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While bloggers here and elsewhere focus their rhetoric on either President Obama or Mitt Romney or the Race for the White House, few focus on Congress and fewer on the Senate. Let me try to briefly and tersely describe why this all is so darned important. I mean, this is even more important than Dancing With the Stars, The Bachelorette, and American Idol . . . combined!
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Further, while Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were flaming progressives, and Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and both Bushes, along with Bill Clinton were, say, smoking progressives — so believing devoutly in situational government as opposed to constitutional government, so believing in government control of the people rather than people control of the government, so most-though-not-all also believing in redistribution of wealth and equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity — we now have Barack Hussein Obama (umm umm umm). This is a horse of a different color. ( I wanted here to make it even easier for folks to call me “racist”.)
Dinesh D’Souza, speaking at CPAC earlier this year previewed a film coming at this Summer. In it he contrasts Obama with his progressive presidential predecessors.
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This President of the United States is, yes, turtle-atop-the-fencepost frontman for an oligarchy of the most powerful individuals alive. He has progressive ideology. He is also influenced and mentored by Saul Alinsky and Coward & Piven on rules for radicals and how to implode a system. He’s been propped and prodded by a Communist mentor in Hawaii in his youth, by terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, and by anti-American Reverend Wright.
At the Obama core, however, he is the product of his adoption of dreams from his father. His father was surely a Communist and wanted said for Kenya. He was also, however, and not uniquely so for a “non-westerner”, anti-colonial. By most in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, the countries of France and Holland and the Brits and the Americans are seen to be the colonialist enemy. It has been they who have plundered the rest of the world, subjugating them, raping their natural resources, plundering their people.
It is this truth that Congressman Ron Paul has alluded to, albeit badly and to his serious detriment. Barack Hussein Obama’s dream from his father is to implode capitalism in favor of Communism, and to implode the United States so that it is in the very same boat as the countries of Asia and the Middle East and Africa and South America. Not mere equality of outcome among Americans. Equality of outcome among the Peoples of the world.
For those who understand how capitalism and free markets work in the context of the unalienable rights to, say, life, to liberty, and to property, and who also understand how Communism works, given adequate historical reflection and review, it becomes clear that Barack Hussein Obama (umm umm umm) intends to take America to somewhere just (metaphorically) north of Bangladesh and Haiti.
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It is my sense that many Americans have become — if not completely understanding — at least nervous about this President and where he is trying to take us. Most are unclear whether it is result of incompetence or intent. As a guy who on a number of earlier and much-earlier occasions has opined that it is over, game-set-match, fat lady has sung, exit stage left, I ask here and now, even if President Obama is thwarted and defeated in his bid for a second term, can America survive the fiscal and monetary and political deathtrap into which it has placed itself? Is the life and the liberty of anyone with property in America even remotely safe from what’s inevitable?
Doc,
While there are many Americans who may have now become nervous about where we’re being taken, I worry there are not enough of us who are the least bit concerned. You have to be informed to realize what is being attempted here by our president. Far too many folks are content to do nothing more than to listen to the various talking heads. I fear we may have moved beyond the tipping point. I feel that the only realistic chance we have to successfully dodge the bullet now headed right between our eyes is to gain complete control of Congress as well as the White House. And even that is no guarantee. But having said that, anything short of that will be insufficient and would therefore make it highly unlikely that we would even be able to attempt the long, painful slog back to fiscal sanity that’s required. But Obama cannot be permitted another 4 years. That most certainly would be a death sentence for this country.
The first video asserts, Dan, that even if you had, say, Allen West in the White House, had 435 Paul Ryans in the House, and had 100 Rand Pauls in the Senate, the United States will inevitably collapse. It’s now fait accompli.
Interest, debt, and entitlements exceed tax revenues by a pantload. Even if you shut down Defense and eliminate 100% of “discretionary” spending, the deficit will continue to grow.
It took less than a year to turn things totally around from economic collapse in 1920. Same in 1946. All that has to happen is to cut spending and taxes. Works every time and the politicians know it, which is why they do not think it is the last minute yet. If it were, then we should be bailing out.
In 1920 there were no entitlements (no automatic-required spending) and even in 1946 there was just Social Security in its infancy ( a minor expense). Now, with Greece in all the headlines, the United States is in worse shape. Greece’s implosion is imminent. You do the math, drrik, and determine whether bailing is warranted.
drpete,
I’m with ya on this one. We got redistricted to benefit the demon rats. So I’ve paid special attention to picking out a good candidate for our representative. Unfortunately the one I chose lost. He was endorsed by the KY conservative/tea party group and I was so disappointed.
We got put into the Lexington district for some strange reason and there is a demorat who has held that office for some years and votes for everything Obama wants. So I know that guy is going to be no fiscal conservative. No senate races for us this time around. We got Rand Paul last time and I’m really liking him. If only he could get more senators to work with him! He has a great budget that dingy harry reid won’t allow a vote and it’s tabled until the earth ends he told Rand. Ron Paul got a pretty good showing in the votes in KY today. There are a lot of libertarians like myself in this state.
On whether it’s time for taps soon, I’d say get the bugle. We’re going down. Nobody’s money, property, liberty is going to be saved. At least that is what it looks like to me. And I hate saying that.
I believe what Ron Paul has said. I believe Obama does want to implode capitalism in favor of communism and bring us down to a 3rd world country. Why else would he have an economic plan that insures no growth, but only keeps bringing it down further? Obama is no genius, but he’s not stupid either and he knows exactly what he’s doing with this economy. Why else disallow the Keystone Pipeline which would have brought jobs or more drilling that would mean millions of jobs? It’s deliberate IMHO and we are in deep trouble.
That’s my book for the night.
I think, pepp, that you’re spot on. The oligarcbhy picked the perfect time for the perfect storm and to put the “hope and change” turtle atop the fencepost. Kate Smith is backstage warming up.
Just a side-note here. It started with the blog “pepperhawk farm” and has now blossomed. All of a sudden a few weeks back I started getting email every time anyone commented there. Given the popularity of the blog, my inbox was flooded again and again. Since nothing else worked, I had to both cease “following” the blog, and designate in my email anything from said as “junk mail”.
Last night my email system identified email from “wordpress” as junk mail, thus sending both Dan and drrik there and requiring on wordpress that I “approve” them before they’s be posted. That, gentlemen, is the explanation for the long delay. There’s a glitch I cannot fix.
drpete,
I am so sorry this happened to you. There is a glitch with WordPress. They were not much help however.
The quick an simplest answer to your query is an empathic, “NO!”. We are so far down in the weeds that most folks think it is normal. They scoff at government incompetence like it is just something to be expected and accepted. People who do live by the ‘common sense’ rule see the resident as a spoiled brat throwing temper tantrums, therefore ignoring the fact that bad things are actually being accomplished. In the meantime most folks don’t know the name of their state representatives. Only some hotly contested races get much attention, like the US Senate race in Texas for the seat being vacated by Kay B Hutchison. There are 6 spots on the Texas ballot for the Texas Supreme court and most can’t tell you anything about them. A law enforcement officer told my husband yesterday that if he doesn’t know anything about a candidate he just doesn’t vote in that race on the ballot………
It would seem then, FOH, that you and I, et al, should prepare for the inevitable American Spring (ala Arab Spring) with rioting in the streets, local police and sheriffs’ deputies knowing not who should be protected from whom, D.C. Park Police protecting “the enemy” from The People, mass shutdown of businesses large and small, manufacturing and retail, food riots, starvation, self-preservation dominating, dog-eat-dog anarchy.
Incidentally, with Greece a question is who else will be brought down with bond defaults and debt defaults and bank failures. With America collapsing a question will be who in the world is relatively unscathed, and they will be few and far between, and number 1 among the few will be George Soros, guaran-damn-teed..
No I don’t think we are safe from what IS coming. I don’t believe there’s any time left to rely on the process of elections in order to extricate ourselves from the damage thus done by the powerful who were able to perpetrate the fraud of Obama upon us, though — if for no other reason than to attach ourselves to something still grounded in the constitution — we must. That said, I am armed and ready to defend my family, property, neighborhood and as much of the surrounding community as possible to whatever extent the remaining inhabitants have prepared for the coming fight for survival.
Too few people realize that we’re neck deep in a struggle for our very lives, liberty and property — and that of our posterity.
I agree with Aftershock that there are not enough informed Americans to see what is coming.
http://gumballs.blogtownhall.com/2008/09/09/interactive_survey_greatest_threats_to_america.thtml
It was way back when I polled re: what were America’s greatest threats. Commenters ranked “ignorance” in the top two.
You certainly make the point here, but you left out the largest accomplice to the progressives and the ONLY group that could truly turn this around in the shortest window, but a group that has certainly demonstrated that they won’t. And that accomplice is the media. Sadly our founding fathers didn’t have the foresight to see the dangers of the Liberal media but they indeed have turned out to be the biggest threat to our freedom and ironically to their own. If all of the media did prime time documentaries on the debt crisis and portrait the realities, I think we could get a government elected that could turn it around. The problem isn’t revenue nor is the problem the fact that we have a debt, the problem is our spending problem. If we control that we can then address the debt issue. But until Americans realize the threat and are willing to elect people to get the job done we’ll continue down the road to ruin following the Pied Piper that is the media right over the cliff with the progressives pushing from the rear.
I must disagree, Jim, on a number of fronts. The Founders made no mistake when the recognized the unalienable right of each human being to life, to liberty, and to property (from when comes the pursuit of happiness. They also made no mistake when they authored a Constitution charging the national government with responsibility to protect and defend those rights . . . no more and no less.
The press is, thus, protected, and free to say whatever they wish. And even if the press were required to say what you wish them to, that would not help. And debt is a problem, indeed a crisis. For context, Jim, the median family income in the United States is $49,000 per year. If the gubmint taxed every single dime of that income from each and every family across the fruited plain, we’d come just barely short of balancing the budget . . . for that single year. No debt payment or reduction, just not a deeper hole.
Note, given human nature, that revenue to the gubmint in the second year would be zero, that because no one would work. The debt yields two problems: (1) It comes due and must be repaid on demand. (2) The interest on said debt grows and must also be repaid. The combination of those two as of today exceed all federal tax revenues. Yet so do entitlement non-discretionary obligations.
We are legally obligated, Jim, to pay out more than twice what we take in, even if we close our military. I wish, Jim, that you were right.
I got that, debt is only a problem when continue to add to it. If we stopped the spending, pulled the teat out of the mouths of those suckling the life blood from this country, the combination of the economic growth and the increased taxes from those working could pay off the debt in a very reasonable time. The problem is that they’re all afraid to do what has to be done, force people to work and stop giving money away like it’s free! I’ve revived companies that were technically in much worse shape, so I know of what I speak, the first thing you do is cut to essentials only (I’ll guarantee you the welfare roles could be cut in half if we eliminated the people who could work) and put a break on spending (that means eliminate things not essential). Second thing you do is put the money back into ventures that raise revenue (in govt. that means lower taxes to spawn business growth and hiring). Then you take ALL of the initial profit (without ANY news spending) and pay a big piece of the debt until it’s a manageable debt. The problem is that we keep electing morons that don’t understand money or how to run a budget (that’s why we haven’t passed a budget in years).
PS, I never said that freedom of the press was a mistake, I said they didn’t have the foresight to see this coming and warn us as they did on may other fronts (often honest men fail to see the potential of corruption in good and honest ventures).
Let me try, Jim, to put even more perspective in the size of this debt crisis than did the first video in my post.
Very interesting and thought-provoking piece, DrP.
As you know, you and I are of a mind on this issue. I, too, have written that this country’s in the swan song portion of the play, barring very radical changes. We’re going the way of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The problem is that even though Bat Ears is as you describe him, there’s a significant portion of the electorate who believe the same way he does. That’s going to lead to a bad outcome one way or the other.
Even if the GOP takes it all this November — a trifecta — I think the most that’s politically feasible for them to accomplish is to delay the inevitable; maybe push the finish line back a bit.
The changes that would be necessary to truly save this country long-term aren’t politically feasible. If they try to jam them through, they’ll very likely be voted out at the mid-terms, leading back to gridlock. The changes required are that drastic.
There’s also another possible result: armed conflict in the streets; some kind of uprising by the “oppressed”, such as minorities, illegals, benefits recipients, and others who would perceive themselves as being singled out and harmed by the kind of changes that would have to take place to save the country. Just look to Greece.
Maggie Thatcher said that, “The problem with socialism is that it ultimately runs out of other people’s money”. She’s right, of course, but that goes to a deeper fundamental flaw in the ideology: it’s dependant on denying the reality of human nature. SOMEONE has to actually be working to provide the tax money upon which socialist programs rely. But when those still working see the fruits of THEIR labor being squandered to support people who AREN’T working, conflict is unavoidable.
I wish like heck I could disagree with a nanowit of what you say, BrianR, but, alas, I cannot.
Maybe, just maybe, back in 2008 if we’d eliminated the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Forestry, HHS, HUD, Interior (selling all lands to the states); cut Justice and State by 60%; eliminated, say, 100 agencies; and all of the programs and expenditures of all.
And, maybe, just maybe, if we’d sunsetted Social Security completely for those under 50, and partly on a sliding scale for those older, but less than 67; and if we’d done the same for Medicare Parts A and B; and if we’d repealed Medicare Part D along with Medicaid and SCHIP, etc., etc, there might have been a chance.
Guess I haven’t factored in the insurrections.
Well, those ARE the kinds of drastic changes that would have to occur.
I agree with you, too, BrianR, ergo (reluctantly) with you, DrPete.
I know a young lady (age 26) who has made right decisions all of her life, is heavily vested in the future of her country, and who believes that it really doesn’t make a lot of difference who wins in November, or for that matter, how the SOCTUS decides ObamaCare! She believes that what will happen is The Second American Revolution. (eg: the violent overthrow…)
There is a rumor that John Galt is alive and well on a secret island somewhere off Panama,
COW, there you have it. I think you — and the young lady — have put your fingers on it.
I just don’t see how one or the other option is avoidable; I don’t see other alternatives. Either the country falls to pieces because it devolves (further) into an unsustainable Euro-trash socialist “democracy”, or there’s a radical course correction which will inevitably result in (if not be caused by) violence in the streets a la Greece.
I don’t see ANY other options at all.
We’re already seeing the violence: the “Occupy” whacks; the union thugs and their antics; the New Black Panthers; others. It’s already happening; it just hasn’t ramped up yet.
It will REALLY get going when people on the Right start reacting on the same level: defending themselves with violence, etc. That’s typically when these kinds of things really accelerate.
In 2008, Cream O’, I did NOT vote for McCain. I wanted Obama to win, that to precipitate the essential 2nd revolution quicker rather than merely suffer a quiet death in a comatose society. I was somewhat encouraged by 2010, but not enough.
Does this unnamed 26-year-old woman have any sort of timetable in mind? Does she intend to be a combatant or spectator? Has she picked out the FEMA camp into which she wants to be placed or does she just want it to be a surprise?
Don’t know. I’ll ask her, but I imagine she doesn’t know the timing either. In the meantime, I know she will continue to “court justice.”
If, as I expect, Romney wins, Republicans keep the House and gain the Senate, I then expect some Wisconsin Walker and Jersey Christie kind of action at the national level. Not enough, but in that direction.
First to take to the streets, then, might be the union thugs, Occupy nutjobs, and moochers and human parasites, that to take what the alleged 1%-ers have stolen from them.
If intervening October surprises or massive voter fraud have their way, on the other hand, and Obama wins and keeps the Senate, the unleashed and untethered Communist might cause the productive-liberty-loving-patriots to hoist their deer rifles and other weapons of miniscule destruction.
In the former scenario those in the Washington establishment will be spectators. In the latter, they’ll be the target.
I agree with your assessment of what happens if the GOP does a hat trick.
I don’t agree with the reaction to the second result. If the Dems hold onto power, I don’t see the patriots turning to violence. Whether it’s a strength or a weakness, we’re inherently law-abiding; it’s in our nature.
I can certainly see the deer rifle brigade manning the ramparts if the socialists start acting like Greeks. If they start rioting and otherwise acting up — particularly if the police and/or National Guard get involved and are ineffective — we’ll be getting into the trenches, too. Just like the Korean shopowners did during the Rodney King riots here in LA. They grabbed their guns and defended their property, right in the heart of the riot area, and came through just fine.
But I don’t see us INITIATING the violence. Good, bad or indifferent, we’ll try to work within the system — bad as it may be — to effectuate change.
I guess I agree with you, BrianR, re: the violence. I wonder, though, whether our inclination will be to work WITHIN the system or to operate outside it.
Many will bail out and leave the country.
Consider enlisting the States, themselves, as allies; consider The Federalism Amendments.
Here’s to those we honor this weekend!
Sugar growers have lobbied the federal government to restrict imports. The result is that consumers pay about four times what they otherwise would for sugar each year. The growers pay big contributions to legislators and regulators. Meanwhile a hundred million sugar purchasers as individuals don’t pay huge sums to the gubmint to lift the restrictions. Each is helpless to fight.
Individuals pay federal taxes. The the fed gubmint sends moneys-with-strings to states. What states could have done on their own had the fed gubmint not taken the money from the states’ citizens has now become intenable to turn down.
In a battle between some of its citizens and the federal gubmint, few states, I expect, will side with its citizens. Some, but few.
I agree with that drpete, few — if any — states will side with their Citizens. The final nail in the Federalism coffin was the interstate highway system. So It’s been dead a long long time, very few states have any real desire to bring it back.
At most “state” colleges and universities, AfterShock, revenues sources in order from largest-to-smallest are the federal government (grants and funded research), the federal government (guaranteed student loans) to pay student tuition and fees, the state, private-sector grants (mostly research and endowed chairs), students and their parents (out-of-pocket tuition and fees payments).
The federal gubmint can pull the plug on any state university, and most residents of said state have no idea who did it. They’ll blame their state.
I do not know if we can ever dig ourselves out of the fiscal hole we have dug. Not including fiscal liabilities, our debt is more than GDP. And as you point out, many of the latest GOP Presidents have been big spenders.
The economics predicate employed, Pat, has been that government can keep spending as long as the economy keeps growing. Both Bushes and Clinton believed that.
What none understood was that (a) not counting replacing Social Security revenues with IOUs as spending, and (b) selling Treasury bonds to investors both were serious drags on the private-sector economy.
The oligarchy now running the executive branch understands this, and that’s why they’re spending even more and even faster, that to implode us.
I think the economy is irreversibly set to “implode”, and therefrom affected mass[es], also irreversibly, will go thermal-nuclear. — the inevitable and critical result of fissionable –albeit human– matter properly oppressed. IOW — one hell of a backlash against the oligarchy…
One must understand, AfterShock, that government does nothing well and can do nothing well. Further, whatever government spends that it has taxed the private sector to obtain is a drain on the economy. Further, whatever government spends that it has borrowed is a drain on the economy. Monies invested in T-bills are now not available for private-sector capital formation.
Economics illiteracy is near-ubiquitous. And the progressives in government have build a safety net so wide and so deep that individuals no longer see consequences to poor decisions and poor behavior. That is in a death spiral.
Should there be a safety net? That’s for individual Americans to decide. Do you want to provide food and shelter or medical care for another? if so, have at it. I might do so also. Should the U.S. Government provide a safety net? Absolutely not. No such enumerated power. Even if people starve to death? Yes.