When I was attending flight school we had an instructor no one could tolerate.   I will call him Fred, but that obviously was not his real name.  Fred was very quick to ridicule people and was extremely arrogant.  One day Fred crossed the line and really made us mad, so the “secret committee” took things into hand.  I of course will never acknowledge whether or not I was personally a member of the secret committee, but I was very aware of what went on.  A strategy was developed to teach Fred a lesson.

It started with the phantom noise.  We were being trained on cutting edge electronic equipment.  One of our guys had an uncanny ability to make this high pitched noise without moving his lips.  It sounded like the worse kind of electronic feedback.  At random intervals he would make the noise and then the rest of us would act shocked and look around.  We would ask Fred for help.  It was hysterical.  Fred, who was incapable of admitting he didn’t know how to fix the problem, would go through a complicated procedure to adjust the equipment and eliminate the feedback.  Of course the sound would increase or decrease whenever he adjusted anything, so he thought he was making progress.  Eventually he thought he had it fixed.  But, as soon as he got up, the “hum” returned.  Sometimes the “hum” would go away for several hours, even a complete day.  Then, at the most inopportune moment it would start up again.  The biggest problem the rest of us had was avoiding the giggles as Fred went crazy trying to fix this.

Then attention was turned to Fred’s car.  Step one was to put a small rock in his hub cap.  This of course made a lot of racket and sounded scary.   This worked better than we expected, because incredibly Fred asked us for help.  We were all glad to offer advice.  One guy took the car for a test ride.  As soon as he got out of sight, he removed the hubcap and put the rock in his pocket.  Then he returned the car and said he couldn’t hear anything wrong.   Fred took his car around the block and miraculously the noise was gone.  He was very relieved.  But while Fred wasn’t looking, another guy took a different hub cap off and put the rock back.  This went on for weeks.  Sometimes the rock was there, sometimes it wasn’t.  The sound moved from one side of the car to the other and even moved from front to rear.  Finally one of our guys offered to fix the problem for $50.  He took the car, drove out of sight, pulled over and took out the rock.  Then he picked up the rest of us and we spent the evening spending that $50.  When Fred got his car back the next morning, he was thankful that the problem was fixed and considered the $50 well spent.  We actually agreed on that.

The secret committee probably would have left Fred alone, except that someone heard Fred on the phone talking with his girlfriend.  Fred mentioned that he was going to try a fuel additive that was supposed to increase gas mileage.  The secret committee voted to help.  The first time he filled up, someone waited until his tank was half empty and added an extra gallon.  Fred bragged about the improvement in gas mileage.  The next week someone added two gallons of gas.  Fred was ecstatic.  He bragged about his gas mileage to anyone who would listen.  This of course could not continue, so the secret committee voted to stop adding gas.  Fred was depressed.  That is when the secret committee wondered what would happen if a gallon of gas was siphoned off.  Now Fred was really concerned.  As the final touch, the decision was made to siphon off two gallons of gas.  Now Fred was near tears.   Once again he asked us for help, so someone suggested it was time for a tune-up.

Fred got the tune-up and his car was running great.  That, of course, was not acceptable.  So the secret committee came up with a new plan.  A spark plug was pulled and the top of the plug was covered with scotch tape.  Naturally that sparkplug wouldn’t fire anymore, so the car started to miss.  Fred didn’t seem to be concerned enough, so the decision was made to up the ante.  This time two sparkplugs were disabled.  Now his car ran just plan awful and it was hard to start.  Fred was totally depressed and talked about selling his car.  Once again he asked for our help.  The car was taken for another test drive.  Once again, as soon as the car was out of sight, the driver pulled over and took the tape off the spark plugs.  Fred was thrilled that his car was running great again, but worried about this happening again.  That is when someone suggested that the whole problem was probably just bad gas, so the suggestion was made that Fred switch from Texaco to Shell.  Of course the only Shell Station was way on the other side of town, and it was more expensive.  Fred became a life-long fan of Shell gas.

At this point we were pretty much done with our training, so we moved on.  To the best of my knowledge Fred never figured out we were messing with him.  Perhaps the best part of this story is that Fred was much nicer to us while all this was happening, because he appreciated all the help.

There is no point to this story, other than I thought it might be a nice break from ObamaCare.

TDM

In the midst of all the fuss about ObamaCare, many people are ignoring a very important story.  Republicans have issued subpoenas with regard to Fast & Furious.   Up until this point, Attorney General Eric Holder has played the slow walk, filing appeals with the Federal Court so that he can delay turning over these documents.  He just lost that battle.  Not only did the Judge deny his appeal, she prevented him from immediately appealing to a higher court.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2013/11/judge-wont-allow-holder-appeal-now-in-contempt-case-177796.html

The judge also made a very interesting comment:

“While the Court agrees with defendant’s characterization of the matter as significant, that is not the test,” 

Keep in mind that Watergate was a minor scandal, until a House committee started to subpoena documents and a court ordered the White House to comply.  Erik Holder is now in a serious legal pickle.  If he continues to refuse to comply with the subpoenas the House can take legal action against him.  When you combine that with a political climate where the President has lost all credibility it becomes toxic.  “He lied to us about ObamaCare, how can we possibly trust him?”

Don’t be shocked to discover that Fast & Furious is far more serious than anyone thought.  Watergate was only about a third rate burglary of the DNC.  Who really cared about that?   No one cared, until documents were released that provided evidence of a cover-up.  It wasn’t the burglary at the Watergate Hotel that did in Richard Nixon.  He probably didn’t even know about that.  What did him in was the cover-up.

History has a nasty habit of repeating itself.  Will that happen here?  Probably not, but it is a lot more likely to happen now than ever before because of this court ruling.  At a minimum, there has been some turning of the screw and that is going to put incredible pressure on Eric Holder.

TDM

If you visit London today you will probably notice the statute of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.   He is widely regarded as the greatest Prime Minister in the history of Great Britain.  But during the 1930s, Winston Churchill was scorned by members of his own party.  His warnings about Nazi Germany were ignored.  The political establishment in his own party thought that Winston Churchill was a joke.  They humored him only because he did have what they perceived to be a small but dedicated political following.

Winston Churchill was loud, arrogant and stubborn.  He often argue for his case long after it was clear that he had lost in the court of public opinion.  No one in the cultured elite wanted him around.  He simply never knew when to give up.  He was on no one’s short list for the next Prime Minister.

But then things began to change.  It became increasingly obvious that Winston Churchill had been right all along.  When Britain finally declared War on Germany, Churchill was appointed to the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.  Ultimately, the situation got so bad that in absolute desperation, the British parliament turned over power to the man they despised.

Now, when we listen to a recording of Churchill speeches from the 1930s we are stunned by the eloquence and the insight.  If only someone had listened, really listened to what he had to say.  Perhaps at least some of the carnage of World War II could have been avoided.   But, obviously, few people listened.  Unfortunately, great leaders are seldom appreciated until the situation becomes more than desperate.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected President his own cabinet was appalled.  They believed he was totally unqualified for the job and they determined to lead the government in spite of him.  History now shows that it was Lincoln who was manipulating them.    The scorn and ridicule lasted long after his leadership had been well established.  Just recently a Pennsylvania Newspaper published a retraction of their contemporary report on the Gettysburg Address.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/14/pennsylvania-newspaper-retracts-bad-review-of-gettysburg-address-from-1863/

Here is what they wrote:

“We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.”

I must admit that this gives me no small amount of comfort.  It is comforting to note that the editorial writers in 1863 were just as stupid and biased as the ones working at places like the Sacramento Bee or the San Francisco Chronicle today.   We may think that bias in the media is worse than ever, but history shows us it has always been this way.

Things are very bad.  They are going to get worse.  ObamaCare is worse than you can imagine.  The damage will be difficult to repair.  Our foreign affairs are in shambles and our economy appears to be in permanent stagnation.  We have a President who lies to the American people and then ignores the constitution.  Many people wonder if our country will ever recover.  It will.  We have been in far worse shape than this.  One could argue that it is a miracle this country even got started.  In 1776 the Revolutionary War was not going well.  The Continental Army had been driven out of New York and was retreating through New Jersey.  Many of the troops were just deserting the cause and going home.  Thomas Paine wrote “The Crisis” with the following lines:

These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.   

Great leaders do not happen by accident, they are always the result of great crisis.  None of our greatest President governed during good times.  Look around you.  There is a new breed of leader that is ready, willing and able to take on the political establishment in both parties.  Like every great leader, these people can expect vicious resistance by the political establishment.   They can expect nothing but scorn from the cultured elite and the main stream media.  But all of us should remember the lesson of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.  Great problems create great leaders.  Sometimes, it really is darkest just before dawn.

TDM

Several years ago we lived in Novato, California.  One day we looked out and there was a turkey vulture sitting on our back fence.  We were used to seeing turkey vultures circling up above, but this was the first time one actually stopped by for a visit.  A few minutes later another one showed up.  The next thing we know the entire back fence was covered with turkey vultures.  We soon discovered that there was a dead raccoon in our back yard and they were all there for the meal.

ObamaCare is now officially dead.  There is zero chance it can survive what has already happened.  What slim chance of salvaging something ended today when Obama stepped in it on national television.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/11/14/obama-tries-to-regain-americas-trust-by-declaring-insurance-is-complicated-to-buy-n1746635

The following statement is so bad that the editors had to add two additional comments, in parenthesis, so that it made any sense at all.

“It [the fix] allows us to be able to say to the folks who received these notices that I as the United States [and Obamacare] are not going to get in the way of you shopping for the insurance you used to have.”

Let me paraphrase.  “This is totally the fault of those bad apple insurance companies, so I am going to back off and let them handle it, so you can’t blame me.”

I should have predicted this, because it is the dumbest possible solution.  There is zero chance the insurance industry is going to reinstate those plans.  Even if they wanted to, it would take them months to prepare.  In the meantime there are going to be more uninsured people and no one available to provide health care coverage.

ObamaCare is dead.  We are still waiting for the official death certificate but it is dead.  The vultures are circling.  Some of them have already landed.  The rest are on their way.

TDM

President Obama apparently intends to issue an executive allowing health insurance companies to extend coverage for up to a year.  Following is from CNN:

The fix will be only for people who received expiration notices. It will call in part for insurance policies to be renewed for existing policyholders with insurance in the individual market who got cancellation notices. They would get one-year extensions.

Also, insurance companies will be required to notify policyholders of alternative coverage and what benefits they would be losing by keeping an existing plan.

This is an act of desperate and it borders on insanity.  There is a strong possibility that he will turn disaster into catastrophe.  It is doubtful that he even has the authority to do this.  He is directing insurance companies to ignore a law passed by congress and signed by him and replacing it with unworkable guidelines.   This is beyond astonishing, when a little more than 30 days ago he was willing to hold the entire government hostage to prevent such a delay.  He does not have the authority under the U.S. constitution to arbritarily change the law.

Neither Congress nor the President has the authority to order insurance companies to sell insurance or anything else.  The Supreme Court DID NOT UPHOLD OBAMACARE it actually ruled that the government did not have the authority to order people to buy insurance or anything else.  What was upheld was the individual mandate, but only as a tax.

This is an “Al Haig” moment.  Al Haig made a statement after Reagan was shot saying he was in charge.  He was wrong.  Under the U.S. Constitution the man in charge was George H.W. Bush and Al Haig’s statement was just plain stupid.  Now Obama is arrogantly giving Congress the finger with his own arrogant “I’m in charge” speech.”  They are not likely to be amused.

There is a strong possibility we are headed for a constitutional crisis.  The man responsible for the worse administration of a government program is desperately clinging to the controls.  There is no chance this ends well.

TDM

The White House spent most of the week trying to explain why the President didn’t say what he said.  Then they tried to explain that the problem was that people listened to what the President actually said rather than what the President was actually saying.  That didn’t work either.  So now the President said that he apologized that people lost their healthcare because they foolishly believed he meant what he said.  Or, at least I think that is what he said.  You can’t make this stuff up.

I am pretty sure a whole lot of Democrats are now scratching their heads asking one simple question.  “How could we have been so stupid?”  It is probably similar to how all those investors reacted when they learned the truth about Bernie Madoff.  All the warning signs were there.  The truth was out there for all to see, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t see.  They thought all those Republican complaints about Obama were just politics.  Now they know better.  But what can they do?  They can’t continue down this path because they know there is no chance it ends well.  There is no chance that Obama will come up with a solution.  There is also no realistic chance of getting rid of Obama for at least three more years.

The following article in Vanity Fair exposes the real Obama:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/11/barack-obama-loner-self-reliant-closed-off

It is an ugly picture.  The following quote proves that many supporters have known about Obama for a long time.   Now, this is so obvious that no one can continue to ignore it:

 It is impossible to know whether Obama’s go-it-alone approach is instinctual or learned, but he comes by it honestly—and painfully. From a far earlier age and to a far greater degree than is generally understood, Obama has always been alone. He was abandoned not only by his black African father, whom he later met just once at age 10, but also by his white American mother, who left him as a teenager with her parents in Hawaii to pursue graduate fieldwork in anthropology in Indonesia. At an age when most adolescents are grappling with how to break away from their families, Obama’s had crumbled away from him.

But even Vanity Fair totally missed the point:

Give Obama credit for figuring that out, and for rising beyond even the wildest imaginings of his self-reliant youth. If he had chosen to be a novelist or neurosurgeon, an airline pilot or an atomic engineer, the very qualities of self-sufficiency that even some of his strongest supporters find so frustrating would be an unalloyed asset. But in a politician—above all, in a president—such qualities are confounding and, at times, crippling.

The problem with this analogy is that is assumes that Obama is a brilliant man who would have been wildly successful at anything he tried.  The opposite is true.  Obama has zero real accomplishments, other than being pushed by others into positions he did not earn.  Upon attaining these positions he did absolutely nothing to effect real change.   His performance, at every level, was mediocre at best.  Obama has coasted through life fueled by his own sense of entitlement.  Substitute extreme narcissism for self-absorbed and you get a clearer picture of the man.  Obama lives in his own world, created by his own psychological needs and nothing is likely to change that.  He probably couldn’t change if he wanted to.

Obama can’t admit he lied because then he would be admitting that he lied.  He never accepts responsibility for his own actions and obviously that includes his own words.  This is remarkably similar to the man who was asked if he had ever made a mistake.  He said yes:  “once I thought I was wrong, but I wasn’t.”  Obama is the man who never was and no longer is.  I don’t believe Obama thinks he lied.  Obama lives in a world of his own creation.  Even when confronted with video tapes where he deliberately lied he can convince himself that he wasn’t actually lying.  I believe that if Obama was given a polygraph test asking him if he lied, he would say no and he would pass.

When I wrote this, I wondered if this was really possible.  Then I read the following article.  Chuck Todd interviewed Obama and he apparently reached the same conclusion.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/11/09/chuck-todd-obama-does-not-believe-he-lied

A lot of people are legitimately concerned about a President who lied so deliberately with such devastating results.  But it is a much bigger problem if this President is so detached from reality that he doesn’t even recognize the truth.

Sad!  I actually feel sorry for Obama.  But I feel even sorrier for the rest of us.

TDM

We used to say that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.  But sometimes it is also true in politics.  Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford in 1976.  Ford, the Republican Establishment candidate went on to lose to Jimmy Carter.  But the fact that Ronald Reagan came close to beating an incumbent President during a primary election set the stage for the Reagan revolution four years later.

Cuccinelli lost in Virginia, which is a bad thing.  It is hard to imagine a worse Governor than Terry McAuliffe.  But to people who study this objectively, this was a very bad result…for Democrats.  McAuliffe outspent Cuccinelli $34 million to $19 million.  In addition, by all accounts, Cuccinelli ran a terrible campaign.  He didn’t even know enough to respond to the endless personal assaults by McAuliffe.  In addition McAuliffe flew in all the Democratic heavy hitters to push him over the line.  This included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama.  It should not have been close.  But McAuliffe didn’t even get a majority of the vote.  He only won because an Obama bundler funded a “libertarian” candidate to syphon off votes from Cuccinelli.

What turned this around at light speed was ObamaCare.  Cuccinelli started to make this a referendum on ObamaCare over the last couple of days and the results were dramatic.  Against all odds, he almost pulled it off.  McAuliffe won by the skin of his teeth.  If the election had been delayed a week, McAuliffe probably would have lost.  Contrary to what you may read in the newspapers or hear on television every qualified Democratic strategist understands this.  Unless things change around overnight, Democrats are going to start deserting Obama at a pace that will stagger the imagination.

The disaster called ObamaCare has set off a political tsunami that came very close to sweeping Terry McAuliffe out certain victory.    That tsunami is growing stronger and wider every day and the devastation on the American political landscape will be beyond imagination.  Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, with one exception.  Sometimes, in politics, it matters very much indeed.

TDM

I do not know how to speak Russian.  I do know that “Do svidaniya!” means goodbye.  But then they say something else that I really don’t understand.  So I came up with the phrase Do syvidaniya! Virginia Sneaky.  I doubt that this is close to accurate, but it sounds good to me.  Please keep in mind that I am also hard of hearing so my chances of hearing anything correctly are rather marginal.  I do believe that ‘Virginia Sneaky” actually is a pretty good description of the governor’s election in Virginia.

Democrat, Terry McAuliffe will probably win by a big margin.  For one thing he has outspent his opponent by several million dollars.  In addition, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have traveled to Virginia to campaign for him.  Democrats have been running the traditional smear the Republican campaign against his opponent, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.  Democrats are convinced that once again the abortion issue will trump everything else.

Even the Republican Establishment is rooting for Cuccinelli to lose, because it fears a victory by him will inspire Tea Party Candidates to take on RINO Republicans.  The Republican establishment remains convinced that compromise is the pathway to victory.

As recently as this weekend, all the polls showed McAuliffe leading by a big margin.  A couple of recent polls have shown the race tightening “within the margin of error” but that almost always means the Democrat still wins.  So, it would be foolish to predict that Cuccinelli pulls this off.

But, recently, Cuccinelli has been running solely on the issue of ObamaCare.  He points out, correctly, that McAuliffe wants to expand it and as Attorney General Cuccinelli sued the federal government to try and stop it.

He has only been doing this for about six minutes, so this is the ultimate political “Hail Mary” pass and is unlikely to work.  But what if it does work?

This is one election where Republicans have everything to gain and nothing to lose.  If McAuliffe wins it will only show that money and a well-coordinated smear campaign can still win elections.  McAuliffe is the odds on favorite.  He is expected to win.  But if Cuccinelli wins it will send a shock wave throughout the country.  No one really expects Cuccinelli to come close.  It will tell every Democrat who voted for ObamaCare that they are in serious trouble.  It will send the same message to every RINO Republican in congress.

Seismic political events of this magnitude are impossible to predict because they are very rare.  I am hardly predicting it now.  But at soon, the disaster of ObamaCare will be so obvious that no one can ignore it.  At some point every Democrat who voted for this will pay a steep price.  We are not there yet, but we are getting close.  What Virginia will really tell us is “how close.”  It Cuccinelli somehow pulls this off, it will be proof positive that this is already happening and people will be stunned at the speed of the transformation.

TDM

I know many liberals who are totally convinced of things that are not possibly true.  Perhaps the best way to understand the liberal mind is to reflect on the lyrics of the Liberal hymn of faith:  Imagine by John Lennon:

Imagine there is no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one

Imagine is a beautiful song, until you realize that this is pure nonsense.  Imagine doesn’t describe a paradise, it describes a world filled with chaos and anarchy.  In 1790 Fletcher Christian anchored the HMS Bounty on Pitcairn Island with 9 other sailors, 6 Tahitian men and 11 women.  Here was the chance for the paradise longed for by liberals.  Pitcairn Island had been mismarked on the nautical charts.  No one could find it.  There was plenty of food, no country to kill or die for and no religion.  The only option was to live for today, because they had burned up the Bounty and there was no way they were leaving any time soon.

But they didn’t find paradise, they found chaos and murder.  By the time an American Whaler found the Island again in 1808 only one sailor was left.  All the other mutineers and all of the Tahitian men had been killed, mostly by each other. 

If we really lived in world set up according to liberal guidelines it would almost certainly end up closer to Pitcairn’s Island rather than the Garden of Eden. 

Liberals are used to lies.  They prefer a lie that agrees with their world view to an uncomfortable truth.  But there comes a time when a lie is so obvious and so destructive that it simply cannot be ignored.  When that happens it sends shockwaves through the residual elements of the liberal spine.  They are forced to finally ask a very vital question.  “What is really true?”  When liberals start actually seeking the truth, it is always a big shock.  They find themselves transported beyond imagination forced to accept the reality of the real world.    

The entire world now knows that Barack Obama is a bald-faced liar.  When he made those promises that people could keep their health insurance, that they could keep their doctors, he was lying.  It was a level of deception right up there with Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman” moment.  But this is much worse.  This is much worse because Bill Clinton was only lying to protect himself from embarrassment.  Barack Obama was lying because it was the only way he could lull the American people into accepting the horror of socialized medicine. This is lying on a whole new level.  In case you wonder if I am overstating this, read the following opinion by Kyle Smith in the New York Post today:

http://nypost.com/2013/11/02/how-obama-crossed-the-line-from-bulls-t-to-dishonesty/

It is long past time at least some liberals move beyond imagination.

TDM

Perhaps I am wrong, but I am sensing real anger building up with regard to this administration.  That is not new.  But this time people are more than angry, this time they are seething with rage.  ObamaCare is impacting everyone in a way that is impossible to ignore.

I won’t go into details on the various problems with ObamaCare, because I have covered that before.  I will simply point out the obvious.  ObamaCare is a complete failure and nothing proposed by either Democrats or Republicans will fix anything.  If the individual mandate is delayed for a few weeks, it will make things worse.  If it is delayed for a year, it will make things worse.  If the individual mandate is repealed, it will make things worse.  If more people receive subsidies, it will make things worse.  If you think the website is bad, just wait until you see the finances.

There are millions of people who have just lost health care coverage they wanted and needed.  If they can manage to get enrolled in ObamaCare, they are instantly confronted with sticker shock and high deductibles.  There are news reports verifying that the Obama administration knew this would happen and they just lied about it.  There are all these videos of President Obama promising this would not happen.

In the meantime, Democrats are still pretending that this is all an illusion.  That the system is actually working and that if we just take two aspirin things will be better in the morning.  But the opposite is true.  It will be worse tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after that.  There is no chance this will be anything short of an unmitigated disaster.

We are in the initial stages of this catastrophy.  Many people are still unaware of how bad it really is.  Others are still in a state of shock and denial.  But that will change and when it does, shock and denial will be replaced with seething anger.  We haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.  At least since 9/11.  Perhaps going back as far as Pearl Harbor.  Only this time the people who attacked us and did all the damage were the people we trusted to protect us.  Can you feel it now.  Can you feel the anger.  You will!

TDM