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ECONOMY:

There's no doubt that House Republicans, because they have stymied a little bit of the damage Obama had been doing, have helped our economy be less bad than it otherwise would. This is why so-called gridlock always leads to an improved economy. Just blocking a few big-government programs helps the American people by leaving resources in their control. But this doesn't mean the economy is improving. It's not. Inflation is making it appear as if the economy is improving. But it's not getting worse as fast as it was. Even Ben Bernanke disputed Obama's job growth numbers:

"In other words, the U.S. job market is in a constant state of flux, with people leaving the workforce due to retirement, or being fired, or leaving a job for a better position, etc. Likewise, some of the positions will be refilled, taking a person out of the ranks of the unemployed. These are not jobs created, but replacement hirings. Then Bernanke concluded, "the increase in employment since the end of 2009 has been due to a significant decline in layoffs but only a moderate improvement in hiring.""

As I said, the economy is still going down, just not as fast.

TAX AND SPEND:

While Republicans wine about regulatory overreach, they continue to fund the regulators.

The US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, but politicians blame others for jobs leaving the country.

A few Republicans have offered a budget with deeper spending cuts that would balance the budget in five years. It's nice to see somebody in Congress being reasonable.

Mark Steyn reminds us of the terrible truth about government spending.

"Including the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, the United States owes 911 percent of gross domestic product, more than even Greece."

And it's growing every day.

"Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute calculates that, if you take into account unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare versus their European equivalents, Greece owes 875 percent of GDP; the United States owes 911 percent – or getting on for twice as much as the second-most insolvent Continental: France at 549 percent.

And if you're thinking, wow, all these percentages are making my head hurt, forget 'em: When you're spending on the scale Washington does, what matters is the hard dollar numbers. Greece's total debt is a few rinky-dink billions, a rounding error in the average Obama budget. Only America is spending trillions. The 2011 budget deficit, for example, is about the size of the entire Russian economy. By 2010, the Obama administration was issuing about a hundred billion dollars of Treasury bonds every month – or, to put it another way, Washington is dependent on the bond markets being willing to absorb an increase of U.S. debt equivalent to the GDP of Canada or India – every year. And those numbers don't take into account the huge levels of personal debt run up by Americans. College debt alone is over a trillion dollars, or the equivalent of the entire South Korean economy – tied up just in one small boutique niche market of debt which barely exists in most other developed nations."

Are you getting the picture now?

The US debt crisis is a lot like a car going over a cliff. We've already gone over the cliff, so arguing whether we should speed up or slow down is immaterial. The only thing we should be debating is how to soften the landing. I don't think Americans realize this yet.

EDUCATION:

Student expelled for tweeting a profanity.

Four students arrested after cafeteria food fight.

It's bad enough that government kidnaps children from parents and locks them in prison-schools 180 days a year, but now they're kidnapping them out of their prison schools and sending them elsewhere under the guise of terrorist evacuation drills. This must be brainwashing them for sticking them in FEMA camps.

"Do we really need to have "active shooter" drills where men point guns at our kids and fire blanks at them? Do we really need to have "relocation drills" where kids are rapidly herded on to buses and told that they must surrender their cell phones because they will not be allowed to call anyone?"

Once you know the nature of government and you ask what do the people in charge have to gain, politics and policy become pretty easy to understand and predict. But I don't get this one. Other than just deeper brainwashing children and parent to acquiesce to our rulers, I don't see the point. Maybe, given the economic collapse on the horizon, they feel the deeper brainwashing is necessary so people won't question government's legitimacy.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Great Pharaoh OKs oil exploration off the Atlantic coast. How generous of him. We should all bow down and kiss his scepter. But he still won't allow drilling.

White House officials were heavily involved in the Solyndra collapse.

Great Pharaoh has cut oil production on federal lands by 17,000 barrels a day.

Canadian government drops some climate change budget items. If only our government was that benevolent.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Thanks to the war in drugs, there are now more people in prison in the US than in Stalin's gulags. US elites are finally considering legalizing marijuana after decades in order to collect tax revenue. And since they want the American people to be stupefied and distracted, why not allow marijuana to work for them? It might help keep the masses docile during the coming economic collapse. But when they admit they lied to us about marijuana for all these decades, will the American people realize they're also lying about cocaine and opium? I doubt it. Government schools have brainwashed people to nod their heads at whatever their rulers tell them regardless of how stupid it is. Here's a couple of more reasons why our rulers might be changing their stance on marijuana:

"It is hard to say why the elites have decided to soften the rhetoric on the drug war at this time. One speculation would be that reducing drug usage penalties or eliminating them tends to blur the increasingly authoritarian line that Western governments are taking as regards "austerity" and other Draconian measures.

Or perhaps the inevitable sociopolitical debate over drugs will simply distract attention from other more important moves the elites are making to impose global government."

Government has to remain legitimate in the eyes of its citizens, and right now doubts about its legitimacy are growing fast. Legalizing marijuana might boost its legitimacy temporarily, but ultimately libertarians will make hay if they do it. If they legalize marijuana, it will be fun to watch both parties scramble to claim they've always wanted to legalize it.

POLICE STATE:

So it turns out police did arrest Zimmerman after he shot Martin, and this video shows no apparent wounds.

"It was already known that the shooter was treated by paramedics at the scene, but the lack of any clear injuries has led some to suggest that they have been overstated."

Whether they were overstated was not the issue. If he was treated by paramedics, he must have been injured. The paramedic report will tell us about those wounds. Wounds prove nothing anyway. You can get wounds in self-defense or if the other guy is acting in self-defense. What matters is who initiated the conflict, and we know Zimmerman stalked Martin. To the best of my knowledge, we have no reason to believe Martin initiated the conflict other than the claims of his stalker. But because Martin is dead, there is no evidence to contradict Zimmerman.

WAR:

Israel allying with Azerbaijan to attack Iran.

POLITICS:

Great observation: unemployed people, because they have nothing better to do, are more likely to vote. That means that putting people out of work then promising them unemployment benefits is a great way to buy votes.

MEDIA:

ABC journalist admits ABC journalism is about advocating positions, not attempting to be an unbiased information source.

The news can't publicize the Zimmernam case enough, but it's ignoring the case of Allen Coon.

"The boy raised his hand, eager to answer the question. "What would you know about it?" exclaimed the teacher dismissively. "You're not our race."

This was not dialogue from a Hollywood movie. According to a woman named Melissa Coon, it was what a teacher at East High School in Kansas City told her 13-year-old son, Allen, when he attempted to answer a question during Black History Month. Coon identifies that teacher as Mrs. Karla Dorsey, who is black; Allen is white.

As has already been reported, Allen was a victim of a vicious racial attack last week in which two older black teens doused him with gasoline and set him alight, saying, "This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy." Not surprisingly, Coon has pulled her son out of East High and, concerned about further racial violence, intends to leave the K.C. area."

What else would you expect from advocacy journalists?

Apparently endorsements, including the endorsement of a past president, only has impact if CNN says it has impact. Can you imagine this headline being written about Obama four years ago?

MISC:

Solar tornadoes bigger than earth.

The giant sunspot group that sent two CME's our way a couple of weeks ago is still going strong and rotating back around to face earth again.