Always the optimist...

1. Hyperinflation and the collapse of the dollar. The trillions President-elect Obama plans on spending to "cure" [.pdf] our economic malaise will prove poisonous to the dollar, with hyperinflation an inevitability. Whether this reaches Weimar levels remains to be seen, but one can easily imagine all sorts of unpleasant, Weimar-like consequences.

2. A barrage of legislation that aims to stop capital flight, including draconian economic controls on the movement of money across borders and the erection of a steep tariff wall in the name of "national economic security." By the end of the year, we will have so many economic czars, each in charge of their own economic fiefdom, that Obama will have to appoint a czar-of-czars.

3. More Israeli aggression. The Israeli offensive in Gaza is but a prelude to a series of IDF military actions, possibly including a third Lebanon blitz and an attack on Syria, the weakest link in the chain of pro-Palestinian regional actors. The whole point of this extended exercise is to involve the U.S. militarily. This will lead logically to the fourth not-so-great expectation.

4. The return of military Keynesianism. To hear Paul Krugman and the other left-liberal economic gurus tell it, all we have to do is spend our way out of the doldrums, and that will do the trick. It doesn't matter what we spend it on – it could be pyramid-building, for all they care – just as long as we "jump-start" the economy with a "stimulus" of freshly-printed greenbacks. That's the ticket! And in the meantime, there will be plenty of jobs in Washington for ambitious young "planners" and other disciples of Saint Keynes, whose purview will be devising imaginative methods of expanding the ranks of government workers. As Pat Buchanan pointed out, this is the dreaded "earmarks" raised to a way of life. Inevitably, this orgy of spending will include – and perhaps even come to be dominated by – increased military appropriations. After all, there are only so many bridges one can build across the same river, and the accompanying rash of corruption sure to ensue is going to put a cap on this kind of spending. One can always cloak cronyism and $200 wrenches under the general rubric of economic collateral damage, a regrettable but necessary byproduct of ensuring the national security.

5. War. Preparations for war usually result in war, and there are several candidates for 2009. The first is Iran, which will undergo a prolonged diplomatic, political, and economic assault before facing the prospect of American bombs falling on its cities. This, however, may not turn out to be the main theater of American aggression in the coming year: Afghanistan and Pakistan will see major efforts by the U.S. to complete a mission that has already failed and that no one is quite clear about any longer. The U.S.-Indian relationship will grow, perhaps formalized by a pact and, in all likelihood, a visit by Hillary Clinton – not Obama – to the region.

To Derbig: Congrats on the Mensch of the Day award. Very impressive!

To Wallaby: Special thanks for coming back to join us after threatening legal action against the site. It's just too good to stay away from, isn't it?

To Zoltan: I've read all the books you mentioned. Uncle Milty was my teacher. Here's the wisdom I came away with: Zoltan, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, it's Gwenn, not Gwen!

The California Attorney General, Jerry Brown,(famous Democrat), anxiously awaits your complaints. I'll check with his office in the morning, to make sure your complaint about Salon is being handled expeditiously.

Speaking of Snoid, which of course brings up Mr. Natural, you know what I've always wanted to do? You know how, when you get to where they are putting in a new overpass, and you have to slow down, and there might be some flagmen and you have to stop, and finally you get to the last of the work area, and there's a sign which says: End Road Work.

I've always wanted to stop, pull up that sign, and march back and forth with it. I bet that's what Mr Natural would do! Can't you just see it? He gets more an more frustrated at the delay, and then he's marching with the sign "End Road Work"!

Okay, you had to be there.

Your story reminds me of those tributes posted nearly everywhere to our really really favorite terrorist: Begin Freeway.

From Mondoweiss:

But I want to focus tonight on one beautiful and helpful statement this guy made. He said: We all hear, oh, the U.S. would do the same thing if Canada or Mexico were firing rockets at us. We would have a duty to respond. And yes, I think, Israel has a duty to respond, Levy said.

But then he went on to explode that analogy, and get at the core issue: Lack of Political Sovereignty. Canada and Mexico are states. Palestinians have no state. Remember, he said, that Gaza is just 4 percent of the Palestinian territories. The other 96 percent are still occupied. They have been for 40 years. And imagine that the 4 percent had been under siege, since they were unoccupied 3 years ago. And the occupied parts were crisscrossed with checkpoints and colonies.

Would it really be that surprising if in Canada or Mexico there was a hardline opposition that took over the government? And was deeply opposed to the occupier? "I'll leave that to your imagination."

I will get the transcript tomorrow and expand those comments. Taking notes by hand tonight. But what a bold act of humanization Levy was undertaking. Yes, obvious. But from inside the Jewish community. Of course: denied self-representation for 40 years, of course some of us would take up arms.

And others of us, terrorized by that monstrous power, would hide in international schools.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/

A very good blogroll to, for additional links.

Thanks, Chris!

It is getting late, and thank s to any who have responded to my comments, and thanks for the compliments I got tonite. They mean a lot.

And from me, thanks to all the people who don't get hysterical, like me, but just keep on weighing in with the facts. I've never seen it like this before, never seen so many people prepared to answer the Zionists.

And thank you, Gwenn! I bet you're tall and tan and young and lovely, just like the song says!