Category Archives: Foreign Policy

Biden, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Governance, Immigration, Politics 2021, Race, Representation, Trump

TIME NOT ON OUR SIDE

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Time may not be on our side.  One cannot overview the world and our political circumstances… and the calendar, without realizing a little fear for where things might go from here.  Where is that?

Let’s look at some of the pressures building up.

First, the political time-line.  Mid-term elections are the historic relief valve for sometimes hasty or confused political decisions made during presidential elections two years earlier.  There certainly were those in 2020.  Because the national conscience is so, well… impacted by beliefs concerning the 2020 elections – stolen or not stolen – the release of tensions in the 2022 mid-terms is a little harder to predict than what a lot of pundits are trying to foresee.  Most are making judgements on “normal” political considerations and it doesn’t seem Prudent to do so.

The weird eminence that most have already discounted, but who is the key to millions of voters’ decisions, is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House.  She has been a unique Speaker, at least.  For decades she has appeared to be simply a fierce partisan and has been appreciated, if not revered, by partisan Democrats who were happy to be “winning” barely-understood battles through her slick machinations.  By rights, she should be at the end of her career, and she probably is, but it’s a career that descended into a previously unrecognized socialism starting under Obama and deepening with hatred under Trump.  In those 12 years, Democrats became uneasy.  While enjoying victories Nancy engineered, no matter how messy, Dems also became concerned about the leftward lurch, yet had no other port in which to seek refuge.  Over the Trump years, leftist hatred for “America First” left many Democrats adrift.  What are they going to do in 2022?

If “centrist” or “American” Democrats abandon the Pelosi-led leftists (not that Pelosi was elected to lead the leftists: she has run, skipped twisted and kneeled as needed to stay ahead of them) will they suddenly vote Republican?  That doesn’t seem Prudent.  Will they fail to vote in standard numbers?  That question forces Prudence to wonder about what “the Black vote” might do.

Blacks have slowly been drifting away from their Democrat plantation, with an interesting increase in that trend in 2020.  Despite Covid, Blacks did well economically under Trump since 2017.  Despite, also, a perpetual anti-Trump media blitz accusing Trump of racism, Blacks could see that his policies helped all races.  Like all underdogs, Trump was seen somewhat sympathetically by Blacks who understood too well how prejudice hurts.  Have Blacks been treated better by increasing leftism?  Were they advanced by BLM-led riots and Antifa hatreds that damaged so many black businesses and jobs?  Have they been helped by Democrats’ union-led resistance to school choice?  Has weakening public safety served Black families or neighborhoods in any way?  Are they particularly likely to “reward” Pelosi’s weird coalitions with more power, more votes?  That doesn’t seem Prudent, either.  But, will they vote for anyone else?

So, on the backdrop of multiple failures of the “Biden” administration and severe economic news, what will be the “shape” of the change in fortunes for our two parties?  Over the next 11 months, how virulent will the Pelosi Left become?  Clearly their anger has been kindled by the loss of legislative momentum thanks to West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator, Kyrsten Sinema.  Even 3 counties of Maryland would like to become part of West Virginia.

In 2020 we suffered through months of cultural destruction and destructive rioting and looting and economic despair in numerous cities.  Many strange, leftist mayors and governors have been exposed as feckless, ignorant and ideologically foolish.  Americans are practically fleeing their jurisdictions for states that seem to honor the Constitution more.  Yet the Pelosi House insisted on passing the enormous, so-called “Build Back Better” bill that would have transformed fundamental freedoms and democratic-republic structures created by the Constitution.  Against the backdrop of systemic failure at the southern border and the flood of illegals swept into the country by administration policies, the congress spent inordinate time on the “BBB” plan and the pointless “January 6th” commission.  Not a word is spoken in congress about what Americans are truly upset about, not least of which is the southern border.  With that legislation apparently doomed, what will the 117th Congress do to improve Democrats’ re-election chances in 2022?  Most options are likely to do damage to the republic at least domestically.

_________

Internationally, the Biden bindlestiffs have made a mockery of leadership and of honesty.  Without fundamental honesty, there are no diplomatic maneuvers that will work, almost regardless of what’s at stake.  In matters of war and alliance, conditions, tensions, and opportunities for gross, deadly errors, can spiral out of control quite abruptly.  Let’s look at the simplest area of tension: Iran.

The postulate is the following: Iran hates the United States as much or more than it hates Israel.  Iran is a theocracy determined to correct spiritual wrongs to the point of suicide.  To correct those wrongs, Iran will use nuclear weapons.  The inherent danger is that first the Obama regime and now the Biden regime DON’T BELIEVE THESE THINGS.  That is, they’d rather believe that Iran is as rational as other nations, desirous of better living standards for its people, better economic conditions internally, and willing to negotiate to achieve those ends.  All this talk about “death to America” and wiping Israel off the map is just talk, just posturing.  Because they don’t believe the United States can be guided by religious concepts of good and evil, neither can any other nation.  The United States can show them how love is better than hate and kindness and generosity will prove that the U. S. can be a reliable partner in seeking a better life for Iranians.

As the imbecilic John F. Kerry, onetime Secretary of State once said: “Would that it were, would that it were.”  For a man who has but the mildest relationship with truth, he places a lot of faith in the words of Iranian negotiators.  He apparently believes that Iran is enrichening Uranium purely for domestic power production… to improve the standard of living for Iranians.

Trump, to his America-first credit, had a sense of when he was being lied-to, and that extended to Iran.  He recognized that the “Iran Nuclear” agreement (never proposed as a nation-binding Treaty because it would never pass the Senate) was a pack of lies, which, naturally, Biden has been begging Iran to renew under his administration.  Iran has refused, so far.  With all the cash and lifting of sanctions that Obama and Biden have given them, the Iranians no longer need to negotiate further concessions under the agreement – they received what they needed for free.  Now it is merely a matter of time before Iran starts issuing nuclear-backed threats toward Israel, which the Biden regime will perceive as opportunities to go “back to the negotiating table.”  To their credit, Israel (and other nations in the Mideast) will take steps to prevent an Iranian strike.  The U. S. won’t, failing to realize that Iran will likely strike both the Little Satan and the Big Satan simultaneously. 

PRUDENT JUDGMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.

The next simplest, as in somewhat more complicated, problem area is the Western Pacific, including both Taiwan and North Korea, but also India, unfortunately.  Here is the postulate: China intends to take over Taiwan; China virtually controls what North Korea does at any point; China will not move against Taiwan if it believes the U. S. will fight for Taiwan’s independence; China is beginning to think that the U. S. will not make any serious moves to stop China (the Biden family’s compromised position vis a’ vis China is a factor, here); and, finally, North Korea will make some sort of military moves against South Korea at the same time, seriously complicating United States’ response to the Taiwan crisis.  There has been shooting along the frontier of China and India within the past 18 months.  It is not inconceivable that China would stir that pre-heated kettle at the same time or before, that it moves against Taiwan.  This feint would likely involve Pakistan, as well, another nuclear power that hates India.  Every nation in the arc from the Arabian Sea to Qinzhou will suddenly be seeking a side in the conflict.  The failure of the U. S. to decisively defend its allies will transform the entire region and its oceans… and world trade.

PRUDENT JUDGMENT: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.

Finally, of the 3 hottest spots, Ukraine and Russia are preparing for some level of shooting.  The U. S., thanks to Obama and Joe Biden’s family, has meddled in Ukraine for years.  Ukraine is a big country that encompasses wide swaths of fertile land, great waterways, warm-water coastline on the Black Sea, huge coal deposits and iron ore, manganese ore, and other ores, which yield a large steel industry, heavy machinery manufacturing and, its greatest political weakness, a natural, relatively unimpeded pathway for oil and gas products to be transported to Western Europe.  The same can transport armies, too.

For more than a thousand years the Russian people have had strong cultural and religious ties to Kyiv, now the capitol of Ukraine, and to Crimea, Odessa and Sevastopol.  Strategically, the naval value of Crimea is perceived as so crucial to Russia, as with the USSR, that taking the Crimean peninsula “back” from a recently independent Ukraine was worth the international condemnation.  It’s a done deal and will never be negotiable.

In addition, the industrial heartland of Ukraine in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnetpropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya, covers much of eastern Ukraine from the Dneiper River to the Russian border.  Russia depends on many of the manufacturers in the region for not just machinery, but military and aerospace equipment.  Not having complete control of them is a sore spot.  Further, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson districts have significant Russian populations and Russian-speaking populations, which has formed an excuse for Russian regulars posing as irregulars or subversives, to create an enclave of sorts with a militarized line facing Ukrainian army regulars.

Sensing weakness and indecision from the Biden administration, and determined to not have Ukraine join NATO, Putin and the Russian Federation is looking for the opportune time to, in effect, take control of eastern Ukraine, if not all of Ukraine, by military force or forced federation.  When they move, what will Biden do?  Both Democrats and some Republicans have made tough-sounding statements about standing firm with Ukraine as if the status of Ukraine were a vital national interest.  Perhaps it is.  But setting up a line of U. S. troops to deter Russia seems unduly provocative.  If the situation were reversed and the Russians were placing troops to deter the U. S. from taking over cartel-dominated Mexico, let’s just say, we would certainly not find that a reason to stand down, would we?

What seems “small” to most Americans, in geopolitical terms, could place us in a hot confrontation with a huge nuclear power, 4,000 miles from our border, where both the land location and the naval one make us the underdog.

PRUDENT JUDGEMENT: VERY DANGEROUS UNDER THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION, and more dangerous than it appears.

____________

The shift away from “America First” thanks to the 2020 “elections,” has caused friends and foes, alike, to re-evaluate their relationships with the U. S.  The brutal withdrawal from Afghanistan, apparently executed by military idiots and a bumbling president, has changed strategic calculations by many nations.  The English-speaking world no longer reveres the U. S. as the leader of their coalition, and certainly does not respect Biden as it did Trump.  A strong, pro-national leader is not only respected, but understood by other nations, including adversaries.  There is a profound logic to leadership that clearly is patriotic and who speaks clearly of his – or her – intentions.  No nation likes surprises, internationally, nor confusing messages.  Every leader can make clear judgments about clear leaders, even about those they view as opponents.  This is not our current situation.

It has been said many times that the most dangerous circumstance is when other nations are unsure about what America will fight for; it is yet even more dangerous when America, itself, is unsure.  God save us.

Biden, Crime, Culture, Foreign Policy, Immigration, Politics 2021

CULTURAL REPLACEMENT

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A few Americans included.

And now we can turn the page, our experiment in culture-replacement having been soundly dissipated by coordinated, though relatively primitive fighters whose efforts to remove infidels from their land never wavered or converted to unrelated purposes.  The once-great American empire could learn a thing or two from our bearded, religious opponents.

For two decades American soldiers have sacrificed for a series of missions unrelated to the original, military task: destroying the ability of Taliban and Al Queda forces to fuel and train terrorist cells to fulfill their desires to kill Americans, if not America itself.  Orders have been followed, social services dispensed, friends made and abandoned, missions morphed into whatever new purposes, named and unnamed, to excuse or justify continuation of the United States’ most costly foreign foolishness ever.  Some $2 Trillion have been expended in military costs, mostly expended here, or distributed, there, into the most corrupt cesspool of governance in South Asia.

A military that prides itself, unceasingly, for its ability to justify militarily unrelated expenditures as vital, defense-of-the-homeland investments, managed to find the blackest financial hole it could, deeper, even, than Viet Nam.  Careers were enhanced, Stars and Bars added, and amazing new spin invented as be-ribboned military “experts” dissembled for most of those 20 years, telling Americans that their wonderful soldiers were making wonderful progress pacifying Afghanistan, education Afghanis, training the Afghan “Army” and teaching everyone but the Taliban holdouts that American democracy and republicanism was the best possible way to organize their nation.

In the past two months the lie has been put to all of it: the education, the social niceties, the friendships, the governance, the military successes – all of it.  Not the hardware and weaponry parts, no, those are definitely among the world’s best, and the Taliban holdouts who now run Afghanistan are suitably appreciative of the $80 Billion or so of our weapons and vehicles that we gifted to them.  They trusted us to fail and we trusted them to protect our withdrawal / retreat… whatever.  We certainly kept our side of the bargain, failing on schedule.  We’ll have to assess the murder rate to determine the upholding of the Taliban’s side of the deal.

What have we learned?  Perhaps we had not fully appreciated the lessons of Viet Nam, it having been only 26 years since the last helicopter left Saigon.  The lead-butted brass throughout our military-industrial complex, from the Pentagon on up, are nothing if not thorough in their careful evaluations of the most recent military conflict.  Unfortunately that was the air campaign against Serbia to free Kosovo.  There was no national interest or advantage for doing so, but by God we did it, and showed Muslims everywhere how dependable the United States is and what good friends we are.

Yet, our Muslim buds saw fit to attack us on 9-11-2001 before we had even begun to question whether we had done the best thing in the Balkans.  The “military” had yet to catch up to evaluating Kosovo when the Trade Center fell and that caused us to lose our minds a little bit.  Ultimately, after winning the only victories available in Afghanistan and Iraq, “we” decided that the worst punishment we could inflict on both nations was to make their politics more like our own – a system few Americans want, themselves!

For immediate – very immediate – past-President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, once a member of the U. N. inspired Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, who managed to slip away with $160 Million or more, the American attempts to transform Afghanistan to the tune of some $2 Trillion empowered at least one Afghani to cease being poor.  Chances are that a fair number of other “officials” and friends thereof have also managed to avoid impoverishment in the “fall” of their beloved nation.

It seems Prudent to anticipate the dribbling out of revelations about a large number of Americans who also skirted the depths of poverty by selling arms and ordnance to the U. S. military.  Those are they whose first thought when the news of how much terrific stuff was being left to the Taliban, was “Well, we’re going to need (to make, manufacture, sell) more of (those)…” and then, “Too bad about those poor bastards still stuck in country.  Shoud’a left sooner.”

We’re told, of course, that things went according to plan and were so well executed that the President can describe it only as “… an extraordinary success.”  Ol’ Joe loves to give credit where credit is due – it’s good management.  A few hundred Americans, families, individuals and students are more or less stuck, but we “… got every American out who wanted to leave.”  That statement is based upon… mired in, rather… a mixture of horse, cow, goat, sheep ‘doo,’ and excrement deposited by politicians.  On the other hand, and in keeping with the leftist slogan: “Never let a crisis go to waste,” the Biden administration saw a sweet opportunity to fulfill the larger objective of transforming the demographics of the United States by using the debacle in Afghanistan to relocate many thousands of Afghan Muslims whose history and status are unknown, into the U. S.  These are people whose cultural norms, ethics and core beliefs are as foreign to Americans’ as possible.  We have no plans or systems in place to acculturate them.  Many are relative savages, bound by Shari’a Law.  Many are criminal.  Who cares?  The left is not trying to create more patriotic Americans for our beautiful nation; they are most interested in displacing Christianity and the rights and responsibilities of our founding documents and principles so that the United States of America will, as soon as possible, cease to be a bastion of freedom and a stumbling block for global Communism… “…according to plan.”

There is no accidental explanation for how we left Afghanistan, or how we “saved” tens of thousands of Afghanis while abandoning hundreds of Americans and arming the most ruthless Muslim fundamentalists better than they have ever been.  There is no pro-American explanation for anything the Biden regime has done since taking control, domestically or internationally; no accidental one, there, either.

The explanation that remains when all other possibilities are eliminated, is sickening: TREASON.

Biden, Foreign Policy, Politics 2021, Responsibility, Terrorism

THE RED STAIN OF DISHONOR

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Biden lied… people died.

THE BIDEN VARIANT     

To the best of the Biden Administration’s ability, the United States – the gullible third, anyway – is being pushed into a fear of Covid at least the equal of the preposterous terrors of 2020.  The Delta Variant, so-called, comes not only from India, a place of murky religions and filthy rivers, but also from… uhhhooh… South AFRICA – what could be worse?  Africa and India combined into a fearsome strain of a disease we never even heard of 20 months ago!

“Delta” will surely be followed up by the global-warming-enhanced, “I-Swelta Variant,” and then that by the Climate-Changed “I-Melta Variant.”  None will be as loathsome as the Albany, New York strain, the “I-Felta Variant.”  If the DNC and global Communism can hold things together long enough, these variants, alone, might keep the White House in the hands of the anal sphincters who control it now, in 2024.  If things seem to be heading “South” they can pull off another “victory” as breathtaking as the last one with the help of the BLM variant, “Helta-Skelta.”

These stages of control are all made possible by the national infection known as the Biden Variant.  Although we’ve had an infection in the federal bureaucracy (and state bureaucracies… and county, city and town bureaucracies) for decades, greatly accelerated during the depression, it’s an infection the only symptoms of which is shameless mendacity and personal wealth.  Since the Johnson administration the spoors of the disease have found fertile, manure-enriched soil in the Congress to the point, now, that there are hardly any anti-fungal treatments sitting in the House or the Senate that can look out for American constituencies who elect them and pay them very handsomely.  Worse, the houses of Congress – the wealthy long-termers and the freshmen –  have done their very best to become their own bureaucracy which is acting exactly as needed for the mendacity infection to spread and take deep root there.  The mushrooms are the same.

Biden will go down… in history, for elevating mendacity to a governing philosophy.  No more of that individual liberty jazz or stupid personal responsibility stuff – Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, Durbin, Cortez, Tlaib, Omar and fellow travelers like Obama, Rice and some other enemies of the State, are determined to punish anyone who likes those quaint, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, trans-phobic and genetic manipulation-phobic, science-denying errors in thinking.  Their best camouflage is “bi-partisanship.”  They need to show their own depraved souls that it’s not just they who believe the crap they’re espousing, but those 19 RINO’s accept the crap, also.  So, it must be valid.

In the Trump years the leftist “press” fact-checked every utterance he provided and, lo! … almost everything he said was a partial or complete lie, especially about Hydrochloroquine among other COVID treatments.  Everything he said about the “vaccines” we would have in a year or less was also not true. Even Kamala Harris said she wouldn’t trust any vaccine that Trump was involved with.  Well.  Trump’s promises made as a candidate were carried through to a remarkable degree, but whatever he said about them was all questioned.  His claims about the most robust economy and levels of employment participation in decades, despite the facts that bore him out, were put down as mere bragging and, mostly judged not true or ignored, lest some Democrat voters hear the truth about anything Trump had done.

Meanwhile the “Mueller” Report, that the namesake, himself, had probably not read, initiated on the falsest of false premises and abuse of the FISA process, produced lots of theatrical opinion, but no facts with which to besmirch Trump.  Then a proper and legitimate phone call with the Premiere of Ukraine spawned weeks of calumny and literal fake news as Democrats attempted to impeach Trump for doing what Joe Biden had so recently bragged about doing, himself: “quid pro quo.”  This all by the masters of quid pro quo in the Congress of the United States: “You repeat my bull-hockey and I’ll repeat yours.” 

Then, based on hatred, again, not evidence, the House impeached Trump a second time for “Inciting a riot” or, worse even than 9-11 or the Civil War, “Inciting an insurrection.”  The only evidence of Trump’s “incitement” were the opinions and accusations hurled against him.  The Capitol was certainly breached, but not by Trump’s rally-attendees, for he was still speaking to them near the White House when the breach occurred.  The federal assistance to protect the Capitol buildings that Trump had offered two days earlier having been refused by Speaker Pelosi, the under-manned Capitol Hill Police were unable to stem the flow of people, in most cases guiding them into the building to avoid confrontations.  There are few 3-hour periods in history that have spawned more fake news – some still repeated 8 months later – than this unarmed “insurrection.”

There has been no greater loss of civil liberties than the aftermath of January 6th, either.  Virtually every rioter caught burning or looting central cities in 2020, the “Socialist Spring” as it were, has been released, most with charges dropped.  Dozens of so-called “insurrectionists” still languish in federal jails without the option of bail, some in solitary confinement, those same 8 months later.  Frankly, with the serial mendacity spewing from the Congress for decades, there were plenty of very good reasons to storm the Capitol and unseat the entire population of its two houses, election theft be damned.

Enter the mildly, sometimes seriously, confused Mr. Biden, who has apparently agreed to take direction from some America-Last haters.  Nearly every action he has taken, starting with his stack of policy-reversing “Executive Orders,” has damaged the United States domestically, economically and internationally.  Yet he and his cohorts are happily prattling on about how the “border is closed,” massive unfunded spending will reduce inflation, and that he meant every word when he swore to faithfully execute the laws of the U. S. and when he swore to uphold the Constitution.  Thank goodness he promised to not raise taxes – not a dime – on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.

To their credit, his supporters in Big Tech and the leftward press have agreed to not fact-check Biden, else there would be no time to “dig for the truth” and report it to the American People.

Now the world is watching as the United States, mis-led by a President whose legitimacy in terms of electoral honesty is seriously in question, a president whose elected career is marked by not-very-creative lying, and whose views on virtually every foreign policy challenge we’ve encountered over the past 45 years or so are completely wrong, just as completely and utterly screws up a planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.  He claims to be president of the United States.  We have the capability, militarily and in terms of logistic support, to do virtually anything we decide to do.  Our intention to subdue a backward nation – even 8,000 miles away – may be physically effected if our decision-making matches our intentions.  Whatever waste, corruption and failure we effected during our occupation, must have fulfilled our actual policies: it was what we wanted to have happen!

Whatever tragic loss and stupid-seeming actions the U. S. has suffered and done in our “withdrawal,” are also exactly what people in charge wanted to happen!  Think about that.

Then let’s think about the plethora of disconnected lies our “President” has told about the withdrawal.  The biggest of all is that there was no other way to withdraw that wouldn’t have yielded chaos… and yielded abandonment of billions of dollars worth of armaments, including some of our latest technology in helicopters and other big hardware, one must suppose.  What a traitor he has proven to be.  Was this outcome a big accident… this arming of the Taliban and, soon, many other terrorist groups with superb weapons?  Was the automatic transfer of technology into the hands of the Chinese, Russians and Iranians also an accident?  That defies logic.  So many drastic, costly, traitorous errors including risks to the lives of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies, would take careful planning!  It would require precise intention!  It would have value to those who executed them.  It would require absolute rejection of the best advice available from military and intelligence agencies – advice that we now know Biden received.  What a shit he has proven to be.

May God save us from ourselves.

Biden, Economics, Foreign Policy, Governance, Obama, Politics 2021

FIFTY YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

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Uncertain? Wear a mask.

The Biden administration, if that’s the name of it, “Soros Administration” being more likely, exposes its true nature daily, if not hourly, most exemplary in its attempts to prevent Cubans from fleeing Communism to enter the United States.  Combined with dozens of nation-weakening moves Biden has put his name and pen to, this one middle finger salute to the premise and promise of the United States, shows how historically blind and ignorant one 50-year suckling at the federal nipple can be.  It takes concerted effort to be so stupid.  To protect himself from even his own party, he has also chosen a running mate, now Vice-President, who is less intelligent and less competent even than himself in his addled, doddering state.  They will invoke the 25th Amendment before long, and then what?  President Harris?

It is difficult to discern the motivations of this gang of proto-tyrants, at least at first, but examining each of the members reveals a fuzzy, frightening shape to all of their actions, not the least of which is a 50-year-old crackhead finding a market for his odd artwork that would never see the light of day were he not the son of Joe Biden.  One wonders who cooked up (sorry) the scheme?  The crack-head?  If his “success” encourages numerous other drug-addicts to obtain space at other galleries, the crack-head art market could soften dramatically.  There is no other administration imaginable where such a scheme could even be tried, let alone be protected from inquiry.  Whatever else the Biden family dynamics may include, R. Hunter Biden has increased its net worth substantially through payments and bribes from oligarchs great and small, for years.  There may be a certain wisdom to “going domestic,” as it were.

In Weimar-Republic Germany, the National Socialist party with Adolph Hitler as its leader, was voted into power.  This might be an object lesson to those Americans, living and dead, who voted the Biden regime into power, but not too many parallels should be drawn, since the Nazis were much smarter than our erstwhile U. S. socialist tyrants.  Hitler, at least, partnered with capitalists to rebuild his nation, to no good end, but, still.  Biden is partnering with stateless oligarchs who give not a tinker’s dam about “their” nation; these are globalists who see national status as impediments to sales.  Non-monopoly capitalism and competition are anachronisms best left to die, in their views, nor do they care who actually is in charge so long as all markets are within reach.  “We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution,” they may as well say.  There is a perverse cheering section for these (crap)-heads, who celebrate free shipping on all orders… to get vaccinated, for instance.

How could their parents let them grow up in that frame of mind?

Back in government-town, Biden is taking direction as best he can.  His first actions were to simply do the opposite of whatever President Trump had done.  There’s a difference between remaining ignorant of how the world works and purposely refusing to learn much of anything about it; it’s called stupid.  When what works is handed to you already working and you refuse to acknowledge the evidence surrounding you, it’s no longer a case of being stupid… it’s something else.  The guiding force behind willful ignorance of reality seems to be Barack Obama, 44th U. S. president and Biden’s former “boss” during those years.  President Obama promised – or threatened – to “transform” the United States of America.  His whole background had been comprised of finding fault with everything America represented and promised through its Constitutional “We, the people” model of self-government.

Obama placed his trust not in the success of the “American way” but in the failure of socialism.  His erstwhile protégé – perhaps puppet – the confused Mr. Biden, is hop-scotching as fast as his handlers can carry him into socialism without even knowing where he’s headed.  It certainly isn’t to “America first” –land.  God save us.

Economics, Family, Foreign Policy, Governance, Politics 2020, Sex

WORDS WITH CONVICTION

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Chinese money is another collar…

WORDS WITH CONVICTION

There are many words that once were in more common parlance – back when schoolchildren had to learn English and how to read and write in that very language – and readers of Prudence’ thoughts are all too aware that those “old fashioned” words are a great strength when expressing thoughts deeper than MSNBC commenters like to share.  Ooops, hold on a moment, there was a Prudent word right there: commenter.  A commenter is a person who comments.  Somehow we’ve all adopted the habit of saying, “commentator” instead of commenter because it sounds as if the speaker might be perceived as just a little smarter for using an extra syllable.  In the opinion of your correspondent, not many commenters achieve the erudite status of commentator, unless they come from Idaho. 

Anyway, in the “old” days one might encounter a word like “scurrilous,” a gem of an adjective.  It really means to describe someone foul-mouthed and coarse in language.  But it came to be used to describe someone of the lowest morals, particularly in terms of failing to live up to one’s promises.  Scurrilous.  Often there are overtones of hypocrisy relative to the person who is described as scurrilous, since he or she probably held a position of some prominence, pretending to be among our betters.

Mendacious is another good one, and its cousin, mendacity.  In a simple way it means untruthful, or the quality of telling lies, yet it is so much more robust than simple lying.  Everyone tells lies at some level: “How’s everything at home?” a close friend might ask, to which you answer, “Oh fine, fine.  Thanks for asking.”  Or, the querulous, “Does this pant-suit make me look fat?”  “Absolutely not,” is the answer, in case you weren’t sure.  Still, a ‘mendacious’ person is not just telling lies, he or she is adjudged to be virtually unable to tell the truth.

The British used to make common use of the epithet, “knave:” a deceitful, untrustworthy person.  We rarely use it in American English as it doesn’t sound bad enough to convey the hatred or derogation required to belittle the object of one’s contempt.  Americans of late are wont to include the ever-popular eff-word, variously applied as adverb, adjective, verb, or noun.  There is no need to further define “the eff-word.”  Even women, erstwhile civilizers of us, all, are fully aware and conversant with it.  ‘Knave,’ however, does convey a patine of intended depravity to the person so targeted.

Let’s summarize: scurrilous, mendacious knave.  Such a person really must be the worst in any group.  But, wait!  There’s more!

A fairly common, but somewhat underappreciated personification is that of “degenerate.”  It implies a person who is not only useless to others or to society, but who interferes with the advancement of others.  In other words, a person no right-thinking person would want to engage with at any level.  Indeed, such a person, a ‘degenerate,’ often appears to have regressed in his or her own humanity.  Not even “reprobate” conveys those depths.

We could go on and on but it wouldn’t be Prudent.  Most readers will process no more than four or five descriptives at the very most, some balking at just three.  So our last pejorative is a bit less obscure, the sharp and finely pointed: “odious.”  To be considered odious is to be considered offensive and even disgusting.  Thankfully, few are such, but when deserved, the term is also obvious in its application.

When so many calumnies are applicable to one person, it is rare that Prudence would waste our collective minutes in order to apply them.  Today however, there is a special case.  Imagine, if you can, referring to an individual as follows: “____ ______ is no more than a scurrilous, mendacious knave, degenerate in his personal character and odious to those who know his practices.”  Gracious!  What must someone do to earn such an uniquely low status?

In Prudence view, he would have to hold a public trust and totally besmirch it by enriching himself and his family thereby and, subsequently, with unbridled mendacity toward that public, engage in treasonous behavior in the form of altering his nation’s foreign policy for still greater personal emoluments obtained from potential enemies in exchange for that action.  In the processes of those thefts of trust and monies, he would also have to suborn depravity within his family in furtherance of financial greed.  That person would earn all of the above outlined contempts and that person has been found.  Indeed he is spoken of commonly in both high and low regard although lately, the latter has gained the greater frequency.  Simply place the name, “Joe Biden” in the blanks and the fulfillment of every accusation will be achieved.

Culture, Economics, Foreign Policy, Governance, Immigration, Politics 2020, Representation, Responsibility

RESURRECTION

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"In the beginning..."

There has never occurred a crisis for civilization when capitalism failed to function.  “Capitalism” is innate, virtually instinctive among humans, and the most powerful of motivators in societies as small as one member.  An individual has the same needs for life on a personal level as a family, clan, village or nation  has: clothing, food, protection and shelter.  At whatever level or intensity of need, humans will attempt to obtain as much as possible of any of them at the lowest “cost” of effort possible.

Once acquired these needed things automatically become property – property on a spectrum of ownership, from the very personal, like clothing, weapons, tools, personal or family shelter.  Beyond the immediately personal, family property and then clan or village property, there automatically develops properties that are belief-based, like loyalty and group-safety obligation.  It is a short journey to sharing beliefs about events, conditions, weather, waters, animals and childbirth… and death, that are unexplained and ascribed to supernatural influences.  These beliefs are as crucial a private property as clothing and self-defense, and as durable a cultural quality as pottery styles or graphic and oral expressions of every sort.  And they will be passed on to children nearly infallibly.  Behavior by either children or adults that is contrary to those shared beliefs automatically produces negative sanctions.

In groups as small as two, and certainly of 3 or 4, specialties: differences in abilities, are quickly apparent.  In a group of families there will be definite skills of higher degrees of excellence in this person or that – better hunting skills, better tool-making, better making of clothing, better hut-building.  Someone – an elder – will gain enough knowledge to predict outcomes, or eclipses, or the arrival of herds.  His or her wisdom will be sought out for transfer to children.  Specialization.  Economics is part of and an outgrowth of specialization.  Wise men, chiefs, healers and others will be fed in exchange  for their unique services.  Food is an automatic medium of exchange.  Next, perhaps, are weapons and tools.  The hunter who unerringly leads the hunting party to the clan’s next moose or buffalo or elk, may be “gifted” with a blanket, better shoes or more food… or a wife.

Rules, mores, or customs guide the relationships within the group.  Inevitably there is a shared concept of us and them: people from outside the clan.  The desire to protect the clan is just as automatic.  Yet the possibility of trade with outsiders may be easily entertained because of the ease of acquisition compared to the work required to obtain the outsider’s goods on their own.  The values must be set.  How many of this kind of skins or tools or decorations or… whatever, are “worth” the higher quality flint arrowheads the stranger makes?  Before long the first group will be trapping extra beavers just to trade for arrowheads: an economy is created.

The big impact on economics, and on the establishment of capitalism as an organizing  force in society, came with the introduction of agriculture.  As people settled  around their fields, the importance of property changed forever.  Where crops “belonged” to the village, or “city,” their grains and products were not handed out to every family for free.  There were trades or barters required, leading to record-keeping, counting, weights and balances.  There appeared the recorded existence of debts to be repaid in the (near) future, between families and the granary (city) and even between cities: a collective capitalism (property rights) and individual capitalism (private property rights.)  Automatically new specialties arose: law-enforcement within the city, and border-enforcement against all outside the city – soldiers and general conscription when fields and water sources were threatened.

Treaties were needed: rules to reduce threats from “others,” and to define ownership of certain lands and resources.  There always existed nomadic peoples who refined forms of movable dwellings, like those of indigenous peoples in North America.  Conflicting interaction between “property-rights” people and nomadic tribes inevitably result in destruction of nomadic uses of lands desired by those who employ fences, borders and ownership-based economic structures.  Native Americans had no concept of fences and property lines, and this difference affected why they never developed cities, industries and massive growth.  Today, the simplicity of indigenous people’s way of life is attractive to those who wish to tear down our current, sloppy, polluting and more or less capitalist, civilization.

Capitalism and all of its moving parts: private property, profit, risk, debt/investment, accumulation of wealth and inheritance and the freedom to fail and learn, is the prime driver of the global economy and amazing invention and innovation that supports more than 7 Billion humans.  But it does all of this at great cost, not least of which is the expansion of the number of possible “sins” and multiplication of the number of temptations (frauds, scams, legal deceptions, global banking).  On the other hand, and comprising the basic defense of capitalism as an organizing principle, capitalist economics and politics  have spurred the greatest wealth and health in history.  More people are well-fed and comforted in hundreds of ways, educated and made relatively “free” thanks to capitalism than under any of the more or less tyrannical systems employed, ever.

Capitalist politics depend on democracy and, judged by the success of the United States, upon republicanism:  the democratic election of ostensibly more capable, perhaps wiser, representatives.  Evidently, as well, Constitutional republicanism is crucial to the explosive growth of wealth and a “middle class” of upwardly mobile individuals and families who could, realistically, work their way higher up the economic ladder.  It is worth analysis and reformation, both political and economic, to return the U. S. system to its successful ways.  This means reformation of economic institutions, and of political institutions, both of which, today, conspire to concentrate power – and share it – to the detriment of freedom, upward mobility and essential Constitutionalism.

The strongest voices raised against “America,” are firmly on the left, socialist and worse.  Their prescription is virtual destruction of “capitalism” and honest conservatives / constitutionalists must recognize their logic in the presence of an extremely unbalanced, oligarchy of global bankers who largely have brought the financial system to a point of dictating to even the United States, what its future will be: indebtedness to that cabal, and therefore limited as to the extent of our independent action internationally.

Capitalism requires limits and institutions that prevent its (people’s) essential tendencies toward 1) monopoly and, 2) political / governmental advantage.  We can see the damages that concentrations of wealth will cause, not least of which is empowering socialism and anti-constitutionalism.  But it also creates severe stratification in a society formed without “castes” or “classes.”  Perhaps worst of all, super wealth transcends nationhood; when profits can be earned around the globe, the need to adhere to a single country’s norms and laws, tends to evaporate.  Most particularly, the impact of market presence in the nations of our rivals / enemies, sees corporations or syndicates of corporations, bending to not offend those who mean the U. S. the most harm.

Is it possible to restore a sense of nationalism for industries key to the defense and independence of the United States?  What would such a policy look like?  What could possibly be the enforcing agency?  Can current political hatreds and ignorance permit the formation of a national-interest industrial policy that serves the country, rather than one that serves a party?

When the two – or three – political “sides” in the U. S. don’t agree on what the national interest is, or even if there IS a national interest, it appears that a national industrial policy is rather remote.  Yet it must manifest if the United States is to control its own destiny.  What forces must come together to make this happen… and within two years?

A “fusion” government.  A… what the Hell?  Never happen.

It has to.  Until Bush beat Gore, technically, the two-party system functioned as a modified “fusion” government system.  Overall, both parties were mainly interested in doing what was best for the country and managed to cooperate on major issues and trends.  Sloppy, corrupt and self-serving, and able to cooperate as much as we did thanks only to the unlimited creation of stultifying debt, both parties managed to avoid the corrosive hatreds of the past twenty years.  How we’ve operated since, say, the Kennedy administration, is NOT the model to strive for, now.

Thirty Congresses and eleven Presidents have brought America to the edge of insolvency and at risk of subservience to China and others.  The abrupt re-set due to coronavirus is an opportunity and a test.  For the faithful, a test like this is not an accident, it is a loud vibrant message from God that we are far along a wrong path.  But, those certain that they do not believe can get the message, too.  The United States cannot continue to waste its wonderful gifts bestowed at our founding and many times since.  Here are a few changes that must manifest if we are to maintain our independence:

  • New leadership.  Without trying to parse all the forces that pushed on the psyche’s of numerous political leaders, we – and they – must recognize that the Democrat party has shifted distinctly leftward… and that leftist policies – virtual socialism – are incompatible with Constitutional republicanism.  Some leaders are so committed to this relatively new political stance that they must be replaced by younger, more pragmatic and, dare it be suggested, more conservative leaders. 

          The same is true for Republicans.  Republicans have been pulled leftward by the most crass and aggrandizing consideration: re-election.  Appealing to the (leftist) attractiveness of “free” advantages for voters, Republicans learned to win re-election along the same paths as more left-leaning Democrats.  Those who have built political careers (another problem) by hewing closer to Democrat principles,  should be retired so that conservative principles can again define Republicans.

          The ability of a “party” to be defined by, and to defend, an articulable philosophy of government, of legal code, of education and of help for the poor, is fundamental   for representatives of that party to deserve enough votes to gain governing authority under the Constitution.  Subsequently, the two parties should be able to agree on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution.   These essentials seem simple to some of us, but are not agreed-to by about half of the voting public.  It is time for both parties to lead America onto a stronger, Constitutionally purer path.

  • Destruction of debt.  None of our agreed Constitutional principles will protect us if we sacrifice the independence of the United States, and nothing risks that independence more, or more directly, than our ballooning debt, owed in large fraction to non-Americans, including other countries.  An industrial policy that both parties can agree to is part and parcel of controlling our national debt burden and the ultimate value of our currency and labors. 

          Total annual expenditures must reverse direction.  Contrary to the unsustainable trends of the past half-century, the federal “budget-in-name-only” must shrink by fully 25% – a prospect surely deemed impractical, if not impossible, by most in both parties, Republicans included.  While Republicans have always preached “smaller” government, since Johnson’s “Great Society,” indeed, since F.D.R.’s “New Deal,” the ostensible conservatives have succumbed to the enrichening advantages of staying in office, and have diverted their efforts to re-election rather than statesmanship.  For many now in office their personal advantages of office are shameful and distinctly off the mark.

  • Electoral honesty.  Democrats have raised the art of pandering to ephemeral, personal issue-driven groups to an art-form, even as they have learned – codified – numerous ways to expand “voter participation” so as to steal elections.  Vote-harvesting, early voting, same-day registration, automatic registration when interacting with state governments for unrelated matters, non-verification of citizenship status during such interactions, “Rank” voting and organized surrogate voting, and other schemes honest people can’t imagine, all contribute to the erosion of democracy.  Matched with these illicit garnerings of “votes,” is the opening of borders to waves of illegal entrants who, it is hoped by their advocates, will vote for Democrats and some misguided municipalities are granting illegal entrants voting privileges in “local” elections – a virtually unmanageable distinction.  To form a more unified national political structure, these tactics must be renounced and abandoned.  One voter – one vote… per citizen.

          Republicans are no purer when opportunities are present to take advantage of election management dominance.  For shame.  Both parties must commit to, and back legislation that strengthens enforcement of election laws, including “clean” voting rolls.

  • Deconstruction of the labyrinthine administrative “state.”  Both parties have colluded to slough off responsibility for the laws that are passed, by installing more and more agencies, offices, titles and programs among the 15 executive departments.  Within virtually all of them are powers to regulate citizen behaviors, each with the force of law despite no specific authorization from Congress.  This threatens personal freedom.  Both parties should be able to agree on the restoration and future preservation of freedom.

          What there is no agreement on is what constitutes that freedom.  To socialists, freedom means freedom from personal responsibility… in the dozens of forms that can take.  To originalists freedom means freedom to make as much of one’s abilities and situation as can legally be done and according to individual initiative and enterprise.  To make the opportunity to succeed manifest for the largest number of citizens and legal residents, government must be a trusted partner  in life, and not an opponent.  Repeatedly, this immense gulf separates the parties to the degree that   cooperation appears unreachable.  There must  arrive a more cooperative,   constitutional understanding of individual sovereignty and responsibility.

  • The re-establishment of honest budgeting.  Both parties must agree to annually cleanse the federal complex of agencies and programs, of wasteful overlap of purposes and missions and personnel.  The budget line-items for each should be justified or eliminated at least bi-annually.

          Beyond congressional oversight of each component of the total budget, an   agreement is needed to cut federal spending by every Congress for five Congresses (10 years) until total outlays are equal to inflows during the period of the previous budget cycle.  Can that much discipline be found among current and future   members?  And, in current and future presidents?  A president can begin the process with a half-hour address to the nation.  Bring back “Ross Perot’s charts” and ask the questions needed and issue the challenge.  Let those who are opposed to balancing the budget make their case.  There isn’t one.  On this challenge the construction of a fusion government can – and must – move forward.

Ultimately, Americans and their representatives will agree on the unifying principle that fuels the exceptional American, Constitutional experiment:  Our success as a free people and nation is measured not by how large our governments are, but by how small.

Culture, Economics, Foreign Policy, Health Care, Politics 2020, Representation

COPING WITH THREATS

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The freedom of the United States and the stability of worldwide political intercourse, depends on the role of the Dollar.
The greatest threat to dollar stability.

Prudence will be served best by a rational analysis of how and why the COVID-19 strain of “coronavirus” so dramatically upset governance, liberty and economics, compared to other flu-like illnesses that infect huge numbers of Americans every year.  This essay is beginning at the height – or the depth – of the national economic shutdowns and of the extraordinary fears that have everyone suspicious of every other warm, breathing human.  It wasn’t going to be published until we were at the other end of this national economic threat, which will, it seems Prudent to say, going to arrive.  But it cannot wait.  What can this new virus be compared to?

Annually, more than 30 MILLION U. S. residents make hospital visits due to the 4 common flu viruses.  And hospitals are busier because of them: there are some 200,000 hospitalizations.  This happens with no enforced shutdowns of business and trade, or restrictions on movement of legal residents.  If someone tells you they may have the “flu,” you back away, say “don’t give it to me,” smile and recommend your favorite home remedy: “Hot water with lemon.  Make sure it’s fresh lemon, squeeze it so you get all the juice.”  Then you carry on your daily activity, sure that you have cured someone.

Television advertising reminds everyone of the wonderful “flu” medications for sale that, in fact, suppress symptoms, enabling customers to feel good enough to go to work!  But, did you know that in the 2017 – 2018 “flu season” that there were 900,000 hospitalizations?  You didn’t hear about that then?  Weren’t the media keeping us up to the second with every new case, and in which county and city it appeared?  You weren’t afraid to leave the house?  Why not?  EIGHTY THOUSAND people died from flu that year, and in just a few months!  Ye Gods!  We should have been cowering, waiting for the federal government to rescue the entire country and we failed – we failed – to pay attention.  Thank God we survived that crisis.

The 2017 – 2018 season was 4 TIMES worse than the year before and our virtuous political leaders were asleep at the switch.  How was it that they didn’t whip us into a frenzy of prevention, segregation and economic dependency?

Is it Prudent to offer a couple of predictions?  One is that a relative handful of economic powers, some or all at least partially financial powers, will emerge with MORE economic power than they had prior to COVID-19.  Why does this seem likely?  Because those are they who know how to profit from crises, whether military or medical.

Want another?  The crisis we believe coronavirus has created, will be extended in many aspects, into the Fall, possibly through the beginning of November.  It’s possible that enough economic damage will have been done by mid-April for this to happen regardless of politics, but if not, political considerations will make it last for two valid reasons: 1) Democrats believe they can damage Trump into non-re-electability if things get “bad enough;”  2) Republicans believe that managing a terrible crisis with signs of steady improvement, will keep the nation from “changing horses in mid-stream.”  It would be more Prudent to put the whole thing to bed, so to speak, before the middle of April.  Let’s hope this prediction doesn’t pan out.

Based on the tawdry quibbling over how many non-virus-related hands will get greased by the, perhaps, $2 Trillion dollar rescue, bailout, support, small-business/ big-business load the Congress is “debating,” many socialist dreams could get realized thanks to the Chinese coronavirus.  Rational residents of our once-great nation should be shaking their heads at the crude nature of most of those august men and women, but we’re afraid to spread the virus ourselves.  Evidently, the House under Speaker Pelosi, has tried to include a dozen or more components of the leftist agenda in the “emergency” legislation.  One has to wonder.

Another prediction involves the health-care industry/system.  They are moving public policy at every level of government while struggling to meet the sudden pressures of a contagious disease.  It’s a disease that needs lots of products for just protection of care-givers – more than anyone had in stock.  It also requires lots of specialized equipment for treating those infected – more than anyone had in stock.  COVID-19 also requires lots of decisions about how to both remove the shortages of stuff, and to “prevent” the continued spread of infection – there is an oversupply of those: politician-provided.  And, unlike gloves, masks and ventilators, the proper operation of decisions is very difficult to measure or evaluate.

By definition decisions are made in advance.  Decisions made about the past are notoriously ineffective.  Real decisions lay courses of action, often without knowing which of the potential consequences will actually manifest.  There is always a hope that the one consequence a decision-maker prefers will be the one that happens, but once a decision is made, it’s a bit of a crap-shoot.  There are too many moving parts to control which consequence will be true tomorrow, or the next day, or a week or so from decision time.  In this current matter, the decision was to keep people from congregating, even down to groups as small as, well… two!  This has a corollary that says most businesses must close, especially those that operate with congregations of people – like restaurants, churches, schools, public transportation, planes and on… and on… and on.  It means no weddings or funerals, no court sessions, no legislative gatherings, no business meetings, book clubs or sales leads groups.  Very few business activities will be “allowed” to happen.  Meanwhile, millions of people are not paid, millions of transactions are unconsummated, billions of dollars of commerce are unrealized, and trillions of dollars of wealth are vaporized in a few days.

Was this damage a decision or an unfortunate consequence?  Who could possibly benefit from this consequence?  Some will, unfortunately.  As this shakes out – hopefully with the United States still an independent nation (this is relative) – the new economic patterns will emerge and we’ll see the beneficiaries.  China will have something to do with them.

Odd, it seems, that the paralysis of the West has coincided with the miraculous cessation of reported cases in China.  Clearly China has manipulated its stories about coronavirus, its reports about coronavirus, its claims about who started the virus’ infections (the U. S.), its denials of anything wrong having ever been done by China regarding coronavirus or regarding the punishment of doctors attempting to warn the government of China about its uncontrollable spread, and now, about the incredible end of new infections.  Is there any reason to believe that this disease was not released to have precisely the effect it has had on America and Europe?  Or, to believe that the West has reacted in the only ways most favorable to China?

Keep an open mind.  Question EVERYthing.

Culture, Economics, Foreign Policy, Governance, Taxation

20-20 Vision

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Wither Freedom?

What shall we do, we American people, holders of the temporary promises of freedom and individual sovereignty, with our new gift, the year of our Lord, 2020?  What will be our direction?  Toward greater wisdom and enlightenment, growing nearer to God as we know Him… or Her?  Or, as this millennium has presented, toward firmer rejection of God, morality, purpose and humanity; toward greater animalism and destruction of the Constitution?  Big choices, either way.

We err terribly if we devote ourselves to any politician, thinking, dreaming, hoping or wishing that that one person will “fix” our own lives, our uncomfortable feelings or our deep concerns about the future of America.  A terrible mistake, that.  The only true value of a political leader is that he or she might cause large segments of the constituent population to develop a new sense of hope, of good expectations and of a belief in their social abilities to solve problems.  Unified purpose – not coordinated, necessarily, but unified – is the most powerful force on Earth.

Unified purpose can ignore the pain of sacrifice, as it has during times of war, for example, or during the 8 years that created the Apollo space program.  Tyrants create a form of unity by instilling fear.  Dominated subjects believe they will suffer if they act on contrary thoughts.  Free people, unified in purpose and hope, will overturn the dominator every time.  Nothing can resist the power of free people who believe in freedom.

The only way a free and sovereign people can be defeated is to render them less and less free over time – even it takes 4 – or 20 – generations.  Those who are threatened by freedom, who fear it, never stop trying to destroy it.  They, too, have a unified purpose.  When they are the only unity on the playing field, freedom cannot survive.  When young citizens are at an intellectual point where socialism appears preferable to “capitalism,” several of the methods of rendering a free people less free are revealed.

First is re-education.  Naturally conservative people, enjoying freedom and responsible for themselves, have to be taught to rely on “the government” when ill fortune finds them.  That purchase of philosophy might not have worked if the “government” hadn’t created a misfortune, like the Great Depression, that seemed too difficult and complex for individuals to withstand on their own.  Social Security easily became law and was tiny, a mere minimum for old widows.  Today Republicans defend it as if part of the granite of Mount Rushmore.  Older former conservatives speak up for “their” Medicare, now that the government has made health care so costly and complex that individuals cannot contend with it on their own.  A little socialism goes a long way.

Second is education, itself.  The best plan would be to populate the education licensing bureaucracy with unified liberals/leftists who could guide education degree programs such that new teachers would tend toward socialist ideals of equality, fairness, anti-racism, anti-discrimination of all sorts, feminism, bi-lingualism and multi-culturalism.  Pretty soon they’ll be teaching youth that our Constitution fails to defend these important principles and needs to be changed or supplanted with new thinking.  Pretty soon a proto-communist can be elected president, and the long march to the end of this democratic republic will be underway.

Thirdly, enough rope, in the form of creature comforts, new cars, easy credit and wide-screen TVs, must be provided for erstwhile Americans to hang themselves while their heritage is forgotten and their freedoms swept away.  Let illegal entrants have the country – we don’t seem to want it any longer.

Lastly, promote new “rights” that no one ever heard of, but the lack of which can be made to appear oppressive.  Link the denial of such rights to the constantly re-boiled slavery-guilt/systemic racism civil rights struggle, and soon these new rights gain the power of civil rights that once nearly split the nation… politicians must respond.  Shortly after, laws are proposed, agitated for and passed to, perhaps, force boys and girls to bathe or perform their toilet together.  What, “never,” you say?  Or, as a fantastic example, licensed, educated teachers could actually lose their jobs for failing to call a boy a girl.  “Impossible.”

We have contributed mightily to our “mis”-education and “mal”-economics.  The worst of our economics has two parts: Unconstrained debt creation, and incredible inflation.  You’re objecting, now, that “inflation” is only at 2%, or some such low number.  You’re talking about price increases, which are not what inflation is.  Prices go up and down for reasons of supply of goods, demands (desires) of consumers, including competitive products, and availability of spendable cash (or credit, nowadays).  “Inflation” affects only the last factor: spendable, or “excess” cash and credit.  “Inflation” is inflation of, or artificial expansion of, the money supply, something individuals cannot control.  Politicians do that or allow it to happen by government agents.

Don’t confuse inflation with a rise in the cost of goods.  Inflation is tolerated or actively promoted when government needs more money and is politically unwilling to raise taxes.  Foolishly, we have converted our money system to a debt-based system whereby the federal government borrows every new dollar it wants to balance the federal budget with.  As it does so, it infuses added dollars into the economy as a whole.  This will increase sales of thousands of products as companies that do business with the government get new contracts and, presumably, hire more people or raise wages.  Increasingly, more of those products are imported, sending a lot of those “excess,” “new” dollars to other countries.  This increases domestic profits, but not domestic, widespread, individual wealth.  Consumer prices don’t experience much upward pressure because the actual inflation of the money supply is siphoned into the hands of multi-billion dollar companies, or concentrated in the hands of external multi-billion dollar companies or government-run companies, which is to say, in the hands of foreign governments.  What does this mud puddle of excessive profits and concentrations of wealth have to do with most people?

It diverts their freedom and personal sovereignty, and… it so corrupts free enterprise that socialism, despite its total history of failure – history little known by today’s youth – can be made to appear attractive.  Step by step, the never-ending plan to destroy freedom and independence (non-globalism) is being carried out.  Our government education systems, including “private” universities and colleges made wealthy by government-promoted student loans, are almost the last places to depend upon to correct this historic ignorance.

And all of those inflated dollars?  Since our prices haven’t risen too, too badly, can we pretend they are no concern of ours?  Every dollar “bill” is a bill America must eventually pay.  If the rest of the world no longer wanted (thank you, Saudi Arabia) U. S. dollars, our economy, and those of several other countries, would collapse.  Along the way every dollar, printed or electronic, would drop in value like a stone.  How’s $50 or $80 gas sound? At those prices the “national debt” will be manageable, won’t it?

Meanwhile, we, who should be totally pissed-off, are comfortable enough that we worry about climate change, UFOs and the NFL standings, rather than what should be job-one for American citizens.

Foreign Policy, Governance, Obama, Responsibility, Trump

BALANCING ACT

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Increasingly Mr. Donald Trump is becoming the fulcrum on which our democratic republic balances, and he has not shown, yet, that he is rigid enough to affect the balance.  This is not to say he isn’t tough.  The constant attacks, threats of impeachment since inauguration, and unusual hatred, would wilt lesser men, and often has.  Much has been made of the turnover in Trump’s administration, as if it represented “chaos” in the administration.  While it may yield a little “chaos,” it is temporary.  The problem is that Trump believes that when someone is hired, he or she owes an outward loyalty, at least, to the “boss.”

What has taken him some time to recognize is that every – as in, every single one – person in a position to execute policy or influence policy, has an agenda.  Worse, since the Obama administration, agendas in Washington are no longer matters of how to accomplish national goals, no nuanced approaches to policy.  Agendas now are only to accept or to oppose the direction desired by the elected president.  Many of those recommended for top appointments, especially on matters of international policy, held an agenda of opposition, and deserved replacement.  The president now must become very strict towards his appointees, and this mood must extend deeper and deeper into the many agencies who are happy to oppose him.  (see: http://www.prudenceleadbetter.com/2019/11/28/due-process/ )

Is Trump up for this?  It is hard to tell.  He seems not to take very much advice, else someone would have tempered his Tweeting; on the other hand, his selections for judgeships reveal good work and recommendation by someone else.  Still, he has not been as thorough in replacing appointees as his predecessor was, and many of those in the White House, State Department, Department of Justice and the “Intelligence Community,” are actively opposed to Trump, his background, his style of work and speech, and to his America-first policies.  Their allies in the Congress and other covens of Democrat-leftists, have done their worst to hamstring the president since he first appeared to have a chance at the nomination, never mind the election.

Despite the roadblocks and mistreatment by much of the press, Trump has managed to accomplish quite a bit, and he has changed the nature of American diplomacy somewhat.  Will it all bear fruit?  It is impossible to say, but certainly no more impossible to predict than have been the results of “normal,” deep-state diplomacy over the past 50 years.  The best way to guarantee the predicted outcomes in all that time has been for the United States to give up more – including sovereignty – than we ever have asked… or received in return.  Predictions of opposing sides’ accepting all the American largesse our “negotiators” could give away, always came true.

One hopes that should we not obtain the quality of a deal we need for U. S. benefit, that our “side” will stay strong and not immediately throw more value to the other side in order to “win” some sort of a deal that politicians can crow about, knowing that after a few dust-ups, most voters will forget what was even at stake and accept that the deal we got is better than “not talking” at all.  This is national hogwash, of course, and it stems from a general attitude of American unworthiness compared to other nations’ interests.  Trump supporters want a bull-dog negotiating for our side, both domestically and internationally.

At some point, one would surmise, the mendacity of the FBI, the CIA, the State Department and even the Obama White House, and the 3-year story of failing to prove any – as in, not even one – of the amazing allegations against Donald Trump and his appointees and supporters, would begin to dissipate the hot tempers that accompanied those allegations, both personal and legal.  At some point, the charges of “racism” and “sexism” should abate; the so-far indefatigable charges of “collusion” with Russians, well-debunked at great effort and expense, should fade away as the truth penetrates haters’ consciousness.  At some point, all of the energy needed to maintain hatred of Trump, the person, could be expected to turn toward political action.

But, with the gaveling into passage of two gaseous “articles of impeachment,” not yet.

Foreign Policy, Governance, Representation, Trump

REAL GOVERNANCE

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Despite his New York crudeness and bragadocio, Donald Trump has begun a service to the foundational ideas and premises of America, and thereby to every American.  He, himself, and every one of his most loyal compatriots, is oblivious to the magnitude of that service.  What has he done?

His presidency has operated, as most have done, at a public level, variously reported in praise and condemnation, broadcast and published – the level at which modern politics are negotiated and fulfilled.  Beneath that, he operates within the secret, classified levels that are presented to each president as though to initiate him to the centers of real governance, hidden from public view for reasons of “national security,” wink.  This secrecy conveys a patine of power and influence to which he has been inaugurated, shared by very few.  It is heady stuff, becoming a member of the world’s most august and arcane fellowship.  The continuity of the secrets, of the secretive machinations, of the vital, world-controlling decisions that only he can make, of the “nuclear launch codes,” and of the distilled intelligence few others will see, is really out of his hands.  It is shared with every president as part of the fable of democratic, civilian control not only of the vast domestic bureaucracies, but of even the military-industrial complex.  But, it is a fable.

Here and there brief windows open between the public and private presidencies and much heat is generated, politically, some of the citizenry become agitated, editorials are written, commenters supply commentary, and even Congress expresses its dudgeon, both high and low.  The portion of the public made restive by the once “secret” revelations is assuaged by palatable political lies and life goes on.  Very few lives are affected.  Elections, however, can be effected because of them.  Still, not much changes over time.

Beneath the “secret” level of (mostly military and international) governance, there is the amorphous, faceless, simultaneously unorganized yet unified, unelected and permanent, administrative state.  This vast majority of our “governors” have virtually no connection to any president or even presidency.  Each new “head” of the administration is largely uninvolved with this level.  It was in place – two millions strong – long before his election to the “most powerful office on Earth’ and it will remain in place long after he has “left his mark” upon America.

And now, Trump.  Trump got elected by defeating the penultimate deep statist, Hillary.  Hillary is a political deep statist; the permanent deep statists are, however biased, mainly interested in their individual interest areas, perhaps thanks to some college degree, and in their economic security, excellent benefits and virtual tenure.  Political  deep statists are more likely to adhere to either the socialist world view – and power – and to the eternal struggle to impose it upon the United States, or to simple, tawdry, utterly corrupt and corruptible personal financial aggrandizement.  This is where Hillary Clinton has spent nearly five decades and America has finally had enough of her.  Trump is clearly on a path quite divergent from the Clintons’.

Trump doesn’t much care about political correctness.  He doesn’t care much about whom he offends, even when he intends to offend them.  Most are offended because that is their “shtick:” finding offense everywhere and garnering immediate social media support that will bring the weak-willed to their sniveling, apologetic knees within the hour.  Otherwise decent, even productive and useful people, are made weak and malleable by the “woke” offense industry.  Soon, people like Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke are apologizing for being white.  This doesn’t work with Trump, one of the reasons his supporters stick with him.

Because he doesn’t suffer fools, Trump has engendered impressive levels of hatred here and there within the deep state.  He has a pro-America agenda, which is to say, an agenda that hews slightly more closely to the presumptions of liberty that were part and parcel of her founding.  He wants domestic policy to reflect individual responsibility and even-handed law enforcement, for example.  This is not the policy of the deep state, crafted in tens of thousands of regulations whereby virtually everyone may be persecuted or prosecuted for broken “laws” created by those unelected regulators.  Regulators hate Trump, even though he hasn’t struck all that deeply into their regulatory empire.  It is hateful enough that he undid some of the “great regulator, Obama’s” glorious flood of executive orders.

The deep, deep state, State Department department hates him because he wants America’s treaties and foreign relations, trade and otherwise, to work FOR the United States and no longer against us.  Most presidents make diplomatic noises while the State Department’s deep statists (largely globalist socialists) do what they “know” is best for the world; Trump intends to reverse much of that and make it pro-American.  They will undermine his policies wherever possible, like in Ukraine.  He has no interest in helping George Soros.

The EPA minions surely detest him because he wants land use to include humans.  It may sound silly, but many EPA regulators literally prefer squirrels and other four-or-more legged denizens of Earth over almost any two-legged ones… except for them, of course, and the other climate-change thinkers who, they dream, will wind up taking care of the planet far better than most humans have been, and in deserved comfort – few, if any, America-first conservatives included.

Interior has little use for Trump.  The careerists at Interior cannot imagine any wide-open spaces that are not restricted to bears, wolves and armadillos.  Humans don’t belong in those habitats, just lizards and beavers and so forth.  Any humans already mistakenly thinking they “own” a plot in those open lands can be eased – or forced – out of the “habitat,” and eventually housed in a 300 square foot dormitory space powered by solar panels, vegetables growing on the roof, drinking recycled water.  Only by being as uncomfortable as possible could humans – non-ruling humans – ever balance the ways we’ve despoiled all the “habitats.”  Trump isn’t into that view of the future.

It is impossible to evaluate the motivations of 2 Million federal workers.  The majority are lifers, eventually to retire from their federal jobs.  Each has his or her own motivations, personal “profits,” philosophies and biases.  No single description can apply to 5 people, let alone to a million or more, but given their similarities of employment, there are obviously some motivations, satisfactions, that they share.

Primary of these is a general approval of government, defined as interlocking bureaucracies within which, and among which, are performed the “real” work of government.  Federal government personnel are generally in favor of federal government: perfectly logical.  Next, each long-time employee is generally favorable toward his or her own agency or office.  Each perceives his or her work as valuable, if not vital.  Each, then, is likely to be resistant to any diminution of his or her agency or mission.  The managers in each agency are, more than just stability, desirous of growth – growth of mission and growth of personnel numbers.  Growth equals importance, promotion, better pay.  Built into the 15 executive departments of the Cabinet, are so many agencies that no firm count of them exists!

There are 200 at least, but there may be over 400.  These, alone, provide a substantial force for permanence and growth – a force that politicians cannot find the courage to temper.  Four hundred or so would seem to be a manageable, or at least a take-controllable number.  But it is merely the blueprint.  Within them all are PROGRAMS, programs and more programs.  Congress creates them.  For every one there is an advocacy group that at some time identified a problem that a federal agency/program was not addressing specifically.  The good intention of every advocate is probably real.  Problems exist.  Solutions are often obvious, but rarely easy to effect.  So, politicians are scratched at their most itchy spot: re-election.  Soon a bill is filed to great publicity, that will finally, after years of Republican inaction, solve this or that terrible problem.

Mainly out of ignorance for some, and out of innate anti-liberty socialist beliefs for the rest, problems, no matter how small or how caused, are federalized.  That the federal administrative state is possibly the least effective way on earth to solve problems, only describes the cynicism of politicians who put every problem in the federal lap or on the federal breast.  That they do so while the federal budget is $22 Trillion in debt – and more – only describes their utter mendacity and failure, over many terms, to uphold one of the most basic covenants the federal government makes with its citizens.  For shame.

Trump, unfortunately, has yet to express a willingness to change federal budgeting.

Still, whether it is because of, or in spite of himself, Trump has caused to be exposed the infidelities of globalists and socialists who prefer a continuing, costly, international policeman role for the U. S.  Several have been ejected and more soon will be.   But even if all of the untrustworthy DOJ, DOD, CIA and NSA apparatchiks were cleaned out… all of them… the liberty-corroding machinations of the molasses-heads just a bit deeper entrenched in the hundreds of agencies and thousands of programs (did you know there are over 1,000 federal programs “addressing” poverty?), will plod along, inflicting regulations with the force of law, able to strip citizens of their constitutional rights, among other things.  It is insidious, yet not corrupt, actually – it’s a way of stultifying, nightmarish administrative life.  Blame for it rests on 50 Congresses and a dozen presidents.  And on us.

Conservatives like to think that they are upholding the Constitution when they oppose communists, socialists, liberals and other Democrats.  They tout principles and vote to increase the debt ceiling like lemmings.  They are hated roundly for this, by the “woke” socialists who are not only not awake, but are barely aware of either the Sun or the Son.  God help anyone who threatens to cut the budget; only enemies of the Republic would conspire to allow the “government” to “shut down.”  It never does.