ISIS wants to kill a lot of people and set up its vile version of a state. And it has the financial and military assets to do so — as long as these assets are not destroyed.
The United States doesn’t want to do anything that will hurt or kill any innocent people. The ones that ISIS has surrounded itself with and among whom it stores its assets.
Who will win this war?
A few years back I wrote (and think it got picked up somewhere) a satirical piece about a giant comet about to hit earth. The market initially plunged on the news, but bounced back when analysts saw it as a buying opportunity, and ended the day up by a heap.
Yesterday’s news: Horror in France that’s a killer for tourism and other industries. The Japanese economy officially entered recession. All sorts of other bad economic news here and around the world..
And the markets response to this news? Nikkei goes up. Europe stocks go up. Our Dow rose more than 230 points.
Central banks key their policies off market behavior. Pols set their countries’ overall economic policies based on this behavior. And market behavior is moving rapidly from the idiotic to the utterly insane.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
This announcement that I am running for president appeared in the May 12, 2015 Washington Times. It nicely describes my credentials and prospects.
Silverstein throws his hat into the ring
(No one else has claimed the lefty libertarian mantle)
By Michael Silverstein – – Tuesday, May 12, 2015
While nobody has actually asked me to run for president of the United States, I have begun to sense a yearning for me to do so emanating from the ranks of the still-uncommitted silent majority.
So after prayers, fasting, discussions with my family, and careful consideration of opinions offered by Sunday morning talking heads, I have decided to throw my hat into the ring as a Republican.
Am I qualified?
While it’s true that I’ve never performed brain surgery, run a computer company, and wasn’t born in Hope, Arkansas — qualifications listed by other recently declared candidates — I bring to the contest things these others lack.
I’m the only wannabe, for example, who has tried to live on Social Security and succeeded, at least to date. It’s the kind of real-world experience that will resonate strongly with a very large and endlessly ticked off voting bloc — crotchety old white men.
And that’s not all.
I’ve never actually held public office, which is a real plus in today’s world as my record can’t be either found or attacked. Still, I am the only presently announced candidate of either party who has been on a past presidential ticket — though not at the top of this ticket.
In 1992, I was privileged to be selected by the American Art Party as its vice-presidential standard bearer by virtue of my work as an anti-parking ticket crusader. The top of the ticket that year was occupied by a house cat named Colette Silverwood. (Boy, could that tabby work a room!). I’m proud to report that while this party’s spending on the campaign was no greater than the cost of a can of Sheba, we still got as many electoral votes as Ross Perot, who spent millions on his own run.
People talk a lot these days about the need for inclusiveness with candidates bragging incessantly about their sensitivity to the needs and desires of different ethnicities, genders and folks of differing sexual orientations. That’s nice. But if the public really wants a candidate with a proven big-tent background, I am someone who can boast of being politically linked to a running mate of a different species, which has to give me an edge.
Where do I stand on the big issues? Let’s just say they are evolving.
I still have yet to meet with Sheldon Adelson to construct a foreign policy, and with Charles Koch to come up with one that covers energy and the environment. Reaching out still further, I plan to bring in policy professionals from past Republican administrations to advise me about how to make the country’s economy better by further enriching the rich so they trickle down more largesse, and get their suggestions concerning where to start our next big war. I’m certain these experts have a lot of ideas on these matters.
This is not to say I won’t seek advice from real people as well. I intend to meet with these real Americans in primary state diners at 11 in the morning, the time and place real Americans gather for eggs, coffee and an occasional doughnut.
Many candidates avoid such encounters because they find it impossible to listen attentively to their whines, snivels and moans. That won’t be a problem for this candidate. I’m well stocked with Xanax and Valium, and for especially tiresome crowds, I may even have a few Quaaludes left over from my days as a Deadhead.
Now you’re probably wondering about my attitude toward accepting campaign contributions from special interest PACs. Will I do that?
You think a guy willing to take second place on a ticket topped by a house cat would feel bad about selling his soul to very rich people? Who am I to deny the right of these folks to buy influence, anyway?
So I’m in — win or lose — and if I don’t make it this time around, I have a back-up plan.
I might accept a generous book deal, join a conservative think tank as a visiting scholar or combine both with a speaking tour. As a former presidential candidate, I would also be in line to join some Fortune 500 boards, become a Fox regular, and maybe spew wisdom to young people at an Ivy League college for an hour once a week.
Or I could join the private sector by managing a hedge fund. Compensation here fell dramatically from 2013 to 2014, but the top 25 hedge fund managers still eke out a combined income of $11.67 billion or an acceptable $211,538 an hour.
A person could live pretty comfortably on that. There might even be enough left over to self-fund a future political campaign. Or if that seems like too much trouble, hire a substitute to front my agenda once I develop one.
• Michael Silverstein is a former senior editor with Bloomberg’s Markets magazine. His latest book, now available on Amazon, is Gorilla Warfare Against the Bureaucratic State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian).
Here’s the link to the story about Silverstein’s run that appeared in the Washington Times:
Hillary Leans To The Left — Somewhat
Hillary’s sharing her liberal side,
Giving the left a good lather,
There are winks, a few hints, a suggestion or two,
A finely wrought serving of blather.
You kind of agree, though you’re not always sure,
‘Cause what’s said here is oft’ rather subtle,
So nuanced, in fact, it makes one suspect,
Down the road she might shape a rebuttal.
Does she lean to the left, to the middle, the right?
What’s the future plans of this contender?
No she needn’t agree on all issues with me,
Just tell me her real agenda.
My new book: Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian).
Huge trade deals are being negotiated by the Obama Administration. Most Republicans (and the President himself) support these deals. Most members of the Democratic Party oppose them.
That’s the big debate in Washington these days. But it’s the wrong debate. The debate here should focus (at least initially) on the “fast track” approval that President Obama wants.
The reason? Many elements of these deals are very beneficial to the country as a whole. Some aren’t. The sensible thing to do here is thus to keep what’s good and weed out what’s bad with amendments to the deals.
But fast track doesn’t allow amendments. You take it all or reject it all. And if in the end the good seems to outweigh the bad, you end up with badly flawed overall deals.
So don’t debate the trade deals now. Debate fast track. Put the deals on a slow track and end up with something really worthwhile for everyone,
Michael Silverstein’s new political memoir: Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian).
Something is happening in the political world. Folks are beginning to catch on. They’re beginning to see the linkage between surging wealth for the few and austerity for the rest, and longing for a return to America’s post-War II fair wealth distribution and prosperity for the many economic model. Here’s a baseball season poetry knockoff describing what this might mean in the next election…
Progressives At The Bat
It looked extremely rocky for progressives in D.C.,
The folks they’d long depended on to others bent a knee,
The White House rarely answered calls, the Senate mostly cowed,
Tea party members ran the House, “We’ll make the rules,” they vowed.
But out there where the Beltway gang is rarely ever seen,
In countless places o’er the land where the living had gone mean,
The days of settling for a phrase, for promises unmet,
A spirit craving real change, these bad times did beget.
Yes in our nation’s capital they still ain’t yet caught on,
They still to Wall Street genuflect, buy the right’s self-serving yarn,
They don’t sense the awakening, ain’t twigged to where it’s at,
That progressives next election day will swing the big vote bat.
Michael Silverstein is a former Bloomberg News senior editor;
his latest book is Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic
State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian).
http://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Warfare-Against-Bureaucratic-State/dp/0692386432/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428422596&sr=1-1&keywords=Gorilla+Warfare+Against+The+Bureaucratic+State
Bernie Sanders For President
I had a dream the other night
About this country’s politics;
I dreamed that for too many years
We haven’t had no real picks.
(Bernie’s different from the pack,
Has some views that others lack.)
These days we hear a lot of news
‘Bout countries out to build the bomb;
But truth be told what worries me
The sinking ship I’m drifting on.
(Sure I’m sad bout Mid-East’s ills,
But sadder ‘bout my Visa bills.)
Our nation’s wealth just grows and grows.
A picture most inspi-er-ing;
But most new wealth, to old wealth flows,
I’m left in debt en-mi-er-ing.
(CEOs make out big time,
I squeeze by on overtime.)
One size fits all ain’t right by me,
No matter the vote lever;
And just as bad, a game that’s rigged
By K Street lobbies clever.
(Could sixties lefties long a’tooth,
See their ideas respawned forsooth?)
Michael Silverstein is a former Bloomberg News senior editor;
his latest book is Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic
State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian).
Vehicles in the future, perhaps a great many in the very near future, will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The reason: These are zero emissions vehicles. The only thing that comes out of their tailpipes is water or water vapor.
So where does the hydrogen come from? Most these days comes from natural gas. The problem here is that to get this hydrogen feedstock increasingly requires fracking, which has its own serious polluting drawbacks.
But fortunately there are alternative ways to produce hydrogen that are becoming available. In Germany excess power from wind turbines, power not needed to feed into the electricity grid, is being used to split water into its component hydrogen and oxygen parts. In California, these is a pilot project to use excess solar energy not feed into the electricity grid to do the same thing. Still another approach coming into view is to add carbon to solar-split hydrogen to make methane (aka natural gas) without the fracking pollution drawback.
The first mass produced hydrogen fuel cell powered cars are now starting to be sold by Toyota, Other car makers are expected to follow suit shortly. The future of transportation is about to arrive.
(The latest book from the author of this piece is titled Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic State—Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian)
China’s economy is slowing. Greece is on the verge of default. Corporate profits in the U.S. are slack. The U.S. economy slowed in the last quarter. Interest rates are starting to creep up as the Fed hints it will allow this to proceed faster soon.
All the things that were used to justify past stock market increases are tapering off or turning south. But the stock markets of the world keep going up and up and up.
Why it’s almost as if they are rigged for the benefit of the relatively few who still play there big time. But that couldn’t be so.
Could it?
My new book: Gorilla Warfare Against The Bureaucratic State (Confessions of a Lefty Libertarian)
Hillary Clinton outlined her economic policies the other day. They were billed as helping working Americans, giving a boost to the middle class. And they would do that. Sort of.
When you look at her proposals concerning sick leave and minimum wages and equal pay and gender equality generally in the workplace, they look very, very familiar. That’s because some of them have been on the books in countries with advanced economies for more than a hundred years, and are even already on the books of many developing countries today.
On these shores they would indeed make economic life better for many people. Marginally. They would take the edge off some of the additional nastiness and pain so many Americans have experienced in recent years. But they are a palliative, not a fundamental improvement, when it comes to this country’s real economic woes.
That’s because we’ve had an economic coup in our economy. The top one-tenth of one percent have taken control of key economic levers. The result isn’t just that the very top have benefited while the middle has wallowed. Not just a failure of trickle down. The vast enrichment at the very top HAS TAKEN PLACE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MIDDLE.
We’ve been robbed. A genuine counter-coup, not the equivalent of longer coffee breaks, is needed to redress things.
Hillary Clinton might get the middle class longer coffee breaks. But she’ll never be the leader of a needed economic counter coup. She’s the same old same old, same promises, same travails down the same old unhealthy economic trails.
Democratic voters were conned by our first black president. You want to be conned again by our first woman president? You want to make history again, or do you want to thrive again?
No to Hillary. Been there. Done that. Want better.
Michael Silverstein’s new book:
http://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Warfare-Against-Bureaucratic-State/dp/0692386432/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428422596&sr=1-1&keywords=Gorilla+Warfare+Against+The+Bureaucratic+State
Wall Street Poet Blog 