Headlines saying the UK is cutting half a million government jobs and slashing welfare are running alongside stories describing street battles in France over plans to increase the retirement age. “Teams of riot police carried out dawn raids to free France’s oil depots on Wednesday as industry said the strikes against pension reforms were costing them at least £100 million per day.” The cuts will save Britain a paltry 81 billion pounds over four years. Even if the French government succeeds, it will only raise “the minimum retirement age by two years to 62 and the age for a full pension to 67, moves that would put France in line with other Group of Seven nations.”
Six out of ten Frenchmen oppose the pension changes and the outcry in Britain is certain to be loud and anguished. The scale of conflicts required to achieve relatively minor cuts in state employment and entitlements has prompted Paul Watson to ask, “How will Americans react when the government begins to impose the same austerity measures that are causing riots, street battles, fuel blockades and other assorted chaos in France? Will we witness mass civil unrest or will the sleeping middle classes continue to scratch their butts and watch Dancing with the Stars?”
Nobody is betting on Dancing with the Stars. Even Time magazine is spooked. Stephen Gandel recently examined the possibility Americans may resort to a “civil war” if the Fed goes through with its plans to support government spending by printing money. He writes that “November 3rd … could be the most important meeting in Fed history, maybe. … To say there has been considerable debate and anxiety among Fed watchers about what the central bank should do would be an understatement.”
embedded by Embedded VideoChairman Ben Bernanke has indicated in recent speeches that the central bank plans to try to drive down already low-interest rates by buying up long-term bonds. A number of people both inside the Fed and out believe this is the wrong move. But one website seems to believe that Ben’s plan might actually lead to armed conflict. Last week, the blog Zerohedge wrote, paraphrasing a top economic forecaster David Rosenberg, that it believed the Fed’s plan is not only moronic, but “positions US society one step closer to civil war if not worse.” … with the Tea Party gaining followers, the idea of civil war over economic issues doesn’t seem that far-fetched these days. And Ron Paul definitely thinks the Fed should be ended. In TIME’s recently cover story on the militia movement many said these groups are powder kegs looking for a catalyst … Fedamageddon.
YouTube Direkt
Armed conflict is probably not in the cards. But the situation is serious. Just how serious is a problem the press is now having a problem estimating. The problem with living in denial is that once the illusion shatters, the pendulum is apt to swing completely the other way. Overconfidence can be instantaneously replied by blind panic in the press. It’s easy to see why. All around the liberal landscape the pillars are collapsing. When the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby notices that Barney Frank can’t play the gay card any more, a tectonic shift has occurred. Frank has gone from a man who would win by twenty points “no matter what he did” to a tired old man fighting for his political life in the bluest of blue districts.
Mr. Frank, 70, has not faced a competitive contest in over two decades. But Mr. Bielat is a compelling candidate, a fresh-faced former Marine with a Georgetown-Harvard-and-Wharton pedigree, and he is trying to capitalize on the anti-incumbent sentiment sweeping the country. With less than two weeks until Election Day, he has made this race far closer than anyone anticipated (Mr. Frank even lent his campaign $200,000 of his own money this week.).
How bad things will turn out to be in the next few months is a matter of conjecture. What appears to be true is that the old certainties are finished. By how big a margin is the question. The arithmetic is brutal. The money that once supported the welfare state is gone. Big Government “Hope and Change” is dead because it’s broke. Broke. Broke. Ask the Fed. All the protests in the world are not going to change that fact. Neither is all the printing in the world.
Worse, the ability to bluff is gone. The social shields that have long surrounded progressive politics are down. The automatic deference to the gatekeepers has evaporated and blown away. People are no longer intimidated by fancy titles and Nobel Prizes. News that Justice Alito is not attending the president’s next State of the Union Address and that Virginia Thomas has called Anita Hill asking her to apologize for her accusations against Clarence 20 years ago suggest that even politesse no longer trumps concern over the issues. No longer is it possible for one Washington insider to speak in family confidence to another. Remember how Saruman tried to cut a deal with Gandalf?
Are we not both members of a high and ancient order, most excellent in Middle-earth? Our friendship would profit us both alike. Much we could still accomplish together, to heal the disorders of the world. Let us understand one another, and dismiss from thought these lesser folk! Let them wait on our decisions! For the common good I am willing to redress the past, and to receive you.
That didn’t work because the “high and ancient order” was finished. We may be in a similar situation today. The old fabric has been rent; or rather it is being remade, but into what nobody knows quite yet. It remains to be seen whether Western societies can adapt quickly enough over the next few years to avoid the twin dangers of a doomed attempt to afford the past or a descent into chaos caused by an inability to accept the demise of the old order. Success will depend on how quickly we can free ourselves of outmoded ways of thinking. Can the Left face a future without itself? Probably not. Can the bureaucratic elites, who have ruled the roost for so long, accept that they have to find new careers for themselves? Maybe. But if the recent increase in the crisis tempo is any indicator, the answers to those questions will be required sooner rather than later.
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Talk of ‘civil war’? Mainly because those at Time, etc just know that out there, west of the Hudson (“heere live Beests”), lies this vast horde of ignorant, cross-eyed, mouth-breathing troglodytes, drooling on their chins and bare feet and muttering prayers and grabbing the guns they’ve been clinging to.
No; these are the people who are asking, nay, demanding that something be done. They will grumble and suffer stoically as long as the right things are done to clear the way for their kids and grandchildren.
That’s why the period between next month and 2012 is critical: if intelligent, mature measures begin to be taken with evidence of the will to persist until the ship is righted, things will be OK.
Failing that, there won’t be civil war but there will be wholesale takeovers of local organs of government and political parties and a number of unemployed bureaucrats.
Richard,
Great piece!
I wonder how much could be accomplished by a simple determination to ensure that entitlements could not rise any higher, and a determination that budgets could not be allowed to rise more than the rate of inflation.
In other words, an effort to not let the mess grow any bigger. Perhaps then businesses could begin to grow, and the resultant influx of tax revenues (without raising rates) might begin to diminish the deficit.
A virtuous circle!
(Dream on, I know!)
Jamie Irons
The night of the “long knives” is upon us….no more PC, no more “mister nice guy”. When the going gets rough the weird turn pro. We are at a historical turning point and its obvious that “the old guard” (entrenched Democrats and Republicans along with their financial backers) will not go quietly into the night. The changing of the guard in Washington is going to be messy and there will be an attempt by the ruling class to stem the tide….but time and tide wait for no man and the inevitable “change is gonna come”. The big question will it be in time or will the system collapse before the Tea Party and conservative cavalry comes to the rescue.
The arithmetic is brutal. The money that once supported the welfare state is gone. Big Government “Hope and Change” is dead because it’s broke. Broke. Broke. Ask the Fed. All the protests in the world are not going to change that fact. Neither is all the printing in the world.
wretchard, you must be one of the ones not “thinking clearly”. You should be saying “thank you”. Obama has “soft pedaled his accomplishments”. You simply don’t realize all the good that has been done for you.
There, now do you feel better?
Just a minor note, that Globe column was written by Brian McGrory, not Jeff Jacoby.
So everyone out there, ask yourself…..
Would you pay $200,000 of your own money, if you had to, just keep your current job?
Or would you take the job hit, and use that $200,000 of obviously available and usable money to live on for a while, job hunt, start a business, go to school, do what it takes to move on?
What exactly is it about Barney Frank’s job that makes it worth that much of his own cash just to desperately hang onto it by his fingernails?
The answer to that question explains a great deal about the state of the country today, wouldn’t you say?
as has been suggested here before, it’s much easier for government to renege on its obligations to anyone other than their bondholders. anyone in receipt of an IOU that is not a public debt instrument from either the Federales or any state govt needs to realize that they are not holding AAA paper.
And Kelso wasn’t even mentioned. Our public servents aren’t leaving a lot to the imagination.
Given that the “mainstream media” have been wrong so many times before, I will offer a prediction. The United States, a good friend of my nation, will not descend into civil war. What will happen is an orderly transfer of power from the inept to a more competent bunch. If the incompetent waver or attempt to hold on, they will be informed by certain more constitutionally aligned governmental organizations that it is time to go, and they will listen (because no alternatives will be offered, and that will be very apparent).
After that point, the goal is to right the ship, then work on triage. I know some conservatives here have said “let ‘em starve”, but one priority immediately following will be the emergency shipment of basic foodstuffs to the inner cities. The most important thing to remember is that while all the old rules of the ancien regime no longer apply, there is a larger rulebook that must be followed if your nation is to survive, and that rulebook can be dismissed by nobody.
The “High and Ancient Order” was restored by Gandalf.
As compared to France, the USA does not depend on the Government to deliver the food and fuel. So we would have what – the people running the weigh stations on the interstates refusing to stop the trucks and inspect them? Yeah, that will cause chaos.
When it was proposed that Bill Clinton should be impeached all you could hear out of DC was that to do so would bring things to a grinding halt. I was driving on I-95 during that time, and as I looked at the trucks hauling freight, the cars on their way to their destinations, the stations selling gasoline and the restaurants serving food, I thought “Yeah, sure. This will all stop. I believe that, sure I do.”
But in France it happens because there the French version of DC IS France.
An article I read tonight told of one French family, union members all, out in the streets, beating on drums and singing the Communist national anthem because the “right” to retire at 60 had been “fought for by our parents and grandparents. We can’t give it up. It would be an insult to their memory.”
So they do it “for the honor of the regiment” as the British Army veterans would say.
Somehow hanging on to your welfare has come to equal the battle at Rourke’s Drift.
Civil wars are all alike, and they are to be avoided. People die, and there’s always a better way.
Excellent job Richard.
I have two points that are not far removed from what you have written.
1 The country is not polarized enough.
2 Civility is over rated.
Both of the above statements are based on the lack of honesty and honest dialog on Washington. I believe that the Democrats are more accurately named Socialists, and the Republican Party in recent years has been Socialist Lite. Bush #43 could hardly be mistaken for a Conservative, and #41 “read my lips” proved to also rather spend than cut.
Without some balance to the Right we are just like Europe before the resent “awakening” as ugly as it is. and probably with an uglier result.
Talking nice to adversaries Can sometimes be viewed as weakness. Civility is lost on animals, savages and enemies, so why bother.
Very, very scary stuff indeed. Thank you, Richard, and all here at ‘the Club’ for your insight and civility.
Oh really now. Shut down the New Deal agencies and their accretions, radically reduce taxes and regulations, cut off the Democrat Nomenklatura and we will bounce right back. Then, with that wind behind us, we can reform the courts and the schools, and build toward a bright future. The road ahead and its obstacles can be met with common sense, sound judgment and noble action. We need not face them with fear or uncertainty. The challenges to not have to have quasi-mystical solutions nor is the proper path that mysterious. The path can be clear if we remain steadfast and resolute–if we cleave toward what is best in ourselves and our traditions we need not stumble and crawl in the dark.
It is a spiritual struggle masked as a political struggle, it is not a true civil war.
It is a crisis of the spirit, sickness of the soul, yet that crisis that can be met and overcome.
It remains to be seen just how powerful a force is behind the Tea Parties. It is too soon to know if this is a broader force, a great sea-change or a momentary and provisional rousing heart and soul of the Republic. But if it is sea-change, the whole progressive project is cast aside and the constant demoralization of our nation ceases, if we can see what decadents we have become and act with strength, faith and hope, and yes, charity too, to reform ourselves, then there is no reason to believe that our best days are not ahead of us.
It took the crucible, carnage and tumult of WW1 to destroy the British Empire. Our modern nation was forged in the great furnace of our Civil War. The shenanigans at Fannie and Freddie, on the Hill and Goldman Sachs are absolutely nothing compared to these great upheavals and conflicts. Our “progressives” will run a the first whack of the cudgel. All it takes is the turning of the national will back to restoration and regeneration, not a salvaging of the New Deal but a reawakening of the American Ideal. As close as the world has come to the abyss these last few year, the rest of the world would heave one big welcoming sigh of relief.
Achieving this restoration will give our young a meaningful task and identity, and an honorable place to stand in our history. It will give the boomers their last chance at redemption.
It can come to pass if we will just allow it.
The usual “unrest” is led by the left, anarchists, and the poor. With the exception of the anarchists, the left and the poor are more enfranchised by big government. Will they pull a France on the US or will they stay their hands? After all, they are the people they have been waiting for.
I hazard a prognosis; The Republicans will succeed in administering the least offending cure. The left, teachers and public employees will go nuts. If they succeed, they will be replaced by progressive administration that will take credit for the recovery. If they fail, they will be replaced by progressives that will tack hard towards high inflation and confiscatory tax rates. G.H. Bush put the US through a lot of austerity measures and supposedly W.J. Clinton fixed the economy in his first term. With the likely lag of our economic machine, there will be a real difficulty proving cause and effect. Politicians will exploit that.
“An article I read tonight told of one French family, union members all, out in the streets, beating on drums and singing the Communist national anthem because the “right” to retire at 60 had been “fought for by our parents and grandparents. We can’t give it up. It would be an insult to their memory.”
I read elsewhere that in 1982 the retirement age in France was 65. In that year Mitterand snuck through by administrative fiat a change to age 60, bypassing Parliament. So much for the parents and grandparents.
As dark night comes down
On that Federal town
The pillars of leftism shake
They tremble and weep
For the fall is too steep
It’s enough to keep lefties awake
Tax and spending is done
A long ride and great fun
For apostles of power and greed
But it’s over, my friend
This is clearly the end
So we wish you a hearty god speed
As you leave we will ask
That you complete one task
A task for each laddie and lass
As you go out the door
Will you please just once more
Shove your finger deep into your ass
Zerohedge has another really depressing post:http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-covert-origins-af-pak-war-road-world-war-iii
It alleges that the financial oligarchy firmly established itself with the BCCI Shenigans, and has just grown to enormous power since. The post claims, with considerable evidence, that the banking oligarchy has controlled every President since Bush I, including Obama, controls major figures in both parties and the Fed, including particularly Mueller at the FBI and Gates at Defense, is heavily tied to the CIA, the Saudis, Saudi Islamic banking and intelligence, our military, most western governments and even up until 1999, the Taliban.
If this post is anywhere close to being correct, the task of taking down the oligarchy and returning the economy to solvency and growth is far, far greater and more difficult than most of us had imagined.
“Six out of ten Frenchmen oppose the pension changes”
NO, only the unions that represent 8% of the working class, mainly administrative servants, and naturally the “ignorants”, brainwashed by the lefties medias that own the biggest audience, though they aren’t what we consider the poorests, it’s the Bobo class that still dreams of the barricades to get a life
now, there’s a Emanifest on the net
http://e-manif.e-monsite.com/ “rejoignez la grande e-manif de la majorité silencieuse qui ne cautionne pas leur prise en otage par la gauche”
RWE
“As compared to France, the USA does not depend on the Government to deliver the food and fuel.”
Idem her, but if rioters empech the delivering of them, police must get on the job, and that it did today, for most of the persons that blocate the site do not work on these sites !
Sarkozy will not let a new “mai 68″ happens, if necessary 10000 army troops are ready for counter street guerillas, of that the Bobos aren’t aware :
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2010/10/07/97001-20101007FILWWW00398-crise-10000-soldats-mobilisables.php
I was surprised to read of the British cuts; but not having the reserve currency, they don’t have the ability for almost unlimited spending the US has. The Fed is printing massively; things will continue as they are until this can’t be done any more.
The question that the establishment asks is always the same, a minor variation of the question the pigs asked in “Animal Farm”- “Do you want the men to come back?” Anyone who advocates any serious reductions in government spending other than military spending is accused of wanting to turn back the clock to the days when black people hung from trees and old people shivered in their apartments while eating dog food. One can’t bear these attacks and remain a member of civilized society. And so no one “goes there”. Look what they did to Sarah Palin- a person in no way very conservative, just the wrong kind of person.
Gordon, that’s right, it was Mitterrand that lowered the retiremnt age to 60, he was rewarding his “clientèle”
also it was Paul Reynaud that “smashed” riots at the end of 1938, he fired out all the manifestants
http://tinyurl.com/36kr2n8 ( page 224, chapitre XIII)
That didn’t work because the “high and ancient order” was finished.
No, it didn’t work because Saruman was broken.
(Also, Gandalf had one of the three rings, so he really wasn’t having any of Saruman’s stuff)
Nobody knows what the Fed will do, or should do, or what will happen if they do this or that. Things are that far broken here, too. IF the fed manages to set off hyperinflation, I presume there will be some sort of disorder. More Oklahoma City style bombings. Maybe a few assassinations.
The only reason I don’t think there will be civil war, is I can’t imagine who will be on the pro-hyperinflation side.
Walt, walt, full of salt
over the top and on assault
says a finger up the vault
will goose along the old gestalt
.
.
Burr my Shave!
Unsk writes: “If this post is anywhere close to being correct, the task of taking down the oligarchy and returning the economy to solvency and growth is far, far greater and more difficult than most of us had imagined.”
Once upon a time I used to like Karl Rove and his smooth operations, though I could never understand his advising Bush to stay silent. One can’t help but suspect he had his own game going on. What can one think about his disparagement of the Tea Party? It smacks of some kind of noblesse oblige, and the noblesse obligers are funneling big money his way. There seem to be quite a few contenders for the role of Saruman.
I can’t stop thinking of Mr. Rove’s butt getting prodded along Pennsylvania Ave. on the tines of a pitchfork. Maybe along with Lisa Murkowski and a legion of others also.
After reading the marvelously titled The Credentialed Gentry and The Unpersuaded Yahoos by Elizabeth Scalia in First Things, I took the advice of one of the commenters and found myself a copy of Lasch’s Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. 25 years old but right on point. Just shows how hard it will be to turn this ship around.
the elites … yes … er, that is, no. I mean sure there are winners and losers in our (western, American) society, but we’ve also had social mobility, pretty nearly unknown in most other places and times.
are things now more like they’ve always been than they ever were? mebbe. mebbe not.
my particular modern villains are the wall street grandees. I’m not sure they’re any different than others, maybe some of the stabilizing institutions aren’t as strong as we’d hoped … but maybe they are, or we’d already be in Depression 2.0. I think they’ve just got more technology behind their sanctimonious elitism than have past generations.
there is nothing new under the sun.
No, the Fed printing even more semi-trucks of money will not cause a civil war. But, the reaction from the rest of the world, as it ever-faster sheds the dollar, cranks up exchange rates, and demands higher rates for loaning us money — will. As I’ve posted about before, the key is food and cities. The armed, rural areas and smaller towns are quite capable of managing themselves and are independent-minded enough to do so. The people of the cities, especially the large coastal ones, are not so independent and should be the concern to folks like Stephen Gandel. What will they do when food doubles, triples in price? The old men will eat dog food again, and the black and hispanic mobs will hang white and asian people from lamp poles.
But even then, that’s not civil war. In fact, it’s the Federal government that gets to decide if it wants a civil war or not, because it has the next move after state governments step in, shove federal regulation aside and take whatever economic and security steps they care to to restore order. It might not result in civil war, but such scenarios will put a stake in national unity, currency and power projection–just like Soros and the rest of the anti-America crew like him are hoping.
Meanwhile, compare and contrast with Kyrgyzstan:
Parliamentary elections were held on October 10, resulting in 6 parties with significant portions of the vote, 5 of which get to go to Parliament. The election committee has not yet certified the results, the parties are squabbling amongst each other over who will get what of the (money) pie, and this week various parties started again bussing in a few thousand rural rabble and turning them loose in the Bishkek square with vodka and a few dollars worth of soms for a good time. Tuesday afternoon they started knifing each other. Yesterday a cold rain started, which tends to put out such artificial fires.
Meanwhile, the national Government (big “G”) is non-functional. Security services are barely controllable and that only because they have some personal loyalty to one or more military figures. Middle-management personnel are either sitting on their hands, or if imbued with some initiative are out shaking down businesses one last time–they expect to be fired when new Government ministers are found. Roza, the President, is having a hell of a time getting information on what is actually going on, and may in fact declare herself dictator before the week is out.
It will take months for Parliament to settle into a coalition and form a new Government. Even if it does so, any coalition will be fragile. It’s even possible for the coalition that forms to be one consisting of anti-revolutionaries that want to roll back to the Bakiev administration of March. In fact, the political party with the (marginally) most votes is a southern-based party heavily infiltrated by Hizb ut-Tahrir (which has also infiltrated other parties).
In the background the criminal syndicate that was ruled by one person is being challenged by another seven figures and their organizations, and daily there are reports of this or that shady boss found shot to death in his car. These are the guys who are behind the politicians, and are doing the real fighting for their part of the money.
Meanwhile, you have China cutting deals with the mayoral administration in Osh, in the south, and looking to carve the country in two to create a security buffer between itself and the Ferghana valley. Kazakhstan doing favors for the Bakievs, and Russia frowning sternly that these elected parties are not “serious politicians” because they don’t want to compromise. People with pens are staring at the map, because the country is now functionally a collection of loosely allied or antagonistic city-states.
Compare and contrast this with America, which has the benefit of a federal structure founded on semi-autonomous independent states. If the federal government were to pack up and go home tomorrow–all these regulatory agencies no longer working (yay!), the municipal and state structures would continue to function and provide essential services. In a centralized government, you worry about your heat going off.
–JC
“Look what they did to Sarah Palin- a person in no way very conservative, just the wrong kind of person.”
Funny. She has become the Obi Wan Kenobi of American politics. “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Her star has taken a completely different trajectory than the One’s the past year. Slowly, those that sneered at her are waking up to the fact that the dolt is in fact one smart cookie and every attempt to belittle her has backfired. To their dismay she only seems to be gaining strength politically. No, she isn’t very conservative, but she is conservative enough. She is more of the right kind of person than she is the wrong kind. Right now, it is more than even money that should she run she will be the Republican nominee, and her odds of becoming #45 grow stronger with each day.
I am always amused over the talk of civil war in US. Pray tell, over what issue is the nation going to be divided asunder and cause brother to take up arms against brother? Yeah, there might be rioting in the streets, but civil war? Unlikely. Plus the Left knows they would be crushed by the Right in a fortnight, if not quicker, if it can to a contest of arms.
Josh, The big questions being would a deflationary spiral
be better or is it possible to find some middle way between (hyper)inflation and deflation? I don’t know but I suspect something might be wrong with our debt based system of money.
Hey MC: We will send Buddy Larsen to France to get the rioters all p. o.’d at him and they will forget about Sarko. Then, Buddy will do his disappearing act and they will be frustrated forevermore.
Think I am kidding? He invited me to stop off in his town on 11 Oct. Once I got there nobody could find him. Even the Post Office could not locate his Hill Country Telephone Company address. EVEN THE DS TAX ASSESSOR COULD NOT FIND HIM!!!!! Now that is a disappearing act that Mandrake the Magician could not pull off.
Buddy, how did you do it? Fer an Aggie you are showing some smarts.
I think a little mild deflation is better than a honking truckload of inflation. Beyond that answer hazy, ask again later.
We really are beyond all the rules. The fed wants to get the economy a little bit pregnant. It seems unlikely to work that way. The fed is 1000% beyond their charter, it seems to me. Like giving all the kids in the kindergarten class little blocks of u-235 and just waiting to see if they all throw them in the toy box at the same time. Like taking a neer-do-well “community organizer”, cleaning him off, and putting him in the white house. What are they thinking?
My fear is that the fed prints another three trillion, drops it from green helicopters – and nothing happens, no inflation, no recovery. Then what?
29. Tarnsman
I am always amused over the talk of civil war in US. Pray tell, over what issue is the nation going to be divided asunder and cause brother to take up arms against brother?
Freedom vs. Tyranny. Capitalism vs. Communism. I think the tyrants and communists have the upper hand at the moment.
And it won’t be brother against brother. It will be the responsible, productive people vs. the parasites and leeches who are lording it over us. They are NOT my brothers.
Sorry, I don’t mean to jump down your throat and I apologize if it comes across that way. I predicted civil war on Election Night 2008, and I stand by my prediction. I don’t know exactly when or how it will start, but that particular boulder is already rolling down the hill. No, I’m not looking forward to it either; I’m merely predicting. But when a despicable creature like Obama still has about a 45% approval rating, it tells me that almost half the population are nearly unrecognizable as Americans. They want a different country than the one I’m used to.
32. Josh
Like giving all the kids in the kindergarten class little blocks of u-235 and just waiting to see if they all throw them in the toy box at the same time.
OK, that line made me laugh. It made me wince too, but I gotta take laughs where I can get ‘em these days.
re: Unsk #19
I agree with you. I am not at all as intelligent or well read as most of the posters at Belmont Club, but it seems to me that all of the focus is on the left hand, when the right hand is where the action is occuring. The Davos group and the Bilderberg group and their ilk are untouchable and appear to be in control.
Here in Ireland the three “gentlemen” who ran Anglo Irish Bank into the ground, taking all the other Irish banks and the Irish economy with it, have not lost a cent and will not be sitting in court for their malfeasance. One is actually suing the bank for nonpayment of bonuses and severance pay.
Soros has just gifted $1,000,000 to Media Matters. He is one of the few whose billions have remained basically untouched by the chaos. In fact, Soros has said he is having a very good crisis. Nothing will change until all eyes focus on that lot, the ones who have created Climate Change (in all its forms) and Carbon Tax and Green initiatives – solely, in my opinion, to squash the middle class until they become repentant and compliant peasants. I do not think national governments or governance really matter anymore.
Josh said “The only reason I don’t think there will be civil war, is I can’t imagine who will be on the pro-hyperinflation side.”
What about the big currency traders and their hired minions? e.g. Soros and company?
The luxury of recent years seems to be evaporating. Riots, burning buildings, a disintegrating social fabric etc are par for the course if this is that part of the long economic cycle called ‘winter’ by N. Kondratieff, or a ‘Kondratieff winter’ as described by Alan Greenspan when he attempted to negate the cycle during the later part of his office. European history is full of this stuff, the US only having had one civil war see such events as unusual. They are not. Fortunately they dont come around that often. And sooner or later there is a recovery.
It’s Infowars which means we break into all those secret FEMA camps and arm ourselves. Seriously though the circumstances in Europe are different than in the US. There elections can’t produce the kind of upheavel in the political order as it is rare that a winning political party has even a majority of votes on which to act until the situation is so dire they are forced to take even more extreme measures then earlier intercession could have avoided. But also when or if dramatic cuts in government workers occur the general population won’t really care that much as the lady at the DMV garners about as much sympathy and solidarity as a used car salesman.
Richard,
You forget that the Ancien (Leftist) Regimes do not fall without a bloody fight, or at least a ruthless attempt to stop the fall from power.
When it looked like the USSR was finally going to fall, the reactionaries tried their August coup of 1989 that failed when Yeltsin stood on a tank. They tried again, in post-Soviet Russia, in 1993, and failed again.
China was not so lucky; when they saw their power failing, the reactionaries massacred thousands at Tienanmen Square.
In Europe, it is not done by military means, but bureacratic ones — hate speech laws and edicts by EU bureaucrats are used to silence those who wish to stop the Marxist multiculturalism
There is no doubt that our leftist reactionaries will have their version of an August coup, not with troops (who would never go along with it), but by last-ditch desperate attempts to silence the opposition – seize the Internet, shut down Fox News and other Murdoch media under the guise of silencing hate speech, and probably using a Reichstag-burning type incident to arrest major opposition leaders.
Then the real (and bloody) civil war begins.
Wretchard wrote:
“Big Government “Hope and Change” is dead because it’s broke. Broke.”
Everybody say out loud after me:
No. More. Money.
Rinse. Repeat.
There are and will be millions who will be in forceful denial about this. They’ll look at a neighbor with a bigger house, or who makes more money than they do, or has a nicer car, or a boat, or goes on a travel vacation, and say “How can there be no money if he has these things and I don’t? How can I get the government to take those things from him and maintain MY income for another year or three or five?”
It’s at the root of the protests in France and elsewhere. These protestors have convinced themselves that if one person anywhere gets to retire at 60 then everybody should get to do so. A “right” that didn’t exist until the 1980′s. A “right” that strangles the economy, and promotes a lower and unsustainable birthrate, dooming your culture in the long run. An attitude that makes a fetish of mediocrity and materialism and leisure.
It’s at the root of “progressive” income taxation.
It is the evil beast of envy, the most destructive force in the universe. Combined with the corrosive notion of outcome egalitarianism.
Comment on the rise of public sector salaries and unfundable pensions, and the public functionaries will reply that those aren’t a problem, because some CEO’s make a ton of money. Say that there’s no money for COLA adjustments for the town’s PW department, and they’ll say “You can afford it, you had the money to have your house painted.” As long as the taxpayer has the money for something good in their own life, the public sector types have made the calculus that that means they can split with some more money to maintain their own income stream. Problem is, we have reached the point where they have forgotten the first rule of successful parasites.
BTW, Wretchard, excellent LOTR cut. Just remember, the Sarumans of the world, in their union and big-government and university and NPR-listening echo chambers, don’t really mean “we” when they have that talk with Gandalf, the mean “me”.
“Will we witness mass civil unrest or will the sleeping middle classes continue to scratch their butts and watch Dancing with the Stars?”
What rock has this man been under? The Middle Classes are holding a tea party. They aren’t sleeping, they are insisting on fiscal sanity. We won’t have riots in this country if have cuts, we’ll have riots if we don’t (or if the cuts/bailouts stay one sided).
In the end, cutting all of those public sector jobs (along with diminishing the length of stay on unemployment) may have another positive effect. It will ultimately force people to take the jobs that have, in the past couple decades, devolved to illegal aliens.
This has the potential to solve two problems simultaneously.
Eric @ 39: “seize the Internet, shut down Fox News and other Murdoch media under the guise of silencing hate speech, and probably using a Reichstag-burning type incident to arrest major opposition leaders”.
This is my greatest fear. When “Obama” has outlived his usefulness to his creators (and that may be VERY soon), they will sign his death warrant. HE will be our Reichstag fire, and the resulting unrest will be the pretext for the sort of intervention you are talking about.
Of course, I would be much more concerned if somehow Biden were to be replaced first. The white girl radical from Wellesley shares Barry’s communist amorality, but she has what he lacks in intelligence and calculating ability. If she becomes VP, by whatever means, it’s “game on” for the CW II scenario.
“Plus the Left knows they would be crushed by the Right in a fortnight, if not quicker”
Actually, both the liberals I know think they will win an armed conflict.
Before we talk Civil War, we need to define just what a civil war is. I think the dictionary definition is outdated;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war
pinched
“A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civil+war
pinched
Definition of CIVIL WAR
“: a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country”
Very little chance of diverse groups of Americans hunting each other down. Mainly because the two groups are geographically separated. Take down the street signs and shoot out the cell phone repeaters and us rustics would get lost in a second in the ghetto.
There are no street signs out here in the sticks and GPS isn’t as accurate or reliable as most think.
Besides, Logistics win wars and logistics depends on co-operation between the two sides that are fighting.
So I expect to see a new type of civil war. America introduced modern trench warfare, indirect artillery fire and the machine gun to warfare, as well as carpet bombing and nuclear weapons so Don’t be surprised by what we come up with to kill one another.
The coming overthrow of the soi-disant “elites” won’t be bloody. It will be like the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when a discredited malcontent (James ll) was driven out by a coalition of opponents and previous supporters who realized James’ modernization program was ruining the nation. The coalition invited William and Mary to occupy the throne and under their leadership proceeded to create the first modern state. It took at least ten years.
Something analogous is going to happen in the US. Driven by a set of principles that adheres to the Constitution and aware of the need to bring the great mass of the citizenry along, the reformers will create a new/old America that respects the past, addresses the present and prepares for the future. Some of it will be tough-going (all those stupid insults!). Some of it will be tedious. Some of it will require strategic compromise. But mostly it will be abso-bloody-lutely Amazing.
You can call it “Stealth Invasion” or “Health Invasion” . . . it is the very concept of progressive-ism . . . as I have said previously . . . the Machine is in “training”. Field operatives are, as we speak, being indoctrinated in the “art of stealth war”. The IRS is currently conducting training programs at several locations in the US, one being in Atlanta. These training programs are 5 weeks in length and essentially train the IRS personnel in enforcement actions. Obama knew that if the law was enacted, which it was, that the enforcement of the law is the key to the success of the decimation. The IRS is at this very momement training the personnel that will invade our lives . . . if you think the IRS has already invaded … then you are grossly mistaken . . . the past has only provided the mechanism . . . the future will entail a relationship with the IRS that will in all practical purposes “manage” our daily lives. If there is a civil war … that war will result when the money and other tangible assets of the “ordinary” American citizen are taken without OUR permission. In every civil war, the fighting between individuals resulted because “YOU ARE HERE”. Our home protection is the reason We the People will fight, and as strange as it may seem . . . I will fight my SISTER because MY SISTER is one of those IRS people that is currently being trained . . . she will be the invader of my way of life . . . there is how we will be forced to fight our siblings. I would be willing to bet that every man jack that comments on this blog has one or more family members that are government employees.
Barrrrney Rubble Frank is holding on by his polished fingernails and spending his own money to keep his feifdom because, as the song says, “Nobody loves you when you’re old and gay.”
“Take down the street signs and shoot out the cell phone repeaters and us rustics would get lost in a second in the ghetto.”
A) I don’t believe it for a second. Cities aren’t that hard, and orienteering works.
B) When your goal is to take the next street, and then the street after that, who cares for street signs?
I think some violence is in our future. Is punishment of the ruling class and their supporters synonymous with civil war? In my opinion, it depends on what the military does.
o/t to D/31 –DSp closest town, but in Blanco County (DSp is in Hayes), Johnson City school district, phone my surname is a solo in DSp –i’m in the ‘lost triangle’ of DSp, JCity, Blanco –or including Wimberley approaches, the ‘lost parallelogram’ –but as i tole you somewhere here on TBC, close by the way the crow flies over the Divide to Friday’s (AKA Freitag’s) Gas n BBQ on 290 ten mile west o DSp. precision: 2 mile S of 290 off 165 (the ‘T’ in Henley, a near vanished village), a mile off the pavement, up the hill, at the end of a caliche road, under a big billboard that sez “Welcome to the Rattlesnake Farm –watch your step” –no just kidding about the billboard –and, hey, no Aggie, the burnt orange place in Austin (how could you?) –anyhoo that’s twice now i spelt out my 10-20 on the net –a poor practice –i’ll have to double the coffee ration to the guardhouse down the road –pls take notes, navigator!
Sorry –return to regularly scheduled programming –
***
GM/43; the two rival organizations –the communist’s and the girl from Wellesley’s –are said to be far deeper than the mere political party wings –and the southern small-town/rural one, while it has had no HBO series named after a sweet vocal register to warmify its image, has a pretty darkly visible trail for anybody that wants to look on the net. So yes you’re right –dangerous games are afoot –those guys that went after Thomas of Becket had no direct orders either –they were just protecting their positions –folks need to be careful with these ideological Dems –they much more clever than they are wise.
Reflect on WW2 when the last enemy was vanquished. We didn’t crush the citizens there under our boots, rather we lent them a helping hand. I think the same will be needed for the communities (still) in the thrall of the Left. What we can’t afford is a centralized government where 50M+1 dictate to 50M-1 on day-to-day issues (which forced Reagan to compromise far too much), and it need not be so (national elections need to become much less important in terms of all things domestic). Let the Left rule in areas where they have a large majority (and let them benefit from or suffer the consequences, after all it’s their community, and people can vote with their feet). Ditto for the various flavors of the conservative and libertarian right.
I’m very much in favor of returning all domestic power to communities (and their voluntary associations – both internal and external) of about 300,000 citizens – a typical infrastructure slice that would include a powerplant, 5,000 school rooms, a (small) airport, a courthouse (including a lethal injection gurney if they so choose), a few jails and hospitals, etc. It also represents economic power larger than all but a few in the Fortune 50, so there’s little in a civil society they can’t dominate in their own sphere – if they so choose.
And it’s very much a vote of faith in the people, similar to George Washington returning the crown, so unlike the institutions that soil his name today in the what must seem to many like a foreign capital, “D.C.”
The ‘pubs must be blind since none of the current leadership has made the simple statement that we are committed to returning power (money) to the people by a few date certains, coinciding with elections so their pledges can be measured. Start by directing all domestic agencies to go to the local communities and ask if they’d voluntarily participate (at various cost levels), and adjust size appropriate to income. Just turning them from masters to employees will fix many ills. Most won’t survive. Which is ok.
And this is not new territory – businesses went thru this phase in the 70s and 80s as information technology made large headquarters’ staff redundant, and boards of directors bought off the exec suite by splitting with them the savings in going from order thousands to hundreds of HQ staff (and exec compensation went from under 7 figures to over 7) and the large companies that remained were basically driven by decisions made at their edges, in their customer facing divisions, so they could match their smaller, fleeter of foot, competitors).
Dave
Buddy a astroturf ? then, he should apply for a invisible man role
I sometimes wonder what would happen if the Fed decided to print money – in order to buy yuan. This way, the United States would be effectively printing yuan and holding these yuan as security against whatever China may do against the dollar.
China insists on having a weak yuan. So, if the Fed could buy up enough yuan to buoy that currency despite Chinese policy, the Chinese government would be at an impasse. If China prints more yuan, foreign powers buy up an equal amount. If China unloads dollars, foreign powers unload yuan.
The idea is to create equilibrium.
What you speak of in your fine piece here isn’t ideology, inept or misguided economic policy, or politics of a majority, it is a conscious premeditated attempt to undermine the prosperity and security of this here Constitutional Republic via economic terrorism.
Ruling Elite? Hardly. It is a suicide run by a class of sociopaths who are so inbred after decades of obscene affluence privilege and power they are willing to take everyone down with them rather than relinquish one iota of unlawful power and ill got gains to the true power and Sovereignty of We The People. In the most simple terms, if it were not for the Prosperity and wealth created by the hand of the regular every day Joe and Jane of this here Constitutional Republic, this, “Ruling Class”, what an oxymoron if there ever was, wouldn’t have 2 dimes to rub together, at least two dimes they could rob.
In no uncertain terms this Ruling Class is part and parcel of a doctrine of destruction of our Republic in order to change it into a political entity ripe for the picking, enabling a crazed political class to swoop in on America like a flock of vultures on road kill and finally rip it to tiny pieces.
Well this here road kill has a nasty surprise for these Vultures, it starts on November 2, 2010, and it doesn’t end till the vultures are resting in an unmarked grave.
If the SHTF anytime soon it will probably come about from a purely practical source; the bankruptcy of the government will, sooner or later, lead to massive cuts or defaults in the current “safety net” (a.k.a the transfer payments from the productive class to the teat-sucking voter base). When that collapses the people that have been trained to expect “stuff for free” will revert to base training and go out on their own and try to get “stuff for free”. This type of crime is already increasing in the “Inner Ring” suburbs of troubled metropolitan areas as unemployment benefits run out and support services fail due to overload.
The endemic crime of the inner city will spread outward as they go looking for the magic source of wealth that those “greedy people making more than #250k” have been holding out on. Law Enforcement will not be able to even slow this flow (criminal justice has long been little more than a revolving door) and it will be down to Jane and Joe Six-Pack to defend what is theirs. This will lead to a grinding war of attrition between the people that have worked for what they have and those that wish to take by force or stealth (as the government is no longer able to do the thieving for them).
Things will rapidly become critical as there is no reserve of anything kept in cities these days, everything is delivered on a day-to-day basis. If crime rises significantly the transportation system will break down, people will starve. Starving people do desperate things. Look at what Katrina did to New Orleans. Remember that was a strictly local event, comtemplate that in every city over 750,000 nationwide and you start to get an idea of the problem.
All those millions of guns and trillions of rounds of ammo have gone somewhere; mostly into the hands of decent working people that came lately to the idea that the Government was not going to protect them, not able to protect them, and not willing to protect them. The failure of the Governments first responsibility will lead to a rapid decline in the respect for all levels of government beyond the strictly local.
This is the manner in which the Roman Empire slowly came apart at the seams. Incompetence and bankruptcy destroyed the ability of the central power to maintain control and the centers of power soon devolved to the strictly local. No one was willing to defend the walls until the barbarians were actually at THEIR walls.
Side Note:
Papa Ray we haven’t seen you in a while, hope everything is well with you and the girls, just a few weeks and you will be able to stop to catch your breath! There hasn’t been much hope for overthrowing the entrenched Dems in my locality so I have been organizing and raising money for promising candidates elsewhere (I figure that a good conservative Congress person from another state is an asset in the coming fight).
Keep the faith, we may still get through this OK!
A ruling class by definition doesn’t give up its grip on power without a tremendous fight. And given that the ruling class both here and in Europe holds almost total sway over what passes as news its ability to keep the wavering within the fold is significant. The worst thing we face is an economic implosion of the ruling class run over promising debtor states on both sides of the Atlantic. The danger is that though implosions may unseat the ruling class they are more likely to bring dictators to power than the adherents of liberty.
Along with social cuts we cannot forget the military budget. I say we cut the military budget by 80% and return the US to a regional power status. To symbolize our determination, we should then tear down four of the five sides of the Pentagon and rename it the Unigon. In the footprint of the torndown buildings we can make an outdoor exibition to wisdon of fiscal restraint. After all, why should US tax dollars be used to keep shipping lanes open for China so that they can steal our jobs?
Civil war? As others have said, the ideological civil war (albeit with much earlier antecedents) began in the mid-sixties and has waxed and waned ever since. The same is true for the bureaucratic/regulatory war, but that started in the early thirties.
I have often wondered how it was that there was no insurrection of note during the Great Depression. Perhaps it was because the average citizen was closer to the pioneer spirit of America than we are today. Perhaps it was because the memory of our real civil war was closer and more vivid. Perhaps it was because the sense of entitlement was lower then, with stronger residual stoicism among Americans.
Perhaps it seems more volatile now because of communications technology and ease of mobility and transportation. Or perhaps because, after decades of effort, the left has succeeded in making America more European.
Nearly every political institution in our system pulls (pushes?) toward the center. Rival parties have left and right sides; tension is built in among the branches of government and between the Federal (rapidly becoming National) Government and the Several States. And then there is that pesky Constitution, still revered but eroding.
We have had rather few ideological elections in our history. Perhaps Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, and Reagan were the closest until the current administration. Compare that with almost any other country and we seem to be pretty bland.
But the times they are a-changin’. The frog in the boiling water may be waking up. We shall see. One swallow doth not a spring make nor one election a meaningful change in course. And whether four to five decades of decay in our educational system has rendered us too soft for what is coming down the road, or whether we will somehow find inner strength remains to be seen.
To continue my song theme, restoring us to health will be a very long and winding road. In our ADD society I am pessimistic about the durability of our attention span. Envy and entitlement are extremely hard to modify, whether in an individual patient or in a society. Parlez vous?
Love your column!! This is splendid stuff. Most of America which is the sane part will adapt because this is the UTOPIA we have been seeking for decades. We had to adapt to insanity sponsored by the left. They flipped reality on its head and then gave it a lobotomy. If you are suggesting the old order will give way to truth, stark naked logic and reality, then bring it on.
The consequences of “quantitative easing” or the massive trillion dollar printing of money by the Fed have been debated back and forth between Mish Shedlock on one hand and several posters at Zerohedge on the other since Helo Ben’s first speech on quantitative easing in August.
Gonzalo Lira and others at Zerohedge predict that the quantitative easing envisioned by the Fed will lead to a “currency collapse” or the loss of faith in the dollar also known as hyperinflation. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-how-hyperinflation-will-happen
This hyperinflation is not to be confused with just a big amount of inflation. The two are intrinsically different. In a hyperinflation the currency becomes near worthless and as a result, key components of the economy cease to function. Things like oil becoming so scarce that the transportation system cease to work. Any product or commodity that is produced overseas becomes difficult to get and those sectors that rely on those imports freeze up. This is the scenario where people start to go hungry, there are roving gangs in the streets and our society devolves into a huge crisis that leads to a Civil War.
Mish Shedlock argues essentially ( as I understand it) that the dollar’s role as the reserve currency combined with America’s role in the world, etc, will not permit the dollar to collapse a la the Weimar.
He argues instead that quantitative easing will lead to a massive deflation and a slow grinding depression that goes on for decades. His primary example is what Japan has gone through since their recession of 1989 . The Bank of Japan has tried their version of quantitative easing several times over the last twenty years and it has failed each and every time. Each attempt at massive printing of money by the BOJ has led to greater debt, more deflation and more unemployment. Total government debt of Japan is several times ours as a result and some people predict that it may default. But the essential key difference between this deflation and hyperinflation is that society in Japan has not fallen apart. It has not unraveled. It has continued on in a depressed state, with key functions still operating.
Whatever the consequences of quantitative easing are for America are tough to predict, but none of the smart free market oriented economists believe that it will lead to a mild inflation that will lift housing prices and help fix the mortgage crisis as is supposedly the intent of Helo Ben. They only predict bad things. Very bad things. Bill Gross of Pimco, for example, the Titan of the Bond world, predicts that it will greatly devalue America’s savings. And he should be considered an optimist in the group.
But isn’t this the exact same kind of talk that the left was engaging in after the presidential election? Talk of a new day of progressivism dawning. I think the right may be misreading the election results as well.
I think we’ll be seeing a kind of French & Indian War turned inside out: The dangerous frontiers are the settled parts; the safe places are the remote ones. We in the suburban settlements will need to our keep gun over our entertainment centers and be ready to form ranks at the sound of the siren down at the neighborhood fire department.
But the essential key difference between this deflation and hyperinflation is that society in Japan has not fallen apart. It has not unraveled. It has continued on in a depressed state, with key functions still operating.
That’s because whatever their faults, the Japanese have not fallen for the dark ring of multiculturalism. They maintain the coherency of a single-race, single-ethnicity polity. We have no such luck.
Perhaps because Whiskey hasn’t been around nobody’s brought race up in the discussion. But if things do go Tango Uniform, the most logical and obvious taking of sides will be by race. Blacks with blacks. Hispanics with hispanics. Easy enough. Whites, being the only group acultured to hate itself, will split along crazy fault lines. Likely the white “elites” will join with one or other minority group against their own racial interests. In which case even if they win, they’ll lose shortly thereafter.
Well enough of this grim thinking. Let’s hope the grinding wheel starts to slow after November.
For all the talk of quantitative easing, I don’t think they are going to pull the trigger. The risk of bad unintended consequences far outweigh the putative benefits. Based on past performance, the Fed has demonstrated that there is no magical ability to fine tune the economy. The flow of data, even in the internet age, is too unreliable and subject to near constant revision. Even Alan Greenspan once described what they were trying to do as driving backward while looking in the rearview mirror. It all comes down to “the knowledge question”. IE, nobody has perfect awareness of all the required inputs and decisions that need to be made. We saw what happened to the USSR.
In Moscow on the Hudson, the Robin Williams character sees a line at a shop. “I hope it’s toilet paper. No, it’s shoes.”
We can all agree that things are bad, but not as bad as we are told on a daily basis. 90% of the population has jobs. There are no shortages of food or fuel. Yes, housing is a disaster but just like the S&L crisis, it can and will be worked through. Is there lots of pain? Sure. Why risk a currency disaster? I think they are going to contemplate QE for the next six months or so until the economy is clearly in recovery. Concurrently, there are clearly going to be changes on the fiscal side. That’s a net positive for the nation.
I envision the breakdown more along the lines of the Spanish Civil War or the English Civil War (1640-50ish). Not particularly geographic but largely ideological (although there is a geography to ideology in this country – think Left Coast for example).
Another aspect of the current monetary policy is Stealth Taxation; The Resident wants to cut taxes for everybody under 250K, he then allows a monetary policy and Federal Debt that gaurantees inflation; soon we are ALL one of those greedy bastards making more than 250K and the Government’s debts (which are enumerated in dollars) shrink proportionally.
We are on a very slippery slope and the Dems keep trying to push us down.
62. another chuck
I’m with you on that but I would go further; carry all the time. If you live in one of the States that is blessed with an Open Carry law take advantage of it, let the barbarians know that the Legions are still standing.
60. Unsk
I saw that article a little while ago, darned scary! I stopped buying ammo for a while and picked up a few thousand in US Silver Dollars as a hedge against hyperinflation. Not a real full-on insurance policy but it will help if things get desperate. All sorts of commodities will get very dear if that scenario plays out but silver is easier to store/hide. Think GPS and a shovel.
63. peterike
The fault lines are already yawning open, thanks to the madness of multiculturalism there has been a serious breakdown in the Melting Pot. Hopefully we can meld things back together without the white heat of open conflict.
“The old fabric has been rent; or rather it is being remade, but into what nobody knows quite yet.”
“No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain”
Unfortunately that is not up to us. It is up to government on which way to go. If it is evident on their decisions thusfar, I don’t like where it may end up.
Hmmmm … Eat the Liberal Elite? Break into their cellars and drink their wine? Now that would be entertaining. If that should come to pass, might I suggest starting off with this one:
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/05/03/stunning-pictures-al-gores-new-9-million-mansion-media-totally-ignore
The young man standing before his father announces his career path – organized crime – to which the father asks blandly – “Public or private?”.
An interesting and thought-provoking article. Three things in particular come to mind.
First, too little attention is directed to the scoundrels who create, enable, and perpetuate these sorts of crises. Today’s European turmoil was sown decades ago by leaders who ate prodigiously at the table of illusory perpetual abundance. They’re dead and gone. For all the talk about the world “our children and our grandchildren” will inherit, there is little evidence that the socialist mindset considers other than the immediate benefit to those calling the tune. In other words, those who craft the rules are also the ones that are eating next year’s seed. When the current American economic time-bomb detonates, as surely it must, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed and their ilk will be long gone. Because of the aversion to beating dead horses over even the most catastrophic of failures–horses that deserve a sound pummeling–we fail to learn the lessons of history.
Second, the question, “[H]ow will Americans react when the government begins to impose the same austerity measures that are causing riots, street battles, fuel blockades and other assorted chaos in France?” is a concern of the first order. But at least equally important is the question of how those countries and regimes antagonistic to America will interpret and act while Americans are figuratively scratching their backsides over their internal economic meltdown. It’s a very big world out there with very opportunistic, evil, ambitious, and vindictive people. Unlike the Greeks or the French. who have the luxury of rioting in the streets while the bulwark of the Western world is still relatively strong, an America weakened by social and economic chaos runs a distinct risk of attracting very unwanted and very dangerous foreign attention.
Third, whatever happens, it is certain that the Left will absolve itself of all responsibility and direct its Alinskyite condemnation at the George Bush of the moment.
with the Tea Party gaining followers, the idea of civil war over economic issues doesn’t seem that far-fetched these days. And Ron Paul definitely thinks the Fed should be ended. In TIME’s recently cover story on the militia movement many said these groups are powder kegs looking for a catalyst …
Oh, for goodness sake! There we go again with the almost-wishful-thinking hysteria of the MSM and the left to paint the Tea Party and non-Democrats as being as dangerous as jihadists. Puhleeeeze!
What appears to be true is that the old certainties are finished.
Indeed, when Barney Frank himself says Fannie Mae should be abolished and tha it was a mistake to give mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, then I guess the old certainties are finished.
Incidentally, is Ron Paul calling for the abolishment of the Fed much more radical than what Frank said about Fannie Mae?
Unsk: Re: banking oligarchy control: You can’t actually control someone; You can either bribe them or threaten them and each method requires courage to resist. Perhaps that is the real problem.
Josh: I have always understood Wall Street as the most popular casino in America, and the house always wins. It is a stacked game and unless you are a high roller, you can make a little money but you can also lose your shirt.
no mo uro: AMEN. ’nuff said.
Deficit Hawk: Yeah, that’s all we do, keep China’s shipping lanes open. If we implode as a nation, you will want the strongest military available to keep the wolves at bay while we get our house in order.
anton, unsk, et al.: If the balloon goes up internally, you want to be in a community with its own agriculture and water source, preferably on high ground. You can’t eat gold and silver. I do invest in precious metals, brass and lead. My weapons, ammo and 25 years of military experience will be traded for my upkeep in food and water. Survival does not see race, only life or death.
Still, the optomist in me is hoping for a blood-less coup; Taking the country back from the socialists/progressives through the ballot box. Plan B would be for whole areas to stop supporting the federal government with money (taxes) and goods. The federal government can not stand on its own without our consent or support.
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
As long as the will survives, liberty is always possible.
61. Goyo Marquez
But isn’t this the exact same kind of talk that the left was engaging in after the presidential election? Talk of a new day of progressivism dawning. I think the right may be misreading the election results as well.
In my view, you may have a point. While we at BC express a preference for small government, the most accurate description of the U.S. is that it is a Center/Right country, and I think that this “center” is being ignored and taken for granted in this election cycle. We here may want a return to genune federalism, but a whole lot of Americans may just want to get back to plain old “big government,” as opposed to the Collossal government we have now. What we BC’ers should keep in mind is that nobody alive today in America has ever experienced small government as an adult.
We must be careful of pushing the plurality of Americans past a certain comfort zone. First, get back to a government the size of which we can afford with our current rates of taxation and the amount of revenue we are able to collect. If we can get back to that, then the national conversation can focus on trying to shrink government even further. This will be a multi-decade effort.
First, too little attention is directed to the scoundrels who create, enable, and perpetuate these sorts of crises. Today’s European turmoil was sown decades ago by leaders who ate prodigiously at the table of illusory perpetual abundance. They’re dead and gone. For all the talk about the world “our children and our grandchildren” will inherit, there is little evidence that the socialist mindset considers other than the immediate benefit to those calling the tune. In other words, those who craft the rules are also the ones that are eating next year’s seed. When the current American economic time-bomb detonates, as surely it must, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed and their ilk will be long gone. Because of the aversion to beating dead horses over even the most catastrophic of failures–horses that deserve a sound pummeling–we fail to learn the lessons of history.
Keynes is quoted as saying, “In the long run we’re all dead.” That in a nutshell explains the mindset you describe about destroying the future for today’s political benefit. I see it as an extension – on a massive scale – of the idea of tourism taxes. Cities love tourism taxes on hotels and rental cars because few locals are impacted and those tourists can’t vote in local elections. Children under 18 (and those not yet born) can’t vote, so they have no say in the world we’re leaving for them. Politicians for the past few generations have been borrowing for the future in order to buy votes and amass power today. In the past few years, that level of borrowing has accelerated to unheard of and unsustainable rates. When ordinary people experience a reduction in income, they have two choices: they can reduce their spending or they can borrow to support their lifestyle as they’ve known it. The outcome of the second choice is completely predictable, but that’s the path government has followed for decades.
Anything that can’t go on forever must eventually end. It’s like the children’s game of hot potato where sooner or later, someone gets stuck at the end. Whether it’ll be Pelosi, Obama and Reid or the next set of politicians isn’t clear but ultimately someone is going to be the one left holding the bag when things fall apart.
Will America see riots in the streets when the inevitable government cutbacks begin? I fear so. We have tens of millions of people who’re used to getting more out of society than they contribute. Any time you talk about cutting a dollar of government spending, the person getting that dollar is going to get upset. We’ll be facing cuts at least as massive as those announced yesterday in the UK. A lot of government employees (federal, state, county and local) are going to lose their jobs and that in turn is going to cost a lot more jobs before things settle out in a process that’ll take years.
I have four young grandchildren and fear the world we’re leaving for them. If we don’t turn things around quickly, I predict these generations will curse our names for all time.
Civil war in the US? No way. I like analogies, so here goes:
We are witnessing the end of the Progressive International Empire (PIE). The PIE has disappeared down millions of entitled throats. There is no more PIE to slice. The progressives made one small error – they ate the PIE without paying the PIEman and now they’re broke. Sadly, that PIEman is one big ugly SOB and he’s coming to get his money.
For decades, progressives have promised utopia to the masses in exchange for losing “just a few freedoms”. The ever growing utopia was financed by spending other people’s money. The bigger that promised utopia became, the more freedoms that were taken away. But the utopia was imaginary; the biggest scam in history. Just as the old empires (Austro-Hungarian, British, French, Spanish, Italian, German etc) fragmented and faded away, the PIE will leave only a mouldy crust.The progressive fantasy is broken and shattered.
To change analogies from cooking to gardening, the progressive instinct will always survive but it surely won’t flower in a garden that is not waist deep in manure. Reality will apply heavy doses of common sense instead of a truck load of bullshit. It won’t be pretty but some quick-footed action based on common sense can save the day. There’s gonna be screaming, shouting, protest marching, placard waving and giant headaches. Nothing that self reliant, determined and civilised people can’t overcome to produce a different garden that feeds everyone and is run by free market gardeners who govern themselves.
Progressivism will be back once the manure is deep again. That will happen, but not for many summers.
I am always amused over the talk of civil war in US. Pray tell, over what issue is the nation going to be divided asunder and cause brother to take up arms against brother?
I don’t know about brother against brother, but I can certainly envision a war of race against race; the uneducated unemployed underbelly of American society who will soon be totally disinherited from their welfare-sponsored lifestyles vs. who-ever still has a job and a car and a house. Statistically, it seems to me that the unemployed and soon-to-be-unemployed public service workers and union members and teachers have got to be reaching about 50%.
Some place along the way, I read that the tipping point for a religion to take over a society is 10%; that when you have 1 in ten who are that religion or belief then it assumes enough strength to be a major player and decision-maker for everyone else. We’re already at 10% unemployment officially and many more than that if you count the people who have quit looking or who were born into a mindset of living on the government dole. What happens if we add another 10% or 20% when the Department of Education is defunded and the IRS and its reams of rules are cast out for a straight percentage tax, and we build a fence along the border and fire all the different government workers who cater to Spanish-speaking clients?
And, once again I shall ask, what race are union members and government employees? We don’t know because if it’s ever been totalled up, it’s a *very* carefully kept secret. But you can sort of get a clue just by looking at pictures of crowds at SEIU meetings, and who is behind the counter of whatever government counter you’re having to belly up to, trying to be a good citizen. Increasingly, I’m pessimistic that we’ll make it through the upcoming tectonic shift without blood being shed, streets being burned, and looting and theft becoming a daily occurance.
After all, it *is* Darwinian that if an entity can’t support itself for whatever reason, it will become dead.
Josh: I have always understood Wall Street as the most popular casino in America, and the house always wins. It is a stacked game and unless you are a high roller, you can make a little money but you can also lose your shirt.
It is that, but so is life.
Wall Street also serves some useful purposes which are its cover for stealing from the public under color of legitimacy.
But in the recent debacle they have outdone themselves, a cat burglar or embezzler is one category of criminal, an arsonist who leaves casualties is a whole ‘nother thing.
Personally, do you give a damn?
“to sell power into the New England market.” Suckers born … suckers die.
…-
“Electricity
Why PEI’s wind plan is dying”
“In October, 2008, Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz made a bold promise. The province was going to dramatically increase the amount of wind power it produced, boosting production to 30 per cent of its total electricity consumption from the 18 per cent it then generated.
The move would make the province a green powerhouse, and the North American jurisdiction with by far the highest proportion of wind-generated electricity. At the same time, PEI would become an energy exporter – despite having no other homegrown sources of power – by building additional wind projects to sell power into the New England market.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/why-peis-wind-plan-is-dying/article1752506/
Why is Barney Frank spend so much of his own money, the answer is power, power is his drug and he wants to keep getting daily doses of it. As to the comment in the article about armed conflict being likely, it is highly unlikely the conservatives will start the violence. But the far left has a history of violence and I can see them starting a terror campaign like they did during the 60s and 70s.
A common thread from BCCI to CRA to the mortgage meltdown to foreclosuregate has been the rampant big bank lawlessness and bank fraud without much prosecution. It’s almost as if once the banks found they could get away with fraud without consequence, they went for more and more massive fraud, and we ended up with the mess we have now. Since it seems that both political party establishments have been bought off to the point they will never touch the banks, it looked like nothing would be done to resolve our bank problems.
But now there may be a ray of hope. Lawsuits. Pimco, with Blackrock Capital and the NY Fed are suing to have the purchase of $47 billion of MBS putback. And now this from Karl Denninger at Market Ticker:
“Bill Frey, who runs the hedge fund Greenwich Capital, has organized a massive clearinghouse of mortgage investors for the express purpose of bringing lawsuits against big banks that issued bogus mortgage-backed securities. He told me this afternoon that he’s about to move: In the next couple of weeks Greenwich and other investors will bring big lawsuits against major banks.”
According to Denninger, the bar to bring these suits is usually prohibitively high; 25% of the MBS pool must join the suit to reach standing to sue. And since 80% of most pools are ‘senior” where they are the most protected, it’s a very high bar to reach. But if any of these big lawsuits succeed, more will follow cuzz a lot of investors have lost their shirts to the fraud of the banks. At that point, the Feds will likely have to step in and initiate bankruptcy proceedings because the amount of bad MBS dwarfs Bank reserves. And there ain’t near enough money around for the Fed to cover that hole in a bailout.
Anyone who doubts the possibility of Civil War is not paying attention. Among many other outrageous Executive Orders issued by our Chief-Exec is the one dated 17 Dec 2009:”Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425.” It gives INTERPOL a “free hand” inside the borders of the USA. (Don’t take MY word, people. LOOK IT UP YOURSELF.)
Meanwhile, he’s set aside a group inside the DOJ to service Interpol. What this means immediately is that he can refer problem citizens to Interpol for questioning (read “harassment”) and NO US CITIZEN has any right to information from Interpol. That is, Interpol is NOT subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as US law enforcement would be.
This also means arrest by Interpol wouldn’t be subject to Habeas Corpus as would an arrest by domestic US LEOs, except by some prodigious legal action. And the DOJ has amply demonstrated the blatant partisan treatment that can be expected from them, in the voter intimidation by NBPP.
Don’t forget Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Gonzales kid. Don’t forget the statement of unapologetic terrorist bomb-maker Bill Ayers, close personal friend of our wonderful president. Credible witnesses to his “Weather Underground” days report he repeatedly described his plan to round up 25 million conservative Americans and make them “disappear.”
This is a nightmare, and monsters are ruling this country.
Betrayal of their own country is among the least of their atrocities.
AND
Hey, Unsk!
See if you can find the filing and organizational papers that got BCCI its start doing business in the USA. Evidently they approached the authorities in Arkansas, which had regulations even more relaxed than BELGIUM. Guess what Little Rock law firm drew up the papers… AND guess what Rose Law firm partner’s initials will be found on those papers…
Unsk, while I approve in principle of pursuing civil, criminal, and even more direct actions against the malefactors, exactly who is there to cast the first stone? Not the New York Fed. The suit announced yesterday is just more of the same, attempts by one white-shoe clan to steal from another, or to have Uncle Sugar come in and make some fat cats fatter from Uncle Bernanke’s Perpetual Printing Machine.
Talk of ‘civil war’ by liberal elite press organs is a desperate attempt to construe and then construct a…, a something (with all the attendant ‘crisis’ fantasy (or anti-fantastic visuality) to run interference for those pimp ruling crass club elites they prostitiute themselves for.
Apparently, talk of public demonstrations construed to be “civil war” is hyperbolic enough to form the last ditch countermove (and to appear “spontaneous”, and “grassroots” and all that…) that the paragons in mass media are hoping for to create the chaos needed to forestall the inevitable. Even, and in fact, well before any such actual demonstrations have appeared, or show any indication of happening. This is the United States of America, not Europe. “As goes great Europe, so will go the United States” (?) is the paradigm here? Really? According to who?
Can Soros deliver the pre-fab demonstrations when he needs an ace in his hole?
And what’s the inevitable here anyway? The elimination of government programs and agencies, like might perhaps come to pass in Britain, and then France? Eeeek!! A mouse that roared!
Grim comments, especially about Interpol and Obama’s power to use it. Freedom is quite limited these days, everywhere.
Josh, I hope your characterization does not prove to be correct. With all the underhanded machinations of the banking world it easily could. The only thing that would lead me to think these lawsuits might just amount to something is that some powerful people were badly burned by the Big Banks’ MBS and they might push back a little harder than most of us could.
JJ, I think Buddy knows a lot about BCCI, me not so much. All I know is what I have read recently. If the latest revelations are to be believed, BCCI’s tentacles were never cut off when they should have and they have managed now to implant themselves in a lot of powerful places.
France is shutdown for a sixth day of strikes over pension. I say we invade.
Fun reading at 3am. Ghosts of anarchy around every corner.
I’m suspicious of media claims of looming civil war; it strikes me as a little too hopeful of being a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Having said that, I still have a plan and enough gas on hand to get me where I need to go. Also, for the past couple years, I’ve found myself reading about counterinsurgency and thinking more about insurgency…
God help our children.
gokart (43): Actually, the stuff Eric mentioned in #39 would itself serve as the “game on”.
cheap@87: go invade France yourself, if you think it’s so easy. Why on earth would we want to end up responsible for governing all those Frenchmen???
Leave it to “Time” to further demonize people who for the most part just want their government to acknowledge that 2+2=4, and act on that basis.
Of course, isn’t that (2+2=4) why Winston Smith got in trouble?
Of course, if the 2010 election is stolen…
If there are riots, it’ll be the teachers, after 3pm
Gaffe Price @ 84: “Can Soros deliver the pre-fab demonstrations when he needs an ace in his hole?”
Let me answer this way: On November 22, 1963 JFK was killed by what his wife referred to as “a stupid little communist”.
Within 3 days, after a 24/7 bath of propaganda, 90% of Americans blamed “right-wing hate”.
Don’t you think the people who created and groomed the man who calls himself “Barack Obama” are well aware of the precedent?
In Europe, the peasants revolt if their welfare state is threatened in any way.
In the US, there may be a revolt of the welfare state ISN’T reformed.
One notable point about the UK spending cuts:
All the newspapers and most definitely all the TV news is mis-reporting one of the forecasts. There will be approximately 490,000 job losses in government over 4 years; that’s a given. However, this is being reported as “490,000 people are going to lose their jobs” which is incorrect. Why? Because some of the losses will be caused by natural wastage, in other words retirees and people who leave for reasons, of their own accord, not being replaced.
Natural wastage in the civil service amounts to about 3%; with 6 million employees this works out to 180,000 people per year – and therefore 720,000 people in the 4-year period envisaged. They don’t have to fire anyone at all, and they probably won’t.
That’s the MSM for you.
When I worked in France, for the CNRS, there came a time for our first strike (greve). It was being called by the CFDT and CGT. I asked a French friend what their demands were. “Oh, they don’t have any demands. They just want to shut down the country to show how powerful they are. But notice that they always strike on Friday or Monday. They also want an extra three-day weekend.”
92. J in StL
In Europe, the peasants revolt if their welfare state is threatened in any way.
In the US, there may be a revolt of the welfare state ISN’T reformed.
Which harkens back to the difference between our revolution and European ones:
Usually, a people rebels when they believe they’ve never had it so bad, but Amercians rebelled because they never had it so good and Crown and Parliament were trying to mess with that.
NahnCee @ 77
The last word in your next-to-last paragraph is actually spelled “occurrence.”
In light of your post, and JJRedfan’s @ 82, and many other similarly chilling and likely scenarios posted here, if or when the civil war you envision does break out, will you, just for my bringing a misspelling to your attention, be hunting me down as a Nazi?
@ GM, good point, that has been the hackneyed, rinse/repeat strategy from perhaps before, but certainly ever since.
The question is whether it is continuing to work anymore.
The left is really ramping up that ol’ reliable projection strategy right now in time to sew panic in their constituency for an election.
54. Mt Top Patriot –
You have it right. Those who seek to rule us are nothing less than monsters. Will-to-power driven monsters. Their cost-benefit analysis reads like this: millions of us dead, the rest of us in chains.
These monsters are killers without conscience, and I’ve writth nabout them here. This short essay of mine has inspired a book that is now in progress.
We stand on the edge of an abyss – the abyss of a dark age, and one that will indeed be long, dark and deep if we are not successful in intervening. Never underestimate those whose goal of absolute power is almost within their grasp. The anti-civilizational forces of Islam (yes, Islam entire, not just the ‘radicals’) and the death worshipping cults of serial nihilists, power-lusters and looters that comprise the ‘progressive’ Left are all aiming at the same result: the destruction of Western civilization. The Left believes in a twisted millennial utopianism; their motto is “Burn the old world to reveal the new one.” Islam strives for the conversion, enslavement or death of all who do not conform to its sadistic and cruel vision of Mankind. These two dark forces will struggle for dominance in a world lit only by fire if we allow them to succeed.
Here’s the thing: there is absolutely no reason to suppose that the enemies of civilization are simply going to shrug their shoulders and walk away saying, “Oh, well, we lost…” As a friend of mine has put it, “If anyone thinks that a big loss in November will make one iota of difference in Obama and the ‘DemonRATs’ leftist agenda, you need to seek professional help immediately, because I assure you that the sounds you will hear coming from them after such a loss will not be the ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ it will be the notes of El Degüello.”
Expect the gloves to come off and the masks to be cast aside once the reality of the dark forces’ loss becomes apparent to them. Ready or not, I expect them to go all in with a truly repressive program – with absolute power so nearly within their grasp, they can do no other. The downside for them is – many of us are awake and prepared for that eventuality. The downside for all of us is that a lot of people are going to die.
If we wish to remain free, then terrible, terrible deeds are called for. Again, the enemies of civilization aren’t simply going to shrug and walk away if we here in America happen to flip a few seats in a governing, no, RULING apparatus that is now clearly out of control.
It is likely that:
In America, we will face something analogous to South America’s ‘dirty wars’. The battle lines will occur anywhere, anytime and will be drawn right through family living rooms. The fighting will be savage and without compromise.
Europe will dissolve into a paroxysm of ruin and slaughter (its standard response to its own problems and the outcomes of its very bad ideas over the last 150 years or so) as it move to rid itself of its Islamic population.
Some long standing grudges will be fought with nuclear weapons. There are too many out there, control and oversight of which was lost long ago.
The consequences of all three scenarios combined are unguessable. Should Europe prevail over the Islamic cancer, it will spend another century or two struggling with its conscience over what it had to do. As will we over what we must do to preserve freedom for our descendants.
As will we.
Stay well. Stay Safe. Stay armed. Stay free.
82. JJREdFan
This is a nightmare, and monsters are ruling this country.
Why yes. And yes they are. They are indeed monsters – killers without conscience.
96:
Hey hey
Ho Ho
Spelling Nazi’s
Got to go!
(Incorrect apostrophe included at no extra charge.)
Kirk Parker
that’s a murky snarker;
does it mean spellers called “spelling Nazis”
or fellers who mis-spell, spelling “Nazi’s”?
Whichever it is I wish you’d make clear,
please write it again; we’ll be here, y’hear?
Don Rodrigo @95…
Actually economic conditions were not so good. The Crown was trying to tax her way out of the massive debt left over from the Seven Years War.
In economics things get complicated quickly, but the bottom line was that taxes were going up all over and the Crown was liquidating gilts.
This meant that the terms of trade with London for EVERY MANNER of good was warped. American exports brought home less and less quality imports. This fact was particularly felt in the South by Jefferson and the rest.
Today, we’d call such a decline in trading merit a currency shift or inflation in imports or a deflation in exports.
The Dutch sat out the Seven Years War and so were low cost suppliers of tea and whatnot. British merchants were being roundly abused — and passed on the abuse to their customer base: ALL the colonies ANYWHERE in the British Empire.
America proved to be the problem child for all manner of reasons starting with its own ship-building industry and the skill set to trade at will. By comparison, Canada — just recently won — had no ship-building industry and was a strip colony close to the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Hence, the Americans were AWARE of the better deals to be had dealing outside London’s loop. For obvious mercantile reasons London didn’t like that as all such trading effectively evaded her trade taxes and other revenue schemes.
Thusly, London figured that a unique set of revenue raising schemes needed to be separately applied to the ‘out of control’ free trading Americans. From London’s perspective we should act as one happy polity all pulling together to bail out the Crown, each according to the logic of the Crown.
The financial interests of America quickly realized that such schemes were one heck of a camel nose: no way would such targeted taxes stop at reasonable. And in any event, the Crown wants specie, the only thing that’s going to pay down gilts.
—-
So your premise is incorrect: taxation and trading terms started to get lousy and then proceeded to get worse.
The other obvious trigger: the identity of interest between London and the Colonies vs Paris and Quebec vaporized with success. Further, London never had the displeasure of fighting directly for her very home and life as did the frontier men. These fellows fought with effectively zero pay, did plenty of bullet stopping yet got no consideration for their valor when a new round of taxes were conjured up. They were furious. Essential frontier imports became brutally expensive, stuff like nails, while trapping incomes collapsed.
In the big picture, it was folly of negative magnitudes for London to impose any targeted taxation upon the very population that had borne essentially all of British blood losses.
By comparison, the Crown made no attempt to squeeze money out of Frederick the Great. But that’s where all of the money went. The reason is obvious: Prussia lost all of the blood. London considered it a more than fair bargain. Frederick did, too. He took the battlefield and prevailed in the campaign.
(While Britain did field an army in Europe its campaigns were not hyper-risky and most seasons bordered on sitzkrieg. Hessians were used for the tough work. These formations were subsequently sent to the Colonies at a later time as we all know.)
luddy,
Don’t you think clarity might spoil the joke?
Kirk –LOL –guess you got a point there –
blert –if this was Kansas anymore, you’d be Sec Treasury –seriously –you shame that little goofy-ass Disney character with the squeaky voice and Floyd R. Turbotax as a tax prevaricater –i mean preparer –
Ward Dorrity –i read your link once before, from Roger Simon’s site –absolutely searing truth –hope everybody reads it. Folks tend to forget how close to us in time it is that a near-apocalyptic Hell reigned.
I was listening to Glenn Beck the other day talking about the biblical 40 years, basically the two fractions and one whole generations needed to move experience to wisdom by removing the emotionally blasted first wave and bringing to age their children who only heard it from them, and then those having children, and providing for them to have a reality with a chance at peace in the heart, where it must first be.
The world turned to face TerrorWorld, via Black September at the World Olympics in Munich 1972. But take a look at Munich 40 years earlier –1932 is the year that Hitler lost the national election in July and by the Oktoberfest had broken free of politics and become god-man in his expanding sphere (look at the two 1 minute vids!).
It took the Masonic 13 of years from this ‘ein volk’ moment to put the devil back in the hole, the last half of that 13 years in a global paroxysm of blood and rage and despair, with entire continents putting everything into a fantastical surge, the power energy needed to smash into the lair, and which would not even have worked at that, had the demon turned in time and taken that Manhattan bite of the Sun.
40 years from 1972 is 2012.
It could be that, in refusing to rise above our principles in that 13th year 1945, to shine or threaten to shine that sun on Communism in its lair, we broke some sort of covenant to see the world as it is. If so, that explains in that moonbeam way the woe that is to us now.
Could be that between the 40 year long-waves there’s a 20 year short-wave –if so the the binary universe has two demons, one we can’t live with and one we can. If so, we put the the one we can live with back in his hole at Panmunjom, at the 20 year mark from Oktoberfest 1932 (and 1932 the Holodomor and the election of FDR).
In that case WWII really ended under Eisenhower at the 38th parallel in Korea, as many see as true.
If all that is true, then something will have happened in 1992, at the crest of the mid-wave. Hmm… Bill “General Rufus T. Cornpone” Clinton, fair carnival ape of an anti-Christ, was elected president of the USA.
something is wounding hearts with monotonous languor
WWII truly ended with the dictator who started it: Stalin 1953.
Korea was plainly an extension of WWII – traditional AND WWII’s biggest civil war: CHINA.
After the first six months the ‘Korean War’ devolved into the execution of the Southern Chinese Army at the hands of the unwitting UN Forces.
Think of Soviet penal battalions expanded into Chinese Army Groups. NORTHERN Chinese casualties in that war were astonishingly light. They stop well behind the front as our Nationalist, former allies, were marched into our guns. Chinese victory was achieved when these hapless troops were blown away by artillery four times as intensive per division as the same formations in WWII !
( Go back and look.)
–when in middle schjool i worked a couple of summers as a go-fer for a repair crew employed by my grandparents little service company –one of the real hands there was Bradley, whose last name i never even asked. Bradley drank hard –all day long but that was a secret –and his hands tremored continually. He was the jumpiest human i’ve ever seen. He had been a soldier, a .30 machine gunner facing those human wave PLA attacks. I used to tell him he oughtta quit drinking so his nerves would quit all that. He’d tell about those human wave attacks, all of them blowing whistles and horns and noisemakers and singing, coming up the hill and being mowed down in thousands. He said that’s what had ruined his nerves, and if he ever quit drinking he’d fall apart. I never really knew for sure –and he’s long RIP now –but he must have been right there on the Yalu when the PLA came in.
“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.”
– George Washington, that old radical dude
…and he knew what it was like to be without teeth –
Deer Poofreader! ;o)
Believe it or not, I don’t mind having an actual error pointed out. It’s a favor, really.
Especially if my error mutilates, inverts, or just makes incomprehensible the idea-content of my assertion.
I acknowledge that I commit many mistakes of spelling, grammar, and logic.
The great thing about Belmont is that people strive to understand the meaning, and will gently remind another commenter if their words or logic go awry and erode the high standards of this place.
I stop short of accepting that imperfect spelling equates to flawed logic. You don’t do that, but there are some who will pounce triumphantly upon any minor item and use it as justification to club the author to twitching silence.
May I suggest that if we are to have a civil war in the USA that the first shot fired be an electronic shot, that the first battle take place in cyberspace. I suggest that the 132nd Keyboard Commandos strike the first blow by wiping out the databases of the welfare state. No more checks for the permanent underclass. This one act will create a second front and keep our enemies tied down in urban centers and greatly reduce the need to employ out second ammendment perogative.