A Massive Upswelling of Unfashionable Wealth

Green energy is fashionable -- but it will bankrupt anyone who depends on it. Hydrocarbons such as oil & gas are most unfashionable -- but they are poised to drive a massive industrial and economic renaissance in North America, if fashion-conscious political elites could hold their noses tightly enough to allow the economic resurgence to happen.

US domestic oil production has jumped by 18 per cent in the past year as the shale boom has expanded, and in the first eight months of this year oil imports were 800,000 barrels a day fewer than a year earlier. America's oil exports rose over the same time by 300,000 barrels a day, so net imports have fallen in just one year by 1.1 million barrels a day, or about 6 per cent of total consumption. If that pace if sustained the International Energy Agency's prediction of self sufficiency for the US by 2030 will prove to be conservative.

Oil production from shale in the US is rising much more strongly than expected because the boom itself is working to shift production into liquids. _TheAge

This puts US President Obama in the position of having to make a hard choice -- something he is not known for doing, if he can avoid it. Nevertheless, Obama's fiscal policies are driving the US into an unprecedented deep pit of debt, while his regulatory policies are destroying economic opportunity across the width and breadth of the private sector. If Obama lets the energy & industrial boom happen -- in spite of his close ties to the green / political / academic / faux environmental complex -- he will lose friends among the fashionable, but will also finally allow a much-delayed economic recovery to begin across much of the US.

The six fastest-growing jobs for 2010-11, according to Economic Modeling Specialists International, are related to oil and gas extraction. In total, nine of the top 11 fast-growing jobs in the nation over the past two years are tied in one way or another to oil and gas extraction.

Over the decade, the energy sector has created nearly 200,000 jobs in Texas, as well as 40,000 in Oklahoma, and more than 20,000 in Colorado. Growth on a percentage basis is even higher in North Dakota, which saw a 400 percent increase in these jobs, as well as Pennsylvania, where jobs increased by 20,000.

The energy revolution presents Obama with the clearest path to drive this critical boost to greater economic growth. New technologies for finding and tapping resources, such as fracking and other new technologies to tap older oil fields, could make America potentially the largest oil and gas producer by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. _Joel Kotkin

A massive upswelling of unfashionable wealth awaits a number of decisions by US President Obama. Now that his re-selection is a fait accompli, what is he waiting for?

Raising Taxes on the Pillars of Society: Is that Your Bright Idea, Genius?

US President Obama is on a roll. After being selected for another 4 year term in the White House, the president is on a crusade to "tax the rich." Except that isn't really what he is doing. The rich will hardly be touched by Obama's compulsive drive to raise taxes. It is the upper middle class who will pay through the nose.

The people whose wallets will be drained in the new war on “the rich” are high-earning, but hardly plutocratic professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers, small business owners and the like. Once seen as the bastion of the middle class, and exemplars of upward mobility, these people are emerging as the modern day “kulaks,” the affluent peasants ruthlessly targeted by Stalin in the early 1930s.

...The income tax hit may not be the only pain inflicted on these areas in the President’s drive for greater “fairness.” Moves to curb mortgage interest deductions for affluent households also would fall predominately on these same areas.

... For the most part, the economies of the key blue regions are very dependent on the earnings of the mass affluent class, and their spending is critical to overall growth. Singling out the affluent may also reduce the discretionary spending that drives employment in the personal services sector, retail and in such key fields as construction. _Joel Kotkin

In his piece excerpted above, Joel Kotkin is focusing on the destructive impact of Obama's great "pseudo tax the rich" plan on the "Blue States," Obama's strongest supporters. But the destructive impact of Obama's economic policies have fallen on all the states from the time of his first signature on a bill, and the first executive order.

It is not just Obama's "bait and switch" tactic that is so repulsive. It is the malignant nature of his attack against the upper middle class -- the job creating class -- that should be condemned and opposed.

Obama came to the White House with an internalised mission to destroy the heart of his political opposition. To do that, he had to begin dismantling the opportunity society, and the basic personal and economic freedoms from government caprice that were guaranteed by the US Constitution. He has been generally successful, but had he not been re-selected for a second term, many of his more damaging policies could have been either reversed or mitigated. Now, the damage that is being done is likely to have a multi-generational impact.

You could -- as Joel Kotkin does -- refer to this selection of Obama for 4 more years as a "pyrrhic victory" or "suicide pact" on the part of the blue states and Obama's most fanatical followers. But a lot of people suspect that Obama actually cheated -- and that he had a lot of organised help.

Either way, it would be best to get ready for a bumpy ride.

Putting a Republican in the White House Would Be Like Electing a Protestant Pope

Of course, it might be interesting to have a Protestant pope once in a while, just to shake things up.

Visualising US Democracy

...look on the bright side. Your poor guy didn't get elected. You would have felt like a big winner, but putting a Republican in the White House is like electing a Protestant pope. An even bigger joke. A joke of such stupendous magnitude that perhaps it's not even funny at all. _Unqualified Reservations

Look at the 3D US election map above, and imagine how easy it would be to game an election, if you controlled most of the big city voting precincts. For most honest, hard-working people, it is difficult to imagine the machinations which ambitious politicians and their followers will resort to, with $trillions of other people's money on the line.

Here is one poll observer's experience:

I arrived at the polling place at approximately 5:40 a.m. I went into the polling place and showed my credentials to the Chief who showed me where to sit behind the poll workers who would be checking voters in to receive a voting certificate. All of the poll workers were either African American or Hispanic, with the only Caucasians being the Project ORCA watchers. The voters waited in a long line that went outside the building at all times during the day. At one point, probably around 11:00 a.m., I noted that the line was about 300 people long. The line did not break at any time during the day, and there was no time to take a break during the entire day from 6:00 a.m. until the final person voted at close to 8:00 p.m.

Throughout the day, I took note of many irregularities besides the abnormally long lines. The poll workers who regularly work the elections said that they had never seen turnout like what was present. I believe the lead worker said about three times as many people as usual turned out that day to vote and that it is usually a quiet, slow precinct. There were three parts to the voting process. First the voter waited in line to get to the point where I was standing and watching, which was the voter check in, where ID was checked and verified and voting certificates were given out to qualified voters. After receiving a voting card, the voters then stood in line to cast their votes at one of five voting machines. After voting, the voters stood in line to turn in their voting card. Each phase of the line was long and the lines all snaked around at all times.

I was only able to observe the check in phase. As people approached the station of four poll workers who were checking voters in, the voters presented one of the required forms of ID to the poll worker. The poll worker then stated the voter’s name, found them on the database, and then asked for the voter to state his/her name and address. Many, many people were unable to state their names and addresses without assistance. Many, many people said the name was incorrect on their ID due to them getting married or divorced. Many, many people said that the address on their IDs were incorrect due to them having moved recently. Many could not state either the address on their ID or their current address. Many, many people could not speak English and could not follow the directions of “state your name and address.” On the app from which I was checking names, the voter’s name and age appeared. Many, many times, I did not believe that the voter was the age stated on the app. Many, many times, when I went to check off the voter as having voted, the voter was already checked off as having voted. Several times, I would swear that I saw the same person voting twice or heard the same name voting twice, when the app stated that only one voter in the precinct had the stated name. Many times I saw a person who looked Hispanic answer to a name that he or she could barely pronounce that was obviously representative of some other ethnicity, such as Asian or Middle Eastern.

About half of the time that a person had a name or address conflict, that person was sent to the chief to have his/her credentials validated. Each time, that person was allowed to vote, as I saw no provisional ballots recorded throughout the day. About half of the time the person was allowed to verbally correct his/her name or address and was sent to the next phase of the line without having to go to the chief to be approved. I believe a good 10 to 15% of those who voted had questionable ID and qualifications. At one point in the day, an announcement was made that a complaint had been called in to the Board of Elections that handicapped people were not being allowed into the building to vote. The chief made this announcement and stated that it was an untrue allegation. I did not see any handicapped people going through the voting line. [...]

I believe that most people do not have three hours to wait in line to vote, and it is strange that all of these people with fishy IDs had hours to stand in line and vote. I found numerous blue Democrat ticket sheets showing people how to vote strewn around the polling place. With the lines being long and me not being able to talk to voters as a poll watcher, I had no recourse to accuse suspicious individuals of not being who their ID said they were. I did call to the Romney headquarters and report my suspicions several times, but I do not know what they could have done about the situation, as I could not pull suspicious people out of line. _Mencius Moldbug

And no, Romney's people could have done absolutely nothing about the very likely high level, organised fraud taking place across the country in large city precincts, almost exclusively controlled by Democratic Party functionaries and associates.

All of which leads to a slowly dawning recognition in the minds of the un-connected outsider majority: We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We are in Chicago. And in Chicago, it is the Outfit that calls the shots, whatever it takes.

For outsiders -- for those unwilling to check their ability to reason independently at the door -- we are entering a new and somewhat dystopian age. Some are referring to it as "The Dark Enlightenment." This new form of enlightenment is in part a recognition that democracy is inevitably gamed by the smart players, who develop more and more effective ways to wrest power and control over assets and institutions from individuals and private interests.

The Dark Enlightenment involves an understanding that in a world where powerful groups rove in wolf packs, it is not safe to be a sheep grazing in an open pasture, without protection that you can count on. It involves an understanding of the broad and multi-facedted inequality of human individuals and breeding groups. It involves an instinctive mistrust of grand utopian ideals and movements.

More on the Dark Enlightenment from Dennis Mangan

One possible long range vector of the Dark Enlightenment

Full "Dark Enlightenment" series of essays by Nick Land

Another look at the Dark Enlightenment by Jim Donald

All 10 Nick Land Dark Enlightenment essays conveniently presented on one page for easy printout or download.

Prepper Movement Receives Huge Boost From Obamelection

Obama has always been good for the survival industry. Something about the election of an unqualified and inexperienced narcissist (solipsist?) to the most powerful political office in the world tends to make large numbers of people just a bit uneasy.

A veritable industry has sprung up around the prepper movement. James Rawles, author of the non-fiction book How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It and a pair of best-selling novels on survival, says 130,000 people regularly read his survivalblog.com, where he and numerous contributors provide tips on how to prepare. The former Army intelligence officer has 40 advertisers selling everything from seeds to silver, and 30 more advertisers on a waiting list.

"It's a growing recognition we live in a very fragile, very interdependent society, with long chains of supply and an increasing dependence on the power grid," says Rawles, who won't say where he lives. "That dependence increases every passing year, and the vulnerability of the infrastructure to technological destruction increases by the year."

He says Superstorm Sandy's devastating impact on the populous Northeast ought to make the need for prepping obvious.

"If anybody had any doubts, if anybody was teasing their neighbors before Sandy" for storing food or preparing a "bugout bag" of essentials, he says, "they are not doing that anymore."

The day after Obama was re-elected, Rowles posted, "Several readers have written to ask me if I plan to stock up on more ammunition and magazines, now that the gun grabbers have further cemented their hold on Washington, D.C. My answer: No. I already have lots of ammunition and magazines."

The business of prepping

Scott Hunt, who co-founded a South Carolina company called Practical Preppers, says phone calls from potential customers increased the day after Election Day. "I am not going to make that correlation," Hunt says, "but you can."

Twenty months ago, Hunt, an engineer, and Dave Kobler, a military veteran, started Practical Preppers to advise people how to stockpile and defend their homes.

Business for Hardened Structures, an engineering firm based in Virginia Beach, is up roughly 40% since 2005, co-owner Brian Camden says. Some of his clients buy gold and silver and other precious metals as a hedge against a possible collapse of the currency, and they want to be able to protect it and their families, he says. So his company designs ways to build underground bunkers, strengthen walls and improve security systems on homes.

Camden says he thinks a grid-destroying electromagnetic pulse from a solar flare is the most likely threat but "after interviewing clients for 20 years, the one thing I do know is no one knows for sure what will happen."

"The rise of al-Qaeda, Islamic terrorism, political divisions here in the U.S., the rich getting richer, the separation of the economic classes," he says, describing what drives customers to him. "At the end of the day, it is asset protection. Most people identify their family as their most important asset. This is a family insurance policy."

...Braxton wrote a book, A Letter to My Friends, that includes the basics he preaches: Have emergency food and water in your home, have a "bugout bag" for every person that includes water, food, clothes, a thumb drive of your financial and other vital information, and other essentials. _Prepper Movement Growing

With the Obama-malaise deepening after recent elections, ordinary Americans seem forced to accept a slow strangulation of opportunity and prosperity. With prospects of living under a dysfunctional mob rule for at least an additional 4 years, many Americans have decided to take steps to provide for themselves, should an increasingly fragile clockwork society finally lose its mainspring (PDF) and ultimate resource.

Ever since the election, the US stock market has reflected this pessimistic mood. The mainstream media has attempted to cover up Obama's mistakes and blunders, but things will finally reach a point beyond which the accidental misdeeds and engineered debacles will achieve results so devastating that they can no longer be covered up -- even from the residual "Obama zombie" component of the population.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. And consider how you might go about becoming more dangerous to those who mean you harm, without appearing to be so.

US Guns and Ammo Sales: Nowhere to Go but Up

President Barack Obama has been referred to as “salesman of the year” for the gun industry. The nickname is likely to stick around, considering that gun sales are expected to rise like a speeding bullet now that he’s been reelected. _Time

Obama is famous for his remarks about middle Americans -- referring to them as bitter clingers who hold to their guns and religion. The US President's open contempt for the majority of his constituents has been largely filtered out by a sycophantic media -- most accurately referred to as the skankstream media.

But a large measure of Obama's contempt for America and average Americans has filtered through -- enough to trigger an unprecedented boom in gun and ammunition sales.

Reuters reports that within hours of his securing his reelection, President Obama ordered the U.S. United Nations delegation to vote in favor of a UN proposal to fast track an international gun control treaty.

Immediately the word went out that the United States was going to play ball (after having scuttled the last round of talks on the Arms Trade Treaty in July), and a new round of negotiations on the treaty was scheduled for March 18-28 at the UN headquarters in New York City.

...While many accused those making a run on gun stores of reacting rashly, there may be some wisdom in this latest sales spike. _The New American

Around the country, the story coming out of gun stores is the same: Obama is the best salesman for the US gun trade, ever!

It’s not just guns and ammo sales, but also a record number of people signing up for a concealed carry permit. "A lot of people feel that there is a gun ban coming in place, he also eluded that in the second debate that he was looking to reintroduce an assault weapons ban” said Ryan Horsley Manager, Red’s Trading Post. _Gun Sales Up

If gun sales are shooting up in Idaho -- where gun sales have always been high -- you know that Obama is having a stimulatory effect on the industry as a whole. The rise in concealed carry permits is also a nationwide phenomenon -- wherever allowed.

Obama has been trying to turn the US into a Chicago mafia style cronyocracy, with all powers concentrated within the central government. He has been fighting against the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights since even before he was elected.

Obama is not only antagonistic to the Second Amendment -- the Right to Bear Arms. He is antagonistic to any US Constitutional provisions which limit the power of the central government. His ongoing war against the US private sector reflects his antagonism toward any powerful interests which might compete with the central government for influence and control.

The cloud of suspicion hanging over the most recent presidential election -- a suspicion of rampant and institutionalised voter fraud -- does not help the mood of the nation any.

If you decide to acquire a personal arsenal, make sure you understand gun care and gun safety. Take the time to learn the proper care and use of each weapon you acquire, and store all weapons and all ammunition in safe and secure locations. Be responsible.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

Getting Your Mind Right for Survival: When You are the One Walking Point

Hurricane Sandy left a lot of people without power, food, water, fuel, medicines, and shelter. Many people are still going without -- in the middle of the wealthy NYC area.

Imagine a larger scale disaster where state and municipal emergency response systems were knocked out, and you were left entirely on your own to assure the survival of yourself and those close to you. What would you do?

The success triad below: training, tangibles, and mindset should give you some ideas on where to start.

Success in Emergency Preparedness

Some common preparedness tangibles are:

• Silver
• Ammunition
• Food and water
• Spare gasoline
• Batteries
• Coats, hats, gloves
• Camping gear

Some common preparedness training includes:

• Personal protection
• Gunsmithing
• Food preparation
• Carpentry and home repair
• Small engine repair and maintenance
• Survival
• Orienteering

Some common successful mindset qualities are:

• Aim, Focus
• Perseverance
• Adaptability
• Curious and inquisitive
• Enthusiastic
• Evaluative- scrutinizes his self, choices, etc for continued improvement

_Successful Preparedness Mindset

Here is a look at 15 skills to survive TEOTWAWKI from MD Creekmore:

1. Food Processing – many survival planners overlook food processing in favor of more exciting elements of preparedness. This is a mistake, I think cooking and preparing basic storage foods is one of the most important elements of preparedness .

2. Bulk Food Storage – without sufficient qualities of storage foods our demise is practically guaranteed after a major catastrophe. Storing basic grains and beans isn’t difficult and any dunce can do it properly in a couple of hours with proper instruction.

3. Medical Training – every survivalist should have sufficient medical training. A good start is taking a basic CPR and first aid class, check with your local Red Cross for scheduling. If time and finances allow taking EMT classes would also be a good idea. Don’t overlook herbal medicine, which maybe all we have to work with on an individual level.

4. Gardening – because of space and finances most of us can not put back enough food to last the rest of our lives. We’ll need to replace our storage foods with fresh supplies. Gardening is an excellent way to do this, and is it easy to learn with instruction and practice. It is amazing at the amount of food that can be grown in a small space under proper conditions.

5. Preserving – Most foods spoil rather quickly resulting in loss of quality, edibility and nutritive value – food preservation is an important survival skill . We need to learn to Can, Dry, Freeze, Salt, Smoke, Pickle, Bury, Vacuum Pack, Sugar, Jelly, Pot etc.

6. Hunting – contrary to popular belief all wild game will not disappear after a collapse. Most people would rather stand in a food line waiting for a handout than scour the backwoods looking for game and let’s not forget that the extent of most peoples hunting skills doesn’t go beyond the latest Cabelas video game.

7. Trapping – trapping is more practical under survival conditions than hunting. By setting a trap you can be other places and do other things while the trap does the hunting for you. Learn to set snares, build deadfalls, box traps, fish traps, and the use steel traps. Becoming a proficient trapper is not difficult – all you need to do is get off the couch and learn by doing.

8. Firearms Repair – basic firearms repair (replacement of broken parts) isn’t all that difficult if you have the parts needed when something breaks. There’s no need in learning to repair every make and model of firearm in existence. You do need to have an in-depth understanding of your chosen weapons, how they work and repair methods for each.

9. Self-Defense Skills – the most effective self-defense techniques are also the easiest to master. Striking vulnerable points, biting and eye gouging are simple and effective techniques that can be quickly learned and when applied with aggression can bring down the most determined attacker.

10. Firearms Skills – if you’re new to firearms a basic safety course is necessary before learning defensive skills. Concealed carry permit classes are held in most areas as are hunter education programs – I suggest you participate in both. The National Rifle Association offers a number of classes that are most helpful. As for books and videos I recommend “Tactical Pistol Shooting” and Kelly McCann’s inside the crucible series.

11. Water Purification – another simple skill often overlooked is water acquisition and purification.

12. Using Tools – you should have a survival toolbox of basic tools, such as; hammers, saws, screwdrivers, winches, vice grips, wire cutters, files etc. And the skills needed to put these tools to use.

13. Animal Husbandry – raising animals goes hand-in-hand with gardening, hunting and trapping to provide a continuous source of nourishment during hard times. I highly recommend “Barnyard in your Backyard” this book covers everything you need to know.

14. Home Power – while it may be possible to survive with no electrical power, having some source of current will make life easier. My solar set up was under $600 batteries included and building my homemade generator was under $100.

15. Investing – after getting your survival necessities in order (food, water, meds, shelter, defense) it’s time to start thinking about investing in precious metals, namely gold and silver. Just be sure not to make the mistake of going into debt while investing in these metals. _MDCreekmore

And since "no man is an island," and your chances of surviving an emergency are greater when in the company of other skilled and competent persons, here are some ideas on the topic of finding like-minded persons -- again from MD Creekmore:

Take a look at your situation, family and friends – would they be there for you and each other when the balloon goes up? What are their skills? What do they have to offer? Will they work together?

If the answers to the above questions are negative, than you need to look elsewhere for support. But where do you look. And, perhaps more importantly, how do you do it without drawing attention to yourself or inviting danger into your retreat.

Consider looking into:
Churches with similar religious convictions to your own.
Hunting clubs
Gun clubs
Garden clubs
First Aid & CPR class attendees
Those attending self-defense classes or seminars
I’m sure you can think of other possibilities, but you get the idea.

Starting your own related club, as a ruse to attract like-minded people for an inital “feeling-out” process isn’t out of the question. Even if you don’t find a worthy candidate you’ll at least have gotten off the couch.

I know a former Army ranger who offered free wilderness survival classes as a ruse when building his survival group.

They would spend a weekend out in the woods learning various outdoor survival techniques. While he would secretly evaluate each as a potential member for his survival group.... _More info at: MDCreekmore: Survival Group

List of top 10 best survival guns from SHTFblog

If the stock market crashes, it will be because investors are afraid of a lot more than "the fiscal cliff."

Preparation starts by accumulating the rudimentary elements of survival: food, water, shelter, medical supplies, security, survival skills and a basic reactionary plan. _SurvivalBlog

Think of emergencies related to Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters as short-lived reminders of the bigger ones that are coming down the road. The graft and corruption of modern governments are degrading the ability of official institutions to assist citizens in the event of sustained disasters. The growing inability of government institutions to come to the meaningful aid of citizens makes it all the more important for citizens to know how to help themselves.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

"The Death of White America?" That's Not Why Romney Lost

This article is adapted from an article published on abu al-fin


Probably the best piece so far on "The Death of White America" was published recently in the UK Daily Mail.

For Republicans struggling to understand their defeat at the polls, the most chilling statistic in this week’s presidential election was this: Mitt Romney won the biggest share of the white vote that any Republican White House contender ever has — and he still lost.

In an election battle that was defined as much as anything by race, Mitt Romney won the support of 59 per cent of whites, but just 27 per cent of Latinos, 26 per cent of Asian-Americans and 6 per cent of African-Americans.

Thirty years ago, being unpopular with ethnic minorities would hardly have stopped a white establishment candidate like Romney from trouncing Barack Obama. But back then, whites accounted for almost 90 per cent of voters. Now they make up just 72 per cent of the electorate, and that figure is shrinking by the year. _DailyMail

Much more at the link.

In the future -- if demographic trends continue -- it will be impossible for white candidates to win election in most areas of North America, without large numbers of votes from blacks, hispanics, and other ethnic "minorities." But in 2012, that is not necessarily the case. It may be a bit early in the demographic evolution of the US to proclaim "the death of white America."

Only about 54% of eligible voters actually voted. And of the white voters who did vote, almost 40% voted for Obama -- and against their own economic future. It is one thing to proclaim "the death of white America" when white voters voted in large numbers and for their own future benefit -- and still lost. But that was not the case in 2012, when large numbers of white voters did not vote, or even voted against the futures of themselves and their progeny.

We should also not overlook voter fraud, which played a very large part in the final vote tallies brought in by Democratic Party controlled precincts. If you look at large Democrat controlled cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, etc etc it is clear that more votes were tallied than were actually cast in a valid manner.

Obama lost the states with photo ID laws

Military absentee votes delivered too late to count: could have changed entire election results

More interesting (and imaginative) speculation here

A short list of election day shenanigans

Strong photo ID voting laws favoured by strong majority of Americans

There are many reasons that Obama will be able to continue his corrupt and destructive reign over the US government for another 4 years. But it would be best not to draw exaggerated or premature conclusions from the election results.

For the near future, a better use of the time of US conservatives, centrists, and libertarians, would be to toughen up election laws to prevent future election fraud as much as possible.

BTW, giving up too early is one of the signs of self-defeating behaviours. Rather than giving up and proclaiming "The Death of White America," wouldn't it be better to think about how you could use your brain to guarantee a better future for yourself and your loved ones -- at least a better future than the one that Obama and his cronies have planned for you?

Focus on what you can do.

Now All of America Can Be More Like Chicago

The US economy is still missing about 4 million jobs from before Obama took office, and the country seems to be slipping into a new recession -- before it ever truly escaped the last one, in any meaningful sense. The nation is 4 years older and $6 billion deeper in debt -- and already owes its soul to the company store holders of US government debt.

And yet, the next Obama term as US president is likely to see nationwide corruption financed by deficit spending at an unprecedented scale. Expect to see massive federal bailouts and handouts for groups, industries, activist organisations, and profligate state and local governments. The common denominator of the recipients of the coming repeat explosion of deficit spending largesse is that they will all have supported Obama's re-election in a big way.

Voters as a Necessary Evil

President Obama’s re-election... marks the massive endorsement of an expanding crony capitalism that ultimately could reshape the already troubled American economic system beyond recognition.

...The federal government and its expanding bureaucracy — another big winner tonight — seems likely to issue Draconian edicts on greenhouse gas, now that the election is over. The whole coal industry is about to get savaged by new regulations and pressure is mounting to regulate fracking as well. Destroying the competition may be the one way to bail out the “green” crony capitalists.

Other crony capitalists could also benefit form the new regulatory assault: the rise essentially of national zoning. Backed by EPA and HUD, urban land speculators could see their suburban competitors regulated — as is already the case in California — into oblivion. Regions could find themselves obliged to built often expensive, and in some cases, wildly inappropriate transit system. This will benefit not only unions, who will build and operate these systems, but companies like Siemens who push for greater rail expansions at the expense of maintaining and improving such critical infrastructure as roads.

Ultimately the biggest winners may be those who finance municipal and state debt. Owing his election to the fiscal failures of New York, Illinois and California, Obama could have to use his executive power to forestall looming bankruptcies at the local and even state level. Ironically the biggest winner here in the crony capitalist sweepstakes will be firms like Goldman Sachs, who turned so vehemently against Obama, but have historically made much of their money on financing government operations. _NewGeography

Now that Obama doesn't need to worry about re-election, he can pull out all the stops to make sure he and his cronies never have to worry about money again -- all at taxpayer's expense.

A great scam if you are a true and complete scum.

One Way Train Ride to Hell: Decline of Black America

As anyone who rides Amtrak between New York and Washington knows, the trip can be a dissonant experience. Inside the train, it’s all tidy and digital, everybody absorbed in laptops and iPhones, while outside the windows an entirely different world glides by. Traveling south is like moving through a curated exhibit of urban and industrial decay. There’s Newark and Trenton and the heroic wreckage in parts of Philadelphia, block after block of hulking edifices covered in graffiti, the boarded-up ghost neighborhoods of Baltimore made familiar by “The Wire” — all on the line that connects America’s financial center and its booming capital city.

...The old brick factory buildings with huge windows that gave workers light and air in a pre-air-conditioned world are boarded up, crumbling ...

_NYT

Violent crime rates in the black community are rising again, unemployment rates are soaring, illegitimacy rates hover near 72%, sexually transmitted infection rates are sky high, school violence and dropout rates remain alarmingly high -- all of these are ominous portents for the future of US black communities.

The election of Barack Obama four years ago gave blacks bragging rights, but bragging rights can't close the black-white achievement gap in education or increase black labor-force participation or reduce black incarceration rates. A civil-rights leadership that encourages blacks to look to politicians to solve these problems is doing a disservice to the people they claim to represent.

Asians, for their part, can point to an out-of-wedlock birthrate of just 16%, the lowest of any major group and a significant factor in Asian success. The black illegitimacy rate last year was 72%. Might it be that having a black man in the Oval Office is less important for black advancement than having one in the home?

The political scientists tell us that Mr. Obama will almost certainly need every black vote he can muster on Election Day. Less certain is whether blacks need him. _WSJ

The status of African Americans in the U.S has actually declined over the past two decades and has gotten dramatically worse since the election of Barack Obama...

...When you add prisoners, the employment rate for young black men who have dropped out of school drops from 42 percent to 26 percent. _Black Decline and Obama

Not Counting Prisoners, Underemployed, and Those Who Have Given Up

The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies

Collapse of Marriage and Rise of Welfare Dependency

Losing Ground . . . The government policies that facilitated black decline were already in place back in the 1970s. Obama merely accelerates the depressing trends.

The Negro Family: The Case for National Action . . . The linked Wikipedia article describes a 1965 report by US Senator Moynihan of New York, describing disturbing trends of decline in black communities. A few years later, US inner city ghettos exploded in violent riots, arson, and destruction.

Current US government policies such as affirmative action racial preferences and quasi-quotas in hiring and school admissions, more generous welfare benefits, and an overall government tendency to coddle blacks as a group, has resulted in fewer large scale riots.

But the decay and violence persist widely, on a more personal level, at increasingly higher rates under Obama.

The general idea was for Obama to ride in on a white unicorn and save black America. Obama's supporters never dreamed that their savior-narcissist would destroy the entire country, with blacks in the vanguard leading the way down.

Full Fledged Global Recession More Likely

Germany’s industrial output dropped 1.8pc in September and orders fell 3.3pc, far worse than expected. Spanish industrial output fell 7pc. Annalisa Piazza from Newedge said it was a shocking upset and implies that Germany may be in recession already.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that a fiscal shock of this scale [a US "fiscal cliff"] would abort America’s fragile recovery and risk a full-fledged global recession. _Evans-Pritchard

The US government has fallen further in debt by almost $6 billion $6 trillion (!) since Obama took office. Expect that number to shoot upward very quickly over the next several years, as almost all restraints on the Obama agenda have been removed for the lame duck term to come.

...the fiscal cliff overshadows all else and it is unclear whether either side will yield ground. Mr Obama vowed to put aside party differences in his acceptance speech. "You voted for action, not politics as usual," he said. But he has previously threatened to let America go over the cliff if Congress blocks all tax rises.

...Richard Lewis from Fidelity Worldwide Investment said the dispute will go to the wire with much collateral damage as companies hold back spending and investment. "After a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Ethan Harris from Bank of America said it is risky to assume that such profound ideological differences can be ironed out easily. There is no guarantee that "sane heads will prevail," he said. _Telegraph

Unfortunately, there are no sane heads in a position to prevail.

Mr. Obama has never been interested in the nuts and bolts of governance or main street level economics. He would rather play golf, go on exotic vacations, host very expensive taxpayer financed parties, and display about as much practical usefulness as a male model on a fashion shoot.

Buckle up, America and the world. It's going to be a very wild and more than a little surreal ride indeed.

For several decades, the US government has been morphing into something completely unrecognisable to US constitutional scholars. That transformation is now occurring at warp speed. The US government now tries to be too many things for too many cronies and dependents, is wildly overextended in an exponentially accelerating manner, and is destined to fail very badly. When it fails, it will fail in a cascading manner with much collateral damage around the world.

US citizens had best plan ahead for themselves and their loved ones. Because honestly, no one in their government cares about them one way or the other.

More: The small-minded president who hastens America's decline

Chicago Mobocracy Prevails: A Pyrrhic Victory for Blacks

No group has suffered as much under the Obama presidency as American blacks. And yet like faithful servants, they continue to toe the line for the big man in the white mansion. They do expect some payback, of course. According to the NAACP, 95% of American blacks think the US government should give them jobs. 95%! That is roughly the proportion of blacks who voted for Mr. Obama.  Fantasy Island was never so whimsical.

It was an election day of rampant fraud, bullying, intimidation, and outright illegality. But the mob got the job done, and the nouveau haute noblesse are safely ensconced in the big mansion for another four years. Four more years of lavish parties, extravagant vacations, and policies of perpetual ruin.

Mr. Obama now has the flexibility he needed for dealing with Vladimir Putin's Russia, and all other antagonistic governments and popular movements. The US economy can now look forward to heavy handed bureaucratic regulation not seen since the 1930s under Roosevelt.

US business never truly recovered from the burst housing bubble and hyper-leveraged financials. Unfortunately, Obama never cared for the private sector that much, so business persons should not expect things to get better.

John Galt has not commented on the election results, but is said to be holed up somewhere in the Rocky Mountain west, growing a movement of rugged individualists and dangerous children.  More on that later.

Obama Executive Order to Stamp Out US Shale Revolution

Today we bring you some good news, and some bad news, about the US shale revolution -- which has been the saving grace in the US economy over the last few years.

First, the good news:

Image Source

The U.S. shale boom... has transformed the U.S. energy sector. Shale gas alone is now 10 percent of the overall energy supply in the country.

A surge in unconventional oil and gas extraction nationwide will trigger more than $5.1 trillion in capital spending and support a total of 1.7 million jobs this year, a number that will swell to almost 3 million by 2020, a leading consultant said in a study released Tuesday. _IBT

Now, the bad news:

...the Obama administration is working to increase federal control over hydraulic fracturing in the United States. In April of this year, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order on hydraulic fracturing that created a working group of 13 executive branch departments to coordinate policies between departments, share research and information on hydraulic fracturing, and ensure that the federal government spoke with one voice on the subject. This was in response to actions being undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency to release new air pollution regulations for shale gas drillers and by the Department of Interior to release new hydraulic fracturing regulations for drilling on public lands.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required drillers to capture emissions of certain air pollutants (volatile organic compounds and methane) from new wells. Drillers can burn the pollutants at the wellhead until the start of 2015, when EPA expects that enough equipment will be available to capture the pollution.[ii] The original proposed rule issued by EPA in 2011... was estimated to reduce oil production from hydraulically fractured wells by up to 37 percent and reduce federal royalties by $8.5 billion and state severance taxes by up to $2.3 billion due to reduced drilling and production.[iii]

While other countries are using hydraulic fracturing to increase production and revenues, the United States – which pioneered the technological breakthroughs that led to the practice — is looking to lower oil and gas production and increase costs by increasing regulations on the technology. To date, hydraulic fracturing has helped to reduce our dependence on imported oil and natural gas, lower natural gas and electric utility bills, and increase employment in states where shale oil and natural gas are produced. It looks like hydraulic fracturing should be a win-win relationship for domestic production and consumption of oil and natural gas, but the Obama Administration has proposed changes that threaten that through increased regulations, despite the fact that the states have successfully regulated that industry for half a century or more. _IER

Obama conveniently (and duplicitously) claims credit for the shale revolution, while his administration works behind the scenes to clamp down on the technologies which made the revolution possible.

Oil Job Finder

Plentiful oil & gas opens the door to a wide range of other industries to grow -- and to return to the US from overseas. No wonder Obama wants to stop it.

World Dictators to US Voters: We'd Prefer You Vote Obama

From Moscow to Caracas to Havana, something disturbing is happening: Dictators with long records of enmity toward the U.S. are endorsing Obama for president. What does that say about the Obama presidency?

Fresh from abusing Venezuela's opposition after his own rigged re-election, Chavez declared, "If I were American, I would vote for Obama. He is my candidate." It was his second direct endorsement of Obama in a week. After that, he spooled off his plans to impose socialism on his country.

Around the same time, Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuba's ruling communist capo Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, told CNN: "As a citizen of the world, I would like for (Obama) to win."...

There was more of that appreciation of Obama's heartwarmingness from Russia's stoat-faced autocrat Vladimir Putin: "Obama is a genuine person who really wants to change much for the better," he said, in what The Moscow Times said was "widely viewed as his most direct endorsement of Obama."

...there have been de facto endorsements based on acts — from the evidence of Chinese cash coming into Obama's campaign coffers through the China-domiciled Web site Obama.com — to the sudden declaration by Iran's mullahs last weekend of "peace talks" soon to be held, but only if Americans vote for Obama. _Obama: The Dictator's Choice

Americans are accustomed to the more leftist candidate receiving endorsements and support from academics, foreign and domestic journalists, and media celebrities. But when a candidate receives endorsements from the world's dictators and most outspoken enemies of individual rights and freedoms, something odd is going on.

In the case of Chavez and the Castro oligarchs, it's obvious enough that Obama governs in a way that resembles their own — increasing state employees and state dependency, ruling by decree, singling out companies for punishment, and engaging in a cult of personality where the state is replaced by the leader.

But in the case of some of America's other dangerous foes — from Russia to China to Iran — the only answer to this odd phenomenon is a recognition that Obama is a weaker horse. He is therefore easier to corner or checkmate to achieve their own power ends — in the case of all — military and nuclear power. _IBD

America represents a threat to every imperialistic dictator-state in the world, by virtue of its economic, political, and military power. Any US president who promises to weaken the US in any of those areas, would be a godsend to such a dictator-state. In that sense, another Obama term is a bright and shining promise that these dictators cannot ignore.

Big Wind: Without the Corruption It Would Just Blow Away

This article is adapted from an earlier posting on Al Fin Energy

What Happens to Wind Without Massive Government Subsidy

The wind energy lives and dies by its tax credit. That's because there is no money to be made in generating electricity from windmills. They are tremendously materials intensive, consuming steel and concrete in prodigious amounts. Each 40-story windmill produces 2 megawatts at best, so you need hundred of them to equal a conventional power plant. Even then, they generate unpredictably and only 30 percent of the time. The only thing that makes them worth building is the production tax credit. _RealClearEnergy

But the PTC makes them VERY worthwhile to businesses looking for tax write-offs. Before it went bankrupt in 2003, Enron was the country's largest owner of windmills. Later it was supplanted by the Marriott Hotel chain. A major corporation looking for tax advantages can make money from windmills without ever generating a kilowatt of electricity.

So when Congress fails to renew the tax credit, the industry collapses. This is indicated on the bar chart. Before 2005, the renewal was on a one-year cycle. When Congress failed to renew in 2000, 2002, and 2004, production fell by at least 73 percent each time. In 2005 the PTC was extended to a two-year cycle and was last renewed in the Stimulus Act of 2009. With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, however, the PTC will probably not be renewed unless Democrats achieve a remarkable victory in November. As a result, windmill construction is about to end almost completely. Layoffs have already begun. _RCE

It is time to put the faux environmentalist chimera of big wind energy out of the US' misery.

It may be too late for Europe to save itself from the monstrous economic debacle of big wind. But the UK can still save itself.

Green Corruption: Obama Cronies and Economic Failure on the Taxpayer's Dime

Beware of politicians bearing gifts of big wind, big sun, and carbon credits. Do what you must to preserve the future for yourselves and your progeny.

American Decline is Inevitable Only Under Obama

Under Obama, a continuing American decline is inevitable. The same would have been true under President Jimmy Carter, had he been re-elected to a second term in 1980, instead of Ronald Reagan. Certain leaders attract decline like iron to a magnet.

America has been the world leader for many decades, and is unlikely to surrender that status without internal treachery coming from the very top levels.

The basic strengths of America are real, but not immutable. American status does not maintain itself; the actions required to reduce or counteract the risks of decline are numerous and complex. The most critical areas of concern include debt, the deficit, and entitlements, along with health-care and tax reforms, as well as changes in immigration policy and measures to lessen dependence on imported oil...

In the same Gallup survey that found the United States by far the most popular destination for would-be foreign migrants, respondents in more than one hundred countries expressed much higher approval of US leadership than for six other major powers, including, in order, Germany, France, Japan, the UK, China, and Russia.

The American role remains—in the oft-used word—indispensable. With its hard-power resources, it is the ultimate guarantor against aggressive and nihilistic movements and regimes.

...The society’s resilience and adaptability are unusual for a large country, as are its economic competitiveness and entrepreneurship. The United States, thanks to its unmatched research universities, enrolls a higher proportion of the world’s international students than any other country, with some two-thirds of graduate students who study abroad doing so in the United States.

Democracy, the rule of law, liberty, and popular sovereignty constitute fundamental strengths. There is no doubt that the democratic process is often messy and raucous, but it makes the political system responsive to a huge and heterogeneous public. It is well to keep in mind that America’s main peer competitor, China, lacks these vital features. There, the gap between rulers and the ruled could become increasingly untenable for a wealthier, more educated population with access to information and social media and increasingly aware of its own lack of political and civil liberties, not to mention the absence of accountability on the part of those who control political power. Indeed, China may be experiencing as many as one hundred and eighty thousand political, civil, or labor disturbances per year, and without major changes, which the current leadership is unlikely to countenance, social unrest will only continue to grow.

...Beyond the major areas of health-care and entitlement reform, other challenges loom. For the economy as a whole, reducing uncertainty and fostering a climate conducive to investment and economic growth are vital. This is especially relevant for tax reform and rationalization of the corporate tax. The United States has the second-highest corporate taxes in the world, after Taiwan, but because of the complexity of the tax structure and loopholes in the law, some corporations pay little or no tax, while for others the tax structure creates incentives for investment abroad rather than at home.

Excessive bureaucracy and government regulation are closely connected. Some degree of regulation is desirable and necessary in a modern economy, but excesses in bureaucratic structures, tedious permitting processes, arbitrary application of labor, employment, and environmental law, and overlapping federal, state, and local jurisdictions have become legendary.

...Complete energy independence may not be necessary or possible for the US, but the reduction of America’s dependence on imported oil and its vulnerability to oil price and supply disruptions is essential. What is required is a diverse, robust energy mix that includes better efficiency at home coupled with substantially increased domestic energy production, especially of oil and natural gas, along with the safe use of nuclear power. Renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power, have a useful place in this energy mix, but compared with the vast quantities of energy required to sustain modern American life, their overall impact will remain modest, at least for the medium term. The challenge is to focus on what is practical and effective, rather than on what is fashionable or politically expedient.

...Crisis can be a stimulus to change as well as a warning sign of potential failure, and it is often the case that major problems are not grappled with effectively until they become acute. The debt, deficit, and entitlement issues that currently cloud the American future could well fit this pattern. These problems are by no means insurmountable, despite the formidable political obstacles standing in the way of their resolution. In foreign affairs, the dangers from nuclear proliferation and terrorism are serious, and the rise of regional powers makes it more difficult for the United States to gain agreement on approaches to common problems. Other than China, however, there is no real peer competitor on the horizon.

Our staying power is in our own hands. Whether we maintain it is not a matter of large historical forces beyond our control, but a question of choices, policies, and resolve. _American Decline a Matter of Choice

National decline is a matter of choice. Actually, it is a matter of a large number of choices, many of them made in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, at a subconscious level. For a relatively strong and resilient nation such as the US to undergo sustained decline, there must be a collusion of sorts between the national leadership, the nation's institutions, and the population at large.

In other words, Obama cannot be given the total blame for America's ongoing decline. Without the huge and bloated government bureaucracies, government employee unions, a thoroughly corrupted media and academia, and a dumbed down electorate, Obama would have never been given the power to enact his program of indoctrination, so thoroughly ingrained into his young mind in childhood and adolescence.

But Americans do have a choice. Theoretically -- unlike in nations such as China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea etc. -- in America, elections are relatively reliable (plus or minus 10 to 15%), and elections have consequences.

Under Obama, American decline is inevitable. If Americans choose Obama (plus or minus 10 to 15%), it will be a sign that they are feeling very lucky indeed.

Mephedrone -- A Popular Party Drug -- Could Help President Obama Get Re-Elected

Mephedrone was first synthesised in 1929, but did not become widely known until it was rediscovered in 2003. By 2007, mephedrone was reported to be available for sale on the internet... _Mephedrone, from Wikipedia

Mephedrone -- Wikipedia

US President Barack Obama faces the most difficult election challenge of his young career. Obama presides over an America that suffers a profound and worsening malaise, of a type not seen in the US since the late 1970s. From the worsening economy -- teetering on the brink of recession -- to deepening social divisions, Obama has given American voters very little rational reason to vote for him.

But voting is not necessarily a rational action, for most persons. In past elections, many people have voted a certain way in exchange for cigarettes or beer money. In fact, for many politicians, it would be better for voters to enter the polling booth in a deep stupour, with just enough wits to vote for the "right" person.

In extreme cases, you want to prepare voters well in advance of election day. Even an intoxicated person may retain enough inconvenient memories of a politician's incompetence and corruption, to vote against him even when besotted with intoxicants. Particularly bad leaders -- such as Obama -- will want to prepare ahead, by erasing bad memories of voters.

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to selectively erase specific memories, so it would be necessary to destroy a broad memory spectrum, to ensure that the voter is unable to go against the instructions of his handler, once alone in the booth.

Fortunately, mephedrone -- a popular party drug -- may be exactly what Obama White House physicians ordered.

"You get the euphoria and touchy-feeliness of ecstasy together with the intense addictiveness of methamphetamine or cocaine," said Motbey.

...Rats were given an injection of mephedrone once a day for 10 days. The brains from one group of rats were examined an hour after their final dose. Another group of rats had several more weeks of drug-free living and were then given behavioural tests to find signs of long-term cognitive impairment, before their brains were also analysed.

"With this second group that lived drug free for an extended period we found a substantial memory impairment in animals that had been given the higher dose of the drug. This is concerning because it confirms earlier hints of memory problems in human mephedrone users. The fact the impairment was still there many weeks after the end of the drug treatment suggests that this damage may be permanent," said Motbey. _Mephedrone Brain Damage

Permanent brain damage from a party drug that makes you feel good and is addictive too? It may just work, for the unscrupulous incumbent who considers voters to be little better than laboratory rats.

Full PLOS mephedrone study

We know that convicted felons, drug abusers, and illegal aliens favour Obama (aka President Food Stamp) over his opponent by a very wide margin -- perhaps by as wide a margin as African Americans favour Obama.

By slipping mephedrone into municipal water supplies, and food suppliers such as Starbucks Coffees, and popular Ben & Jerry's ice cream, large portions of the US public could be made addicted to the drug unawares.

The sooner this covert campaign can be instituted, the earlier we should see the breaking down of unpleasant memories by American voters, and the sooner that Obama should start inching up in the opinion polls.

Obama may not quite be the absolute worst president the US has experienced. But already, he has created much hardship and many bad memories. Relying on the news media and educational system to dumb down US voters would probably take too long, in terms of the November election. A little more fast-acting help in the dumbing down department may be necessary.

The Obama EPA is the Primary Enemy of US Economic Growth

Even before Obama, the US EPA was an engine of demolition against US industry, jobs, and energy. EPA rules and regulations have been used to attack energy of all kinds, from oil to coal to nuclear and more. Obama is using the EPA to destroy the US domestic coal industry. He would have done the same to the shale oil & gas bonanza -- but the resulting jobs destruction would have assured his own defeat in the upcoming presidential elections.

The EPA was always bold, brash, and destructive. Under Obama, it has become even more so.

The EPA gets away with it because rather than employing the actual U.S. court system, it has created its own internal system of “administrative courts” whose “judges” are employees of the EPA and subject to promotion, transfer, or discipline by the agency. Not surprisingly, these EPA courts find in favor of EPA prosecutors in nearly every case, and when they don’t, their verdicts can be set aside by the EPA administrator. And while it is true that subsequent to exhausting their resources within this rigged process, defendants can appeal to the real court system, the EPA process itself can take years, during which defendants’ property can remain confiscated, their liberty endangered, and their credit and businesses wrecked. As a result, most prefer to settle and submit. _Bob Zubrin

Other bureaucracies of the US government also have their own "administrative courts" which are rigged in favour of the prosecution and against US citizens. But whereas other bureaucratic courts may unfairly injure civilians singly, by family, and small business, the EPA courts destroy economic opportunity across wide swaths of the American landscape.

In carrying out these vendettas, the EPA has acted without any sense of justice or environmental concern. For example, companies that chose to pay a certified waste-disposal firm to dispose of a small amount of waste for them in a certified manner have found themselves hit with huge fines when the EPA decided to reclassify the disposal area as a Superfund site and, regardless of how tiny was the firm’s contribution to the waste collection there, chose to penalize the company with the entire cost of the dump cleanup....

...The outrageous behavior, threats to liberty, and devastating harm to prosperity done by the EPA are so vast and varied that they cannot be adequately covered in an article of this length. To even get a handle on the problem, a book­length treatment is required. Fortunately, several are available.... _Bob Zubrin

Sources for further research on the US EPA and its damaging effects on the US economy and US liberty, can be found at end of the article linked above.

The shocking thing about Obama's EPA is that the destructive impact it is having is precisely the effect that Obama wanted to see. He promised to bankrupt coal companies, and seems to have always intended to shut down other fossil fuel industries as it became possible.

With all the problems being experienced by the US government under this president, you might think that he would have no chance to be re-elected. But with almost all of the US mass media willing to go to the wall to defend Obama -- and to attack anyone who criticizes their empty stool -- Obama receives a 15% to 20% handicap from the outset.

While the 2008 US election was a "make or break" election, the presidential candidate facing Obama was particularly weak, and the US voting public was never given a chance to see what kind of president Obama might be. In 2012, the opposition to Obama is stronger, and anyone who has a non-flatline EEG should have wised up to Obama and his regressive regime.

If Obama wins a second term, he will have no reason to hold back his EPA any longer. The islands of economic prosperity that have occurred across the US due to oil & gas fracking are likely to be submerged under a tsunami of Obama attacks -- via his EPA attack dogs.

And then, you might want to find a good, dry, warm, well-lighted place to hunker down.

A Nation Turns its Worried Eyes to . . . . John Galt!

Atlas Shrugged Movie Part II to be Released in Theatres 12 October 2012

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 did better than Al Fin expected, both at the box office and particularly in DVD sales and the pay TV aftermarket. Even more work was put into making Part 2 into great entertainment, as well as an accurate reflection of the author's (Ayn Rand) intent.


AtlasShruggedMovie.com

For those wanting to learn more about the story and the phenomenon of Atlas Shrugged, the website Atlasshrugged.com provides much more information.

More information on Atlas Shrugged from the Ayn Rand Institute

The Atlas Society

Reason Magazine coverage of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged

A Finance.Fortune.CNN story on the upcoming Part II release

It is no coincidence that Part 2 of Atlas Shrugged is being released within a month of Obama's re-election attempt. Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957, yet the events portrayed could have come out of today's newspaper. Barack Obama has recycled some very old ideas with which to wreak havoc on the US economy and US personal liberties.

As Barack Obama might say: "If you think the last 4 years have been bad, re-elect me and I'll show you just how bad things can get!"

Who is John Galt? John Galt is just about the most dangerous child who could be imagined. If Barack Obama is re-elected, you will hear his name much more often.

Do Bigger Governments Work Better?

Government always wants to grow bigger and more powerful. Cities want to engulf surrounding communities to become bigger cities. But are bigger governments truly more efficient?

It is not that the elected officials in smaller jurisdictions are better or that the electorate is better. The superior performance stems from the reality that smaller governments are closer to the people, and decision-making tends more to reflect their interests more faithfully than in a larger jurisdictions. _NewGeography

Larger Governments Less Efficient

The reality is that there is a single measure of efficiency: spending per capita. Here there is a strong relationship between smaller local government units and lower taxes and spending. Our review of local government finances in four states (Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana and Illinois) indicates that larger local governments tend to be less efficient, not more. Moreover, the same smaller is more efficient dynamic is evident in both metropolitan areas as well as outside. "Smaller is better" is also evident at the national level (Figure 1).

...special interests have more power in larger jurisdictions, not least because they are needed to finance the election campaigns of elected officials, who always want to win the next election. They are also far more able to attend meetings – sending paid representatives – than local groups. This is particularly true the larger the metropolitan area covered, since meeting are usually held in the core of urban area not in areas further on the periphery. This greater influence to organized and well-funded special interests – such as big real estate developers, environmental groups, public employee unions – and drains the influence of the local grassroots. The result is that voters have less influence and that they can lose financial control of larger local governments. The only economies of scale in larger local government benefit lobbyists and special interests, not taxpayers or residents. _NewGeography

One reason why larger governments -- with their larger special interests -- become less efficient and less sustainable, is the swelling bloat of public sector pay, pensions, and benefits. This can be a huge problem for national governments as well as for provincial and state governments. Public sector unions are always corrupt, with ties to elected officials as well as to even less savoury elements of society.

Public Sector Pension

Public Sector Union Pensions are Unsustainable

The same type of corruption found in larger local and regional governments is also seen in national governments. As illustrated below, the more of a nation's output that is confiscated by government, the less economic output the nation typically will have.

Counter-productive Effect of Government Spending on GDP

<

US President Obama has accelerated the accumulation of debt significantly, rapidly leading the US government toward an economic point of no return.

Obama to Add $9.3 trillion to US Debt

US Government's Economic Future is Not Sustainable

Even before Obama, the US budgetary system was headed for a cataclysm. But Obama has accelerated the time table to the train wreck by a matter of decades.

The chart shows that by 2030, Government spending will exceed historical levels of receipts and lead to ever increasing amounts of borrowing. The chart also shows that if receipts remain at their historical level of 18.3 percent of GDP, by 2070, receipts will be sufficient to cover the costs of only Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. _Unsustainable US Spending

About the time the US runs headlong into its inability to finance its aging citizens' infinite demands and "needs," China will be splitting into warring fiefdoms, Russia will be collapsing from demographic implosion and population pressure from the outside, the senile former EU will be history, dotted with rival Revolutionary Islamic Republics, and Japan will be an island museum dedicated to the phenomenon of demographic decline. Africa, of course, will be on fire.

All of this unfortunate messiness might have been prevented, had citizens of advanced western nations thought to keep their governments small enough to be efficient and answerable to their people.

Let that be a lesson to you.