America's Fallen Idol
The halo is slipping. The teleprompter fails to motivate, and the aura of invincibility yields to the invincible reality that you can't suffocate the private sector into growth and vitality. From Deroy Murdock in the Washington TImes, we find a gem of a quote from a letter to President Obama:
“We are perplexed over recent comments and actions questioning the value of corporate aircraft use and proposing tax changes that negatively would impact the entire general aviation industry, …"
The letter, written by two men in the General Aviation industry, would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that one of those men is R. Thomas Buffenbarger, President of the 720,000 member International Association of Machinists union. Evidently, even unions are starting to realize the destructive power of "fundamental transformation." The letter continues:
“During the severe economic downturn in 2008, ill-informed criticism of corporate jets and business aviation exacerbated the challenges facing our industry, which led to depressed new aircraft sales and jeopardized very good, high-paying jobs throughout the United States. More than 20,000 highly skilled IAM members were laid off in this industry.”
It's not just the the machinists union who are unhappy. Down in Texas, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers wrote the EPA, warning that impending regulatory red tape would, "…directly would jeopardize the jobs of approximately 1,500 IBEW members working at six different power plants across the state of Texas.” Meanwhile, the United Mine Workers says that the closure of power plants that would result from EPA edicts could result in the direct loss of over 54,000 jobs in the mining industry, and indirectly result in the loss of over 197,000 ancillary jobs in the coal, utility, and railroad industries.
So not only is Maureen Dowd displeased, along with assorted pundits and politicians, but now the unions are noticing that the Emperor has no clue. Or does he? But that would speak to motivation, a topic which some say is off limits.
(Photo from fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
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May '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Der Praesident ist keinen Erloeser, (wie eine Gotteslaesterung), war nie einen Engel, aber einen ganzen Versager.
Oct '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Dave Carter
So not only is Maureen Dowd displeased, along with assorted pundits and politicians, but now the unions are noticing that the Emperor has no clue. Or does he? But that would speak to motivation, a topic which some say is off limits. ·
Some do, but I don't. While we have no idea how smart BHO is (because he refuses to release any and all of his educational documents), it's probably safe to say that he's not a dunce, he's not a simpleton, he's not Chauncey Gardner.
So even if he's just got ordinary, run-of-the-mill intelligence he would be able to recognize the idiocy and the destructive nature of most of his moves.
And yet he persists in doing them...which brings up the issue of motivation. And his motivation, IMHO, can be traced directly to his desire for a "fundamental transformation" of America. Mind you, he didn't say he wanted to "tweak" America to make her better. His words: "fundamental transformation."
I don't think "motivation" ever was a question. He made it perfectly clear. The question is whether some of us are too skittish to acknowledge it.
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Sure, that's easy for you to say...
Jan '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
It isn't just Obama, even if he's the point man.
The collapse in 2008 unleashed the repressed liberal conviction that capitalism was the problem. At long last, the liberals thought, we have clear evidence that an uncontrolled economy (i.e., an economy not under their control) was a menace.
Without their authority, they're convinced, capitalism would destroy itself through its own selfishness. Liberals believe they're the great bulwark against selfishness and stupidity. If only the peasants would place control of everything under their wisdom and authority, paradise would follow.
In 2008 they had an opening. They won, and got busy. Surely, the first term of Barack Obama would display the superiority of indoctrinated (excuse me, well-trained) Ivy League stewardship. The disaster of 2008 gave them a chance to install the Liberal Utopia, where all of their convictions would be proved true.
_______
Now, liberals are willing to throw Obama under the bus (irony of ironies) to prevent the country from realizing how empty the Liberal Utopia has been all along.
Re: America's Fallen Idol
dittoheadadt ...
So even if he's just got ordinary, run-of-the-mill intelligence he would be able to recognize the idiocy and the destructive nature of most of his moves.
And yet he persists in doing them...which brings up the issue of motivation. And his motivation, IMHO, can be traced directly to his desire for a "fundamental transformation" of America. Mind you, he didn't say he wanted to "tweak" America to make her better. His words: "fundamental transformation."
I don't think "motivation" ever was a question. He made it perfectly clear. The question is whether some of us are too skittish to acknowledge it. · Sep 5 at 9:35am
Agreed. One can't survey the freest, most successful experiment in self governance in human history and reach the conclusion that it needs "fundamental transformation" without having deep misgivings about the Constitution itself, misgivings that he has voiced on more than one occasion.
Jun '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Is this a deliberate attempt to provoke the Ricochet faithful?
Obama's world apology tour along with his groveling before foreign potentates says as much as we need to know. The president doesn't believe in a strong America. He wants to see the nation diminished. How can we interpret this any other way? His problem is that he's unable to manage America into a gentle decline. Everything he touches just blows up because he's a clueless neophyte. It's not that the emperor has no clothes, it's that the clothes have no emperor!
Re: America's Fallen Idol
In order to do what, I wonder? Apply the same prescription, but with a different physician? Do they really think we haven't gone far enough left, or are they going to examine their own dogma? We are, after all, all of money to spend on their utopian fantasies.
Edited on Sep 5, 2011 at 9:51amMay '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Dave Carter
Sure, that's easy for you to say... · Sep 5 at 9:35am
Forgive my rather pathetic intellectual pretence, and preening of a language learnt more than 20 years ago.
The picture says '(Obama) the Saviour'. I replied :
"The President is not a Saviour (what a blasphemy), was never an angel, but is indeed a complete loser"
Edited on Sep 5, 2011 at 10:00amRe: America's Fallen Idol
~Paules
Is this a deliberate attempt to provoke the Ricochet faithful?
Not so much as a deliberate tweak at those who would muzzle our inquiry.
~Paules
It's not that the emperor has no clothes, it's that the clothes have no emperor! ·
I think we've just found the best slogan for the 2012 campaign!
Aug '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
The International Association of Machinists (IAM) is the union that requested the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) prevent Boeing from using its North Charleston, SC facilities for an additional 787 production line.
What one hand gives, the other hand takes away.
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Talleyrand
Dave Carter
Sure, that's easy for you to say... · Sep 5 at 9:35am
Forgive my rather pathetic intellectual pretence, and preening of a language learnt more than 20 years ago.
The picture says '(Obama) the Saviour'. I replied :
"The President is not a Saviour (what a blasphemy), was never an angel, but is indeed a complete loser"
I had to check on Erloeser as initially I thought it might mean loser not saviour · Sep 5 at 9:46am
Edited on Sep 05 at 09:48 am
Thanks for decoding that, Talleyrand. Now I can put away my Official Cajun Translation Dictionary.
Oct '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
~Paules
Is this a deliberate attempt to provoke the Ricochet faithful?
It worked on me!
Apr '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Well, motivation isn't always impenetrable, and the ad hominem argument isn't always irrelevant. We know what BHO's principles and beliefs are and where they came from. Speculative motivation can provide a touch-stone. As my brother used to say, "What would Jimmy Carter have said or done differently if he HAD been a conscious agent of the USSR?"
Edited on Sep 5, 2011 at 10:20amMay '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Whilst you have your President Obama, and his sounding brass teleprompter and his tinkling cymbal VP Biden; here in Australia, our current PM Julia Gillard of 1year is about to be tossed out by her own party, just 1 year after sacking their previous PM Kevin Rudd.
A recent Australian High Court overturn of her refugee policy is the final straw for her minority government; along with a recent politician being allegedly paid $150K by her political party to prevent him losing his seat due to bankruptcy, and thus causing the government to lose its 1-seat majority with the Greens Party and independents.
The MP was alleged spent it on prostitutes for his union mates, overseas trips for the wife and family, and some $100K of hospital union funds (you know how well paid those orderlies are), in undocumented cash advances. It would be funny if friends in Europe would stop calling our Australian Government the the Italy of the Pacific.
G-d help us with our respective governments, leaderless, naked, and broke.
Mar '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Barack Obama: early ripe, early rotten.
Edited on Sep 5, 2011 at 10:19amAug '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
The interests of unions and management in the private sector generally overlap. The business must be able to stay alive and prosperous if the union members are to prosper.
If that is also the case with public sector unions, they certainly don't seem to realize it.
Re: America's Fallen Idol
cbc: The interests of unions and management in the private sector generally overlap. The business must be able to stay alive and prosperous if the union members are to prosper.
If that is also the case with public sector unions, they certainly don't seem to realize it. · Sep 5 at 10:25am
You're right. Many of them, particularly in the public sector, don't realize it and are willing to take to the streets in Greece or Wisconsin to prove their general ignorance.
Dec '10
Re: America's Fallen Idol
An irony of the IAM, whose full name is the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, is that for many years (back in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was briefly a member) its leader was a noted pacifist, despite much of his membership working in the defense industry.
The letter Buffenbarger signed offers a glimmer of hope that this union is beginning to understand that the enemy of labor is not capital. Capital and management are a necessary part of the mechanism that creates jobs for union members. Government regulation, having been allowed to spin out of control, is the real enemy of labor today.
Government regulation that forces firms to internalize the costs of worker and consumer injuries and thus makes workplace and product safety sensible investments (over and above being the right thing to do) is appropriate. But when the government acts as if it had the ability and the duty to regulate job security, it goes past real-world economics into the fairyland of Socialist theory.
One hopes that Labor will learn that its interests are best served in balance with, not in implacable opposition to, those of Capital and Management.
Jan '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
Dave Carter In order to do what, I wonder? Apply the same prescription, but with a different physician? Do they really think we haven't gone far enough left, or are they going to examine their own dogma? We are, after all, all of money to spend on their utopian fantasies.
Oh, I think we're already seeing how they're going to proceed. They're going to blast, smear, demean, scorn, and mock the opposition, to take the focus off themselves.
We need to draw a distinction between ideological liberals (with whom I disagree, but I usually respect) versus the political types, who embrace liberalism mostly as a means to an end: power. The political types oppose capitalism, not so much out of economic logic, but simply because they crave the power that capitalism disperses throughout the market. They want that power for themselves.
For that crowd, power isn't a means to an end, it is the end. They didn't acquire power to apply an economic theory; the theory was a vehicle to acquire power.
The failure of the theory, therefore, doesn't daunt them. That's not what ultimately matters. It's the power.
Jan '11
Re: America's Fallen Idol
To follow up ...
The reason why I almost always distrust political types who claim to be non-ideological is because it leaves the obvious question:
When politicians portray themselves as a non-ideological or "pragmatic," or if they're proud to claim themselves as centrist, that's an alarm. That's a warning. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. What they're telling you is that they don't care what the intellectual content of the policy is ... all they care about is that they get the right to decide it. That's a sign of craving power.