Boiling Frogs

 by Craig Willms

12/28/2024

The old idiom of slowly boiling the frog in a pot is used metaphorically to describe a situation where someone gradually becomes accustomed to something negative without realizing it until it’s too late. It is oft used because it aptly illustrates something very real. The American communists of which there are still plenty is the best example I can think of. When the communists, both here and abroad, set about transforming the American system they knew a frontal attack would be met with overwhelming rejection and guaranteed violence. A slow motion plot to change the base opinions across all the institutions of power and influence was set in motion. They needed regular Americans to reject free markets and freedom on their own. In the 1960's they produced a list of steps they would use to reach their goal [see here]. It goes without saying that in the year 2024 most of them have been achieved.  Are we a communist country? No. Not yet anyway.

The die-hard collectivists are content to allow the softer socialism to do their bidding. Yet, socialism doesn't necessarily have a better reputation with a large swath of Americans than communism does. Pure socialism has failed miserably everywhere it's been tried. The so-called socialist countries of Europe that are always cited as examples are almost never purely socialist. They have a capitalistic economic base layered with a social safety net that answers to the term socialism. Most of the Scandinavian countries roundly deny the socialist label. 

The very rich and powerful members of the elite class in the West know that communism - state control and ownership of everything - would be a disaster for everyone. Yet control is what they desire, just not the for the state. They also know that capitalism is the basis for almost all actual progress and technological advancement in the world. 

Capitalism as we know it with all its shortcomings is still responsible for the most wide-ranging freedom and wealth in the modern world. For the elites and the power mad this is a problem, distributed wealth and freedom interferes with their control. They have set into motion a plan that will put an end to that without bowing to the "state". It is like a plot out of a James Bond 007 movie. Unfortunately for you and me and the rest of the world it's closer to reality than global communism ever was. 

The political system they envision, brewing for decades, fermenting all the while, will eventually replace the two main political systems that are in use around the world. These systems you and I would recognize as the push pull behind all the conflicts and power plays around the globe. Shareholder capitalism in America, the Anglosphere and Europe and state capitalism that's used in places like China, Russia and the Arab world. This new system has come to be known as stakeholder capitalism, where rich powerful elite billionaires would control our lives from their ivory towers. Think the WEF and their 2016 proclamation 'you will own nothing and be happy'.

Why now? The dominoes are all lining up: globalism, data collection, surveillance, digital currency, high-tech interconnectedness, AI and above all extreme dissatisfaction with current authorities and their demonstrable incompetence. Think the Biden Administration.

Stakeholder capitalism is an authoritarian political system that shifts ultimate authority not to the state like communism, but to a group of stakeholders. These stakeholders are very same people that meet at the WEF annual meetings, and I presume the secret meetings 'ala the Bilderbergers etc etc - what we're talking about is one world government. It puts Donald Trump's call for America First in a whole new light. 

Is it any wonder there has been such a resistance to Trump since he entered the political arena. Who really knows if he's part of it or a true patriot - God help us if he's one of them. The assassination attempt on Trump where a bullet grazed his ear was a clue that he's not one of them. From the Secret Service shitting the bed six ways from Sunday to the instant death of the would-be assassin puts the lie to a Trump staged event. Of course we will never know the whole truth...

You might wonder how these elites will accomplish this global coup de tat. They are doing it right now before our eyes - it's been going on for years. Mega multi-national corporations, also known as holding companies are buying up all their competition and streamlining operations across the board. They consolidate entire industries and concerns under their umbrella sometimes under multiple brand names. Huge hedge funds, investment conglomerates and private investment firms are buying up small companies, they will eventually gut, and also property and houses that will put on the rental market. Giant retailers like Amazon are automating operations and building a distribution centers everywhere, working their delivery staff with maniacal efficiency and low pay, turning over their workforce every 3-4 years. All so they can undercut their independent competition and kill them for good. 

These same corporations are investing billions in artificial intelligence with eyes on replacing huge swaths of the workforce for pennies on the dollar. They have technology that surpasses anything the most powerful governments have. Think Elon Musk and his Spacex and StarLink systems that are clearly heads and tails beyond what NASA and the American government can do. Musk is just one of the billionaires and he is one of the most transparent. We have no idea how deep this dichotomy goes, what we see in the movies probably fails in comparison to reality. They come at us from all directions, technology, manufacturing, distribution, retail and the media, not to mention the all-out global assault on owner operated farms and ranches for ultimate control of our food. 

Why cry for America when we can see the German example unfold in front of us. Germany is/was the heart of the European economic zone, Germany is dying. First, they removed their borders via the EU dictates and let in millions that have no desire to be Germans. Then they cut off their energy so that they cannot be a manufacturing giant anymore. Many Germans will blame the U.S. specifically, but they did it to themselves with NATO's and the EU's help. To be clear it was the cabal of billionaires and elites behind the scenes, the same ones targeting the rest of Europe and America. 

It doesn't stop with West. Russia and the Middle East are also in the cross hairs. Easy enough to blame it on the Jews but it's so much larger than that, the Jews have enough to secure their own place in the world let alone run a global cabal. No one here is blameless, except the average citizen caught up in this fray. 

The wild card is China. From my reading China has never had aspirations of global domination. I think they have enough trouble controlling their own. Their outreach to Africa, Central and South America and other places around the globe are possibly a hedge against Western aspirations. China is so deeply integrated with the U.S. economically that hurting us hurts them, but they can and will stir up trouble - they are good at it, above all they are patient. They will wait for us to destroy ourselves.

What can be done? I don't know - I'm just reading the room here. Awareness is one thing. Knowing who or what is on your side is trickier. From my vantage the Democrats and "Wall Street" here in America and Labour and the Monarchy in the UK are not on our side. Global government is something they seem to desire. Beyond that I don't have enough insight into this cabal - I'm a nobody. I hope Trump is what he appears to be, but who can tell, he seems to love himself and his persona above all - then comes America. I would say try not to feed the beast. Personally I start with Amazon. They are always my last resort, if I can't get what I need from someone else then Amazon. You have to decide for yourself. I try not to economically support Google, Walmart, Target, Budweiser and the other giants, but sometimes we have no choice. Do your best and be aware of who you give your money to. 

p.s.     I know the irony of picking on Google while this website is hosted by them... Have a chuckle! I have no desire to move it. I don't see any money changing hands with Google that I know of. But I did succeed at not using Amazon once during this Christmas season!

Memory Lane: Was I right?

Do other occasional bloggers go back in time and read something they wrote years ago? I rarely do. It might be that I don't want to discover that events have made my past bloviating seem childish, uninformed or stupid.

As bloggers it's not fair to beat up on ourselves too much, we grow, we learn and we are often overtaken by events. As a man of considerable age, approaching my mid-fifties now, I do have some depth of experience and wisdom. Still, I should know better than to be too declarative, too certain and too righteous. If I was smart I'd stick to subjects I have expertize in like variable length subnet masking and Internet protocol filtering and control with IPSec tunnel as transport, or at least just electric guitars and power chords. But I don't, I try to dig into subjects that interest me whether I know what I'm talking about or not.

There I was perusing a favorite blog (http://www.tbirdnow.mee.nu/) only to stumble on a link back to something I wrote in 2007. I read it with trepidation, what BS was I slinging that day? To my surprise I found that I was right about a lot of things. This time events had confirmed exactly what I believed.

See here http://protohuman.blogspot.com/2007/10/oil-and-war.html

In it I said the 2nd Iraq war was about oil - it was. It was not only about oil, but only a fool would say oil had nothing to do with it. I do not believe the U.S. was there to steal Iraqi oil, we weren't. We were however engaged in that region with guns and ships in part to protect the marketplace for the movement of oil to the places it needed to be. That's just the way it was. It is a job that needed to be done and the U.S. did it. For one thing, no one else could and, for another who better than the U.S. considering the role the U.S. played in global stability for the markets and the economy of the world.

Even at the time, seven years ago, the U.S. itself was not getting that much of it's oil from the Middle East, but many of our allies were. Now with the advent of advanced extraction of fossil fuels in the homeland the U.S. get's even less oil from the Middle East. The U.S. is now, or is poised to be the world leader in oil production. What hasn't changed is that the oil business is global in nature and trouble in any part of the system affects everyone to some degree.

The spooky part is what has changed. For all the foibles and mistakes of the Bush Administration leading up to 2007 when I wrote the piece, in the eyes of nation and the world everyone knew the U.S. could be counted on. That alone was a stabilizing force, imperfect but stabilizing. Now a mere seven years later under the Obama Administration this is true no longer. The world is devolving into chaos in nearly every quarter. Islam, China and Russia are busy pushing out, testing the waters for American reaction, carefully considering how the West coalesces behind American leadership. But then again, there is no American leadership.

The whole Middle East and North African zone is in turmoil. Israel and Hamas are in a shooting war - again. Egypt, Libya and Syria are engaged in mini civil wars to name just the big ones. The Syrian conflict has spilled into Iraq threatening to destabilize the region even further. This is directly the result of the Obama Administration's failure to come to an agreement for status of forces in Iraq. A vacuum of power ensued, a welcome call for ISIS out of Syria. And... Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and nuclear ambition is a festering case.

Russia, the chess player, is using the weakness of U.S. leadership to harass Ukraine, threatening a civil war there. This leaves Europe between a rock and a hard place. They need Russian energy. What they see is Russian ambition in the absence of American leadership.

The troubling thing is that Europe and reasonable people in the U.S. see the energy revolution in America as a potential solution to Europe's dependency on Russia. Again the Obama Administration has done everything in it's power to stifle the burgeoning export potential of American energy. Killing the Keystone Pipeline sends a clear signal that the U.S. government is in the grips of radical environmentalists - and enough digging would find Russian money funding these "green" organizations with the very purpose of stifling American energy gains.

In the midst of all this foreign turmoil is a weak and stagnant economy in America. A weak economy makes the U.S. weak across the board. We see major homegrown companies pulling up stakes and moving to business friendly nations. Corporate tax reform is needed. Regardless of the push back from huge companies that benefit from the current system it takes political leadership to pull it off. There's no economic leadership in the political ranks, none. Instead all we've seen is the Central Bank and it's debt buying strategy. How many people are fooled by a rising stock market that is fueled by Federal Reserve bond buying? When this ends with nothing else having been done to shore up native economic growth the market will crash and interest rates and inflation will rise - further weakening the country and by extension the world.

The final point in my 2007 piece was that people grumble and complain about America sticking its nose into everything, complain about so-called American arrogance, complain about American aggression and nearly everything else about America - and as always there is some validity to these concerns. It's an imperfect world. Now we are getting a glimpse of what the absence of American leadership and reliability will bring to the world. What a mess.

For once I was right!!!




Ugh

Prelude to War? Time to look in the mirror

What happens on the other side of the world seemingly has no effect on the everyday lives of ordinary Americans like me, until it does.

In my little sequestered corner of the world I live in the Rodney King inspired "Can't we all just get along-ville". (It's better known by it's other name Naive-ville). No we can't it seems. What's happening in Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula was a long time coming and it seems it wasn't Russia who pulled the trigger. Mother Russia, behaving like any other country would, has had just about enough and is moving to protect its vital interests. Of course, you'll never hear that from our mainstream media.

The whispers and shouts all over the Internet is about the concerted but clumsy US/EU coup to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine. The timing was chosen to inflict maximum embarrassment on Putin and the Russians. The Olympics were in full swing in nearby Sochi when the "grassroots" protests began. The highly calculated and preplanned coup d’état orchestrated on the ground in Kiev might have been widely accepted as a real grassroots protest but for the audiotape of foul language used by Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State. On the tape we clearly hear Ms Nuland plotting the future leadership of Ukraine in her conversation with the US ambassador to the Ukraine. This was reported in the U.S. acknowledging the embarrassment to the Obama administration but then was never discussed again.

It's highly likely that the over arching plot to this sub-plot was hatched long before Obama, and probably before G.W. Bush as well. If true it gives you the sense that the President, whomever he is, doesn't really control the entire foreign policy agenda ( 'ya think). Since the fall of the Soviet Union there has been a plot rumored that the Euro-American hegemony is marching eastward to impose world economic domination. You can argue about the chess pieces on the board, but regardless, this shit has been going on for decades and neither Bush nor Obama is innocent.

The question then to all patriotic and America loving citizens is how much longer are you going to continue whispering sweet nothing's into Uncle Sam's ear as he orchestrates coup after coup on tiny defenseless countries before you realize he's a really bad dude?  How many innocent people living in Can't we all just get along-ville have to suffer and die at the hands of the CIA and its European counterpart. These things make great plots for thrilling novels and blockbuster movies, but this is real life and these are real people.

No one is saying Vlad Putin is a great guy, but he and the Russians are probably confused by these events and are reacting in a way they believe will preserve their vital interests - Crimea being the major one. In fact no one expects the world’s last superpower to act so insanely. Since 911 and even before everywhere the U.S. goes it ends up creating one failed state after another. The idea that it's the U.S. fomenting revolt, breeding hatred, and spreading death and misery to whatever it touches seems preposterous - but look at the track record of just the last decade. Iraq and Afghanistan turned out nicely, right? How about that Arab Spring?

At a time when the world needs a steady and sober hand to guide it to the next chapter in civilizational progress we have the world's sole superpower (and its business masters) rampaging from one violent confrontation to the next causing havoc and misery with no rhyme or reason. At least none that makes common sense.

Those who proclaim that the U.S. "must" stay engaged to protect the world from mad men need to look in the mirror. The U.S. is becoming the mad man. There are sober and thoughtful people who see the ultimate outcome of this madness but are powerless to stop it. Deception and delusion rules. The arrogance on display as the statements and actions out of Washington become more and more reckless.

Ordinary Americans and Europeans should be in the streets protesting the coming disaster. While the news media distracts the masses with fluff and nonsense the insane criminals in Washington, New York and Brussels are driving the world toward another war.

Time to look in the mirror America.


Ugh




-----------

Occupy Wall Street/Tea Party:Two sides of the same coin?

Occupy Wall Street hasn't been in the news lately, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately. The meeting of the ultra rich and powerful in Davos Switzerland last week brought it to the top of mind again. I am convinced Occupy Wall Street was motivated by the same underlying substrate that motivated it's nemesis the Tea Party. Hear me out on this.

The Tea Party set it's sights squarely on government, specifically the unconstitutional overreach of the Federal government. Occupy Wall Street rallied against the 1% - the rich few they believe controls the world just to hold the rest of us down. I'm increasingly convinced they are one in the same, since nothing else explains how the events of the past 60 or 70 years could have played out as they did.

[ To be perfectly clear being rich is not a crime, when talking about the 1% we're really talking about 1/100th of 1%. Essentially the super rich that play with 100 of millions like it was Monopoly money. ]

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) are the sons and daughters of the middle class facing dimming prospects for a future as bright as the one their parents had. The Tea Party is made up of mostly their middle class parents who are watching the country they knew (and loved) morph into something unrecognizable. Both of these movements are purely reactionary. There is a deep sense in the western world that there is an unrecoverable erosion taking place. Both sides see remedies in polar opposite extremes based on where they are in life. The mostly young of the OWS tend toward the utopian idealism of a more communist system, while the older more seasoned in the Tea Party see the solution in going back toward the original intent of America's constitutional framers. Both cant be right...

Some say that the Soviet Union was the inevitable result of communism, a system that lasted barely 70 years. It was clearly a failed system that caused untold suffering and doomed many generations to a dreary life even to this day. Others will say that the U.S. is the inevitable result of a capitalist free market system. Exploitative and unfair. Of this I'm not so sure. There is a perversion of the system that is denuding the middle class and weakening the core of the most successful social and economic system the world has ever known. The answer can be found by determining who is benefiting the most from the turmoil. Is it the 1%? Clearly it is.

I've written before on these pages as to why I believe the middle class in America is slowly being destroyed. By the 1960's and 70's the middle class had become too powerful a force. It was a collective force, powerful indeed, but with no head thus easier to defeat. Rallied by radical journalism in the 1960's it brought it's power to bear on the war machine and forced Washington to abandon the South Vietnamese. Whether this was right or not, or spurred by socialist/communist elements I'm not speculating, I'm just saying the power of the vast middle was evident in these events.

This had to be stopped. There has been, in my mind, a concerted multi-decade domestic and international effort to squelch the middle class dominating all the Western nations.

Who has benefited the most from moving a vast portion of American manufacturing to Asia? Who has benefited the most from NAFTA and free trade in general? Who has benefited the most from the Fed's quantitative easing program? Certainly not the middle class. Could it be the 1%? Of course it is. Arguments can be made that capital will always chase the cheapest labor and that free trade is ultimately good for consumers and cheap interest rates and easy money helps build equity. True, but it doesn't erase the fact that the American middle class is shrinking and these costs are outweighing the benefits across the board for the 99%.

The corporatization of the major media and the stranglehold the corporate political parties have on the levers of government ensure that the cronies in the 1% class (regardless of nationality) get what they need. With the Roman paradigm of Bread and Circuses alive and well in America and the West the 1% have little fear from the what's left of the middle class. Liberal platitudes and outright lies serve to ingratiate big government solutions to the destruction of the American dream among a large portion of the population who can't pull themselves away from American Idol, Facebook or their smart phones long enough to realize the pot is boiling. The conservatives unfortunately can't speak with enough articulation to wrestle themselves out of a wet paper bag. What difference, in the end they are as beholden to the 1% as the other guys.

There is an element lurking around the Internet known as reactionaries that have taken to calling this cabal the "Cathedral". The Cathedral is essentially untouchable. If any politician or any other entity steps out of line they are soon scandalized or marginalized, discredited or ruined. That said it's no surprise there is no fealty to any political party or their ideologies among the reactionaries. It goes without saying there is certainly no trust for the mainstream media. While I tend to agree with this assessment in truth the reactionary movement is tiny and toothless.

So in reality the Tea Party and the OWS movements are battling the same enemy. Ultimately they have demonstrated they both are toothless as well. The OWS has some allies in government carrying their rally cry of income disparity, but the movement itself is seen as a disorganized and smelly public spectacle. The Tea Party having had some success early on challenging some squishy Republicans have also been targeted and marginalized by the power of the Cathedral.

You begin to wonder where this will all end. The U.S. government can't continue to print money forever and there has to come a time when the destruction of the middle class starts to affect the hangers on of the 1%. What then?



Ugh  

Without Borders

When I saw "without borders" was the title of the message at church one Sunday I got worried. While I wouldn't call my church a typical liberal Christian church I would call it a strident anti-conservative church, which it clearly is. It is entirely anti-evangelical-conservative in word and deed. This does not bother me in the least. I too am wary of potent evangelical movements for many reasons, one because they bore me, but mainly because they are almost always Biblical literalists. I find nothing more off putting and inimical to the life and love of Jesus Christ than evangelical rantings taken from literal readings of the Bible. Jesus himself was not a literalist. My church, a phenomenal teaching church, goes to great lengths to keep politics out of the realm of the Kingdom, but it's not difficult to ascertain that the church culture leans liberal left - considerably so. A topic for another day.

Anyway...

Whenever, wherever we hear the phrase without borders we should be worried. Simply because in utopia without borders is a laudable goal, but we don't live in utopia. Until we do, borders, nation-states and the law of the land is necessary, vital even. I'm happy to say the message in church that day had nothing to do with political borders or advocating the erasing of national borders as I had feared. It was merely the rightful notion that Kingdom of Heaven knows no borders as it spans a truly cosmic realm.

In recent weeks I've read several interesting pieces in the blogosphere about the damage unfettered (and illegal) immigration is doing to some countries and cultures. Also other stories about the coming collapse of otherwise peaceful, orderly societies due to lawless, frustrated and racially motivated uber gangs that are growing up in over-crowded slums around the world offer a frightening glimpse of our future.

Over at Mangan's a piece called "Immigration from low-trust societies is theft" talks about how immigrants burrowing into a mature society pay nothing for the infrastructure they inherit and take a disproportionate share of out of a society compared to what they contribute - amounting to literal theft. There was a difference a century ago when immigration was controlled and by and large the newcomers started contributing almost immediately. It would be hard to argue that the quality of the "stock" we get now with uncontrolled immigration is not inferior in comparison.

In Europe with the one-two punch of stagnant economic growth and mass immigration entire nations are slipping into economic and cultural depression as described in this interesting piece at theAtlanic.com called "Are Europeans Giving Up on Europe?". The countries hardest hit by the economic downturn - Italy, Spain and Greece see the EU experiment as a failure, contributing to the malaise. The EU is also being blamed in England for the mass immigration the Brits see destroying their culture. Poll after poll in Britain show a disaffected populace, upset that EU immigration rules are forcing the island country to open their doors to more and more low value immigrants, many  - if not most - headed for the dole.

In fact all advanced Western countries with the exception of Japan are being impacted by a flood of immigration both legal and illegal. The native populations by and large are wary and even hostile to the trends and for good reason. Its not just economic - as if that's not enough - its also the loss of cultural norms. All over Western Europe huge sections of the major cities have developed into "no go zones" where even the police dare not enter. In these zones the law of the land is not enforced and a complete culture imported from some - pardon the language - shit hole has been established. This is happening to a smaller extent in America, Canada and Australia too.

Eventually this less than integrated sub-culture will burst out and with discontentment and rage and will lash out in one wave of violence after another until the natives are forced to live in walled off communities or flee to a country not yet destroyed.

Africa is already the model for this new world order. Scarcity, hopelessness and disorder are the catalysts. It has already happened in most sub Saharan nations, and with the so-called Arab Spring northern Africa has quickly caught up. Africa is essentially ungovernable.

The die is cast, the future set. If this exhaustive article by Robert Kaplan doesn't send chills down your spine then you're already numb or you don't care. "The Coming Anarchy" isn't about the end of the world, but it is about the end of civil civilization. While it's clear Africa and much of the Arab world is already aflame we see evidence of this in our own country. Think south Chicago, south LA, parts of Detroit and other cities in Michigan where immigrants have instituted their shit hole cultures in entire subdivisions.

No culture or civilization is immune. China's cities are already bursting at the seams and millions more are coming from the countryside every year. Developing countries are seeing their poor rural citizens flood into the cities. When the over population meets scarcity explosions happen. India, Pakistan, Brazil, all of southeast Asia are potential powder kegs. The West may be able hold it off for a time but eventually our day will come.

The West is courting suicide with this defacto without borders posture. Unfettered immigration is not good for anyone. Why the leaders (of both parties) can't or won't see this is frightening to me. No matter how poetic it sounds this is not one world, not by a long shot.



Ugh

Post Modern Lunacy

The tag line for this blog is "Up is down. That's just maddeningly unhelpful. Why are these things never clear?" The problem is that so many things are clear, what is right and true vs wrong and ridiculous is often as plain as the nose on your face. Yet popular culture, your teachers, your leaders, your bosses and even your family and friends ignore it or outright deny it. Or... They are too afraid to say it. It is an ancient problem, the story The Emperor’s New Suit was not written yesterday.

Many things have been written about the rise and fall of empires. As empires go the United States is the oddest by far. That it is an empire is not really in question. Since the end of World War II America has clearly been the prime influencer of the world. Initially this was simply the result of the devastation of world war. The U.S. was largely intact and ready to help rebuild the Western world - which it did. Even as the Cold War raged the influence of the U.S. trumped the Soviets wherever a modicum of freedom was present. The Cold War ended with whimper rather than a bang and the default for the world was one where business, trade and the successful exploitation of natural and human resources reigned. This came about not so much by the military conquest of the U.S. but the 800 pound gorilla clearly dictated the general outcome.

Glubb Pasha, a British soldier, scholar and author famously generalized about empires having seven stages: (1) the age of outburst (or pioneers), (2) the age of conquests, (3) the age of commerce, (4) the age of affluence, (5) the age of intellect, (6) the age of decadence, and (7) the age of decline and collapse. Now if we were to place America circa 2013 we'd probably choose stage 6 or 7. Stage 7 is probably terminal - the question is: is stage 6 terminal too?

The good news is civilization itself will not end with the fall of a post Obama America -- any more than it ended when the British Empire collapsed or the Roman Empire faded or when the Pharaohs succumbed to invaders. The torch that was lit at the dawn of human civilization will be picked up by someone somewhere else, and the human race will eventually move forward again. Is it better that the world be dominated by a profit seeking state like the United States or a totalitarian state like China or a dysfunctional state like India, a theocratic state like the Caliphate of Islam or a dying state like Russia? (Gee, America doesn't  seem so bad does it?)

This post modern lunacy we see before us now is very sad news for America & the West. It didn't have to be this way, we have been betrayed by the leaders we allowed to grab power. Perhaps it is inevitable anyway, I don't know, perhaps Glubb Pasha is exactly right. Empires rise and empires fall.

Part of me blames the people as much as the leadership - we get the leaders we deserve. It's clear that poor leadership and poor parenting has failed us and our children. We also bear responsibility for the apathy that has permeated society. Sure life has become complicated and its hard to stay on top of the millions of issues that face modernity, but there is no excuse for the belief that we can do well enough in life despite exerting no particular effort to learn the truth behind the issues. By accepting what politicians, scientists and the media tell us without questioning or even having a modicum of curiosity - then indeed, we get the leadership we deserve.

What is really astonishing is how the U.S. has structured itself into a well educated elite ruling over the poor and stupid. But the odd part is that the really stupid are the well educated elite. What Obama says, what so-called Republican leaders say is more often than not vacuous nonsense. What the talking heads on TV say is often worse. They are not intellectual giants, they are master manipulators that's all. Our true intellectuals may be technically brilliant, this does not necessarily make them suitable to lead the world or even a car wash. What we end up with is the lunacy of ego.

It's the average people acting with the freedom of their own self interest that gets things figured out. Entire systems grow up and function without central planning, and if there is value it sustains, if not it dies. Government has a role in keeping the playing field level and mediating disputes through practical law making and through the courts if necessary. Unfortunately government is used to tilt the playing field in favor of its cronies and to feather the nest of the politicians.

They do it by creating one artificial crisis after another. The energy crisis, the population bomb, the S&L crisis, the education crisis, the Gulf War, the global warming crisis, the terrorism crisis, the Gulf War, the mortgage crisis, the debt crisis, the health insurance crisis, the looming entitlement crisis. Almost to a "t" these are actually a failure of leadership and made-up political crisis'. The solutions are nearly always worse than the problems and lo and behold the rich and connected come out smelling like a rose - every time.

Are we in last stages of decadence and decline? Are we in stage 7?

Economics is only part of the picture...

In past empires the people often thought most highly of the athletes, musicians, and actors, regardless of how corrupt these celebrities’ private lives were. Sound familiar? The precipitous decline of sexual morality, a dearth marriages in favor of “living together,” and a skyrocketing divorce rate all hurt family stability - the very bedrock of any healthy society. This is what happened to the upper class of the Roman Empire in the first-century A.D.  The birth rate declined, abortion and infanticide became common and family size was deliberately squelched. Is this that much different than what has happened here and now? It was clearly one reason for Rome’s decline. This is followed by gay sex becoming celebrated as publicly acceptable, such as it was among the ancient Greeks before Rome conquered them - is that not also happening here and now?

These patterns repeat, piling one on top the other. Maybe we can defy the odds. It's not looking too good.



Ugh

The Middle Class: The True Wild Card

The middle class must be destroyed

Have you heard about the report released last week showing the American middle class has lost 39% of it's wealth over the past few years. In other words we have been transported back in time to 1992 wealth wise. That's just the fact. While it seems incomprehensible, it has happened, and it seems almost as if it was planned...

The powers that be, if you are into grand global conspiracy theories, came to realize 30 or 40 years ago that the middle class in the Western world had to be destroyed. Particularly the American middle class. Considering where we are right now, our place and time in history, it's literally the only thing that makes sense.

Why else would the powers that be continue to suppress the modern global economy, bottle-up the true potential of America, Canada, Australia and Western  Europe? In the past 30 years we've seen technology explode and thereby shrinking the world in the process, making nearly everything more efficient and productive. There is no need or reason for poverty, illiteracy or hopelessness anymore, all of it could be stamped out here in the 21st century. Yet it won't be. Billions will continue to live in poverty without the hope of ever seeing and end to it. Why? Simple enough, the poor and desperate can be controlled. So now you see the problem of the middle class.

The middle class was a powerful force, an unpredictable force for those who want to control things. The main problem with an economically powerful and rising middle class is the "cat herding phenomenon". They just continue to do what they want because they frustratingly act in their own self-interest. When they are so flush with money you can't get these people to stop building their far flung suburbs and driving their SUV's so you can force them into your cute choo choo trains in the city

The problem for the controllers, the mega business/government conglomerate, was devising a way to carefully, cleverly separate the middle class from their wealth without necessarily fomenting a revolution. Revolutions are even more unpredictable, messy and sometimes bloody too.

Can you imagine the brainstorming session that must have been...

"We can destroy their jobs, move whole industries to slave labor in China..." Cue head nodding.
 
"We can encourage them to become investors in equities, we'll even match them dollar for dollar, promise a rosy retirement (while they shovel their money into our pockets) and then pull the rug out from under them - over and over." Cue uproarious laughter.
 
"We can get them to sink all their money into the "American Dream" of home ownership, enticing them with cheap money and a promise of ever rising home values. Encourage them to use their homes as ATM machines, run up their personal debt into the stratosphere then we'll bring it all down like a house of cards." Cue high fives all around.
 
"We'll dumb down the schools, but require a college education to get a decent job thereby separating parents from their money or saddling the kids with a mountains of debt and then hope they don't realize we were lying about the jobs anyway." Cue thumbs up, winks and nods.

Until recently the industrious middle class and hungry young entrepreneurs kept reinventing reality and climbing out of the hole the corrupt government and big business had dug. I fear this is coming to an end. Europe is on the brink right now. America is not far behind. Canada and Australia won't fare well when the big economies collapse. Even Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) will suffer immensely.

The horrifying thing is that the human suffering will be unfathomable when the collapse happens. The collapse will be precipitated by the middle class finally succumbing to the fiscal and financial corruption of the proverbial powers that be.

I ask again and again. To what end? Who would benefit by a global systemic economic collapse. It all seems so insane when we as the human race have it within our power to make hunger and poverty go away. We need only to unleash the shackles holding the economy back. But then, maybe the powers that be want the sort of cleansing that will come about with a massive die off of human life.

I find the idea of this cynical and frankly sickening.

What if the middle class doesn't succumb? What if we tighten our belts and start demanding our governments right this ship. What if we recognize the liars among the populists and the patriots who say one thing (anything) to get elected and then fall into the corruption they promised to fight against. What if for once we have a politicians and powerful business leaders who desire to do the right thing for the country, for humanity instead of the singular focus of feathering their own nests while the mighty oak tree withers and dies underneath them? Well... One can dream.



CW

Not so fast...

I have commented on several occasions in this space about the seemingly rapid decline of the United States as the preeminent power on the planet. In influence, innovation, economic and military dominance America still has no rival.  I have been guilty of missing the same thing many others have missed. America is the Himalaya's to the rest of the world's Appalachians. America in every respect is simply huge. Our economy is 25% of the entire world's GDP and it has been for decades. Our military is the most advanced, best trained and the most supremely capable fighting force the world has ever known. Our universities, research centers and corporations bring miracle technologies and medicines to the world that create untold wealth and save uncounted lives. It's actually hard to quantify the impact this one nation (the good, and sometimes the bad) has on the world.

In many ways it's not that America is coming down from Everest it's that the Appalachians have now become the Rockies.

It was just 40 years ago that we thought it was all coming to an end. The economic mess in the West and the rising confidence of Soviet communist expansion was supposed to see America crumble. It didn't happen. Instead the Soviet Union collapsed. America rebuilt it's military and it's confidence. In the late 80's and the 90's it was the Japanese that were going to own the world. They took our consumer electronic business and very nearly the auto industry - as well as many famous New York skyscrapers. At the time many thought America was done, a mere shell of what it once was. But that was wrong too. Japan is now entering its second lost decade and is rapidly falling behind its chief Asian rival.

For the last 15 years we have watched the ascent of China as it took a huge slice of the West's manufacturing base with its endless supply of cheap labor. The Chinese, by embracing capitalistic tendencies, have rocketed past Japan and Germany economically and threaten America's dominance as an influence peddler. In fact, 2012 America looks rather bleak with regards to the unemployment and the public debt situation.

But is it really so?

On the surface America looks like a tumultuous mess. Tea Parties, Occupy movements, bitter elections and a 50/50 red/blue split that offers the casual observer an ugly picture of discontent. The hatred of Obama and the uber-liberals on the one side is only matched by the hatred of Bush and neo-cons on the other. Unemployment and rising prices for the staples of food and fuel multiplied by the decline in home values has created the sharpest downward spiral in wealth seen in decades. Economically there has not been this level of misery since the Great Depression. It's bad right now, there is no denying that.

On the other hand China looks like the picture of calm and confidence. Enjoying nearly double digit economic growth year after year after year has put China in the driver's seat. Busily building world class cities and infrastructure while becoming a military power to boot has resulted in rising influence internationally. They sit on billions in foreign currency and a trade surplus never before seen in modern times. To the outside world there is seemingly little political strife and the central planning by a powerful one-party system seems to work pretty well.

But does it?

In America the roiling sea of distraction masks what is a remarkably stable society. Orderly -  if spirited - political campaigns result in a transfer of power that requires no bloodshed. Americans get up and go to work, by and large follow the rules and get things done. The Tea Party movement is far from radical or dangerous to the authorities - the same is largely true of the Occupiers except they are much messier and more uncouth. In truth America is the picture of stability in these extremely trying times.

China, while seeming cool and confident on the surface - the part the outside world sees - is actually a seething mess underneath. The dirt poor living in the interior have nothing except the pollution after effects of the rapid expansion of the coastal cities. Even in the wealthy cosmopolitan cities there is great discontent over wages and working conditions. Chinese consumers watch endless piles of consumer goods that they make shipped off the America and Europe with little left over for them. We hear only snippets of the news of massive riots on a scale we can scarcely imagine. What the West perceives as confident one-party rule and the certainty that comes with it is actually a paranoid club of bullies and dictators. The only way to get ahead is corruption, bribery and cheating.

These are a great people, capable of so much more. The Chinese people have only scratched the surface of what they can do - but their system is incapable of unleashing the true potential locked up inside.

In spite of everything the Chinese people are a happier lot than Americans right now. Americans are discontented - and maybe we always have been - because we know there are so many more possibilities, we have glimpsed them. Our corrupt government and their corporate benefactors have skewed everything. The Chinese simply expect less of their corrupt institutions. A vast majority of Americans feel the country and the culture is heading in the wrong direction.China on the other hand is plodding however indelicately away from their oppressive past.

America unfortunately is being led by a man who sees America's decline as the only solution equalizing the human experience. He could not be more wrong. We are voluntarily cutting off our noses to spite our faces. We have seen what can be done by unleashing human potential. Our imperfect but mostly free culture has spawned the most powerful nation in human history. It was no accident. We are letting it be squandered by ideological maggots (on both sides). Our system while not as paranoid and corrupt as China's is heading in that direction. The political and corporate corruption in Washington DC in 2012 is beyond sickening - and it's dangerous.

The world is craving leaders. Many were fooled into believing we elected someone who was different in 2008. Someone ready to throw out derision and work toward a functional (if contentious) body politic. Instead we have a petulant, ideological man-child offering very little leadership or inspiration. He offers only decline. What the world needs now is some real hope and change.



CW

The Golden Age

Are we living in the Golden Age?

For those of us living in the West, America, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, it's not hard to imagine that we have reached the pinnacle of our societal development. If nothing else demographics will soon push us into a different paradigm. The West has stopped having babies and without babies there is no future.

If we think about how nice we have it as compared to all the peoples that have ever lived on this earth we should be amazed, but we aren't. We take it for granted. Worse, we condemn ourselves for the marvels we now enjoy that were forged by the sweat of our brow and of those who came before us. In that selfish condemnation we deny the next generation any choices at all since we are choosing this generation over theirs.

Think about it... We live in a world with instant communication between any 2 points on the planet. We have information, the collective knowledge of recorded history at our fingertips by virtue of the Internet. We have but to climb into a self-powered car with all it's luxury appointments and drive on super highways to any supermarket or mall and find just about any foodstuff or creature comfort we can imagine. A mere hundred years ago this would've been a fantasy. Our poor eat better, live better, enjoy better health and have better entertainment than all the princes and kings of a century ago. For all the griping by the Occupy movement it is never considered that the vast middle experiences life closer to the top 1% than at anytime in history. Do the ultra-rich watch better TV shows or movies than the rest of us? Do they have better music? Do their Ipods sound better, their Ipads look better? Is their food more nutritious? Are their cars more reliable or have better air conditioning than ours?

If we accept that we in the West, collectively, live a life of comfort and ease compared to those just a few short generations ago we have to ask; how long can it all last?

We are seeing the financial system begin to crumble globally. Japan, Europe and the U.S. have serious debt issues that are interconnected in a fashion that resembles a game of dominoes just before the first one topples. If or when the global financial system collapses the demand for oil - the principal product of the Middle East, North Africa and Russia - will take a dive, and likely trigger chaos in those politically unstable regions. Likewise, the demand for consumer goods from China and southeast Asia will plummet along with their economies - which might force a new military hegemony waiting in wings in Beijing.

Worse yet is the specter of apocalyptic religious zealots in Tehran possessing nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them. Regardless of which comes first, the collapse of the global economic system or a first strike (likely on Tel Aviv) by Iran, chaos will consume the world.

How bad can it get? No one knows. The world of fiction is rife with post-apocalyptic tales that frankly depict a world I wouldn't want to live in.

When the electricity fails and the supermarkets run out of food anarchy will prevail. Don't think the government - Federal or local - will save the day. It is the government (particularly Congress) that is destroying everything now - before the fall. In addition the current President is actively promoting the decline of America. These crony's are busy feathering their own nests and destroying the country in the process. There will be no help from the government when this all breaks down.

Does it have to end this way? Probably not, but simple hope is pale substitute for the cruelness of reality. Indeed, Europe(Germany) and Japan were thoroughly devastated after WWII and they came roaring back economically. But this collapse would be quite different. For one, Europe and Japan had the United States to help them rebuild. Do we suppose China would be in any shape to foster the rebuilding of the global economy this time? What would the world be rebuilding from? An economic collapse or nuclear war? I would not bet against either of these things happening if something isn't done soon.

I've read that it's already too late for Europe to avoid some of it's members from defaulting on their debts. America has unfunded liabilities in the trillions coming due over the next 20 years. Japan may simply be a lost cause. As Japan's population collapses they continue to maintain a closed door policy on immigration. Bold action is needed because the only thing that will turn the tide is confidence in the future. Confidence is the only thing that holds up the economic system as it is.The Western world had confidence after WWII because of the power of the United States. Restoring confidence is going to take bold action and like it or not it will have to come from the United States. Is China or India ready to step up and usher the world into the next era? I wouldn't bet on it.

So here we are a the precipice of collapse and the one nation with a chance at staving it off is led by a man actively directing a program of decline - and apologizing to the world on our behalf. This is not building confidence. Wanting the world to love us is a fool's game, especially when the world is seeking leadership.

When the history of this era is written generations from now will they lament the fact that when the world had such a benevolent hegemon in the United States of America it let itself be tore down from within, with the malice of forethought? Are we really ready to give up? Is this the beginning of the end of the Golden Age?




CW

This is the fraud that never ends...

So much has already been written and debated on the subject of Global Warming and its soul mate Climate Change that along with the general public I have become bored with it. This is possibly exactly what the fraudsters are counting on. So completely have they woven the narrative that mankind is the principal cause of climate change and burning fossil fuels is the culprit that every institution on Earth is "dedicated" to reducing their so-called carbon footprint in one way or another. If that was all there was to it then there is little harm in it. Efficient and wise use of fossil fuels is in everyone's best interest. Unfortunately that's not even close to the end game. Thank God there are dedicated souls ready to hold the fraudsters proclamations and activities up to the light.

Two years ago when a flood of e-mails was leaked out of the UEA's CRU in Britain "Climategate" was born. The e-mails revealed a pattern of concerted efforts to skew the data (or ignore the contradictory data), discredit skeptics and steer the UN's IPCC into global warming alarmism. This severely damaged the fraudsters cause and when coupled with the world economic downturn and rising oil prices the polls showed a significant change in the general publics attitude toward so-called climate change. Of course the sympathetic institutional and media investigations exonerated Phil Jones and Michael Mann and the rest of the players at the UEA.

Now another batch of e-mails has leaked that only bolster the case against the global warming fraudsters. The moniker Climategate 2.0 is being bandied about. In the coming days and weeks as these e-mails are parsed we'll learn even more about the duplicity and fraud the profiteers of this farce have tried to pull off. The question is - is it too late?

As I said earlier nearly every conceivable institution has embraced the Politically Correct position that mankind is a scourge on the Earth. Global Warming is just another piece of incontrovertible evidence. It is all sliding toward government control of the global economy with a World Government as the final authority. The only possible outcome is a decrease in the standard of living for the creative and productive societies. The seeds of this are being sewn as we speak while we watch the normalization of high unemployment and debt-ridden governments as corporate institutions continue to thrive. This is the set up of capitalism as the ultimate scapegoat. After all it is fruits of capitalism that brings us bad things like rich people, debt and global warming. (Never mind that capitalism brings us all the good things too).

Does anyone honestly think Occupy Wall Street is spontaneous? It is amorphous and indistinct on purpose. It is designed to sow discontent while the gun sights are firmly fixed on capitalism itself. It will not succeed on it's own as it is supposed to be just another piece of evidence that our system has utterly failed.

If and when that happens - a global meltdown of the world economic system the only possible outcome is the elimination of millions if not billions of people. This is the actual endgame. First the rich (people and nations) have to be made the scapegoats then the institutions must fail.

As Mark Steyn said in his best selling book America Alone it will be America that has to put a stop to this. Europe is in no position to do anything so momentous. We are literally seeing Germany, the only real rich country in Europe, being set up as the scapegoat for the collapse of the EU. China feels it will be able to fill vacuum when the West falls by it's own hand.

Until now the lynch pin of this scenario has not been mentioned. This is the very reason Barack Obama can not be allowed a second term. He instrumental in this normalization of America as a declining nation. He goes around the world criticizing then apologizing for America. He is in my mind a traitor. To others he is a realist because they are also convinced that for the world to succeed America itself must fail. Once America falls either before or after the EU then the West is lost. Barack Obama is doing his part.

I know it is said every election cycle... This is the most important election of our lifetime. This time it really is.


CW

What a good idea!

This really makes me angry. You should be angry too...

Every time I shop at a home improvement store these days I make sure to buy incandescent light bulbs. Oh, yeah, and I make sure they are Sylvania brand too. The days of finding these on store shelves in America are numbered.

The ordinary light bulb symbolizes the human race coming out of the dark ages, literally. The light bulb is birth of modernity. Just as the light bulb symbolizes mankind coming out of the darkness the U.S. epitomizes the modern technological world. Soon, the ordinary incandescent light bulb will be banned in the U.S. - a dark day indeed.

What this all means is a huge boost to China and the American firms that will complete the Chinese takeover of this industry. All this is happening with the blessing AND the help of the U.S Treasury Department. Perennial light bulb maker GE is already in China making bulbs after having closed it's last U.S. plant in 2010 and laid off many American workers. It's a shocker, I know. In the name of a greener world other major U.S. firms are bankrolling the Chinese lighting industry. And here we thought President Obama's chief  go-forward strategy was fostering a green everything industry.

To be fair to the President the seeds of this were sown long before his time in the White House, but he certainly was a part of the Democratically controlled Congress in 2007 when the Federal law was passed to ban the incandescent bulb. Regardless of the timing it is the notion that there is a concerted effort to build this industry in China with Federal government and United Nations backing. Enter the gigantic investment house Goldman Sachs and networking powerhouse Cisco Systems and a juggernaut is born.

The altruistic underpinnings of this project like all "green" efforts isn't helpful when American and other western workers are thrown out of their jobs. Here the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which invests in projects that can produce global environmental benefits is spearheading this project. Yes, the U.S. Treasury is a major funder for the GEF. This is being done as an environmental benefit by reducing China's carbon dioxide emissions and thereby benefiting the whole planet. So, I guess the ends justify the means and the means is destroying yet another domestic industry.

This new project backed by the aforementioned investors builds on a previous, $26 million GEF/UNDP pilot project, known as the China Green Lights project. That project was a roaring success for the environment and for China. The claim that it saves 15.78 billion kilowatt hours of energy, worth about $986 million to consumers, and, using dubious calculating methods is supposed to have kept 6.8 million tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. All is well. Nevermind that it threw thousands of Americans out of work and shuttered numerous factories.

The fact that the incandescent bulb is being replaced by an inferior and possible dangerous product - the compact fluorescent bulb  - is the just one part of this story that gets the dander up.That they are made primarily in China is the kicker. Perhaps the inevitability of the end of the lowly incandescent bulb was to be expected, but the destruction of an industry in order to force us to buy inferior foreign products is just wrong.

The LED light bulb is making a move.Currently they are expensive, but they are far more efficient, safer and at least for now they are being made in America where they are exported to China. Small victories I guess.




CW

Good Riddance

Good riddance indeed. Osama bin Laden is dead. A great job by everyone involved. The President made a dangerous decision, dangerous for his career and for the military men involved, but it was the right decision.

I will refrain from making any predictions. I remember being confident that once Saddam Hussein was gone that Iraq would settle down. I couldn't have been more wrong. While is was great to be excited that Saddam was dead just as it is great to be jubuliant that bin Laden is dead the future is just as uncertain.

Part of me wants Obama to declare victory and go home, but that part of the world left to its own devices could spell trouble for the rest of the world. I don't know exactly what should done, no one really does. Osama's death should change something though...


CW

The Arab/Muslim world just isn't appealing to me...

When I think of other cultures on this great big planet as I sit snug in my middle class American life I can think of none that appeal to me less than Arab/Muslim cultures. Put another way when I think of all the places in the world that interest me or fascinate me only one Middle East country even makes the list and that would be Israel. Maybe I'm being short sighted, but I doubt I'm the only American that feels this way. Frankly I wish America would just get out of that part of the world all together so I could go on and blissfully ignore it.

The truth is America and the West have created this reality and the Arab/Muslim world is just in reactionary mode. With this so-called "Arab Spring" happening across the Middle East and Northern Africa we are seeing the inevitable backlash against decades of the West propping up brutal dictatorships in the name of stability. In many of these tribal cultures there has been little chance that democracy or free societies would ever temper centuries of inter-mural conflict and violence. Such instability is totally unacceptable to the West because it interrupts the spice flow. The spice of course is the oil that is absolutely vital to all civilization on Earth. Due to the luck of geography the Middle East sat atop a gold mine it could have never hoped to exploit without the West and for that they have been under the thumb of one dictator or another for a the better part of a century.

All that, it seems, is about to change.

One has to wonder if the powers that be - the ones above and beyond Presidents and Prime Ministers - love this chess game that much? Or perhaps they need endless conflict as a cover. It asks the question: are we all then merely puppets? These men in the shadows have all the money they need, it can't be about money. Money then is just the way they keep score. However, this clash between the Arab/Muslims and the West has the potential to remake the world. Are the shadow men playing the ultimate game of "chicken" this time? Many are convinced the West cannot win. The West has the weapons, the technology and enough money to win, but it lacks the one key element necessary to prevail. The will to win.

The Muslim world has two weapons the West is unwilling to develop or utilize that will make all the difference in the world. Oil and the womb. Western economies and therefore Western war machines are dependent on oil. The West is unwilling to stand up to the self-loathing aspects of our own societies and make a commitment to end the dependency on Middle East oil. Secondly, we have convinced our own women to forgo motherhood and thereby have embarked on a path of self extinction.

Europe is particularly fragile. Having made a deal decades ago with Arab oil kingpins to allow mass immigration from the Middle East and Northern Africa in exchange for no interruptions in the oil flow. Simultaneously they've been replacing their own religious underpinnings with political correctness resulting in a dearth of native born children. They have all but submitted to eradication. Demographically Europe may already beyond the point of no return. Underneath Europe is slowly transforming into a Muslim culture, and their own self-loathers stand in the way of any meaningful effort to turn the tide.

I think it's a ways off for America to be transformed into a Muslim culture. While Political Correctness has polluted everything here as well there is still enough resistance and backbone to defend America - at least for a while.

World history is replete with cultural expansion and domination. Cultures rise and cultures fall and there's no reason to suspect the fall won't happen to America itself. There's is just something wrong when cultures literally give up as it seems many European countries have. I'm not alone in believing that the great things about American culture are worth fighting for. The people on the ground are willing, but we lack any leadership at all. Our fearless leaders won't buck the prevailing religion. The ultimate battle is not going to be Islam vs Christianity, rather Islam vs Political Correctness. As a religion Political Correctness is doomed to failure the question is are we stupid enough to follow it down?


CW

Where are we going?

So where are we going?

The better question may be: are we going up or are we going down? It is in our human nature to see the sky falling, believing the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Can we even see the sky when our gaze is on each tedious step we take through the muck and mire of daily life? I'll be first to admit it's hard to be an optimist even if all the evidence that has come before predicts a better future than the past.

When the Soviet Union collapsed twenty years ago I saw a spectacular future for the world. To me the Cold War represented shackles on all of humanity. I was convinced that much of humanity's potential and Earth's treasure was wasted on waging the MADness of the U.S./Soviet conflict. Well, as it turns out there were shackles holding us back. The Cold War wasn't holding back astounding human potential, it was holding back pent up conflict in every little corner of the world. Face it, the twenty years that have passed since the end of the Cold War have been a major disappointment. How could I have been so wrong?

I am ready to admit my naivete. Yet, according to people like Matt Ridley, Thomas Sowell and Peter Dupont there is still reason to be optimistic. The good old days weren't all that good.

Still, considering the state of affairs the world finds itself in am I really the one being naive?

One of the problems with my perception is that I live in times when changes in the human condition are readily apparent. Up until about two hundred years ago the pace of change in daily life was glacial. Since then the transportation of people and goods (ideas and trade) has set the world on a breakneck pace. According to Matt Ridley's book "The Rational Optimist" (hat tip to Al Fin) trade and specialization has been responsible for the blessings of prosperity we have enjoyed since the 19th century. The way the average Westerner lives today is radically different than the way our ancestors lived in the 1770's. Our colonial fore-bearers had more in common with the humans who battled the mammoths ten thousand years ago than with us.

We tend to see everything in the here and now, failing to consider there were dark times and dire predictions many times before and yet mankind forged ahead. Things were pretty bleak in the American heartland in the 1930's. What must Europeans have thought about their future as the smoke cleared in 1945?

Looking at the state of affairs here in the United States one can easily conclude we are heading downhill and fast. Ridley acknowledges in his book that the U.S. and his homeland of Britain may be in for a rough couple of decades, but progress, innovation and specialization continues. Trade with China and India has moved capital and jobs where it is more efficient for the time being. History shows that when one power contracts financially another expands. It took significant political an economic changes in these emerging economies to ensure that progress and prosperity continue unabated. Refreshingly Ridley reinforces what most people know instinctively (whether they will admit it or not) that prosperity is a positive benefit to all of humanity and not some planet-destroying consumerist nightmare. Additionally, it is individual freedom that results in millions of transactions of personal choice and not government planning or humanitarian drivel that is the primary engine of prosperity.

To that point Thomas Sowell shows us in his book "Economic Facts and Fallacies," how the use of undefined terms and non-evidenced based assumptions are used to manipulate an uninformed public. Much of the financial, political, and psychological basis for left-wing policies are shibboleths and canards. When everything is structured in the language of social justice, racism, sexism, fairness and inequality it weakens the pillars of a prosperous society. This is what has happened to the American psyche over the past 40 years. We have talked ourselves out of our place as the economic leader of the world even while we still are. While there is always an element of truth in the doomsayers proclamations their heavy handed prescriptions applied with a brute force of the courts almost always burdens society with terrible, debilitating and unintended consequences.

And yet humanity overcomes to create even more with less.

We have seen this with our own eyes, more than once. Doomsayers predicting the collapse of economic and environmental systems are as old as the written word. Today's global warming or climate change if you will, is only the latest sky is falling narrative. The real danger here is that coordinated efforts by governments and NGO's can enact policies that will shackle rich, energy consuming societies in favor of poorer nations, when in the end the charlatans themselves will be the only real beneficiaries.

The same is true for the financial manipulators. There is a fine line between debt and disaster. A monetary and fiscal system reliant on debt can't make debt the enemy and the savior through manipulation and continue to create prosperity. It takes debt to inject new money into the system, providing the fuel for wealth creation. However, the use of massive amounts of government debt as we are seeing today can't succeed due to the inefficiencies of forced redistribution. Such government spending drains private capital through higher taxes, increased debt burden or inflation. Right now with taxes and hyper-inflation held in check the looming debt burden actually leads to deflation fears. Nothing is more dangerous to prosperity than deflation.

On one side you have the debt scare mongers and on the other the government panacea. Neither side has exclusivity on truth, but this statistic is telling: since the end of World War II, average annual Federal government spending was a relatively consistent 19% of gross domestic product, but in the last few years it has spiked up to around 24% or 25%. If you were to include state and local spending, total government spending is now probably about 50% of GDP. We have seen a proportional dip in our economic prospects as a result. With much of the government spending going toward transfer payments via social programs overall prosperity suffers the inefficiencies of government ineptness.

Is there new hope that the government beast will be tamed? I'm skeptical. The Republican track record during the Bush era was hardly different than the Democrats. It is hopeful thinking on The Wall Street Journal's Peter DuPont's part to believe that "when the Republican House comes into session there will be new rules, new procedures, and very new thinking about what the government should be doing."

DuPont does offer this The Wall Street Journal sentiment that I wholeheartedly agree with... "The single most important result of the November 2 election is the marginalization of the House Democratic left... Paul Ryan has replaced Barney Frank as the most prominent House spokesman on economics."

Amen to that!



CW

Europe May be Dying, but not Socialism

I keep hearing that the Euro, the currency of a dozen or more European countries is living on borrowed time. Many analysts are intimating that the European Union itself could collapse. They claim the message is clear: the welfare state is unsustainable. Well no kidding. You know it, I know it and the American people know it. But don't think that means they don't want a welfare state right here.

The demise of the European cradle to grave welfare system doesn't mean that socialism is wrong according to a huge number of everyday Americans. Burned by the excesses of a few poorly regulated mega corporations and their own out of control medical costs many Americans are convinced that a not-for-profit government controlled world is not only fair it's righteous.

I started off talking about Europe, but I'm afraid Europe is a lost cause. They may indeed welcome the end of the Euro and even the disintegration of the European Union, but not the welfare state, don't even think of taking away their "free" government benefits.

America still has a chance. We need leaders who will drag us away from government domination of the economy and allow the entrepreneurial, profit making spirit to whisk us away from bailouts and dependency. We have seen the inevitable result of the socialist model again and again - why are we running head long into the same fire? There's no sane reason to follow Europe to hell...



CW

A Devil of Time: Winner Take All

Is World Wide Socialism Inevitable?

For years I have pondered the interesting question of generation spanning goals. It used to seem ridiculous to me that the next generation would further the goals of the previous generation when the final objective would benefit generations in some far off, nebulous future. Who cares; once we're gone, we're gone. As selfish as it is to say what happens to the world can be of no consequence to us if our life is already over. Why sacrifice our own health, wealth and happiness in the here and now for someone elses children's children?

Obviously having children of my own has helped bring some things into sharp focus. We are sacrificing our own health, wealth and happiness for the kids. Yet, even if we are going to bequeath to our children a storied family name with wealth and prestige or a spectacularly successful business why would we care about the politics and the sociology of a world we have already departed?

Clearly the founders of all the powerful and lasting institutions could not have had such an attitude. It was their challenge to train and teach (indoctrinate, if you will) the next generation to carry on their traditions and goals. Most of them sacrificed greatly with their own blood and treasure. They would probably all say it was done for the good of their children and their children’s children. Still, is that enough for us to toil endlessly and do without during our own time on Earth?

A thousand years from now no one will remember the minions who fought today's social battles any more than we remember the soldiers who fought off the Mongol hordes, or fought for King and country during the Hundred Years War. One difference being in those times the minions often had little choice but to fight and die for "the cause". For the last 150 years most free men have had a choice. But have we really? Is some hidden hand guiding humans through history and to what end?

Since the beginning of recorded history there has been a battle for the hearts and minds - and souls - of man. Some would say it is a battle between good and evil. Others among us would say the labels of good and evil are interchangeable and the battle is really self-interest pitted against everything else. It seems to me that there's a hole in that logic. What self-interest is there once you’re dead? The idea that self-interest could be driving generational goals makes as much sense as the supernatural forces of good and evil controlling the fate of humanity. Perhaps the labels of good and evil are interchangeable depending on your beliefs. The lines blur because mankind is of two natures, both exist inside each of us, not one of us is pure and free of guile. And so, the battle rages on.

Consider the socialist movement and their goals. These goals have been slowly realized over many generations for well over a century now. Today they sit at the edge of victory; all the pieces are in place. How did they get this far? Is global socialism inevitable? Do they work for the side of good or the side of evil?

To answer that we have to examine who they have been battling. Boiled down to its essence socialism is at war with the individual. It targets everything that aides humanity to rely on itself rather than the state or the collective. It is a war against self-interest. It is a war against free market capitalism. It is a war against family. It is most definitely a war against religion. Socialism’s defenders and advocates will always attempt to turn the tables by using the duality of these institutions to define their own intentions as perfectly honorable. Individualism and self-interest are selfishness. Capitalism is unfair. Family is cruelty. Religion is intolerance.

Just saying socialism is at war with these institutions is pointless without exploration. If we examine the strategy they’ve employed we find it has always been one of separation. Despite the fact that the “separation of Church and State" doesn't officially exist in any constitutional documents it has been used to separate society from its religions. Public schools have been used to separate children from their parents. Social programs have been stunningly successful at separating families from their fathers, grandparents and beneficial fraternal organizations. Government bureaucracy is used to separate us from our money and business from its autonomy. Individuals are targeted by tax policy in order to quell their own self-interest. Dependency on the state instead of on the individual is encouraged wherever possible. Specific examples of these assertions are too numerous to count. Yet, every one of these claims is countered with tearful or outrageous anecdotes and simplistic slogans. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" has been used to shame society into self-defeating action without any true examination of the consequences. It is always that way. There is a perceived injustice and a government solution is offered as the only cure regardless of any actual facts to the contrary. Once a foothold is gained it is never relinquished (willingly) despite clear demonstration of its folly. Welfare reform is passed or taxes are lowered but the underlying truth of the evidence is never acknowledged and the battle is taken up again when the socialists have the advantage again. Socialism is a relentless assault on individualism.

So what's so great about individualism? Defined as a social theory that advocates the liberty, rights, or independent action of the individual, individualism is a belief that all actions are determined by, or at least take place for, the benefit of the individual, not necessarily for society as a whole. The supposition that the goals of the individual played out by individual actions en masse create a benefit for society has been proven time and again. When group rights are elevated over the rights of an individual then true injustice has taken place. We are all individuals. We are born alone and we die alone - we are not simply a part of a collective organism. Rather, society is a collection of individuals. In an individualistic society common interests are agreed upon by individuals, not forced down by a group of elites.

It seems the ultimate goal of the socialist elites is the reduction of the number of people on this planet. Everything they attack or support is geared toward population reduction. They attack the family by advocating for abortion and so-called family planning. They attack marriage with the false promises of feminism, easy divorce and a relentless denigration and feminization of men. They vociferously attack the Church - specifically the Catholic Church - because of the Church's stance on abortion and procreation. They attack business and capitalism using social injustice and environmental arguments. They use the failings of these institutions as proof of their illegitimacy beyond a shadow of a doubt. Wherever socialism has taken root in modern industrial societies the number of deaths eclipses the number of babies born. Europe, Japan, Russia even Canada and Australia are close to or past the point of no return. They do not produce enough children to sustain their populations.

Despite socialism's horrendous record (or stupendous, depending on your point of view) over the past 150 years it is so close to victory. There is only one thing that stands between the socialists and world domination - the United States. Because of the inborn and ingrained sense of individualism in the American psyche it has never been easy for the socialists in this country. Yet, they have persevered and are perched on the cusp of total victory. Electing Barack Obama and an overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress was essential to the cause. The set up was years, actually, decades in the making. Despite the dismissal by the media and pundits of those who question the background of Mr. Obama, concerns over his place of birth, his early education, his college transcripts, his meteoric rise from the ranks of community organizer though some nefarious associations, even how he got a Social Security number from the Connecticut pool instead of from Hawaii are all legitimate and deserve examination.

Just how the Democrats thought they could elevate such an unknown, unrevealed and inexperienced man to the highest office in the land was a mystery. Then George W. Bush handed them a gift - many gifts in fact. He offered the olive branch of education, campaign finance reform as well Medicare expansion to the Democrats who only hated him more for it. He overreached in his response to 9/11 and under reached in his response to Hurricane Katrina. He failed to adequately defend himself or his party. Despite numerous attempts he failed to convince anyone of the looming financial crisis that manifested itself in the eventual collapse of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Wall Street. Thus a silver platter was handed to the Democrats and their socialist masters.

Under President Obama they've wasted no time. Giant financial and major manufacturing businesses have been brought under the control of or have been taken over outright by the Federal government. Labor unions and their pensions have been saved from needed restructuring. The Student Loan system has been taken over. A beast called Health Care Reform that threatens to bankrupt the country was passed. When the bill comes due for this reform rationing will be implemented despite their protestations that it won't, there will be no choice. Crippling financial reform looms, reform that does nothing to prevent further financial catastrophes. Their every action increases the power of the state and reduces the power of the individual. They are doing all of this regardless of the concerns of the governed. They don't care. They never have.

They were so impressed with themselves and their slogans that never saw the backlash coming. It’s not as if they care, any setback now is temporary. The Tea Party movement is an authentic response to government overreach. It was not created in the backrooms of GOP headquarters. It may well be too late, but it is an indication that Americans will not roll over as easily as the Europeans did. Again, the socialists don't care, they never have. They have managed to maintain their goals over generations, a truly remarkable feat.

I asked the question earlier whether the socialists work for the side of good or evil (neither of which they acknowledge). If, as God has commanded for humanity to go forth and be fruitful and multiple, to take dominion over the Earth and its creatures is something the socialists reject then I'd say it's clear which side they are on...


CW

Bringing Down the House (of Israel)

You knew it had to happen. Those of us who dare to defend Israel's right to exist knew it was just a matter of time before the Obama Administration created a "crisis" that put them at odds with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's conservative government in Jerusalem. They are using an announcement that Israel will build new housing units in Israel's capital city (oh the horror of it all) as a path to denounce Israel.

It's a manufactured rift. These "new" housing permits are actually the third stage of internal bureaucratic process going back several years. Additionally these new buildings will not be built for several years. There will be no territorial expansion of settlements, just new buildings in an existing settlement. These so-called "settlements" are surrounded by existing Jewish settlements they don't even border on Palestinian land. So what's the beef?

Embarrassment? VP Biden's trip to Israel was overshadowed by this announcement. The timing might have been bad on Israel's part but it is not a crisis! More likely it was a way for the administration to feign offense so that the eager (anti-Israel) U.S. media could jump all over Netanyahu's government. The actual truth does not matter, obviously, the media (and the Administration) banks on the American people not digging too deep and just accept that Israel is evil, and conversely the Palestinians are victims.

Again, you have to wonder if it's amateur hour in the White House. If the Adminstration thinks they are sowing the seeds of Netanyahu's demise they are wrong. This will only strengthen him in the eyes of the Israelis. As such the implied threats of American retribution only serve to confirm the worst Israeli fears. They believe, and rightly so, the Obama adminstration is hostile to Israel while seeking favor with the Arab world and the Palestinians. It only makes the Prime Minister look like a national hero. Besides, if Netanyahu goes a more conservative government is likely to follow.

So much for a new beginning on the never ending Israeli/Palestinian peace talks.


CW

IMPORTANT: Please read and consider

UPDATE: We are now hearing rumors that President Obama may not attend the Copenhagen conference at all. There will, of course, be some vague statement delivered by an administration representative - that's a given. If true one has to wonder why ( besides any official reason) the President decided against going? I can only hope that he realizes the utter absurdity of the notion that "we must fight climate change". Future historians are already laughing at us over that one...
_________________________________________

In December a conference is going to be held in Copenhagen in regards to so-called global climate change. There is a good chance that President Obama will sign a treaty that essentially abdicates the sovereignty of the United States to a "world government". The purpose of this "government" is to facilitate the transfer of wealth - yours and mine, and everyone in the West - to poor third world countries. Wealth that was not earned by corrupt poor third world countries, rather, wealth that was earned by you and me!

Take 4:12 to watch this video... Lord Monckton is a respected scholar and a former high ranking adviser to PM Thatcher of Great Britain.




This will be done in the name of climate change and the crimes of the West that it entails. It's a fools game that will solve nothing. The poor nations will not become wealthier because they will still be corrupt. But you and I will become poorer - no matter how hard you have worked to create a good life for you and your family. Don't let this happen.

I have sent a letter to my Senators and Congressman. As follows:
___________________________________________
October 20, 2009

Dear Representative McCollum,
Dear Senator Klobuchar,
Dear Senator Franken,

Please do not commit such a crime against the sovereignty of the United States by sponsoring, advocating or backing ill advised international "climate change" TREATIES OR LEGISLATION!

You will go down in history as the people who destroyed American greatness. And if you snidely dismiss what I've said because you don't believe in the truth of American exceptionalism then you are in the wrong job.

Stop lying about so-called human caused global warming. The utter arrogance on display by those who think we humans are more powerful than nature leaves me breathless.

I am praying for this country with all my heart.

Sincerely,

Craig Willms
Saint Paul, MN
____________________________________________________
I have sent this letter to my Senators and Congressman. You should too!


CW