Post Election Stress Trauma (PEST)

  Michael White

PEST is a serious ailment with far reaching deleterious effects. It is amazing how many American politicians contract it, and how strangely they behave after they do. Problem is that the antidotes are severely limited, or you have to take a plethora of equally harmful medicines to counteract the side effects. It’s like the drugs advertised on TV which are acknowledged to have many more harmful side effects than the disease they are intended to cure. It is difficult to believe that people still buy some of these drugs after the manufacturers’ disclaimers!

 

The most troublesome symptoms of PEST are:

 

• Prolonged incredulity at the thought of having been severely defeated;
• Horror that the less important elements of a decadent society could so easily dislodge your dreams and privileges;
• Merciless scape-goating;
• A sense of the slipping away of the benefits of entitlement
• Anger that a civilized society (so-called) no longer supports belief in the divine rights of kings;
• Completely irrational animosity directed at the victor and at every one who has denied you your place in History;
• A strong proclivity to conspiracy theories, the more outlandish the better;
• Wild, improbable and impetuous pronouncements about possible causes of failure;
• Pathological hatred of the incumbent barrier to ones progress in life, particularly if he is of a lower caste (sub-human even);
• Deep depression from losing the one and final chance to be the leader of the free world; this is particularly heart-wrenching to the aging super-ambitious and self- adulating individual, and could possibly lead to suicidal impulses;
• Jettisoning of all feelings of patriotism, matched by a paralyzing desire to secede;
• A renewed determination to destroy rather than perfect the “Union”;
• Unquenchable fear of a future not under one’s direct influence and control;
• Obsessive, immobilizing fear that a whole race may be lost forever;
• Rejection of any notion that God is not on your side;
• Delusional comfort in the promise of life in an alternate universe;
• An odd mix of chagrin and guilt for the ills imposed on others;
• Horror at the discovery that money cannot buy everything, even in the most materialistic of all generations;

   The terrible disorder of PEST can be severely compounded if the victim has already previously suffered from unresolved PTSD, a closely aligned twin disorder. The case of John McCain comes readily to mind. Dear John, a much vaunted war hero, shows such wild swings of fancy that listening to his outbursts makes the head spin; from “bomb, bomb. bomb Iran”, to the misguided or fake suspension of his campaign ostensibly to resolve a national crisis; to the utterly ludicrous and incredible selection of Sarah Palin to be a running (spelt ruining) mate for the presidency; to the desertion of a wife at her sickbed; to a totally devilish demonization of the wonderful Susan Rice- this gentleman has displayed the classic symptoms of PEST-PTSD. After being defeated in the election he has not ceased for four years, campaigning against the winner .
    The patient under PEST may have periodic lucid moments; but such episodes are rare; the lamentable fact is that the patient may never recover and may become so delusional that he thinks the next round will be better, as he grabs on to straws (in the human form of Adelson, the Kochs, and, of course, Carl the Rover).
  A dire situation becomes immeasurably worse when a large number of people suffering from PEST control an important arm of Government. They can bind themselves together in the resolve to destroy the nation’s and the world’s economy rather than lose their power and privilege and the admiration and largesse of the economic parasites who support them.

Maybe a Drug corporation on Wall Street will find a cure for some of the more mildly diseased before we fall into the abyss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will America honour its high constitutional ideals, especially that “all are created equal”?

Michael White

 

We address the Christian right in America. They are described as the Evangelicals (Gospel-spreaders, one assumes). They are all proudly “born-again” (renewed, recreated, presumably in the image of Christ). They don’t miss church on Sunday; they talk of Christ incessantly. He is their point of reference and the basis of their ideals. They own Him. They attach themselves, in the main, to the  Republicans. Good, honest people, free from “every semblance of evil”.

The Tea Party claims to advocate their interests and values. They are in short, the elite, literally God’s kingdom here on earth. In the old days they might have been called Scribes and Pharisees, I think; or less charitably, “whitewashed”.

But here is my difficulty.

The last Presidential campaign was one of the most racist, divisive, if sometimes subtle, spectacles we have witnessed in America since the heyday of Jim Crow  and the cross burnings in the yards of “the blacks.”

The Tea Party and the Republicans did not even try to camouflage their true intent this time around. They were overtly racist. It was patently clear for anyone who has eyes to see or ears to hear.

Yet it seems their mission is to divide the American Christian church, by their words and so many of their actions. We must suppose then, that racism comports with the best precepts of the Good Book.

For context, the following is an extract from my book: “Christ Divided”.

“{A most}obnoxious spectacle is the divide between the black church and the white church! It has been cryptically and accurately observed that the most segregated time in America is Sunday morning when everyone is at Church!

Racism is at the core of the black-church/white-church phenomenon. We are comfortable in our people groups and all have an affinity to go where we are comfortable. In some ways the rationale is simple and easily understood; ethnic groups feel they have traditions and ways of expressing their faith that are respectable, and unique to their own history and traditions. But is comfort a legitimate basis for Christian unity? Racial inferiority/superiority is a tradition and like all traditions it dies hard.

Racism is the most persistent and prevalent sin in the world and in the church. For the most part it’s a subtle consciousness that reveals itself in a thousand ways, in attitudes, demeanours, responses, looks and statements. Racism is the last great frontier in human affairs to be overcome and the besetting sin for many. It is the most frightening of sins to the believer and we are required to strive hard to put it aside so that we can get on with the work of the Lord. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews12:1).

Have some risen above it? Undoubtedly, there are many who have become painfully aware of its poison and strive to lay it to rest in their hearts; many have succeeded. But the church as a body still has to exorcise this evil. God will not countenance it and He will not heed our prayers until we are clean of this stain. We are challenged to renew our minds with some brand new thinking. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians10:5).”

Now that Obama and his supporters have overcome, can we perhaps anticipate some degree of sincerity and cordiality in the great American debate? Can we begin to see Christianity at work in at least the utterances of  McConnell, Limbaugh, Romney, Cantor, McCain,  Graham, and the rest? Can we hold our collective breaths in hopeful expectation that the winter of racial animus has passed?
I know. A pipedream.

 

An Act of God!

Michael White

I think the irony is lost to the Republican elite, as the Christians they claim to be, that they all derisively blame the disastrous loss of the election on Sandy – admitting that Sandy was an act of God!

If they are true believers, then “act of God” is not merely a term of art; it is a declaration that the Supreme One himself intervened at a critical juncture in human affairs and turned what others intended for bad into good.

That’s what happened when Joseph’s brothers tried to do away with him. God used the evil in their hearts for Joseph’s (and Israel’s) good.

This commentator has absolutely no difficulty accepting the Republican shame-saving excuse that Sandy caused them to lose the elections. Because it tells me that my prayers were answered by a God who is in the habit, still, of intervening in man’s affairs by opening any Red Sea, so that His people may pass through. (Doesn’t red symbolize the republicans?)

In their utter disbelief, they will continue the vain search for explanations and excuses, wilfully ignoring the Christian teaching that the God who sees and knows everything, is the One who sets up leaders and brings them down.

After all the gimmicks and subterfuges the Republican cohort have resorted to over the past four years to destroy Obama, you would think that after their decisive failure at the polls they would stop and take stock of where they now find themselves, and seek to turn over a new leaf. On the contrary they have become as obstinate as Pharoah in pursuing their ambitions. Has God perhaps hardened their hearts for good reason?

THE RISE OF ANTI CHRIST

It would be amusing if it were not so sickeningly hypocritical and pathetic to see so many so-called Christians (Evangelical and Catholic) in America, rationalizing the Mormon Sect as somehow equal to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, just for political gain. It was not long ago that they were eloquently preaching to anyone who would listen how much of a false and deceitful sect Mormons are.

The so-called "leaders" and strong advocates of the Christian faith, notably Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Franklyn Graham and Pat Robertson, are now doing all within their power and influence, to make a Mormon the "leader of the free world.” And you know why? It has nothing whatsoever to do with Christian values or any principled position. Simply, they would rather support a decidedly anti-Christ candidate out of share, unadulterated hatred for a Black Christian who they have persistently vilified for over three years of his presidency. Even before that, who can forget the relentless attacks against this man for attending Reverend Wright’s Christian assembly? But, absolutely no problem with attending the Mormon assembly!Hypocrites!

Have no fear, Christ is still on the throne and He is not mocked; but equally, be watchful of the roaring lion…he is tricky and will even fool “the elect.”

Romney’s new mantra: “Let’s be strong, let’s beef up the Pentagon and expand the armed forces; let’s bomb Iran, let’s start a war, any war, let’s start a real conflagration in the world, while his five sons of fighting age, (one even willing to engage the President in fisticuffs), strut like peacocks all over the safe soil of America as the poor and the black, the true and the brave sons of the soil, are dying in Afghanistan to protect all the lofty sailboat privileges they sit  in their comfortable ivory towers and enjoy! Strong indeed!

Romney lies about everything, all the time; even for a politician he is an unadulterated, excessive liar. He is the "Father of Lies". Because of this deep character flaw, he is comfortable holding every position on any subject, and can change his argument, brazenly and unapologetically, to suit each new development, with total disregard for the facts or the consequences.  And he does, without flinching, causing one of his primary Republican opponents to call him “a highly lubricated weather vane.” His latest trick from his large bag of lying tricks is to take the lie label from his own chest and try to pin it on Obama, hoping this sleight of hand will go unnoticed, at least by the low information, unthinking bigots who are his “base”. (Actually, lest we forget, every one of Romney's Republican rivals in the primary debates, pointed out in clear terms or at least insinuated that he was an obsessive-compulsive liar. Where is the voice of these "principled ' mug-wumps now?)

Instead of encouraging Romney, Perkins et al should read him Psalm 101:7, “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.”

It is hard to understand Romney’s ways, unless you recognize the truth of Elvis Presley’s award winning prophetic song about him:

“You look like an angel,Walk like an angel,Talk like an angel But I got wise,You're the devil in disguise; Oh, yes, you are The devil in disguise”

I wrote the following as a poem years ago in anticipation of the emergence of just such a world leader as “this one”

WHEN HE COMES….

"When the man comes, He will be As swift and silent As a tiger; He will leap into the arena Like a phantom.When the man comes, He will stand tall among men Like a samaan tree In a field of acacia; Men will gape, amazed, When the man comes.It will appear as natural As the coming of night; Many will be sleeping And taken unawares When the man comes.When the man comes, Men will be blinded By the brilliance Of his success; He will be from The common man, But will himself be The most uncommon of men. When the man comes, The weary world Will groan in wonder At the marvellous works He can perform, And liken him Even unto the Christ. When the man comes, Races and nations Will one by one Fall at his feet, Bowing in admiration. There will be A breaking down Of barriers And man shall  Feel secure In a world Sliding towards peace. When the man comes, It is written, He will deceive Even the elect; He will clasp hands of friendship With those closest to The True One He stands poised to fight; He will stand in the Holy Place And will with sleight of hand Perform great miracles He (and his wife) will, with nimble tongue, Draw all men into his heart, And men in gratitude Will draw him into theirs, Placing a laurel crown Upon his head As he denies their God; So will it be Long, long from now, When the man comes.

"But just when The cry of peace sounds, There shall be The proclamation of war Which ears will not perceive; Yet the noise will sound Like thunder in a clear sky, Like the horrible hiss Of the hidden snake, When the man comes; They will look But will not see, They will listen But will not hear; He will spread his branches And birds will make Their nests in them, And fall into deepest sleep. When the sun is setting We say good weather Is at hand Because the sky is red; And in the morning We say the rain will come Because of a darkened sky, But we cannot discern The signs of the time. Stand alert For no one knows the time, The day or the hour, When the man comes."

 

Is he here? I ask you.

Oh, yes, truly, you are the devil in disguise!

Of course, Romney will not win, but we must be sensitive to the shadows of the anti- Christ.

HATRED!

                                            by Michael White

December 31, 2011. The end of the most tumultuous year in international politics and economics this generation has seen.

In the United States Congress went home. Thank God. It was a time of reflection, particularly for Republicans. They had a lot to reflect on. A clear and honest examination of conscience would have brought up all the shenanigans they engaged in throughout the year. They would have had to lay down at the altar all the things they did to bring America to its worst pass, close to the brink of destruction, all because of a single-minded determination to make their President fail.

As 2012 begins we can only hope that instead of perpetuating the culture of hate nurtured in 2011, the New Year’s Resolutions are based on Scriptures like these:

“Pray for all those who lead in all areas of life, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” 1Timothy2:2

 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives.” James 4:1-3

America elected a black man to the Presidency in a season of mature reflection on the ills of the past. Many welcomed the election as a sign of the raising of a post racial society, the maturing of America. They heralded it as a major victory for human rights and racial equality, or at least tolerance, at home and abroad.

All well and good.

But hidden underneath was a gruesome reality. Entrenched, institutional racism does not die in a society without a fight. And the death pangs can be long, painful and destructive. There still lingers the ghost of, to some, an idyllic past where blacks were restricted to one corner and whites to another.

It is not easy for a bigot to come to settle in his mind that it is not a national calamity for a black man to sit in the white house. In fact, it is as difficult as it is for the class bully to surrender his ways.

It should appear strange to all sane people that the America handed over to Obama to salvage was one racked with debt, an economy on the brink of collapse, a badly diminished  manufacturing base, a collapsed housing market, a decadent financial system, a declining middle class, a ruined educational system with far too many underachievers,

He immediately proceeded to the agenda to reverse these disastrous trends with the tools he had at hand.

Republicans have incessantly blocked and diminished President Obama’s agenda. They have concocted all kinds of outlandish and patently disingenuous counter attacks to anything he has put forward. They have invented all kinds of catch phrases to ridicule and diminish his policy prescriptions; they have created and promulgated a narrative designed to prove that nothing he has done has been in America’s best interests.

They have refused to concede that even his obvious triumphs in the foreign policy arena have been successful. Since they campaigned on the pretext that he would not be a strong Commander in Chief, it is impossible for them to acknowledge that his triumphs in this arena are credible. Even as he seeks to end the disastrous, ill-conceived war in Iraq that they started, they brazenly postulate that history will judge Obama as the worst American foreign policy leader. This is a new talking point of the Republican clan.

What could be the reason for this level of hatred of this excellent son of the soil? It is simple. President Carter and several other wise men tried very early to sound the warning bell. For a black man to succeed in pulling the country out of the morass in which they left it, it would mean that he has been a better President than his predecessors, white men, could be. It would be destroying all their age-old traditions and stereotypes; punching holes in the theories that they espouse of racial superiority and their divine right to rule.

Republicans and those swayed by their crusade, offer all sorts of excuses and justifications for the unabashed bigotry that still prevails. They make lame excuses for the sustained attacks on everything Obama does and says. We are in an era of gross rationalisation of the actions and statements of those who, simply, hate.

As we welcome 2012, amid all the idle chatter, let all America come to accept that there are those who not only want Obama to fail for political reasons, but for racial reasons. The black man has had his chance and now it is time for the people’s white house to be occupied by a legitimate tenant: a white man.

Obama, enough! Time to go.

The entire theme of many Republican leaders and spokespersons, for the years of Obama’s presidency, is that he should be a one-term president. From the very outset, everything has been tried to get him to fail. He is Kenyan, he is not American, he is too black, he is not black enough, he is not a leader, he is a liar, he does not understand America, he is weak on foreign policy, he apologises too much for America, and on and on....

Of all the absurdities we have witnessed in 2011, one of the most glaring is the pundits’ apparent “amazement” at the President’s inability to make the factions in Congress work cooperatively! After all, he is in charge so it is his responsibility to get Congress to act together! How absurd, when the decision and resolve of one side in Congress is not to cooperate on any terms. It is nothing but a game. For instance, when they hear the economy is getting better they pivot quickly to another line of criticism that Obama is the one responsible for the deadlock!

There is a real fear in the hearts of the bigots that Obama might really succeed as President; this would mean that at last, just perhaps, the black man is equal to the white man, at least in performing in the highest position in the land. To accept that fact is to admit that a whole chunk of US history has been wrong-headed, all the ills of the past that arise like ghosts in a cemetery to haunt the dreams of the bigoted class.

The only consolation one has, and it is a not insignificant one, is that there are so many millions of noble Americans who do not share the dark motivations of their overtly racist compatriots, and are genuinely striving for an America that is true to its highest declared values.

We thought we had a countdown last night. Wait till you see the countdown to the end of this year. Or, who knows, perhaps the Republican conscience and resolutions will kick in and we will all really have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

We are betting on a right thinking America. In the end it is likely that the just will prevail.

The Invisible Hand and the Greedy Heart

  

Adam Smith, acknowledged as the Father of modern economics and of capitalism, introduced the term “invisible hand” in economics. This explains his concept that as a result of each individual acting in his economic affairs in his own narrow interest, all such actions are guided by a sort of invisible hand which ensures that they are also to the advantage of the community as a whole.
As far as the 18th Century Classical Economists were concerned the individual was motivated by self-interest which somehow always coincided with the interest of the wider community.

By the way, that concept offers the theoretical rationale for modern day Republican  “trickle down” economic theory.

In the classical theory of economic behaviour, greed is of necessity characterized as a virtuous human motivation. In essence it was the greed or indefatigable pursuit of wealth and plenty, of the very rich which motivated them to do the things which would generate the productivity and the wealth that in turn provided employment and wages for the labouring classes. So, greed had to be lauded as being for the public good and in the public interest.

To be fair, it may be that these men were writing at a time when it was generally assumed that noble intentions and concern for one’s fellow man would be dominant. The truth is that today many businessmen have a sort of gross self-interest that places no store on the pain and deprivation their practices place on the working poor, whose only interest is in a living wage.

The Invisible Hand theory is basically an optimistic view of life and does not regard seriously the darker personal motivations and desires of men: extreme manipulation of the system for enormous personal benefit and advantage, self-aggrandisement and the acquisition of obscene wealth at all costs, no matter who it hurts or defrauds.

The Invisible Hand is now caught in the pockets of the poor and the cheated -the occupiers of Wall Street.

You may well ask how a man with 1$Billion, cannot sleep until he gets two. First Century Roman Philosopher and Statesman Lucius Seneca has an answer as good as any other “For greed all nature is too little”. So many of the Wall Street captains of commerce and hoarders of undeserved wealth caused a major and costly erosion if not collapse of the American and global financial system from which millions have not recovered. Why? As Thoreau reminds us: “It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly”.

The greedy heart keeps pressing the invisible hand down on the scales of justice, tipping the scales against the local consumers of goods and services. It is so unfortunate that the avaricious businessman does not grasp the limited pleasure to be derived from having an overabundance of the things money can buy him. To quote Mark Twain: “Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.”

The Capitalist system of wealth generation is not in itself evil; no system is. The problem is what humans do with and within the system. If a person or a corporation simply wants to accumulate wealth for personal use and not for the public good, this can generate untold suffering to the underprivileged, as it has done in the United States in recent years. It is as bad as the entertainer Little Richard says: “But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money”. Of course, it need not be so. Capitalism as a wealth generator can work and has been shown by rich men of the past, like Henry Ford, to work for the public good. Wealth is not the problem. Mahatma Gandhi has made a very insightful comment concerning this: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”.

Central to the American view of life is what has been immortalized as the all pervasive American Dream - a concept born of the Constitution which enshrines the pursuit of happiness as a human right. Why is that dream so illusive in today’s America? Perhaps Rick Danko has it right. “As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel”. We would argue that there were a lot more rotten apples in the recent Wall Street debacle.

Not very long ago, men seemed to have been content to be millionaires, and even then there were relatively few; today to be successful one has to be a Billionaire. This is a major paradigm shift gone unnoticed. Paradoxically, we affect to be alarmed when we learn of the amount of wealth deposed dictators like Sadam Hussain, Moammar Khadafy and Hosni Mubarak had amassed at the expense of their subjects, without taking into account that so many on Wall Street have done the same thing even if on a slightly more modest scale, and then only within the bounds of the possible.

Paul Samuelson found it “An intriguing paradox of the 1990s, that it isn't called a decade of greed”. Samuelson had not yet experienced the 2000s, the true golden age of corporate greed! The age of Wall Street madness, or greed gone mad; The age of Enron, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Arthur Andersen, Lehman Brothers, Delta Airlines Inc., Refco Inc., Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.

The tragedy is that corporate greed is largely unpunished, but on the contrary is generously rewarded with the largesse of the undeserved bonus. And then some corporations beguile the public with practices that are generally not perceived as pernicious and antithetical to the public good.

The Walmart trick

A country exports to get the revenue (foreign exchange) it needs to buy or import the goods and services of other countries. It is advantageous to the economic well being of a country for it to have a favourable balance of trade, a situation in which export revenue, hopefully over a sustained  period, exceeds import expenditure.In the modern Global economy exports determine the wealth of a nation. The leading economies are consistently net exporters.

We can look at one example to see how corporations can impoverish the nations in which they operate.

The Walmart Company on the basis of sales, is the world's largest retailer and grocery chain. To assess its size, consider the fact that its sales are  estimated at some 50% more than its five closest competitors combined. In the US alone Wal-Mart has, according to one source, about “700 discount stores, 2,900 Supercenters that sell groceries and general merchandise.” These stores employ over 2 million people. The company is huge.

The secret of Walmart’s success is its scale of operation and global competitiveness, and its consequent ability to offer customers relatively low retail prices on a wide range of household necessities like food and clothing, as well as consumer durables. It is truly the poor person’s shop, perhaps on the level of the dollar stores that have recently proliferated in North America.

The problem is that Walmart is not very good as a corporate citizen in other important ways. Because of its purchasing policies, motivated by the desire for gigantic profits, it is a tremendous drain on the US economy.

Walk down the aisle of any Walmart store and randomly tip over any item. Every other item bears the tag: "Made in China". The figures are not published (although they should be required to be) but an estimated 40% or more of the merchandise in one of these stores is made in China. Hence the US’s humongous negative balance of trade with that cheap labour country. The billions of dollars of merchandise that Walmart buys annually from Chinese manufacturers, racks up a massive US balance of trade deficit with this “emergent” economy.

Because Walmart buys from cheap labour markets it is able to offer a price incentive of between 10 and 20 % to the consumer, largely the poor and the middle class. The average shopper can save an average of 15% by shopping at Walmart. The price incentive is irresistible to even the not-so-poor shoppers from the middle class. Walmart is a magnet to the frugal middle class shopper.

Customers are citizens who depend on their jobs for their purchasing power. To buy from Walmart or anywhere else they have to work and earn an income.

 Walmart buys all it can from the cheap labour Chinese market, and are able to offer a major price incentive to Americans. But the Chinese manufacturers who produce for them have already taken the jobs from the American workers, who are therefore unemployed and underemployed and not able to buy even the lower priced goods.

China is the manufacturing sector of the US, thanks to Walmart and similar companies.

So Walmart in effect impoverishes the US in order to sell cheap and amass hefty profits. It is the supreme trick on the American citizen, who is induced to buy at Walmart while in doing so, ensuring he (or his neighbour) remains unemployed.

In other words what Walmart  customers gain on the swings (buying cheap) they lose on the roundabouts (their jobs!).

The worst part is that because of the insatiable corporate greed, if Walmart could get away with buying every single item sold in their stores, from China, they would. It’s the financial profit imperative gone mad.

A business entity that large and ubiquitous has a tremendous spiral effect on the rest of the economy, dragging many other businesses in its wake. While the middle class shoppers are loading up their carts with cheap merchandise from China in the Walmart superstore, the Koch brothers are in the “free” parking lot siphoning off the high priced fuel from their gas tanks!

In the case of Walmart, our example, greed for profits and the Invisible Hand work well for the company but to the detriment of the nation as a whole.

It looks gloomy. And that’s why Economics was labelled  the gloomy science. Ah, but there is Warren Buffet who reminds us as Garrison Keillor beautifully said: “Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people”.

Having tried the pure models of both Socialism and Capitalist, what the world needs now is an economic system that has the basic machinery of Capitalism with the motivations of Socialism, combining as far as possible the virtues of both systems. The Soccap model will allow the entrepreneurial class, motivated by self-interest to generate economic wealth, while ensuring through joint Government and business intervention (regulation?), that the disadvantaged are fairly treated and rewarded.

That should meet the just demands of the occupiers of Wall Street around the globe!

The Hand of God

                                        by Michael White

   Newt Gingrich is going to win the Republican nomination in an earth shattering victory. Hands down. His competitors will not even come close. He has all the qualities the plan requires. It is as we say, written in his stars; you see, it is a time of reckoning and retribution. The chickens must come home to roost.

Is God in it? Of course! There is never a moment in world history when God takes his hands off the controls. He sets up leaders and he brings them down as it suits his unerring plan for his creation. He is as aware of the mind and activities of Judas as he is of John the Baptist.

The Hand of God in the global political and economic arena in the “most powerful” nation on earth is evident. It may be hard to believe, but as God said to the doubters: “Look among the nations and watch - be utterly astounded (wonder marvellously)! For I will work a work in your days, which you would not believe, though it were told you” Habbukuk1:5.

The whole house of cards will be pulled down, with its sinister lies and devilish machinations.

It is amazing how religious and self-righteous these candidates and their right wing adherents appear to be, when so much of what they say and propose goes against everything the Gospel teaches. Think of the true meaning of Christianity and then think, at the same time, if you are capable of such mental gymnastics, of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Mitch McConnell. What a contradiction! “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” 2 Timothy 3:5.

Michelle Bachman , Rick Perry and Herman Cain, all of whom were “told” by God that they were set aside for the Presidency of the US and world leadership, have already proven that God is not mocked, and have been swiftly diminished to clownish also rans.

The persistent president-elect aspirant and dreamer Mitt Romney, poor guy, is just wasting his time, not to mention his money, as he did four years ago. (I think that man’s father strongly impressed upon him that he has to be the President of the United States).

On the other hand, Gingrich’s ascendancy has been meteoric and astonishing even to Gingrich; in his grand self-deception and conceit, he thinks (and declares unabashedly) that it’s his talent and superiority that are propelling him along. The truth is far different. The path has been cleared for him. God has set up the scenario we are now witnessing. Gingrich is ordained to be Republican front runner. He is the ideal candidate. His nastiness is the embodiment of the bile that must be clinically expurgated from the bowels of the United States. His thirty pieces of silver cannot save him from his fate. Silver polish has to be applied to the shining city on the hill.

Gingrich is to Obama what God permitted Pharoah to be to Moses; and the more opposed to the will of God, obstinate, recalcitrant, and obdurate he becomes as God hardens his heart, the louder he will fall.

It is no accident that Donald Trump has successfully wiggled his way into the role of ringside coach and promoter of Gingrich; these men have identical personalities, interests and motivations; their hearts beat as one. Without batting an eyelid, they will say and do anything outlandish and sinister for publicity, money and prominence. How aptly this scripture applies to them both: “When he speaks kindly, do not believe him for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly,” Proverbs 26:25-26. We all remember, of course, that in a previous incarnation Gingrich’s wickedness was already revealed to the assembly. This is his second time around with the same old tricks!

Gingrich and Trump, two of the most odious, obnoxious and Machiavellian political characters in the world today, barring none, will burn and crash together. Wait and see. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” Proverbs 16:18.