With the 2008 collapse of Wall Street by years end oil quickly found a new level just above $32.00 per barrel from over $120.00 three months earlier. Experts were telling us that due to a huge drop off in demand the price could go down in the New Year at least another third to just over $20.00. Without Bush to continue telling the world what addicts Americans were, the futures exchanges around the world were concerned Obama and his European counterparts were going to regulate the markets in such a way, the world would never again be held hostage to a bunch douche bags making money out of people’s misery.

But what happened? President Obama quickly listened to his many advisors (most of whom I reckon must be Republican “plants”, including that little weasel of a Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner) because his earlier threats about cleaning up Wall Street, the banks and the futures markets really just ended up being exactly that- idle threats. Once the “non toxic” banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the futures traders realized it was basically back to business as usual, the first to jump in and go for “L” for leather catching up on lost time were the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange and their fellow brethren in London. Prices in all minerals three months ago started moving skywards.

Futures exchanges are nothing but “electronic casinos” and the players no different from poker playing Bret Maverick of Wild West 1800′s fame. David Hutton, CEO of supposedly credible London-based PVM Oil Associates, in public has recently become an outspoken critic of speculators. It was just a façade as it was one of his most revered traders who in two days last week was responsible for a hike in the price of crude rising over five bucks and at one point $2.50 in less than one hour. Since this was revealed the price of Brent Crude has fallen from $73.50 to a shade under $60.00. It is still being propped up by traders because their bets were along the same lines as the PVM cowboy.

Now when all this trading was going on in such a short space of time, at one point enough futures were bought in just one hour which if they were to be exercised, the volume was equal to twice the daily output of the world’s largest producer, Saudi Arabia! How ridiculous is that? The G 8 were meeting in Italy at about the same time as all this nonsense was taking place just a few hundred miles away in London, but did we hear anything from those “great” leaders? Not one word. Because they were more worried about arguing over the carbon footprint in year 2050! Hey, Barak, quite frankly I don’t give a hoot about 2050 mate, because I will be long dead and buried by then.

We need people in politics who want to serve and more importantly look after and protect the best interests of all rather than a greedy few. It appears at this point all those dirty low life bastards who caused this current economic mess will remain in business in perpetuity, the lot of them up to all the same old tricks that made them so wealthy at the expense of innocent hard working people around the globe. President Obama, I am looking to you to address these ills that have destroyed so much in such a short period of time and I expect some quick action from you instead of more talk. You did a great job of sinking General Motors so they will never rise again, now how about achieving the same deal with Wall Street, the banks and the commodity markets?

I have never been a fan of the Chamber of Commerce because this is one organization that has undermined the American for longer than I care to remember. It was interesting to read just recently they are going to take up the cause of American manufacturers who have been hit by the closed doors of the Beijing government. My father, who was a left wing (Labor Party) Member of Parliament in N.Z. in the fifties and sixties, always referred to the Chamber of Commerce as the “Chamber of Horrors”, and horrors they all were. They represented the selfish and greedy bastards of society then and fifty odd years later by and large this is still the case. The U.S. outfit from day one has been a fervent promoter of NAFTA which in reality for America started the demise of much home-based manufacturing. Until the about face this week, China in the Chamber’s eyes could achieve no wrong and America do nothing right. For me to see this 180 degree turn is literally unbelievable. It will be interesting how successful the United States will be in tackling the thorny trade issues, but quite frankly I hold out little hope. Why? India and particularly China are our enemies, not only in the trade war, but also politically, culturally and economically. Along with Russia they are resting their hopes upon the imminent demise of the United States as a world power and our engine that drives the world.

Last year when oil hit $150/barrel, I decided to look into solar energy for my home. I contacted three firms and each submitted a quotation. Even though I chose the company with the highest quote the decision was based upon another factor. The successful bidder’s representative could actually speak good English and had some technical understanding. The other two, given the benefit of the doubt, if I could have understood their accents, did more to confuse me than answer the technical questions. I came to the conclusion they were more like snake oil salesmen than men with genuine product knowledge of the installation of solar power. In fact they are still hounding me to this very day with I think is better pricing offers. When the successful installer arrived to sign me up, I had only one further question; “Are the panels American-made?” He quickly responded in the negative telling me the three manufacturers his company represented all made their stuff in China. I was aghast at what I firmly believed one industry that the advanced technology and manufacturing would be all American. I subsequently canceled the order. To my benefit shortly afterwards the price of oil started collapsing thus negating the need to make the investment.

The reason for this little story is one of the big deals in the stimulus plan is placing solar panels throughout America on the roofs of government buildings and here is where I see the kicker in just about every project the Obama administration has given the green light to. I bet you “dollars to donuts” not one solar panel will come from an American manufacturing facility and the wherever possible the labor installation pool will come from two sources; illegals or temporary workers from the very generous Bush plan. What benefit will that be to the American taxpayer and those Americans currently out of work? I see just about every dollar of the stimulus plan benefitting everyone else but genuine Americans. President Obama, get a clue here, man. The sooner we act in isolating ourselves and protecting ourselves form those predators and outsiders who have no interest other than to see the fabric of America destroyed, the better. I say once our house is in order and the devastated cities of the country and its inhabitants are restored to good health, then may we look at some philanthropy, but until then my words to China, Russia and India in particular are; “Until you start acting with integrity and begin to level the playing field for America, you can all go to hell!”

Since the formation of the United Nations sixty odd years ago, diplomacy took on a new meaning. The permanent members of the Security Council quickly became powerless as “democracy” within the member nations simply allowed the United Nations to become a platform for anti- Western but moreover anti-American rhetoric. The real business of being the watch dog for maintaining peace in the world was placed on the backburner years ago while special committee after special committee was formed to stifle the good things the United Nations could accomplish for meaningless nonsense. This has allowed the organization to become bloated with third world bureaucrats who are strong on talking about nothing substantive, but is even better at doing nothing, all in the name of that double-speak word called diplomacy.

Very few American’s with a voice have exposed the United Nations for what it truly is and represents. That is because it is regarded as undiplomatic to do so. New York for sixty years has been the host to every spy and sworn enemy of the United States because the Rockefeller family constructed and donated the building to be used as the headquarters for the new “League of Nations”. From Castro to Khrushchev to Idi Amin to Gadaffi, dictators have used the U.N. as a platform for hate against the west and in particular, America while we have used diplomacy as our tool to promote peace and harmony. Has the world become a better place? I don’t think so. In fact if anything it has made the United States a laughing stock as for fifty years we have allowed ourselves to become the punch bag for what is wrong with the world.

Now we are entering a new era. I have named it the “era of pandering”. After Obama earlier this year made a speech reaching out to Iranians as they were celebrating Norooz (New Year) and finishing it in Fasi, (the native Persian tongue) I came to the realization his administration’s foreign policy is going to be all about pandering and little else. What good did that speech do? In response, the first opportunity Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has to get onto a stage outside of Iran, he condemns America’s closest ally, Israel. An attack like this upon Israel is virtually an attack on America also. South Africa booted out their last President and he is about to be replaced by that corrupt, swindling, murdering thug Jacob Zuma. Why no outcry? Because Nelson Mandela supports the appointment and oh yes, we must pander to the founder of the new South Africa, a country that has moved to hell in a hand basket since majority rule. I almost threw up when a camera showed a smiling Obama shaking hands with Chavez of Venezuela while accepting a gift from a man who is not only classified as a nutcase of a dictator, but one who has squandered his country’s oil wealth, all on pointless but hugely costly and ineffective social programs.

For a few months in late 1938 after Chamberlain returned with the “Munich Treaty” document proclaiming peace in our lifetime, the British were sucked in to believing appeasement was going to be the solution for peace. Chamberlain sold his soul to the devil by pandering to Hitler and the rest is history. I see the same for America if President Obama continues along the path of sucking up to every dead beat nation on earth. If diplomacy has not worked in the last fifty years in solving major global issues, pandering will only serve to weaken the will of this country and the respect it has to the point where our global leadership will be lost to China. Perish the thought.