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Drill Baby Drill July 24, 2017

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy.
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That was the America First battle cry for decades as the America Last crowd tried to mold us into their version of a second-rate power and potential third world hellhole.  For administration after administration we were lectured about how we had to drive less, trade in our SUVs for tiny little Obama Clown Cars to reach “Energy Independence.”  Now after less than six months of the Trump Administration long stalled pipelines are flowing, America is one of the major oil exporting nations, the cost of gasoline is dropping due to the expanding supply, OPEC is freaking because we’re fracking, and we’re talking about “Oil Dominance.”

Combine that with a resurgent coal industry and we’re beginning to see the outlines of making America great again.

If we can get a healthcare bill that allows the free market to fix the problem, if we can repeal two regulations for every new one (so far Mr. Trump is repealing sixteen for every new one), if we can resist the pressure of the neo-cons for war in Syria, or Iran, or Russia, or anywhere, if we can avoid the political assassination of impeachment we may have a chance to right the Ship-of-State that’s been listing hard to port for generations.

Those are some big “Ifs.”  The political establishment, that two headed bird of prey that constitutes the Republicrat Government Party is fixated on the destruction of the Trump presidency.  They must destroy him and declare that his election was an aberration, a mistake that has to be rebuked and reversed.  If Mr. Trump, a non-politician can succeed than it reveals the truth.  We don’t need professional politicians and technocrats to run the bewildering bureaucracy these same hacks and pencil pushers have created.

We now have a Special Counsel investigating a non-crime.  We have House and Senate committees spending all day every day investigating things they know are cut from whole cloth, castles in the air.  The Progressive Republican majorities in Congress are unable to reverse the travesty of affordable healthcare that costs more.  The courts provide injustice as they block obviously lawful acts of the President because they didn’t like his rhetoric while a candidate.  What is the long and short of all this obstructionism?  The political class and their allies in the chatocracy are determined to reverse the results of the 2016 election.  Or at least to bog the administration down with trumped up investigations to the point they’re paralyzed and ineffective.  Why?  Because they didn’t win and they can’t allow a non-politician to succeed that’s why.

For years the political hucksters told us we had to lower our expectations.  They told us we had to make amends and pay reparations for all the evil we’d done.  We had a president making apology tours, bowing to foreign rulers, and in general doing all he could to fulfill the dreams of his anti-colonial father.

Finally we have a leader who believes America can be great again.  Finally we have a leader who proudly says we should believe in, project, and defend America first.  This is just too much for the apparatchiks who hang on like a drowning man to a life preserver to the levers of power in the bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine that is the federal behemoth.

How do we break the log jam?

Enter my new political party, the Telephone Book Party.  Every two years we pick the first 535 names out of a phone book and that’s our congress.  Then two years later we try another phone book.  At least we’d have some regular people and maybe even a few working people in there instead of these feather-bedding plutocrat wannabes making laws for everyone else that don’t apply to them.

Seriously we have to do something to break out of the death spiral.  If the deadweight would get out of the way and pass a simple healthcare fix such as Senator Cruz’s suggestion of allowing insurance companies to offer affordable policies without all the required Obamacare bells and whistles.  If they would pass tax reform and build the wall President Trump would soar to the top of the polls.  So, you can be assured none of that is going to happen.

What can we do?  We rallied in unprecedented numbers to elect a non-politician to break the cycle and rejuvenate the American dream of personal freedom and economic opportunity.  You can see how well that’s going?

If the Constitution was written expressly to institute and maintain a limited government and we have what we have how can we say it’s a success at the moment?  Dare we say it, the Constitution has failed.  Perhaps it’s time to reassess the social contract by which we order and live our lives.  If ¾ of the States call for a convention to consider amendments according to Article V of the Constitution such a convention shall convene.  Currently twelve States have voted for such a convention.  Thirty-four are needed.  Many fear such a convention.  However, if what we have now is no longer working why should we hesitate?  The Founders and the Framers didn’t hesitate.  They did what was needed to birth this great experiment in human freedom.  Should we hesitate to re-birth it now that it’s become ossified with precedent and political machinations?

We need to plumb the depths of our hearts and the recesses of our souls to find the courage and fortitude to rebuild the walls and pinnacles of human freedom.  Just as the ridiculed advice of drill baby drill led us from energy subservience to energy dominance maybe we need a new deck and not just a new deal?

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion.  He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com  Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens

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Why This When We Want That? March 1, 2010

Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.
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Now that the Health Care Summit is over could we have a Jobs Summit or an Economy Summit? And what a Health Summit it was. When Mitch McConnell the leader of the Senate Republicans pointed out a two for one disparity between the time given to the Democrats and the Republicans Mr. Obama explained, “I don’t count my time because I’m the President.” Senator McCain criticized the current democrat bills for backroom pay-offs and unsavory deals. President Obama quipped this was no time for campaigning since “The elections over.” Representative Cantor, the Republican Whip complained of the excessive length of the health care bills. The President told him displaying the massive bills was merely using them as a prop. Such dismissive mockery doesn’t build agreement.
With the health care process finally out of the backrooms and on TV what did we see? Were we treated to hours of soaring oratory hype proclaims the best in a generation or were we bored to tears? After a few minutes of the President’s lengthy introduction it was painfully obvious that off his teleprompter the Moderator-in-Chief has a hard time framing a complete sentence or expressing a thought. There were more ums and ahs then in a freshman speech class.
Our Professor-in-Chief lectures us daily proving he and his teleprompter may be the greatest orator since Reagan but he’s a poor communicator. How can anyone give hundreds of speeches over a year and then say the reason no one supports his program is because he hasn’t made it clear enough for us to understand. Either he’s saying he can’t communicate or he’s saying we’re too dumb. Maybe instead of thousand page bills he could give us an outline or a PowerPoint? Perhaps it’s time the professor hears what the people are singing, “Hey Teacher, leave those kids alone!”
The vast majority of people want to keep the insurance coverage they have. Sure it would be great to provide insurance for those who don’t have any but if that’s the goal for much less than any of the trillion dollar projections for the nationalization of our health care system we could buy Cadillac plans for every person who needs it. So what’s the point? Why wreck what 84.6% of the people have to insure the other 15.4%? Buy them the insurance. Leave the rest of us alone!
The State of the Union Speech told us our esteemed leader was pivoting away from the health care paradox to focus on reviving our flagging economy. Instead we see the President compulsively fixed on taking-over America’s health care system. The question is why? Once the Feds take over health care besides directly controlling up to 18% of the economy it will also give the vast new army of wellness bureaucrats who will follow the power to interfere in the most intimate and personal aspects of our lives. What we eat, how we exercise, how we drive, what light bulbs we use and where we can smoke all will become health care issues as America slithers towards totalitarianism, which is the total control of a population by their government.
People bought into the vision of “I’m Not Bush” standing between Styrofoam pillars spouting platitudes and avoiding specifics in the midst of an economic meltdown caused by lobbyist advanced cronies and casino capitalism. George II’s answer to his pals sinking the economy with government forced bad loans and toxic derivatives was bail out the perpetrators with tax money from the victims. And what does Hope and Change do? Double down with a pork-filled stimulus boondoggle that’s essentially a slush fund to re-elect Democrats in 2010. Now as an anemic recovery lurches towards a double-dip instead of doing anything anyone believes would actually help he’s banging the health care drum like a political rain man reciting what the weather was like on November 8, 2008.
Is it credible to believe that a team of political operatives who cut their teeth in the swamps of Chicago, who had the finesse to sell an empty suit with smoke and mirrors can’t hear hundreds of millions of Americans shouting, “We don’t want this we want that!” This makes no sense. How do political savants turn into tone-deaf conductors, colorblind painters and tangle-foot dancers overnight? Mistakes of this magnitude do not occur innocently. Almost every political pundit in the nation is endlessly chattering that the Democrats are following the President like lemmings off a midterm cliff and yet the White House organization is focused like a laser on nationalizing health care. Leave it alone! Move on. Allow freedom to fix economy before unsustainable debt sinks the ship of state.
Americans want the economy fixed. This isn’t rocket science. Economic geniuses such as Hayek and Friedman and political leaders such as Coolidge and Reagan charted the course years ago. Fixing the economy is simple: cut taxes, cut the strangulation of regulation and get out of the way. Europe is sinking under the weight of its version of socialism and if we make America the haven of freedom capital and talent will flock to our shores. If we don’t all that capital and talent may well flock to the rising colossus of the East. Forget the health care take over, the photo-ops and endless speeches we don’t want this we want that.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System. http://drrobertowens.com © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net