President Obama’s nomination acceptance speech in Charlotte, NC, Thursday night has been moved indoors to the Time Warner Cable Arena from its originally planned venue, the outdoor Bank of America Stadium. Democrats made the move, they say, because of the threat of rain, thunderstorms that frequently drench the city during the afternoon this time of year, that would have dampened any spell the orator-in-chief might have spun over a crowd his re-election staff estimated would have been at least 65,000.
You’d think they would have checked out Charlotte’s weather history before making plans for an open-air event. That’s what Gilda did 17 years ago when we planned a tented party on our lawn for Ellie’s bat mitzvah weekend November 12-13. She researched the average weather conditions going back five years and determined we would be in the clear. In my mind I went along with her thoughtful planning, but my body, specifically my ankles, considered the risk and reacted accordingly—I developed severe psoriasis starting around Labor Day and lasting through mid-November. Psoriasis, as you may know, is an itchy skin condition often brought on by tension. It was the first time I ever had a psoriasis attack, though not the last (you’ll be happy to know Ellie’s recent outdoor wedding ceremony did not precipitate a recurrence). Though it rained several days before Ellie’s bat mitzvah, the weekend weather was glorious, with temperatures in the 70s.
Republicans say the stadium crowd would have been far, far fewer than 65,000, leaving great gaps in the seating, thus giving the impression enthusiasm for Obama was not as strong as hyped.
You can pick your explanation, depending on your political leanings (though the actual weather tomorrow night will go a long way toward validating one side’s claim of foresight or fear).
What is not in dispute, however, is the fact that in Charlotte, as in Tampa last week at the GOP confab, conventioneers cannot bring umbrellas into the arena. Umbrellas are confiscated by security. You see, they could conceal a weapon.
Holy Batman! Somebody must have seen Batman Returns, the 1992 flick where Danny Devito as Oswald Cobblepot, alias the Penguin, uses an umbrella to machine gun a mayoral election crowd that turns against him. Way to go, Secret Service!
Which Way To Go? Listening to public radio as I was riding around delivering meals to the elderly today, I was struck by a discussion that parsed government into two strands. The Republican thread bore the story line: government (e.g., regulators) gets in the way of personal success. Democrats spun a different tale: government (through incentive programs) paves the way for individual and collective success.
No doubt, there are regulations that stymie growth, especially ones that remain on the books long after their need has been dissipated. But, on the whole, I’d rather live in a nation where my government has my back and protects me from the insidious acts of greedy capitalists who would exploit workers, distribute tainted food and drugs, sell shoddy, dangerous merchandise, and take advantage of the ignorant and misinformed.
Nixon’s the One. Again: Did you see the article in today’s NY Times, “GOP Shift Moves Center Far to Right” (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/business/the-gops-journey-from-the-liberal-days-of-nixon.html?_r=1&ref=business)? Eduardo Porter made the case that Richard Nixon was “a more liberal, more pro-big government choice” than Barack Obama for left-leaning Democrats to embrace.
I can’t argue with that analysis, particularly since I made the same argument back on May 30 (http://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2012/05/nixons-one.html)!
Big News: Did you know all the electioneering is for naught, that there won’t be an election November 6? I didn’t either, until I read an email from a business acquaintance. I don’t normally reproduce loooong emails, but I’ll make an exception in this case because it demonstrates the danger of the Internet and the lenghts to which some conspiracy theorists can go. Enjoy (I hope):
A RUMOR
What I’m going to report here is only a rumor that presently can’t be confirmed. But it is of such magnitude that it must be made known if only to prepare America for a possible terrible eventuality. And while it has not been confirmed, neither can it authoritatively and convincingly be denied, certainly not in a United States where our Constitutional rights are under constant attack.
This rumor involves an agent of the Department of Homeland Security who allegedly informed a reporter at the Canada Free Press of a “false flag” or faked event to be initiated by Obama administration operatives in the hope of preventing the November presidential elections.
Canada Free Press (CFP) is an independent, conservative, electronic daily newspaper, updated several times a day. It boasts more than 100 writers and columnists who file stories regularly to the newspaper from all corners of the globe.
According to the newspaper’s coverage of this DHS “whistleblower,” the event would be a staged assassination attempt on the life of President Obama that would be blamed on “white supremacists” and subsequently used to enrage black and Hispanic communities driving them to rioting all across the nation.
The faked assassination, says the CFP report, would be carried out through the assistance of DHS agents, and “other colluders” taking their orders from the White House. The objective would be to stir up enough racial unrest to justify the imposition of martial law in major urban cities, including erecting DHS checkpoints, restricting travel, and delaying (possibly indefinitely) the November 2012 elections.
Doug Hagmann, reporting in the May 8, 2012 edition of the Canada Free Press wrote that his informant works in “the upper-echelon of DHS”, which he described as “effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama.”
Hagmann’s contact said, “The DHS is actively preparing for massive social unrest inside the United States .. He then corrected himself, stating that ‘a civil war’ is the more appropriate term. Certain elements of the government are not only expecting and preparing for it; they are actually facilitating it.”
The DHS whistleblower mentioned a recent meeting at the Department of Homeland Security where plans were discussed to use pawns to simulate the rioting seen in the Arab Spring countries that would bring on a “controlled chaos” for the benefit of the Obama administration.
“Envisioned by these conspirators are riots starting in urban areas such as New York , followed by a disruption of business and commerce,” the DHS source added. “They want to restrict travel, if not through high energy prices, then by checkpoints and curfews mandated by the rioting and unrest. The whole purpose is to keep Obama in office for another term, no matter how unpopular he is, as he is not finished changing our country from a Constitutional Republic .”
This certainly isn’t the first rumor to surface about Mr. Obama’s intention to subvert the U.S. Constitution, by manipulating economic, racial and social issues that would polarize Americans and bring on enormous conflict. But the full measure of this contrived event, if true, involves total suspension of our democratic rights, and repression on a scale never thought possible in the America we’ve known and cherished all our lives.
It’s a rumor that bears watching … and is worth spreading because the more people who know about it and understand the high level of deceit and treachery that confronts us daily in Washington , the less likely it is for the rumor to become a reality.
The lesson here is that if people are aware of the possibility, even remote, of some great calamity befalling them, they’re on guard. They’re prepared. Their defenses are up. Those who would commit evil will back down fearing a confrontation they can’t win.
The more we talk about the potential for a staged, bogus presidential assassination that would trigger massive civil unrest and possible martial law, the stronger is our defense against it actually occurring. The nation will be watching. Patriots everywhere will be on alert. The Obama administration will be under scrutiny more intense than ever before. It doesn’t have the guts to take on millions of Americans when we’re ready for anything. Sometimes rumors are a good thing.
