Why we don't have a Spending Problem

To understand why our Great Nation does not have a spending problem all you have to do is the math. Add up the revenues going into the US Treasury monthly and then compare the amount of dollars flowing out of that same federal institution to calculate a governmental surplus or deficit condition.  Having done so, I have determined that the federal government currently spends several hundreds of billions of dollars a month in excess of what we taxpayers deposit with these same folks.  As this state of affairs has been the norm for most all of the existence of our Constitutional Republic - granted not on the scale of deficit spending this Administration has achieved - it appears that government spending more than its annual revenue is no big deal really.

Of course, the government's revenue shortfalls are fully compensated for by the Treasury borrowing the needed funds from persons, businesses and nations willing to lend dollars to us in return for repayment of the loan principle plus interest.  In the past, I have complained that this mortgaging of America to foreign enemies such as the Saudi's, Chi-Coms and the French gravely jeopardizes our independence.  Should any of these nations threaten to pull the plug on existing or future loans, the government would be in an untenable situation - thus, my concern has been that these creditors can extort foreign policy/national security concessions from the United States by merely starting to close their Central Bank cashier's window when Uncle Sam is standing there with his handout.  So far, however, I have not seen any examples of such extortion having taken place. Of course, such wielding of undue influence will not be trumpeted by press releases or public statements, so we really don't know for sure.

What we do know for sure is that this Administration, clearly cognizant of the danger of having our Great Nation "owned" by foreign enemies, has moved swiftly to rescue deficit borrowing from these unfriendlies. Today, the US Treasury just goes over to the US Federal Reserve to borrow most of the funds needed to cover the government's deficit spending.  Because the Federal Reserve has unlimited money - it actually does go into the basement and print US dollars - the spending "problem" of the US government is neatly solved by this unlimited expansion of the money supply in circulation both domestically and in world markets.  So, who says that there is no such thing as a magic bullet - the Federal Reserve is us; its Board of Governors will never threaten to withhold more credit or pull its existing loans, as all these guys/gals are American Patriots.  So, you ask what could go wrong with this monetization of the government's deficits - only one thing: the Federal Reserve adds absolutely no value to the US economy by expanding the money supply; indeed the only asset owned by the FED is a single printing press that makes dollar bills, out of non-recycled paper I might add.  Accordingly, when an nation's economy is literally flooded with massive amounts of non-assets - new dollars, indeed trillions of dollars annually - that explosion of currency makes each dollar worth less and less in buying power daily, as the same amount of good and services exist in the economy but there exists trillions of additional dollars available for their purchase.

Now, we are not speculating here.  In 1924, the Weimar Republic of Germany sought to print its way to a painless way of paying off the country's WWI reparations/debt.  Soon a loaf of bread at a Berlin grocery store cost more than two millions German marks.  My reminders of this reality, of course, are the photos of the German moms and grandmothers going shopping with wheelbarrows of almost worthless cash, as the nation's economy has devolved into a barter system where bread was the real currency.  So, I say buy wheelbarrows or bread now, as we have no spending problem, just a printing problem.    

Torture is as Torture Does. Not.

Due to a necessary, possibly life saving, medical procedure two weeks ago, I now have first hand knowledge of pain so intense, so unbearable, so persistently those two stated impacts, that but for the immediate "crash team" intervention, I would have gone catatonic.  The human body does seek surcease from torture by retreating to a state aptly called going into shock.

Not to be needlessly graphic, but when you have three muscular urologists, in turn, using all their arm strength to insert an over-sized plastic tube down/up your penis all the way to the bladder, a rational person passes quickly from "denial" to "bargaining".   My first literal shout-out to my abusers was to disclose the nuclear launch codes for the President's "football". Then, I gave up the full names and social security numbers for the Dallas Grassy knoll shooters, followed by a full listing of all White House interns who had not had sex with Bill Clinton.  Finally, offered my attending physicians a thirty minute interview with the military doctors who had conducted the alien autoptyies at Area 51.

OK, you get my point - a human being tortured will say anything to try to stop the unbearable pain, even the truthful answers to an interrogator's questions, should the abusesee believe that falsehoods will be seen as such by his abuser.

Now, I have not been water boarded since Frat Pledge Hell Week, but can say with confidence that the insertion of a too large object into a too small human cavity is much worse - at least underwater they can't hear you scream.

So, what is my larger point here - no pun intended?  Obama/Holder have argued that the CIA operatives who subjected Islamist terrorists to water boarding committed crimes - due to the severity of the "harm/pain" inflicted upon their Gitmo prisoners.  Patently, were the degree of physical pain be the  determining factor of criminality, I would now be the Star Witness against three Philadelphia doctors.  Of course, the physician's intent - to save my life - vitiates any criminal mens rea, making the President's assertion of criminality ludicrous on its face.

Identically, the CIA operatives' intent - to save the lives of innocent Americans - vitiates any criminal mens rea, also making the President's assertion of criminality ludicrous on its face.  Now , one or two of the Elite Membership may conclude that I had consented to my mistreatment, thereby making a salient difference in these two transactions as to prosecution exposure.  Well, guys and gals, as soon as I realized that the selected catheter tube was so mis-sized, I withdrew my prior implied consent at the top of my lungs, but to no avail as this procedure continued unabated for another forty-five minutes of pure agony.  So, my real point here is my shout-out to this President: "Stop the Mendacity."        

Guns and Roses

This is difficult, as it should be I know.  The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre constitutes evil of unfathomable depth - a place so dark, I don't want to fathom its reality.  Particularly, I have no interest in examining the life of this crazed murderer so that we all can be made to feel guilty because society treated him poorly such that his self esteem was undermined.  Instead, my focus is and will remain fixed on how we prevent these obvious Nut Jobs from getting their hands on firearms.

Now, please understand me, so my self esteem is not diminished.  While I have never owned a gun myself, I do support the Second Amendment because individual freedom dictates that we the people have the right to effective self-defense against criminals who will always have easy access to illegal weapons.  What our nation needs to address is not criminal violence, but this spreading terror of the lone wolf madman blazing his way into eternity.

One sensible societal response to this growing menace is to require a rigorous firearms training program for first time gun permit applicants which will include a psych evaluation for any single white male under the age of 30.  Call it racist, call it racial profiling, I just don't care, and refuse to ignore the obvious pattern here.  When Columbine, Aurora and now Newtown all involve young disaffected white males, I see a rational need for extra scrutiny for that category of individual who has engaged in the rage of mass murder.  Just as the airport screeners for political correctness hassle everyone, including granny and little children, so the true terrorists are able to get on planes with explosive underpants, gun sales to young white Americans need not be banned, but for the children's sake ought to be limited to those individuals who are rational and not dead men walking.  

Sunday Sliders, Straight Down the Middle

With the Fiscal Cliff fast approaching, the political leadership is finally getting serious about making sure that the other party is blamed when this train wreck blows up; mixed metaphors used to reflect the surreal feel here.  Accordingly, we turn to the real world for succor:

@In NYC, Mayor Bloomburg has proposed that all radio stations broadcasting Christmas Carols in the City do not play songs telling of Santa Claus delivering presents to children by coming down the dwelling's fireplace chimney, saying that boys and girls residing in chimney-less apartments are made to feel left out and inferior.

Susan Rice will be our next Secretary of State, as former Libyan Ambassador Stevens remains unavailable to fill this Cabinet post.  Despite the murderers of our four American heroes remaining free to massacre innocents at will again, the political leadership in both parties remains obsessed with who edited Ms. Rice's Sunday Show's talking points, rather than America's obvious impotence in being unable to bring to Justice extremists when anti-video demonstrations get out of hand.

Accordingly, only three conclusions present themselves as believable: (1) the War for fiscal sanity is over, national solvency lost; (2) the War on Christmas is over, Christ lost; (3) The War on Terrorism is over, civilization lost.

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all mankind!


      

Why Susan Rice still doesn't Matter

... and Never will.  Let me emphasize at the very outset that I believe that Ms. Rice is fully qualified to serve our great Nation as Secretary of State in the Second Obama Term.  Why you ask? To answer this inquiry, we'll look at the qualifications of just one of her predecessors, her unrelated name sake, Condi Rice. (I'm not close to Condi, but use her nic name, as I can't spell Condelleiza - see!)  Now, back to my comparison - as President Bush's National Security Advisor in 2001, Condi Rice was absolutely clueless about Osama Bin Laden and Al Quida's terrorist capabilities and intentions for a deadly assault on our country.  Indeed, after the World Trade Center attack, Condi proclaimed that no one in the Administration, herself included, had envisioned the possibility of commercial airliners being used as weapons.  Really? I guess that Professor Rice never heard of the WWII Pacific Theatre of combat in which hundreds of young Jap pilots, sincerely believing that committing suicide by flying their planes into our warships guaranteed them an eternity in Heaven, did so to great effect, but just one time each.  Yet, despite this egregious admission of historic ignorance, Professor Rice went on to serve as a heralded Sec. of State in the Bush Second Term, credited with assembling the Coalition of the Willing to topple the Butcher of Bagdad.

So, what's my beef with Susan Rice, you again ask?  Its the absence of beef that I find blame worthy.  Where was the intellectual integrity and rigorous preparation for her appearance on all five Sunday  News shows in which she spoke to the entire nation about a spontaneous demonstration that was followed-up by "opportunist extremists" attacking the Benghazi consulate and CIA Annex a mile distant.  Of course, that narrative was false.  Were Ms. Rice to have asked anyone these questions, President Obama included: who observed this demonstration at the consulate, asked to see the photographs thereof, asked to read the cables from the State Department officials in Benghazi describing the demonstration, she would have been informed that none of these items ever existed, because no demonstrators ever existed in Benghazi. Therefore, it's obvious that Ms. Rice merely towed the party line, which is the one essential qualification to be a valuable and heralded Secretary of State in any Administration.

In previous blog Posts, I have postulated that any former President, except Jimmy Carter, would have fired, as soon as informed of the names of his subordinates, those Administration officials responsible for the DOJ criminal gun running to Mexico's drug cartels.  Similarly, what President allows his subordinates to put out a false narrative of a non-existent demonstration, when our Intelligence Community spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year to know the actual facts on the ground?  That level of incompetence would be a firing offense for the Director of the CIA on Day One had the President actually have been so misinformed.  He wasn't.

Accordingly, all the machinations of the Republicans on Fox News whining about who in the White House changed the CIA talking points by deleting the references to terrorists and substituting "extremists" are as clueless as Condi Rice.  Forget the semantics, there are three unforgivable scandals here, none of which involve wordsmithing: (1) allowing our Ambassador to go into a terrorist controlled area unprotected on the deadliest terrorist day of each year - 9/11; (2) not sending military forces to his rescue for over seventeen hours; and (3) to this very day, months later, having brought not one terrorist, nor even a single street demonstrator, to justice for these heinous murders. I find Susan Rice to be uniquely qualified to be a major figurine in such an accomplished Administration.

Why Bill Plante Still Matters

The current national political discourse reminds me, not of Watergate, but of the Ronald Reagan Era Iran-Contra debacle. When, in the early days of President Reagan's second term, Attorney General Ed Meese took the podium in the White House Press Room, he announced to the utter disbelief of the assembled media reps that, without the knowledge or approval of the President, an obscure retired Marine, Oliver North, working for the National Security Council in the White House basement, had himself acquired and sold large quantities of anti-aircraft missiles to America's sworn enemy, Iran.  Then, again by himself, Colonel North took the millions in his illegal gun running profits and gave it to armed rebels fighting a communist government in Central America.

When the Attorney General concluded his defense of President Reagan by emphasizing the "rogue" nature of this National Security Council operation over three continents involving tens of millions worth of military assets, dozens of Air Force cargo planes and cakes with keys, the WH Press Room erupted in outrage.  One of the most angry Patriots demanding accountability from the President was the CBS Chief White House Correspondent, Bill Plante, who literally shouted at Meese: "If the President didn't know, then WHY DIDN'T HE?  In 1980's America, the nation's media, indeed the entire national political establishment, unequivocally rejected the Sargeant Schultze: "I know Nothing" stance of Meese.

Thirty years later, first in the "Fast and Furious" DOJ gun running criminal conspiracy, and now with the Benghazi/Petraesis/Allen scandals, where is Bill Plante and the national clammer that our President  know what his subordinates are doing when hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican innocents, a American Ambassador and three American heroes are dead.

When the CIA Director is sleeping around, the General Officer running the Afghan war is spending more time e-mailing a woman not his wife than he is in the trenches, keeping these matters from the President - because neither rose to the level of a national security risk, is OK.  WHAT?  - the top national security official makes himself liable to blackmail by Iran, China, Russia, even France, and the media accepts Holder's nonsense that we didn't tell Obama because Pretraesis' dalliance was merely a personal indiscretion?  That is a national disgrace.  Now, I know that Bill Plante still is not dead.  Therefore, I expect he and every American Patriot to demand better.  The traditional America of accountability following responsibility must be preserved in the 21st Century.

Why Winston Churchill still Matters

                                              As Does Ms. Charlene Lamb

Wow, This was definitely the Week that Was - we got to see all levels of government at work and play. First, Superstorm Sandy pummels the northeast Big Time. Governor Chris Christy, the "Insultinator", who other than John Sununu, gave us the best rips on President Obama's lack of leadership skills, this week kissed up to the President so big time that not only did he get a brown nose, his freikin head now looks like a over-sized Milk Dud.  Go figure!

In NYC, Mayor Nanny-State, who sees the role of government to be to limit the public's right to drink soda in one large cup (while allowing consumers to purchase simultaneously a six pack or more of almost as large soda containers, so not real reduction in calorie intake, just additional expense and difficulty in carrying multiple cups) decided to ignore the well being of millions of New Yorkers - in jeopardy of starving and freezing to death in the dark - so he could watch some tens of thousands of runners jog around the City while police and utility assets catered to their needs.  Go figure!

So you ask, where does Ms. Charlene Lamb fit into this morass of politicians acting stupidly? Squarely at the Apex of arrogant refusal to be honest, candid and truthful, regrettably. 

As an Elite Member, you are knowledgeable big time, as well as being fully aware of my disdain for this Chief Executive, who will not hold subordinates accountable for their egregious mis-judgments that literally cause the deaths of innocents.  So, when Ms. Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomat Security, told us all in sworn testimony before the Congress that the security assets in Benghazi were sufficient despite the murderous attack by dozens of terrorists armed with heavy weapons, including multiple mortars, she should have been shown the door immediately.  Can you imagine the reactions of the American diplomats across the world upon hearing that a cerifiably insane woman is still in charge of guarding their very lives in the aftermath of Benghazi?

Hey, at least the Commander-in-Chief is consistent: he didn't fire anyone in his Administration after learning of the death of Brian Terry in the Fast & Furious scandal; hell, he didn't have the Army stop paying Major Hasan his full six figure salary after he murdered 14 fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood; so, it appears that Ms. Lamb's four bumps in the road of the Arab Spring, while not optimal, were not a big deal for her continued career of government service.  Hell fire, I defy any Elite Member to name a single governmental official that this President has fired in his four years of executive government leadership.

Well, this Tuesday, November 6th, we the American people can prove Winston Churhill right by confirming that Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others, by voting to fire the current occuppant of 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue, and replace him with new tenants for the next four years.  As citizens, we have a moral obligation to finally hold someone in the Obama Administration accountable for the last four years, and if not Charlene Lamb, then it should be Barry himself.  Just vote.