A SOCIETY OF ILLITERATES
"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth," said Diogenes Laertius, a third century biographer of the ancient Greek philosophers. The foundation of our nation is in alarming disrepair. Ours is now the only major economy in the world where today's students will not be better educated than their parents were, said Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). What's important isn't the money wasted. It's the lives being crippled. Only one in five young adults in the U.S. reaches a higher level of education than their parents, OECD statistics indicate. The ignorance of young people today is so prevalent and so pronounced that mocking it has become a staple of late night comedians. But there is nothing funny about ignorance so massive it threatens the health of our economy and the viability of our democratic institutions.
TO CLAIM CUTTING FEDERAL SPENDING WILL COST JOBS IS NONSENSE
The head of the Obama White House National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, who is a lawyer, has been claiming that "all economists" agree that sequestration will cost 750,000 jobs. I am an economist with a doctorate from Columbia University, and I don't agree. The fact is that most classical and Austrian school economists also don't agree (including many Nobel laureates), because they understand that U.S. government spending is well above the optimum for economic growth and job creation, which means that less government spending will create more jobs, not fewer. The Republicans should use the Continuing Resolution and the budget cap to force a further slowdown in the growth of government, and thus, less federal spending as a share of GDP. This should result in even more private-sector job creation, provided that there is restraint by the administration on all the new job-killing regulations.
EMBALMING FREEDOM
"He's one of these narcissistic, charismatic sociopaths history has been bedeviled with for millennia. These folks are pathological liars, they care nothing for ‘the people' whom they pretend to love, their lives are devoted to ruling over others and controlling their lives, they bring misery to those they rule yet are worshipped nonetheless. Obama-worship is like some kind of religious cult, whose high priests are the media elite. Obama feeds off it, so his desire for more power and creating more misery increases. The human capacity to worship such sociopaths is one of life's mysteries." Asunción, Paraguay. The Congressman who told me that during the dinner conversation I described in The Traitor in the White House (2/20/13) voiced what I have never understood: the human capacity to worship evil. The Congressman was talking about Zero, but his words apply even more so here in South America to the man the whole continent is fixated on right now, Hugo Chavez. On every TV news show, in every newspaper and magazine, it's Chavez 24/7. And most all of it is lies. Let's start with what every spook agency in the world knows - from Langley to Whitehall to the KGB/FSB and China's MSS - but no major media outlet is reporting: Chavez didn't die on March 5th in Venezuela, he died January 3rd in Cuba.
THE GLOBAL SLUMP AND THE US STOCK BOOM ILLUSION
Asia's economic recovery is losing momentum and Europe's slump is proving deeper than expected, raising concerns that soaring stock markets globally have jumped ahead of economic reality. Japan's closely-watched index for machinery orders fell 13% in January, nearing levels last seen after the Lehman Brothers crisis. "It is a shockingly poor number and illustrates the divergence between the improvement in sentiment in financial markets and what is actually happening on the ground," said Julian Jessop from Capital Economics. China's industrial output rose 0.6% in January and 0.8% in February, the slowest pace since early last year. Retail sales growth dropped to 12.3%, the weakest since early 2004. "The goal of consumer-led growth remains a pipe dream for now," said the group's China economist, Qinwei Wang. "The economic rebound may already be stalling." The US economy is holding up, as cheap shale gas drives a manufacturing revival, but Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research said America still has to navigate the most drastic fiscal squeeze since the Second World War. "We think tightening will be 2.5% of GDP this year and that will hit profits," he said. "We expect a 10-20% correction in the S&P 500."
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/08/13
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, astonished Washington Wednesday (3/6) with an old fashioned filibuster - the kind where you talk until your voice gives out, a la Jimmy Stewart on the silver screen, Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-SC, in real life. The filibuster galvanized CSPAN viewers, boosted GOP morale, and forced Attorney General Eric Holder to make a major concession. * * * * As part of his effort to make budget cuts imposed by the sequester seem as painful as possible, President Obama cancelled White House tours this week. His ploy backfired, big time. * * * * A sign Zero's Chicken Little strategy isn't working is that comedian Jon Stewart is mocking it. * * * * The government of Venezuela announced Tuesday (3/5) that Hugo Chavez had died. The Chavistas kicked two U.S. military aides out of the country, implying they were somehow responsible for el jefe's death. * * * * Beppe Grillo, the comedian turn politican who Jack Wheeler introduced TTPers to last June, holds the balance of power in Italy after the elections Feb. 25. * * * * Alabama is about to stick it to one of the most powerful teachers unions in the country.
OBAMA’S VISION OF AMERICA IS DETROIT
If you'd like to get a glimpse of what America will look like if President Barack Hussein Obama gets his way on everything, take a good look at Detroit. In 1950, Detroit was America's 5th largest city, with a population of 1.84 million. Median household income was higher than in any other city. So was the percentage of people who owned their own homes. Detroit was then arguably the best big city in which to live. Today, Detroit leads Forbes magazine's list of "most miserable cities." It's the 4th worst run city, according to Money magazine. It's 2nd in violent crime, 3rd in murders. Nearly half of Detroiters of working age are unemployed. It's Obama's goal to make all of America like Detroit.
THE WORLD’S MOST FREEDOM-LOVING PEOPLE
Hargeisa, Somaliland. Who are the most freedom-loving people in the world? Certainly not Americans. We gave that up when a majority of us elected Zero in 2008, and reaffirmed our abandonment of freedom by reelecting him (or allowing him to steal it) last November. Today, Americans are racing away from freedom and into The Traitor in the White House's Fascist Police State as fast as they can. Someday, Americans may find the courage to no longer sell their birthright of freedom for a mess of government entitlement pottage, as Esau sold his birthright to Jacob (Genesis 25:29-34). That's someday, it sure isn't now. Right now, the people who love freedom more than any other are a group of Moslems in the Horn of Africa. They are the people of Somaliland, who would rather be impoverished and free than sell their freedom for pottage. Their story is a heroic saga, epically inspirational. Let me tell it to you.
OBAMA’S FISCAL DEATH DANCE
It is estimated that up to a quarter of all American households still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Many of these people have been able to refinance their home loans with much lower interest rates, but that does not solve the problem because they have a balance sheet problem rather than a cash-flow problem. Those who owe more on their homes than they can sell them for, and who have little other savings or assets, are "locked in" to their existing homes. Even if they have a better job offer in a location too distant to commute, they may not be able to take the job because they cannot afford the mortgage payments on their existing homes, cannot sell for a price higher than their mortgage, or cannot afford rent or house payments in the new location. The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve are largely responsible for the problem. Ironically, they too are locked in to an inescapble conundrum of their own making.
GRIEVING CELEBRITIES STRUGGLE TO FIND REPLACEMENT DICTATOR
(AP) The formal announcement yesterday (3/05) by the Venezuelan government that Hugo Chavez has died sent shockwaves through the ranks of the Hollywood elite, who had long been the Venezuelan leader's staunchest supporters. Throughout the day, celebrities struggled to cope with the devastating loss. "Sean is devastated, completely inconsolable," Sean Penn's publicist Amy Glattensturmer told the AP. "He's been in his bedroom all day. He won't eat, he won't berate his staff, he won't punch women, he wouldn't even come outside to look at the brand new Ferrari Enzo the studio sent him as incentive to read a script. He realizes that a true champion of the working class has died today, and, as one himself, Sean has taken the hit very hard." "The relationship between celebrities and their dictators is a very close one," PR guru Benjamin Shaltzberg told the AP. "Hollywood celebrities had formed a huge bond with Chavez. It will be difficult to replace."
ARE JOURNALISTS READY TO STOP BEING SLAVES TO OBAMA?
Who'da thunk a spat so trivial would do what the murder of a U.S. ambassador and running guns to Mexican drug cartels could not? It began when the Washington Post's Bob Woodward noted in a column Feb. 22 the budget sequester President Barack Hussein Obama is denouncing was his idea. The White House was peeved. National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling "yelled at me for about a half hour," Mr. Woodward said. He would "regret" publishing that story, Mr. Sperling said. That didn't intimidate Mr. Woodward. It irritated him. Mr. Obama is exhibiting "a kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for claiming the sequester will prevent the deployment of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to the Persian Gulf, he said last Wednesday (2/27).