I Swear!By Andrew Benjamin
Ruminations about today's "historical event." (The quote has been repeatedly hyped by CNN and MSNBC and The New York Times, countless times, so I take the liberty to put it into perspective and, as usual, start off base to get to the conclusion.) It is not enough to witness history, it is also important to understand it.
Fiscal stimulus, as applied during WWII, lifted the nation out of the Great Depression. So goes the common wisdom. There is nothing common about wisdom.
However, there is no evidence whatsoever, that fiscal stimulus ever really worked. WWII took 12 million people off the unemployment rolls through conscription. That has worked. It put 12 million to work, not Obama's three. Obama will go on a fiscal stimulus orgy of unprecedented proportions and the results may not work as intended...otherwise known as the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Government is not the solution. It is the problem. As Ronald Reagan observed...and if anyone can recall, he took us out of a five year recession...without fiscal stimulus using the printing presses. Whenever new money is printed, it creates inflation. Carter left with 21% inflation. Within two years Reagan took that down to 4%.
To put that into perspective, 21% inflation will wipe out the value of your bank account in four years.
Let's think about this for a moment....before the orgy begins.
When asked about The Bush Doctrine, which has several components and has changed content and intent by declaration over the years, Sarah Palin answered citing just one component...and was resoundingly satirized for it. Of course, most people reading this don't even know one component, never mind several...and her inquisitor probably knew only the one he was going to judge her by.
Interestingly, the
Soviet KGB understood it well even before George W. Bush doubled the required air time for his National Guard duties and flew jet fighters over North Carolina.
"
The difficulty in planning against American doctrine is that Americans neither see fit to follow their doctrine nor even read their manuals." -- KGB Document
So what did the dastardly media expect of Palin...hmmm?
To judge her more harshly than even our mortal enemies would, that's what!
That my friends, is our "objective" media that got us to today's "historical event"...meaning the one they have campaigned for, glorified, hyped and unashamedly promoted since 2004 to the level that the American people will believe anything they want to believe.
Let me explain. You all saw the crowds attending the Obama inauguration. You can imagine the billions watching this on TV... Now ask: at least concerning the live attendees on Times Square: What is going on in their minds? What would make people wait for hours in below freezing temperatures, in snow and ice, to be present at either event?
Times Square on New Year's Eve? Or the hyped Obama Inauguration?
I submit. The very same emotions...and for the very same reasons!
These emotions will get you the very same results.
As the clock passes Midnight, what happens? Nothing.
Time is linear. So is history.
My prediction right now:
Nothing spectacular...meaning positive...will happen under Obama that couldn't have happened under any other leader without the American Idol persona and a given set of advisors and American policy set in place upon which our policies to stay on track. What you hear to the contrary is blathering. Hype.
On that note, I wish our new American President well and the best of luck -- he'll certainly need it -- and as long as he governs from the middle, and not from the radical left that got him elected, the same people who made up all those lies about the departing president, I will hold my peace...and I recommend for others -- even his political opponents -- to do likewise. We would all like to see an end to partisanship, though that wish too, could be viewed as not "practical."
Let's face it. McCain was endorsed by The New York Times for the Republican side, was a choice that most of us would make either holding our collective noses, or by having had taken sedatives. An endorsement by the conservative's enemy is like an endorsement of Mahmoud Ahmenijad by Benjamin Netenyahu...it is unbelievable.
McCain was no choice at all. At least not for Republicans. So the new President effectively ran unopposed with ten times the money, and the media in his pockets. The results given the unpopular war and the tanking economy at just the right time should have been expected. So anyone who actually HOPEd for a Bush to McCain transition were not "practical."
Our new chief, when asked during a 60 Minutes interview "Why do you want to become president?", hesitated, until he was asked the same question for the third time. He said, "Because I'm a practical man."
I cited the above because I too, am a practical man who sees things from a historical perspective of having had watched too many HOPEs dashed.
Unlike the vast audience attending today's historical event, full of HOPE without any basis for their hope, Times Square on New Year's Eve, I saw other vast crowds generating hope -- and seeing things that are just not so, illusions, smoke and mirrors, and magic tricks, a droppping ball that has no meaning -- to end with disastrous consequences.
Take Jimmy Carter....please...take him. I have others in mind but don't want to devolve this discussion to the level of MoveOn and Daily KOS, Paul Krugman and Frank Rich types.
View today's historical event as a Hollywood special effects film. Created by the very same people who hope, who have ...faith, belief, and are impressed by special effects like dropping balls. Luke Skywalker, Klingons, ET...when anything was possible.
Faith in man is meaningless and very dangerous. History has warned us especially about having faith in men with high ambitions and nice speeches.
Faith in America is not meaningless.
While the new chief spoke eloquently about the Founding and the founding documents, he has shown no inclination to obey its promulgations. In fact, he has shown disdain toward them. Accordingly, let's hope that his new assignment in life will provide him with some humbling reflection and introspection other than what he read from the teleprompter.
We, The People, still need to know...who Obama is. Where he was born, and to whom. We, The People, need to know if he supports what his mates are about to do....
... as our Congress is trying to pass a law that new bills proposed by Democrats will not be debated on the floor...and can pass in the dead of night...with no oversight....and no opposition...and be imposed on the American ...WE, The People....
as a bill, right now in committee...is coming up for a vote to remove the 22nd Amendment from our Constitution...removing term limits for presidents.Why bother with presidential elections when we can have a king...last time, King George...of the 18th century....
CHANGE? Surely, not the kind Americans who actually know what is going on would HOPE for.
And for those who would HOPE for any CHANGE, no matter what -- what one wants to see is what one gets...until reality rears its ugly head. And then it's too late.
Meanwhile, the only collective intelligence that can actually be measured voted today. The Stock Market. It is, unlike any other measure, it employs the collective intelligence of the international marketplace and is the only reliable forward-looking indicator. Today's market is the response of trillions of dollars to today's "historical event."
That collective intelligence has voted resoundingly.
Case closed.-AGB
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