Rebane's Ruminations

The Fed/ECB dollar swap

George Rebane

Does everyone understand what went down this morning between our Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank?  I venture that less than one in ten thousand Americans know that their pocket was legally picked today by international central banks.  This morning the Fed executed a “dollar swap” with the ECB that essentially allows the tottering European banks to have an endless and cheap supply of new US dollars flow to them through the ECB.

When I saw this barely coherent report on the online edition of today’s WSJ blandly talking about “making dollars available” to the ECB, I almost tossed my cookies.  My take on what had actually happened was corroborated by a couple of phone calls to one of my Washington spies who sent me the summary page of “the Fed memo” (about what the Fed did) that was hastily circulated to members of Congress to soften any awkward outcries to the press.

RR readers know the precarious sovereign debt positions of countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, … .  There is little chance that the euro will survive as the European currency, let alone continue on its vaunted march to becoming a competing reserve currency to the US dollar.  Recall that bankrupt countries borrow from commercial banks to finance their existing debt and continue funding their insane social programs.  Lenders to some countries have already taken ‘haircuts’ on the amounts loaned.  More of this is on the way since none of the eurozone countries have any foreseeable chance of growing their way out their debts.  Instead, many of their economies are shrinking.

So here’s the situation.   A growing number of eurozone countries, up to their eyeballs in debt, owe on their purchases of stuff like oil, other commodities, and their international trade imbalances.  The bills must be paid in dollars.  Their banks are tapped out of dollars (they can still borrow euros from the ECB which can print them, but euros won’t do) so they must borrow from the only source that will still give them the time of day, the ECB.  But the ECB is fresh out of dollars.

So Mario calls Ben and asks for a dollar/euro swap along the lines that was set up way back when “to provide dollar liquidity to foreign banks”.  This essentially means that the ECB sends over to the Fed some euros – at TODAY’S EXCHANGE RATE – and the Fed sends over some newly printed US dollars which get credited to Europe’s banks, who in turn lend them to the heavily perspiring eurozone countries.

In theory the Fed gets its dollars back along with some below market interest income when the ECB is able to repay.   But if the ECB can’t come up with the dollars as stipulated, then there is no default.  The built-in swap provisions allow the ECB to roll over the debt (er, I mean swap) and get more dollars if it needs them for more euros at the bygone fixed exchange rate.  This can go on indefinitely, and it means the Fed is on the hook for continuing to print more dollars to pay European debt with no end in sight, and no way to cash in on the collateral euros it holds in the ECB account.  The way it’s set up, this debt cannot default.

Now I know, dear reader, that you think this is a post in which I’m pulling your leg, and that it should really be posted on April Fool’s Day.   Unfortunately, I’m dead serious.  Without a single elected representative having had a say in this, the Fed has committed to have the dollar follow the euro into what most likely will be an inflation death spiral.  And the American taxpayer will become the lender of last resort to the profligate socialist governments of Europe.  You can get your own snootful on this through a careful read of the memo’s summary page I mentioned above – Download Fed Memo_111130.

I wonder if the fact that 70% of the profits for our international corporations comes from trade with the eurozone has anything to do with this quietly arranged European bailout that went down today.  Like the Chinese don’t want us to go broke, these multi-national corporations (and we?) don’t want Europe to go broke.  You may want to call your congressional rep and hear what s/he has to say about all this.  And that’s how we play kick the can. 

US Net Exporter of Oil Again

George Rebane

It isn’t clear whether we should laugh or cry.  But here we are, for the first time since 1949 we will be a net exporter of petroleum products this year.  The accompanying figure filched from the WSJ shows that exports started increasing during Bush2’s reign (recall Bush2 was an oilman).  Unfortunately, our exports are exceeding our imports because our economy has tanked, and is still mired in the mud (more here).

We used to use about 25M bbl/day; now it’s closer to 20M bbl/day.  Today we still import about 9M bbl/day.  Five years ago our becoming a net exporter was unthinkable.  Now we export the equivalent of about 9M bbl/day because the developing world is fuel hungry, and bidding up prices enough to make sense to send it there instead of consuming it here.  Meanwhile, we are wound up tightly in our underwear still trying to figure out an energy policy while the delay continues to kill and deny jobs, and at the same time substituting polluting ‘green’ energies that make no economic sense whatsoever.

It brings a tear to me eye to think about Obama sabotaging the Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada to Texas refineries which are the most modern and efficient in the world.  To think about all the corn that is going into engine-corroding biofuels that reduce no one’s carbon footprint, and only raise food prices here and among the poor of the world.  To contemplate all the Chevy Volts driven by propagandized dolts.  Now there is a piece of work.  In actuality it is a coal-driven car that gets no more range from its iffy battery than did the Roberts electric car more than a century ago.

No one dares contemplate the number of coal-fired electricity generating plants we have to build if the government forces us into those IEDs – yes, these Inadvertent Explosive Devices are bursting into flames and GM has now recommended that they not be driven until it can figure out why they spontaneously combust.  The under-educated greenies have apparently overlooked the total pollution and cost budgets required to field any significant number of ‘clean energy’ vehicles.  ‘Clean’ ain’t cleaner, and it most certainly is not cheaper.

So here we are, anticipating an economy on its butt for the remainder of the decade that will make us a net energy exporter for the first time in 62 years.  I keep wondering whether all this occurs by accident or does someone in Washington really know what’s going on.  Oh yes, I forgot that we do have the Department of Energy – what was I thinking?

Meanwhile, we are still trying to ram manmade global warming down the country’s throat.  An enterprise that is now shown corrupt from every angle you care to look at it.  (More here, and also see NC2012 for a fuller and ongoing account of this national trail of tears.)

How We Got Here – Looking at the Bush2 Record

George Rebane

On these pages I have argued long and hard that the permissive environment in which mortgage lenders made subprime loans was carefully constructed and energetically promoted by the congressional social engineering programs of the Democratic Party augmented by a klatch of RINOs. Yesterday’s announced retirement by Rep Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the prime perpetrators of Depression2, motivated this post of the record pointed to by an RR reader.

Since the 2008 election we have heard the constant and now-famous wail from our President, echoed by Democrats in Congress, that seeks to absolve him and his cohort of any contribution to the present financial mess.

Actually, Mr President, it wasn’t.  The sequence of events presented below was taken from President Bush’s White House website in September 2008, and it is open for refutation by anyone who can show that the public record is in error.  (Source: NiceDeb)

Ruminations - 27nov2011 (updated 28nov2011)

George Rebane

Communist spying and influence on our national policies have long been denied/diminished by our Left.  The public experience in uncovering these activities within our government was not sufficient to change any minds in our unions, mainstream media, or the halls of academe.  Things should have changed when the USSR collapsed in 1991, and the subsequent opening of some KGB historical files that contained conclusive evidence of atrocities like their massacre of Polish intellectuals and its officer corps in the Katin forest, and spying/infiltrating activities in all western governments.  No contrition from our progressives save a stiffer upper lip.  New evidence from more released files has produced added historical works on “revealing accounts of Soviet espionage in America, from the 1930s, when the pickings were easy, to the unforgiving Cold War era.”  Short summaries of books on the topic, including some classics, are presented in the 26nov11 WSJ here.  We expect no change in the historically impervious Left.

‘The New Tammany Hall’ is how Leftwing historian Fred Siegel sees the last forty years of public-sector union permeation into all levels of government in America.  Siegel, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, is still able to call them as he sees them.  In a recent interview Siegel acknowledges that “The Great Society put the state on growth hormones. Less widely appreciated, the era gave birth to a powerful new political force, the public-sector union. For the first time in American history there was an interest dedicated wholly to lobbying for a larger government and the taxes and debt to pay for it.”  The quotable interview is worth a read for the independent voter, and also as a stress test for the rock solid progressive.  The happy conclusion from this is that there exist Leftwing intellectuals who are still Americans first.

Many of us keep wondering how long the national ‘green jobs’ farce will be continued at a government budget near you.  Organizer Obama has been touting green energy jobs for as long as he has been a sty in our public eye.  Every day we hear of more corruption, misdirection, lies, and malfeasance in the government’s nurture of the crony socialism that is the country’s green energy industry.  In  spite of this, the traditional (read fossil) energy sector today employs over 440,000 workers, and since 2003 has grown 80% in its number of American jobs.  And this growth doesn’t take into account the multiplier effect for non-energy jobs to support all these workers and their families.  Now the Left is real good at claiming all kinds of multiplier goodies for their mythical green jobs projections, but howl their heads off when the same analysis is applied to real jobs and job growth in our workforce.

In the meanwhile the political corruption continues without so much as a sniffle from our journalistic stalwarts.  Well almost; according to the Washington Post Obama’s $38.6B green loan program had created – drum roll please – a whopping 3,500 jobs compared with the 65,000 he touted the program would “save or create”.  And please don’t look under the rug where all the Solyndras have been expeditiously swept.  There is no learning here, the beat goes on.

Now for the good news (almost).  Since the government nationalized the nation’s school loan program, someone in the bureaucracy had their bulb light up.  To save the entire enterprise from going bust sooner than later, why not discriminate in who gets the loans.  Don’t lend to students with dumbbell majors who will have little chance of paying back the loan.  What a concept!  But don’t hold your breath, this has yet to be implemented.  And dumbbell majors got rights too, know what I mean?

Stupid once, stupid forever.  My favorite socialist site truthout.com skidded on yet another patch of slick progressive history.  In it Martin Bennett and Richard Walker write ‘Job Crisis: What did Roosevelt do that Obama should?’ This piece deftly cherry picks the sorry record of Depression1 in the 1930s, and concludes that we can replicate FDR’s performance (recall the National Recovery Act and its alphabet soup of jobs programs) by taxing the bejeezus out of the ‘rich’ and closing corporate loopholes.  They turn a blind eye to the high hard statistic of that era that is oft repeated in these pages – unemployment was at 17+% in 1933 and still in 1939 when Sec Treas Morgenthau confessed to Congress that nothing had worked except growing government, running up the country’s debt, and extending the misery.   The socialists’ standard response to such failures over the decades has been to double down and do it again.  It still is.

[28nov2011 update]  This morning Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) announced that he has reconsidered, and will retire at the end of his current term in Congress.  This is the man who is one of the authors and energetic goads of the subprime loan mess, the pompous ass who assured the nation that Fannie and Freddie were in the best of health and doing the right thing in buying all those worthless loans, a member of the dynamic duo of the Dodd-Frank 'Wall Street Reform Act'.  Except for separating the trust and investment functions of banks and insurance companies (as they were before the ill-advised Republicans joined them), the law is a typical one step forward, three steps backward in creating unnecessary frictions in America's financial industry.  So along with the hastily retired Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) of Countrywide scandal fame, the pair will be in a timely retirement instead of jail for their shady careers on the Hill.  Both leave/left easy shoes to fill, and the sad part is that the voters of Massachusetts and Connecticut have been up to the challenge.

The Views of a Rightwing "Extremist" – Indictment without Evidence (updated 29nov2011)

George Rebane

Many readers of RR, me included, are continually labeled as holding “extreme” Rightwing views.  Yet, when examining the record on these pages, those on the Left, and even some of the self-declared middle-roaders, skip the evidentiary phase, and proceed directly from indictment to punishment.  When asked to delineate, to spell out what brings about this judgment and this startling label, the accusers are silent and simply continue with the punishment.

The punishment phase consists primarily of ongoing accusations of not doing our part to “compromise”, and accept their admired/espoused progressive tenets and public policies.  The record shows that in these pages RR and its right-of-center readers have cited chapter and verse of why and how collectivist policies have not worked, and continue to lead the country into an autocratic abyss.  The response is always the echo chamber of lack of compassion and compromise to help the needy and less fortunate.  There is never any evidence whatsoever given of how these policies and their enforcement will maintain the country’s liberties, exceptional opportunities, or even be sustainable.

So let me quickly list the seminal tenets that, according to my lights, the Right holds dear (not to be confused with the history of what the Republicans may have practiced), so that the reader can judge for himself 1) the evidence presented by the Left, or 2) the nature of their ongoing sidestep.

1.    The Bastiat Triangle of Rights (cf ‘About the BTA’ top right column) as the foundation of a free, classically liberal, and bountiful society.
2.    Constitutionality – Interpretation of the US Constitution according to the intent of the Founders as explicated in their writings.  Recognizing also that the Constitution is a living document and contains explicit directions on how it may be modified to best serve future generations.  Modifying it by other means – e.g. from the judiciary bench – undermines the Constitution and our national weal.
3.    Free Market Capitalism – Society’s commercial activities provide the most bounty and the highest quality of life when prudently and minimally regulated capitalism is allowed to flourish in free markets equally tended.
4.    Limited and Fiscally Prudent Government – Government should only perform the functions delineated in the Constitution, and do so in a minimalist manner.  Government is always a necessary encroacher on our individual liberties, and the bigger the government, the fewer the freedoms retained by those governed.  In no case should government become the competitor of private enterprise in the goods and services better supplied by private enterprise.  Government should manage its fiscal affairs as any other prudent and prospering enterprise, wherein it spends what it collects in revenues, and does not become a corrupt pawn of its creditors.
5.    The United States was constituted as a democratic republic comprised of the several states retaining the preponderance of rights to manage their own affairs as competing laboratories of liberal governance in a national federation of citizens free to move and trade throughout the country.  All efforts to remove republican functions and progress toward a pure democracy are inherently detrimental to our national survival.  All forms of collectivism, especially collectivism founded on a direct democracy, are inherently unstable and lead through autocracy to tyranny.
6.    Citizenship and Voting – Citizenship, equal and without rank, is the highest station the country can give to those who live within its borders.  A citizen is always first in line to receive the benefits of his government and the consideration of his fellow citizens.  The national policy should be such as to minimize the number of illegal aliens living in our midst through provision of secure borders, enforcement of alien laws, and propitious immigration laws that serve the national interest.  The right to vote in elections is granted only to franchised citizens, their franchises being determined by the federal, state, and local governments as appropriate.
7.    Foreign Policy and Trade – The United States should be militarily able to defend itself against any aggressor on Earth.  National security is Job One of the federal government.  The US should join with other nations only to promote its openly announced national interests; such unions should be minimized as appropriate.  Foreign aid should be provided visibly and only to recipients in a manner that serves our national interests.  Foreign trade should be maximized to the extent that it does not conflict with our national interests.
8.    Liberty and Opportunity – Government should always seek to provide and ensure the maximum of individual liberties to its citizens.  As policy, it should err on the side of more rather than less liberty.  The opportunities provided in our land have always been best when measured at the starting line of the competing participants, and not at the finish line.  Gratuitous enforcement of equalities should be minimized with the realization that state-enforced equality is always bought and paid for by the surrender of liberty – they are at opposite ends of the see-saw.

So let’s start with these tenets of the Right, and respectfully ask our Left and middle-roaders to identify which of these would be considered as “extreme” views in today’s America.  We recall that in arguing against a tenet with which you don’t agree or have an opposing viewpoint, does not satisfy hanging the ‘extreme’ label on it.  Extreme is a relative position within a range or spectrum.  In this case we are talking about the spectrum of common beliefs held by the Right, and the placement of the above in that spectrum – that is the point of this exercise.  And please, in considering any response, don’t embellish what you read with what additional provisions, implications, or ‘hidden meanings’ you think that I surreptitiously inserted.  We can cover such fears in follow-on discussions of how these are or should be implemented.

[29nov2011 update]  Russ Steele on NC2012 has discovered an excellent short video highlighting the differences between the tenets of the Tea Party and OWS movements.  The point made and supported in the video is that there literally is no middleground between the attributes that describe the classical liberal forms of governance and those of the progressivists.  This has been the longheld and unfortunate conclusion in these pages, which joins with a growing national consensus that is collected here under the discussion category of 'The Great Divide'.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

‘Thank you God for this day, and for this food.’
Traditional Rebane family grace.

What is a right-wing dingbat?

[This invited piece by our very own middle-of-the-road cartoonist and regular RR commenter, Bob Crabb, will set us all straight on his introduction of a new moniker to these pages.  In addition to his website, Bob’s work may be seen in the print and online editions of The Union, and is occasionally filched to be featured on RR.  He appears here with his copy editor Clovis.]

RL ‘Bob’ Crabb

Several readers of Rebane's Ruminations have asked that I define my characterization of them as "right-wing dingbats". I originally created a cartoon character by that name back in 1999, as the battle between conservatives and the liberals who had taken control of the Nevada County government was just beginning to heat up. My main inspiration was Drew Bedwell, who rose to prominence during that turbulent era, but the name could apply to any number of activists that emerged from the backwoods to fight for mom, apple pie, and property rights. Over the years I have refined the image, after studying the species in its native habitat.

The dingbat is conservative in nature, and there are many varieties. There are fiscal conservatives, religious conservatives, libertarian conservatives, green conservatives, liberal conservatives, and conservative liberals, the latter also known as the sub-species Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans-in-name-only (RINOS). The Urban Dictionary describes a dingbat as "someone who attempts to provide a definition of dingbat and misspells the word 'retarded' in his definition. (That would be Todd, who explains that he purposely does it to confound his opponents.)

In the common mythology, the dingbat was prominent in America until the Great Depression, when he was subdued and co-opted by the Liberal Green Treehugger. The dingbat during that time emulated the hard-drinking image of John Wayne, which made it vulnerable to the wiles of the seductive femi-nazi treehugger. He was co-opted, and went along with the treehugger program until the late seventies when he woke up one morning with a horrendous hangover. Looking to his left, he saw that he was trapped in bed with his natural enemy. His only means of escape required him to gnaw off his left wing, leaving him with limited flying abilities.

Over the years, he returned to his constitutional roots, expelling any vestige of progressive tendencies. Yet in his zeal to overcome the duplicitous nature of the liberals, he became obsessed with the writings of Saul Alinsky, the hero of libo-progresso-commu-socialism, and adopted many of his attributes.

For instance, Alinsky advised organizers (Tea Party) to focus their attention on a small number of selected strategic targets (limited government, fiscal responsibility). Spreading an organization's passions too thinly was a recipe for disaster (abortion, gay rights).

Avoid the temptation to concede that his opponent (Frisch) was not the devil or that he possessed any admirable qualities (working to build a better community). Men will act when they are convinced that their cause is 100% on the side of angels and that the opposition is 100% evil.

Winning is the only objective, and will be achieved incrementally over time (forty-year plan). Any exaggeration, distortion, or outright lie is considered fair play. After all, that's what the other side does. And so the dingbat becomes the very thing it has fought to destroy.

Some dingbats, in a rare moment of conciliation, have suggested that they part ways with the treehuggers peacefully (great divide), but they have infiltrated each others habitat to an extent that such a solution could never be achieved without violence. The truth is that the land they both covet, once separated by war, could be so weakened that it would become easy prey for other invasive species. Since its creation, the Republic has been contentious, is contentious, and will always be contentious. It is that diversity that keeps it vibrant and alive. E Pluribus Unum.

A New Corporate Vision – The Constitutional Partnership Corporation

[In the 'Hiroshima+66, Detroit+Welfare' comment stream RR reader Michael Rogers introduced us to the John Lewis Partnership, a unique type of worker owned/controlled corporation that has a ‘constitution’ as its organizing and operating policy document – let’s call it a Constitutional Partnership Corporation (CPC).  MichaelR launched a comment thread that expanded its examination.  RR readers are familiar with my concern about the growth of US un(der)employment which I project to be over 70 million by the end of this decade.  This will call for massive wealth redistribution which I have discussed extensively in these pages and in my Union column (here).  I introduced the Non-Profit Service Corporation (NPSC) as a stake in the ground for starting a discussion about how to accomplish such wealth redistribution.  I have elevated MichaelR’s thoughtful and extended comment into a post of its own to invite development (integration?) of his expanded CPC and the NPSC ideas.  For continuity, please see the 'Hiroshima' comment thread. gjr]

Michael Rogers

Since when has complex design ever stopped us? We flew to the moon, built the Panama Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, and the modern economy that has brought security to billions worldwide for gosh sakes.

I am not happy with (the John Lewis Partnership) constitution either -- not a tight feedback system as I see it. I also am not sure I see robust checks and balances or separation of powers in their design. However, they do seem to have created a stable management system that has a good deal of accountability built in, and appears to have legitimacy in the eyes of at least the long-term partners.

I think that a system like this applied to Detroit would necessitate the elimination of unions and the imposition of personal responsibility on the individual worker level so that working partners would need to focus on the efficiency of their unit in particular, and the coordination of the entire company in general, in order to get their wage or benefit desires fulfilled. Also, the more self-managing a unit was, the fewer managers are needed and thus more resources are available for higher wages/benefits or shorter work weeks.

There might also be the possibility of passing legislation where Industrial Democratic Incorporations are giving special tax-exempt (or at least tax reduced) status and long-desired deregulation could be achieved with bi-partisan support based on the premise that an Industrial Democratic Corporation would have a self-regulating, tight feedback design and does not need the regulatory oversight that an open loop control, traditional corporate management system does.

This could be extended to a drastic reduction in OSHA and Labor Law interference which were all predicated on an adversarial worker/management dynamic. When workers have the right to redress their grievances within an internal structure then the need of a nanny state to meddle is reduced if not eliminated.

It might also be possible to achieve a privatization of Social Security as the accountable and elected corporate officials in the pension division of the company would act as professional managers of the retirement portfolio of the partners thus reducing the likelihood of waste, graft, or stupidity diminishing the value of the portfolio -- and the portfolio manager who achieved a 55 year retirement age would be carried around the company on gilded litters as if he were a conquering Roman general.

The financing to build these companies could come from tax free government bonds which would create a tax advantages investment vehicle for the "1%" so that, rather than worrying about taxing the rich, the left could be focused on convincing them to invest.

You spoke of the ephemeral nature of our monetary system and the disconnect from anything of tangible value. I have even imagined the possibility of the growth of a stock standard, where the bonds of self-regulating companies become a currency of value. Where the stock of smart, well-run companies with solid markets, low levels of debt, and abundant tangible assets are traded at a premium and the bonds of poorly run companies with speculative markets and highly leveraged are discounted to their true market value -- these bonds would become the currency of trade and the ability of government to reduce or manipulate their value is eliminated.

Musings on Money and Faith

George Rebane

[I have to begin this ramble with an apology.  It is long and not as tightly written and dense as the prose you have come to expect here ;-)  I’m really posting it as a future reference for discussing the fiscal fiascos spreading over Europe and starting here at a capitol near you.]

The storage and exchange of retained wealth has been a long time interest of mine.  Here I’d like to just wander around some random thoughts on the subject.  Please excuse the lack of structure to the ideas and beliefs that are rolled out.

But before starting, a detour to some related reports.  Many of us on the Right have been saying for years that SS is totally unfunded, there is no “trust fund” that can legitimately be called that.  Now that national debt and unfunded liabilities have been raised in the country’s consciousness, especially in its Left lobe where this has been denied for years, it was refreshing to hear Congressman Peter Defazio (D-OR) state last week on Fox News that “there is no Social Security trust fund” with any money in it.  And this especially in the sense of money that I’ll talk about here.  The Congressman was emphatic that SS is instead “the largest creditor of the United States”, having lent the federal government $2,600,000,000,000 (that’s like in trillion).

Last Friday I was at Tea Party Patriots meeting with Mark Meckler (TPP co-founder) and a few others (big problem, we were wondering how to spend all those oil company and Koch brothers’ checks) when Mark confirmed that the congressional select committee on deficit reductions was not only a distraction, pabulum, and entertainment (as characterized on RR), but specifically it was Kabuki theater designed to fail.  And that we should all keep focused on real deficit reductions and not the piddling amounts being dangled in front of the sheeple.  He re-emphasized that this Congress cannot commit or compel future Congresses to do anything.  All they can and should be held to do is make their own deficit cuts before the next Congress is sworn in (or at) in January 2013.  (But then, all RR readers already knew that.)

OK, onward.  Money, we are told, is anything that is accepted as payment for goods and services, and also repayment of debts.  The three functions of money are 1) medium of exchange, 2) unit of account, and 3) store of value (i.e. wealth).  It’s the last that I want to dwell on in the sequel.  The money supply of an economy today consists of currency (banknotes and coins) and so-called “bank money”.  The latter is in the form of little ones and zeros spinning on a disk somewhere, and that’s all.

Back in the olden days, wealth was stored in the form of real stuff that you could stub your toe on – be it land, cattle, precious metals, crops, buildings, … .  This made it tough to do business and build more wealth, because you had to haul and trade (barter) big things whose value was usually in dispute.  And the local big guy (government) couldn’t get in there and take out his tribute very conveniently.   But when you had wealth, you knew you had something(s) indelible and certain.  Enter commodity money.

Ruminations - 21nov2011

George Rebane

Two prominent Democrat pollsters argue for ‘The Hillary Moment’ in 2012.  They make a compelling case for Reid and Pelosi to pick up the phone and call Obama to ask him to take the Truman/Johnson moral high ground and bow out.  Their well-stated arguments revolve around The Community Organizer’s horrible record in office, and his harm to the Democratic Party as he continues to play the only card he has left – a devastatingly negative campaign against the Republicans that offers nothing new for his second term.  To this I would add that anyone paying attention will have noticed that Obama has become irrelevant to the important issues in today's national debate.  It's hard to see how he will regain his 'presidential voice'.  Meanwhile, there is the loyal, strong, and experienced Mrs Clinton, the one who can bring both sides together to make the hard decisions required to again move the country forward.  Hmmm …

An email from our ‘designated reader’ forwards a copy of a post and related comments on another blog that once more with feeling denounces RR and its view of the world.  The best I can make of the lament is that the worthy representatives of the Left, who regularly read and comment on RR, have not been able to change a hair on the heads of the reprobate Right who also frequent these pages (mine notwithstanding due to haircut).  Their frustration is understandable since they see no weakness in their collectivist ideology or its buttressing arguments.  In the past they have often relinquished the field, only to regain their strength, if not their composure, and then again leap into the breach.  The door is always left open and the welcoming light is on.

At this writing, the Dow is down about 300 points on what the WSJ calls “debt disappointment” resulting from the Congressional Kabuki’s imminent demise.  It is forever a mystery to this commentator as to what alternatives did those stockholders expect – that the Dubious Dozen would come up with some solution to our runaway spending programs and economy killers??  Mind boggling.

Are the Occupiers’ tent cities free speech?  Have to wonder about the strength of their message if they have to resort to repeatedly breaking the law.  It's clear that those who can’t or won’t do not comprise their vaunted “99%”, and their message ranges between muddled and maniacal.  This is not the correct way to start the revolution they seek.  Why these street idiots have not been organized into a coherent and forceful voice is something to ponder.  Are they being viewed by the unions and the Democrats as an uncontrollable and embarrassing election year liability.  Save from bullhorns of the far Left, the message to them from both sides of the aisle seems to be ‘Eat S#!t and Die!’