by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Stanislav Mishin writes a weblog called Mat Rodina. His email address suggests that he is in his late 30s which means he grew up “back in the U.S.S.R.” Stanislav was probably one of the kids the nuns made us think of when we prayed for “the children in Godless Russia”, back in my grade school days.
Stan, ol’ buddy…if you’re reading, please pray for me. Your article in Pravda was right on the money.
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.
As much as this arrogant American hates being punked on the pages of Pravda, I’m terrified and I need your petitions. This economic recession is like a New York City power outage and our politicians are walking away with a television set on each shoulder….but Stan, ol’ buddy, you already know this.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?
Precisely. I visited with my parents last month and they asked me what I thought of President Obama’s first 100 days. I replied, “Well, you gotta respect the speed and efficiency with which he’s looting our country“.
Stan, ol’ buddy, your conclusion is scary:
The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
I’m a proud American but not too proud to ask for help; I know you’ve been through this already. Any advice you have for the sheeple people of this great land would be greatly appreciated. If anyone else is as worried as I am, read what Stanislav wrote.
Jayson says:
This whole mess is a damn shame, it’d be nice if there were more Rush Limbaugh’s running around. Forget what he says, at least he uses his reach to say something at all.
There are way too many loud supporters of everything that’s going on and it’s not that they support it, they just go with the flow.
May 31, 2009 — 1:33 am
Joe Loomer says:
The Amazing Global Pool of Money. Takes all of history to get to 2002, and in seven years we double it. Take that and the coming slump in 45-54 yr old white males – the big spenders of our economy – and I wonder what will truly become of us.
My father was a diplomat, we where posted to the US Embassy in Moscow from 1977-1978, while I attended boarding school in Rome (no U.S. high school in Moscow at the time). The short nine weeks I spent in the Soviet Union was enough to teach me – even at the young age of 13 – that I was sure glad to be an American. Broken-down Ziglis and six-lane thoroughfares with no traffic during rush hour. Black soot-spewing power plants every six blocks. Fresh snow turning grey in a matter of an hour. Misery and vodka bars on every street corner. I hope that’s not our future….
May 31, 2009 — 6:45 am
Missy Caulk says:
Someone tweeted this on Twitter, goes my the name of AtlasShrugged, so I went and read it a couple of days ago.
Scary, huh?
I just finished Atlas Shrugged and even though it took me a month to get through it, Ayn Rand was prophetic.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, what the heck and why did and continue to be…so many Realtors support this President.
IMO and it is only my opinion so please no one on BHB attack, the problem is not going to be solved by political means anymore, it will take a Spiritual Awakening. I appreciate your post, Brian.
May 31, 2009 — 7:10 am
Jeff Brown says:
A spiritual awakening is exactly what it’s gonna take. If we’re not awake to all that’s happening in D.C. and within ourselves by the first Tuesday in November of 2010, I fear we’ll have entered the most dangerous time as a country since December 8, 1941.
I pray we’ll respond as a people in the same manner our parents/grandparents did back then.
May 31, 2009 — 10:11 am
Brian Brady says:
“Broken-down Ziglis and six-lane thoroughfares with no traffic during rush hour. Black soot-spewing power plants every six blocks. Fresh snow turning grey in a matter of an hour. Misery and vodka bars on every street corner.”
The Moscow of the 70’s and 80’s but what is it like today? I am not pining for some Russian paradise but I am trying to listen to those of my generation who suffered under tyranny. When the Chinese admonish a Federal Reserve Governor and my contemporaries, who have suffered at the throes of Collectivism, criticize our ignorance, I get pensive.
Missy’s comment reminds me of the mythical Tyler Durden in the movie Fight Club. “Our great war is a spiritual war”. Call it spiritual, call it philosophical, call it ideological but we must call it what it is; a war.
My generation grew up under Reagan so we have confidence in all that is American. We were teenagers when hyperinflation was a way of life, radical Muslims kidnapped our countrymen, and only nut-jobs would burn the American flag. Reagan came along and turned the economy around, restored America’s standing as the leader in the free world, and Rick Monday snatched the flag from the would-be burners. By the time I was 25, everything seemed peachy again.
Greg reminds us (in his “Reds” post) that we can control our mind. Our mind is the one thing our captors can’t control but I don’t want to be a slave to a celebration of mediocrity. I want both the freedom to fail and the freedom to profit off of those who did fail.
It is encouraging to live in California during these times. Our state is bankrupt. The citizens cried “no mas” last week (prop 1A). Our State is trying to punish us by closing our State parks, threatening to sell State assets to the private sector, and trying to scare us with the threat of releasing hardened criminals on our streets. These arrogant threats are backfiring on the Captors. We don’t care; we just want them to stop spending our money.
Collectivism bankrupted California and threatens to bankrupt our Nation but the Golden State will shine once again. I’m keenly aware of the Stockdale Paradox so I’m not blindly optimistic. I’m confident in my convictions, though. The American Dream may have to be plucked from the ashes of the scorched earth the Captors leave behind but pluck it I will.
May 31, 2009 — 10:55 am
Brian Brady says:
“I’ve said it before and I will say it again, what the heck and why did and continue to be…so many Realtors support this President.”
This is quite easy, Missy. Your industry and mine doesn’t REALLY want to compete. We spout platitudes about the beauty of the free market but we run to the State to solve our problems. You and I are licking our chops at the prospects of fewer competitors while our associations are screaming to the Government that its membership is declining.
REALTORs and originators scream “there ougta be a law” rather than hustling to make a buck. That’s why so many in our industries support this President.
May 31, 2009 — 11:07 am
Al Lorenz says:
Are we in a dark age of free thought? Each dark age has had its renaissance. I remember that Atlas Shrugged has a happy ending. Unlike the USSR, we still have places, like this forum, where we can express and encourage free thought. Stanislav Mishin is a gift of perspective for those who are willing to accept it.
I find myself just not believing the poll numbers and media. Nearly everybody seems concerned with what is going although still not enough of those understand what needs to be done. But, the ranks of Atlas Shrugged readers are growing.
Without Nixon, we wouldn’t have had Carter. Without Carter, we wouldn’t have had Reagan. Without nearly 25 years of prosperity after that, people wouldn’t have forgotten and elected Obama. The opportunity to go further and fix things that have been wrong for 80 years or more may be imminent. As always, the opportunities are unlimited.
May 31, 2009 — 12:13 pm