George Soros, Man or Monster?

Ronald Reagan was known as the great “Communicator.” Arnold Schwarzenegger  is known, appropriately enough given the terminal condition of California, as the “Terminator.” Let me add one more to the list. George Soros, “The Manipulator.”

 George Soros has been cast as the Rasputin to the far left’s dream of empire. According to the likes of Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and countless other conservative media mouthpieces, he is the puppet master behind  the progressive movement. He is incarnate evil squared. Rather than take their word for it, I decided to investigate for myself. What I found surprised me. 

I started by reading his book, The Crash of 2008 and What it Means. The book is essentially a rehash of previous books where he advances his economic theory, with added chapters that discuss the economic crisis of 2008.  My surprise came in that after wading through several chapters of this book, I felt that his theory of economic markets may have some validity. Boiled down to its essentials, Soros maintains that current theories are in error in that they do not account for the fact that the very act of being engaged in the market shapes the market. In other words, the economic markets are not the result of pure supply and demand operating blindly to form a rational market. He maintains the market is irrational in nature because human involvement, hopes, and fears make it thus. He then analysis the impact of “bubbles” or boom and bust cycles, concluding that there was a super bubble formed between the 1970s and now that burst with the economic collapse of 2008.

What did not surprise me was the constant references by Soros that everything that has gone wrong was “Bush’s fault.” He seems obsessed by his belief that “The Bush Administration” was guilty of everything from the failure of domestic economic policy to the failure of democracy in Russia.  He specifically faults Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for allowing Lehman Brothers to fail, thus triggering the total economic collapse of the world financial markets. It is in this analysis by Soros where we begin to see the true basis of his political activism.

Soros expounds at length that the role of the “Authorities”  (read Governments) during the bust phase of the boom and bust cycle is to intervene with economic policies that ameliorate the bust and eventually turn it around.  In his opinion, the world financial system is not up to the task, since the individual nations and blocs   act independently for the most part with varying degrees of success and failure. He does not explictly state that a more centralized system would be better, but it is clear in his analysis that he feels a coordinated response to world financial crisis would be better than the current fragmented responses. It is in this implied belief that we begin to get a clue as to Soros’ motives in sponsoring or supporting numerous foundations and organizations designed to adopt the Socialist dream of a New World Order.

George Soros is a financial genius. He has become wealthy beyond imagination by understanding how markets function and perhaps even applying his economic theory to his advantage. However, as he admits in this book, he has also taken some real losses when the market has not behaved the way he thought it should. He blames those losses on improper responses or actions by  governments that do not understand the true nature of the market and/or fail to take coordinated actions.  There is an old political truism that posits the way to understand the behavior of an individual or group is to “follow the money.” A Las Vegas casino provides a good analogy for George Soros.

Imagine a casino as a financial market. Most people playing the casino are not winners, but a few, like George Soros, have managed to beat the odds and become hugely successful. The only problem that arises is that like Las Vegas, there are many casinos (financial systems)  to choose from, and each of them has a slightly different set of rules, which in turn have to be mastered by a man like Soros. It would be much, much better for player Soros to just have one casino to deal with while playing his financial games. From Soros’ viewpoint, integration of the world financial markets under one roof would lead to better responses to financial crises and thus better outcomes. Perhaps more importantly, integration would lead to less uncertainty and thus more opportunity for one who understands the rules like Soros.

In order to arrive at this situation, Soros is striving to establish a regime in the United States that will be willing to become part of a greater political system and a common economic policy. To this goal, he has founded and supported numerous organizations and groups dedicated to electing left wing politicians who are willing to advance this idea.  Although his first choice to carry this banner of liberal policies was Hillary Clinton, he seems pretty satisfied by the election of Obama. He has assembled a powerful group of Socialist leaning entities, and with his financial resources, will not cease to manipulate behind the scenes to achieve his goals.

George Soros is truly a dangerous man because he sincerely believes we must fundamentally change the form and function of our country. He also must be immensely pleased by the changes the Obama administration, with help from Pelosi and Reid, have engineered in the past two years. Watch for him to redouble his efforts as the conservatives rally and fight back.

JP

For a closer look at the political side of George Soros, I recommend The Shadow Party by David Horowitz and Richard Poe. 

Another Power Grab

Yesterday the FCC made its grab for controlling the providers of the internet and thus eventually controlling the content of the internet. Make no mistake about this power grab, it is designed to open the door for government control over the internet, and thus directly government control over the right of the people to engage in free speech. This FCC move, approved by Obama, is just another in the long line of government takeovers we have witnessed since this extreme left wing President and his extreme left wing henchmen in Congress have wrought since gaining control. The list grows and grows:  Healthcare, Banking and Finance, Student Loans, the Automobile Industry, Energy regulation by fiat--the list goes on and on. What these extremists want is to completely remake this country into their own twisted vision of what a "progressive" country should be. We have to fight them tooth and nail.

Our next best hope is that the overwhelming rebuttal of their agenda was heard loud and clear in the last election. They know their time is limited, and thus the huge rush in this lame duck Congress to pass their pet projects. The job of our new Congress in the next year will be to dismantle what ever they can of the damage that has been done to our country and Constitution. Now that they are no longer in complete power, the extreme leftists are now calling for "bi-partisanship." I say, ignore those calls. It is time to take back our country.

JP

Poor Politics Equals Piss Poor Results

The golden State of California, once a beacon of hope and prosperity, has fallen on tough times. Lots of blame to go around, but mainly a result of poor policy driven by progressive ideas, environmental overreach, and plain stupidity. This is no more evident than in the demise of farming in the Central Valley, leading to a third world culture insulated from the snotty elite of the coastal enclaves of a still thriving economy. For a gritty look at what is going on in the other California, please take the time to read the wonderful article from the National Review titled Two Californias

JP, a sad ex-Californian

Republicans Get Their Ass Kicked

Where in the hell did the Republican's learn to play poker? The November election gave them a Full House (grin) and here they are folding when the Dims called their bluff. I'm speaking of the Great Compromise, ballyhooed around the airwaves this past week. Turns out the Great Compromise was, "We'll trade you two years of no tax increases for every liberal program we can think of, plus enough pork to supply every Chinese restaurant in the country."  How about a pet project that even Al Gore says is a boondoggle: Ethanol subsidies. How about letting Puerto Rico distill some more booze on the U.S. taxpayer? The list goes on and on. 

And the Republicans wring their hands. Wimpy John  McCain whines that its just not fair but we gotta do it because they might get blamed for a short term shock come Janurary 1st. What the hell are they thinking? Come January 4th a Republican House and a strong Republican presence in the Senate could make quick work of reinstalling the Bush tax cuts without the tons of pork to ante up.

Call their damn bluff. Grow some.

JP

Check out my other blog at Stop The TSA if you are tired of being felt up at the airport.

TSA--Destroyers of the Constitution

The internet is full of Paper Patriots. Many talk about defending our Constitution, but not many actually get out there and take positive action. A good example is the TSA's un-Constitutional invasion of our very privacy. One guy had the guts to say, "Don't touch my junk." It was a hot news item for about a week, and then faded into the background as TSA quietly backed off. The flying public, not wanting to miss their flights to Grandma's house, meekly submitted to naked scanning or intrusive pat downs. The media moved on to other news.  TSA may have backed off a bit to damp down the furor, but they continue to touch us in the most intimate ways, and they are getting away with it.


The TSA has to be stopped. This is not Nazi Germany. "Just following orders" was found to be an invalid defense during the war trials after WWII. Are we as a nation going to allow our government to run roughshod over the individual rights we won when this nation was formed? Or are we going to quit being Paper Patriots and really fight back?


One guy, just one guy was enough to send the TSA cockroaches scurrying for cover. It only takes one. Then two. Then three people to stand up on their hind legs and say, "Enough!"


I have started a new website. A place where people can learn what they can do as individuals to stop this takeover by a dictatorial government. I've made it an open site, in that I want to enlist 100 co-authors to contribute to the dialogue with ideas and courses of action.
If you would like to join me, visit the website at Stop TSA and take a look. If you would like to become an author on this site, email me at   minerjp@comcast.net.

Its time to stop being Paper Patriots and actually stick your neck out by doing something.

JP

Liberal Democrats Make a Huge Miscalculation

According to Karl Rove in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Obama is going to have a tough time getting his compromise through Congress because his own party finds it a too bitter pill to swallow. You have to admire the Democrats, they are the party of class warfare and they appear to be sticking to their guns. Never mind that it will amount to political suicide to allow the tax levels to rise on everyone come January first. Guess who then becomes “The party of no”? If the Republicans are smart, they should just sit back and feed out the rope as the Democrats go about hanging themselves. Then, come the 1st of January, they can don their white hats, saddle up old Paint, and come riding to the rescue.  And, this time around, they may be able to negotiate a better deal. Obama knows this, so he is going to have to spend a huge amount of political capital in strong-arming his own party to do the right thing and give him his compromise. The entire situation is a Win-Win deal for the Republicans. This time, it is the intransigence of the likes of Pelosi that have painted themselves into a corner.

So, a big hooray for the leftists. We Americans love class warfare and will show you just how much in the next election.

JP

Elections Matter. We Won, You Lost.

After whistling in the dark for about a month after the huge defeat handed to him in November, it appears Obama has finally started to face  reality. To use one of his own favorite retorts, we won, he lost. Elections matter. The people of this country once again have a semblance of a messy, rough and tumble democracy after living through nearly two years of the dictatorship of the left. There is now a rough balance between competing ideologies where give and take and compromise become the modus operandi of governance, unlike the Pelosi/Reid/Obama troika that effectively ruled by fiat. The pejorative word used by the snarling leftists is that Obama has “caved” on the extention of the Bush tax cuts. Obama has not caved. He is finally accepting the reality of a changed political landscape, and is smart enough to grab what he can before things really get nasty come January when the conservatives again regain the power of the purse strings and the Congressional hearing rooms.

Many pundits believe that Obama’s  political DNA will prevent him from moving toward the center, as did President Clinton in 1994.  Not so, as evidenced by his reluctant, but non-the-less real efforts to achieve a compromise with the hated Republicans. The old Obama never compromised. The just shellacked Obama is smart enough to realize that the days of running rough-shod over his political opponents have come to an end.

And that is a good thing. Good for him, in that he may still yet earn the mantle of the Presidency. Good for us, because the people of the United States can once again be governed under something resembling a democracy.

Now if he would just fire Nancy.....

JP

Don't Ask Don't Tell--What They Are Not Telling Us

The following analysis of the DADT survey presents a different view than is being reported in the MSM. As a career military officer, now retired, I have mixed feelings about the controversy, but have a sneaking suspicion that at the troop level there is less ambiguity. The troops are not going to be happy with revoking DADT--anybody with half a brain should be able to see this. But this has turned into another of social issues being foisted on us by the secular progressives. Read the article below and judge for yourselves.

JP

Article starts:

Now the REAL the real message:  Pentagon Poll:  91% reject open homosexual service.

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt just read the full Pentagon report on repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and here's his analysis:

"Don't believe the phony liberal media reports that 70% of troops support open homosexual service, because that statistic included 'mixed' feelings. A closer reading of the fine print in the newly released Pentagon survey shows our troops answered as follows:

Q45.  If you had a leader whom you believed was gay or lesbian, 9% positive, 91% negative or mixed effect on unit's performance.

Q68c.  85% of Marine Combat Arms, 75% of Army Combat Arms, 64% overall say Negative, Very Negative, or Mixed impact on unit trust.

Q90.   29% would take no action if assigned open showers.  71% would shower at other times, complain to leadership or chaplains, don't know or do "something else" [including violence.]

Q81.   24% will leave the military or think about leaving sooner than planned.  [One half million troops will QUIT early, destroying national security.]

Q80.   6% will positively recommend service to others after repeal.  94% feel negative, mixed, no effect, or don't know about recommending military service to others.  [Destroying recruiting efforts.]

Q66.  If open homosexuality impacts combat performance, is the impact....9% positive, 91% negative or mixed impact.

Q71.  11% feel positive or very positive about open homosexuality in field environment or out at sea.  60% negative or mixed.  19% no effect.

Q73.   5% say repeal would positively boost morale.  41% say negative or mixed impact morale.  Rest no effect or don't know.

"In summary, the real stats prove our nation faces a NATIONAL SECURITY DISASTER if Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed, and open homosexual aggression is forced upon our troops against their will."


The new Commandant of the Marine Corps, 4-star General James F. Amos, effectively asked YOU to help his Marines last week, when he advised Senators to support Senator McCain's filibuster of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and to keep open homosexual aggression out of our military. 

"There is nothing more intimate than young men and young women — and when you talk of infantry, we're talking our young men — laying out, sleeping alongside of one another and sharing death, fear and loss of brothers," said General Amos. "I don't know what the effect of that will be on cohesion. I mean, that’s what we’re looking at. It's unit cohesion, it's combat effectiveness."  In other words,repealing Don't Ask will cost lives in battle.

Meanwhile the New York Times revealed Senator Harry Reid's (D-NV) new strategy to force the homosexual agenda through this lame-duck Senate:  "Mr. Reid could try to bring the defense bill to the floor under an open amendment process, a move that Republicans presumably would not block but that would mean committing a large block of time to debate. In that case, opponents of repeal would not be able to pass an amendment stripping it out of the bill."  In other words, don't believe the liberal press reports that Reid can't get this done....they are closer than you think, so we must continue this fight.

Four Top Generals were ignored by Democrats who betrayed our troops.  They said:

"This is not the time to perturb the force that is, at the moment, stretched by demands in Iraq  and Afghanistan and elsewhere without careful deliberation."  Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff

"Serious concerns about the impact of repeal of the law on a force that's fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight-and-a-half years."  Gen. George Casey, Army Chief of Staff

"I think the current policy works... At this point...my best military advice to this Committee, to the [Defense] Secretary, and to the President would be to keep the law such as it is."  Gen. James Conway, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps

"There has never really been an assessment of the force that serves....Equally important are the feelings of the families that support that force." Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations


Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt

South of the Border, Down Mexico Way

There is a war going on south of the border, and the good guys are losing. Their loss will soon become our loss, because from a national security standpoint, we can’t afford the consequences if the bad guys win. The drug cartels have moved to a new stage in their murderous struggle to control the supply routes vital to their drug trafficking. They are seeking no less than total control of the border cities and villages, and are doing so by employing terrorist tactics to intimidate or drive away honest Mexican citizens from their homes. Just recently, a newly appointed female police chief was gunned down on her way to work. In Ciudad Juarez, more than a dozen teenagers were ruthlessly murdered at a birthday party. Although there still appears to be fratricide between the cartels as they jockey for power, this new stage of violence is more and more directed at the people and Mexican authority and law enforcement. The cartels are employing these tactics to achieve their overall strategy--which in basic terms reduces to: “Who controls the border controls the flow of drugs into the United States.”

We are misreading the threat this poses to our security. Our main concern seems to be that this violence will “spill over” into our country and the cartels will take up fighting in the streets of El Paso. Although a possibility, this would be akin to them shooting themselves in the foot. They are much to savvy to really stir up the sleeping giant to the north.

Another misread is the fact that we have couched the control of our borders in terms of illegal immigration, which in turn leads to highly charged political arguments and posturing. Illegal immigration by those seeking a better life in the United States is a huge problem that needs to be solved in the long run, but there is a more ominous, clear and present danger in the short run that needs to be met, and the sooner the better.

It is safe to assume that those who run the cartels aspire to no moral code whatsoever. Their one god is money, and with it, power. Those who would traffic in misery have no compunction about how they go about their business--for the right price, they will do anything to further their goals. And, they are hugely successful in accomplishing their goals--they manage to smuggle in enough illegal drugs to keep the trade flourishing in the United States, despite our gallant efforts to interdict the flow. They are good at their trade, and if they can smuggle drugs in huge amounts, they can also deal in human traffic--for the right price. Like any thriving business, they will seek other sources of revenue that fit their business model.

 If the cartels can smuggle tons of illegal drugs through our porous southern borders they certainly can smuggle Al Qaeda operatives as well. There is no doubt in my mind that Al Qaeda and their kin are aware of and have exploited this weakness in our security. It is time to change the issue of border security from that of illegal immigration of Mexican workers to that of illegal infiltration of terrorists bent on causing grave damage to our country. We have the power to seal our southern border, we have just not had the will to do so. Perhaps a re-assessment of the real threat facing us would give us the political will. As an added bonus, a sealed border would starve the cartels of their supply lines, and in addition, slow the flow of ordinary illegal immigrants into our country.

JP