DC Drowning In Its Hubris

Barack Obama, Bush, China, Foreign Policy, Propaganda, Russia, South-Africa, War

The indomitable Paul Graig Roberts on the US’s foreign policy and its financial (and other) repercussions:

“…the Bush/Obama regime is conducting military operations in violation of international law in Pakistan, Yemen, and Africa, organized the overthrow by armed conflict of the government in Libya, is currently working to overthrow the Syrian government, and continues to marshal military forces against Iran.

Finding the Muslim adversaries Washington created insufficient for its energies and budget, Washington has encircled Russia with military bases and has begun the encirclement of China. Washington has announced that the bulk of its naval forces will be shifted to the Pacific over the next few years, and Washington is working to re-establish its naval base in the Philippines, construct a new one on a South Korean island, acquire a naval base in Viet Nam, and air and troop bases elsewhere in Asia.

In Thailand Washington is attempting to purchase with the usual bribes an air base used in the Vietnam war. There is opposition as the country does not wish to be drawn into Washington’s orchestrated conflict with China. Downplaying the real reason for the airbase, Washington, according to Thai newspapers, told the Thai government that the base was needed for ‘humanitarian missions.’ This didn’t fly, so Washington had NASA ask for the air base in order to conduct ‘weather experiments.’ Whether this ruse is sufficient cover remains to be seen.

US Marines have been sent to Australia and elsewhere in Asia.

To corral China and Russia (and Iran) is a massive undertaking for a country that is financially busted. With wars and bankster bailouts, Bush and Obama have doubled the US national debt while failing to address the disintegration of the US economy and rising hardships of US citizens.

Despite the lack of an economic base, Washington’s hegemonic aspirations continue unabated. Other countries are amused at Washington’s unawareness. Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are forming an agreement to abandon the US dollar as the currency for international settlement between themselves.

On July 4 the China Daily reported: ‘Japanese politicians and prominent academics from China and Japan urged Tokyo on Tuesday to abandon its outdated foreign policy of leaning on the West and accept China as a key partner as important as the United States. The Tokyo Consensus, a joint statement issued at the end of the Beijing-Tokyo Forum, also called on both countries to expand trade and promote a free-trade agreement for China, Japan and South Korea.’

This means that Japan is in play.

The Chinese government, more intelligent than Washington, is responding to Washington’s military threats by enticing away Washington’s two key Asian allies. As the Chinese economy is now as large as the US and on far firmer footing, and as Japan now has more trade with China than with the US, the enticement is appealing. Moreover, China is next door, and Washington is distant and drowning in its hubris.

Washington, which flicked its middle finger to international law and to its own law and Constitution with its arrogance and gratuitous and illegal wars and with its assertion of the right to murder its own citizens and those of its allies, such as Pakistan, has made the United States a pariah state. …”

MORE.

IdiotCare’s Stunting Consequences

Barack Obama, Business, EU, Europe, Healthcare, Regulation

IdiotCare, aka ObamaCare, kicks in once a company is 50 people strong. In a word, once the business starts to grow. The costs imposed by this mandate compel the company to duck-and-dive in order to stay alive.

Kari DePhillips, co-owner of a small PR firm, explains how the health-care law would impact her small businesses, and what she is doing to stay in business. Incidentally, small businesses are already adept at handling similar situations, so as to avoid incurring the costs of affirmative-action laws.

DePhillips, of The Content Factory, told Fox’s Gerri Willis that she is “scrambling” to comply with the mandate, for she must provide employees with healthcare or face fines.

The additional costs the Ass With Ears will be imposing on Mrs. DePhillips: The year 2012, for this business woman, will mark the first time the cost of healthcare per employee “broke the 10,000 mark”! “Multiply that by 50,” and this entrepreneur is in hock to the tune of $500,000.

Hiring “fewer people or hiring in a different capacity (part-time, “1099 contractors”) are two solutions mentioned on The Willis Report.

Moving to the state of New Hampshire, as part of the “Free State Project,” is another option this enterprising young woman intends to exercise in the future.

Both women failed to mention to the incorporation option. Create a new business (at a certain cost) each time your company reaches 49, hardly a viable option. It’s probably least risky to stay small.

Like the Europeans, don’t shoot for the sky.

In 2006 I visited The Netherlands, one of the more free-market countries on the Continent. Shops did not open, on Monday, until 11:00 am so as to conserve the labor force. Expensive merchandize was kept under lock-and-key; customers treated like potential thieves. The supermarkets—a small, expensive selection of merchandize—made a visit to Costco as invigorating as smelling salts following a fainting spell.

Wait until our businesses look like Europe’s: small, meager, expensive. Then, Americans will blame business and look to Obama for yet more regulation.

Samuel Williams: American Hero

Constitution, GUNS, Human Accomplishment, Individual Rights

Her legions of soft, flaccid fans insist Karen Klein is an American hero. Wrong. Samuel Williams is the genuine article.

The spry senior sprung into action faster than any of the helpless young-ones around him. Williams chased and took aim at the armed robbers who had attacked patrons of the Palms Internet Cafe, in Marion County, Fl, where he and his wife were hanging out.

He took aim and HIT them. Take a look:

“…the Florida senior pulled a .380 semi-automatic gun, and started firing away at the crooks,” writes Jim Kane of News.

Wrong. As you can see, Williams took aim and hit both crooks, who suffered “minor gun-shot wounds,” and wound up in hospital.

The zip codes with the strictest gun laws, also have the highest numbers of rapes and murders. More firearms equals less crime.

This gentleman’s courage is astounding, given that the assailants were armed.

UPDATED: What Would John Randolph Of Roanoke Have Said?

Barack Obama, Conservatism, Federalism, Founding Fathers, History, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, States' Rights, The State

Obama’s remarks at Roanoke, Virginia, July 13, 2012, were more than a faux pas.

With these remarks, Obama has outed himself as a most odious collectivist, who believes that government predation is a condition for production:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

That snot Obama uttered these words in a place carrying the name Roanoke. I’m probably in a minority, but the place name makes me think of John Randolph of Roanoke, the great Southern agrarian, radical proponent of the states’ rights doctrine. John Randolph would have driven the parasite Obama off the commonwealth with force, if need be:

“Randolph was especially critical of the commerce clause and the general welfare clause of the Con­stitution. He predicted that the great extension of the power of centralized government would someday occur through these legal avenues. Time has proven him correct.” John Randolph of Roanoke [was] an eccentric genius, unwilling to admit the slightest compromise with the new order. Randolph feared the results of excessive cen­tralization and the impersonality of a government too far removed from the varieties of local experi­ence. Discussing the House of Rep­resentatives, he asked: ‘But, Sir, how shall a man from Mackinaw or the Yellow Stone River respond to the sentiments of the people who live in New Hampshire? It is as great a mockery — a greater mockery, than it was to talk to those colonies about their virtual representation in the British par­liament. I have no hesitation in saying that the liberties of the colonies were safer in the custody of the British parliament than they will be in any portion of this country, if all the powers of the states as well as those of the gen­eral government are devolved upon this House.'”
“Russell Kirk makes Randolph’s attitude completely clear when he writes, ‘For Randolph, the real people of a country were its sub­stantial citizenry, its men of some property, its farmers and mer­chants and men of skill and learn­ing; upon their shoulders rested a country’s duties, and in their hands should repose its govern­ment.’ It is John Randolph who developed much of the political framework later brought to frui­tion by John Calhoun. The primary emphasis in that framework as it developed rested upon the doctrine of states’ rights, a position not without validity. Indeed, an ear­lier biographer of John Randolph, the almost equally eccentric and irascible Henry Adams, has sug­gested that the doctrine of states’ rights was in itself a sound and true doctrine: ‘As a starting point of American history and constitu­tional law, there is no other which will bear a moment’s examination.’
Randolph was especially critical of the commerce clause and the general welfare clause of the Con­stitution. He predicted that the great extension of the power of centralized government would someday occur through these legal avenues. Time has proven him correct.” (“American Federalism: History,” by George Charles Roche III)

UPDATE (July 18): The Law by Frédéric Bastiat:

When successful, we would not have to thank the state for our success. And, conversely, when unsuccessful, we would no more think of blaming the state for our misfortune than would the farmers blame the state because of hail or frost. The state would be felt only by the invaluable blessings of safety provided by this concept of government.