The Greenville "Tea Party"

Earlier this evening, Greenville was witness to its own "Tea Party" protesting Barack Obama's "economic stimulus" which - duh! - will grow the size and scope of the U.S. Federal Government like never before! There were several dozen of these in various cities around the country today, or so I have heard.

Posted at greenvilleonline.com:

I was there, and although I am on the same page ideologically with many of those I saw there - at least, those carrying signs - I wasn't all that impressed. It's going to take a lot more than speeches, signs, and symbolic gestures such as dumping tea into the river to turn this country around.

The Republicans took a thrashing in 2006 and then another thrashing in 2008. There were good reasons for this. The plain truth is, the GOP is in a shambles! Republicans are going to have to do some major soul-searching, figure out what they stand for (as opposed to merely being against Obama & "big government"), and then how to get voters back on board.

After all, W. wasn't exactly a "small government" president! Two foreign wars are only the start.

I would begin by kicking the neocons out of positions of authority in the Party, and go from there. Republicans have to identify who/what the enemy is, & it isn't Obama. He has his handlers, just like W. did (& Clinton before him & the first George Bush before him).

The enemy is elite-driven corporatist globalism, with entities like the Federal Reserve Corporation at the helm. Neocons are all for it. So are corporate Democrats like the Clintons. So is Obama. He'd never gotten the nomination otherwise, although McCain is also a corporate globalist who would have carried the torch if Obama screwed up prior to the election. Corporatist globalism causes foreign wars, which are over resources such as oil; it sends jobs overseas for cheap labor, brings immigrants in on visas who will work more cheaply than their American counterparts here, and opens the borders to the flood of illegal aliens we have seen. It is the most destructive economic force in the world right now, and is definitely being directed by our bankster power elite. Some confuse corporatist globalism with "free markets." In real free markets, everyone pulls his own weight, there are no cozy partnerships between corporations and governments, and those who fail are not bailed out.

A sign of whether the Republican Party can be saved, or is even worth saving, will be if Republicans respond to sentiments like this one with terms like "extremist" or "conspiracy theory." While going on carrying signs, Confederate flags (geez! people!), and continue thinking they can "take back power" from the Democrats with what they have now.

By the way, how many Republicans reading this know that the Republican Party is a member of a globalist organization, the International Democrat Union? (http://www.idu.org) (END of greenvilleonline.com postings.)

Barack Obama's / the Democratic Congress's "economic stimulus" efforts will probably fail, because they cannot revive the U.S. economy via the very things that got us into this mess in the first place: too much spending and living beyond our means, not merely as individuals but as a nation. I foresee ordinary Americans getting more and more frustrated when Obama fails to deliver. Eventually even some of those who (probably reluctantly supported him over the insipid McCain) will want his head on a plate as their portfolios disappear along with their jobs, and as the Dow sinks below 7,000, then below 6,000 and then below 5,000 (contrarian Bill Bonner's prediction).

The United States of America needs a New American Revolution! Americans need to kick out the banksters and all their minions. They need to put a stop to this force I've called corporatist globalism. Otherwise, this force will put an end to them!

Chile Party / Commentary

Last Saturday one of my fellow South Carolinians with definite plans to relocate to Chile hosted a get-together at his house in one of the neighborhoods between Greenville and Spartanburg. He showed us pictures of various cities and other points of interest in Chile. I was particularly interested in Santiago, of course - definitely a first world city, largest in the region, where it is cheaper to live than any equivalent city in the U.S. I wonder, though, if the pro-Chile crowd is underestimating the crime rate in Chile. The rate of violent crime appears to be low, but there is a lot of theft and one must watch one's valuables with great care.

I learned that other possible ex-patriates are also looking at Uruguay, on the other side of Argentina from Chile. I hadn't looked at Uruguay, but the country could have some plusses.

In the meantime, my father is back in the hospital following a serious bout of internal bleeding. A colonoscopy was done yesterday. As of this writing, I still don't have the results. The doctor who performed the procedure had explicit instructions to call me with the results, but has not done so, and one of the nurses snapped over the phone at me, "He does have other patients up here!" Yes, I'm sure he does, and neither of them will win any customer-service awards this year.

I understand that the infamous "stimulus" bill Obama just signed includes a strong potential for health care rationing. Health care must be "cost effective," and federal standards for such will be imposed on doctors by force and carefully monitored by a new cadre of federal bureaucrats. Which means that the reduction of the value of human life to dollars and sense will grow more pronounced under this new administration. The grip of hard materialism on U.S. society will grow even greater, even as the federal government grows larger and more intrusive. People like my parents may not even be able to get health care when their nest egg is destroyed and they can no longer consume. As for my generation ... ?

I'm thinking that for thinking people, this society is going to be unlivable before too much longer. Whatever jobs are created are going to be federal government jobs. The economic roof might not cave in, but the oppressiveness of the federal regime will grow intolerable. Yes, we might get some "tax breaks" or what-have-you from the "stimulus," but there will be strings attached, and to accept the "breaks" will be to accept enslavement.