This Presidency has been Photoshopped

(Update:  Awoke this morning to the news that unemployment miraculously fell to 7.8%!     I rest my case.)
Every aspect of this Presidency has been Photoshopped.  It’s been air-brushed, edited, manipulated, faked, phonied, cropped, distorted, misrepresented, massaged, tweaked, falsified, misreported, and staged.  What you see is not real.  Almost nothing you have been told about Barack Obama is true.  Ditto for Mitt Romney.  Even when you think you are seeing them speak in their own words, you are being duped.  That’s why Mitt Romney’s debate victory last night was such an unexpected surprise to so many.     

The deceptions started from the moment Barack Obama walked onto the national stage.  Air-brushed was his work as a “Community Organizer”: a job title originated by revolutionary Saul Alinsky, who advocated for the destruction of our society in pursuit of an undefined utopia.  Unreported were Obama’s associations with terrorist Bill Ayers, Communist Frank Marshall Davis, anti-Zionist Rashid Khalidi,  racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and many others with similarly controversial ideologies.  Edited was his race baiting and divisive rhetoric aimed at previous administrations, white Americans, and the rich.  Cropped was his avowed affinity for “Marxist professors”, disdain for “typical white” people, and conflicting stories on everything from his religion, to his Mother’s death.  Unasked were any tough questions by the media or any follow-ups to his deceptive answers.

Once the campaign of 2008 got underway the Photoshopping went bipartisan.  John McCain was falsely accused of an extramarital affair in a huge front-page feature in the New York Times.  Misrepresented were his mostly moderate views.  Cropped was Senator Obama’s record as the most liberal member of the Senate.  Unmentioned was his nickname as the “Senator from Fannie and Freddie”.  Scrubbed was his distinction as the man who received campaign contributions from the “toxic twins” at a higher rate than any other public official.   Covered-up was his long-time advocacy for the very policies which were the immediate cause of the financial crisis:  subsidized mortgages for irresponsible borrowers.  Staged was Obama’s preferred meme for the cause of the crisis: greedy bankers, Bush, and The Republicans. 

The Photoshopping then continued throughout Obama’s Presidency.  Unreported was the fact that the recession officially ended in June 2009, before Obama policies largely took effect.  Falsified was the fact that Obama’s nearly Trillion Dollar stimulus, printed out of thin air, added not a thimbles worth of net value to the American economy.   Lied about was the notion that Obama’s unprecedented government-run GM bankruptcy was somehow better than a normal lawful court-run bankruptcy.   Air-brushed has been Obama’s featherweight work schedule, a calendar filled with none of the markers of diligence…except to politicking, golfing, and recreation.  Buried was the unprecedented partisan nature of the entire ObamaCare process.  Photoshopped was Obama’s opposition to all of the Bush policies which led to the killing of Osama bin Laden (Live captures, Gitmo, interrogation, and wiretapping).   Unreported is the fact that under Obama, US casualties have doubled in Afghanistan, the soldiers we are training are murdering us, and we are now in full retreat throughout the middle-east.  Even Government statistics like Unemployment, Inflation, and GDP Growth have been manipulated to always paint a rosy picture no matter how awful.  (Just the other day it was breathlessly reported that housing prices rose handsomely, while the volume of homes remained low.  This was celebrated as an indication of improved economic conditions, instead of being reported as dollar weakness and inflation, which it most likely was, given the unchanged volume!) 

Finally, lied about is the Presidents propensity to be on both sides of every single issue.   It is impossible to find an issue on which Barack Obama has not taken opposing positions.  These are not flip flops.  This is a deliberate smoke screen of cognitive dissonance designed to hide the revolution and maintain power.     

The Presidential Campaign continues to be Photoshopped.  Edited were Mitt Romney’s 47% comments (The hidden tape of his remarks runs for over an hour, yet the 47% comment is abruptly cut-off just as he is likely to elaborate!).  Faked is an MSNBC clip that falsely paints Romney as churlish and petty.   An edited Mitt Romney gets almost universally negative coverage from both the US and foreign press.  Photoshopped images of Mitt Romney unable to spell his own name are taken as real and become punchlines.  Made-up comments make repeated rounds on Facebook and elsewhere, until the lies become mainstream.   Falsified is the image of Mitt Romney as a murdering, misogynistic, tax cheating, greed-head, who is mean to puppies.  Meanwhile, an air brushed Barack Obama gets universally positive coverage.  Unreported go the reprehensible cover-ups of Fast and Furious and the Libya debacle, skipped security briefs, failed Afghanistan policy, Iraq failures,  jailed filmmakers, support for the violent Occupy movement, dismal economy, compulsive mendacity, and on and on.    

This could go on for pages, but the point is not to provide a history lesson.  The point is to say this:  if you were totally blindsided by Mitt Romney’s debate performance and equally surprised by Barack Obama’s, you need to think long and hard about your media sources.  You are being played like a Stradivarius. 

Can't this guy even spell his own name?  Photoshopped!

Media Summary of the 2012 campaign:

Basement Liberals

One of the most enduring images from the GOP convention in Tampa was when Paul Ryan said: “College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”

Then there was Mitt Romney’s hidden camera riff about the 47% who will vote for Obama no matter what because they want everything for free, pay no income tax, and see themselves as victims.   

These two images get to the essence of what really separates Liberals from Conservatives, not just in the US, but also around the globe.  It also gives me an opportunity to make a philosophical point, which ought to be a central theme in conservatism today and ought to be front and center in Mitt Romney’s campaign:  The Federal Government must never be the safety net! 

Liberals and Government:

Liberals view government as their parent.  Accordingly, they want a really cool parent.  One that lets them live in the basement indefinitely, buys and cooks the food, does the laundry, pays the bills, gives them a free cell phone, and takes care of them when they are sick.  A cool parent asks no questions and makes no demands.   A cool parent wouldn’t care if you smoked weed in the basement, slept until noon, played video games all night, had frequent wild parties, and blasted loud music.  Really cool parents wouldn’t mind your alternative lifestyle because it would just enhance their own coolness!  They might even remodel the basement for you, put on an addition, and add a private entrance to make you totally comfortable living there.  Really cool parents are awesome, no?  In fact they are so awesome, why would you ever leave the basement?

And there’s the rub; you wouldn’t.  You would happily live the decadent life of a dependent mooch in your parent’s basement where you would obtain none of the habits or skills to ever be independent or make a positive contribution to society.  Then one day your parents or the money would disappear, and you would be one angry helpless slacker living in a dark basement that the bank wants to repossess. 

This is why socialism eventually fails wherever and whenever it is tried.  Sure, it might take a few generations to breed all the success traits out of the population, but eventually that will happen and the society will crumble.  

  

Conservatives and Government:

Conservatives don’t view government as their parents, don’t want to be dependents living in anyone’s basement, don’t care if their government is cool, and are not afraid of being independent. That does not mean Conservatives reject all government.  On the contrary, Conservatives understand that for them to be free they need strong federal and state governments.  But conservatives want a federal government that only does the things no other entity can, like defense, lawmaking, judiciary, money, foreign relations, and taxing.  All the other things, like taking care of dependents, healthcare, education, retirement, and free cell phones, should be done by the states, individuals, families, non-government organizations, religious groups, and private companies.   These are the fibers which weave together to form a resilient society.  The States and the society must provide the safety net, not the federal government, and for good reason. 

The federal government is unique in that it alone can print money!  This sets up a classic conflict of interest.  This is why the federal government must never be the safety net.  Keeping these entitlements and safety net items out of the federal sphere is the only way to insure that the voters don’t ever have the power to vote themselves free money and “rights” which belong to other generations.  Thus, the states and non-government society are in a better position to honestly provide a sustainable safety net.  I wish this philosophy was front and center in Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Incidentally, this is the way the country was laid out in The Constitution.  Those founding parents may not have been “cool” but they sure were smart. 

Here’s what it looks like when the process is complete:  

The 2012 race in a nutshell:

  

Obama is Awesome

Worth revisiting...

Desperation

Labradoodle2012

Eastwood Made My Day

Clint Eastwood struck a nerve at the GOP convention.  The Left is apopleptic.  Many on the Right are confused too.  The apoplectic Left understands exactly what happened and their outrage is justified.   The confused Right have no excuse.

I have some experience with this phenomenon.  I inadvertently turned the tables on Obama and the Left by ridiculing them in this cartoon from 2011.  The response was amazing and ferocious.  Ridicule, especially in the electronic media, is the exclusive domain of the Left.  How dare I make fun of Obama and the Left on YouTube and have it go viral!

I doubt Clint Eastwood intentionally borrowed a page from the Left's tactical bible.  In "Rules for Radicals", Saul Alinsky states:

Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.

I have no way of knowing if Mr. Eastwood ever read that rule.  That's not important.  The undeniable fact is that he somehow understands it.  That anyone on the Right does not get this after all these years is beyond disappointing.

The reality is, Clint Eastwood's bumbling razor-sharp improv will be watched by millions of independent voters over the next few weeks and that is pure genius.  He has gotten under the Left's skin like no politician ever could.  He made my day.
  
This is the video that went viral for me:


Here is the Eastwood improv in case you missed it:

Dear Mr. Eastwood

Dear Mr. Eastwood,                                                   (originally posted  2/8/2012)

With all due respect, for Chrysler’s bond-holders it is not “Half-Time in America”.   No, for those unlucky victims of President Obama’s bailout, it is actually “game over”.
  

Let me tell you a story worthy of a Hollywood script:

One week before my father-in-law died at 88, he confided in me that a chunk of his life’s savings had been wiped-out when Chrysler’s secured bondholders were bypassed in Obama’s bailout.  Unlike you, Robert W. Scisco Sr. did not play a tough guy in the movies.  Instead, he actually fought real Nazis in North Africa, up through Italy, eventually earning a Purple Heart in France.  This was not a man prone to showing fear, yet at the time he told me about his Chrysler bonds, he seemed afraid - afraid of his own government!   

You see, President Obama did not follow the normal bankruptcy route when he imposed the Chrysler bailout on us.  Instead, he decided to bypass the secured bondholders, who were first in-line, wiping them out, and delivered the company unencumbered to Fiat, the US Government, and the UAW.  This was an unprecedented redistribution from secured creditors to the President's supporters.   Unlike you, Bob Scisco understood this, and was wise enough to envision the full implications for him, his heirs, and the future of economic liberty in the country he had fought to defend.
   

For Chrysler’s bondholders like my father-in-law, Obama’s bailout was a knife in the back.  Within a week of him telling me this, with fear in his eyes, he was gone.

Regards,  Ronald Reich

(This was in response to Clint Eastwood's Chrysler ad during the last Superbowl.  I am reprinting it on the eve of his appearance at the GOP convention with minor edits.  PS My father in law was relatively healthy and died unexpectedly during a routine medical test under anesthesia.)

Brilliant

Copy and post to FB if you like!  

Isaac

The Pop Media