This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- The deafening silence following the Xi Jinping / Barack Obama summit
- George W. Obama
The deafening silence following the Xi Jinping / Barack Obama summit
President Xi to meet Obama (Global Times)
Prior to the two-day meeting of China’s president Xi Jinping andU.S. president Barack Obama, both of them bubbled with enthusiasm, andtalked about a “new model” of cooperation between China and the U.S.Now that’s it’s over, a U.S. official has described it as “unique,positive and constructive.”
But the only agreement to come out of the meeting was North Koreashouldn’t have nuclear weapons. That was it. The silence has beendeafening. Let’s see if we can guess what happened with respect tothe other issues that were supposed to be discussed at this summit:
- Cyberwar: U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said Obama had warned Xi that cyber-crime could be an “inhibitor” in US-China relations, which is really a laughable statement. My guess is that Xi told the following to Obama: “We’re going to continue what we’re doing, and anyway, you’re doing the same thing.”
- South China Sea: Obama would have told Xi that disputes should be decided by negotiation, or mediated by the United Nations. Xi would have told Obama: “Everything in the South China Sea is indisputably the sovereign territory of China, no matter what the U.N. says, and we will do everything we have to do militarily to preserve our sovereign properties.” Xi would also have warned Obama to stop meddling in the region and causing problems.
- Human rights: Obama might have raised concerns about Chinese treatment of dissidents, Tibetans and Uighurs. Xi would have said: business interfering in them.”
- Syria: “These are all internal matters to Syria, and the United States has no business interfering in them.”
It’s well to remember, as I’ve described in the past, that Xi Jinpinghas launched a series of “The China Dream” speeches, in which he callsfor China to shed its past as a secondary player, and become theworld’s top military and economic power. He’s visited Chinese militarybases and told the troops to be ready for war at any time. He’spersonally taking charge of policy in the East and South China Seas,and has vowed that China will take every step necessary to gaincontrol of these regions, including areas that have been owned byother countries for centuries. China is rapidly preparing for warwith India, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and the U.S., and Xi Jinpingis committed to leading the effort.
When President Obama was asked how the meeting was going, he saidthe meeting was going well, but I interpreted his response as beingsarcastic. It’s possible that President Obama may now realize thathis smooth rhetoric will have no effect on anything that China isgoing to do. BBC andGlobal Times (Beijing)
George W. Obama
George W. Obama (Huffington Post)
A number of President Barack Obama’s supporters on the left areclaiming that Obama has morphed into President George W. Bush. Theadjoining picture is a blending of the images of Obama and Bush andlooks really weird. Nonetheless, this photo was displayed last weekon the front page of the left-wing Huffington Post to demonstratetheir distress that sometimes Obama isn’t the total loony nutcase thatthe far left wants him to be.
Apparently it wasn’t Benghazi scandal or the IRS scandal or thethreats target Fox News’s James Rosen or the lies and stonewalling andcoverups that caused this comparison to be made. That’s justas well, because for those, we should have a picture ofRichard M. Obama.
Ironically, the revelation that’s causing the left to complain aboutGeorge W. Obama is the revelation about Prism, the secret governmentprograms that collect phone and internet data to help thwartterrorists. That’s ironic, because from what I understand thetechnical details of the operation of Prism to be, and unlike the IRStargeting of Obama’s enemies, the American public appears to beprotected, and the program provides a powerful and valuable service inprotecting America from terrorist attacks. Regarding Prism, the realcrime is that it was made public by another left-wing nutcase.
Long-time readers of my web site will not be surprised at all thatObama’s terms as president are very much like Bush’s third and fourthterms would have been. As I’ve said many times, I didn’t worry toomuch about the ridiculous claims that Obama said during the 2008campaign, because I knew it was just fatuous campaign rhetoric. Buthe didn’t abandon those claims after he was elected, and I rememberthinking, “Ohmigod, he actually believes all the crap.”
But Obama has gotten some painful lessons since then. He would cureglobal warming, close Guantanamo, become friendly with Iran and NorthKorea, bring a two-state solution to Palestinians and Israelis, beatthe Taliban and al-Qaeda, end the financial crisis, reflate the realestate and stock market bubbles and, of course, provide universalhealth care. All of these objectives have been total failures, thesole exception being his health care program, which is going tobe an economic disaster if it’s not heavily modified.
As I’ve written dozens of times since 2008, it’s a basic principle ofGenerational Dynamics that even in a dictatorship, major policies andevents are determined by masses of people, entire generations ofpeople, and not by politicians. What politicians say or do isirrelevant, except insofar as their actions reflect the attitudes ofthe people that they represent, and so politicians can neither causenor prevent the great events of history. It’s a consequence of thatbasic principle that whatever was going to happen in the Obamaadministration is the same thing that would have happened inadditional Bush administrations, because it was the resultof generational forces.
There’s another generational connection to be made in this picture.Why should anyone be surprised that the IRS is full of people who areusing the power of the IRS to target political enemies? It’s just afew years ago that an entire generation — Generation-X — offinancial engineers in the banking system created tens of trillions ofdollars of fraudulent subprime mortgage-backed securities and soldthem as AAA-rated. Then you have the widespread Libor fixing crimes,then energy-fixing crimes, various crimes in the computer industrythat I’ve seen with my own eyes. And you have experts on CNBC everyday lie about stock valuations. (As an aside, the S&P 500Price/Earnings ratio, as reported by Friday’s Wall Street Journal is an astronomically high value of18.38, meaning that stocks are far overpriced.)
So if thousands of financial institutions caused the financialcrisis by creating tens of trillions of dollars in fraudulentsecurities, then of course the IRS is going to perform itsown very of fraud and extortion. The same is going to be trueat other government agencies. Why would anyone believe anythingelse?
And what about the bank presidents. Did they know what wasgoing on? How stupid would they have to be not to knowthat their bank was making millions of dollars selling trillionsof dollars in fraudulent securities? Of course they knewwhat was going on, and of course they’ve been lying about it.
And what about President Obama. Did he know what was goingon at the IRS? How stupid would he have to be not to knowthat the IRS was targeting his political opponents in themiddle of his reelection campaign? Of course he knew whatwas going on, and of course he’s been lying about it.
President Obama’s repeated failures have been tremendous learningexperiences for him. And this weekend, he’s had another learningexperience — his “terrific” meeting with China’s president Xi Jinpingmust surely have opened his eyes to the fact that things are not goingto go in the direction he was hoping even a month ago. Bloomberg
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