| 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.
===================
The Wisconsin supreme court election teaches a lesson. It is not a pretty
one.
==============
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. <snip>
Under control and gradually getting better.
=================
There is mail
including a deployed officer wondering about pay.
===========
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...
============
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.
==============
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,
----
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, as a share of
the national debt (in addition to any personal debts). The median
household income in the United States is about $50,000. 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.
==========
Thursday TOP
Current Mail
|
