A Posteriori. Revising what you know about something based on the observed evidence. Recalculating your probabilities on the strength of how the coin turned out. The arithmetic should be simple: eight hundred billion dollars and the fact that a penny weighs 2.5 grams means that a two hundred million ton penny has dropped. It’s the size of two thousand aircraft carriers. Even solid Obama supporters are slowly approaching the gigantic coin to see if has turned up heads or tails.
Jan 29, 2009 — “I don’t want to get over your head here but why in the world aren’t we doing what they said they were going to do – build bridges, factory jobs, replace the smell of decay with the smell of construction, the cranes out, the trucks out?” [Chris] Matthews said to Cramer. “Why don’t they spend all the money either on tax cuts for people who need the money and/or building stuff? Why is it all going into the cats-and-dogs programs?”
Feb 2, 2009 — “Until the Obama administration starts listening, until they start paying attention to what you’re watching – to the stock market, until they realize that their agenda is destroying the life savings of millions of Americans – then all I can give you is caution.” (Jim Cramer)
Of course, those who were doubtful of Obama to start with are finding even more evidence for their a priori beliefs. Charlie Gasparino at the Daily Beast says you ain’t seen nothing yet, so wake up and smell the coffee. Indeed, some of his Wall Street friends have and the coffee is burning.
If you want to understand why, despite his popularity with the general public, Barack Obama is losing the confidence of Wall Street, all you really have to do is speak to his supporters on the Street. There are many, contradicting the long-held myth that the bankers, investors, and hedge-fund traders who inordinately profited during the past two-plus decades of unfettered capitalism don’t always vote as unfettered capitalists. They were a vital part of Bill Clinton’s coalition, were cozying up to Hillary, but bolted for Obama the minute they heard him speak about social justice, the need to reform the nation’s energy policy, the necessity to end the war in Iraq, and most of all, how the past eight years of George W. Bush elevated mediocrity to new heights.
Obama was anything but mediocre, they told me time and again, as the financial crisis devastated the markets and ushered in one nasty recession. And these days they are a sorry lot because they now admit they really didn’t listen to Obama. Yes, their man was elected, and they still defend their choice for president based on his obvious intelligence, grace under pressure, and for the simple fact that they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the erratic John McCain, and the novice Sarah Palin.
But for all of that they can’t believe what they are witnessing: an economic agenda that is contradictory at best, and possibly reckless in its extreme. Policies that will certainly make a very bad situation even worse, and when things do get better, they will certainly not be better enough to compensate for the pain we are experiencing. … And yet, while the end of the financial world may not be at hand, there is a growing sense among people who understand the markets that things could still get dramatically worse, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovers around 7,000, about half the level of its high point before the crisis began two years ago.
Roger Kimball thinks it’s time to look under the hood or at least call things by their names. He thinks “stimulus package” is really another name for a 21st century version of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty program.
Many people, I believe, have been stunned by the President’s behavior in his first weeks in office. It’s been a shock and awe performance. Historians of this period will look back in wonder: how ever did a new President waltz into office and, before he had even finished unpacking, extract $800,000,000,000 from taxpayers for partisan spending programs? Partly, it was a matter of successful rebranding: the President managed to convince some important people that his spending package was really a stimulus package, i.e., something that would help the economy, not hobble it. We know better now, having just suffered the largest post-inauguration market rout in history. But those historians will note with interest how, even at the beginning of March, some reputable commentators still referred to the President’s poverty program as “stimulus package.” … We’re still in the first act of the President’s melodrama. A few weeks ago, he warned of “catastrophe” if taxpayers didn’t fork over $800,000,000,000 instanter. In fact, the catastrophe of this drama is yet to come.
And Lyndon Johnson did other things besides, for folly once set loose, does not confine itself to particular acts of mischief. But schadenfreude is a dangerous thing. Whether or not people have the collective responsibility for the current administration’s blunders, they will without a doubt collectively suffer its consequences. When the Titanic sinks, everybody without a lifeboat drowns. Even Reuters is getting that sinking feeling, if you’ll pardon the pun.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. companies, consumers and communities may grow so addicted to government financial help that cutting them off could trigger another recession soon after the current one ends. … But there is increasing concern that when the flow of public money subsides — beginning next year when much of that stimulus package is spent — the economy still won’t be strong enough to stand on its own.
“The stuttering attempts to repair the banking and lending mechanisms so far by the new administration suggests that by late 2010, the specter of a second dip into recession will be looming large,” said Merrill Lynch economist Sheryl King.
The latest evidence of the government’s ever-changing plans came on Monday when insurer American International Group Inc got its third bailout, each with different terms. That did nothing to improve confidence on Wall Street, where investors dumped stocks amid fears that the financial crisis was worsening.
The time for recriminations comes later. Kimball knows this and warns against the Tertullian heresy, which holds that one of the delights in heaven is watching the damned burn in hell. That’s wrong; even professional soldiers know better. They let defeated generals keep their swords. Right now the important thing is to realize we’re in a hole and to stop digging. Paradoxically, the apparent vindication of those who called for a closer look at the Lightworker will make it harder for those who voted for him to get up on national TV and eat crow. It’s just too humiliating. Although Cramer and even Matthews may get to the point where they substantively criticize Obama’s policies, they’ll dance around BHO for a while, because I don’t see them coming on the air in sackcloth and ashes. Nobody wants to say he was wrong in general, but they don’t mind admitting they were mistaken in particulars. For example, Martin Peretz has been on a campaign to attack Obama’s choice for chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Chas Freeman, as a Saudi stooge. There should be no need to go further. That should be enough of a plank on which to build bridges.
If conservatives are astute they should be building mini-coalitions with Obama supporters who have seen the penny — the two hundred million ton penny — drop. On them.
Wretchard provides a quote from Cramer a month ago. Check out Cramer now via JoGo at NRO’s Corner
“Cramer v. Obama Video [Jonah Goldberg]. If memory serves, Cramer supported Obama in the election because Obama “gets it.”
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/2618489/vp/29478113#29478113
It’s taking time (though less than I expected) but buyer’s remorse is setting in.
Didn’t finish the last comment… Wretchard your last line contains an intriguing recommendation. I know nothing coalition-building in politics, but I like the prospect of the Republicans cobbling together a coalition with Obama supporters as they abandon ship- one lifeboat per disillusioned and jilted constituency at a time.
One of the small pleasures in life is the “I told you so” moment. I know… it is a bit petty, but it does not always have to occur externally. Just knowing it is enough. My point: Conservatives running for office in the next few years should practice ways to vocalize this moment. My favorite variation:
“Well… Duh!”
The problem is there’s more than one two million ton penny, and I’m not sure the piggy bank can hold ‘em.
Denizens of the non-profit sector are watching their endowments tumble and the president propose lower deductions for charitable giving. Higher education is watching the wealth of parents of prospecive students evaporate. These sectors are among Obama’s biggest supporters because, of course, he is so smart and ‘gets it.’ The dawn of understanding is arriving slowly for these folks. The darkest hour will arrive for them before the dawn does.
In a link to Niall Ferguson in one of my earlier posts, he noted that a crisis will soon sweep over Eastern Europe and drag down a number of Western European financial systems with exposure to them. The ultimate belay used to be the US. But stopper at that point has been driven into crumbling rock. The danger now is that once the last man in the climbing line falls, they’ll yank everyone down with them in succession.
Right now people have to wake up and smell the coffee, even if the coffee maker is already on fire. Just now Obama is meeting with Gordon Brown, which may one day be called the Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello summit. Never were there two more clueless individuals then that. And what are they talking about? A Global Grand Bargain.
Just build a bigger bureaucracy and everything will be alright. Ok. Let’s how this works out. My prediction? Hold on to your hats.
Well, since they’re playing this by the seat of their pants…
I think I’ll just hang on to my shorts.
Along the lines of Wretchard’s 2 million ton penny:
A Washington quarter has a thickness of 1.75 mm
How tall is a stack of quarters worth $800 billion?
8.00e11 * 1.75e-3 = 1.4e9 meters = 1.4e6 km
On 3 March 2009 the geocentric distance to the moon is
58.730 Earth radii or 3.74588e5 km
1.4e6 / 3.74588e5 = 3.7
The stack of quarters is over 3.7 times the distance from here to the moon.
The only good thing about Obama’s mishandling of the bailout is the MSM and the moonbats are superglued to him. After Obama goes down for bungling this, he’ll take the MSM and the moonbats with him (Unfortunately, he’ll take the rest of us along for the ride as well).
This is bad but the hard truth is that we (the United States) deserve this misfortune. This economic depression was the consequence of decades of fiscal misconduct. Also Obama was an open book. We all knew that he was a hard left liberal (pure poison) and the MSM were a bunch of liars. Despite this, we voted Obama in as President anyway. I just hope the nation survives this little learning experience.
You know, the darn thing is that the 2 million ton penny ain’t worth what it used to be, either: it’s mostly zinc now.
Methinks blert is onto something. Can we short shorts? Or go long in long-johns?
Hey, look at this:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/emblems-to-stam.html
The AIG bailouts are *probably* happening because AIG insured a bunch of European banks. AIG folding = European banks folding
That would carry ill consequences, but t’would be nice if the elites would simply acknowledging that the US is conducting a stealthy bailout of yet another European folly.
Stupid me, I left out the factor of four (four quarters to a dollar).
It’s actually 5.6 million kilometers or 14.8 times the distance to the moon. The distance to Venus today is 53.2 million kilometers. We could establish a Moon program based upon climbing 14 stacks of quarters but it still couldn’t get us to Venus.
LOFTM: I was waiting for someone to say that, well at least we did not get one about naked shorts.
Brown & Obama (B&O) are proving true to Daniel’s ‘feet of clay’ prophesy.
Obama doesn’t give one whit about anything or anybody but himself. He is a sociopathic meglomaniac and won’t tolerate anybody double-crossing him or his ideas. With his new Pravda minions to provide cover, he will attempt to destroy anybody that gets in his way.
He is very dangerous.
This is a very scary graph, at
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/01/scariest-chart-ever.html
Because if this is true, the photos of America from our time will look as quaint and strange as the photos taken at Queen Victoria’s funeral.
heather:
It means that they wil not be able to deliver. They know this. They do not care.
You know, that new seal they plan to use to designate “recovery” sh*t looks pretty easy to counterfeit.
I want a set, so I can slap them on every empty store front downtown.
This is one guy who isn’t enjoying his “I told you so” moment as much as he’d like. Staring in disbelief into the yawning gulp of doom tempers my schadenfruede just a bit. I am shocked at the speed with which the hand wringing buyer’s remorse has set in. I recall Reagan’s first year in office as Volcker’s monetary cure for inflation crushed the economy – there was a lot of “buyer’s remorse” then too – remorse about Reagan! Of course, his policies worked – as they always have throughout history. Obama’s will not – as they never have throughout history.
BTW, Wretchard – thanks for the Niall Ferguson link – I like to read/listen to him but I don’t always 9or even often) agree.
I quote the last of a Mark Steyn article I just read: “Right now it is the Obama mythology that urgently needs some stimulus. Some of us never expected him to walk on water. But we didn’t think he’dbe all at sea taking on quite so much of it after a mere two weeks.”
And as Wretchard himself might say, what we are seeing is not a bug but a feature. Not a few novice baby missteps but a grand strategy.
Having found the fighter force at Pearl Harbor was not scrambled in response to the radar report and submarine combat, and were lined up wingtip to wingtip, unfueled and unarmed, the result is that plans are implemented to build a whole bunch more airplanes and deploy them using the same brilliantly ineffective tactics.
This is only the beginning.
Let’s see what his foreign policy does…
The Obamassiah and wee Gordon Brun can scheme, plot and hallucinate to their idealistic, unrealistic satisfaction, but it won’t change the harsh realities of world financial markets now in motion. It also won’t miraculously stop the fwench from bribing anyone they can in international commerce to purchase fwench products, even if some other nation’s product is better. Their scheming won’t stop the Chinese from employing millions of slave laborers thus undercutting any other manufacturer on the planet. Their scheming won’t result in middle class (bourgeoisie) consumers in rich western nations recommencing a vastly overextended cheap credit spending spree to snap up unnecessary consumer goods when so many are worried about the security of their jobs.
When voters become desperate and / or hungry, the politicians in every country will listen to their voters because the weasels want to stay in power above all else. The politician weasels will promise no protectionism ‘till they’re blue in the face at Davos or some other transnational conference and then turn around and implement exactly that to satisfy the disgruntled masses at home and deflect blame from their statist policies while laying all blame for the crisis at the feet of the free market
The attempts to stimulate the economy are like trying to push on a limp string.
Unless the Obamassiah suddenly becomes a small government, low tax, liaise faire advocate sometime in the next several weeks we will be looking at Great Depression II as investors and entrepreneurs continue to refuse to invest in a downward spiraling economy.
The way things are going; those 52% who voted for hope ‘n change will eventually realize the main stream media have led them around by the nose for decades. When that happens I don’t care about their acts of contrition. I’m not prepared to offer them absolution. We won’t have time for recriminations or useless finger pointing. I expect that by that time western civilization will be in a full tilt crash & burn crisis, likely leading up to the next world war. Necessity will require us all to put the past aside and get on with the vital work of rebuilding our society.
heathermc said:
“This is a very scary graph…”
The following is another scary graph:
http://dshort.com/charts/bears-nominal-real.html?four-bears-real
Based upon that graph, we’re doing a good job of tracking the 1929 Depression. Using it as a guide, we won’t hit bottom for another
The election of Obama, for liberal-minded baby boomers, represents the acquisition of just one more hood ornament they thought they could afford to award themselves.
Welcome to the reality, which is that in addition to impoverishing themselves they will now end up selling their shares in corporate America to people like me for a fraction of what they will be worth in several years, because I can wait for the cash and they can’t.
Sic transit vanitas.
[sorry, hit the submit button by accident]
Using the plot as a guide, we won’t hit bottom for another 17 months (August 2010).
I know I’m riding steerage in this ship of state. Just before being crammed into my allotted hole I got a glimpse of the great ship’s name: “T-I-T”…..hhmmnn, strange name for a boat, but somehow comforting, kind of hopey-changey.
My theme song: (Into the Ocean)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Fl2yWalH4
….the darkest hour before the dawn.
Armeggedon Rex said:
“The way things are going; those 52% who voted for hope ‘n change will eventually realize the main stream media have led them around by the nose for decades. … Necessity will require us all to put the past aside and get on with the vital work of rebuilding our society.”
What do you propose that we do with that large fraction of the 52% who will still think Obama is the messiah (it was all G.W.Bush’s fault) and socialism is the next great idea?
Wretchard, I don’t think the Republican Party can or will build bridges to Cramer etc.
First off, much of the Party elite hates and loathes the masses, who in turn hate them. See Steele vs. Rush, or Krauthammer vs. Palin.
There is an article up on the Pajamas Media main page about how Joe the Plumber is a huge red flag that the base of the Party feels it is being made war on by both the RINO types who have solidarity with Obama (McCain, Steele, Krauthammer, etc) and has no one but Joe or Sarah or Rush to speak for them.
I think it is far more likely that economic collapse will trigger a melt-down on identity lines. Already there is a link on Hotair that details the racist (his words) clown show on the Detroit City council, hating Whites and any investment in the city.
This stuff is both potent, and generates in a deep recession that gets far worse, with a global-drag down, it’s own counter-reaction in identity politics.
The winner is not Obama. It is not Sarah Palin. It is whoever can create, from scratch, a Third Party based on the majority identity politics, and getting theirs while excluding the other. In other words, a continuation of the cultural, political, social, and economic war that has characterized the West since 1945, between the elites and the Gentry (ala Kotkin) with various gender and racial overtones.
Cramer, Peretz, Matthews, etc cannot by their very nature abandon Obama because their membership in the Gentry, which most of all HATES the Middle Class and ordinary people, mandates allegiance to the Gentry leader. Meanwhile, Gert Wilders is leading in Dutch polls.
What Obama and the Gentry class do not understand is that when it is sheer survival, when they offer not a penny for “White Men” (ala Robert Reich), dynamics change and the ability of a Huey Long to seize power based on an amplified version of their own calls, but explicitly excluding the minority coalition and dividing the pie according to majority rules, is very very powerful.
“Worse things happen at sea you know”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0&feature=related
I’m probably in error, but I get a one hundred million ton penny:
2.5 g/ penny X 10^12 dollars X 10^2 pennies/ dollar == 2.5 X 10^14 g.
2.5 X 10^14 gm X 1 oz/ 2.8 X 10 g X 1 lb/ 1.6 X 10 oz X 1 ton/ 2 X10^3 lb == 1.4 X 10^8 ton
But like I said, I probably made some mistake.
Jamie Irons
You’re right, I forgot there were a hundred pennies to a dollar, my calc was 800*10^9*2.5*10^(-6)=2*10^6. But since there are a hundred pennies to the dollar, then its 200 million tons.
Higher education, like charitable and religious organizations, relies to an exceptional degree on donations by very rich benefactors. And, unlike the rest, higher education offers to put the names of major donors on big projects, such as the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz.
So, when a significant portion of donations from really big donors get is eaten up by taxes, and the necessary money-laundering schemes to get around this result in the higher ed. biz not being able to offer to name buildings and whatnot after fat cat donors,
the higher ed. biz will not feel so charitable and generous towards Democratic politicians who presently get an inordinate amount of their income from higher ed. contributors.
Somehow I doubt that the Democrats in Congress will be so eager to show up for this particular circular firing squad.
And they’ll have fun convincing voters that contributions to higher ed. get the same old tax breaks while no other charitable and religious organizations do.
The Obama administration’s proposal to reduce the deductions for charitable giving looks dead on arrival. I very much doubt it will be enacted even by the current Congress.
Ha! “Always look on the bright side of life..” Such a catchy tune…whistle while you work.
Actually you can get to the planet Venus with bailout quarters.
Just spotweld the quarters edge-to-edge and make a long chain. Here are the numbers (Washington quarter diameter 24.26 mm):
4 * 8.00e11 * 24.26e-3 = 7.763e10 meters = 77.63 million km
Again the distance to Venus today is 53.2 million kilometers. This chain of quarters could get you there and half way back. I checked Mars but it’s too far away even if you included Obama’s budget.
Eggplant #27
If Obamassiah continues with the current “lawn dart” flight path he has charted, things will continue to get worse, in a hurry. As a species we’ve only been giving natural selection the finger in a major way for a few generations. I don’t believe common sense and self preservation have been bred out of 50% of the population yet. They just have to be hit hard enough with reality to shake off the blinders they’re now wearing that come from decades of socialist dominated politically correct public dis-education. I believe that 70% or 80% of the rocket scientists who voted for Obamassiah will get a clue once they can’t pay the power bill, and or they’re reduced to eating beans & rice if they’re lucky, or Fluffy & Fifi as necessary.
During the great depression and in WWII America learned some painful and lasting lessons. From the boomers forward, most Americans never lived, in a third world country for a year or more, and never served in the military. These brats have no idea how spoiled they’ve been, or what reality is for the majority of humanity. They’re about to find out! They say that the institutional memory of any endeavor is only as long as the memory of its senior participants. It seems we’re doomed to repeat a third world experience now that the last of the folks who lived through the great depression are retiring or are already gone.
To summarize Eggplant, most of the ignoramuses who voted for Obamassiah are going to get a harsh education in the very near future. Those who cannot or will not learn shouldn’t be numerous enough to impede the rest of us, but if they are, they’ll likely receive the ultimate education about natural selection with little delay.
The New Cromwell Party?
The Left doesn’t yet appreciate the fire they’ve ignited. Might start letting the opposition know what we have in mind.
Be forewarned, we will not merely unseat every one of the elected officials who voted for the Stimulus Package without reading it, as Newt suggests; but as our first priority we will also criminally prosecute each and every one, and see them off to jail in chains, stripped of every perk they’ve stolen from the nation.
It’s not as if they don’t deserve it.
ok, how many BBs to make the pyramid of Cheops?
i got news for the pres –the price/earnings ratios aren’t getting better at all –both sides of the ratio are in steep decline, the actual ratio is around 17, or higher than it was a few thousand dow points ago.
IOW, tho your shares are worth less, they are more expensive.
C’mon mr. president –you don’t know this, and you ran for president? man alive –that takes guts.
What do you propose that we do with that large fraction of the 52% who will still think Obama is the messiah (it was all G.W.Bush’s fault) and socialism is the next great idea?
They’re not the only fraction we have to worry about. There’s also the smaller but still considerable fraction who vote Dem simply because their livelihood depends on income and/or other assistance from the state. Not to mention the many folks who aren’t necessarily outright socialists, but still believe strongly enough in the Biblical “my brother’s keeper” admonition, or an equivalent secular ethos, for even the unvarnished Obama agenda to resonate with them.
To say nothing of the present utter lack of a strong conservative alternative, in the GOP or elsewhere.
Wretchard (in comment 31),
Well, let’s just stipulate that when that sucker drops, we don’t want to be in the neighborhood.
(Unfortunately, that’s where we live!)
Jamie Irons
A real brother’s keeper wants a world where brother has a chance at that only thing that can make him feel worthy: a feeling of accomplishment, which can’t be got without accomplishing something. Keeping brother a child forever is conjuring evil.
The time for recriminations comes later…There should be no need to go further. That should be enough of a plank on which to build bridges…If conservatives are astute they should be building mini-coalitions with Obama supporters who have seen the penny…
Hear, hear.
There are many problems that conservatives would like to fix. But absolutely every solution to any problem a conservative might care about starts with getting Democrats out of office. The most important thing in 2010 is getting Congress away from Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid and Chris Dodd so that somebody can put the brakes on the runaway Obama train.
I don’t like fear-based politics. In the long run, the Republican party needs to be about a positive vision for the future and not just “better than the other guys”. But in the long run, you also first gotta survive the short run, and the Democrats are doing damage at an astonishing rate. We need to set aside our long-term plans, our long-term concerns, our long-term differences, and get these lunatics out of office. Use the fear that Obama is throwing off in waves and turn it against the Congressional democrats. Make a deal with Moderates and Independants that we will dedicate 100% of our effort to repairing the damange done by Obama’s profligate spending. Use that deal to build a super-coalition that can oppose Obama for the final two years of his administration.
I think there are many moderate Democrats who are frightened about what Obama is doing. Moderate Democrats are a small minority of elected Democrat officials, but they’re a majority of Democrat voters. We can and should make an emergecy alliance with them to stop Obama.
A Rex: it does to have to get that bad. We just have to stop his momentum.
Perhaps this huge debt will in time lead us to dismantling the new deal state. Cutting government by 70% would fix things nicely. So would eliminating the corprate income tax.
It does not have to end so harshly. What is crucial is that the momentum has to be stopped.
Mongoose:
I agree, the momentum needs to be stopped, but with the MSM fist fighting to decide who gets to lick Obamassiah’s feet from moment to moment, and with out of control cleptocrats legislating in both houses of congress, I don’t see anything that is likely to stop this Obama juggernaut short of a large scale terrorist attack or our economy continuing its slide until a large number of Americans are experiencing third world living standards. I’m afraid it will end harshly because I’m believe many Americans aren’t going to wait around until this is corrected “…in time…”
It seems obvious to me that the “stimulus” bill is just stealth reparations. They’ve all but said it outright.
12 MG:
AIG will be continually bailed out because it insures the “Congressional Retirement Trust”. Do you really think that those guys who are too good to accept Social Security would allow their pensions to be threatened?
Uncle Jefe #21:
Obama’s foreign policy is not worthy of the name. He is not interested in preserving the United States. He only wants to consodidate his power. Let’s think of a way to block his pretensions so that the Republic can survive.
36 geoffgo
No. We conservatives do not engage in criminal prosecutions for political differences. Leave that s**t to the not-so-liberals-after-all. Care should be taken to point out these differences in temperment and tone to appeal to the natural moderation of the voters. Not getting reelected IS the supreme punishment to the politician. Otherwise, this is the place to vent. . .
#46 weSwinger
I rather suspect the issue of criminal prosecutions is in the hands of the Democrats. We have ongoing threats of just that from the various leaders of the Democrat Congress and from Hussein Pasha’s administration. They may in fact do it. If they do, if they ever lose control of the coercive organs of the State; there will be payback and the nature of American politics will be changed forever.
Personally, I think that they are dumb enough, and arrogant enough to do it. I seriously believe that they think that they never will have to face the American people again. At least they are acting that way.
This is NOT going to end well if it gets started. Something along the line of “Rope, politician, tree. Some assembly required.”
Subotai Bahadur
Subotai, you know the story of Billy Sherman, who hated newspapermen but did use them to allow as how he had identified 30,000 die hard rebs, the hot-heads, he called ‘em, the chevalier romantics raised on Sir Walter Scott and embellished for the task by adoring womenfolk. Sherman business-like stated they would need to die before the Southern Rebellion could end. Having made the promise, and then splitting twain the homeland in the march to the sea (those two parallel columns a day’s burnt & looted ride apart), he never had to go run ‘em down, that 30,000, as the Sherman promise had moved ahead of the rope and had awakened the die-hards to the reality of a new situation. Four months after he reached the sea at Savannah, the war was over. Sherman was always, his whole career pre and post war, followed by a whisper campaign that he was crazy. due to, it appears, his penchant for blunt truth spoken plain (plus maybe a little John Barleycorn it is said but that may be a lie). He said ‘war is all hell’ and then followed his logic. The defeated enemy hated him heartedly, but, as Victor Davis Hanson pointed out, Sherman did his foe a favor by ending with alacrity a war that might in the breach have droned on another blood-soaked year or more. Ok, class is over. Next on the syllabus, no more wowah (I hate wowah, Eleanor hates wowah, too), but Shakespeare! Two soliloquies; that of Hamlet and that of Macbeth.
re: 30 and 31– it doesn’t matter how many tons of pennies we’re talking about because they are all made of zinc now, not copper. The quarters aren’t silver anymore and the colored paper in our wallets will be worth less and less and less as our government throws it from the helicopters. I reckon Obama and the rest of the rulers know this.
If the O and the brownie get together to Save The World, pray what does brownie bring? Legitimacy?
He’s got less money than the O.
Commenters keep using the “we” voted, “we” didn’t know, etc, when referring to Obama. While they may have been part of the “we”, I was not part of that 53% that was. I have a silly habit of judging people by their past and associations, not their glibness. Yep, I’m one of those judgmental Neanderthals; one who will “fight” this coup against America’s traditions and principles. But if my fellow resistance members and I lose, I will go down with the rest of you, but doing so laughing at your panic.
Al Reasin said:
“Commenters keep using the “we” voted, “we” didn’t know, etc, when referring to Obama.”
“We” the American People elected Obama as our President.
It was a stupid decision.
I voted for McCain and also wasted money contributing to his campaign.
Almost from day one, I saw Obama as a sly and dangerous demagogue. As it became clear that the MSM was going to ram Obama down our collective throats, my panic grew (the election process was obviously malfunctioning).
My panic has since morphed into despondency. Obama is precisely the wrong person to be leading our country while the economy collapses into depression and we face existential enemies from the Middle East.
“We” won’t be able to fight this “coup” until after the system hits bottom and most Americans realize their error with Obama and the MSM. There might not be anything left to salvage after we hit bottom. I’m not happy about this.
In this election 51% of eligible Americans voted, and the winner of the Presidency took a bit over half that… which ends you up with just a bit over 25% of the population.
That 49% who did not vote have been growing over the span from 1964 to now, where it was in the bare 20% range then. In a span of 44 years nearly 30% of the US voting age population has walked out on the process for various reasons. One cannot say that they are not interested: this is a clear statement against the system as formulated as it does not address their lives. Of course every poll taken doesn’t ask: why didn’t you vote? These are not the disinterested as this is a conscious decision, nor are they leaving it to their ‘betters’ (and that is a aristocratic and elitist viewpoint). It is a plain vote against the two party system and the government it has formed and it is a percentage that is self-disenfranchising: participation in the system means you want it to succeed at some level.
By shifting out of the system, the system becomes radicalized and out of kilter and no longer represents a group that, if taken as a whole, outweighs either candidate in this last election. Americans do not get a ‘no confidence’ vote, so they have invented one. It is the easy disdain of politics, the two party system, partisanship and the track of government that has gone authoritarian for decades. This group has sought to have the system go into gridlock and implode and they, by not voting, are getting the clear agenda put forward to the system, if we can but look at the results.
Without support authoritarian government over-reaches, takes on too much and causes a reaction to it. If they wanted something different they would *vote for it*. Instead the non-vote is for corruption, decay, over-reach and collapse. It may not be intentional, or done with forethought, but that is the impending result from the intentional vote of staying away.
In such large groups comes wisdom as they know what they are doing in their disdain and exactly so, even if no individual can state it. They have won this election, not Barack Obama… are we prepared for the results that have been asked for in increasing silence year on year, election after election? For that is a far clearer mandate than any politician now has: it is the will of the people.
And they speak deafeningly in their silence.
Ajacksonian, I used to car pool with an ‘awakening conservative’ (have a wife, kids and a mortage tends to do that to young men). When he would wonder out loud how people let the politicians get away with their “shenanigans” I would response with this analogy: Look at all the cars on the road. Now realize that half of the people in those cars do not take part in the politician process. They can’t be bothered. They are too ‘busy’ with their own lives to worry about things they feel they have little influence over. As long as they have a job and life basically goes along with little pain they could care less who runs things. They in effect vote to keep things the way they are by not voting. The politicians know this. They know their job is not to ‘screw the pooch’ and placate 25% +1 of the population and they have jobs for life. The thing they fear is when the “Silent Majority” gets upset and shows up at the polls. Then all bets are off and things like the recall of Governor Grey Davis happens. The question is whether or not the over-reach by Obambi and his Democratic allies will awaken the ‘slumbering’.