george orwell golfing: electoral college handicap

It’s the economy stupid. Or so said Bill Clinton. An ultimately an American president is judged on economic performance, an ability to keep middle-class voters heads above water and maintain belief in the system that capitalism, despite periodic bouts of “creative destruction” is our best option. The latest “news” circling the vulture and carcass licking circuit in Washington is that the entire Situation Room photos on the assassination of Bin Laden were a fraud, an illusion, and that the President was out playing golf when Bin Laden met his demise and was allegedly turfed into the ocean while respecting the basic norms of an Islamic burial. But that’s politics. Our current fetish for authenticity and complete transparency defeats the purpose of the office. One thing is certain is that unless those cheezy Bin Laden videos go into syndication, we won’t have to view the hoary dogma of Allah in the Sky pissing on America.

---PRESIDENTIAL GOLF: Romney obsessed with Obama's game After golfing at a Marine Corps base Monday, Obama has so far totaled 32 golf outings this year, topping the totals in each of the first two years of his presidency.---Read More:http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/12/president-obama-sets-personal-golf-record/1#.T74fQcVb76M

( see link at end) …The answer to that latter question can be summed up in one simple thought: To hide the truth. Obama was out golfing while the OBL mission was unfolding, and the administration needed the Situation Room photo op for public perception — to give the illusion that he’s presidential.

Obama’s entire “Composite Presidency” and administration are orchestrated in this fashion. Not only is the photo’s legitimacy in question, but so is the narrative illusion behind it. Obama knew of OBL’s location for a year and refused to act. The CIA admits that there was “no live video feed,” as implied by the iconic White House photo. It is anyone’s guess what the captive audience was looking at, but it wasn’t the OBL raid. It was recently reported that a highly lawyered CYA memo was drafted that made it clear that the military would take all blame for any errors, while Obama would claim all glory for successes. Not surprisingly, the real heroes seem to have a problem with this form of spiking the ball and using our brave SEALs for political gain. Why would Obama need to Photoshop the Situation Room photos? For the same reason behind everything else he does: to influence perception in which everything is about Obama.Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/the_illusion_of_obamas_bin_laden_raid_situation_room_leadership.html#ixzz1vmoB9ytJ

Read More:http://thumpandwhip.com/2012/05/23/sheriff-joe-arpaios-digital-image-expert-is-an-idiot/

Dwight Eisenhower was apparently a notorious golfer, but the post-war economy provided employment and even if the high level of taxation relative to today was griped about, no OWS or Black Bloc or anarchist agitation over the Marshall Plan and South Korea dominated the collective psyche. Whether the Obama administration will be brought down, is not pertinent; there are other forces at work that will make the next four years likely look like the first term was a Golden Age. And there is not much any president can do.


Simply, the nature of the successful business model has changed. The likes of Microsoft, Apple, Google, Cisco and all the feeder companies into these systems are more profitable with less labor and capital expenses than the behemoths that define our vision of industrial employment; the likes of General Electric, Siemens etc. So, there is a lot of un-implemented productivity technology around that can be installed that is intrinsic to the digital technologies.  The Google car that drove through Nevada and California without a driver is just one example. Drone and automated combat and defense systems is another. All this means less employment and lower prices and more people on the streets protesting against what is not understood which in part explains scapegoating Moslems, Bankers, and various conspiracy theories depending on the flavor of the month. Income disparity and the corporate plutocracy is a problem, but is not a new phenomenon and dragging Marx and Engels out of the closet with the ghosts of the Paris uprisings of May ’68 is a symptom but not a route to concrete measures.

The famous 1% is still going to rule the roost. The Fed and European Central Banks can open the taps and stimulate, or STIMULATE as Paul Krugman wants in almost erotic relationship between expansion of the money supply, a V-shaped graphic,  and the payoff; but what happens is that the problems resurface more vigorously than ever with the jobless rate increasing. Its a no-win situation since we need consumption to support the massive governmental and corporate structures installed. The counter-forces are almost Heidegger style attacks against technology and a yearning for an idyllic “volk” past which explains the fringe but significant movements on the far right. Obama can play all the golf he wants. It doesn’t matter; when Robotics and artificial intelligence hit the pipeline this will be a Walter Benjamin “shock of the new” redux, and the lag time for societal adjustment is not likely to be a smooth one.

 

 

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