Infrastructure Enhancements - UPDATED and BUMPED

[orig post 1.25.13 11:30am]

It may not look like anybody is working here....  but we are heavily investing in infrastructure enhancements to the Ushanka Blog site as part of our second Five Year Plan.  

This is for the greater good.

However, it may look - at times - really really bad.  

Which reminds us of our dear leader's words, "I didn't say it was going to be easy."  

We are upgrading our site's design template at Google Blogger, and this may turn into a hit-and-miss solution.  Or as kids say these days, "A hot mess."

In the meantime, thank you for your patience, Comrades.  Utopia is just around the corner! 

UPDATED and BUMPED 1.31.13 10am:

Our stimulated infrastructure upgrade is now complete. 

You'll notice that older posts with quotes will be a bit unsightly as we've reformatted the way we present quotes.  Like this one from the original Karl:

Workers of the World, Unite!

You'll also notice a wider layout that allows for larger text and larger images/videos.  This will help those waiting 18 months for an eye appointment and prescription reading glasses - a feature of our dear leader's healthcare plan.  

We will continue to fine-tune the Ushanka experience.  All for the greater good!

Schiff on Inflation

Peter Schiff was recently interviewed by Doug Casey.

As part of our mission to be able to say "I told you so," this is one of those posts that we'll point to someday in the future.

Is your standard of living worth 26 minutes?



4:00:

I think that one of the biggest casualties, other than individual liberty, is going to be the value of Dollar.  And people have to recognize that the Dollar is going to lose a lot of value.

Because how does the government plan on financing all of its expenditures?

Because they are not going to raise taxes on middle class Americans.  No party wants to be the party that officially raises taxes.  They are willing to raise taxes on rich, which doesn't take a lot of political courage, cause if you're taxing 1% that is 1% of the vote.

But I think we're already bleeding the rich enough.  In fact I think these tax hikes on the rich are going to be counter-productive in that they might produce less tax revenue.  Not only from the rich, but from the people that the rich don't employ.  Or the businesses they don't start.  Because they are discouraged from doing so by the tax code.  Or they focus their efforts abroad rather than here in the US.  Or they start looking for tax shelters, you know, ways to reduce their income as opposed to ways to grow their income.  That could backfire.

But I think a lot of this is going to be financed by the central bank.  Inflation is the tax they are going to levy.  And its going to hit everybody.  But you can avoid it.

23:25:

As an investor you want to look at the world the way its going to be.  You want to anticipate the future.  Because then you can kind of anticipate the re-evaluation of assets.  You want to buy something when its cheap and not a lot of people own it, so that you can sell it when it is expensive and everyone wants it.  You have to anticipate how things are going to change.  And what I think the biggest change that is coming in the global economy is going to be a realignment of living standards in the global pecking order.

America has been on the top for a long time.  And for a while, we deserved it.  We were the wealthiest people on Earth because we were the freest people.  We had limited government, and because government was small we created a lot and produced a lot.  And we exported our products all over the world.  And we had huge surpluses that we invested around the world.  And we were wealthy people because we deserved it.  That is not America today.

Today, America's standard of living is a result of debt.  We are no longer freer than a lot of other people.  We have more regulations.  We have higher taxes.  We don't have surpluses.  We have enormous deficits.  We are the world's largest debtor.  We owe more money than all the other countries combined.  We have a trade deficit with every country we trade with.  We are hemorrhaging red ink.  We've lived this phony standard of living based on the perception that we're good for our debts.  Which we're not.  We borrowed way more money that we can realistically repay.  In fact, Congress has even said this to our creditors.  We say every time if we don't raise the debt limit we're going to default.  Which means we can't pay our bills.  We can only borrow money because we can't pay.  But that means the bills get bigger and bigger and bigger. 

I think we're going to have a collapse in the dollar, and that is going to dramatically reduce the standard of living of Americans.

We touch on some of these concepts in our recent article on Inflation at The American Thinker.

U/T: ZeroHedge

Quote of the Day

Comrade, Author, Blogger and Hat Owner, Aaron Clarey, was interviewed at the Washington Post about his latest book, Enjoy the Decline.  From that interview, our quote of the day:

I can't read Paul Krugman and Barack Obama's minds – if any exist – but I believe they will opt to go the inflationary route to solve the country's debt problems. If they went the wealth-confiscation route, that would mean nationalizing people's IRAs, 401(k)s and brokerage accounts much like they did in Argentina and Bulgaria. I fear however, because of their political ideology they have no problems doing both.

Have you bought your copy yet?

Article: The Original Green Movement

Our latest article is published at InfoWars.com.

The Original Green Movement

It is a story of an armed insurgency in early Soviet Russia, with lessons
and parallels to today's gun debate.

Article Goals:

Guns are the difference between freedom and slavery.

We have the benefit of history.  The Tambov peasants did not.

War fatigue will kill a counter-revolutionary movement.

Aleksandr Antonov is a name we should all know.

Help:

A Ushanka Tip goes to Becca at Lowering the Boom for her editing help!

Links:

Thanks:  IOTW,  Doug Ross, Impending Collapse, TruthDocs, Truth Watching, InfoWars Wexford,


Sources:

Article: The Tambov Revolt (1920-1921), by Seth Singleton, 1966.

Book:  The Unknown Civil War in Soviet Russia, by Oliver H. Radkey, 1976, 419 pages.

Book:  Bandits and Partisans, by Erik C. Landis, 2008, 285 pages.

Wikipedia:

The Tambov Rebellion

Aleksandr Stepanovich Antonov

New Economic Policy

Russian Civil War

Tsar Nicholas II

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Nestor Makhno

UPDATED 2.6.13:

Whoops.

In our rush to get our article out to the masses, we didn't catch a gross error.  We referenced several books and authors at the beginning of the article.  Instead of naming Robert Conquest, we - or hopefully our spell check - typed Robert Conrad.

The photo above is Robert Conrad.  He played in a childhood favorite of ours in the TV show, Wild Wild West.  No doubt he hated commies then as much as we do now, and hopefully no offense taken by the esteemed author, Robert Conquest.

Ohio Has Leadership

We moved to Ohio from California in 2008.  Actually, we fled California and made our home in Ohio.

Ohio has its challenges, and while we are impressed with leaders here and their enthusiasm at fixing problems, the state has a long way to go.

We don't usually comment on local politics, but Gov. Kasich's review of all the changes he's made and is making is worth the few minutes. He isn't one of the politicians who uses Crisis as a Means.

From WSJ Video:



Ohio is lucky to have this man, and his team, working on our best interests.

Do you think you'll ever see an interview like this with President Obama?

Mort Sahl

We've recently discovered Mort Sahl, a wonderful political comedian.  We can't find his discussion of the Khrushchev visit to the US on YouTube, but it is available at iTunes.

Here is a 30-second taste of the genius wit:

Would you believe he is (or was) a democrat and wrote some of the jokes President Kennedy used in his speeches?

Yes, what you see and hear in the above video is a Democrat's view of Capitalism back in the 60's. 

So much hope and change has occurred since then.  It isn't Mort Sahl's Democrat Party anymore.

Mr. Sahl is 85 and still with us.  Here is his website and Wikipedia page.

Name Calling

We've put a finger in the air (no, not that one) to gauge the reaction of our dear leader's recent inauguration.  While we noticed his second inauguration speech was a bit more 'collective', we encourage you to wait until his third inauguration speech for true enlightenment.

So what areas of consensus are floating out there in cyberblogworld?  Apparently, Obama is a Communist.  Seriously.  Let me show you:

 ZeroHedge: The Socialism of Europe Has Arrived At Our Shores...

America has turned the corner from the self-sufficiency of an individual to a new ideology for this country which is that incomes and life-styles should be equalized by taxes in the name of patriotism and for the greater good.

Victoria Jackson: This is What Banned me from Facebook  (photo above)

One of the first signs of communism is censorship. The media is controlled by the left, government. This is proof. How can we fight back?

Maser Media: What's Red All Over?

It is time to officially put an end to the mincing, hesitant criticisms of the American Liberals and the Democrat Party. Actually, it’s long past time. The Democrat Party’s goal is communism.

[Video @ RightScoop]  Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro: Obama’s inaugural speech was ‘Orwellian’, proves that he hates the Constitution

NiceDeb:  Obama's Not a "Liberal" - He's a Communist

Let’s get the terminology right. The fact of the matter is, the entire Democrat party today is Communist/ Marxist/Socialist/Collectivist/Statist. There are no more conservative or moderate Democrats. They all support the big government collectivist agenda – and they’re all willing to lie, cheat and steal in order to maintain it.

New Zeal:  The Communist Takeover Of America – 45 Declared Goals

In the wake of President Obama’s liberal Progressive second Inaugural speech, it is time for another look at greater underlying agendas and perhaps a time to remember that Progressivism = Socialism = Fascism = Marxism = Communism.

Two of the authors above own our Commie Obama hat.  Do you?

Ok - time to put that other finger back into the air.

Quote of the Day

From the Utah Sheriff's Association:

We respect the Office of the President of the United States of America. But, make no mistake, as the duly-elected sheriffs of our respective counties, we will enforce the rights guaranteed to our citizens by the Constitution. No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights — in particular Amendment II — has given them. We, like you, swore a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation.

U/T: Bob Owens

Validation

...of all we believe.

(Except our belief that the French can't do anything right)

U/T: Drudge

He Prefers the Sickle

When Liberals Progressives Communists scoff at our references to our dear leader as a communist-inspired president, they have history on their side.  Sort of.

You see, Obama is no communist if you're talking Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Stalin, Che or Castro.  And he is definitely not a Pol Pot.  The killing isn't happening here in the US.  Some might qualify that last sentence with "yet," but we digress.

Back to the comparisons.  Lenin favored the worker.  It was a "workers revolution" in 1917 Russia, not the peasant revolution that Marx predicted.  The peasant was expected to deliver the same crops as he did under the Tsars, but for free.  "For the greater good," so to speak.  This didn't happen as planned, but the propaganda always included the peasant in the revolution, hence the Sickle is part of the communist symbol.

You could say the peasant was included in Lenin's revolution in the same spirit "Unity" was mentioned in today's inauguration speech.

We would argue that Obama has favored the farmer so far.  Not that he's done anything to help the farmers, especially the small, family owned farms.  And he hasn't acted on his dream of 'fixing' the nation's food distribution process.  Yet.  But since he has put so many workers out of work, the farms compare quite nicely.

So after one term in office, we'd would have to argue that he likes the Sickle over the Hammer.  But don't ask him.  Like any parent of two or more children, he'll say he loves all equally, as he should.  Because that is fair.

Image found at FB.