Cap and Trade and the economic impact.

The large Climate bill called the Waxman-Markey climate bill and Cap and Trade will probably pass the house soon. This bill is aimed at solving a manufactured crises. (Read my post about environmentalism.) It will have a great impact on the economy after 2020 when most of this bill takes effect. Since most of the effects of this bill will take place after 2020, it will be a ticking time bomb that coupled with the fact that most of the effects of the huge deficits the government is running up will be take place around this same time, these two things could completely wreck the economy. This bill will have very little impact on the environment, but it will have a great impact on the economy.

Energy is essential to every form of economic activity. Without fossil fuels our way of life would stop and we would go back to the stone age. If government can control energy and how it is used, the government will basically be controlling all economic activity and have a leash around the neck of every American business and every American.

This bill will Charge companies money for each ton of carbon emission a company emit. Basically, the bill is a huge tax increase that will increase the power and size of government; and at the same time, it will kill jobs and economic prosperity. This bill, according to The Heritage Foundation, will cost the average American family 3000 dollars a year. (These links from Heritage are short and have a lot of facts about this bill.) The government's estimates are much lower; but as the this article points out, is inaccurate. "Even as Democrats have promised that this cap-and-trade legislation won't pinch wallets, behind the scenes they've acknowledged the energy price tsunami that is coming."

According to the WSJ: "Americans should know that those Members who vote for this climate bill are voting for what is likely to be the biggest tax in American history. Even Democrats can't repeal that reality." The government is increasing its size and power under the smoke screen of saving the environment and taking care of us. While the impact of this bill and the huge deficits won't be felt for at least a decade, it is worth keeping up on and it is worth being aware of the potential economic impact that is coming. With Cap and Trade and the government taking over the Auto, health care, and banking industry; the government is rapidly gaining control of every apparatus necessary to control America and every single part of our lives. When people wake up and wonder where their freedoms went, if they ever do, they will be looking back at this time in history as the main point of decline. This is a pivotal point in American history: the foundation for a big government is being laid, and the system of control necessary for it is being setup. Hopefully, this bill won't pass and people will wake up.

Robinson Talking Points: EFCA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Free_Choice_Act

EFCA

This is just another example of socialism hitting home in a bad way.
Recently Frito Lay held a meeting with the salesmen(like myself). We are a non union company and de-certified the union a little over a year ago and over all I feel like the employees are treated well. The meeting was about this new bill called the Employee Free Choice Act. Basically it makes it easier for unions to slime their way in to a company. There used to be no limit of time for unions and employers to negotiate contracts. The new bill will limit the negotiations to five days. If they havent come to an agreement than an arbitrator from the courts will decide our pay. There are a lot of other things this bill does but they are all disgusting. Our management was slamming the new bill and encouraging us not to sign any cards. Its sad that an employer as large as Frito fears its own government. They employ so many americans and do so much for our nation.

Thomas Sowell on then candiate Obama.

(I might have posted this video before.)
An interesting and informative video. Here are some of the points that Thomas Sowell, a former black Marxist, made that were interesting. He states that President Obama's foreign policy is "straight out of the 30s" that was responsible for leading to WW2. Obama is dangerous due to his naivety in regards to foreign policy. If Iran gets nuclear weapons then the next generation will be living under a nuclear threat; and if this happens, it will be the point of no return--"there is such a thing as a point of no return". Obama is a far left ideologue that is distinguished from a corrupt politician that goes with the tide of public opinion such a President Clinton. This video is a good assessment of Obama that makes some good points.

That was nice.

Some how this blog ate my post which sucks because I spend several hours and I was going to use some of the material for my homework assignment. I have learned to write my post out on my computer then copy and paste it to this blog. One should always back up anything that one writes on this post if one intends to use it for other things.

Vacation

The vacation was great. Three days at Lincoln City and two days at Whidby Island. Its good to be back though.

Tomorrow I go back to work. The two week build up to fourth of July will not be fun. It is literally our biggest sales holiday of the year. The next two weeks will be hell. Good pay checks but the pay checks still wont amount to the work. I am very excited to quit my job. I will still work part time at a VA hospital but I'm sure working for the government on a work study job will be cake.

Lets hope Sean can check the blog often in Madagascar. Maybe he can put up posts that have pictures and we can discuss his pictures. Maybe we can have a new segment on RTP called: "What in the Hell are they doing over there?" Where Melkor posts a picture that is funny and weird and the others try to guess the what the hell they are looking at. I don't know, but I'm back and ready to blog away.

Lincoln City

My poker skills are diminishing. I lost to Tommy last night and he was drunker than a Sea Bass in freshwater. I was sober. We'll see how my skills fare at Chinook Winds Casino. Farewell everybody! Dad, I will see you at the big dance!

Government to control how much executives at all publicly traded companies are paid.

(This picture is relevant to a lot of my post. It sums up my points fairly well.)

A Government appointed pay Czar will be determining how much executives at companies that receive bailout money are paid. The government forced some of these banks to receive bailout money; thus, leading to the government controlling these industries. "The Obama administration says excessive executive compensation must be better managed to prevent the sort of risk-taking that jeopardizes the economy." "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the Obama administration wants Congress to pass new laws giving securities regulators power to force companies to let shareholders have more say in setting executive pay." This means President Obama also wants to control executive pay for "all" publicly traded companies. This is taking control of these businesses out of the hands of the businesses and putting the control in the hands of the masses. Who will be controlling the masses by stoking wealth envy? This is a new era for America with this level of government control over the economy. Ronald Reagan once said, "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" This level of government involvement in the economy will be with us for a long time even if the conservatives gain back control of the government. Unless people demand action.

The government is using wealth envy as a smoke screen and an excuse to gain more control over the economy and our lives. The government is pandering to the worse in human nature and using it for its own purposes-- gaining more control.

This will create a "brain drain" that will drive out talent in these businesses. This will lead to lead to poor management of businesses; thus helping to contribute to the poor performance and downfall of these businesses and creating a vacuum. The government will step in and fill the vacuum. Ultimately this will lead to more government control of the economy. This sounds like what I read in _Atlas Shrugged_.

Another point to illustrate that the government is gaining more control of America, and another indicator of where America is heading.

Positive News out of Pakistan

I don't know if we can bank on this, but Fox News reports that villages are rising up against the Taliban's awesome technique of winning friends by blowing up mosques. They mention that the villagers get brave when the army remains in the area. Sort of like the The Surge in Iraq.

Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but good news as far as it goes.

Is the World reaching a boiling point of some sort?

Toejamm made an interesting observation in the form of a question, so I would like to state my opinion about the matter. I like to put things into perspective. If you were living a thousand years in the past, you would notice that people were more likely than not saying that the end of the world is near and they would be saying how horrible things are. Mankind has been believing that the world has been coming to an end and the current situation in the world, especially their own world, is bad or getting worse.

I would think those people living during the decline and the fall of the Roman empire, or any other empire or nation, believed that the world was coming to an end. And from the prospective of those people the world was coming to an end; it was just their little slice of the world.

I think that men saying the end of the world is coming to an end or is near is their way of putting changes that are constantly occurring whether the changes are political, economic, climate, or the change of the current state of affairs of their nation or land in perspective. There is some truth to the statement, and all throughout human history the world has been changing and nations have fallen and the little slices of people's universe have come to an end.

Maybe it seems like our slice of the world is coming to an end with the current state of affairs. I have not lived for a long time, so I have a rather short,narrow perspective on the current state of affairs as compared to the historical picture. The human life is too short to really comprehend or notice the changes that are occurring in the world over the course of history, and too few people devote their life to the study of history, nor do they have any effect on the direction of the world. Most people are swept up in the tide of change. John T Flynn states: "Human societies come under the influence of great tides of thought and appetite that run unseen deeply below the surface of society. After a while these powerful streams of opinion and desire move the whole social mass along with them without the individuals in the mass being aware of the direction in which they are going. Up to a certain point it is possible to resist these controlling tides and to reverse them, but a time comes when they are so strong that society loses its power of decision over the direction in which it is going." I believe that the tide that is coming is some dictatorial rule--not the brutal Hitler or Stalin rule but the soft, mild, and parental dictatorship-- of some sort engulfing the whole world. One that the whole world will willingly and eagerly bring about and submit itself to.

The current state of affairs could be no different than what has happened throughout history. But the current state of affairs are different from those of the past ; much like the past, from that point of history, state of affairs have been different from that past . The current state of affairs are very unique from those of the past. Technology has advanced at such a rapid paste throughout the past 110 years and is continuing to expand at amazing rates exponentially. For example, the rate of computer processing power. Look at the JOE 2008 report. No doubt the world ten years from now could be very different than what it is today from due to the rate of change occurring in technology. The question is if mankind can keep up with those changes?

Nuclear technology is a deadly and new weapon that changes the nature of war and the how nations relate to each other. No longer is it likely for major warring states to have an all out battle. Now warring or competing nations will try to take each other over through peace, diplomacy, collaboration, and infiltrating each others political structure to bring about change from within their opposing state. This is a catalyst to bring about the need for world wide collaboration and unity. A fundamental change in how nations relate to each other. Look at how China is building itself up by linking its economy with America's and their constant hacking of the pentagon's defense systems, and one should note the previous attempts of the communist to take America over from within. To deny that this happened is to gloss over historical facts. Today the communist and socialist fall under the liberalism banner. Six time presidential candidate for the socialist ticket stated that: "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." So in effect the socialist have been successful in their attempt to take over America by taking control of a major political party and implementing most of their ideals. Notice that they brought this about by appearing to be something different than what they are. Disguised.

From reading the JOE 2008 report you can ascertain that the world is very volatile and there is a lot of potential for conflict and for trouble spots around the world to erupt into major situations, and that these eruptions can easily impact the world as a whole. Globalization is another factor that makes the current sate of affairs different from the past. Globalization is a fact of life-- it is here to stay. The world is now interconnected and more dependent on each individual nation. What happens in one little part of the world could easily effect the whole world and warrant action by the whole world. The world is becoming one, more united, and more interdependent. This affects the current state of affairs by the fact that an event or societal change or a collapse of one nation, especially a major world player, has potential to effect the whole world by becoming, in effect, a world wide situation; whereas in the past these events would be relatively isolated to a particular region of the world. The changes that are occurring in one part of the world will effect the whole world and warrant a united action on the part of the world, so the fate and direction of the world as a whole is more united. Listen to the various speeches of the most powerful man, for the time being, in the world, Barack Obama, to get a general feel for the direction of the world-- globalization, the need for the world to work together and unite behind a common cause, terrorism, climate change, health care crises, and economic crises etc. There is still a lot of tension in the world that would prevent a truly united one world government to occur without a major event happening to force this to come about but the general direction of the world is headed towards that one world rule.

There is no doubt in my mind that if America doesn't change course--Big IF, America will become a centrally planned country ruled by a select few. There is a very real threat of America having an economic collapse, IF America doesn't change course. Look at my other posts. The world's economies are very interconnected, look at how the current economic crises started in America then spread throughout the whole world and cause a world wide economic recession. If America's economy were to collapse that would cause a chain reaction throughout the whole world and warrant a united action by the whole world. The economies of the world are being built on a foundation of debt, and to understand where this is leading you must understand what deficit spending is and the end result of it. Current events are an illustration of the fact of globalization; and that coupled with the changes taking place in the world shows one where the world is heading. The current economic conditions could eventually turn into a catalyst that would force the world to unite for a common purpose and bring about some new world order or rule.

The current state of the vast majority of people is interesting. Ayn Rand stated that: "Culturally, we are approaching the point where anyone can take over, provide his doctrines are sufficiently irrational." The people of today are ready to follow and be ruled over by some "rock star." Look at how people blindly followed President Obama with a god like reverence and how people emotionally fall in love with pop stars. All throughout the various books I have read there has been a theme that runs throughout all of them, and that theme--the fact that their point is not to prove this particular point makes it more compelling to me-- is that from the perspective of various authors the world or a single nation in the past eighty or so years has been approaching a point of decline or standing on an edge of a cliff about to fall into some form of socialism/communism/fascism or some form of world wide dictatorship. The parental dictatorship. Not some Hitler bringing death and destruction, but through peace and under the guise of taking care of you and saving you from some disaster. Not the end of the world apocalypse version of anarchy and roaming bands of marauders and utter ruin. Nor the world being consumed in fire and brimstone. But the world existing much as it does today only that it will be ruled by some one world political system that people willingly submit themselves to. It is conceivable that if the world is provided with a catalyst people would be willing to submit themselves to some one world rule. Look at how America reacted to a relatively mild economic crises-- they chose a bigger government to solve this problem and are giving up a lot of their freedoms in the process.

The themes throughout movies and pop culture are another indicator of the direction that America and the world is heading and is helping to prepare the minds of people for some one world rule--usually one man saving the world from a worldwide disaster by uniting the world. People are so eager to hero worship some person. Look at the plane pilot who landed in the New York river or how eagerly people label servicemen heroes not for going beyond the call of duty but for only doing their duty--the term now has no meaning. I believe the current state of people that is reflected in movies and pop culture is another proof of the fact that people will follow one man or one political group if a catalysis presents itself.

Religion is also helping to prepare the people of the world to accept some form of one world rule. Most religions are looking for a return of some deity that will set up some paradise here on earth or take them away to that paradise. Most people are waiting in hope for a deity to appear. What if the state or some government equates itself as this world savor and usher in of the paradise and people equate and incorporate this with their religious views? The leaders of Iran believe that their deity will return soon but first Israel and the west needs to be destroyed. Communism and socialism have already tried to create this utopia in the past.

There is an attempt to destroy the foundation of our society through the education system, economic realm, pop culture, religion and the education system and rebuild it into some form of a united world ruled by some one political group. Read Toohey's speech in chapter 14 in 'part 4' of _the Fountainhead_ to learn the methods of subjugating a people to a political system. You will find that these methods are being implemented by the political systems of the world and President Obama's speeches, min 12 is good place to start, are very similar to Toohey's.

Overall, the state of the people is at the point where it is very possible for one political group or some new world order to take over the world by having people willingly submit themselves to this rule provided there is some major catalyst such as a world wide economic crises or some unique threat to the whole world or this is possible to happen over the natural course of history without a major catalyst to push the world to that point. The current direction the world is heading--IF things don't change-- shows that decades down the road the world could united and under the thumb of some one world political system. It will be brought about by peace and appearing to be something other than what it is. I don't think this is necessarily some big scheme but just the natural evolution of human affairs playing itself out, not some big "uu and awe amazing out of this world conspiracy theory". Most of mankind is and has lived under some kind of brutal rule by a small group of men. The global, united nature of the world today will just lead to this rule being a world wide situation although in a much more mild form.

Is the world coming to an end? Not anymore so than it has in the past. Mankind is still here and will be for a very long time in my opinion. What will the world be like that mankind of the future will be living in? Not some death camp but maybe similar/milder to the world of _1984_ like Tocqueville talked about. One where we will still have lots of freedoms but with some big brother watching over us. Most people are unconcerned with the tides that carry us to our future and will be blindly swept away to wherever it will take us. I hope to be one that is aware of that tide that is rolling beneath the waves, possibly to hit land and manifest itself, and the direction it will lead us. Hopefully I am over stating the tide. An interesting extreme take on the current events that might make one see things differently. Some constructive criticism would be helpful. Anyways, a fun and interesting take on things, although overstated.

The Revolution of the Right(eous) Part 1

(picture from the guardian, armbands of the anti-immigration (and Roma) Jabbik party in Hungary) 

So there's a good deal of doom and gloom on the RTP and rightfully so!  From Chavez to Правда the world seems to believe that the US is falling into the deep precipice of Socialism!  Conservatives are arming themselves in record numbers (even some here?) driving up ammunition prices to record highs, and even as we speak/type, we are all shareholders in GM.  In this world where our values seem to be  unraveling at the seams I offer this shimmering star of hope that shines undaunted amidst all the dark arts and foes that the all seeing big-gov't eye has amassed against us:

Europe.  

This might have flown underneath the radar for many, but there was a round of local municipal elections throughout England today that heralds the continued triumphant march for British Conservatives. Much of it, likely, has come about by the awesome stories covering the expense account scandal that's rocking Parliament but this has been a part of an on going local trend in England for the last few years (and this).  In fact, Labor hasn't had a good showing since the last election in 2005  so while they may clutch on to power till the next elections (June next year) it's a strong indicator that the round of European Parliamentary elections (going on this weekend continent wide) in England will have the conservatives drum labor and bring more European Members of Parliament that want to take down Euro-socialism.

Moving beyond England, there seems to be a continent wide resurgent tide of conservative parties that are poised to do well in the elections.  As the article notes, there are very few political issues that are tied with the vote, thus, most of those voters that will likely turn out for the elections will be those that are negatively motivated, i.e., they are voting against the EU (thus voting for the conservatives), or they're protesting the parties in charge.  Either way, we're likely to see a good turnout for conservative parties continent wide.  

What does this mean continent wide?  

In my humble opinion, I think this is going to lead to a more rancorous EP that will make the European Commission less likely to delegate more power to Parliament (which has been done in the past in order to account for the EU's "democratic deficit") in any future revision of the Euro-Constitution.  When such a document turns out, which will most likely occur if the Irish vote down the Lisbon treaty again, it will give the conservatives extra momentum to keep the current tide going.  Secondly,  Muslim countries won't be allowed entry (sorry Ottomans).   Thirdly, we'll see more autonomy/diversity in European foreign policy (which, unfortunately, could be a boon for the Soviets as well as for u.s.).  

Within the domestic affairs of Europe, this wave of resurgent conservatism has brought about a wave of anti-immigration and calls for protection of traditional conservative values (go to the end of the article where the conservatives list their grievances with the UN) and also in the increasing conservative victories in Austria, Hungary, and the Netherlands (READ THIS) . 

There's hope on the horizon folks.  Even in countries where native European populations are about to be outbred into minority status within the decade (Netherlands), even the most leftist, liberal, socialist voters will react to an assault on their culture.  But this all begs the question:  Many of these folks are cultural conservatives which don't necessarily believe in such things as free markets and what not.  Many are flocking to cultural conservative banners, but we also see some people going to the more independent hard-core socialist banners (see the Guardian article about the East German Socialist Party's rise and anti-EU stance).  Which indicates that many voters are not only voting out of fear of the lose of their cultural heritage but out of rejection of the current state of affairs.  If conservatives come to power in domestic elections later in the future (not to be confused with this weekend's EU Parliamentary elections) and the world economy not improve, then we may see conservatives resort to their more classical nature (the one that Adam Smith fought against), that is, protectionist platforms and fear of globalization as a threat to cultural traditions.  I'll let the reader determine the consequence of this.  Obviously, this isn't a real worry as the right way out of this is less government spending and less taxes, but it's trend we should observe with a small degree of caution nonetheless.  

In summation, President Hussein might be able to make a few Muslim hearts swoon but the world is marching to a different tune.  Maybe RTP will pull a 180 and start to bitch about "how much better it is in Europe" where public signposts are in one language and you can buy a house without 45% of it's value assessed in a VAT........ 

(insert Matrix/Neo "whoa" here) 

Wise Latina Woman can't quit talking about what a Wise Latina Woman she is

Does it strike you as wise for a Supreme Court Justice Nominee to keep making the same racist statement over & over & over again? I'm thinking a person who can't quit talking about how wise they are probably is really not that wise. In my experience, people who brag about their brains really aren't that smart. I'm thinking a person who gives the same speech over and over and over again doesn't have a lot to say. I'm thinking that Sotomayor was chosen purely because of her gender and ethnicity and racial-identity-politics, much as our president was chosen.

Kind of calls bullshit on our wise mulatto bullshitter-in-chief's statement that "I'm sure she would have restated it”. Are you totally full of shit Mr President, or do "words mean something"? If they do mean something, then what the hell do you mean?

The Beatles, Totalitarianism, & The Great Depression: Part 1 - This Is Rock - The Beatles!

This Is Rock is going to be Part 1 of my 2 or 3 part series 'The Beatles, Totalitarianism, & The Great Depression'. Anyway, as Ed Sullivan would say, "On with the Shooo"

Who is/was the best band ever? No question, The Beatles! Why so? Many reasons.

One reason: John & Paul were the best songwriting team ever, cranking out hit after hit that have stood the test of time, through changes in musical taste during their own time, and leading the way into these new musical tastes during the tumultuous '60's. No musician or group before or after has been so influential.

Another reason: John, Paul, & George were great singers. Pop music, regardless of the genre, requires a good singer, and they all were great. This maybe is the least important of the reasons, but it sure helped.

Third reason: They changed rock forever by making it 'Beat' music (hence their name). This may sound trivial but it's not: they took the shuffle beat that rock originally had (the fast swing of black American music in the early '50's) and forced it into a straight driving beat. Compare Elvis' 'Don't Be Cruel' or 'Hound Dog' with The Beatles 'Twist & Shout' or 'Paperback Writer'. This was crucial in making Rock, I guess, White Music as opposed to just an imitation of Black Music, which it had been previously. This opened the flood gates for the 'British invasion': Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, and inumerable lesser bands who all followed immediately after the Beatles first success in '63 & '64.

The photo above is their first appearance in America on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. I remember it! Everyone watched Ed Sullivan at that time (point to make note of). Here is their show at Shay Stadium in NYC, in 1965, in their second tour of America. Look at how crazed the people were. Even though they could probably barely hear themselves with the cheezy monitors of the time and the deafening shreaks of the girls, the vocals are still solid.

The British Invasion basically was bringing the new driving Beat to America, the Beat that was the sound of The Mods (more on Mods whenever I do a post on The Who).

But, the Mod scene of Britain gave way to the Summer of Love Hippies in 1967, keyed by Jefferson Airplane's 'Surrealistic Pillow' album. Would The Beatles be left in psychodelic dust by the Hippies from Frisco? Heck no! They came back with what many consider their best album ever, 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and seized the leadership in making psychodelic and expermental music, aided greatly by brilliant producer George Martin (and selling number 1 after number 1 song doing it) back from the Hippies, and became the leading Hippies themselves. For seven years, from 1964 until they broke up in 1970, they flat out ruled the pop music and entertainment world. I remember how bummed I was in 1970 when, on page 1 of the Seattle Times, there was a report announcing that Paul McCartney had filed suit to break up The Beatles legally (it was a formality to an event that had already occurred). Just think about that: a band whose breakup makes the front page of major newspapers.

But The Beatles' innate and undeniable greatness is not the point of my story, but part of it. After they broke up and ever since, people always wonder who will be the next Beatles, or will there ever be anything like The Beatles ever again. The answer is that there probably have been greater singers or songwriters since and there will be in the future. There have certainly been many better musicians. But, there won't ever be a band or singer that can lead the world around like an eager puppy for seven years like The Beatles did (though Michael Jackson gave it a good college try in the '80's).

Why is that? Stay tuned for Part 2: Totalitarianism

Oklahoma City murder case

About two weeks ago, a pharmacy was held up by two robbers in Oklahoma. The pharmacist shot one of the robbers and the other fled. The pharmacist chased the other robber out the store but couldn't catch him. After returning inside the store, the pharmacist reloaded his gun and put five more rounds in to the 16 year old robbers chest.

The pharmacist(I forgot his name) is now being charged with first degree murder. I disagree with this being in murder in the first, but the man should be punished. At the same time though, I can see where the prosecutors are coming from. When the pharmacist shot the boy the second time, he was not in danger any more. I don't disagree with the charges too much. But the pharmacist was not in the right state of mind. What do you guys think? Here is the video from the store http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-pharmacist-faces-murder-charge-in-shooting/article/3372941

Stop Apologizing, Mr President!

The UK's Telegraph has a great opinion article on Obama's continuing series of World Apology Tours (WAT). It's great to hear someone in the MSM slam the Empty One like he deserves. It doesn't happen very often. Nice, but probably not the true sentiment of most Eurowusses. The Telegraph is not called 'The Tory-graph' for nothing. It would be nice if we had a national conservative paper here like it.

Obama's WATs are proof that his wife spake truth when she said "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country". I'm sure she spoke for her husband as well. We clearly elected a president who despises his country and wants to work to make it better, ie, not proud of itself and humble to the pissant crackpot dictatorships that make up most of the world (Castro, Chavez, Ahmedinajad), and of course, the scornful, condescending Europeans.

Entertaining video!

This is a fairly entertaining video from Pajamas TV. I got off of Boortz.com. The video paraphrases Tocqueville's chapter on Despotism. When President Obama is compared to Xerxes from the movie 300, I don't know whether to consider it a hyperbole and laugh at it or to take it seriously, I lean towards laughing. If you want to read the what the video is based off of, this is the link to the chapter 'What sort of Despotism Democratic nations Have to Fear' from Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America'.

Tocqueville did appear to detect and predict how a free nation such as America could fall into tyranny fairly accurately. (The point about degrading us through "our animal pleasures" is related to the point I was trying to get across about morality a while back.) There is some truth to the statement that the video makes about the government wanting people to depend on them as their sole provider, but it goes some what overboard on the comparison of Obama to Xerxes. Anyways, an entertaining video well worth the five minutes it takes to watch it.

Last Stand of Pakistan Series

There has been moderate coverage of the recent push by the Pakistani Military to purge the Swat & Buner provinces of the Taliban.  Much of it seems to have taken a relative accepting view of the Pakistani Government’s reporting from the area (further example) and seems upbeat about the hopes in the region.  But I think the US military and intelligence agencies are taking a different view of the entire process.  To begin with, I do not know how successful the military has been in actually eliminating the Taliban from major urban areas.  For example, they have claimed to secure Mingora, the major city in Swat (and former hotbed of Taliban activities) but at the cost of leveling the city forcing half the population (of 325,000 people ) to flee or die.  The Pak gov’t might claim to be able to handle the large numbers of displaced persons (currently estimated around 2.2 million people), but I would venture to say that the government lacks the capacity to handle them, let alone, handle their demands for restitution for the large amounts of destruction the government will have likely inflicted on the city.  Zadari might have released 6 million dollars for assistance, but this turns out to be roughly 3 dollars per person.  The US has released a much larger amount around 110 million, but due to Pakistan’s previous inability to get aid money to go to the right places (look up scandels of US relief funds being diverted for Nuclear arms), I doubt much of this is going to meet the needs of those stricken by the conflict.  Thus, what is going to be left is a festering bombed out city that will be worse off than it was before the operation, which will likely make it A) easy for the Taliban to operate within the city and attack/bomb police & military targets B) provide an easy recruiting pool for fresh footsoldiers to replace current casualties.  I foresee the Pakistani Gov’t quick to claim victory in this, but won’t do the follow through necessary to actually hold the territory it has claimed.

Another indicator that the fair weather media reports will turn to a storm cloud is the utter insufficient amount of forces the Pakistani military is devoting to this operation (roughly 15,000).  If the problems with Iraq are a lesson, than we should remember that rapid advances without sufficient occupation personnel do not a victory make (Woodward’s State of Denial anyone?).  So far we have seen no independent verification of the government’s claims of success in the area, especially in regards to casualties among the Taliban.  Think of it this way, there are over 50,000 NATO troops along with over a 100,000 Afghani troops still battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Pakistan is attempting to do the same in a area that has been free of gov’t and Coalition interference (except for occasional Drone) with less than a 1/10 of the force in a vast and mountainous region??  This operation is a farce. 

What is most disturbing about this is the trend by American media outlooks to take such a positive view of the developments within Pakistan without any shred of evidence and from the snippets I’ve seen from television reporting.  It took over a year for the media to start saying that the surge had been effective (I even remember when General Petraeus first reported to Congress about the surge in March of 2007, leading Democrats attempted to undercut his report by referring to the success as marginal and temporary) and despite its success against tremendous partisan opposition, still never materialized into a political success for politicans that had put their reputations on the line to support it.  They were unwilling to accept reports from our military AND from reporting from the media in Iraq in the surge, yet the lap like dogs from scattered and ridiculous claims by the Pakistan Government?  WTF?   The real culprit, in my opinion, for such contradiction in opinion is the starry eyed grandeur that they have for the administration.  Now that the Pakistani gov’t is trying to root out the terrorists after Obama endorsed it, everyone has done an about change in their opinion and put in place a willing suspension of disbelief in order to suck up and off Obama.

" America's descent into marxism" from Pravda.

This article sums up the situation in American: "It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people." The election of President Obama was the final amount of the rising flood waters that that lead to the dam breaking. The article is from the old Soviet run state media. (These guys are familiar with communism so their word carries some weight) I got the article off of Rushlimbaugh.com, bottom of page, and boortz.com.

The article points out two means that the communist used to bring about a communist America: The education system being used as a means to dumb down the masses and the churches being taken over to aid in the take over of the nation by the communist. Another good point is showing that there is a need to slowly prepare the American people to accept communism-- they can't just have a revolution take place all at once. This process has been going on since around 1910. It also notes the situation in the Auto industry and shows how it illustrates America's decent into Marxism.

The point about the education system in America being based on POP culture and designed to dumb down the masses is interesting: "First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics." If you want to learn more about the system read Ayn Rand's 'The Comprachicos'. (The system destroys your ability to think. You have no way of knowing the damage done. Like a kid that was stolen as a little baby and had his body deformed by a master. He doesn't know that his disfigured body is not normal. He does not know that anybody did it to him so he clings to the masters who disfigured him and who set themselves up as a savior and provider.)

Faith in God and morality being a necessary thing for a free nation, the Communist sought to: "Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different 'branches and denominations' were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the 'winning' side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another."

General Motors and Chrysler are now being run by President Obama. He says he does not intended to run the companies immediately after he states how the companies will be run. Amazing that people can listen to such an obvious contradiction with out any questions are not realizing the contradiction. The state of the average Americans mind is leading to the destruction of the nation, brought about through the the education system.

Another good thing the article points out is that the communist learned a lesson from the bloody Soviet revolution: you need to prepare--through the education, religious, economic, political, culture systems-- the populace to slowly accept communist rule. In the end: " The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker." Not if we have any say in the matter! Eventually this tide will be beaten back. The American people need to be educated about what is happening in America.

Along with the book 'The Road Ahead ;America's Creeping revolution' this article illustrates the methods and means that the communist are using to take America over.