Musings on the Week
Musings on the Week
February 14, 2015
Government - “The spirit of
resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to
be always kept alive.” Thomas
Jefferson.
Politics
- This week’s
distractions from the stagnant economy and ObamaCare:
Brian Williams self-promoting exaggerations and invitation to Netanyahu to address Congress.
Politics
– There is no way Hillary
Clinton can repackage herself as anything other than old recycled ideas based on the same failed ideology advised by the same campaign team.
Politics
– National support for Elizabeth Warren is a figment of MoveOn.org’s imagination, since her role is to make Hillary
Clinton seem thoughtful and accomplished by comparison.
Politics
– For someone supposed to be the inevitable Democrat
candidate, Hillary
Clinton is certainly keeping a low profile
limited her exposure and her opportunity for gaffes.
Language
– ’Need' now means wanting someone
else's money; 'Greed' now means wanting to keep your
own money; and 'Compassion' is now when
a politician arranges the transfer.
Economy
- “Never spend your
money before you have earned it.” Thomas Jefferson.
Jobs
– The jobs market has recovered in significant
ways, but remains far from fully healed with less people working
today than six years ago when Obama took office.
Economy
– Last year was the ninth consecutive year in which
the economy grew less than 3%, and if it wasn’t for gains made by the well off,
there wouldn’t be a “recovery.”
Finance
– The European Central Bank is repeating the mistakes
of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan, embarking on
quantitative easing to try to resuscitate their economy.
Debt
– Seven years after the bursting of the global credit bubble
resulting in the 2007 financial crisis, all major
economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP.
Debt
– Only in four countries, Ireland,
Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, has household debt decreased,
while their governments have increased their overall debt load.
Banking
– The Wall Street mega-banks encourage their senior
executives to transition to senior levels of government
by providing incentives to compensate for lowered salaries.
Taxes
– While the prospects
for tax reform in Washington are dim, as many as 20 Republican governors are moving forward with their own
pro-growth tax-relief initiatives.
Social
Security – Four nations, Chile, Australia, Sweden and Netherlands, have
all transitioned to individual pension systems to replace their unsustainable
defined benefit programs.
Immigration
– The United States has accepted
almost two new immigrants (18 million total) for each additional job created
(9.3 million) since 2000, according to federal data.
Immigration
– The IRS confirmed that illegal
immigrants granted deportation amnesty are entitled to collect additional tax
refunds under President Obama’s plan for
immigration.
Energy
– The EPA is using artificially inflated
carbon dioxide reduction rules as a bludgeon to choke off all new
technologically-advanced coal-fired electricity production.
Environment
– Further undermining their credibility, over many
years multiple government climate organizations have been caught “adjusting” official historical temperature data.
Environment
– States are waking up to the harm done by U.N. “Agenda
21” control over our lives: land use, education, population control,
health care, and economic downsizing.
Justice
– The DOJ under Eric
Holder has been politicized and will take multiple
Republican administrations to purge the embedded partisan lawyers from within
its ranks.
War
- “I have seen
enough of one war never to wish to see another.” Thomas
Jefferson.
Foreign
Policy – Obama has a new name for incompetence:
“strategic patience” debating policy problems until it is too late to
solve them or simply deny the problems even exists.
GWOT
– The medieval Crusades were fought to stop repeated Islamic
colonial oppression and religious persecution of Christianity in the
Middle East and Europe.
GWOT
– Obama offered moral equivalence
between 12th century Christianity and 21st century Islam,
ignoring all positive changes made in the last 900 years, to
justify atrocities.
GWOT
– President Obama rejects most national security
experts’ advice and instead lets his own perspective guide his strategy to let
Islamists rule because he feels they will only fail.
Middle
East – The proposed Authorization for Use of Military Force
repeals and replaces previous AUMFs, but is self-limiting in time and tactics and self-defeating in concept.
Yemen
– The Shiite Houthi militia
has completed their takeover of North Yemen despite
administration claims of success in their war on Islamic extremists in this
country.
Cuba
– Obama’s “historic” outreach to Havana to “normalize
relations” is doomed because Cuba is
now demanding unacceptable economic, financial, and political pre-conditions.
David Coughlin
Hawthorne, NY
http://www.returntocommonsensesite.com/