Rebane's Ruminations

Administrivia – taking leave of The Union

George Rebane

All good things must come to an end, and the addition of some new responsibilities required me to drop something.  On 4 December 2012 I sent the following email – titled ‘Rebane’s column, -86-‘  -  to The Union’s publisher and managing editor.  I appreciated their cordial replies, and now look forward to being an Other Voice sans deadlines.

Dear People – Due to other mounting commitments, my run as a regular columnist for The Union must now end.  On reflection, I should have withdrawn immediately after the management changeover earlier this year so that you could better remake the paper in its new image, and not have to deal with clinging barnacles from the past.  From time to time I will continue to submit Other Voices articles which you may publish at your pleasure.  Thank you for having allowed me to share my views with your readership.

Ruminations - 13nov12 (updated 17nov12)

George Rebane

Mitt Romney is definitely being disposed of under the traditional bus.  Conservative sage Thomas Sowell joins with his ‘Nice Losers’ that begins –

Mitt Romney now joins the long list of the kinds of presidential candidates favored by the Republican establishment— nice, moderate losers, people with no coherently articulated vision, despite how many ad hoc talking points they may have.

A flavor of America fighting a real war can be gleaned from these quality PR photos that were assembled by a Russian blogger.  For those whose ‘back there’ includes the 1940s, these pictures take you there.

Finished reading Cloud Atlas by Mitchell.  Excellent book; now look forward to seeing the movie with Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Halle Berry.  Even though Mitchell misses the mark on the impact of smart machines on the future of Man, the novel with its unusual structure does have an interesting take on our dystopic future.  I don’t read many novels, but this one held me.  (My next book in the reading stack is Kurzweil’s How to Create a Mind.)

Interesting breakdown of how the counties votes last week.  Them socialists sure pack themselves into small areas, and have a definite and transformative plan for doing that to the rest of us.  (BTW, I agree that the colors should be changed to reflect the leanings of the Right and Left.  Whoever the imbecile, who first designated the currently used wrong assignment, was innocent of both history and ideology.)


Nobel laureate Paul Krugman concludes that “Gods, guns and gays didn't swing voters into supporting corporate interests; instead, human dignity for women swung votes the other way.”  And that’s how it all came down in his Welcome to the Real "Real America".  It was oh so simple when the true Americans had their say last week.

In becoming acceptable to the nation's Hispanics, does the Republican party really need to embrace open borders and amnesty?  Isn’t that already the political posture of all the leftwingers under the Democrat umbrella?  Where then will be the political choice for maintaining America as a sovereign nation-state?

Tracking the number of informal petitions to secede that are submitted to the WH website will be of interest.  Over 30 states now have groups collecting and submitting such Great Divide (q.v.) signatures.  Glenn Beck advises that the feds will keep the names of the signatories and get ugly on them later.  We shall see.

Exit question: After 2008 and 2012 will the blacks ever admit that they are racist minority, even unto their own worst interests?

[14nov12 update]  President Obama met with the leftwing activists and unions yesterday, and today seeks to give the impression of 'equal time' to the capitalists.  He is doing this by meeting in the WH with the heads of big corporations as I write.  These are outfits that cannot exist without heavy cooperation, or is it collusion, or is it corruption with government.  Meanwhile, the middle and small businesses are going to be trampled by Obama's tax increases.  American manufacturers are already 20% behind global competitors in their costs.  On top of this they will now see their tax and regulatory burdens increase.  Instead of creating the millions of jobs needed in America, they will be busy seeking new and innovative ways to shed cost in order to survive.  Socialism marches on while the sheeple watch in awe.

[15nov12 update]  As often mentioned here, the world is looking at the United States with various levels of disbelief in how we are managing to inflict evermore egregious wounds on our dumbing population, wealth creation capacity, and body politic.  In the 10nov12 London Telegraph columnist Janet Daley wrote –

The United States has now acquired an electorally powerful liberal bourgeoisie who are convinced, as their European counterparts have been for several generations, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that public spending is inherently virtuous, that poverty can be cured by penalising wealth creation, and that government intervention can engineer social "fairness." But just when some of Europe's political class has begun to appreciate the dangers of this philosophy—that taken to its logical conclusion, it leads to economic stagnation and social division—America seems to have decided that it is the quintessence of enlightened sophistication.

[17nov12 update] We saw 'Assassins', the Stephen Sondheim musical, at the Off Center Theater in Grass Valley last night with friends.  It was a marvellous if somewhat disquieting performance, and unfortunately the production closes today.  Jo Ann summarized it artfully in an email to friends which follows -

Thinking about the play - certain actors, all the main ones, were absolutely terrific.  JWBooth was smooth and cunning, the women played off each other very effectively, the guy with the stomach ache, the bottle maker & Emma Goldman, and Oswald  were played well.  Guiteau and Santa Claus were exceptional portraits.  The little boy was great in his role.

The topic, troubled/mentally ill people doing the awful, was hard let alone entertaining.  Sondheim's music was also hard.  But the talented cast rose to those challenges.  I'm glad I saw it.  Next, I want a jolly good comedy or sweet Christmas carols.

We all are fortunate to live in a community with so much talent and culture pouring out of every pore.

President Obama defeats Mitt Romney (edited)

Peter/Paul Principle - Whenever you promise to rob Peter to pay Paul, you can count on the full support of Paul.

George Rebane

It was a day of foreboding that ended in an evening of doldrums.  I did a little poll watching at the Rood Center while Jo Ann worked at the Republican HQ helping coordinate other poll watchers across the county.  We assembled before the TV in the evening to see history being made.  The final numbers are not in yet but Obama’s electoral count was above 300 and Romney’s was just above 200 when he conceded.  Then we watched the speeches, and contemplated possible futures.

What struck us about this election all along were the diametrical options offered by the candidates.  And when it came time to choose, our country split down the middle with half the voters seeing a bigger government as the better solution for America, while the other half saw government as the larger part of the many burdens which we already bear.  The vote also turned strongly on racial lines.

But most telling was a datum presented by CBS that showed the vote going about 2 to 1 for Obama by people who made less than $50,000 a year, and almost exactly the same ratio going for Romney by people making over that amount.  And we recall that $50,000 is the current median household income in America, which explains the 50-50 split in the popular vote.  (The actual 2011 number reported by the US Census Bureau is $50,054.)

So after all is said, it turns out that economics was a strong factor in how people voted.  As a low earner you didn’t have to understand the finer points of the economy to know how to vote.  All you had to understand was whether you’d be mostly on the paying or receiving end of things before marking your ballot.  We have again confirmed the lines that define our rift, but are no more sure today than yesterday about whether and how that knowledge will guide us in the direction to take America.  Yogi Berra’s wisdom about forks in the road will not help us.

Sandy votes for Obama (updated 2nov12)

George Rebane

What a blessing that hurricane has become for our President.  The confluence of two storms on the east coast will not be a wasted crisis for this man whose desperate campaign has shrunk to personal slings and arrows against Romney.  Obama can’t talk about the disaster of the last four years, and he can’t say anything about his disastrous plan forward.  The only thing left to do is to look mighty presidential as this storm ravages the countryside.

The present disaster is a recognized godsend, and the President was quick to cozy up to the FEMA headquarters that is setting up to support the states.  In front of the cameras our shirt-sleeved President was peeling off platitudes about storm preparations that everyone had heard a hundred times already.  The FEMA chief sitting next to him just nodded.  Neither had anything to say about what exactly that agency was going to do to help during the next 72 hours.  But you can be sure that Obama will now look like he’s organizing one hell of a big community from his White House command center.  And somewhere someone may be able to take an iconic picture of Fearless Facing the Waves on some windswept rainblasted jetty.

For the next several days any talk of issues salient to the election and the next four years will come off as a callous and clearly clueless politician who does not and never will understand the sufferings of the people.  Glory be!

[2nov12 update]  Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado puts in perspective Sandy and the damage from that storm (here).  As expected, the Left at all levels is again appealing to the ignorant and distracted that Sandy is the result of manmade global warming, and harbinger of greater climate change.   An example of such efforts to persuade may be seen in the comment stream to this post (Steven Frisch 654am).

We also note that FEMA’s efforts are not visible in the response to Sandy.  Yesterday the mayor of Hoboken was appealing on the radio for nearby communities to send food to her beleaguered city, they were hungry and government was not responding.  I don’t expect that the lamestream will make an issue of these occurrences, especially since the Messiah made his progress through the state and gave a grateful Gov Christie a hug.

Eric Cantor at Doug LaMalfa fundraiser

George Rebane

Yesterday the Steeles and Rebanes joined many other Nevada County conservatives in Auburn for a delicious and informative fundraiser for state Senator Doug LaMalfa running for Congress this November.  There to help him in the effort was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Cantor gave a good, concise, and fairly comprehensive stump talk about national politics and Doug LaMalfa’s support in implementing the Republican agenda for the next Congress.  During the Q&A I asked the congressman about the Republicans’ planned response to the administration’s announced intention to violate the Warn Act on November 4th. You’ll recall that this act requires companies to give 60 days advance warning of impending layoffs, such as will happen when another law of the land – last year’s sequestration agreement by Congress – has to be implemented as part of the fiscal cliff over which Washington will propel the country after we sober up from our New Year’s Eve festivities (perhaps sobering up will not be a good idea this January).

Cantor’s response to my question was a non-response.  He used the opportunity to talk about the partisan perspective of how Democrats are planning for a fiscal Armageddon (the so-called taxmageddon) and other cynical socialist sobriquets in store for a fundamentally transformed America.  It seems clear to me that the Republicans will not let that important issue lie fallow, just two days before the election as companies such as California’s Lockheed-Martin's requirement to send out hundreds of thousands of layoff warnings to prospective voters.  But apparently the response will be one that cannot yet be disclosed.  Is that the Republicans’ November surprise?

Debate3

George Rebane

Well, it’s over.  Romney and Obama will have to talk to one another only once again if/when Romney gets elected, and then on the ride from the White House to the Capitol when they can both grab window seats in the limo and stare outward.  Last night’s hugging and kissing of the candidates’ families after the debate was excellent theater, and confirmed that we still know how to act civil when contemplating the transfer of power.

I didn’t get much out of the debate other than seeing Obama turn on some snark in the attempt to lure out of hiding a more bellicose Romney.  The President was willing to sacrifice a few ‘likability points’ when he delivered his snide dissertation on the new military not needing so many horses and bayonets, and explaining that we now have carriers on which airplanes land and submarines that can actually travel under water.  Those zingers must have been real knee slappers for members of the messiah’s celestial choir.

But it didn’t work.  Romney stayed calm, reasoned, and presidential the entire time.  That must have been the strategy – don’t screw up, just let him come to you.  And I think it worked, although I was all ready for some rock and roll on the ongoing Benghazi Bamboozle.  We know why Obama didn’t bring up Libya, and smarter minds than mine figured out that neither should Romney – there’s plenty of time for that on the stump while watching the lamestream swing in the wind.

Romney’s recounting of Obama’s foreign policy failures was systematic and comprehensive.  No one, especially not our allies, believes that the US has created a safer international climate during the last four years.  And that al Qaeda is on the run song doesn’t play so well any more since people keep dying in greater numbers, our embassies are under attack,  and our “intelligence community” is accused of not even knowing what in hell is going on with that regiment of ragheads.

The only sour note from Romney that pinged my ear was his statement about getting all US troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.  Do we really believe that we can change that five thousand year-old benighted culture in the next two years?  Afghanistan has never really been a nation-state, just a bunch of murderous, thieving, and warring tribes who have agreed that the territory between Persia and India is their private fighting ground.  They unite only on an ad hoc basis to expel anyone foolish enough to come there to try and change their traditional game of life.  But I digress …

No one expects the polls to be budged much by last night’s exchange – BTW, I thought Bob Schieffer did a good job mediating.   In Debate1 Romney pulled up even with Obama, and for all that it mattered, they could have mailed in Debate2 and Debate3.  Now we’ll see how well Romney can communicate Obama’s record - the twin disasters of the economy and foreign policy - in the next week.  In the same interval Obama will attempt to convince the nation’s light thinkers how being a successful business executive, entrepreneur, and governor of a major state are not a sufficient resume for the presidency, while being a community organizer, do-nothing political hack, inept academic, and a one man presidential disaster area recommend him for a second term doing more of the same.

Ruminations - 22oct12

George Rebane

President Obama has been a one person foreign policy and domestic economy disaster area.  His acumen there recognized, he has been visibly and volubly welcomed as America’s preeminent socialist president by some of the most shady heads of state on the planet, along with the Marxist mannequins who are still trying to figure out what went wrong with their countries’ economies in Europe and South America.  Besides America’s sheeple looking for another dollop from Obama’s “stash” to ease their fiscal worries, we can take a measure of the man by recognizing ‘his people’ worldwide, the ones who are endorsing him for a second term – these include Chavez, Castro, and Putin.  Now why can’t Romney get world leaders like that to back him?

“… exceptional readings of reality …”, that is how WSJ’s editorial board member and senior columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz characterizes the four year history of the most consistently and uniformly lying administration on record.  In ‘The Unreality of the Past Four Years’, she gives a brief summary of Team Obama’s output that was meant to deceive from the gitgo.  The only thing that Team Obama and I seem to agree on is the utter gullibility and/or disinterest of voters on issues which affect our very lives and America’s future.  Rabinowitz demurs on this assessment, and writes hopefully that “the American people inevitably recognize the difference between lies and truth, illusion and the real thing.”  In evidence to the contrary, I submit the results of the 2008 election.

Moreover, the total ineptness of Obama's foreign policy is visible from all quarters, including from inside the beast.  Rosa Brooks, former Obama official, outlines a six-step road to an attempted recovery of what has eluded the community organizer for the last four years ('The Case for Intervention in Obama's dysfunctional foreign policy team').

To illustrate the permeating toxicity of Washington politics, we note that CIA Director and retired general Petraeus seems to have been co-opted by the Obama administration.  Our frontline intelligence agency has been rolled, rolled with, and given backing to the obvious tsunami of lies about the Benghazi terror attacks that continues to roll out from the White House.  That this distinguished career military leader capitulated so rapidly in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is, to me, a breathtaking development.  I didn’t expect that when the general was appointed to the post.

Has our UN ambassador Susan Rice resigned yet?  I keep searching the papers and online sources for a small announcement that the woman has quietly snuck out the back door and become the provost of some college.  It would be a belated yet welcome shred of honor from an unexpected …, - well, you know.

With baited breath we await tonight's Debate3 where all of this will be cleared up, and other myths

Debate2 ruminations (updated 18oct12)

George Rebane

Woke up this morning to a blatant Obama-centric report of last night’s debate on National Propaganda Radio’s Morning Edition.  Talk about being in the tank for everything progressive.  Of course, Mitt’s promise to pull their federal funding doesn’t help that already biased outfit to cut him any even-handed slack.  In any case, it was a masterpiece of journalistic subterfuge.  For example, their handpicked ‘expert’ was asked the same question Romney asked Obama about how many federal drilling leases were cancelled after Obama took office.  The expert mimicked Obama and started talking about the ‘complexity’ of the energy situation, blah, blah, … .  Apparently the correct answer is that Obama cancelled about 60+% of the sea leases, and about 30% of the land leases.  The NPR journalist just ignored being ignored, and went on to the next question the answer to which was another Vote Obama ad.

Hillary blows 3AM call, plays Harry

George Rebane

What a preamble to Debate2!  Hillary, again out of the country for the debate, is told to play Harry’s “The Buck Stops Here” line from Lima, Peru.  And appearing the loyal trooper, she does it.

That sacrosanct line has been associated only with America’s President and Commander-in-Chief ever since Truman put the sign on his desk over sixty years ago.  Hillary must know that her appearance of falling on that sword is a sham that will impress only the light headed.

But it may be a memorable statement of her ‘courage’ for when she hopes to become President, and gets one of those made for her desk.  Or like Obama, will she instead have one made for the desks of each of her cabinet officers, who will again surround the White House like covered wagons circled hitch to tailgate, prepared to defend an innocent President against all comers.

It is now clear that this President is truly incompetent, and surrounds himself only with people who will not outshine him.  From the record of Benghazi's aftermath, we now know that even Hillary could not handle the 3AM call.

DebateVP - a heartbeat away

George Rebane

Not for the lack of trying, but I am still unable to say anything cogent or relevant on the matter of the 11oct12 Vice Presidential debate, other than the recurring thought that this piece of political theater - man and event - has been taken seriously by people whose vote counts as much as mine.  Talk about making one feel like an elitist.  If ever there was an answer as to why democracies have been the most fragile form of governance, the following proxy for a thousand words will have to do.