Forgive me, dear readers, but my absence from these pages reflects another bout with my life-long battle with periodic acute sinus infections attendant to occasional head colds, a doosey of which I suffered with last week.
Although absent from blogging, I got very little good rest but, yes, thank you, with the help of private, un-socialized health care and unsubsidized modern pharmacopoeia, I'm feeling better. (Walgreens did give me a senior discount).
Which explains why, until now, I missed an arresting essay entitled, "American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper", authored by Russian writer Stanislav Mishin and published on the web site of the electronic tabloid, Pravda.
Descent into Marxism
Wrote Mishin: "It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people."
One of the basic tenets of Marxism calls for a classless society where all means of production are commonly owned, a system to be reached as an inevitable result of the struggle between capitalists and workers.
Of course, there is an ironic novelty when a post-Soviet Russian warns America about our descent into Marxism. I warned of these tendencies a year ago when an Obama administration was just a bad dream and the Bush administration was sliding into state fascism.
News and Truth
Pravda is the Russian word for "truth" -- and what's scary is that there is far too much truth in what Mishkin observed about the rush of events in the United States today.
Pravada
The online Pravda that published Mishin's article is not a Communist Party or Russian government publication, but it does reflect a Russian nationalist view that says unapologetically that: "The Russian people are not...a part of the West – we are Russians! ...please do neither lecture us, nor interfere with our affairs."
Wide Circulation
Mishin's essay gained wide notice by accusing the United States of a rapid "descent into Marxism". The essay has been circulating among American conservatives on the Internet including The American Spectator, Cybercast News Service (CNS News) and Fox News TV host Glenn Beck.
Mishin accuses the Obama administration of turning America into a Marxist country along the lines of the old Soviet Union. He also attacks what he perceives as a general moral decline in America, including fake evangelical mega-churches, empty debt-enabled consumerism, and corrupt government bailouts in America. Interestingly, he accuses "Wall Street" of propping up the old Soviet Union for seventy years, and predicts that Washington is making inevitable Weimar Republic-style hyperinflation of the dollar.
But isn't this Russian observer too close for comfort in too many respects?
Nationalization
Banks, insurance and auto companies have been nationalized. The U.S. government owns a majority share of General Motors. A sitting president has force a law-abiding CEO of a major company to resign. Instant government "experts" suddenly are running what were private companies and dictating salaries. Smelling political handouts, all sorts of businesses are clamoring for stimulus cash. The rights of preferred bondholders, with what once were presumed to be legal and binding contracts, are pushed aside by a government that hands over their rights to labor unions that backed Obama for president.
Mishin isn't the only one who sees some apt historical parallels.
Putin Parallel
Representative Eric Cantor (R-Va), (left) the number two Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, has compared President Barack Obama to Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an interview with the Associated Press. Cantor did not mean the comparison in a flattering way.
While criticizing the Obama Administration's handling of the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler, Cantor declared: "They said, 'Set aside the rule of law, let's strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights. Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers' unions...it's almost like looking at Putin's Russia...you want to reward your political friends at the expense of the certainty of law?"
Time to Go
All of which supports my repeated thesis -- now is a good time to do more than just consider moving at least some of your cash and assets offshore to relative safety. Become a member of the Sovereign Society and we will tell you how.
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