From Denny: Everyone's talking about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and, of course, the Republicans are jealous and as nasty as ever. It's just really bad form to publicly wonder out loud whether he deserves it or not, especially as a President at war. They certainly demanded the public get behind Bush while he was at war but, as usual for the hypocrite crowd, they do not extend the same respect and courtesy to a Democrat in the White House. It looks bad for a fellow American to criticize a sitting President who is trying to wind up their lousy wars.
Certainly, no Republican would ever receive such celebration as they are the guys who go around destroying world economies, trashing their own to put money in the pockets of a few individuals and start wars just because they are paranoid. All they relate to is chaos. So, all their idiotic posturing on the subject of whether Obama deserves this or that recognition just makes a case for the mental hospital option for them. I'm sure this week's upcoming political cartoons are going to be really interesting on the subject, so stay tuned and I'll put them up as soon as they are available.
As to does the President deserve the Nobel Peace Prize you have to examine a couple of things going on in American culture. For one thing, a couple of decades ago Americans first bought into the workaholic 60 - 80 work week of the Japanese in the early 1980's and the ensuing attitude of tangible accomplishments of "things." That dumbed down our thinking to the lowest level: concrete thinking. With an overtired work force it was easy for the Republican strategists to manipulate their frustrations.
Over time Big Business introduced business models that slowly eroded the American worker's hours (down to only 33 hours a week now), over-time pay, health benefits, and finally their very jobs by importing on work visas everyone else from around the world to replace us. The final insult was they sent our jobs overseas. While many on the top tier benefited financially, eventually it brought down the economy. After all, the American middle class is 75% or more of the economy; we literally feed the world. Not taking care of us hurt everyone. When you take away middle class buying power the economy comes to a halt. It was stupid of the greedy folks in business as all they did was kill off the flow of future sales for their products, putting themselves out of business eventually.
While I understand the need for trade with all other countries, you have to balance that with some reasonable protections for the American worker which the Republicans refused to institute. Now, the economy is in a world of hurt and will continue to limp along for many years to come.
Home foreclosures are approaching 20 million empty homes for sale that no one is buying. That’s quite a large inventory that will take a good decade or more to absorb. It really is foolish of the banks they way they have handled all of this. Kicking people out of their homes was never the answer; all they had to do was restructure the loan. Instead, now the banks are stuck with this huge choking inventory that is getting vandalized because no one is living there to prevent it. Many homes are falling into disrepair and have expensive mold issues, again lowering the value of their holdings. Greed and unwise practices cause this kind of mess.
The American middle class is waking up to a new world in this economy, shaking their heads, and saying, “Never again!” like it’s a battle cry. Expect the American middle class to get off credit since the credit card companies and banks are rapacious these days. Big Business actually believes they will be coming back. Think again! That profit ride is over!
What does all this have to do with whether Obama does deserve recognition for working toward Peace in the world? Plenty. It’s all about a paradigm shift in mindset for America and the world. He’s busy doing the dirty work of political clean-up for the Republicans who trashed our reputation and relationships worldwide with the bullying cavalier dictator attitude. He’s also busy cleaning up the damage done to the middle class. Without his efforts there would be no middle class any more as they would descend into despairing poverty never to recover.
Has Obama performed miraculous deeds? Are they tangible? You see, that’s the point. He is not a low level concrete thinker. He’s thinking critically. What he has accomplished is steering a change in attitude worldwide. People are slowly coming around to a willingness to once again work with each other instead of against each other. We have climate change upon us and it will take all of us to solve world issues as Mother Nature slams them at us.
What Obama has also accomplished with a better attitude is engagement and diplomacy, involving inclusiveness with our allies. His strategy of talking to America’s enemies has not changed the enemy. It rarely does change the mindset or position of the enemy. Rather it has upped the stakes for the enemy to prove their position is truthful and honorable. In Iran’s case they could not do so.
Engaging with enemies as a strategy also displays to those nations supporting or neighboring those rogue nations the full truth about them. When a nation can see on full display insanity and instability, it makes everyone nervous, even their friends, most notably when nuclear bombs are involved. Obama’s strategy is working especially well in regard to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
What Obama has done for the American economy by throwing money down the rabbit hole has actually helped it tread water and keep from spiraling down into a deep abyss. Instead of bleeding a million jobs a month as under Bush we are losing about 200,000 a month. Not great but not as horrendous. It would help if he killed the work visa program, forcing Microsoft and other Big Business to hire American workers for a change. It makes no sense to continue that program.
While it is early in Obama’s presidency for such an honor from the world community, and it is also evident it was a political slap to the Republicans and former President Bush in particular, it is notable there is change in the air. Is that not what his campaign slogan was all about: change? Hope, change the world, and Peace are all admirable goals for a life’s work. Congratulations, Mr. President.
Thanks for visiting, everyone, and have a great day!
What's going on at some of the other blogs today:
This Weeks Roundup of Sunday Funnies - Biden's Nobel Hairpiece Prize
10 Funny Work Quotes for Monday Morning
What is the Simplest Good Spirituality and Why?
