Is the Country Unraveling?
Usually liberal reporters convince themselves into thinking they publish leaks as a way of speaking “truth to power,” not as near accomplices in promoting a partisan agenda. Usually leaks happen after events, not in the middle of an ongoing war against terrorists. How odd that the Obama administration has done more harm to the country than did Wikileaks. Why would the president not release subpoenaed documents to the U.S. Congress while he leaked national security secrets to the world?
Appointments? Where does one find the like of an Anita Dunn (her hero was Mao), the truther Van Jones, or Al “Crucify” Armendariz? Do we remember guests to the Bush White House being photographed flipping off portraits of Bill Clinton? Usually Treasury secretaries are models of tax probity, not tax violators themselves. Why is the secretary of Labor issuing videos inviting illegal aliens to contact her office when lodging complaints against employers? Even John Mitchell did not violate so many ethical standards as has Eric Holder, who sees nothing wrong in appointing an Obama appointee and Obama campaign donor to investigate possible Obama administration legal violations. Why was grilling Alberto Gonzalez not racism, but doing the same to Eric Holder supposedly is? From where did “Shut the f— up” National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon appear? Fannie Mae and K Street? Do Commerce secretaries usually drive Lexuses as they promote U.S. industry?
A Patch of Blue
Can there be good news in this era of Obama’s managed decline? In fact, we have two good reasons to rejoice. One, never has the hard Left had such an ideal megaphone as Barack Hussein Obama: his identity was constructed as multicultural to the core. He put liberals at ease through his comportment and chameleon voice (ask either Harry Reid or Joe Biden). He ran hard left of Hillary Clinton and promised everything from shutting down Guantanamo to ending renditions, bringing aboard the likes of a Harold Koh from Yale and Cass Sunstein from Chicago. He was young, hip, self-described as cool, and was hailed as the best emissary of the radical liberal vision of any in decades. Historians hailed Obama as the smartest president who ever held office, disagreeing only whether he was JFK or FDR reincarnate.
Dr. Hanson, as I read this, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Like most people, once Obama was elected, I wanted this country to succeed and move forward to this “shining city on a hill” image that I have always had of the US. Now as I read your work (and not just this piece) I have to ask “What happened?” Is this the result of some vast conspiracy? Surely, Obama was no accident of history.
I know that we can overcome a lot of adversity. Can we overcome this guy? I don’t know.
I don’t know if we can overcome this radical statism either. If such a popular program as GLEE can push a cultural nationalist line, then it will take an unprecedented amount of popular political education to restore anything resembling standards and meritocracy. Here is my report on the increasing acceptance of racial politics: http://clarespark.com/2012/02/09/glee-goes-la-raza/.
As usual, your link is totally irrelevant.
I doubt seriously that she will ever see your response, as she appears to be nothing but a spamming hit-&-run poster who never participates here, just links to her site (that I long since stopped visiting).
I don’t visit there either. Too boring.
I sometimes post blog links myself, but only when the blog post actually makes some point or imparts some information pertaining to the article.
Try this, Clare, published in 2008, it reveals much of the record obama has had sealed:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
After the selective withdrawel of federal immigration law enforcement from AZ, I am just agog. It is a hostile act towards a soverign state! I do not understand why there are not howls coming out of the Senate from even Democrats in response. And where are the conservatives?! I have NEVER seen or read about an act of such criminality by a sitting president toward his own country. Where are the voices? And THIS man wishes to be re-elected?
Obama can solve the illegal immigration problem in a way that gets him re-elected and keeps illegals from competing for jobs. Simply mail absentee ballots, welfare checks and food stamps to their homes in Mexico (or Columbia/Venezuela/Panama, Brazil, etc). That way they can vote as they always do (with full protection by the Justice Department) and their money will go further than it does here in the U.S.
The voices are there; the mainstream media just won’t broadcast them the way they broadcast those on the far left. Read the comments on columns such as
this. They are about 10:1 AGAINST the socialist policies being imposed on us
by Obama, et al. WE THE PEOPLE are here and soon, they will have to listen to
us.
The voices are there; they just don’t get
I hear ya, softunderbelly. Even though I strongly supported John McCain in 2008, I was willing to give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt when he was elected. Maybe he wouldn’t turn out to be as bad as I feared, and the country really needed for him to be successful.
Unfortunately, he has turned out to be every bit the disaster that I had feared he would be.
In what way?
Duah.
Is the country unraveling? Actually, the entire world is. Say what you want about the various prophecies, the Mayan calendar, etc. If the world was in fact collapsing into the end times, what would it look like?
I’m reminded of the observation made by Ludwig Wittgenstein about what it would have looked like if the Sun revolved around the Earth. Are we going to realize someday that our world is “revolving” in a completely different manner than we thought it was? I’m not saying one way or the other. I’m just making an observation.
Look at the bright side, Robert. As per Richard Fernandez: yes we’re screwed up but it looks as if the rest of the world has managed to “out-blunder” us (again). Hard to believe but…
I agree with your comment and take some comfort in knowing the US is still not a screwed up as other countries.
But the really frightenging thing is that the broad affluence/ peace/ stability/ sense of shared vision that the US has enjoyed for at least the last 70 years can shatter in an instant. Moreover, there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans working toward that very goal, including the charlatan president of the United States.
vdh has expressed some conficdence in the reliliency of the this country. I’m not so sure. The Twin Towers were the epitome of strength and endurance until the blow came that even they couldn’t endure. In a minute, the strength of decades became rubble.
I’m afraid that the same might happen to this country. If it does, the world will descend into barbarism and possibly destroy itself.
That thought alone ought to be enough to keep maniacs from tinkering with a system that has done more good for more people than any other, by far, in history. But unfortunately I know that even most of the people on our side, who have relatively good intentions, still can’t WAIT to get their hands on the levers of government and make THEIR unilaterally brilliant adjustments. To whit, Romney and health care.
Even if we defeat the greatest scam artist in history, thousands more idiots are lined up to roll the dice on the fate of hunanity.
I just want them all to leave us alone. Keep the police and emergency workers. Maintain a strong national defense. Other than that, LEAVE US ALONE.
Yes Weo, before 9/11 the Twin Towers, symbols of American might, seemed indestructible. Then, in less than a few hours, the unthinkable became all too real. Before our disbelieving eyes, they came tumbling down.
But Weo, they are being rebuilt. Each day, the towers climb higher and higher. That’s the important lesson we need to take away.
Like the Twin Towers, before Obama, the nation seemed indestructible. Now, in less than four years, we are asking ourselves, is the nation tumbling down. There are so many problems facing us, all made worse by the Man-Child we, in a moment of national insanity, elected to the highest office in the world. Where do we start to prop up the ediface he has so ravaged?
Hanson’s article identified only a few. We could spend hours identifying others – many of which pre-dated Obama’s Reign of Terror: an educational system that has turned into a breeding-ground for doctrinaire progressivism; a news media that has forsworn its Constitutional responsibilities; corporate leaders who have bedded down with corrupt governmental officials; public “servants” who now expect to be served by the very people who pay their salaries; on and on ad nauseum.
It seems to me we have only two real choices. We can wring our hands in despair that the job is simply too overwhelming and hunker down in a cave and hope that we’ll survive the deluge, or we can roll up our sleeves and set about the task of restoring America to that Shining City on the Hill.
I think there will come a day – maybe not that far off – when we will thank Obama. For he is the one who showed us the price of our inattention, of our neglect of duty. What happens when we fail our most fundamental duty: being responsible citizens. Remember, always remember, Ben Franklin’s response when asked what he and the other Constitutional framers wrought following that long, hot Philadelphia summer of 1789: “We’ve given you a republic, Madam…if you can keep it.”
So here we are, more than two centuries later, facing a long and hazardous journey ahead. So how will we ever navigate such a trek? The only way we can: one step followed by another. And that first step? Send the Carpet Bagger Obama packing.
That’s where we start.
While the twin towers are being rebuilt (albeit, slowly rising) one can think back to the glory days of the USA and recall the great works that were done in far less time than it has taken to achieve the various regulatory and zoning approvals to rebuild them. Look at the speed at which the Empire State Building was constructed; how fast the carrier Yorktown was rebuilt after the battle of Coral Sea so that it was ready at Midway. Once, the USA knew how to get things done. Under Obama, it is showing how much delay and how many obstacles can be created by the government. There are some silver linings in the model favored by the left. The ill advised and un-needed high speed train in California is being stymied by various EPA statement needs. Hoist on their own petard, as it were. What we need is leadership that will assess the situation, put the dog kennel on the roof and push on.
Dave, I profoundly wish I could agree with you. Like you, I was long an optimist about the future of our nation. I no longer am. VDH has given us the “lowlights” of the Obama administration, a record that — if he were a Republican — would have doomed him long ago to defeat and irrelevancy, yet his personal approval ratings are stratospheric, and his unfavorable job performance rating still hovers just below 50%. No person not possessed of a profound ideological bias or terminal ignorance could for a moment consider his reelection, yet he still leads in most polls, and even many conservative pundits believe he will win a second term.
But even if Romney should win, and bring along with him both House and Senate majorities, it would take a miracle to turn this country away from the path it has so long taken toward acceptance of the huge, all-powerful central government. Too much is entrenched, too many people say they admire the conservative idea but now depend too much upon big government to reform it, too much has been done to the nation to undo it.
The strategy of the left is, and always has been, to marshal the ignorant, the ill-informed, the unions, and the special interest groups (and to increase their numbers) into a dependency class that is led by an elite of academics, media, Hollywood, a public education system that indoctrinates the young, and surprisingly, Wall Street and big businesses that depend upon government bailouts to escape the market’s penalties for their failures. It is a strategy that is clearly working.
Even though we are a center-right nation in attitude, in practice we are not. The influence on the people’s opinions and choices of the powerful so-called mainstream media that selectively reports (and misreports) what it believes the people need to see and hear to make proper voting decisions has deformed the nation, I fear, irrevocably. This is a factor which, I believe, will not, cannot, be changed. The occasional outbursts of outrage, such as the 2010 congressional election, will be just that: occasional. It will not be enough to alter the course.
Although I know it sounds quaint and retro to say it, hope may have died with the end of the Reagan years, the last great years of America. Integrity, loyalty to principle, steadfastness, and genuine love of country above all else, left when he did. The road back to where we were then is an upward road, and it is simply too steep for the drifting, feckless Americans of today to climb.
Except, some people are pyromaniacs and just like watching fires burn.
It’s the EOTW the same way it was in the 1940′s when the same economic fools led us down the same primrose utopian path toward destruction: a Really Big War that takes the young men and reduces whole cities to rubble.
And we have just the megalomaniac at the helm to pull it off.
What with the Dream amnesty and today’s Arizona decision, he may not need voter fraud to get reelected. But that habit will be hard to break.
He will need at least the same levels of voter fraud that Democratic big city machines and their Secretary of State projects have delivered these many years.
Don’t worry, though, they had a practice run in WI’s 21st District, Acorn is fine under other names, and they’ve just insured hundreds of thousands of the most easily coverable illegal aliens will be around for the election.
There should be a record turn-out of the graveyard vote this year, in Florida and anywhere else they’ve been able to insure the voter’s list are unaltered since last time around, and I’m sure they’ll be able to limit absentee voting by those military types who just don’t understand. I assume the usual crowd will vote absentee in NY before voting in person in Florida, and I’m sure they’ll help the callow youth to register to vote absentee at home before going off to college to vote for the Big 0 there.
Of course the BO campaign HQ itself can make sure that the Chicago precincts don’t come in until they see how much they’ll need to insure the downstate IL voters have no effect on the election.
“But they both do it!” will be the battle cry, as some little County Commission election reflects the ideals of the Daly machine, LaRaza, and Al Franken’s favorite 200% voter turnout county in MN.
True the Vote needs to get some re-enforcements, and maybe we won’t need twice the votes suggested by the author.
You are fucking sick. Get help.
Tim, I don’t understand your comment. If you dispute that there is massive voter fraud, please open your eyes. Here’s a good start:
http://truethevote.org/resources/
Tim is the typical Alinskyite libtard.
Whenever anyone rationally points out that the democrat party operates like organized crime, the response is – You are really the problem.
And note the restraint in Tim’s reponse.
The closer you strike to the truth, the more obnoxious they become.
A funny thing about that oversized black vote: I’ve worked intimately with black men all my life. Do you know why they don’t vote? Because it’s all rigged, they’ll tell you. They don’t need to show up because it’s all taken care of already. Why risk getting nailed for jury duty or child support when it’s all good, anyway?
I heard that 20 years ago. Think it’s gotten better or worse?
The Dems need a RICO investigation. Badly.
What a rotten catalogue of disgrace and dangerous empty-ness of our sitting President.
Don’t misunderstand that observation.
Dr Hanson, as usual, makes his points with irrefutable cogency and zap!-on! accuracy.
What scares the s**t out of me is that (as someone on another blog pointed out) 52% of us voters put this Chameleon-In-Chief in office, that particular Oval Office in that particular White House. He has a claque of supporters who couldn’t care less about us detractors and pointers-out of his embarrassing inability to be a President of our United States…..as long as they can collectively “stick it to the man” as like minded voters did by rewarded the mayor of our District of Columbia, Marion Barry by re-electing him in spite of that video of him doing whatever one does with crack cocaine.
This November’s election presents us with the grave risk that Obama just possibly might scarf up enough votes to be…re-elected.
The stark lesson we should carefully observe is that our individual votes are precious, and that once carelessly cast and then tallied they can (and as they did here) present us with a disaster which will take years to heal.
Dr Hanson presents us with a reminder of the responsibility we voters simply must exercise, and absolutely prevent this Obama chameleon from being re-elected.
This country is not unraveling….and most glaringly…….after surviving intact after the 1960′s…..we must not belittle ourselves by reelecting such an empty little man as our President.
“Be assured, there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” Every now and then it is necessary to let the Democrats win the White House, in order to remind the American people that the Republicans are the lesser evil.
Okay…..
I guess you’re right……permit me a wee bit o’ snark so I can quip……sort of like Galbraith’s [ & Schumpeter's ?] “Countervailing Power”?
No, the Republicans are not the lesser evil. They are as bad as the Democrats.
However, almost anyone running against Obama would be the lesser evil. Unfortunately, a majority of voters probably will not see it that way, and Obama will be reelected.
There is no chance that President Obama will be re-elected.
Been retired since ’09, check blogs daily and the comment threads could not be more different now, than even a year ago. Check Politico or Roll Call or even the Wash Post. Obama is getting criticized loudly, comprehensively and in chorus. The trolls on conservative sites have disappeared or are keeping their heads down; and when the die-hard true believer lefty comes out – they get hammered.
Watching the obvious overwhelm the MSM will be highly entertaining over the next two months.
But were those people ever Obama voters? At NYT, support for him still seems rock solid, judging by the few stories where they allow comments and of course the paper’s editorial take is still solid Democrat.
A bad mood is descending everywhere, what with this Eurozone thing looking to blow apart and who knows what fallout there will be from that.
Yes, and if you check the sites I read daily (non political “social” or hobby sites with mostly young, educated users who *think* they’re independent thinkers but who actually parrot the MSM talking points on every issue) you’ll STILL see a lot of knee jerk , lick spittle near-worship of the Obamas (especially MO-she’s “so accomplished”), little to no mention of the very issues so important on conservative sites( NOTHING about F&F, very little about immigration law, not even much about obamacare), and lots of nasty insults directed at republicans and conservatives. Quite a few anti Romney comments, though, mostly about his religion and That Dog on the Roof Incident. :-( Bottom line : On the sites I check daily, there’s not a whole lot of political talk, but what there is reveals a deep, automatic dislike and contempt for conservatives, and a belief that while BHO has “done some things I disagree with” and “hasn’t fulfilled expectations”, the fault for those failed expectations lies mostly with Congress and “all the racists in this %&*#@ country”, and “BHO is still much better than the alternative”. They regard BHO as the only thing standing between them and a “taliban like” or “Handmaid’s Tale” like future, because “radical Christians are just as bad as radical moslems”. (Yes, those are all comments I’ve read more than once at these sites.)They intend to vote for BHO because they think if they don’t, they will lose all “reproductive rights”.
I hope you’re right that BHO is doomed, because I am NOT sure this country can survive what it has suffered till now and I KNOW it cannot survive 4 more years of BHO, MO ,and Holder. But if my reading of the tea leaves is correct, we cannot underestimate the automatic dislike more-or-less educated “undecideds/independents” feel for Republicans and Conservatism, coupled with their knowledge that “cool” people are Democrats and liberals.
I think this election will be a lot closer than it should be. BHO has been an unmitigated disaster and he *SHOULD* lose in a landslide, but if he loses at all, I think it will be a narrow lose, and I am by no means convinced he will not get a narrow victory. :-(
I’ve been doing ‘pre-campaign’ campaign calling for Romney to identify the 250,000 voters they need to be able to count on to win here in OH. These calls are going to indies and unknowns. I was appalled at the (1) blatant apathy, (2) blistering ignorance, and (3) bone-chilling number of those who are not yet decided as to whether they approve of the way B.O. is doing the job of the President, and whether they would vote for him or Romney if the election were to be held today.
We are in big trouble, folks…
Democrats are worse because they seek the subversion of the constitution and the market economy.
You know I said the same thing about O’Malley, that there’s no way the people of MD could be stupid enough to re-elect him to another 4 years…and here we are suffering through another term of Owe-Malley.
Let’s put it this way, if we could harness stupidity as an energy source we’d never run out of energy.
hoss, if you actually thought the great blue wall of md was gonna buckle – well, youre not so smart yourself.
Based on the RCP individual polls, mostly “likely voter” Rasmussen polls, I see it going at the very least this way.
ST O R UD EC AHEAD Prob R
FL 45 49 6 29 R 29
NC 44 47 9 15 R 15
VA 43 48 9 13 R 13
PA 47 41 12 20 O
OH 44 46 10 18 R 18
MI 50 42 8 16 O
WI 44 47 9 10 R 10
IA 46 47 7 6 R 6
MO 42 49 9 10 R 10
CO 45 45 10 9 T
AZ 46 49 5 11 R 11
NV 48 42 10 6 O
NH 48 43 9 4 O
OR 50 42 8 7 O 11
123 Swing States
170 Heavy lean or sure thing
293 Total
Colorado is a tie by Rasmussen’s LV poll so add 9 to that and you have 302. only need 270 to win.
also note the high margin of undecideds. This bodes well for Romney as well since historically the majority of UDs go for the challenger.
Do i think it is possible Mr Zero wins? Anything can happen but only if there is some major event in his favor at the last minute. The trend is definitely down and out for Zero.
OK – the matrix didn’t come out.
Fl 29 with Romney ahead 49/45
NC 15 – Romney 47/44
VA 13 – Romney 48/43
OH 18 – Romney 46/44
WI 10 – Romney 47/44
IA 6 – Romney 47/46
MO 10 – Romney 49/42
AZ 11 – Romney 49/46
CO 9 – Tie 45/45 but 10% undecided
My math was wrong. 282 without CO, 291 with. Still more than the 270 needed.
I also believe PA with 20 is in play because Romney 41 / 47 with 12% undecided is going to hinge on coal and natural gas jobs issues. Not Zero’s strength.
and lastly voter enthusiasm gap – way out of whack for Democrats. too many running from the party and the President. The who’s who of who’s not going to the DNC in Charlotte is astounding and growing.
Have heart, there is light at the end of this long dark tunnel.
Well-said!
Well said. The other scary piece is that we no longer have a “media” in this country. Instead we have a propaganda machine for global collectivism. As Ron Kean querries below, what do we do about it? I for one simply no longer watch any network that has sold out to the globalists, including all three major networks. I have a lot of reading to catch up on anyways… If we all did that, it might have an effect.
But I think the case could be made that a media organization whose editiorial board made the deliberate decision to exclude, include, distort, edit and omit news to support one party is in fact engaged in an effort to subvert democracy. I’m sure there are lots of harrowing stories out there that could be told by honest journalists of how the stories being spun and suppressed, in close coordination with the White House. If the story got out a lot of people would be angry. No-one likes to be made a fool.
Perhaps under a new president, other Heroes of the Republic like Darrell Issa will emerge and begin digging…?
One thing to keep in mind is that Obama has lost at least some of his support in EVERY category of voters. He cannot win unless Romney makes people stay home through a boring non leader like campaign. Sure he will still win the Black vote but not with 95% of last time. He will win the Hispanic vote because they all came from corrupt governments and they expect lies like the one he just told them about amnesty. Catholics will still vote for him but not the true believers. Catholics like Biden and Pelosi are so devoid of any Catholic teachings that it represents a country club membership. Single mothers will still vote for him because most would sacrifice liberty for security. Now however, they see a man who has no core and abandons his constituents when it is convenient. Liberals will still vote for him but they see him as a diminished figure who hasn’t gone far enough toward the destruction of America. Some Blue collar workers will still vote for him but not many. He has insulted almost everyone of them in one form or another. That means that this election is Romney’s to lose.
Yes you are right, voting is important and that is why I am voting for Obama in November. Is is far better than Romney.
Bwahahahaha!
“Is the Country Unraveling?”
Yes, and if Obama is re-elected, we will see an all-out blue state/red state civil war in his second term, sparked by his leftist executive overreach and by strong-armed attempts to bail out California and Illinois.
Red State America will refuse, giving Obama an excuse to shut down democratic institutions, opposition media, and rule by decree. He will use union thugs and mobs, inner city gangs, and possible even minority members of the military, to try and stay in power.
No civil wars necessary. He will just have his good buddy Ben Bernanke monetize all Blue State debt.
At some point, derelict behavior gotta bottom out. Gotta die, or bottom out.
What cannot continue indefinitely, will not. That’s also what I say about the 100 degree days in TX summer. Post Labor Day, they stop. At least most of June has been comfortable – by TX summer standards, of course.
Where I live in south Israel we have 95-110 degrees all summer, about 3 months, plus the occasional Grad attacks. It’s a lot like Saudi Arabia, except there’s no oil and Jews are allowed. But as you say, everything comes to an end, at least until next time (there’s alwyas a next time, isn’t it? The next summer, the next recession, the next Marxist revolution, the next megalomaniac dictator/s with insane ideology and global ambitions, the next Walter Duranty, the next Chamberlain, the next war). At least the winters are light, though there are still the occasional Grad attacks.
One thing that can’t go on much longer at all: the national debt.
The US owes more than the entire planet can pay back.
Wrong. As long as our debt is in our own currency, we can always pay it back with newly printed dollars. The rest of the planet is irrelevant. Of course, if we print them too fast there will be a massive inflation, but that is a side issue.
And then every dime that every honest hard working person has saved for their retirement will be worth 10% and they will have to depend on the government to get their cat food allowance. They will be punished for the governments fiscal irresponsibility rather than rewarded for their own careful planning. The sensible thing would be move their money out of the US or into a foreign currency but those options are limited for a middle class person. Offshore money hiding is for the rich.
BTW, when I say ‘they’ I mean me. I was smart enough to plan for my own retirement (still a couple of decades away) and not depend on SS, however every time we print money we deplete my nest egg.
Thanks GW!
Thanks Barak!
Re. #5. buddy larsen
“At some point, derelict behavior gotta bottom out. Gotta die, or bottom out”.
In Russia it took 70+ years.
If Obama wins my children and grandchildren will have a very interesting times (in Chinese proverb sense).
Don’t rush down to your local pub to celebrate the end of Obama-Mao just yet.
Realize this guy just loves the “passive aggressive” model of power politics. It’s in the shadows where he does his best work!
Who is going to count the “secret” presidential votes this coming November? Last chance, right there, beyond hanging chads…
I saw a new BMW suv yesterday with an Obama-Mao “2012″ circular sticker on it’s tailgate: He got friends for many reasons.
Great observation on how Barry intends to live his life (with rich people and celebrities) after he loses, unlike his daddy who married a bottle…
I have to suppose at this point that America needed to experience the full-Barack before coming to its senses. Americans might have accepted incremental change, but our radical-in-chief decided to put all the chips on the table. Nationalized healthcare quickly became the proverbial bridge too far. Economics trumps ideology. No amount of ideological zeal can compensate for falling home prices, employers who refuse to hire, and investors too nervous to participate in the market. If it’s true that Americans vote with their pocketbook, then Barack Obama is finished.
Another way of looking at it. If The One had only been more circumspect, he would have made a lot progress and probably still be wildly popular in the polls. The radical left got impatient. They spent so many decades laying the groundwork, if only they made an effort to at least appear bipartisan and moderate in the first term, they probably would have been able to go all the way. Like the proverbial frog in the pot, we wouldn’t have noticed we were boiling until it was too late.
Obama turned out to be exactly the wrong pick for the globalist left, because he woke us out of our stupor. Hillary would have been the better choice. Turns out the leftist puppetmasters were conned by The One too. He was not what he said he was. Leftists are so adept at weaving deceptions, they can get fooled by their own simulacra!
As I wrote before, the masterminds of the global left got greedy, impatient. They forgot the first commandment of all successful revolutionaries: stay hungry.
It does appear that the great leader is “melting, melting” and it continues. I thought this week’s newest fundraiser ploy…The Obama Event Registry…was HILARIOUS. Giving up wedding presents or presents for some other event in lieu of donating to his presidential campaign. To top it off, the genius who put it together used the term gravy bowl instead of gravy boat. Maybe the Obamas gave Valerie Jarret’s daughter a campaign contribution in her name instead of a wedding gift last week. Yeah, right…the smartest administration ever!
I’m thinking “gravy train” might have been better…
But still, a very odd piece to point out. It’a as if they’re writing this for The Onion.
Nowhere is the Obama model of massive borrowing, vast increases in the size of the state, more regulations, and class warfare successful — not in California or Illinois, not in Greece, Spain, or Italy, not anywhere.
All true, and should be pivotal, but all has to be sold to the electorate. And then you have to tell ‘em you told ‘em, and then you tell ‘em again. Romney’s sales skills are on a par with John Effin’ Kerry’s.
Mormon underwear ads will certainly pop up before Nov., no doubt released by ‘anonymous well-wishers’. The best that can be said there is, er, better than Kerry in Spandex — but ridicule will take it’s toll on Romney and Obama’s handlers know it.
The irony is that the last four years have reminded us of what we still can be, and how we differ from most other places in the world.
More than that, it’s an accurate description of how most of us still are. But however you slice it — wages of sin or wages of inertia, or just plain old pay-off for dumbed-down standards enshrined as holy writ in bueaucracies that grew like Topsy when you weren’t paying attention — the task ahead is enormous.
I keep wondering why the fascination with Mormon underwear??? Really, what business is it of anyone what someone chooses to wear under their clothes?
For the record: I am one of those “underwear” wearers; they are outward reminders of an inner commitment to God.
I fail to see what that has to do with politics.
Those who cannot come up with substantive criticisms must resort to ridicule over trivialities.
Like birth certificates?
How deliciously ironic.
Your raising the subject here exactly proves the point.
Sally, perhaps you don’t remember Pres. Clinton being asked by a grade-schooler what type of shorts (boxer, jockey or?)he wore. I don’t recall if Clinton merely answered or demonstrated but the incident made the news for several cycles.
Two defenses against Mormon underwear ads:
1) Rev. Wright
2) Harry Reid (like Romney, very LDS)…..
Good! – but it’ll have to be quick, mean and everywhere. So far Romney’s superPacs have shown themselves to be adept at bludgeoning fellow Republican candidates — lots of injured innocence and bluster about omlets and eggs in a tough world — but rather feeble in the direction of the main foe. There’s more than a hint of schoolyard bully in both Obama and Romney, reflected in their campaigns. Then, speaking of injured innocence, there’s the inevitable drag of the plodding GOP/RNC establishment. Doesn’t bode well.
Forget the underwear. No one cares about that. The MSM will show “documentary” video programs depicting winged demons from Hell materializing to have sex with Mormons in their cloistered temples. They will make Mormons appear to be an Orgy Cult. They will start with “ever wonder what Mormons do in their closed and secluded Temples? We will show you the exclusive….”
We should all be very grateful that the jumped-up fool Obama over-reached as badly as he did. A smarter and less arrogant dimwit would not and might well have conned enough of the simple-minded to return him to power.
Then what?
How else did it get here?
Almost every friend I have or had went crazy, cast a vote for obama, and will do it again.
Work hard to dissuade them. If you can turn even one or two, we will win.
I’m working on ‘em, believe me. And thanks.
Just a quick reminder, when arguing a point, the opponent is rarely changed, but the listeners, they can be convinced quietly listening to a moderate and considerate statement of facts. Forget the other guy you are talking to, its the listeners on the fringes who are your targets.
I did my best to talk people out of voting for Obama in 2008, to no avail. One or two in particular have become greatly disillusioned by him. What I’ve been doing this year is telling such people that, if they’re disappointed with Obama but can’t bring themselves to vote for Romney, to just stay home on election day; i.e., cast a protest non-vote.
We all some friends and relatives who’ve left the ranch for this idiot, I know I do, I have an Aunt I won’t speak to over it as her immigrant father and my grandfather who had 2 daughters but always wanted a son and transferred that to me and my younger bro would have excommunicated her after fighting in a war to defeat this very thing overseas against his homeland of Germany as did my paternal Grandfather as a Marine against Italy.
These south American and African and middle eastern (and some Russian gangster) immigrants of today would run back home before being signed up to fight THEIR homelands as “Americans” because they’re not and never intended to be. And furthermore, many are voting for this guy last time and more this time if he can help it.
Why wouldn’t they, these dolts and mopes promise them illegal candy and things they can’t deliver but the targets are too stupid to know. They think nothing of taking a ten dollar bill and voting illegally. Nothing. They risked life and limb to get here, think they’re worried about THAT> NOT>
We’re just gonna have to turn the heat up on Illegals ourselves. They don’t speak English, it’s very simple. Anyone living here legally is supposed to speak English. If you meet or know people who do not and don’t care, they’re illegal aliens, be they white brown black, what ever. They’re not citizens if they’ve been here a while because they wouldn’t have green cards forever.
With the fall of Obama (hopefully) so we should see the fall of the press…at least the left wing press which we all know is the greatest majority of the media. Many remember the Watergate break-in. Was paper taken? How far up did it go? Who knew and when? And then, what about two consenting adults…even though of course one, the president was married. There was a grand jury on that one. What did Gonzalez hear at Ashcroft’s bedside and what about Colin Powell’s aid telling Jack somebody about Valery Plame? They wanted Scooter’s head for that.
Jay Carney forgot Brian Terry’s name. So what? The New Black Panthers in military uniform carrying billy clubs. Who cares? Many document forensic examiners doubt the long form. What! Somebody must be laughably insane to even acknowledge a doubt. Islam? Whoa! Peace brother. OWS…Shhh about all the rape. Who couldn’t go on with more examples of the media/presidential press corp/arm of the Democratic Party?
So we wait for the MSM bubble to burst. We wait to see NBC, the Times and all to go bust not that we wish ill on their employees. We don’t. But we want retribution for being pushed so hard for so long, insulting our intelligence and being so damn conceited when they’re the ones who are stupid like Paul Krugman. Really stupid.
We wait and wait.
I hope what you predict about the liberal media comes true; hopefully their collapse will be hastened by the handy computers we’re using here, along with those vital signs called “Ratings”.
Facebook is a dangerous propaganda fertilizer if it falls into the wrong hands…that can work in several directions at once. Methinks young Mark Zuckerberg may have a cyber-dragon by the tail.
PJMedia is no slouch at marshaling opinion, but there’s not that much readership….because the messages here at PJMedia don’t attract the Obama-voters-entitlement-scammers-border-wader-jumping wet backs.
The (pray for it) defeat of Obama will show the media the error of their ways, in spite of those ways, but the real impact will come only at the bottom lines of their balance sheets.
I’m not media wise, but I suggest that advertisers are the key to effecting real change. Fox news alone can’t sway high enough numbers. For the Liberals, quantity trumps all.
That’s why I worry about November.
I’d encourage anyone to simply look out their window, read the local police log, talk to friends and family from all over the world. If what you see and know about life doesn’t match what’s on television or The Drudge Report, then you need to seriously ask why.
The plan of ’08 is working perfectly. We caged the RINO amd uncaged the Democrats thereby giving the country a stark view of the Democrat principles and style of governance. I couldn’t be happier. When Democrats are publicly abandoning Obama the wisdom of our ’08 choice to stay home shines through. We took a 3 1/2 year dangerous experiment and may reap a once in a lifetime chance to bury leftism influence. War is always dangerous. This undertaking bordered on the Cloward-Pliven strategy. The moreso I thought it resembled the Russian WWII strategic retreats in the summer of ’42. It seemed the only way. It looks like it might just have worked.
Time to put Obama on the ropes and go for the knockout.
I expect to see, post election, a remake of the Democratic party.
Mike, you were on my brainwave with this blog. I had been mulling the Obama strategy over the last few months and it looks like the scorched earth plan of the Russians in retreat. In this case, Obama throws his crazy-cr*p plans into the news mill to distract from the economic issues, change the narrative, and move further back into the leftist base.
Throwing his supporters under the bus seems second nature. When the Dem Party was shifted hard left with their central planning, big gov., wasted spending, tax begging, and ultra-partisanship, fully exposed, their own cover was gone. Sacrificing the union jobs for the greenie agenda in the Keystone stall is still smelling like smoke.
That will only be true if we vote The One out come November; and ideally re-take the Senate and strengthen our hand in the House. Having set the first part of your strategy in motion, I hope you’re doing all you can to make sure that happens.
Not only do we have a 2012 problem, to wit so many people unaware of the facts concerning Obama, but then there’s the trouble with the past—memory.
I remember the daily depredations Slick Willy’s presidency presented us all—Vince Foster, the cattle futures, etc.
I also recall the original movie, “The Body Snatchers”.
It seems to me that a majority of Americans have had their minds “snatched”, long ago, by the education camps—pubic schools. Yes, we are a society full of MEGO types!
Happily, though—or NOT!—this too shall pass.
There is a pincer-like movement against our deadly leftist enemies, who are led by the MSM, which is epitomized by the bad old NYT “evil empire”. The still-awake rugged individualists who exist have been empowered by technology and have been competing, and winning, against these guys.
And, there are cracks in the NYT defense, in that one by one, the more open soldiers in that army are beginning to, THEMSELVES, one by one, “see the light”. I expect the hoary phrase, “mugged by reality”, to become rehabilitated, as more and more of the brightest and most sensitive—probably younger—people on the left just can’t take it anymore.
Yes—perhaps by the forces of truth attacking the leftist “shell” from the outside and the inside, a major inflection point will soon enough be reached, and then maybe the companion phrase to “mugged by reality” will also become de rigueur—“joining the bandwagon”.
True CHANGE in behavior and/or beliefs demands, at first, awareness of the falsity of one’s current condition. Confession of one’s “sins” follows, whether to just oneself or publicly.
Here comes the nineteenth nervous breakdown of the left—
MEA CULPA!
I stopped using drudge because he does not identify his source until you give them a hit. Nothing pisses me off more than hitting nyt, msnbc, cbs… Give them pigs nothing.
The Free Republic has everything drudge has and much more. Those dudes never sleep… ever.
Jim zotted me in a purge a while back, but at least he shows you up front where your hits go.
Now i am a lurker, not a freeper… ho hum…
You do realize that you can hover the cursor over a hyperlink and see where it goes without clicking? If it’s NYT, MSNBC, or another “undesirable” site, you can avoid it.
Caveat: This applies to Firefox and Chrome. Can’t remember the last time I used IE, so YMMV there. Also, re “CRD” in thread #18, after a thorough scouring of the “Options” menus I can’t find any way to disable links in Firefox.
Meanwhile, while we hope and pray for the Obamas to say goodbye to their cushy tax-payer furnished digs, there’s a new start-up in Texas that will totally change advertising and give small businesses across America a chance to compete. Check out: http://www.gobza.com/3950
As usual Dr. Hanson makes many a cognizant point. But it’s better to understand the psychology of these people rather than look at their sorry results. As Rhodesia disintergrated into Zimbabwe, I noticed several important things that relate to our situation today. There are many people who would rather have a black President, no matter how sorry, than see their country prosper. There are also a large number of people who would rather get a smaller amount right now and kill the Golden Goose rather than get a lot more later. Add to this number a subset that overlays both these groups and wants radical redistribution of wealth. Our education system has taught these people to believe that wealth just exists and isn’t created by the actions of people, or upheld by a government that has just laws and policies that encourage economic activity. The complete and total ignorance of these people on matters economic is sad in and of itself, but dangerous in the extreme to the future of our country. And to think that fully half of the population would support the complete idiot we now have in office is scary at the very least.
“There are also a large number of people who would rather get a smaller amount right now and kill the Golden Goose rather than get a lot more later. ”
There are also a lot of people who do not mind getting a smaller amount for themselves if that means others will also only get a small amount. Crab mentality.
Studies have shown that such mentality is hard-wired into the Human Species. In every controlled experiment ever done, the overwhelming majority opt for perceived fairness rather than maximizing their own pile of loot.
Dear Dr. Hanson,
I occasionally forward your columns to well-educated skeptics of the truth about which you write. Typical reactions are, “typical right wing assertions, with no proof.” As a scholar, you obviously understand the importance of primary sources. I realize that PJM is not a scholarly journal, however I wish that you would include footnotes or references to the facts about which you write. Perhaps you could be on the vanguard of a new movement within the new media that documents facts with hyperlinks to original sources, when available.
footnotes, maybe, in an honest world, but the “typical right-wing assertions, with no proof” line is bullshit.
what it really means is “I don’t believe it, no matter what, so f*ck you, period.”
and also, the line usually goes: “typical vicious right-wing assertions . . .” etc.
otherwise, got the same responses you did after forwarding hanson’s articles to the same kinds of people.
As a scholar, you obviously understand the importance of primary sources. I realize that PJM is not a scholarly journal, however I wish that you would include footnotes or references to the facts about which you write.
I counted 13 links, which are the web equivalent to footnotes or references.
Following is a VDH statement without links or references.
These are not linked/footnoted. I imagine VDH did not footnote them in order to avoid cluttering up the page. By now these are common knowledge. If it is common knowledge, it is not necessary to be footnoted. For example, it is common knowledge that New York City is the largest city in the US. If you consider the above quoted passage as not being common knowledge, such as “57 states” or “speaking Austrian,” Googling would enable a lib- or you- to easily verify them.
For the record, here is another example of Obama’s ignorance, from the 2008 campaign. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much! What is most dangerous about Obama’s ignorance is that he considers himself to be very knowledgeable. For, example,he did not back down from this statement, in spite of its being flat out incorrect.
Gringo what is even worse is that he has convinced the weak minded of his so-called smartest guy in the room. One only has to turn on the lame stream media and hear the rantings of the liberal pundits extolling the virtues.
The links don’t work for you?
And for the unlinked statements, all it takes is minimal exposure to recent events.
I hate having to return to lap up my vomit! I was on a device behind enemy lines and did not realize links were turned off; I did not even know you could do that in a browser. Thanks fellas for not whippin’ the old cur.
The left’s response to the straightforward brilliance of commentators like VDH or Sowell is described by the great Runyon quote “Shut up, he explained.” (In Sowell’s case they also usually imply that he’s and “uncle Tom.”)
Obama legacy:
The apex of affirmative action advancing America to the Abyss
When the history of this administration is written, (a task that I hope begins in January of 2013), I think the focus will be how the voting public came to their senses and rejected a government characterized by hypocrisy, arrogance, overreach and ineptness.
1. 57 states
2. Austrian language
3. corpse-man
4. Maldives for Falklands
5. we built the intercontinental railroad
6. Hirohito surrendered to MacArthur on the U.S.S. Missouri
7. president of Canada
8. English embassy
9. E. pluribus Unum is the U.S. motto
10. Polish concentration camps
11. hundreds of national parks
12. France our closest ally
13. U.S. the largest Muslim nation
14. Lincoln founded the Republican Party
15. ?
15. With cameras rolling, being utterly unable to remember the motto of the French Revolution, liberty equality and fraternity
Cinco de cuatro
Capitalist Running Dog @ #18: Have your lib friends never heard of these utterances of Obama the Ignorant? If so, your lib friends are pathetically ignorant. Do your lib friends deny that Obama made these statements? They are also denying reality if they claim that Obama never said them.
On the day of Obama’s election I reversed my Stars and Stripes to signal severe distress and I have experienced near daily affirmation of that act since. Americans made a historic and possible fatal mistake when they elected Obama. I continue to be astounded and depressed when I see poll results showing still strong support for him despite everything. I simply cannot understand it. He should be around 20% with only the hardest of the hard-left giving homage rather than hovering at 50%. I think we have to accept that America may have permanently turned a corner and we may not deserve a restoration of the Republic. As Dr. Hanson will confirm, nations do fail and fade away or burn and it might be our time. But I remain hopeful.
jeremiah wright’s hate-filled “god damn america” is a mindset more infectious than we ever imagined.
but it’s not too late to counter it.
I think so, too.
It is really amazing how may Americans still remain in delusion and perhaps in coma that they continue to support him in polls after polls!! What has this “likability” factor got to do with what he is doing to the country which in one word cab e summarized “ruining”. Do these Americans want to see total destruction of America by this man before they will say they don’t like him. Morons!!!
I keep thinking the same thing. What is wrong with these people and then remember that what keeps the liberals in the game is dividing and conquering the people who the vote just their special “need”, or interest. Gays, blacks, atheists, feminists, those working for the state, local, federal government (over 20 millions believe it or not), unionists, and others vote just their special identity — that’s why it’s called identity politics. Dems have mastered this slice and dice game and it’s what keeps their numbers up no matter the candidate. Give O credit for playing this game — it’s his only chance.
I have no doubt that Obama is saving the biggest special interest card for last, probably in September or October. He needs to buy off enough interest groups to amass 51% of the vote, and mortgage debtors, particularly underwater ones, are the biggest potential supplicant group out there. 30-50 million debtors are underwater, and I expect Obama to announce his long awaited Re-election Refinance Plan in September. He will appear on a stage sitting between Bernanke and Pelosi, and announce that every mortgage debtor who applies for relief by election day will be guaranteed a refinance at 0% interest with no other conditions. Bernanke will print $10 trillion if necessary to do this. Of course, Obama will declare that no one will get the money until after January 20, so they will have to vote for Obama to get the money. Pelosi will then throw in the sweetener – a promise to actually forgive the underwater portion of all mortgage debt if Obama is given a Democratic Congress. This is a winning plan. There is nothing the Republicans con do to counter it.
This plan is possible because Romney made a grave strategic error – he promised never to reappoint Bernanke. Bernanke wants to stay in power more than anything else in the world, and he has nothing to lose by becoming overtly political and going all-in for Obama. While the President cannot appropriate funds from the Treasury himself, the Federal Reserve has the unlimited power to print money and monetize assets. This is why Obama will need a Democratic Congress to actually forgive trillions in debt, although he and Bernanke can refinance that debt at 0% at will.
VDH, Great summary; Obama has made everyone lay their cards down.
#5 Hey Buddy Larsen…good to hear from you…
Obama is the personification of the reality that “liberalism is not a sustainable ideology”
I still prefer “Liberalism is a mental disorder.”
I don’t know if it was based on fact, but when I was young, adults used to say, “A lightbulb burns brightest just before it burns out.” Let us hope this holds true for leftism/liberalism/progressivism in America.
With Obama’s ouster perhaps we will all, once again, rejoice in a good morning in America.
I don’t know, VDH.
I get the sense that the Fabian Socialists are raveling…not unraveling.
Western Europe is being held together by spit and Elmer’s glue. Free market democracy is under constant assault. The Fabian Socialists (aka small c communists)have capitalism ready to tap out, so firmly grasped in the chokehold of phony “entitlement” strangulation.
The insurance industry is seized up. Auto industry paralyzed. NASA is a community outreach program for the Muslim Brotherhood.
The overthrow is nearly complete in Europe. This coincides with the overthrow in the Middle East.
Caroline Glick wrote a wonderful article (mentioned at Powerline) about how Egypt’s election of the MB puts Israel in the crosshairs.
And…this all seems to fit neatly into Obama’s REAL autobiography, not the phony one…with all the Fabian undertones.
Nope, VDH. I don’t think we are seeing an unraveling. I think we are seeing the gift wrap on this overthrow being torn off the package. Dunn and Van Jones, Frank Marshall Davis, Carl Davidson, the Midwest Academy, Jeremiah Wright…were the bows on the package. Now, we get to see what is really inside.
It isn’t going to be pretty.
In my opinion, Obama is a worse president than Carter, resembling Hugo Chavez more than any USpresident. However, Hugo Chavez has managed to hold on. Looking at the electoral college, Obama gets New York, NJ, all of New England except NH, Illinois, Michigan and California. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida are tossups. Everywhere else goes to Romney. Unlike 1980, where previous democratic states went to Reagan, we are so polarized that NY and California would vote for Ahmadinejad if he were the democratic nominee. So it is too early to celebrate
For some reason, I’ve found myself reading book after book about the history of Rome, ca 100BC to 40BC.
In addition, compare the Western Roman Empire from the Third to Fifth Centuries A.D. (after its separation from Eastern empire ruled from Constantinople) to present-day Europe. (A good precis’ may be found on pp.82-84 of Connections by James Burke.)
Our present situation isn’t quite to the point of Rome’s during the period of the Barracks Emperors (235-284 A.D.). But we are definitely trending toward a replay of the era of the “idiot trifecta” of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero (14-68 A.D.).
cheers
eon
But you should remember that reading surviving Roman writings on the emperors, especially Augustus’ immediate successors, is a lot like reading the New York Times about Republican Presidents. For such horrible fellows, the emperors that led Rome for the 150 years or so after Augustus sure did make a very rich and powerful empire.
The biggest lesson I find from Rome is that if you run out of a natural resource base, in Rome’s case North Africa, you very soon go broke and can’t keep your country running.
The lesson Burke teaches is even more applicable;
When the empire split, the Western half retained most of the bureaucracy, by then consisting largely of inheritable posts that had been in the hands of the same patrician families for several generations. It was considered impossible to cut the size or expense of same, mainly for reasons of political patronage. There was also the expenses of the 300,000-man army to consider.
To continue supporting all of the above, taxes were raised, both by increases in existing tax item rates and by new taxes being imposed. As a consequence, people had less money to support families, so the birth-rate fell. In the next generation, the smaller tax base was yielding less revenue, so taxes were raised yet again. At no point was cutting the size of the government even considered; in fact, it continued to expand in size, authority, and expense.
Within two centuries the Western empire collapsed under the weight of its own bloated government.
BTW, anyone who thinks that Rome didn’t have “social programs” in the government financial matrix needs to take a good look at the Barbegal grain mill, near Arles, France, built in the late 4th Century AD. Eight pairs of waterwheels going down a 20-meter slope, each wheel driving two grindstones. It produced enough flour to feed 80,000 people every day, and ground wheat from as far away as Egypt to export across the empire- not to mention feeding the legions stationed in Gaul.
Plus, with the waning of slave labor, things got more expensive. And the populace demanded cheaper bread to go with the circuses.
By the 5th Century, the empire had withdrawn command from Rome to a great extent, while still demanding the taxes. In Gaul, for instance, Germanic tribes had held high administrative posts for nearly a century by that point. When the “barbarians” invaded in the 5th and 6th Centuries AD, they were fighting Romanized Franks and Burgundians, not Romans per se.
The parallels with both Europe, and the United States, today are pretty obvious. And they are parallels the Roman historians themselves did not see, and could not, since precognition, crystal balls, and time machines are notoriously consistent in not working. (Besides, how would they have known what to look for- or that they even needed to look?)
We, on the other hand, don’t have that excuse. And our excuse of “it’s supposed to work, therefore it must” is right up there with “I didn’t know it was loaded” for sheer vacuousness.
clear ether
eon
Not to mention the fact that the later Roman Emperors debased the currency (by adding other metals to the gold and silver coinage). Also, strictly speaking, the Goths and Visigots, et al, didn’t invade; they were invited in to “do jobs that the Romans wouldn’t do” – namely guard the boarder states, there not being enough Roman Army to do the job. In a really intriguing parallel, the Romans also had problems with China. The Chinese exported silk, but would only take gold in trade. One of the reasons for the currency debasement was that the Romans were running out of gold. All in all, the parallels are quire amazing.
The Roman historians may not have had time machines, but they could have drawn similar lessons from the fall of the Babylon Empire, and the Assyrians before them. Western civilization seems to crash every 1500 years or so.
Paul;
Excellent points. Re the 1500-year cycle, have you been reading Toynbee? ;-)
cheers
eon
I suspect that the many parallels drawn between the current state of our country and Rome are all over the validity map. Some are legitimate, many are bogus because there are so many differences between the countries and the eras.
But one thing I’m sure about is that the pace of change is many times, probably 10 times or more, rapid now than in Roman times. This is because of the speed of travel, the speed of communications and the knowledge of the past that people have (which is still pretty weak today, but certainly better than the Romans had).
A decade today is probably about equivalend to 100 years of Roman history.
Things are not going to evolve in a leisurely manner. When we say “our children” and “our grandchildren”, the reality is that those impacts will hit in the next few years, not in a couple of generations.
We have to stop the political criminals NOW.
“In less than 40 months, Obama destroyed the greatest bipartisan good will that any recent president has enjoyed, and has done more to discredit Keynesian neo-socialist politics than have all of talk radio, Fox News, and the internet combined. In just two years, he took a Democratic Congress and lost the House in the largest midterm setback since 1938. In other words, the people — fifty percent of whom either do not pay federal income taxes or receive some sort of state or federal entitlement or both — saw the best face of modern neo-socialism imaginable, and they were not quite sold on it.”
And yet, why is this race STILL so close? Who is actually voting for Obama? The economy is in shambles, our foreign policy is almost non-existant and falling apart right in front of us, there is little hope of the economy getting better anytime soon, our country is literally broke and building even more debt as we speak, our military is being gutted like a dead fish, and the only thing Obama wants to do is increase America’s dependency on government, not reduce it. And let’s not even talk about reducing the very size of government, which is a repulsive idea to Obama and his minions. I’m just amazed that Obama’s approval ratings are not in the low 30% range, about the number of hardcore liberals and socialists out there.
Never underestimate the power socialists and liberals have over an uneducated and ill-informed public, especially when they control the mainstream media. Unless people start paying attention to how badly our government is doing, they will actually believe all of the junk the Democrats are throwing at them. All we can do is try and inform as many people out there as possible at how dangerous this president is to our nation. Given the way our economy is tanking, I think they’ll start paying attention in a month or so.
If ABC, NBC, CBS ain’t reportin’ it, it isn’t in Letterman’s monologue, and John Stewart ain’t talkin’ about it or making fun of it, it never happened.
Factor in two or three generations of leftist control of our educational system, the propagandizing that goes on there in place of education, and the consequent, relentless increase in the percentage of clueless “mouth breathers,” and you get things like the current poll results on Obama’s popularity (not that I don’t think that these polls were rigged as well.
The “Greatest Generation” is almost gone, and their children–who, most of them, got a reasonably good and complete education–all know better–but they, too, are starting to pass from the scene. Those who remain to receive the baton do not fill me with confidence.
Has any presidential candidate or president set a partisan crowd to laughing by rubbing his chin with his middle finger as he derides an opponent, or made a joke about killing potential suitors of his daughters with deadly Predator drones, or recited a double entendre “go-down” joke about a sex act?
That would be normal in many non-Western countries. It’s yet another way in which Obama represents the transformation of America into a Third World country.
The problem will be locating all the pernicious programs like the Beverly Forum that he has people like John Holdren working on to push the UN sustainable development position of no growth and deindustrialization. These are mostly under the radar unless you come across them in another country and recognize the US agencies involved.
Likewise, Obama is pushing for something UNESCO developed in Europe called the Bologna Process to radically transform the nature of US higher ed. Because Arne Duncan has requested that the regional accreditors act as the enforcers, it is largely off the public radar screen.
The definition of Career Ready Practices that are the aim of the national Common Core standards this Admin is pushing turns out to mandate as perfect a definition of communitarianism as anything Amitai Etzioni ever dreamed up. Who would look for something like that in the Career Tech standards?
Duplicity itself.
Those are just 3 off the top of my head in areas I track. That has to just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg of what has been put in place. Place all the bribes, I mean grants, pushed at states and municipalities to adopt bad policies with plausible names.
Prof. Hansen,
A minor nitpick … you want to use post officio, not post officium. There are still a few of us out here who took and remember some Latin. :-)
m00tpoint
VDH et al: I recommend Niall Ferguson’s “War of the World” for an introduction of what awaits Europe and the US in the near future:A war of all against all,powered by state oppression, catastrophic economic decline and ethnic/racial hatreds in depressed,balkanized nation states.In short,we will become Yugoslavia.Ever since the 60′s the WEest has evolved a new variant of its traditional death wish ideologies: Monarchy,Nationalism,Colonialism,Marxism,Nazism,Fascism and the latest version of national suicide:Welfare Statism and Multiculturalism.The West has always been a murderous fraud;let it unravel and organize to survive the coming cataclysm,and then thrive afterwards.The unraveling offers opportunitiess to deal with 60′s culture once and for all.
All these items you’ve mentioned are part of the general cultural degringolade that is part and parcel of the Marxist-Gramscian praxis: demoralization, destabilization and finally, “normalization,” an innocuous term for the nightmare concentration-camp culture that is the inevitable outcome of Gramsci’s ideals.
Our last Dark Age lasted almost a thousand years. The next one – which is what we’ll surely get if these monsters succeed in their aims – may well last ten thousand. As I’ve said before, they would rather rule in hell atop a pile of rubble and stinking corpses just so long as they were the ones sitting on top. It’s beyond our worst nightmares; it is viciously, sadistically insane. It’s what they want and who they are. And there is only one way to stop them.
Speaking of barbarism, in the course of research for my book, I’ve run across another neglected historian – R. G. Collingwood. He has this to say about barbarism vs. savagery:
Collingwood’s concept of barbarism fits the wrecking crew behind Obama rather well, and fits my image of these monsters ruling from atop the rubble to a ‘T’.
Ward-I like that Collingwood quote.
It goes well with what is being pushed these days under the aspiration of Education for All. Which should be renamed as little knowledge for anyone.
Meanwhile, Ferguson — pragmatic, sensible and often correct — enjoys the adulation surrounding a Celebrity Historian, especially on European cruise ships, especially at this time of year.
You can be sure Ferguson knows we all fall hard and die easy, though it seems to have escaped you. You really think your crudely formed boilerplate will make a difference? Guess so.
I keep watching the MSM hale Egypt’s new “democratically” elected government as the new model for all Moslem countries. This is pretty scary when you find out that they want to ally themselves with Iran and Syria. 10% of Egypt’s population wants to leave the country; however, they are trapped because they are not Moslems. Only Moslems are let into this country from Moslem states. Israel is now at a near war footing with attacks from Gaza and the new Islamist Egyptian regime. The fuse is lit, its only a matter of time for the big bang.
Only 10% want to leave?
Think about this statistic for a while–according to a 2006 UNICEF Report, 97% of women in Egypt between the ages of 14 and 49 have undergone the radical, irreversible operation of Female Genital Mutilation (http://www.islam-watch.org/AdrianMorgan/Women-Under-Islam4.htm), and while this estimated very high percentage has been controversial, the percentage is, apparently, at least 90%.
What does that say about the dynamic and prospects for Egyptian “society,” and how do you think that has and will continue to skew that society.
Egyptian society was skewed way before this election. Although officially the MB was considered radical and dangerous, it was allowed to operate by the Egyptian Gov’t with a wink and a nod. There was general agreement that as long as there was not any overt operations undertaken by the MB (such as the murder of Sadat) they were left alone. The Egyptian public in turn was given a daily regiment of anti-Semitic propaganda of the vilest form. Blood libels, Protocols of the Elders, Hamas propaganda and other poison were freely printed and distributed. (Like the Nazis, hate propaganda was a strong way to solidify their base and get new recruits.) The only difference now will be that all this will have the official stamp of the the Egyptian Gov’t. By the way, Obama promised the Egyptian Gov’t financial aid today. The question now is, is he in agreement with the MB. The real test will be whether the MB will choose to remilitarize the Sinai. Should they do this, it will constitute an act of war. Note how the MB was not part of the Arab Spring in Egypt. It only raised its head after the Gov’t was overthrown. That’s a really important point.
of anti-Semitic propaganda in egypt is all over the place here in America today, the universities are filled with it, coupled with blatant anti-white racism from the black caucus and department of justice and race hustlers like sharpton, and farrakhan, and rev wright’s goddam america crap, plus the raza racismo poison running rampant, and our most virulent bigot of all, flouting our national anthem, bowing to muslim potentates, and flipping the finger for the pleasure of his cackling mob admirers barack hussein obama.
When the number of voting Americans who consume the wealth of this country exceeds the number of voting Americans who produce the wealth, the game is over. And that time is very close. Another four years of Obama will destroy this country.
My dad was career Air Force, one of our fist jet pilots, MBA, attained the O6 rank, raised four kids across the USA and overseas plus made sure we all got college degrees.
When I was 11, we drove out to Western Delaware (stationed at Dover) to buy firewood from the Amish. We started talking about politics and my dad said:
paraphrase: Mikey the effect of the Black man on this country will not be clear until well into the next century…
“Second, it is hard to screw up America in just four years.”
Agreed. Believe it or not, I think Obama has been tentative so far because he has to face reelection. But a reelected Obama?
Two scenarios, to my mind: 1) He will feel little restraint on his powers and, if he isn’t checked, the America we know today will be unrecoverable in four years 2) there will be constitutional and (perhaps) civil crises as the result of his actions that will threaten the stability of the republic.
A reelected Obama is the greatest threat to the country since the Civil War. I’ve read a decent amount of history. I don’t believe my statement is hyperbolic.
Thanks for the laugh this morning. “I do not think my statement is hyperbolic.” Ha! Great stuff. I now have to clean up coffee from my desk. It’s hillarious you deranged old white men believe this stuff.
Unfortunately our horrible, dreadful, really awful government isn’t limited to President Obama. In 2010 with the fiscal conservatives of the TEA Parties in full bay, the best the Republicans could offer, on page 21 of their Pledge to America, was to “put common-sense limits on the growth of government”. They were still in favor of ever-growing government, just maybe not quite so huge or quite so fast as the Democrats might like.
Unless we have a sea change in the attitudes of our Ruling Class I’m not sure we can recover from the excesses of the past few years. They’ve dug us an awfully deep hole and their solution is to call for bigger shovels.
Interesting times we live in….
Swen,
I completely agree. There are multiple significant obstacles.
First, defeating BHO is far from assured. If we don’t, I believe we are headed for exceptionally dangerous times. Like seriocomic222 just above you, I don’t believe this comment is hyperbolic.
Second, assuming BHO is defeated, getting our Republic turned into the right direction is still far from assured. Every citizen has a tremendous amount of work to do. Reclaiming education comes to mind. It will be a long road.
Biggest con job in history, by orders of magnitude. Nothing is even close to it.
The historically recent despotic maniacs didn’t hide what they intended. Perhaps Hitler did a bit, but Mein Kampf was nothing if not explicit. (I wonder if Dreams will eventually be viewed in a similar light.)
Evryone knew the divine kings were erratic and frequently mentally ill. Some were good people, but the expectation for any new one had to range from starting a world war, to introducing literacy. In other words, people had to hold their breath and more often than not, disaster ensued.
The same was true of the ancients. No reasonable peron in those days could possibly expect competant leadership that focussed on anything other than the leader’s self aggrandizement. When good things happened, the people had a right to be delighted, and act like chipmunks gathering nuts for the winter.
So, until recently, politics didn’t really have an element of the big sting in it. It was more like the big playpen for the rulers, and everybody knew it. But in the US, we have had 40+ presidents and 100+ Congresses, and although many have been god-awful horrible, the pattern was well-established that, without fail, American leaders acted in ways they felt would benefit the country. Jefferson Davis and his allies didn’t hide their intentions. The fools who ignored the threat of Naziism didn’t pretent to hate it while secretly working in its behalf. Jimmy Carter was incompetant, not anti-American.
But now the landscape has forever changed. No matter who runs for office in the future, Americans will have to ask themselves…”is this guy a con man?”.
Obama might well get his wish and get re-elected. He better pray that he also gets a Democrat Congress. Otherwise he just might find himself replaying the second Nixon term. A second Obama Administration with a Republican Congress will turn in to endless scandals uncovered and paralysis of the federal government. Under those circumstances it may not be such a terrible thing if he were re-elected.
Given the choice of a disintegrating Obama presidency, followed by his impeachment or resignation and then replacement by the likes of Joe Biden, I think I’d far rather have a Romney presidency that a second Obama term.
Not that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing Obama having to account for himself in an honest trial, followed hopefully by a jail sentence for him and the rest of his clowns. Still, it seems to me that the recovery of the country is ultimately more important than the humiliation of Obama’s clique. Of course if both could be managed – via a Romney presidency and then federal charges against Obama and his minions – then I think we’d have a win-win.
Spiro Agnew was impeachment insurance. The Democrats had to get rid of him first and replace him with a Republican they could work with temporarily, Gerald Ford, before they could impeach Nixon. If your scenario were to play out, who would the GOP install as VP after Biden resigned under pressure? Maybe Leon Panetta?
Mr Hanson,
You ask a straight question. You deserve a straight answer. So here it is:
– no.
No, the country is not unraveling.
Hope that helps.
Hey, it’s better than tl;dr, isn’t it?
Dr. Hanson is always worth reading, though I remain amazed that he can catalog the daily list of disaster and remain optimistic about the future. I’ve though for sometime that the country was more than unraveling, but facing collapse, with the tipping point not far away. This is not solely Obama’s fault, but he certainly floored the accelerator towards the cliff. The Logic of the Progressive Welfare State is this: The Progressives’ constituents and philosophy demand ever-expanding entitlements, bureaucracy, and government. This, in turn, requires an ever-expending pool of younger, productive, tax-paying workers to support the elderly and others on the entitlement programs and the growing number of government employees in the bureaucracies. But this, in turn, requires ever-higher taxation on those productive workers. With government sucking up ever-larger amounts of income and the capital in the society, causing economic stagnation, larger families become increasingly unaffordable. Coupled with the Progressives’ ethic in favor of abortion and birth-control, plus the self-centered ethic of enjoying life now at the expense of sacrificing for family and the future, the birth-rate plummets. Thus, instead of growing the number of younger workers to support the system, that number falls rapidly, leaving an ever-smaller ratio of workers supporting more elderly, more people on entitlements and more people employed in government bureaucracies. They cycle becomes self-reinforcing, and eventually a death-spiral, like the downward spin of a stricken B-17 which the crew cannot escape from. Attempts at stop-gaps by bringing in workers from the Third World backfire, as they bring with them higher social costs in terms of government benefits, crime and cultural disintegration. The result is, sooner or later, fiscal disaster and collapse. See Greece today, Europe soon or the US not that far in the future. I will link to this from my Old Jarhead blog.
Robert A. Hall
Author: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
All royalties go to help wounded veterans
For a free PDF of my book, write tartanmarine(at)gmail.com
When we glorify low men, we will be governed by them to our despond. Maybe we learned our lesson this time around. Maybe not. We’ll see.
Well, to answer the question of whether the country is coming unraveled you simply have to see whether or not policies that destroy what made America successful are institutionalized.
Illegal immigration and legal, enable the wholesale transfer of failure from the Third World. Thanks to immigration law and ignoring immigration law, unless you think American exceptionalism is a lark, that’s destroying America.
We have a President and his number one man, Holder, who fervently believe white people are the biggest stumbling block to justice in America. The DOJ has legally been turned into an arm of the NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center. That is destroying America by spreading failure evenly throughout America by parsing productivity through gender and race.
Most failure in America is laid at the feet, not of those who fail, but at the feet of those who succeed. The result is billions of dollars spent wrongly on social programs and education that’ll never work, including welfare. The result are cities like Detroit and St. Louis which have lost historic numbers fleeing “success.” We have more Third World inner cities than at any time in our history.
Failure looked at as success has been firmly institutionalized and entrenched within our bureaucracy. Liberals wallow in it, fenced off in ivory towers from the very failure they cozen.
Institutionalized bribery and corruption are at the heart of corporate donation to political candidates. Those candidates have spread Tammany Hall across the U.S.
The combination of identity politics and immigration have turned America into a de facto Tower of Babel where the common good is buried underneath racial, gender and gender preference lobbying, every bit as corrupting to our system of governance and financial lobbying. Muslims sue to have their voices heard although they have no history of democracy and no interest or competence in creating it. The first thing immigrant groups do is learn our laws, get a lawyer, study political correctness and get to work for themselves, for what their new country can do for THEM.
I don’t know what it’ll take to undo all this. The rot is far advanced. American’s are still productive past most countries in the world but failed populations overlaid failed policies make for a grim prognosis.
We have been in times that were worse and been less noble as a people as well at times. Our condition is that we are human and we have let those in power acquire too much of it. Trim their sails. Let them flounder.
Excellent essay. I will enjoy the wails of the left once Obama is out; but be forewarned, their lamentations that we voted out the “best president ever” could cause one’s insides to rupture from laughing so hard.
Yes, there is a good side to this calamity. We found that even after forty months an absolute misfire of a president could not take the country down a la Hugo Chavez style. It’s been an expensive lesson, but I’m sure independents are no longer ‘undecided’ about which party might cause ‘the least damage.’ This is O’s legacy. Not in two generations will independents and others forget what Obama and the radical dems in Congress have wrought. I don’t think they, like the people who went through the Great Depression damning Herbert Hoover, will ever disassociate the name Barack Hussein Obama from economic incompetence and a morally failed presidency.
davelnaf, I believe you’re overly optimistic and even naive. Considering that, despite Obama’s incompetence and anti-Americanism (to name only two of his deficits), close to 50% of Americans still support him, on what basis do you think that “. . . Not in two generations will independents and others . . . ever disassociate the name [of] Barack Hussein Obama from economic incompetence and a morally failed presidency. . .”?
I was being too hard on Hoover.
I have to say that I’m more optimistic about our chances of getting rid of this horrible misfire. O’s election can be seen as more of an anti-Bush vote than a pro-O vote and the 2010 results back this up.
It’s understandable why some people were gulled into voting for O. But after having seen what he’s capable of voting for him a second time would be like flunking a test that you’ve been given all the answers to ahead of time.
Why does he forget his own daughter’s birthday and talk about his ‘sons’? Anne Barnhardt is right. This man is a dangerous buffoon.
We The People also are aware of the fact We are dealing with a Chicago-style thug in the Oval Office. As such, Tammany Hall looks like a walk-in-the-park when compared to Obama’s administration and all operatives.
As such, Blacks, Latinos and Asian populations in the US are targeted for upcoming elections by this administration in a “no-holds-barred” anything goes re-election campaign.
As backdrop to this re-election effort by the Obama team, one must look at 1998 to 2008 “Total Actual Voter Election Turnout Results.”
Analysis of these data show:
1) White category has evidenced a single digit decline in percentage erosion of Total Voter Turnout over the past decade even though increasing numerical values over the same period.
2) Black category has evidenced a steady, single digit increase in percentage participation of Total Voter Turnout over the past decade while doubling numerical values over the same period.
3) Hispanic category has evidenced an explosive double digit increase in percentage participation of Total Voter Turnout over the past decade while tripling numerical values over the same period.
4) Asian category has evidenced an explosive double digit increase in percentage participation of Total Voter Turnout over the past decade while tripling numerical values over the same period.
Observation:
White category, while increasing overall numerical value participation in Total Voter Turnout, the Category’s percentage participation is in slow decline. In order to reverse this trend, energetic efforts To “Get-Out-The-Vote” will have to be employed.
Black, Hispanic and Asian category’s are in frank expansion and pose a viable electoral bloc to any political party…meriting messaging and numerical increases in Town Hall Meetings catering messaging specifically addressing these three category’s wants, needs and desires.
In summation Supreme Courts striking down Arizona’s SB1070 leaving in place a section 2B provision while Obamas administration rescinds its 287 (enforcement) partnership…local law enforcement cannot arrest a suspected illegal alien…essentially vacates all law enforcement, freeing up illegal alien traffic through Arizona and other southern states. The largest illegal alien catagories before immigration for Legal Permanent Resident status are 1)Hispanic and 2) Asians. Now, comes “Dream Act No.3.”
Closing thoughts: With White voters reducing their participation in Total Voter Turnout (over the past decade) while a slower increase in Black Total Voter Turnout but an explosive Hispanic and Asian presence, could bode well for Chicago-syle thuggery efforts Obama’s team’s strategy is unfolding for his re-election. God Bless America…wake-up and vote in massive numbers America is definitely on life support. Amen
Mr. VDH used to write interesting history books. Now he is just pathetic, spending his declining years years ranting about racialist conspiracy theories and… Solyndra? How far the mighty have fallen. VDH proves the old adage: quit while you’re ahead.
Which books of his did you read?
Solyndra was criminal fraud, not a conspiracy. You should read up.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/277512/solyndra-fraud-andrew-c-mccarthy#
“..the Obama Energy Department signed off on a sweetheart deal. In the event of bankruptcy — the destination to which it was screamingly obvious Solyndra was headed despite the president’s injection of $535 million in federal loans — the cozily connected private investors would be given priority over American taxpayers. In other words, when the busted company’s assets were sold off, Obama pals would recoup some of their losses, while you would be left holding the half billion dollar bag.”
But we all know your not here except to snarl and whine. See you in November sucker.
Et tu, Brutus?
“Naw, man, I ain’t et nuthin’ !”
GROAN! Groan…..I love it!
More puns, p l e a s e !
Brutus -
Do you seriously believe that any significant portion of the US military would support any attempt by Obama to seize power unconstitutionally? When they enlisted, or were commissioned, they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution (not the President and not any general). How many would put personal loyalty to Obama above that? How many of them even like the guy? (Few, from what I’ve read and heard.)
As for mob violence in the streets, don’t forget that governors have the power to call up the national guard (correct me if I’m wrong).
Oops – this was suppose to be a response to a different poster, expressing fears of an Obama “coup.” (This comment section is confusing in that the reply window doesn’t open under the comment one is replying to.)
My response to Brutus is “racialist conspiracy theories”? Can you provide a single direct quote from VDH that supports that interpretation?
Is this country unraveling? Yes. If this clown is reelected, I doubt there will be much left of “America the beautiful” by the time 2016 stumbles around.
If Obama was actually smart he would have spent his first term making little leftist tweaks and posing as a centrist while avoiding the cleansing that occurred in 2010. Then after he was easily reelected he could have dropped the Marxist hammer and gone all out “transforming” America. Luckily for our Republic, Obama is just not that bright.
Remember the following warning:
” A Republic if you can keep it”
You people are talking yourselves into a lather. There is a certain histrionic self-indulgence in this generation of politicians and public opinion makers that is at odds with the much more sober moral pragmatism of their parents – it has nothing to do with “forces of history” or some other bullshit as that. As their children, it is as obvious to us and in the same visceral manner as it was to your parents. The failure we both sense is finally coming to fruition in the halls of national power. That’s all there is to it. You’re only very partially responsible for the errors and sins attributed to you, but you are completely incapable of resolving them, and your particular stupidities make it impossible to help you do it. You are idiots, and I cannot wait until you are gone. But you are not unique – the country will survive you.
AS if you are not an idiot among us.
Well, Dan, I hope to live to a very old age, as is common in my family, and look forward to seeing your generation take the reins and save the country. If I have to gauge your chances of success by what I see in my profession (consulting scientist) or by the number of people in the younger generations who appear to care not one whit about the national debt — frankly, I don’t see it happening. As my boss said, it’s going to be the generation after this newest one that saves the country. The Gen-Xers and Millenials ain’t got it.
Dan, You are not giving us enough substance to go on here. I certainly agree that at least half of the people who post here are dramatic to the point of melodramatic, but that is a basic way of getting someone to listen. What is your point, more precisely?
This country was already headed for rough times, and only a truly superior President could have hammered us through. Even then, he’d have to do things that would lose him support, because one of the first things he’d need to do is NOTHING about the financial mess. It would have cleared up on it’s own by now had he done nothing, just as 1920. (Thus, TARP was exactly the wrong thing to do, and I was astounded that Bush did it.) (Ron Paul might have the right ideas domestically, but lacks the powerhouse support he’d need to restructure the US. Also, Islam is our deadly enemy and he does not recognise that.)
Such a Super Prezzz would have had a heck of a time with Congress and the Bureaucracy, and might even end up impeached.
Obama? Well, he might have made a poor president some better era. Today? I am unable to adequately express my disgust with that creature. He did hit the negative jackpot, though.
Obviously Dan will disagree, but I believe that we started ‘doing something about it’ in 2010 and we continue doing that to this day. Maybe we are ‘stupid’, but we are also sick of being pushed around by a ruling class protected by a sycophantic media. Romney is not the best answer to our dilemma, but he is the best answer for right now. We need him to defeat the socialist in chief currently defiling our White House, but we will need to isolate him through legions of fresh conservatives to keep his administration in the right direction, should Jeb Bush or some other RINO attempt to sway him. His senatorial liason, Roy Blunt, is already speaking out (via Reuters) that it is time for conservatives to compromise, and reach across the aisle, and so on….apparently Romney is giving up any possible influence before he even sees how much of a mandate he may win….or, Reuters is taking a page from the NBC playbook of honest reporting and taking Blunt’s statements out of context to support a damaging narrative. Governor Romney – care to clarify Blunt’s message? Regardless, Dan, we ARE doing something about it, far more than you know. It is a shame that you are so jaded and arrogant because you sound like a fairly educated person. “We” are out working every day and also finding time to support candidates that, hopefully, will bring back America’s prestige, prosperity and influence in the world – instead of just sitting around bitching about everything but doing nothing.
“As we see in New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin, the cure for the present economic malaise is not rocket science — a curbing of the size of government, a revision of the tax code, a modest rollback of regulation, reform of public employment, and holding the line on new taxes. ”
and do any of you think Romney and Boehner will follow this prescription? Romney is Obama lite; we lost any chance of real change in the primaries. Slow death is still death.
We put too much into claims that Romney will do this and that. Romney will be President and that means he will direct the regulatory agencies, not make legislation. From his history in business,I expect that his direction will be positive in our recovery. As far as a legislative change of direction, it is up to us to elect those into Congress that will bring new blood and sanity to lead the country out of this downward spiral. I have a lot of hope, but also realize that only forced term limits and a forced balanced budget will achieve a stable country. Unfortunately, those two items won’t ever come to fruition because they must be passed by the very persons that would be curbed by those directives.
Greece is an example of the Obama model. Germany is bailing out Greece. Who will bail out the USA?
Exactly, Andy ((HUGS)) to you. Sorry. I’m feeling nostalgic. I love seeing you ol’ timers on here. It makes me feel half sane (ha-ha).
Greece is the perfect FAIL model of 0bama…even with his faux greek columns. What a massive dork. lol
Dr. Handsom…
Your words resonate with me, always. Sometimes they make me blue…sometimes they make me sad…sometimes they make me terrified.
I don’t know what to make of the world any longer. This is not the USA I grew up in and I’m much younger than you and it’s shocking to me too.
Sometimes…I just weep…
Yes, America will survive but we might never be the same America again.
“All things flow”. It was a saying amongst the ancient Greeks. Nothing stays the same for long. Nothing. Even human nature changes. Neanderthal was not the same as Homo Ergaster, who was not the same as Homo Sapiens. Human nature changes, but at an imperceptibly slow rate. And not enough for us to antcipate count on, or predict.
The rapid pace of technological innovation and scientific discovery, let alone events that occur in the wider world are enough to guarantee that America cannot stay the same for long. That is why we must always strive towards one thing in every decision we make, every policy we formulate, every law we enact. It is the distilled essence of the Declaration and the Constitution: That all things, even the nation itself, proceed from the individual. The individual human being, with his or her thoughts, desires, experiences, memories, dreams, beliefs, values and will… is more precious than the collective. That is to say that our Constitution is supremely precious because it recognizes that all authority proceeds from the consent of the individual. The only higher authority we recognize is God.
The left is at war with this worldview. It is the old will of the tribe seeking to assert its authority over its constituent members. Almost like a group-mind that has a will of its own! They have constructed an elaborate apparatus to try and destroy the subtle yet powerful shell that our Founders built to protect it. And technology gives them tools to monitor and control us like never before.
Our task then is a historic one. To assert that the willing association of free hearts, minds and souls is better, stronger and more just that the unthinking, primitive, all consuming appetites of the hive. Will America look the same after all is said and done? Of course not. That was never in the cards. But nothing can stop us. There are practically no limits on what we can achieve. So cheer up free men and women can find a way to protect the sovereignty of the individual to pursue life, liberty and happiness no matter what. It will require some really creative thinking on our part. We will try to live up to the example set by the Founders. I believe we are up to the task.
with the sole exception of justice scalia, has unraveled, failing the whole country with its arizona decision.
I’ve been thinking about the Greek model for the USA. China has most of the US cash reserves. Help from her won’t come as a bail out. They will simply come over here and buy the country one piece at a time.
The US has lost its mojo. Election of BHO was a sure sign of a mixture of Bush fatigue, superficiality, race guilt, the convincing mediocrity of John McCain and Sept. 2008 market manipulations. Romney is no Reagan, but the election (or not) of Romney will tell whether the US is still great, or at least good.
“Is the Country Unraveling?”
A better question would be “Is this even a country anymore?” Or are we just a bunch of people living together, with little or no interest in anything other than “did I get mine?”
Dr. Hanson,
Yours is the first article I read a PJ………I must thank Rush for refering to PJ Media so much on his show!
I’ve been saying this for months…..Romney will win in a landslide! I still believe in the intellect of the American people!!
While Obama is a disaster for America, he could prove to be pretty good for the repub party. His gross idealogical rigidity and incompetance is destroying the dem party in 2010-2012, in the same way that Bush almost destroyed repubs in 2006-2008.
I have an interesting theory about Obama. He has managed to repeat every incompetant thing Bush ever did, but do it twice as bad:
1. Bush raised spending by 2% of GDP, from 18% under Clinton, to 20%. Obama raised it by 4%, from 20%-24%, twice as bad as Bush.
2. Bush ran up 5 Trillion of debt in 8 yrs, Obama has ran up 5 trillion in only 4 yrs, again twice as bad as Bush.
3. Bush walked a few guns to Mexico in Wide Receiver, Obama walked a huge amount in F&F, and then engineered a Nixonian style coverup. Actually this time I have looked into both, and on this one Obama is about 10 times as bad as Bush.
4. Bush leaked one fairly secure and safe CIA asset with Valery Plame (as a paper pusher at CIA HK she was never really in danger). Obama leaked at least 2 vital CIA assets in the leaking scandall, the Pakastani Doctor, and our top al Quaida mole, and those 2 are in physical danger, plus details on 2 other vital operations. This is at least twice as bad as Bush, possibly much worse.
5. In 8 yrs, Bush managed to almost destroy his own party, taking them from control of pres, senate, and house, to control of nothing. After 2012, Obama should manage to almost destroy the dems in only 4 yrs, again twice as bad as Bush. (Of course this is the only one I dont necessarily consider as bad, but if I was a dem I would. I am really puzzled why dems still have so much faith in a man that is completely destroying their own party. Eventually conservatives wised up on Bush, and formed the Tea Party to repudiate him, when will dems wise up on Obama).
So the next time I hear a dem trying to justify some huge obama boner, or abuse of power, by pointing to a similar thing done by Bush, I reply with 2 points:
1. I thought the whole point was obama would NOT do things like Bush.
2. Are the dems trying to create a new camapign slogan “vote Obama, he is only twice as bad as Bush”.
I agree with Dr. Hansen about the sad history of Obama’s regime, but go further.
I have recently come to the conclusion that the U.S. has been sinking gradually into decadence since the Korean era. Loosening sexual rules and mores, gradual acceptance of dope (“drugs”), advancement of the “welfare state,” and acceptance of illegitimate children as a norm, encouraging shack-ups, fatherless babies, and ADC. Declining test scores of U.S. students, and declining quality of teachers, with increasing power (and politicalization) of teachers’ unions, the hell with the students. Then the unparalleled, unmitigated U.S. defeat in Viet Nam by the Russian-backed Viet Minh (and their fifth column here). The disastrous administrations of Nixon and Carter. The loss of Iran to the extremist ayatollahs. The corruption and moral turpitude of the Clinton gang. And now the deliberate weakening of every positive sector of our nation by rampant dependence on Chinese loans, transferring our industrial resources to China, weakening our defense resources vis-a-vis the growing weapon production of China. Bringing a cadre of Chicago-style operatives with their corrupt systems to Washington, D.C. Bad-mouthing our country to foreign leaders and weakening our support of friendly nations. The growing attitude that someone else should pay our way re food, housing, education. AND the deliberate policy of placing our energy resources out of reach, gradually attenuating our standard of living, perhaps “Transforming” the U.S. into a third world nation, or worse. Stand back and look. Perhaps a President Romney and a Republican Congress can stop the slide and bring us back, but he can be President for only eight years, then what. Think about it in November.
And that’s the real question. Not just will the Republican Candidate fight Obamacare, or any other single issue, but will he fight for basic conservative principles – even at the cost of having to stand up to a good part of the country’s population (and the more vocal part at that)?
Obama has given us the most failed Presidency in our nation’s history. After 3 1/2 years of his extreme left wing agenda, massive wasted corrupt spending, and nation destroying debt he’s left us with the Worst UNEMPLOYMENT since the Great Depression and an economy falling back into recession. Obama has done everything wrong, and made everything worse. That might be excusable, but he intends to keep on with his Elite left wing agenda until the nation collapses like Greece! Bill Clinton Calls him “The AMATEUR”! Its time for Amateur hour to be over!
Folks:
It is embarrassing to see a university professor write so poorly, not to mention in a fashion that aids and abets this sort of ignorance.
The world changed, kids. You are furious because the privileges you expected have been extended to others. You are ticked because the phase of colonialism you depended on ended. And you are most certainly miffed because the capitalism you believe in doesn’t love you as you feel it should.
Sorry. I too wish it were 1958.
this remains a great country. What’s all the wretched fear about? It’s just history; ease up.
Overwhelming display of ignorance you got there Robert. Did you or some one else pay for that?
If you understood history, you would understand the origin of those fears.
No, we’re furious because the world of freedom and justice (warts and all) that our ancestors created – That is the system that has produced both more freedom AND prosperity than any other in history by order of magnitude, is being undermined and plundered by a cabal of deceptive kleptocrats, so that they can more thoroughly bind mental slaves like you.
Anyone who comes here legally is welcome to benefit from the system they (our ancestors) created. And we all benefit from each other’s efforts. Rather it is the left that views everything with resentment and seeks only to destroy so that they may build their castles in the sand. One day you will understand this.
VDH a university professor? HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAHAH What a HOOT!
Having been on the faculty of a number of universities (don’t ask, I don’t self-out), I know what is and is not legit for a university.
VDH is on the staff of the Hoover Institute. It is associated with Stanford, but it is NOT STANFORD UNIVERSITY. It is a stand-alone institution. He is NOT a faculty member at Stanford. Nope, and if he claims that, Stanford should sue him for misrepresentation.
He is NOT a university professor. He is an incompetent hack, a liar, probably a plagarist, and certainly no historian.
“Having been on the faculty of a number of universities (don’t ask, I don’t self-out), I know what is and is not legit for a university.”
What were your duties as a faculty member of these mulitple universites of which you speak?
Teaching, research, running studies. I’m a research guy. I work in the research department. I’ve been at Big Midwestern University, Smaller Midwestern Private university running a research subdepartment. I’m now at Big Midwestern Research Health Care System in the western part of the midwest.
But what do I do? I do research.
Please remember to wipe, flush and wash your hands after you do your ‘research’. It’s the civilized thing to do, after all.
Are your from the midwest per chance or did you relocate?
I have been a midwesterner all my life, although I did my graduate work in another region. Why are you interested in my origins? I read my posts carefully, and won’t be self-outing. Do you think that you know me in some way or another?
Your spelling and grammar are artocious and I assumed you over stayed your student visa, but no… you are definetly faculty material. It shines through. Heh.
Yeah, you should be POed, given what little your mighty School of Alinsky Degree has obviously supplied you with to personally face life.
Just when has Communism ever worked, you know, except for the Masters of its holy = “equally” impoverished and enslaved State?
POed Lib -
Your inflated sense of importance, in thinking your faculty positions at some colleges qualifies you to judge whether VDH would be “legit” as a professor, is appalling.
You might consider using some of the energy you are now putting into being POed into actually, you know, writing something that attempts to refute VDH’s commentary – instead of just spewing insults and unsupported attempts at character assassination.
It’s true that VDH is not currently a professor (apparently), but 30 seconds spent bringing up Wikipedia provides the information below. I suppose you will pooh-pooh Wikipedia as a source (I’m certainly not claiming it as a final authority), but it provides a handy synopsis that can be verified elsewhere. Considering how much he seems to be hated by so many on the left, if anyone could have exposed his credentials as fraudulent, I’m sure it would have been done by now.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Hanson is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Fellow in California Studies at the Claremont Institute. Until recently, he was professor at California State University, Fresno, where he began teaching in 1984, having created the classics program at that institution.
In 1991 Hanson was awarded an American Philological Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award, which is awarded to undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin. He has been a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), as well as holding the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–03). He was a visiting professor at Hillsdale College in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2012.
This country is OBVIOUSLY finishing up unless a MASSIVE change in direction takes place.. We must stop all illegal immigration.. period.. we must reduce legal immigration and while doing that increase the long discriminated against European immigrant coming here… There is no way a country can sustain this massive assault.. we have entire cites and towns that are slums now.. Many of them.. There is zero sense of law and order now.. none… The Democrat party is now basically a socialist party.. When was the last time you saw a Democrat that was mostly for enforcement? They all want amnesty after amnesty as well as the neo con wing of the Republican Party…. As the radio talk show host Michael Savage says: Language, borders and culture.. I agree… if not, say goodnight!
You missed a couple, here. How about having a girl almost pass out and need a bottle of water down front near the stage? OK, that can happen. But 8 times? at eight consecutive rallies?? My favorite bit of phoniness is less public though. It is his repeated insistence that a “funny name” caused him difficulties growing up and throughout his political career. So sad. So full of it since his school records IN KENYA and INDONESIA all list him as BARRY. You know, like BARRY MANILOW?? That rite, cuz. “Barrack” was an afectation that “BARRY” started using in college BY CHOICE to sound more African, more mysterious, more cultured. Without it, teachers may have failed to grade him correctly, peers might not realize what a great editor he would make for the Law Review, boys at the bar might think he was just another tweaking chickadee.
We needed a bigger-than-life President – we got President Zero.
We needed a well-grounded stable President – we got a certifiable narcissist.
We needed bold leadership – we got a teleprompter
We needed a seasoned hand – we got a hand in in our pockets
We needed a champion for American citizens… we got a champion for the invading horde of Illegal Aliens
We needed a skilled bridge builder – we got a class-warfare specialist and inciter-in-chief.
We needed practical, proven policies – we got socialist dogma and monumental waste
We needed an inspirational visionary – we got an ideologically blinded, left learning-impaired radical
We needed a Constitutional champion – we got a domestic enemy of the Constitution
We needed a restrained, intimidating warrior – we got groveling, bowing, Barney Fife
We needed a patriot – we got G. D. America, G. D. America, G. D. America.
We needed someone to unshackle our economy – we got someone who is a friend to our enemies and an enemy to our businesses
We needed a president beyond color – we got a green president embracing every whim and myth ever spoken by the kook environmental fringe.
We needed mature, principled leadership – we got a petulant, lying, whining, blaming, sulking, accursing, excusing, man-child.
It is a national disgrace that someone this inept, incompetent, racist, and a American hating Socialist could be elected to the office of the Presidency.
It’s a downright shame that that the first African-American President had to be this cad and sham. And it’s not so much lost opportunity on his part as he came into office with a ‘chip on his shoulder.’
Until the GOP acknowledges that W was about as bad as BO has been, it has no credibility
Lets never forget or forgive and vow to never support or elect another Worthless RINO like Bush Jr.
It was Bush Jr. the Stupid that cherry picked CIA reports to support his invasion of Iraq to show Bush Sr. how a real man fought a war using other parents children.
While he and his, including his fellow yellow back coward Mr. 6 times deferment and other priorities VP Cheney stayed safe and living the high life!
The same fool that often bragged with a smirk on his face about his ownership society made up of liars loans by millions of Illegal Aliens, among others.
The same open borders idiot that often told us Family values did not stop at the Rio Grande and followed Vincent Fox around like a love sick teenager!
But he was right about the Family Values they bring the same family values that made Mexico and Latin American Third World Slums and a Cesspool of Crime, Corruption, Poverty and Misery across the Border with them.
Some of those values being Education hating, Prolific breeding, Gang joining, Corruption, Love of Welfare and hater of American its Laws, Constitution and Citizens!
Under Bush Jr. the Stupid…
Republicans increased federal spending at twice the rate of Bill Clinton; Corruption, Earmarks and Stupidly was Rampant, our borders were left wide open; they approved the biggest increase in entitlement spending since the Great Society and they turned a record budget surpluses into record deficits to launch this brave new era of Open Borders based on the failed Europe experiment of no National boundaries, Globalization and One World Order!
Then Obama and the Democrats came alone and Doubled down on the worse of Bush Jr. Stupidly and Corruption until this Nation is headed to a Third World food stamp paradise!
The defeat of the incumbent has now become imperative. As someone else pointed out, the analogy is not to Rome but Rhodesia.
The incompetent had a rare opportunity to make positive bipartisan progress. Instead, he behaved in an arrogant and hyper-partisan fashion from day one of his administration.
He squandered his public support and good will and now faces the consequences.
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Another just brilliant rendition of Obama’s Rise & (hoped-for) fall.
IF BO is re-elected it will go down as a blatant act of national self-loathing & resignation to mediocrity, lead by the biggest conman EVER to appear on the American political stage.
Can’t really blame Obama, he’s a typical megalamaniac that loves himself more than his country, more than his party, more than ANYTHING else in life. POWER is his drug of choice these days & he’s addicted like no one else we’ve ever seen.
However, it’s the democrats that are MOSTLY to blame for this mess; they glommed onto this guy like velcro, believing he was indeed their savior to take them to the Socialist Promise Land. Obama would—as Carville said—create a democrat dynsasty for the next several decades; Conservatism was DEAD!
Now just 3-1/2 yrs later our country is in shambles & BO is strutting around like he owns the place & we all OWE him another 4 years ’cause it’s everyone else’s fault things are so bad.
NOTHING worse than a cry-baby ‘strongman’.
TIME to END the ERROR of OBAMA.
Check out this new voter education website:
http://www.VoteFacts.org
The September/October surprise might be forgiveness of underwater mortgage debt or refinancing at 0%, as another poster has suggested. But I’m betting on forgiveness of student loan debt. That will get his base (and their parents, grandparents, etc.) to the polls.
AWESOME insight!
This article is right on. Obama may win, but if so I think it will be because the dead and the illegals will be voting.. Otherwise.
I see Mitt Romney in a landslide victory in November.
In all 57 states!
Blacks and Whites will never get along, Obama has nothing to do with that. I would love for someone to tell me what He could say to make a white racist change their mind on the feel about blacks? What could he say to black kid who wrongly believes that every white person is racist. Answer! Nothing! Thats giving him too much credit.
As far as the Black community goes, Obama could come out for giving Alaska back to the Russians, ceding the Southwest to Mexico, while using tax payer,s money to build a Mosque in Arlington Cemetery, and a video of him tossing living late term abortion babies on the pile screaming in pain as they die slowly and still comfortably capture 95% of that voting block..
But Blacks are not Racist!
I am increasingly incredulous at the number of Americans who join Potus in abrogating their responsibility as informed citizens. It was one of the stupidest decisions of our electoral history to elect a man with zero leadership experience from the farthest left of the political spectrum to be our leader during a time of crisis. The man has no idea who, what, how or why America is and his disdain for our spirit, traditions and principles is palpable. Yet there are still millions who support him still. Obama has turned out to be exactly what we should have expected…it was all there to know before Nov 2008. So now no voter has an excuse to vote for this sham…unless you are black, elite, cool, or just can’t accept the fact that you were dead wrong before. Instead of immigration amnesty, we should grant stupidity amnesty, and redeem ourselves at the polls.
The last thirty days have made it clear that Barack Obama is not going to win the 2012 election by a substantial margin.
Congratulations! You’ve just realized what the rest of the world has known since January 2011!
Now if you can get the reality that the presumptive GOP candidate is still going to loose (and that includes even if he ‘wins’ the election in November) through your head, we’ll be in business.
As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that is unraveling in this country is the right wing of the Republican Party and it’s chief water-carriers. The majority of us who are level-headed, informed, intelligent and realistic about the horrendous mess that President Obama inherited from his predecessor are encouraged, supportive and patient.
On the other hand, “Chicken Littles” like you who are running around proclaiming that “the sky is falling” don’t bring anything to the party. You are certainly entitled to your opinion; however, you are 100 percent wrong.
Still blaming Bush? You need a new scapegoat.
Geez, what a pile of reeking offal. 1) who cares what the national polls say? Only morons like VDH. He’s elected state-by-state. It’s called “the electoral college”. Conservatives are always in difficulty in thinking, and this is yet another example 2) The left is not all that enthused about Barack. He is certainly no leftist. He’s a centrist. 3) If there was a crime called “economic treason”, we’d be putting VDH against the wall right about now, and loading up the .30 rounds.
Remember, for idiots on the right, you must believe 67 impossible things to vote Repukeliscum, and VDH shows the pathetic results.
You are, of course, insane.
We are so lucky to have POed Lib here to provide the voice of temperate reason.
“Economic treason” – put him up against the wall and load the rifles – what devastating arguments against VDH’s opinions.
Good God Man! You’ve nailed it!
One troll, many puppets.
What does the 26 cities over 250K and the greatest poverty level have in common?
All are heavy unionized and all have been controlled by Democrats for many many years!
Does this fact and the Blue States bordering on Bankruptcy penetrate the mental fog surrounding. the Liberal mind of most Democrat voters?
Of Course NOT!
Never have so many been oblivious to the obvious.
They still think the Democrat Politicians are concerned about their Welfare.
The same party and polities that reduced the black population into welfare bondage and the most dependable Democrat voters will work just as well for the rest of the population.
Just reduced them to poverty and Depending on Welfare and you have a Democrat voter for life!
President Zero and the Democrats are pursuing the same polities and spreading poverty for the rest of the Nation that have turned those cities and blue States like Calif., Illinois, New York etc. into basket cases and made them dependable votes for the Democrats!
The more the Democrats can spread Poverty, Welfare and the Entitlement mentality the more Democrat voters they make and the closer they get to a Third World Socialist Paradise controlled Lock, Stock and Barrel by the Democrat party!
<iWhat does the 26 cities over 250K and the greatest poverty level have in common?
All are heavy unionized and all have been controlled by Democrats for many many years!
I’ll do you one better:
What does the following 12 US States have in common?
Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia,
*each has a poverty rate of between 17% to 22% (per the 2010 Census)
*each gets between $1 and $3.5 from the Federal government for each $1 it collects in Federal taxes
*each has a State tax rate below the national average
*all fall under the national average in employment and job growth
*all fall under the national average in high school graduation rates
*all of them went to John McCain in 2008, and have been firmly in the GOP’s control for at least a generation
So, to paraphrase the original question: do these facts – and the moral bankiruptcy of the entire Republican caucus – penetrate the mental fog surrounding the of most self-identified Republican voters?
Given they’re on the cusp of nominating a fop with a documented history of pathological lying, the answer is a bit self-evident. More’s the pity.
Obama:
OH: +9
VA: +7
PA: +6
FL: +4
12 swing states: +8.
You folks are really not going to enjoy the next four years. Nor the 8 after that, once Hillary becomes pres in 2016.
Idiots like VDH appear to believe that national polls (where people from Texas, MS, AL, GA, and all other states that are not swingie) are more important than regional polls of each state separately. VDH is an idiot, and does not believe in the Electoral College.
As someone whose childhood was spent in European refugee camps, whose family was victimized by local police forces who had just traded in their Nazi uniforms for UN relief workers garb, I am always amazed by the civility, forbearance, and good will that seems to be part of the American personality. Perhaps because of my background I am much quicker off the mark to ID someone who is a threat, someone who is causing me harm, and someone whose intentions and actions are…no other way to say it…bad. I refer of course to Obama the destroyer.
It is amazing the respect and even obeisance sometimes shown to Obama even by his strongest opponents and critics, to say nothing of the captive press, and even by people who have suffered grievously at his hands, and in particular the American people.
Do people not see that this guy is a sociopath, a compulsive, pathological, habitual, and chronic liar? Someone who cares neither for the lives of the the people he selects for death every Tuesday, nor for the people bleeding in Kansas and Ohio and Michigan and California and Florida?
This guy loves the part of his job where he jets around the country on Air Force one. He minds not at all that it costs the taxpayer $100,000 per hour to fly him around. Minds not at all the extra expense of scheduling a second and third government jet for Michelle, when she is leaving an hour or two before of after his flight. He cleverly arranges to mix an official act into every one of his fund raising junkets, guaranteeing that the tab is picked up by you and me, and not his fundraising bundlers. He has added $5 Trillion to the national debt, taken zero responsibility for his destructive actions, and is a serial violator of the Constitution.
So given all this, and more, as enumerated in Victor Hansen’s article, the amazing thing to me is that the guy is in a virtual tie with Romney, is beloved by the main stream media, and referred to as a “nice guy”. Really???
Where is the outrage? Where are the impeachment proceedings? Where are the tar and feathers?
You forgot to mention the rope to lynch him with. I guess we’re all supposed to be impressed by your unproven claim as a “refugee.”
The hysteria from the far right is very entertaining for those of us with active brain cells, although many times it’s as overdone as a hammy Shakespearean performance. I guess it’s because in the end you all know you might be winning the battle but you’re losing the war.
Ah, the classic content-free ad-hominem. You get an F. Class dismissed.
No substance, class or style in the insults either. It’s like riding the subway on a Friday night.
Es ist aber schade das Sie sind eine Fascist mit seine lagerseit.
Is the German quote supposed to prove how intellectual you are? Is it supposed to be somehow more acceptable to call someone a Fascist in German?
Maybe you could translate “lagerseit” for me. Google Translate doesn’t recognize that as a German word, though it recognized the phrase as German and translated the rest of it fairly well.
It is no compliment to be compared to that worthless incompetent drug using whore mongering dastard John Fitzgerald Kenedy.
Its even less of a compliment – and far more of an indictment – for a political party to literally cannonize a glib, third-rate actor turned sixth-rate politico, all the while systematically undermining the country and economy they claimed to defend and cherish. It gets worse when said party starts renaming federal properties with said actor’s name in direct contravention of federal law.
“Canonize” –and “literally” means he was made Saint Ronald Reagan by the Catholic Church. And “literally cannonized” if it means anything means we who love the guy shot him with a cannon –a real one, with real shells. Well, we didn’t.
Obama by 5 points, at least. Romney is a fool, as are all Republicans.
Plan accordingly.
The Lord Sees, and has rendered his Judgement upon America. We give much to other countries, but our poor and unlucky want for health care. Our upper classes trample on the working class, and hire aliens. Machines take the jobs of the people, and they are left to beg. We have had decades to solve these problems, but done nothing. We will now pay dearly for our faults. Not only in money, but in freedom.
No amount of tinkering with the tax code will obviate the will of the Lord.
I believe the Lord he refers to is of the Flies.
We’ve survived the likes of Buchanan, Harding, and Bush Jr. I’m pretty sure we’ll manage to survive Obama.
All of the hot air from “pundits” (the major cause of Global Warming) may very well do us in.
LOL – The trolls seem to be out in force these days. Guess they’re feeling the heat.
Obama is v.smart guy. V.way.too.smart. Somehow establishment flunkies and washouts like VDH can’t accept that. As the Gop slides into every sort of pre-modern trench of error – wingnuttery, science denial, sociopathy, religious nuttery, xenophobia and racism – it does even worse by picking up a lying white collar slick who gutted America’s manufacturing base and his very own Bay State – to run for Prez. But then a successful fight isn’t fair. It’s not Barry’sfault that he is smart. It’s not his fault that the Gop is a refuge of peabrained conspiracy nutters, slicks and hypocrites. Nothing VDH has written is true. I want to be polite so I’ll leave it at that.
I just found out that if VDH is a joke of a historian he’s an absolute laugh riot of a pundit
Care to identify one or two of VDH’s supposed “untruths”?
Hey, man –great argument! Not the way you meant it, but great argument!
If Obama gets re-elected, its the end of the US as we know it. IM not trying to sound dramatic, but if there is an Obama administration that doesnt have to face re-election, I cant see how we stay united. Its not so far fetched to believe that old glory might have 15 less stars, in a year or two.
Obama is what you get when you allow imbeciles and the illiterate to vote.
Or reproduce!
Gylippus,
“Untruth”? Everything that VDH writes. Ohio voted correctly on SB5. And Sherrod Brown is leading by double digits over a Goper who is outspending Sherrod 5:1.
Tecumseh75,
Maybe you should leave for Canada?
Spiaggi,
That’s right Smart people vote for Obama. Illiterates and imbecile readers of PJ, watchers of Faux News, punch the wrong button, maybe?
Me hearties, save your outrage for Nov.12, 1/20/2013 and the next 24 years. After Barry’12 we’re going to have Hillary’2016 and Hillary 2020. Then it’ll be Warren’24 Warren’28. By 2020 Texas will turn out for the Democratic Party. You guys aren’t going anywhere near the White House for another 48 years. By then the Gop will be an oddity like the Whigs and Limbaugh/O’Relley will be jumping around Vegas stages in a sequinned suit.
Energizing the opposition? Good job.
“Government can’t solve the problem. Government is the problem.”
–Saint Ronald the Reagan, just before an attempted literal cannonization at the manicured but useless hands of a floorful of overpaid federal government employees goofing-off (“at work”) on the internet, grinning with delight at their lucky unnatural combination of 100% job security and 0% performance standard, trying (and as usual failing miserably) to demonstrate a semblance of a whiff of wit.
When VDH & friends hike above Huntington Lake (east of Fresno) on August 4, they will be several dozen miles away from the little liberal Mammoth Lakes Town, located further east on the other side of the High Sierras. This famous, but rather bizarre, town of outrageous liberal shenanigans, just declared bankruptcy, following Stockton.
The town has tried every spending plan possible, including spending $3+ million on a summer bike path, from Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I am sure that taxpayers from 49 other states are glad Federal Funds went to something so infrastructure-fruity!
In fact, the same thing happened in my area of Reno. If you drive up Mountain Rose Highway (431) up to the top of the pass between Truckee Meadows (valley containing Reno) and Lake Tahoe, right at the summit is a neat campground. Nothing much seemed wrong with the existing campground. But for two years it was closed as it was redeveloped by, you guessed it, ARRA 2009 Obama funds. This 8,900 foot elevation campground is only open three months.
Another infrastructure-fruity concoction!
VDH loves to point out that real infrastructure involves things like making I-99 in California more than bottle-neck two lanes per direction. Or putting a real I-70 across the Sierras, which would give Mammoth Lakes and Fresno a real, permanent and inherently good infrastructure investment that pays good dividends 24/7 and 365/year.
But no, the liberals need to spend Federal borrowed dollars on campgrounds and bikeways at high elevations (Reno’s pass @ 8,900′ and Mammoth Lakes above 8,000′) where snow covers everything and makes the recreation-only investment dormant half of each year! Brilliant!
Waiting for Mammoth, Volcanic: Liberal Awakening
By Robert Winkler Burke
Book #9 of In That Day Teachings
7/2/12 http://www.inthatdayteachings.com
Liberal paradise – Bankrupt,
Mammoth egos can’t be stopped,
Volcanic pride must erupt,
Unending spending has flopped.
Mammoth Lakes,
First in line for Obama’s ARRA stimulus bikeway!
On the takes, (What’s three million if others: willin’?)
Forty-nine other states pay for summer hike way!
But what now is this?
Town of Mammoth Lakes can’t pay?
Bankruptcy bliss?
How can liberal spenders say nay?
Poor liberal town of High Sierra Mammoth Lakes,
Not big enough to hide (or really grub) like corrupt L.A.!
It must pay (oh, the rub!) dearly for its mistakes,
But will liberals ever learn? Will they? Who can say?
Maybe they’ll learn this time,
I really do not know!
But God can mystery-rhyme,
With active volcano.
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