Sunday, January 31, 2010

Where is the Hope?

The tyrant in the Whitehouse campaigned on hope and change. Where is the hope?

The government speculated that US 2009 4th quarter GDP growth was a whopping 5.7%. Who would believe that number (or anything this regime says)? The US economy is dead and no one can cite any metric to the contrary.

Financial pundits all agree that consumers drive the US economy. With one in five US workers unemployed/underemployed and many of those who are still working living in fear that they will lose their job, most consumers aren't going to spend. Consumers will hunker down, pay off debt and save until they see the layoffs stop.

Now the Whitehouse is prepared to submit a budget with the $1.6 trillion deficit for this year. This new debt represents 11% of GDP. This staggering figure would be comprehensible if the nation was purchasing a major capital item such as new weapons, infrastructure or something that would improve GDP down the road. Instead, most of this money will be squandered on social programs that will keep millions of people's heads barely above the water. The US economy is in a death spiral and with it goes our republic.

I no longer hold any hope that our leadership can pull out of this death spiral. This will not end well for anyone.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Surprise Week

A strange week in the land of the bruig. A republican wins Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachutsetts and Obama reveals his latest idea, driving the DOW down 6% in less than a week. What am I to make of this?

Massachusetts sent a republican to the Senate. Apparently enough voters in the Bay State have been paying attention to what the regime in Washington has been doing this past year and aren't pleased with what they see. The economy has stagnated at near Depression levels of economic activity and employment. The country is deeply in debt and plunging deeper in debt every day. TARP and stimulus spending has only generated bonuses for the regime's political allies as the general economy flat-lined. The regime's showcase legislation, health care reform, could only be advanced with out-right bribes to politicians and unions. Who would want more of this? So Massachutsetts voters sent a spoiler to Washington to slow the regime train down.

Obama, surveying the shift of the landscape, mutters some platitude about angry voters and proceeds to go populist by threatening to punish bankers. The DOW drops back to where it was last Fall as our leader pumps uncertainty into the fragile business climate. Obama is an idiot! I'm fairly certain that this braying jackass believes he can buy more voters by threatening evil banks, even though he's certain to heap bribes on his banking cronies. So Obama is also a liar and a crook.

I'm not going to listen to this third world liar and crook's state of the union address because a) I already know that the union is fractured and in deep trouble and b) why would I listen to a liar.

Spengler thinks the US is a failed state. Reading over at Belmont Club this weekend was both enlightening and depressing. I think Spengler and Mongo have assessed the dilemna about right. We have no political leadership in either party and few economic solutions. Will the American voters demand that our leaders make tough decisions or put on the Jimmy Carter cardigan and go out with a whimper? I just don't know anymore.

Monday, January 18, 2010

News Flash: France Throws a Hissy Fit....Again


This cocky little French rooster decided to get in a "scuffle" with a US air traffic control commander in Haiti then called the UN to whine about American occupation of Haiti. The FT article states that Monsieur Alain Joyandet, the Secretary of Francophony, was arguing about "the flight plan for a French evacuation flight".

Let me translate...this assclown is more interested in getting French nationals out of Haiti than getting US troops in to provide security so aid can be distributed.

May I ask, Monsieur Joyandet, why there aren't French military air traffic controllers running the show in the former French colony of Haiti? Why aren't 10,000 French troops flying in to provide security?

Because the French don't have the airlift capability nor the troops to conduct the mission. Tellement triste.

So, the real story is that the French are throwing a hissy fit because they are embarrassed that they can't do shit to help their foreign colony demonstrate that they are still a global power. In fact, they can't even rescue their own citizens without American help.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Invasion


This AP photo of the protest against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and US immigration policy kind of says it all. A bunch of Mexicans break into our house, occupy it and then shove a fist in our face and claim they are "human".

Well, scientifically they are probably right but otherwise, just barely. The sign should say "We are criminals here to take your stuff".

Being a student of history, I've seen this before. Angles and Saxons colonizing Britain. Vikings colonizing Scotland, Ireland and Britain. It never turns out well for the indigineous population who end up being marginalized serfs in the land of their forebears.

The US is systematically being colonized by uneducated Mexican invaders who wish to supplant our civilization with their own. They don't want to become Americans, they want to make America into Mexico.
Everyday I find these invaders everywhere isolating themselves in their chicano enclaves and living the vida loco.

Our government tells us that we need these uneducated workers to do the jobs that we won't do. Americans are told they need more education to compete and have decent paying jobs. There is no future for those with less than a high school education. Yet we allow Mexicans with less than middle school education to stream across the border to work. What of our own 20% unemployed? Don't they deserve a shot at some of these jobs that we won't do?

I suspect that our government enjoys the benefits of the damn near slave labor wages that Mexicans provide. Rome found that it couldn't function with free men and had to resort to slave labor in the late empire to maintain it's standard of living. Is that where we're heading?

One of two things is true. Either our government is dysfunctional with regards to immigration and border control or our government is bringing slave labor into this country. Which is it?

Until we find out, Sheriff Joe is one of my few American heros. Keep on keeping on Joe!

Chavez brays as he nationalizes a grocery chain


Hugo Chavez is braying today that US Marines have occupied Haiti. He is stunned that the Marines have guns, since Haiti already has guns, El Premier thinks that the Marines should have left their weapons at home.

Meanwhile Chavez nationalized the French supermarket chain Exito for "price gouging". Apparently this Marxist dictator wants people in other nations to subsidize his commune at their cost.

This assclown is always entertaining me with his zany antics. It would be funny if he wasn't impoverishing a nation and it's people. Venezuela is a wealthy nation, rich in natural resources, that could be a vibrant civilized place but instead has become a festering corpse spreading the disease of communism throughout the Western hemisphere.

Venezuela is the model that Obowma and his democrat pals have for America. Laugh if you will but this is our future if we don't rid ourselves of the usurpers in Washington.

Unions are the Mafia

I have never been particularly pro or con regarding unions, until recently. After this I think it's time to take them out of politics completely.

I've worked in union shops. My grandfather was a fierce union member working for the railroad when workers were maimed and killed often and forced to work in near slavery. Unions serve the public interest when they protect workers from predatory employers who treat their employees like crap.

The past 10 years I've had the misfortune to supervise many union employees who often made more money than me and would do as little work as possible in between complaining about their human rights. Imagine supervising a dozen 14 year olds and you will have a good feel for what goes on in a union shop.

Unions destroyed GM and Chrysler with a little help from the poor management of both companies. I've actually had to sit through a meeting where a HR VP charged with negotiating contracts with the UAW, complained about shop rules that required a painter, a carpenter, an electrician and a millwright to get his office painted WHILE THE COMPANY WAS IN BANKRUPTCY. My brain almost exploded. Who negotiated the shop rules? Why are you getting your office painted? What were you thinking?

But the nail in union's coffin, as far as I'm concerned, is the political power that unions wield to buy politicians that will give these pampered marxists a free ride on paying their fair share of the medical cost burdens that everyone else who works must pay. The unions go on and on about social justice. The unions want somebody else to pay for social justice, they will just decide what favored group somebody else should pay.

There is no difference between the mafia or the union. Both shake down the weak with threats of violence unless protection money is paid. Both bribe politicians keep the system going. Everybody else pays or gets hurt. This is 21st century American politics unless the people say enough.

Union political contributions and political activities must be stopped now.

Coakley: Child Rapist Enabler and Candidate for Senate

I have been watching the Coakley/Brown Senate election with disgust. The spectacle of democrat union thugs, corrupt officials, perverted politicians and Marxists shilling for political hack Coakley is just a thing of wonder. Vying for the seat of Ted Kennedy, the drunken killer of Mary Jo, in the birthplace of our republic.

Coakley's resume suggests that she is a tough attorney, fighting crime for the people of Massachusetts but there are a couple of anomalies that paint a disturbing picture of this pol. She didn't really seem very interested in investigating Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston, and his office for allegedly violating laws in regards to destruction of public records. Martha also had a problem with charging a child rapist, who raped and tortured a 2 year old girl with a hot curling iron, who a subsequent DA put away for two lifetimes for his crimes. Martha also has a problem with the defense of traditional marriage as she believes it is a threat to the "rights" of homosexuals.

So what do we have here? Another corrupt democrat trying to undermine families and give social justice to child rapists. She would fit right in with the current pack of criminals and sociopaths running the US Senate.

Will Bay State voters fill Teddy's seat with another sociopath or take a different path? Obowma, Clintoon and union thugs will use every corrupt tool at their disposal to seat one of their kind. Goons like Meehan would shove an elderly woman to the ground to get Coakley elected.

The US is starting to look like some third world shithole based upon the candidates that run for public office.

Haiti


You have to feel sorry for the poor bastards in Haiti (and apparently most of them are bastards). But sorry is all they get from me. I'm willing to help them as much as they have been willing to help themselves, which is not at all. I actually believe we hurt them by providing continual aid for all their ills. It only seems to increase the quantity of dysfunction in their corrupt, failed state.

The Dominican Republic occupies the other half of Hispaniola yet doesn't suffer the corruption, crime, overpopulation that Haiti chronically suffers under. It must be the culture of the residents of Haiti that creates the ever-Hell that exists in perpetuity.

My young boss from NYC says that you can't save the world. He is wise beyond his years in that regard.

We ought to leave Haiti to it's fate and let nature run it's course. Perhaps those that survive might create something that can be called a civilized community that has a chance at life. But then again, maybe they'll just eat each other.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

My Prognosis for America

Economy
The US economy is paralyzed and will remain so until the next domino falls and pushes the country into an even deeper recession. There are plenty of dominoes that could fall. Thousands of dubious mortgages will reset over the next few years on houses whose value has plummeted. Interest rates can only go up. Tax rates will go up. Terrorism in America is a certainty. Any of these dominoes will push the country deeper into decline.

Billions of promised government stimulus funds have not been spent and effectively no jobs have been created. The stimulus has only delayed the inevitable dislocations that must occur. Despite borrowing and printing money, the government simply doesn't have the resources to fix the recent problems that they created.
The next round of economic problems will be beyond the ability of government or the American people to overcome.

Government reports of economic growth are just lies. Americans are using savings to maintain their standard of living and with forecasts of a decade of stagnation the savings will vanish leaving Americans financially ruined. Within a generation, America will look more like the 1930s with a small middle class and most people just struggling to get by.

US manufacturing is in utter collapse. In 2009 the Chinese bought more new cars than Americans. GM and Chrysler are dying. By the end of the decade, manufacturing will only represent 5 percent of GDP with government and services responsible for 95 percent of GDP. As Americans grow poorer, service will shrink and government will grow until all wealth is consumed. Since government cannot create wealth, the end will come soon.

Read the CIA World Factbook to get a feel of where we're headed.

Government
The democrats now own the US government in perpetuity. As the cohort born in the 1920-40s dies, conservationism dies, thus the GOP is dying. With baby boomers evenly split between the parties and post-boomers decidedly liberal, it is inevitable that the democrats will hold power from now on. As the boomers age and the middle class shrinks, they will demand more government services which democrats will provide.

The democrat party has morphed into a socialist entity not unlike European parties. The agenda is elite power and redistribution of wealth for everyone else. According to socialist dogma, society must be homogenous and  without any other moral character than equal. Christianity=Islam=atheism and no idea is superior to any other idea.

The behavior of the US current president and congress ignoring the wishes of half the population and their party is the future. The democrats know what the people need and will force their will on the people. Individuals are expected to defer and submit to our rulers under penalty of law. Americans are now subjects of their democrat rulers.

Culture
Marriage is dead in America. In fact, there are no longer many long term relationships in this country. If a culture cannot produce families, how can it produce a community let alone maintain a nation? We are all just bits and pieces now with no long term commitment. All that matters is this minute and what can you do for me this minute.
Just look around you at work or while shopping. More than half of all Americans are fat pigs waddling around in tight clothes. There is no shame in America today. I see butt crack at work, school, shopping and even church. Modesty is no longer part of American culture.
Even Michelle Obama dresses like a freaky slut by wearing bondage belts at public functions. So much for representing our nation's new values I guess.

America is on autopilot these days. Government can't govern, leadership can't lead, educators can't educate and workers won't work. Everyone is just going through the motions, biding time and drawing a check. It amazes me that the stores have stock, the lights come on and anything works.
Incompetence is endemic in modern American culture. It is hard to find a responsible person or organization today. I have watched formerly successful business enterprises just collapse into a herd of cats wandering around in circles. The stories I could tell would make you weep. In short, we suck.

Terrorism
The blogosphere has been on fire over recent acts of terrorism. I think we should worry more about the three subjects that I commented about earlier. The government can't do anything to stop a serious terrorist who is willing to die for his beliefs. We will all be inconvenienced and treated like criminals in public, but the terrorist will always succeed, eventually.
We haven't been serious about killing those who want to kill us since the democrats took power. Our military efforts are just short of a joke. Our military is lucky if they can protect themselves under the current rules of engagement and they sure as hell can't protect us.
Americans are going to die at the hands of terrorists and that is just a modern fact of life. Eventually the terrorists will take out a major American city with a nuclear weapon or send us back to the stone age with an EMP attack. I wouldn't live in a major urban center for many reasons, among them fear of being incinerated by a nuclear weapon.
Considering our current approach, I think we should accept dead Americans from terrorists just like we accept crime, drug addiction, abortion and the other ills of our culture. Hell, we kill more American babies every year than Americans killed by terrorists. Just shrug and move along. Afligido acerca de su fortuna cabra!

War
The Afghanistan conflict is lost and sending more troops will only result in getting more of our best killed for no apparent reason. Although I admire the ideals of those who try to defend us, I wouldn't recommend the military to anyone in this environment. If you want to protect something, get a wife or a pet. At least no one will be trying to get you killed with political correctness.
The democrats will do what  they have done for the past 100 years, which is reduce our military to a parade ground bureacracy. Therefore there is no reason to station US troops outside of the US. Let other nations stand or fall on their own. We don't need troops in South Korea, Japan, Iraq, Germany or on the high seas. No country believes that the democrats would fight them.  We won't even challenge Somali pirates for God sake.So what is the point of overseas deployments?

Bring them all home now.  

Summary
America is done. It will stumble around for awhile like a zombie but this experiment is over. China is the up and coming world power and it will deal with it's problems in a far more effective manner. Americans seem to want the short, brutish and nasty life of our Dark Age ancestors. It is coming within a generation.
Perhaps Putin, Ahmadinejad, Bin Laden or some other tyrant who actually believes in something will unwittingly have mercy on us and put us out of our misery. But God no longer smiles on our cesspool so I suspect we will just go out with a whimper.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Words

Intelligence and the development of advanced language were attributes that allowed the human species to dominate the planet and advance the species. With language, humankind could put ideas into words that, in turn led to group actions that generally benefited humans. Throughout the history of mankind words could inspire, comfort, entertain or threaten. All good if the words were truthful; words could be proven truthful if followed by confirming actions.

Civilizations are nothing more than groups of people agreeing to a set of normal behavior expressed in words and deeds. If we had to rely on deeds alone, by foregoing spoken language, it would be nearly impossible to form and maintain a simple household, let alone a civilization.
Civilizations are based upon trust amongst the people within the civilization based upon the words and deeds of the members. So long as the people in a civilization can understand and agree with the ideas presented by words and confirm the words through deeds, trust and a civilization can exist. When words and deeds diverge then trust falters and civilization begins to recede.

Prior to the 20th century most humans only read or heard a few thousand words per day. The veracity of those few words could mostly be readily discerned by observation of reality or actions of the speaker. Trust was possible. Since the advent of radio, television and the internet, most people are exposed to tens of thousands of words per day. This endless barrage makes it impossible to verify the trustworthiness of words or observe the actions that result from these words. Hence trust is increasingly difficult to form or maintain.

Compounding the problem of too many words, is the proliferation of communication professionals who distort language to sell an idea, a product or a reality. Behind these public relations speakers are psychologists and lawyers who determine which words should or can be used to do the job at hand. When these professionals are done it is mostly impossible to determine truth or establish any trust. Words no longer help but hinder us.

Lately the media tells us that new unemployment claims have fallen by -22000. Ok. Fallen from what number, where and  when? People want to know if the number of unemployed is falling, growing or flat. Are things getting better or worse? It seems that the government and media have twisted words to make us feel better rather than convey information that is truthful and inspires trust.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told us that the "system worked" even though a jihadi was able to set off a bomb on an aircraft. Ok. If we understand the words security, system and worked then Janet is a liar because security did NOT work on this aircraft, there was no system to prevent the jihadi from getting on the aircraft and the only thing that worked was the jihadi's plan. Janet lied and I don't trust her or our government.

The Congress has passed a Health Care reform bill that is 2000 pages with over 500,000 words. Who could possibly comprehend that document? Millions of people will turn those words into actions. What will be the result of those actions? Does anyone know? 

I no longer trust MOST of the tens of thousands of words that I  hear every day. My attempts to verify words and deeds MOSTLY results in disagreement in words and deeds. Truth is fungible these days. Interchangeable as necessary by the speaker or actor. Unverifiable by anyone.

The perversion of language, hence truth and trust suggests that our civilization is crumbling and on the brink of collapse. What will replace this global civilization, I do not know. Perhaps some local civilizations can spring up that can manage local words and deeds, some local truth that can inspire local trust. Maybe we'll just kill each other until our capacity to do so fails. But this civilization is driving right off the cliff. Ilicet!