Ruminations – 19jun14 (updated 21jun14)

George Rebane

‘The Lack of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth’ is a most interesting thesis put forward by George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen (also see his recent Average is Over).  In the NYT essay he provides a long list of developments that spurred economies, forms of governance, and even the arts arising out of large conflicts between nation-states.  Apparently remaining sedentary for too long is not good for individuals or societies.  Cowen’s piece is certainly worth a read.

Obama’s presidency is definitely missing on all cylinders and seems to be heading for new lows that will make Bush2 compare favorably with how he has led the nation and the world.  Most Americans today believe Obama is “less competent than” Bush2 as reported by the recent WSJ/NBC poll (here).  Bret Stephens gives this laundry list of failures a compact review – ‘The Pace of Obama’s Disasters’ - that has been studiously ignored by the lamestream (another reason our leftwing readers get so riled up when they first run into some of these concepts on RR; they really believe we are a lone wolf pack howling in the forest).  A telling example of leftwing media bias is its absolute silence on the failures of the various federal relief programs supposed to help people after Superstorm Sandy – short version: it’s a redo of FEMA after Katrina – ‘We’re from the government and we’re here to …, oh, never mind.’.

The failures from Obama’s foreign policy have now become legion.  Even the nation’s independents have come to recognize that our president has surrounded himself with a band of “munchkin Metternichs” – see ‘The Collapsing Obama Doctrine’.  America’s eyes roll heavenward in unison when the useful idiot in the WH press room assures us that Obama is briefed regularly by our witless national security guru Susan Rice.  And even she has to make her way past Valerie Jarrett, that renowned expert from South Chicago in affairs national and international.

The claimed loss of IRS emails, from Lois Lerner and the six officials of most interest to the House, in the targeting of conservative groups is frank testimony to how stupid this administration considers its own constituency to be.  Only the most dense of the Democratic rank and file believe the various versions of how such emails in a government bureaucracy were lost.  Some lamebrain apologists even try to exhume Nixon’s 18.5 minutes of missing audio recordings as precedence for the email effrontery.  But as Daniel Henninger points out in the 19jun14 WSJ, “The Watergate break-in was the professionals of the party in power going after the party professionals of the party out of power. The IRS scandal is the party in power going after the most average Americans imaginable.”

Bashing Bush2 has hardly taken a breather as the only excuse the lamestream’s loyal liberals can muster for this failed administration.  And there we are always asked to focus on the Big Lie that Bush2 alone bamboozled the nation and took us into Iraq that today has again been allowed to become another quagmire on Obama’s watch.  A reader sent me this video of prominent Democrats which should remind everyone what the mood and assessment of our national leadership was in those dark days after 9/11.

[21jun14 update]  America's historical one-sided assault on free speech by the Left has recently featured the politically rigged attempt to prosecute Gov Scott Walker on what the Democrat DAs claim was a "criminal scheme" of campaign coordination.  Never mind that two judges have now thrown the case out of court, the Left's lamestream has picked up the ball and is now running with it.  Specifically, outlets promoting socialism, like the NYT, are citing the prosecutors' discredited indictment wordings as still having currency, and not as the blatant and unsubstantiated attack on the governor's First Amendment rights as ruled by the courts.  Here is a sufficiently compact readable account of this latest progressive fusillade to discredit an opposing political figure in the press when the first sleazy attempt was thrown out of a court of law.  Does anyone still wonder why RR labels that vast wasteland of journalism as the lamestream?  Of course, the local Lefties' echoes of the Gray Lady's reportage may be excused due to the limited scope of their readings abetted by the burden of other more serious disabilities discussed at length elsewhere.

Comments

[Account Deleted]

"Some lamebrain apologists even try to exhume Nixon’s 18.5 minutes of missing audio recordings as precedence for the email effrontery."
I actually like the example as a precedence. It sure doesn't work well as an excuse. After the news came out about a convenient lapse of incriminating audio evidence, Nixon was done. Certainly the break in
was no big deal as the Dems routinely did the same. It was the obstruction of justice and lying by the White House that was the major crime. In Obama's case, the initial crime is horrendous and the lying and obstruction of justice is actually just same-ol, same-ol for this bunch. But notice the nation-wide lack of outrage or even interest in the whole thing. Justice certainly seems to be a partisan deal.

[George Rebane]

ScottO 124pm - What still astounds me (showing my naiveté) is having heard from two different progressive friends that the loss of the emails is 'no big deal' and that the Repubs are just puffing it up for political reasons. This gives more credence your last observation.

[Gregory]

Those wascally wepublicans at the New York Times are reporting that *seven* different IRS employees had hard drive crashes that destroyed emails requested by the House investigators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/us/lawmakers-skeptical-on-emails-and-irs.html?_r=0

One convenient crash is hard to believe, but plausible. Seven does not meet the reasonable doubt test. Can't happen, roughly equivalent to flipping a coin four times and having it land on its edge every time.

[Account Deleted]

"One convenient crash is hard to believe, but plausible."
NOT plausible. Even if the hard drive crashed, it doesn't selectively get rid of only the emails to and from other agencies for the exact time period in question. And the data is still recoverable on the disc, and the info is still on at least 2 other servers. They deliberately got rid of incriminating evidence.
Since nothing was going to happen because of it, they may as well go through all fed agencies and scrub everything clean and shiny.
This current admin has covered up every scandal that's come along. This is simply the latest and most egregious.

[Walt]

From what I find, even LIB Snewz isn't buying it. A day late and a dollar short. Only when it gets so comical there is no way they can ignore the story, do they finally bite "O" and Co. At the same time, there are still those that just won't bite the hand that feeds them.

[Gregory]

I didn't mean to say it was plausible that no record existed anywhere, only that it was plausible that one employee had a crash that impacted their copy of the data.

Seven all having hard drive crashes, without the drives being backed up, is ludicrous.

[Walt]

From what I hear, your emails are not on "your" hard drive, let alone in your computer. Unless you save it on your own. They are sitting over on your Hotmail account, or whoever you happen to use. It's in "their" mainframe.
I haven't heard much about her personal accounts.( why not?) Many a devout LIB used their personal accounts to hide their monkey business.
Those need to be picked over as well.

The stall tactics will go on even past Nov. At least after the elections when the Right takes control,, Senate investigations and possible prosecutions will get to the bottom of things.

[Gregory]

Walt, this isn't the place for email tutorials, but one certainly can erase emails from a server and only have them on your hard drive on your own computer.

The NSA considers any email you leave behind on a server to be abandoned after something like 6 months, and available to them without a warrant. How many ISPs cooperate with that, I've no clue.

[Bill Tozer]

Oh, here wE go again. Blame Bush, but Afghanistan is the "good war", eh libs? Kinda weird putting good and war as consecutive words in the same sentence when quoting the Obama defenders.

At least Bush saw the potential of a regional conflict, not just some sectarian conflict within a country's borders. Guess Obama and his advisers can compartmentalize Iraq, Syrian, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Russia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as stand alone pieces to the puzzle, yet not actually the puzzle.

George Bush, 2007:

“To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we’re ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda. It’d mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It’d mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It’d mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

Hey boys and girls. Get with the times. Blaming Bush is so soooooo yesterday. Its time to blame Climate Change. Climate Change caused Obama to side with the Muslim Brotherhood in every single country during the Arab Spring. Al qaeda is on the run.....running straight to Baghdad with large forces in tow, capturing cities with populations of 200,000-600,000 as it flees the mighty USA with its 275 troops on the ground protecting something.

Don't blame Bush. Don't blame Obama. And do not blame Kerry, even though NATO reported today that Russian is again back to amassing troops along the Ukraine border. Nay, get with the times. Blame Climate Change.

[Account Deleted]

But Bill - Bush caused climate change! Well, he and the Koch bros.
Our govt is just the symptom. The problem is the electorate.
It seems the greatest problem we face today in this nation is the name of a football team. We solve that and we're all good!

[fish]

When are we going to be gifted with a new "sandbox"? I want to ask the "Flabby Scold of the Foothills" a question about college!

[Russ Steele]

Fish @07:44

I have a few words on college for everyone for the Scold of the Foothills at http://sierrafoothillcommentary.com

[fish]

Cross posted at Sierra Foothills Commentary (Your page seemed to choke on my comment Russ)

Thanks Russ! This is exactly the post to which I was referring.

Your very valid arguments aside I find the passage below questionable.

Let’s hope the vocal hard-right wing nuts in our community (some of whom shun a college education) don’t ruin our solid public schools with their single-minded agenda. It’s selfish and uniformed.

I would hope that jeffy could perhaps name one or two of those who he claims made the statement or actively espoused an anti-education position. It's just good journalism....I'd hate to see a man with as distinguished a career as our jeffy to go the way of Diana Griego Erwin because he played fast and loose with his "reporting". He can make the argument that it's just a blog and he shouldn't be required to maintain the same standards as a newspaper but someone who is a prone as jeffy is to tossing out "Scoop" and "My reporting" should perhaps make it clear to the readers that he isn't a reporter any longer if he merely wants to blog.

If not...who does he claim "actively shun" a college education?

[George Rebane]

fish 744am - Mr fish, your slightest whim is my wish, or is it the other way around? ;-) 'Sandbox - 20jun14' is on the air. Enjoy

[fish]

Ah George....you spoil me!

[drivebyposter]

I can't say that the feds were surprised:

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c6d7c0050b912fbc917a46d6709d38bd&tab=core&tabmode=list&=s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c6d7c0050b912fbc917a46d6709d38bd&tab=core&tabmode=list&

Maybe 'The Camp of the Saints' isn't so crazy a novel.

[George Rebane]

drivebyposter 450pm - a most interesting .gov posting, thanks.

[Bill Tozer]

Concerning our stellar foreign policy these past 6 years, it is now getting personal. All is fair in love and war.

http://rt.com/usa/167436-isis-twitter-michelle-obama-hashtag/

[Bill Tozer]

Concerning the lost IRS e-mails, I may have been born at night but not last night:

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/149989_600.jpg

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/149872_600.jpg

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/mrz061714dAPC.jpg

Concerning Obama's stellar foreign policy in Iraq:

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/149777_600.jpg