~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL
This week’s post on Sinclair Lewis (see below) drew a lot of attention, so I thought I’d point readers in the direction of a site devoted to Lewis that is really a great place to start if you want to find out more about “It Can’t Happen Here” and all of Lewis’ work. Here’s the link:
http://www.squidoo.com/it-cant-happen-here-sinclair-lewis
***
Friday I received the daily newsletter from Radio Canada International and once again there were squibs included that I couldn’t find at either the RCI site or when I searched around the CBC’s news area.
Read these with an eye to several posts that will be starting tomorrow, with American Lassies’s post entitled “THE PROPOSED NORTH AMERICAN COMMUNITY/NORTH AMERICAN UNION: 2010 Is Just Around the Corner.”
OTTAWA: CANADA, EU AGREE ON FREE-TRADE AGENDA
Canada and the European Union have agreed on a framework for negotiation of a free-trade accord after six months of discussions. Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day says the two parties will discuss goods and services, investment rules, intellectual property and free circulation of workers. The minister says Canada’s provinces will take part in the negotiations. Bilateral trade last year was worth $90 billion, an increase of seven per cent over 2007.
***
Chicago Correspondent Leslie emailed me during the week about a report she heard on the local Chicago PBS station:
Late last night (3/4)I was watching “France 24 News” (http://www.france24.com/en/) on one of the public teevee stations here. They were covering the auto show in France and interviewed a spokesperson for the Chinese car line called “Brilliance” . This company is partners with BMW. The reporter inquired about the possibility this auto would enter the US market in the near future. The answer was: this auto line doesn’t meet the emission standards of the US. It is a big polluter. BUT,
They are looking at the auto industry in the US, and are realizing the financial distress of the auto manufacturers may make them – particularly GM – interested in having this Chinese company buy them out.
Of course, I wanted to jump up and email you all right away, but I’ve been having some sleep problems and decided to try to stay in bed. Glad I did. Because This Morning I heard:
GM is now talking about filing for Chapter 11.
(Maybe you all have heard all this before, but I had not and wanted to just tell you before I start ruminating.)
I did a bit of poking around and it was easy to find articles from November-December 2008 on the subject. And, apparently, it’s not just GM that’s involved in buyout speculation. The following post that I found at The Truth About Cars blog seemed to sum it up nicely:
China Buyout Watch: SAIC Sets Sights On Saturn
By Bertel Schmitt
December 12, 2008After last night’s Congress cruelty, there might be government help after all. From the Chinese government. In China, the interest of Chinese automakers has grown far beyond the rumor stage. Today, government-controlled China Daily (THE English speaking news outlet for the official party-line) runs a long article on the Chinese aspirations to snap up juicy bits of Detroit. Actually, as China Daily sees it, it’s Detroit that’s making the advances to China. The headline says it all: “Big 3 look for Chinese medicine.”
SNIP
Folks, take my word for it: If China Daily writes something like this, then the matter is way beyond the idle chatter stage. There will be denials, or milquetoast “no comments,” but if it’s in China Daily, something is definitely in the bush.
***
Remember “Troopergate” that marred Sarah Palin’s reputation during the Presidential campaign? Well, guess what? From the Anchorage Daily News:
Legislator takes job with Obama administration
Longtime Juneau Democrat Kim Elton resigned from the state Senate on Monday to take a job as director of Alaska affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“This job is the funnel through which the Alaska issues are going to be addressed,” Elton said in an interview after an emotional farewell speech in the Senate.
SNIP
Elton was chairman of the Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel that voted unanimously last summer to investigate Palin’s removal of Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner, as well as the allegations she pressured public safety officials to fire a trooper who was her ex-brother-in law.
SNIP
Palin and Elton have also been at odds, and Palin greeted the announcement of Elton’s new job with the terse declaration that “Senator Elton pledged his allegiance to President Obama last summer.” Palin also said in her written statement that she hopes Elton will use the job to Alaska’s benefit.
An earlier story in the Juneau Empire offers more details:
Elton was head of the Obama campaign in Juneau, but has one other attribute which may help him get the Interior position. He’s a close friend of Pete Rouse, a former Alaskan who served as chief of staff for Obama’s Illinois Senate office. Rouse also serves as chief of staff for Obama’s transition team. “Every time we go back to D.C., we stay with Pete,” Elton said. The most recent visit was three weeks ago, to attend the inauguration of President Obama.
How about them apples? Now, where did those 30 or so Obama lawyers go who were reported to have turned over every part of Alaska to find dirt on Palin?
THE PAST WEEK
*By Kenosha Marge
Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (March 7, 2009) (The Many Faces of Pansies and Other Garden Delights; Tico Goes Belly Up!) Pics!
Secy. of Defense Robert Gates Downplays Possible U.S. Role as Fears of Mexico Collapse Mount; Don’t Be Fooled, There’s A Bush-Era Agenda Still Going On Here…
*STANDING TALL: DECLARATION OF AN INDEPENDENT
URGENT PRESS RELEASE March 4, 2009 from W.A.M. RE: Expiration of the “E-Verify Program” Which Screens Employment of Illegal Aliens
“It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis: Well, It Sure Seems Like It IS Happening Here…
IL State Treasurer/Obama Ally Giannoulias Planning to Challenge Roland Burris–Report from Our Chicago Correspondent; Medicare Musings
An Interesting Theory on Superpower Collapse: U.S. Going the Way of the Soviet Union?
The Past Week: February 22-28, 2009 (Laura Bush Lives On; Budget Director Peter Orszag/Robert E. Rubin, Iceland Bankrupters; China Taking Advantage of U.S. Weakness As It Looks to Buy Foreign Oil Companies?; U.S. Deaths Spike in Afghanistan; Baracus Caesar Obamacus Meets Barackistanis)
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: "It Can't Happen Here", Anchorage Daily News, Bertel Scmitt, BMW, Brilliance, Canada-EU free trade, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, China buyout of Big 3, China Daily, emissions standards, France 24 News, free trade, GM, Juneau Empire, Kim Elton, North American Community, North American Union, PBS, Pete Rouse, Radio Canada International, RCI, Sarah Palin, Sinclair Lewis, Squidoo.com, The Truth About Cars blog, Troopergate |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
The hypocrisy of the Obama Administration to keep saying that they came to “change” Washington is astounding. Even from corrupt Chicago politicians. The ability of the media to attempt to hide or deny that corruption is repubulsive.
But the ignorance or denial of the Obots when it comes to seeing all this is just sad. Sad that the citizenry has so little integrity that they would rather close their eyes and ears to the disastrous choice they made in order not to admit they were wrong.
Obamacrats are like most partisans. They will close their eyes to the misdeeds of “their” tribe simply because it is “their” tribe.Republican partisans put loyalty to the Republican Party over loyalty to their country. Democrats do the same.
Obamacrats go even further, They put their loyalty to common sense, decency, and integrity aside for loyalty to one damn politician. That is a new level of lunacy even for partisan politics.
I need to make an O/T post to ask everyone to visit Free Us Now (see Blogroll) to pay respects to Betty Jean Kling. Her daughter Denise has passed on after a long battle with cancer. Please take a moment to show her your support.
Thanks, Grail for sharing with us this very sad news.
GRL,
You’re hitting all the highlights – North American Union –> Global Union (ironically, China will be the lead and the US will be led by the nose). It won’t take till the end of this year for most American companies to have foreign ownership, not to mention real estate. Our border to the south crumbles further each passing day. Canada is foolishly investing in American banks. It’s all happening so fast we can barely take it all in. For those who used to think I was a little “out there” with my speculation I would ask, “what do you think now?”
As far as “Troopergate”, it was always a far-fetched scheme to try to discredit a woman with no visible cracks. Palin was so strong that they had to manufacture things (Bristol being the mother of Trigg also comes to mind) like this and try to convince us that despite her approval ratings in the 80s and 90s that Alaskans really didn’t like her. Look for the demonization to continue. And look for Sarah to continue to ignore the idiocy and lead. Her problem isn’t that she doesn’t have the support of the Republican party big whigs, it’s that she doesn’t have the stamp of approval from The Board.
Grail, it’s happening so fast for a reason. The man, or men, behind the curtain, spring another surprise on us each time before we have a chance to digest the one that came before. Like the huge bail-out of the banks, the so-called stimulus bill, auto industry, mortgage industry, etc. Now the largest budget in history and the warnings about the border fights with drug lords. Just priming the pump to keep our heads so befuddled that the big slam will hit us right between the eyes while we’re still reeling from all these other blows. Something new every day.
Too late, some people are going to realize that the warnings we have been giving them for months are now coming to fruition.
He hit the ground running, all right. Running with our tax dollars right into the arms of bankruptcy. In Obama’s radio address of Saturday, March 7, 2009, he said “these kinds of irresponsible budgets ……and inexcusable practices …are now in the past. In order to pay for things we need – we cannot waste money on the things we don’t”. All he has to do is pick up his pen and veto any spendng bill that he thinks is out of hand. Do we need to spend big money to find a way to de-odorize pigs? What happened to his vow to strike any line in the bills that were pork? Or does he not know what pork is? Having eaten at the public trough all his adult life, I guess he doesn’t.
Obama has the same problem all the lard-brained politicians, from both parties, with a few notable exceptions, have; they have come to believe the money they are spending with such reckless abandon is theirs.
Until we have term limits, until people who hate congress but not their congresscritter or senator stop voting for these cretins we will never have an open and free society.
We need to take elections out of the hands of our corrupt media and we need to primary every single incumbent.
We need to take our government back. That will never happen until voters stop thinking that their party is all good and the other party is all bad.
And most of all term limits, term limits, term limits.
Yes!
When Rahm Emanuel said “never let a crisis go to waste” he wasn’t kidding. They are continually making decisions that defy reason. And then, as lee said,“spring another surprise on us each time before we have a chance to digest the one that came before”. So we are constantly off balance and in no position to do anything or accept anything other than what we are told. They create the crisis; we survive the crisis by listening to them and doing what they say. They push us to the edge and they “save” us by making decisions that we know are dubious.
(In crisis counseling we are taught that people who are in crisis will do what they are told as they relinquish their powers to those they trust. Emanuel learned that well.)
Remember when someone in George the Lesser’s administration said “when we say it, it is reality” (or something like that)? The basis was that they told us what they wanted us to believe, and we (peons that we are) had to accept it – even though we knew it to be untrue. That arrogance – of Cheney, Rove, Card, Rumsfeld – has migrated to this group of Chicago thugs. And if we don’t challenge them, we are in for a long and bumpy ride.
Marge is right: “term limits, term limits, term limits”.
Leslie,
You are right on the money! They create our reality, and we suck it up like babes just because it’s on the tee vee!
Stop watching! Read – it’s the last thing they want you to do! You can go back over things, take your time, digest the words – just what they have trained us not to do by supercharging our lives!
Why do we think we need to be doing something every second of every day> What is multi-tasking all about? Just what Lee is saying – it’s to keep our eyes off the ball. If you’re reading this wondering if you’re just being paranoid or wearing a tin foil hat, trust me – you’re not!
Leslie–the info on “crisis counseling” you just described sounds like a good topic to expand on!!!