Because I see what's coming...

I took a day off so let's dive right in:

I'm told that in simple terms money will cease to function as a meaningful commodity.

It's funny what you can find while reading about a car. These quotes are from a London Times article by a writer sent to review a car.

I have spoken to a couple of pretty senior bankers in the past couple of weeks and their story is rather different. They don't refer to the looming problems as being like 1992 or even 1929. They talk about a total financial meltdown. They talk about the End of Days.

It seems clear from here that we are just about out of options. The "rebounds" in the market keep getting weaker. No one - and I mean not one single "leader" - is aware of or willing to tell the truth regarding the economy or much of anything else. If you know of some Democrat or Republican telling some truth about what is actually happening in the system I'd like to know who they are.

My favorite moment in the 2008 campaign came in January. Hillary, getting teary after she was asked why and how "she does it", stated almost as an after thought: "because I see what's coming." This moment was met with derision by the already in the tank Obama media. But the moment was telling. She knew what was coming? I'd bet she was referring to the economic time bomb now in full conflagration.

The Obama transition has been impressive. Too impressive. Too easy. Like everything else about the man - it does not add up. As skilled as he is, the sudden rise has been too slick by half. The unquestioning cheer leading of the media, the machinations of the DNC, the GOP rolling over...I know the word conspiracy is now met with immediate dismissal - so I'll stop just short of that ledge and say: Obama's rise has been scripted with alarming ease. Scripting a campaign is a good thing. All successful campaigns do it. What continues to make my hair stand on end is the hijacking of the process by the DNC and the media. Obama is still not being vetted. It is remarkable. We all need an election break - but Obama's involvement in Blag's gubernatorial campaign is the kind of story journalists once salivated over. In my adult lifetime there are only two examples of this lack of questioning I can think of- both recent. George W. Bush in 2000 and his subsequent win, and the run up to the Iraq invasion. Why we are where we are has everything to do with these two events. Both stories were presented but not covered. Subsequently the media made perfunctory apologies: We treated Gore unfairly, We fell down on the job before the Iraq war - blah, blah. blah. Apologies without amends are gamesmanship. Similar, though weaker, admissions of bias have been made since the election.

Who benefits when journalism takes a holiday? And why is it happening more often? The two red flares small "r" republicans - like me and most readers here - should always watch for on the horizon are 1. Who controls the currency? and 2. Is the public discourse being controlled?

Vast sectors of the economy are now pseudo nationalized and the national conversation has been constricted by a few large media outlets. The illusion of debate has replaced debate. This may have been happening all along - but only in this year has it been so evident. Don't comfort yourself with bromides about the Internet and free speech. The largest blogs are now a part of the media system and the rest of us have no tangible effect - except to comfort a relative few.

Hillary is not the only one who "saw what was coming." I believe many did. What is it that is coming? I don't know precisely. However, it does seem obvious that the house of cards was teetering. Further, it is obvious that at some point trillions in borrowed bailouts morph into a meaningless national currency. That, in turn, becomes a real world crisis for real people. The bloodbath of 2009 has begun in 2008. Again from the London Times: A crash as historic as the end of communism on tap for 2009. Sure the piece is about the U.K. but in economic terms the U.K. is the neighbor across the street.

So I ask openly and without judgement: Why was Obama chosen? Who brought (also "who bought") him? Who benefits?

Our real options are paltry. Two that are always important, valuable and available is to Pay Attention and Ask Questions. Even if those questions are only directed at yourself.