Tag: Russia

Obama – The Ego has Landed!

G’Day!

When I started this Blog in February 2011, it was not intended to be political but, after a year of following our President and Congress carefully, I believe I have no choice. My overall assessment is that Obama and the Democrats, what I call the “Obammunists”, are determined to fundamentally change the culture, prosperity, and exceptionalism of America into a huge centrally governed socialist nation where hard work, innovation, achievement, and success are penalized and indolence, obedience, and dependence are rewarded. Obama is actively pursuing a “Race to the Bottom” policy of economic wealth redistribution where the general population and industry (except the chosen “Obammunist” elite) are equally poor and dependent on government for survival. As I have said before, it sounds like communism to me. The Republicans are not perfect but at least they are trying to save our Constitution and our country from becoming Greece or perhaps Russia. If the Obama Administration’s policies are pursued, America is on a path of potential self-destruction that is unnecessary, unwise, and undesirable. I call on all freedom-loving Americans to become politically active, to get out the vote, and to defeat Obama in November.

Obama is acting like a man who would be king and is displaying the ego to believe he can accomplish it. Perhaps the clearest indicator of excessive self-image is someone who blames everyone else for bad decisions and bad results and continues to actively pursue and promote his mistakes. So far he has blamed his failures on former President Bush, the Republicans, Congress, the Tea Party, millionaires and billionaires, Wall Street, Europe, and recently launched an advance attack on The Supreme Court over Obamacare. He has been campaigning with our taxpayer dollars to divide the country by economic class, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and entitlements. Charles Krauthammer recently predicted this could be “The dirtiest campaign you’ve ever seen.”

Obama’s ego is off the scale. He appears to believe that he is always right and anyone who doesn’t agree with him is wrong. Obama appears to believe that Americans are so naïve and gullible he can continue to be “charming” and successfully blame everyone but himself for the failures and bad policies of his administration. I believe that the American people are smart enough to see through his organized propaganda campaign of blame and misinformation. He is following other self-centered historical European kings and dictators who believed that a distortion of truth repeated often enough and combined with the use of government force will be tolerated by sufficient population to acquire and retain authoritarian power. Do you want to reelect a man who has been so wrong and made so many mistakes and still believes in his infallibility? The “Obammunists” are very dangerous to our Constitution and our culture of free market capitalism, constitutionally protected individual freedoms, entrepreneurship, and limited federal government. These are the foundations that have made America exceptional for over 200 years and, with our help will keep it strong, free, and prosperous for the future.

The “Obammunists” are counting on a silent majority of Americans to be apathetic and to believe the politics of misinformation that is being proclaimed to divide our nation. Obama is expecting freedom-loving Americans to stay at home in November and allow the organized leftwing socialist (communist?) labor unions, those receiving entitlements, and their supporters determine the election outcome. We must not let that happen! We must become passionate about saving our country for our children. The Founding Fathers established the Constitutional principle that government is the servant of the people not vice versa. We have the opportunity in November to correct the course of our country and put it back on the right track of liberty, capitalism, economic growth, and limited government. Study the issues and candidates and vote accordingly.

The Old Guy PhD

Wake Up America – Obama is Hazardous to Your Health (& Wealth)!

G’Day!

Not only is Obama hazardous to your health and wealth, he is even more hazardous to our Constitution, our personal freedoms, our national defense, our foreign policy, our economic growth, our energy independence, and our very fiscal survival as a country. If Obama and the Democrats are left unchecked (pun intended), our capitalist freedom-loving nation, that has been a model for the world for over two centuries, could become a centrally mandated, entitlement state of mostly parasites living off the productive endeavors of fewer and fewer successful hard-working citizens. At worst, America could turn into a failed bankrupt state. Given the apparent Obama agenda of dictated economic equality and oppressive federal government control over all aspects of our social, economic, and personal lives, the freedoms and opportunities for the hard working Americans will continue to be eroded through increasing regulations, restrictions, and taxes. It appears that Obama’s intent is to engage the nation in “class warfare” in order to make us all equally poor and dependent on the federal government for our survival. Unfortunately, it sounds a lot like communism to me. As “The Economist” headlined in February: “Over-regulated America: The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation”. Regrettably, this appears to be true!!

Regarding health, all I need to say is “Obamacare”. Approximately two-thirds of the country doesn’t want it. It has and will continue to increase both healthcare and business costs and will inhibit job and economic growth. It will penalize medical innovation, decrease incentives for doctors, and increase direct and indirect taxes for those who actually pay them. It is a massive increase in government’s intrusion in our lives and will ultimately result in government-rationed healthcare including end-of-life decisions by bureaucrats. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will correctly declare the act unconstitutional and we can return to a logical and rational free-market based system with reasonable government support for the truly needy. I lived in Europe for approximately ten years and can assure you even our current system, which can be improved, is far better than “Obamacare”.

Obama is clearly an “elitist” who does not support our Constitution. The Constitution is the foundation of our individual liberties and places strict limits on federal government power. Obama appears to believe that he and his administration are smarter than our Founding Fathers and are more qualified than Congress or the people to make decisions and rules controlling our lives and our economy. Obama’s agenda is found throughout his administration and especially in his policies for Energy, Environment, Labor, Defense, and the Department of Justice, not to mention his appropriately named “Czars”. Look at the damage these federal bureaucracies have done during his brief term in office. Obama is trying to force his socialist agenda of an all-powerful federal government on the American people. He is even trying to bypass Congress with excessive use of executive power through administrative mandates. This is not the way our Founding Fathers intended the three branches of our government to function and is not good for our country.

Obama’s financial and economic policies have been and continue to be an accelerating train wreck for America. Suffice it to say that in only three years he has increased our national debt by over $1 trillion every year and in total by $5 trillion to more than $15 trillion (+50%), so much for electing a Community Organizer to run the country. Over the last year I have written many articles about how totally unsustainable and incomprehensible his financial and fiscal policies are. His Presidential budgets and the Dodd-Frank regulations are obvious examples of bad proposals and legislation. President Obama may be charming but he is a disaster for the future of our nation.

How many of you really believe Obama’s National Defense and Foreign Policies over the last three years have been favorable? Do you believe our country is safer and that our influence throughout the world has improved under Obama’s guidance? Do you feel that ignoring European desires, especially Poland and the Czech Republic, and caving in to Russia’s demands to eliminate the European missile defense shield has made Europe or the United States more secure? Has this concession to Russia resulted in any change in Russia’s willingness to cooperate with us on Iran, Syria, the Israel-Palestinian conflict or any important foreign issue? Has the abrupt withdrawal of armed forces from Iraq caused the Iraqi to experience less internal hostilities and regard us more favorably than before? Has the ill-advised announcement of a specific timetable for unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan improved our relations with the Afghan government and the Taliban or resulted in a reduction of hostilities? Has his policy regarding Israel improved or worsened their conflict with the Palestinians in the West Bank? Have the unilateral defense cuts, including cancelling of the NASA Space Program with the immediate lost of thousands of highly trained technology jobs improved our ability to defend ourselves or compete scientifically in space with China, Russia, Iran, or even North Korea? Have our relations with China and Pakistan improved under Obama? And finally, how is the containment of Iran’s nuclear program going? Are these the policies you want continued by our government? I know that I do not.

Regarding Energy, the arbitrary Energy Department and EPA restrictions on fossil energy use, exploration, and development have made us more dependent on foreign energy sources from unstable regions of the world and increase our energy costs. Does the stoppage of the Keystone Pipeline from Canada and the associated loss of desperately needed domestic jobs make any sense to anyone other than radical environmentalists? Will the newly released emission standards on coal-fired power plants kill the coal industry and result in thousands of lost jobs. These administrative mandates will result in higher gas prices, higher energy prices, lower employment and less economic growth at a time when our country is struggling to recover. Obama and his administration should realize that our nation and the world will be dependent on fossil fuel energy for years and probably decades. We have abundant domestic sources of oil, natural gas, and coal available if our government would let us develop and use them. And, if we do not, the security of America will be in jeopardy and we will be at the mercy of unstable nations that do not like us. I for one am totally mystified. What is Obama thinking? I do not want to believe that Obama intentionally wants to destroy our country but his policies are certainly trending in this direction. This is not good.

As I said in last month’s article, “The growth of Western Civilization and especially the United States was fuelled by the expansion of individual liberties, property rights, and a free market capitalist society. Our nation was established on the fundamental principle that government is the servant of the people, not that the people are the servants of the government. It’s time to take back our country and return to the individual liberties, free markets, economic growth, and limited government we have long enjoyed.” WAKE UP AMERICA!

The Old Guy PhD

Is Obama Our Worst President or Just the Weakest?

G’Day!

While I did not vote for Obama, I did have great hope for his presidency. Even though I believed him to be too inexperienced and unqualified to be President, his slogan, “Yes we can!” combined with his soaring rhetoric was inspiring and motivating. Unfortunately, my initial fears have been realized. Perhaps Anna Pukas said it best in her recent article, “Barack Obama: The Weakest President in History?” when she described him as “INEFFECTUAL, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t…” To Anna Pukas’ observations, I would add aloof, elitist, and indecisive.

It is actually too early to tell if the outcomes from the legislation of the Obama government will make him our worst President but current and future implications for the massive increase in big government socialism, continuing fiscal catastrophe, unsustainable levels of debt, and diminished international respect for the United States around the world, clearly make him a contender. More worrying is the apparent weakness and inability of President Obama to accept leadership and responsibility for the direction of our country. His ambivalence as a leader and his priority with the “perks” instead of the responsibilities of his office are unprecedented in our current time of crisis. In issue after issue he has withdrawn from the actual decision-making process and, during his first two years in office, deferred to Congress or leaders in other countries to set our government’s goals and priorities. Besides golf (60+ times since taking office, I’m retired and haven’t been able to play that much), political speeches, extensive travel, and a totally unearned Nobel Peace Prize, he has largely been an observer on domestic and international issues. Professor Peter Morici recently indicated on national television, Obama appears to be more interested in “Presidential Tourism” than in dealing with the critical issues facing our nation. Virtually all Presidents in at least the last century have been strong leaders. Some of their actions have been right and some have been wrong but they were willing to take responsibility and actually lead our country. Perhaps Harry Truman expressed it best when he said, “The Buck Stops Here!” With Obama, “The Buck Starts Here!”

We were warned by Hillary Clinton during the Democratic Primary Campaign that Obama, while in the Illinois legislature, declined to take a position on issues by voting “Present” (neither yes nor no) 129 times. While in his partial term in the US Senate, he missed roll call 314 times (24%). These should have been indications of his personal lack of commitment and inability to take a position on legislation. Since becoming President, Obama has essentially been a pitchman for the Democrats, notably the unions, and has punted important domestic decisions (Stimulus, Healthcare, Financial Reform, Federal Budgets, and National Debt) to the Democratically-controlled House and Senate and international decisions to the State Department and foreign leaders. With foreign leaders he has been persistently weak and apologetic concerning America’s historical role in fighting for and defending freedom, democracy and US international interests. He has consistently been indecisive and ambivalent in dealing with China, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, and now Libya.

In responding to the current Libyan crisis, he has dithered and deferred to the leadership of Britain, France, and the Arab League and has now bypassed Congress (perhaps illegally) and subordinated US national interests to the UN Security Council for the current military actions. All this while he and his entire family engaged in “Presidential Tourism” to South and Central America. At the time of this writing, our US policy on Libya is a confused mess. Obama has no clear long-term objectives and he has still not addressed the nation or properly communicated to Congress a coherent government plan. Astonishingly, Obama’s currently stated goal for Libya is to WITHDRAW US military authority over the actions in Libya, pass command to “somebody else”, and voluntarily abandon American leadership in a time of international crisis. He appears to be willing to give command and control over our military to unknown foreign powers “to be determined”! This is another example of Obama’s avoidance of responsibility and lack of strength. Unfortunately, his weakness as a leader and lack of belief in the greatness, strength, and historical contribution of America in the world, has undermined our international stature in the world and created a power vacuum that other nations are trying to fill. Even our long-time allies have been embarrassed by his deference and obeisance to the leaders of problem nations. Remember Obama “bowing” to the King of Saudi Arabia and cancelling President Bush’s Anti-ballistic-missile Defense Shield for Central Europe when challenged by Russia. These are not the actions of the President of the World’s greatest nation.

I don’t know if Obama will turn out to be our worst President but he doesn’t look good and the future of our country is in peril on many fronts, especially our fiscal and debt crises and our foreign policy. I do believe that what little political conviction he has is directed toward expanding socialist government, reducing personal freedoms, and exercising more control over our lives (see “Big Government IS Our Problem!”). This is not good! I am also very sorry to say that I believe that Obama IS our weakest President in at least the last century and has not demonstrated the personal strength to handle the conflicts and confrontations that are a necessary consequence of the domestic and international issues confronting America. This is very unfortunate given the variety of crises we face. Fortunately, the November elections gave control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. This, at minimum, will halt the growth of collectivist government for the next two years.

Our nation was founded on constitutionally protected principles of individual freedoms, free markets, and limited government. Let’s stop the rot, get back to our roots, and reverse the trend as soon as possible.

The Old Guy PhD