Thursday, January 29, 2015

BloggeRhythms

Assorted items in the recent news provide a sharpening picture of just how ineptly the current administration has performed since inception.
 
To begin,  Jack Farchy in Moscow for the Financial Times reports that “Russia was stripped of its investment grade credit rating for the first time in a decade on Monday night, as Standard & Poor’s cut it to “junk” in the latest blow to the Russian economy.”
 
Mr. Farchy writes that, “It’s the economy, stupid. The Russian economy is facing a perfect storm of tumbling oil prices (energy accounts for more than two-thirds of Russia’s export revenues) and western sanctions that have locked companies out of global capital markets. 
 
“Although the rate of decline may have slowed somewhat since the central bank allowed the ruble to float freely in November (meaning it would not automatically spend its reserves to support the currency), Moscow will probably need to spend more reserves to support struggling companies and to fund a budget deficit in the year ahead.”

What’s  most striking about Russia’s current situation is that the US has been in conflict with that nation since the end of World War II. And today for the first time, the US has a clear opportunity to prevail without any type of real conflict, military or otherwise because Russia’s economy might very well continue to implode.
 
And what’s the primary cause of Russia’s pending fiscal demise? Nothing but the tumbling price of oil. 
 
And what’s the saddest and most infuriating aspects of today’s prevalence for the US? This could have been begun six years ago, had it not been for the administration's support of environmentalists in a fictitious battle against global-warming. Fears that don’t exist now and never did, but have hampered the production of domestic oil. Which also means that Russia would not have had the chance to make advances in Iran, Cuba or the Ukraine. However, politics triumphed over rationality, responsibility and honesty, as always for the Obama administration.
 
Moving on to another item where politics not only forces erroneous decision making but also makes politico’s themselves look like imbeciles or arrogant intellectual elitists, Fox News.com reports that “The White House claimed Wednesday that a potential prisoner swap between the Islamic State and Jordan is different from last year's trade of five Taliban prisoners for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl because the Taliban are only an "armed insurgency." 
 
House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said "it's all semantics," but he wasn’t even close, or perhaps was just being polite. Because the White House’s scrambling excuse was a blatant insult to any human being with an IQ higher than their shoe size. 

Along the same lines, regarding policy in the Middle-East, William Kristol  wrote a concise analysis in weeklystandard.com/blogs regarding the current deterioration of relations between the US and long-time, devoted ally Israel. There’s too much information to concisely relate here, so here’s a link: White House ratchets up criticism of Netanyahu

And then, somehow or other, I missed the data posted back on December 30th by several sources, that some 87 percent of people who just signed up for Obamacare are getting financial assistance to lower their premiums, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a jump from 80 percent during the last open enrollment period. The department did not say how much it was offering to new Obamacare enrollees or what the total bill to taxpayers would be. 
 
Which means that the overwhelming number of those signing up are being subsidized by the shrinking population of individuals actually paying taxes. Another example of the slowly creeping redistribution of wealth that underlies socialism until the goose is dead and nations wind up looking like North Korea, Cuba or Biafra. 

Additionally, Tami Luhby  of CNN Money writes that, “Some 3 million to 6 million Americans will have to pay an Obamacare tax penalty for not having health insurance last year, Treasury officials said Wednesday. It's the first time they have given estimates for how many people will be subject to a fine.”
 
However, whereas the IRS is in charge of the tax collection, those inept bozo’s will likely wind up giving out 6 million refunds to deadbeats who never paid in a dime.
 
Reader, ChickenWang6 opined: “I believe we can all now acknowledge that ACA benefits nobody but those with pre-existing conditions who now enjoy both coverage and premiums that are subsidized by healthy people that now overpay.
 
“It's a zero sum game.

“We can ignore the extreme delays and costs overrun of the ACA site...attributed to general Government incompetence.”

And finally, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro and Kelly Riddell report in washingtontimes.com that, “Top Pentagon officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2011 march to war in Libya that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime in an effort to halt the escalating crisis, according to secret audio recordings recovered from Tripoli.”

While reports say that Bill Clinton’s wife is willing to testify before the House Benghazi committee, she may have some real concerns because, as noted by Mike Allen, “Hillary Clinton, expecting no major challenge for the Democratic nomination, is strongly considering delaying the formal launch of her presidential campaign until July, three months later than originally planned, top Democrats tell Politico.”

Mr. Allen goes on, “The delay from the original April target will give her more time to develop her message, policy and organization, without the chaos and spotlight of a public campaign.”

However, it’s just as likely that with the Benghazi issue to contend with she now needs more time to prepare her story and perhaps, even rethink her candidacy. Because, with so much more lurking in the woodwork about other negatives in her closet, running for president may be just a bit more than a former president's wife with no real credentials or accomplishments of her own can handle.  

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

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