Toil and double trouble

By Johnny D. Symon

With Barack Obama last week confirmed as Tweedledee to fight Tweedledum for this November's "More Of The Same, But I'm Not To Blame" show, my little brain began to creep back in time to last fall. October to be exact.

One day I was walking up toward the top end of Main Street, Gibraltar. On my left was an overgrown, or overshaded, Court House, and on the right was a quaint old bookstore named The Gibraltar Bookshop. And having no business to perform with either entity my voyage of discovery was firmly charted for a little place next to the Governor's Palace. As I happily strode about my business, passing the books and the crooks, I began to pick out a familiar face creeping up before me. And there he was, Mr D A, English Diplomat and personal old familiar.

Our persons began to converge, then D had the first word; "Who do you think will win in the Democratic race? Hillary or Obama?" and I said, "Obama," to which he replied, "No. Hillary will win. Believe me!" Then he turned tail and strode away without waiting for my reply. As I watched D the Diplo shrink into the northern wastes of Main Street, with his pant legs flapping in the breeze and with a volition that only a Diplomat can perform, I thought to myself that D the Diplo was someone who forms a personal idea from his own imagination and nothing will shake it down.

A few months later, in the month of March, my wife had arranged to meet some friends in a local Spanish restaurant for morning coffee. Shortly after sitting down at the table a shadow crossed the front entrance, and guess who burst into the joint. It was none other than Mr D the Diplo. One of my wife's friends saw him first and said, "Oh, no. It's Mr D !" But Mr D had more important things to do than speak to my wife and her friends, because this restaurant happened to be D the Diplo's personal favorite ... five mornings a week Diplo boy would sit down to morning coffee and a newspaper, and judging by his previous October forecast he's one who only knows what he reads in the papers, and most likely the only paper he reads is called "The Viwage Voyth."

Mr D breezed past and flapped on up to the counter, then said, "Café con leche por fuera." Then strode outside to a waiting table. What he said in Spanish though held the key to understanding diplomacy at its worst, because, translated into English Mr D said, "Coffee with milk. Outside." He didn't say hello to the staff, nor did he say gracias (thanks), and last October he did not afford me the luxury of explaining the reasons why I believed Obama would win.

But you know something? I just explained that Mr D uses this restaurant five mornings a week, and his order is always the same, so why do you think he had to enter the restaurant and place his order? surely the staff would already know what he wanted, as indeed they did, and the truth is that if Mr D was respectful of the restaurant staff they'd serve him with respect too. He's also on record as telling Spanish folks that they can't speak Spanish properly, and that ain't diplomatic, it's ignorant and stupid. Though then again, the great Sir Winston Churchill once said that about Americans, as many English still do. But if ever there was a place on English-speaking planet earth where English is abused, it's England itself. In London there's a people called Cockneys, and their English bears no resemblance to that spoken in Oxford or Yorkshire. For me diverse forms of English are facets of the same wonderful jewel, and proof that not only does the language live and evolve, the folks who speak it are very much alive too.

Everywhere I go in the world I earn the respect of the local people. I always do because I pay my respects to them first. It's their country, not mine, and it's their language, and being theirs it's also their privilege, in my opinion, to use it as they so wish. In fact this is how languages evolve and grow, and why Latin is dead and cold. If you don't use it, and even abuse it at times, then it's heading toward extinction. But my form of diplomacy is worlds apart from Mr D's.

Now my friend D is a nice guy as nice guy goes, if you're a Diplomat that is, though Diplomats are a different breed entirely, and the blood that swishes around their veins is different blood to that within mine. For me, Emissaries and Diplomats have parted company, well leastwise in the Western world. John Dryden said ...

"Buzzing emissaries fill the ears
Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears."

But there's a moral here that needs to be heard. Diplomats are people who can't think for themselves, they're taught to act on the thoughts of others. I've met quite a few Western Diplomats in my time, and none of them had an ounce of horse sense in them, they were like trained hounds; a smack of the hands or a whistle would have them perform their masters tricks, and as for diplomacy, in practice they were the worst of all.

Throughout history true Diplomats were called Emissaries, they thought and acted independently of others, but in concert with the needs of their nation. Mr D, our English Diplomaniac, could never achieve the lofty status of a true Emissary. With our ongoing problem in Georgia, by the hand of a power hungry Russia, Western diplomacy is failing miserably, mainly I guess due to the fact that we use diplomacy Ds, and they use sharply honed Emissaries.

Emissaries are Russia's version of diplomacy in action, whereas a Diplomat, Western style, equates as one who picks up a politico's slippery wayward soap on their behalf. To become a Western Diplomat nowadays means that you have to wear pants that have a big Yale zipper out back. That's how you can pick out a Diplomat in a crowd. They never wear pants with a zip fly out front. They're used and abused by the powers that be. Whereas Russian Emissaries are part and parcel of The Russian Conflict Federation. They are active members of the Russian powers that be, and in a crowd they're invisible because their zip fly is always on the front of their pants, and their brains are ever in gear. Their foot's on the gas peddle as they let out the klutz and roll forever Westward, set on cruise.

As Georgia's plight continues on its bearishly allotted course, and the EU and NATO stand feebly together against Russia's might and design, Russian Emissaries completed their task of gathering China and several Asiatic entities together forming an alliance against the West. Cutely enough, this agreement was set for shortly after the close of China's Olympic Games. To folks like myself this came as no surprise. Why, I've been writing on that very thing for several years, it's like deja vu to me, whereas Western politicos and their soap catchers always fail to read the writing on the wall. They're forever blinded by the mists of pride, lies, self-interest, and failed ideologies.

What's developing on Russia's borders could spell the beginning of the Third World War, yet most in the West have lost the will to care about it. The heart of our once proud Western world has been torn out by our very own leaders. They've sapped the strength out of our nations and stolen our reasons to be patriotic, a process that's spanned more than a century. One little thing upon another is destroying us.

When Joe Biden spoke for Obama last week, he made mention of Obama's promise to cut taxes, and it's the oldest trick in the book, for there's no such thing nowadays as authentic tax cuts. I covered some aspects of this back in April, 2005, in "Money speaks louder than words";

"Although Reagan reduced the individual tax rate
for the highest earners to 27 percent, most deduction
benefits that existed prior to the cut were eliminated.
Furthermore, the tax shelter mechanism was
removed too."

I fine well remember how big a stir this ed caused. I'd provided the IRS's own personal income tax figures for the Reagan years proving that the income had rocketed when it should in fact have gone down. But even that was not painted as bad as it should have been, because I'd decided to leave out the little fact of "dollar depreciation" during the same period. The great Ronald Reagan was, I believe, plainly unaware of the sleight of hand that resulted from his good intentions, but the fact remained that almost everyone believed they were paying less tax, when in reality they were paying much more.

Shortly after my ed's publication I took note of a little entry in the inside cover of a Forbes magazine, by Steve Forbes himself, who acted as an advisor to Reagan on those matters. He said something like, "While it is true we removed certain things, we believed that they were unfair." Well, unfair or not, they still produced a greater tax burden, not a lesser one, and that's the whole point of the matter. "When is a cut not a cut?" And the answer is, "When it's a swindle."

Over in Spain last week Economy Minister, Pedro Solbes (Codroe Sorbet,) attempted to explain away Spain's abysmal economic performance by claiming that "as bad as it was, Spain's still doing better than the rest of Europe." Pure fiction indeed, because as he said this, Eurostat published performance figures for the whole of the EU, and Spain's portion was almost the worst of all. Youth unemployment stands at 24.8 percent, whereas Norway is around 4 percent. One of the biggest growth industries Spanish style is the National Lotteries. Their ticket sales have doubled on last year.

The four year credit boom has busted, and a record number of non-payers is the result, and worst of all is the obliteration of the Spanish government's Superavit (Federal surplus,) for almost overnight it transformed itself into more than a 9 billion deficit.

The price of everyday foodstuffs in Spain are remarkable, but more so if, like myself, you know the price of those selfsame goods in other parts of Europe. Before Zapatonto and his Communist Comrades were voted in with a bang by the will of terrorists, March, 2004, foodstuffs in Germany cost far more than in Aznar's Spain. But now if you visit, say, Aldi and Lidl in Spain and check prices, then travel to Berlin and compare prices on the same foodstuffs in the same supermarkets, you'll find that they're about 30 percent cheaper in Germany.

Real estate's another case in point. A few years back Spain was the cheapest place to buy land and property, 18,000 bucks could buy you a big house and some land, though nowadays the same property would cost you more than $300,000. And again, real estate prices are far lower in Germany, and even the South of France, than they are in Spain. The common Spanish people are laden down with innumerable taxes and costs, and few can afford or even qualify for a house loan.

And there it is. Layer upon layer of politically motivated degradation. Back in the days of Franco politicians of this nature would face the firing squad, and back in the late 40's and 50's in the good old US of A, politicians of that nature would be branded as Communist and enemies of the American Way, whereas nowadays they can anticipate a good deal of adoration and accolades for their evil works.

Aristophanes once remarked that

"The wise learn many things from their enemies."

And for me, this has always held true. But to know one's enemy, and learn many things in the process, one must first determine who your real enemy is. My enemy is the type who assures me that Russia is a good ally, and my enemy is the type who promises tax cuts over the years, though never seriously delivers. My enemy is the type to misappropriate billions of tax dollars, to fill the pockets of freaks and deviants within the borders, and despots and willing losers elsewhere. My enemy is one who attempts to remove the penalty for death, but supports abortion en masse.

In fact, I could write a book containing everything pertaining to my perceived enemy, when I need use just one word; Politician. For the fact is that the most suitable candidates to head a nation are never permitted entry, which leaves only the immoral, the corrupt, the cheats and the liars, the punks and the pimps, and the brainless silver-spoons, fighting to reach the top of the heap. And while I've no problem rubber stamping them as enemies, I've still listened to everything they have to say; Obama, McCain, Biden, Bush, and so on, I've listened to them all, and none of them have promised to restore the spending power of the dollar, and none of them have pledged to remove Federal debt. Tax cuts, sure, but to what cost. If a dollar is only worth 3 cents on a 1913 dollar, tax cuts are a sham.

The real answer is to restore the dollars spending power. But you know something? Pigs will fly before anyone makes that pledge, and that's why I've classed them all as my enemy.

Alternatively, I know a place where the common people rarely complain, because what they earn they keep. There's no personal taxation nor is there any form of capital gains tax. It's a long-standing friend and ally of the United States and is to be commended for its tight governance, and watertight economic performance. The country is called Brunei Darussalam, and is monarchical/Islamic. They've proven that there's no need to steal from their people, and it's about time Western politicians woke up to this fact.

To realize a sound and rock solid economy one must first remove Federal debt, and live within one's means. Sound economies are built chiefly by small businesses and normal people, therefore those two groups should be favored above all else. In a properly run economy prices would go down and down, and earnings would constantly be on the up. And that situation is the Western politician's worst nightmare because not only would they be prevented from playing god abroad with taxpayers cash, the common people would find that they no longer required handouts.

Brunei, as I said earlier, is a monarchy, and the Bible promises a New Monarchy in the coming age. Deuteronomy 15 provides a complete route map to national and economic recovery, but it clashes with the political ideals and dogmas of our enemies at the top. To know our political enemies is therefore a simple matter. To remove them and replace them is far more difficult because as far as the USA's concerned, the average enlightened American would have to abandon both major parties next November, and have rid of them. Aristophanes is dead right, the wise can indeed learn many things from their enemies, but have we learned enough to make the right decision in November?

Can Brunei be regarded as a lesson to be heeded and learned, and if so, do we have the courage to apply it? Have the Spanish people been rewarded for their vote of confidence for the PSOE government? Why no, their lives are an increasing hell. Have the French experienced the fruits of Sarkozy's pre-electoral promises? Well again, the answer is a flat negative. Will the British people find themselves better off next election with the Conservatives? Sadly, I doubt it . And does history reinforce the integrity of both major US parties, or not? Well, to my mind, both entities have screwed the living hell out of the American people.

The West is on the way down and on the way out, because our leaders have spent each and every official term lying to the people. They've connived and cheated their way through, and promised the earth, then delivered a pile of dirt and waste. And my Book says a few things on those matters. It says that there's no future for a country that's run on bribery and corruption and organized theft. There's no future for a nation who's rulers are busying themselves removing each and every personal freedom, that my Book affords me as an honest, law-abiding, caring and dedicated human being.

Finally, it's time to change the subject a little, and set out on a slightly lighter note. Back in July 27, 2007, I published an ed entitled "Zwitterbug for President, 2008." I well remember having some fun scraping it together, and greater fun creating the Zwitterbug image, depicting Hillary and Obama as one person, hermaphrodite style. This image hit the Google gallery with the speed of light, and remained there until shortly after I wrote an email to the Editor in Chief of Time Magazine, June 8th. I titled the email "Meeting of Minds" and I tried to inject a little humor into it, as I often do with other communications. But in spite of the humor, Time never afforded me a reply, or if they did, it was in another shape or form. Nonetheless, my email contained both a live click thru to the ed and its image, and I'd also pasted the entire thing into the email also. I've only just re-read the email, and thought that it was quite entertaining, maybe they didn't, or maybe someone lacks humor over their way.

But basically I wrote to commend them on their front cover published May 5. It was the combined faces of Hillary and Obama, the inspiration of which was stated on the inside cover as "inspired by the 2008 NBA Playoffs ad campaign," which I thought was neat, but would have preferred if they'd been inspired by my Zwitterbug image instead.

Though I digress. For you see, very shortly after I wrote to Time, I received news from several people that Zwitterbug had disappeared from my Google gallery. I had a look, and sure enough it had. I thought that was quite interesting so I set about doing a few searches. I'd tap in the name of one of my eds, in the Image search box, and up they came ... every ed I tapped in was followed by every image contained in it. Only one ed broke the mold, and it's continued to break the mold ever since; Zwitterbug for President, 2008. Try it for yourself.

Now I've had dealings with Google for quite a few years. In all that time I've found Google to be trustworthy and first rate. If they were politically biased then half of my images would not appear on their gallery, and besides, Zwitterbug's removal is, I'm sure, the work of a third party and not Google themselves. How this third party removed the image is yet to be determined, but I'm determined to find out. Though the fact remains that through undoubted deliberation, the Zwitterbug image that I had so much fun putting together for the readers' enjoyment, is a dead search on Google, though still firmly placed within its editorial package.

I'd like to point out that to combine two heads, faces, or even two bodies, is not original. I never conceived this idea, and neither did Time. But my version of Hillary and Obama was conceived and published more than 9 months prior to theirs. And although I've not performed a conclusive search, it's quite possible that my version of Hillary and Obama was first of all, which means that it deserves to be available and on view. I see its removal as ill thought out and stupid, not just because it was petty, but also because this act leaves trails and enacts counter measures, and it's timing is most suspicious, because I heard from one person that she performed a Google image search on that image on the very day of my email to Time, then several days later she found it had disappeared.

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, or anything, of course I'm not, but I see the act as a breach of Property Rights. I've already been featured on the excellent Tynax in support of Intellectual Property Rights, something I guess will be part of my life's crusade well on into the future. I defend everyone's right to own property, and I abhor anyone or anything who breaches that right.

Now I wonder if the joint image here of mine and theirs will reach the Google gallery, and if so, how long shall it remain? Could it somehow spark off a chain reaction that restores my original to its long-standing rightful place? Let's see shall we?

© Johnny D. Symon