Barack Obama has proven extremely lucky in his past political competition.
In his 2004 race for United States Senator from Illinois, a scandal forced his chief opponent. Jack Ryan, to withdraw from the race.
In his 2008 race for President, his opponent, Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain, chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Her laughable ignorance persuaded millions of voters they didn’t want her “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency.
Four years later, on August 11, 2012, Mitt Romney, the expected Republican nominee for President, gave Obama another unexpected gift: He chose Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee.
Paul Ryan
In 2011, as Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan released “The Path to Prosperity,” a 2012 budget resolution that he claimed would end “uncontrolled government spending” and “crushing levels of taxes.”
According to economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich:
“More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today’s Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog.”
On March 12, 2012, details of Ryan’s 2013 House Budget Committee proposal were released. Among these:
- Repeal the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010.
- Turn Medicare into a private health insurance system.
- Slash funding for Medicaid, which ensures medical care for the poor, forcing states to drop coverage for 14 to 28 million low-income people, according to the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
- Reduce food stamps for poor families by 17%–$135 billion–over the decade, leading to a significant increase in hunger, especially among children.
In addition, his “H.R. 212: Sanctity of Human Life Act” would give fetuses full personhood rights from the moment of fertilization.
This would:
- Outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest; and
- Ban certain methods of birth control, such as IUDs and spermicides.
Unsurprisingly, Obama found it easy to turn Ryan’s Right-wing extremism against him–and Romney.
Fast forward to 2904–and the mid-term Congressional elections.
The 2010 mid-terms had given control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. For Obama and Democrats generally, it was vitally important that their party retain control of the Senate.
But throughout 2014, a series of unexpected problems arose to plague the Obama administration.
Among these:
- Tens of thousands of women and children flooded into the United States from Central America. Many of the children came unaccompanied by their parents.
- The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) started blitzing Iraq, routing the American-trained Iraqi army.
- The Secret Service allowed a White House fence jumper to penetrate the East Room through an unlocked door. Luckily, Obama and his family had just left for Camp David.
- Unknown to the Secret Service, an armed–and several times arrested–security guard rode in the same elevator as President Barack Obama.
- An Ebola-infected man flew from Liberia to Dallas to visit family. Admitted to a hospital, he died on October 8–after infecting two nurses, making them the first American victims of this deadly disease.
None of these actions was Obama’s fault:
- The flood of illegal alien children resulted from a change in legislation during the Presidency of George W. Bush.
- ISIS would have tried to establish an Islamic empire no matter who was President.
- The series of foul-ups at the Secret Service were a product of longstanding neglect within the agency.
- The series of foul-ups at the Dallas hospital were entirely a local matter, beyond the control of the White House.
Still, taken together, they convinced millions of Americans that the Federal Government was too inept or corrupt to efficiently address domestic and foreign crises.
Fortune had turned for–and on–Obama.
As Niccolo Machiavelli explained in The Prince:
If it happens that time and circumstances are favorable to one who acts with caution and prudence he will be successful. But if time and circumstances change he will be ruined, because he does not change the mode of his procedure.
No man can be found so prudent as to be able to adopt himself to this, either because he cannot deviate from that to which his nature disposes him. Or else because having always prospered by walking in one path, he cannot persuade himself that it is well to leave it.
And therefore the cautious man, when it is time to act suddenly, does not know how to do so and is consequently ruined.
Another reason for Obama’s change in fortune: Given to making inspiring speeches, he has proven consistently timid in advancing his agenda.
As Machiavelli puts it:
I certainly think that it is better to be impetuous than cautious. For fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force.
And it can be seen that she lets herself be overcome by the bold, rather than by those who proceed coldly. And therefore, like a woman, she is always a friend to the young, who are less cautious, fiercer, and master her with greater audacity.
With little more than two years left in office, Obama must act decisively–and ruthlessly–if he is to secure a legacy beyond being America’s first black President.
Whether he can bring himself to do so is entirely another matter.

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AS MUSLIM POPULATION RATES RISE….
In History, Politics, Social commentary on January 7, 2015 at 11:59 pmStar Trek: The Next Generation introduced the crew of the USS Enterprise to a new, chilling adversary: The Borg.
A half-organic, half-machine race of ruthless conquerors, the Borg travel through space seeking new peoples to assimilate–or destroy.
Their words of “greeting” to the Enterprise crew have since become a part of sci-fi lore: “We are the Borg. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”
The Borg
The same mindset can be found in such Islamic would-be conquerors as Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
But this mindset is not confined to only these terror-organizations. It appears to govern the behavior of Islamics generally.
This is starkly outlined in the 2009 book, Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat, by Dr. Peter Hammond.
Hammond explores the impact of an increasing Muslim population on non-Muslim society–and the changes that can be expected to occur within that society.
Dr. Peter Hammond
According to Hammond:
Islam is not a religion nor a cult. It’s a complete system of religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component encompasses all the others.
“Islamization” occurs when there are enough Muslims in a country to agitate for their “religious rights.”
Here’s how it works (percentages come from CIA: The World Fact Book, 2007):
So long as the Muslim population remains at or under 2%, they will act as a peaceful minority and pose no threat to non-Muslims. As in:
United States – Muslims 0.6%
Australia – Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1.8%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%
At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:
Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims.
They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:
France — Muslim 8%
(On January 7, 2015, the worst terrorist act in France since World War II occurred when three Islamics slaughtered 12 people at a satirical magazine that had published cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed.)
Philippines — 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%
At 5%, they work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia (Islamic law). The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world–enforcing it on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions.
Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam, with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in such Muslim countries as:
Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 15%
After Muslims reach 20%, of the population, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, formations of jihad militias, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:
Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%
At 40% of the population, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:
Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%
From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels, such as in:
Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%
After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some state-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:
Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of “Dar-es-Salaam” — the Islamic House of Peace. Peace has supposedly been achieved, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:
Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 100%
Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, since the most radical Muslims states wage war on less radical members.
Among the reasons for this: The age-old ethnic conflicts between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims, which are now on lethal display in Iraq and Syria.
* * * * *
In assessing the dangers the United States faces as it plunges into yet further warfare against Iraq and now Syria, there is a warning that should be kept foremost in mind.
It comes from the late political scientist, Samuel Huntington, in his bestselling 1996 book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order:
“Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”
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