To those who voted against Obama:

Get over it. I’m one of you, as once again, I had to hold my nose and cast my ballot. Four years ago, it was for John Kerry, who I didn’t agree with politically, but knew we needed to change course for both geopolitical and economic reasons. I was right. It’s all the more frustrating for me and those who believe as I do, because this year, we had Ron Paul, until the Media and Republican Party marginalized Dr. Paul, the only candidate who showed he knew “his fanny from first base” as my father would say.

I understand if you want to bolt for the exits, I’m considering how best to do the same thing, but it has nothing to do with our pick for President. It’s economic, and there’s very little that President Obama will be able to do about it, except make it worse, and create for us a longer period of suffering. That, I fully expect. To those rabid opponents, you definitely need to get over it.

By all means, do what you can to get his birth certificate and make sure he hasn’t knowingly misrepresented his constitutional qualifications to be President, but I do not believe he is Muslim, a foreign agent or the Anti-Christ. At the worst, I believe he is an aggressive, ambitious politician, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. When he talks, assume what he says about “service” is more “acquistion of power.” I believe his lack of a track record (all those “present” votes) were more about his using his office not to serve his constituents, but instead his political ambitions, than it was about his being a mysterious servant of Islamic terrorists, a new Socialist/Communist/Fascist “strongman” or anything else the breathless conspiracy theorists hint at. Again, Republicans, get over it and start rebuilding the Party.

To those who voted for Obama:

Calm down.

Smoke a cigarette (even if you’re a non-smoker). He’s not the messiah. The world is not going to magically change on January 19th, and the higher and more you euphorically embellish just how awesome life will be when the Bush family moves out of the White House, the quicker and more massive the backlash will be when you realize you will still have to get up in the morning, go to work, do what your boss says, pay your bills and worry about pretty much the same things you had to worry about before. I especially pity the person, and there will be many of them, who focused their life over the past year, on getting Obama elected, but will find themself getting laid off next week, next month, or early in January. That story will be told many, many times.

George W. Bush didn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, help the economic situation we’re in. But he didn’t create it, either. No one person did. The biggest share of the blame goes to a Congress who, not understanding the economics of what was happening, did nothing to rein in those who were playing fast and loose with the rules to take incredibly dangerous long-term risks (to all of our financial futures) in the hopes of fabulous short-term profits. I have to admit a little pity for Obama, too. Why he and McCain wanted this job is beyond me.

For the President-Elect, life is going to be difficult when his supporters, no longer united by a common enemy (the Republican Party), will look at each other and realize that what they all had in common was the desire for change. But, they will soon find out that they all have very different ideas about what that change should look like. At that point, they won’t be united anymore.

Where we go from here.

I agree with Obama when he says we need to come together to fix the problems our nation faces. But, I must admit, when he talks about us always being the “United States of America,” I had to wonder, really?. The developing economic problems we’re facing here will do more separating than bringing together. I hope our Republic can survive it.

Three important posts from the Northeast Intelligence Network

Our current economic crisis: Could part be a terror attack on U.S. financials?

Analyzing patterns and pre-attack indicators

More in financial terrorism possibilities

Though other indications have come our way, these three posts from NIN are very clear, concise and paint the most complete picture of any website available.

Information has come to WCN from the most reliable sources that U.S. officials are taking very seriously the possibility of “severe disruptions” in the next two weeks, centered on October 7. It’s also very interesting and troubling that the “web bot project” from this group is suggesting that their predictive linguistic data gathering is suggesting a potentially massive and important event near that same date.

This is a time when our economy is at its most vulnerable. I believe this is all very real.

Be safe and be prepared.

This is a developing story that WCN will continue to follow.

Credit cards are the same thing. How often have you made purchases on your credit card (or your debit card for that matter) that you never would have forked over cash for? I’ve done it, and in my advancing years I’ve become pretty conservative. The cliche that we’ve been using our homes as ATMs for the past several years is perfectly accurate. We’ve been spending money we didn’t have, profits we hadn’t realized that banks, mortgage brokers and other financial services entities called “equity.” We’re waking up with a huge financial hangover after many years of binge spending.

Congress is debating how to solve the problem. In truth, they’re debating how best to spin a “solution” to the American people that will make them look clean and faultless in the situation. It’s all politics. What our “leaders” do on Capitol Hill doesn’t, in the long run, mean anything. The problem is well beyond anything they can do to solve it. The vast majority of them don’t even understand it. The only important person inside the Beltway that I can confidently say understands what’s going on is Ron Paul, but he’s been so marginalized by the media, he’s out of sight. That’s a shame of historical enormity, because Dr. Paul gets it. The American people will never realize what our two parties have cost us by spinning Ron Paul into the media wilderness, and I feel sad about that.

There is no solution that Congress and the great mass of Americans will accept, because a true, cleansing solution will be economically painful and will mean a dramatic reduction in our standard of living. There’s no room for that in the “American Dream.” But the American Dream is just that, a dream. It is time to wake up, because the sun is coming up and the new day is starting, even though dark clouds threaten. Many Americans will find waking so disorienting and painful, they’ll try to convince themselves they’re still asleep, and will refuse to face reality. They’ll try hard to maintain their standard of living, but it will be impossible. Faced with an angry populace, our leaders will do whatever they can to keep this false, plastic dream alive. They’ve actually gotten quite good at this over the past couple decades, but they’re having to get more and more dramatic in their “solutions.” It’s getting out of hand, and will escape their control very soon.

At that time, I fear our Government’s only option will be military action to distract the American people from the truth of our economic situation. American forces exchanged fire with Pakistani troops today, and that’s a problem, because they’re supposedly our allies. They’re also a nuclear power. I think what’s happening, is that the Bush administration is pushing really, really hard for some resolution to the bin Laden situation, and telling Pakistan that it’s time to give him up. They don’t want to do that, but George Bush doesn’t want to leave office with bin Laden still free. He wants the image of the man who masterminded 9/11 paraded through the streets of New York in chains to be his lasting legacy. Maybe then, he must figure, will people forget about all the failed policies, corruption and incompetence that marked his administration. But, the Pakistanis won’t go down so easy, especially possessing nukes. It could get very, very ugly, very, very quickly.

Money on our minds this Monday, as the White House predicts a $490 Billion budget deficit next year. Given our government’s fondness for spin and general economic incompetence, I’d say the truth is probably somewhere north of that figure, between $490 and $1 Trillion. Add in bank and FDIC bailouts that will be necessary in the next 18 months, and the larger of those two numbers is probably a lowball.

Too many people today read that news, shrug and say “Well, that’s the government. They can handle it.” What will be an even bigger story in ’09 however, is starting to sneak up on us and seep into the mainstream media. Listen to this segment of the Diane Rehm show (launches a Windows Media file) and you’ll see that dozens of states are under water budget-wise for 2009. This will mean problems with education, health care, police/fire protection, highway and infrastructure maintenance and much more. The resources we need on a daily basis will be strained.

As I write this, the DOW has tumbled already, and even Reuters is reporting that the Gold Futures market suggests that the metal will trade at $1,200/ounce by the end of the year. So, it’s no longer just Jim Sinclair making this claim!

Meanwhile, Jim Kunstler has a terrifically dark piece about a drive through New York State (where he lives), with some pointed, vivid and very compelling observations about the state of our society:

Hopelessness infects this landscape like a miasma. Whatever young adults remain in these places are not thinking about a plausible future, only looking to complete their full array of tattoos and lose themselves in raptures of sex, methedrine, and video aggression.

And that’s the lighter bit Seriously though. Kunstler’s views ring so true, even though regularly reading him, you start to get the idea he really, really dislikes tattoos. I believe though, that Jim will one day be seen as one of many visionaries whose dark futures often hit closer to the eventual truth than most. God help us.

Finally, in the “can’t wait for the future” hit parade, George Ure at UrbanSurvival.com unhappily predicts an “October Surprise” that involves a hidden hand, false flag and an attempt to disguise (if not avoid) the Greater Depression bearing down on us right now. I remember similar predictions (not from George) about the last of the Clinton days, where an event causes the White House to declare Martial Law and cancel the elections. Looking at history though, I have to admit it would be more in character for this administration than the last to attempt something like this.

Time will tell. Have a great week. Be watchful.

Both reports talk about the “madness” and “stupidity” of attacking Iran. What the Iranian mouthpiece fails to mention is the necessity, some say is playing a major part in the possible future attack on the country’s nuclear facilities, and of course leadership and infrastructure. With a deepening housing crisis in the U.S. and financial troubles that look bleaker every day (the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history – IndyMac’s assets were seized yesterday), record high oil prices and a weakening dollar, the thought that our leadership might go once again to the well of war to create economic recovery is not as much conspiracy theory as it was a few months ago.

Many talk about the fiscal (not to mention moral) fiasco the Iraq war has become, but looked at from a larger perspective, it has put the U.S. and our allies within easy striking distance of the only remaining oil-rich enemy, as the reports of Israeli jets practicing for an Iranian raid and using U.S. airbases in Iraq in the operations show. And though we seemed to be getting along through the 1990s, clearly the 444 days the Iranians held Americans hostages during the end of the Carter administration has not been forgiven by many of us. Should we commit to a clash of arms, I think there will be more American support for that action than many expect. A clue that an attack is near may well be a PR barrage that brings those memories back to the forefront. Watch for the mainstream media to begin replaying that footage, in an effort to reignite anti-Iranian feelings.

It’s a dangerous time. Watch carefully for the clues, be prepared and keep your family safe.

Well, Photoshop isn’t anything that exotic, these days.

More likely:

“I hear members of Congress saying ‘if we could only nuke them’,” said the congressman Thursday.

The House of Representatives is preparing to approve House Resolution 362, which instructs the President to virtually cut Iran off from the rest of the world. In effect, a blockade would be thrown up, something Iran will almost certainly consider an act of war.

Again, Representative Paul:

This resolution,” Paul said, “Is a virtual War resolution. It is a declaration of tremendous sanctions and boycotts, and embargos on the Iranians – very, very severe…This is unbelievable. This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this? This is what we did for 10 years before we went into Iraq: we starved children – 50,000 individuals, it was admitted, probably died because of the sanctions on the Iraqis.

What can possibly be next, other than war?

There’s a common belief that the rest of the world doesn’t love us as much as we’d like them to because we’re heavy-handed and brutal. They don’t like that we send our armies to their lands and waterboard their people and stand around checkpoints with automatic weapons. That’s bunk. The rest of the world doesn’t love us because we’re not them. That’s the issue.

I believe that no matter what we do, the rest of the world will never love us and put little pictures of us on their mantles. When we’re weak, we just invite attack. When we attack them, and then display weakness, we invite justifiable (at least in their minds) attack.

The solution? I think we need to make it clear to the rest of the world that we might just be crazy enough to get really medieval if need be. Let’s face it, there was the thought in the 80s that Ronald Reagan was a crazy-enough anti-Communist that he might let some nukes fly if someone looked at him funny. So they didn’t. Did we get the same fear-based respect when the ever-reasonable, obviously fair and humanitarian Jimmy Carter was in charge? Hardly.

If anything, the attacks of 9/11 were attacks on a seemingly weak-willed nation. Never forget that the George W. Bush who looks like an uncaring invader today, in the beginning days of September 2001 was a recently elected, not very successful (on his own) guy who mostly avoided military service. Who could blame Islamic militant whackos for assuming he’d be a weak-willed adversary?

As Dennis Miller said on the Tonight Show (and elsewhere) in 2002:

“I don’t even understand why we’ve taken nuclear weapons off the table. I mean we treat them like our mother’s good china. We never use them. I think you’ve got to pick a day where there’s no wind, in a desolate part of the Earth, just blow off a bomb just to let them know we’re sitting on a nice hold card, okay?”

He’s right. When there’s a guy in the bar who has a crazy look in his eye and you just know is spoiling for a fight, you don’t flip him off, go outside and tip over his motorcycle.

You try hard not to attract his notice. We need to buy a motorcycle, get a tattoo and when we need to, work up a good “crazy” look.