Sidewinders View

Some musings over our nations beginning and Communism

2020-08-20T18:14:00.003-07:00

I guess I’m having to overcome a degree of cognitive dissonance here as I have never given much thought to any influence the socialist or communist ideology may have had on US political leaders in the mid 1800’s. Considering the time frame of Lincoln’s rise to power in the US and the attempts of communist revolutions in Europe, coupled with Marx and Engle’s little book being published about the same time, I can certainly see how some of the philosophy might spill over into America during that time.

Collectivism is not a “new” concept in America. The puritans all signed a charter while still onboard the Mayflower that was basically a primitive form of communist arraignment in the colonies. They worked on a system of common land tillage, stored their production in a common warehouse and drew from the common storage to survive.

Interestingly enough, these same New Englanders continued the threat of secession all during the War of 1812 which they called “Mr. Madison’s war.” When the planters of the South made the same threat in 1861 they suddenly became nationalist again. Again, as evident throughout history it just depends on who’s economic ox is being gored.

I’ve read a good deal on these matters since my retirement 13 years ago. (the instruction I was deprived of as a youth) I’ve been determined to approach these “studies” from the most unbiased position I can as a human. There are those on both sides of the issues during the period 1861-1865 (and beyond) who are fixed and unmovable in their positions as to what actually happened and were the cause of the war. I personally have concluded that the cause is the State itself. I speak of the institution itself, its purpose and nature. (but that’s for another place and time) the most obvious direct reason in this case I can find, is the distribution of wealth or rather who was getting the bulk of the production into their pockets. Slavery was but a single matter which was used effectively to stir passion and action among several factions.

first, let me say that the State and government are not one in the same. The State is the land, people and recognition of sovereignty. The government arises from the state as the political means of administration. Governments change. We change it at every election. Government is composed of the people who wield the power of the State over all citizens. The less power the State has, the more power the people themselves have and consequently the more power the State has the less power the people have. Only people have the power to form the State. The only way ANY State has been formed in history is through one of two ways. Conquest or confiscation.

As an example, the king of England claimed ownership of the American Colonies. The people were HIS citizens. The colonist rebelled and defeated the King’s army removing them from the land. They conquered the King and confiscated his land. The Treaty of Paris codified this and each of the 13 colonies was recognized as sovereign States. Through Articles of Confederation of the several states representatives were sent to Paris and signed on behalf of all the States. For 10 years until the Constitution was ratified the nation operated as 13 sovereign States (or nations) in congress with one another.

The Constitution changed things. Once ratified, it was out with the articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence was just a historic document. There was no thought of “natural rights” or popular sovereignty and the never-ending topic of strong central government vs States rights was begun. I think it safe to say that Mr. Jefferson on his return from France was not happy with the Constitution. He envisioned a government that was national in foreign affairs and non-national in domestic affairs. But it was what it was and he dealt with that the best he could.

in the 1930’s Jay Nock wrote of the Constitutional Convention;

“The further task therefore, in Madison’s phrase, was to “administration” the constitution into such absolutist modes as would secure economic supremacy, by a free use of the political means, to the groups which made up the first division. (Moneyed and banking interest)

This was accordingly done. For the first ten years of its existence the constitution remained in the
hands of its makers for administration in the directions most favourable to their interests. For an
accurate understanding of the newly- erected system’s economic tendencies, too much stress can
not be laid on the fact that for these ten critical years “the machinery of economic and political
power was mainly directed by the men who had conceived and established it.

Washington, who had been chairman of the convention, was elected President. Nearly half the
Senate was made up of men who had been delegates, and the House of Representatives was
largely made up of men who had to do with the drafting or ratifying of the constitution. Hamilton,
Randolph and Knox, who were active in promoting the document, filled three of the four positions
in the Cabinet; and all the federal judgeships, without a single exception, were filled by men who
had a hand in the business of drafting or of ratification, or both.”

The economic die was cast and the agrarian South was in my opinion odd man out from the beginning.

Lest we forget that it was a bountiful business in the North for the carriage and sale of slaves imported from the African continent. Money and financial affairs flowed for many years to banking interest in New York just as it still does today.

The new nation enjoyed free trade among the several states. Raw material for factories in the north flowed out of the south. Agriculture and commerce grew in the south. It took only 8 years before moneyed interest in the north decided a tariff was a good idea. The idea was to severely restrict foreign vessels and favor US vessels thereby growing the trade and ship building in New England. It worked and earnings of the northern shipping interest grew from around $6 million to over $42 million by 1807.

The war of 1812 hit New England the hardest. That’s why they threatened secession and referred to it as Mr. Madison’s war. After the war the British used the port of New York as a dumping ground for products from abroad and nearly bankrupted the area. Through a clever arraignment of the routing of southern cargo, New York shavers were able to extract about 40 cent of every dollar spent on southern cotton. During the 1850’s US trade had risen to $318 million dollars and tripled that in the next decade.

By now, the south accounted for 2/3 of the nation’s exports and cotton alone 60%.

--I will continue this discussion in a day or so--

2020-08-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it has been 7 years since I posted anything at this blog. Not saying it might be another 7 years but I have been too busy to publish anything for a while. Now with a little extra time on my hands I think I will play with this a bit.

The format has changed and I will have to learn all the tech stuff all over again so this is a test just to see if I can even get this on a page.

Stand By World SIDEWINDER IS BACK

Nano Tech ..... Few limits Really

2013-02-07T09:41:00.002-08:00

Not sure what to make of this new product. First impression is just WOW! Now the questions. They of course have it available on the web site. Just thought I'd pass it along here.

Can be ordered here

There's Probably No Way Out For the US Economy

2013-01-30T23:33:00.000-08:00

I say that because there is a way out it's just this crowd of spendthrifts haven't the courage to take it.

Reading Martin Armstrong tonight and he brings up a good observation. All the debt the US government has created pays interest. So much that 70% of the current debt is the amount of interest already paid. If the government created its own money there would be no interest to government. Instead the FED orders the money the Treasury prints it, gives it to the FED who then sells the debt through their Primary Dealers (banks). Who purchases the debt. Well 40% of it is purchased by foreigners and foreign central banks in particular who for the most part “park” the money to be use in international settlements. When these bonds come due the US government simply pays the interest owed to the foreigners and that money (US Dollars) leave the US. The flow of capital leaves the country.

With the interest rates near zero there is not too many foreign purchasers of our current debt creation so for now the FED is playing the role of purchaser of last resort. (Hey, the bonds get sold that’s all the politicians care about because they for sure don’t know what they are doing.) But, foreigners are still one of the biggest holders of US debt. There’s been no real beneficiary of all this deficit spending except exporting our capital to foreign bond holders.

GDP numbers sucked today and the FED chairman indicates that rates will stay near zero as long as it takes. To what? ….. Meanwhile the Fed is injecting $85 billion per month into the markets mostly buying up bad real estate bets. Now, I admit I’m just a lay person and not a big time financier but to me this is just insane.

I look at Obama’s budget and right off can see that it surpasses smoke and mirrors and leaps right into the category of “pipe dream” (as in what’ s in that pipe he’s smoking) Ever since he took office they’ve been using a shade over 4% for an annual growth figure and project that well into 2022 each and every year. I don’t buy the 2% that gets reported after the ‘shape shifting’ of numbers in mysterious ways. So, now get this; they show that tax revenue will be up 100% or so by 2020. That means they count on the economy growing 100% and if it doesn’t guess what. They just increase taxes by 100% (that’s the likely scenario if this thing doesn’t explode by 2020, which, I’m confident it will). Already the additional burden on taxpayers from increases (I know what Obama said but have you looked at your check since the first of the year) in taxes, additional cost of Obama care alone will likely bring the nation to its knees. Plenty of mid to small size businesses are going to be forced to lay off or cease business altogether and unemployment won’t improve and may begin to eek upward. That adds to the GDP problem so the economy continues to slowly tank.

Meanwhile with the FED pumping out billions of dollars per month into the market, they will go up. But up in what? Fiat dollars. The values of the hard assets just remain the same its just the dollars are worth less throughout the world and the market just adjusts the price up without any real gain an perhaps an actual loss of value. This give the media “green shoots” to tout about how well everything is going while the nation participates in this long slow suicidal debt creation.

So, because we will continue to create more massive deficits, increase taxes, less people will spend causing the GDP to go further down which causes more business failures and layoffs which take even more money out of the economy and the death spiral continues. Especially if they keep idiots like Krugman around and worse if they keep listening to him. Yeah, I know he’s got a Nobel prize but so does Obama.

Luck, Divine Intervention, or Past Experience

2013-01-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

A friend asked the following question about the accident I captured via a “dash cam”: “Was it luck, Divine intervention, or your past experience that allowed you to stop so quickly? One more second and you would be headed to a different doctor. My guess it was a combination of the three”

(The video in question is below)

I was already slowing down and I left foot brake (old habit from racing days) so it was just a matter or mashing the pedal a little harder when I sensed him coming over. I have good peripheral vision (Earnhardt use to say "I can see my ears" LOL) and raced back in the day before spotters. A driver had to clear himself when passing so with a slight turn of the head you can "see" your relationship to the other car on either side. I really wanted to get two lanes over to the right when we came up on the traffic stopping as that was the best "way out' but the truck was not slowing, I was and I could not have made it over without him hitting me. Only option was to slow enough to NOT get hit in the rear from my lane and leave enough room between me and the stopped truck to provide a buffer or escape area should the pile up begin behind me.

It seemed as though everybody was slowing EXCEPT the big truck. What surprised me was him locking down the brakes. When he did I could hear it and that's when I got aggressive on the brake and moved left to give him room. If he had gotten OFF the brake and let to truck roll a bit he could have very easily moved into my lane ahead of me and missed the white pickup in front of him and stopped prior to hitting the signal/sign DOT truck. But, he turned while the brakes were locked down and that jackknifed him. At that point he's just along for the ride.

I've seem far worse crashes than this up close on the race track. Been part of some, but that's with guys in cars with good roll cages, 5 point harness, wrap around seats and helmets. Even then it's pretty violent but the gear protects you. I don't regard this as a particularly violent crash but without protective gear the damage can be 10 fold to a person. When I pulled over and got to the big truck the driver was semiconscious. He looked dazed and did not respond to anyone, just stared at us. I didn't go to the little pickup that hit the trailer and suspect he got the worst end of the deal just because it looked like the frame rail of the trailer went into the drivers area at the windshield post. There were several people already out and around so I just told the Highway patrol dispatcher via the phone the location and that there were several injured. There was no danger of fire (no fuel leaking) plenty of help on the scene so I left at that point to make my doctor appointment.

Luck, ... without question. Divine intervention ... I'd like to think I'm a favored son. Past experience. .... no doubt about it. As a police officer I took defensive driving courses several times. Driving race cars didn't hurt. The biggest factor IMO is that with life experiences as a cop, pilot and part time racer maintaining situation awareness at all times trumps luck and can make Divine Intervention unnecessary. I know that this particular stretch of I-15 produces accidents just like this 15 times every 24 hours. Hard to believe but those are the statistics. 87% of those occur in the northbound lane. This happened at about 2 PM and around 6 AM the same morning there was a fatality a couple of exits up the road. I can not remember driving this route without seeing some kind of traffic accident. Last week returning home from the same appointment at the VA I went through almost the exact same thing but that time it was a previous wreck and the Highway patrol partially blocking the left lane southbound. I always prefer the far left lane because there's usually another entire lane to the left that's not used. It's there so emergency vehicles can move during gridlock. This way if it looks like I'm about to get hit from the rear I can jump into this lane and perhaps escape the wreck. Well, this time that lane was occupied by the Police car, a truck pulling a trailer and a car that were involved in a prior accident. I saw this from a half mile away and began to slow tapping the brake to alert the guy behind me. He slowed and my lane was under control and alert. The lane to my right (just like this accident) kept moving as though nothing was wrong. In about 3-4 seconds I could see all 5 lanes slowing ahead and like the train effect it got more severe the closer we got to the scene. About this time 4 cars in the lane to my right came by bumper to bumper with the noses almost dragging the ground due to heavy braking. All 4 were locked up and squalling. The first slid into the pack and the other three plowed into the whole mess. It wasn't bad because they had all managed to slow quite a bit and their speed was relative to one another. However, I could see some parts flying and hear the collision. All of them crunched the front and rear as I passed by. None of them came out of their respective lane, just another fender bender, so another bullet dodged.

Over the years I have witnessed plenty of accidents and near accidents as a result of a prior accident being “worked” by the Highway patrol on I-15 and other freeways around the city. I have often thought about this phenomena and what might be possible solutions to no avail.

Download YouTube Video

Close call with Tractor-Trailer

2013-01-15T01:02:00.000-08:00

On I-15 in Las Vegas at Sahara Exit northbound. Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Portable signal truck decided to stop in the left (hammer) lane.

Plenty of traffic moving 65-70MPH with half having nowhere to go. I could see this developing well before the accident and slowed to about 50 when the truck I just passed came flying by me and turned into my lane trying to avoid rear-ending those in front of him. I got on the brakes enough to allow him to clear my front while avoiding getting hit from the rear myself.

He couldn't have missed my front end more than two (2) feet and I'd almost swear the left rear wheel of the trailer went over the top of my right fender. If the guy behind me had hit me and drove me into the trucks path this would have had a very ugly ending for yours truly.

Keep Christ In Christmas

2012-12-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

Last year a buddy wrote a song and couple of them out in Nashville got together and mixed the music for internet play. They did pretty good, getting to a top 10 on reverbnation. So, this year we'd like to see it go to the top or close anyway. These are all good boys and great musicians and music tech folks so if you will click on the link, give the song a spin (it's free) and help give the song a boost. Everyone of them and myself would really appreciate it. You can purchase a download for .99 cents by not necessary to play and listen as often as you want. Thanks

Free Electronic Press Kits template from ReverbNation.com

The Origins of Political Correctness Or How Cultural Marxism Deceives Democracies

2012-12-07T01:45:00.001-08:00

The Origins of Political Correctness :: Accuracy In Academia:

'via Blog this'

An Accuracy in Academia Address by Bill Lind

Variations of this speech have been delivered to various AIA conferences including the 2000 Consevative University at American University

Where does all this stuff that you’ve heard about this morning – the victim feminism, the gay rights movement, the invented statistics, the rewritten history, the lies, the demands, all the rest of it – where does it come from? For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic.

We have seen other countries, particularly in this century, where this has been the case. And we have always regarded them with a mixture of pity, and to be truthful, some amusement, because it has struck us as so strange that people would allow a situation to develop where they would be afraid of what words they used. But we now have this situation in this country. We have it primarily on college campuses, but it is spreading throughout the whole society. Were does it come from? What is it?

We call it “Political Correctness.” The name originated as something of a joke, literally in a comic strip, and we tend still to think of it as only half-serious. In fact, it’s deadly serious. It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead in Europe, in Russia, in China, indeed around the world. It is the disease of ideology. PC is not funny. PC is deadly serious.

If we look at it analytically, if we look at it historically, we quickly find out exactly what it is. Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious.

First of all, both are totalitarian ideologies. The totalitarian nature of Political Correctness is revealed nowhere more clearly than on college campuses, many of which at this point are small ivy covered North Koreas, where the student or faculty member who dares to cross any of the lines set up by the gender feminist or the homosexual-rights activists, or the local black or Hispanic group, or any of the other sainted “victims” groups that PC revolves around, quickly find themselves in judicial trouble. Within the small legal system of the college, they face formal charges – some star-chamber proceeding – and punishment. That is a little look into the future that Political Correctness intends for the nation as a whole.

Indeed, all ideologies are totalitarian because the essence of an ideology (I would note that conservatism correctly understood is not an ideology) is to take some philosophy and say on the basis of this philosophy certain things must be true – such as the whole of the history of our culture is the history of the oppression of women. Since reality contradicts that, reality must be forbidden. It must become forbidden to acknowledge the reality of our history. People must be forced to live a lie, and since people are naturally reluctant to live a lie, they naturally use their ears and eyes to look out and say, “Wait a minute. This isn’t true. I can see it isn’t true,” the power of the state must be put behind the demand to live a lie. That is why ideology invariably creates a totalitarian state.

Second, the cultural Marxism of Political Correctness, like economic Marxism, has a single factor explanation of history. Economic Marxism says that all of history is determined by ownership of means of production. Cultural Marxism, or Political Correctness, says that all history is determined by power, by which groups defined in terms of race, sex, etc., have power over which other groups. Nothing else matters. All literature, indeed, is about that. Everything in the past is about that one thing.

Third, just as in classical economic Marxism certain groups, i.e. workers and peasants, are a priori good, and other groups, i.e., the bourgeoisie and capital owners, are evil. In the cultural Marxism of Political Correctness certain groups are good – feminist women, (only feminist women, non-feminist women are deemed not to exist) blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals. These groups are determined to be “victims,” and therefore automatically good regardless of what any of them do. Similarly, white males are determined automatically to be evil, thereby becoming the equivalent of the bourgeoisie in economic Marxism.

Fourth, both economic and cultural Marxism rely on expropriation. When the classical Marxists, the communists, took over a country like Russia, they expropriated the bourgeoisie, they took away their property. Similarly, when the cultural Marxists take over a university campus, they expropriate through things like quotas for admissions. When a white student with superior qualifications is denied admittance to a college in favor of a black or Hispanic who isn’t as well qualified, the white student is expropriated. And indeed, affirmative action, in our whole society today, is a system of expropriation. White owned companies don’t get a contract because the contract is reserved for a company owned by, say, Hispanics or women. So expropriation is a principle tool for both forms of Marxism.

And finally, both have a method of analysis that automatically gives the answers they want. For the classical Marxist, it’s Marxist economics. For the cultural Marxist, it’s deconstruction. Deconstruction essentially takes any text, removes all meaning from it and re-inserts any meaning desired. So we find, for example, that all of Shakespeare is about the suppression of women, or the Bible is really about race and gender. All of these texts simply become grist for the mill, which proves that “all history is about which groups have power over which other groups.” So the parallels are very evident between the classical Marxism that we’re familiar with in the old Soviet Union and the cultural Marxism that we see today as Political Correctness.

But the parallels are not accidents. The parallels did not come from nothing. The fact of the matter is that Political Correctness has a history, a history that is much longer than many people are aware of outside a small group of academics who have studied this. And the history goes back, as I said, to World War I, as do so many of the pathologies that are today bringing our society, and indeed our culture, down.

Marxist theory said that when the general European war came (as it did come in Europe in 1914), the working class throughout Europe would rise up and overthrow their governments – the bourgeois governments – because the workers had more in common with each other across the national boundaries than they had in common with the bourgeoisie and the ruling class in their own country. Well, 1914 came and it didn’t happen. Throughout Europe, workers rallied to their flag and happily marched off to fight each other. The Kaiser shook hands with the leaders of the Marxist Social Democratic Party in Germany and said there are no parties now, there are only Germans. And this happened in every country in Europe. So something was wrong.

Marxists knew by definition it couldn’t be the theory. In 1917, they finally got a Marxist coup in Russia and it looked like the theory was working, but it stalled again. It didn’t spread and when attempts were made to spread immediately after the war, with the Spartacist uprising in Berlin, with the Bela Kun government in Hungary, with the Munich Soviet, the workers didn’t support them.

So the Marxists’ had a problem. And two Marxist theorists went to work on it: Antonio Gramsci in Italy and Georg Lukacs in Hungary. Gramsci said the workers will never see their true class interests, as defined by Marxism, until they are freed from Western culture, and particularly from the Christian religion – that they are blinded by culture and religion to their true class interests. Lukacs, who was considered the most brilliant Marxist theorist since Marx himself, said in 1919, “Who will save us from Western Civilization?” He also theorized that the great obstacle to the creation of a Marxist paradise was the culture: Western civilization itself.

Lukacs gets a chance to put his ideas into practice, because when the home grown Bolshevik Bela Kun government is established in Hungary in 1919, he becomes deputy commissar for culture, and the first thing he did was introduce sex education into the Hungarian schools. This ensured that the workers would not support the Bela Kun government, because the Hungarian people looked at this aghast, workers as well as everyone else. But he had already made the connection that today many of us are still surprised by, that we would consider the “latest thing.”

In 1923 in Germany, a think-tank is established that takes on the role of translating Marxism from economic into cultural terms, that creates Political Correctness as we know it today, and essentially it has created the basis for it by the end of the 1930s. This comes about because the very wealthy young son of a millionaire German trader by the name of Felix Weil has become a Marxist and has lots of money to spend. He is disturbed by the divisions among the Marxists, so he sponsors something called the First Marxist Work Week, where he brings Lukacs and many of the key German thinkers together for a week, working on the differences of Marxism.

And he says, “What we need is a think-tank.” Washington is full of think tanks and we think of them as very modern. In fact they go back quite a ways. He endows an institute, associated with Frankfurt University, established in 1923, that was originally supposed to be known as the Institute for Marxism. But the people behind it decided at the beginning that it was not to their advantage to be openly identified as Marxist. The last thing Political Correctness wants is for people to figure out it’s a form of Marxism. So instead they decide to name it the Institute for Social Research.

Weil is very clear about his goals. In 1971, he wrote to Martin Jay the author of a principle book on the Frankfurt School, as the Institute for Social Research soon becomes known informally, and he said, “I wanted the institute to become known, perhaps famous, due to its contributions to Marxism.” Well, he was successful. The first director of the Institute, Carl Grunberg, an Austrian economist, concluded his opening address, according to Martin Jay, “by clearly stating his personal allegiance to Marxism as a scientific methodology.” Marxism, he said, would be the ruling principle at the Institute, and that never changed.

The initial work at the Institute was rather conventional, but in 1930 it acquired a new director named Max Horkheimer, and Horkheimer’s views were very different. He was very much a Marxist renegade. The people who create and form the Frankfurt School are renegade Marxists. They’re still very much Marxist in their thinking, but they’re effectively run out of the party. Moscow looks at what they are doing and says, “Hey, this isn’t us, and we’re not going to bless this.”

Horkheimer’s initial heresy is that he is very interested in Freud, and the key to making the translation of Marxism from economic into cultural terms is essentially that he combined it with Freudism. Again, Martin Jay writes, “If it can be said that in the early years of its history, the Institute concerned itself primarily with an analysis of bourgeois society’s socio-economic sub-structure,” – and I point out that Jay is very sympathetic to the Frankfurt School, I’m not reading from a critic here – “in the years after 1930 its primary interests lay in its cultural superstructure. Indeed the traditional Marxist formula regarding the relationship between the two was brought into question by Critical Theory.”

The stuff we’ve been hearing about this morning – the radical feminism, the women’s studies departments, the gay studies departments, the black studies departments – all these things are branches of Critical Theory. What the Frankfurt School essentially does is draw on both Marx and Freud in the 1930s to create this theory called Critical Theory. The term is ingenious because you’re tempted to ask, “What is the theory?” The theory is to criticize. The theory is that the way to bring down Western culture and the capitalist order is not to lay down an alternative. They explicitly refuse to do that. They say it can’t be done, that we can’t imagine what a free society would look like (their definition of a free society). As long as we’re living under repression – the repression of a capitalistic economic order which creates (in their theory) the Freudian condition, the conditions that Freud describes in individuals of repression – we can’t even imagine it. What Critical Theory is about is simply criticizing. It calls for the most destructive criticism possible, in every possible way, designed to bring the current order down. And, of course, when we hear from the feminists that the whole of society is just out to get women and so on, that kind of criticism is a derivative of Critical Theory. It is all coming from the 1930s, not the 1960s.

Other key members who join up around this time are Theodore Adorno, and, most importantly, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. Fromm and Marcuse introduce an element which is central to Political Correctness, and that’s the sexual element. And particularly Marcuse, who in his own writings calls for a society of “polymorphous perversity,” that is his definition of the future of the world that they want to create. Marcuse in particular by the 1930s is writing some very extreme stuff on the need for sexual liberation, but this runs through the whole Institute. So do most of the themes we see in Political Correctness, again in the early 30s. In Fromm’s view, masculinity and femininity were not reflections of ‘essential’ sexual differences, as the Romantics had thought. They were derived instead from differences in life functions, which were in part socially determined.” Sex is a construct; sexual differences are a construct.

Another example is the emphasis we now see on environmentalism. “Materialism as far back as Hobbes had led to a manipulative dominating attitude toward nature.” That was Horkhemier writing in 1933 in Materialismus und Moral. “The theme of man’s domination of nature,” according to Jay, ” was to become a central concern of the Frankfurt School in subsequent years.” “Horkheimer’s antagonism to the fetishization of labor, (here’s were they’re obviously departing from Marxist orthodoxy) expressed another dimension of his materialism, the demand for human, sensual happiness.” In one of his most trenchant essays, Egoism and the Movement for Emancipation, written in 1936, Horkeimer “discussed the hostility to personal gratification inherent in bourgeois culture.” And he specifically referred to the Marquis de Sade, favorably, for his “protest…against asceticism in the name of a higher morality.”

How does all of this stuff flood in here? How does it flood into our universities, and indeed into our lives today? The members of the Frankfurt School are Marxist, they are also, to a man, Jewish. In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany, and not surprisingly they shut down the Institute for Social Research. And its members fled. They fled to New York City, and the Institute was reestablished there in 1933 with help from Columbia University. And the members of the Institute, gradually through the 1930s, though many of them remained writing in German, shift their focus from Critical Theory about German society, destructive criticism about every aspect of that society, to Critical Theory directed toward American society. There is another very important transition when the war comes. Some of them go to work for the government, including Herbert Marcuse, who became a key figure in the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA), and some, including Horkheimer and Adorno, move to Hollywood.

These origins of Political Correctness would probably not mean too much to us today except for two subsequent events. The first was the student rebellion in the mid-1960s, which was driven largely by resistance to the draft and the Vietnam War. But the student rebels needed theory of some sort. They couldn’t just get out there and say, “Hell no we won’t go,” they had to have some theoretical explanation behind it. Very few of them were interested in wading through Das Kapital. Classical, economic Marxism is not light, and most of the radicals of the 60s were not deep. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for our country today, and not just in the university, Herbert Marcuse remained in America when the Frankfurt School relocated back to Frankfurt after the war. And whereas Mr. Adorno in Germany is appalled by the student rebellion when it breaks out there – when the student rebels come into Adorno’s classroom, he calls the police and has them arrested – Herbert Marcuse, who remained here, saw the 60s student rebellion as the great chance. He saw the opportunity to take the work of the Frankfurt School and make it the theory of the New Left in the United States.

One of Marcuse’s books was the key book. It virtually became the bible of the SDS and the student rebels of the 60s. That book was Eros and Civilization. Marcuse argues that under a capitalistic order (he downplays the Marxism very strongly here, it is subtitled, A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, but the framework is Marxist), repression is the essence of that order and that gives us the person Freud describes – the person with all the hang-ups, the neuroses, because his sexual instincts are repressed. We can envision a future, if we can only destroy this existing oppressive order, in which we liberate eros, we liberate libido, in which we have a world of “polymorphous perversity,” in which you can “do you own thing.” And by the way, in that world there will no longer be work, only play. What a wonderful message for the radicals of the mid-60s! They’re students, they’re baby-boomers, and they’ve grown up never having to worry about anything except eventually having to get a job. And here is a guy writing in a way they can easily follow. He doesn’t require them to read a lot of heavy Marxism and tells them everything they want to hear which is essentially, “Do your own thing,” “If it feels good do it,” and “You never have to go to work.” By the way, Marcuse is also the man who creates the phrase, “Make love, not war.” Coming back to the situation people face on campus, Marcuse defines “liberating tolerance” as intolerance for anything coming from the Right and tolerance for anything coming from the Left.

Marcuse joined the Frankfurt School, in 1932 (if I remember right). So, all of this goes back to the 1930s.

In conclusion, America today is in the throes of the greatest and direst transformation in its history. We are becoming an ideological state, a country with an official state ideology enforced by the power of the state. In “hate crimes” we now have people serving jail sentences for political thoughts. And the Congress is now moving to expand that category ever further. Affirmative action is part of it. The terror against anyone who dissents from Political Correctness on campus is part of it. It’s exactly what we have seen happen in Russia, in Germany, in Italy, in China, and now it’s coming here. And we don’t recognize it because we call it Political Correctness and laugh it off. My message today is that it’s not funny, it’s here, it’s growing and it will eventually destroy, as it seeks to destroy, everything that we have ever defined as our freedom and our culture.

Annual Turkey Saga

2012-11-23T09:58:00.002-08:00

Seems like every year I play with a different method of cooking the turkey. Smoke 'em, deep fry 'em etc. This year I decided to see how quick I could "get 'er done."

Things learned over the years: Prep is the most important as in, always brine the turkey for best results. This time I prepared the brine by boiling a pot of water with a heavy cup of kosher salt, couple spoon's of peppercorns, a little ginger, and probably a half cup of brown sugar and let it cool down. Then I put it in the refrigerator overnight to chill.

We planned dinner at 5PM so when I woke up I put the turkey in my giant pot and poured the solution over the turkey and finished the brine by pouring ice and water into the pot to completely cover the bird. The chilled water ended up about 37° a safe temp for the turkey.

Due to time constraints I only soaked the turkey about 5 hours. Then I pulled it out of the brine and dried it off with some paper towels. I don't stuff turkeys for various reasons but I do put something into the cavity to aid in even cooking. So at this point I Quartered an apple, sprinkled on a little cinnamon and put it into a bowl with a half of an onion and a little water. I then microwaved this on high for 5 min while I lightly coated the turkey with some oil (to promote browning; More about this in a minute). I then stuffed the apple and onion into the cavity, folded the wings back underneath the bird and placed it in my roasting pan and put the bird into the over legs first.

Now the good part; I had seen this method before and wanted to try it so this was the year. (think it was on "good eats") I pre-heated the oven to 500° and put the turkey in. The idea is to brown the bird first. The plan is to brown the bird for 30 minutes at 500° then cover the breast only with a thick tin foil and finish the cook at 350°. This should produce perfect temps of 161° in the breast and 180° on the dark meat (legs and thighs). I found out, 15 minutes into the cook that you should LIGHTLY coat the bird with oil because I rubbed in a generous amount of oil and the high temperature really produced a lot of smoke rolling out of the oven. LOL At 16 minutes I had so much smoke it set off my smoke detectors. As you can imagine this cause quite a bit of activity and excitement among the women folks and I suffered a fair amount of ridicule as I placed fans at the front and back door of the house to evacuate the smoke.

As all good leaders should, I remained calm and assured the ladies that I was NOT burning the turkey and Thanksgiving would happen as advertised. In view of my calmness the excitement subsided along with the smoke, the fans doing their magic clearing out the house. 25 minutes into the cook the visibility in the house returned to normal, replaced with the fine smell of a roasting turkey.

At 30 minutes I opened the oven door, pull out a beautifully browned turkey and applied the pre-formed "breast plate", reduced the oven temp to 350° and shoved the thing back into the oven.

I use an electronic temperature probe placed at the deepest point of the breast away from any bone. This gives an accurate temperature and if you are going to cook any meat and want perfection this is something you can’t do without. They only cost about $35 for a top of the line gauge so if you don’t have one it’s a good Christmas gift. But I digress. About one hour and 35 minutes later my probe alarm went off and the breast temp was at 161°. The bird looked better than any I’ve seen in some time. I covered it with foil to rest while the previously excited lady folk finished up the yams and other side dishes. I had time to make gravy and mash the potatoes.

We sat down for our Thanksgiving meal right at 5PM and as I carved the turkey I could tell it was going to be good. The meat was moist and fully cooked. The legs and thighs were cooked to perfection and all present agreed the moist meat from the breast tasted second to none. From a presentation standpoint this turkey had a beautiful color and the color was even all over.

At my age I guess I’ve cooked as many turkeys at thanksgiving as the average fellow and used as many methods as I could come up with. I have to say that I will use this method again and again because from the standpoint of ease it’s really simple and getting a 16 pound bird done and ready to eat in 2 hours and fifteen minutes of cooking is another plus.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and my wishes to all for a Holiday season full of family, friends, peace and good times.

Self-Created Societies

2012-11-16T01:50:00.001-08:00

From the beginning our nation and our very security and liberty had to contend with what Madison termed “factions”. Factions are groups of citizens forming together to advance their own causes regardless of any overall effect on the rest of the citizenry. This practice began as soon as our fledgling nation was born. One of the major reasons we are founded as a Constitutional Republic rather than an actual Democracy is that adage which says “Democracy is 3 wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner””. That a minority will find itself at a distinct disadvantage and there is not just a risk but a certainty that sooner or later a majority will encroach on the liberty and rights of a minority. Hence, the reason for the structure of our government with 3 branches checking each other and representing the interest of the people, the states and the nation as a whole.

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, November 30, 1794 James Madison was describing what he called “a critical situation”. “Dear Sir, The attack on the most sacred principle of our Constitution and of Republicanism, has given rise to much discussion in the House of Representatives, and has left us in a critical situation.” Madison had warned in Federalist 10 of the danger of “factions” and in this letter I find the use of a term that further describes these factions, that is “self-created societies.”

If you think about it that accurately describes a plethora of self serving organizations today for, what else are these thousands of groups who constantly lobby the Congress if not self-created societies. Our society in the 1700’s formed our government and declared it was “In order to form a more perfect union”. What has happened is, after 225 years or so we have see these self-created societies proliferate to a point where they have refined the influence peddling to an art. Self-created societies has exercised localized power and influence (read paid money) over politicians in such an organized fashion as to set policy and law affecting the millions upon millions of Americans, many of whom, don’t even know who they are. We have all heard about the ADA, NAACP, AARP and the larger groups but there are likely thousands of such groups crawling all over K St. in Washington spreading money and influence among the insatiable politicians who spend more time raising money than representing the people. In the letter I spoke of Mr. Madison said. “If the people of America are so far degenerated already as not to see, or to see with indifference, that the citadel of their liberties is menaced by the precedent before their eyes, they require abler advocates than they now have to save them from the consequences.” He also indicated that the methods of these self-created societies though not illegal, “contributed by their proceedings to mislead the weak and ignorant.”

So here we have Madison a supporter of a Republic describing the battles on the floor with those who prefer strict Democracy. Many today simply don’t know the difference and constantly refer to our Republic as our democracy when making reference to America. What they mean is democratic principles upon which our Republic is based. This basic principles are long forgotten by many today and the only reason I can think of is they have never had the proper instruction. The reason for not getting the proper instruction is, the teachers themselves don’t understand any of this as they were not taught. After all, these Democratic societies have had over 200 years to work the floor.

I have obvious issues with the current Democrat party because it is made up of these self-created societies. Republicanism is barely recognizable in today’s Republican Party for the simple reason that over the years it has slowly suffered the encroachment of its own brand of the aforementioned Democratic Societies. The House and Senate is filled with politicians sent to Washington by this multitude of self-created societies all seeking advantage for themselves to the detriment of the nation and the rest of the citizens. Much of this has as its root the discovery that through the office or our lawmakers, wealth can be extracted from the average citizen and transferred to the pocket of individuals leading or founding these self-created societies.

I write these words as an exercise for myself in order to understand how we as a nation have come to this point. It’s by no means any in-depth study but simply one man’s attempt to understand what really happened and what chance there is to leave a nation somewhat intact for my descendants to enjoy as I have. I guess it’s the old cop in me that requires nothing more than simple truth and clarity in the thought process.

I Guess Cultural Marxist Piss me off

2012-11-16T01:46:00.005-08:00

Thesis to antithesis to synthesis………dialectic Each time synthesis is achieved it "generate[s] new internal contradictions, and then a further resolution" Result is continuous crisis and continuous resolution required. Seems screwed up to me resulting in an endless dialogue among members of society of which there are as many opinions as there are participants. We see it every day with the cultural Marxist never being satisfied and always finding that someone has more than he so back into this useless endless loop. Marxism and socialism certainly must be based on the jealousy of men.

This must be the reason I become so frustrated and angry with socialist as practically all of them employ this methodology as though it was a hereditary trait. In order to facilitate the promulgation of this most annoying cult of Marx may become what the leftist call facilitators. Many of our young become facilitators without even knowing it since most of these issues appeal to matter of the heart as opposed to those of the head.

Sure, no decent human would relish in the suffering of another but the truth is any one of us would exhaust every waking moment and everything we have to the point of self destruction and still not make a noticeable difference in the condition of the majority of the less fortunate. In the meantime, if left alone to pursue one’s own interest the majority of mankind would first secure the basic needs and safety of himself and family and then a portion of the excess results of his labor would be freely used to help those he feels deserve his attention. This wealth/safety building effect would exponentially and eventually become wide spread and the most people would be able to participate in the process.

Now, granted the competition on a planet with limited resources naturally results in winners and losers but from natures standpoint is that necessarily a bad thing?

Bill O Reilly finally seems to "get it"

2012-11-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

The white establishment is outnumbered. When I say white establishment I mean White Males. Our culture and our country was indeed founded by white males and I'm sure geared from the beginning to be run by white males. I know I'm about to lose some of you here and there's some eyes rolling among my more liberal friends but facts are facts warts and all.

Once fought for and conquered our nation was culturally centered around the values of the white European male who carried forward for centuries those values of hard work, hard decisions based on reality rather than feelings, and quite a bit of tradition.

There was a right way and a wrong way. One who deviates from the right way was generally shunned and was paid no attention. Foolish as it may seem in today's culture it was deceptively simple and worked. It worked so well we went from a nation with almost nothing to the most free and wealthy soc

iety the planet has ever known. Then we got in touch with our "feelings" and more importantly the feelings of others. That we said Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We meant it. But we also meant and should have added, "to work your ass off, save, follow our lead and become self reliant." For a man must produce more than he consumes or he will perish.

It started innocently enough with just helping a few. Then more saw how easy it would be to legislate gifts and reap votes and a entirely different political class was born. Both major parties have mimicked one another exactly because a nation built by strict work ethic had become wealthy. Wasn't that the idea to begin with?

Well, When you have drained the wealth the smart ones will vote with their feet or they will rebel in order to set things right again. Either way, we are all in for some rough times in the not so distant future. I predict that, just as in the past, it will be the white males of high moral standards, strength and intelligence who will "set things right". Not white supremacist; Not wacko neo nazi's; Nor bigots without compassion; rather men such as our founders willing to make any sacrifice in order to insure freedom, security and common sense prevails in our nation. Meanwhile, nothing changes and we as a society will continue in decline. I hope I live long enough to witness at least the beginning of the reawakening of our Republic.

Something worth remembering as we go forward

2012-11-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

Gold is the money of Kings, silver the money of gentlemen, barter the money of peasants, and debt the money of slaves.

Marco Wants More Government

2012-09-03T23:36:00.001-07:00

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida says we chose more government instead of more freedom. Faux Pas? Or maybe simply telling it like it is.

What Some Call Price Gouging Is Actually A Rational And Needed Response To Market Conditions - Investors.com

2012-09-02T03:41:00.001-07:00

What Some Call Price Gouging Is Actually A Rational And Needed Response To Market Conditions - Investors.com:

'via Blog this'

California leads the Nation AGAIN ,,,,,,,,, in failure

2012-09-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

24 years ago I was enjoying the good life in California. I love the coast, the climate and the golf. But California had some problems and was turning into a socialist wet dream and because I knew where this would lead I decided to got out and moved out here in the desert. No kidding I STILL miss the PLACE but I am so glad I departed.

Stanford University did a study recently that shows part of how this demise of a once great State is happening. From the mid-1980s to 2005, California's population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000; and the prison population swelled by 115,000.

Unbelievable, 10 MILLION new people ...... 150,000 pay taxes. AND and additional 115,000 prisoners to house and feed. Who needs 10,000,000 more people that DON'T pay taxes and take services and social welfare? According to Socialist/Marxist, California should be booming by now,

but its not its basically insolvent and of course the left either BLAME it on greedy capitalist or simply deny it.

The same conditions that made my decision to leave California easy, are beginning to look the same for the country in general here in 2012. These cultural Marxist can be as adamant as they wish about their "theory" but, math is NOT a theory. It works today just as it did in the day of the Roman empire and all the other failed empires that have attempted to put all the power in the State.

Click HERE to read the article.

New Format

2012-08-30T02:38:00.002-07:00

Some of you readers have commented and seem to like this new format. There are a couple of things I will bring to your attention. Firstly, All the articles are "scrunched" up in a small space with just the title and sometimes just a teaser portion of the article visible. Many have photos or videos attached for viewing that you will not be able to see unless you click somewhere on the article. That will open up just that article so you can view the entire thing.

Secondly, you will notice a black tab along the right edge of the page. Just by running your cursor over it a pop out will appear for further navigation around the blog.

I'm still trying to find a font color for the menu bar at the top so it will be more visible. You have to look hard but there is a navigation menu running across the top of the page.

Glad some more of you are stopping by feel free to make comments.

Wednesday Night Speeches

2012-08-30T02:26:00.000-07:00

Just heard Obama's Charlottesville speech and he is a silver tongue devil, that's for sure. He know's how to fire up a group but the substance was total BS. He had those young folks cheering for their own demise. Now that's good I tell ya. If I didn't know the answers to all his issues and had not carefully looked at most everything he spoke about he would have indeed convinced me that it's entirely possible to pick a turd up by the "clean end". As I watched Obama's speaking, it dawned on me, that the Democrats picked the wrong city for their convention. They should have picked ....................... Ta Daaaa ... Detroit. What better place to highlight what American's can look FORWARD to if they would only re-elect the president. Once the wealthiest city in North America with the highest per capita income of any American city, where else better to showcase the results of years of socialist efforts. Oh well, gotta give myself a good pinch on the arm with my vice grips.

The "disappeared"

2012-08-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

During all the troubles in Central and South America people who opposed the governments and dictators of the day simply disappeared. It was so common that when people spoke of someone that had vanished they referred to them as "The Disappeared".

There have always been laws on the books for civil commitments, after all if someone really flips out there has to be a way to keep them from harming themselves and/or others. But the rules and law governing this type of "commitment" has to be followed and their should be strict guidelines to protect every citizens liberty.

I have seen several cases of civil commitment in Virginia courts and usually it takes sworn statements from several family members or those living with a person before they can even be detained for examination. Then it depends on the evaluation of a trained board certified psychiatrist. There is a new trend that I first heard of a few years back. That is using a diagnosis of PTSD for veterans as a swift way to detain a person. Now it seems that more people than we would like to believe are being picked up under civil commitment laws because of political statements and leanings.

This is really scary.

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Old Prediction

2012-08-29T01:20:00.001-07:00

A little over a year ago (May 5th 2011) I post what I called a “Quick look at Gold”. In that article I said “In the chart below, I have put a scenario for gold should this play out in this fashion. Gold as you can see, had a fairly long sideways channel of about 3 months duration before this last breakout and now appears to be correcting. This would be in timing with a run at a low mid-June.” You may click on these charts to enlarge.

What actually happened was Gold begin its down move in mid June and bottomed the week of June 16th. Not bad for a guess. Chart showing results is below.

Since last year gold made a new high the week of September 15 2011 and has been in a sideways to down trend ever since. Making lower highs and lower lows. UNTIL the low made May 14th which coincidentally produced what's called a 'doji' candle for that week. Doji's many times indicate a change in trend. Since the trend for the past year has been down that might be a good sign for gold. The following week of 5-21-12 was without question the time to go long gold for the mean time. I think gold represents an indicator of confidence in governments and the economy in general.

I can't explain in a few paragraphs what's been going on with the attempts to keep gold down by governments and others but will leave it as this is one perception they don't want to lose a grip on. As things progressively get worse for the politicians gold will continue it rise. It has definitely changed trend for the time being, now it's just a matter of a confirmation on the trend change. That confirmation will come by making a higher high perhaps sometime in November. It needs to break above about 1790 and hopefully above 1805 to prove it's on a roll to me. THEN I wait for a pull back to enter if wanting in and have not already entered back in May/June.

Armstrong's computer says the following: "Looking at our empirical models, the ideal primary target for the next turning point appears to be March 2012 thereafter we see a two-month move in the opposite direction initially there appears to be a fairly large change in Trend developing in September of 2012 which can lead to a move into the January 2013. Therefore if March unfolds as a reaction high we could see a retest of support in May with a reaction high into August for Labor Day and a decline into a final low in January 2013. It is clear that January 2013 should be a very important target. If that is a low then we should be able to see a significant rally into 2017 thereafter.”

I rarely disagree with Martin's forecast. This Little burst upwards could really just be a reaction high followed by a decline into January. That would be the best scenario for a big rally lasting years in gold.

The Fed readies QE3, Republicans re-consider the Gold Standard - YouTube

2012-08-28T22:16:00.001-07:00

Peter Schiff comments on the Republicans flirting with a return to a gold standard.

Politicians Will Promise Anything but do they deliver!

2012-08-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder of That we have a choice come November.

IS GOLD IN A BREAK OUT?

2012-08-23T20:46:00.001-07:00

Once again I'm trying something new. I began toying with recording some videos a while back and got bored with it soon but have renewed my interest. Since this is for fun and not for profit it is what it is. One guy's view just like the name implies. I'm not a pro nor an expert so if you make any trading decisions based on anything I publish you are a fool and are not to hold me responsible for your irrational decisions. Again this is NOT investment advice and you must use due diligence when making your own financial decisions.

Now that's out of the way. I've been getting emails and calls about gold making a break out. Some almost in a panic to "get in" but not sure. The usual sellers of gold and gold financial products smell blood in the water and have escalated the fever. None of this gets me too excited because nothing spectacular has occurred. Yes gold has been in a bit of an up trend for the past couple of months and yes in the past week or so it has broken out of the sideways move of late. It seems that about the time 3-4 days ago when it exceeded the peak from July the operators started touting all sorts of gold product and making lots of noise about the BREAKOUT. Here I simply make some off the cuff remarks (playing with the software more than anything) about the recent move in gold price. Enjoy and make comments is you like.

You can click on the screen below to start the video and click the square box on the lower right of the video to enlarge the screen for better viewing. I can see the quality is not that good and I will find a better upload method to fix that sometime in the future.

Police Investigating Hate Crime After Bacon Found At S.I. Ramadan Site « CBS New York

2012-08-23T14:13:00.001-07:00

Police Investigating Hate Crime After Bacon Found At S.I. Ramadan Site « CBS New York:

Careful where you leave a sandwich or you might be charged with a "Hate Crime" folks we gotta just get a grip on reality.

CIVIL WAR Texas Judge thinks it's possible

2012-08-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

Don’t think I have mentioned on this blog before but have in many other places the concern about revenue for local governments. With the economic strife going on for the last 5+ years, the unemployment, loss of wealth due to foreclosures and small business’s contracting the States, local and county coffers are shrinking. Unlike the Federal government these governments cannot print money and by law must balance their budgets.

With the loss in tax revenue these local governments are and have been feeling the pinch for money. In the several localities that I’m familiar with, local leader simply mention raising real estate taxes and the public response gets irate. Citizens begin calling for change in leadership, cuts in large government salaries and benefits and anything that will prevent the government from putting its hand deeper into the pocket of the citizen. It’s a though people realize their power in local government and take action against further taxation but somehow feel helpless to have any effect on the Federal side. It’s almost like living a dual life. One, a citizen and participant in local affairs and the other a victim or servant of a giant central government.

It’s not easy to get locals to go along with any tax increases so, local officials have to make a case and explain to the locals why such increases are needed. The success of this revenue gathering depends on how well the officials present their case. If it’s not generally accepted and the boards proceed with tax increases anyway, it is likely they get voted out in the next election or at least challenged aggressively and are put through a mudslinging contest. At the local level this can put plenty of stress on citizen leaders and divide families so the results are felt more severely on a personal level than is the case with those in Washington. In the big league of Beltway politics all this seem to just run down the back of the politician and back into the mire to be recycled in the next election. In other words, those in Washington don’t pay much attention to such ire because they are separated by miles and miles and are no longer a real part of their community. Other than a few trips back to the local office to drum up votes most of these politicians have their sights set on living the big life as a mover and shaker in Washington.

To convince the citizens of Lubbock County, Texas Judge TomHead has taken a novel approach to convincing citizens of the need for a tax increase. He says they need the money to prepare for civil unrest that will follow a re-election of President Obama.

The short video is a news interview of the Judge explaining the why’s of a 1.7% tax increase for next fiscal year.

Here's a link to an article about the same subject.

Texas official warns of Obama civil war