10
Jan

The American Empire’s Predicitions for 2010

   Posted by: Aurelius   in Predictions

Economics/Global:

-> After refusing to reduce production during the global recession, Chinese corporations will be be forced to slow production and shutter factories while they try to liquidate inventory.  The ripple effect for materials suppliers may erase any recovery in economies worldwide.

-> The Gulf States will form an Economic Union, with a standard currency.  They will demand that their exports (Oil) be paid for in this currency.

Economics/National:

-> The US Economy will continue bumping along the bottom, but will end the year with 1 or 2% growth.  Unemployment will stabilize in the 10% range, but with no real potential for growth.

-> In media, at least two major US Newspapers will fold. Microsoft will drop out of their partnership in MSNBC. 

-> More Manufacturers and Corporations will leave the US, due to taxes and over regulation.

Economic/Washington State:

-> The Legislature will vote in close to $1B in new taxes, stunting and offsetting any positive growth in the local economy.

-> Boeing will begin manufacturing 787 aircraft in South Carolina.  They will announce a “competition” between WA and SC factories to see which can deliver more aircraft, on time and on budget.  The winner will retain the 787 line after the backlog of orders is filled.

Politics/Global:

-> The North Korean military will stage a coup.  Kim Jong-Eun (Kim Jong-Il’s designated hitter) will remain as a figure head for the junta, with or without his father.  The Junta will ask for Chinese assistance on reforming their economy on the Chinese model, while retaining all political/military power.

-> Iran will detonate a nuclear device (in a test), and simultaneously launch an ICBM capable of reaching any target in Europe, with a dummy warhead.  They will announce that they have a number of these missiles with nuclear warheads, which they will launch at various (undisclosed) targets, if they are attacked.

-> The Iranian Revolutionary Guard will complete their seizure of power in Iran, taking over complete control of the Military and Police apparatus.  Protesters will be ruthlessly suppressed.

-> Pakistan will fracture, with Taliban affiliated groups controlling the large swaths of the country.

-> Venezuela and Columbia will have a short border war, as Chavez tries to divert the public from his complete destruction of the countries economy and infrastructure.  Depending on US reaction, Chavez may be overthrown.  More likely, the Obama administration punish Columbia for “provoking” Venezuela.

Politics/National:

-> The Democrat regime will, after ramming through Obamacare, also ram through a universal Voter Registration program.  Shortly thereafter, they will ram through an Amnesty program for Illegal Aliens, which will give them a path to citizenship that is short enough to make the deadline to be registered to vote in the 2010 election cycle for House/Senate.  This item is predicated on the Democrat party retaining the Senate seat in Massachusetts.

-> The US Attorney Generals office will claim to be enforcing election fraud laws, but will only prosecute conservative/republican cases.

Politics/Washington State:

-> The Democrat party will retain control of the Legislature, ensuring that the state economy will continue to stagnate, in the face of higher taxes and more punishing business regulation.

-> Dave Reichert (R-ino, Bellevue) will be defeated by a conservative Democrat.

Environment/Global:

-> The tide will continue to turn against Anthropocentric Global Warming (man-caused, that is), as the GW Science establishment continues to be discredited.  The Political and Business elements of the AGW scare will continue to be revealed as profiteers and hoaxsters.  The level of disclosure will be so damaging that even the mainstream US media will be forced to cover it, and stop covering up for it.

-> Natural Disasters will occur, and be blamed on either AGW or the Mayan 2012 prophecy.

-> Speaking of which, the Mayan 2012 prophecy hysteria will begin to overshadow AGW hysteria.  As the year progresses, more and more things will be attributed to the coming apocalypse in 2012.

To balance out the above, I would like to add some some items that are not predictions, but are more of a wish list:

Global:

-> Pakistan and India sign a non-aggression and mutual aid pact, allowing Pakistan to focus their military on fighting Taliban elements in the country, and working with the US Military on cross border campaigns in Afghanistan.

-> The Iranian Military and Police turn against the regime and Revolutionary Guard.  A temporary government takes power, led by surviving opposition figures, leading up to open and free elections. 

National:

-> In the face of the loss of the Senate seat in Mass., and increasing evidence of a blood bath in the 2010 election cycle, the Democrat House and Senate caucuses elect new, more centrist leadership.

-> The GOP embraces the TEA Party and Libertarian/Conservative wing of the party, and gains 30+ seats in the House and 5+ in the Senate in the 2010 elections.

Local:

-> In the face of staunch opposition from Business, and the unemployed, the Democrat controlled legislature backs down from massive tax increases.

-> In a backlash to Democrat destruction of the state economy, fiscal conservative candidates take a majority of seats in the legislature, outside of Seattle.
_________________________________

I invite readers to post their own predictions, or rebut any of these items.

Tags:

No Comments
20
Aug

Why Congressman (Until 2010) Dave Reichert (Rino) Doesn’t Care What I Think

   Posted by: Aurelius   in 2010 Election Follies

Why should he?

I am just one of 654, 905 (give or take a business closing) constituents in Washington District 8.

Of the 455,009 Registered Voters in WA Dist 8, 357, 720 live in King County.  Only 97,289 of us live in Pierce. (data from WA Sec. of State website).

So I am just one little vote, out of 171,004 cast in the last election for the seat that Congressman (I refuse to call him my Representative anymore, as he doesn’t) Reicihert holds.

Given these types of numbers, it is not hard to grasp why many of us are begging to feel that our Congressmen and Senators are no longer in touch with us.  Indeed, they now act more like an elected Aristocracy, than representatives of the people.

Curiously, in England, which had a great influence on the pubescent colonies that would become the United States – a place which still has a true, blooded, aristocracy, it is quite a different story:

The population of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) is approximately 60 Million people.

They have 646 Member of the House of Commons (versus 435 member of the US House of Representatives).

Doing the match, that mean that the average Member of Parliament (MOP) has approximately 92,900 constituents.  You can infer from that, that roughly 66,500 of these are eligible voters.

You tell me who can best “Represent” his constituents – your average US Congressman, or his British MOP counterpart?

It was never meant to be this way – our founders set up a system to allow for the growth of the US House of Representatives. Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution states that:

The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative

As the US Population grew, so did the House.  Until 1911, that is. Public Law 62-5 was passed, which set the number of House seats at 435 (which some minor fluctuation when states were added, but returning to 435).

Reasons given for this act vary, but you can be sure that at least part of the reason was to ensure that the individual members of the House maintained relevancy in the political process.

Now, I will grant that a House with over 9000 (3M population/35K) members would be utterly unwieldy, surely capping the growth of the House is contrary to the intent of the Framers, and common sense, in a Representative Republic.  There are other formulas that could be used.  Most I have looked at, that evaluate representative rates in other democratic nations, would give us a House of 650+ members, today.

What’s that?  It would be far too expensive to expand the House to that level?

Don’t be silly.  Simply take the current budget for Congressional operations, and divide it by the number of Representatives.

In fact, you could make it even more cost effective by building Dormitories on Bolling AFB (just a hop and a skip from the Capital Mall), and running a shuttle bus services between the two places.  After all, the “Representatives” are supposed to be residents of the Washington D.C. area, they are just sent there to work (all of 6 months out of the year), and then go back home, to work in their districts.  Right?

Tags: ,

No Comments
20
Aug

So Much For DNA Evidence

   Posted by: Aurelius   in Freedom, Science

Courtesy of Fox News:


Scientists: It’s Easy to ‘Engineer Crime Scene’ With Fabricated DNA

Scientists in Israel say it’s easy to “engineer a crime scene” with fabricated DNA evidence, throwing in doubt the strength of the prime standard in criminal cases that has been used to secure thousands of convictions.

The Tel Aviv-based scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from another subject. the New York Times reported. They were able to make the match by accessing a DNA profile in a database without even using any actual tissue or blood from the person they were mimicking,

“You can just engineer a crime scene,” said Dan Frumkin, lead author of the study. “Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

It may also be possible to scavenge DNA from a stray hair or discarded cigarette butt and turn it into a saliva sample, a development that has worried the American Civil Liberties Union.

“DNA is a lot easier to plant at a crime scene than fingerprints,” Tania Simoncelli, science adviser to the ACLU, told the Times. “We’re creating a criminal justice system that is increasingly relying on this technology.”

The study, which was published in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, can be found online.

So technology made Photographic, and then Video evidence obsolete.

Now DNA evidence is on it’s way out.

Not a good time to be a criminal prosecutor…

Tags: ,

No Comments
18
Jul

The Slow Death of Western Civilization

   Posted by: Aurelius   in Culture, Recommended Reading, Worldwide

Mark Steyn has a great piece in the corner, on his recurring theme of the aging population of the Western world (which does now include Japan and Korea, for all intents and purposes).

Japan’s population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055. The ratio of working-age to elderly Japanese fell from 8 to 1 in 1975 to 3.3 to 1 in 2005 and may shrivel to 1.3 to 1 in 2055. “In 2055, people will come to work when they have time off from long-term care,” said Kiyoaki Fujiwara, director of economic policy at the Japan Business Federation.

…

The transformation of developed societies – either into old folks’ homes (like Japan) or semi-Islamized dystopias (like Amsterdam, Brussels, etc) – will lead, in fact, to emigration. A young German or Japanese circa 2040 will have no reason whatsoever to stay in his native land and have most of his income confiscated in a vain attempt to prop up an unsustainable geriatric welfare system. So many will leave. Where will they go? At one time the obvious answer would have been America – but Good King Barack seems determined to saddle us with the same unaffordable entitlements that have scuttled the rest of the west.

For much of the developed world, the ”credit crunch”, the debt burden, and the rest are not part of a cyclical economic downturn but the first manifestations of an existential crisis.

The Western world (and I define that as any country that has been become integrated into the Western Industrial/Human Rights regime – Europe, Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A, Canada, Korea, Japan) is poised on the edge of a demographic cliff.

The decline of working age populations in these nations will large scale ramifications in the last half of the 21st century.

The United States is, statistically, in the best overall shape to weather this storm (to switch my metaphor).  Massive immigration (both legal and illegal) have kept the United States population growth above replacement level (2.0), but at the cost of an increasingly separatist Latin American and Muslim immigrant population.  Likewise, what population growth is occurring in Europe is mostly immigrant based, though their trends far more to the Muslim groups.

There are ways to ensure the continuation of Western culture, and America is the example – EVERYONE in America is descended from Immigrants. But we have been the most successful nation since Rome in actually integrating other peoples into our nation, and transferring our values to them. 

If we want to see America – and it’s values and culture – continue, there are steps we can take:

-English Language Only in Education and Government:  A common language is vital to a single national identity.

-A return to the teaching of Western History, and American History, in the public schools.

-Supporting through changes to the tax codes, zone regulations, and other function, a return to the extended nuclear family.

These steps are the total solution, but they are a start.

The alternative is that those of us in our 40s are going to watch our nation, and our culture, slowly dissolve…

Tags:

No Comments
12
Jul

Who Said This?

   Posted by: Aurelius   in Africa, Obama Administration

Who Said This?
This is about more than just holding elections. It’s also about what happens between elections. (Applause.) Repression can take many forms, and too many nations, even those that have elections, are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves — (applause) — or if police — if police can be bought off by drug traffickers. (Applause.) No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top — (applause) — or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. (Applause.) That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end. (Applause.)

 
In the 21st century, capable, reliable, and transparent institutions are the key to success — strong parliaments; honest police forces; independent judges — (applause); an independent press; a vibrant private sector; a civil society. (Applause.) Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in people’s everyday lives.

Was it Ronald Reagan, about Nicaragua?

Was it Jimmy Carter talking about Palestine?

Or, maybe, it B H Obama, talking to the Ghanaian Parliament?

Too bad he doesn’t believe in open government here in the United States.  And most of us would be overjoyed with a government that ONLY took 20% off the top!

Tags:

No Comments
4
Jul

And Speaking of Soon-To-Be-Ex-Congressman Dave Recihert

   Posted by: Aurelius   in 2010 Election Follies, Climate Change

Below is the canned (I assume, please correct me if I am wrong) email I received from the Pierce County GOP, concerning Reichert’s Cap and Tax vote (on Jun 29):

Thank you for your email regarding Congressman Reichert’s vote on the Cap & Trade legislation.


The passion that everyone is expressing is the grass roots of our political system and it’s good to see so many people involved.

I will be delivering all of your emails this Wednesday to the Congressman!

Please stay in touch with the County Party and all of your legislators from your school boards, city councils, county councils, state legislature to the congressional folks.  It is our responsibility to keep all of these elected officials informed of our thoughts and concerns.    The ability to communicate so freely is unique to our country and a freedom we need to use responsibly.


Thank you for keeping in touch with us!


At least they responded.  I got NOTHING, Zilch, Zero, Nuttin’, Nada, from the State GOP (my email addressed Mr. Esser, the state chair).


 

Tags:

No Comments
4
Jul

On Sarah Palin and the Future

   Posted by: Aurelius   in 2010 Election Follies

By now, if you are not aware that Sarah Palin is resigning as Governor of Alaska on July 26, then you simply are not paying attention.

I thought I would let the dust settle a bit, before throwing my 2 cents in. 

I have no doubt that this is a move to accomplish two major goals – The first is to get her family out of the line of fire.

As long as she is an elected politician, the hatemongers in the media and on the left will consider her family open season.

As a private citizen, this will much more difficult for them to both rationalize, and get away with, in the public eye.

The second, is to begin “Re-Branding” herself.  Far from leaving public life, I feel sure that she will use the time between now, and the 2010 mid-term elections, to stump for candidates, and gain herself more exposure to the party base.  I have no doubt that she will also take advantage of the “lecture circuit” money train, to pay off her legal fees from the frivolous ethics complaints that she has been exonerated of.

I do NOT believe she is planning to run for President in 2012, but I have little doubt that she will be tapped to do a lot of outreach, and stumping for the candidate.

In return, you can be sure she will be rewarded with a Cabinet position, like Energy or Interior – both of which will take on increased visibility in the next few years, and provide a wonderful platform for a pro-environment, pro-development (they are NOT exclusive of each other) politician.

That’s my take on it, for now.  Only time will tell…

Tags:

No Comments
29
Jun

Transformers 2 – Revenge of the Fallen

   Posted by: Aurelius   in Culture, Media

OK, so it’s not Shakespeare.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the bard, and I think Kenneth Brannagh has a true gift for those works…

In fact, anyone going to this movie expecting anything along the lines of plot, storyline, or character development, will probably have their head implode.  This apparently includes every film critic on earth.  I could go on all day about what this movie is NOT.

What this movie IS:

  • A lot of fun.
  • Pure, 100% escapism.
  • Great example of the state of the art in GCI animation, and the blurring of the line between live action and animation.

Whether he knew it or not, Micheal Bay has released this film at almost the perfect time. 

America today looks more like America in the last decade of the 1970’s than it should.  We are tired from a long war, beset by numerous internal problems, our economy is in a shambles, latin America is turning more and more Socialist red by the day, and the dominate political party is telling us that we, as a people, suck – we are arrogant, we consume too much, we just are not the people we used to be.  That we have to buckle down to the reality that America is, forevermore, going to be a 3rd rate country.

In comes Transformers 2, and gives us a world where “destiny rarely call’s upon us at a time of our choosing”.  A world where, despite a craven White House (who want’s to negotiate with the bad guys, without comprehending that what the bad guys wants is to kill us), the US Military – though battered and bruised, and with a timely assist from the Brit’s (well, OK, a single Brit), and Jordanians (though they didn’t last too long), hold off the back hats, allowing the hero to do his thing.

This movie is wildly successful, not just because it’s a great spectacle, but because it makes you feel good to root for America, and the American Military – for the Good Guys – for squishing evil like a bug.

Anyone remember a little movie from 1977 called Star Wars?  I think the parallels are simply to much to ignore.

So, I highly recommend anyone looking for a little positive reinforcement, and well over 2 hours of explosions, titanic CGI battles, and Meghan Fox (ok, there, I said it), could find worse things to do with their money and time.  You might even feel a little bit better walking out of the theater, than when you went in.

As long as you didn’t go in looking for Shakespeare, or something…

Tags:

No Comments
Back to top
Page 1 of 2512345...Last »