A Cycle of Cathay
Five days ago, as the Copenhagen conference was visibly falling apart, I remarked that its organizers had come not to praise each other but to bury the hatchet in each others backs. Now an eyewitness writing in the Guardian repeats the same points, but with a twist. In the December 18 post, the Pointing Finger Points, it says:
Even ABC News strained to find a silver lining, noting that a variety of high sounding drafts have been circulated “but the language failed to include a legal framework.” Meanwhile, the ever-cheerful Gordon Brown, in a phrase that may forever catch the absurdity of the moment, said of the problems besetting the conference that “they are big issues but the differences are not fundamental.” Strangely enough, Brown may be right. Obama and Wen really aren’t disputing anything except who’ll take the rap for this fiasco. Barack Obama tried to set up Wen by depicting him as a hold-out. But the crafty Chinese pretended to take umbrage — it wasn’t hard given the habitually consdescending tone of the Western Left towards the Third World — and tried to shift the blame to him. The conference ends with the two trying to frame each other. It’s a perfect ending entirely in keeping with the character of the entire enterprise.
Mark Lynas of the Guardian says it was Wen who tried to set Barack Obama up to take the fall, but the crafty American managed to dodge the worst of the blow. The question Lynas sets out to answer is why Wen double-crossed the West.
Here’s what actually went on late last Friday night, as heads of state from two dozen countries met behind closed doors. Obama was at the table for several hours, sitting between Gordon Brown and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. The Danish prime minister chaired, and on his right sat Ban Ki-moon, secretary-general of the UN. Probably only about 50 or 60 people, including the heads of state, were in the room. I was attached to one of the delegations, whose head of state was also present for most of the time.
What I saw was profoundly shocking. The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country’s foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world’s most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his “superiors”. …
To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China’s representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. … China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered. …
So how did China manage to pull off this coup? First, it was in an extremely strong negotiating position. China didn’t need a deal. …. Obama needed a strong deal perhaps more than anyone. … Above all, Obama needed to be able to demonstrate to the Senate that he could deliver China in any global climate regulation framework, so conservative senators could not argue that US carbon cuts would further advantage Chinese industry.
If this account is true, it puts a whole new construction on the incident described in Welt in which Barack Obama goes hunting around the convention center for the Chinese leader. He finds Wen with Zuma and Singh in a private room.
Wen, who, it was rumored, had rarely left his hotel room, could not be found. Finally, the US delegation located him in a room set aside for negotiations. A visibly furious Obama, according to reports, stormed into the room. “Are you now ready to talk with me, Premier Wen?” he was reported to have shouted. “Are you now ready? Premier Wen, are you now ready to talk with me?” What a scene for a US president.
Wen was not alone in the room at the time when Obama quite literally burst into the room, according to participants. At the time, the Premier was in a conversation with India’s head of state, Mammohan Singh and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. Suddenly the group saw itself forced into a conversation with the US president.
If the Guardian is correct then Obama’s claim to have forged an ‘unprecedented’ deal with the Chinese is completely hollow. Not only did Wen take Hillary Clinton for ride by giving her the impression that a deal was in the offing, he made a fool of Obama. And Obama stood there and took it. But Obama, rather than going to the mat with Wen, left the conference shortly after making his big speech leaving the delegates in disarray and dismay.
Lynas mentions the key factor in this fiasco without recognizing its significance. He correctly understands that China is rising to superpower status on the basis of cheap hydrocarbon energy, but refuses to see this is precisely the source of its leverage. The West, by playing the suicidal Greenie game has given China the power to dictate terms to it. Obama had come to Copenhagen convinced he could talk the Chinese into cutting their own throats. He wanted to bring China’s pelt back to the Senate Republicans. He failed.
All this raises the question: what is China’s game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, “not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?” … China’s growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.
China, alone of all the economic superpowers of the world, is free of socialistic environmentalism. Without that monkey on its back, without the need to satisfy a thousand special Quango interests, China has achieved a prodigious amount of real power. Barack Obama, who is in the middle of trading what is left of American real power for European soft power, was momentarily rocked back on his heels. Has he learned anything? Obama flew back to take charge of his health care “reform” plan.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the two leaders meet again.
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The outcome of the Copenhagen Conference raises the interesting possibility that the Health Care “Reform” and Cap ‘n Trade initiatives are as inevitable as the unlamented greenie initiative. The “International World Order” may be running on bluff alone. It’s out of money.
This means that it may extraordinarily vulnerable. Overextended, bankrupt, falling in the polls — and these factors suggest that developments in 2010 will be dramatic.
Gordon Brown, in a phrase that may forever catch the absurdity of the moment, said of the problems besetting the conference that “they are big issues but the differences are not fundamental.”
After, all, in his own words, Gordon Brown already saved the world with his UK banks bailout. After that, saving the polar ice caps is just icing on the cake.
If Barack Obama is too stupid to realize that he was humiliated by China at Hopenhagen, then he deserves to go back again and again. The more energy he wastes chasing climate glory, the less he’s using Air Force One to campaign for socialized medicine or re-electing Dems. Good for him.
Climategate even extends to Wikipedia.
A new report reveals a British scientist and Wikipedia administrator rewrote climate history, editing more than 5,000 unique articles in the online encyclopedia to cover traces of a medieval warming period – something Climategate scientists saw as a major roadblock in the effort to spread the global warming message.
Unfortunately for the cabal, they forgot that every email and Wikipedia edit sits on somebody’s hard drive somewhere. Which reminds me of a joke.
The most important point to take home from all of this is that China (with India’s support) has just made the carbon limitation debate moot. China very convincingly demonstrated that they are more than willing to spike any international agreement that could limit their CO2 releases, ever. There is no more pressure that can be put on them than already has. (that has something to do with how they are providing the money required to keep the US treasury afloat right now) They spiked the Copenhagen conference because they knew they could and they knew no one could stop them.
So there are some obvious conclusions that can be drawn from this, and it surprises me that so many on all sides are avoiding thinking about them.
(in the honor of the scientific method, I would appreciate anyone who disagrees pointing out the flaw in this chain of logic)
1) China could not care less about climate change, but they DO care about ensuring their future economic growth. They see any international agreement as a threat to their future growth, therefore they will use their power to block one.
2) China has the full backing of India. (plenty of links available to show that) China also has the backing of the group of 77.
3) China is now too strong for any other nation to oppose. If the US couldn’t do it, no one can.
4) If China and India are out of an agreement, then the US is out. (at least 10 Democratic Senators are on record as to this)
5) Since the US, China, and India account for over half the worlds CO2 production and most of the future growth, the other nations of the world can do nothing to meaningfully change world CO2 levels even if they were all to agree. (and the group of 77 does NOT agree with any limitiations)
6) Thus there is now no hope for the international limiting of carbon emissions, now or at anytime in the near future. There will be no binding treaty, and any nation which places voluntarily limitations on itself will lose jobs and economic strength to those nations which refuse.
7) therefore it is pointless to talk about limiting emissions or other legal restrictions – I know it is hard for everyone to wrap their minds around the fact that a few days ago, that boat sailed away forever – but it has. Although limitations may be emotionally satisfying, the math says that there is no way any unilateral restrictions can change world CO2 levels.
8) Final Conclusion – Copenhagen ensured that all of this talk about reducing CO2 is pointless, because it is not now going to happen. Emissions are going to go on as usual, and there is no longer any realistic hope of any other outcome, because unilateral action is pointless. (Burdening US factories with high costs now will simply shift that production to China, resulting in the same or more CO2 production but far less American jobs)
Discussions on these matters had meaning when it looked like they would be the basis for serious policy changes. As that possibility has slipped away over the last 3 weeks, the relevance of any of these overwrought discussions has slipped away with it. Of course there are many people who are locked into their opinions and who will fight forever to uphold their “honor,” or whatever – but from now on, it’s just another internet topic to fight about, nothing more. Global warming, Brangelina, whatever – it’s all the same now. And no one reading this can do anything to change that.
“jumped the shark” moment?
wws:
The most important point to take home from all of this is that China (with India’s support) has just made this entire debate moot. China very convincingly demonstrated that they are more than willing to spike any international agreement that could limit their CO2 releases, ever.
Yes, but the second most important point is that China can get away with this for the next fifty years by making the US the fall guy. The narrative coming out of Copenhagen is that Obama came in at the last minute and his arrogance disrupted a very important consensus and the meeting fell apart. Now Obama knows what it feels like when he says he inherited this recession from Bush, or the war in Afghanistan from Bush.
This may be a good moment to speak up for moderation. Conservatism means to conserve and as Teddy Roosevelt knew that includes conserving the natural gifts that have been entrusted to us. An economically free society with values rooted in a religious sense of morality and responsibility proves to be a better steward of the environment than does one organized under socialism. One of the terrible things about the ADW scandals is that they may discredit science in the popular imagination and may empower those with coarser views of nature. Socialism poisons the earth and water, as Vaclav Havel said “look out the window.”
The Republicans have to learn to stay on topic. They had a good theme before they allowed the MSM to ignore it in the manufactured economic tsunami of 15 months ago. Drill here drill now and develop gas, oil, coal and nuclear. Invest in new technology research. Do all of it to build the sinews of liberty and the capital to invest in really protecting the earth. That does not mean tossing billions down the rat holes of green jobs for Obama’s unskilled voters and buying mortgages and bonuses for the Democrats of Fannie Mae. It means spending on skilled labor and telling those that refuse to get an education that will make them useful that they will lose. As Lenin said, “He who will not work, he shall not eat.”
China is building real power based on coal and access to raw materials. Russia is building real power based on controlling access to energy for Europe. The US needs to keep real power, not soft power and pretty pieces of paper, to keep the peace. Then maybe we can move towards a world safe for the pretty pieces of paper and unicorns.
Once Thomas Friedman of the NYT gets off his knees from kissing the collective Chicom behind, I wonder what he might think of this….
Something is seriously wrong when I find a measure of delight in the possibility of the Chinese setting up the American president for a fall and succeeding.
Classless, shallow, street thug. Who really has a clenched fist now?
For both of these results I must say “Thank You China.”
Although it’s a sad day when I have to look to the communist Chinese for honesty and rationality in world affairs, while simultaneously being disgusted with the outright dishonesty and chicanery present in my own government.
How long will it take for Obama, the democrats in general, and the Europeans to realize that fighting the global warming battle is now a sucker’s game that can only hurt them? I think the Euro’s are starting to figure this out already. There’s nothing left pushing it but a false pride that refuses to admit a mistake.
But combine this with climategate, and the day that this foolish pride becomes too expensive to hang onto is the day this entire kabuki performance collapses and the search for scapegoats begins.
And there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Wretchard said:
“This means that it may extraordinarily vulnerable. Overextended, bankrupt, falling in the polls — and these factors suggest that developments in 2010 will be dramatic.”
“Dramatic” like the urban myth of the JATO powered 1967 Chevy Impala that cratered into a cliff face while going 300 mph.
One wonders what Wen Jinbao was discussing with Jacob Zuma when Obama came barging into the room. South Africa still has some natural resources, particularly coal. Perhaps at this climate conference, Jinbao and Zuma were negotiating a coal purchase agreement.
Obama is an embarrassment. China holds about 3/4 of a trillion dollars in US debt. Any “negotiating” that Obama could have done with Wen Jinbao would have been as a supplicant begging on bended knee.
wws,
In the interest of science, as you said, I would question one part of your fine analysis.
2) China has the full backing of India.
It may be more accurate to say that India is keenly aware of it’s vulnerability and is like China aware that the need for hard power trumps any concern over climactic costs. India is probably more torn than China is about the risks of environmental damage from industrialization. They are a democracy and Bhopal is an emotional issue in their experience. China may not like that any program that unfetters her industrial growth will also benefit her rival India. Both nations here are in a tactical and temporary alliance. Right now China is growing faster and has India strategically surrounded. If the chinese economy cracks and urban-rural pressures destabilize the regime then her comparative advantage over India may be reversed. Either way the big loser in all these calculations are the Tibetans.
Eggplant: Obama is an embarrassment. China holds about 3/4 of a trillion dollars in US debt. Any “negotiating” that Obama could have done with Wen Jinbao would have been as a supplicant begging on his knees.
There’s the old principle that if you owe $10,000 you have a problem, but if you owe $10,000,000 your lender has a problem. It is China, not the US, who is begging us not to print more money, so that when we pay them back they actually get something of value instead of a truck full of Monopoly money. Inflation kills lenders.
Unless Obama is turfed out in 2012, there may be no comeback for the US.
They will be saddled with crippling entitlement bills, which will be next to impossible to repeal. China will continue unchecked, and eventually cause any number of conflicts as they require more and more resources. At the moment they are doing extremely well in setting up clients all over the world.
They will make for a far less savoury Imperial master than the US.
This goes back to the previous post about the European Peace, which the EU believes is constructed of those “pretty pieces of paper”. They laugh to scorn the American effort of the Cold War. They are too smart for that. Except they are not. It calls to mind the remarks of Singapore’s Governor Shenton when he heard the Japanese had invaded Malaya. “I suppose you’ll see the little men off,” he told Perceval. Shenton was in a prison camp before too long.
Snobbery may have caused too many people to accept the idiocy of European Leftism with its self-flagellating and self-destructive tendencies. Balked at building their carbon castle, the mistaken conclusion that some are drawing may be: “well at least let’s socialize health care”. It’s the wrong conclusion.
The correct conclusion might be ‘that in order to provide more goods and services for everyone; to have the energy reserve to meet unforseen natural occurrences, civilizaton needs to develop more energy’. Clean nuclear power and yet undeveloped sources of energy, not windmills and going barefoot, are the wave of the future. Universities should replace all their environmental studies programs with engineering departments. That would do more for the planet than the current quasi-religious activities the world is embarking on today.
But even with respect to health care, any “reform” there will be pyrrhic. If it’s unsustainable it will become like a clunker bought at an inflated price, which neither runs well nor whose payments can be met. In the end it will wind up in the junkyard.
“You can’t fool nature”. Public policy has to be driven by rational calculation. It can’t be used as a means to remake the world according to some fantasy.
So let me get this straight — America owes China a whole bunch of money, while China is bound and determined to humiliate America and pull the rug out from under us economically? Do they expect to buy the whole country, Constitution and all, in an economic fire sale, or are they just playing games for the fun of it? Or is Obama *such* a clod that every single thing he does misfires, despite the best efforts of the Chinese to be more or less civilized?
At least, I now know the name of the Chinese honcho who’s on the same level as Putin.
Great analysis, wws. Maybe citizens of the West should consider the possibility that maybe the Chinese and Indians — and Russians for that matter — know something they don’t. Add in the indifference from most Americans, and climate alarmism begins to look like an EU initiative to extend its governance model by proselytizing its state religion.
The other thing the Chinese and Indians realize is that no affordable carbon “reparations” from the west could possibly help them measurably, given the sizes their own economies. So they’re not at all interested in joining or even helping the “developing” beggar states.
What’s actually really impressive is that the Chinese and Indians acted to save the West from itself, no doubt because of the economic interdependency. I had actually feared that the Chinese would agree to universal per capita targets, while planning on ignoring them once they reached those levels themselves. Instead they wisely acted to impede action by anyone.
Everything will change if the Chinese in particular manage to retarget their economy so its primary dependence is on internally fueled growth. I suspect they won’t be so seemingly altruistic then.
Teresita said:
“There’s the old principle that if you owe $10,000 you have a problem, but if you owe $10,000,000 your lender has a problem. It is China, not the US, who is begging us not to print more money, so that when we pay them back they actually get something of value instead of a truck full of Monopoly money. Inflation kills lenders.”
Actually this is more like the Cold War analogy of two enemies both standing in a pool of gasoline each armed with a cigarette lighter.
Truth-to-tell, China is in a stronger position. If we (the US) ignite our cigarette lighter then our whole economy goes up in smoke while the Chinese are “only” screwed out of $772 billion. They could take the hit and still have a functioning economy but we’d be left with nothing.
“The Climategate Timeline: 30 years visualized
23 12 2009
The always sharp Jo Nova tips us to this:
Here’s a Spectacular Poster of ClimateGate covering 3 decades
You have to see this to believe it. Look up close and admire the detail while you despair at how long science has been going off the rails. To better appreciate the past and what was exposed by the CRU emails, the time-line chart consolidates and chronologically organizes the information uncovered and published about the CRU emails by many researchers along with some related contextual events. That the chart exists at all is yet another example of how skilled experts are flocking in to the skeptics position and dedicating hours of time pro bono because they are passionately motivated to fight against those who try to deceive us.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
(H/T Seneca: Veritas Odit Moras.)
Obama is an embarrassment. China holds about 3/4 of a trillion dollars in US debt. Any “negotiating” that Obama could have done with Wen Jinbao would have been as a supplicant begging on bended knee.
Though I have no love lost for Barack Obama, this recalls the meeting in Vienna between Krushchev and JFK. Krushchev figured JFK for a loser and it emboldened him to precipitate the Cuban missile crisis. But in the early 1960s the US held a margin of real power that was so great it could recover many mistakes. Yet even so, the world has never been closer to Armageddon as in those October days.
Despite any temptation to gloat over Obama’s embarassment, it’s dreadful to contemplate what would happen if he were seriously challenged internationally. His weakness will embolden challengers. That’s a given. And that challenge will then be met by the Hillary-Pelosi-Reid-Obama crew.
He’s the captain of the ship until 2012 anyway.
krontekag said:
“Unless Obama is turfed out in 2012, there may be no comeback for the US.”
It might not matter who is elected in 2012. However it would be “good thing” if Obama was not reelected.
Well, now we know why the White House “holiday” tree is trimmed with ornaments bearing Mao’s face.
#21 Eggplant
True, Eggplant – it may already be too late by then.
As someone once said (Pitt the Younger?), and pardon my paraphrase – a democracy can only last as long as it takes for the people to work out how to distribute themselves wealth from the public treasury.
A trickle is now becoming a torrent, and no amount of fingers may be able to plug the breach should the US commit to socialised medicine.
If Obama stays at minus 20 or worse in the polls for a month and the Democrats begin to really fear a tsunami in November then I predict that there will be efforts to gracefully ease him out. One day we can wake up and hear serious looking news anchors reading reports the Obama is going to Bethesda, that Obama is seeing a specialist, that Obama is recuperating in the country, that Obama is gone. This could be like the old joke about Grandma’s cat.
“How is the cat?”
The cat is dead
“How could you be so cruel as to spring that on me? You should have lead up to it?”
Whaddaya mean?
“You could have said the cat is on the roof, then that the cat had caught a cold, then that the Vet was trying something heroic, then that the cat passed peacefully, You know I loved that cat.”
I’m sorry. I guess I’m an insensitive jerk.
“So how is Grandma?”
She’s up on the roof.
A week is a long time in politics but another maxim is “Don’t back no losers.” Anything could happen.
Teresita:
Thanks for the link to the Medieval Warming Period coverup. That is a really explosive piece.
I would wander over to pro-AGW sites from time-to-time, and among the posts I’d find dismissals of the ‘so-called Medieval Warming Period,’ and I’d be like, “HUH?” Where was that notion coming from?
From many years of reading history, and from being involved in the publishing of history, I was well aware of documented evidence of warm and cool periods throughout recorded history, so I could smell a rat when Warmies started re-inventing history.
“Despite any temptation to gloat over Obama’s embarassment, it’s dreadful to contemplate what would happen if he were seriously challenged internationally…..W”
Thus my admonition that obama is a clear and present danger to this nation. Narissistic Personality Disorder with the nuclear football; a POTUS with both Houses and no true sense of “being” a U.S. citizen. A dedicated Marxist-Alinskyite.
Bad juju. Some examples from DVH:
Constant apologies abroad for everything from slavery to Hiroshima
Bows to Saudi royalty, the Japanese emperor, and Chinese autocrats
The on-again/off-again Guantanamo shut-down mess
The fight with the former CIA directors
The public show trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed
The reach out to Ahmadinejad Castro, Chavez, and assorted thugs
The Honduras fiasco
Czars everywhere
The serial “Bush did it”/reset whine abroad
The Queen of England/I-pod fiasco
Gordon Brown gets snookered in his gift-giving
Unceremoniously shipping back the Churchill bust
The end of the special relationship with the UK
The New York on-the-town presidential splurge
Anita Dunn and her Mao worship
Timothy Geithner/Tom Daschle/Hilda Solis and their taxes
What ever happened to Gov. Richardson?
“No lobbyists” = gads of them
The Podestas’ insider influence-peddling empire
Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” chauvinism
The Special Olympics silly quip
Trashing Nancy Reagan
The Skip Gates/police acting “stupidly” mess
The get-Chicago-the-Olympics jaunt to Copenhagen
Cap-and-trade boondoggle
“Millions of green jobs”
Ignore gas, oil, coal, and nuclear power production
Cash-for-clunkers
The Joe Biden gaffe machine
Jobs “saved” or “created” rather than references to the actual unemployment rates
Van Jones, the racist and truther
Desiree Rogers won’t testify
The blowback from, and silence about, the Rangel/Dodd corruption
The White House party crashers plan to take the 5th Amendment
The ‘bipartisanship’ con
The pork-barrel stimulus spoils
The demonization of the Town-Hallers
The Acorn Mess
The Kevin Jennings/Safe School Czar embarrassment
The SEIU direct access to the White House
The Asian Tour comedown
The politicization of the take-over of GM and Chrysler
The Obama readjustment in the order of paying back car creditors
Car dealerships closed on shaky criteria
Obama as “Caesar”
The Emanuel “never let a serious crisis go to waste” boast
The Black Caucus/Rangel/Waters bid to bail out the inner-city radio stations
Yosi Sergant and the NEA
$1.7 trillion deficit
The planned $9 trillion added to the national debt
New income tax rates; health care surcharge talk; and payroll tax caps to be lifted
Rahm Emanuel’s promised payback to those states that trash the stimulus
The supposed C-span aired health care debate
The promised website posts of pending legislation
Czechs and Poles sold out on missile defense
Sermons to and finger pointing at the Israelis
The failed ‘Putin helps to stop a nuclear Iran’ gambit
Voting present on the Iranian reformers in the street
Serial but empty deadlines to Ahmadinejad
The good war/bad war twisting and turning on Iraq/Afghanistan
The months-long dithering over Afghanistan
Renditions, tribunals, Patriot Act, etc. once trashed, now OK
Healthcare take-over
The 2,000 page proposed new health code
The embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize nomination
The attacks on surgeons, Chamber of Commerce, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc.
The Islam mythologies in the Cairo Speech
The al Arabiya “Bush did it” interview
Obama’s TV “my Muslim faith” gaffe
Lifeofthemind said:
“If Obama stays at minus 20 or worse in the polls for a month and the Democrats begin to really fear a tsunami in November then I predict that there will be efforts to gracefully ease him out.”
It’ll be a replay of what happened with Lyndon Johnson in the 1968 presidential primary. The Democrats knew that they would lose for sure if Johnson ran for re-election so he was jettisoned and his Vice President ran for election. However the Democrats lost anyway and Nixon became President.
My prediction is that Obama will be jettisoned and Hillary will run in his place. I also predict that Hillary will run against General Petraeus who would present himself as a modern day Eisenhower. My concern is that Petraeus could end up being more of a Sulla than an Eisenhower. However if my choice was Petraeus vs. Hillary then I’d vote for Petraeus.
Going off grid until next year …. should be an adventure in Townsend, Mt.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
If Obama stays at minus 20 or worse in the polls for a month and the Democrats begin to really fear a tsunami in November then I predict that there will be efforts to gracefully ease him out.
I remarked to a friend yesterday that the administration can no longer win within the rules, yet appear to be playing the game for keeps. That implies that either someone is figuring on winning under a different set of rules or they are in for a crash. Just when there’s no sense to doubling down they are. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s safe to say 2010 will be interesting.
Just now there’s post on Legal Insurrection with Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist petitioning the attorney general for investigation of Rahm Emmanuel for funny doings at Freddie Mac before the statue of limitations runs out. Now Jane Hamsher, who is a really liberal liberal, has been defying the party line recently, but assuming she’s doing this from rational reasons, then maybe she knows something.
After Climategate I am no longer so sure there wasn’t a timebomb ticking in the economy courtesy of the stupidity or intention of people who have so far escaped notice.
LOM, you presume that somewhere there are adults in charge who could take action to avoid catastrophe. I see no evidence that this is so. Rather, I think they will simply tell themselves that it is all lies and that nothing bad can happen.
In fact I see an entire party, an entire philosophy, that has placed “all-in” bets on a number of ‘questionable” theories and which is willing – not just willing, but committed – to going down to perdition with any or all of them. They’re in too far to back out no matter the consequences.
It is a slow motion Jim Jones in Guyana scenario. It’s becoming a question of not what happens to them, but how many of the rest of us they’ll manage to take down with them when they go.
We’ve come to the point that I would accept a Sulla now. And that’s a frightening thing to say.
wretchard said:
“After Climategate I am no longer so sure there wasn’t a timebomb ticking in the economy courtesy of the stupidity or intention of people who have so far escaped notice.”
Great minds work alike. Climategate and the Copenhagen Clown Show were brilliantly stage managed by someone(s) who knew what they were doing. Likewise the timing of the economic implosion in September 2008 was very suspect. ***IF*** there is a puppet master working in the background then he’s very very good and probably so skilled that he’ll escape detection.
Yes, this does sound like tin foil hat stuff but it’s not an unreasonable possibility that someone with hundreds of million dollars has bought himself a big Beowulf cluster armed with state-of-the-art economic modeling software and is directing the information through Ph.D. level cyber mercenaries. This guy could be so subtle that he’s invisible. Even worse, there might be more than one of these guys (or nations) working in the background. Maybe there’s a cyber war going on in the shadows and it’s all invisible?
I think we are seeing that politics has become a career for second, or possibly third raters in the US. Can you envision Obama as a Fortune 500 president? A significant figure in finance? We know Hilary got her job by marrying Bill, but what about Bill? He was a man much praised for his undeniable skills, but does he seem any more likely as a significant figure outside of government? I think his lack of personal seriousness and self-discipline mean no.
Lest anybody think I’m ripping on Democrats and liberals, the same can be said of conservatives and Republicans. Really, name one who could hack it as other than a politician. This may be true of the British as well; the French leaders we see seem all to be tough, capable characters.
When we stop turning over the controls to the kind of people who were in student government in high school then maybe we will get an element of seriousness, instead of all this entitled whining. I’m not optimistic on that happening though.
Let the holiday cheer begin! I think I’m up for about four days of family togetherness, unfortunately ten are scheduled. Wish me luck- and as I like to say to those close to me, Merry freaking Christmas and Happy freaking New Year!
Eggplant @27, I always thought Hillary would bide her time and run against Obama if things turned to custard. The State Dept gig was the perfect place for her to perch, whilst watching Obama dig his own grave. Then she can swoop down and complete my clumsy vulture analogy in 2012.
So far so good – but will Petraeus step up? Or will there be a dark horse galloping to the rescue?
Wretchard @29, I too am shocked, shocked to see Hamsher turn up on Fox News of all places to decry the Healthcare bill. You’re right – there’s got to be stuff going on in Libland that we are not yet aware of. Are the fractures in the left coalition far greater than we thought? Maybe Soros the Hutt is in the process of rolling over a little, crushing the slow and ignorant?
Had an interesting conversation with a retired Marine today, he’s about 70.
The conclusions reached was that there’s not anything left to save, so why bother!
RWE says “the worse it gets the better it’ll be”.
I disagree, it’s already past the point of no return, it’s not the politicians that are the problem, it’s the people.
The worse it gets the worse it’ll be. PERIOD!
Kind of hard to argue with that, isn’t it.
Looking forward to the crash, myself. It’s way long overdue!
Buy ammo, buy ammo, buy ammo. My sole piece of advice!
If any of you guys/gals can come up with some Xmas cheer, I’d sure appreciate it!
LOTM: you are kidding yourself there about Obama being forces out by the Dems. Besides the fact that it would be a political disaster for them to acknowledge defeat, which is what all would know it to be, you misread the current power shift that the Democrats are in. The old, establishment, New England aristo elite have been pushed out. They could not deliver the goods, not for more than for a decade. There was in effect a civil war in the Democrat Party and these folks lost. Their children can poon around the Whitehouse as interns, but that is just about as far as it goes. Just look at who the real players are. Whoever or whatever is running the Chicago machine, which is running Obama, is in the cat bird seat. It is doubtful that it is Soros alone or that the primae actors are even American, but whoever the movers behind the scenes are, the Daley bunch has never had this much power in the Democrat party–no matter how many ballot boxes were stuff for JFK, they were still a regional machine. They pushed the old big power centers of the Democrat out in the primaries, and they did it by using the very hard left. It was a real coup. Those people try to stage a comeback and the Chicago machine will go after them. If the Democrats had any care about polls (or elections for that matter) they would have reeled in Obama long ago–Pelosi and Reid too. You mistake the current situation with the Democrats of long ago or the early 1990′s. Obama has indeed already targeted their business branch on Wall St. and gave the a right sound warning. They were suckered, they are not a part of the equation now. It is the hard left, unions and immigrants from here on in. A lot of the payola will be foreign.
This is a whole new power structure and they are not going to give up their boy just to let Hillary run for president. They despise her and her whole branch of the Democrat Party. They humiliated her and that end of that party, and almost ritually so. They still do so every day. They went to far to not receive punishment from the old guard should they hand power back. Do not be fooled by the “hard left is angry with Obama” meme. That is just a distraction. The hard left knows that to lose Obama is to lose their power. They wlll side with the Chicago machine.
What is much more likely is that we will have planned and coordinated riots, a major financial blow out and some contrived :Riechstag moment” all sometime in the next 10 months.
Obama, those who control him and those that are manipuated by them will go for broke.
They pretty much have to. Otherwise in the infighting, it all comes out and they end up in jail, or worse.
“China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered”
The irony is not that China is looking out for its own best interests but that it might be, considering our debt, looking out for ours as well. Wouldn’t that be something? They need us to stay afloat to buoy their own economy and by golly, short of that, they intend to get repaid.
Eggplant,
Petraeus could end up being more of a Sulla than an Eisenhower
Perhaps neither an Eisenhower nor a Sulla but more like the would be American Caesar, MacArthur. We probably did better with Eisenhower but MacArthur’s actual record in managing West Point as Commandant and Japan as Viceroy was both innovative and moderate. Some would even consider him a progressive.
My biggest concern about Petreaus is that after Obama I am reluctant to sign onto another great unknown. Whoever gets put up by either party needs to be thoroughly examined first. There should be no more secret friends, hidden documents or unknown opinions.
That is why I like the Founder’s original concept for the Electoral College. Established leaders from the States should be identified and then should select the right person for the job. It is intended to ensure that they will be insulated from temporary passions and will base their judgements on real knowledge of the candidates, and a devotion to the long term interests of their communities. The EC should not be abolished but should be placed on a firmer basis with members serving four year terms to fill any vacancies and at least the top three from each state being the Governor, Speaker (or equivalent) and Chief Justice, serving ex officio.
To be blogged under the title “Selecting a Caesar.”
Mongoose,
You consistently talk about coups and insurrection like you were in a hurry to get there. A bad thing may happen but it does not need cheerleading. Also you overestimate the power of both Chicago and the hard Left. Corzine lost, they are in real trouble, the bankers did not sign on for a suicide pact.
My sense is that that the American public is ready for a revolution; at the polls for sure. The issue is if this “health reform” is signed there are parts of it that imply a one way passage. Every other piece of socialist legislation since 1914 has been one way. There has never been the disolution of a government beaura or benefit that I can think of.
How do you unwind all the corruption, rents, subsidies, distortions, and learned victum behaviour of the last 100 yrs? Instutions have to be rested from the socialist and people taught to stand on their feet again. Media, education,business, relegion, culture. Sort of like retraining a lion to be wild again. Is it possible?
The socialist have jumped the shark as someone earlier said; the issue is whether there are enough patriots that will stand and forsake the graft to release America into the wild again.
As a real winner once said “Let’s roll”!
Mongoose @36 – Of course the Obama clique aren’t going to LET Hillary or any similar threat run against them… however, the point is that they may, by that time, have reduced their own power base through incompetence/overreach/arrogance/failure to repeal Bush policies while simultaneously criticising them, or a combination thereof.
The polls and the issues adorning the ever-expanding VDH list Habu provided above are apparently not entirely within their control. At the end of the day, I believe you are right that the hard left will rally around Obama’s tattered banners – but where will the moderate Dems and the all important independants be?
Eggplant SoS is the absolute worst position for Hillary to be in. She exposes her ineptitude and grating persona, has all the responsibility and none of the power. Obama is openly humiliating her. She seems to be a less-than-mediocre has-been acting out some menopausal fantasy rather than even an incompetent SoS. She should have stay in the Senate and not let the rest of the country know what New Yorkers know about her. The question is why she did not. She is making a bigger fool out of herself that the last hag the democrats had in there. Internationally, the sh7t is really going to hit the fan this time around, and she will be caught holding the bag. Her days are over I would bet.
For those who remark on Soros: I imagine he is being used by much bigger players, like Putin or Hu.
The kinds of thing that have gone on since the summer before last really require thw apparatus if an national state (or two) to pull off. Soros might not, howver, be that aware of who is using him.
Lifeofthemind said:
“That is why I like the Founder’s original concept for the Electoral College.”
You’re preaching to the converted. I would also argue that the 17th amendment should be repealed.
The trick is to find that “sweet spot” between oligarchy and demagogue controlled democracy. However that “sweet spot” might be so small that it does not exist. Then the hard reality is an unstable dynamic system that is always bouncing back and forth between the two extremes.
LOTM – “China is building real power based on coal and access to raw materials. Russia is building real power based on controlling access to energy for Europe. The US needs to keep real power, not soft power and pretty pieces of paper, to keep the peace. Then maybe we can move towards a world safe for the pretty pieces of paper and unicorns.”
Something poetic about that, I have been working a mental exercise trying to imagine the geopolitical climate 5-10 years from now and I think this will help in framing the vectors. I have said for years that economic growth is the catalyst for human caring and kindness, and yes, green technology. It is hard to teach green to somebody who is staying alive by eating bush meat.
Thanks
Wws – “…the Europeans to realize that fighting the global warming battle is now a sucker’s game…”
The Euros have been playing this pied piper thing ever since they took up the EU project. The arrogance and sheer hubris necessary to hoodwink their own public into their snare seemed so powerful that they, the World Court, ISO9000, etc, could sucker the rest of us too by their sheer force of will. I think they knew it was a suckers game all along.
Eggplant,
It would take an Amendment to fix the problem of the Electors now being meaningless temporary hacks on the order of the functionary who signs the dollar bill as “Treasurer of the United States.” My earlier thoughts on this were mentioned on March 03rd and July 25th. They are on my blog here http://tinyurl.com/ylm9ylv and here http://tinyurl.com/yld6w4t .
wretchard, I don’t really buy this analysis, it’s all too clever by far.
The Central Kingdom is simply thinking for themselves. The west is obviously absurd, though the precise nature of the absurdity is debatable, but who wants to spend time analyzing absurdity? Well, some do, I guess.
But back to the issue, sure, China has built up on cheap coal and not a bit clean – but they cannot continue it, they *are* poisoning their own people and environment, and it doesn’t scale. They still have another billion people to raise to modern standards. And they know all this.
They just don’t give a fig for the Eurocrat pretensions to world dominance, hey no more than I do or most of us hereabouts.
And they must be looking at Obama as a prize fool, an oaf and barbarian and ten other not at all good things. And in their spare time, wondering how much more they can use him – without endangering their trillion dollars in US holdings. Heh.
Habu 26/28
Hell of a year wasn’t it? Happy new year and may you return to happier times!
AM
But back to the issue, sure, China has built up on cheap coal and not a bit clean – but they cannot continue it, they *are* poisoning their own people and environment, and it doesn’t scale. They still have another billion people to raise to modern standards. And they know all this.
Correct. But should costs will be reflected in the market, both political and commercial. The Chinese are going to be forced to deal with their own versions of burning rivers, etc. All the more reason why the West should invest in real clean energy, not this pixie stuff.
My guess is that clean energy is going to come from scientific and engineering investment, not this carbon trading and capping business. However, there’s still a tradeoff between energy availability and “cleanliness”. Sometimes its better to have more energy and less cleanliness. It is not necessarily the case that clean must be bought at an infinite price.
The cavemen at all organic and had no nuclear power and probably died in their teens. With more energy at our disposal, we live into the 90s. Where the tradeoff is made should involve market inputs. Copenhagen is the wrong process. Even the greens must know it by now.
“Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, “not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?” …
China is unwilling to upset the global economic apple cart because China has benefited from it so enormously.
The USN keeps the seas open to ship trinkets and raw materials. US industry designs consumer products for China to build, either by designing products for US companies to make in China or by making “Chinese Copies,” to coin a phrase for Chinese factories. The US and Japan does all the R&D and China reaps all the benefits.
A lack of both import taxes and of trendy new Eco-Taxes makes it possible for China to sell its products in the USA
Powerful unions in the USA make sure that US workers are kept ignorant and production prices kept high.
What would the Chinese want to change about this? Indeed, their very survival as well as their future prosperity depend on all of these elements. Them queer the deal by embracing the latest Western self –destructive fad? No effing way!
“Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, “not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?” …
Why? Britany Spears is more likely to demand a worldwide ban on miniskirts than China to poleax the basis for its prosperity.
The theme of Copenhagen may have been “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke” but in reality it turned out to be “Obambi Meets Godzilla.”
Wretchard, I have written that Obama WANTS a crisis, better yet a mass casualty attack on the US, so that he can dispense with elections and rule as Marshall Petain or America’s Vizier.
He is doubling down because he knows there will be no comeback for him. He will suspend the Constitution, as he said, “stand with the Muslims against America” (the quote from his book) and rule as the punishing Commander for America’s sin of being, well White.
Never forget that Obama is first and foremost a race man, and as race man, hates America and its White majority population with a passion. He WANTS America turned into Detroit. To him, that is a victory.
This is what makes Obama dangerous. He is not interested in power. He is NOT a Saddam, a Stalin, a Mao. He is interested in PUNISHMENT. He sees himself as Allah’s sword sent to punish the infidel (culturally he is a Muslim) and White.
This is why he has for example, done everything he could (purges and show trials of CIA operatives, PC rules for the FBI, “trials” to expose sources and methods for the 9/11 plotters including KSM) to insure an attack. Now he has exempted Interpol from any requirement to follow US court rulings, etc. keeping them outside US sovereignty and the law. So Interpol can “arrest” US citizens (mostly from the Bush Admin, anti-terrorist folks from the FBI and CIA, etc.) without any court challenge, due process, and legal US protections here in the US!
Obama has NO INTENTION and neither do Pelosi and Reid of having ANY elections in 2010. “Martial Law” will be invoked and a brutal suppression of any anti-Obama, anti-Dem, or criticism of Islam will be enforced by imprisonment. After the guaranteed attack.
The only question will be, will the US military go along with a highly illegal order suspending all/part of the Constitution, particularly elections, to make Obama the Hugo Chavez (his hero and role model) of the US?
My guess is no, and there will be considerable fighting in and among the military regarding these orders (to suspend the Constitution and elections). Some will clearly back Obama, others not. My hope is that America is simply too geographically big and diverse for a suspension of elections and rule by decree to work.
The only other explanation of Obama doubling down is that he AND ALL OF HIS PEOPLE including Pelosi and Reid are so monumentally stupid that they can’t figure out they will flip the House and the Senate. This is the most benign assumption.
But little things matter. Mao, Obama on Mt. Rushmore, and transvestites on the White House Christmas Tree indicates just where Obama AND HIS PEOPLE ARE: One man, one vote, one time.
I know many, many SWPL who view Obama as the “Magical Negro” (borrowing from Spike Lee’s essay on films like “Green Mile” and “Legend of Bagger Vance”) who by virtue of being Black, will solve all of America’s problems. Since rainbows and unicorns pop out of his behind and the media worships him, he MUST be a Messiah! Women and feminized or female-pedestal older guys are among the worst there.
If the US goes down, China would lose $785 billion but still have an economy(?)
To whom would they sell their goods? Borrowers/Lenders : Buyers/Sellers
Francis Bacon: “Money is like muck [manure]; no good lest it be spread.”
China blocked standards for all because they don’t feel like being rushed by Eurocrats and other wienies, don’t even want to stand out. This is good diplomatic logic, for them, it seems to me.
And if China simply catches up to anything like current US standards, it would be huge progress for them, and not all that expensive. From an Olympian viewpoint I might even suggest it was their mistake not to adopt better standards long since, and I’ll bet a lot of people, even leaders, in China would agree, and just chalk it up to cultural issues, or just plain good ol’ inertia, corner cutting, short-sightedness, or dare we say greed?
Whatever “advanced” standards we might still move forward to, is another matter. But, if China moves up to 2009 US standards over the next ten years, and the US moves to some newer, cleaner standards at even a modest and economic (and self-interested) rate – I think it is China that will remove far more pollutants from the planet.
Good enuf for me.
Perhaps the greenies need to inquire about the number of livestock in China, now that World Watch has decided that cows, pigs, and chickens are responsible for fully 51% of annual greenhouse gas emissions:
http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf
In addition, Natalie Angier published a moonbat piece in the NYT titled “Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too.”
BCers will enjoy some of the comments about Angier’s article, such as this one from a reader in Oregon:
Years ago I read that researchers had found that in a small grove of trees they were studdying [sic] that when one tree found something attacking it, through chemicals it emitted into the air, it alerted the remaining trees of coming trouble, giving them time to get their chemical defenses up and ready to defend themselves.
Link to other comments:
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/science/22angi.html?sort=newest
Eggplant – I wish you would speak to the motives of unseen manipulators behind the scenes. It seems to me that there would be two: money or power. Because of the way things are going, if the motive is money, they’re doing a piss-poor job because EVERYthing — real estate, the stock market, coal, a Harvard education — that used to be worth anything is now useless. Other things like food and energy are in flux, but aren’t as abundant as they once were.
If the motive is power, then you’re talking crazy man cuddling white persian cat and cackling about world domination. And crazy man cuddling cat seems counterproductive to super-intellect capable of manipulating so many strings at the same time.
Also, do you think the behind-the-scenes manipulators are responsible for Obama’s behavior, or is he just doing what comes naturally? I had thought that China might be the source of the manipulation (certainly they’re heavily into spying, stealing American secrets, and computer hacking everything in sight), but after Copenhagen I’m not so sure. It seems to me that if China *were* the power behind what’s going on, Wen wouldn’t have been hiding from Obama, but would have just told him to “pipe down, boy, until I call you” … which is evidently not the way it played out.
I thought I heard a blurb go by on the radio or tv the other day, that a dog has about the same carbon footprint as an SUV?
Frankly, I tried to guess the numbers on that and couldn’t figure it. Unless the dog flies to Copenhagen twice a year, on a private jet.
I’m sure Xhina told Buraq to effoff because they’re not going to hamstring themselves on the way to a touchdown to take the lead with no time left on the clock in the superbowl. Oh yeah, there’s also that little convenience of paying our debts. As for the minor dignitary meeting in place of Wen, I do believe it’s because Buraq is balack. The Russkies wouldn’t even shake his hand in one instance I saw on the news.
Hmmm, local news doesn’t seem to be reporting on how bad the weather got in Europe. Eurostar train service having to shut down and modify the trains because they were sucking in to much cold from the French side of the Chunnel. Troops having to do snow removal in Milan. The deaths from exposure and etc.
While Obama may get his health care it looks like it won’t be until after the State of the Union Speech. The Whine is going to do a “Hard Pivot” and concentrate on jobs until February, maybe. It also looks like an era of bipartisan law suits is starting against individual Obamites. It looks like there is some friction starting between state Governors and Senators even when they belong to the same party. For some reason the carbon market is taking dive. The local gun range,store, and training facility is said to have a small shrine to Obama in a back room, since he is still giving them good sales.
We didn’t have our weekly House retiree but we did have one defect across the isle.
Apparently someone forgot to tell Nancy she can’t fire him since it is an elected office. Nelson isn’t up for election in 2010 but there are those in his home state are suggesting he might ought to leave before then. Interesting times.
The Chinese may have working to sabotage the conference, but I don’t think that humiliating Obama was originally part of their plan. The thing is that Obama set himself up for failure. From what I understand, the original plan was that Obama was to attend the conference at the beginning, give his speech, kiss hands and shake babies, do whatever diplomatic things diplomats do and then let the delegates go about their business. From my perspective, that would have been the smartest path to take. However, Obama changed his schedule so he would come in toward the end of the conference. I’m guessing that the plan was that Obama would give his “greatest speech ever”(tm), the committee would bring out their agreement or treaty and then bask in the the glory of being the force that tipped the scales in favor of the planet…and have his butt back on Air Force One within the half hour. Basically, it was the same plan he used when he tried to get the olympics for Chicago.
Things didn’t turn out so well, but then they rarely ever do for his kind. Having a messianic complex (I think this goes way beyond narcissism…this man actually believes he is a modern day messiah) and intractable laziness is not a healthy combination. Obama is a man of words…a lot of self absorbed words, but when it comes to actually doing things…well…he can’t…it’s simply not possible for him to work.
So, when Wen finally played his hand, he really didn’t have much choice but to run Obama over. After all, Obama was standing right in the line of traffic with the deer in the headlights look.
54 Josh
I think this might be what you heard on the radio: the following was quoted by Rachel Abrams over on the Weekly Standard blog:
The Vales [two "sustainable living" experts in New Zealand] . . . analysed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year. . . . Combine the land required to generate its food and a “medium” sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) — around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4×4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car. . . . And pets’ environmental impact is not limited to their carbon footprint, as cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways, the Vales say.
Global climate treaties have as much relation to the environment as attorney fees do to justice.
Chinese leaders, quite rightly, see the Carbon Alarm as a piece of Eurotrash-inspired nonsense. They were not interested in any piece of paper. They were more interested in testing the other players in the global political world.
Europe collapsed like a French army. And so did Obama’s America. Russia, India, Brazil, and everyone else who counts stood back while China humiliated Obama and wiped their feet on the Euros — stood back, or actively supported China.
Now the Chinese leaders know where everyone stands. They long ago took the measure of the Europeans, and now they have taken the measure of Obama’s America. So, unfortunately, have many others around the world.
The next steps in this drama will have nothing to do with alleged Anthropogenic Global Warming or subsidized “green” industries. The next steps are a return to history — where the strong push aside the weak and take what they need.
Still, the US retains a mighty military, and US politics are far from simple, and the loyalty of police & military to Obama’s increasingly-strange regime is far from certain. What is certain is that the US is going to be rather self-absorbed in the coming months. For adventurers around the world, this means a window of opportunity has opened up between now and the next US elections.
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Have faith! There is no doubt that the long term trend of human history is upwards. The Chinese no longer bind the feet of women. Romans no longer throw human beings to the lions for fun. Africans no longer sell captured tribesmen to Arab slave-traders. British politicians no longer start wars to force the Chinese to consume opium. The coming years, or decades, or even centuries may be hard — but at the end human beings will rise above all that has come before and head out to the stars.
Merry Christmas!
I have read every comment in this most interesting thread, and while I hesitated to go Off Topic so radically, it is just a few hours till Christmas Eve, and I believe many of the problems we are having now are traceable to an abandonment of our historic Christian culture, led by such as the ACLU. I had such a vivid dream the other night I had to write it down.
AN ACLU CHRISTMAS
Asleep in my warm winter bed, I dreamed of an ACLU Christmas. In my dream the American Civil Liberties Union had opened an office in Bethlehem, PA, and immediately sued the town, demanding it change its name. And then, in my dream, on Christmas Eve the ACLU gathered to stamp out any show of the vile and hated Christmas. And were shown why they will never win.
‘Twas the night before the winter holiday,
And all through the town,
Vile creatures had gathered,
Demeanor afrown.
For earlier that day
An email arrived,
That told of a family
Depraved and deprived.
These people, it said,
Had the gall to declare,
They would hang up their stockings
By the chimney with care.
“We cannot permit,”
The ACLU cried,
“This unseemly act
Of bravado and pride!
“For where will it end
If we sanction such acts?
The fat man is dead,
The facts are the facts!”
“And so is the child!”
Yelled a voice from the rear,
“He never was born,
He never was here!”
So crying they ran
Through the streets of the town,
The family to find,
The threat to put down.
And find them they did,
In the poorest of shacks,
On the mean side of town,
And hard by the tracks.
On the front door there hung
A moth-eaten wreath,
The light from the window
Showed the snow underneath.
And peering inside
The vile creatures saw,
A sight that caused trembling
And quaking with awe.
For there round a table
Sat a fat man in red,
And a saintly young woman
Kissing her baby’s head.
Surrounding the tableau
Was a soft golden glow,
That lighted the window
And lighted the snow.
As the vile creatures stood there
They heard voices sing,
From inside the shack
They heard the word King.
The baby then smiled
And the fat man did grin,
And legions of angels
Filled the spaces within.
The CLU members
All groaned with despair,
And looked at the sky
And tore out their hair.
“We never shall win,”
They whispered in dread,
“We shall not prevail,
No matter what’s said.”
They turned on their heels
And slunk slowly away,
While far in the distance
Came the sound of a sleigh.
The door of the shack
Then opened quite wide,
And the fat man in red
Stepped quickly outside.
“Good night, little fella,”
He said with a grin,
He hopped to the sleigh,
And when he was in,
He turned to the crowd
That was slinking away,
“Do you know who that is?
Do you know what’s today?”
And with that he was off,
His night rounds to make,
While inside the shack
The infant did wake.
“Who were those men?”
The boy Jesus said,
“And sour-faced wenches
Who wanted me dead?
“And not only me,
But the fat man in red!
Who are these people
Who want us both dead?”
His mother then smiled
And with wave of her hand,
An archangel knelt
And explained the vile band.
“To some they’re the grinch,”
He said, “Real witches brew,
To others they’re simply
The ACLU.”
“Rest easy,” mom smiled,
“Rest east my son,
They never will win,
They could never have won.
“For thine is the kingdom,
Thy father says so,”
And from off in the distance
Came a hearty Ho Ho.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL BELMONT CLUBBERS!
I would like to believe Obama a mere incompetent, ala Jimmy Carter.
Unfortunately, Obama has shown two things throughout his career.
First, the appearance of moderation and non-radicalism towards the White Middle Class, as he details at some length in “Dreams from My Father: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE.”
Second, Obama is obsessed with race, believes Blacks to be racially superior (he writes about it at length in his first book). He is also VERY radical and seeks out the most radical and anti-American and anti-White guys and women he can.
The man who spent his whole career voting present is now pushing things that the public hates, that are radical, and has at a stroke given himself an unaccountable foreign police force subject to nothing: not the courts nor rule of law or anything.
Why? He’s got polling, and people who served in Clinton’s administration: Summers and Reich and Podesta and the like as advisors. They know the electoral price. The only conclusion I can make is that they do not expect to pay it.
Walt, thank you. That was wonderful. Your gift is amazing.
Aw, Walt. I’ve got tears in me eyes, I do.
NahnCee @53 said:
“I wish you would speak to the motives of unseen manipulators behind the scenes. It seems to me that there would be two: money or power.”
If there is a puppet master (I’m not convinced that there is) then he probably already has lots of money. Therefore his motivation would be either power and/or ideology (probably a combination of the two). Ideology does not need to be rational.
NahnCee also said:
“Because of the way things are going, if the motive is money, they’re doing a piss-poor job because EVERYthing — real estate, the stock market, coal, a Harvard education — that used to be worth anything is now useless.”
The economy is certainly a mess and it will probably get much worse in 2010. A radical ideologue trying to bring about either a Marxist-Leninist and/or “green” agrarian utopia would probably be satisfied with recent world economic events.
NahnCee said:
“If the motive is power, then you’re talking crazy man cuddling white persian cat and cackling about world domination.”
Hitler, Stalin and Mao probably did not cuddle Persian cats (Hitler did like animals) but I suspect world domination crossed their minds. Don’t confuse intelligence with stupidity or high ethics. The financial gurus who hosed our economy tended to have very high IQs. Most of them still made heaps of money.
NahnCee asked:
“Also, do you think the behind-the-scenes manipulators are responsible for Obama’s behavior, or is he just doing what comes naturally?”
Obama’s behavior is probably natural for him (that’s why he was chosen for the job). He’s a pawn on a chessboard and following his program very nicely. He’ll be replaced with another pawn when no longer useful.
I’ve read this whole thread and am a bit confused by it, but I want to put in my two cents.
There’s a tendency among Americans and others to look down on China. This is a big mistake. The Chinese do not suffer from any inferiority complex. They’re working hard catch up with the West, and they’re doing a great job. It’s the Chinese way to do things on a big scale.
It would have been crazy for China to go along with any climate change agreement. We on Belmont Club know how stupid the whole AGW thing has been, and now it is a proven fraud. Why would the Chinese play along with this?
If the Chinese dissed Obama, it’s because they know he is an idiot.
Walt, you have outdone yourself yet again.Merry Christmas to Wretchard and all BCrs.
Walt, thank you for a great Christmas poem. And thanks to all for this excellent article and thread.
Merry Christmas, Wretchard. Merry Christmas, BCers. Best wishes to all of you.
@53 NahnCee
“…the way things are going, if the motive is money, they’re doing a piss-poor job because EVERYthing — real estate, the stock market, coal, a Harvard education — that used to be worth anything is now useless.”
Watching the Left shove so-called health care reform down our collective throats in the face of unbelieveably abysmal poll numbers has confirmed for me what I’ve long suspected about them: Their entire existence is about the acquisition and maintenance of power. They wish to be a serially re-elected aristocracy… until they can dispense with elections.
Their single greatest obstacle is a somewhat affluent middleclass – as long as a majority of us are capable of taking care of ourselves, we will not willingly hand over ANYTHING we now control in our personal lives to government.
The last 15 months, for lack of a better phrase, have freaked-out a clear majority of the population – we have (someone has these numbers – apologies that I can’t remember exactly) seen literally a trillion-plus dollars squeezed from private citizens – crashing home values (bye-bye equity that many built up over DECADES of sober living), retirement accounts chopped in half or worse (again, built up over decades of sober living), family budgets squeezed to the bone by over the top gas prices… I could go on.
Bottom Line: We have far fewer personal resources upon which to rely, and the ongoing effect is that every day, more of our fellow citizens find themselves in desperate circumstances… A drowning man will accept aid and rescue from anyone, including the nasty next door neighbor who shagged his wife and destroyed his family, principles be d@mned… the Leftist goal is to force us all to become that drowning man, at which point they will, in the form of a government program/agency/bureaucracy/etc, offer us their “benevolent” assistance… but only if we willingly surrender whatever freedoms they (govt) cannot abide… unless of course, you’re over 55, at which point that nasty neighbor will stand on the shore and let you drown, hurrying immediately afterward to your govt-approved shack for another quickie with your newly-widowed sweetie.
I have NEVER been this angry.
Triton
Kinuachdrach wrote: “Europe collapsed like a French army.”
Oh, you’re just begging to get Marie involved in this thread, aren’t you!!!
wws, I just saw that, hmm tell him that since WWII, where are the americain victories, I don’t count on UBU to tell the truth !
tell him too that a socialist country like ours has just won a chinese market, we are selling there reactors for equiping their planes
Also for those that say that China doen’t respect the rules as anti pollution, they haven’t visited China.
I was told by an old French that have money invested through Luxemburg and Swiss banks, that the new chinese enterprises are more conforn to anti-pollution norms than we could ever dream in our countries.
that all this blah blah about carbon, it is “pipeau” !
So China is awake !
Walt! That was and is brilliant. Thanks, you made me smile. The first in a long time. There have been a few other things happen that are helping my internal attitude also.
A Merry Christmas To All The BC Family!
And Happy New Year!
“Therefore his motivation would be either power and/or ideology (probably a combination of the two). ”
By “ideology” I assume you mean religion. I thought about certain nutsoid religions after I wrote the post, that it should have been included. And sure enough, you picked it right up.
So we have lots of money and a nutsoid religion as a possible perp. Now, where have I seen that combination of factors before? (Except they are *so* incompetent it’s difficult to believe they could pull off anything world-wide, when they can’t even pump their black gold out of their own backyard by themelves.)
I am repeatedly impressed (not surprised) at how naive the Obama crew really is, at everything except domestic electoral politics. It shows up in their economic policies, their personnel choices, their social engineering, but most especially in foreign relations.
It was clear from the get-go:
1. There is no AGW, it’s all a scam by some people to get money from other people. Everyone in the room at Copenhagen, who really mattered, had to know this. So China and the LDCs were just there to make money, no fear of the consequences of no deal.
2. China would NEVER permit anything so trivial as AGW scams to interfere with its industrial development. The regime sits on a tinderbox and will not willingly chance an interruption in the economic growth that is its only claim to legitimacy.
3. The West and Obama in particular have been much too eager and placed their reputations on the line to get a “breakthrough” deal. They might as well have handed China a loaded gun and said, “Shoot me.” You NEVER win a negotiation among equals unless they believe you are willing to get up and walk away with nothing, rather than be rolled. Unless you’re a hell of a bluffer or your opponent is in a weak position, this means you actually do have to be ready to tip over the table and walk away. China knew that Obama and the EU wouldn’t do that. And as above, China and the LDCs WERE willing to get up and walk away.
4. QED, China got what it wanted.
Promothea 65, couldn’t agree more. China is run by pragmatic engineers who know how to get things done and are focused on economics, while we are run by lawyers. I’m not absolving China for the mistakes that they make along the way, but we need to fix our own issues and worry less about criticising China for theirs.
Merry Christmas to all here and thank you for the blessings that you provide daily to this group.
NahnCee said:
“So we have lots of money and a nutsoid religion as a possible perp. Now, where have I seen that combination of factors before? (Except they are *so* incompetent it’s difficult to believe they could pull off anything world-wide, when they can’t even pump their black gold out of their own backyard by themelves.)”
If there’s a cyber war going on involving economic manipulation, there are probably several players, e.g. Vladimir Putin’s crew, the Chinese government and oligarchs (same thing), Japanese government and oligarchs, American government and oligarchs, etc. All it takes to be a player is money and a willingness to hire the right technical talent, e.g. Ph.D. level guys trained in economics and computer modeling. A tiny country like Singapore could be a major player if they properly focused their assets. I know the Australians did this sort of thing 15 years ago and are probably very good at it now. Don’t under estimate the Saudis. One of my classmates in graduate school was a member of the al Saud family and like most members of his family, he’s very bright.
Obama should grow a pair and quit bowing and kissing a$$.
Ancient Chinese saying: One who kiss skunk’s butt will end-up with stinking inside and out.
Translation: American President who kisses too many butts will experience preplanned flatulence.
“preplanned flatulence” — is that the same thing as an explosion?
Eggplant — I know a smart Saudi, too. Most well-educated person I’ve ever met. He’s also a pessimist and has an inferiority complex.
But I’ll put your smart Saudi and my smart Saudi up against all the different stories of them sending their young men here to learn how to fly military jets, and then those young pilots having a tendency to throw their hands up in the air in a crisis and leave it all in Allah’s hands — which Allah has never, ever, stepped in to repeal the laws of gravity yet.
Not to mention the hundreds of Saudi’s who come here for “higher education” and 15 years later, they’re still enrolled in some community college in Backwards, Oklahoma. That is, if they’re not in jail somewhere because doesn’t EVERY civilized country (like Saudi Arabia is) allow you to rape and enslave your maids?
Thanks to our host and all the commenters for another year long learning experience, and some hope that we can save the Republic.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.