How hard can it be to be a competent president?
I think the left is finally realizing that the answer is: very.
Their hatred and contempt for George Bush made them actually believe that he was every bit as stupid as they said he was. A village in Texas was missing its idiot, to be sure.
So it couldn’t be hard to improve handily on what he’d done as president. And what better person to do so than the smart, articulate, liberal candidate Obama? No experience necessary.
Well, as things have turned out, they are starting to learn that it’s not that simple. Obama’s handling of the oil spill is making Bush’s Katrina response look good, much to their anger and chagrin.
And it doesn’t even matter if his true goal is a Cloward-Piven magnification of the crisis so that he can sweep in with a leftist solution. That’s what he may have been outlining in his address last night. But it seems that, at least so far, he’s been incompetent at that, too—letting the crisis going on for too long, tipping his hand, and alarming the American people, including those useful idiots on the left who aren’t in on the hidden agenda.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/the_presidents_oil_reserves_li.html
“…untapped reserves are estimated at about 2.3 trillion barrels, nearly three times more than the reserves held by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) and sufficient to meet 300 years of demand-at today’s levels-for auto, aircraft, heating and industrial fuel, without importing a single barrel of oil.”
Also to be noted here is that he has a “deep water” drilling ban for 6 months.
Those rigs rent for over 400k per day and won’t just sit for six weeks like good little school boys.
The fleet of deep water rigs is about 90 of them with 70 currently active.
Industry sources say most of them will head south to Brazil where they have plenty of oil to drill for.
If those rigs move they will be on about a 2 year contract due to the time it takes to drill wells.
Also note Soros bought into Petrobras just before the US via the IMF gave a 2 billion cash injection for drilling there.
So if those rigs do move Soros will get a windfall. Again.
Gate way Pundit has a story up re The Kenyan de facto ceding Arizona land to the Mexicans: It Begins… Obama Gives Major Swath of Arizona Back to Mexico (Video).
This thing occupying the Oval Office is a traitor.
I am reminded of Lawrence of Arabia:
Auda (shouting after him): Moses was a prophet and beloved of God…
(To Ali) He said there was gold here. He lied. He is not perfect.
What a perfect description of the Big Oâ„¢
It is damn near impossible to be a competent US President when you, and your party, choose to ignore the will of the majority of the electorate.
They’re riding on the ignorance and complacency of the masses, aided and abetted by the MSM; the only people aware of the “bait and switch” realities are a very small minority.
Why is anyone upset that the Big “O” is incompetent?
Considering his policy preferences, I’m hoping he is as incompetent as possible in ramming his crap down the collective throat of the country!
How do we take any of the Obama supporters seriously for the rest of their lives. I’m down to zero respect for any of them. And that includes people i’ve known (or thought i knew) since i was 9 years old.
SteveH: ditto here.
Most of the time, I’m quite happy for O and his minions to be as incompetent as they have proven themselves to be. The worse they are, the sooner they’ll be gone from office (I hope). Sometimes, though, I wish they could pick up their game just a little for the benefit of the country as a whole. The Gulf oil spill is one of those times.
O’s hearkening to our WWII efforts reminded me of Belushi’s immortal question from Animal House: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
Depends on how you define competence…
competence is usually defined as the ability to attain goals and ends one sets out to do.
the problem here is that we are assuming his goals are somewhat the same as ours.
and this is usually where analysis fails for the majority, they cant imagine someone having goals and ends completely alien to their ideals and the majorities.
so if you are judging him in terms of why the majority of people elect a president, then he has been abysmal.
but if you are judging him because you actually do want a fundamental change and collapse to the system and care not for the broken eggs as part of the journey, then your not going to like him for not going far enough fast enough.
does any of that parallel our current administration and its desires? [let me know if you are familiar with its origin]
Headline in today’s Houston Chronicle:
“Obama urges world to wean itself from oil addiction”
This is his response to an engineering problem: a platitude.
–
One of the implied faiths in the liberal mind is the faith in Government Bureaucracy. According to the faith, once the people have been given jobs in the Bureau, they work diligently for the common good.
Once a person has that faith, he realizes that “Leadership” isn’t really important. The Bureaucracy will do the right thing all by itself. All the leadership has to do is command political power to hand as much money and authority over to the Bureaucracy as possible. The rest takes care of itself.
If you don’t think the bureaucracy can run itself, and might even become counter-productive, you turn into a conservative. By definition, committed liberals of the current mold are bad leaders of the executive branch. Its not a even part of the job description in their view.
Jim
23. We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press, blogs, and internet media. / Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our people, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved, marginalized.
Obama vs. press freedom
thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/103373-obama-vs-press-freedom?tmpl=component&print=1&page=
Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of Obama’s Federal Trade Commission, is at the epicenter of a quiet movement to subsidize news organizations, a first step toward government control of the media.
Now Leibowitz has begun to pounce. A May 24 working paper on “reinventing” the media proposes that the government impose fees on websites such as the Drudge Report that link to news websites or that it tax consumer electronics such as iPads, laptops and Kindles. Funds raised by these levies would be redistributed to traditional media outlets.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Should the government follow through on Leibowitz’s ideas and enact special subsidies and tax breaks for news organizations, it will induce a degree of journalistic dependence on the whims of government not seen since the days when the early presidents bestowed government advertising on favored periodicals.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Is it too difficult to imagine that the Democrats might pass laws favoring news organizations, only to question – as former White House communications director Anita Dunn did – whether or not Fox News is a news organization or an “arm of the Republican Party”? We can see a future in which news media are reluctant to be too partisan or opinionated for fear that they would endanger their public subsidy.
pretty mich the same end, by a different road.
of course, looking at the road you take to an end, unless the only one, will not tell you the end.
so you CAN take a unfamiliar road to a very familiar end… (as we do with abortion today).
and whats more interesting is that if there are many roads off a cliff, we will often avoid some of them and favor others to the journeys end, when none should be on those paths at all.
the source of the list that is being filled by other means is?
This is the part that interested me most:
As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs -— but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment. And only if we rally together and act as one nation —- workers and entrepreneurs; scientists and citizens; the public and private sectors.
This is the anti-capitalist move. There is all this opportunity, but free enterprise and capitalism can’t take advantage of it. We need a top-down, government-imposed scheme, he announces. He doesn’t explain why. It’s an article of faith.
Now, there are costs associated with this transition [towards energy independence]. And there are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now. I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy….
This is such embarrassing cliché rhetoric: Some say we can’t do it. I say we can’t not do it. anne althouse
What Obama seems to forget is that he is the President now for ALL the people and not just some far left small segment of the population.
I’m grateful this spill occurred now to show what a mistake Obama’s been for the world. 11 men lost their lives tragically but imagine how many millions are at risk if this empty suit and his Party has unchecked power? This simply is the largest bite of Karma we’ve yet witnessed and I hope it continues through the summer and fall.
Well, he’s no JFK that’s for sure:
JFK Interview – After Two Years – a Conversation With the President – 12/17/1962
William Lawrence – ABC News. As you look back upon your first 2 years in office, sir, has your experience in the office matched your expectations?
JFK. …I would say that the problems are more difficult than I had imagined them to be. The responsibilities placed on the United States are greater than I imagined them to be, and there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined them to be. And I think that is probably true of anyone who becomes President, because there is such a difference between those who advise or speak or legislate, and between the man who must select from the various alternatives proposed and say that this shall be the policy of the United States. It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments, because unfortunately your advisers are frequently divided. If you take the wrong course, and on occasion I have, the President bears the burden of the responsibility quite rightly…
And in a stunning display of incompetence on the, literally, national security front: over at Fox they are reporting how 3500 acres of Arizona is now closed to US citizens because, in essence, it is no longer under the control of the United States. Instead the drug smugglers now control this area. Welcome to Afghanistan in Arizona.
Isn’t the first priority of any president to secure the borders and protect the country?
What fence?? Why send troops? I got a McCartney concert to attend. /sarc off
I believe the Gulf Leak may have the potential of poisoning residents of the Gulf coast. The workers currently cleaning up the beaches are wearing gas masks for good reason. Along the coast many are complaining about a “smell.” If there is a jump in medical disorders along the Gulf a few years hence we will know the reason why.
After a couple of years of Obama does anyone still believe that McCain would have been just as bad?
I must say, Artfldgr’s right.
It does depend upon how you define competence.
Clearly Obama does not care about, nor agree with the majority of the American public.
He cares about implementing his agenda. That he’s a fully committed ideologue is no longer debatable.
That agenda mainly consists of Health Care ‘reform’, Cap & Trade and Euro-style Socialism.
He’s got his foot firmly in the door of ‘health reform’ with ObamaCare.
He’s made rea progress in nationalizing/socializing the auto, banking and housing sectors.
Certainly he’s set precedent for further actions, incrementally moving forward, so that when in 2011, the double dip recession hits, as many including Arthur Laffer predict, Obama can declare that the new ‘financial emergency’ requires emergency powers and actions…
And he’s about to use environmental damage from the Gulf oil-leak crisis, which he’s greatly exacerbated by effectively delaying the federal response and clean-up efforts, to enable him to ram ‘Cap and Trade’ through the Senate.
No, as painful as it is to admit, viewed from Obama’s perspective and goals, he’s not incompetent at all.
“this is usually where analysis fails for the majority, they cant imagine someone having goals and ends completely alien to their ideals and the majorities. “ that’s exactly correct and failure to appreciate it, guarantees the failure to stop Obama’s agenda.
BTW, Artfldgr’s; COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD refers to The 25 Points of Hitler’s Nazi Party
If these people aren’t as vile as possible now, if good and true Americans aren’t threatened to the core, we will have little more than a stalemate. We’ll be rid of them for a couple election cycles and the left will be back with all their hatreds, immorality, confusion and demands. We must rid our country of these troubling and life-endangering morons once and for all.
“My country right or wrong.
If right, to be kept right
If wrong, to be put right.”
–Carl Schurz
“We must rid our country of these troubling and life-endangering morons once and for all. “
If you’re advocating a civil war, it’s far too soon for one. Hopefully it will not be necessary but if it comes to that, that time is not yet.
Like Samuel Adams, some see the inevitability of the coming storm well before it arrives but until the reluctant John Adams see the tyranny as having reached an unacceptable level, needed consensus is lacking and such is needed for a revolution to succeed.
‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’ fully applies. The offense must justify the reaction. Not yet enough tyranny.
If the Left and their stealth-agent Obama succeed, then there will come the day when none can deny the tyranny. That is because the Left will only be satisfied with absolute tyranny because it’s in their nature to lust for absolute power over others.
Thanks for reading me GofB!!!!!!
and super THANKS for checking out where my list came from…
yes i tweaked it a bit so it would not be obvious, but the tweaks are much the same that were done so we wouldnt see an exact copy, though obama does use the world folks… with an s… the other parts i mostly left the same other than the few i left out having to do with the shoa, which is particular to THAT version of socialism (and sadly the progressives version which they modeled after).
been saying from before the election, unbroken, unchanged, the same message, only to see people slowly come around over a year and a half later.
the reason was that every point that would or could lead one to say, maybe not, had to be passed with a fail, before they would entertain what was left.
since despots and tyrannies have the same status as myths like the tooth fairy in your own country (but not if your looking at others), they find possibility in that this negated opposition takes up a position no one of merit wants and uses lack of propriety to get around our self imposed limits (morality).
all in all the answer to this question they are forcing hegelian will be ultimately whether man would continue as a new moral man, or will remain the thug he was, roiling in self inflicted pain like a tormented sea of people always wanted to be released from a prison they constructed to make life better.
I recognized them, Art. For any enterprising YouTubers (?): approach lefties on the street for their reaction to the NSDAP party platform, and record the reaction for posterity. That would be worth its weight in gold.
The funny part is that the only aspects of Obama’s Presidency from which the wheels haven’t fallen off are those he adopted from W. Whenever he’s deviated from Bush’s policies, he’s stepped on a rake.
You’re welcome Artfldgr. Though I read your comment because it was coherent and legible. I then concurred in your opinion because it makes sense to me.
My objections to your prior comments were never personal but rather stylistic in nature. I now better understand the difficulties you suffer in writing in a logically progressive manner. Which is not to be considered a pass upon that issue, as I’m of the opinion that when your information is presented in a logically consistent manner, others will more quickly grasp your message. So I encourage you to pursue that path as much as you are able to.
I was not previously aware of the provenance of the list but it was easy enough to Google it.
I am perhaps not as convinced as you of the probability of Obama’s ultimate success in achieving his agenda, nor am I convinced that even should he succeed, passage equates to irreversible gains.
I of course may be wrong and time may prove you entirely right, but even if so, we have one great advantage over the left and that advantage is reality.
Reality is what beat the Soviets and it is what will eventually triumph over all tyrannies. All logic and reason rest upon our side because to that standard do we intellectually kneel and upon the left resides merely the lust for power, which can only prevail when men fear death, more than they cherish freedom and truth.
The reality of the matter is that, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
Europe is in the process of discovering that truth and that, as much as any other reason is why the Left shall eventually fail. Their creed is fundamentally at war with reality itself and that is a war that no ideology can ultimately win.
Representative democracy, individual freedoms with the freedom to act in accord with our personal conscience, free enterprise and private property are some of the most advanced concepts that have ever inspired mankind.
When those concepts are considered worthy of “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” no force on earth can prevail against them.
The left’s lust for power and the useful liberal idiots gullibility are no match for them and in time the left cannot help but reveal its true nature for the evil that men do is sooner or later revealed to all.
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” John Adams
And it is facts, evidence and common sense that shall be the death of the left.
The same reporters who described the 2008 elections as a great movement and the overwhelming will of the voters will likely label November 2010 as an infantile temper tantrum at the polls, no matter how much damage this inept administration and congress do between now and then. I only hope that enough people who vote against the Dems this fall will resent the delusional media talking heads enough to never trust them again.
“I only hope that enough people who vote against the Dems this fall will resent the delusional media talking heads enough to never trust them again.”
Their declining revenues indicate that more and more people see them as the propaganda organ that they have become.
Artfldgr above alerts us to one of their primary tactics for avoiding irrelevance and maintaining control of information to the public;
“Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of Obama’s Federal Trade Commission, is at the epicenter of a quiet movement to subsidize news organizations, a first step toward government control of the media.”
Then there is the ‘fairness doctrine’, which attempts to rein in blogs such as this one.
They are attacking on every front because they know they have a limited window of opportunity.
Geoffrey: You got it right.
Baraq is extremely competent. He has taken the Daley’s Chicago national.
And the soulless, corrupt Dems are right with him, like Chicago aldermen.
Remember when our President made the observation that he was very good at being President?
Remember when he gave himself a grade – “a solid B plus.”
I do not doubt that he still believes his opinion of his job performance is still accurate.
Hear, hear. I agree that Obama is quite competent: He’s a very accomplished destroyer. Again, notice that he is not dismayed by any of the awful things going on, he is unruffled, unflappable in manner. The only thing that really, really bothers him is criticism.
He’s beginning to be fairly open about exercising dictatorial powers. Where does he get the authority to require BP to set up a $20,000,000,000 escrow fund? He don’ need no steenkeeng authority.
My husband heard a clip on today’s Mark Levin Show, from another talk show, some lady Democrat senator was saying that if he needs authority to do this, Congress will simply pass a law to cover it. Sorry I don’t have a citation, but I expect it will show up later tonight on Levin’s website.
And he don’ need no steenkeeng fairness doctrine. There are going to be other ways. Oh yes. Other ways. And soon.
http://tinyurl.com/27ss7gs
I sometimes wonder whether our old friend Huxley is sitting off somewhere, still waiting for Obama to crater and resign.
I hope some people who have read about the federal government’s decision to let Mexico take over parts of Arizona are thinking about ways to take this land back.
Paintball parties anyone?
Hunting parties?
Sharpshooter competitions?
FYI, large parts of San Diego County, CA, have also been ceded to Mexican marijuana growers. Is the United States reverting back to the “Wild West”? Surely something can be done. Communist lawyers can’t control all of us.
I don’t know. My guess–my hope–is that Governor Jan Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and the other good citizens of AZ are thinking about ways, about things that might be done.
Whatever have we come to, that the United States of America is ceding control over its own undisputed territory to foreigners–of any stripe, drug lords or otherwise?
Paintball ain’t gonna do it. It didn’t help the Israelis, and it won’t help us. That would be just another way of reducing all of reality to game show status.
I am perhaps not as convinced as you of the probability of Obama’s ultimate success in achieving his agenda,
GofB i don’t know if they will be successful. but i am sure if people don’t start ‘getting’ it, and in a way in which the herd doesn’t run off a cliff, its sure going to get messy. And as i stated in other places, their plans don’t include twiddling others with a more vicious bent than they.
Reality is what beat the Soviets and it is what will eventually triumph over all tyrannies.
they weren’t beaten, they did something that an elected government cant do, reorganize the system at need.
the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was the first incarnation. and that was in the late 1800s. then they split between bolshiviks and menshiviks. and its second incarnation is Russian Communist Party of the Soviet Union. then just Communist Party of the Soviet Union…
now its Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1992) and there are others like All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
the guy leading the CPRF is Gennady Zyuganov
Zyuganov joined the Communist Party in 1966. He became the First Secretary of the local Komsomol
and the regional chief for ideology and propaganda.
Zyuganov emerged as a leading critic of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost in the party’s Agitation and Propaganda division (later the Ideological division), a hotbed of opposition to reform. As the party began to crumble in the late 1980s, Zyuganov took the side of hard-liners against reforms that would ultimately culminate in the end of CPSU rule and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In May 1991, he published a fiercely critical piece on Alexander Yakovlev.
for a man who was a party man since the 60s
who headed the party… and who attempted a coupe… and who never went to jail, but now leads a similar party in the reconstituted state.
Putin is a KGB man… the state is still being run by the same old people as before.
or as one author put it… they met in the woods, and decided to change some names and switch offices around.
All that the fall did was open up western economy, technology and borders.. it made the game much easier.
for a dead ideology there is no country in the world that is at all modern and not socialist to some degree. there is NO country in the world that is capitalist any more.
so who really won?
When those concepts are considered worthy of “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” no force on earth can prevail against them.
history does not bear you out on this…
a clear view would show you what the most common norm is for mans living condition. especially among those who score lower in general IQ
right now, it doesn’t matter if we have the will, we are way too fat and unhealthy. it doesn’t matter if we have desire, we believe things about fighting, thanks to hollyweird that would make a real clusterFK out of common young people. (like the guy with the MAC in Manhattan, would have been really bad, except that he was in the movies, so he held the gun in a way that the shells didn’t eject right, and it jammed and he got shot by the police)
meanwhile, many of the gangs and groups operating have semi military status. MS got its core knowledge in insurgency war south of the US.
who knows what will happen..
glenn beck is getting record ratings at what time slot, and he is teaching basic history… the history channel should be saying “where did we go wrong?” and i would say Zinn… etc..
So, the thesis is “not just incompetent,” “not just an ideologue,” but rather “an incompetentent ideologue.” Intriquing.
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
[For a light hearted take on our present peril]
And a commenter that can’t spell “incompetent” … 🙂
Obama has almost no real world work experience, He has no executive track record. He has no training. If he had to, it is unlikely he could manage to get a 7-11 through a weekend.
Democrats and so-called “Independents” (aka ‘children’) made him President of the United States of America at one of the most dire times in our history.
I don’t blame Obama. He’s a narcissist con-man who saw a chance and took it. Now it is already clear he hates the job he has, not to mention the country he owns. Serves him right.
I blame all the people who voted for him.
The *(*%^&%ed the whole country.
They deserve scorn and we should begin to heap it upon them, in public, loudly.
They should be objects of shame, ridicule and revilement. They have done great harm to this great nation my their gross irresponsibility.
Dick Morris has a good take on Obama the non-manager at
http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2010/06/14/obama-an-incompetent-executive/
He effectively gives details of the observations we have all made here.
“i am sure if people don’t start ‘getting’ it, and in a way in which the herd doesn’t run off a cliff, its sure going to get messy.” It is going to get messy, at the least economically.
“Putin is a KGB man… the state is still being run by the same old people as before.”
True, though I would argue that the necessity to meet in the woods, and decide to change some names and switch offices around is a tacit defeat.
More significantly, the Russian Federation is not nearly as strong or technologically capable as the Soviets were, which is not meant to minimize the active campaign of aggression they are conducting against the US.
“there is no country in the world that is at all modern and not socialist to some degree”
Is that an argument in favor of laissez-faire capitalism?
“When those concepts are considered worthy of “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” no force on earth can prevail against them.”
“history does not bear you out on this…”
“…the left …can only prevail when men fear death, more than they cherish freedom and truth.”
“right now, it doesn’t matter if we have the will, we are way too fat and unhealthy.”
Hitler said that about the US before we entered the war.
“it doesn’t matter if we have desire, we believe things about fighting, thanks to hollyweird that would make a real clusterFK out of common young people.”
PC and Just War Theory are a problem and it would take a bit of really having our backs to the wall to cure ourselves of those particular delusions.
It wouldn’t take much to end PC against our Islamofascist enemies. I wonder how long it will take for angry Americans to take back our borders.
Something off the subject. Neo mentioned Tom Friedman’s incompetence in foreign affairs analysis. If anyone wants further proof go to Hot Air and read his fawning review of Turkey’s drift towards Islamo-fascism.
For a real understanding of the matter go to Rubin Reports.
Per a government media advisory, Fox reports that 3500 acres, or .02%, of a wildlife refuge was closed to the public because of violence. The remaining 99.98% remains open.
Yes, we have a flood of incompetence from Obama. But what President opened the floodgates? Hint: it was during that President’s administration that the closing occurred. Second hint: he said things like ‘Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande’.
I repeat what some people don’t want to hear: what ails this country is systemic.
“”I repeat what some people don’t want to hear: what ails this country is systemic””
gs
In case you haven’t noticed a majority of Americans (65%) support stopping illegal immigration. Saying the issue is “systemic” is to not understand what the word even means. The comment is really a diversion from the subject at hand, Obama’s horrific response to illegal immigration. He is the President now isn’t he? Why not discuss Teddy Roosevelts record on immigration to divert some more?
Artfl- “right now, it doesn’t matter if we have the will, we are way too fat and unhealthy.”
GofB — “Hitler said that about the US before we entered the war.”
That is very true, for that is how Marx described people living outside of socialisms. However, then Hitler was wrong, while Hirohito knew he was caught between a rock and a hard place in historical circumstances.
I will say that then he was wrong, but if he said it today he would be right.
To not readjust ones situation based on actual empirical reality, is to be fighting the last war, not learning from it. To use Hitler’s position in that war as a rebuttal is to imagine the US doing a similar thing today, however, to use that position as a argument not to underestimate opponents, then using it the first way violates the second way, by doing just that with it.
Lets take some stock in the differences that really matter to that end.
First and foremost the general condition of our population then and now.
Study: Most city youth deemed unacceptable for military service: Undereducated, unfit, have criminal records
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/96356849.html?cmpid=15585797#axzz0r783nON4
Let’s look back to when the war started as to the population’s condition
The communist party had not taken over the school system yet (see Bella Dodd School of darkness). So our education then was more real education, less indoctrination.
The majority came from heterosexual normative families (as they say today), and so with all that reactionary (as they say) cultural bias and education, they also got a lot of education in how to live, operate, exist, function, and generally adapt to real life.
There were no minimum wage laws, and so people could scrape by in this small market that could give them a nights lodging for scratch made during a days work in a yard.
The average Joe, even in the cities, could tend animals, and fix machines. Part of being a guy was having all these real world competencies and a toughness to meet that world if it decided to meet you.
Manufacturing wise, we were the supplier of goods to the rest of the world. At least before unions did their thing. Our country was full of tool and die shops. You can still see the old worn out signage on buildings in big cities of the east. The people had a judeo Christian work ethic and would not get on welfare as it was seen as charity, and one does not accept charity.
Our diets were not as different as we think they were. The men worked hard physically and so their diets were caloric rich and three squares was easily burned away. When I was a kid, being fat was a social problem and there weren’t that many fat people.
Today, we have lost something that no one talks about. Secondary support structures and the pool of experience that was handed down culturally. The latter is easy to understand, that working was not just a task but an art, and even in repetitive jobs. The first is the most important, as you need that to have working factories and conversion of raw materials to working products.
10 companies may all use one tool and die company. So if you wanted to ramp up today, you can’t, because it takes a long time for those secondary’s to be created as the first pile expands. If the first pile of companies expands fast, there is no experience and knowledge enough to create the second pile and make good output.
The most horrid part in all this is what has happened to the people themselves.
Its interesting to note that the military men find that those who grew up in inner city tough areas, and those who grew up in rural areas who hunted, have survival skills the rest of the male population doesn’t.
The majority now window their environment. Since their reality is constructed from a video input, they behave as if all input is like that. And with a video input, you erase the information outside of the screens view. In fact, you get better and better and better to hyperfocus on the screen reality and ‘enter it’. In the real world the side effect is that they have no peripheral view reaction. They ignore enemies the way they ignored little brother, mom and dad.
They also do not take environmental inputs as indicators of changing conditions. People like me who grew up in very bad inner city environments learned to read the signals of their environment. As do kids that hunt, as hunting is more of a tune to the environment and converge on a target, not scan for targets like your looking for Waldo. So in papers I have read and articles they point out that inner city and certain rural folk tend to survive better in Iraq, as they get hunches that things are wrong.
Unlike the video game people, they were and are in tune more with their environment, and so they notice things like no stray animals, or the local people missing. They get hunches that the situation looks poor and like any good city kid, refuse to want to go into such if doing so is in a way that ignores what the situation is telling them. they are also more likely to avoid IEDs.
We have other problems with the general population. They are undereducated. They can’t listen and comprehend as they used to back then. Yes it’s true, liberal education has made them dysfunctional but you can’t tell people that. In the absence of authority they often cant conclude or debate. Unlike people who ended up captured in WWII, none of them could tap out a Morse code; none of them could build a radio from spare parts.
Oh, and now so much of our technology itself is vulnerable, and highly so. Battlefield nukes are enough to completely paralyze whole regions by completely negating their operating systems. NY has 8 million people, and 4 days food. What do you think would happen if every vehicle from main to North Carolina didn’t work any more? every elevator, every calculator, computer, cell phone, refrigerator, power grid computers, water company control systems, sewage systems…
Think hard and you might see that there is a distinct advantage to not up-scaling your population and keeping them in poverty. That by doing so you end up creating a society that runs still on mechanical systems not digital ones.
You say Russia doesn’t have the strength… but there is no way to stop the scenario I have just put forth. Once that is done, then none of our equipment works, and theirs does.
We are suddenly back in WWII era again with NO manufacturing infrastructure, NO cultural wealth of knowledge, NO competency and merit and moral behavior by the majority of those we would depend on, poor health, poor education.
NONE of our stuff works any more, and none of our people know how to exist without it.
Take a day and watch the new Marxist movies, blood sweat and t-shirts. The western kids can’t function. The show is simple. Take 5 or so young adults to a country like my wife’s Indonesia. And have them take up a good job (not a crap job), and do that work for a week. They were completely incapable, as they had no real world skills. Not even sewing skills (and the factory workers were not going to show them the ‘tricks’ that would have changed their work for the better. why should they?). Long hours, few breaks, high output, high attention to quality, detailed work in everything, bosses that wander and watch to make sure that competency level does not slide, and a complete awareness that if you do slide, they are not very charitable as they have a wealth of others who would take your place in a second.
They acted so poorly, that they were asked to leave the factory. They laughed at the toilets (something I am glad to say my son didn’t do), and they commented on living conditions. Completely insulting the families who opened up their homes to them. They devalued life so much that they could not understand how people could live that way. That they could not see that life that way, was very good compared to how humans have lived for millennia, and that life was better than no life. They cried, they wheedled, only a couple could function.
While back then Hitler was wrong, today he would be right.
Oh… one other thing… the US was bad financially, but not so bad that the rest of the world wasn’t willing to loan her the money to fight the war.
Today, we are so far over extended we will not get loans to pay for material.
And do not think we can get buy, many of the materials we need to function are monopoly controlled by china. (Things like mercury, which now paints a new reason and lobby for CFL over letting the market decide. No? And look at the future horror when the mercury is spread all over the country side. After all thousands of tons a year are being divided up into tiny parcels and then spread so thinly that there is no way that over time, it won’t accumulate)
PC and Just War Theory are a problem and it would take a bit of really having our backs to the wall to cure ourselves of those particular delusions.
Ah… but there’s the rub, if your back is to the wall, then you’re screwed, you lost your leverage. And THAT’S the point… the thing that we will rely on will not be there under that condition.
Just war is a doctrine of attrition, in where the smaller cheaper combatant always wins.
Especially when they only appear the smaller cheaper one, as the help they get from others is invisible to the equation — ie. Russia spent billions on measures related to the Vietnam War. But those billions were never factored into the equation of meeting the opponent without overwhelming force. And other countries did too, as did people internally in the US. so in truth meeting the north fairly was actually meeting it at a disadvantage in the synoptic view, and its in THAT view you see win and lose, not in other views.
Art, thanks so much for the essay, really enjoyed it. And thanks so much for taking the time to use the punctuation and etc., I know you’ve mentioned before that it’s hard for you, and I really appreciate you making the effort because it was the first time I was able to read a whole piece of yours, and it was really interesting.
Bob from VA,
Thanks for that Morris link. I forwarded it to a German columnist on environmental issues who doen’t drink Koolaid.
a three-way assault being waged on our First Amendment rights, it is little surprise that the Obama administration would use the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Elections Commission to regulate free speech. After all, the Obama administration has made it clear that if you speak out against their agenda, you are an enemy of “progress”.
why are people surprised that when something grows up it might not be cuddly and cute any more?
we see all kinds of things in nature that are not what they appear to be when young…
its a basic survival tactic…
appear as something else till you mature, then come out when you are not so easily opposed.
its really that simple
now they are strong enough to stand on their own without all that support they get while pretending to be something else.
Acorns grow into mighty oaks
Junk yard dogs were cute puppies once
Grasshoppers become Locusts
Social Democracy becomes totalitarian communism
Julia NYC,
thanks… but i have a bit of time today (and yesterday)
regardless of its form, the content is usually similar.
and is generally consistent…
SteveH Says: In case you haven’t noticed a majority of Americans (65%) support stopping illegal immigration. Saying the issue is “systemic” is to not understand what the word even means. The comment is really a diversion from the subject at hand, Obama’s horrific response to illegal immigration. He is the President now isn’t he? Why not discuss Teddy Roosevelts record on immigration to divert some more?
In case you haven’t noticed, powerful elements of both parties are determined to tolerate illegal immigration.
Obama is a symptom. He is not the disease.
“I will say that then he was wrong, but if he [Hitler] said it today he would be right.
To not readjust ones situation based on actual empirical reality, is to be fighting the last war, not learning from it.”
It’s a cliche but true that fighting the last war is something most generals do. Yes, the American public has changed since the 40’s with the suicidal PC memes of the left, literally endemic among much of the population, most especially among that demographic most depended upon to fight wars.
You gave a long list of reasons why Hitler’s belief is now true of the US.
Most of those reasons centered around physical preparedness and psychological readiness. Of the two, psychological attitudes are far more important.
And that is why, having ‘our backs against the wall’ will be necessary to break through those memes. Just as the reality of the events leading up to Dunkirk were necessary to break through the endemic pacifism among the English public in the 30’s.
Reality is not to be underestimated in it’s power to destroy illusions…
We do have one big advantage however, the finest, most finely honed military ever assembled. There’s not a military in the world that can stand against us. So any mortal threat won’t come from direct military confrontation.
Nuclear terrorist attacks is by far the greatest physical threat we face with arguably the left’s efforts, memes and seditious behavior the greatest existential threat our society faces.
Obviously, the left’s memes are so dangerous because they prevent us from responding effectively to the threats we face.
And that is why blogs like this are so valuable because they are the primary counter to the psychological delusions of the left.
Trite cliche perhaps but it’s still true, the truth sets people free.
The hounds of hell have eaten their own puppies again….
Keith Olbermann Checks Out Of Daily Kos After Criticism From Left
http://www.mediaite.com/online/keith-olbermann-checks-out-of-daily-kos-after-criticism-from-left/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mediaite%2FClHj+%28Mediaite%29
[which should also highlight that if a feminist is criticizing feminist points not of critical value to the ideology, she is not being reasonable, she is benig good cop to the others bad cop. if she was actually opposing anything with meaning, she would be an apostate too. but we are not swift enough to apply rules without arbitrary exceptions to feel better]
ultimatey he learned a big lesson here
by taking the side he has for gain, he has sold his soul (freedom), as he now has no personal anyting.
he decided to say something from a personal point not from the collectives point and the reaction was swift and telling.
message, either you tow the line and tell everyone about the purple horse, or your no good to us, and so you no longer get to benefit.
of course greater minds, like Richard right (not reverend), Bella Dodd, and others changed their course when they realized that their judgment of the system was not real but a false perspective born out of being useful.
a mind like doberman olbemans will just conform and hope such contrition will be enough for him to be allowed to earn more than the rest of the prols.
Elizabeth Dilling Stokes…
interesting author
completely erased by the progressives…
not endorsing her other than read what they dont want you to read.
Uh oh. Watch out for the icepick, Keith. That’s how Reds deal with doctrinal disputes.
Just as the reality of the events leading up to Dunkirk were necessary to break through the endemic pacifism among the English public in the 30’s.
Bad historical example..
the US has no place for our troops to go in the analogy
which is the most salient point, WE ARE THE CAVALRY
normally i would agree on such rational thought, except that i am thinking as they do, not as you or i do.
we have been raised no 100 years of film heroes
reality is not that way
we will not have our backs to the wall till its a done deal.
there are other ways to have your back up against a wall
http://www.executedtoday.com/images/Miguel_Pro_volley.jpg
Artfldgr points out that a high percentage of the youth from cities are considered unfit for military service.
Well, that is the liberal strongholds-hehe.
I remember meeting one guy from New York in Basic and AIT in 1992.
Weird fellow.
But there were a lot of us Texans.
Unfortunately, Texas is being de-Texified in part due to the Mexification and in part from the growing cities- and all that represents. Not to mention the general cultural decay that has swept the country and is tearing up Texas as well…….
We do have one big advantage however, the finest, most finely honed military ever assembled. There’s not a military in the world that can stand against us. So any mortal threat won’t come from direct military confrontation.
Obama and his fellow socialists are removing that military as we write by creating an army wherein one can be openly homosexual: a “french” army; who will remain? Some commentators immediately declared that this policy will destroy the all voluntary army and require a new draft.
jon baker,
I have family in Kentucky now, i am not just a nouyourker… 🙂
Had some friends in Texas, lost touch…
want to visit… haven’t gotten that far yet…
but as much as rural Americans are capable, they are still not what they once were. (though i will agree, orders of magnitude better than urban philly).
there is always examples we can pull to say, no, no, its not 100%, but thats not the point. the point is run the numbers
the population located in cities is what percentage?
81%
with a 95% failure rate, how many people would you have to go through before you could bulk up to 1 million? 20 million…
that is you would need 20 million voluntary recruits just to get 1 million able bodied people
US total population – 309,519,000
first subtract 50% since the women are not going to go in in huge numbers.
309,519,000 / 2 = 154,759,500
only about 25% of males eligible by age to serve
154,759,500 * .25 = 38,689,875
we are not economists making a report, so fudging is enough to get an idea, NO one is claiming that these numbers reflect things…
31,338,798 will be from the cities
7,351,076 will be from the rural areas
that would mean with 100% signing up
you could only get 1,566,939 from the cities 30 million people
do you think you could get 100% to sign up given the ideological view of the military? so this is the numbers if you have a full draft..
as much as Texans are capable, what would the country be without them? for demographically, the ones that fight die, and the ones that cant propagate the species.
As far as ability…
All one has to do is look how we dance
and how popular dance by people has moved through the eras
Today you don’t really have it. If you do, it’s like a giant mush pit. When not, it’s more of some odd bump and grind, and sexual show… (There is also country western which is still as active as it was in the 1800s).
But how physical is it, and how many do it?
(In rural areas they still do, and city folk would be surprised to see huge dance halls all new and running weekly outside their little worlds).
now lets turn back the dial, as i did above.
what was dance to us then? .
how many people danced several times a week?
what kinds of dance were the most popular?
how complicated was it? how in shape did you have to be?
here is an example of the entertainment difference
Mosh pit and concert.. Note that during the punk era of my youth that was/is dancing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7w7m4lb2ok
And here is line dancing..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGpZ9bchCJw
[sorry its achy breaky]
And disco was also physical, I will spare you the hustle
Then there is the twist, and the mashed potato…
Though I should show the youngins the frug,
the aloof (rich mans frug) (shirley mclean)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnFQvlb2OA&feature=related
[always reminds me of pippin and of course the originator, fosse]
But turn it back to before the war era, and during and right after.
What kind of dances?
Well, when the twin towers were up still, I would be there Wednesday nights to dance with my partner. What kind of dance?
Well, I would always like Lindy hop, but mostly we danced swing…
Lindy hop came before the war, and swing came during and after.
Other than the few who get into it after its revival in the 80s (us kids came of age, and our parents danced swing, as their parents danced lindy hop)
It can never catch on again because the people were and are WAY too out of shape..
the people who revived it spend a lot of time trying to learn from old timers
and the old timers came and they were still in shape to a degree.
just watching them can make you tired…
Lindy Hop Showdown (fast swing dancing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAAV7BB1HU
oh… and don’t forget the jitter bug… way before it was a phone.
Swing Dancing from the Movie Twiced Blessed (1945)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc5D5lWQQ0
dancing swing or lindy or jitterbug all night (several hours) is very hard
(and so is fencing)
oh…
i should point out that these dances are not choreographed. that is, the man had to LEAD, and the woman had to know how to take a lead.
his job was to choreograph it on the fly, and her job was to complete the deal.
Art,
Yes, you are right about the general physical unfitness of the population and its getting worse. Both rural and urban- no doubt there.
I also think that constant source of cheap illegal labor is not helping. They drive the labor wages down and less citizens are willing to do those jobs then.
I think overall men are somewhat better shape than the women- at least in the blue collar socio-economic areas- as some of these males, even among citizens- still have physical jobs. Though even many of them are overweight.
Food stamps probably dont help the situation, as some of these people, (not those in the apartments) would be out in their yards growing vegetables if they did not get free food stamps.
ART,
When it comes to dancing I have two left feet! I actually had a country dance instructor laugh at me! I was almost 30 when I first tried to learn. I got to where I could do a two step and a country waltz, but not very good. But I have not done it in a while.
I am often in the country and I cannot believe the morbid obesity I see there. It’s pretty shocking and a lot worse than the city. The area I visit is this odd place that likes to think that everyone from there is Daniel Boone and self sufficient but they all seem to have these fake government make work jobs, that they do quite badly. The place is just a disaster economically, there’s no private industry or private sector real economy. Yet they seem like they think of themselves as real conservatives, yet they live like parasites. The big employer I found out is the prison. That’s the big dream, to get a job working for the prison. And to never leave the county.
The scenery is beautiful, really gorgeous and breathtaking, which is why I go there, but I always feel like culturally I’m on the moon.
Jon,
I feel for you I honestly do. my wife has a poor sense of rythm and cant whistle very well. when we were married I insisted on one thing, that our first dance was something in 3/4 timing. (and i insisted that she take a watch and create a time-line and actually walk through things (even in the living room) so that she knew what she actually could fit in).
Anyway, her dress was a beautiful traditional type dress, and so, 3/4 was perfect. With literally almost no teaching I can do a ball room waltz step. All she has to do is keep hand position and be bold enough to take the larger steps, which once you do, actually becomes easy as you twirl and cover a huge area of the dance floor.
Everyone thought she could dance and thought we took lessons. but it was easy compared to almost everything else you can do. and while i do respect a goog shimmy, there just is something wonderfully storybook and romantic of low lights, candles, and a man in black, a woman in white, and a dance floor open.
🙂
Jon, there are a lot of wonderful dances that do not require the kind of effort, practice, and ability to hold your lunch that fast step, Charleston, Lindy hop, jitter bug, swing, and those do (when aerials are done which is not common. ambulances are not fun)
the Tango is wonderful (and easier than it seems if your not trying to be an expert), as is some of the Spanish dances.
And there is absolutely no way you can say that you cant do Square Dancing… EVERYONE can do square dancing.. “the secret to square dancing is that there is no other secret than doing it” 🙂
and while it seems corny as heck, when with people who like to do it, rather than made to do it (like in high school), its a whole lot of fun…
you learn what each call means, listen carefully, and then do the call on the beat. that’s why the songs are the way they are. swing your partner is an arm in arm move, its all fun and easy, and if you mess up, its even MORE fun…
want to cure a liberal from the city? Take em on a meet America tour, and one place you have to take them is a Friday or Saturday night in fly over country at a huge hall with square dancing.
just ask them how they can think that jumping around a camp fire is any more legitimate than this? or that any Indian weather dance in strange clothes is any stranger than this.
the point is to get a few beers in them, a whole bunch of ribs, and then have them discover they can dance…
wish i could write a book about my best experiences floating from place to place. from biker bars, to street fairs, and pretty much anything that people do as an expression of self determination and freedom.
i go where others imagine things to be, and then find out they are usually wrong… or that the view is always more complicated than any fantasy they come up with….
Truly wonderful…
Wonderful in a way that progressive sterility and clinical force just does not get is the essence of lifes purpose.
As we must always sniff and taste the strawberries of life, dance is a strawberry, do it between the tigers, and ignore them for a while.
I think what I am really saying is that if your lucky, you can bring someone out and you can see how their faces change while for the first time in their lives they really really live. No longer self conscious and thinking, but in the moment, timeless, and religious in its frisson. 🙂
There are many ways to do this IF you can get them away from what they think life is on their hamster wheels. (and if you can get enough capital so you have some time yourself)
Julia, “prison” is such a harsh word. Think of it as a hotel and spa for Democrats.
Now isn’t that nicer?
Today, 18th of June, is 70th anniversary of the most important speech delivered in modern history: Churchillean “finest hour” address. Now compare it to the last Obama address, as some pundits did:
http://blog.american.com/?p=15599
Now I understood why one the first Obama’s moves was to send back to Britain the sculpture portrait of Churchill: he could not tolerate such rival in Oval Office, even in effigy.