. . . . to an important article.
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Posted on 10/19/2009 10:16:20 PM PDT by Noumenon
History Unfolding
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.
Author unknown
I agree that we must avoid odious comparisons.
How odious can it be if it’s the truth?
We are witnessing the subversion of a democratic
federal republic into something else and it bodes
ill for most of our citizens, the comparison should
be with Stalin or Pol Pot.
Correct. Hitler was a good public speaker, and did not require a teleprompter.
Obama, not so much!
Obama may create an American Holomodor.
You are right, but I wish you had concluded your observation with something a little more definite.
bookmark
Yeah! That’s more more like it.
Now - - -
What’s your opinion of citizens with rifles arrayed against tanks and A-20 Warthog ground attack planes with rockets, bombs and machine guns?
From one perspective, it’s no contest. From another, who said that we need to fight that way? The entire course of history can be changed by one man making one decision in the right place at the right time.
Plus, it’s far from given that the Obamunists will have the entire US military establishment at their back. Unless, of course, it’s the military holding them at gunpoint. On the wayy to the gallows. This is my dream.
. . . . to an important article.
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Bump
Good catch
Thanks for the thread and the bump.
Fred, not to be argumentative but at the same time you recognize “0bama is a danger to the Republic” you state, “This rhetoric is over-the-top...”
Isn’t that like arguing the alarm is a bit to shrill?
A thing of beauty. Well done. What can I say, except "I agree 100%".
We are now effectively being told "We're going to muzzle Fox, buy more Goldman Sachs bonuses with your money, double tax everything, and steal your health care system. What are you going to do about it, sissies?"
They're expecting us to say "We'll vote you out next election" or "We will stop contributing to your campaign".
To an infrastructure which now owns the vote manufacturing franchise and can place and keep anyone it desires in office, as well as control all Federal funds, these threats are empty and amusing.
I'm not going to vote anyone out of office. I'm not going to contribute to an opponent.
I'm going to personally get involved with the individiual members of this machine.
This is the only sort of reaction they are genuinely afraid of.
If Americans would stop promising to play nice at every insult, crime, and usurpation they throw at us, they'd stop. They'd stop because they'd be looking around every corner and under their bed every 5 minutes wondering where the next lightening bolt with their name on it would come from.
Thanks Lucy - you’re right - that’s an important one...
At this point in time and history, up close and personal is looking to be the only way to get the ‘don’t tread on me’ message across. The game is over. The table is in the process of being overturned.
There is only one way this can end if we expect to remain free.
We have no disagreement here.
Do you believe Barack 0bama is going to embark on a program of sending his political enemies to concentration camps? Do you think he's going to send Untermenchsen to gas chambers? Intimidate, threaten, and ultimately wage war against all of his neighbors? There is very little reason to suspect at this point that he intends any of these things. That doesn't mean he is not dangerous, but it does mean he is not likely destined to become one of the most reviled men in the history of mankind.
Combination? The only difference between Communism and Fascism is that fascists generally allow the fig leaf of private ownership.
There you go. Barry is not Hitler after all.
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