#RESIST the left's unhinged rhetoric

"Donald Trump is such a terrifying fascist

dictator that literally no one fears speaking out

against him on literally any platform."

— Sonny Bunch

Obama administration intends to rule by fiat if Congress doesn’t submit?

[Cross-posted from C-Pol’s companion site, The Global Warming Heretic]

According to a Fox News story today, administration officials acknowledge privately that the EPA’s newly-claimed powers allow the executive branch to function as a dictatorship if it so chooses.

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn't move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a "command-and-control" role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

The warning, from a top White House economic official who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity, came on the eve of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's address to the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jackson, however, tried to strike a tone of cooperation in her address Wednesday, explaining that the EPA's new powers to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

"This is not an 'either-or' moment. It's a 'both-and' moment," she said.

But while administration officials have long said they prefer Congress take action on climate change, the economic official who spoke with reporters Tuesday night made clear that the EPA will not wait and is prepared to act on its own.

And it won't be pretty.

"If you don't pass this legislation, then ... the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area," the official said. "And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty."

So.  Obama would prefer that Congress take the actions that the administration demands of it.  But if Congress fails to get its act together, the administration will publicly hold Congress responsible for the economic chaos that will follow.

And that economic chaos is a virtual certainty if the administration resorts to fiat rule through the EPA. Who would want to invest in an economy where regulations are changing suddenly and radically (and almost always to the detriment of businesses)?

As long as the taxpayers are going to own an automotive company...

...why not own a company that makes cars that people actually want to buy? Satire from Scott Ott:

As the U.S. government escorted General Motors into bankruptcy court Monday with a deal giving taxpayers 60 percent of GM stock, a new survey reveals that most Americans would rather own a majority equity stake in Toyota.

According to a new Gallup poll, 87 percent believe Toyota's stock to be a better deal than GM's, due to the superior safety features, reliability and even the design of the Japanese equities.

A White House spokesman said, however, that the President Barack Obama has taken the AFL-CIO pledge to "Buy American" as the federal government takes over automakers, financial firms and other companies along a broad spectrum of business and industry.

Michael Moore dances on the grave of GM

Michael Moore has been on a jihad against General Motors for decades, and now his fondest dream is being realized: the dissolution of General Motors as a privately-owned corporation.

In his latest screed, he expresses his "joy" (his word, not mine) at seeing GM get seized unconstitutionally by the federal government.

However, he doesn't think GM's bankruptcy and nationalization should result in a single job loss (at least among union employees). Instead, he thinks that the employees should get right back to work for their new employer. Not building cars with internal combustion engines, mind you, because those are evil. What then? Things like:

• Bullet trains between all of the major cities of the U.S.
• Massive light-rail systems for all large and medium-sized cities in the U.S.
• Energy efficient buses to serve every place not served by the above
• Hybrid and all-electric cars for (steadily declining) use during the transition away from existing vehicles
• Windmills and solar panels!

All of this complete upending of America's transportation infrastructure would, on the taxpayer's dime, be forced on an unwilling public. Moore is completely unsympathetic, though, and even suggests a two-dollar-per-gallon federal gas tax to put automobiles out of the reach of those he pretends to champion.

Moore has been pumping out this kind of bilge for a long time. As recently as last year I would comfort myself with the fact that nobody in power would give him the time of day.

Times are different now, much to America's harm. Not only are there many sympathetic people at the levers of power now, they've shown time and again that they recognize no real boundaries on their power.

Way to treat your shareholders, General Motors

Obama administration: "I got a majority stake in GM!"
UAW: "I got a big piece of GM, too!"
Joe Bondholder: "My piece is kinda small, but it's better than nothing."
Joe Shareholder: "I got a rock."

The title of this post implies that this insane idea originated with GM, but given the beneficiaries, and given the fact that this plan will totally destroy investor confidence in the company, I'm seeing the Obama administration's fingerprints all over the place.

Reuters states the facts rather plainly, but can't scare up an adjective stronger than "unusual" to describe the plan:

General Motors on Tuesday detailed plans to all but wipe out the holdings of remaining shareholders by issuing up to 60 billion new shares in a bid to pay off debt to the U.S. government, bondholders and the United Auto Workers union.

The unusual plan, which was detailed in a filing with U.S. securities regulators, would only need the approval of the U.S. Treasury to proceed since the U.S. government would be the majority shareholder of a new GM, the company said.

The flood of new stock issuance that could be unleashed has been widely expected by analysts who have long warned that GM's shares could be worthless whether the company restructures out of court or in bankruptcy.

The debt-for-equity exchanges detailed in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission would leave GM's stock investors with just 1 percent of the equity in a restructured carmaker, ending a long run when the Dow component was seen as a bellwether for the strength of the broader U.S. economy.

GM shares closed on Tuesday at $1.85 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock would be worth just over 1 cent if the first phase of GM's restructuring moves forward as described.

Once GM has issued new shares to pay off its debt to the U.S. government, bondholders and its major union, it said it would then undertake a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.

Such a move would take the nominal value of the stock back to near where it had been before the flood of new shares. But in the process, GM's existing shareholders would see their stake in the 100-year-old automaker all but wiped out.

Michael Moore loves the notion of Obama as absolute ruler

Michael Moore, that Millionaire Champion Of The Working Class, appears to believe that We The People have granted President Obama dictatorial powers. And, he thinks it's a beautiful thing.

Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"
I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"
This bold move has sent the heads of corporate America spinning and spewing pea soup. Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business. John McCain got it. On the floor of the Senate he asked, "What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" Senator Bob Corker said it "should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise." The stock market plunged as the masters of the universe asked themselves, "Am I next?" And they whispered to each other, "What are we going to do about this Obama?"
Not much, fellows. He has the massive will of the American people behind him -- and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit. If you liked this week's all-net 3-pointer, stay tuned.

Having a dictator is kind of cool, as long as he keeps dictating in the way consistent with your agenda.

But, Mr. Moore, you do not have the president on a leash, and one of these days Obama, citing that "massive will of the American people", will do something that you don't like. Then, living under a dictator won't be so wonderful. So be careful what you wish for.

Benito Mussolini speaks out on Obama's auto industry rescue plan

Well, okay, to my knowledge Mussolini never met Obama, but there is a very good chance that he would see in our president a fellow traveler. Consider the Mussolini quote embedded in this item from the WSJ's John Fund, speaking of the Obama administration's auto industry plan.

[T]he Obama White House is now clearly deep into industrial policy by forcing out General Motors chief Rick Wagoner and most of his board. Mr. Wagoner, who joined GM in 1977, agreed to leave as one of the White House's conditions for more federal aid. The moves give President Obama political cover as he contemplates just how much taxpayer money to pour into the auto industry.

But the moves also represent another step on the road to the dystopia that Ayn Rand depicted in her novel "Atlas Shrugged." Rand envisioned an America in which bureaucrats dictated terms to both management and labor as it allocated state favors. As Michael Vadum of the Capital Research Center notes, such state managerialism is a peculiarly foreign concept to America. He quotes the Italian dictator Mussolini as saying: "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." That merger is now underway here, at least until Mr. Obama and his Democrats get through the next couple of elections with the help of a grateful UAW.