Current Article

Spunky Summers Speaks Clarence

By John Batchelor on December 14, 2009 at 12:40 PM in Current Affairs

“The Obama team carries on just as if the electorate was waiting for the public option, for cap and trade, for the rebuilding of the public schools and reordering of salary structures toward secondary school teachers. …

“In the real world of massive REO overhang, of disgraced, plundered, feral banks and their enslaved and addicted plutocratic workers, none of what Team Obama imagines is the cure. …”

Jobs Jobs Jobs.

The Obama administration now understands (see above slipped lip between ships of state) that the only adversary to its sovereignty forever and ever is the jobs number, and it yearns for the day that it can claim the utopian vision of 5% jobless for its legacy. (Christinia Romer reveals this magic number above.)

What POTUS once regarded as his mandated task, to remake the American domestic policy with healthcare, environment and education policies that tilt toward egalitarianism and plan old Fabian delight, all that is gone with the joblessness since Spring 2009.

Obama team carries on just as if the electorate was waiting for the public option, for cap and trade, for the rebuilding of the public schools and reordering of salary structures toward secondary school teachers (an agreed-upon abused vocation).

In the real world of massive REO overhang, of disgraced, plundered, feral banks and their enslaved and addicted plutocratic workers, none of what Team Obama imagines is the cure will come to more than headlines for talking points as this or that member of Congress fall double digit behind in the polls to a crank crooning, “Big Rock Candy Mountain” and other hits from FDR.

Jobs is the category killer.

Joblessness is the House majority killer.

The Unemployment number above 8% for as far as the economists can prophesy is the spear at the heart of the Obama re-election dreams.

Summers in Winter.

Larry Summers, even in heavy make-up as if he is just back fromm Gstaad, cannot get on board with the joblessness threat.

His spinning skill today (who is watching? it is Christmas time and the house is still at risk because of the REOs on the block) points to the problem that must dominate the sighing and blame-shiting at POTUS economic briefing at 10 am (Obama keeps a late rising White House).

The jobless are a nemesis. Not the GOP. Not the Congress. Not the Taliban or Karzai. Not even the bankers.

The jobless.

The jobless show up at the morning briefing, unshaven and surly, and the jobless loiter at the back of State Dinners and on the tarmac at Dover. The jobless eye Oslo and the White House Christmas tree.

The jobless watch “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and listen very closely to Jimmy Stewart’s dispute with his Guardian Angel as they debate suicide — and then the jobless blink at the POTUS Obama face on the TV telling them that there is promise, turn-around, hope.

If and when the jobless vote again, they will certainly influence the votes of those still with jobs who remember the haunted looks of the jobless at the Mall.

Summers in winter is hoping for Spring. Summers in winter is turning his back on Jimmy Stewart’s Guardian Angel, Clarence. Clarence waits in the snow. “Think of all the things that wouldn’t be said on TV at Christmastime if you had never been born, Mr. Summers?”

——————————

From the blog for my syndicated radio show.

wbboei

The Unemployment number above 8% for as far as the economists can prophesy is the spear at the heart of the Obama re-election dreams.
————————-

Correct. And it is a spear he cannot dodge. Bush is ancient history, the recession is over according to him, but the jobs have not come back as they did with prior recessions. Why? Because his radical attempt to remake government and his thuggish tactics have caused hiring in the private sector to seize up. As Larry Doyle observed in a recent posting, Obamas actions have caused small businesses to hunker down until they have some idea of how this shoot first ask questions later enviroment will affect their business. Obama alone is responsible for the fact that this recovery is a jobless one.
Bronwyn’s Harbor

Dare I bring up a critical issue that never gets discussed by this administration? OUR NATION’S CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE?

We have 100+-year-old dams and levies, old highways, national parks in sad disrepair, and on and on.

Our government could create a big infrastructure jobs program that would 1) employ a hell of a lot of people, and 2) cure the frightening ancient infrastructure.

One small example: New Orleans’ isn’t the only levy system in desperate need of fixing. Seattle — yes, Seattle — has a levy system for a major river that is ancient and has to be repaired asap. If it breaks, and it will one of these days, the clean-up will be massive.

And think about all the bridges that desperately need repair or must be rebuilt.

If Obama wants a LEGACY — that seems to be the only thing he cares about — he could be the president who rebuilt our nation’s infrastructure. But I guess, in his oversized ego, that isn’t as sexy as a radical health care plan. But — if he thought a bit more about history — he’d recall that Teddy Roosevelt is remembered as much for what he did for our national park system as for anything else that Teddy accomplished.

And, for a further LEGACY goody, he could be the president who created a major jobs program that cut unemployment in half and added mightily to our nation’s tax rolls, thereby helping to reduce the massive deficit. (That’s because people who are employed in jobs that pay well must pay taxes, and they furthermore buy goods which ramp up sales and other taxes, and it all goes to helping both the federal and state revenue streams.)

Why does this not get considered? It’s beyond me.
Docelder

Yes, it sounds good in theory, but take New Orleans as the example. So much was stolen in the way of money which was spent for repairs of their levies. It isn’t just that New Orleans was ignored, but rather that their local government looted the improvement monies. It’s like in Mexico. everybody just knows the government is corrupt, it is openly so. It is a matter of fact. To me, this is where we are currently headed right now. Government is becoming corrupt, and openly corrupt. We are at risk of paying to rebuild infrastructure and not getting any infrastructure for it. Like the stimulus bill that didn’t have anything left over for the stimulus part.
b mathews

because its not on his agenda. he’s looking to destroy america..not fix it.
Bronwyn’s Harbor

Or to reshape America into his and his radical pals’ own vision of what this country should be.

To say he wasn’t heavily influenced by Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi is folly.

Shame on Summers et al. for being his enablers.

And Hillary had better get the hell out of there lest she be permanently stained as one of Obama’s enablers.
Obamastolemycounty

I heard about a republican plan for a one year mortgage holiday, which would not cost as much as the last stimulus or any they are talking about. Homeowners would get a break for one year and the government woul pay the banks the interest they are supposed to make from those mortgages. Even six months would help I think! I could surely stimulate the economy if not paying my mortgage. The Dems won’t touch it though becasue the GOP came up with it.

STOP PLAYING POLITICS AND HELP AMERICA YOU DOLTS!
creeper

I suspect at heart Larry Summers figures this is all the fault of a bunch of inferior women…the ones with a “different availability of aptitude at the high end.”

Four years later, remembering those words still sends my blood pressure off the chart.

The only encouraging aspect to this display of cluelessness is that John Q. does “get it” and he’s becoming madder by the day.
creeper

Excellent point, BH.

The Interstate 80 bridge over the Mississippi River has been reduced to one lane each direction after cracks were found in it last May.

Bids for repair have not yet been let, though the Iowa and Illinois D’s OT (for you grammarians out there) have stated that repairs should be complete by November, 2010.

In the meantime, it’s still carrying traffic. Not to worry, though. They’re “monitoring” it.

Locals, for the most part, are avoiding it whenever possible. Unfortunately, the closest alternative–the I-74 bridge–isn’t in much better shape.

OTOH, we see a lot of new resurfacing projects, complete with signs announcing them as part of the economic recovery act. There’s not much work on the underlayment…just slap a coat of blacktop on it and it’s good to go.

Kind of a metaphor for our current administration, dontcha think?
Docelder

Just exactly like the gypsies that travel around blacktopping driveways. They charge for blacktop, but put a thin coat on it to maker it look like it was blacktopped. It looks like it was done, until it cracks and you see it was a scam job. I think caulking windows is like that as is much of the road work projects. Friends of the local congressman getting paid back. That is what I meant above.
Onofre’s arm

I think you’re both right. Obama isn’t that concerned about the jobless numbers, he’s counting on them.

A year ago Obama rode to victory because of a suspiciously timed meltdown of the economy. The collapse of the housing market by accumulated bad paper from countless unwise loans pushed through by the very liberal social engineering CRA, caused a huge ripple effect throughout our banking system and therefor the economy as a whole. Warnings were given by people who realized the potential and likely bubble burst (McCain, Dole, Sununu, and others) but they were ignored and suppressed by the very people who would eventually benefit from the collapse, namely progressive ideologues.

Perhaps the most profound and toxic changes in our country took place under FDR. He was able to use the misery of the Great Depression to his advantage in ramming through many of the most radical changes this country had ever experienced. He played on a citizenry that was so hungry for hope and change, that they didn’t mind the huge departure from the principles that had changed this country from an agrarian colony to an industrial powerhouse. The changes FDR introduced were such a radical move to the far left, that Mussolini even praised him for “..the assumption of extraordinary powers as evidence that dictatorial methods were superceding democratic governments.” And contrary to the ubiquitous urban myth, FDR’s policies didn’t fix the Great Depression, they extended it, and in some cases, made it worse.

Obama and his progressive/Marxist pals are counting on societal unrest to ram their insane Utopian turd balls down our throats. this is the Cloward-Pivens strategy being run to perfection. The cures for our current abysmal state of affairs were available over a year ago, and intelligent people begged for them, but they were not the people in power. Tarp, the stimulus, and the outrageous “health care” and cap and trade proposals were/are exactly the WRONG thing to do at this time, and they know it. Reduction in government spending, temporary elimination of capital gains and reduction in corporate taxes, would have done wonders to fire up our economy. Obama and his devotees don’t want a proven fix though. They want us beaten down and miserable to the point where we will gladly abandon our devotion to individual liberty in favor of a brutally forced social and economic egalitarianism. And this long dreamed of reduction of humanity to the lowest common denominator will not stop at our borders, the whacked out progressive loons want to extend the misery worldwide (think Copenhagen), while they and all or their best friends will be safely walled off from the filthy proletariat.
Onofre’s arm

Admin: Well, I’m off on another Spam feeding Safari!
http://www.BullShit.com Osellingbullshit

Obama is now mad as hell at the bankers…. duh! Who told you to give them the money..??

Next, it will be the media. Obama will soon be mad as hell at the media for not reporting the made up jobs in the nonexistence districts…he created……. huh… huh… huh….

See, there’s something called experience that’s a personal knowledge acquired over time when you are involved in something call work which Obama has zero history of doing or knowing.

Now, how the hell is he going to create jobs when he knows nothing about work or job creation…?? huh…. huh.. huh.. huh….. Karma is a bitch..! Oh lord, help us all!!!
Arabella Trefoil

It’s a Wonderful Life”

Featuring Larry Summers as Clarence the Angel

“Don’t jump off the bridge George. Let’s see what life would have been like if you never had been born. If you had never been born … Hillary would have won the nomination and then election. Aw, shit. Never mind. Jump off the bridge, George. You’ve reached your lifetime health insurance cap anyway. Plus you’re a banker and Obama is rilly, rilly mad at bankers, even bankers with one dollar left in the bank at the end of the day. Go on, jump. And make it snappy because I’m freezing my ass off. And Mr. Potter is throwing a fund raiser for Obama in 30 minutes.”
Onofre’s arm

Bronwyn’s H, I thought you had the ability to rescue stuff from the spam net. Oh well.
Onofre’s arm

Was it something I wrote?
jardg

The City of Phoenix gave their employees a 14 million dollar bonus. We taxpayers were told it was to keep athem from leaving their jobs for something better. There are no better jobs in Arizona.

The bureaucrats read the Wallstreet script. It never occurred to them that Wallstreet had to do something to swindle the world. These government workers think you just have to say something. I guess they learned from The One.

DC gave out bonuses,too. Our governments have become like the Mafia of old. We’re paying for “protection”. You can forget about infrastructure.