From Murph.

Folks, I am putting up a post from our friend Tom who we haven't heard from for a long time now. He doesn't write often, but when he does, it's worth paying attention.

Freeacre and I have decided to try a new blog site. So, in the meantime, until it gets up and running, we will have a post come on at the Real Deal as the spirit moves us, or someone else writes a missive to be put up. So, with no further comments, here is Tom's post.
TWILIGHT OF THE TOE DANCERS From Tom

We have recently witnessed some dirty pool in Congress. Needless to say the astute readership of this site is aware that there are more dominoes left to fall out of the Republican closet. I have tried to figure out what Mark Foley did wrong. No number of diddled pageboys could have ever unseated him, so his sins lie elsewhere. As for Larry Craig, his feet have been flying for years without a peep from those in the know, so why now? Foley held a place on the Financial Services Committee, and Craig was ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. Both are in the middle of very explosive issues, with a potential banking meltdown and the true human cost of the war kept from the majority of Americans. But these men inhabited such fragile glass structures that it strikes me that they would be afraid to even look at a stone. Indeed the mere thought of stones must have sent them to the liquor cabinet, the medicine cabinet or most likely both. I can’t see them going out on any sort of limb. The suspicious decision by Dennis Hastert not to seek reelection adds to the mystery, though Warner may just have been tired and ready to quit. Though history shows men like that most often opt to soldier on for reasons of Party loyalty.
So I have theorized that this is part of a plan to demoralize and decimate the “Conservative Christian Republican” base. I hate that term because it is used to describe people who ignore Jesus, serve Mammon, enable Bush’s reckless spending spree, and have a stance similar to the Taliban on social issues. I expect Jesus, if he indeed existed/exists/plans to return, has long since wept his last tear. But this group is the one credited with the ascendance of the Republicans as well as their tenacity in office. These people consistently vote against their pockets on behalf of what should be seen as marginal issues. But do they really? Is their electoral participation overstated? Are significant numbers of this demographic too disaffected to participate? Does the spirit of Mayor Daley haunt the Bible-belt hollows where every resident identifies his or her self as Christian and opposition oversight is limited? Can this change in the wink of an eye? Yes, and the answer to the question why is a one word answer; Hillary.
I know that you gentle readers are not fooled by this woman, unlike my mum, who as a “genteel” New York Times reader holds out hope for deliverance from the Bush people. We shall not overcome, not with Hillary at the helm, but enough people hold out hope that a groundswell (or illusion thereof) will bring her to save them from the Fundie Christians who give them indigestion over their Sunday Times breakfast. Divide and rule. Create a situation where there is no clear majority, let one team run the program to the next stage, put a new label on the old bottle (reinserting the cork is optional here because the Britney Nation ain’t payin’ attention)and push the agenda till the glow wears off. Repeat. But how can Hillary win when so many Americans have a visceral distaste for her?
I can almost hear Murph’s ready reply- “cause votin’ don’t mean s**t”. Granted. But here in our role as tinfoil pundits we are pursuing the perhaps useless exercise (so many of the intellectual sort are) of determining how the system manages to fake it. First issue is voting chicanery. I think there is enough wiggle room in the system to “select” either of the given candidates in the race. Pundits will have plenty of talking points to explain the victory or defeat of a given candidate. The success of a candidate comes from support by major players.
The CFR/Trilateral/Bilderberg set clearly loves Hillary. Her support of Israel is unquestioned. Big Oil and Military Industry will be assured by her pledges to continue the war. Even if the big wheels in these organizations have a distaste for her, they will probably opt for consensus rather than division in the face of the enemy (primarily domestic). The rest should be easy. Put a few more voting machines in the poor precincts (ideally some that work), make a show of “getting out the vote”, keep the local police at bay and bingo! Democratic victory. Since poor people and people of color have been marginalized by the full-spectrum disenfranchisement of Republican operatives (about which the Democratic leadership was curiously quiescent, yes you Al, do you want the job now that the dirty work is done?), they constitute a reserve army. Since they did get screwed they will turn out (or we will told so, as the Daley apparition floats over to the wrong side of the tracks), if only for revenge, and Republican efforts to require voter ID cards have a good chance of being torpedoed by the courts through the influence of the aforementioned factions of the ruling elite.
Why do they love Hillary so much? They don’t love Huckabee. For clear reasons, Old-timey Southern Republican governors are passé, and since elites can manipulate the American “selectoral” charade, what flavor do they prefer to market abroad?
It seems to this observer that they need a change of label. Hillary can present a much better face to European electorates, and thus make their leader’s (necessary?) cooperation with US policy more politically palatable. Maybe this is the old game of “good cop, bad cop” that has served the authorities for ages. Hillary will help get support for continued hostilities from both nominally anti-war domestic liberals and chattering-class Europeans. The Japanese and Korean liberal/leftist/proles will like her better too. Not their business types, they know full well the Clinton/Rubin mafia hosed them in ’97. Our European and Asian allies thus may be able to keep the merry-go-round running for a few more turns. They are shitting their pants now, so incremental improvements, particularly in the realm of political spectacle will be welcome.
Picture Hillary’s “world-tour” upon inauguration. The punishing schedule may turn her hair as white as her husband’s but it will be worth it. World audiences will bask in awe, and those who bask insufficiently or whose awe fails to glow to the required number of lumens will be tucked away out of sight. The elites of both the European and Asian sectors deeply fear the breakdown of the American system, even though it chisels them . They pass on the costs to their own powerless populaces anyway, fretting only that this makes a difficult job potentially unmanageable. The other prospect- a Russian dominated oil cartel that will drip-dry them is unthinkable. Putin’s hardball has sobered them up to the need to prop up America in order to avoid another version of unipolarity”, one with potentially limitless capacity for extortion. Ask the Ukrainians. “The devil you know…. The recent action by European Central Banks to mitigate the sub-prime/hedge-fund/derivative melt-down is telling. As Franklin said, “If we do not hang together we will certainly hang separately”.
And who will beat her? Giuliani? He is a New York asshole (nicknamed “Adolph” by many city residents), and does not have the acumen or presence to play on the world stage. His strength, 9-11, is just as much his “Achilles-heel”. If the sound machine pumps up the complaints of the 9-11 responders (actual heroes, unlike photo-op Rudy), they can spray enough guano on him to put him out; if indeed, such a decision is made. Mitt Romney is qualified but uninspiring, much like Al Bore, and I hereby dub him Sir Much Somney, the knight without enough juice to get to the round table. As for Ron Paul, I expect him to be excluded by the GOP, but maybe pumped up by the opposition to pilfer and pluck the Republican chickens like Perot did for Bubba.
As for greater matters, like the world economy, it is being levitated by the collective (un)consciousness. While so many insisted this situation could not continue it has. It remains like a big potential avalanche. As for Iran, Bush and A-jad are made for each other (See Deek Jackson’s FKN News), and all the oil scares are sending their true constituencies to the bank. The amount of wealth this game sucks out of the US is staggering, so why spoil it with a messy war. Iran is years away from a bomb (their biggest technical problem is removing the molybdenum that taints their uranium supply, and would foul their precious centrifuges). I think the saber-rattling is about what they do with their money, and the fact that do not care for ours. What this means is every nation has a stake in the status-quo, however dysfunctional. China may not relish our devalued money, but the collapse of the American economy would destroy much of their savings and their largest market. Russia’s current oil lubricated boom would come to a halt with a world recession/depression sending the price of oil into the ground. The Japanese and Koreans would love to see cheap oil, but would be unable to pay for it if no one is buying cars. A grand collapse might call into question the viability of the various fiat currencies. War would likely cause this collapse, and that is why none of the players at the table is inclined to act rashly. The wildcard is Israel, with a leadership far more irrational than the “crazy” North Koreans (who seem to be playing their hand well), and the fact that their failure last summer ratchets up the pressure. The goal of that war was the capture of the Litani river in Southern Lebanon, and maybe a chance to paste Syria. Israel needs water, something money cannot buy them. They must take the Litani or abandon the Zionist project. Expect more fireworks there. As for “events” in the” homeland”, they strike me as more necessary in response than as an initiative. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, a concept the “liberally” ridiculed Bush can surely grasp, or at least the image of him with which we are presented. In his element he is credited with being a very sharp fellow. Do any of those among his sneering detractors think they could read lies off a teleprompter any better? It is undoubtedly a special skill, and any true believer in democracy should be more unsettled by a sitting or potential President who has it. There’s one woman who does sorta’ come to mind. As for the future the best words come from Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said “Breaks definitely. Through or down I do not know.”
Duck and Cover!
Tom
Aside #1 – Life in SW Florida has made me something of a naturalist. That means “bootleg” biologist these days. I have ample opportunity to observe the American Anole. The males attract females by displaying their “thingies”, not what you may lewdly surmise, but instead a different flap of skin under their throats that is essential for males to get to the plate, but not biologically necessary for procreation. The male making the best display gets his, and whatever else he is packing suffices for the continuance of the species. Watching two of these lizards attempt to hook up on opposite sides of an artificially imposed barrier (the screen to my porch) seems to serve as a telling metaphor for much of what our “higher brains” seem to replicate on a grander scale.
Aside #2 – Tin-foil experiments. I came across an article where several MIT students conducted an experiment into the potential effectiveness improvised electromagnetic barriers, those things we more commonly know as tinfoil hats. Their research concluded that the aluminum tended to act as an antenna rather than a filter, and that the concept was unsound. I decided on my own experiment which consisted of a three-layer tea-cozy that I placed over my wireless modem. The layers, tinfoil-20lb copy paper-tinfoil seemed to have no effect on the strength of the signal (as measured by my notebook), but cut the data transfer speed in half. I have no idea what this means. Am I still getting zapped but get halved performance? Or does the quality of the signal reflected in diminished speed reflect some safety advantage? I leave it to the technically able among the Cyclone community to help me find out. Which leads me directly to my new 2012 theory. As our solar system moves toward the center of the galaxy, galactic radiation may ’86 our technologies creating total chaos. I’ll bet Kissinger knows. The event may not make the planet unlivable, and the weather may only get marginally worse (or better, LaPine may get record rainfalls for the next 100 yrs.), but there will be no more business as usual, and the ensuing breakdown may make the movie “Omega-man” look like a picnic.
The “ITD” (Improvised Tinfoil Device). I really don’t
know what it does