Posted on 10/18/2009 7:43:04 AM PDT by opentalk
I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?
We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.
We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy.. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity.. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth.. It is potentially 1929 x ten...And we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)
Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.
And that is only the beginning..
As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.
And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did - regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand - the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so. No Jews of course,
How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world. He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and ....... change. And the people surely got what they voted for.
If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.
So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.
Do not forget that Germany was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me..
I choose to believe the evidence. No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. To some degree, perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.
I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am. Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.
David Kaiser Jamestown , Rhode Island United States
Pass this along. Perhaps it will help to begin the awakening of America as to where we are headed.......
Well said. I’m not a historian, just old enough to recall the history, which was fresh in everyone’s minds as I was growing up. And I agree with him.
(http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/proportions.asp)
I think on Snopes Dr. Kaiser, when contacted, said many of the views in the piece are opposite of his.
You are correct.
SNOPES SAYS DR. KAISER DID NOT AUTHOR THIS.
It first appeared as a comment to a blog in Nov 2008, and then later someone added Dr. Kaiser's name and started circulating it by e-mail.
Personally, I agree with what it says. But we shouldn't attribute it falsely. And it loses all credibility when the supposed author says that it is completely contradictory to his own beliefs.
Getting something wrong is one thing. Actually, reporting that you contacted the supposed author who denied writing it...well, that would be something else entirely. Not sure Snopes would go that far. And to what end would they do that? They provide links to where they think it originated.
I don't disagree with what it says. I have a problem with it because someone has apparently attributed it to someone else who says he didn't write it.
check out the last five minutes of this speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0&feature=player_embedded#
I think you will be very interested in what he has to say about an upcoming treaty that Obama is going to sign.
David Kaiser ping
later
I too am a historian with 16 books published (and a great many un-published) I have produced two award winning documentaries and consulted on several Hollywood films. I concur with everything he wrote. I fear for the nation and I see things coming in the next year or two. I fear we may not have elections in 2012 or if we do they will be meaningless. I also fear war is looming on the horizon. When a nation state tries to re-configure itself and if it is seen as weak other rivals will take advantage of this to gain territory and power. I see this as an old road we are taking and one that can only lead to pain and suffering. The nation looks nothing like the place I grew up in—and I fear it will become worse for my children and grandchildren. Predictions: These are the signs of danger.
1. A Riechstag Fire Moment— a terrible act that would cause Obama to take on extra or war time powers.
2. A reconfiguring of our money—with New Dollars-—to replace old and worthless greenbacks.
3. A re-interpretation of the Constitution to ban all guns from pistols to rifles.
4. Rationing of food and gas.
Thanks for the insight. I think we all feel it. I have always felt then whenever a president is selling, he is not representing what America wants.
Thanks for passing that video along. None of this is surprising to me, been following this sham for decades. Biggest problem is getting enough people to recognize the seriousness of our situation, and the necessity of a serious response.
The one thing I disagree with is our inability to extract ourselves from such a treaty. As long as we have guns, we can defy any international action. I can see an Englishman not understanding that concept, given his country is so far removed from that reality. But the armed American is still a powerful force, one that has yet to demonstrate that power for decades, but one that is stirring.
I am with you,,,what is happening follows the script the CFR has been writing for the last 40 years. and it really doesn’t matter which party is in power.
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