A Look Down The Road In Obama's America
Meanwhile in the streets, it was riotous. Bricks and rocks being thrown, graffiti scarring the square, tear gas filling the air, and a few buildings set on fire for good measure. I have to wonder what the early Greeks would think of their country today. Theirs was the proud birthplace of freedom, of representative government. Today it is a socialist cesspool. And a failed state. Not dead and buried yet - the impending bailout likely affords Greece another year on life support while the banks, insurers and hedge funds shelter themselves for the inevitable crash.
That's a long lead in to a discussion of America's future, but it is a telling predictor. And it's not the only one. We have seen similar behavior on the streets of London when their Parliament instituted austerity measures - like cutting back on higher education subsidies. Violence and destruction ensued. Touch 'entitlements' and the mobs hit the streets. And these are not the peaceful demonstrations of Dr. King. These mobs are populated by the leeches on society - the moocher and looter class. They feel all the government giveaways are their right, and they are more than willing to set afire a city or accost a Bobbie to keep their 'rights'.
But we all know such civil unrest could not occur within our shores. We're different. Surely Americans wouldn't react to budget cuts or financial stress that way, would they?
My first reflection would be Madison, Wisconsin just a few months ago. Legislators crossing state lines to hide out. Teachers and other union members occupying and destroying their beautiful capitol building. Vitriol and hatred on display daily on our television screens.
Or consider the flash mobs terrorizing the Miracle Mile in Chicago, time and time again storming into stores, grabbing what they can and dispersing. A similar event occurred in Philadelphia last week, with another teenage flash mob accosting and beating people on Broad Street - in broad daylight.
We are Greece. We are Great Britain. We are France. Woodrow Wilson set us on this course nearly a century ago, and brother, we put the pedal to the metal on November 4, 2008 when we elected and then installed a socialist in the White House. Yes, we have aspired (or many have) to be more like Europe for decades and we (they) got their wish.
According to Mr. Geithner, our esteemed Treasury Secretary, we will go into default in 34 days if congress fails to raise the debt limit. So what will congress and the president do? Frankly, I don't have a clue. Mr. Obama had a press conference today and trotted out his usual suspects to close the budget gap - tax the 'millionaires and billionaires', close the 'loopholes' on the oil companies, 'invest' in green jobs, or bullet trains to nowhere - well, you know the drill. He then trotted out all the horrible things that will happen should we actually address the problem and go back to, oh say, 2008 spending levels? Heaven forbid, the sky would surely fall.
Point is, this administration, and its supporters in Congress, are in total denial of the economic realities we face today as a country. Or worse, they know what they are doing. For them, government is always the solution, not the problem. For them, more government means more power and more control - over you and me. And they are not inclined to give up a dollar or an ounce of power - even to save our nation. For even in failed states, the elites generally survive - and often thrive.
Did the Politburo appear underfed? How many pairs of shoes did Imelda Marcos possess? How many billions do these Middle Eastern and African tyrants have squirreled away in Swiss banks? No, the tyrants and elites seem to do just fine amidst the rubble and crumbs they leave to the populace.
My fear, of course, is that the deficit and debt crisis facing us will be, like Greece, just kicked down the road a bit. Our representatives will fail us. Oh, maybe they'll nibble around the edges and then talk about their victories in reducing our spending by a trillion or two (over ten years!). They'll talk about the hard fight they fought for us. But in the end, they will leave us on a trajectory toward near certain financial Armageddon.
This administration has demonstrated in every way, at every turn, its disdain for business, its disdain for profits, its disdain of capitalism, its disdain for Congress, and its disdain for the Constitution. We have a pathological narcissist occupying the White House and he is determined to have his way and fundamentally transform this nation. And he's clearly getting his way. The Chicago way. Of course Chicago and Illinois are both on the verge of collapse as well.
This is a man who has not submitted a budget for two years. A man who offered no meaningful help or direction through the healthcare debates. A man who punted to Nancy Pelosi on the 'porkulus' package. A man who distances himself from the actual work, or even providing leadership. He seeks to snipe from the gallery, offering nothing of substance to the fray of the day, and sees himself riding in to save the day as the clock strikes midnight - much as he did in December on the tax issues. Or a beer summit. This man is supposed to be President of the United States. Almost makes me yearn for the days of Jimmy Carter, at least he was engaged.
So whatever the outcome of this budget crisis, our economic malaise will continue (yes, I am assuming no meaningful ideological change in direction). More citizens will be unemployed over time, benefits will run out for the job seekers, cash strapped states and municipalities will be forced to continue their cuts in services and benefits - including police, and already strained households and small businesses will run out of options to stay afloat.
As these strains play out, the moochers and the looters will emerge in force. It will be them, not the truly needy. The truly needy are quiet and grateful - to require assistance was not their choice. It is the moochers and looters, the parasites, who hit the streets, who deface property, who loot, who resort to random violence. For life and property mean little to them. And this is the future we face, the future we have allowed to unfold. Think post-Katrina.
And Mr. Obama's friends will be there too, if not in person, certainly in spirit. Bill Ayers, George Soros, Richard Trumka, Van Jones, Code Pink, Center for American Progress, MoveOn, Media Matters, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, STORM, Green for All, and Frances Piven of Cloward-Piven fame - to name a few. Miss Frances (Piven) will be there to celebrate the fruition of the strategy they embarked on in 1966 - overwhelming the welfare state and collapsing the capitalist system.
And off on the sidewalk watching, dumbstruck, will be all the hangers-on that had been duped into the messages of social justice, wealth redistribution, 'fairness', anti-Capitalism, and environmental justice. And they will see what the outcomes are of their beliefs, and the price of their willingness to trade liberty for a false security, or to right an imagined wrong.
Does this have to be our future? I pray not with every fiber of my being, but at this point in time, I believe we have maybe a thirty-seventy chance of averting it. But only if one, our representatives do meaningfully address our fiscal situation in the next month and, two, we throw out this president and achieve a 60 plus majority in the Senate in 2012. The former to buy us time in the bond markets until 2012, and the latter - a strong, conservative control of both branches of government - to begin unwinding and reversing this dangerous course we're on. As Thomas Jefferson said,
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have."
Buckle up, it's going to be a very bumpy ride.
And be politically incorrect - get on your knees and pray for our country. We need all the help we can muster.
http://freedomfarm.me
Posted on June 29, 2011 by Philip Johnson
That's a long lead in to a discussion of America's future, but it is a telling predictor. And it's not the only one. We have seen similar behavior on the streets of London when their Parliament instituted austerity measures - like cutting back on higher education subsidies. Violence and destruction ensued. Touch 'entitlements' and the mobs hit the streets. And these are not the peaceful demonstrations of Dr. King. These mobs are populated by the leeches on society - the moocher and looter class. They feel all the government giveaways are their right, and they are more than willing to set afire a city or accost a Bobbie to keep their 'rights'.
But we all know such civil unrest could not occur within our shores. We're different. Surely Americans wouldn't react to budget cuts or financial stress that way, would they?
My first reflection would be Madison, Wisconsin just a few months ago. Legislators crossing state lines to hide out. Teachers and other union members occupying and destroying their beautiful capitol building. Vitriol and hatred on display daily on our television screens.
Or consider the flash mobs terrorizing the Miracle Mile in Chicago, time and time again storming into stores, grabbing what they can and dispersing. A similar event occurred in Philadelphia last week, with another teenage flash mob accosting and beating people on Broad Street - in broad daylight.
We are Greece. We are Great Britain. We are France. Woodrow Wilson set us on this course nearly a century ago, and brother, we put the pedal to the metal on November 4, 2008 when we elected and then installed a socialist in the White House. Yes, we have aspired (or many have) to be more like Europe for decades and we (they) got their wish.
According to Mr. Geithner, our esteemed Treasury Secretary, we will go into default in 34 days if congress fails to raise the debt limit. So what will congress and the president do? Frankly, I don't have a clue. Mr. Obama had a press conference today and trotted out his usual suspects to close the budget gap - tax the 'millionaires and billionaires', close the 'loopholes' on the oil companies, 'invest' in green jobs, or bullet trains to nowhere - well, you know the drill. He then trotted out all the horrible things that will happen should we actually address the problem and go back to, oh say, 2008 spending levels? Heaven forbid, the sky would surely fall.
Point is, this administration, and its supporters in Congress, are in total denial of the economic realities we face today as a country. Or worse, they know what they are doing. For them, government is always the solution, not the problem. For them, more government means more power and more control - over you and me. And they are not inclined to give up a dollar or an ounce of power - even to save our nation. For even in failed states, the elites generally survive - and often thrive.
Did the Politburo appear underfed? How many pairs of shoes did Imelda Marcos possess? How many billions do these Middle Eastern and African tyrants have squirreled away in Swiss banks? No, the tyrants and elites seem to do just fine amidst the rubble and crumbs they leave to the populace.
My fear, of course, is that the deficit and debt crisis facing us will be, like Greece, just kicked down the road a bit. Our representatives will fail us. Oh, maybe they'll nibble around the edges and then talk about their victories in reducing our spending by a trillion or two (over ten years!). They'll talk about the hard fight they fought for us. But in the end, they will leave us on a trajectory toward near certain financial Armageddon.
This administration has demonstrated in every way, at every turn, its disdain for business, its disdain for profits, its disdain of capitalism, its disdain for Congress, and its disdain for the Constitution. We have a pathological narcissist occupying the White House and he is determined to have his way and fundamentally transform this nation. And he's clearly getting his way. The Chicago way. Of course Chicago and Illinois are both on the verge of collapse as well.
This is a man who has not submitted a budget for two years. A man who offered no meaningful help or direction through the healthcare debates. A man who punted to Nancy Pelosi on the 'porkulus' package. A man who distances himself from the actual work, or even providing leadership. He seeks to snipe from the gallery, offering nothing of substance to the fray of the day, and sees himself riding in to save the day as the clock strikes midnight - much as he did in December on the tax issues. Or a beer summit. This man is supposed to be President of the United States. Almost makes me yearn for the days of Jimmy Carter, at least he was engaged.
So whatever the outcome of this budget crisis, our economic malaise will continue (yes, I am assuming no meaningful ideological change in direction). More citizens will be unemployed over time, benefits will run out for the job seekers, cash strapped states and municipalities will be forced to continue their cuts in services and benefits - including police, and already strained households and small businesses will run out of options to stay afloat.
As these strains play out, the moochers and the looters will emerge in force. It will be them, not the truly needy. The truly needy are quiet and grateful - to require assistance was not their choice. It is the moochers and looters, the parasites, who hit the streets, who deface property, who loot, who resort to random violence. For life and property mean little to them. And this is the future we face, the future we have allowed to unfold. Think post-Katrina.
And Mr. Obama's friends will be there too, if not in person, certainly in spirit. Bill Ayers, George Soros, Richard Trumka, Van Jones, Code Pink, Center for American Progress, MoveOn, Media Matters, Michael Moore, Sean Penn, STORM, Green for All, and Frances Piven of Cloward-Piven fame - to name a few. Miss Frances (Piven) will be there to celebrate the fruition of the strategy they embarked on in 1966 - overwhelming the welfare state and collapsing the capitalist system.
And off on the sidewalk watching, dumbstruck, will be all the hangers-on that had been duped into the messages of social justice, wealth redistribution, 'fairness', anti-Capitalism, and environmental justice. And they will see what the outcomes are of their beliefs, and the price of their willingness to trade liberty for a false security, or to right an imagined wrong.
Does this have to be our future? I pray not with every fiber of my being, but at this point in time, I believe we have maybe a thirty-seventy chance of averting it. But only if one, our representatives do meaningfully address our fiscal situation in the next month and, two, we throw out this president and achieve a 60 plus majority in the Senate in 2012. The former to buy us time in the bond markets until 2012, and the latter - a strong, conservative control of both branches of government - to begin unwinding and reversing this dangerous course we're on. As Thomas Jefferson said,
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have."
Buckle up, it's going to be a very bumpy ride.
And be politically incorrect - get on your knees and pray for our country. We need all the help we can muster.
http://freedomfarm.me
Posted on June 29, 2011 by Philip Johnson
