The Empire Swallowed the Republic February 11, 2016
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Warfare state, Dr. Owens, defense budget, Garet Garret, American emp
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Take a look at the size of the defense budget in America today as a percentage of federal spending.
In 2015 it accounted for 53.71% of the entire budget. Now try to image what would happen to our economy if that spending was stopped and not immediately replaced by other federal spending. See the problem? We may have been warned by President Eisenhower about the military industrial complex. However the thing he forgot to tell us was that the military industrial complex had already won and that we as a nation are dependent on military spending which is dependent on continuing crisis, wars, and garrison duties around the world.
In other words when our most idealistic sing give peace a chance while they are giddy in their idealism, if we chose to follow their advice it would lead us all to depression.
What is the result of all this?
The Empire has swallowed the Republic.
How can we know that? What guide is there to evaluate if this is so?
Garet Garret, that great critic of the New Deal revolution which changed America forever outlined the characteristics of empire:
(1) Rise of the executive principle of government to a position of dominant power
(2) Accommodation of domestic policy to foreign policy
(3) Ascendancy of the military mind
(4) A system of satellite nations for a purpose called collective security, and,
(5) An emotional complex of vaunting and fear.
There are other versions of this metric used to recognize an empire.
- Imperial boundaries – there is a distinction between imperial and non-imperial space.
- Dissolution of equality – subordinates are considered to be “client states” or “satellites.” In other words international relations are not between equals, but between a “center” and a “periphery.”
- The existence of most empires has been due to a mix of chance and contingency – most empires do not arise due to “will to empire” (imperialism) or a grand strategy, but rather a series of circumstances that lead to increased power and control of people and/or territories.
- The capacity for reform and regeneration – empires do not need to necessarily hold to the qualities of the original situation in which it was conceived. Often they become independent of the values/qualities of the founder(s).
- Inability to remain neutral in relation to the powers in its sphere of influence – empires will retaliate if there is an attempt at independence or non-participation on the part of its subordinates.
Ask yourself, are any of the current crop of presidential candidates from either side of the government party talking about ending America’s crushing commitment to empire?
If we would bring our troops home, use them to guard our borders, and held in reserve to protect our genuine interests we would have all the money we need to do anything we want.
Whichever guide for recognizing an empire you choose one of these or any of the many others available America transitioned long ago from a peaceful nation of farmers, shop keepers, and mechanics into a worldwide empire projecting power for many reasons, few of which have anything to do with either our vital interests or our security. We have garrison troops in over one hundred nations. We are spending billions building infrastructure for people who burn it down while our own nation crumbles.
We are spending ourselves into the poor house for nations that hate us. Which brings us back to the problem imagined in the beginning of this essay: what would happen to our economy if that spending was stopped and not immediately replaced by other federal spending?
The answer to this question is found in a fundamental need in the American psyche: the need for a mission. Today our mission is portrayed as being the world’s unipolar hegemon involved in everything everywhere a roll completely inappropriate and incompatible with a free republic. History is littered with the dust left behind by republics that have tried it and found themselves becoming slave states with imperial dictators on their way to being debtors who collapse in economic ruin. Look at Athens. Look at Rome. If they could not avoid this, how can we?
I know many will try to broad brush these thoughts with the stain of isolationism or America First. For one, I am not advocating for isolation because I advocate for peace and trade with all. And secondly, I don’t think there is anything wrong with Americans thinking of America first.
Here is my solution. End our occupation of Europe and Korea. Stop the endless war in Afghanistan. Close every military base in the world that does not directly protect the Homeland. Build effective walls on our borders and use our returning troops to garrison them. Instead of providing military aid to other nations refit, retrain, and retain our own military so that it is unthinkable that anyone would challenge us.
And what shall be our new national goal?
Let us dedicate ourselves to once again becoming not only the preeminent space faring nation but also the nation that sets its sights on the active exploration and colonization of the Solar System. I believe if we build the Starship Enterprise in earth orbit no one would dare becoming the target for its phaser banks. The technology that would evolve from a renewed move into space would expand our lives and offset the cost.
Today we are a dysfunctional republic masquerading as a functional democracy. Tomorrow we may be an operating oligarchy with the veneer of a republic. Following this trajectory how long will it be until we are a third world hellhole that used to be the United States of America.
As Garet Garret, told us “There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom.”
Jettison the empire to save the republic!
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens. Dr. Owes’ first fiction book, America’s Trojan War is coming soon.
Who Voted For That? January 28, 2016
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Immigration, Dr. Robert Owens, welfare, welfare state, taxes, progressive agenda, Obama agenda, new normal, full employment, under employed, Federal Reserve, quantitative easing
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Who voted for an immigration policy whose purpose is to change the racial, ethnic and cultural make-up of the United States? That is exactly what the Kennedy Immigration Bill of 1965 was designed to do and just what it has done.
Who voted for open borders and constant calls for amnesty for anyone who can drag themselves across the border? Has anyone else noticed that the estimate of how many illegals are in the United States has been stuck at 11 million for at least the last 11 years?
Who voted for anchor babies automatically gaining citizenship? This has led to birth tourism wherein pregnant women from all over the world fly in, have their babies, go home, and then Uncle Sugar is on the hook for these babies the rest of their lives. This entire fraudulent practice is based on a blatant misinterpretation of the 14th amendment. The correct interpretation based on original intent is readily available for anyone who can click a mouse.
Contrary to the common knowledge of everyone successfully programed by the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media and the public indoctrination centers once known as schools anchor babies are not found anywhere in the constitution. In fact they didn’t even exist until 1982 when Justice Brennan slipped them into the footnote of a Supreme Court decision. Notice I didn’t say into a Supreme Court decision it is found only in a footnote.
And contrary to Bill O’Reilly and many other armchair lawyers this could be corrected without a constitutional amendment. All that is needed is a law which clarifies that Justice Brennan’s footnote does not carry the force of law. It’s kind of a no-brainer when you think about it.
Who voted for unlimited and unregulated abortion on demand? In 1973 the rogue Supreme Court out to remake America by fiat declared in Roe v. wade that all state laws regulating abortion were unconstitutional. Since that red letter day the blood of more than 57 million babies stains the hands of America. Our babies have been dismembered in the womb and had their skulls pierced with scissors as they were being born. Their bodies have been tossed like garbage into landfills, flushed down toilets, and sold for their organs.
Who voted for restricting the rights of lawful citizens to keep and bear arms? Over and over we hear about commonsense gun laws. Every one of these proposals does nothing to stop criminals from getting guns. They are criminals, so breaking the law is what they do. All of these proposals have just one result: they restrict the rights of law abiding citizens since they are the only ones who follow the laws.
When the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution it was because the so-called Ant-Federalists refused to ratify the document without these first ten amendments. The statements of the Framers as enumerated in the Federalist Papers and the demands of the opposition as enumerated in the Anti-Federalist Papers makes it clear that the 2nd Amendment was meant to give the people the right to defend themselves against personal attack and against tyranny. Criminals love unarmed victims and tyrants love citizens who cannot resist their authority.
Who voted for Obamacare which destroyed the best healthcare system ever known to man and after six years we are told there are just as many people without insurance as there were before? Polls before its passage and since have consistently shown that the majority of the American people do not want this train wreck of a law. Yet despite our best efforts to make our opposition known this is shoved down our throats like a horse pill that chokes a patient to death before we find out it is really a placebo.
Who voted for our president to bow before despots and dictators? Never before in History has an American president bowed before a foreign leader or anyone else. Until the revolutionary presidency of Barak Obama it would have been considered shameful. No one ever imagined it would happen. Under the man determined to take America down a peg or two it hasn’t happened, once or twice or even three times. On eight separate occasions our president has bowed before foreigners not only showing his respect for them but also showing his contempt for us.
Who voted for the Fed to pump trillions of fiat money into Dodd-Frank banks too big to fail? Since the crash of 2008 the Federal Reserve has been printing money at an unprecedented rate. Where has all this monopoly money gone? To the banks too big to fail, of course, through the happy-go-lucky-how-can-this-ever-fail money machine known as Quantitative Easing. What a friendly sounding name for a galloping printing press. All this supposed money is adding to the national debt and still no inflation. I think someone should tell the geniuses at the Fed what inflation is: more money chasing the same number of goods. No inflation means no raises for anyone except the plutocrats who run the crony capitalist institutions and the government people who print the money. No inflation, right. Has anyone been to the grocery store recently?
Who voted for an economy that instead of recovering has plateaued at a new normal with over 90 million able bodied people out of the work force, only slightly more than 122 million working, and a government that calls this full employment? The government’s own statistics show that approximately 62% of the workforce is working. To me that looks like 36% aren’t working. Full employment is generally accepted as meaning, “The condition in which virtually all who are able and willing to work are employed.” Does anyone see a problem with this picture?
Who voted for any of this?
Oh, wait a minute. Anyone who has voted for a Democrat in the last fifty years voted for all of this.
To paraphrase Sam Cooke
Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took
Don’t know much about geography
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for
But I do know that if Progressives can fool you
And I know that if Progressives could fool me, too
What a wonderful world this would be
Just don’t take the red pill. Whatever you do, don’t take the red pill. Take the blue one. You’ll feel much better as we slide into the dustbin of History.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Why Do They Lie to Us Over and Over? January 21, 2016
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Government lies, Dr. Robert Owens, IRS scandal, Benghazi scandal, unemployment figures, unemployment rate, Obama’s lies, Obama’s scandals, Clinton Scandal Benghazi, Obama cover-up, mainstream medi
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Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Progressives and the Big Lie(s):
When faced with the highest levels of unemployment in American History why does the government trumpet a falling unemployment rate? In the face of overwhelming evidence of ineptness at best in Benghazi why do our hacks and their flacks insult us with answers like, “Dude this was two years ago!” With the obvious politicization of the IRS why does the president tell us there isn’t even a smidgen of corruption in the IRS while professional bureaucrats who really run this country take the 5th, stonewall, and lie?
The Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media regales us with oxymoronic statements such as, “Despite the unemployment rate plummeting, more than 92 million Americans remain out of the labor force.” The Great Recession grinds on in the lives of everyday working people while our leaders talk about a recovery that only benefits them and their cronies. If you live in Washington DC or the surrounding area you are probably doing fine, for the rest of us in fly-over country not so much.
The shoes in the Benghazi scandal continue to drop finally reaching the point where even go-along-to-get-along John Boehner finally agreed to allow the House to vote on the establishment of a select Committee so that this long simmering embarrassment could hopefully come to the truth. Then again, as our once and future Queen said, “What difference at this point does it make?”
A funny thing happened on his way to becoming the Speaker of the House after Boehner fell on his sword for the Progressive agenda House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the entire Benghazi investigation was designed only to hurt Hillary’s poll numbers. He blew his chance for the big seat but at least he completely discredited the committee which also advanced the Progressive agenda.
Remember the IRS scandal. The one that was swept under the carpet?
Article 2 section 1 of the Articles of Impeachment filed against President Nixon was about the abuse of power. It stated, “He has, acting personally and through his subordinated and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”
Now 40 years later, under the Obama regime, the taxman cometh. When massive harassment of conservative groups by the IRS came to light as reported in The Daily Caller (DC) we were told:
- Progressives were targeted, too
For months, Democrats and the media relied on the talking point that progressive groups also ended up on an IRS “Be on the Lookout” list while the agency was auditing and seizing information from conservative groups. But as The DC reported, IRS agents testified before the House oversight committee that the IRS scrutinized ACORN groups because it thought they were old groups applying as new ones; the group Emerge America was scrutinized for potential “improper private benefit;” and no evidence exists to prove that the IRS targeted any Occupy Wall Street group.
“Only seven applications in the IRS backlog contained the word ‘progressive,’ all of which were then approved by the IRS… [T]here is simply no evidence that any liberal or progressive group received enhanced scrutiny because its application reflected the organization’s political views,” according to an oversight committee staff report.
- No White House involvement
“Not necessarily the White House” was the phrase that some Democratic “strategist” used when attacking one of our Daily Caller stories on cable television last year. He meant that while the IRS may have been corrupt to its very Washington core, President Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett have not yet been photographed sifting through tea party applications at a desk in the Lincoln Bedroom.
But we do know, however, courtesy of The Daily Caller’s reporting, that Lerner exchanged confidential taxpayer information on conservative groups with White House officials including White House health-policy adviser Ellen Montz and Deputy Assistant to the President for Health Policy Jeanne Lambrew, who just happened to be the most powerful official on Obamacare implementation within the White House.
- A couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati
Ah, yes. The “WKRP in Cincinnati” Theory of 2013. You know the episode where the wacky characters in the Cincinnati office make a little “whoops” and take it upon themselves to target conservatives nationwide? A team of reporters from The New York Times, including dreamboat Nicholas Confessore, even went to bat for the administration on this theory last year, publishing a disgraceful article about Ohio-based “confusion” and “staff troubles” among “Low-level employees in what many in the I.R.S. consider a backwater.”
But at least five different offices ranging from Chicago to Laguna Niguel, CA. were engaging in this kind of “confusion,” and the whole excuse got torn down like Riverside Stadium. A Cincinatti-based IRS official said that Washington “was basically throwing us under the bus.” The bus to the world-renowned American Sign Museum.
- Lerner can still cite the Fifth Amendment
That’s what her lawyer, Bill Taylor, wrote in a recent letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, calling a possible contempt vote “un-American.” But it’s just not true. Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment privilege when she made a statement attesting to her innocence at a May 2013 oversight hearing. The oversight committee and U.S. House counsel both determined as much.
- It could take years for the IRS to get all of Lerner’s emails
That’s what new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who has been threatened with contempt himself, told oversight investigators. But the independent group Judicial Watch managed to obtain emails showing Lerner coordinating with the Department of Justice to potentially prosecute conservative activists. It only took Judicial Watch one Freedom of Information Act request to get that stuff. “Now I see why the IRS is scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails,” said oversight member Rep. Jim Jordan. When they were found and they did show not only that the conservative groups were targeted but also that the IRS tried to cover it up, nothing happened except Louis Lerner continues to receive her massive pension of over $100,000 per year plus we have learned that she also earned Up to $129,000 in bonuses for her exemplary work.
- Don’t worry, federal government investigators are on top of things
Eric Holder’s Department of Justice tapped an Obama political donor to head its investigation. FBI investigators went months without contacting the conservative groups that were victimized by the IRS targeting, and leaked to the press that no criminal charges would be filed in relation to the case before much of the relevant information we currently have even came out.
The Obama administration’s investigation of the scandal was such a joke that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte accused Obama and Holder of “undermining” investigators on multiple occasions, and joined with other House GOP leaders in calling for a special counsel to prosecute the case.
But if the investigation was a joke, here’s the punchline: The Justice Department has been the only investigative body to ask Lois Lerner any questions, at an off-the-record “Q+A” that was not under oath.
- Only tea party groups were targeted
Good for the IRS for taking a firm stand against all those wacky tea party groups popping up out in Palookaville trying to exercise their little “First Amendment rights.” Bunch of Koch-funded rednecks.
But oh wait: The IRS also audited the Leadership Institute, founded by Morton C. Blackwell, which has been one of the Washington area’s foremost conservative activist training organizations since 1979, even demanding personal information about the institute’s college-aged interns. Oh yeah, and the IRS also told a pro-life group “you can’t force your religion” and tried to stop pro-life activists from picketing Planned Parenthood clinics.
- The targeting is over now
Sure it is. Just ask Ron Paul and his group Campaign for Liberty’s donors about that.
Now the latest update, despite a court order to the contrary the IRS has deleted hard drives that held critical evidence in the agency’s on-going scandals.
And now the BIG LIE continues in the Benghazi scandal. The movie 13 Hours has come out. It is amazing and every American should see it. Written by and based upon the experiences of three of the surviving heroes this movie tells the story that has been hidden from us for so long. In the aftermath of the release the families of the victims have once again come forward and said that Hillary told them at the coffin ceremony that a video was the cause of the attack. She also said that they would arrest the maker of the video. Subsequently some of Hillary’s emails which were only obtained through a Freedom of Information request, a law suit and a judge’s order show that she knew this to be a lie at the time she used it to cover herself and the President at the time. She has admitted this is true at the discredited Benghazi hearings.
The families are saying Hillary lied. Hillary is now saying that she never blamed the video and in essence that the families are lying. Every news outlet is playing this like a “He said she said” debate. They are interviewing the families. Of course Hillary avoids interviews from anyone except her pet networks and their softball questions.
Here is my big problem with the big lie. One click of the mouse and you can pull up the YouTube video of Hillary at the coffin ceremony blaming the video. The maker of the video was arrested and is still in jail. The one who lied to the families, lied to the nation isn’t in jail, isn’t under a cloud of shame. No, they are now busy with the help of the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media and their cable henchmen lying her way to the White House
Why do they lie to us over and over?
The easy answer is because they can. The major media has morphed from a watchdog to a lapdog barking on cue that everything is all right, there’s nothing to see here, move along.
The best government money can buy has shown us that they can safely operate on the assumption that American voters choose their leaders based on the philosophy, “I know he’s a liar but I like what he says.”
But hey there’s a game on tonight! Or as President Obama’s body double Alfred E. Newman has been known to say, “What me, worry?”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Happy Days Are Here Again Again January 14, 2016
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: The Bush recession, Dr. Robert Owens, the Obama recovery, the phony recovery, Obama’s economic policies, Progressive economic policies, the new normal, the great r
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So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Can you believe it the Bush recession has been over for more than five years. According to the government figures unemployment is down. As a matter of fact according to the Progressive Project President Obama has brought America sixty one straight months of booming economic growth and full employment. According to our Progressive leaders this is the greatest recovery and the strongest boom in American History. Just look with only billions upon billions of new fiat money each month for sixty one months the stock market is up, and everything is coming up roses. There is a flat screen on every wall, a smart phone in every hand, and flying cars just can’t be that far away. Why, the economy is doing so good that twenty somethings are retiring to Mom’s basement and living the high life.
The Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have either been won or soon will be or as the winning slogan said, “GM is alive and Osama Bin Laden is dead.” The Arab Spring has toppled tyrants and the glorious leading from behind of the administration’s foreign policy savants has ricocheted from the faculty lounge to the UN. Doesn’t it just feel like another American Century?
The Fed keeps pumping and the Big Board keeps jumping. The NSA watches us all without a warrant, and the man who tells us about it is a traitor. Congress has to sue the President in an attempt to get him to enforce laws unless of course he wants to change a law unilaterally. The Court strikes down unconstitutional move after unconstitutional move by the adjunct instructor in the Oval Office. Yet he continues to issue decree after decree with the force of law. The IRS is used to suppress the votes of Conservatives, its leaders either lying to Congress or pleading the Fifth while Attorney General Holder refused to appoint a special prosecutor just as he refused in Fast and Furious and Benghazi. Of course if you want to require a photo id to vote you’re a racist attempting to suppress the vote while you need a photo ID to get into the DNC. There’s nothing to see here so move along.
Common Core is poised to take our educational system to higher heights. After more than 100 years of Progressive Education and generations of Federal intrusions into local school boards America now successfully spends more per capita on education than any other country. The self-esteem of our students ranks as the highest in the world even as our grades slide. In other words our students are doing poorly, but they think they are doing well.
It reminds me of a foreman in a factory who was in one of my management classes. He shared an incident in his shop. A young man was hired as a material handler who wore his pants down around his knees. He constantly had to use one hand to hold up his pants while using the free hand to handle material. When the foreman asked him, “Don’t you think you could get more done if you used both hands?” the young man answered, “No I’m doing all right.” The job may not get done but at least he feels good about what he’s doing. Is this the American Way in the New Normal?
Russia swallows Crimea, China launches its first aircraft carrier and starts building a second while creating islands out of nothing and claiming the entire South China Sea, the Islamic State declares itself to be the Caliphate some of us were thought crazy to predict. Oh Happy Day! Once again America is respected in the world after that cowboy Bush brought us so low. Reagan said it was once again Morning in America and now we have Mourning in America as the fruit of Progressive policies, and cum bi ya diplomacy leads us from crisis to crisis. Then again we should never let a good crisis go to waste said President Obama’s first Chief of Staff before heading to Chicago to strengthen the gun laws.
Looking forward there is good news and bad news. The good news is that thanks to that paragon of progressivism, FDR, there are term limits on the presidency. The bad news is our southern sieve and the import-a-voter program brings in thousands of undocumented democrats everyday as Flat Broke Hillary and the transition team waits in the wings with self-proclaimed Native American Elizabeth Warren as an understudy.
I used to say, “We made it through the Second World War, and we can make it through Bill Clinton.” Then I said, “We made it through the Cold War we can make it through Bush the Younger.” Now I wonder, “If we threw away Iraq and we’re about to throw away Afghanistan, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona how will we survive another year of rule by decree with a Republican Congress that has gone over to the dark side?”
We may not be in Kansas anymore and we may have followed the white rabbit through the looking glass but at least illegal immigrants can now get drivers licenses in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C. These states are estimated to have an illegal immigrant population of 4,120,000 combined. Can anyone say “Motor Voter” or coming to a neighborhood near you soon. How can this ever go wrong with millions of undocumented Democrats and Hillary, or as I like to call her, “The Nail in Our Coffin” and the Predator-in-Chief ready to turn the White House into a Gentleman’s Club.
Altogether shout it now
There’s no one
Who can doubt it now
So let’s tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There’ll be no more from now on
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So, Let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again! Again!!
Just in case you hadn’t noticed.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Fly Me to the Moon January 7, 2016
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Syria, Dr. Robert Owens, Bashar al-Assad, refugees, ISIS, civil war in Syria, no-fly zone, S-3
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Some of our more bellicose presidential candidates want a no-fly zone in Syria. Some are adamant about it, and some are nonchalant but make no mistake however they express it a no-fly zone in Syria is not a tool in the war against ISIS.
ISIS doesn’t have an air force.
A no-fly zone in Syria can only be aimed at Russia who is flying in the area of the desired zone and the air force of the legitimate government of Syria. Now we may say that the government of Bashar al-Assad is evil. We may say it makes war against its own people. We may even say Assad has to go but his government is the only internationally recognized and therefore legitimate government of Syria. It is this government’s representatives who serve at the UN. It is it’s ambassadors who serve in the embassies around the world.
We may not like reality but reality is reality none-the-less. Russia is an ally of this reality based legitimate government and it has been given bases and it operates in that country with the blessing of the aforesaid legitimate government. We do not our operations in Syria are unilateral.
Yes, the government has lost control of large portions of its territory to ISIS and other Jihadi factions. However, we do not recognize the territory seized by these terrorists as theirs. So whose is it? Do we recognize it as some type of no-man’s land? No, we still recognize it as part of a sovereign state. Yet we act as if that sovereign state does not have a government. It does. We may choose not to recognize it but the rest of the world does.
So let’s be crystal clear what our want-to-be leaders are recommending we do. They want us to declare a no-fly zone in a sovereign country and enforce it against that country’s own air force and its ally. They want us to shoot down the aircraft of Russia. True Russian jets may not be a match for American in quantity or quality so in dog-fights we would most probably prevail most of the time. However, the Russians are now deploying the S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems.
According to the National Interest, one senior U.S. Marine Corps aviator said the S-300 series is a deadly threat to everything except the most advanced stealth fighters and bombers “A complete game changer for all fourth-gen aircraft [like the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18]. That thing is a beast and you don’t want to get near it.” Only the U.S. Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor or the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber would be able to operate inside areas protected by those weapons.
The lethal effectiveness of these weapons effectively makes most of Syria a de facto Russian no-fly zones for U.S. and allied aircraft.
We have the Raptors and the B-2s that could not only evade but take out these systems. So it is not because I believe we cannot prevail in a conventional battle that makes me ask our leaders and our people to take a breath, stand back and think about this. Does declaring a no-fly zone make any sense?
For one thing if we declare a no fly zone we must be prepared to take down Russian planes. Some of our prospective leaders proudly say they are willing to do so. We must also be prepared for our planes to be taken out by either Russian jets or their surface-to-air missiles. None of the candidates talk about this, however by seeking to impose a no-fly zone they are implicitly agreeing to this as well. If we start an air war with Russia can a ground war be far behind?
Why should we fight a war with Russia when their expressed goal is the same as ours, the destruction of ISIS?
And if we were to get into a shooting war with Russia China would stand back and smile as its day in the sun draws closer. As the sun sets in the west it rises in the east.
I do not oppose a no-fly zone in Syria because we can’t enforce it. I don’t oppose it because it might bring a confrontation with Russia that would do nothing to enhance our security and much to impair it. I oppose a no-fly zone because it is unnecessary. If our goal is to provide safe havens for Syrians trying to flee the fighting while staying in the neighborhood we already have two massive no-fly zones: Jordan and Turkey.
We can provide more than adequate support for any and all refugees in both of these Muslim countries for much less than a shooting war or a mass migration and they can provide their own air cover.
Let’s use our heads. Don’t allow people seeking votes who want to sound tough to play on our emotions like a cheap violin and convince us that it makes sense to sing an out of tune chorus of Fly Me to the Moon as they fly us into the middle of someone else’s civil war or worse yet World War III with a nuclear power no one has been able to beat for hundreds of years.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2016 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Merry Christmas and a Happy New America December 17, 2015
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.Tags: Obama taxes, Dr. Robert Owens, Obama Alinsky, Progressive agenda, Chicago Outfit, Obama Hawaii, Obama Chicago, community organizer
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In December of 1914 in the first bitter winter of a long bitter war the solders of the German Empire and the soldiers of the British Empire defied the orders of their officers. They abandoned their hastily dug entrenchments that would soon grow into an elaborate maze of trenches stretching from Switzerland to the English Channel to meet each other in no man’s land. They sang hymns and exchanged gifts in a spontaneous outpouring of the feelings of peace, fellowship, and forgiveness which were then the staples of a Christ centered Christmas season.
If you drench yourself in the torrent of Christmas movies that bombard us from Thanksgiving till December 25th you see that the spirit of Christmas in emotional America isn’t about Christ: God clothed in the flesh of a child who came into a lost world to die as a payment for sin and to rise again to bring new life. It is instead about the sentimental ideal of love and the boy gets the girl or is it the girl gets the boy? Who knows sometimes they throw in a curve that really builds the suspense. There are movies about Santa Clause, his sons, his daughters, his elves, and wingless angels all of whom help people learn the true meaning of Christmas, which is never about Christ and always about family and friends and being nice people.
In commercial America, Christmas is about Black Friday and discounts so deep they remind me of the street vendor in Mexico who follows you shouting “I’ll give you 110% off if you buy two!” The Chia Pets come out along with snuggies, pet rocks, and every other doodad imaginable to buy for people who already have too much.
The mountains of presents which obscenely bury Christmas trees in so many American homes are ripped apart by sugar-high children. Children who get into a frenzy of getting so intense they never have time to appreciate what they get. All they want is to get something else. The beautiful wrapping paper, the miles of ribbon, and the forests of bows are stuffed unceremoniously into big green garbage bags on their way to landfills.
So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.
In the still sweet morning of December 26 people start preparing for the next blast of holiday cheer, Happy New Year!!!
What will 2016 bring?
Whether we plunge over another fiscal cliff, the government shuts down, or another executive order reminds us we are living in a dysfunctional democracy ruled by decree it will bring us a New America. An America cast in the image of our Community-Organizer-in-Chief. This representative of the Saul Alinsky wing of the Progressive movement, this made man from the Chicago political Outfit won a second term and as it ends seems determined to rub our face in the defeat of all we hold dear. Whether it was through the voter fraud no one seems willing to mention or through the actual votes of those who bought into the Uncle Sugar myth and vote for Santa Clause, the man from Hawaii who says he’s from Chicago and who won’t tell us much of anything else, is determined to create the Age of Obama, or America in his own image.
In the New America today more people qualify for disability than get jobs, more people get food stamps than start businesses, and more people forget that America was founded to provide individual liberty, personal freedom and economic opportunity and embrace America as a cradle-to-grave welfare state. People forget that when you limit failure you also limit success. They don’t understand that when you create a safety net so complete it becomes a hammock many people figure why work when you can play.
Incentive is stifled by entitlements, and innovation is strangled by regulation.
In our New America in 2016:
* Taxes will go up and up as spending goes up even faster.
* Regulations will pour out of the bureaucracy to fill in all the blanks in thousand page laws no one ever reads.
* Our President will continue to bow before despots.
* Our foreign policy will continue to support radical Islam while pretending to battle it in the Mideast.
* No one will ever be held accountable for the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, or any of the other scandals which erupt from the pustule of corruption that is Inside the Beltway.
* The burgeoning energy industry that had the potential to lift America out of its economic tailspin has been throttled as the coal industry, the fracking boom, and oil shale are all regulated to death.
* We will pour billions down the green energy rat holes building industries that cannot produce enough energy to exist without government support.
* Obamacare will continue to destroy the insurance industry and eventually a single payer system will consign the rest of us to standing in lines in converted gymnasiums for impersonal care while our leaders take limousines and private jets to the Mayo Clinic all on our dime.
* Industry will continue to flow out as foreign made goods flow in and the mother of all imbalanced trade agreements is advertised as free.
* We will be monitored by drones, wire taps, and computers as Big Brother extends his grasp till freedom becomes just another name for nothing left to lose.
* The borders will remain open and tens of thousands of refugees and perhaps thousands of Islamist radicals are brought here at our expense and over our objections.
This may be the New America that awaits us in 2016. Our families, friends, and neighbors have voted for it, and we all get to live in it: oh happy days are here again. The second coming of FDR has put food stamps in every pot and a Smart Car in every garage.
In our New America Christ has been purged from Christmas and sappy sentimentality has replaced the joy of being born again in a relationship with God our loving Father. So as you prepare to celebrate Christmas and the New Year be sure and thank any of the millions of Obamazombies and low information voters who get their opinions from the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media and who actually believe the economy is recovering and glory in America being knocked off its high horse for the New America we are all unwrapping under the Xmas Tree this year.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2015 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
New Book December 14, 2015
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Dr. Robert Owens announces his newest book:
Political Action Follows Political Philosophy: More Dispatches From the History of the Future
The vast majority of human action reflects the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings of the actor. There have always been and there will always be those whose actions are erratic or divorced from reality. The actions of this small minority are best ascribed to pathology not philosophy. For the rest of us, we think therefore we are. What we think about today we act upon tomorrow. The Dispatches from the History of the Future contained in this book convey the basic political philosophy which I believe will one day re-inspire our nation to stride upon the stage of History with another round of liberating political action.
Now available on Amazon.com
And other sites online.
You can also request that your local library obtain a copy.
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 