New York City's Future of Bad Old Days

I wrote awhile ago about the strange nostalgia, among some New Yorkers, for the bad old days when NYC was dangerous, dirty shithole of a racial cauldron.  That nostalgia is still around, but it won't have to be mere nostalgia much longer as Bill DeBlasio will be our next mayor.  The bad old days are bound to come back.  Jay Nordlinger touches on this theme in much greater detail in part two of a series here.

Barney Frank Lives! (And Is Still Costing You Money)

In the middle of the sub-prime housing crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were losing tens of billions of dollars hand over fist, causing significant embarrassment and crimping the soviet wing of the Democratic Party's ability to control the housing market.  So what the central planners in DC did was quietly shift their massive subsidy machine to another agency, the Federal Housing Administration away from the dead men walking GSAs.

Well, we're a couple years removed from that sly move, and the predictable results are rolling in.  Whaddaya know, the FHA is going to need to raid the US Treasury.

The Federal Housing Administration will take a taxpayer subsidy for the first time in its 79-year history after efforts to improve its bottom line failed to offset losses on loans it backed during the housing bubble, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The government mortgage insurer will draw the money from the U.S. Treasury to shore up its insurance fund by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year, said the people who asked not to be identified because the action hasn’t been announced.

Federal budget officials are working to determine the exact size of the cash infusion, the people said. White House budget officials projected in April that the FHA would need about $1 billion. The agency, which is required to keep enough money on hand to cover projected future losses, has authority to take the money without prior approval from Congress.

Here is as easy a prediction as I'll ever make.  It won't be a $1 billion, it'll be way north of that.  And it won't be the last time.

"Climate Chaos". Another Failed Moniker for Elites' Scare Mongering??

Elites who are desperate to control our lives and redistribute the world's wealth had the Mac Daddy of all crusades in "Global Warming."  But then reality proved inconvenient because, well, the planet wasn't warming in the face of a massive increase in human-caused green house gases.  So, with a rhetorical pirouette, global warming became "climate change", so that any change could justify their continuing claims for a massive "policy response", which just happens to entail regulating all aspects of human behavior, heavily taxing businesses, setting up massive bureaucracies, and handing money to the developed world - nearly everything that leftists want anyway.  But "climate change" either didn't resonate or failed because there was no perceptible change, so that has started to give way to "climate chaos."  Will "climate chaos" have to go the way of the dodo in the face of a decidedly unchaotic climate??

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is humbling forecasters by shaping up as the first in almost two decades without a major storm, confounding predictions that it would be more active than normal. 

“The season looks to be a huge bust,” said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of Colorado State University’s annual storm forecast. “That’s one of the fun things about being in the weather business. It definitely keeps you humble.” 

Millionaires Are Feeling Good

Millionaires are optimistic.  So reports CNBC.

Millionaires are feeling good. Maybe too good.

The Spectrem Group's Millionaire Confidence Index, which measures the investment outlook of the wealthy, reached its highest limit in its 9½-year history. After bumping along in single digits since the recession, millionaire confidence suddenly spiked to 23.

Why? Because they know what the rest of America doesn't know - that current economic policy, the Obama economic policy, is great for millionaires even if it bad for everyone else.  I've laid it out many times before.  Let's review...

That's what Washington has created for us, a modest recovery that is accruing to capital and not to labor. How did they achieve this feat? Easy. First we must start with a misdiagnosis of the financial crisis. Politicians blamed it all on the banks and business, when it was largely the creation of government through highly distorted incentives. They further chose to tackle a financial panic, a monetary event, as a traditional business cycle recession and applied traditional counter-cyclical Keynesian "stimulus". Also, coming out of the financial crisis, the politicians ramped up both anti-business rhetoric and an anti-business policy agenda the likes of which this country hasn't see in seventy years. So as the monetary disruptions healed, the government was sucking the oxygen out of the economy by crowding out private capital to borrow and spend on "stimulus" and sending risk-takers to hide under their desks. So as the world beyond our borders recovered, having indulged in less over the top business bashing, US manufacturers have been able to secure alot of business exporting our great products to the world, but have little incentive to hire (ObamaCare) and expand here at home (card-check, EPA, NLRB, etc). Ergo the profits but not too much hiring. So that's how we got an economy that stinks for "workers" but is OK for "owners".

And this sweet deal should last at least another 847 days, possibly even longer.

More Trouble Filling Cabinet Posts?

In light of this news,

At least two people have turned down a chance to replace Janet Napolitano as head of Homeland Security

I would like to repost something from a while back...

 Is It the Boss Rather Than the Job?

A story at WSJ.com caught my eye with the lede "Obama Struggles to Fill Intelligence Job." When I clicked through I encountered the title "The Job Nobody Wants." Let me posit an alternative title based on what may be closer to reality: "The Boss Nobody Wants." Yes, I think that precious few people are clamoring to serve in an administration whose approval rating is setting land speed records in the southerly direction and that may be on the cusp of getting obliterated into lame-duckdom at the polls. Remember, Obama didn't have deep connections coming into his term so he resorted to ex-Clintonites and his academic cronies. Given the tax troubles of many, he has resorted to some pretty appalling B-Teamers, but it was the dawn of a new age for America and there was no shortage of true believers to fill posts under The One. Can the same be said now? I think any available Clintonites have been given the secret signal to stay away from the cratering Obama administration. So beyond this loyal party core, are there really people out there looking to sign up with an administration that could go down in history as so feckless as to bring the world into wars, an administration that encouraged the most crooked distortions of the legislation process to pass a 2,700 pack of lies that will ruin healthcare for the majority of Americans, an administration that is nothing remotely close to what it billed itself to the American people? Are there really those people out there? Maybe.

Fake Followers Follow Fake Presdient

It's almost as if powerful forces have built up a Potemkin Village around a nobody to advance their power or something...

Obama's Mush Emanates, Ultimately, from Disdain for Liberty

The Powerline guys (here and here), among others, take apart Obama's speech at the UN as the embarassing/depressing spectacle that it was.  I can't do better than they do, but I would like to emphasize one point that they hone in on.

Obama then channeled Hassan Rouhani; indeed, he recycled the Iranian presiden’t own words. Obama stated: “As we pursue a settlement [in Syria], let us remember that this is not a zero-sum endeavor. We are no longer in a Cold War. There’s no Great Game to be won.”

So again, America is not playing to win. If only Assad, al Qaeda, Iran, Russia, et. al. were equally modest in ambition.

Awful.  The truth is that, among nations, there is always a "Great Game" being playing.  Just because some people choose not to play, does not alter this reality.  Obama's view is typical of dime-store faculty lounge leftists, that there either 1) is no constant strategic jockeying between nations or that 2) enlightened nations do not engage in such jockeying.  It's pathetic and Mirengoff has it exactly right, Obama is not playing to win.  It is actually worse than that, Obama is tanking the game.  Oh well, not much can be done, we voted for this, we'll just have to pick up the pieces at some future date.

Finally, I have argued that playing the "Great Game" is essential for believers in things like individual liberty and representative government.  The reason that leftists, like Obama, ultimately dismiss the notion of engaging in a global strategic contest is that they don't actually believe, deep down, in individual liberty and representative government - they believe in government by people like themselves, and they don't want your liberty to interfere with their plans.

World Not More Stable

So, Obama said the world is more stable than it was five years ago.  First, that is demonstrably false.  Second, he states it as if to take credit for it, the arrogant SOB.  No sense getting pissed off at this, this has been par for the course for the last five years.

Anywho, forthwith a list of countries that are inarguably less stable than five years ago:
Syria
Egypt
Libya
Yemen
Pakistan
Venezuela
Greece

There has been substantial civil unrest in Brazil, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, Hungary, India, Turkey, France,and Thailand.


There has been a reemergence of tensions between North Korea-South Korea, Japan-Russia, China-Japan, China-Taiwan, China-Philippines, Great Britain-Argentina, Israel-Syria.

To say nothing of the numerous terrorist attacks taking place all over the globe, just recently in Kenya, Pakistan, and Algeria.

Today's Atrocities, Tomorrow's Rock Bands!!

Looks like radical Islamists have their own version of Joy Division.  Who knows, maybe "Sex Jihad"  will one day be the name of a pioneering early 21st century post-post-punk band.  After all, do we have any doubts that a future generation of daft youth will transform atrocity into culture?

You Heard It Here First, (Well, At Least Before the NY Times)

Back in 2008 I was talking about Germany's disastrous energy policy of phasing out its nukes in favor of the fantasy of wind and solar.

Well, now the early results of that policy are in and they are not good.  Hot Air has the righteous take down, including the infuriating habit of lefties to call something that has not gone their way as "complex."  It's not complex, they've driven people into poverty like this poor schmuck who can only light one light bulb.  It is all reminiscent of this post.

For lefties though, this might not seem all that bad.  After all, poverty IS progress.

The Black Tim Tebow? Meh.

Not to fear Mr. Amukamara, it's only white Christian males that are a danger and need to be destroyed.

Why Are We Still Saying Obama Is So Smart?

Readers may know that I read and highly value analysis by Walter Russell Mead.  Here is my conundrum though.  Interspersed among his very often scathing (justified, IMO) criticism of Obama's leadership and policies, he feels the need to include qualifiers like this.

President Obama is not a stupid man. After more than four years in the White House, he cannot be called a naive man or an inexperienced leader. He is not, despite the suspicions of some of his angrier critics, actively seeking to undermine the prestige and the power of the United States.

I have no doubt that WRM actually believes this but I'm wondering if perhaps this fundamental assumption ought to be revisited in light of what is now a substantial body of work.  (Readers know that I don't necessarily subscribe to the smart as a whip theory.)  WMR readily admits that Obama has terrible instincts.  So, why then does more often than not act on those instincts rather than deferring to advisers in the full knowledge that he has bad instincts?  Why also does he consistently violate certain basic premises of common sense, like the admonition that the more you speak the less value your words are afforded.   Surely Obama must know of the rank intellectual dishonesty that he has been guilty of through his political ascendency, no?  So, we have a leader who is arguably not self-aware, not possessed of common sense and indifferent to intellectual dishonesty.  While that is not synonymous with "stupid, it is isn't synonymous with smart either.

I do not deny that Obama is gifted in many aspects and I am not saying that he is a dolt.  What I am saying is that the blindly accepted notion that Obama possesses intelligence that is other than ordinary needs to be revisited analytically.  Here is a man who has walked into as politically advantageous an environment as can be imagined and ridden a wave of unthinking adulation, and what has he done?  Arguably his only accomplishment has been to pass a wildly unpopular law that appears to be mechanically impossible and thus structurally unstable.  He appears to have bungled foreign policy beyond the point of mere ineffectiveness but to the tangible detriment of US interests and prestige abroad.  He has led his party to a historic defeat in 2010 (don't forget the state houses!) with little discernible electoral optimism on the horizon.  He has allowed his administration to get bogged down in numerous thoroughly avoidable scandals, threatening his entire second term agenda.  He has consistently spent his political capital on non-priority issues for the American people, and consistently failed to achieve his aims.  I could go on, but this is the analysis from 30,000 feet.  So I ask again, is this the work product of an extraordinarily intelligent man?

I would say it is not.  Not of a stupid man, but of one who is merely average.  I think, objectively Obama is average.  Why am I pressing the point?  Because I want the fawners, acolytes, and partisans to admit that they were suckered. I want them to admit that they were wrong.  I want them to admit to what they are - fanboys.  Emotionally-driven, unthinking, hero-seeking.  And that they acted this way with something as serious as our countries leadership.  I want nothing less.

No Fed Taper

The Fed demurs on tapering its bond buying.  The economy can't handle it, I guess.  What this means is that we really need the Lightworker to pivot to the economy and jobs again.

UPDATE:  Hey, just a reminder:
The Treasury market is off to a piss poor start in 2013.  Gee, I wonder why...

Fire up the wayback machine to...the day after Election Day!

Treasuries: near term neutral, long term bearish - Treasury yields can't get much lower, Obama will tack on $5 trillion more debt in O2.0 and Bernanke will inflate, inflate, inflate.  You will lose your shirt loaning money to Obama 2.0's US of A.

 or February 2011 if you will

In my view the next crisis is the sovereign crisis, more specifically, a US sovereign debt crisis brought about by the prevailing approach of spending gobs of money (and locking in much bigger government, call it the Rahm Emmanuel UnWasted Crisis Effect) to cure what was essentially a monetray panic. We've institutionalized a response that is no longer needed and that we can't afford (we couldn't afford the pre-crisis level, but at least we had breathing room - we've since removed any breathing room). Thus, US debt will get a hefty mark down in the coming years. There is no political solution to this problem, bondholders will have to grab the reins.

or May 2010 even

A basic tenet of corporate finance is that equity returns are based on the risk-free rate plus an equity risk premium. In English this means that it is riskier to hold equities than the risk-free asset, traditionally US Treasuries, so investors require more return to hold equities. I believe that we are in the early stages of a fundamental breakdown of this bedrock assumption....The US government is positioning its fiscal future to resemble those European countries that today are facing a painful reckoning the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. Yet we are still supposed to operate according to the paradigm that equities should pay us a premium over lending to the US government?...Equities are massively underpriced and treasuries are massively overpriced. The bear market in treasuries could be of the scale and duration of the great bond bull market that began in the early 1980s when your mortgage was 17% and money market funds were paying 14%. The bull market in equities could be just as powerful as the last ten years was anemic.

Greenpeace Whines About Russian "Disproportionate" Response

Greenpeace International reported Wednesday that two of its activists have been arrested after climbing aboard a Gazprom oil platform in the Russian Arctic.

The environmental group also claimed that disproportionate force was used by Russian Coast Guard during its action against the Prirazlomnoye platform in the Pechora Sea, where five inflatable boats were launched from Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise vessel early Wednesday. Crew members of the Arctic Sunrise said a total of 11 warning shots were fired across the ship and that the Russian Coast Guard threatened to fire at the ship itself if it does not leave the area immediately.

The captain of the Arctic Sunrise has also refused permission for the Russian Coast Guard to board its vessel, Greenpeace said. The two arrested activists are in the custody of the Russian Coastguard, it added.

Link here.

First off, where did these lefties ever get the notion of disproportionate response?  Where did that silly notion ever come from? 

I surmise that the Russians view their response as entirely appropriate.  They don't want troublemakers fucking with their oil and gas infrastructure.  The response is exactly calibrated to ensure that message is understood.  Disproportionate nothing.

Shocker: There Is No Oil Talent in Los Angeles

Shouldn't be surprising.

Sept 18 (Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp may still be headquartered in Los Angeles, as it has been since being founded nearly a century ago, but its center of gravity is shifting to Houston, capital of the U.S. energy industry.

While the fourth-largest U.S. oil company would not disclose the number of employees based in either city, a LinkedIn search reveals 286 people who list Oxy as their current employer in Los Angeles, compared with 1,491 in Houston.

Occidental's Texas presence is growing larger still. A search of 287 U.S. jobs listed by the company on www.oxy.com found 65 in Houston - ranging from senior engineers to software administrators. Most of the rest were at field operations in California and elsewhere in Texas.

As for Los Angeles, there was a single opening last month, for a security officer, and now there is one for an accountant.

The trend suggests just how far the California corporate stalwart has strayed from its roots in order to grab the deep oil-industry talent available in Houston. It also highlights a shift in jobs growth generally in Texas over the Golden State.

"The geologists, the geophysicists, the petroleum engineers - they tend to concentrate in one place. If you're looking for those skills and want to compete for those skills, you have to go to that spot," said Robert Gilmer, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston's Bauer College of Business. "If you want people who have film and movie skills, you go to Hollywood." 

I suspect that the only reason that Oxy has remained in LA all these years is because iron-fisted Chairman and CEO Ray Irani didn't want to have to move to Texas.  That will change now that Irani is gone.  I don't see Oxy much longer for LA.

And Now, A Message from the President

My Fellow Americans,

You're wrong.

Rephrasing the Question: How Stupid Is Joe Manchin?

Interesting question:

Will West Virginia Dem John Manchin vote to confirm Obama’s anti-coal nominee, Ron Binz, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission?

Well, politically, Manchin has no incentive to cling to Obama any more regardless of what the issue is.  Given that the 2nd Amendment and coal are probably two of the biggest issues in the minds of his constituents, bucking his constituents and siding with Obama again (Manchin went with Obama on gun control earlier this year) on coal is probably the stupidest thing Manchin could do.

But, Washington changes people.  We'll see.

NOW Warren Buffet Tells Us!!!

Wow.  Warren Buffett has come out and said that we need to scrap Obamacare and start over.  This is big stuff. 

Of course, NOW HE TELLS US.  The law is no different today* than it was when it was passed and no different than it was, um, say, before the election.  But the Oracle of Omaha now tells us that the signature achievement of the Lightworker, who stopped the Keystone XL pipeline resulting in millions of barrels of oil getting to market via Warren Buffett's trains, is so bad it needs to be scrapped.  Things that make you go "Hmmmm?"

* Actually it is, given that Obama has lawlessly granted waivers and exemptions from numerous provisions of the PPACA and several major elements of the law have been repealed or simply abandoned.  Maybe these recent developments have spurred Buffett to analyze the PPACA in a new light, but I doubt it.  Obama is safely re-elected and now he can begin to work on saving his many companies some dough by undermining the law.  Having his cake and eating it too???

Washington Navy Yard Massacre, Annals of Absurdity?

I am shaking my head in disbelief too, but given what is being reported, here is a cut-to-the-quick summary of what went on yesterday in Washington, DC:

A mental disturbed guy, who was taking meds and who the Navy booted for "a pattern of misconduct", walked onto the grounds at the Navy Yard, got a rifle from a safe on the premises, and proceeds to kill a dozen people.

You can't make this stuff up.  It's as bloody absurd as, after 9/11 a long-known Islamist sympathizer, who is also unstable, not only infiltrates the Army, but is hired to counsel other soldiers, is protected by higher-ups, and proceeds to go on a killing spree. 

Crazy, right?

Is Obama Rooting for Islamists?

So, he cleared the decks of Gaddafi so Islamists could run wild in Libya, he all but overtly supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, he flat out ignored the secularist Green revolution in Iran, he cozies up to increasingly Islamist/authoritarian Erdogan in Turkey, and now this:

President Obama waived a provision of federal law designed to prevent the supply of arms to terrorist groups to clear the way for the U.S. to provide military assistance to “vetted” opposition groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Some elements of the Syrian opposition are associated with radical Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., in 2001.

I dunno, it's enough to make me think, he agrees with and wants Islamists to succeed .

Watch MSM carefully on Navy Yard Shooter

Yes, I noticed that too. 

If reports are right, the guy is a native of Brooklyn, NY but his last known address was Ft.  Worth, which obviously makes him "Texan."  They'll turn this guy into Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz's love child before this is all over.

Euro Energy Giant: No More Banana Republics Please

After getting fleeced by leftist banana republics like, say, Argentina, Spanish energy giant Repsol would now like to invest their money in stable, boring North America.

Spanish oil major Repsol SA REP.MC -0.76%is shopping for a North American oil company as it seeks to increase its investments in politically stable countries and the U.S. energy boom, according to people familiar with the talks.

Wisdom of the Ages

Because America is so much mightier than Russia, the American presidency is a much stronger position than the Russian presidency. But a strong man in a position of weakness, if he is ruthless about taking advantage of his adversary’s vulnerabilities, can get the better of weak man in a position of strength. Saul Alinsky understood that, and so does Vladimir Putin. (link)

Saul Alinsky may have understood it, but it goes back a little further than him...

"I'd rather fight 100 lions led by sheep than 100 sheep led by a lion."  - Alexander the Great

The Umbrella Man

"Where are our Churchills and our Reagans?  We better find them.  And we better find them quickly."

Thus ends another one of Bill Whittle's genius packed five minutes of youtubeage.

I have been struck the last few days over Barack Obama's incompetence and bumbling, but it just started dawning on me viscerally the dangerousness of it all.  Disbelief is turning to dread for our weakness is palpably allowing retrograde forces to advance.  I saw it coming, but I never felt it in my bones.  I now feel it in my bones and Whittle gives brilliant expression to it. 


Barack Obama's feckless idiocy in foreign affairs would be funny, enjoyable even, if there were no consequences, but there are.  Grave ones, in fact.  Dangerous times are here.

Economist: Government Economic Numbers Are Phony

Not at all right-wing economist Justin Wolfers let's us in on a not quite secret, but little known tidbit.

This morning, for instance, it reported that initial unemployment claims were 292,000, a decrease of 31,000, and a number fully 35,000 below expectations. It’s the sort of number that might lead you to become more optimistic about the recovery.

But you shouldn’t.

Apparently, two states are in the midst of retooling their computer systems, and so they reported smaller than usual tallies. How do I know this? You could try reading the full data release, but you won’t find it. I’m only aware of it because Bloomberg News's Jeanna Smialek was in the press lockup, and the Labor Department spokesman there read a “technical note” out loud to the assembled reporters, while declining to name the states affected. The department made no such details available to those of us who weren’t in the lockup. Moreover, we have no idea if the same problem also afflicts the count of continuing unemployment claims.

It’s nuts.

Wolfers accuses the Labor Department of publishing bad data, knowing it's bad and not telling anybody.  For an inept Obama administration that has bungled economic policy from the get-go this is definitely a feature, not a bug.  The problem for the rest of us is that this is banana republic stuff.

Glenn Reynolds often says that a Jimmy Carter redux is the best case scenario (although he appears to have abandoned even that "optimistic" take).  My version of the same concept, is that if Obama and his sad cult merely turns us into France, that would be dodging a bullet, because on present course he's turning us into Argentina.

Trader Joe's !!!!!!

Latest company to dump workers onto ObamaCare exchanges.  Let's hope it's not a third world experience for them.

Trader Joe’s Co., the closely held grocery store chain, will end health benefits for part-time workers next year, directing them instead to new insurance marketplaces created by the U.S. Affordable Care Act.

Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be given health coverage as of Jan. 1, and instead will get a $500 payment to help them buy insurance elsewhere, the Monrovia, California-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

Obama IS Living Up to Potential

Simply amazing the conga line of MSM liberals now getting hip to Obama's ineptitude - Klein, Dowd, Fournier, etc.

Still, even the harshest of these laments and criticisms betray a bit of surprise.  These once (and likely still) Obama-euphoric commentators seem to be puzzled as to how this most brilliant of statesman, this most thoughtful and intellectual thinker/philosopher leader went off the rails and messed up against all likelihood. 

Let me break to all these astonished libs, this is not Obama faltering, this is Obama achieving the very potential that he was capable of achieving, which was always, from the very start, going to be exactly bupkiss.

Let me remind readers of what I wrote way back when.

He says that the Obama magic has faded. That's most likely true, but that is not the big story in my opionion. The big story is that anybody thought for a moment that it wouldn't fade. That anybody expected even the most basic level of governance from Obama, let alone monumental and transformative things, is the story of greatest import here. And it is not that the hope, dreams and expectations placed into the Obama vessel were so grand, it is that the vessel that is Obama is so small. I have said it before - in November of '08 I said we bought ourselves a pig in a poke...

 disappointment and pain is what we deserve given that we elected a man of no consequence and no achievement to the highest office in the land. Why we expected a man with no discernable track record or proven record of leadership to lead and to achieve in the name of this massive and complex society is a story of historical proportions. Did we think that plucking just any man off the street - essentially what we did - to wield enormous power was wise? And a young man to boot. And a man who never held a job at a profit-making organization. Why did we think that the wisdom acquired over a long life and the first hand knowledge of commerce gained by private sector work somehow weren't relevant anymore? Why did we think that - after over 200 years of electing (with a few exceptions) staid, boring, but presumably wise, adults, who could draw to them the counsel and assistance of many more wise, older adults - we needed a rock star of relative adolescence? Why did we think that a man with no knowledge of the private sector would lead a mostly private sector nation out of a severe economic slump? Why did we think that a man who consorted with raving America-haters would inspire a mostly proud and patriotic nation to excellence? Why did we think that a man who views our role in the world as flawed would draw our allies nearer to us? Why did we think these things?

Why indeed. 

Don't Worry Dems, "You've got me."

Hey, just a reminder that in the runup to the 2010 mid-term elections, the Lightworker was reassuring blue dog Democrats that things would be fine and certainly nothing like 1994 because, in Obama's words, "you've got me."

I bring that up more for comic relief than anything else, but it's worth noting that after the unmitigated Syria clusterfark, he could potentially be about as toxic as a sitting POTUS can get come the 2014 midterms.  Oh, did I mention that that might be good for stocks...??

As long-time readers of this blog know, I have advanced the theory - from almost the very moment that Barack Obama was elected - that he would be a disastrous President and that he would destroy the Democratic Party.  My timeline on that was that it would all happen neatly within four years, such is how monumentally ill-suited Barack Obama was and is to be President, and that he would not be re-elected.  Well, I got that last bit wrong, but I am still much on track for the other two main predictions.  I suspect that after the Syria debacle, congressional Dems will continue to move away from the President and that any Presidential push going into 2014 mid term elections will have very little impact.  As such, the Dems could be alot less successful than is now thought, which is not very successful.  We'll see, but this could be the beginning of a move back to the center for Dems in order to stay relevant, which would be a major realignment that banishes the progressive wing of the party. 

Secessionist Idea Spreading

First, some Coloradans want to split from the liberal urban nexus.  Now, some Marylanders have the same idea.  The recall elections happening tomorrow are of a piece with this.

The notable point here is not the likelihood of success but the proliferation of the idea.  This is the result of driving Americans into, as Democrat pollster Pat Caddell terms it, a "pre-revolutionary mood."  Petty-tyrant progressives have awakened the beast of popular democracy.

I suspect New York will see such a movement in short order.  Remember this map?

Krugman's Keynesian Absurdity Updates Orwell

Bizarre.  Krugman declares Obamanmics, well, bad.  OK, more than bad.

"U.S. economic policy since Lehman has been an astonishing, horrifying failure."

Why?  You guessed it.  We only increased the national debt by $6 trillion.  Had we gone into hock more, laments Krugman, we...(I kid you not, you can't make this stuff up)

"...we would be a richer nation, with a brighter future."

Let's update our Orwell: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. And Debt Is Wealth!

This is precisely where Keynesian logic leads, to absurdity.

Journolism

"Putin Overwhelms Obama at the Sulky Summit"
or
"A dominant Obama meets a cool Putin at G20"

So which is it?  I'll give you a hint.  The one not getting mercilessly mocked...

Stocks Up On Weak Jobs Report. Huh?

Weak jobs report today but stocks are up and Treasuries are down, the opposite of what one would expect given news of a sluggish economy. 

Maybe it's the whip count that is driving this market?  Nah, that's a crazy theory.

Vote for the Doofus. It's Important.

I've noted the uniformly excellent and worthwhile commentary coming from life long Democrat and Obama voter Walter Russell Mead before.  (What astonishes me about people like him is the naivete and lack of probing analysis that they do before they vote for a doofus/dickhead like Obama.  It is not like it wasn't obvious.)  Anywho, here is WRM's latest, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture...basically, he's saying Obama is so bad, we'll have to vote with him on Syria.

Now the President is twisting lonesomely in the wind, and the question is whether Congress will ride to the rescue. If it doesn’t, it will be the closest thing the American system has to a parliamentary vote of “no confidence”, where Congress explicitly declares to the world that the President of the United States does not speak for the country.

That would be very dangerous. Foreigners will no longer know when and whether to take anything this President says as representing American policy rather than his own editorial opinions. We hate to say it, but that is so dangerous that there’s a strong argument for Congress to back the Syria resolution simply to avoid trashing the credibility of the only President we’ve got.

Shades of Edwin Edwards on the national scale concerning matters of geo-political import.  Sad.

Look on the bright side though, only something like 1190 days until we can put this nightmare behind us and choose a real leader - like that gal who didn't know what the heck was going on in Benghazi and lied about it to us, and then slipped out the back to avoid any further criticism.

Old and Busted: Al Gore, the Whole Climate Change Crusade; New Hotness...

I have said that Global Warming Is Dead. 

And despite some attempts to keep the home fires burning, it seems that the policy movement combating Global Warming Climate Change Climate Chaos is vastly diminished.

So what's the new hotness?  Um, there is no new hotness...

Glass House Russia Throws Stones

Russia is talking smack about nations outside the Axis of Thugs (Russia, Iran, Syria, etc), calling Great Britain, a small island that nobody listens to.  Well, Russia is not small, and Great Britain surely has a smaller geographic footprint than Russia.  Still, the UK economy is larger than Russia at $2.4 trillion versus Russia's $2.0 trillion, and Russia trails badly in terms of GDP/capita (47th in the world versus 22nd for Great Britain), so despite its size Russia remains rather backward and unproductive in comparison.

And of course, Russia doesn't have much in the way of world class talent, not even in one of the most important sectors of their economy, which is why they have to steal technology and property using, shall we just say, "typically Russian" methods.

Oh, and if oil prices dropped significantly, Russia would revert back to dirt-poor status pretty quick...

US Military Just Muscle for Hire?

I didn't think the Syria clusterfark could get any more embarrassing and awful than it was after Obama's 'I didn't build that' red line denial (from Sweden!).

But, alas, I was wrong...

Apparently, we are just a mafioso-style hitman for certain Middle East regimes.  Yup.  Just go whack Assad and get a bag of money.  Nothing personal, just business.  Yo' Johnnie, Cuckie...let's do dis ting, capeesh.

Aside:  Fun game...mafia names for cabinet members!  French Johnny?  Chuckie Pink? 

Profiles In Leadership

Idiot, Worst President Ever:  "I'm the decider."

Smartest, God-like, Lightworking, Best President Ever and Forever:  "I didn't set a red line."

The Essence of Obama

It's ALL about him...until it is time to take accountability.  Then it's not at all about him.

This is the essence of the man.

America the Flakey

Remember when I said that the worst thing that Obama will do is show the world that Americans are now the flakes on the global stage? 

You don't?  Oh well.  I did say it, and I think I was on to something...

We've flabbergasted the normally admiring Canadians, pissed off the normally cooperative Brits, and driven away the alliance-needy Middle Easterners (from the Israelis to the Egyptians, Saudis, Iraqis, etc.).  This is quite a feat.  This sums it up quite nicely.

UPDATE:  You wanna know what sums it all up the best?  Check out what our SecDef is wearing.  Secretary. Of.  F**king. Defense. Fuscia. Golf. Shirt.  ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lightworker's Syria Ineptitude Good for Stocks

It is pretty much looking like left and right agree, Obama is embarrassingly inept in the conduct of foreign policy over his handling of Syria.  (Actually, he's embarrassingly inept over most things, but this is an undeniable and overt case that defies partisan posturing.)

So, how is this good for the stock market?  It merely solidifies themes and trends in place that were driving the market higher, namely the Lightworker's lame-duckdom.  Obama had very little juice to bring to what remaining items on his agenda are left that impact the economy in a big way.  After the Syria clusterfark, he'll have negative credibility in any policy debates before Congress, especially over big ticket items that can screw with the economy.  He'll make the decision on Bernanke's successor and he'll dicker with Boehner over the debt ceiling to no great effect,  but zero major legislation will accrue to his record from here on in.  And the stock market loves it.

Finally, doesn't this whole episode provide yet another example of just how laughable and ridiculous the Obama-phoria (all the Lightworker type stuff) was?  The guy is a bozo, and the elites went bananas for him - all that fawning, the Nobel Peace Prize, all that crap.  All for a dime store faculty lounge leftist.  Black skin and an exotic name and "narrative".  That's all it took to get the tingles going up legs.

UPDATE:   As if on cue, the immigration push, which Valerie Jarrett was saying would be Obama's second great lasting achievement, is being back-burnered.  I suspect that back-burnering means death for the Senate immigration mess.  Syria will play out, debt ceiling stuff will grab headlines in the fall and then we have the holidays where people are aren't paying attention.  Now, we're looking at 2014.  Amnesty looks in trouble.

UPPDATE:  Obama simply cannot look like a bigger fool and blunder than with this "not my red line" gibberish, and stocks are up.  This theory has something too it...