Customer Reviews

Catastrophe

5 star:		(95)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

When the critics start calling this book "Extreme Right Wing Dribble", remember that the author of this dire warning was Bill Clinton's Political Advisor for two decades. He helped make him President of the USA. So if Dick Morris is warning that a very dangerous Government created tidal wave is approaching, maybe we all should take time to check it out and head for the high ground if he is correct? This is not the only voice screaming in the wilderness. Glenn Beck has just published a book of similar warnings called "Common Sense."
This 359-page tome has 16 chapters included in three major sections. Those overall sections are titled "How Obama Is Causing A Catastrophe," "How Congress Causes Catastrophe" and "How Special Interests Cause Catastrophe." The authors don't pull any punches or go easy on any of the guilty parties responsible for this oncoming tragedy. "At a time when we needed a pragmatic centrist to lead us out of recession, we got a doctrinaire socialist who wants to use the crisis to put the government in charge of the economy and enact European Socialism here in the United States. Cars, banks--what's next? He will keep at it until Washington governs every major business in America and sets all our salaries." Never mind that socialism has never worked anywhere in the history of the world.
The individual chapter headings provide a pretty decent idea of the book's content. "Obama's War on Prosperity", "The Bank Bailout That Bombed", " Obama's Health Care Catastrophe", "Obama's Blueprint for Political Domination", "Christopher Dodd and Charles Rangel: From Idealistic Reformers to Privileged Insiders" and "The Sheer Chutzpah of Countryside Financial Executives" reveal much and the material in those chapters backs up the chapter titles. The book also has an excellent introduction and nearly forty pages of Appendixes.
The basic theme is "It's time to take back our country. Now. It's that simple. It's that urgent."
"Obama has cancelled the war on terror and declared a war on prosperity."
The President was not kidding when he told "Joe the plumber" that what he knew about was redistributing wealth. He stopped talking about "Civil War Reparations" early in the campaign and the media went along with burying that hot button issue. The same media ignored Mr. Obama's almost complete lack of work experience and his connections with ACORN which is about to change it's name and go underground and probably re-emerge in control of the tax payer funded "AmeriCorps" and/or a Homeland Security Army. Acorn isn't really "COIN of the realm." It may be the administrations muscle, but it's not yet government financed.
Does anyone else hear any echoes of the rise of Hitler and Nazism?
"Upper-income taxpayers must feel a bit like hogs at the Chicago stockyards--being fattened with stimulus spending so they can be slaughtered with tax increases two years down the road...all to make a nice breakfast for the federal government.""Obama cannot succeed by waging war on the rich. It didn't work when FDR tried it, and it cannot work now."
The speed at which all these changes are being pushed through under the Liberals two favorite disguises "Crisis" and "For the Children" resembles an out-of-control train. As Morris and co-author McGann so clearly report, this government is not only bankrupt but also it is in the process of bankrupting all future generations of Americas. The twin crisis of a bankrupt Social Security System and Medicare will arrive within the next eight years and there will be no money to save it. Worse, the United States won't be able to borrow the money either. Our freedoms and our economy are on the verge of a virtual collapse. Wake Up America! The Snake Oil Salesmen have arrived. Normally, this recession would be over. Not this time. Why?
Believe it or not, it's because the new administration doesn't want it to return to normal and its programs are consciously designed to impede any recovery. Mr. Morris, by the way, predicted all this in print and on television more than a year ago when everything in the economy appeared rosy and now he can sit back and say, "I told you so!" Unfortunately he doesn't want to be able to do that, because the next steps in his predictions will take away most of America's wealth and freedoms. This is a very important read for anyone interested in his freedom and well being.

I'm not necessarily a fan of Dick Morris, but he does know how to write a book. At nearly 360 pages, Catastrophe is an interesting read and certainly thought provoking. If only half of what he and Eileen McGann say is true, then the middle class really is in danger of losing the country. As someone who has been on the right side of center on the political continuum, I've become leery of both the left and the right in recent years. As an American I'm distrustful of the government, whether red or blue and believe that the less government we have the better off we are. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I love this country and I'm a devoted citizen.

As Morris and McGann point out, the United States' economy is sliding (slipping might be a better term) into socialism, something, by the way, that is fairly obvious to anyone who learned and retained anything from their freshmen Economics in college. That the government is taking over the banking, insurance, and auto industries is pretty obvious. The next target is the healthcare system and no one seems to be able to stop what seems to be inevitable. All of this, by the way, is unconstitutional but no one, outside a few conservative voices, and I mean no one, is pointing that out.

Chris Dodd, Teddy Kennedy (senior and Jr.) Charley Rangel, and Bill Clinton are all singled out for attention by Morris and McGann. But others are mentioned as well, such as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

One disturbing surprise for me in Catastrophe is the idea that American courts may become influenced by Shariah Law. This phenomenon has been reported in various sources as already happening in several European countries, but the idea that the American justice system would make this mistake is mind boggling, and unacceptable. Certainly Constitutional Law will continue to be the only law practiced in the courts in the United States. Shariah law is fine in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc. but, respectfully, that's where it should stay.

Perhaps the most serious mention in Catastrophe is the fact that ACORN will be involved in collecting data for the 2010 census. If this doesn't scare you, nothing will. ACORN has already been called to task about questionable voter registrations in several cities and also have refused to let auditors look at their books. Why would we let them count the population? Scary!

There are some claims made by Morris that I have a hard time understanding. For example, that Obama wants the current banking system to fail so that he can nationalize banking entirely. I have a hard time understanding how anyone will benefit from this, liberals or conservatives. Further, Morris makes the claim Obama wants to dismantle the war on terror. Again, I can't see how anyone benefits from this, other than our enemies.

Dick Morris knows how to stir the pot. He's certainly stirred up a hornets nest with Catastrophe. Like him or not, he does raise some thought provoking ideas, some of which are quite alarming. However you view the world you should enjoy the book.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann have presented a chilling view of America's free fall to socialism. This book documents how President Obama has essentially suspended the war on terrorism and shifted to the war on prosperity, which undermines the vitality of American private enterprises. Having facts and figures presented with their arguments, I find that their warnings are valid and urgent. It is indeed, as the authors have asserted, "no time for apathy or alienation or hopelessness," but "a time for action." I personally find it fascinating how a former political adviser to President Bill Clinton can make such a compelling case against the policies of the current Democrat-run White House and Congress.

As a matter of disclosure, I am a conservative.

This book is startling. Mr. Morris makes a point that is breathtaking: Obama told us what he would do. The American people were so blinded by the glitz, the possibility that he could (and ultimately would) be our first black President, and the mantra of "change" after so many had become disenchanted with Bush that they didn't listen to the details, which is, as the old saying goes, is where the devil lies.

We are in trouble, deep trouble. This book and Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny" will, in retrospect stand out as wake-up calls to the populace. Whether the citizens of our good country listen and heed could very well be a benchmark in our history. Everyone needs to read this book, whether after doing so you agree with Morris or not. This work deserves a fair hearing.

Have you ever visited a communist country? I have. No food on the shelves in the cities. Checkpoints on all the roads leading into the city to prevent farmers from bringing the food they grew on their own little plot of land around their house to the town to sell. The 3% of the farmland that is privately owned producing over 50% of the crops. Ration coupons good for 8 gallons of gasoline PER MONTH in a country that exports oil. Getting up in the middle of each night to cook your food because they only allow you 2-3 hours of natural gas per day, so you have to cook your food for the day while you heat your home at night. Some government official deciding whether you deserve to get medical care that you need, and when you no longer merit being kept alive. Someone listening to every word you speak, reading your email, tracking your internet use, listening to your cell phone calls, tracking your every movement and purchase. When a government takes over all the industries such as banks, cars, medicine and energy, when they turn public schools into centers for political indoctrination and no values, when they pass an unconstitutional Patriot Act to allow themselves to spy on you without warrant, when they spend far more money than they have to destroy the value of the dollar and enslave you - that's called communist dictatorship. If you think that is a good idea, ask any Russian citizen who lived under that idiocy during the period 1917 to 1991, or anyone who lived in a country under Russian control in that era. Then educate yourself by reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Compare what those documents say to what our government is doing. Then read Morris' book.

This is America's eleventh hour. Our democracy is in shambles morally, politically, and economically.

I suggest we stop hiding behind "trashy best-sellers" and pore over Dick Morris' "Catastrophe." If for no other reason, at least to grasp a sense of ominous reality and sobering history.

As a former Cuban political exile (50 years ago) I see so many similarities between my former country before Castro's revolution and the US today, that sometimes I think I'm re-living a nightmare!

Andrew J. Rodriguez
Award-winning author: "Adios, Havana," a Memoir

Dick Morris's well-written book "Catastrophe" is a very precise statement on the current mess the USA is in. Part I deals with "How Obama is causing Catastrophe" via a war on prosperity, a failed bank bailout plan, a failed mortgage plan, a proposed health care rationing plan that clearly discriminate against older white Americans, Obama's blueprint for political domination through an amnesty program and favoring the expansion of labor unions, Obama's declaration of the end of the war on terror and thus making the US more vulnerable to attack, and Obama's support of aid to UNRWA as a way of funneling money to Hamas.

In Part II, Morris details how Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Charles Rangel game the system to their personal benefit, how Senator Ted Kennedy's son (i.e. Teddy Jr) is trading on daddy's name, and how former US Senators and Congressman are using their influence as lobbyists and "strategic advisers."

Part III deals with how special interests cause catastrophes including Countrywide, play-for-pay schemes in Illinois and New Mexico, how US and Western Banks have become a vehicle for the intrusion of Shariah law via "Shariah Investment funds", how Clinton goofed and cost taxpayers billions, issues about Airline tarmac delays, and last, the shameful of the failure of the VA to help returning veterans deal with PTSD.

To review the book would require another book to do it right. In my view, Morris is exactly right about Obama, the elected officials and lobbying firms. It is disturbing, for intance, that US Ambassador for Middle Eastern affairs, George Mitchell, left a position as a strategic adviser/lobbyist at a firm dealing almost exclusively with Middle Eastern (i.e. Arab) financial interests.

Perhaps the most disturbing item in the book is Chapter 13 (unlucky 13?) detailing how Arab investors and their judicial allies in the Muslim world are encouraging western banks to establish "Shariah investment funds" to serve as an investment vehicle guided by Shariah Law. The economic impact poses the greatest security risk the entire western world faces today. This chapter, in my view, is worth the price of the book because you won't read about it in the MSM or see anything about it on National TV. However, the legitimacy of these funds is being challenged in US courts and will continue to be so challenged. Anti-terror laws on the books have also crimped these investment funds up to a point here in the USA. Such funds are being encouraged, in fact, by the British government as a way to make London the Middle East investment center of the world (see quote in book by current Prime Minister Gordon Brown).

In the section on health care, Morris discusses shortages of medical doctors and nurses. What he did not include was the fact that many medical doctors in the USA were trained in foreign countries, came here as interns and residents and stay. The three countries that provide most of the foreign-trained doctors are India, Pakistan and "Persia" (Iran). Their route usually is an internship in Europe followed by a residency in the USA. It is estimated that currently 50% of medical doctors in the US are so-trained, and by 2025, it will be close to 90%. Similarly, there is a massive worldwide recruiting effort by US, European and Australian and New Zealand hospitals to find nurses to staff vacant positions. During a recent orthopedic procedure, the nurses in the hospital ward where I was treated were all from the English-speaking Union (Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Philippines). All were technically extremely competent, but that hospital sorely needed a cross-cultural adviser to make it all work better. These trends do not look good for the future of American medicine.

At the end of each chapter, Morris provides a section on "Action Agenda", including who to email and write to voice opposition to the items discussed. The Conclusions section also lays out way and means for citizens to get involved to fight the draconian catastrophic changes that are presently facing the USA today.
The book rates a five star +++++

The book is worth while especially for those who are not conversant with the Conservative point of view on Health Care and other issues.

Section I "How Obama is Causing a Catastrophe" is excellent. It clearly outlines the pitfalls in this President's Health Care Agenda. This section is a must read for everyone.

Section II and Section III, however, are not relevant to the well read Conservative. We Conservatives know the content of sections II and III by heart! Nevertheless, I must compliment the co-authors on their meticulous research and data gathering which unquestionably exposes the corruption that exists in our government today. For the non-Conservatives, these sections would be meaningful to read because it may enlighten them to join the Conservative movement.

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Mena, Ed.D

Although long, the title of this New York Times number one best selling book has truly proven prophetic. The Obama administration, in it's short duration has truly proven a catastrophy. it has:
1. Offended the Queen of England.
2. Bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.
3. Praised the Marxist Daniel Ortega.
4. Kissed Socialist Hugo Chavez on the cheek.
5. Endorsed the Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia .
6. Sided with Hugo Chavez and communist Castro against Honduras
7. Announced we would meet with Iranians with no pre- conditions while they're building their nuclear weapons.
8. Gave away billions to AIG also without pre-conditions.
9. Expanded the bailouts.
10. Insulted everyone who has ever loved a Special Olympian.
11. Doubled our national debt.
12. Announced the termination of our new missile defense system the day after North Korea launched an ICBM.
13. Released information on U.S. intelligence gathering despite urgings of his own CIA director and the prior four CIA directors.
14. Accepted without comment that five of his cabinet members cheated on their taxes and two other nominees withdrew after they couldn't take the heat.
15. Appointed a Homeland Security Chief who identified military veterans and abortion opponents as "dangers to the nation."
16. Ordered that the word "terrorism" no longer be used and instead refers to such acts as "man made disasters."
17. Circled the globe to publicly apologize for America 's world leadership.
18. Told the Mexican president that the violence in their country was because of us.
19. Politicized the census by moving it into the White House from the Department of Commerce.
20. Appointed as Attorney General the man who orchestrated the forced removal and expulsion to Cuba of a 9-year-old whose mother died trying to bring him to freedom in the United States .
21. Salutes as heroes three Navy SEALS who took down three terrorists who threatened one American life and the next day announces members of the Bush administration may stand trial for "torturing" three 9/11 terrorists by pouring water up their noses.
22. Low altitude photo shoot of Air Force One over New York City that frightened thousands of New Yorkers.
23. Sent his National Defense Advisor to Europe to assure them that the US will no longer treat Israel in a special manner and they might be on their own with the Muslims.
24. Praised Jimmy Carter's trip to Gaza where he sided with terrorist Hamas against Israel .
25. Nationalized General Motors and Chrysler while turning shareholder control over to the unions and freezing out retired investors who owned their bonds. Committed unlimited taxpayer billions in the process.
26. Passed a huge energy tax in the House that will make American industry even less competitive while costing homeowners thousands per year.
27. Announced nationalized health care "reform" that will strip seniors of their Medicare, cut pay of physicians, increase taxes yet another $1 trillion, and put everyone on rationed care with government bureaucrats deciding who gets care and who doesn't.
28.Bloomberg: Daschle says, "Health care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them," while former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says seniors have "a duty to die."
29. Promise free healthcare to "nonregistered workers" at the expense of american seniors who have actually paid medicare, social security and income taxes their entire lives!
30. Institute a back door national ID card for all americans, (illegal and legal) with imbedded biometric,radio frequency, "machine readable" with your bank account info for "electronic transactions," while you are unconscious or anaethesised.
31. Appoints an Acorn sponsored "community organiser" as a "free bed Omsbudsman" to represent all residents in Private Nursing Homes. Upon the slightest provocation the Omsbudsman can call the Secretary of the treasury to "assume the control of the company."

This book chronicles the coruruption of the Obama administration as wll as the hijacking of the congress by U.N. sympathetic politicians and California communists and Green Party socialists hell bent on destroying America.

Read this book to learn the truth about the radical lefts' march towards State Fascism and what you can do about it before it's too late!

Courageously written, and only one year after 'Fleeced', 'Catastrophe' is a complete unmasking of Obama's plan to take America on the fastest lane to Socialism. If you became disinterested because you thought there was no big difference between the parties lately, this book will shake you out of your apathy. It will help you understand the real and almost unstoppable dangers we are facing presently, and incite you to act - peacefully - but renounce your inaction to protect America.
Dick Morris reveals the radical agenda of our new president and his hurry to fast-forward U.S.A. so far to the Left that we will never be able to undo his legacy.
Each major policy is smartly exposed in concise chapters, all ending with an Action paragraph, advising on the necessary steps to take to defend America.
How do we fight back? We could wait for the 2010 elections when all House of Representative and a third of the Senate seats become up for grabs, but it may be too late because by then Obama might pass the bulk of his major changes, and we could end up with decades of cleaning up the mess. So, if you want to continue the free market capitalist experiment that made America the best place on Earth, Dick Morris is suggesting to go now after the moderate Democrats in Congress - those who do not feel they must depend on the Democratic Party's financing their future campaigns for re-election. They tend to be the same guys who feel they have some debt to the constituents who entrusted them with the job. To get updates of the fight to protect our way of life, go to [...] and join the peaceful resistance and oppose the destruction of America.
In the first chapter of this book, Dick Morris is pointing to the money parked on the sidelines of the economy. A lot. Between October 2008 and March 2009 the supply of money grew by... 271 %. There is no inflation yet, because the money is 'parked' in coffers of many financial institutions, but it will come out quickly at the first real signs of economic recovery. Then the Fed will need a big mop to clean up the excess liquidity, because too much cash will chase too few products and it will spell i-n-f-l-a-t-i-o-n. I loved the chart of Total Government Spending as a Percentage of GDP. Sweden heads the list at 57% with France following at 54%, the most Socialist in the Western World. United States, still the most capitalist among all stood at 36.4 %. But this will be changed once Obama completes his Stimulus package, Supplemental Appropriations and Health Care spending.
It does not take an expert to figure out that the Stimulus package does not stimulate. Obama is going on the route of his idol, FDR, making the same mistakes by adopting the Keynesian economics. But Obama is more arrogant then FDR so he adds his own mistakes to the classic mix. His trash-talking the economy is like yelling "FIRE" in a crowded theater, scaring people into stampeding into a panic-driven recession. He is sending doubts about the currency all around the globe, starts the class warfare between tax payers and tax eaters. Benjamin Franklin's old lament that the only two things you can't avoid are 'death and taxes' no longer applies today, because half of the American population escapes without paying a dime in income taxes.
In chapter 2, we read about the biggest panhandlers: AIG, Citigroup, BOA/Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan/Chase, Wells Fargo/Wachovia, GM, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, etc., about the thirteen steps to doom on how the catastrophe started, and the Obama's plan for government takeover of Banks: get all banks take TARP money, don't let them give it back, make them obey federal regulations, make them pass a 'stress test', make them raise more capital, swap the TARP debt with common stock, use the voting power to run the banks, use the leverage of the banks to run the economy and establish Socialism. As of now, the U.S. financial system is de facto nationalized. The only issue remaining is whether banks and financial institutions should be nationalized de jure. Will Obama clean the banks and sell them off as the Swedes did? Or would he use them as tools to manage an increasingly socialist economy? Our elected officials are not bankers, and if they will stay in control they will get it wrong. Solution? Vote out the Democrats in the 2010 election.
In chapter 3, you could benefit from Obama's mortgage rescue plan only if you can squeeze through the following eligibility standards: your lender wants to participate, if your loan is insured or owned by Freddie or Fannie, if you have a job, if the loan is not worth more than your home, if you are a borrower in good standing and if it's your primary residence.
Chapter 4 may be the scariest one and, you probably guessed it, is about Obama's National Health Care. The only thing that makes the plan possible is rationing of health care. Without enough doctors and nurses to go around the Government bureaucrats will make the decisions, and one of those decisions will be to give care to some and deny it to others. The sure victims of Obama's plan will be the elderly and the sickest. The sure beneficiaries will be: the poor, the newly legalized illegal immigrants and those who will continue to represent Obama's constituency. You will dissipate your reservations when reading the paragraphs on the Canadian system, some of its sordid tales and how Obama will bring it here.
Chapter 5, Obama's Blueprint for Political Domination is breaking it down into four-part plan to create a national political realignment: legalize as many illegals as possible, control the census and cook the numbers of the poor to get extra seats in the House of Representatives and add more blue to the Electoral College, change the unions election rules to make them depend on the Democrats as much as possible, and use the FCC to muzzle conservative talk radio. If you were scared to death of the National Health Care intended changes, the 'political realignment' chapter will make your blood boil.
In chapter 6, Obama declares the end of the War on Terror and nominates his left wing radical friends to head the national security and in chapter 7, he sends a billion dollar of your tax dollars as aide to Hamas! In the second and third part of the book, Dick Morris exposes the corruption of the Congressmen Christopher Dodd and Charles Rangel, the Kennedys, Tom Daschle, Bob Livingston, Matthew Nugen, and what drives them to serve Obama. He continues with the corruption of other politicians and the effects on our own morale and the stress on our military. Not long ago I read Cleon Skousen's 'The 5,000 Year Leap'. I was remembering when John Page wrote to Jefferson: "a spirit of public virtue may transcend every private consideration" or that without virtue and morality the Constitution the Founders had written and the republican system of government which is provided could not be maintained.
A book like 'Catastrophe' could only be written in America, for now. But I start having doubts it will still be possible in a few years...
Reagan was right when he said that the Government was the problem and not the solution to the America's ills. Obama's Government will upgrade the problem to Catastrophe.
With friendship,
Sergio