On September 11th of last year I engaged in some rather reckless speculations concerning possible candidates for the position of his satanic "majesty", the Antichrist. Speculations, because I never accused anyone of actually being the Antichrist, but nonetheless reckless, because I referred to some people whose actions and characteristics resembled (in part) some of the characteristics stated in Biblical prophecy that would be associated with him. But since none of these attributes were enough to actually identify the final Dictator of the world, I would never be stupid, or reckless enough to actually designate the candidate as the one. I also made clear apologies, in advance, to any family members for stating my suspicions, which I believe were founded upon very relevant, and Biblically logical issues, especially concerning one person who subsequently made my speculations completely foolish by dying some 4 months later. As I stated then, my intent was not to slander anyone, but since these people had been very public figures for decades, and some of their suspicious actions had also been done with obviously very public intentions, and been well documented, I felt it was instructive to discuss them, especially for anyone who was uncertain of the characteristics to look for, should the Antichrist even be alive today, and should he actually come to power before the body of Christ (His believers) is "Raptured" "to meet Him in the clouds".
As part of the discussion, I referred to Revelation 17 (especially verse 9) where it seems that the Lord is explaining to the Apostle John that He considers an institution on Earth to be a counterfeit of His true Church (again, His entire collective body of believers, worldwide; He is not otherwise concerned with denominational differences). He refers to this institution as, "the Great Whore", which is in obvious contrast to the term, "the Bride of Christ" which is another reference to His Church, as a whole. Verse 9 states clearly that He is pointedly referring to the Vatican as that institution when it says that the "Great Whore" "sits upon seven mountains". There is only one place in the world that is famous for being a city that is built upon seven hills, namely Rome. The Bible frequently refers to hills as "Mountains", especially when talking about the "mountains" of Zion, Moriah, and Olivet, in Jerusalem.
Now, as I stated on September 11th, I am not trying to stir up any ancient, and irrelevant anti-Catholic bigotry. It is clear that the Lord is not condemning the individual Catholic, here, but the hierarchy that runs the church. Just as He came to earth to save the lost among the poor, especially, and realized that there would be few among the ruling-class Pharisees who would come to believe in Him, as they had heavy financial and other interests invested in maintaining their reputations as the heads of religious authority in Israel, in that day. As Jesus clearly threatened their authority, it behooved them to reject Him as the Messiah of Israel, and they eventually had him killed in order to protect their earthly status. I wonder if their status impressed God when they died, when He decided if they should go to Heaven, or elsewhere!
Similarly, Jesus knows who are the individual Catholics who have actually prayed to receive Him as their Lord and Savior, asking Him to forgive them of all their sins, and come into their hearts, to live forever, and guide them daily through God's Holy Spirit. These are not responsible for today's corruption within the Vatican, and many of them have actually been the victims of the child abuse that has scandalized the church, worldwide. I was personally unaware of the charges of child abuse, and in-house homosexual behavior that extended even as far as the College of Cardinals, in the Vatican itself, until I saw the P.B.S. special report on "Frontlines", last night. If you missed it you can watch it online at www.pbs.org/frontline.
That's scandalous enough, but the report also went on to make charges of financial impropriety, even suggesting that those officials entrusted with managing the Vatican Bank had been complicit in money-laundering activities for the Sicilian Mafia! It implied that the whole sum of these scandalous revelations may have been the actual reasons for the resignation of Pope Benedict (an act which hadn't happened for 600 years). No wonder that Jesus left off His condemnation of "the Great Whore" with the commandment to, "come out of her, my people"! And certainly, Jesus would not have told his believers to do so if there was any truth to the concept of Papal excommunication, with its condemnation to Hell! The Lord doesn't trick His people into doing something that will condemn them to Hell!
This is not to suggest that the Protestant denominations are "Holier that thou" by any means. There have been plenty of scandals to go around for them to repent of as well. But as each of these denominations, as well as independent churches are considerably smaller than the worldwide Catholic Church, and considerably less autonomous in dealing with moral and legal impropriety, and since Jesus is implying that the Antichrist will someday have some connection with the Vatican, if not actually sit on the throne as Pope, it carries considerably more relevance for its overwhelming corruption. I pity Pope Francis, who has committed himself to the task of cleaning up the corruption. The Frontline show described a condition of corruption that was so entrenched that the Pope was actually meeting belligerent resistance from the parties who were being investigated. It also stated that the Pope himself might be in some danger of Mob retaliation as well!
While this is clearly the most scandalous period in the history of the Vatican, due to all the publicity, and the secular legal investigations, it is not entirely without precedent. As I recounted last September, the Papal thrown had itself a history of being up for the highest bidder, when one of the Bourgia family's relatives is said to have bribed his way into being elected Pope, in medieval times. He later was reputed to have been quoted as saying that the concept of Salvation through faith in Jesus, and the Pope's accepted authority for the absolution of sins was a "very convenient" concept that he found useful. That doesn't strike me as the statement of a man who personally has any faith in Jesus himself! One has to wonder how many Popes were of like faithlessness, throughout history!
In conclusion, there is no greater point from all this that I can gather other than to repeat Christ's admonition to all Catholic believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior to "come out of her my people", rather than risk being tempted someday into believing the smooth-talking blasphemies of the Antichrist, when he tries to establish himself as being greater than God. There will be no forgiveness for those who follow that line!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Our Government Just Doesn't Get It
We Just Don't Get It!!! Wealthy, insensitive politicians, from both parties, insensitive and mindless bureaucrats, unscrupulous single-issue corporate lobbyists, Lawyers who write our laws in thousands of pages, when a couple of paragraphs will do, simply to obfuscate the issue so that no one can know what it means without hiring them to explain it all, greedy corporate managers, and board members, whose amoral values only extend as far as the bottom line; WE are cannibalizing our society from the inside out, and most of us are too blind, and self-serving to realize it. And the single most powerful man on the planet, President Obama certainly doesn't get it, and he never will until WE as a society collectively "get it"! And then as Ronald Reagan would put it, if we can't get him to see the light, we can at least get him to, "feel the heat". I seriously tremble for our future ( should Jesus tarry), without the regeneration of a Holy Spirit breathed spiritual revival across this whole nation!
Our economy is on the verge of total collapse. We probably should have experienced a massive deflationary depression about seven years ago, that would have made the "Great Depression of the 1930's look like a party, and we may not have accomplished anything more with all our hyper-inflationary "Quantitative Easing" than to temporarily postpone the pain of uncontrollable Deflation, once the final bubble bursts, and the dollar becomes so worthless that no one will accept it as currency. And by postponing it, we have probably made the inevitable pain much worse when we are finally forced to deal with it.
Yesterday, President Obama decided that his administration was setting a goal of reducing the size of the military to 450,000 troops, from a previous 525,000, as a way of reducing the defense budget. God only knows what he and the Democrats in Congress will do with the savings, but we can rest assured that it will not be used to reduce the deficit, or even balance the budget. I'm sure that the Senate is already salivating over many completely useless and unnecessary projects that they want to fund with that money, in order to give money to union-run companies who will kick-back a large portion of it into their own re-election campaigns. The capacity of our troops to defend our nation is not nearly as important to them as getting re-elected, and preserving their undeserved salaries. This new goal of 450,000 troops is fewer than our pre-World War II levels, which were so horribly inadequate that we came dangerously close to losing that war! Now with an aggressive Russia probably on the verge of invading the middle-east, to try and take over the majority of the world's oil supplies, and an equally aggressive China, boasting an army of roughly 200,000,000, how are we supposed to scare them into self-restraint with a military of a paltry 450,000 troops! Sure our technology makes a big difference, but both Russian and Chinese technology is not so far behind that we can rest in our capacity to overwhelm an all-out confrontation with either.
Republicans, who are correctly outraged at these developments, in turn want to shut down all so-called government entitlements, which are the largest drain upon the economy as a whole. That's a great idea, in a perfect world, with something approaching full employment, and sufficient jobs available to hire those who will need them. But that world doesn't exist today. And what about those who can't work, due to old age, illnesses, or mothers who need to take care of their children? Their short-sighted solution would leave millions of innocent people on the streets, penniless, and soon facing starvation as a Republican Congress would simply dissolve all benefits to people who would mostly be unable to replace them with paychecks. I can't think of a better way to guarantee that a Republican Presidency, and/or Congress would be more speedily ousted, with the promise that no one from their party would ever be elected to office again!
And thanks to our belligerently Leftist system of public education, and their massive job of brainwashing our children into embracing Socialism as the only hope for mankind, we can likely expect that the next generation would probably prefer to accept Russian, or Chinese domination of the world, while they sit around all day, smoking their legal supply of marijuana, or shooting-up their government-supplied dose of heroin, rather than submit to an emergency draft into the military, to defend against any threat of invasion.
People, we are in desperate trouble! And most of us probably won't believe it until it's too late to avoid it. Thank God we have Jesus to call upon to save us from ourselves, but the material consequences of our foolish and profligate living over the last 70 odd years will be unnecessarily painful for all of us. And I expect that we have at least a number of years yet to go before He comes back to deliver us from the world, and establish His Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Our economy is on the verge of total collapse. We probably should have experienced a massive deflationary depression about seven years ago, that would have made the "Great Depression of the 1930's look like a party, and we may not have accomplished anything more with all our hyper-inflationary "Quantitative Easing" than to temporarily postpone the pain of uncontrollable Deflation, once the final bubble bursts, and the dollar becomes so worthless that no one will accept it as currency. And by postponing it, we have probably made the inevitable pain much worse when we are finally forced to deal with it.
Yesterday, President Obama decided that his administration was setting a goal of reducing the size of the military to 450,000 troops, from a previous 525,000, as a way of reducing the defense budget. God only knows what he and the Democrats in Congress will do with the savings, but we can rest assured that it will not be used to reduce the deficit, or even balance the budget. I'm sure that the Senate is already salivating over many completely useless and unnecessary projects that they want to fund with that money, in order to give money to union-run companies who will kick-back a large portion of it into their own re-election campaigns. The capacity of our troops to defend our nation is not nearly as important to them as getting re-elected, and preserving their undeserved salaries. This new goal of 450,000 troops is fewer than our pre-World War II levels, which were so horribly inadequate that we came dangerously close to losing that war! Now with an aggressive Russia probably on the verge of invading the middle-east, to try and take over the majority of the world's oil supplies, and an equally aggressive China, boasting an army of roughly 200,000,000, how are we supposed to scare them into self-restraint with a military of a paltry 450,000 troops! Sure our technology makes a big difference, but both Russian and Chinese technology is not so far behind that we can rest in our capacity to overwhelm an all-out confrontation with either.
Republicans, who are correctly outraged at these developments, in turn want to shut down all so-called government entitlements, which are the largest drain upon the economy as a whole. That's a great idea, in a perfect world, with something approaching full employment, and sufficient jobs available to hire those who will need them. But that world doesn't exist today. And what about those who can't work, due to old age, illnesses, or mothers who need to take care of their children? Their short-sighted solution would leave millions of innocent people on the streets, penniless, and soon facing starvation as a Republican Congress would simply dissolve all benefits to people who would mostly be unable to replace them with paychecks. I can't think of a better way to guarantee that a Republican Presidency, and/or Congress would be more speedily ousted, with the promise that no one from their party would ever be elected to office again!
And thanks to our belligerently Leftist system of public education, and their massive job of brainwashing our children into embracing Socialism as the only hope for mankind, we can likely expect that the next generation would probably prefer to accept Russian, or Chinese domination of the world, while they sit around all day, smoking their legal supply of marijuana, or shooting-up their government-supplied dose of heroin, rather than submit to an emergency draft into the military, to defend against any threat of invasion.
People, we are in desperate trouble! And most of us probably won't believe it until it's too late to avoid it. Thank God we have Jesus to call upon to save us from ourselves, but the material consequences of our foolish and profligate living over the last 70 odd years will be unnecessarily painful for all of us. And I expect that we have at least a number of years yet to go before He comes back to deliver us from the world, and establish His Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Ukraine's Migraine
It seems too early to know exactly how to view the developing crisis in the Ukraine, as yet. But it certainly seems to be precipitated mostly by a dogmatically totalitarian President, who rules a predominantly corrupt government that cares more about enriching their own pockets with Russian graft then it does about representing the interests of their supposedly democratic populace. Rather than acquiesce to the wishes of the people who wanted to strengthen ties with western Europe, President Yanukovich accepted 2 billion dollars from Russia, which was rightly seen as a bribe from Putin to forgo the European interests, and to retain their more Soviet-style relations with Russia. As a consequence, he fomented the popular revolt that has brought about rioting in the streets, which he answered with military sniper fire that has killed 80 some demonstrators, and injured hundreds more. Not surprisingly, the demonstrators are fighting back with their few guns, and have shot some of the military's troops as well. If this isn't the prelude to an all-out civil war in the not too distant future, I don't know what it is.
This seems to be playing right into Putin's greedy little hands. He has been expected to be waiting for any excuse to start re-absorbing the former Soviet satellite nations back into Russia's control for some time now, and a bloody civil war by their next door neighbor seems to be just the ticket to allow him to move his armed forces into the Ukraine, in order to "stabilize the situation". Afterwards, Russia's military will simply decide to stay.
The Ukraine's close proximity to the middle-east has not escaped my interest either. With all I've written lately about my expectation that Putin may soon find some excuse to invade Israel, whether he is the Russian leader that God refers to as Gog, or not, I suspect that bringing the Ukraine back under Russian dominance should have some significant part to play in that prophicied invasion. I just can't guess exactly what that might be, as yet. But it certainly would not be desirable for him to send a military force into Israel, by way of Syria, while leaving an independent country like Ukraine with a measure of hostility towards their former Soviet dictators directly in their rear. If Ukrainian forces were not a threat to come to the aid of Israel, they could be perceived as possibly serving as a sympathetic base of operations for a N.A.T.O. force that might. Remember, whomever this "Gog" commander will be, it's certain he will not place any credence in the Ezekiel 38, &39 prophecy that tells of the western nations' collective limp-wristed response to his hedgemonistic invasion. So we can see at least that Putin would not want the Ukrainian people to develop closer ties with the western N.A.T.O nations.
UPDATE: 2/23/'14-
Things seem to be going the way that the Ukrainian protesters want them to go, but hold on a second; Putin still carries the trump card here. Can he sit still and watch perhaps his most valued former Soviet member force their dictatorial Soviet-leaning government to resign in favor of a new western-democratic government right next door to Russia? Not only that, but to have it brought about by a largely unarmed popular revolt, against an oppressive Soviet-style military crack-down by their government, must be causing Putin ( Russia's former head of the dreaded K.G.B.) to just about gag over his lack of "diplomatic control" over the situation. But remember, when diplomacy fails, Russia's trump card has always been to invade the country that has the gall to try and force democratic principles on their government, rather than maintain close relations to Russia's own totalitarian demands. Remember the Soviet invasion of Checkoslavakia in the 1970's? Well maybe we're about to find out just how much Russia has changed from the old Soviet era. How a Russian invasion of the Ukraine could possibly be connected to Russia's apparent maneuvering in preparation for their prophecied invasion of Israel, I can't guess, beyond my speculation above. But, I strongly suspect that there is a connection, and that Putin knows what it is. So don't be surprised if Russian tanks begin crossing the border into the Ukraine soon, and perhaps this expectation may be causing the present Yanukovich government to seem to be acquiescing to the protesters' demands, knowing that any changes they agree to will be very short-lived.
UPDATE #2: 2/24/'14
I have always acknowledged upfront that I'm not vain enough to imagine myself to be some form of modern-day prophet, if there is such a thing. I just try to connect the dots between what God has already revealed to us in Biblical prophecy, and what we see unfolding in the news around us, today. Hopefully, God helps me to see things clearly enough to alert others who may not be paying attention to world developments enough to recognize what's going on.
Yesterday's Update stated that I wouldn't be surprised to see Putin order his Russian Tanks into the Ukraine to "stabilize the situation", meaning rather to conquer the nation that is unwilling to maintain a dependent relationship with Russia, later deciding that the Tanks should simply stay permanently. This was my own opinion, based upon a longstanding distrust of Putin's governing style, which seems to differ from his Soviet predecessors only slightly. I had heard no one speculating similarly, until after I had published my opinion.
But shortly afterwards, I heard Washington Post commentator George Will express a very similar concern on T.V.'s Fox News Sunday, followed later by an interview of National Security Adviser Susan Rice voicing the same concern ( I think it was on N.B.C.), along with what seemed to be an official White House warning that Putin would be well advised not to do so, because doing so would bring about, "serious consequences"! After I managed to stop quaking in my shoes from the sheer terror that that threat implied, I was gratified to realize that I had recognized the potential threat of Putin's next move before either of these highly esteemed prognosticators had pronounced similar concerns. Now, granted this doesn't mean squat about predicting what will happen, but merely what might reasonably happen. Still, it is gratifying to realize that I'm on the right track, and that well-known pundits ( one on the Right, and one from the Left) reached the same conclusion, after I published mine. Not exactly on the scale of being one of God's prophets, but it will do for me!
Hmmm...! I wonder if these two pundits read my blog before they appeared on T.V.? Well, so much for keeping my vanity in check.
UPDATE: 2/27/'14
What a "Koinkydink"!!! My swollen vanity is now telling me that Vladimir Putin is also reading my blog! I apparently gave him the idea about invading the Ukraine, and yesterday he sent his troops on "Maneuvers", (surprise!...)right along the border between Russia, and the Ukraine. Not very imaginative of him, either. I guess he can't make up his mind what to do, so he has to borrow his ideas from my blog. What a dilemma! I've been telling President Obama what he should do for a long time now, and when he doesn't do it, I've been implying that I could easily tell him what he can do with himself, as well! So now I guess I'm advising the other side as well. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two sides that I can see, between the White House and the Kremlin. Putin wants to invade everyone else's country, and Obama wants to watch him do it while making lame threats like, "there will be consequences, if you do." Oooh! That sends shivers down my spine just to think of all those "consequences"! I'll bet Obama is ready to stamp his foot, and say, "I'm so mad I could just spit!" And then 10 minutes later he'll rip off a searing "Diplomatic Protest", before crying himself to sleep.
All sarcasm aside, the very real "consequences" will be dire for the people of the Ukraine. The country seems to be split right down the middle, geographically, as well as ideologically; the eastern half of the country seems to be more sympathetic to Russia, while the western half seems to want closer ties with the western European nations. There has been speculation that Putin, if he does invade, might try to annex the eastern side, only, claiming that they are mostly Russian descendants anyway. Hmmm! That sounds familiar...Oh! I've got it! That was the same excuse that Hitler used to rationalize his invasion of the Sudetenland, and annex it from Checkoslavakia, I believe. That was the first stage of his precipitating World War II. Not to be out done, I suppose Putin intends to use this as the first step in starting World War III, followed by his invasion of Israel. In the mean time, Obama probably plans to sit on his hands, and maybe spit once in a while, if he gets angry enough!
This seems to be playing right into Putin's greedy little hands. He has been expected to be waiting for any excuse to start re-absorbing the former Soviet satellite nations back into Russia's control for some time now, and a bloody civil war by their next door neighbor seems to be just the ticket to allow him to move his armed forces into the Ukraine, in order to "stabilize the situation". Afterwards, Russia's military will simply decide to stay.
The Ukraine's close proximity to the middle-east has not escaped my interest either. With all I've written lately about my expectation that Putin may soon find some excuse to invade Israel, whether he is the Russian leader that God refers to as Gog, or not, I suspect that bringing the Ukraine back under Russian dominance should have some significant part to play in that prophicied invasion. I just can't guess exactly what that might be, as yet. But it certainly would not be desirable for him to send a military force into Israel, by way of Syria, while leaving an independent country like Ukraine with a measure of hostility towards their former Soviet dictators directly in their rear. If Ukrainian forces were not a threat to come to the aid of Israel, they could be perceived as possibly serving as a sympathetic base of operations for a N.A.T.O. force that might. Remember, whomever this "Gog" commander will be, it's certain he will not place any credence in the Ezekiel 38, &39 prophecy that tells of the western nations' collective limp-wristed response to his hedgemonistic invasion. So we can see at least that Putin would not want the Ukrainian people to develop closer ties with the western N.A.T.O nations.
UPDATE: 2/23/'14-
Things seem to be going the way that the Ukrainian protesters want them to go, but hold on a second; Putin still carries the trump card here. Can he sit still and watch perhaps his most valued former Soviet member force their dictatorial Soviet-leaning government to resign in favor of a new western-democratic government right next door to Russia? Not only that, but to have it brought about by a largely unarmed popular revolt, against an oppressive Soviet-style military crack-down by their government, must be causing Putin ( Russia's former head of the dreaded K.G.B.) to just about gag over his lack of "diplomatic control" over the situation. But remember, when diplomacy fails, Russia's trump card has always been to invade the country that has the gall to try and force democratic principles on their government, rather than maintain close relations to Russia's own totalitarian demands. Remember the Soviet invasion of Checkoslavakia in the 1970's? Well maybe we're about to find out just how much Russia has changed from the old Soviet era. How a Russian invasion of the Ukraine could possibly be connected to Russia's apparent maneuvering in preparation for their prophecied invasion of Israel, I can't guess, beyond my speculation above. But, I strongly suspect that there is a connection, and that Putin knows what it is. So don't be surprised if Russian tanks begin crossing the border into the Ukraine soon, and perhaps this expectation may be causing the present Yanukovich government to seem to be acquiescing to the protesters' demands, knowing that any changes they agree to will be very short-lived.
UPDATE #2: 2/24/'14
I have always acknowledged upfront that I'm not vain enough to imagine myself to be some form of modern-day prophet, if there is such a thing. I just try to connect the dots between what God has already revealed to us in Biblical prophecy, and what we see unfolding in the news around us, today. Hopefully, God helps me to see things clearly enough to alert others who may not be paying attention to world developments enough to recognize what's going on.
Yesterday's Update stated that I wouldn't be surprised to see Putin order his Russian Tanks into the Ukraine to "stabilize the situation", meaning rather to conquer the nation that is unwilling to maintain a dependent relationship with Russia, later deciding that the Tanks should simply stay permanently. This was my own opinion, based upon a longstanding distrust of Putin's governing style, which seems to differ from his Soviet predecessors only slightly. I had heard no one speculating similarly, until after I had published my opinion.
But shortly afterwards, I heard Washington Post commentator George Will express a very similar concern on T.V.'s Fox News Sunday, followed later by an interview of National Security Adviser Susan Rice voicing the same concern ( I think it was on N.B.C.), along with what seemed to be an official White House warning that Putin would be well advised not to do so, because doing so would bring about, "serious consequences"! After I managed to stop quaking in my shoes from the sheer terror that that threat implied, I was gratified to realize that I had recognized the potential threat of Putin's next move before either of these highly esteemed prognosticators had pronounced similar concerns. Now, granted this doesn't mean squat about predicting what will happen, but merely what might reasonably happen. Still, it is gratifying to realize that I'm on the right track, and that well-known pundits ( one on the Right, and one from the Left) reached the same conclusion, after I published mine. Not exactly on the scale of being one of God's prophets, but it will do for me!
Hmmm...! I wonder if these two pundits read my blog before they appeared on T.V.? Well, so much for keeping my vanity in check.
UPDATE: 2/27/'14
What a "Koinkydink"!!! My swollen vanity is now telling me that Vladimir Putin is also reading my blog! I apparently gave him the idea about invading the Ukraine, and yesterday he sent his troops on "Maneuvers", (surprise!...)right along the border between Russia, and the Ukraine. Not very imaginative of him, either. I guess he can't make up his mind what to do, so he has to borrow his ideas from my blog. What a dilemma! I've been telling President Obama what he should do for a long time now, and when he doesn't do it, I've been implying that I could easily tell him what he can do with himself, as well! So now I guess I'm advising the other side as well. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two sides that I can see, between the White House and the Kremlin. Putin wants to invade everyone else's country, and Obama wants to watch him do it while making lame threats like, "there will be consequences, if you do." Oooh! That sends shivers down my spine just to think of all those "consequences"! I'll bet Obama is ready to stamp his foot, and say, "I'm so mad I could just spit!" And then 10 minutes later he'll rip off a searing "Diplomatic Protest", before crying himself to sleep.
All sarcasm aside, the very real "consequences" will be dire for the people of the Ukraine. The country seems to be split right down the middle, geographically, as well as ideologically; the eastern half of the country seems to be more sympathetic to Russia, while the western half seems to want closer ties with the western European nations. There has been speculation that Putin, if he does invade, might try to annex the eastern side, only, claiming that they are mostly Russian descendants anyway. Hmmm! That sounds familiar...Oh! I've got it! That was the same excuse that Hitler used to rationalize his invasion of the Sudetenland, and annex it from Checkoslavakia, I believe. That was the first stage of his precipitating World War II. Not to be out done, I suppose Putin intends to use this as the first step in starting World War III, followed by his invasion of Israel. In the mean time, Obama probably plans to sit on his hands, and maybe spit once in a while, if he gets angry enough!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Is Obama Trying To Force Impeachment?
One has to wonder; as much as I dislike the Obama administration, and as little respect as I have for him as President, I'm not stupid enough to call him an idiot. Yet the obvious facts are pointing to that conclusion. Either he is ( which I don't think anyone really believes), or there is some maniacal logic behind his continual efforts to flaunt the sacred principles of the Constitution that he took a solemn oath ( twice) "to protect, and defend." Counting his Senate confirmation, he took the oath three times. What does it take for him to get it??? Since he is certainly not stupid, the only other logical conclusion one can draw is that he has no respect for the Constitution, and that he intends to trample on it's principles as much as he can possibly get away with. That, to me, is a highly impeachable attitude that is only awaiting the final act where his attitude forces him to cross over the line and violate the law to the point where Congress will be forced to impeach him. I guess he figures that a Democratic Senate would never convict him no matter how tyrannical his administration becomes. Unfortunately, he may be right! Fortunately, he may not have a Democratic majority in the Senate for much longer, and he may be forced to abandon his apparently intended movement of the country towards totalitarianism simply by sensing the Congressional intent to impeach. Let's hope so, lest we be faced with the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency, which may be worse; not so much by intent as by incompetence!
Today, Fox news is reporting that the F.C.C. is notifying various agencies of the News Media that they must submit to an investigation to determine the ideological perspective of their news reporting. This is a clear and blatant violation of the, "freedom of the press, and free speech" clauses of the first amendment to the Constitution! As Obama certainly knows this, and his White House staff knows it even better, it is clearly an attempt to harass these organizations ( which I'm sure must all be of conservative perspective) into recognizing that they believe conservative ideology is not protected by the first amendment, but liberal, socialistic ideology is protected. There can be no clearer demonstration of totalitarian intent than this. Of course they recognize that the Supreme Court would never allow this to survive a court challenge, so they will simply find some excuse to back off, and "re-evaluate their request". Then, after the media outrage dies down, they will find some other way to harass conservative institutions, as with the I.R.S. making unreasonable, and repeated costly investigations of Tea Party organizations that applied for non-profit status. People, you and I are the idiots here! We were stupid enough not to see through this man's good looks, and genial manner, and his articulate speech enough to elect him. And not only that, but we compounded our stupidity by re-electing him!
Is his brand of intended totalitarian government really any better than that of King George III's, or is it actually worse? See if you can guess where I stand on this issue!
Today, Fox news is reporting that the F.C.C. is notifying various agencies of the News Media that they must submit to an investigation to determine the ideological perspective of their news reporting. This is a clear and blatant violation of the, "freedom of the press, and free speech" clauses of the first amendment to the Constitution! As Obama certainly knows this, and his White House staff knows it even better, it is clearly an attempt to harass these organizations ( which I'm sure must all be of conservative perspective) into recognizing that they believe conservative ideology is not protected by the first amendment, but liberal, socialistic ideology is protected. There can be no clearer demonstration of totalitarian intent than this. Of course they recognize that the Supreme Court would never allow this to survive a court challenge, so they will simply find some excuse to back off, and "re-evaluate their request". Then, after the media outrage dies down, they will find some other way to harass conservative institutions, as with the I.R.S. making unreasonable, and repeated costly investigations of Tea Party organizations that applied for non-profit status. People, you and I are the idiots here! We were stupid enough not to see through this man's good looks, and genial manner, and his articulate speech enough to elect him. And not only that, but we compounded our stupidity by re-electing him!
Is his brand of intended totalitarian government really any better than that of King George III's, or is it actually worse? See if you can guess where I stand on this issue!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Student Debt: The Next Economic Bubble???
It's becoming clearer that the next crash-precipitating economic bubble may well be the hyper-inflating rate of accumulated student debt that today's college students are being saddled with in their decreasingly successful bid to prepare themselves for high paying jobs, and a future of living what we used to call the typical "American Dream". An article in today's Washington Post recounted the difficulties of recent college graduates in saving enough money for down-payment for a first-time purchase of a home, or of even qualifying for a mortgage because of their large student loan payments tipping the scales against their eligibility, verses their disappointingly small entry-level jobs' salaries. This has dire consequences for all of us since first-time buyers are a significant driving factor in the over-all rise in home buying statistics, which is traditionally the major driving factor in the statistics that indicate any rebound from the previous recession.
Our present rather anemic recovery has been substantially driven by a resurgence in home-buying. But this has been largely attributed to investors who are driven by the considerably deflated prices of homes in most regions across the country, and who foolishly believe that the recent history of deflated markets rebounding to previous levels, and even more, once a recession ends, must happen once again. So their "smart money" investments in housing is merely a stock-piling of houses that they feel are about to rise dramatically in value, which they intend to dump as soon as they find a buyer who'll pay the new higher price. There's only one catch; what if that buyer never shows up?
This Washington Post article indicated that the student debt crisis may be severe enough to largely eliminate the first-time buyer market that the housing market as a whole depends upon, leaving many of these speculative investors holding onto these houses for quite a while, without buyers. And if these speculative investors have borrowed heavily to buy them, counting on quick sales to fund their own debt payments, they may be forced to dump some of their houses on the market at prices below their original purchase price, in order to raise the cash to pay the loans for their remaining investment homes. If enough speculators find that this is necessary, it could precipitate another housing price collapse, deflating prices even more than they were before this recent upturn. This whole process would create more deflationary pressure on the economy as a whole, either "requiring" the government to create more inflationary "stimulus", or risk allowing us to descend into an all out deflationary depression, which they have been desperately trying to avoid since the last housing bust in 2006. Either they are too ignorant, or too foolish to realize that a deflationary depression is inevitable once the conditions are ripe for it, as in the late 1920's, and again in 2007. All they're accomplishing with all this inflationary spending on these stimuli is to postpone the inevitable, and the longer we wait to face up to it all, the exponentially worse it will all be.
So, it seems that our very anemic economic recovery could be on life-support again sooner
than we expected.
Our present rather anemic recovery has been substantially driven by a resurgence in home-buying. But this has been largely attributed to investors who are driven by the considerably deflated prices of homes in most regions across the country, and who foolishly believe that the recent history of deflated markets rebounding to previous levels, and even more, once a recession ends, must happen once again. So their "smart money" investments in housing is merely a stock-piling of houses that they feel are about to rise dramatically in value, which they intend to dump as soon as they find a buyer who'll pay the new higher price. There's only one catch; what if that buyer never shows up?
This Washington Post article indicated that the student debt crisis may be severe enough to largely eliminate the first-time buyer market that the housing market as a whole depends upon, leaving many of these speculative investors holding onto these houses for quite a while, without buyers. And if these speculative investors have borrowed heavily to buy them, counting on quick sales to fund their own debt payments, they may be forced to dump some of their houses on the market at prices below their original purchase price, in order to raise the cash to pay the loans for their remaining investment homes. If enough speculators find that this is necessary, it could precipitate another housing price collapse, deflating prices even more than they were before this recent upturn. This whole process would create more deflationary pressure on the economy as a whole, either "requiring" the government to create more inflationary "stimulus", or risk allowing us to descend into an all out deflationary depression, which they have been desperately trying to avoid since the last housing bust in 2006. Either they are too ignorant, or too foolish to realize that a deflationary depression is inevitable once the conditions are ripe for it, as in the late 1920's, and again in 2007. All they're accomplishing with all this inflationary spending on these stimuli is to postpone the inevitable, and the longer we wait to face up to it all, the exponentially worse it will all be.
So, it seems that our very anemic economic recovery could be on life-support again sooner
than we expected.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Copernicus Turns
Yikes! What was that! Sounded like someone turning over in his grave. Why, I think it was Nicolaus Copernicus, the renowned 16th century astronomer who came up with that outlandish theory that the earth actually revolves around the sun. I don't know what would be upsetting him so much. After all we in our infinite wisdom have finally thrown off his absurd teachings which have befuddled humanity for over 400 years. Now we know the truth; that the sun actually revolves around the earth, just as Pope Paul III tried unsuccessfully to convince Copernicus back then.
George Will in his column in the Washington Post referred to the Gallup Poll that determined that 20% of Americans today believe that the sun revolves around the earth, and that the rest of us idiots still cling to the foolish concept of the earth actually revolving around the sun. What does it take to get through to us? Why anyone can see the sun crossing the sky each day, in an obvious circular revolution around the earth. And since the moon rotates around the earth also, at roughly 250,000 miles from the earth, and the sun is only a bit larger than the moon we can extrapolate that the sun must only be around a million miles away from the earth.
As you can tell by now, I am the proud product of a public education, secularly controlled by all those brilliant bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who have succeeded in sanitizing our schools from any reference to God, or ( Humanism forbid!) that there should be any discussion of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and the only hope for the salvation of mankind. We're doing just fine without all that religious stuff. After all, I figured out that the sun revolves around the earth all by myself. What do I need God for; He's just going to tell me not to steal, when I know the only reason not to is whether or not I think I'll get caught. The same for, "Thou shalt not kill"; if someone makes me angry, they better watch out! The next time no ones looking, bam!!! Of course I'll scream, "Bloody murder!" if someone else thinks they have the right to hold me to the same standard. That goes for the husband of the woman I was dallying with last night, too. Where does he come off accusing me of "Adultery", when I just denied it with one of the best lies I made up in a long time. What, does he think we live in a society where our laws should be based upon the Ten Commandments? How impractical would that be. It's so much easier living in our society, where, "Every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". That's in the Bible, too. I'll give it credit for that much. And it works well too. At least until you run into someone whose concept of what, "seemed right" was in direct conflict with your concept. Then you'd better be carrying a bigger gun than he is!
Ahh! The joys of living in a world where everything revolves around me, including the concept of right, and wrong! Now you can see how I managed to come up with the completely egocentric concept of the sun revolving around the earth. The sun and moon revolve around the earth, and the whole world revolves around me! And I decide what's right and wrong, and if anybody doesn't like it...BAM!!! So who needs God in life, when I've got all the wisdom of a secular public education!
George Will in his column in the Washington Post referred to the Gallup Poll that determined that 20% of Americans today believe that the sun revolves around the earth, and that the rest of us idiots still cling to the foolish concept of the earth actually revolving around the sun. What does it take to get through to us? Why anyone can see the sun crossing the sky each day, in an obvious circular revolution around the earth. And since the moon rotates around the earth also, at roughly 250,000 miles from the earth, and the sun is only a bit larger than the moon we can extrapolate that the sun must only be around a million miles away from the earth.
As you can tell by now, I am the proud product of a public education, secularly controlled by all those brilliant bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who have succeeded in sanitizing our schools from any reference to God, or ( Humanism forbid!) that there should be any discussion of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and the only hope for the salvation of mankind. We're doing just fine without all that religious stuff. After all, I figured out that the sun revolves around the earth all by myself. What do I need God for; He's just going to tell me not to steal, when I know the only reason not to is whether or not I think I'll get caught. The same for, "Thou shalt not kill"; if someone makes me angry, they better watch out! The next time no ones looking, bam!!! Of course I'll scream, "Bloody murder!" if someone else thinks they have the right to hold me to the same standard. That goes for the husband of the woman I was dallying with last night, too. Where does he come off accusing me of "Adultery", when I just denied it with one of the best lies I made up in a long time. What, does he think we live in a society where our laws should be based upon the Ten Commandments? How impractical would that be. It's so much easier living in our society, where, "Every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". That's in the Bible, too. I'll give it credit for that much. And it works well too. At least until you run into someone whose concept of what, "seemed right" was in direct conflict with your concept. Then you'd better be carrying a bigger gun than he is!
Ahh! The joys of living in a world where everything revolves around me, including the concept of right, and wrong! Now you can see how I managed to come up with the completely egocentric concept of the sun revolving around the earth. The sun and moon revolve around the earth, and the whole world revolves around me! And I decide what's right and wrong, and if anybody doesn't like it...BAM!!! So who needs God in life, when I've got all the wisdom of a secular public education!
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Rosh-Shee-Yah!
Just an interesting tidbit that occurred to me today while watching the Sochi Olympics, from Russia. Specifically, I was watching the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team take on the Russian Hockey Team, in the first of what is to be at least two contests that may well play a significant role in deciding the team medals. Since these games are being played in Russia, you would correctly presume that the crowd for this game was overwhelmingly biased in favor of the Russian Team.
At one point the television play-by-play announcer remarked concerning the chanting that was going on almost continuously in the background. He said that Russian crowds tended to chant in such a manner, rather than shout out individual encouragements such as one might expect in American sporting events. He said that he didn't speak Russian but that they had a translator on stand-by, and that he would try to find out what the crowd was chanting. Later, he said that one chant was..., and he named the Russian word, adding that it translated into the urge to, "let's get going" ( roughly). Then he said the second chant was their pronunciation of their country's name which he stated was phonetically pronounced, "Rosh-Shee-Yah!". Immediately, we could easily hear the crowd take up that chant, in three beats, making the pronunciation absolutely unmistakable.
This immediately reminded me that the country that the Bible claims will be the lead country of the prophecied Gog/Magog invasion of Israel will be from the country of Rosh, which has prominent cities that it referred to as Mes
chesch, and Tubal ( commonly believed to be ancient pronunciations of the present-day cities of Moscow, and Tobolsk). I claim no great prophetic insight in all this, but I thought it was interesting that a crowd of Russian fans would all pronounce the name of their country exactly the way God pronounced it more than 1500 years ago, even though most other countries today pronounce it significantly different, including our own.
Just another small revelation of the relevance of God's ancient prophecies to the readers of the Bible today. By the way, the American Team won the game, in over-time, by the score of 3 to 2! Hmm... I wonder if God is a Hockey fan???
At one point the television play-by-play announcer remarked concerning the chanting that was going on almost continuously in the background. He said that Russian crowds tended to chant in such a manner, rather than shout out individual encouragements such as one might expect in American sporting events. He said that he didn't speak Russian but that they had a translator on stand-by, and that he would try to find out what the crowd was chanting. Later, he said that one chant was..., and he named the Russian word, adding that it translated into the urge to, "let's get going" ( roughly). Then he said the second chant was their pronunciation of their country's name which he stated was phonetically pronounced, "Rosh-Shee-Yah!". Immediately, we could easily hear the crowd take up that chant, in three beats, making the pronunciation absolutely unmistakable.
This immediately reminded me that the country that the Bible claims will be the lead country of the prophecied Gog/Magog invasion of Israel will be from the country of Rosh, which has prominent cities that it referred to as Mes
chesch, and Tubal ( commonly believed to be ancient pronunciations of the present-day cities of Moscow, and Tobolsk). I claim no great prophetic insight in all this, but I thought it was interesting that a crowd of Russian fans would all pronounce the name of their country exactly the way God pronounced it more than 1500 years ago, even though most other countries today pronounce it significantly different, including our own.
Just another small revelation of the relevance of God's ancient prophecies to the readers of the Bible today. By the way, the American Team won the game, in over-time, by the score of 3 to 2! Hmm... I wonder if God is a Hockey fan???
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Karzai: Et Tu, Round Two!!!
The latest on President Karzai of Afghanistan's blatant betrayal of American interests:
The news reports today are stating that Karzai is releasing 65 of the remaining prisoners of the Taliban that our forces captured and placed in prisons that were under our control, until Karzai demanded that we turn over control of those prisons to the Afghan army, last year. Apparently, we agreed to do so with Karzai's strict assurance that he would not release these prisoners, some of whom were guilty of killing American soldiers. As I stated in my original post ( called "Et Tu Karzai"), this is the next step of a completely duplicitous, and paranoid Traitor, who obviously is trying to curry favor with our enemies, whom he rightly believes will simply move in and take back control of Afghanistan's government, once American troops are fully withdrawn. Then whomever is heir to Al Quaida's leadership, now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, will simply set up their mountain lair hideout and we'll be right back to square one, as we were after the 911 World Trade Center attacks. So, thanks to the wishy-washy policies of President "Obarak Bin Obama", the concept of trying to establish a democratic Afghanistan is soon to be completely ended. The Taliban will resume control of their totalitarian state, and Karzai will probably seek refuge in Saudi Arabia, or some other Gulf State nation, that is strongly influenced by Al Quaida. May God have mercy on the Afghan troops that we trained to fight the Taliban forces, once American troops withdraw, and Karzai and his government simply abandon their army to the "infinite mercies" of the Taliban. The expression, "heads will roll", will certainly apply here, but in a very literal sense, I'm sure. And if Karzai is stupid enough to wait to welcome his "new friends", the Taliban, to power, then I'm quite sure his head will be bouncing along the ground before the rest of his body has time to fall to the ground!
The news reports today are stating that Karzai is releasing 65 of the remaining prisoners of the Taliban that our forces captured and placed in prisons that were under our control, until Karzai demanded that we turn over control of those prisons to the Afghan army, last year. Apparently, we agreed to do so with Karzai's strict assurance that he would not release these prisoners, some of whom were guilty of killing American soldiers. As I stated in my original post ( called "Et Tu Karzai"), this is the next step of a completely duplicitous, and paranoid Traitor, who obviously is trying to curry favor with our enemies, whom he rightly believes will simply move in and take back control of Afghanistan's government, once American troops are fully withdrawn. Then whomever is heir to Al Quaida's leadership, now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, will simply set up their mountain lair hideout and we'll be right back to square one, as we were after the 911 World Trade Center attacks. So, thanks to the wishy-washy policies of President "Obarak Bin Obama", the concept of trying to establish a democratic Afghanistan is soon to be completely ended. The Taliban will resume control of their totalitarian state, and Karzai will probably seek refuge in Saudi Arabia, or some other Gulf State nation, that is strongly influenced by Al Quaida. May God have mercy on the Afghan troops that we trained to fight the Taliban forces, once American troops withdraw, and Karzai and his government simply abandon their army to the "infinite mercies" of the Taliban. The expression, "heads will roll", will certainly apply here, but in a very literal sense, I'm sure. And if Karzai is stupid enough to wait to welcome his "new friends", the Taliban, to power, then I'm quite sure his head will be bouncing along the ground before the rest of his body has time to fall to the ground!
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Small "Pox"...
I am registering a complaint on a just-in-case basis, as I don't have enough information to make a fair and accurate judgment here. It's a throw-back to my recent post where I borrowed Shakespeare's quote of, "a pox on both your houses", which his character directed at both the families of Romeo, and Juliet, for their endless and unreasonable feud that had torn their entire community apart for years. Similarly, we have the endless feuding in politics between Republicans, and Democrats who both claim to love our country, yet in practice seem to have so high a regard for their separate political philosophies ( Democrats with their lock-step Socialism, and Republicans with their nearly worshipful Capitalism) that any truly Patriotic fervor tends to get lost in the squabble. Since in my opinion Socialism holds very little of value for the future of our nation, and Capitalism misses the mark badly, I wrote that I have to throw up my hands in disgust, and frustration and pronounce a figurative, "pox on both their houses".
My concern today is again over the possibility of extending unemployment benefits further, on first the federal level, and secondarily on a State-by-State basis. I honestly believe that both sides in the debate have good points, but are equally blind when it comes to balancing the legitimate concerns of the American people, with their own political beliefs which are less than relevant in today's critical economic environment. They both recognize that our present anemic "recovery" from what is statistically considered to be the worst Recession of the past century is so fragile that the unemployment benefits were needed to be extended as long as they have been, since the job market had essentially dried up for the duration. This plays right into the Socialistic values of the Democrats, who just love the concept of having more and more people on the government dole so they can tax the employed people of the country at higher and higher rates, giving the government more and more exclusive control over how to re-distribute this legal largess, and to whom it will go. They can then give undeserved money to those special interests who in turn give money to their own re-election campaigns, thus greatly ensuring their own continued employment. These legal "kickbacks" might well be called a form of "indirect cronyism", as it amounts to nothing better than paying graft to those who best help them get re-elected.
In contrast, we have very little difference from the Republican side of the spectrum. They seem deeply concerned with the hopeless plight of those who lose their jobs and are unable to replace them with other jobs, until the economy begins to recover and businesses start advertising to fill jobs again. But the shallowness of their concern becomes starkly evident when they start lobbying to cut off the unemployment benefits when potential workers are slow to respond to the job offers, claiming that the government benefits are a disincentive to seeking new jobs, with the implication that our workforce is lazy, and they would rather stay on the dole, than try to better their plight with a new job. This is so ridiculous it is infantile, and insulting, and it is the myopic view of those who feel secure in their well-paying jobs that makes them look down on the unfortunate workers who have no choice but to hold out until they can find a job that pays enough to better their situation, that will feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and their families, and that seems secure enough to last even if there is another economic down-turn. This is known as behaving in their own self-interest, which is the human behavioral characteristic upon which true, Free Market Capitalism is supposed to be based. The fact that Republicans disparage this very fundamental response to todays economic situation shows that they are not as dedicated to these principles as they claim, but are merely marching lock-step to the greedy whims of their political cronies, Wall Street's Big Business interests.
In the early stages of a slow recovery from a long Recession, you can bet that the vast majority of new jobs coming onto the market are very low paying jobs, or high paying jobs that require so much specialized education, and experience that there are few qualified applicants available who are not already so employed. The low paying jobs are not attractive to workers even if they pay more than their unemployment benefits, if they pay considerably less that their last salary, which the government used to decide their 50% unemployment benefit value. If they take the new low-paying job, with the risk that they might be fired if another down-turn develops, any future unemployment benefits will be based upon their new last salary, with a lower benefit to try and survive upon. This is the fault of Congressional lawmakers determining this rule, and not the overall laziness of the workforce. When businesses become desperate enough for workers that they will act in their own self-interests and offer more livable wages, they will find that those "lazy workers" will fall all over themselves to compete for those jobs. Granted there will always be some workers who are lazy enough to prefer not working, at 50% pay, but for Republicans to presume that this is the motivation of all the unemployed is so patronizingly insensitive that it is nauseating. Hence, my pronouncing, "a pox on both your houses"!!!
Now we have reports that the Governor of North Carolina has decided that his state will simply not renew unemployment benefits at all. Fox News reported this with an almost fawning interview in which they stated that the result was a drop in overall unemployment of a few percentage points, making theirs one of the lowest, statistically, in the country. Their report clearly left their viewers to draw the logical conclusion that all we need to do is cut off the benefits and everyone will
grab a job that's just waiting for them, and the country will magically be fully employed, forever! But there were some points that were not discussed that are necessary before we can reach anywhere near that conclusion.
First, how many unemployed merely jumped ship and moved in with relatives, or moved to another state to become someone else's problem. Since they no longer register on North Carolina's statistical radar, that makes everything seem okay, I suppose. Others will simply lose their homes, pack the family into the car, and try to live on a vacant lot, while eating at soup kitchens in order to survive. Others with disabilities that preclude working will simply have to change one form of government subsidy for another. And, finally, some will simply be overwhelmed at trying to find work that is just not available where they live, and will struggle to find shelter, and fight off the threat of starvation until the economy really turns around. It's a known fact that many homeless people will commit petty crimes when the weather turns cold in order to spend the winter months locked up in "warm jail cells" with free meals. They may have otherwise reformed from any former illegal behavior, but since any prior record essentially makes them unemployable, a six-month jail term seems better than freezing to death, or starving. So much for rehabilitation! So, mister Governor, why don't you collect some statistics on the above issues, before you try to convince me that the solution to the unemployment problem is to simply cut the benefits to force the lazy unemployed into getting a job.
I strongly suspect that big business is largely responsible for pushing this position through the media. They've had it pretty good for years with cheap employment in China, and other countries that pay their employees at slave-labor levels. Now they want to shame our workforce into accepting jobs that won't pay a livable wage, through media advertising campaigns. Sorry folks, that won't wash in a country that allows people to choose their employment according to their own self interests.
I'm sure that the Fox News analysts that I hear the most vociferously making this claim are merely responding to the urging of their parent company, News Corp., which now owns the Wall Street Journal, which has a vested interest in encouraging workers to apply for cheap-labor employment, in order to prop up the corporations who want the recovery to pick up steam. But to claim that the workforce is obstinately lazy is unconscionable in the extreme, in my opinion.
My concern today is again over the possibility of extending unemployment benefits further, on first the federal level, and secondarily on a State-by-State basis. I honestly believe that both sides in the debate have good points, but are equally blind when it comes to balancing the legitimate concerns of the American people, with their own political beliefs which are less than relevant in today's critical economic environment. They both recognize that our present anemic "recovery" from what is statistically considered to be the worst Recession of the past century is so fragile that the unemployment benefits were needed to be extended as long as they have been, since the job market had essentially dried up for the duration. This plays right into the Socialistic values of the Democrats, who just love the concept of having more and more people on the government dole so they can tax the employed people of the country at higher and higher rates, giving the government more and more exclusive control over how to re-distribute this legal largess, and to whom it will go. They can then give undeserved money to those special interests who in turn give money to their own re-election campaigns, thus greatly ensuring their own continued employment. These legal "kickbacks" might well be called a form of "indirect cronyism", as it amounts to nothing better than paying graft to those who best help them get re-elected.
In contrast, we have very little difference from the Republican side of the spectrum. They seem deeply concerned with the hopeless plight of those who lose their jobs and are unable to replace them with other jobs, until the economy begins to recover and businesses start advertising to fill jobs again. But the shallowness of their concern becomes starkly evident when they start lobbying to cut off the unemployment benefits when potential workers are slow to respond to the job offers, claiming that the government benefits are a disincentive to seeking new jobs, with the implication that our workforce is lazy, and they would rather stay on the dole, than try to better their plight with a new job. This is so ridiculous it is infantile, and insulting, and it is the myopic view of those who feel secure in their well-paying jobs that makes them look down on the unfortunate workers who have no choice but to hold out until they can find a job that pays enough to better their situation, that will feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and their families, and that seems secure enough to last even if there is another economic down-turn. This is known as behaving in their own self-interest, which is the human behavioral characteristic upon which true, Free Market Capitalism is supposed to be based. The fact that Republicans disparage this very fundamental response to todays economic situation shows that they are not as dedicated to these principles as they claim, but are merely marching lock-step to the greedy whims of their political cronies, Wall Street's Big Business interests.
In the early stages of a slow recovery from a long Recession, you can bet that the vast majority of new jobs coming onto the market are very low paying jobs, or high paying jobs that require so much specialized education, and experience that there are few qualified applicants available who are not already so employed. The low paying jobs are not attractive to workers even if they pay more than their unemployment benefits, if they pay considerably less that their last salary, which the government used to decide their 50% unemployment benefit value. If they take the new low-paying job, with the risk that they might be fired if another down-turn develops, any future unemployment benefits will be based upon their new last salary, with a lower benefit to try and survive upon. This is the fault of Congressional lawmakers determining this rule, and not the overall laziness of the workforce. When businesses become desperate enough for workers that they will act in their own self-interests and offer more livable wages, they will find that those "lazy workers" will fall all over themselves to compete for those jobs. Granted there will always be some workers who are lazy enough to prefer not working, at 50% pay, but for Republicans to presume that this is the motivation of all the unemployed is so patronizingly insensitive that it is nauseating. Hence, my pronouncing, "a pox on both your houses"!!!
Now we have reports that the Governor of North Carolina has decided that his state will simply not renew unemployment benefits at all. Fox News reported this with an almost fawning interview in which they stated that the result was a drop in overall unemployment of a few percentage points, making theirs one of the lowest, statistically, in the country. Their report clearly left their viewers to draw the logical conclusion that all we need to do is cut off the benefits and everyone will
grab a job that's just waiting for them, and the country will magically be fully employed, forever! But there were some points that were not discussed that are necessary before we can reach anywhere near that conclusion.
First, how many unemployed merely jumped ship and moved in with relatives, or moved to another state to become someone else's problem. Since they no longer register on North Carolina's statistical radar, that makes everything seem okay, I suppose. Others will simply lose their homes, pack the family into the car, and try to live on a vacant lot, while eating at soup kitchens in order to survive. Others with disabilities that preclude working will simply have to change one form of government subsidy for another. And, finally, some will simply be overwhelmed at trying to find work that is just not available where they live, and will struggle to find shelter, and fight off the threat of starvation until the economy really turns around. It's a known fact that many homeless people will commit petty crimes when the weather turns cold in order to spend the winter months locked up in "warm jail cells" with free meals. They may have otherwise reformed from any former illegal behavior, but since any prior record essentially makes them unemployable, a six-month jail term seems better than freezing to death, or starving. So much for rehabilitation! So, mister Governor, why don't you collect some statistics on the above issues, before you try to convince me that the solution to the unemployment problem is to simply cut the benefits to force the lazy unemployed into getting a job.
I strongly suspect that big business is largely responsible for pushing this position through the media. They've had it pretty good for years with cheap employment in China, and other countries that pay their employees at slave-labor levels. Now they want to shame our workforce into accepting jobs that won't pay a livable wage, through media advertising campaigns. Sorry folks, that won't wash in a country that allows people to choose their employment according to their own self interests.
I'm sure that the Fox News analysts that I hear the most vociferously making this claim are merely responding to the urging of their parent company, News Corp., which now owns the Wall Street Journal, which has a vested interest in encouraging workers to apply for cheap-labor employment, in order to prop up the corporations who want the recovery to pick up steam. But to claim that the workforce is obstinately lazy is unconscionable in the extreme, in my opinion.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Obama's Spontaneous Combustion
I really hate to reduce a serious problem to seemingly patronizing, childlike simplicity, but in the case of Barak Obama, and the Democratic Congressmen who doggedly defend him in the face of his absurd dishonesty, perhaps childlike faith requires kiddietalk logic. This man, regrettably our president, is so combustible he is a walking matchstick, not in the sense of his slender frame, but in the sense of that old childish taunt, "liar, liar, pants on fire...". The amazing thing about it is the absurdly blatant manner with which he and his Democratic cohorts continue to defend their lies, way beyond the point of absurdly unbelievable logic. I hate lies, whether they come from the Left, or the Right, male or female, Obama or Putin! But the more these idiots continue to defend their lies, the more they expose the source of their true values; namely Karl Marx!
It has long been a central premise of Communism ( especially Russian) that the way to stay in power is to lie to the masses, the so-called "proletariat". Since we are all such bumbling cattle-brains, we can be expected to swallow any lie, no matter how blatantly absurd, if it is professed repeatedly, to the exclusion of all contradicting views. The last phrase is the most important; it doesn't work if the opposing views, especially the truth, are expressed openly enough and often enough to expose the liars for what they are. We "stupid cattle-brains" can only be expected to swallow so many lies, for so long before even the most naively loyal supporters begin to recognize the truth, and then we also begin to resent the liars for treating us like the buffoons that they obviously take us for.
Thank God for Fox News!!! I recognize that their Conservative bias sometimes extends only as far as the Libertarian Party line allows ( which seems to be very conservative economically, with a heavy bias for Big Business Capitalism, as opposed to Free Market protections for small businesses that are run so efficiently that they don't need infusions of huge bank, or investment loans to stay afloat in dire economic times). Capitalistic hostile take-overs of small, profitable businesses by larger, bloated and inefficient Global Corporations only makes both corporations inefficient, but saves the larger from bankruptcy temporarily, while enriching the banks, and investment companies that finance it all. It would be better to allow the big corporations to fail, and then their assets could be auctioned off to smaller, more efficient companies who will eventually become the larger corporations of the future, and will avoid future bankruptcies by maintaining their efficiency.
Aside from economics, Libertarian values don't extend to other Conservative principles; such as Military Preparedness ( they are just as likely to disarm our military as the liberal Democrats; only they would do so to balance the budget, while the Democrats would search high and low for more useless pork to waste the savings on). So the Libertarians would create another evil, in order to lessen our budgetary crisis. We all know what they say about, "two wrongs making a right". As far as "domestic issues" Libertarians believe in a Laissez Faire concept of morality; namely leave everyone alone and we will eventually all get along, in spite of our moral conflicts. Christians believe that some forms of outrageous immorality must be discouraged and even suppressed ( like abortion, addictive drug use, and euthanasia), due to the over-all moral degradation that it promotes on society as a whole. And as society becomes more corrupt, through it's collective immorality, it will eventually have dangerous effects upon those who try to live according to a higher standard of morality. It's the reverse effect of the "Golden Rule". In treating others as we wish to be treated we stimulate a higher level of reciprocal kindness from others, even if they don't share our over-all values. Conversely, if everyone is living for their own greedy self interest, sooner or later they will be in conflict with the innocent needs of others, forcing a choice that will generally end harmfully for the innocent. The old testament condemned societies that degenerated to this point which were described as, "every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". Moreover, we believe God will hold our nation accountable if we do not restrain such immorality.
Anyway, Fox News seems to be the only major media outlet that is holding Obama's heels to the fire. They are the only News Channel that won't let the Benghazi terrorism cover-up die for lack of coverage. And the I.R.S. scandal of harassing those Tea Party spin-offs ( who have the "audacity" to apply for non-profit status) with unprecedented bureaucratic investigations, and repetitive financial audits that they don't harass liberal applicants with is so blatantly political ( and therefor un-constitutional), that a six-year-old could see it. So, now we have to wait until the mid-term elections to see just how effectively the Communist principle of lying in the face of obvious truthful contradiction succeeds. And then, in 2016, we will see if the repetitive blatant lying of one White House staff, at the behest of their Communist-leaning President, and the lock-step bureaucracy the does his evil bidding, with the incompetent Foreign Service that lies to cover-up their mistakes, will actually be replaced with another one just as bad, if Hillary can lie her way into the White House. Hopefully, Fox News will persist in exposing these liars for what they are, for long enough till the nation will get fed up with the Democratic Party's patronizing ways of deceiving the voting public. It worked when the Washington Post held Nixon's White House staff accountable for Watergate, but the Liberal Media apparently has a myopic view of what constitutes political outrage, and unconstitutional political intrigue. The Liberal press is outraged at the President's protestation of, "I am not a crook!", but gives a smirk, and a wink to, "I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!".
Yesterday's Congressional hearings on the I.R.S. harassment scandal was an obnoxiously obvious case in point. Some lady was being interviewed at a hearing ( I think it was in the Senate) about her Tea Party-related company's application for non-profit status. The Democratic Senator was brow-beating her to try and prove her charges of I.R.S harassment were untrue, until a Republican Senator calmly asked her if she had been investigated by O.S.C.E.A, the F.B.I., or audited by the I.R.S. before her company had applied for non-profit status. She answered in the negative. He then asked the same question of her for the time after they had applied for non-profit status. She testified that those same bureaucratic institutions had each investigated, or audited her company several times since their application, with each occurrence requiring significant financial expense to comply with their investigations.
If that isn't blatant proof of intentional and even conspiratorial efforts to stifle opposing political dissent through White House directed harassment, I don't know what is! And yet Obama has the audacity to appear on Fox's O'Reilly Factor and deny to Bill O'Reilly's face that there was any I.R.S conspiracy of harassment for the Tea Party applications. This can be true only in considering the conspiracy to be a White House conspiracy, rather than that of the I.R.S.! America, who is the blatant, compulsive liar here??? This is such a blatant violation of Constitutional rights that it would be an impeachable offense if it could be proven that Obama ordered it, as he obviously must have. But he has so carefully surrounded himself with so many willing liars that it would take a miracle to prove the truth, or perhaps the repentance of at least one courageous whistle-blower!
And even if we found one ( as I've stated before) the prospects of impeaching, and convicting Obama, as I believe he deserves, would leave us with the horrible prospect of a President Joe Biden. He is not only as big a liar as Obama, but he has been doing it for a lot longer in the Senate! And he is not as smart as Obama, which creates a double-whammy effect in the White House! Oh God, save us from ourselves!!!
It has long been a central premise of Communism ( especially Russian) that the way to stay in power is to lie to the masses, the so-called "proletariat". Since we are all such bumbling cattle-brains, we can be expected to swallow any lie, no matter how blatantly absurd, if it is professed repeatedly, to the exclusion of all contradicting views. The last phrase is the most important; it doesn't work if the opposing views, especially the truth, are expressed openly enough and often enough to expose the liars for what they are. We "stupid cattle-brains" can only be expected to swallow so many lies, for so long before even the most naively loyal supporters begin to recognize the truth, and then we also begin to resent the liars for treating us like the buffoons that they obviously take us for.
Thank God for Fox News!!! I recognize that their Conservative bias sometimes extends only as far as the Libertarian Party line allows ( which seems to be very conservative economically, with a heavy bias for Big Business Capitalism, as opposed to Free Market protections for small businesses that are run so efficiently that they don't need infusions of huge bank, or investment loans to stay afloat in dire economic times). Capitalistic hostile take-overs of small, profitable businesses by larger, bloated and inefficient Global Corporations only makes both corporations inefficient, but saves the larger from bankruptcy temporarily, while enriching the banks, and investment companies that finance it all. It would be better to allow the big corporations to fail, and then their assets could be auctioned off to smaller, more efficient companies who will eventually become the larger corporations of the future, and will avoid future bankruptcies by maintaining their efficiency.
Aside from economics, Libertarian values don't extend to other Conservative principles; such as Military Preparedness ( they are just as likely to disarm our military as the liberal Democrats; only they would do so to balance the budget, while the Democrats would search high and low for more useless pork to waste the savings on). So the Libertarians would create another evil, in order to lessen our budgetary crisis. We all know what they say about, "two wrongs making a right". As far as "domestic issues" Libertarians believe in a Laissez Faire concept of morality; namely leave everyone alone and we will eventually all get along, in spite of our moral conflicts. Christians believe that some forms of outrageous immorality must be discouraged and even suppressed ( like abortion, addictive drug use, and euthanasia), due to the over-all moral degradation that it promotes on society as a whole. And as society becomes more corrupt, through it's collective immorality, it will eventually have dangerous effects upon those who try to live according to a higher standard of morality. It's the reverse effect of the "Golden Rule". In treating others as we wish to be treated we stimulate a higher level of reciprocal kindness from others, even if they don't share our over-all values. Conversely, if everyone is living for their own greedy self interest, sooner or later they will be in conflict with the innocent needs of others, forcing a choice that will generally end harmfully for the innocent. The old testament condemned societies that degenerated to this point which were described as, "every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". Moreover, we believe God will hold our nation accountable if we do not restrain such immorality.
Anyway, Fox News seems to be the only major media outlet that is holding Obama's heels to the fire. They are the only News Channel that won't let the Benghazi terrorism cover-up die for lack of coverage. And the I.R.S. scandal of harassing those Tea Party spin-offs ( who have the "audacity" to apply for non-profit status) with unprecedented bureaucratic investigations, and repetitive financial audits that they don't harass liberal applicants with is so blatantly political ( and therefor un-constitutional), that a six-year-old could see it. So, now we have to wait until the mid-term elections to see just how effectively the Communist principle of lying in the face of obvious truthful contradiction succeeds. And then, in 2016, we will see if the repetitive blatant lying of one White House staff, at the behest of their Communist-leaning President, and the lock-step bureaucracy the does his evil bidding, with the incompetent Foreign Service that lies to cover-up their mistakes, will actually be replaced with another one just as bad, if Hillary can lie her way into the White House. Hopefully, Fox News will persist in exposing these liars for what they are, for long enough till the nation will get fed up with the Democratic Party's patronizing ways of deceiving the voting public. It worked when the Washington Post held Nixon's White House staff accountable for Watergate, but the Liberal Media apparently has a myopic view of what constitutes political outrage, and unconstitutional political intrigue. The Liberal press is outraged at the President's protestation of, "I am not a crook!", but gives a smirk, and a wink to, "I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!".
Yesterday's Congressional hearings on the I.R.S. harassment scandal was an obnoxiously obvious case in point. Some lady was being interviewed at a hearing ( I think it was in the Senate) about her Tea Party-related company's application for non-profit status. The Democratic Senator was brow-beating her to try and prove her charges of I.R.S harassment were untrue, until a Republican Senator calmly asked her if she had been investigated by O.S.C.E.A, the F.B.I., or audited by the I.R.S. before her company had applied for non-profit status. She answered in the negative. He then asked the same question of her for the time after they had applied for non-profit status. She testified that those same bureaucratic institutions had each investigated, or audited her company several times since their application, with each occurrence requiring significant financial expense to comply with their investigations.
If that isn't blatant proof of intentional and even conspiratorial efforts to stifle opposing political dissent through White House directed harassment, I don't know what is! And yet Obama has the audacity to appear on Fox's O'Reilly Factor and deny to Bill O'Reilly's face that there was any I.R.S conspiracy of harassment for the Tea Party applications. This can be true only in considering the conspiracy to be a White House conspiracy, rather than that of the I.R.S.! America, who is the blatant, compulsive liar here??? This is such a blatant violation of Constitutional rights that it would be an impeachable offense if it could be proven that Obama ordered it, as he obviously must have. But he has so carefully surrounded himself with so many willing liars that it would take a miracle to prove the truth, or perhaps the repentance of at least one courageous whistle-blower!
And even if we found one ( as I've stated before) the prospects of impeaching, and convicting Obama, as I believe he deserves, would leave us with the horrible prospect of a President Joe Biden. He is not only as big a liar as Obama, but he has been doing it for a lot longer in the Senate! And he is not as smart as Obama, which creates a double-whammy effect in the White House! Oh God, save us from ourselves!!!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Russia's Skullduggery???
I have to wonder what's going on in Moscow. Is Russian President Gog ( oops, I mean Putin; sorry for the digital "slip of the tongue"), up to something sneaky, or what? Wait a minute..., is Putin capable of sneaky dealings, nah... that's the old Putin, the guy who headed the old K.G.B. spy service for the former U.S.S.R.. The new Putin is president of the new Russia, which is now a "free" and "democratic" Republic, so we know he has left all that subterfuge and skullduggery behind, right? Right??? Somebody please tell me I'm right!
Oh well, at issue here is the close of the first stage of the talks between the Russian sponsored Syrian government, and the delegation representing the anti-government rebel forces, which are at least politically supported by America. The Syrian government leaves this stage sounding belligerent as it feels it is winning the civil war on the ground, with the help of their Russian allies, and apparently confident that neither America, nor our European allies wish to offer more than humanitarian support to the now Al Quaida-dominated rebel forces ( which brought us the 911 Twin Towers attack). If my conjecture that this is all preliminary to the prophecied future "Gog/Magog" invasion of Israel is true, then this would be consistent with the only reference in the Ezekiel 38, & 39 prophecy that Bible theologians agree might refer to the American government, when the, "young lions of Tarshish ( Britain, and her former colonies)" object in "outrage" to the invasion by saying, "have you come to take a great spoil?" Duh!!! I don't think it is at all coincidental that God caused the translators of the King James Bible to choose the word "spoil" here, which rimes with "oil". If Russia, and Iran ( biblical "Persia"), along with their other Muslim-dominated allies actually did conquer Israel, then Saudi Arabia's oil fields, along with those of the other Gulf states would be literally a, "hop, skip, and a jump" away, and conquering them would be easy. At that point, Russia and their allies could blackmail the rest of the nations of the world into submitting to their world-dominating authority, or face a catastrophic world oil embargo when they would shut of the spigots to perhaps 75% of the world's oil supplies. The fact that Iran and their muslim allies could actually believe that Russia would not later turn against them, when their ultimate goal has always been total world domination, or that their own lust for world control would allow them to defeat Russia
is mind-bogglingly absurd, either way!
Anyway, my interest today was sparked by the story in the Washington Post about the Syrian "Peace" talks which mentioned that between the close of the first round of talks, and the scheduled second round, the president of the Rebel delegation has apparently agreed to visit Moscow, at Putin's request. This is rather unusual since Moscow has thrown it's full support behind their Syrian government allies, and it might seem rather duplicitous for them to be negotiating behind Syria's back. Perhaps they want to inform the Rebels of their larger strategy, namely their intention to form the Gog/Magog alliance to invade Israel, in order to get the Rebels to agree to a cease-fire so that Russia could "safely" use Syria as a base to bring this to pass. Considering that there has been virtually no progress in the initial talks, we will know that my suspicions are correct if there is a surprisingly quick settlement, and a "Peace Treaty" signed in an astoundingly quick time frame. As noted in my last post, there are already sufficient troops on the ground ( if Russia could talk the two sides into agreeing to stop killing each other long enough to wipe-out Israel, which they presumably would rather do, anyway),. After that, Russia merely needs to bring in their tanks and helicopters, and they already have sufficient stockpiles of Sarin Gas to attack Israel, since Syria has been dragging there heels in removing them ( they still are reported to have 96% of their original stockpiles), if my prophetic interpretation is correct about Russia initiating their invasion with a massive Sarin Gas attack. For details on how successful this Invasion will be, I refer the readers to my previous posts on the matter ( see posts for Jan. 17, 20, 27, and 30).
Oh well, at issue here is the close of the first stage of the talks between the Russian sponsored Syrian government, and the delegation representing the anti-government rebel forces, which are at least politically supported by America. The Syrian government leaves this stage sounding belligerent as it feels it is winning the civil war on the ground, with the help of their Russian allies, and apparently confident that neither America, nor our European allies wish to offer more than humanitarian support to the now Al Quaida-dominated rebel forces ( which brought us the 911 Twin Towers attack). If my conjecture that this is all preliminary to the prophecied future "Gog/Magog" invasion of Israel is true, then this would be consistent with the only reference in the Ezekiel 38, & 39 prophecy that Bible theologians agree might refer to the American government, when the, "young lions of Tarshish ( Britain, and her former colonies)" object in "outrage" to the invasion by saying, "have you come to take a great spoil?" Duh!!! I don't think it is at all coincidental that God caused the translators of the King James Bible to choose the word "spoil" here, which rimes with "oil". If Russia, and Iran ( biblical "Persia"), along with their other Muslim-dominated allies actually did conquer Israel, then Saudi Arabia's oil fields, along with those of the other Gulf states would be literally a, "hop, skip, and a jump" away, and conquering them would be easy. At that point, Russia and their allies could blackmail the rest of the nations of the world into submitting to their world-dominating authority, or face a catastrophic world oil embargo when they would shut of the spigots to perhaps 75% of the world's oil supplies. The fact that Iran and their muslim allies could actually believe that Russia would not later turn against them, when their ultimate goal has always been total world domination, or that their own lust for world control would allow them to defeat Russia
is mind-bogglingly absurd, either way!
Anyway, my interest today was sparked by the story in the Washington Post about the Syrian "Peace" talks which mentioned that between the close of the first round of talks, and the scheduled second round, the president of the Rebel delegation has apparently agreed to visit Moscow, at Putin's request. This is rather unusual since Moscow has thrown it's full support behind their Syrian government allies, and it might seem rather duplicitous for them to be negotiating behind Syria's back. Perhaps they want to inform the Rebels of their larger strategy, namely their intention to form the Gog/Magog alliance to invade Israel, in order to get the Rebels to agree to a cease-fire so that Russia could "safely" use Syria as a base to bring this to pass. Considering that there has been virtually no progress in the initial talks, we will know that my suspicions are correct if there is a surprisingly quick settlement, and a "Peace Treaty" signed in an astoundingly quick time frame. As noted in my last post, there are already sufficient troops on the ground ( if Russia could talk the two sides into agreeing to stop killing each other long enough to wipe-out Israel, which they presumably would rather do, anyway),. After that, Russia merely needs to bring in their tanks and helicopters, and they already have sufficient stockpiles of Sarin Gas to attack Israel, since Syria has been dragging there heels in removing them ( they still are reported to have 96% of their original stockpiles), if my prophetic interpretation is correct about Russia initiating their invasion with a massive Sarin Gas attack. For details on how successful this Invasion will be, I refer the readers to my previous posts on the matter ( see posts for Jan. 17, 20, 27, and 30).
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