Is Glenn Beck Doing A Ross Perot...???

First off, I'm not a conspiracy nut.

Not that I have to convince any of my regulars, any of my friends, but I do get random traffic here so allow me to make it very clear that while I'm a huge believer in "connecting the dots," I tend to identify human nature - self-interest, greed, stupidity, short-sightedness, laziness - as the driving force behind the ongoing decline and fall of the United States of America.

Oh, yes... there is of course a "vast Left wing conspiracy" of the liberal media, academia, the unions... yadda, yadda, yadda... but it's largely organic. Oh, sure... there exist "organizational" links and "leaders" such as George Soros behind the scenes, but the same applies to linkage between conservative Think Tanks, certain Republican politicians, certain influential talk show hosts... yadda, yadda, yadda.

And then, of course, we have the "non-partisan," non-ideological "oligarchs" - the folks who run the "game" of world finance... the investment bankers, the Goldman Sachs crowd, the men and women at the top of the pyramid who straddle the corporate/government world - and when I say "world" I mean exactly that - their concerns are not strictly parochial, not nationalistic, but rather internationalist.

In any case, what's my point and what's it have to do with Glenn Beck and Ross Perot...???

Well... as regulars know, I'm a big fan of Glenn Beck. Just as I say about Newsbites - namely, that if you read my newsbites regularly you're going to learn a hell of a lot of stuff you won't learn otherwise - so too with Glenn Beck's television show.

Anyway... last week Beck concentrated his fire on "outing" George Soros. At the same time he launched an aggressive populist attack against the American political establishment.

Now neither fixation is new... and neither "attack" is unwarranted. George Soros is a bad guy. As for the American political establishment...

(*SIGH*)

...we no doubt we can all recite the names of a number of absolute scumbags in Washington, D.C. and various state capitals and metropolitan communities large and small who are destroying our nation from within as a cancer upon the body politic.

Last week, though... Beck was going off a bit. To be honest... more than a bit.

Beck spent time warning of possible hyperinflation - hinting at coming Wiemar Republic levels of inflation - quoting "estimates" of the National Inflation Association such as a prediction that next year a single ear of corn will cost $11.43... that a loaf of wheat bread will cost $23.05 and Hershey's chocolate bars will be selling for $15.50.

Now, folks... these "predictions" are nuts!

Yes... we're in for inflation - stagflation - but we're talking deli roast beef going for $14.99/lb. and other food and fuel costs rising by anywhere between 20%-50%.

(I'm talking individual items and categories; my guess is that overall "real" inflation - your individual/family expenses - will go up at least 15%-20% over the next few years... perhaps more... but we're not talking hyperinflation as in a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk costing over $20.)

Another "over the top" segment Beck ran with last week was when he had a studio audience of West Point cadets and army officers and while ranting about the (granted!) inflated salaries of Members of Congress in particular and government employees in general as compared to the pay and benefits given to our military personnel (which by the way have gone way, way up over the past decade...) Beck went into a full populist rant demanding that Members of Congress should be paid no more than median enlisted personnel pay... something like $22K-$23K according to Beck.

Now, com'on... let's not be ridiculous.

I'm all for reducing congressional pay - let's say bring it down to the $150K range; say no more than triple American median pay - but Beck's "proposal" came across as ridiculous.

AND THIS IS MY POINT...!!! WHILE GLENN BECK MAY AT TIMES OVER DO THE "ENTERTAINMENT" ASPECTS OF THE PROGRAM... MAY STRETCH THE BOUNDARIES OF SERIOUS ANALYSIS VS. "WORST CASE SCENARIO"... BECK IS A HIGHLY INTELLIGENT, KNOWLEDGEABLE, SKILLED, AND DISCIPLINED PUNDIT/ENTERTAINER WHO IS CAREFUL TO PROTECT "THE BRAND" IN SUCH A WAY AS TO EXTEND HIS VIEWERSHIP AND THUS ULTIMATELY HIS INFLUENCE AND, YES... WEALTH.

(Beck is about the money. While I believe he's sincere, he's a businessman every bit as much as he's an entertainer or a social/political phenomenon.)

So why would Beck have gone so overboard last week...??? That's what I ask myself.

I don't have an answer - but I do have a question... an observation...

Remember Ross Perot?

Perot was the real deal for a time. I know. I was there. We're talking a guy who received roughly 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election!

And... here's the point connecting Perot to Beck in terms of this post:

Perot won roughly 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election after self-destructing... after imploding... after publicly portraying himself as over wrought and perhaps even unstable just a few short months earlier when he suddenly (and as it turned out, temporarily) withdrawn his candidacy for the presidency, bizarrely claiming that the Bush (George Herbert Walker Bush - "Bush the Elder") campaign was engaged in some sort of "plot" to wreak Perot's daughter's upcoming wedding if Perot didn't withdraw.

Folks... prior to Perot's public meltdown he was leading both Bush and Clinton the polls...

(*SHRUG*)

Will we ever know why Perot sabotaged his own campaign?

(*PAUSE) (*PENSIVELY SCRATCHING MY CHIN*)

I mean, he did... sabotage his own campaign that is.

Which brings us back to Beck.

What's going on...???

After the successes of the past two years... after what he accomplished with the 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally... after all he's contributed to the "Tea Party" spirit which spurred a tidal wave of political change two short weeks ago... why would Beck suddenly begin acting in such a way seemingly sure to backfire on him in terms of general public acceptance and influence...???

Did "someone" get to Perot...???

(A man named Scott Barnes has been blamed for creating the "hoax" that Perot got caught up by... yet...) (*SHRUG*)

Well... conspiratorial as this question may sound... ever since watching last week's Beck shows I've been asking myself... has someone "gotten" to Glenn Beck...???

I don't know, folks... I'm just throwing it out there...