View 669 April 4 - 10, 2011 (original) (raw)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
It is rapidly approaching tax time so I will be brief for the next week or so.
Donald Trump has apparently been investigating the Obama birth certificate, and reports that he is astonished to find that it is not simple at all: the government issued document Obama relies on is unsigned and of no value, and Trump says he can't find anything else. Now it no longer matters: Obama was elected President, and the legal issues generated by the discovery that he didn't qualify to be elected would be so profound, and waste so much time and money to no end but the enrichment of lawyers, that one shudders to think of it. A court could have enjoined him from running, or the Electors from considering him, but that is long past. Nothing beneficial can come of this. He isn't going to be Un-Presidented. That will not happen, and it is a distraction we can do without.
What is odd is why there is any question of it in the first place. Surely there is a real document, routinely issued, signed by someone at the place of birth. Hawaii was newly a state at the time, but it had long been a major and important territory, and those born there were citizens: there had to be a mechanism for recording their birthright, as there has long been for Puerto Rico.
One possibility surfaced recently with a letter from Gaddafi to Obama. It begins 'Our dear son, Excellency, Baraka Hussein Abu oumama, your intervention in the name of the U.S.A. is a must, so that Nato (NATO) would withdraw finally from the Libyan affair.' Now suppose that Obama's name appears on the birth certificate in that long and formal fashion, written that way at the insistence of his Kenyan father. One can understand Barry Obama's reluctance to have it become public that his legal name was Abuoumama or some variant of that. Mere speculation of course, but I note that the New York Times and most other mainstream media that purport to show the "full text" of the letter show, formatted as if it were a copy, a letter beginning 'President Obama'. The long arabized name is not shown. Very odd.
And having said that, it is important to understand that the 'birther' debate is a snare and a delusion. The only upsides to it go to Obama. It ought to be retired, and not brought up again until Barack Hussein Obama is no longer President of the United States, at which time it may furnish material for various Master's theses, and trivia quiz show games.
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The Wisconsin supreme court election teaches a lesson. It is not a pretty one.
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Latest MIT report from Fukushima: the situation is under control.
TEPCO has reported that as of 5:38 AM JST, the leakage of water from Unit 2�s supply cable pit has stopped. ...
After it was found that the leak had stopped, TEPCO continued to reinforce the crack by applying additional sealant. They are now considering the injection of additional �liquid glass� coagulant as an added measure of safety.
Release of low-level radioactivity water from the facility�s water treatment facility to the ocean is underway. This measure is intended to prevent a potentially much more serious release of contamination to the ocean by allowing the more radioactive water currently flooding the reactor buildings to be stored. The IAEA states that this operation is likely to last no more than five days.
Under control and gradually getting better.
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There is mail including a deployed officer wondering about pay.
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Apologies for having to do this. Normally I do pledge drives when KUSC does theirs, this site being operated like public radio, namely that it's always free but if it doesn't get subscriptions it will go away. The recent required reconstruction of the sewer connection at Chaos Manor was expensive and distracting and has to be paid for: I can look for more journalistic work at the expense of activities like this place, or I can bug you. Apologies for bugging you...
My thanks to all those who have recently subscribed. This new appeal is not directed to those who subscribe and regularly renew. You'll get hounded at the regular pledge drive intervals, but you should ignore this one. This is directed at those who have never subscribed. For those who can't remember when they last renewed and are inspired to do so now, thanks, but you too will be hounded at the regular pledge drives. This one is directed at those who keep thinking thinking they ought to subscribe but just didn't get around to it. This is a good time to find that round tuit. Subscribe now...
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FUKUSHIMA PHOTOS
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Hi-Res Photos -
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp/daiichi-photos.htm
A reminder that hydrogen leaks / explosions are serious business!
The drone used to take the shots is pretty slick looking.
Regards,
Jim Riticher
Those are spectacular photos. I note the debris in the yards, and I am surprised by the lack of destruction of the trees and debris in the harbor.
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The Far Downside of Sowing the Wind
Regrets
Jerry,
I very much regret to say that:
(a) There is little remaining doubt that Mr. Obama has as his principal purpose the abject violation of the explicit meaning of his oath of office (e.g. violation of the words "...preserve, protect, and defend...") (b) I also have little remaining doubt, based on rigorous analysis of his actions in office, that the intended beneficiary of part (a) is his father's co-religionists; that is, his current Middle East policy is not "chaotic" or "inconsistent" if viewed from the benefit of Al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iraq, but is wholly consistent when considered in terms of those beneficiaries, minimally subject to the constraints necessitated by not publicizing that fact.
If you have any information that would convince me (and, I must admit, the overwhelming majority of my confidants) that this assessment is in error, I would be eternally grateful. Because the alternative is likely to make the years 1861-1865.3 look like a child's tea party.
Thanks,
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PS I don't disagree with your assessments of Mr. Trump's analysis. I've feared for some time that, unless the remedy is introduced by the Democratic caucus in both houses with 2/3+ majorities of that caucus, the consequences will be catastrophic. (My exact comment has been "a civil war with 20 million dead.")
Do not ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Napoleon Bonaparte
My only evidence is that I have known political strategists who are brilliant at devising politically effective strategies without having any inkling of their long term effects, and I have known Liberals who really and truly believe that their noble ends justify any means necessary. As to Obama's intentions, I have no way of knowing those; but he is surrounded with people who are not likely to have such intentions. The Liberal philosophy includes an ethics of intention: if everyone means well, then that is sufficient to absolve one of the prudential outcomes. If it is absolutely necessary that "we win this one" then, well, yes, election fraud is evil and must be prevented, but this outcome is so important that --
We have sown the wind. I have been pointing this out for many years. Our education system is in ruins. The nation is dominated by Iron Law institutions. Every American now bears a debt of 45,000,asashareofthenationaldebt(inadditiontoanypersonaldebts).ThemedianhouseholdincomeintheUnitedStatesisabout45,000, as a share of the national debt (in addition to any personal debts). The median household income in the United States is about 45,000,asashareofthenationaldebt(inadditiontoanypersonaldebts).ThemedianhouseholdincomeintheUnitedStatesisabout50,000. That's household, not individual; in other words, in general, the household share of the national debt is larger than the annual income of the household. If there were no interest, then if everyone in the USA paid 10% of income into a debt relief fund, it would take ten years to pay it off. Of course there is interest.
This is one reason for the fanatic emphasis on "growth" rather than profitable income. In a normal society without inflation and crazy booms there isn't any way to pay off that debt load. But perhaps with some Goldman, Sachs magic we can manipulate our way through. Or, perhaps with luck, we can keep putting off the day of reckoning and leave this problem to our children -- most of whom will have many thousands of dollars worth of student loan debts to pay in addition to shares of the national debt. Of course "we owe it to ourselves" as Samuelson's Econ 101 text used in most colleges in my day told us. Of course that isn't really true. Really, we owe it to -- well, other than Goldman, Sachs to whom do we owe it? When we default who goes broke? If we owe it to ourselves we could just write it off -- I'll be glad to forego my share -- but in fact that won't work.
Within a decade a majority of the city tax income will go to retired workers. I suspect that's true of many cities. State budgets have less acute but similar problems. When a great part of income goes to people no longer working, who does the work? But any attempts to change that will be met with the usual street riots and occupation of the capitol building.
What has happened to democracies who got themselves into this situation? Does anyone know?
There is a way out, but we are not taking it. We are reaping the whirlwind -- but we go on sowing as before. I do not know where all this is going. I have never seen anything like this in the US, nor even in Europe between the Wars. I do see Greece and Portugal, and beyond them Tunisia and Egypt and Iran; they never were rich, but they allocated their resources to building Iron Law institutions. They sowed the wind, and now hope that someone else will bail them out.
Stable republics are rare in human history. Mr. Franklin told us we have a Republic -- if we can can keep it. For more than two hundred years we kept it, but the prospects for the future are not so certain.
It is not too late, but the clock ticks loudly, and the wind is rising. As we sow, so shall we reap; and we sow the wind.
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