Is Obama using Reagans Russian Strategy against us?
Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 2 months ago to The Gulch: General
I was discussing politics with a liberal friend of mine over the weekend. We talked about Reagan and he said he agreed with the defense build up in the 80's and that the Russians inability to keep up is what caused their collapse. The Russian economy simply could not spend as much as we could. The only issue he had with it was the deficits we were left with. It started me thinking that President Obama may be using that strategy against us. He takes over when the economy is struggling and uses it as an excuse to spend at an unprecedented pace. He has taken the deficit from 9 trillion to 18+ trillion in six years. Some economists are now concerned about the long term health of our economy. Is it possible Obama is turning the Russian Strategy against us???
Pick your poison: Obamacare declares each of our physical bodies to be the de facto property of government, and the best we get (from the RINO herd,) is "Repeal and Replace";
The Dodd / Frank / Greenspan / Bush / Bernanke / Obama mortgage meltdown and bailout had us reeling under Bush's $780B pulled out of thin air, with the "one step back" being a loudly-heralded "spending reduction" from the Boehner types that amounted to something like $300M, a drop in the bucket in context;
Iran is not just being allowed to develop nuclear weapons, but seemingly urged to by the Obama Administration - but now we've got some impressive naval firepower bravely defending Yemen from the Iranian navy, presumably to shore up the idea that BTO (Barack Taqqiya Obama) rilly-rilly means business on defense issues fer sure.
Examples abound, though most of them are more like "marathons forward" rather than a mere two steps.
I say it's time to embrace that game ourselves - and demand it of our elected "representation." By which I mean it's time to pull as radically in "our" direction as they have been pulling in the direction of collectivist totalitarianism.
- We've seen the groundwork being laid for the UN's "Agenda 21" plan - which is basically worldwide neo-serfdom under the "green" banners, Climategate or no Climategate. It's happening in many ways, from "smart" meters to light bulbs fitted with Wi-Fi and cameras to tele-screens to "smart growth" (which is neither,) to further regimentation of automotive engineering and ever-more-suffocating restrictions on driving per se. On land grabs, Obama is up to something like fifteen in his gargantuan land- and ocean- grabs as "National Monuments" and "Wilderness Areas" and "We Had To Call This Something Other Than Neo-Medievalism" etc. - the long-term goal of which for this century is the systematic obliteration of land ownership in total among us plebes. Which in turn means a lurch back to Medieval feudalism, in which a small clutch of nobles owns the land and the serfs exist by permission.
We can short-circuit this with two actions, one an easy sell and the other more difficult (keeping in mind that I'm neither an attorney nor expert on Constitutional Law):
1. A new Constitutional Amendment that would abolish, nationwide, all property taxation. Finis. Done. Ex-parrot.
Malta, Lichtenstein, Croatia, Thailand, Monaco, Fiji, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Israel, Dubai, Bahrain are just a few of the countries where there is no residential property taxation at all, or at most a one-time tax on purchase or sale of a residence. The United States of America, once the leader of the free world, has a less-just tax policy than Croatia? Than Malta? Than Dubai? We must abolish the barbaric anachronism of property taxation entirely, as a new human rights paradigm for the entire world. Given the fact that every American has to have a roof over his head, either owned or rented (renters would benefit from the landlord's lower costs,) this ought to be an easy sell and easy ratification.
2. Demand a complete selloff, to individual American citizens, of all government-held land not located directly beneath legitimate government buildings and military bases - whether at auction, via a new Homestead Act or some other mechanism is immaterial, so long as it's done, and aggressively implemented. The proceeds can be used to apply to the national debt. The CATO Institute did a paper on the subject in 1999 titled "How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands":
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa363.pdf
I hit upon the idea before becoming aware of that piece, but it's an idea whose time has come.
- We all know about Obamacare, and despite the fact that it's been whittled down significantly, even with a Republican Administration taking office in January 2017 the best proposal we're hearing is "Repeal and Replace." We should be arguing for a complete Separation of Medicine and State, using Peikoff's simple question as a springboard for debate: "Why was it possible for a person of modest means to get good health care prior to the mid-'60s without courting bankruptcy, but isn't now? What happened in the mid-'60s?"
- Communist Core is on the ropes but still in force; when asked what to replace it with, Republicans typically glance around nervously and ask about the weather. As above, we must push for a complete Separation of Education and State. Homeschooling, small parent-run neighborhood schools for those with neither expertise nor time to homeschool directly, and complete deregulation of for-profit school businesses and all private schools - these should be the Republican alternative.
Etc.
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One of their hot topics was the whole issue of Quantitative Easing... QE1-to-n. For years they kept pointing out that every QE did NOT cause the stock markets to go up, and for the most part, when the QE's began to be unwound, stock markets reacted with a yawn or a moderate Increase, exactly opposite of the panics and plummets that the mainscream media feared and 'promoted.'
But that didn't stop my brother and some other retired friends from going into bonds 'because their stocks had gone down,' either. Such is life.
They live theirs; I live mine. Enjoy yours, too!
Cheers!
I lobbied unsuccessfully to stop the stimulus. Things were fine, great compared to human history. Nothing justified that borrowing as if the US borders were under attack or something.
I love hearing stories of people who managed their modest wealth wisely and now have lifestyle that blows away most people in history, structured to last hundreds of years. :)
"Have you nothing of any value?"
I looked at the amount of federal debt now 18 trillion plus the unfunded entitlement programs like military retirement, congressional retirement, presidential retirement, medicare, obamacare, social security, railroad retirement, failed businesses bailout care, pork trough care and inflation care. Ha Ha.Which means the debt is really 36 trillion. Always seems to work out that way.But no worries.. someone will come along and say it's only five percent of GDP. Now we find the land is worth nothing. If so how come property tax isn't zero. And for those who thing T Bills at zero percent are worth something because the government can print all it wants....
However if some lender comes up and sez here's five trillion but I want all the federal land in Alaska , Washihgton, Oregon, Northern California along with timber, mineral, grazing and every other right do you think they would accept no matter what the Green say?
Me I say let them have southern California. That's why I left it out of the initial offer.
The VA is slower than the second coming of Jesus.
If they don't care for veterans, the average citizen does not have an ice cubes chance in Hades, on anything...not that we ever did. Of course ANYTHING done by the Government is "For the Pubic Good"
How many today?
Today's 'risk' is unique?!
Ah, forget it.. I'm obviously wrong...
Keep in mind that the 'nest eggs' lost in the '08 fiasco started with Democrats who changed "everyone should be able to own a home" to "Everyone MUST Own A Home" and screwed around with banking and bankers to 'encourage' them to make stupid loans so that Everyone Would Own A Home.
Problem is that the market distortions turned houses from 'homes' into 'investments' and suckers started flipping houses as part of their Retirement Plans, as opposed to a place to grow some equity while they Saved and Planned For Retirement.
Ok, you won't agree, but I've been right before and lots of folks still disagreed.
Next is the 'stock market meltdown' that 'robbed retirees of their nest eggs.'
Bullshit. A too-large percentage of the US population has been convinced that Investing in Stocks is a Gamble, the same as trying to get rich at the tables or machines in Las Vegas.
So they don't make smart investments or do the proverbial 'in at the top, out at the bottom' and then blame "Wall Street" for the results of their own ignorance and stupidity.
I'm probably in the top 5-10% today (certainly not the 1%, but WAY above average,) and I attribute it to my Mom pounding into me "don't carry debt" and "pay off your mortgage asap!".
I blew tens of thousands of dollars 'investing' through brokerage firms that got rich off the commissions and trading costs or applied cookbook 'tools' and pushed me out to sea with no compass or oars or rudder.
It took me a few decades to be lucky enough to be put in contact with a financial management firm that had a philosophy that sounded right to me... and to one of my very best friends and mentors who recommended it to me.
And you don't have to believe anything I say or agree with me at all, and from prior experience, I don't expect agreement, either.
But MY IRA, a bit over ten years after I handed it ALL over to that firm, has MORE dollars in it than the day my wife and I moved all of our retirement cash into it.
And AFTER ALL fees AND regular withdrawals to supplement Social Security to maintain the lifestyle we want, the treasure trove has 'plummeted' by a whopping 1/3rd PER CENT PER YEAR over the past 10.8 years!
That implies that the 'money will last hundred of years at the rate we're sucking it down. (about 7.5%/year.)
Yeah, stocks are like gambling... if you do no homework or trust your money to someone without skills or a dog in the fight. (My money manager makes a commission of a percentage of total holdings of his clients. If they screw up, they make less money. Nice incentive for them to not screw up, dontchathink? And their performance for us has beaten the hell out of Smith Barney or Charlie Schwab.)
Oh, and you will ignore that we hired our money manager BEFORE the housing bubble burst, too.
Cheers!
Ah, but what the hell do _I_ know...?
:)
All those 'isms' are similar that way (and the -igion one, too..)
But it's been commercialized here...
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n...
So what can replace gold?
Land...Federal land sold or leased even with restrictions is the only wealth left to pay the debt. Works on the State level tool. Only takes a court order to prevent bankruptcy, Or an executive orders from the throne.
Not much else left.
The rise and eventual fall of the US dollar is still in control of world markets. To state otherwise would actually be to admit that Obama, or The Fed, actually is in control of something of "real value".
They are not.
Oh, in so many ways...
Speaking as an economist, and from what I've read about BRICS and AIIB, (not in enough details to fully analyze, so at this point, only IMO) the US is in imminent danger of losing its status as the world reserve currency.
As someone who believes fully in the pure gold standard, its awkward to defend a "world reserve currency" based on paper.
OTOH, before the US it was Great Britain as the "world's banker". And look what happened to their "empire".
I guess what I am somewhat struggling to say is that, as artificial and corrupt as it may be, losing the "power" of the US dollar is just another symptom of how Obama has weakened us.
Good idea on the question mark...
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