continue to blame this one and that one – most notably anyone (excepting Obama) charged with getting the message out. They have yet to realize that the message itself is poison; that it’s not a matter of presentation or spin. It’s not even a matter of too little arm-twisting, knee-capping, pay-offs; insufficient bribes, hollow threats and the like. ‘Obama care’, along with a whole host of Obama proposals, is dead in the water because Americans simply do not want them. Period; end of story.

Americans have already decided they will only go so far. They will spend less and save more. They will buckle their seatbelts. They will demand that their children wear helmets when out riding bikes. They will try to stop smoking. They will make an effort to eat healthy. They will be less quick to judge others. They will clean up after their dogs. Etc. But they will not to consent to allow government – any government – to use them as patsies; to steal their freedoms, their inalienable rights, their liberties, their future – all, in the name of some hackneyed notion of ‘social justice’.

As far as the American people are concerned, Obama has already failed. They are resigned to wait this one out till the next act when they will make the make the change; without malice and in orderly fashion as set forth by Constitution. Until then, they will pay close attention to which of their representatives does what and how. They will know whom to vote for; who will represent their best interests. They will organize. And when the time comes they will choose decisively. They will never again fall for media hype; for good-looking, affirmative action types, for empty suits. This time they will look for such time-tested qualities as character, honesty and resume. Until then, they will sit on their hands and do what they can to bleed this administration of its ability to boast of accomplishment.

The underlying fear that Barack Hussein Obama’s vision for America engenders is that Americans will be subjected to a (albeit, benign) tyranny. They do not doubt that the tyranny that Obama’s clones envision is heartfelt; that their motive is the same as that of the Christian Crusaders (1200-1300 AD): to spread the saving grace of Christ throughout the heathen world. Obama and his minions too think that Communism will save America, the human race and ultimately the planet. They cannot understand why we would resist it.

We resist because it is un-American. And we are Americans, after all. We can think for ourselves. We know how to provide for our families. We can build and maintain a nation that towers head and shoulders above all others. We do not subscribe to a hell with only a single ring of ‘victims’. We do not need to be told how to spend every single moment of our lives. We do not need to be told what to think – even if it were someone’s notion of ‘our own good’.

A quote by C. S. Lewis comes to mind in this regard: "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good… torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."