Guest Post By Thomas Sowell
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is both a danger in itself and a wake-up call for Americans – about President Obama, about the institutions of this country and, most important, about ourselves.
There was a time when an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas would bring virtually unanimous agreement that our top priority should be to keep it overseas. Yet Barack Obama has refused to bar entry to the United States by people from countries where the Ebola epidemic rages, as Britain has done.
The reason? Refusing to let people with Ebola enter the United States would conflict with the goal of fighting the disease. In other words, the safety of the American people takes second place to the goal of helping people overseas.
As if to emphasize his priorities, President Obama has ordered thousands of American troops to go into Ebola-stricken Liberia, disregarding the dangers to those troops and to other Americans when the troops return.
What does this say about Obama?
At a minimum, it suggests that he takes his conception of himself as a citizen of the world more seriously than he takes his role as president of the United States. At worst, he may consider Americans’ interests expendable in the grand scheme of things internationally. If so, this would explain a lot of his foreign policy disasters around the world, which seem inexplicable otherwise.
Those critics who have been citing Barack Obama’s foreign policy fiascoes and disasters as evidence that he is incompetent may be overlooking the possibility that he has different priorities than the protection of the American people and America’s interests as a nation.
This is a monstrous possibility. But no one familiar with the history of the 20th century should consider monstrous possibilities as things to dismiss automatically. Nor should anyone who has followed Barack Obama’s behavior over his lifetime, and the values that behavior reveals.
A few critics who, early on, sensed something un-American, if not anti-American, in Barack Obama succumbed to the idea that he was not a native-born citizen. That claim blew up in their faces.
Nor was birthplace crucial anyway. People born overseas have put their lives on the line to defend America, and scientists who escaped from Europe in the 1930s played a major role in creating the nuclear bomb that made the United States a superpower. Conversely, the country’s most notorious traitor – Benedict Arnold – was born on American soil.
Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, that led to President Obama’s foreign-policy disasters around the world – with the crowning disaster of all, a nuclear Iran, looming on the horizon – it cannot be a simple lack of knowledge or experience. Various former members of the Obama administration are telling the same story, of information and advice from knowledgeable and experienced officials being ignored by this vain and headstrong man.
Back in the 18th century, Edmund Burke pointed out that, whatever the institutions of government, most of the outcomes of what it does “must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state.”
What did the American voters know about the prudence and uprightness of this untried man they elected president, as a result of his glib rhetoric and his racial symbolism? It is not just bad luck when a reckless gamble turns out disastrously.
No one knows at this point how big the Ebola danger may turn out to be. But what we do know is that official reassurances about this and other dangers have become worthless.
The erosion of constitutional government over the years has become, under the Obama administration, a deluge of arbitrary edicts and defiant lawlessness protected by a grossly politicized Department of Justice.
It may be time to consider reorganizing the institutions of government, so that high officials who try to reassure the public about medical crises are not officials who serve “at the pleasure of the president.” Nor should the attorney general, whose duty is to enforce the laws, be part of an administration whose law-breakers the Justice Department can protect from prosecution.
Sowell is a genius.
Our politicians have sold us out. How is it possible that we have huge Somali communities? Hmong? Liberians in Texas? How can the US do this, while we’re in a permanent recession? How can we do this when we are over $18 trillion in debt?
The answer is that our ‘elected officials’ (not leaders) want to appear generous. Of course we can accept these ‘refugees’ (seems like everyone is a refugee). So they are generous with OPM (other peoples money).
Citizen of the world – generous with what he does not own.
Dutchman
I think his primary concern is to permanently alter the demographics of the USA no matter how much it costs, economically and otherwise.
Sowell’s strongest criticism yet… and he’s spot on. I think a lot of people are realizing what the statement, “fundamentally transform America” meant. Finally.
It’s interesting to go back and read what Obama said that day, in a campaign speech in Missouri… it was October 2008:
“I just have two words for you tonight: five days. Five days. After decades of broken politics in Washington, and eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that’s taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.
“In five days, you can turn the page on policies that put greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street. In five days, you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, and create new jobs, and grow this economy, so that everyone has a chance to succeed, not just the CEO, but the secretary and janitor, not just the factory owner, but the men and women on the factory floor.”
How things have changed, eh? He’s changed America, but not in the way most people assumed. He’s done what he said he’d do… remove the incentive to own business, make everyone — even the lowest, least capable — feel like they are entitled to as much as those who take risks and invest their own money. He’s brought the whole system down, with the exception of the banking cabal puppeteers.
And he’ll only continue to break down the system with illegal immigration and a failed health system, until we are “on parity” with the rest of the world. In the future, people will read the history and ask, “didn’t they see it coming?” much like people did about Germany, or Russia.
Dutch,
I don’t give Sowell that much credit…
Take this shit —> “A few critics who, early on, sensed something un-American, if not anti-American, in Barack Obama succumbed to the idea that he was not a native-born citizen. That claim blew up in their faces.”
Personally, I know in my soul that the bastard wasn’t born in the US. Just can’t prove it. That someone or someones went out and vacuumed up all the evidence – or sent out goons to lean on folks that found stuff that was missed – or cobbled together bullshit ‘Shooped “documents” – is all written off as conspiracy theorist nonsense or the product of a deranged mind. Everyone was ready to believe that the government goons wouldn’t spy on them, either… then Snowy showed up.
The fucker is a Manchurian Candidate, straight up.
And this —> “Nor was birthplace crucial anyway.”
Yeah, because anyone, anywhere can rule us poor slobs in the US… we don’t give a shit anymore! The more the merrier!
“People born overseas have put their lives on the line to defend America”
Oh yeah? Who? I’m sure their motives were totally altruistic and patriotic as well – that they didn’t join the military because its a fast track to citizenship, or because they were promised free shit or a pile of money… And there is a HUGE difference between being a grunt and being the man with his finger on the nuclear button, the Chief Executive and all the power that he wields… that Sowell would equate the two is amazing.
“…and scientists who escaped from Europe in the 1930s played a major role in creating the nuclear bomb that made the United States a superpower.”
Yeah. Those oh-so-noble assholes like Oppenheimer that opened Pandora’s box. They had to go somewhere, so they ran to America, and we were more than happy to take them and offer them the moon and the stars in exchange for the ability to vaporize hundreds of thousands of people at once… that really worked out well for everyone involved…
“Conversely, the country’s most notorious traitor – Benedict Arnold – was born on American soil.”
Most notorious? Depends on who you ask. There’s the Rosenbergs – those pieces of shit that gave the Soviets our atomic bomb secrets – aided and abetted by one of those wonderful “refugee” scientists from Europe that Sowell loves so much – named Claus Fuchs (theoretical physicist) and their courier – an asshole named Gold… who also flipped and fingered yet ANOTHER asshole named Greenglass…
I’m noticing a trend with these names…. Arnold is probably the most famous, but most notorious? No…
“Various former members of the Obama administration are telling the same story, of information and advice from knowledgeable and experienced officials being ignored by this vain and headstrong man.”
A spook finally gets into the White House and it turns out he’s a narcissist, a megalomaniac and has a messiah complex? Say it ain’t so, Tom! What…. a…. SHOCKER!!
“What did the American voters know about the prudence and uprightness of this untried man they elected president, as a result of his glib rhetoric and his racial symbolism?”
The knew Jack Shit, Tom… thanks to those very same someones who erased Obongo’s past. That, and the fact that the folks who voted for him were and are gullible, self-hating assclowns. They TRIPPED OVER EACH OTHER in a frenzy of white guilt, in a huge rush to vote for some jig and prove that they weren’t “RAAAYCISS!”. The jigs voted for him because he’s a fellow jig. Didn’t matter what his politics were and are. The only thing that mattered was “WEEZ AMS PREZDINT NOW!!”…
“No one knows at this point how big the Ebola danger may turn out to be. But what we do know is that official reassurances about this and other dangers have become worthless.”
The government LIES?!?! GASP!! Say it ain’t so, Tom!!
And for the record, I am way, way more concerned with Ebola Nigger rolling into the US and allowed – even encouraged – to wander around infecting and contaminating at will than I am with some fucking camel jockeys on the other side of the earth building a nuke plant… if Ebola Nigger rolled in and, in an orgy of incompetence, literally sowed the seeds of pandemic this easily, then how many do we not know about?
The government makes soothing noises, but behind the scenes, you know there’s a fucking chinese fire drill going on… this shit is being engineered… and by the way, I read an interesting bit by a guy who claims to be a microbiologist and geneticist that says he tested samples of the Ebola virus and it shows signs of being manipulated in a lab… In other words, someone fucked with it on purpose. What he wrote was compelling and way above my pay grade. I’m pretty good at smelling bullshit, and I didn’t get a whiff off this guy… if so, it’s very interesting…
No, Sowell isn’t a “genius”…. well, in NegroLand he might be considered a “genius”, but from my chair he’s full of good intentions and about half right…
What Obola wants to do with the matter at hand is hope Ebola spreads to Europe so public pressure doesn’t force him to ban Negros from traveling to America as well as forbid US passenger flight to Africa.
Obols can they say “would you like me to ban flights and whitey from Europe as well.
What the feckless congress should do is pass a Health Care Tax on passengers to and from Africa. To pay for all the hospital costs these Jamooks are costing the US. Let’s see what Obola and the Democrats do.
Mark,
I don’t think the HNIC gives two shits about Europe.
I think his main goal is either a Club-of-Rome effort at population reduction, or an outright power grab using an Ebola pandemic as an excuse to declare martial law…
Seriously, how can a mediocre unemployed FedEx guy in Liberia cough up $3,500 for a plane ticket – one way – to the US, as well as score a visa on short notice?
Then he gets here and wanders all over creation, spewing all sorts of biohazards. He goes to the hospital, where they take his blood and poke him a few times – and then send him home! His nephew calls the CDC because EBOLA! and only then do they put him into quarantine…
Meanwhile, the doosh mouthpiece for the CDC is blowing unicorn farts at us, telling us all they got it handled… which they don’t. Their argument is that shutting down travel to and from west africa – quarantining them – won’t work, even though the CDC’s first step when dealing with highly infectious deadly diseases is… wait for it… quarantine.
What the fuck, right?
Those hundreds of thousands of south american urchins that swarmed the border? Small potatoes. The crud they carried – yellow fever, malaria, resistant strains of TB, various bugs and crud – all that shit is treatable and pretty much survivable.
But Ebola is a whole ‘nother level of Pound Me In the Ass.. at least with yellow fever or malaria, I won’t dissolve into a pile of bloody mush…
Billy – “Those hundreds of thousands of south american urchins that swarmed the border? Small potatoes.”
Small potatoes? I think not. They also brought us the enterovirus D68, which has killed more americans then ebola.
“They also brought us the enterovirus D68, which has killed more americans then ebola. ”
Dude… really? That’s your takeaway?
The urchins and their various diseases have had how much of a head start on Ebola Jig? They were also only given the most cursory of checks, then dispersed throughout our population…
I would add to your statement the qualifier “so far”.
Ebola has what? A 21 day incubation rate? As long as you’re keeping count, let’s wait until the beginning of November and see how the board looks…
Compared to Ebola, which to date kills HALF of everyone who gets it, yellow fever, TB and other bugs look sort of puny… plus, we already HAVE treatments for those diseases – even the resistant strains of TB – so the chances of you surviving are pretty good.
So yeah… small potatoes…
@dilligaf
That is SO NOT TRUE.
WE have the antibodies for the virus. We could NOT have formed antibodies if we had not been exposed.
It is as simple as that.
OUR kids are sick because our food, water and MEDICATIONS are reducing our immunity on an epic scale. Hence our allergy, cancer, autism rates exploding.
Which is the same reason why something like ebola could become a huge problem fast.
But no, it is the little brown kids.
We are never fixing our problems folks. Never. Too freaking busy hating and blaming to pull our own heads from our asses/the sand and look around to see the truth.
Defense Department Admits US Troops In Liberia Will “Come In Contact” With Ebola-Infected Individuals
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/07/2014 13:24 -0400
With boots-on-the-ground heading to Liberia to help ‘manage’ the anarchic dystopia that a frightened nation has become, General David Rodriguez (Commander, US Africa Command) held a briefing today to explain US troops’ role:
QUESTION: Will they be in contact with individuals or just specimens?
RODRIGUEZ: They come in contact with the individuals.
Of course this was followed by a stream of qualifiers that all protection possible will be taken (just like the nurses in Madrid?)
Via Bloomberg Transcript,
KIRBY: Afternoon, everybody. I’m proud to welcome into the briefing room General David Rodriguez, commander of Africa Command. He’s here to give you an update on U.S. contributions to the effort against Ebola — U.S. military contributions to the effort against Ebola in West Africa. And with that, sir, I’ll turn it over to you.
QUESTION: Just a clarification on that, please. Will they be in contact with individuals or just specimens?
GENERAL DAVID M. RODRIGUEZ (USA), COMMANDER, U.S. AFRICA COMMAND: They come in contact with the individuals and they do that. And they’re — like I said, it’s a — it’s a very, very high standard that these people have operated in all their lives, and this is their primary skill. This is not a — you know, just medical guys trained to do this. This is what they do for a living.
TE,
From what I understand, we have antibodies for – A – virus that – until very, very recently – was a gastrointestinal problem and NOT a respiratory one…
Hundreds of thousands of south Americans urchins show up and swarm our border… they’re from countries where health care is sort of rumored to exist, but not really… doctors and nurses working the problem down on the border go against a gag order and let it out that these urchins are carrying all sorts of crud we’ve never seen before and that these kids are being dispersed throughout the country with only the most cursory of health checks…
Yet according to you, SOMEHOW – completely by accident and totally coincidental – some crazy respiratory disease starts whacking kids…
THEN, it turns out that “Hey, we’ve had this virus ALL ALONG! Isn’t that just crazy?” Even though nobody ever fucking heard of it before last month…
Yeah… what a load of bullshit…
Your “anti-racist” devotion is blinding you to the obvious. Plus, they’re kids and you’re a female, so of course their situation is going to play on your heart strings… getting you to use your emotions instead of reason. NO WAY it could be those poor, poor little homeless urchins who just want a better life, right? Those poor woobies could never bring something like that into the US, right?
Bleah… it’s people like you that will be the death of us…
@ TE
you’re mistaken, you are confusing one of the 100’s of other stains of enteroviruses with D68.
You will not find any proof “we have antibodies”
older folks may have more built up immunity for various enteroviruses, thus there may be some cross protection, kids do not. Thus the serious impact of D68 to them specifically.
Those “little brown kids” brought less common viruses across the border, period. It’s common sense really.
Dan,
“Common sense”… heh…
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Everyone recognizes that this country elected a president that no one really knew anything about but made him president because having a black president would be so cool. But now that he seems to fuck up everything, people are beginning to question how can someone that appears so bright do everything so damaging and wrong for the country?
A few facts are important to know and what appears to make no sense will begin to fit together and form a clear picture.
Obamas mother hated America—HATED!!
Obamas real father (whom he idolized) despised America.
Both were communist that believed that the reason the majority of the world lived in poverty was that the United States with its system of capitalism was dominating the world’s resources causing the rest of the world to live in poverty. Obama growing up from the age of 6 to the age of 10 (the most formative years of a person’s live) lived in one of the poorest, poverty stricken countries in the world, Indonesia. He witnessed a level of poverty most people in the US have never seen and all this time living with a mother that believed such poverty was the fault of the country she HATED, the United States.
All the adults that raised Obama were Communist, his mother, his stepfather, both his grandparents, his mentor Frank Davis, all Communist. Communist believe that to raise the vast majority of the world’s poor out of poverty the US cannot continue to consume more than its “fair share” of the world’s resources. And so therefore the United States must be destroyed!!!
Obama has stated again and again “THE US HAS 5% OF THE WORLDS POPULATION AND YET CONSUMES OVER 25% OF THE WORLDS RESOURSES” Obama has also said “SHARE THE WEALTH” but notice he never said who’s wealth would be shared with whom. Everyone conveniently assumed it meant the rich billionaires would be somehow sharing with the rest of us. Well NO! Why has he moved to throw open the borders of this country? Who’s wealth is being shared with whom? Can you now see that that is only the first step in a more “FAIR SHARE” distribution not within the US but between us and the poor of the world?
Thomas Sowell wrote:
“ At a minimum, it suggests that he takes his conception of himself as a citizen of the world more seriously than he takes his role as president of the United States. At worst, he may consider Americans’ interests expendable in the grand scheme of things internationally.”
Now if you understand all the above you can then understand that Obama intends to “FIX” America. He intends to make the US more “FAIR”, more “EQUAL”—WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. To him those dying is Africa are as important as any US citizen. Why do more for American citizens then those in Africa? Is that “FAIR”? And if America gets taken down a notch or two so much the better.
Those of you that voted for Obama loved it when he said he would “Fundamentally change the United States”, “Share the Wealth”. Are you beginning to get the picture?
I’m with Billy on this; Obama is certainly a Manchurian Candidate and whether he was born here, or how he was brought up; opinions of his parents on America, etc. just doesn’t matter.
Cheney is pulling his strings from Raven Rock “Site R” and the parallel government, nursed to inception by Cheney & Rumsfeld over the years (Continuity of Government), is what actually calls the shots. The goings-on in D.C. are just for show. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_911_194.htm
I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Sowell. He is spot on with his knowledge of economics, history and social policy. His arguments are always well reasoned and based on verifiable facts.
So it’s really disappointing to read about him throw in the off-handed comment about Iranian nukes. He makes an unsubstantiated claim. No facts are given. He doesn’t bother citing any reliable sources that prove nuclear material has been diverted from commercial to military uses. He fails to mention daily monitoring by the IAEA.
In other words, an assertion without proof is just bullshit.
Ahem…..
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/10/09/enterovirus-ev-d68-outbreaks-link-to-areas-holding-unaccompanied-alien-children-uacs-from-south-america/
Hey billy and TE
This is looking oh SO TRUE
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/10/12/michigan-toddler-becomes-sixth-death-from-enterovirus-d68-ev-d68-while-alabama-toddler-clinging-to-life/