Booman wrote an overall approving piece today regarding Hillary Clinton’s appointment to the office of Secretary of State by President-elect Barack Obama and her obvious efforts to ramp up that position to greater power than it has held during the Butch administration.
In it he wrote:
I’m still not enamored with Obama’s decision to retain Bob Gates as his Defense Secretary or his decision to hand the State Department over to Hillary Clinton. But I’m beginning to see some positives. Ever since John Foster Dulles resigned from office in 1959, the Secretary of State has, much more often than not, played second fiddle to others in foreign policy. In the JFK/LBJ era, Robert McNamara was dominant. In the Nixon era, Kissinger dominated the Secretary of State until he took the position over for himself. As a general matter, Republicans don’t trust the State Department and prefer to use the National Security Council, the intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon to make important foreign policy decisions.
Democrats are more culturally attuned to the State Department, but Carter and Clinton had weak secretaries. Hillary Clinton is not going to be a weak secretary. She is looking to expand the job and take over as much turf as possible. Ordinarily that might be a bad thing, but her power is going to be coming at the expense of the Defense Department (and to an indeterminate degree, the Treasury Department). Secretary Gates is voicing his support for an expanded diplomatic service, and his lame duck status and Republican roots make him institutionally incapable of competing with the former First Lady.
Why do I see this as good? Because it will mark a restoration of the State Department as the premier department of government. And that means that we won’t shoot first and ask questions later. It means we will put a kinder face forward to the rest of the world. It means that State Department will regain its morale and that they’ll be able to recruit the best minds. It’s just good overall.
My initial reaction was one of the-laughter-that-does-not-mean ha-ha.
But then I got to thinking.
Read on for more if you so desire.
Laughter-that-does-not-mean ha-ha. As in:
And so the leftiness Hillary Restoration begins.
‘Bout time, people.
‘Bout time.
I don’t like her but I want her to succeed.
Now that’s some funny shit!!!
Since when does a queen have to be likable? Or a king, for that matter.
Watch. As Obama assumes his kingly role, y’all are going to “like” him less and less.
And respect him more and more.
Watch.
AG
But then Quentin wrote:
I’d think the departments of labor, agriculture, etc., which directly affect the lives of the people who the government is working for, would be ‘the premier departments’ of the U.S. government.
And I got to thinking some more.
Here is what I came up with.
In an ideal world Quentin would be correct. But this is not an ideal world. Or better, if it is an ideal world it functions on a level of “ideal” that is so far beyond general human comprehension as to be essentially a non-functioning concept in human affairs.
So what have we got instead?
We have a pushme-pullyou system of competing nations and power blocs, each trying to grab the lion’s share of the booty. Without some sort of parity on that level there is no possibility of success regarding the quality of life within a given nation. Now there are basically three ways to achieve that parity: Militarily, diplomatically (coupled with trade), and some sort of total neutrality usually coupled with a militarily and/or geographically enforced isolationism.
The isolationist option is all but over except in truly rugged areas of the world, areas where the quality of life is in truth never very high. Air travel (and military force that uses the air) puts the kibosh on that idea.
So the U.S. has two options left in this regard.
Endless war or diplomatically achieved peace, a peace which is essentially enforced and informed by trade and defended by adequate military options.
The Butch regime tried the first idea, as did the Reagan and Nixon regimes before it, really.
Didn’t work. Look at where we are today for all you need to know on that subject.
So now Obama has been (s)elected by the business as usual crowd to try the second option. Repair the country from within so that it has something to offer in trade …even if what it has to offer is mostly as a consumer of others’ goods, at least for starters…but do so without suffering a nearly total collapse of its international positions that will render the repair effort next to impossible.
A hard job, folks.
A hard, tricky job.
And what is the trickiest part of that job?
The transition from military power/world cop to strong but peaceful trading partner. Peaceful but not to be fucked with.
Why that first?
Because we still have a functioning internal infrastructure here. There is enough food; the delivery systems are still working and there are enough jobs to keep us afloat. It’s dicey, this position, but the residual wealth of this country plus its undeniably vast work force can and will….if properly propped up, which is what the whole “bailout” idea is supposed to address…survive during the transition.
Thus the emphasis on the Department of State.
And thus the appointment of the strongest Dem power after Obama to head that department. I mean…what was the final vote tally during the run for the nomination? 51%-49%? Something like that. The meaning of this appointment is quite clear.
HERE is where I am going to put the most emphasis. For now.
End of story.
Should he succeed in traversing this particular gorge…on the other side lies the possibility for extensive infrastructure repair.
Until then…?
It’s survive, baby, survive.
Let us pray that he is correct and that his correctness becomes pretty damned clear pretty damned quickly, because if he what he is trying to do does not begin to be plainly, visibly successful in less than 4 years I believe that we will see a violent swing to the right here that will have us looking back on poor ol’ bumbling Preznit Butch with the fondness now reserved for silent movie characters like the Keystone Kops.
Bet on it.
Let us pray.
And let us support him in this effort.
Peace.
It’s what’s for dinner.
If there is going to be a dinner, of course.
Later…
AG
Let us pray.
AG
When the money and the rage run out, then a great power decides that diplomacy is the wiser path. That’s the way it’s always been; we’re no different. When diplomacy is decided to be the most important path, then the diplomat will be called on to play diplomacy as a blood sport. And, like her or hate her, Clinton is likely well suited to that job.
The people, the permagov, or perhaps the times themselves have chosen Obama because he is laying out the path the zeitgeist a global power in our position demands. We not only are hearing the rumble of an approaching waterfall, we’re also feeling the rush of the current and the mist in our face, hanging on for dear life as that stomach-churning feeling of free-fall kicks in, for in the mist and the roar we cannot see the bottom…
my reaction — It’s a
Clinton III co-presidency:
ChangeContinuity, we can’t believe in. It is now clear ALL Obama’s appointees were selected for him. Conflicts await.2009 will be double catastrophic.
Looking to be Lincoln, Mr. Obama will be Hoover presiding over the death of capitalism and a resurgent hyper-inflation.
We shall have a world government whether or not we like it.
The stage is set.
Whadda you, nuts or sump’n?
We can’t even make small town governments work well.
Never happen.
It simply will not work.
Now…nukes over Karachi?
Maybe.
I have been saying ever since my trip to Egypt that the whole Islamic fundamentalist thing is eventually going to boil over into some shit that makes Iraq look like a back alley bar fight.
This could be it. I hope not.
A depression on the scale you are imagining..actually on a scale for which apparently long?
If it descends that far we won’t make it into 2014. The country will literally break up à la the U.S.S.R.
West coast, a Northeast/Industrial Northern Midwest alliance, South, Midwestern /Western agricultural states, maybe a Mexicano Southwest…
That’ll be two superpowers notched onto bin Laden’s gun if it does.
Watch.
Obama admires Lincoln?
Hmmm….
Maybe he’ll get the chance to deal with his own secession(s).
Hang on…
AG.
no, not nuts just a realist – in plain sight.
World government will come out of the global financial crisis. Already nation states are calling for global regulation of financial firms. Taxing powers and financing regulations are the last two pieces of the puzzle. Not that world government will work but stand by and see it develop. Look at the Green tax. Visit turtle bay.
Indeed, time is running out for Pakistan says the inside actors such as geo-political analysts…and echoed by India:
“Militant groups in Pakistan are “the greatest danger to peace and security in the entire world”, India’s foreign minister has said.
And it’s one thing to make a powerful State Department. What on earth for if you’re gonna follow BushCheney policies. The trap has been set with late hour executive orders. No, don’t look for change from Obama.
on the economic front — the worst is yet to come:
1. International trade has collapsed – No letters of Credit means shortages ahead, closed factories, mines, on and on. In November job losses wereat 873,000. In the coming months, one million per month, easy.
Frozen Ports in Long Beach, Singapore Mean Bleak 2010 (Update1)
— in practical terms; iron ore, corn, or wheat bulk ship charters have dropped from US$240,000 daily lease rate to $6,000…and no takers.
2. Municipal bankruptcies ahead
3.Commercial Real Estate Industry Seeks U.S. Aid Ditto the Aviation industry.
4. one in ten homeowners are either delinquent or are in foreclosures as house prices fall
It’s been one big Ponzi. Expect no relief until after the WeiAmerica event – hyperinflation – one of two tools nations deploy for debt relief. It’s a One thousand, one hundred and forty trillion debt pile plus the additional 30 trillion the Feds will be printing.
Can Central Banks go bust? Oh yes.
Obama admires Lincoln. All he needs is a repeat of Iceland.
Iceland `Like Chernobyl’ as Meltdown Shows Anger Can Boil Over.
The very great depression will be the catalyst…and the Military has been deployed and ready.
Few families are prepared for what’s to come.
We may soo sing:
’nuff said.
Ol’ Henry missed a lick.
Successful disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient certainly must be slaves, but the unsuccessfully disobedient? They die early.
Obama is walking that thin line between success and failure in his “disobedience”.
Will he succeed?
Will he fail?
Will he just give the fuck up and let the crazies continue to rule? (Remember, there is always a third dimensiopn available.)
Stay tuned. That’s why there is a story here.
You want black and white?
Go watch an old movie.
YOU know…where the “good guys” (snicker snicker) always win?
Like that.
This guy’s not John Wayne, dada.
He’s closer to Ulysses/Odysseus.
The crafty one.
Watch.
He sails now between the Scylla of the rightiness right and the Charybdis of the leftiness left.
BOTH are full of shit. Two-dimensional to the core.
May he survive and prosper.
Later…
AG
Arthur, you came to mind when I read about this predictive software:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081208123259.htm
or John Coltrane/Bill Evans/Miles Davis/Gil Evans/Duke Ellington/Ravel/Mozart/Bach/Beethoven/Debussy I might be interested…
Otherwise…nope.
How to predict the next flash in the pan?
Just look for where the grease is sizzling and getting ready to catch fire.
Later…
AG
So much gloom and doom. Jeezus I hope you all are wrong. I would like to think so. I guess maybe I still believe we can pull out of this chaos. Yes, Bin Laden is laughing his dead ass off. He got what he wanted by hitting the World Trade Centers now didn’t he? But we are stronger than this. We can either work our asses of to regain control of this out of control government otr we can lie down and sink into the black abyss. Me? I will keep fighting for my children and grandchildrens futere with eyes wide open.
Not unless you are a knee-jerk Hillary hater or one who lives in a Pollyanna-ish dream world where things are either all Father Knows Best rosy or totally negative.
In between those two extremes is where reality lies, and the reality of our present situation is that we either succeed in this transition from a militarily dominant consumer society to a trading, producing nation or we go down.
I personally believe that the election of Barack Obama is going to prove to have been a watershed event in the history of this country…and by extension, of the world… and that we will successfully make that transition.
Where is the gloom and doom in that idea?
Besides Obama’s obvious political and leadership skills, his race itself is a symbol of a new America, one that will deal in human ecology to pull out of this nosedive. We have a workforce the potential of which has not even begun to be tapped, and the natural resources of North, Central, Caribbean and South America…including the people of the Americas…are the greatest unused power on this planet.
Black, Brown and Beige. (The title of a prophetic Duke Ellington suite that was premiered in 1943, in the middle of the war that began the end of over 2000 years of white racist dominance on the planet Earth.)
Little did those slavers and European conquerors understand the can of kickass they were opening!
VAYA!!!
And now as the second most important figure in his administration, Barack Obama has installed a white woman. What more symbolism do you need? Human ecology. The equality of all sexes and races, a society based on achievement alone.
A meritocracy.
From kleptocracy to meritocracy in one election.
I got yer gloom and doom.
Right here!
Black, Brown and Beige.
VAYA!!!
Is this all going to prove to be smooth sailing?
Not on your life it isn’t.
Are we now about to pull safely into the port or Pollyannaville, there to live happily ever after?
In your dreams, maybe.
But we are now on the way.
Finally.
Bet on it.
Later…
AG
If you follow the thread, I wasn’t really replying to your diary but the poster before me. You are so confrontational. UGH!
#1-Your post was not apparently answering a previous post; it was flush against the left border which means that you clicked the “Post A Comment” button at the bottom of the thread rather than the “Reply to This” button directly underneath the part upon which you wished to comment. The “Post A Comment” button means that whatever you write is supposed to refer to the original article.
#2-If by “confrontational”: you mean that I disagreed with what I perceived to be your message…yes.
If on the other hand you meant this line:
Perhaps I should have written:
But I was trying to write a little more idiomatically than I have been writing recently. I’ve been getting a little too anglicized in my choice of phrases and grammatical constructions. By the use of the word “you” I did not necessarily mean you, Nancy. although if the shoe fits, feel free to wear it. The “ImpeachBush” in your sig is about as Pollyanna-like as it gets. Ain’t happening. Sorry. Not now; not ever. Not unless someone steps forward with irrefutable evidence that Bush was aware of and condoned some serious theft or real, international-style treason.. And that ain’t happening because if someone did do something of the sort they would be either be murdered in their bed or so vilified by the media and the courts that they and the rest of their immediate family will wish that they were dead.
If all of the above is too complicated for you, here’s the simple version.
You don’t want your comments to be taken wrong?
Click the correct button when you are posting.
Later…
That li’l ol’ confrontationist-AG
Your eloquence level is astounding.
Or is that a quote from President Bush after a briefing about the real state of affairs in the Middle East?
Go away or get into what is up here.
AG
I love it when you write in paragraphs!