Reflections From a Murky Pond

In 2007 Barack Obama burst onto the international political stage, coming out of nowhere with no known past to shake the foundations of nations. He road in on a unicorn, shooting rainbows.

The Liberals and Progressives quickly fell upon their knees before their new messiah and drank down what he was spewing. They swallowed it all and begged for more.

The Messiah Hath Come

But the honeymoon ended almost before it began and Obama failed to utterly destroy the GOP, failed to fundamentally change America, and failed to keep the worship of the Liberals and Progressives. Soon he left a bitter taste in their mouths.

They May Still Like Him But They Don’t Love Him Anymore

Oh these Liberals and Progressive will still provide Obama lip service. But they’re no longer swallowing his pap. 😉

On Thursday, September 8, 2011 President Obama stood before a joint-session of Congress and read his “Job Speech” off the teleprompter. He and it received a lackluster response.

The response, such as it was, to Obama’s speech was to be expected. The members of Congress couldn’t be expected to pay too much attention to yet another of Obama’s campaign speeches.

And worse, it wasn’t even a well-crafted campaign speech, being little more than blame shifting, class warfare, excuses, and empty rhetoric. Talking point-by-talking point, it was little except an attempt to pander to and placate each of the disparate and antithetical voting blocks of serious note in the upcoming 2012 elections.

The stupid boy never learned that you can make excuses, blame others, and attempt to lower people’s expectations and rally them to your cause at the same time. A leader of men Obama isn’t.

As for Obama’s Jobs Plan, if one can dignify it is as such, dubbed The American Jobs Act – It is much like his speech, a disjointed aggregation of direct and indirect spending meant to pander to as many voters as possible with little or no cohesion between the points.

It’s Not My Fault! I Didn’t Do It! Blame The Old White Guys!

Some of the ideas stand a decent chance of providing some benefit and/or relief, but they only make up approximately $70 billion (15.6%) of the $447 billion “plan.” Another $62 billion (13.9%) is to be spent on restructuring unemployment benefits in a way they might improve people’s chances of either not losing their jobs or being able to get one again. $175 billion (39.2%) is just payroll tax breaks for workers. The other $140 Billion (31.3%) in line items are just retreads of the Stimulus, which failed to perform as touted the first time around.

The boy’s biggest problem is that the only “shovel ready” project out there is his political grave, and he’s doing a good enough job of digging it himself that he doesn’t need to hire extra help.

Between Obama’s speech and the outline for his “plan,” it’s patently obvious that Obama’s Job Plan is designed in its entirety to support the continuation of one job, his own – and, like all his previous mouthings, this one will likely fail as well.

~*~

Keep your eyes open. Travel light but load heavy, and always put another round in the enemy after they’re down.

During these uncertain times it’s best to be realistic and not hold too tightly to improbable dreams. One needs to manage one’s expectations and focus on what is achievable, not what is desired.

Staying Focused and Managing Expectations

Some people like Hattie Watson, pictured above, seem to be wise enough in the ways of the world to understand this. 😉

It seems that United States Postal Service (USPS) is about to collapse into what is effectively bankruptcy unless Congress votes them a bail-out to the tune of $5.5 billion in taxpayers’ dollars.

USPS Bail-Out? Another Cash For Clunkers Stimulus?

I’d ask how the USPS, which holds a federally mandated monopoly in many message delivery markets could be such a clunker but the answer to that is readily apparent. The combination of federal bureaucracy and union labor rendered the USPS unable to adapt to the changes in their market.

Please remember, even though it’s too late, that Obama joked joked about the USPS’ problems before while shilling ObamaCare. Think about that and what it bodes for our future.

So the questions are: will Congress give $5.5 billion in cash to this clunker so that they can their bills and meet their legally required union pension obligations, and if they don’t and the USPS doesn’t pay their retirees will the Liberals rant and rail about the “Evil Mail Giant” like they would if this was a private corporation?

 

What is wealth? What is it based upon and what is it comprised of? This seems an important question, though one that it might not be wise or helpful to answer.

I do not ask this question in the philosophical or spirituals realms where one might find true and lasting wealth but purely in the context of material wealth.

This is, however, a dangerous question because, if the answer to it shows that the economies of the Civilized World are based upon lies and stupidity instead of true wealth, too many people learning what wealth is and what it is based upon would completely collapse those economies.