The New Black?

"'Is white the new black?' ... For after a year of battering as 'un-American,' 'evil-doers' and 'racists, and praise from talk-show hosts and Sarah Palin as 'the real Americans,' Tea-Party America seems to be taking on a new and separate identity. ... Even as [Arthur] Schlesinger was writing his 'Disuniting of America,' Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were disintegrating into 22 new nations, along the lines of ethnicity. In Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Ossetia and Abkhazaia, the process proceeds apace. ... Obama in the campaign of 2008 recognized that 'out there' in Middle America existed another country, far from the one he grew up in, far from the privileged Ivy League community to which he belonged. ... Palin and the tea partiers now repeat Obama's disparaging line about their clinging to Bibles and guns--with defiant pride. ... Now Southerners are proudly commemorating ancestors who fought and fell in the Lost Cause and demanding recognition of Confederate History Month. And state governors are acceding. ... The imputation of racism to tea partiers hads not intimidated or cowed them. ... Why are the tea partiers not intimidated the way Republicans often are? Why is the charge of racism not working", Pat Buchanan at World Net Daily, 19 April 2010, link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=143033.html.

Obama may not realize it yet, but many, perhaps most people in Texas, hold him in contempt. Hillary favored, "The politics of meaning". What did that mean? What policies did she favor? Who knows?

Greece Today, America Tomorrow

"Are Europe and America headed to where Athens is today? ... Protected by the [US] through a half-century of Cold War, Europe cut back on defense and ratcheted up spending for La Dolce Vita. ... As the cradle-to-grave welfare states rose, an ever-increasing share of the labor force left the private sector for the security of the public sector. ... The fertility rate of Greece and every European nation fell below 2.1 births per woman needed to replace an existing population. Greece's birth rate has been below zero population growth for three decades. ... Were Greece a company, the solution would be bankruptcy. ... Because, should Greece decide not to take a chainsaw to her welfare state, but walk away from her debts and default, she would blow a hole in the balance sheets of the biggest banks in Europe. ... Rather than savage their welfare-state programs, and risk riots in the streets and a massacre at the polls, Madrid and Lisbon, too, might look ageeably at default. ... For how much longer will Greeks work longer, retire later and live on smaller pensions, so holders of Greek bonds can get their interest payments right on time? ... But the crisis will return. For the nations of Europe have made commitments beyond their capacity to keep, given their growing debts and aging population. ... And the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and federal pensions rival those of Western Europe. States like California and New York, larger than Greece, look a lot like Greece. ... While the temptation is great for Washington to bail them out again, the [US] government itself has now begun to attract the concerned notice of holders of US debt", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan at World Net Daily, 6 May 2010, link:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=150649.

"Crisis--from the Greek word 'Krisis'--is one of the many English words we owe to the ancient Athenians. Now their modern descendants and reminding us what it really means. ... So serious was the situation that it took a European version of the 2008 TARP bailout of US banks to save the euro. ... If fully implemented, it will be the mother of all bailouts--and one of the biggest admissions of error in modern financial history. The design of the European currency has been fatally flawed from the outset. It just took the Greek crisis to expose it. .... It would end forever the exchange-rate volatility that has bedeviled the continent since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the 1970s. ... A single European currency also seemed to offer a sweet deal. Countries with excessive public debt would get German-style low inflation and interest rates. And the Germans could quietly hope that the euro would be a little weaker than their own super-strong Deutsche mark. ... But the worst defect in the design of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMY), we argued, was that it united Europe's currecies but left its fiscal policies completely uncoordinated. ... The design of the EMU illustrates a profoundly important truth about human institutions. Just because you don't create a formal procedure for something you would rather not happen, that doesn't mean it won't happen. ... Problem solved? Unfortunately not. ... For one thing, it's simply not credible that the Greek government will be able to deliver the fiscal tightening it has promised at a time of deep recession. ... It will surely be at least a year before investors wake up to the fact that the fiscal predicament of the [US] is actually worse than that of the euro zone", Niall Ferguson at Newsweek, 24 May 2010, link:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237645.

In about 1985 I remember reading a Fortune interview of Barton Biggs (BB). The substance of what BB said was, "The notion of 250 million South Americans slaving away in the hot sun to repay some New York banks does not comport with my notion of political reality". Well said BB Mine neither. Between now and 2017 I expect the "Venezuelanization" of most of Europe and the US. Got bonds? Sell while there's still time.

I disagree with NF. The Greek bailout did not save the euro. It saved banks holding Greek paper. It will kill the euro. There is nothing any European country could have done with respect to taxing and spending before the coming of the euro it couldn't do after. The euro was and is a "whole lotta nuttin". The euro was sold as a piece of financial engineering!

Good Question Pat

"With the support of 70 percent of its citizens, Arizona has ordered sheriffs and police to secure the border and remove illegal aliens, half a million of whom now reside there. ... 'We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act,' said Gov. Jan Brewer. 'But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created an unacceptable situation.' ... Barack Obama ... is siding with the law-breakers. He is pandering to the ethnic lobbies. He is not berating a Mexican regime that aids and abets the invasion of the country of which he is commander in chief. Instead, he attacks the government of Arizona for trying to fill a gaping hole in law enforcement left by his own deriliction of duty. ... He has called on the Justice Department to ensure that Arizona's sheriffs and police do not violate anyone's civil rights. But he has said nothing about the rights of the people of Arizona who must deal with the costs of having hundreds of thousands of lawbreakers in their midst. ... The state has a fiscal crisis caused in part by the burden of providing schooling and social welfare for illegals and their families, who consume far more in services than they pay in taxes and who continue to pour in. Even John McCain is now calling for 3,000 troops on the border. ... If Arizona does not get control of the border and stop the invasion, US citizens will stop coming to Arizona and will begin to depart, as they are already fleeing California. ... Whose country is this, anyway?," Pat Buchanan at Vdare, 26 April 2010, link:

http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/100426_whose_country.htm.

Well said Pat. As far as Obama is concerned, non-Minority Americans are just cows to be milked for money to be given to "his" people.

BusinessWEAK vs. Pat Buchanan

"They are called the PIGS--Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. What they have in common is that all are facing deficits and debts that could bring on national defaults and break up the European Union [EU]. Who brought the PIGS to the edge of the abyss? All are neo-socialist states that provde welfare for poor people, generous unemployment, universal health care, early retirement and comfortable pensions. Most consume 40 percent to 50 percent of their gross domestic product annually, a crushing burden on the private sector. ... For 30 years, the fertility rate of Europe has been below the 2.1 children per woman necessary to replace a population. In Russia and Ukraine, a million people disappear yearly. In Western Europe, the passing of the native-born goes on quietly, as Third World peoples come to fill the empty spaces left by the aborted and unconceived. ... These newcomers have neither the education nor the skills of the Europeans. Hence, they earn less and contribute less in taxes, but consume more per capita in social benefits. ... Thus the burden of pensions and health care grows steadily and the need for higher taxes and larger worker contributions increases. ... Greece is the first European nation to hit the wall. ... The EU'c crisis would then be like a crisis in the [US] should California default on its state bonds and interest rates on other municipal bonds surged to double digits. ... In every Western nation, government is growing beyond the capacity of taxpayers to bear", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan at Vdare, 9 February 2010, link:

http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/100209_pigs.htm.

"The [EU's] experiment with a single currency is deep in crisis because Europe failed to learn from the Greeks. ... Today's Sirens are the investors and traders of the global bond market, who lure nations into tapping abundant credit at low rates when times are good. ... Greece has fallen into precisely that trap. It got low-interest loans by promising to behave responsibily and keep its budget deficit low. ... At this point, Greece and the [EU] have no good choices left. It's hard to see how Greece can muddle through on its own. ... Yiannis Kelekis, 68, a retired construction worker who joined a demonstration in rainy Athens, complained: 'The people that caused the crisis are now asking for others to make sacrifices.' ... If the EU] refuses aid, the government could find itself unable to issue $26 billion worth of debt as scheduled this spring. ... Trouble is, extending aid isn't a great choice, either. ... For now, investors are pouring money into the US Treasury market as a safe refuge. ... When Greece joined the euro zone, its borrowing costs fell to near-German levels because bond investors bought into the theory that Greece had finally become fiscally responsible. ... According to economists Kenneth S. Rogoff of Harvard University and Carmen M. Reinhart of the University of Maryland, Greece has been in default for half of the time since it won independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. ... Greece and the EU wouldn't be in this no-win situation if they had followed their own rules from the start. But coming up with a failsafe mechanism that forces sovereign nations to do what's right when they feel like cheating is pretty much impossible", my emphasis, Peter Coy (PC) at Businessweek, 22 February 2010: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_08/b4167018421438.htm.

Gary North's (GN) 17 February 2010 post at Lew Rockwell is about the PIGS: http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north814.html. GN asks, "How wise is to to lend to wicked people? Not very". Consider what this implies for Treasury paper.

Obamacare anyone? California anyone? What's controversial about this?

PC is PC. He never suggests Greece reduce spending. Anyone who buys sovereign debt does it at his peril. The article was titled, "The Bond Vigilantes Who Left Greece in Ruins". Imagine, the bond market did it, not Greek government spending. Failsafe mechanism? Try the gold standard. "Lure nations"? Is Greece a naive 14-year old girl being seduced by Casanova?

Wilson's Continuing Failure

"'America is losing the Free World,' was the arresting headline over the Financial Times column by Gideon Rachman. His Thesis: 'The largest democracies of South America, the Middle East and Asia--South Africa, Turkey, India--are all moving out of America's orbit. (T)he assumption that the democracies would stick together is proving unfounded.' ... The ruling parties in all four were democratically elected. Yet, in all four, democratic solidarity is being trumped by an older solidarity--of Third World people of color against a 'white, rich Western world.' ... What makes this frightening,' says [Geoffrey] Wheatcroft, 'is that many American politicians and commentators ... have yet to grasp this reality. Such ignorance is evident in the bizarre notion--current even before George W. Bush took the oath of office--that America not only can and should spread democracy, but that this would be in the American national interest. Why did anyone think this?' ... What, then, is the rationale for the National Endowment for Democracy to continue tax dollars to promote such elections? ... When colonialism ended in East Africa, Indians were massacred. The Chinese suffered a horrible pogrom in Indonesia in 1965, when the dictator Sukarno fell--and another when Sukarto fell. Picked clean, two-thirds of the 250,000 whites in Rhodesia when Robert Mugabe took powwer are gone. ... If racial and religious bonds and ancient animosities against the West trump any democratic solidarity with the West, of what benefit to America is democracy in the Third World? ... Is democratism our salvation--or an ideology of Western suicide?", Pat Buchanan at Vdare, 7 January 2010, link:

http://vdare.com/buchanan/100107_democratization.htm.

Hitler was elected too. So? Consider this article's implications for American and European immigration policies.

Buchanan on Bernanke

"Should Bernanke be rejected, it is said, the effect on Europe's markets will be like that on Europe's monarchs when news arrived that Louis XIV had gone to the guillotine. ... But if rejection of Bernanke would cause turmoil in US and world markets, what does that say about the real stability of the system? And is it not time we stopped treating the Fed as a holy of holies? ... Under the Fed's custody, the US dollar has lost 98 percent of its value. ... Every monetary crisis is a result of Fed action or inaction, for the Fed controls the money supply", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan at Vdare, 26 January 2010, link:

http://vdare.com/buchanan/100125_bernanke.htm.

I have said similar things for 30 years. Kill the Fed.

School Shakedown

"Yet last week came a report from New York that makes DC look like MIT. Some 200 students, in their first math class at City University of New York, were tested on their basic math skills. Ninety percent could not do basic algebra. One-third could not convert a decimal into a fraction. ... Yet, the education racket has been shaking us down for four decades, and turning out graduates that know less and less. ... Just as there are many kids who do not have the athletic ability to play high school sports, or the musical ability to play in a high school band, or the verbal ability to recite poetry well or star in debate, not every kid has the academic ability to do high school work. ... This campaign to equalize test scores among unequal students is utopian and unattainable, and amounts to a scam by the education industry", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan, Vdare, 19 November 2009: http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/091119_test_scores.htm.

Yes PB. I've said this for about 40 years. I have seen college graduates who can't work with fractions.

Wither Disparate Impact

"The cost of caring for patients who are near death accounts for a big piece of the government's medical spending. But a furor over a provision for government-paid counseling to plan for end-of-life care is steering lawmakers away from the issue. ... Opponents say the provision shows that architects of the health-care overhaul want to ration seniors' care. Democratic lawmakers say no part of the House bill calls for rationing care. Physician counseling would be voluntary. ... Dumping the counseling provision would thwart a broad effort in recent years by doctors and hospitals to encourage patients to plan for end-of-life care. Advocates say such planning relieves the burden on families and helps doctors know how to treat those who are very ill. ... But spending during the last year of life accounted for 27.4% of total Medicare spending, the report found. ... The Urban Institute, a non-partisan research center, found that the government could save $90.8 billion over 10 years by better managing end-of-life care", Janet Adamy at the WSJ, 13 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125012322203627701.html.

"Ezekiel Emanuel, a top health-care adviser and older brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, is emerging as a target of conservatives critical of Democrats' health-care effort. ... Critics are using his writings to suggest Dr. Emanuel favors withhold care from the elderly and disabled. ... In another article, in the Lancet last January, Dr. Emanuel said age was one of several factors that could be considered in deciding who receives scarce organs or vaccines. 'Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination,' he wrote. 'Every person lives through different stages.' ... Other Republicans, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have suggested the Democrats' plans could lead to euthanasia, a notion dismissed as ludicrous by the bill's authors", my emphasis, Naftali Bendavid at the WSJ, 13 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125012376373527721.html.

"A health clinic in this blue-collar city north of Oakland, partly funded by the county, is saving local hospitals thousands of dollars in emergency-room visits by treating uninsured patients who suffer only non-urgent ailments. A watchdog group is now calling on county officials to cut funding for clinic patients who can't prove they are in the US legally, a debate certain to surface in the national health-care overhaul ... A provison in the House's health-care-overhaul bill rules out federal funding for illegal immigrants. But in many ways, illegal immigration is at the nexus of two key health issues: uninsured and ballooning costs. ... Like others who can't afford medical care, illegal immigrants tend to flock to hospital emergency rooms, which, under a 1986 law, can't turn people away, even if they can't pay. ... The role illegal immigrants play in US health-care costs is 'one hot button that no one wants to touch,' says Stephen Zuckerman, an economist at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington", my emphasis, Miriam Jordan at the WSJ, 15 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125027261061432585.html.

"There was a time when rushing a thousand-page bill through Congress so fast that no one has time to read it would have provoked public outrage. But now, this has been attempted twice in the first six months of a new administration. ... But the first bill simply spent hundreds of billions of dollars. The current 'health care' bill threatens to take life-and-death decisions out of the hands of individuals and their doctors, transferring those decisions to Washington bureaucrats. ... The mainstream media are again circling the wagons to protect Barack Obama, but this time in may not work. ... At one time, it would have been none of Dr. Emanuel's business if your physician prescribed the latest medications for you, rather than the cheaper and obsolete medications they replaced. ... As for a 'death panel,' no politician would ever use that phrase when trying to get a piece of legislation passed. 'End of life' care under the 'guidance' of 'some independent group' sounds so much nicer--and these are the terms President Obama used in an interview with the New York Times back on April 14. He said, 'The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out there.' he added: 'It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. That is why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance'," my emphasis, Thomas Sowell (TS), 17 August 2009, link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=107221.

"Although administration officials are eager to deny it, rationing health care is central to President Obama's health plan. The Obama strategy is to reduce health costs by rationing the services that we and future generations of patients will recieve. The White House Council of Economic Advisers issued a report in June explaining the Obama administration's goal of reducing projected health spending by 30% over the next two decades. That reduction would be achieved by eliminating 'high cost, low-value treatments,' by 'implementing a set of performance measures that all providers would adopt,' and by 'directly targeting individual providers ... (and other) high-end outliers.' ... One reason the Obama administration is preparing to use rationing to limit health care is to rein in the government's exploding health-care budget", my emphasis, Martin Feldstein at the WSJ, 19 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358233780260914.html.

"But now I am finally scared of a White House administration. ... But the Obama administration claims those fateful consultations are 'purely voluntary.' ... As more Americans became increasingly troubled by this and other fearful elements of Dr. Obama's cost-efficient health care regimen, [Wesley] Smith adds this vital advice, no matter what legislation Obama finally signs into law: 'Remember that legislation itsef is only half the problem with Obamacare. Whatever bill passes, hundreds of bureaucrats in the federal agencies will have years to promulgate scores of regulations to govern the details of the law.' ... Condemning the furor at town-hall meetings around the country as 'un-American,' Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are blind to truly participatory democracy--an many individual Americans believe they are fighting, quite literally for their lives", my emphasis, Nat Hentoff (NH), 20 August 2009, link: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/20/i_am_finally_scared_of_a_white_house_administration_97969.html.

"And while [Sarah Palin] has been fairly criticized for hyperbole about the end-of-life counselors in the House bill, she drew such attention to the provision that Democrats chose to dump it rather than debate it. ... But Medicare is a system whereby 140 million working Americans pay 2.9 percent of all wages and salaries into a fund to pay for health care for 42 million mostly older Americans. And Medicare is going bust. ... In 2000, the Average American male in a population of 300 million lived to 74, the average female to 80. But in 2050, the average male in a population of 435 million Americans will live to 80 and the average female to 86. ... Now if a primary purpose of Obamacare uis to 'bend the curve' of soaring health care costs, and half of those costs are incurred in the last six months of life, and the number of seniors will grow by scores of millions, how do you cut costs without rationing care. And how do you ration care without denying millions of elderly and aged the prescriptions, procedures and operations they need to stay alive?," Pat Buchanan (PB), 20 August 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090820_death_panels.htm.

Mike Shedlock smacks Obamacare at Mish's, 20 August 2009: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-young-and-wealthy-subsidize.html. Who does "He" think he's fooling?

"Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving. ... Dr. Emanuel says that health reform will not be pain free, and that the usual recommendations for cutting medical spending (often urged by the president) are mere window dressing. ... Dr. Emanuel believes doctors should serve two masters, the patient and society, and that medical students should be trained 'to provide socially sustainable, cost-effective care'," my emphasis, Betsy McCaughey at the WSJ, 27 August 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574374463280098676.html.

How much could Uncle Sam save by rounding up all people over 80 and shooting them? Over $9.1 billion a year? How can Obamacare save money without rationing? I can see the "near death" concept changing as the need arises, just like the CPI, PPI, etc. You're 70, you're near death. How do we know? "He" said so. Counseling? To do what? Voluntary? You eat at the King's table, you follow his rules! How much could Uncle Sam save by deporting millions of illegal aliens and ending birthright citizenship? Obamacare is designed to extend illegal aliens medical care. As Yves Smith would say, "it's a feature, not a bug". All else is secondary. Counseling, like a Big 87654 firm "counseling out" an employee in lieu of firing him?

I agree with Palin. She sees where this is going. Not "invidious discrimination". According to Table 8 of National Vital Statistics Reports, 17 April 2009, the average life span of American white men is 75.7 years, women 80.6, Negro men 69.7 and women 76.5. How much counseling will be aimed at old white women? Assume most. Where are our feminists? Well Gloria Steinem? You're 75. Not invidous? How did the Ivy League discriminate against Jews? See my 7 July 2009 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/07/columbia-changes.html. Identify a characteristic related to the characteristic of interest and use it. Like disperate impact, see Steve Sailer's 28 June 2009 comment, link: http://www.vdare.com/sailer/090628_bazelon.htm. Will Obamacare survive the 4/5th rule? Well Eric Holder?

The provision making illegal aliens ineligible for Obamacare will not be enforced. Who are guys like Peter Orzag kidding? Can't turn people away? When there is no more money, law or no law, that will happen. Hey Obama, repeal the 1986 law. Or does "He" think he can incarcerate all say Vallejo, California taxpayers for not suppporting illegal aliens? Hey, Zuckerman, I'll touch it. I have an idea for you, advocate "counseling" illegal aliens, to leave. Now.

Thank you TS. 80% of the relevant health care spending goes to the chronically ill and elderly. How does "He" expect to save money if not denying these groups care? The mainstream media are protecting "Him"? Really now.

Yes, Professor Feldstein. Let's make this easy for His Obamaness, kill all old people. Now we the second benefit: saving social security! Sarah Palin, is correct, we will have "death panels", which will be given some euphemism.

Yes, NH. War story time. I opposed 1964's Civil Rights Act. Racist, racist, racist! Really? I remember Martin Luther King and Hubert Humprey both said the bill would not lead to quotas. I concluded both were fools or lying. As to Obamacare, why might Obamites want computerized medical records? To determine average patient cost for each gerontologist. As to those whose costs are "too high", "Doctor, we summon you to the local health commissar to explain yourself". Why not, the DEA monitors physicians' pain killer prescriptions. Oops. Pain killers? Hmm. Obama may now have the mechanism to run death panels. Deny the elderly pain relievers to encourage them to commit suicide. Paranoid? I don't think so.

Yes, PB, how indeed. I'll go further.

Yes Mish.

The "usual recommendations" are window dressing The thrust of the Obamacare is letting old people, predominantly white females, die. Make no mistake.

We Are All Generals Now

"I saw some fresh figures on 2009 civilian casualties in Afghanistan this week from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). They are, I'm betting, on the generous side both when it comes to counting casualties as 'civilian,' and counting 'civilian casualties' as American-caused. The underreported news is, air strikes in Afghanistan, widely depicted as indiscriminate American causes of Afghan outrage, account for only 20 percent of the total. Suicide attacks and roadside bombs, attributable to jihadists, killed 39 percent. ... Civilian casualties have been widely, if not exclusively, portrayed by US military leadership as the stumbling block to our winning 'hearts and minds'--aka trust--in Afghanistan. Winning 'hearts and minds,' in turn is widely portrayed by US military leadership as the key to victory. A question for our brass: If the Taliban is responsible for disproportionately more casualties that the [US]--and purposely so where ours are inadvertent--shouldn't, by our brass' own reckoning, all those Afghan hearts and minds already belong to us? Could there be something else--such as the Islamic religion--causing Afghans to reject our infidel 'hearts and minds' pathetically pressed on them, along with grotesque sums of money, like hopeless valentines? These are questions the brass can't answer, can't even think about, because the answers would upend America's entire Afghan strategy. ... 'The Afghan people are the reason we're here,' [Stanley] McChrystal explained, weirdly disconnecting the American war machine from national interests", my emphasis, Diana West (DW), 6 August 2009, link: http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/975/Self-Sacrificial-Lambs.aspx.

"'Taliban Now Winning: US Commander in Afghanistan Warns of Rising Casualties.' Thus ran the startling headline on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal. ... Nevertheless, in the eighth year of America's war, the newly arrived field commander conceded that US casualties, now at record levels, will continue to be high or go higher, and that our primary mission is no longer to run down and kill Taliban but to defend the Afghan population. ... The president is now approaching a decision that may prove as fateful for him and his country as was the one made by Lyndon Johnson to send Maries ashore at Da Nang in December 1965. ... And what is so vital to us in that wilderness land worth another eight years of fighting, bleeding and dying, other than averting the humiliation of another American defeat? ... Now, whatever Obama decides, we shall pay a hellish price for the hubris of the nation-builders", orginal italics, Pat Buchanan (PB), 13 August 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090813_afghanistan.htm.

Amazing. Joo DW has doubts about our Afghan war. No, Stanley can't even think about our Afghan "strategy". There is nothing weird about "disconnecting the American war machine from national interests". It's been that way since Korea. A "CFR-Kennedy School" general like Stanley doesn't care about national interests. DW, well said, "the brass ... can't even think". No, it only parrots others' "magic words".

Yes, PB. Wow. Joo DW and anti-Joo PB seem to be singing the same song. What's going on here? Afghanistan smells more like Vietnam every day. If Stanley had: guts, brains, integrity, concern for his troops and knew military history, he would resign his commission. Immediately. Then tell POTUS Obama he will not oversee killing "his boys" needlessly. Good luck. Hey Stanley, you have 20 years in. What have you to lose? A future Kennedy School professorship? Realize: "our primary mission is ... to defend the Afghan population". Imagine telling George Patton in 1944, "our primary mission is to defend the German people from the Nazis". "Imagine telling Curtis LeMay in 1945, "Our primary mission is to protect the Japanese people from Hirohito". "'A great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries,' Barack Obama", Newsweek, 20 July 2009. How then, POTUS Obama?

Obama, the Bully

"The Ivy League [IL] is not real life. College in general is not real life, and the [IL] is a more fantastic version of college. The amenities are better, the rules are flexible, and everyone, student and faculty alike, is well aware that the realities of life as most people know it are merely a peculiar footnote to the day-to-day of campus life. I do not speak out of turn when I say this. I know because I am in and of that world. ... When the [IL] Effect is going full tilt, our black compass gets confused; the realities we know to exist become other people's problems. ... All the lessons about dealing with police as a black person seem to have no place in the ivory tower. We can forget those lessons because, more than we're black in America, we're Ivy Leaguers. ... How dare you hassle me? I'm Skip Gates: Harvard professor! ... Skip Gates ... does not see those million men as kin and he doesn't, by and large, give a damn about those guys. He's merely annoyed that such an irritation as police misconduct found its way into his home. If he read about this story happening to a plumber in Roxbury, he'd shake his head in disapppointment and then go on with his life", A Phantom Negro (APN), 24 July 2009, link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/07/24/gates/print.html.

"Two stubborn individuals have done more than anyone else to slow the Obama political juggernaut over the last month--Frank Ricci and James Crowley. ... At Thursday's press conference, Barack Obama, in a textbook example of racial prejudice, essentially prejudged the Gates-Crowley confrontation based only on Gates' side of the story--plus the President's own abundant (but generally better-concealed) personal resentments about race. ... They are Northeasterners, civil servants, and union men. Indeed, their unions' strong opposition to the racial spoils system and to racial blackmail has been one of the keys to their fortitude", Steve Sailer, 26 July 2009, at: http://www.vdare.com/sailer/090726_fdny.htm.

"Thus the two most powerful black elected officials in the US, with no hard knowledge of what happened, came down on the side of a black professor, their buddy, against a white cop and his department, implying racial motivation in the arrest of Gates. ... The victim here is Sgt. Crowley, not professor Gates. ... But if Obama's racial reflexes served him badly Wednesday night, his political instincts served him well on Friday. For he must have sensed that this confrontation was shaping up as three powerful black men coming down hard on a white cop with a stellar record who had only done his conscientious duty. ... It was a goodly slice of humble pie the president ate, but it was a class act", Pat Buchanan (PB), 27 July 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090727_crowley.htm.

Hey Eric Holder, why don't you worry about the tens of thousands in federal prisons over minor drug charges? You too, POTUS Obama. Does Skip Gates believe his experience is say that of a prisoner in Angola, Louisiana's maximum security prison? Even a white guy in Angola?

Gates set off the "H-Bomb", "I'm a Harvard professor" and Crowley didn't blink. No fair. How dare a sans culotte not do as he is told.

I agree with PB. Obama slipped on a banana peel here.

Diversity and the Navy

"'Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity,' ran the headline in the Washington Post. The impression left was that some sorehead was griping because black and Hispanic kids were finally being admitted. ... 'Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval Academy [NA] in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the nation's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it's a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation.' ... According to [Bruce] Fleming, who once sat in the board of admissions, white applicants must have all As and Bs and test scores of at least 600 on the English and math parts of the SAT to even qualify for a 'slate' of 10 applicants, from which only one will be chosen. ... If true, the US [NA] is running a two-tier admissions system of the kind that kept Jennifer Gratz out of the University of Michigan and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 'Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s and Cs and Ds also come through after a year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the [NA] Preparatory School.' ... Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughhead and the Superintendent of the [NA] Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing. ... 'First of all, we're dumbing-down the [NA],' charges Fleming. 'Second of all, we're dumbing down the officers corps.' ... 'Diversity is our number one priority,' Roughhead is quoted. Can one imagine Adm. Chester Nimitz or 'Bull' Halsey making an insipid statement like that? Can one imagine what Adm. David 'Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!' Farragut would have thought of such a policy?", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan, 6 July 2009, at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=103293.

"Diversity is our number one priority". Is that from 1984? Is the US Navy Orwell's Ministry of Peace? Remember, "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength". That's our Navy's motto today. Fowler and (misnamed) Roughhead are "metrosexual officers", see my 2 December 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/12/security-and-specialization.html.

This is Justice?!

"When Rudy Giulani was a federal prosecutor in New York 20 years ago, his staff members used to play a game in which they would pick a high-profile and popular person like Mother Teresa and figure what federal crime they could pin on her or him. No one could escape and in the end, no person that they named was able to slide away without having committed at least one crime for which a stretch in prison was in order. ... Most Americans have never seen a federal court, much less have found themselves in the federal dock, and they are not familar with how the system works. Indeed, when they read of another federal guilty plea or see a federal conviction in the news, they usually assume that the person was guilty of something, otherwise, he or she would not have been charged in the first place. ... Thus, it was that on April Fool's Day earlier this year, a federal jury in Charlotte, North Carolina , convicted real estate attorney Victoria Sprouse of a number of charges related to alleged mortgage fraud. ... Not surprisngly, the TV and print journalists got it wrong. ... The federal courts have become an American version of the 'Bread and Circuses' routine that once kept the Romans happy as the government around them became increasingly tyrannical and arbitary. ... However, one asks, how was she convicted? ... The key to understand this case is not necessarily knowing the testimony that backed the prosecution; effectively rigged this trial. ... The prosecution's strategy was obvious. If Sprouse could be denied adequate counsel, as $25K is not going to buy anything more than an attorney who wants to plead out right away, then an conviction was as good as done. ... Most court-appointed attorneys plead out their clients, bill hourly, and pocket the money. The key is cutting deals with prosecutors and letting the court know that the defense is not going to be a problem and will 'play ball' with the prosecution. ... Harvey Silverglate, one of the country's finest civil libertarian attorneys, has noted in his forthcoming book, Three Felonies a Day, that much of current federal criminal law much more closely mirrors the law of the former Soviet Union than it does anything we have inherited from Great Britain. Indeed, one wonders why [Matthew] Martens and Chertoff don't have busts on their desks of Stalin's secret police head, Laverty Beria, who famously declared: 'Show me the man, and I will find you the crime'," original italics, my emphasis, William Anderson (WA) at Lew Rockwell, 7 July 2009, link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson254.html.

William Rhenquist (WR), my favorite Supreme of the last 30 years, often decried criminal law's increasing federalization. WR reviewed the statutes and concluded he was guilty of some felonies! Our Chief Justice? Yes! WA's point about criminal defense attorneys is well taken. Once paid, their incentive is to plead a client out. Suppose an attorney charges a client $100,000 to represent him in a white collar criminal case, not that much today. At $300 an hour, that's 333 hours to trial. Suppose the attorney can plead the client out in 50 hours, that's $2,000 an hour. Where are the attorneys incentives? Further, suppose the federal prosecutor wants to go into criminal law. What will he do? Knowingly overcharge cases to induce plea bargains, so when he is on the other side of the table, he gets his. As Cardinal Richelieu, 1585-1642, said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged". I would have chosen Andrey Vishinsky instead of Beria, but WA's point is made. Why indict nobodys like Sprouse? To divert public attention from Wall Street, i.e., "look at her. She did it"! An interesting article on "contingency" fee economics is: 22 Stanford Law Review 1125, "An Economic Analysis of the Contingent Fee in Personal-Injury Litigation," Schwartz and Mitchell, (1970). Despite defense bar claims, these fees do not encourage "excessive litigation". At least in my view. Similar principles apply to criminal defense attorneys.

Diversity in China?

"So grave was the crisis in western China that President Hu Jintao canceled a meeting with President Obama, broke off from the G8 summit and flew home. ... In 1989, fear that what was happening in Eastern Europe might happen in Beijing produced Tianannment Square. The flooding of Chinese troops into Xinjiang bespeaks a fear that what happened to the Soviet Union could happen to China. Unlike, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Chinese, as they showed in Tibet, will wage civil war to crush secession. ... Where Beijing floods its borderlands with Han to reduce the indigenous populations to minorities, and stifles religious, ethnic and linguistic diversity, America declaring 'Diversity is our strength!' invites the whole world to come to America and swamp her own native-born. ... Without the assent of her people, America is being converted from a Christian country, nine in 10 of whose ancestors traced their roots to Europe as late as the time of JFK, into a multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural Tower of Babel not seen since the late Roman Empire. The city farthest along the path is Los Angeles, famous worldwide for the number, variety, and size of its ethnic and racial street gangs. Not to worry. It can't happen here", Pat Buchanan, 9 July 2009 at: http://vdare.com/buchanan/090709_ethnonationalism.htm.

"Zhang Weiyi grew up in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region, a second-generation Han Chinese resident living alongside the ethnic Uighurs native to Urumqi. ... Among the dead is his father, a man who had embraced the city's ethnic diversity. 'We never thought something like this could happen,' the 24-year-old Mr. Zhang says, sobbing. 'We buy vegetables together, we eat the same food,' he says, referring to his Uighur neighbors. 'They were my classmates.' ... Whether people like Mr. Zhang and his Uighur neighbors can find a way to reconcile will be a key factor in determining whether peace can hold in the region. ... Han, who make up more than 90% of China's 1.3 billion people, have been migrating to Xinjiang in ever larger numbers since China's Communist Party took control of the region in 1949. ... Today, Hans account for at least 40% of Xinjiang's roughly 20 million people. Many Uighurs resent the Han influx, which they see as an effort to dilute their culture and usurp economic opportunities", my emphasis, Shai Oster and Jason Dean at the WSJ, 10 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124713641544717543.html.

"The myth of a monolithic China was shattered this past week. Running barely beneath the surface of what the government has sought to portray as a 'harmonious' society, the fracture created by the Urumqi and Lhasa riots threatens to shake the country. ... China is also concerned about the 'Kosovo effect,' accusing its Muslim and other ethnic minorities of seeking outside international (read Western) support for separatist goals. But ethnic problems in President Hu Jintao's China go far deeper than the 'official' minorities, Sichuanese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Hunamese are avidly advocating increased cultural nationalism and resistance to Beijing central control ... Officially, China is made up of 56 nationalities: one majority nationalisty, the Han, and 55 minority groups. ... The supposedly homogenous Han speak eight mutually unintelligible languages. ... By the mid-1980s, it had become clear that those minority groups identified as official minorities were beginning to receive real benefis from the implementation of several affirmative action programs. The most significant privileges included permission to have more children (except in urban areas, minorities are generally not bound by the one-child policy), pay fewer taxes, obtain better (albeit Mandarin Chinese) education for their children, have greater access to public office, speak and learn their native languages, worship and practice their religion (often including practices such as shamanism that are still banned among the Han) and express their cultural differences through the arts and popular culture", Dru Gladney at the WSJ, 11 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203547904574279952210843672.html.

"The question of why this happened and what went wrong between the Han Chinese and Uighurs who have been living together so closely in this neighbourhood for so long meets with a confused and helpess silence. ... Most eyewitness accounts say that the violence started on the night of July 5 with attacks by Uighur men on Han people and property, an account that has been repeated by the government. ... In the wake of foreign media accounts of Han retaliation last Tuesday, which was not reported in China's state media, and analysis and comment on the failure of Beijing's minorities policies, some sections of the Chinese media have accused foreign journalists of a bias in favour of the Uighurs. ... Many Chinese internet users also expressed their disgust at what they called subjective reporting, distortion of facts and demonizing of China. ... First, it sent military and paramilitary troops there with the double task of securing the territory on the fringes and developing its economy by building roads and starte farms", Kathrin Hile at the FT, 13 July 2009.

"Just as the Russians fear Chinese influence over Siberia, so the Chinese fear that Muslim Xinjiang could drift off into Central Asia. ... As things stand, the break up of China looks very unlikely. Over the long term, a steady inflow of Han immigrants into Xinjiang and Tibet should weaken separatist tendencies", my emphasis, Gideon Rachman (GR) at the FT, 14 July 2009.

"These were premeditated and organized crimes of violence, directed and instigated by separatists abroad and organized and carried out by separatists inside the country. ... Some people with ulterior motives inside China acted in collusion with the [Wolrd Uighur Congress] WUC. ... Hundreds of people gathered at the dictated time and areas, and started beating, smashing and looting at 8:18 p.m. The rioters began their barbaric sabotage of arson and killing, wreaking havoc in streets, alleys and the area connecting the city and the countryside. They tried to kill any Han person within sight, and smashed and set fire to stores and vehicles. ... We are unequivolcally against ethnic separatism, terrorism, extremism and violence, committed in whatever name. Unity among all ethnic groupos, social harmony and stability represent the highest interests of the Chinese nation, the 21 million people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang included. ... Their trick is to try to clear themselves of their evil acts, mislead the international community, and win its sympathy and support by playing the 'victim card,' and disguising mobsters are the 'underprivileged' and 'peaceful protestors'," Wang Baodong (WB) letter to the WSJ, 15 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124762185860842743.html.

"Turkey has long been a haven for disaffected Uighurs, including Isa Yusuf Alptekin, the pre-eminent leader of Uighur nationalism until his death in 1995. ... In contrast, most Western and Muslim countries have not seen much benefit in riling China over an issue that arouses little international attention compared with human-rights abuses in neighbouring Tibet. ... Mindful of China's proximity, and of the danges of being sucked into further unrest, the 'stans' have taken a dim view of Uighur separatism", my emphasis, Economist, 16 July 2009, link: http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=14052216.

"But over the years, [Uighur] culture has been threatened by a steady influx of Han Chinese. The result: resentment and unrest. ... Many Uighurs complain that they have become second-class citizens in their own homeland", Simon Elegant at Time, 20 July 2009.

"Earlier this year, a Guangdong toy factory imported 800 Uighur workers as part of a government affirmative-action program. This angered Han workers--memebrs of China's dominant ethnicity--who didn't enjoy the same free room and board. ... Meanwhile, many Han are resentful that Uighurs get preferential treatment from Beijing--including job placement, easier college-entrance-exam requirements, and exemption from the one-child-per-family rule--and see them as ungrateful, especially now that provinces with large minority populations are receiving a generous share of stimulus funds", Melinda Liu at Newsweek, 20 July 2009.

"As Chinese leaders look to prevent another outbreak of ethnic violence, they face a key question: how to spread China's growing wealth to its ethnic minorities when they are losing control over even their traditional industries? ... Although the immediate catalyst for the attacks appears to have been the murder of two Uighurs in a southern Chinese factory, longer-term problems have simmered. Like Tibetans, who rioted last year against Han partly in protest of growing Han control of their region's economic life, many Uighurs feel that Han as taking over Xinjiang's economy. Most galling to some Uighurs, Han seem to be taking over traditonal Uighur industries--from tradtional markets to Muslim foodstuffs. ... Even some large companies making halal foods--those prepared according to Muslim purity laws--are run by Han and not by Uighurs. ... China aims to help its minorities through an array of generous policies, from easier college admission to soft loans and hiring requirements. Some of these have helped create a small class of prosperous Uighurs who sit on government advisory boards and have risen to top levels in the region's government", Ian Johnson at the WSJ, 21 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124811293085765891.html.

China sends Han to Xianjiang to keep it under control. What is Mexico doing to the southwestern US?

The WSJ is sympathetic to the Uighurs' plight in China. I've yet to see it show such sympathy to the plight of non-Hispanics in California. Han migration to Xinjiang followed a war. Did we have a war with Mexico, lose and I am unaware of it? Dilute Uighur "culture", clearly, but not "usurp economic opportunities". Instead make economic opportunities.

What really happened in the Balkans? Affirmative action in the People's Republic? Hmm. More children? Hmm. Like Hispanics in California. "By 2005, accordsing to the World Bank, [Mexico's total fertility rate, TFR] was 2.1--the same as the US rate. ... According to the [Center for Disease Control] data released in 2006, ... Mexican women in the US had a TFR of 2.9. ... So think about it. Women in Mexico have dramatically reduced their fertility rate, right down to US levels. But Mexican women who come to the US have more children than they would have had they stayed in Mexico. ... Why is that? ... As a people, we never directly chose this destiny, nor were we even asked about it. But we're expected to pay fo it, and be happy about it, as our nation is transformed into part of Latin America before our very eyes", Allen Wall at Vdare, 23 March 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/awall/090323_memo.htm. I think China will transform Xinjiang into whatever it wants, the Uighur's opinion notwithstanding.

China's experience in Xianjiang province sounds like that of Kibbutzniks in pre-1948 Palestine or West Bank "settlers" today. Israel has an opportunity to tell China "we feel your pain. The European press has demonized us for decades. We give Moslems affirmative action programs too. We will send an emissary to cry with you".

I wonder if a "steady [in]flow of [Mexican] immigrants into" the American Southwest "should [heighten] separatist tendencies". Well, GR, what say you?

WB is a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. Next, WB will call the Israelis for suggestions on how to deal with China's "Palestinians". It could happen.

That's intersting. The Moslem world is little interested in the Uighurs plight in China. Why?

I wonder if the Uighurs are "racist". Or, since they are third-worlders, they can't be.

Quoted without comment.

"Look, up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane". No it's not Superman, but Al Sharpton. China clearly needs him. Al, step up. Your country needs you to set the Chinese right. Charge the Chinese a fortune and balance our payments. If China keeps up its current policies, it will become California. Interestingly, Han Chinese control most industries in Malaysia, which is 60% Moslem. Malaysia has Moslem "set-asides" for Bumiputras, the "sons of the soil". Why? Because they can't compete with the Chinese who are called the "Joos of Asia". Interesting. I see a trend here.

Lenin Comes to California

"Sir, I am one of those benighted California voters who rejected the latest batch of stop-gap referendums to close the budget gap. I am also a dealer in California municipal bonds. ... State spending had, until the recession, risen faster than incomes for many years. ... Heaven forbid! The golden geese are tired of having their eggs stolen for the benefit of indigenous residents and people streaming up from Central and South America who know a good deal when they see it. The tax base has been narrowing for years, for while would-be beneficiaries find the state an attractive place, those of us who are expected to pay and get nothing for it do not. The rich are voting with their feet for lower tax jurisidctions like Florida, Texas and Nevada", Robert Gore, letter to the FT, 12 June 2009.

What do you FT snobs think? Who cares? You like illegal aliens, you support them. See my 6 June 2009 post, http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/06/occams-butterknife-slices-california.html. Lenin was asked in about 1920 if the USSR had elections. Lenin replied, in 1917 the people could have gone to the Czar's lines or my lines. They went to my lines, "They voted with their feet". So are the members of California's taxpaying class.

Other people observing the effects of illegal aliens on California recently are: Pat Buchanan, 26 June 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090625_california.htm and Joe Guzzardi, 27 June 2009, link: http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/090626_schwarzenegger.htm.

Kill the Fed?

"But the Big Kahuna escaped. The Federal Reserve. ... Already in its sixth week on the New York Times best-seller list, [Thomas Woods Meltdown] traces the Fed's role in every financial crisis since this creature was spawned on Jeykl Island in 1913. ... Because the much-maligned Warren Harding refused to intervene. He let businesses and banks fail and prices fall. Hence, the fever quickly broke, and we were off into 'the Roaring Twenties.' ... Herbert Hoover, contrary to the myth that he was a small-government conservative, renounced laissez-faire, raised taxes, launched public works projects, extended emergency loans to failing businesses and lent money to the states for relief purposes. ... Indeed, in 1932, FDR lacerated Hoover for having presided over the 'greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history.' His running mate, John Nance Garner, accused Hoover of 'leading the country down the path to socialism.' And 'Cactus Jack' was right. FDR mistook the consequences of the Depression--falling prices--for the cause of the depression. But prices were simply returning to where they belonged in a free market, the first step in any cure. ... But how can an economy be truly growing 13 percent a year, as the economists claim, when there is rationing, shortages everywhere, declining product quality, an inability to buy homes and cars, and a longer work week? ... It was 1946, a year economists predicted would result in a postwar depression because government spending fell by two-thirds, that proved the biggest boom year in all of American history. ... Of Nicholas Biddle's Bank of the [US], the great Andrew Jackson was eloquent. 'It has tried to kill me,' he said. 'But I will kill it.' And he did", Pat Buchanan, 3 April 2009 at http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090402_fed.htm.

Yes Pat, let's kill this monster.

Our Failed Drug War

"But are US vital interests more threatened by what happens in Anbar or Helmand than in the war raging along our southern border? ... For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming north from the Maghreb and the Middle East, sub-Sahara and South Asia. ... Add a collapsing global economy to a losing war with drug cartels, and Mexico is at grave risk of becoming a failed state, a narco-state, with a 2,000-mile border with the [US]. How does one win a drug war when millions of Americans who use recreational drugs are financing the cartels bribing, murdering and beheading to win the war and keep self-indulgent Americans supplied with drugs? There are two sure ways to end this war swiftly: Milton's way and Mao's way. Mao Zedong's communists killed users and suppliers alike, as social parasites. Milton Friedman's way is to decriminalize drugs and call of the war. ... Americans are never going to adopt the Maoist solution. ... Which is the greater evil? Legalized narcotics for America's young or a failed state of 110 million on our southern border", Pat Buchanan (PB), 6 March 2009 at http://www.vdare.com/buchanan/090305_mexico.htm.

"Conservatives tend to assume that, unlike dirty, treasonous liberals, they are on the side of truth, justice, liberty and the American way. This is not without reason, as most of the time, they are. However, for nearly 30 years, conservatives have been guilty of one of the greatest abuses of American liberties in American history, and have actively abetted the growth of central government by their thoughtless support for the war on drugs. ... There is nothing--absolutely nothing--conservative about the war on drugs. ... And, as everyone knows, the "coca' in Coca-Cola refers to the extract coca leaf that was once an ingredient in the popular drink. Coca-Cola was not entirely cocaine-free until 1929. ... Advocates for the drug war often hypothesize nightmare scenarios where the legalization of drugs will lead to chaos and toal social breakdown, constructing fantasies about legions of chemically addled criminals preying upon the helpless citizenry while in search of their next high. But, as has been seen in Colombia and more recently in Mexico, it is actually the illegalization of drugs that causes social devastation, as the drug war's efforts to interdict supply only increases the price of drugs and therefore the profit of the criminal gangs willing to trade in them. ... Americans should have learned their lesson from prohibition. ... Thus, I was encouraged to read Pat Buchanan's recent article on WorldNetDaily, in which one of America's leading conservatives finally recognized the stark choice that so many conservatives have sought to avoid facing for three decades. ... The fact that the Obama administration is now citing Mexico's narco war as an excuse to limit Second Amendment rights should suffice to prove to conservatives that the time has come to end the war on drugs. Yes, Mr, Buchanan, America must raise the white flag in the drug war", Vox Day, 9 March 2009, at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=91102.

Welcome aboard PB, you're just 40 years late. America can't adopt Mao's solution? Why? With over 200 million firearms in the US, it will be open season on cops. Millions of Americans will join the Mexican cartels. Few if any drug salesmen will be taken alive by policemen if each expects to be executed. The drug war is over.

I've said this for over 40 years. We passed the Harrison Act (HA) in 1914. Was every American a drug addict in 1914? The nightmare scenarios are a cover for religious influence. Drugs, like demon rum should be outlawed. Ask Carrie Nation. Many of the same people, like the Women's Christian Temperance Union pushed the HA. The US's highest percentage of opiate addicts was in 1865, following the Civil War. Think about why. Some of our drug war resulted from anti-Chinese animus. Those of you old enough to remember Paladin on television, 1957-63, may remember where "Hey Boy" was warned not to go: his uncle's opium den! San Francsico had opium dens in 1875? Yes.

Weimar Ben?

"'The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency,' said Lord Keynes. Ben Bernanke disagrees. a student of the Detpression, the Fed chair appears far more fearful of deflation--a vicious cycle of falling prices, debt defaults, home foreclosures and rising unemployment. ... Is Bernanke fighting the war of 1929 in 2009? Surely, today, with the explosion in M1, the basic money supply, there is no shortage of dollars out there, even if they are not circulating fast enough. To end our recession, Bernanke may be running an even greater risk: hyper-inflation. This has destroyed more nations than deflation or even depression. ... 'The first panecea for a mismanaged nation,' said Ernest Hemingway, 'is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.' ... Bernanke is printing money to buy US bonds. ... For inflation is theft", Pat Buchanan (PB), 24 March 2009 at http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2009/03/24/the_weimar_solution

PB's Weimar solution looks like the dollar's final solution.

Kill the Fed?

Pat Buchanan (PB) quotes my favorite US president, "Of Nicholas Biddle's Bank of the United States, the great Andrew Jackson was eloquent. 'It has tried to kill me,' he said. 'But I will kill it.' And he did. Should not this creature from Jekyl Island, for all its manifest crimes and sins againt the republic, also be summarily put to death?," 2 April 2009 at http://vdare.com/buchanan/090402_fed.htm.

Yes PB. In the most gruesome way. Crucifixion! Invoke the spirit of Williams Jennings Bryan, "Thou shalt not crucify mankind upon a cross of paper"! The CNC guillotine is too good for the Fed!

The End of America?

"In the Crash of 2008, 40 percent of stock value has vanished, almost $9 trillion. Some $5 trillion in real estate value has disappeared. A recession looms with sweeping layoffs, unemployment compensation surging, and social welfare benefits soaring. America's first trillion-dollar deficit is at hand. ... As Americans save nothing, where are the feds going to get the money? Is the Fed going to print it and destroy the dollar and the credit rating of the [US]? ... The budget is going to have to go under the knife. But what gets cut? Social Security and Medicare are surely exempt. ... Medicaid and food stamps are untouchable. Interest on the debt cannot be cut. ... Yet, that is almost the entire U.S. budget--except for defense, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and foreign aid. And this is where the axe will eventually fall. It is the American Empire that is going to be liquidated. Retrenchment has begun with Bush's backing away from confrontations with the Axis-of-Evil charter members Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and will likely continue with a negotiated peace in Afghanistan. Gen. Petreus and Secretary Gates are already talking 'reconciliation' with the Taliban. We no longer live in Eisenhower's or Reagan's America. Even the post-Cold War world of George H. W. Bush, where America was a global hegemon, is history. In both relative and real terms, the U.S.A. is a diminished power. Where Ike spent 9 percent of GDP on defense, Reagan spent 6 percent, we spend 4 percent. ... As U.S. weapons systems are many times more expensive today, we have fewer strategic aircraft and Navy ships than Ike or Reagan commanded. Our active-duty Army and Marines Corps consists of 700,000 troops, 15 percent women, and a far higher percentage of them support rather than combat troops. With so few legions, we cannot police the world, and we cannot afford more. Yet, we have a host of newly hostile nations we did not have in 1989. ... With a recession of unknown depth and duration looming, why keep borrowing billions from rich Arabs to defend rich Europeans, or billions from China and Japan to hand out Millennium Challenge Grants to Tanzania and Burkina Faso"," Pat Buchanan (PB), 13 October 2008 at http://vdare.com/buchanana/081013_liquidating.htm.

Chris Hedges (CH) rants against our idiot rulers on 20 October 2008: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081020_the_idiots_who_rule_america/.

"Where is the bottom? How far do we have to fall? According to Roubini, 'The policy makers have lost control.' But the policy-makers never had control. The economy is a creature of its own, with laws of its own, where prosperity corresponds to freedom. ... On every side, from economists and politicians, the truth has been forgotten. We hear politicians talk about 'fixing' the economic problem. There is no 'fix' that can be engineered by government. ... Despite his nickname of 'Dr. Doom,' Roubini says there isn't going to be another Great Depression. ... The capitalist world is headed for an unprecedented crisis. It is a financial crisis, and it is also a strategic crisis. When the Great Depression took hold nearly eighty years ago, there were no nuclear powers. ... This column has previously discussed the statements of Chinese Gen. Chi Haotian, known to Chinese dissidents. In recent years China's leaders have been quietly talking to party cadres about a future war with America. ... It is more than a tactic, however to tell the political elite of a country that war is coming. The Chinese leadership has not been blind to the financial problem inherent in the U.S. economy and, therefore, the related problem of the Chinese economy. ... After affirming Deng Xiaoping's dictum that 'development is the hard truth' for China, Gen. Chi warned that economic development isn't going to continue forever. "Our economic development is all about preparing for the need of war!' Chi declared. 'Publicly we still emphasize economic development as our center, but in reality, economic development has war as its center!' Therefore, China's economic development has a strategic purpose. It looks ahead to an inevitable crisis of national survival. ... Without specifically stating the obvious to a Communist gathering, Gen Chi points to the inevitable crisis of capitalism, which in integral to the teachings of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. ... 'What is our key to correct orientation? It is to solve the issue of America'. Such a statement may be 'shocking,' yet there is logic in it. The situation of the Chinese ruling party suggests the necessity of outward expansion, and the United States stands in the way. "In the long run,' said Chi, 'the relationship of China and the [US] is one of a life-and-death struggle.' ... China's need for living space is urgent. The need for energy resources cannot be denied. In terms of solving these problems, America is the main obstacle. 'Of course,' noted Chi, 'right now is not the time to openly break with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology, we still need America.' ... According to Chi, the Chinese 'must put up with America; we must conceal our ultimate goals, hide our capabilities and await the opportunity.' ... 'Thus we will understand why we constantly talk loudly about the "Taiwan issue" but not the "American issue". We all know the principle of "doing one thing under the cover of another". If ordinary people can only see the small island of Taiwan in their eyes, then you as the elite of our country should be able to see the whole picture of our cause.' ... What Beijing wants is identical to Moscow's goal in Europe. Divide Europe from America through economic and financial agreements. Isolate the [US] and assure European neutrality in a future conflict. ... A military outbreak may be months or years away. Before this outbreak begins, Europe must be detached from America. Already the process in underway, initiated by Moscow' and this process craves wary watching. America's leaders are presently distracted. All eyes are on the economy. But today's crisis is not merely economic. It is a strategic crisis as well", JR Nyquist (JRN), 31 October 2008 at http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2008/1031.html.

Well said PB, where? During the 1950s it was just "accepted" that the US should spend about 10% of GDP on defense. The 4% figure PB cites is not comparable to the 9% as military pensions are a larger percentage of our defense budget than in 1960. PB is correct about military equipment cost. A P-51, our best WWII fighter cost $50,985 in 1945 according to wikipedia, about $1.2 million 2008 dollars. An F-22, if we ever build it, will cost at least $100 million a copy, depending on the length of the production run.

I am very sympathetic to CH's statements. Our ruling elite is incompetent and hopelessly conflicted. CH ends with, "But I do know that what is coming, as long as our oligopoly remains in charge, will not be good. We will either recover the concept of the public good, and this means a revolt against our bankrupt elite and the dynamiting of the corporatist structure, or we will extinguish our democracy". Amen!

JRN's points are well-taken. Our military position is unenviable. Neither Obama nor McCain seriously discussed America's potential future threats. The closest we got is talk about the surge and whether or not we should stay in Iraq. Iraq is of no strategic importance to the US. China's and Russia's military capabilites are.

Comrade Smith Reports from Oblast New York

"A mere few weeks ago, the Fannie/Freddie rescue was called 'the mother of all bailouts" by some commentators. ... This puts the Treasury's actions beyond the rule of law. This is a financial coup d'etat, with the only limitation the $700 billion balance sheet figure. ... The Treasury could via incompetence or venality grossly overpay for assets and advisory services, and fail to exclude consultants with conflicts of interest. ... Yet as we discussed the plan makes no sense unless the Orwellian 'fair market prices' means 'above market prices.' ... 'The failure to be honest about [losses] upfront will lead to a taxpayer backlash (or will lead to the production of phony financial statements for the rescue entity, which will lead to revolt by our friendly foreign funding sources).' ... The US needs to wean itself of unsustainable overconsumption, and since consumption has come to depend on growth in indebtedness, a reversal, however, painful is necessary. ... The Treasury program, by deliberately propping up asset prices, will delay finding a market clearing level and thus attenuate the financial crisis", Yves, aka "Comrade" Smith (CS) at Naked Capitalism, 21 September 2008.

"Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess--that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? ... Yet, who got us into this mess, if not the government--the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy? ... We are going to have to learn to live again within our means. The party's over. ... Who are we kidding? What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars or balance its budget. ... An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators", Patrick Buchanan (PB) at the Houston Chronicle, 21 September 2008.

Thank you CS for a superb report from Oblast New York (ONY). Thanks too for paying IA an eight-figure fee for ONY's Henry Paulson as Che Guevarra T-shirt concession. Other concesssions available include: Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, Pittsburgh, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, San Francisco-San Jose, and Philadelphia. Concession fees are only payable in one-ounce gold bullion coins: Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, Chinese Pandas and American Eagles. Note to Comrade Richard Fuld: I understand you have about $400 million. For only 400,000 one-ounce bullion coins I'll give you the concessions for all US Oblasts except ONY which CS has. I'm sure, for a very large fee, you could induce CS to sell you her concession. One issue CS. You write, "the only limitation the $700 billion balance sheet figure". CS, that's $700 billion today. The "law" will be amended in one year to read, "$1.4 trillion"! Excepting that, a superb job CS. So superb, you need not go to the gulag for at least a year. Heil Hitler! Excuse me, wrong dictatorship. Long live the proletariat and death to the capitalist running dogs.

Thank you Comrade Buchanan (CB) for your observations from Oblast Washington. An IA war story. About ten years ago as I walked down Los Angeles's Sunset Boulevard near Vine Street in front of the Border's book store, a camera crew interviewed people about some issue. The woman with the microphone walked over and asked my political affiliation. I answered, "I'm a Robert Taft Republican". She looked at me in horror and she and the cameraman walked away. IA's "present sense impression", the woman was not taken aback by the word "Republican", but she had not heard of Robert Taft. My guess: she went to a "J" school and knew virtually no American history. Here's a link to CB's article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6012931.html.

The Plan is MLEC multiplied nine times, see my 18 October 2007 post, http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2007/10/use-your-own-money.html. The financial statements must be phony. Who will "audit" them? The Big 87654 which "audit" Freddie, Fannie, Citigroup, etc. Where are the Big 87654 when you need them? They should each have released a position paper at 9:00 AM 22 September 2008 stating the plan requires using phony financial statements and they will not be party to it. Well Mark Olson? What's your opinion? What do I suggest? Since 14 October 2007, I have favored "a 25-year moratorium on any GS executive working for the Treasury or Fed", http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2007/10/party-like-its-1929.html. I now extend that from GS to include: Merrill, Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Citigroup and Bank of America. We can't afford these clowns in Washington doing favors for their cronies at the public's expense.

I thought some Mafia quotes would be appropriate. "Mafia is a process, not a thing. Mafia is a form of clan-cooperation to which it's individual members pledge lifelong loyalty. ... Friendship, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience--this was the glue that held us together", Joe Bonnano.

"Everybody has a price", Jimmy Hoffa.
"I never lie to any man because I don't fear anyone. The only time you lie is when you are afraid", John Gotti. Hank "Treasury" Paulson, Wall Street mob made member is very afraid.

"In Bensonhurst, that was it, becoming a made guy. It's all we kids ever talked about. ... I never saw the other side of it until I in, and then it's too late and you just do your work", Sammy, "The Bull" Gravano. Poor Paulson, he's in so deep. he can't get out. He needs to be put in the federal witness protection program.

"Other kids are brought up nice and sent to Harvard and Yale. Me? I was brought up like a mushroom", Frank Costello.

"Goodfellas don't sue goodfellas. Goodfellas kill goodfellas", Salvatore Profaci. More mafia quotes are avaliable at http://www.geocities.com/mafiason_99/Quotes.html?200825. Why Mafia quotes? Look at Paulson's actions. They remind me of a Russian word, "mafiozny", literally "mafianess". Here's a link to my 4 December 2007 post, which helps explain what's going on: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2007/12/bloodless-coup-continues-4.html.