47 Comments

1. NahnCee:

Be a real shame if someone’s submarines got lost and accidently smashed (repeatedly) the Russian’s little base in what used to be Georgia … wouldn’t it?

Or if American naval maneuvers lost track of one their drones and it (accidently) blew up over the newly completed Russian base. Cause for major tut-tutting all around, just like we majorly tut-tutted when we accidently blew up that Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Oh, dear, but I see that I momentarily forgot our peacenik new President who will undoubtedly be delighted to smash a celebratory champagne bottle over the Russian’s new installation.

Nov 14, 2008 - 10:34 pm 2. anton:

One could wish, but I think Obama is still trying to find Georgia on a map.
They will continue to come for him until Big O looks like he is thinking of really sending a message. Sadly I doubt that The One has the spine to tell his little red buddy that this sort of thing will not be tolerated.
Strategically it is a move to close off the oil pipeline through Georgia and to further blackmail Europe’s energy supply.

Nov 14, 2008 - 11:20 pm 3. Zeno:

It’s almost unbelievable that a guy like Barack Obama is now the Commander in Chief of what is supposed to be the most powerful army in the whole world. And his idiotic pals are friends with Venezuela, Cuba, palestinians…

It would be fun to watch if I did not live in the same planet.

Nov 15, 2008 - 1:59 am 4. bobal:

I think our society is on a real downward slide. Finally, the people that have actually produced something will get totally pissed with those that never have. And keep begging.

Nov 15, 2008 - 2:43 am 5. Ledger:

Slide. Did someone say slide.

The Stock market has been in a slide since Zero won the election. He has recommended taking money from people’s 401Ks/IRA’s and putting it into the sink-hole call Social Security.

[GP]

The Dow was down 337 points again today.

We’re watching the largest post election stock market sell off in history.

Obama’s win last week triggered the 12th greatest one-day decline in history.
Hold on. The worst is yet to come.

See: Stocks plunge
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/stocks-continue-post-election-plunge.html

Nov 15, 2008 - 3:03 am 6. buddy larsen:

I don’t think we’re in a ’slide’. It’s more of a ’skid’. No, all kidding aside, when i read yesterday that soon the Pentagon will meet with Obama’s defense transition team, in order to outline the key decision points upcoming in the next 90 days, my first thought (coming along with the icy fingers closing round my brain) was “now’s our chance to directly feed our enemies some direct disinformation”. Alas, although that is what is happening, that is not what’s happening, except for that IS what’s happening, tho it can’t be (but is).

But Obama does have some good folks on his team –they’ll keep an eye on the radicals, right? Right? Right?

Nov 15, 2008 - 5:48 am 7. wildernesscalling:

pronounced by many, but the deaf and blind have out number the sane for decades so really all that is left is for the lemmings to run for the sea! add it up, lion of juda is on his way.

Nov 15, 2008 - 6:39 am 8. marymcl:

John Bolton had a piece in WSJ recently where he described the courtesy calls made between the President-elect and various world leaders.
Apparently the Polish preident Kaczynski came away from his conversation thinking Obama supported the recent US-Polish agreement on missile defense deployment, and said so publicly. Obama’s people quickly denied this, saying that support was there only if the system were “proven”, whatever that means.

So, as Bolton points out, he has already publicly contradicted an ally under duress from a saber-rattling neighbor with obvious designs on territorial expansion that just happens to be our old enemy as well.

Never mind also that Poland has been one of the few reliable allies we’ve had in the current war.

It’s hard to believe this is really happening. The world feels a lot less safe and a lot closer to home these days.

Speaking of which I suspect a real in-your-face crisis for the new administration will come courtesy of Venezuela. I don’t have an argument for it or a specific scenario in mind, it’s just a feeling based on the intersection of OPEC, Russia’s Soviet style resurgence and the ever-elusive Ayers connection…There’s a lot of smoke there

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:13 am 9. Unsk:

The first question for President elect Obama is not whether he has the cajones to stop Russian or Islamic aggression.

The real question is does Obama even want to stop the Russians or Islamists?

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:23 am 10. marymcl:

Soory, I meant to include the link

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122654051563123143.html

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:26 am 11. buddy larsen:

If America, or even the idea of America, is to fall, the fall will include the practice of universal suffrage –and rightly so, as it will have been the cause of it, both before and after, both the rise and the fall.

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:33 am 12. ricpic:

The United States is broke. Russia will do what it wants in and to its “near abroad.” The days of American power projection, in other than dire threats to our security, is over.

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:46 am 13. buddy larsen:

Unsk is right. Picture in your mind the new administration’s main adversary. What do you see in that picture? I see the next-generation of US military technology. In the background, jumping for joy, the Kremlin and the PLA.

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:46 am 14. Mark Maps:

If the United States is broke, then Russia is brokest.

Putin hooking up with Chavez and the Castro brothers reminds me of the old adage: The best hire first rate people, second rate people hire third rate people. It looks like Putin’s putting together a Loser’s Club.

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:03 am 15. SpeakEasy:

HOPE and CHANGE sound nice but when the safety of the nation are actually on the line the American people will start to make demands. I HOPE I am not overly optimistic. Either way the storm is coming.

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:07 am 16. Aristide:

Kosovo!

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:13 am 17. SpeakEasy:

Hard not to view this as the goal of Ossetia all along; Obvious now, I realize, but will the majority of Americans see it or even understand the implications? Is there any chance at all the incoming administration will discuss this in a public forum? Makes one regret that Hillary lost. As much as I loath her politically, she is a pitbull when cornered (without the lipstick).

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:13 am 18. anton:

You are right Speakeasy, the Russians play a long game. Minor things like local politics rarely interfere with the long-range objectives. They will keep pushing here and there until the time that they push while we aren’t paying attention and the the goal posts (and borders) get moved and they start pushing again.

Mark@14 I’m not so sure, that gang of thieves that Putin is putting together will soon be desperate men, and desperate man do dangerous things. They may be thinking to themselves that if they are going to go down they have nothing to lose, so they might as well roll the dice on a full-blown crisis of some sort or another and see where the pieces land. I think Putin is using Chavez and Castro as foils to distract us while he works closer to home.

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:28 am 19. buddy larsen:

Foils, geopolitical trade goods, yes –but also the prize of all of South America is up for grabs –in Brazil, huge, rich, a soon-to-be OPEC class oil exporter, first-world, with a socialist/capitalist governing ethos –watches closely the USA/Russia proxy struggle between Uribe of Colombia and Chavez.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Pelosi is under union orders to (and inventing new House Rules in order to) prevent evan a floor debate on the Colombia free-trade bill –which is itself far more a symbol of USA willpower & intent than it is of its considerable economic import.

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:51 am 20. tomw:

Russian demography indicates a failing country. Depressed (right now) petroleum prices tend towards a failing economy in Russia. It almost seems they have to go now and do whatever they can, or forever hold their peace. They seem to be at their peak in putting their boots on Georgia, Ukrain, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, (and the ’stans ) while attempting to cow the Europeans with energy blackmail.
The next president has indicated he is a mush. They will and are taking him at his word. His reactions, or lack thereof speak volumes about the next four years…
His desire for “negotiation”, seemingly at the expense of any other option, may lead to a short career, or a sudden, expensive education about the world.
But, I am just an armchair wannabee analyzer.
tom

Nov 15, 2008 - 9:19 am 21. buddy larsen:

“Russia’s Response to the Economic Crisis” –new column by the ever-ambigous maybe-alarmist-nutcase, maybe-not, JR Nyquist.

Nov 15, 2008 - 9:51 am 22. Mongoose:

Buddy, with all due respect, I do a lot of business in Brazil and they are quite a long way from being a “first world” country. Wealthy pockets of elites yes, but this has been the case for some time. The Pockets are larger than before and more international in both composition and markets, but the opportunities, mechanism and ideologies for building and holding a first world economy where they exist at all are fragile and unlikely to survive the sort of world wide depress that would result if America is to fall from its role of the the last 65 or so years.

Down there they say “Brazil will always be the country of the future”, and this is still true. The elites there are fairly typical of Latin American elites (and evidently our emerging Political classes”). Governments like Lula’s government will not help matters much.

It is a topic for broad discussion, granted, but they are far away from this yet.

The signal point is the fact a major depression in the West (read the USA) pretty much put the brakes on all the BRIC counties. That is not to say that their are resources to fight over. Brazil is the weakest of the BRICS by a large margin.

But the sort of regimes in these nations cannot long sustain internal markets and the sort of growth that meet the expectations that they have set. These exceptions must be met or the compromises that they have made with their emerging “middle classes” no longer hold. Much trouble after that. Fascism and socialism destroys more than they even build.

We hear a lot of cheerleading from the mulicultists and and Anti-American crowds about emerging economic replacements for the USA, but they have less basis in reality than we give them credit for. Rather, the whoel structure would collapse.

It maybe that if America is permanently damaged and we permanently lose our role (and way) the world devolves back to 18th and 19th century spheres of influence contest and much more closed econmies . Much less wealth all around. I doubt even our parasitic tranzi classes can survive for long.

Couple this with changes in energy technologies and the notion of a peer power replacing the USA look dubious. This is not to say that the USA will retain its power, rather it is to say that the world goes backwards. In fact, I imagine that we end up with some sort of weird “regional mercantilism”. If this latter case comes to be, America will be the external actor in Latin America, not the BRICs.

It may not be a bromide that the USA is the last bastion of the West, of capitalism and liberty rationally supported by law. maybe not a bromide at all.

America can well recover from her problems but it will tak a moral realignment. Is she up to it? Time will tell.

She will have to reject the Democrats, their leader and all he stands for to do so.

Nov 15, 2008 - 9:57 am 23. Mongoose:

put the brakes=puts the brakes; their are resources – there are resources. econommies=economies

Nov 15, 2008 - 10:01 am 24. Nomenklatura:

This may on balance be a helpful development, especially for the Ukraine. Russia was never going to be able to give back its naval base in the Ukraine, when the lease runs out in a few years, without having an alternative base on the Black Sea.

Nov 15, 2008 - 10:09 am 25. NahnCee:

Obama is rapidly backtracking on some of his previously stated positions, like use of torture and pulling out of Iraq.

Would it be possible for a man with a 124 IQ to overlook whatever the CIA/NSA/Pentagon are reporting to him right now and *stay* the wimpy creampuff he played to get elected?

Forgetting the possibility that outside sources gave him the money to win the election — once he’s in the White House he can pretty much do whatever he wants to do and overseas donators be damned. It’s not like the Arabs or the GErmans or the Canadians can impeach him.

Nov 15, 2008 - 10:17 am 26. Mongoose:

WelL Russia will certainly attempt what Nyquist suggest, but i scarely see how they can pull it off. Of course, the Usa should rise to the challenge, but a large part of me almost wishes the Europeans on the Russian. The Russians can only rule them, they cannot “replace” the USA. Good luck with controlling them, Mr. Putin.

Russia is in for even harder times than WEstern europe. they cannot “protect” them. Protect them form what? Russia? the Middle East. Are the germans going to fight the Chinese for the Russians in Siberia.

It may be that that farcical performance of Obama in Berlin hadd more meaning than we realized at the time.

If I squint a bit, the world seems much as was in the late 19th century and in the years just prior to WW1. Diseased gangs of effete and deluded elites that do not yet know they are finished pushing dying empires to the fore. One big international cargo cult. Let us hope that we can avoid a conflagration on the same order as that one.

It can all be avoided if Americans and Europeans just come to their senses. That would take some courage and self examination — not to mention true leadership — and these seem in sort supply. The Left has whipped up so much hysteria and hatred against their own civilization that it has taken on a life of its own. It need not be so.

Nov 15, 2008 - 10:22 am 27. Mongoose:

Obama only has a 124 IQ? Seriously, here did you get that number? That is at the level of Junior officers in the USMC during the Viet Nam war. Surely the good and the great of the Democrat party can do better than a mere 124.

Now I am beginning to understand.

Nov 15, 2008 - 10:24 am 28. NahnCee:

dunno – I saw it someplace out there surfing the net, and whatever it was, it was a bragging tone — like, “look how smart Obama is!” Maybe it was sarcasm and I just didn’t realize it. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has a different more accurate number. He’s got to be a little bit smart, though, don’t you think?

Nov 15, 2008 - 11:07 am 29. buddy larsen:

Mongoose, re your “Russia is in for even harder times than WEstern europe. they cannot “protect” them. Protect them form what? Russia?”

The answer is yes, precisely –see “protection racket”.

Also, yep, ‘first world’ re Brazil was overreach. I was remembering Brazil from my own experience there in the 80s (some oilpatch consulting out in the boonies), and just extrapolating the since-then solid and high economic growth numbers. As the ‘BRIC’ concept connotes, tho, Brazil is indeed in the big leagues –and Russia is actively advancing the idea that both Russia and Brazil belong in OPEC. Russian courting of OPEC should, in combination with their invasion of Georgia (the move onto the plains south of the mountains), have shut down once and for all the western left’s stampede to bail out of Iraq. Should have, but didn’t –the western left is apparently unable to connect these things (or worse, can and has so connected). At any rate, the western left is certainly capable of understanding the concept of ‘broke’ –and USA ain’t anywhere near as broke as it will be with the Kremlin ruling OPEC and our Green Energy Plan amounting to burning piles of greenbacks to heat up a can of beans out by the side of the railroad tracks.

Nov 15, 2008 - 11:19 am 30. JD:

With Obama’s win, perhaps the New York Times will stop giving away this country intelligence Secrets!

Nov 15, 2008 - 11:42 am 31. Mongoose:

NahnCee: well that is really not that high of an IQ at all. Obama does not strike me as all that bright, clever about somethings, but certainly not even a thrid rate mind. His puppeteers, now that is another story.

Nov 15, 2008 - 11:44 am 32. Lifeofthemind:

I see three possible outcomes (for almost everything I see 3 possible outcomes, it was the training .)

1. Obama really wants to be a “Good President” but he feels trapped when his incompetence is exposed and the Bad Guys start moving chess pieces. Result massive warfare and avoidable death leading to Global Depression and more bloodshed.

2. Obama really is in the tank as a tool for Soros, Putin or some other Looney Tunes Marxist anti-American and anti-Semitic crowd. The result is we implode relatively peacefully as the world dissolves into ignorance poverty and hate.

3. Obama is incredibly lucky as the “Bad Guys” collapse even faster than America does. He ends up looking like a hero as professionals manage to kick the can down the road again.

Anyone want to take bets?

Nov 15, 2008 - 12:51 pm 33. Mongoose:

LOTM: I will go for a combination of 2 and 3.

I think the issue is how much the old Establishment Dems cares about the country (and their progeny).

The Dem Ivy Mafia professionals in the government and business establishments, the really big money, not the Reichs, the Ayers and the Emmanuels of the country, might stop him from doing something stupid or traitorous and might stand up to Soros. We will see little of these battles should this war be fought.

It is fairly certain that some sinister forces are pulling the strings here as far as Obama goes. These seem to be entirely new actors so it is hard to assess them. If the Establishment steps in, then it will just be a change in puppet masters. Obama will still be the figurehead. I doubt though that he has the emotional reserves to continue the posturing with enough sentiment or even the illusion of authority to hold onto “the masses”. This may be what the Dem establishment had in mind all along. This may buy us the time we need.

Of course there is (at least) another one: Obama tries to be his own man (or fails to effectively pit hidden factions against one another) and his puppeteers kill him. This is not the 1960’s and rioying will not be tolerated.
I really think that by march America will be sick and tired of the Dems race baiting. We the dust settles, that will be it for the the Dems and the Left.

America can still pull this out and be in an ever better position, but we have to dump the knaves and idiots on the Left and return America to its roots.

BTW, I think the “rhetorical magic” of Obama will have dissipated by April next year. The rest of his term will be increasingly embarassing to the Democrats.

Nov 15, 2008 - 1:33 pm 34. Mongoose:

cares=care

Nov 15, 2008 - 1:39 pm 35. Mongoose:

We the dust=when the dust

Nov 15, 2008 - 1:42 pm 36. buddy larsen:

My optimism went up a big notch (albeit from deep below the basement) with the Rahm Emmanuel pick. Not that I’m –by far –a fan of RE’s on the domestic scene, but the gigantic all-important mystery of Obama’s foreign policy intent settles to some degree on the presumption that Obama’s backers would not both plan to dump Israel and hire RE.

Nov 15, 2008 - 2:22 pm 37. NahnCee:

Mongoose – in your eagerness to bitch-slap Obama you seem to be downgrading him a little loosely, according to the following:

Over 140 – Genius or near genius

120 – 140 – Very superior intelligence

110 – 119 – Superior intelligence

90 – 109 – Normal or average intelligence

80 – 89 – Dullness

70 – 79 – Borderline deficiency

Under 70 – Definite feeble-mindedness

http://wilderdom.com/intelligence/IQWhatScoresMean.html

I think for most of the American public, they have no idea what their individual IQ’s even are, because you have to demonstrate above-average performance to even be tested. A lot of college graduates know their SAT scores, but I’d be surprised if 10 out of 100 know their IQ’s.

I’m basing my expectation of Obama’s brightness upon his performance in college, just like we always assumed that Bush wasn’t as dumb as the left said he is because *he* went to Yale and Harvard. I’m guessing that maybe it requires some intelligence to get a law degree from Harvard, even if you’re given an illegal step-up due to affirmative action.

Nov 15, 2008 - 2:31 pm 38. Mongoose:

I am not trying to “bitch slap” Obama, I just do not think a 124 IQ (Stanford-Binet) is all that high in the scheme of things. Certainly not from my personal experience. It is fairly common in upper end professional environments were intellectual ability is valued. I cannot find the source at the moment, but a 120 IQ (SB) was a USMC in theater average at one point during the Viet Nam war (granted that they were dropping like flies — pretty intense selection process there). I was a part of an IQ study when I was a kid (tested every year 1 grade through 12) where the entry point for the program was 120. Lots f kids were in it.

It is particularly unimpressive when it is not matched by any real accomplishment. He does not even seem to have much deep knowledge of the law, for Pete’s sake, and he is a lawyer in his late forties who “taught” at a major university. He does not even seem to be able to think on his feet if the debate are an accurate display of his mental abilities. His personal culture, well…standard lib mediocrity.

I would bet someone like Bork is in the 150 yo 160 range, to put that in perspective, and here is a broadly cultivated man with an admirable personal culture.

When I said he had a “Third Rate Mind” I was setting my standards high.

Let me explain what I meant:
Issac Newton or Plato had “First Rate Minds”, i.e., they are leading intellectual creators of a civilization, (I was leaving artistic/cultural creators out of this, but if they were included, I would put someone like Mozart or Shakespeare here). These folks create the intellectual (or perhaps artistic or cultural) world we live in, such as it is created by individuals at all.

A “Second Rate Mind” understands the implication of first rate minds and is completely fluid and fluent in that world created by the first rate mind and might extend it a bit. A Bork or a Faraday might be an example (or say, Richard Strauss who famously made that self-criticism). They add shape and extend the world they inherit.

A “Third Rate Mind” is educable, but can only grasp a small portion of what the higher order minds pass to it. They are teachers, practitioners, etc. but add little but transmission, interpretation and execution of practice. They move in the world they inherit but rarely shape it. Lots of academics sit here (many, sadly, do not).

If were are to assign scores to this — a dubious exercise — I grant, I would break ir 1: > 160 2. 135 to 159. 3. 110 to 134.

It is a bit bizarre to think of it this way, because most of the first rate mind of our civilization predate IQ testing. We get a handful in a century, if we are lucky, and as I said there is more than native ability in the mix. “Mind” is also a broader concept than IQ, as we all know. Nonetheless, their mental abilities are on a wholly different level than the rest of us, and certainly are at the top of the scale of what the notion of IQ is measuring. I have known a couple, and it is deeply true.

So I think calling him a third rate mind in generous in the extreme. Actually I think 4th rate would be better.

If we are talking about mere cleverness or caginess, the ability to manipulate events and people to one’s ends, well this is an altogether different thing than IQ. This is the area that the left constantly labels “smart”. It rarely is.

Forgive me here if I am being tedious, but it irks me when we through IQs number around in our current society. We cannot seems to put it in the proper perspective. We tend to use the bootless liberal “definition” (a “notion” really). It is hard for us to grasp our limits or appreciate the real human beings whose extraordinary capacites shape our lives.

Note that I do not mean to infer that I confuse High IQ with Wisdom, Truth or Insight. Nor am I talking about “intellectual elites” (shudder).

I should certainly not want to be ruled by a Mozart.

I am just not impressed with Obamas IQ or “Mind”, such as it is. I know hundreds of people with much better minds and native intellects.

I fear that we will have all too many demonstrations of his very real limits in the coming years.

Pace the Mikas, the vast majority of regular commenter on BC, have much better noggins than Obama does (and real world experiences too, for that matter). ThiS should give us pause for he is being sold to us as the owner of some almost gnostic mental ability, not one who possesses actual accopmlishment of demonstrable experience.

Nov 15, 2008 - 4:04 pm 39. Mongoose:

We through – we throw

Nov 15, 2008 - 4:08 pm 40. Mongoose:

of demonstrable = or demonstrable

Nov 15, 2008 - 4:09 pm 41. Mongoose:

*–a dubious exercise, I grant –*

(BC should really consider a preview functionality)

Nov 15, 2008 - 4:20 pm 42. NahnCee:

I was going to do an “ahem” and point out the inconsistency of bragging about one’s own IQ, while putting down someone else’s, sprinkled throughout with spelling errors. But you beat me to it.

Nevertheless, ahem, since it seems to be an on-going problem.

And nevertheless, Part 2: I’m still interested in what *is* the Messiah’s IQ, if it’s ever been tested and revealed to the Lessers. Although we probably couldn’t believe whatever number the O camp chose to release any way.

Nov 15, 2008 - 5:18 pm 43. outa my league:

Mongoose & NahnCee, plenty of tire gages go up to 60, but only a small percentage can read over 100.

Nov 15, 2008 - 6:25 pm 44. elby:

Mongoose, You really need to study the standard normal curve. An IQ of 100 is average, and the standard deviation is about 15 points. 66% of everybody lies within one standard deviation. The other 34% are split evenly between either side. so a 115 IQ would put a person in the 83rd percentile. An IQ of 124 would probably be about 90th percentile. The average IQ of nobel prize winners is 120.

The problem is way too much emphasis put on IQ. The thinking that someone who is clever therefore can see the best path has been proven over and over again to be false. Some of the most brilliant academics have been terribly wrong about many things. I really don’t want a rule by an intellectual elite.

I have no idea what Obama’s IQ is. We don’t even have any of his school records, so how can we even tell? But it doesn’t matter. What matters are his ideas, his policy positions, and whether he has any common sense. All he needs as far as smarts go is enough brains to figure out complex ideas. I think he’s got that, at least. But that doesn’t mean he will make good decisions, or lead this country in the right direction.

Nov 15, 2008 - 7:34 pm 45. elby:

Mongoose, I didn’t read through your post very carefully and I must say I agree with much of what you say. It is just that I am so tired of the left’s intelligence fetish that I really don’t want to see one develop on our side.

The elites in intelligence really don’t know any better what to do with our economy or with our foreign policy than those of average intelligence. A person with an IQ of 145 will absolutely not make a better leader than a person with an IQ of 115. In most cases, the arrogance of the highly intelligent leads them to make the worst possible errors.

Ronald Reagan was not stupid. George Bush is not stupid. Obama is not stupid. I have had it with the last 8 years of the stupid arguement.

Nov 15, 2008 - 8:12 pm 46. JFSanders:

It all really comes down to..Does Obama really believe his own bull shyte. If he is as narcissistic as is believed then we are in for a strong test. If not then he can be reasoned with. And if so the bureaucrats will contain his mistakes. I think the intelligence analysts need to scare the crap out of him. Maybe that will slow him up some.

Jim

Nov 15, 2008 - 9:16 pm 47. BT:

I like Mongooses’s postings, they are well-written and logical.

But the admirable Mr. Bork – Like when he filed a personal injury lawsuit after falling off of a stage. If we had more supreme court justices like Bork, we could put a stop to that kind of outrageous tort law abuse!

Hey, wait a minute…

Nov 16, 2008 - 11:30 am

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