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The Obama Watch
Wrecking a Nation
Oil, dependency, and redistribution, Obama, Dilma, and Dohrn.
Here’s how the economic and political system of a nation is destroyed.
Every price increase of just a dime per gallon of gasoline at the pump extracts approximately $5 billion from the pockets of U.S. consumers over the course of a year.
On top of killing family budgets, with a dollar per gallon jump at the pumps picking our pockets of $50 billion per year, there is on the macro level an inverse relationship between the price of oil and the overall health of the economy — oil price hikes deliver less job growth, less demand for labor, more unemployment, more poverty, more inequality, more inflation, lower real income increases, and smaller advances in the standard of living.
Additionally, higher oil prices directly cause greater amounts of U.S. capital to be exported, both to pay the higher prices and to pay for the growing levels of imported oil.
In 1985, the U.S. imported 25 percent of its oil usage. Today, it’s 61 percent. And still we are placing restrictions on increases in domestic production, both for oil and other sources of energy.
A few days back, President Obama, rather than sticking around a couple hours to explain to the American people or to the U.S. Congress why we were going to war in Libya, flew off to Brazil to hand out a permit to allow deep sea oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras. Capitalist companies in America need not apply.
This particular foreign deal was an especially snug and nostalgic fit for Obama. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is somewhat of a Latin form of Obama’s old Weather Underground chum Bernardine Dohrn.
In earlier days, Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla, was charged with running with a gang of redistributionists who accumulated revolutionary capital by way of kidnapping foreign diplomats for ransom.
A top priority for Rousseff today mirrors the “spread the wealth around” objective that Obama stated to Joe the plumber.
Dohrn, just home from a trip to Cuba in 1969 where she hoped to pick up some pointers on how to impose a “classless” society on the U.S., displayed her true psychopathic colors in a speech she made to the Weathermen’s “War Council.”
Speaking elatedly of the murders by the Charlie Manson gang of actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger and three other people, Dohrn proclaimed, “First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into the victims’ stomachs! Wild!”
That’s the fully hateful Bernardine on public display, seeing herself as a new George Washington, a revolutionary fighter for a new nation. It’s the same role, except this founding mother was in serious need of a super-sized bottle of antipsychotic drugs and a super-tight straightjacket.
Of all the places for candidate Obama to kick off his political career in 1995 in his first run for the Illinois State Senate, he picked the living room of Bernardine Dohrn and husband Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground and, more recently, the national vice president for curriculum studies at the American Educational Research Association.
I’d have kept up my guard when Bernardine sashayed out of the kitchen and began circulating around with the hors d’oeuvres and metal forks.
In any case, it’s no surprise that things are coming apart, especially on energy. “If somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can,” pronounced Obama during the presidential campaign. “It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
What’s the end game? “Suicide Mission Accomplished”?
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ralph R. Reiland
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Dee See| 3.29.11 @ 6:36AM
Putting aside the urgent and critical needs for
a new chapter in both the HUAC and the NUREMBERG trial
"CHINA to Surpass the U.S. in Science"
-Today's BBC News
AGAIN, retroactive IMPEACHMENT of our
last 4 administrations (Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.,
Obama)
There can be no doubt.
This is TREASON---------------------------------------
Harry the Horrible| 3.29.11 @ 10:22AM
Ya know, its not their fault. WE voted them in (not that I voted for Clinton or Obama, but I did vote for George I and George II ). With a few exceptions, they did what they promised do. How much of the damage Obama has inflicted comes as a surprise?
The problem isn't the leadership (beyond the candidates we're actually offered), but the people and their tendency to vote for "free stuff."
ENOUGH ROPE| 3.29.11 @ 12:47PM
Obama is very competent as a traitor whose goal is to wreck America. When patriotic Americans accept that Obama is executing the plans of the radical left, then it will be clear why Obama does what he does. Chaos, followed by complete Federalized central control, is the goal of Obama and the Wizards of Oz who control him from behind the curtain.
How wonderful it would be if someone proved that Obama is not eligible to serve as president based on the facts of his birth. Can you imagine the constitutional and ethical back flips that Democrats will do to argue that Biden should become president instead of McCain?
A. C. Santore| 3.29.11 @ 1:25PM
"Enough Rope," I've been saying exactly what's in your first paragraph for years, but nobody seems to get it. Certainly not the media.
Every single decision that comes from the White House can be seen as another intentional nail in the coffin of the United States of America.
I'm not even sure we can hold out until 2012 at the rate they're going.
Read the first paragraph of The Declaration of Independence, then look at the "train of abuses" and see which of them are being played out right NOW by the proto-dictator and this government of ours.
ENOUGH ROPE| 3.29.11 @ 2:47PM
A. C. Santore, your 2012 comment is true. Perhaps Trump can hire some private investigators to unearth the truth about Obama's birth. Obama's actions are a record sufficient for impeachment. It is doubtful that the Senate Democratic traitors would ever regard any egregious act of treason by Obama as justification to vote for his impeachment.
Deborah D | 3.29.11 @ 6:52AM
The Obama administration is full speed ahead on its destructive path while the country just does a coordinated yawn. My Facebook liberal "friends" post things about Trump's birth certificate and think the rest of us are nuts. Another thinks it's no big deal that Biden's staff stuffed a reporter in a closet (with a bottle of water-- gee, thanks). I told her I'd think it was a big deal if I'd been the reporter.
Everyone is like -- oh, well. It's no big deal. Until it is. Then the rest of us will rightly say, "I told you so." But, we won't say it happily, we'll be spitting mad.
ENOUGH ROPE| 3.29.11 @ 4:55PM
Deborah D,
You are right about "The Obama administration is full speed ahead on its destructive path...."
Here is another analysis that can contribute to grounds for Obama's impeachment, which the Democratic traitors and anti-constitutionalists in the Senate will block:
Another Analysis of Obama
http://www.economicnoise.com/2.....-of-obama/
Mark Dee| 3.29.11 @ 7:33AM
Touche, this is a small component of the world redistribution of wealth to reduce the value of Americans for the new world order; inflation is just another tax by the central banks.
wodiej| 3.29.11 @ 8:17AM
If Obama does not give people reason to fear, his associates should. If that doesn't do it either, then you better be prepared to answer to God if you make it that far.
ENOUGH ROPE| 3.29.11 @ 5:43PM
Leftist conspirators' own statements and actions should be used to prosecute them by use of the Sedition Act, the Espionage Act, or the RICO Act. The U.S. Dept. of Justice is part of the conspiracy which means it will not prosecute its co-conspirators. Are there conservative legal foundations that can launch law suits to counter these traitors?
Louis Jenkins| 3.29.11 @ 8:57AM
This country runs on energy. The jobs that could be created are astounding. Until we elect a leader that is friendly towards oil companies, coal companies, and yes, other forms of energy including nuclear, we are left alone. The price increases are mind numbing, and we will be stunted in growth as long as Obama is at the helm.
Kurt| 3.29.11 @ 9:01AM
The flip flops and shorts (no need for work cloths) crowd have taken this country over and are responsible for this imbecile in the white house! When we now import 61% of our oil compared to 25% in 1985, this just another indication of our ever growing, non producing population that has all but taken over this nation. Until we go back to the work or starve principals that built the US we are just plain screwed no matter what is done politically!
Old Soldier| 3.29.11 @ 9:05AM
Oh how I wish it wasn't true. I wish I could write off this article as paranoia. But he really has stopped our domestic energy cold. No new drilling, no new refineries, no new mines, lip service only to nuclear plants. He really did just guarantee a loan for the national oil company of another nation for their offshore drilling efforts – while crippling our own industry in the Gulf of Mexico.
But he won’t help Brazil (or U.S. drivers) by lifting the prohibitively high tariffs on their ethanol, and he won’t help us by lifting the useless ethanol requirements in our fuel despite rising food prices.
Nobody is stupid enough to be doing all this by accident.
John Navratil| 3.29.11 @ 9:44AM
Old Soldier,
It's the Luddite obsession with returning to a life off the land. This time complete with feudal lords instead of in anarchic communes.
Watermelons: Green on the outside and red on the inside.
Maddox| 3.29.11 @ 10:42AM
He is doing exactly what he said he would before the campaigning started. There are audio clips but they were ignored by the leftist media and the ignorant masses who voted for "hope and change." We got the "change" and now there is no "hope" without serious consequences first.
Impeach Don't Wait| 3.29.11 @ 4:18PM
And he just sent us to war so we can spend more money, thereby making it harder to get out of our financial hole. Why? Evidently simply because he can.
VBMax| 3.29.11 @ 9:06AM
Just because you're not frothing at the mouth catatonically locked in the fetal position and able to read a teleprompter well doesn't mean that you're not psychotic.
Maddox| 3.29.11 @ 10:45AM
...maybe just devious.
Teaghan| 3.29.11 @ 11:26AM
or evil~
russel| 3.29.11 @ 10:38AM
I agree with the fact that panhandlers will alaways vote themselves freebies , but how much more pain will it take before even they begin to wish this socialist gone from the planet ? . Or , maybe put another way - those who still work and foot the bill ? .
Maddox| 3.29.11 @ 10:46AM
They will only want him and his czars gone when the money has dried up. Then they will turn on the producers, not the thieves in government who killed the golden goose.
Appleby| 3.29.11 @ 11:47AM
If they can find us.....
Habu| 3.29.11 @ 12:35PM
Most commentatotrs here have never experienced war, never been in a protrated firefight or been in an ambush. That's a healthy thing but it shields one from understanding first hand how terribly wrong things can go very quickly.
Our discussions here are many times filled with little more than insults, not insight. Ususally that is a product of having nothing to really contribute but rather a desire to remain around the group and get noticed.
Well folks I've got some news for you. When the Shit hit's the fan 90% of you will be wiped out within a week, because you are weak and un prepared for anything other than mud slinging.
There's some hard times coming and if you think the Internet community is goining to save you, or the police protect you, you're living in a dream world.
Of course I see no problem in having the liberals get eaten first , which they will, but for the rest of you, you'd better resign yourselves to getting a bit more gritty in your personal lives or this nation will never survive, because the fissures are getting bigger and the pale horse for many closer.
Steve A| 3.29.11 @ 1:06PM
Habu,
Can you possibly imagine the complete meltdown of this society when people drive to Wal Mart & the local grocery store & the shelves are stripped? 95% of the population does not remotely think this possible. Not only is it possible, but very likely given the current track. This is where the rubber will meet the road. No food, no fuel = complete anarchy in about 2 days.
Habu| 3.29.11 @ 1:44PM
Steve A| 3.29.11 @ 1:06PM
I fully agree. Not only will just about all consumables be gone within hours but we have a prison population of over one million. That doesn't count those on parole. Many of those parolees and prisoners have sympathetic families and are members of gangs which will free the prisons of their inmates. Couple that with the known infiltration of international bad guys MS-13, AQ, etc and the normal citizen will be a dead and fleeced citizen within days.
Gangs will block the interstates with highjacked tractor trailors and then simply proceed with their rape ,robbery, and killing........folks this is no joke or wild eyed speculation...this is what will happen.
The average citizen these days may not even own a gun of any type and if they do it's a shotgun with maybe 15 to 20 rounds in the home. No defense there.
Forget the police or national guard, it will be up to each citizen and their neighbors to set up a defensive plan.
When people on this blog speak of sheeple they ususally don't include the preceding in their context but it is more apropos than the political sheeple they speak of......it's gonna get nasty.
Steve A| 3.29.11 @ 2:13PM
Had not even thought of the prison scenario. Not good. For the last 2-3 years, every time I am in a sporting goods store, I buy another box of 44 mags for the rifle & 9mm for the handguns. I have done this without much thought, other than the vague suspicion that they may be worth their weight in gold in the near future. Hope I am wrong.
Live in country setting with a few horses, river down the back, apple orchard & nut trees up top. My daughter loves chickens so I built a coop & we have about 5-6 egg producers. Nice little garden on the side. We would be ready if it all went south. I shudder to think. I really do.
LiveFreeOrDie| 3.29.11 @ 2:38PM
It's almost certain given the indicators. The real questions are how bad and how long. Maybe a total collapse is what this country needs to pull it's collective head out of it's ass.
Habu| 3.29.11 @ 1:48PM
Folks....just think of Rodney King and LA writ large.
Paevo| 3.29.11 @ 2:21PM
You'll need an arsenal for what you are describing, not just a few rifles and pistols...
Steve A| 3.29.11 @ 2:25PM
I think I may cut back on my traveling a bit if it goes that way...... gather a few like minded friends, set up a plan. Bad guys with bad intentions would get a painful reception.
Oldefarte| 3.29.11 @ 2:36PM
Truth said, Ralph!!!!!!!
Skippy| 3.29.11 @ 2:40PM
The veneer of civilization is thin indeed.
Stripped store shelves and New Orleans/Katrina abandonment by the police/fire would be enough to initiate our descent into anarchic hell.
Gold? Phooey.
Stockpile lead in easily deliverable forms, and the systems needed for distribution.
And don't forget the food and water.
Fasten your seatbelts, and stay friendly with your local Nat. Guardsmen.
Habu| 3.29.11 @ 4:24PM
Steve A| 3.29.11 @ 2:13PM
The ammo is good, you can never have enough if things get dicey, and it sounds like you have a good , if not great setting provided you can control the access points.
I would suggest that with water close by you get a Katadyn water filter which will filter out the Cryptosporidium and other pathogens that can cause stomach trouble. I have one for hiking and it's good to filter 40 thousand gallons. You have to have water.
I would make a daily visit to Survivalblog.com for some truly great info or one of the sites listed on this site..... http://www.codenameinsight.com/.....you'll be just that much ahead of the bad guys.
I hope like most it doesn't come but all the earmarks are becoming clearer. Also keep in mind that the power gridsw will most likely be down within days.
Most people do not realize that the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz forces infiltrtaed the US in the 1970's and pre positioned radio gear, C-4, and other "tools" of sabotage in the mountains of Montana. One of their plans was to blow the Hungry Horse dam in northern Montana and work their way south. The stuff, even if it was cached well is probably toast but who knows what other outfits (AQ) have done similar things.
Interesting times.
simon templar| 3.29.11 @ 5:02PM
Here's how the economic and political system of a nation is destroyed.
The REAL FACTORS and MEANS:
tolerate the illegal invasion of your nation by millions of ilegals, terrorist cells, and drug cartells
allow those illegals to obtain rights and services as legitimate citizens
export 75 percent of your manufacturing base to an enemy nation that has an economic system contrary to your own
create a visa program to encourage millions of high tech workers to take jobs from Americans in the only remaining growing sector while laying off American high tech workers.
spend and grow a public sector to staggering levels to stimulate consumer demand and make up for a shrinking private sector
tax and tax again the remaining sectors of the employed particularly the middle class
develop more government offices, departments, and sectors, so many that they can not be accounted for and are actually duplicative.
keep that public largely ignorant and focused on the trivial and sensational
allow lobbyist and interest groups to threaten, intimidate, and control elected officials
teach your children to hate their own country, misunderstand its history, and expect something for nothing
borrow money to the tune of trillions from foreign governments who historically desired your destruction.
buy energy from nations that fund and train terrorist dedicated to your destruction
So..I am taking bets...how long do you think we got?
Wayne | 3.29.11 @ 5:09PM
And don't forget the foreign wars and being the policeman of the world, and letting the UN control our military.
simon templar| 3.29.11 @ 5:09PM
Here's how the economic and political system of a nation is destroyed.
The REAL FACTORS and MEANS:
<html>
tolerate the illegal invasion of your nation by millions of ilegals, terrorist cells, and drug cartells
allow those illegals to obtain rights and services as legitimate citizens
export 75 percent of your manufacturing base to an enemy nation that has an economic system contrary to your own
create a visa program to encourage millions of high tech workers to take jobs from Americans in the only remaining growing sector while laying off American high tech workers
spend and grow a public sector to staggering levels to stimulate consumer demand and make up for a shrinking private sector
tax and tax again the remaining sectors of the employed particularly the middle class
develop more government offices, departments, and sectors, so many that they can not be accounted for and are actually duplicative
keep that public largely ignorant and focused on the trivial and sensational
allow lobbyist and interest groups to threaten, intimidate, and control elected officials
teach your children to hate their own country, misunderstand its history, and expect something for nothing
borrow money to the tune of trillions from foreign governments who historically desired your destruction
buy energy from nations that fund and train terrorist dedicated to your destruction
</html>
simon templar| 3.29.11 @ 5:19PM
Yes, absolutely.
Let me add..
Refuse to acknowledge the difference between immediate threats and general threats, vital interest and general interest, some threat and no threat, some interest and no interest. Generally use military action for reelection campaign needs, political manipulation, and propaganda purposes to defeat your opponent. Ignore and put off the ACTUAL real threats and spend billions on good optic wars and military campaigns with no clear objectives or strategies.
GENE HAUBER| 3.29.11 @ 5:12PM
I NEVER WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT SO I PROCEED AS FOLLOWS...........
OBAMA IS A HATEFUL PERSON WHO ONLY PERCEIVES WRONGS AND INSULTS PERPETRATED BY WHITE AMERICA , PAST, PRESENT AND THOSE TO COME , UPON HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY.
I DON'T THINK HE GIVES A HOOT ABOUT ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD, BUT USES EVERYONE TO SUPPORT HIS CLAIMS OF INJUSTICE.
NOTHING OF THE SORT HAS BEEN DONE IN THE LAST 6 DECADES AND IF ANY SOCIETY HAS BEEN MORE WILLING TO COME TO GRIPS WITH PAST WRONGS THAN AMERICANS.......JUST NAME IT. YOU CANNOT.
IN FACT. SLAVERY WAS PUT TO AN END IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION BY THE ENGLISH SPEAKING WHITE MAN......FOR EVER AND TO THIS DAY.
THE ONLY PLACE THAT SLAVERY CONTINUES TO EXIST AND FLOURISH IS IN BLACK AFRICA WHERE THEY CONTINUE TO SELL AND BUY HUMAN BEINGS OF EVERY COLOR...........AND NO ONE CARES, MUCH LESS JESSE JACKSON AND AL SHARPTON THE DESPICABLE RACE WHOREMONGERS OF THE WORLD. WAKE UP AMERICA......YOUR ENEMIES, SPECIFICALLY THOSE TWO BUMS, LIVE AMONG YOU AND PRETEND TO BE YOUR MORAL VOICES.
THEY HATE YOU, JUST AS OBAMA HATES YOU. IT'S ALL MONEY TO THEM........NOT TO YOU.
SEND HIS ASS PACKING BY IMPEACHING HIM. THEN WE CAN DEAL WITH THAT IDIOT BIDEN.
IT IS TIME TO BE A BRIGHT SUNNY MORNING AGAIN IN AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
GENE HAUBER| 3.29.11 @ 5:31PM
WHEN WILL THE BILL PAYERS IN AMERICA RISE UP AND DEMAND, DEMAND THE IMPEACHMENT OF THIS UNWORTHY PRESIDENT??????????
WHEN???????
Nite| 3.29.11 @ 10:01PM
This country will not last if Obama is re-elected. I can not believe that people have buried their heads in the sand regarding this ignorant man.
Dee See| 3.29.11 @ 10:57PM
"Understand 'Soviets' means nothing more than
rule by councils. Councils ARE Soviets."
-ALAN WATT
(esential online coverage)
The latest front, the OBAMA front, carries
on with the inter-nationalist agendas seamlessly.
He was,without doubt, vetted, indeed, selected
by the CFR and RIIA.
He's almost certainly a bloodline connection
of the inner Globalist elite. We're guessing the
Old China destroying Averell Hariman line.
NOT UNTIL the 'shadow government' of TAX FREE, ultra-rich, EUGENICS and Global power
driven, 'benny-violent' 'chair-irritable' capstone
foundations are called out, exposed and rigorously
prosecuted for capital crimes against sovereignty,
the republic, to say nothing of crimes against humanity at large -----things will continue
to get worse.
Much, much, much worse------------------------------
HUAC meets NUREMBERG is the solution.
Habu| 3.29.11 @ 11:12PM
Simon,
I agree with the factors you listed on how to destroy a country.
But our challenge now and has been for some time is how to stop it,slow it down,lock it down,knock it down....in other words stop the madness you've identified. I see only another revolution at this point stopping the "elites".
How say you?
jstwndring| 3.30.11 @ 2:25AM
Obama's here on assignment. He's accomplishing his task. There are power players behind the scenes making sure Obama has an office of importance on the world stage after he gets America to submit to world authority. The U.N.. The E.U.. We're going down by design. The Marxists are winning. Most Americans don't care.
Habu| 3.30.11 @ 2:32AM
jstwndring
I'm not sure that its they don't care, I think they're just too busy putting food on the table and gas in the car to notice how insidious this obama creature really is....by design. That plus they just don't understand Marxism.
NJK| 3.30.11 @ 8:15PM
A bigger question is why is he being allowed to do this? And to think some people still take him at his word about his birthplace? I'm sure that provision of the Constitution wasn't honored either. Obama is the enemy within.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
by:
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 11:15PM
is good