I'm going to write a bit here, and then I'm going to not write about politics for a good, long while. There's not much I'm willing to do. I don't think that the small amount I can do will make much of a difference either in the short run or the long run. Therefore, I'm going to put forth my opinions and beliefs here, in this post, then ignore politics for a good while.
Fiscal policies
I think the government is rushing us toward the edge of a cliff, fiscally. The democrites have put us into a position where they could force socialism through by engineering a collapse, then trying to cause a panic about it.
The worst part is that they succeeded.
It really started under Johnson, I believe. Or maybe all the way back to FDR. It was he, after all, that opened the door for the government to step in as a social safety net for those who failed in life. And this after he engineered the extension of the Great Depression by his partnership with the major unions resulting in a federal refusal to allow companies to fire workers or freeze wages to save themselves. FDR also set up that major Ponzi scheme called Social Security. To be entirely fair, he did not intend for it to last more than one generation, to replace individuals' need to be saving for their own retirement, or for the money to be used in any way except to be put into a trust fund for those who paid it in.
However, we know which road is paved with good intentions--and that goes double for government good intentions.
Johnson, in his war on poverty, created government welfare: a government check paid to individuals who do not have a job, and do not intend to look for a job. That may not have been what he intended to do, but he obviously forgot about the law of unintended consequences. Or, maybe not--a vast majority of those on the government dole vote Democrat to keep the checks coming.
The community reinvestment act, passed under the Clinton administration, and ignored by the Bush administration, is what set us up for this current economic collapse. It forced banks to make loans to people who obviously weren't suited to them by threatening prosecution for racial discrimination in writing mortgages. It was for noble intentions: the American dream, after all, includes owning a home, and many were flatly unable to. The community reinvestment act was intended to help those who couldn't afford a mortgage to get one anyway, completely ignoring that government intervention would not help them pay a debt they could not afford to take out in the first place. And, because the banks knew that they could not pay the mortgages they took out (which made them a bad risk), and because the banks were required to write them anyway, the sub prime mortgage with the super-high interest rate was created.
Greed factored in, yes, but government intervention started the ball rolling. And nobody really paid attention to the men (and women) behind the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac curtain: former Clinton administration officials who looted the companies by keeping two sets of books--one that held the liabilities, and the other that held the assets--that they could use to fleece their investors and earn bonuses larger than those the government crawfished on with AIG.
The really scary part is that the government has said that they're going to "monetize" the national debt, which has spiraled into a number that, when you take into account all government financial liabilities, exceeds the world GDP. Not even China is buying our debt anymore. Nobody is.
And now, with the economy in the process of complete collapse, and no nation in the world willing or able to lend us money, the government, headed by the Communist in Chief, has bought controlling interest in the biggest national banks, GMC, and AIG, and are trying to set up to grab controlling interest in every other branch of industry, through government spending and through new environmental regulations. And if that isn't enough, he's also pushing through legislation to take even more of our money and pour it into nationalizing health care. Socialized medicine. Medicaid for everyone. Rationed health care. I'll have more to say on that in the section on domestic policies. For now, let me just say that, like everything else he's pushing through, we simply do not have the cash to pay for it.
Foreign policies
Our Communist in Chief is also scaring the shit out of me with his interactions with other nations. Not only has he gravely insulted our real allies in the global war defending against Islam, but he's shoved his tongue so far up our enemies' asses that he's tickling their tonsils. And they're enjoying every moment.
Saudi Arabia: He bowed to their king. Bowed from the waist. Looked, from the video footage, like he kissed the king's hand, as well.
I am an American. I am no nation's subject. My president should bow to no other head of state. At best, the king of Saudi Arabia is my president's equal. In reality, there is no power in the world that can really touch us, militarily--which means that the king of Saudi Arabia should have bowed to the President of the United States.
Iran: Obama has been offering major concessions to a nation that hates us, eagerly awaits the Apocalypse, and is actively working to acquire nuclear weapons in order to kick-start the Apocalypse. And Iran has openly stated that they are unwilling to compromise, but that they'll take our subjugation, thanks bunches.
And they're laughing at us for having elected the spineless Communist weasel now in the White House.
Islam: I'm covering all of the other nations that have a Muslim majority, here, but aren't a threat in any other way but in their major export--Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 45. In other words, terrorists.
Obama gave his first official media interview to Al Jazeera, the Islamofacist cable television station that encourages acts of terrorism against us, and against other Muslims.
Obama has offered to meet with and deal with terrorist regimes besides Iran and Saudi Arabia--for instance, there are no moderates in the Taliban.
He's setting us up for another terrorist attack that will make September 11, 2001, look as mild in comparison as Oklahoma City's terrorist attack looks in comparison with New York City's. Well, Oklahoma City's attack looks mild in comparison to rational people, at least--Janet Napolitano can't seem to tell the difference.
North Korea: Obama ignored their quasi-successful ICBM launch. They're a belligerent on par with Iran, and they have not only nukes, but are about to have the capability to hit us with them. And they still carry a grudge about us protecting South Korea from them.
Russia: Obama has thrown some of our allies under the bus, trying to get Russia to back us with Iran. Russia's response? "Yeah, we'd appreciate you bending over and taking it with regards to the ICBM shield that you're building in Europe. We don't want you to protect them from us, and we don't believe that you're trying to protect them from the Middle East. But no, we're not going to back you with Iran. Pussy."
Russia is a threat. A growing threat. No, they're not on par with terrorism--yet. They're heading that way, and they're escalating the new Cold War behavior, frustrated that we're not taking them seriously. They could attack militarily to try to make us take them seriously.
Somehow, with this administration, I doubt it would work. Obama would roll with the kick, and beg them not to kick us again.
Which would convince them that we're weak enough to beat (and I'm not so sure it's wrong).
Domestic policies
Back to socialism. It's not just the financial aspect of socialism that scares the living bat crap out of me. It's the totalitarianism.
You see, I read Orwell's 1984 when I was fourteen years old. It resonated. Loudly.
When I was 14, my family was under government control. I mean that literally. We got food stamps, and medicaid. The only reason we didn't get welfare as well was because, at that time, my mother miraculously (and by that, I mean it was with the hand of God in our finances) managed to make $366 per month in child support cover everything else.
But my sibling and I were in the state's legal custody, even while our mother had physical custody. And the government, and child welfare (a definite oxymoron, in our case) told us what we could do, and what we couldn't; where we could go, and where we couldn't; how we could be disciplined, and how we couldn't; what we could be taught, and what we couldn't.
We'd landed in the social safety net. Socialism. Totalitarianism. Petty tin-pot dictators with delusions of grandeur told us how we were going to live our lives.
We, as a nation, are almost there. Socialism runs our schools. Socialism runs our banks--now. Socialism runs some of our industry--now. Petty tin-pot self-appointed elites run the elections, and think that, since they're smarter than all of the rest of the nation, put together, that they should be able to tell us how to run our lives.
Totalitarianism.
You see it in the report the Missouri Highway Patrol put together on conservatives being potential terrorists. You see it in the report leaked from the Department of Homeland Security, and the arrogance and disrespect to our soldiers and veterans in the implication that our soldiers and veterans are no better than a Muslim. No better than the September 11th hijackers that killed over 3,000 innocent Americans--the only military target that day was the Pentagon. You see it in the way the FBI was ordered by the White House, in the middle of March, to watch the Tax Day Tea Party protests (though Obama denies knowing that the protest was going to happen). You see it in the ways they keep trying to disarm us, the citizenry.
The government no longer fears us. We're starting to fear the government. And, as Thomas Jefferson says, that is the mark of tyranny.
Political parties
By the way, I'm not Democrat-bashing, here. Every politician in Washington, D.C.--from the President, the CIA, the FBI, to all 535 members of congress, to the nine supreme court "justices," to all of the lobbyists, to the media to the commenters to everyone that works there for any branch of the government or for anything that reports on government actions--is at fault. Not one of the so-called "Beltway" is blameless. I hate them all: Democrats and Republicans and Independents that caucus with the two major parties.
You have not stood up for the people. You have not stood with us. You have not stood with the constitution. You have stood up against those who elected you. You have not listened to us when we said "No more. No more taxes. No more government programs that don't work. No more socialization/nationalization of health care. No more bailouts. No more of our money taken from us that worked for it and given to those who won't. No more."
And when we try to change things, you ignore us. You ridicule us. You shut us down.
There are no more conservatives in Washington. There are CINOs: Conservatives in Name Only.
Kathleen Parker is a particularly odious example of a CINO: she openly stated in one of her columns that she preferred to see Barack Obama win than see Sarah Palin, a true conservative, as Vice President.
What I believe
I believe in the Declaration of Independence. I believe that, as the government grows more tyrannical, we the people have the right and responsibility to replace it.
I believe in the Constitution of the United States. I believe that the Bill of Rights lists things that the government is prohibited from doing to the people--abridging our rights: our right to speak our minds on politics, race or religion; our right to assemble where we want, with whom we want, to discuss what we want, whenever we want; our right to worship as we please, when we please, and where we please; and our right to own, practice with, and carry guns, knives, or whatever else we choose to carry to defend ourselves with. I have no doubt that they want to abridge, infringe on, and otherwise remove the other rights listed in the first ten amendments.
I believe that we cannot allow it. I believe that unless we stand together against the totalitarian tendencies our government is showing, now, we are kneeling for the boot they will place upon our neck.
I also believe that we are already too late. Which leads me to my last point.
Why I'm not willing to do anything
I've lived under government control before. I remember what they have done to me in the past, and I know what they can, and may well decide to do, to me in the future. And, while I don't mind paying the penalties for standing up for what I believe, it's not just me anymore.
I have a son.
I will not risk him being taken from me to be indoctrinated into the group think of the Communist Elite.
Conclusion
There may well come a time when I feel hope, for a change. There may come a time when I believe I can stand up for my country and my rights without endangering my son.
And there may well come a time when I cannot keep silent any longer.
Until then, I will not discuss politics further. There's nothing to be done but bitch, and I really hate complaining.
4 hours ago
Amen, HH.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us believe the same things as you do.
I think the other thing is that a lot of us are just tired...tired of the ugliness, the rhetoric, the fact that there are people who would do what they can to silence or denigrate those who disagree with their agenda.
There is no "debate" or "discussion" any more, at least as far as one side is concerned, it is all "Can I shout loud enough and character-assassinate enough to shut this person down?"
It's disgusting, and it makes people like me envision building a small, off-the-grid cabin somewhere, and "lightin' out for the Territories."
My husband and I have actively discussed that. Are still actively discussing that for retirement, if not before.
ReplyDeleteAnd Obama did most of that in less than 100 days? What a guy!
ReplyDeleteThe ABC poll today says his job approval is 69%. And in the poll only 21% self-identified as republicans, the lowest number in 25 years.
What's going on with that eh?
Two words: Media Bias.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Beck mentioned, the other day, that a more accurate poll put him at about a 54% approval rating, with about 48% disapproving. The percentage that strongly approved and strongly disapproved were nearly equal, at not quite 25% each. Uniter, indeed. The last time we were this united was in 1861, and the discussion was about states' rights, and whether territories could choose for themselves whether to enter the union as free or slave states.
We all know (or should) how that ended up.
Holly: "Glenn Beck mentioned, the other day, that a more accurate poll put him at about a 54% approval rating, with about 48% disapproving."
ReplyDeleteDAR
And you think that's "more accurate?" Really? Two points:
a) 48% + 54% = 102%
b) If we look at 14 mainstream scientific polls conducted during April:
http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_job.htm
we find an average job approval rating of:
62.2%
If we average these 14 job disapproval ratings we get:
28.7%
No poll referenced at this site, going back to January gives a higher disapproval rating than 35%. Safe to say your 48% claim is entirely bogus. Your 54% approval claim doesn't hold up either. Cherry picking a lone unreferenced outlier doesn't fall in the category of "more accurate." Averaging several polls on the hand, does.
D.
I probably misremembered the numbers--it was last Wednesday, I think (my husband listens on his days off).
ReplyDeleteAnd you do make good points about averages being more accurate. That's what I tend to do with news stories: I'll read CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, and figure the facts are somewhere in the middle.
Generally, I'm foreign policy and fiscally conservative, and don't give much of a damn about social policy (gay marriage, etc.). I can honestly say that President Obama scares the crap out of me on both foreign policy and on the fiscal side (where pretty much any politician scares me).
HH: "I can honestly say that President Obama scares the crap out of me on both foreign policy..."
ReplyDeleteDAR
Saw this quote today and thought of you...
"In the turbulent imagination of the hard-core conservative, American foreign policy should be about telling off the rest of the planet.
According to the right-wing mind-set, a manly foreign policy would curtail any effort at seeking influence abroad, cut off assistance
to developing countries, forget about improving our global image and, above all, withdraw from the existing international organizations,
especially the United Nations, which is nothing more than a gargantuan waste of money and a hive of parasitic bureaucrats. Only if we
brusquely and even violently dismiss the obnoxious foreigners who annoy us can we vindicate our political and moral superiority.
Then there is the real world, where we regularly encounter threats like swine flu - and where we must depend on the other people
who live in this world to help protect our nation and our families. Certainly that is the outlook of America’s new presidency,
confirmed with profound urgency after 100 days by the sudden prospect of pandemic disease."
--Joe Conason
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090429_combating_epidemic_ignorance/?ln
Bush was a foreign policy disaster of gargantuan proportions, destroying decades of long earned American prestige which may or may not come back. In contrast, the cool demeanor of Professor Obama doesn't scare me in the least. And the world breathed a sigh of relief.
D.
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“You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
–GW Bush, 9/7/06