GEORGIA CAN BE PUTIN’S AFGHANISTAN
Time to stop the hand-wringing about Russia's re-igniting the Cold War by invading Georgia. Time to start thinking of what a golden opportunity this presents. First the reality. Russia, before, during, and after the Soviet Union was and remains a brutal imperialist dictatorship. The Soviet Union was simply the same old Czarist Russian imperialism with Marxism-Leninism as an ideological rationale. The fall of the USSR only meant the fall of the rationale. So Russia is back to where it has always been, with the Russian compulsion for brute force bullying as its way of dealing with the world. It is no accident, comrades, that Russians were the Soviets, and it is no surprise whatever that they are behaving like Soviets in Georgia today. Thus the fundamental reality of how to conduct foreign policy with Russia, however distasteful it may be to the squishes at the State Department chronically afflicted with terminal testicular atrophy: The only thing Russians in the Kremlin understand and respect is superior force and the willingness to use it against them. If you don't give them a punch in the mouth and a bloody nose the moment they start to bully you, they will keep bullying you until you start fighting back hard - or you capitulate and obey their orders. It's either-or, win-lose. Those are their rules. The golden opportunity Putin is giving us by invading Georgia is that it gives us the perfect excuse to play by his rules.
THE PHONY, BRUTAL, SLOPPY, AND INEPT INVASION OF GEORGIA
Russia is continuing its invasion of free, democratic Georgia with overwhelming military force. Given the raw power Russia has been willing to apply, there's no question as to which side will win. But one of the many untold stories of this fateful war is how poorly Russian forces are performing - despite careful planning and extensive preparations. Putin, currently in his "Wolfschanze" in Vladikavkaz, must be especially furious with his pride and joy, the Russian air force. The inept performance of the Russian air force may have been the most striking feature of the war thus far. Again, numbers alone guarantee a Russian win. The abysmal performance of Russian pilots has been on display for all the world to see - although, once again, the media don't understand what they're witnessing.
THE RUSSIAN RAPE OF GEORGIA
As I write this in the early morning hours of August 9, Russian tanks grind into a brave and isolated democratic state. Assuming that the world's attention would focus on Beijing, Moscow stage-managed an elaborate act of aggression against Georgia. But the world has changed since Soviet tanks rolled unchallenged into Afghanistan at Christmastime 29 years ago. Global communications now spotlight aggression instantly. Yesterday, millions around the world didn't watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (the Chinese must be furious at the Russians). Instead, they saw images of Soviet - sorry, I meant Russian - aircraft pounding Georgian territory as Russian armor rolled over the Caucasus Mountains. So let's discuss the background, what just happened, and what happens next.
REPLACING INCOME TAXES WITH AN UNDER 10% NATIONAL SALES TAX
Tax increase advocates argue we must increase taxes to reduce the deficit. The problem is that tax increases slow economic growth, resulting in diminished growth in the tax base while, at the same time, increasing the pressure for more government spending. If Congress were to act responsibly (yes, an oxymoron), it would hold down the growth of spending, as was done in the late 1980s and late 1990s, and eliminate those government programs that do not meet a reasonable cost-benefit test. As has been shown before, such actions would quickly eliminate the deficit. The good news is that the actual numbers show that it is possible to responsibly develop a program to eliminate the income tax and replace it with a relatively low-rate (less than 10 percent) sales tax. Not the 23 or 30% proposed by "Fair Tax" advocates, but under 10%. Here's how.
HALF FULL REPORT 08/08/08
This week we'll be talking a lot about numbers. It's a mark of a primitive brain to be superstitious about particular ones, to believe that certain numbers are "lucky" or "unlucky." For all their vaunted rationality, most Chinese for example have a Stone Age superstition that the number 8 brings good fortune. So they quite purposefully are having their Olympics begin today, 08/08/08, precisely at 8:08pm Beijing time. People with primitive beliefs are vulnerable. If the Chicom Olympics don't live up to expectations, don't bring China the world's adoration and respect, then the Chicoms risk losing the "Mandate of Heaven" - the superstitious belief that fate favors them. Watch the Games unfold over the next two weeks with that context in mind. There's a lot more drama going on than just in the athletic contests. *** Now for fun with numbers. Magic numbers. The most magic number in America right now is 112.
THE EVIL EMPIRE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Ronald Reagan first condemned the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando Florida on March 8, 1983. Publicly naming the explicit nature of Soviet imperialism provided the necessary focus for those of us working on a strategy to rid the world of it - a strategy the press called the Reagan Doctrine. Less than eight years after President Reagan spoke those immortal words, the Soviet Union was no more. Ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin is determined to resurrect this evil empire with oil billions, gangster capitalism, and Russian thuggery. But Russia is dying demographically and by 2015 half the Russian Army will be Moslem. By 2020 or maybe before, the eastern half of Russian Siberia will be Chinese Siberia (TTP, November 2006). Russia has no future beyond ephemerally high oil prices. Once they crash, so does Russia. So is there an heir to the title of Evil Empire in this new century? Yes. It is China. One principal reason is that the internal structure of the former Soviet Union and China are the same. One benefit of the Beijing Olympics is to make that blindingly clear.
NOBAMASENSE
Barack Hussein Obama's efforts to explain his energy policy indicate why his campaign has emphasized celebrity over issues. The liberal San Francisco Chronicle says he is offering "more flip-flops than a Lake Tahoe souvenir stand." In a speech in Lansing, Michigan Monday (8/04), Mr. Obama called for release of 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. As the AP's Tom Raum noted in his lead, this was a reversal of a position he had taken less than a month before. "The strategic oil reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency," Sen. Obama said in a press availability in St. Louis July 7: "You have a situation, let's say, where there was a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia that was destroyed as a consequence of terrorist acts, and you suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken out of the world market, we wouldn't just be seeing $4 a gallon oil. We could see a situation where entire sectors of the country had no oil to function at all. And that's what the strategic oil reserve has to be for." Now, apparently, a drop in the opinion polls is reason enough to tap the strategic petroleum reserve.
DESTROYER OF THE GULAG BUT NO LOVER OF FREEDOM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who died Sunday (8/03) of heart failure at age 89, was a titan in Russian literature and politics of the 20th century. He survived the Stalinist purges, World War II, eight years in the gulag, a successful battle with cancer, and communist denunciation. After spending 18 years exiled in America, he made a triumphant return to his homeland in 1994. Mr. Solzhenitsyn's life was full of contradictions. Together with another giant, Russian Nobel Prize winning physicist Andrei Sakharov and fellow dissidents, he contributed greatly to the exposure of totalitarian socialism's moral bankruptcy. However, he was a harsh critic of liberal democracy, and of America, despite the fact that it gave him shelter and protection during his difficult years of exile. A Harvard commencement speech in which he accused Americans of hedonism and cowardice became a scandal. While his family became U.S. citizens, he refused to do so. Russia today probably approaches Mr. Solzhenitsyn's ideal.
POLITICIANS ALWAYS BLAME THE PROBLEMS THEY CAUSE ON OTHERS
Two of the following three news stories are true and one is not. Which ones do you think are true? Story No. 1: "A new commission appointed by Norway will investigate ways of putting a stop to the huge flows of money into tax havens. Tax evasion and corruption are believed to cost poor countries at least $50 billion a year (according to an estimate by Oxfam International)." Story No. 2: "A new commission created by several small low-income non-oil producing nations was established to seek ways of forcing oil rich nations to share their oil revenue with poor nations." Story No. 3: "Senators declare war on offshore havens. Congressional scrutiny of the offshore vehicles used by companies, investment funds and wealthy individuals is increasing."
WHAT HAPPENED TO JUSTICE IN AMERICA?
What happened to justice in America? It certainly wasn't served on July 28 when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the unjust convictions of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. During the appellate court's hearing on December 3, 2007, the judges exhibited a disapproving posture towards the government's case. My communications director, Tara Setmayer, witnessed one of the appellate judges say first hand, "it does seem the government overreacted" in this prosecution. The judges questioned why the prosecutors "stacked" the charges and got the government's attorney to admit their drug-smuggling star witness "told some lies.". Yet the judges, after almost eight months of deliberation, issued a 46 page ruling in complete contrast to what happened in court. What could have possibly happened between the December 3rd hearing and now?