As this is written it has been more than seventy days since the explosion that resulted in the sinking of the deep water oil platform that loosed a torrent of raw oil and gas from the mile deep floor of the Gulf off the shore of Louisiana. The resulting string of stupid blunders by BP and the companies running the oil rig combined with the bureaucratic ineptitude of our competing government agencies has created a nightmare of accusations and claims by all parties. In addition, long delays face most actions for a variety of ridiculous reasons, including jurisdictional disputes between government agencies, domestic and foreign companies and unions. Example, the sand berms to keep the oil from gaining access to extensive Louisiana marshes: After a rather long delay, the federal government finally granted permission and Louisiana started pumping sand to build the berms to keep the oil from reaching the marshes. Shortly after the pumping started, environmentalists convinced the government the pumping might endanger the Chandeleurs, the sand islands that offer some protection to the Louisiana coast over time. The government stopped the berm building until a study could be conducted to determine the environmental affect of moving the sand. Who knows how many months that study would take. Actually, it would be mostly an ongoing argument between conflicting views. In the meantime, the oil damage to the vast wetlands will probably cause a thousand times more environmental damage than the worst the sand pumping would do.
This is but a single example of the many skirmishes occurring over what to do and how to do it. It’s a classic case of too many chiefs and too few indians typical of the ridiculously complex, conflicting agencies of our obese government. Each agency and often each head of this or that trying to make themselves more important. All this with complete and total disregard for the costs paid by taxpayers. To add to the confusion, many if not most members of both private and public organizations have little understanding of their own rules. Another example, also from the oil spill, is the various interpretations of the Jones Act of the 1920s by various individuals.
Witness words from one private source: “The Jones Act only applies within three miles of shore. Therefore, foreign skimmers, along with American skimmers, are already at work beyond three miles. The Deepwater Horizon spill is occurring 50 miles from shore, and the vast majority of oil is beyond 3 miles”
Response from another source: “I believe you will find the Jones act applies to the territorial waters of the United States. In the 1920s, when the Jones act was written into law, those territorial waters extended 3 miles from shore. Since 1982 the United Nations law of the sea defines territorial waters as ‘a belt of coastal waters extending twelve nautical miles from mean shore line.’ These waters are considered sovereign territory of the state owning the land. In addition and in response to several nations (including the US) arbitrarily declaring the extension of their territorial waters 100 to 200 nautical miles from shore, the UN defined an Exclusive Economic Zone extending 200 nautical miles from the defined shoreline. In this zone, ‘a coastal nation has control of all economic resources including, fishing, mining, oil exploration, and responsibility for any pollution of or by these resources.’ The Jones act has been considered by many as covering this economic zone.”
This plethora of confusing authorities, both written and personal, that are negatively affecting the efforts to fix the oil spill is typical of both government and corporate bureaucracies. It’s everyone trying for a share of the credit when things go well, and everyone pointing fingers of blame at others when things go wrong. All of this is fueled by greedy lawyers eager to sue anyone with deep pockets on any side of any controversy, and a media more interested in sensationalism than facts. Frequently, viable solutions to the real problems are ignored or lost in the melee and uproar of conflicting accusations.
Add to this confusing mix a president who is a political hack with virtually no experience at running or managing anything other than a political campaign. He is a master of platitudes and euphemisms, an orator who is quite obviously without a clue as to how to manage or direct any real situation. His handling of the McChrystal situation was that of a schoolboy ego that couldn’t bear the tiniest slight. “McChrystal’s error was to blow off steam and allow his subordinates to grumble about their civilian overlords—which one assumes is pretty standard fare in military circles—in the presence of a journalist.” says Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in his blog.
It's about time members of groups, that constantly denigrate and condemn others out of class or economic envy, or those with whom they have a jurisdictional dispute, began to honor and respect the achievements and rewards of those others. I see it as important that we recognize the realities of our situation and the real reasons we are where we are. There has been enough of this destructive and debilitating blame game and all of its political distortions and emotional hate-filled activities. We have been engaged in terrible inner political warfare, while our enemies stand on the sidelines urging on the various sides, and gleefully watching our self destruction.
Many web sites and news reports disappear soon after being posted for many reasons including obvious inaccuracies, editorial revisions, and/or real changes that make them invalid. A single powerful caveat exists about Internet information. Many charlatans lurk well hidden behind attractive facades on the Internet. Even a cursory examination will reveal there are magic, energy out of nothing, and secret smoke and mirror articles readily available. Many of these are driven by hidden agendas. Every searcher must be certain that information comes from a reliable source, and truly is from that source. All information must be checked and confirmed from other reliable sources. Even those sources can be in error for many reasons.
The following section deals with political, jurisdictional, corporate, and communications problem in greater detail. This is the background of where we are, why we are there, and what we must do to go forward. It has little to do directly with energy and fuels, but everything to do with what we must overcome in order to counter this growing menace before it destroys us.
It is my personal conclusion that government and corporate bureaucracies along with political and media activists are among the most powerful forces against solutions to the serious problems facing humanity. Rather than use those problems as a focus for knowledgeable people to find creative solutions, these negative groups use these problems as bludgeons with which to punish and if possible, destroy those who do not support their agendas. The vast majority of ordinary citizens of the world are swayed this way and that by intense and usually hate-filled rhetoric of persuasive individuals in politics and the media. It is no wonder they get angry because of frustration at leaders who quite obviously are feathering their own nests at the expense of the common folk while blaming all the economic woes they have created on those, like the wealthy who have achieved more. Of course, they exempt themselves from the wealthy no matter how much power or wealth they possess.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Who Really Pays All Those Taxes?
The truth of the matter is that few members of the public understand the realities of any taxes. Every business, large or small—every professional—every taxable entity or organization—every worker, all appear to pay taxes to many governments. Actually, corporations do not pay taxes. Businesses do not pay taxes. Professionals in their professions do not pay taxes. Organizations including those who are not-for-profit do not pay taxes.
If that is so, who is it that actually pays these taxes?
The truth is, all of these “taxpayers” merely collect those taxes from customers or clients in the final price to the consumer of their products and services and then pass them onto the government. They collect taxes exactly like the much more obvious sales tax. Even the so-called company-paid portion of FICA taxes add to the cost of an employee and so are actually taken from the employee. Those who actually pay every one of those federal and state taxes are, guess who—you! All those soak-the-rich taxes are finally paid for by the end user of all goods and services. Guess what portion of the bicycle you bought, or that movie you took your girlfriend to see, or the dinner you and your family had for your birthday, was actually taxes passed down to you through the distribution chain. Is is 5% or 20%? How about from 35% to 60%? Add to that the sales or VAT taxes collected by your state or city. You could be paying as much as 75% tax on every purchase if you live in New York City.
What happens if lawmakers enact windfall profits tax at 50% of net profits? It's quite simple. Every dollar increase in taxes will be met with a slightly larger total increase in fuel prices at the pump to make up for the increased cost of doing business. As with all business, this cost will be passed through to the consumer or end user. That would add as much as another nickel to the price of gas at the pump. So who is paying that excess profits tax? It is the ignorant motorist who voted those incompetent oafs into office just to punish the oil companies. Cut off nose to spite face, is the reality they ignore.
No matter when or how they are levied, taxes are ultimately paid by the final consumer. This is true of buyers of products or users of service. At the present time, hidden taxes amount to between 20% and 26% of every dollar the public pays for everything. Every dollar paid for every nail, hammer, car, vacation, legal service, doctor visit, and so on, now contains between twenty and twenty-six cents in hidden federal taxes. Add to that federal and state income taxes on all the pay for the workers, or profits for the business involved in providing that item or service. Don't forget FICA taxes or others that add to the cost of those goods or services. Actually, the hidden taxes on fuel are a bit lower than that because of the rapid rise of the cost of imported oil now around 70% of the price at the pump. A large part of that is appropriated by the governments of the oil-rich nations where we have no control. It goes directly into the coffers or certainly the complete control of their leaders. The socialist/communist welfare state will ultimately collapse economically when its natural resources run out, or it no longer has enough private capitalist enterprises generating profits to tax.
Currently and almost unbelievably, it is the capitalist machines of the Chinese state that are supporting the American socialist state systems by loaning that government vast amounts of money. What does the reader think will happen when the US owes China more than its net worth? With the trillions of dollars of debt we are now assuming, that time is rapidly approaching, thanks to the deliberate efforts of our current administration. Just who will be the ones to pay this enormous, outlandishly foolish debt?
When the American military suddenly finds itself paid, supplied, and owned by the Chinese and China takes over America in a bloodless coup, a group of Chinese bureaucrats will be running Washington for their own benefit.
Will Americans wake up then?
If that is so, who is it that actually pays these taxes?
The truth is, all of these “taxpayers” merely collect those taxes from customers or clients in the final price to the consumer of their products and services and then pass them onto the government. They collect taxes exactly like the much more obvious sales tax. Even the so-called company-paid portion of FICA taxes add to the cost of an employee and so are actually taken from the employee. Those who actually pay every one of those federal and state taxes are, guess who—you! All those soak-the-rich taxes are finally paid for by the end user of all goods and services. Guess what portion of the bicycle you bought, or that movie you took your girlfriend to see, or the dinner you and your family had for your birthday, was actually taxes passed down to you through the distribution chain. Is is 5% or 20%? How about from 35% to 60%? Add to that the sales or VAT taxes collected by your state or city. You could be paying as much as 75% tax on every purchase if you live in New York City.
What happens if lawmakers enact windfall profits tax at 50% of net profits? It's quite simple. Every dollar increase in taxes will be met with a slightly larger total increase in fuel prices at the pump to make up for the increased cost of doing business. As with all business, this cost will be passed through to the consumer or end user. That would add as much as another nickel to the price of gas at the pump. So who is paying that excess profits tax? It is the ignorant motorist who voted those incompetent oafs into office just to punish the oil companies. Cut off nose to spite face, is the reality they ignore.
No matter when or how they are levied, taxes are ultimately paid by the final consumer. This is true of buyers of products or users of service. At the present time, hidden taxes amount to between 20% and 26% of every dollar the public pays for everything. Every dollar paid for every nail, hammer, car, vacation, legal service, doctor visit, and so on, now contains between twenty and twenty-six cents in hidden federal taxes. Add to that federal and state income taxes on all the pay for the workers, or profits for the business involved in providing that item or service. Don't forget FICA taxes or others that add to the cost of those goods or services. Actually, the hidden taxes on fuel are a bit lower than that because of the rapid rise of the cost of imported oil now around 70% of the price at the pump. A large part of that is appropriated by the governments of the oil-rich nations where we have no control. It goes directly into the coffers or certainly the complete control of their leaders. The socialist/communist welfare state will ultimately collapse economically when its natural resources run out, or it no longer has enough private capitalist enterprises generating profits to tax.
Currently and almost unbelievably, it is the capitalist machines of the Chinese state that are supporting the American socialist state systems by loaning that government vast amounts of money. What does the reader think will happen when the US owes China more than its net worth? With the trillions of dollars of debt we are now assuming, that time is rapidly approaching, thanks to the deliberate efforts of our current administration. Just who will be the ones to pay this enormous, outlandishly foolish debt?
When the American military suddenly finds itself paid, supplied, and owned by the Chinese and China takes over America in a bloodless coup, a group of Chinese bureaucrats will be running Washington for their own benefit.
Will Americans wake up then?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
That Wonderful Health Care Bill
In 2001 I finished writing a book titled “The Feudals” in which I compared the America that the liberal agenda was working to create to Europe under the feudal system of the middle ages. In that book I made the following prediction:
The United States will be a socialist/marxist/communist/fascist/feudal dictatorship by 2030. At this time those leftist activists will happily extol the joys of socialism as they are being carted off to the salt mines by the brown shirted storm troopers of the new America.
I am afraid I was wrong. It has already happened. The reality is we are now an oligarchy ruled by an elite who have circumvented our Constitution, lied to us about virtually everything they are doing, and made law by a dictatorial process against the overwhelming demands of the American public. Here’s what they have already done to gain and consolidate their complete control of our nation and its people by flaunting total disregard for our laws and Constitution:
1) They have deliberately destroyed more than half of the wealth of our middle class by manipulating the mortgage system. The next step will be to destroy the remaining wealth of the middle class and make them totally dependent on government..
2) They have nationalized two of our major auto manufacturers. Which of our major corporations will suffer the same fate during the next round of economic collapse? The coming collapse is of course being engineered by the despots who are working to control our country.
3) They have nationalized several banks, insurance companies, and who knows what else. Isn’t it interesting that so many officers and executives of Goldman Sachs are now in powerful positions within the Obama administration? Isn’t it also interesting that all of them received a special presidential exemption to the federal law that states such individuals had to divest themselves of all stock in the banks they formerly worked for. Hmmmm?
4) Somehow, they have taken complete control of much of the media, principally TV networks and newspapers making them virtual propaganda machines of the administration.)
5) They are now in the process of illegally passing a so called “health care” bill that is aimed directly at destroying the best health care system in the world. Most of this was done in defiance of the law in secret meetings held by the administration and liberal Democrat leaders. Health care is to be placed under the complete control and operation of the same bureaucratic idiots who have done such a marvelous job of running the Postal Service, Amtrak, and all the other failing government systems.
6) Their same destructive economic policies that have virtually bankrupted our nation, have also bankrupted a number states under the same liberal Democrat control. New York, Michigan, and California are the worst with several others close behind.
The amazing thing to me is how completely blind most Americans are to what is happening. Our nation in its history has indeed taken those fateful steps and moved from bondage to spiritual faith to courage to liberty to abundance to selfishness to apathy to dependency, and is now on the verge of taking the last step into bondage once more. Our freedoms are being eliminated at a steadily accelerating rate in the name of security. The ultimate security is of course slavery and that is where we are rapidly headed.
So here is my opinion of you liberal Democrats who voted for and are supporting this madness. You will fall into one or more of these sorry groups of people:
1) You are a completely emotional ideologue with out a rational thought in your head who thinks using a phrase like, “We should all just love each other” will solve everything. You do little or nothing productive.
2) You are an idealist, also under emotional control, who actually believes there are no evil, power hungry liberal Democrat politicians, or people for that matter. You also do little or nothing productive.
3) You are a government employee who can’t be fired and who’s main job is to make more work for other government employees in order to expand your department and create more government jobs. That’s the government’s main job creation program. You vote Democrat to ensure your job. You do nothing productive.
4) You work for a giant corporation and your job depends on your company getting more of those lucrative government financed programs. You also do nothing productive
5) You work for GM, Chrysler, AIG, or Goldman Sachs. You also do nothing productive.
6) You are a member of moveon.org, ACORN, SEIU, UAW, or some other labor union. You also do nothing productive.
7) You are on welfare and probably wouldn’t work if given the opportunity. You also do nothing productive.
8) You work for federally funded schools. You also do nothing productive.
9) You work in academia at the university level. You also do nothing productive.
10) You are a trial lawyer. You also do nothing productive.
11) You are an entertainer, a media or sports personality, or some other celebrity. You also do nothing productive.
12) You are a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who would vote that way even if the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Che Guevera, or Osama bin Laden were on the ticket. There is a very slight chance you could do something productive.
13) You are a typical politician with your hand in everyone’s pocket spending tons of other people’s money on your election campaign while syphoning much of it off into your own family’s pockets. You also do nothing productive.
12) You are a multi million or billion dollar executive of one of the companies in bed with government officials and bureaucrats. You also do nothing productive.
13) You are a college or university professor accepting government grant money to do research providing results designed to satisfy the government’s needs. You also do nothing productive.
20) You are employed by one of the thousands of organizations aboard the global warming tax bandwagon. You only extol things that support AGW and all this carbon footprint crap. You also do nothing productive.
21) You have never been gainfully employed because the world owes you a living. You live on other people’s money. You also do nothing productive.
22) You are a criminal, an illegal alien, or a foreign terrorist, but I repeat myself. You also do nothing productive.
23) You are one of the stupid, ignorant, lazy, criminals, gang members, or just plain ne’er-do-wells that wander about in our nation looking for something to steal or someone to mug. You also do nothing productive.
For those very few decent human beings in any of these categories, my apologies. You are just inherently out of it or totally ignorant. I suggest you take a remedial math course where you will learn that 6 is not the same as 10 and 1 minus 3 does not equal 2.
I suggest the math course because of today’s revelation by the CBO about the health care destruction bill. The CBO reort said, “The $940 billion health bill would help cut deficit over 10 years.” Of course, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) is staffed and run by liberal Democrats. If that alone or combined with all the previous errors in CBO and other government reports about costs (they average out to be less than half of the actual costs) doesn’t convince you this is a fairy tale, you are dumber than I thought. Here’s an example of typical liberal Democrat math. The CBO used estimated tax revenue from the bill over the next ten years compared with estimated costs over the next ten years. Sounds rational doesn’t it? What they are very careful to keep from you is that while the tax revenue is for ten years, the cost estimate is for only six of those years. This is a typical Democrat ploy about costs and taxes.
Don’t believe me? Well read this and weep. The tax increases start right away while the benefits (costs) do not start until 2014. That makes the cost period for the next ten years only for the last six years while the income (taxes) are being used for the entire ten years. If we take the CBO at their word a quick calculation would reveal costs from 2014 to 2020 would be $940 billion while tax revenue would be $564 billion, a deficit for the program of $376 million. And that’s using the CBO’s own gloriously optimistic figures. If past experience is any indication the real deficit should be somewhere around a trillion dollars. That’s trillion with a T.
I can absolutely guarantee that no media person will explain that to the American public. They lie through their teeth. I often wonder why. What payoff are they getting from our new dictatorship? Maybe their lives have been threatened or those of their families. It is a complete mystery to me.
There is one more bit of information that it is important to know. If you average out the errors the CBO has made in all of its cost projections for the last twenty years you come up with a factor of 3.7 times. That means that on average, actual costs of programs turn out to be 3.7 times the CBO estimates. In other words, CBO estimates have averaged to be only about 27% of the actual costs. That demonstrates the sorry state and unreliability of the CBO. Actually, they have been fairly consistent in their errors so to get a real estimate just multiply whatever they provide by 3.7. For example, take the $940 billion CBO estimate for the Obama care bill, multiply it by 3.7 and you get a far more accurate estimate of $3478 billion or $3.478 trillion. That's trillion with a "T." Do you suppose the Chinese will actually be stupid enough to underwrite such an increase in our debt?
Another prediction made in my book, "The Feudals" was about the specific process and the exact moment when our republic dies and is replaced by a "feudal" dictatorship. Here is that quote:
“At some point in time the powers commanding the feudal horde will realize or believe they have pushed America too far and fear a major backlash in a coming election and the loss of their power. At this point in time a major civil disturbance, possibly a reaction to a rapidly sinking economy or some other artificial catastrophe will bring out a secret army who, like Hitler's brown shirts, will enforce the new America laws. As part of the effort to quell these disturbances this “secret army” will suddenly become known and will enforce martial law on the entire nation. It is only one small step from there to the suspensions of elections, shutting down the legislature and the Supreme Court, and ruling by decree.”
For info on Obama’s own “brown shirts,” goto:
http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2009/03/obama_brownshir.php
This is precisely what Obama was referring to when he stated in a speech last year, “We need a National Civilian Security Force, an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military.” What other purpose would such an organization serve other than to enforce the laws after just such a coup. I believe we already have such a force in ACORN, the SEIU, and several other militant groups that have been organizing since Saul Alinsky started in motion his plan to destroy free America. At this moment we are perched on the brink of a revolutionary change from a representative republic to a dictatorship. Make no mistake, the fine print in Obama’s undefined health care bill will deal the final death blow to the republic and to freedom in America. It will be over before most of the public know what is happening. They will know the reality when Social Security checks begin to bounce, food riots erupt and Obama’s “Brown Shirts” come marching down Main Street USA. This last sentence is not a prediction yet, just a gnawing fear in my heart and mind.
It looks like the road to serfdom has finally led America there. The Road to Serfdom is a book written by Friedrich von Hayek (recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974) Welcome all to the serfdom of Feudal America, right out of the European middle ages.
If it doesn’t happen, there are some growing benefits and new industries coming because of the health care bill. Should it pass, I am predicting a huge increase in such operations. Private hospitals are growing in Costa Rica as are associated services. Because trial lawyers don’t have a strangle hold on doctors or insurance companies in Costa Rica, fees are much lower, a fraction of fees for the same services in the US. Plastic surgery and orthopedic replacements are at the top of the list as a growing number of Americans opt to go there for expensive surgery. With rapidly expanding and state of the art health care facilities staffed with experienced, well trained staff, even picky Americans are already flocking there for surgery and other treatments. A few insurance companies are testing the water about offering catastrophic care insurance for treatment there.
One could ask, “Doesn’t Costa Rica have socialized health care?” but they also have a private system catering to those able to pay from not only the US but from elsewhere in the world as well. It has been estimated that the Obama health care bill will bring about a huge boom in Costa Rica as both patients and medical professionals from the US are disrupted by the realities of Obama care. Coming from the US and elsewhere, immigrants will fill the rapidly growing need for medical professionals in their rapidly expanding system. A side effect has been a small real estate boom supplying housing for those that have already moved there. A huge boom is predicted to start should Obama care become a reality.
This brings me to another thought. The administration controlled media have been ridiculing and talking down talk radio for years. They have recently stepped up their attacks to an unprecedented level with constant lies and distortions about what this host or that has said. They and their lackeys, even Democrat politicians, use only vituperative language and name calling against any of the major talk radio hosts. Time and time again these hosts have challenged those individuals to debate or to prove what they say was not true. Not a single word of denial of facts has ever been uttered by any of the left leaning media. They will simply not engage in a factual, substantive, honest debate because they know they will lose. In stead they use partial quotes, misleading innuendos, outright lies, and common ridicule in order to besmirch anyone who speaks out against the left. While the power of talk radio, the Internet, and other alternative information sources is growing and the influence of the main stream TV and leftist propaganda papers like the New York Times is waning, most Americans still get most of their “news” from the highly biased “Main stream” media. What amazes and encourages me is the growing realization by the public of this reality. I am fully expecting our totalitarian leftist government to find a political way to silence talk radio.
Another encouraging movement from grass roots America is the tea parties. These protest meetings are drawing more attendees than any type of protest meetings ever yet the media plays them down and refuses to show video of them because they are so huge. I’ve been to several and they are peaceful and very well attended. They are also ridiculed and have their attendance grossly under reported by the media. In fact, media reporters and cameramen will not attend and I am sure they are ordered not to do so by their news organizations. Recently there was a gay protest meeting in I believe Denver, where about 75 protesters marched about some obscure complaint. The pictures shown on national TV of the marchers concentrated their shots so the screen was filled with protesters. I don’t remember exactly what was said but it was claimed to have been a crowd of hundreds. The number 75 came from a news photo of the entire group that was printed in the paper. At the same time this was going on there was a tea party in he same city where about a thousand showed up. This was of course deemed “not newsworthy” by the press and no reporters or cameramen covered it. That certainly demonstrates the extreme bias and agenda of the news media. They are obviously propagandists for the left and not news people at all.
I have just one more little commentary. We have a wonderful, adorable, loving little dog named Charlie. He really has a great life for a dog. He is loved, petted and treated with kindness all day every day. All his needs are cared for. He has all the food he wants and gets occasional treats. He has numerous toys he loves to play with. He has a warm comfortable bed in which to sleep. If he gets sick we take him to the vet. When we travel in our motor home he sits in the window and watched everything. We cleanup after him and bathe him when he gets dirty, one activity he doesn’t particularly care for. We let him out, on his rope when he wants and let him in when he wants. His greatest joy is when we go out and take him with us on our four wheeled pedal car. When he knows we are going, and he frequently asks us to take him, he bounces around with great excitement. But as happy as he is, he is not free. On those rare occasions when he does get loose he is often gone for hours who knows where, but so far he has always come back because he is completely dependent on us. When we travel, Charlie goes to “camp” at his vet’s kennel. He has no say in the matter. As a matter of fact he has little say about anything he does. We control where he goes, what, when and where he eats and sleeps, what toys he has, in fact, everything he does is very much under our control and direction. Then, when he gets up in years and we determine it’s time, we will have him euthanized, one more thing we decide with out any input from him. Charlie lives in the ideal socialist state. But what happens if this ideal state goes bankrupt? Then Charlie would be on his own. He would either struggle aga inst all the world throws at him until he starves to death or he gets adopted into the same kind of slavery by another person (state).
Isn’t that precisely how a socialist state works in the real world? It’s cradle to grave security, but of course everything you do or have is determined by the state. The Obama health care destruction bill is one more giant step into the dull gray abyss of socialism, marxism, communism, fascism, feudalism. I use all five, as they are each merely a slight variation of totalitarianism. We are all being forced to be like Charlie, totally dependent on our masters for everything. If you think state determined euthanasia isn’t in the package you don’t know what is happening in all states with socialized medicine. That includes Canada and Norway. You are now much closer to being pups like Charlie with the Washington elite as your masters.
Enjoy your leashes and just say woof!
The United States will be a socialist/marxist/communist/fascist/feudal dictatorship by 2030. At this time those leftist activists will happily extol the joys of socialism as they are being carted off to the salt mines by the brown shirted storm troopers of the new America.
—HJ, 2001
I am afraid I was wrong. It has already happened. The reality is we are now an oligarchy ruled by an elite who have circumvented our Constitution, lied to us about virtually everything they are doing, and made law by a dictatorial process against the overwhelming demands of the American public. Here’s what they have already done to gain and consolidate their complete control of our nation and its people by flaunting total disregard for our laws and Constitution:
1) They have deliberately destroyed more than half of the wealth of our middle class by manipulating the mortgage system. The next step will be to destroy the remaining wealth of the middle class and make them totally dependent on government..
2) They have nationalized two of our major auto manufacturers. Which of our major corporations will suffer the same fate during the next round of economic collapse? The coming collapse is of course being engineered by the despots who are working to control our country.
3) They have nationalized several banks, insurance companies, and who knows what else. Isn’t it interesting that so many officers and executives of Goldman Sachs are now in powerful positions within the Obama administration? Isn’t it also interesting that all of them received a special presidential exemption to the federal law that states such individuals had to divest themselves of all stock in the banks they formerly worked for. Hmmmm?
4) Somehow, they have taken complete control of much of the media, principally TV networks and newspapers making them virtual propaganda machines of the administration.)
5) They are now in the process of illegally passing a so called “health care” bill that is aimed directly at destroying the best health care system in the world. Most of this was done in defiance of the law in secret meetings held by the administration and liberal Democrat leaders. Health care is to be placed under the complete control and operation of the same bureaucratic idiots who have done such a marvelous job of running the Postal Service, Amtrak, and all the other failing government systems.
6) Their same destructive economic policies that have virtually bankrupted our nation, have also bankrupted a number states under the same liberal Democrat control. New York, Michigan, and California are the worst with several others close behind.
The amazing thing to me is how completely blind most Americans are to what is happening. Our nation in its history has indeed taken those fateful steps and moved from bondage to spiritual faith to courage to liberty to abundance to selfishness to apathy to dependency, and is now on the verge of taking the last step into bondage once more. Our freedoms are being eliminated at a steadily accelerating rate in the name of security. The ultimate security is of course slavery and that is where we are rapidly headed.
So here is my opinion of you liberal Democrats who voted for and are supporting this madness. You will fall into one or more of these sorry groups of people:
1) You are a completely emotional ideologue with out a rational thought in your head who thinks using a phrase like, “We should all just love each other” will solve everything. You do little or nothing productive.
2) You are an idealist, also under emotional control, who actually believes there are no evil, power hungry liberal Democrat politicians, or people for that matter. You also do little or nothing productive.
3) You are a government employee who can’t be fired and who’s main job is to make more work for other government employees in order to expand your department and create more government jobs. That’s the government’s main job creation program. You vote Democrat to ensure your job. You do nothing productive.
4) You work for a giant corporation and your job depends on your company getting more of those lucrative government financed programs. You also do nothing productive
5) You work for GM, Chrysler, AIG, or Goldman Sachs. You also do nothing productive.
6) You are a member of moveon.org, ACORN, SEIU, UAW, or some other labor union. You also do nothing productive.
7) You are on welfare and probably wouldn’t work if given the opportunity. You also do nothing productive.
8) You work for federally funded schools. You also do nothing productive.
9) You work in academia at the university level. You also do nothing productive.
10) You are a trial lawyer. You also do nothing productive.
11) You are an entertainer, a media or sports personality, or some other celebrity. You also do nothing productive.
12) You are a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who would vote that way even if the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Che Guevera, or Osama bin Laden were on the ticket. There is a very slight chance you could do something productive.
13) You are a typical politician with your hand in everyone’s pocket spending tons of other people’s money on your election campaign while syphoning much of it off into your own family’s pockets. You also do nothing productive.
12) You are a multi million or billion dollar executive of one of the companies in bed with government officials and bureaucrats. You also do nothing productive.
13) You are a college or university professor accepting government grant money to do research providing results designed to satisfy the government’s needs. You also do nothing productive.
20) You are employed by one of the thousands of organizations aboard the global warming tax bandwagon. You only extol things that support AGW and all this carbon footprint crap. You also do nothing productive.
21) You have never been gainfully employed because the world owes you a living. You live on other people’s money. You also do nothing productive.
22) You are a criminal, an illegal alien, or a foreign terrorist, but I repeat myself. You also do nothing productive.
23) You are one of the stupid, ignorant, lazy, criminals, gang members, or just plain ne’er-do-wells that wander about in our nation looking for something to steal or someone to mug. You also do nothing productive.
For those very few decent human beings in any of these categories, my apologies. You are just inherently out of it or totally ignorant. I suggest you take a remedial math course where you will learn that 6 is not the same as 10 and 1 minus 3 does not equal 2.
I suggest the math course because of today’s revelation by the CBO about the health care destruction bill. The CBO reort said, “The $940 billion health bill would help cut deficit over 10 years.” Of course, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) is staffed and run by liberal Democrats. If that alone or combined with all the previous errors in CBO and other government reports about costs (they average out to be less than half of the actual costs) doesn’t convince you this is a fairy tale, you are dumber than I thought. Here’s an example of typical liberal Democrat math. The CBO used estimated tax revenue from the bill over the next ten years compared with estimated costs over the next ten years. Sounds rational doesn’t it? What they are very careful to keep from you is that while the tax revenue is for ten years, the cost estimate is for only six of those years. This is a typical Democrat ploy about costs and taxes.
Don’t believe me? Well read this and weep. The tax increases start right away while the benefits (costs) do not start until 2014. That makes the cost period for the next ten years only for the last six years while the income (taxes) are being used for the entire ten years. If we take the CBO at their word a quick calculation would reveal costs from 2014 to 2020 would be $940 billion while tax revenue would be $564 billion, a deficit for the program of $376 million. And that’s using the CBO’s own gloriously optimistic figures. If past experience is any indication the real deficit should be somewhere around a trillion dollars. That’s trillion with a T.
I can absolutely guarantee that no media person will explain that to the American public. They lie through their teeth. I often wonder why. What payoff are they getting from our new dictatorship? Maybe their lives have been threatened or those of their families. It is a complete mystery to me.
There is one more bit of information that it is important to know. If you average out the errors the CBO has made in all of its cost projections for the last twenty years you come up with a factor of 3.7 times. That means that on average, actual costs of programs turn out to be 3.7 times the CBO estimates. In other words, CBO estimates have averaged to be only about 27% of the actual costs. That demonstrates the sorry state and unreliability of the CBO. Actually, they have been fairly consistent in their errors so to get a real estimate just multiply whatever they provide by 3.7. For example, take the $940 billion CBO estimate for the Obama care bill, multiply it by 3.7 and you get a far more accurate estimate of $3478 billion or $3.478 trillion. That's trillion with a "T." Do you suppose the Chinese will actually be stupid enough to underwrite such an increase in our debt?
Another prediction made in my book, "The Feudals" was about the specific process and the exact moment when our republic dies and is replaced by a "feudal" dictatorship. Here is that quote:
“At some point in time the powers commanding the feudal horde will realize or believe they have pushed America too far and fear a major backlash in a coming election and the loss of their power. At this point in time a major civil disturbance, possibly a reaction to a rapidly sinking economy or some other artificial catastrophe will bring out a secret army who, like Hitler's brown shirts, will enforce the new America laws. As part of the effort to quell these disturbances this “secret army” will suddenly become known and will enforce martial law on the entire nation. It is only one small step from there to the suspensions of elections, shutting down the legislature and the Supreme Court, and ruling by decree.”
—HJ, 2001
For info on Obama’s own “brown shirts,” goto:
http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2009/03/obama_brownshir.php
This is precisely what Obama was referring to when he stated in a speech last year, “We need a National Civilian Security Force, an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military.” What other purpose would such an organization serve other than to enforce the laws after just such a coup. I believe we already have such a force in ACORN, the SEIU, and several other militant groups that have been organizing since Saul Alinsky started in motion his plan to destroy free America. At this moment we are perched on the brink of a revolutionary change from a representative republic to a dictatorship. Make no mistake, the fine print in Obama’s undefined health care bill will deal the final death blow to the republic and to freedom in America. It will be over before most of the public know what is happening. They will know the reality when Social Security checks begin to bounce, food riots erupt and Obama’s “Brown Shirts” come marching down Main Street USA. This last sentence is not a prediction yet, just a gnawing fear in my heart and mind.
It looks like the road to serfdom has finally led America there. The Road to Serfdom is a book written by Friedrich von Hayek (recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974) Welcome all to the serfdom of Feudal America, right out of the European middle ages.
If it doesn’t happen, there are some growing benefits and new industries coming because of the health care bill. Should it pass, I am predicting a huge increase in such operations. Private hospitals are growing in Costa Rica as are associated services. Because trial lawyers don’t have a strangle hold on doctors or insurance companies in Costa Rica, fees are much lower, a fraction of fees for the same services in the US. Plastic surgery and orthopedic replacements are at the top of the list as a growing number of Americans opt to go there for expensive surgery. With rapidly expanding and state of the art health care facilities staffed with experienced, well trained staff, even picky Americans are already flocking there for surgery and other treatments. A few insurance companies are testing the water about offering catastrophic care insurance for treatment there.
One could ask, “Doesn’t Costa Rica have socialized health care?” but they also have a private system catering to those able to pay from not only the US but from elsewhere in the world as well. It has been estimated that the Obama health care bill will bring about a huge boom in Costa Rica as both patients and medical professionals from the US are disrupted by the realities of Obama care. Coming from the US and elsewhere, immigrants will fill the rapidly growing need for medical professionals in their rapidly expanding system. A side effect has been a small real estate boom supplying housing for those that have already moved there. A huge boom is predicted to start should Obama care become a reality.
This brings me to another thought. The administration controlled media have been ridiculing and talking down talk radio for years. They have recently stepped up their attacks to an unprecedented level with constant lies and distortions about what this host or that has said. They and their lackeys, even Democrat politicians, use only vituperative language and name calling against any of the major talk radio hosts. Time and time again these hosts have challenged those individuals to debate or to prove what they say was not true. Not a single word of denial of facts has ever been uttered by any of the left leaning media. They will simply not engage in a factual, substantive, honest debate because they know they will lose. In stead they use partial quotes, misleading innuendos, outright lies, and common ridicule in order to besmirch anyone who speaks out against the left. While the power of talk radio, the Internet, and other alternative information sources is growing and the influence of the main stream TV and leftist propaganda papers like the New York Times is waning, most Americans still get most of their “news” from the highly biased “Main stream” media. What amazes and encourages me is the growing realization by the public of this reality. I am fully expecting our totalitarian leftist government to find a political way to silence talk radio.
Another encouraging movement from grass roots America is the tea parties. These protest meetings are drawing more attendees than any type of protest meetings ever yet the media plays them down and refuses to show video of them because they are so huge. I’ve been to several and they are peaceful and very well attended. They are also ridiculed and have their attendance grossly under reported by the media. In fact, media reporters and cameramen will not attend and I am sure they are ordered not to do so by their news organizations. Recently there was a gay protest meeting in I believe Denver, where about 75 protesters marched about some obscure complaint. The pictures shown on national TV of the marchers concentrated their shots so the screen was filled with protesters. I don’t remember exactly what was said but it was claimed to have been a crowd of hundreds. The number 75 came from a news photo of the entire group that was printed in the paper. At the same time this was going on there was a tea party in he same city where about a thousand showed up. This was of course deemed “not newsworthy” by the press and no reporters or cameramen covered it. That certainly demonstrates the extreme bias and agenda of the news media. They are obviously propagandists for the left and not news people at all.
I have just one more little commentary. We have a wonderful, adorable, loving little dog named Charlie. He really has a great life for a dog. He is loved, petted and treated with kindness all day every day. All his needs are cared for. He has all the food he wants and gets occasional treats. He has numerous toys he loves to play with. He has a warm comfortable bed in which to sleep. If he gets sick we take him to the vet. When we travel in our motor home he sits in the window and watched everything. We cleanup after him and bathe him when he gets dirty, one activity he doesn’t particularly care for. We let him out, on his rope when he wants and let him in when he wants. His greatest joy is when we go out and take him with us on our four wheeled pedal car. When he knows we are going, and he frequently asks us to take him, he bounces around with great excitement. But as happy as he is, he is not free. On those rare occasions when he does get loose he is often gone for hours who knows where, but so far he has always come back because he is completely dependent on us. When we travel, Charlie goes to “camp” at his vet’s kennel. He has no say in the matter. As a matter of fact he has little say about anything he does. We control where he goes, what, when and where he eats and sleeps, what toys he has, in fact, everything he does is very much under our control and direction. Then, when he gets up in years and we determine it’s time, we will have him euthanized, one more thing we decide with out any input from him. Charlie lives in the ideal socialist state. But what happens if this ideal state goes bankrupt? Then Charlie would be on his own. He would either struggle aga inst all the world throws at him until he starves to death or he gets adopted into the same kind of slavery by another person (state).
Isn’t that precisely how a socialist state works in the real world? It’s cradle to grave security, but of course everything you do or have is determined by the state. The Obama health care destruction bill is one more giant step into the dull gray abyss of socialism, marxism, communism, fascism, feudalism. I use all five, as they are each merely a slight variation of totalitarianism. We are all being forced to be like Charlie, totally dependent on our masters for everything. If you think state determined euthanasia isn’t in the package you don’t know what is happening in all states with socialized medicine. That includes Canada and Norway. You are now much closer to being pups like Charlie with the Washington elite as your masters.
Enjoy your leashes and just say woof!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Predictions, an unbelievably sad revelation
Since about 1994 I have been writing political and economic predictions. In 1998 I started writing a book I titled, The Feudals about those political ideologues of the left I saw as taking us down that fatal road to a socialist, communist, marxist, fascist, feudal dictatorship. In that book I included many predictions based on information from my experience and that I had gathered first from the news media and then from other sources that I use to confirm news media stories. It was not a very big surprise to discover how many news media “objective reports” were misleading because they simply left out significant facts or they just pain lied. As a result I have adopted the following rules for collecting data.
1. Believe nothing you hear or read uttered by any politician, media personality, or proponent of any political philosophy. Always use the source person or persons’ proven track record to pass judgement on what ever they say. Believe only what they do, never what they say. In fact, question everything using the tests that follow.
2. Confirm anything you hear or read with sources you trust to be accurate and honest. Just remember that anyone who professes any political or religious philosophy will only provide information favoring their philosophy.
3. Accept as fact only those things that meet the following tests:
. . . . a. All laws of physics, chemistry and/or mathematics must testify to its veracity.
. . . . b. If a physical test is not possible it must still meet your personal belief system and/or be agreed with by several reliable sources, not necessarily sources with which you agree philosophically.
. . . . c. If neither of these is sufficient and it is important, research it from as many confirming sources as necessary before deciding what it means and whether it is true or not
4. Accept no one’s opinion on anything, even those who agree with you. If it doesn’t make sense or seems strange to you keep digging until you are satisfied you have the answer.
5. Refrain totally from believing any political or religious power pronouncements. They are all designed to remove your independent thought from you and replace it with their dogma.
In 1996 I made the following prediction: "The United States will have become a socialist/communist/marxist/fascist/feudal dictatorship---an oligarchy by the year 2030." I wrote that in an introduction to a political book I was writing titled later, The Feudals. I believe that far more now than I did then. I wonder if those believers in far left ideologues will be happy when that comes to pass? As of March of 2010 I believe the destruction of our existing democracy will happen much sooner, possibly within a few months. All the signs are there. The ramming of the left's health care destruction bill through in defiance of the law in our Constitution, will push us over the cliff. Make no mistake, this so called health care bill is actually a huge power grab by leftist despots. Once enacted it will be very difficult to repeal.
In 1998 I predicted the current mortgage system collapse. I wrote that the two government mortgage companies, Fannie May and Freddie Mac were deliberately destroying the mortgage banking system. Earlier that year, a mortgage banker I know very well told me about our government ordering banks to make not just risky, but also noncollectable mortgage loans. With that information it became obvious to me what was happening. I also wrote it was being deliberately orchestrated by leftists in the bureaucracy of our government to do precisely what it did. That was to destroy much of the wealth of the middle class which it certainly accomplished. Not only did it accomplish its unspoken aim, but the architects of the collapse made tons of money personally at taxpayer expense.
Who were those who brought the mortgage collapse about? Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson both walked away from Fannie May with millions in their pockets. Both were far left, unelected government bureaucrats who cooked the books to gain millions in bonuses. Franklin Raines was paid bonuses of $90 million over five years. When that was exposed, he promised to return all of it. So far not one red cent has been returned and no political or media person has once mentioned that fact. Ken Lay of Enron gained far less for his chicanery and was awarded a prison sentence. His crime was penny ante compared with Raines and Johnson who are now both working in the Obama administration. That demonstrates the fairness and policies of the left. They were not the only ones to gain huge sums of money from Fannie May and Freddie Mac. And just who received millions in campaign contributions from those self same government banks? Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and a brand new Senator from Illinois named Obama were the three largest recipients. The only ones to complain about what was going on and try to do something to stop it were those two evil Republicans, George Bush and Dick Cheney. And where were the Democrats in this? They were screaming at Bush and Cheney and calling them names for opposing such a noble effort to provide housing for the poor. Their complaints were echoed loudly by the left’s captive media.
There was another little local Indiana action that I found out about by digging into some sketchy reports in the local media. It seems there was a group of at least six community organizers in Fort Wayne who had a neat little scam going. The group were buying up low value homes in the poor sections of Ft Wayne and turning them into gold mines. Here’s how it worked. They would find a poor family with nothing to lose to work with them. The group would put a few thousand dollars in dolling up one of these old houses and then have one of the bank appraisers they owned value it for say $120,000. They would then apply and get a loan for those people of say $135,000 backed by one of the two government mortgage companies. Once they got the money they would hand $25,000 to the family who would then walk away while they pocketed the balance of $85,000 less their expenses. Not a bad deal, eh? Sometimes the family lived in the home for awhile and a very few even stayed and tried to pay the mortgage—didn’t take the pay off money. Mostly they just walked away without even having seen the place. It didn’t take long for the house strippers to realize the house was empty so by the time the bank foreclosed, the place had been completely stripped of all appliances, fixtures, and even the copper wiring in the walls was pulled and sold for scrap.
I’m sure Ft Wayne was not the only place where this little deal was going on. In Indianapolis the city was paying the same kind of community organizers $500 to $1,000 for every mortgage they wrote. I wonder who set up that marvelous system? Need I tell the name of the parent organization of these community organizers? It seems to me there was another public figure who claimed that title on his resume. Hmmmm!
I wrote down quite a other few predictions about the political and economic future of our nation that have come true including both that Obama would be the candidate and that he would be elected carrying a majority for Democrats into both houses of Congress. Both predictions were written down long before they became actualities. I also wrote predictions about what the Obama administration would be doing and why. Nobody listened or believed me then and I certainly don't expect anyone to listen to me now. After all, what could I know?
I'll say one thing. My Socrates discussion group here in St Augustine have gained and expressed amazement at the accuracy of the predictions I have shared with them in writing during my three year membership. Even those who ridiculed my predictions when I made them now listen when I make them. I personally am terribly disheartened that I was right. I’ll make another really far out prediction about the very near future. I don’t believe the power systems are yet in place to make it happen, but they could be and very well hidden. Here goes.
What would happen nationally if suddenly major riots broke out. Racial or food riots in places like Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans, and even Cleveland? Why the Obama administration would have to do something to stop it. Out would come the President’s Civilian National Security Force to deal with the problems under martial law. As he said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." It would be just one more step “necessary for the personal safety of the people” for civil liberties to be suspended “until we get things under control.” Of course then elections would have to be suspended until all the rabble rousers were dealt with. Sound familiar? Read you history books as it has all happened before.
That’s actually not a very good prediction for the immediate future because I don’t believe his civilian national security force, CNSF, is quite ready. Of course, I could be wrong about that Maybe he can be stopped before his CNSF has gathered enough power. I certainly hope so. My guess is that under another name like ACORN they already have the personnel, the organization, and the weaponry. I just think they need a lot more training, but I could be wrong about that as well. Could you tell me just what possible need could he have for a separate and independent military force “just as strong, just as well-funded" as our military if he didn’t intend to use them in this way? Give me a break!
1. Believe nothing you hear or read uttered by any politician, media personality, or proponent of any political philosophy. Always use the source person or persons’ proven track record to pass judgement on what ever they say. Believe only what they do, never what they say. In fact, question everything using the tests that follow.
2. Confirm anything you hear or read with sources you trust to be accurate and honest. Just remember that anyone who professes any political or religious philosophy will only provide information favoring their philosophy.
3. Accept as fact only those things that meet the following tests:
. . . . a. All laws of physics, chemistry and/or mathematics must testify to its veracity.
. . . . b. If a physical test is not possible it must still meet your personal belief system and/or be agreed with by several reliable sources, not necessarily sources with which you agree philosophically.
. . . . c. If neither of these is sufficient and it is important, research it from as many confirming sources as necessary before deciding what it means and whether it is true or not
4. Accept no one’s opinion on anything, even those who agree with you. If it doesn’t make sense or seems strange to you keep digging until you are satisfied you have the answer.
5. Refrain totally from believing any political or religious power pronouncements. They are all designed to remove your independent thought from you and replace it with their dogma.
In 1996 I made the following prediction: "The United States will have become a socialist/communist/marxist/fascist/feudal dictatorship---an oligarchy by the year 2030." I wrote that in an introduction to a political book I was writing titled later, The Feudals. I believe that far more now than I did then. I wonder if those believers in far left ideologues will be happy when that comes to pass? As of March of 2010 I believe the destruction of our existing democracy will happen much sooner, possibly within a few months. All the signs are there. The ramming of the left's health care destruction bill through in defiance of the law in our Constitution, will push us over the cliff. Make no mistake, this so called health care bill is actually a huge power grab by leftist despots. Once enacted it will be very difficult to repeal.
In 1998 I predicted the current mortgage system collapse. I wrote that the two government mortgage companies, Fannie May and Freddie Mac were deliberately destroying the mortgage banking system. Earlier that year, a mortgage banker I know very well told me about our government ordering banks to make not just risky, but also noncollectable mortgage loans. With that information it became obvious to me what was happening. I also wrote it was being deliberately orchestrated by leftists in the bureaucracy of our government to do precisely what it did. That was to destroy much of the wealth of the middle class which it certainly accomplished. Not only did it accomplish its unspoken aim, but the architects of the collapse made tons of money personally at taxpayer expense.
Who were those who brought the mortgage collapse about? Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson both walked away from Fannie May with millions in their pockets. Both were far left, unelected government bureaucrats who cooked the books to gain millions in bonuses. Franklin Raines was paid bonuses of $90 million over five years. When that was exposed, he promised to return all of it. So far not one red cent has been returned and no political or media person has once mentioned that fact. Ken Lay of Enron gained far less for his chicanery and was awarded a prison sentence. His crime was penny ante compared with Raines and Johnson who are now both working in the Obama administration. That demonstrates the fairness and policies of the left. They were not the only ones to gain huge sums of money from Fannie May and Freddie Mac. And just who received millions in campaign contributions from those self same government banks? Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and a brand new Senator from Illinois named Obama were the three largest recipients. The only ones to complain about what was going on and try to do something to stop it were those two evil Republicans, George Bush and Dick Cheney. And where were the Democrats in this? They were screaming at Bush and Cheney and calling them names for opposing such a noble effort to provide housing for the poor. Their complaints were echoed loudly by the left’s captive media.
There was another little local Indiana action that I found out about by digging into some sketchy reports in the local media. It seems there was a group of at least six community organizers in Fort Wayne who had a neat little scam going. The group were buying up low value homes in the poor sections of Ft Wayne and turning them into gold mines. Here’s how it worked. They would find a poor family with nothing to lose to work with them. The group would put a few thousand dollars in dolling up one of these old houses and then have one of the bank appraisers they owned value it for say $120,000. They would then apply and get a loan for those people of say $135,000 backed by one of the two government mortgage companies. Once they got the money they would hand $25,000 to the family who would then walk away while they pocketed the balance of $85,000 less their expenses. Not a bad deal, eh? Sometimes the family lived in the home for awhile and a very few even stayed and tried to pay the mortgage—didn’t take the pay off money. Mostly they just walked away without even having seen the place. It didn’t take long for the house strippers to realize the house was empty so by the time the bank foreclosed, the place had been completely stripped of all appliances, fixtures, and even the copper wiring in the walls was pulled and sold for scrap.
I’m sure Ft Wayne was not the only place where this little deal was going on. In Indianapolis the city was paying the same kind of community organizers $500 to $1,000 for every mortgage they wrote. I wonder who set up that marvelous system? Need I tell the name of the parent organization of these community organizers? It seems to me there was another public figure who claimed that title on his resume. Hmmmm!
I wrote down quite a other few predictions about the political and economic future of our nation that have come true including both that Obama would be the candidate and that he would be elected carrying a majority for Democrats into both houses of Congress. Both predictions were written down long before they became actualities. I also wrote predictions about what the Obama administration would be doing and why. Nobody listened or believed me then and I certainly don't expect anyone to listen to me now. After all, what could I know?
I'll say one thing. My Socrates discussion group here in St Augustine have gained and expressed amazement at the accuracy of the predictions I have shared with them in writing during my three year membership. Even those who ridiculed my predictions when I made them now listen when I make them. I personally am terribly disheartened that I was right. I’ll make another really far out prediction about the very near future. I don’t believe the power systems are yet in place to make it happen, but they could be and very well hidden. Here goes.
What would happen nationally if suddenly major riots broke out. Racial or food riots in places like Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans, and even Cleveland? Why the Obama administration would have to do something to stop it. Out would come the President’s Civilian National Security Force to deal with the problems under martial law. As he said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." It would be just one more step “necessary for the personal safety of the people” for civil liberties to be suspended “until we get things under control.” Of course then elections would have to be suspended until all the rabble rousers were dealt with. Sound familiar? Read you history books as it has all happened before.
That’s actually not a very good prediction for the immediate future because I don’t believe his civilian national security force, CNSF, is quite ready. Of course, I could be wrong about that Maybe he can be stopped before his CNSF has gathered enough power. I certainly hope so. My guess is that under another name like ACORN they already have the personnel, the organization, and the weaponry. I just think they need a lot more training, but I could be wrong about that as well. Could you tell me just what possible need could he have for a separate and independent military force “just as strong, just as well-funded" as our military if he didn’t intend to use them in this way? Give me a break!
Friday, January 29, 2010
AMERICA IS IN RAPID DECLINE - CAN WE STOP IT?
Doing things exactly the wrong way
Growing rancor of political campaigning is one example of the power of inciting hatred to sway voters. The preponderance of personal attacks over substantive proposals shows how much easier it is to tear down a political opponent than to build one's own stature and make serious proposals. Negative campaigning is easy and especially effective in the age of the “sound bite.” Like war, it is easy. All you have to do in war is break things and kill people. Any idiot can do that with little training. In political campaigns it is pure emotion that drives voters. Serious proposals, even solutions for all-important problems, rarely get the media play and public attention that hate-filled rhetoric prompts.
For similar reasons, it takes far less skill or organization to demolish a home or even the World Trade Center than it does to conceive, design, and build the same thing. Conflict is easy. Cooperation and creative building are far more demanding, require careful consideration, dedication, creative effort and hard work. They are infinitely more rewarding. This is what we sorely need right now.
Often attributed to Lincoln in error are these words penned by William J. H. Boetcker, in 1916.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
Yet are those not precisely the short lived, instant gratifications politicians and media personalities regularly wield against those they oppose for any reason?
A prediction of where we seem to be headed may have come from far back in history, when the 13 colonies were still part of England. This quote is often attributed to a Scottish Historian, Alexander Tytler or Tyler. The true origin of the quote is obscure and might have originated in the early 20th century from an unknown politician or writer. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its accuracy.
One version of the quote on why democracies always fail is:
A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.
A version of the second part of the misquote, often attributed to Arnold Toynbee is:
The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
But the person who appears to be the actual author of the second part is Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company. In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, and recorded on p. 22 of Industrial Management in a Republic, Prentis had this to say:
Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three millenniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.
These are the real malignancies we must overcome if we are to solve the rapidly growing problems facing not just the US, but the entire world.
It's about time members of groups that constantly denigrate and condemn others out of class or economic envy began to honor and respect the achievements and rewards of those others. I see it as important that we recognize the realities of our situation and the real reasons we are where we are. There has been enough of this huge and debilitating blame game and all of its political distortions and emotional hate-filled activities. We have been engaged in terrible inner political warfare while our enemies stand on the sidelines urging on the various sides and gleefully watching our self destruction.
Socialism has a terrible record of providing a decent living for its subjects. An examination of all socialist nations shows that in order to be successful they must have a huge source of income outside the government to survive. Those that do not, universally house a population in poverty like Haiti and many African nations. Most are actually dictatorships where one or a very few individuals wield all the power and control all the wealth. That source of income is usually a valuable natural resource which capitalists throughout the world require to feed their economy. Petroleum is probably the biggest source of income for socialist nations. Those that have it usually have wealthy despots running the country and wasting that income. Other natural raw materials include iron, wood, diamonds, agricultural produce and others. Even tourism is a source of supportive income for some socialist nations.
Venezuela is a good example of how quickly the income from raw materials can destroy the economy. With their fat little dictator squandering this valuable resource in many ways in a controlled economy, Venezuela is suddenly on the verge of economic collapse. The people of Venezuela, used to low prices on all kinds of goods subsidized by the government including 25 cents per gallon gasoline, have suddenly been awakened by run away inflation as government excesses quickly outran income when oil prices dropped. Many things now cost five or ten times what they did a year or two ago. This includes food and—you guessed it—gasoline. Shades of the old Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea—every socialist utopia whose outside income suddenly dropped or disappeared.
Socialists are quick to point out socialist nations that are doing quite well—whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living—free education, health care, and all manner of benefits. Take a look at those nations, where their income is coming from. Each has either a major source of income from natural resources (oil, minerals, etc.) or a capitalist manufacturing base of privately owned organizations. There are no exceptions! The growth of foreign trade income from all manner of private enterprises has fueled the explosive economic growth in China, Korea, Taiwan, and every other awakening Asian economy. Even India is getting into the act. Look at what happened to them when our economy took a nose dive. Now they are striving to grow their own domestic economies by—can you guess? Advertising and consumerism at home!
While these nations move toward the wealth distribution of a capitalist economy, we are sinking into dull gray socialist poverty. Our manufacturing base has long fled to other shores, our technology industries are now doing the same and what do we have left? Agriculture! We are about to become a nation of poor farmers and wealthy politicians running things for their own benefit. Don’t think our investors and entrepreneurs who haven’t already done so won’t soon head for more attractive shores with lower taxes and less government interference. We are being strangled by an out-of-control tax and spend monster whose only incentive is class hatred and money envy.
I have but a single question for you capitalist hating liberal idiots. Once capitalism is dead and its profits no longer can be taxed, where are you going to get the money to pay for all your social programs? Or do you plan to hand the entire nation over to the Chinese capitalists who will soon own everything in America anyway.
Growing rancor of political campaigning is one example of the power of inciting hatred to sway voters. The preponderance of personal attacks over substantive proposals shows how much easier it is to tear down a political opponent than to build one's own stature and make serious proposals. Negative campaigning is easy and especially effective in the age of the “sound bite.” Like war, it is easy. All you have to do in war is break things and kill people. Any idiot can do that with little training. In political campaigns it is pure emotion that drives voters. Serious proposals, even solutions for all-important problems, rarely get the media play and public attention that hate-filled rhetoric prompts.
For similar reasons, it takes far less skill or organization to demolish a home or even the World Trade Center than it does to conceive, design, and build the same thing. Conflict is easy. Cooperation and creative building are far more demanding, require careful consideration, dedication, creative effort and hard work. They are infinitely more rewarding. This is what we sorely need right now.
Often attributed to Lincoln in error are these words penned by William J. H. Boetcker, in 1916.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
Yet are those not precisely the short lived, instant gratifications politicians and media personalities regularly wield against those they oppose for any reason?
A prediction of where we seem to be headed may have come from far back in history, when the 13 colonies were still part of England. This quote is often attributed to a Scottish Historian, Alexander Tytler or Tyler. The true origin of the quote is obscure and might have originated in the early 20th century from an unknown politician or writer. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its accuracy.
One version of the quote on why democracies always fail is:
A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.
A version of the second part of the misquote, often attributed to Arnold Toynbee is:
The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
But the person who appears to be the actual author of the second part is Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company. In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, and recorded on p. 22 of Industrial Management in a Republic, Prentis had this to say:
Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three millenniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.
These are the real malignancies we must overcome if we are to solve the rapidly growing problems facing not just the US, but the entire world.
It's about time members of groups that constantly denigrate and condemn others out of class or economic envy began to honor and respect the achievements and rewards of those others. I see it as important that we recognize the realities of our situation and the real reasons we are where we are. There has been enough of this huge and debilitating blame game and all of its political distortions and emotional hate-filled activities. We have been engaged in terrible inner political warfare while our enemies stand on the sidelines urging on the various sides and gleefully watching our self destruction.
Socialism has a terrible record of providing a decent living for its subjects. An examination of all socialist nations shows that in order to be successful they must have a huge source of income outside the government to survive. Those that do not, universally house a population in poverty like Haiti and many African nations. Most are actually dictatorships where one or a very few individuals wield all the power and control all the wealth. That source of income is usually a valuable natural resource which capitalists throughout the world require to feed their economy. Petroleum is probably the biggest source of income for socialist nations. Those that have it usually have wealthy despots running the country and wasting that income. Other natural raw materials include iron, wood, diamonds, agricultural produce and others. Even tourism is a source of supportive income for some socialist nations.
Venezuela is a good example of how quickly the income from raw materials can destroy the economy. With their fat little dictator squandering this valuable resource in many ways in a controlled economy, Venezuela is suddenly on the verge of economic collapse. The people of Venezuela, used to low prices on all kinds of goods subsidized by the government including 25 cents per gallon gasoline, have suddenly been awakened by run away inflation as government excesses quickly outran income when oil prices dropped. Many things now cost five or ten times what they did a year or two ago. This includes food and—you guessed it—gasoline. Shades of the old Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea—every socialist utopia whose outside income suddenly dropped or disappeared.
Socialists are quick to point out socialist nations that are doing quite well—whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living—free education, health care, and all manner of benefits. Take a look at those nations, where their income is coming from. Each has either a major source of income from natural resources (oil, minerals, etc.) or a capitalist manufacturing base of privately owned organizations. There are no exceptions! The growth of foreign trade income from all manner of private enterprises has fueled the explosive economic growth in China, Korea, Taiwan, and every other awakening Asian economy. Even India is getting into the act. Look at what happened to them when our economy took a nose dive. Now they are striving to grow their own domestic economies by—can you guess? Advertising and consumerism at home!
While these nations move toward the wealth distribution of a capitalist economy, we are sinking into dull gray socialist poverty. Our manufacturing base has long fled to other shores, our technology industries are now doing the same and what do we have left? Agriculture! We are about to become a nation of poor farmers and wealthy politicians running things for their own benefit. Don’t think our investors and entrepreneurs who haven’t already done so won’t soon head for more attractive shores with lower taxes and less government interference. We are being strangled by an out-of-control tax and spend monster whose only incentive is class hatred and money envy.
I have but a single question for you capitalist hating liberal idiots. Once capitalism is dead and its profits no longer can be taxed, where are you going to get the money to pay for all your social programs? Or do you plan to hand the entire nation over to the Chinese capitalists who will soon own everything in America anyway.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Some Comments on that utopian marvel, SOCIALISM
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.
Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
A painful prediction followed by some observations
The United States will be a socialist dictatorship by 2030. At this time those leftist activists will happily extol the joys of socialism as they are being carted off to the salt mines.
The Saul Alinsky school for the destruction of Americanism/capitalism/individual freedom and the promotion and ascension of Utopianism/socialist dictatorship/slavery.
With Goldman-Sachs in bed with the administration—they have supplied how many members to the Obama administration? Here’s a report from Global Research:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13208
—Thomas Sowell
The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
—Norman Mailer
A government policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw
Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
—Thomas Sowell
A painful prediction followed by some observations
The United States will be a socialist dictatorship by 2030. At this time those leftist activists will happily extol the joys of socialism as they are being carted off to the salt mines.
—HJ, 2008
Why is it people seem to want to replace a very successful capitalist system with a socialist system that has proven to be a failure and should actually be called feudalism? The American capitalist system where a few are extremely wealthy, a great many more are wealthy, the vast majority live quite comfortably, a small minority are just getting by and a very small number are in poverty, is in the process of being deliberately destroyed so socialism can take over. Socialism which has been proven time and time again to provide power and extreme wealth for the very few in government while the vast majority are in or close to abject poverty. Just look at the nations of the world. There are hundreds of examples—obvious examples—of the failure of socialism. Socialism has inevitably lead to dictatorship where “the meanest SOB in the valley” takes over complete power, just like the “monkey king” of troops of our simian relatives. Just like our current crop of socialists in Congress (who still call themselves Democrats) all these would be totalitariqn tyrants promise anything to get in power, forget those promises when in power, and use that power doing anything to ensure they will always remain in power
Why is it people can’t see the multitudes of failures? I have one opinion that goes to basic human nature. It is easier for have nots to destroy the haves than to work to join them. Class envy whipped into a frenzy is the tool used by those seeking power and control to destroy any who oppose them. It’s the child on the beach who has not the skill or the patience to build a sand castle, but can gleefully destroy it. It’s the men who have neither the skill nor patience to design and build the WTC who destroyed it killing 3,000 human individuals. It’s the thousands of government bureaucrats who daily shuffle papers delaying and preventing benefits promised by the government to individuals who have become desperately dependent on them.
I’ll excuse all you leftists who hate America and think Americans should be punished for working hard and being successful. You are just too stupid, self pitying, and even pathetic to consider seriously. Bluntly put, you prefer destruction and personal injury to construction and cooperative behavior. Unfortunately it is far easier for a few of your depraved idiots to destroy what hard working Americans have built than for those Americans to defend what they have built from a few determined thugs. What’s worse, you are too ignorant and hate filled to realize how wrong it is for all but a very few individuals.
_____________________________________________The Saul Alinsky school for the destruction of Americanism/capitalism/individual freedom and the promotion and ascension of Utopianism/socialist dictatorship/slavery.
"Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday." --Letter from L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky
Hillary, Obama and the Cult of Alinsky: "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties.... Many leftists view Hillary as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate views on some issues. However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever it takes to gain power.
"Barack Obama is also an Alinskyite.... Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method. In 1985 he began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago, working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project.... Camouflage is key to Alinsky-style organizing. While trying to build coalitions of black churches in Chicago, Obama caught flak for not attending church himself. He became an instant churchgoer." (By Richard Poe, 11-27-07)
_________________________________________These are the criminal conspirators that are now running our nation. Realizing that most Americans will catch on to what they are doing within a very short time they are moving as quickly as possible to consolidate their power and never face another election. With massive new taxes announced and unannounced, the powers in Washington are forcing major corporations, banks they do not control, and other economic entities toward economic disaster and destruction. Using this as an excuse “They’re just too big to fail” they took over two of our three major auto companies and gave them to the UAW to run. That figures! The UAW is their constituency and who they take care of, not the American public.
Their end purpose became obvious when they refused even to negotiate the sale of Pontiac, Saab, and/or Saturn divisions to private investors eager to purchase and run them. One famous automotive entrepreneur after making a generous offer for Saturn, withdrew his offer after the government refused to bargain in good faith. His comment, “They obviously prefer to trash the company and get nothing for it than let it become a private company and increase private enterprise and investment”. The pending multi million dollar deals for three of the GM divisions have all been scrapped because of government intransigence. As a result, all three potential buyers are making deals with foreign auto manufacturers to pick up the market being deserted by GM.
With Goldman-Sachs in bed with the administration—they have supplied how many members to the Obama administration? Here’s a report from Global Research:
"For a speech to Goldman Sachs executives, Summers walked away with $135,000. This is substantially more than double the earnings for an entire year of high-seniority auto workers, who have been pilloried by the Obama administration and the media for their supposedly exorbitant and “unsustainable” wages."
A series of articles published over the weekend, based on financial disclosure reports released by the Obama administration last Friday concerning top White House officials, documents the extent to which the administration, in both its personnel and policies, is a political instrument of Wall Street.
Policies that are extraordinarily favorable to the financial elite that were put in place over the past month by the Obama administration have fed a surge in share values on Wall Street. These include the scheme to use hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds to pay hedge funds to buy up the banks’ toxic assets at inflated prices, the Auto Task Force’s rejection of the recovery plans of Chrysler and General Motors and its demand for even more brutal layoffs, wage cuts and attacks on workers’ health benefits and pensions, and the decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to weaken “mark-to-market” accounting rules and permit banks to inflate the value of their toxic assets.
Read the entire report at:A series of articles published over the weekend, based on financial disclosure reports released by the Obama administration last Friday concerning top White House officials, documents the extent to which the administration, in both its personnel and policies, is a political instrument of Wall Street.
Policies that are extraordinarily favorable to the financial elite that were put in place over the past month by the Obama administration have fed a surge in share values on Wall Street. These include the scheme to use hundreds of billions of dollars in public funds to pay hedge funds to buy up the banks’ toxic assets at inflated prices, the Auto Task Force’s rejection of the recovery plans of Chrysler and General Motors and its demand for even more brutal layoffs, wage cuts and attacks on workers’ health benefits and pensions, and the decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to weaken “mark-to-market” accounting rules and permit banks to inflate the value of their toxic assets.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13208
JUST KNOW THIS! These people are enemies of free men everywhere. They are on an orchestrated path to the total destruction of free America and the eradication of the economic/political system that created the most wealth for the most people more equally spread among the common folks than any other system in history. It was an excellent demonstration of the wealth that free people working in an open competitive environment with little interference from the dictates of politicians seeking self agrandizement. Their ultimate goal is an America under Soviet style socialist dictatorship where a very few control everything and the common man is a mere slave serving their leaders. They would replace a capitalist system where virtually thousands of organizations under diverse and creative management with a socialist system where there are a very few extremely wealthy and powerful members of the government who can virtually do as they please.
Look at the example already set by the members of the Socialist party in power. Michelle Obama spends huge sums on lavish luncheons on taxpayer’s money. If you don’t think a $400/00+ lobster “snack” is extravagant you belong on another planet. In the Socialist monopoly, one doesn’t have to be personally “wealthy” to be truly wealthy. All that is necessary is access and control of “public” money. “Princess” Hillary spent millions of taxpayers dollars for lavish Senate offices she only used for a few years. She says it was so she could better “serve” her constituents. It was actually an ego trip so she could live “better than those business executives” and have “the most expensive and luxurious office of any Senator.” That huge government expense had little to do with serving constituents.
Another ”princess” in the new socialist royalty, Nancy Pelosi, insists on expensive luxury jet aircraft to whisk her wherever she wants at great and unnecessary expense to the taxpayers. Witness the recent jaunt be she and a number of her faithful to Copenhagen for no conceivable reason. Using a number of expensive military jets, they went on what could accurately be described as a pleasure excursion for themselves and some family members. They had no possible legitimate purpose in taking that trip which cost American taxpayers hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars we could ill afford to spend. Are we going to stand for those greedy, self serving ego maniacal politicians to live like kings and queens on our money (they want all kinds of new and punitive taxes) while we face economic disaster—a very personal disaster—that they have brought upon us?
Just in passing, did you realize that the mortgage meltdown, deliberately engineered by liberals in government, resulted in the largest transfer of wealth out of the hands of individuals in the history of the world? People with moderate homes with normal mortgages consistently lost between 60% to 100% of their home equity. The liberal executives in the government’s Fannie May and Freddie Mac walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars for engineering this debacle which ultimately resulted in the recession. Nothing will ever convince me this wasn’t a deliberate effort to destroy middle America and our capitalist system. Government ownership of virtually all of America’s businesses is the ultimate goal.
As early as 2003 my son-in-law who worked as a mortgage salesman for a bank in Dayton was telling me of extreme government pressure exerted on his bank to make shaky loans. When the bank refused they were cut off from all access to government loan guarantees or referrals. His words, “Howard, I can hardly believe it but our federal government is deliberately inflating the housing bubble which I think will burst with dire consequences in a few years.”
Look at the example already set by the members of the Socialist party in power. Michelle Obama spends huge sums on lavish luncheons on taxpayer’s money. If you don’t think a $400/00+ lobster “snack” is extravagant you belong on another planet. In the Socialist monopoly, one doesn’t have to be personally “wealthy” to be truly wealthy. All that is necessary is access and control of “public” money. “Princess” Hillary spent millions of taxpayers dollars for lavish Senate offices she only used for a few years. She says it was so she could better “serve” her constituents. It was actually an ego trip so she could live “better than those business executives” and have “the most expensive and luxurious office of any Senator.” That huge government expense had little to do with serving constituents.
Another ”princess” in the new socialist royalty, Nancy Pelosi, insists on expensive luxury jet aircraft to whisk her wherever she wants at great and unnecessary expense to the taxpayers. Witness the recent jaunt be she and a number of her faithful to Copenhagen for no conceivable reason. Using a number of expensive military jets, they went on what could accurately be described as a pleasure excursion for themselves and some family members. They had no possible legitimate purpose in taking that trip which cost American taxpayers hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars we could ill afford to spend. Are we going to stand for those greedy, self serving ego maniacal politicians to live like kings and queens on our money (they want all kinds of new and punitive taxes) while we face economic disaster—a very personal disaster—that they have brought upon us?
Just in passing, did you realize that the mortgage meltdown, deliberately engineered by liberals in government, resulted in the largest transfer of wealth out of the hands of individuals in the history of the world? People with moderate homes with normal mortgages consistently lost between 60% to 100% of their home equity. The liberal executives in the government’s Fannie May and Freddie Mac walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars for engineering this debacle which ultimately resulted in the recession. Nothing will ever convince me this wasn’t a deliberate effort to destroy middle America and our capitalist system. Government ownership of virtually all of America’s businesses is the ultimate goal.
As early as 2003 my son-in-law who worked as a mortgage salesman for a bank in Dayton was telling me of extreme government pressure exerted on his bank to make shaky loans. When the bank refused they were cut off from all access to government loan guarantees or referrals. His words, “Howard, I can hardly believe it but our federal government is deliberately inflating the housing bubble which I think will burst with dire consequences in a few years.”
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Liberals on eduation
Liberal mecca, Berkeley, California is a perfect example of how liberals tackle problems and demonstrates how they will always make things worse, sometimes catastrophically worse (the mortgage meltdown) when they try to do anything. It’s a small example of why they are doing such a fantastic job of running Amtrak, the Postal Service, Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Medicare, etc. etc. etc. Now they want to take charge of health care? That’s all we need, 60 bureaucrats (all of whom vote Democrat because they know who gave them their jobs) sitting around drinking coffee, playing cards and occasionally approving, or more likely disapproving our requests for critical medical services. But I digress.
The liberal masterminds that run Berkeley found there was a problem with their high school science program, in particular a science lab. It seems that Black (notice the capitalization) and Hispanic students were not doing nearly as well as their white counterparts in this science lab. Well, something had to be done about that. After all, everyone is equal, right? The liberal wizards running things had several options. 1) They could study the problem and take steps to bring the failing students up to the standards of the “white” students. That could take some extra effort, but it has been done successfully elsewhere and certainly could be done in Berkeley with the liberal intelligentsia (an oxymoron) in residence there. 2) They could have researched how other schools were dealing with the problem, learn from their experience and adopt the best of their methods. I’ll not list the several other options, but surely you get my drift!
So what did these geniuses do? Why of course, they aborted the science lab, condemned it to non existence, killed the whole project. Just think of the wonders that kind of progressive thinking could bring to our entire education system. Wait a minute, isn’t that what’s been happening all over the US? Isn’t that the very reason our education system has progressed to it’s present glorious, exemplary state? The logic? If a course, or class, or school has a problem with one or more ethnic/racial groups performing in a far superior manner to other ethnic/racial groups there is a universal solution. CLOSE DOWN THE COURSE, OR CLASS, OR SCHOOL. Problem solved!
Same logic—if there are 500 students of varying abilities, set the curricula to fit the slowest student. It’s the best way to level things out and make everybody equal. Besides, those loyal members of the teachers union who couldn’t teach a starving dog how to eat won’t have to work so hard and strain their gray matter. Of course, should anything fail, those at fault, pardon me, those dedicated educators with a problem not of their making, could fall back on that universal excuse all liberals rely on for everything, GEORGE BUSH. Yeah! Blame it on George. Or maybe Halliburton, or big corporations, or conservatives, or Republicans or . . .
Remember the first law of liberalism, liberals are never to blame for anything! OH, for the good old days!
The liberal masterminds that run Berkeley found there was a problem with their high school science program, in particular a science lab. It seems that Black (notice the capitalization) and Hispanic students were not doing nearly as well as their white counterparts in this science lab. Well, something had to be done about that. After all, everyone is equal, right? The liberal wizards running things had several options. 1) They could study the problem and take steps to bring the failing students up to the standards of the “white” students. That could take some extra effort, but it has been done successfully elsewhere and certainly could be done in Berkeley with the liberal intelligentsia (an oxymoron) in residence there. 2) They could have researched how other schools were dealing with the problem, learn from their experience and adopt the best of their methods. I’ll not list the several other options, but surely you get my drift!
So what did these geniuses do? Why of course, they aborted the science lab, condemned it to non existence, killed the whole project. Just think of the wonders that kind of progressive thinking could bring to our entire education system. Wait a minute, isn’t that what’s been happening all over the US? Isn’t that the very reason our education system has progressed to it’s present glorious, exemplary state? The logic? If a course, or class, or school has a problem with one or more ethnic/racial groups performing in a far superior manner to other ethnic/racial groups there is a universal solution. CLOSE DOWN THE COURSE, OR CLASS, OR SCHOOL. Problem solved!
Same logic—if there are 500 students of varying abilities, set the curricula to fit the slowest student. It’s the best way to level things out and make everybody equal. Besides, those loyal members of the teachers union who couldn’t teach a starving dog how to eat won’t have to work so hard and strain their gray matter. Of course, should anything fail, those at fault, pardon me, those dedicated educators with a problem not of their making, could fall back on that universal excuse all liberals rely on for everything, GEORGE BUSH. Yeah! Blame it on George. Or maybe Halliburton, or big corporations, or conservatives, or Republicans or . . .
Remember the first law of liberalism, liberals are never to blame for anything! OH, for the good old days!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Who's predictions? Prophecy?
Just today one of my blogger friends reminded me of a blog I wrote in February 2006 in response to an email sent to me by Arianna Huffington. Read it and see what you think.
My, how things really don't change. Check out the following post.
http://hjarianna6210.blogspot.com/
My, how things really don't change. Check out the following post.
http://hjarianna6210.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 09, 2009
Some musings and quotes
The financial crisis explained in simple terms.
NOTE: This is a version of a story heard on talk radio and embellished by the author of this blog, who adds, “The crisis was created deliberately by Liberals aided by greedy bankers and politicians buying votes.”
________________________________________
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin . In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around, promoted by liberal politicians and their adoring media and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi gradually but steadily increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages gradually. Her sales volume increases massively as do her profits (and tax payments)
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. Deciding to expand she opens several new bars on her greatly expanded credit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager (subsequently of course fired due his negativity) of the bank decides that the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar and by Heidi for her greatly expanded business.
However they cannot pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by “the Government” following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non-drinkers.
Finally an explanation I understand...
_____________________________________
In addition, the non-drinkers are mostly business people, some very wealthy, who hire 90% of the people employed and generate most of the new jobs. Seeing their profits deeply cut by the expanded taxes, they reduce their one-year and five-year financial budgets, cut their plans for expansion, reduce their payroll (that’s lay off many of their employees), and cancel orders for new equipment.
The stock market drops by 50% as investors move their holdings to safer places (like gold and Ireland).The media morosely reports the layoffs and order cancellations announcing, “We are now in a terrible recession brought about by greedy businessmen.” Consumer confidence (a very nebulous quality) drops precipitously, profits (and taxes) take a huge drop, and more and more businesses fail.
The government (who can’t manage anything and would seriously “screw up a one car parade”) takes over those failing “business that are too big to fail.” Between feuding and self-serving politicians and anal retentive government bureaucrats the economy collapses in line with a quote often attributed to a Scottish Historian, Alexander Tytler or Tyler. The true origin of the quote is obscure and might have originated in the early 20th century from an unknown politician or writer. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its accuracy.
One version of the quote on why democracies always fail is:
"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy."
A version of the second part of the misquote, attributed in 1983 to Arnold Toynbee is:
"The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."
But the person who appears to be the actual author is Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company. In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, and recorded on p. 22 of Industrial Management in a Republic, Prentis had this to say:
“Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
“At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three milleniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.”
For more information about these quotes and their sources go to http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html
_____________________________
A very interesting interview about Obama’s “share the wealth” plan.
INTERVIEWER: Hello.
SUBJECT: Hey! How are you doing?
INTERVIEWER: Very well, sir, thank you.
SUBJECT: All right. My wife had a hard time trying to understand why Obama's plan to "spread the wealth" was unfair. She couldn't see (sigh), you know, what was wrong with taking from those who have and giving to those who don't have so what I did was I simplified it for her. She's a woman that prides herself on education. She's working on a PhD at Vanderbilt and she makes excellent grades.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, no.
SUBJECT: Now, I told her, I said --
INTERVIEWER: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are depressing me. Your wife's a PhD, working on a PhD, she makes excellent grades.
SUBJECT: Yes, and we have four kids.
INTERVIEWER: No, it makes total sense that she would think what she thinks because the culture she's immersed herself in, academia, is teaching her this stuff.
SUBJECT: (laughing) Well, let me finish. Let me show you what I did.
INTERVIEWER: Yes. Sorry for the interruption.
SUBJECT: That's okay. Let me just show you what I did to bring her around. I said, "You know, what if you made a hundred on a test and another guy in your class made a 60? This guy has a failing mark and you have a high passing mark. Would it be fair to say 20 of your points, bring you down to an 80, give the 20 to the guy that made the 60 and bring him up to 80 and everything is equal?" She said, "No." I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I earned that grade." I said, "Don't you think rich people earned the money that they get?" And so she was speechless. She couldn't say anything. She'd said, "No, I earned it." I said, "Think about it, Baby. "You're bringing a guy up from a failing grade to a passing grade, and we gonna bring you down to his level." I said, "Now you apply that type of example with everybody in the classroom, everybody being the dumper. Nobody would ever get out of your class because everybody would have a failing grade." So she then understood the point I was trying to make. Sometimes you have to use other examples to get other people to think, you know, to try to get the point across of what you're trying to say. That's all I wanted to say.
INTERVIEWER: Well, you did a great job out there. I don't know how much you made her "think" as you made her "realize."
SUBJECT: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: But I need to ask you something, Tim.
SUBJECT: Go ahead.
INTERVIEWER: Has this conversion held? Does she still get it now that you've explained it to her.
SUBJECT: She gets it but she hates it.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I tell you, if she goes back to class where she's studying for her PhD and she runs this story either by a fellow student -- or even worse, a professor -- the professor will say, "Well, here's what you shoulda said when your husband posed this question: 'The people who have a lot of money didn't earn it. They have stolen it.'" This is Obama's belief. This is why they've stolen it. They have unfairly taken what's not theirs. They haven't earned it. That's the whole point, they cheated and steal and had lied to get it and that's why he's going to take it from them and give the money to like these poor people lining up at Cobo Hall in Detroit for it. That's what he believes. You gotta stay on this, my man, because a professor's going to tell her that if she dares tell this story, and the professor is going to say, "Well, you can't compare wealth to grades because there isn't anybody else... You can't take somebody else's grade but you could take somebody else's money from them while they weren't looking. You could cheat 'em, you could steal." They'll work on them like this. This is going to be an ongoing thing. You did a great thing here, a great thing. You've taken a big, giant step here.
SUBJECT: Oh, yeah. Well, I just appreciate that. She doesn't like to listen to anything that disagrees with her beliefs. I'm like, "Whatever." I think sometimes she just don't want to listen because people are realists.
INTERVIEWER: Well, look, she's like a lot of people. Her worldview is safely wrapped inside a cocoon in which she lives, and if anything penetrates it that upsets this security blanket she's living in, you're right, she doesn't want it.
SUBJECT: Yep.
INTERVIEWER: She does not want to be challenged with anything that would question her beliefs.
SUBJECT: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: You have a huge challenge out there.
SUBJECT: Well, I'm teaching the four kids, bringing them up in the right way, teaching them.
INTERVIEWER: God less you. This is a great interview. I appreciate the fact that you're doing this, and I appreciate the fact that you are telling us.
SUBJECT: All right, have a good one.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you, Thank you very much. Well, sometimes it's just a simple little explanation like that is all it takes when you make it personal.
__________________________
Another difference between public and private enterprise.
Cheats and thieves in private business pay heavy fines and are sentenced to prison when caught. Liberal Democrats in government who do even worse are rewarded with bonuses and plush jobs. Ah, the blessings of liberalism/socialism/communism/feudalism.
One example of the results of the tireless efforts of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, (then Senator) Barack Obama, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, was the melt down of the mortgage market.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems were started by democrat administration personnel. Two Senators receive more campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than all others from 1989-2008. Number 1 – Senator Chris Dodd, (D) CONN Chairman Senate Banking Committee and former 2008 Democrat candidate for President. Number 2 - Senator and now President Barack Obama. How did Barack Obama do this after only 3 years as a Senator? You fill in the blanks.
Remember when Barack Obama stood up for his Vice Presidential Search Committee member Jim Johnson? It was June 2008 and Jim Johnson had to resign because of a “controversy” about his time at embattled Countrywide Mortgage. It was not important that Jim Johnson received loans at a below market rate.
It was also largely ignored that Jim Johnson was former CEO of Fannie Mae. It seems that the CEO’s of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were cooking the books. The CEO’s had been inflating yearly earnings to receive their annual bonuses! They would then amend the earnings statements later in the year. Typical government chicanery, like base line budgeting.
Those CEOs cost several orders more Americans to lose several orders more of their hard earned equity than Enron’s executives. Ken Lay who was demonized in the media, sent to prison by the government, and was held up as an example of “evil capitalists.” Not a single CEO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac missed their annual bonuses. For example, Franklin Raines made $90 Million in bonuses from Fannie Mae in 6 years! It seems capitalists go to prison and pay heavy fines while liberal Democrats in government are paid bonuses and are even awarded jobs in government when they do the same thing. Ah, the blessings of liberalism/socialism/communism.
One other note: I find it hard to believe that these people, who directly brought about the mortgage collapse, are that stupid. Ergo, this was a deliberate action intended to do just what it did. For instance, in California, homeowner’s equity in the housing market dropped from around 60% to about 30% while the banks’ equity (mortgages) increased from about 40% to 70% of the housing market. Sure, some foreclosures cost banks a bit, but overall they almost doubled their share of the mortgage market. I wonder how much of that is controlled by Goldman Sachs? Hmmmmm!
_______________________
Obama money at Cobo Hall in Detroit
A huge crowd assembled at Cobo Hall in Detroit when it was announced that the federal government would disperse several millions in recovery funds to individuals in hard hit Detroit. A reporter from radio station WJR went there and interviewed several who were there waiting to apply for some of the money.
WJR interviewer finds a Model Obama Citizen - October 7, 2009
ROGULSKI: Did you get an application to fill out yet?
WOMAN: I sure did. And I filled it out, and I am waiting to see what the results are going to be.
ROGULSKI: Will you know today how much money you're getting?
WOMAN: No, I won't, but I'm waiting for a phone call.
ROGULSKI: Where's the money coming from?
WOMAN: I believe it's coming from the City of Detroit or the state.
ROGULSKI: Where did they get it from?
WOMAN: Some funds that was forgiven (sic) by Obama.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?
WOMAN: Obama getting the funds from... Ummm, I have no idea, to tell you the truth. He's the president.
ROGULSKI: In downtown Detroit, Ken Rogulski, WJR News.
Another woman is questioned:
ROGULSKI: What are you doing here?
WOMAN: We’re all here to get some Obama money.
ROGULSKI: How much money will you be getting?
WOMAN: I don't know, but it will be worth the wait.
ROGULSKI: Where's the money coming from?
WOMAN: I don’t know. It’s government money Obama’s giving us.
ROGULSKI: Where did he get it from?
WOMAN: It’s Obama money. He’s got lots of money.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?
WOMAN: He’s the President. He promised us money. God bless Obama.
ROGULSKI: In downtown Detroit, Ken Rogulski, WJR News.
NOTE: There were 65,000 who went to Cobo in hopes of getting a cash handout. Only 3,500 will actually receive any money. What do you think is going to happen in Detroit when those 61,500 find out they will not get any money?
___________________________
Some interesting facts about American car sales:
The latest sales figures from the auto industry tell a great deal about the people's faith in their government when it comes to running auto companies. (Or anything else for that matter.)
GM reported a drop of about 44% in sales from a year ago. Chrysler reported a 48% drop. Ford, the only major American auto company still in private hands, reported a drop of just 4%. That's a pretty good indicator of the faith the American people have in their government, at least the car buying public. Roughly the same trend was shown in the results of the "cash for clunkers" program. The public has eloquently expressed their opinion!
I had to add this exchange with one of my SFN friends
Al:
Don't worry about idealists on the left coming down on you. Mostly they are decent, caring people who see everything remotely political in their own definition of black and white, no shades of gray anywhere. White is anything that follows the emotional mantras handed down by their high priests. Black is anything that does not. They are firmly indoctrinated in the fundamentalist religion of the left and live in a la la land with hardly a clue as to what is actually happening. No matter how factually wrong they are or how factually right you are, their belief system overrides facts, and logic never comes into play. I have a whole bunch of them in my family that I love dearly.
Remember that great liberal Democrat Howard Dean’s rant of a few years back, "I hate Republicans! I hate Conservatives! I hate Middle America! YEEEARGH!!!" This is the brand of unreasoning passion that controls the minds of so many liberals.
Add to that this thought. I hear echos of the old Al Capone/Big Bill Thompson/Jake Arvey/Richard Daly I and II machine now ringing through Washington. I lived enough in Cook County to have personal experiences with that gang. In fact, the son of Capone's accountant was a long time drinking buddy of mine. I could tell hundreds of horror stories. Of course, most libs wouldn’t listen to any of them, let alone believe anything counter to their liberal belief system. Most idealists on the left haven't a clue what that gang is really up to. Doesn't bode well for our country unless the people wake up soon. I'm encouraged because I see that beginning to happen. I just hope it is not too late.
Ho
____________________________________________
Ho:
I agree. I expected more intelligence out of Don, but Liberalism seems to carry its own set of blinders. My elder brother is a retired Physics professor. Very intelligent. UNTIL politics is mentioned. Then he reverts to his Pavlovian conditioning and his brain flies south. You'd think a "scientist" would apply scientific rigor to politics as well (if it doesn't work, the theory is wrong), but that doesn't seem to be the case. But then, he was never a researcher, just a teacher in California where the teachers are all super libs. You'd think an ex-Navy career officer would be able to withstand the peer-group propaganda better.
Al
NOTE: This is a version of a story heard on talk radio and embellished by the author of this blog, who adds, “The crisis was created deliberately by Liberals aided by greedy bankers and politicians buying votes.”
________________________________________
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin . In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around, promoted by liberal politicians and their adoring media and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi gradually but steadily increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages gradually. Her sales volume increases massively as do her profits (and tax payments)
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. Deciding to expand she opens several new bars on her greatly expanded credit.
He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager (subsequently of course fired due his negativity) of the bank decides that the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar and by Heidi for her greatly expanded business.
However they cannot pay back the debts.
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by “the Government” following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.
The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non-drinkers.
Finally an explanation I understand...
_____________________________________
In addition, the non-drinkers are mostly business people, some very wealthy, who hire 90% of the people employed and generate most of the new jobs. Seeing their profits deeply cut by the expanded taxes, they reduce their one-year and five-year financial budgets, cut their plans for expansion, reduce their payroll (that’s lay off many of their employees), and cancel orders for new equipment.
The stock market drops by 50% as investors move their holdings to safer places (like gold and Ireland).The media morosely reports the layoffs and order cancellations announcing, “We are now in a terrible recession brought about by greedy businessmen.” Consumer confidence (a very nebulous quality) drops precipitously, profits (and taxes) take a huge drop, and more and more businesses fail.
The government (who can’t manage anything and would seriously “screw up a one car parade”) takes over those failing “business that are too big to fail.” Between feuding and self-serving politicians and anal retentive government bureaucrats the economy collapses in line with a quote often attributed to a Scottish Historian, Alexander Tytler or Tyler. The true origin of the quote is obscure and might have originated in the early 20th century from an unknown politician or writer. Nevertheless, this does not detract from its accuracy.
One version of the quote on why democracies always fail is:
"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only last until the citizens discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that the Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy."
A version of the second part of the misquote, attributed in 1983 to Arnold Toynbee is:
"The release of initiative and enterprise made possible by self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again, after freedom brings opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent; the incompetent and unfortunate grow envious and covetous; and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the golden calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."
But the person who appears to be the actual author is Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company. In a speech entitled "Industrial Management in a Republic," delivered in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria at New York during the 250th meeting of the National Conference Board on March 18, 1943, and recorded on p. 22 of Industrial Management in a Republic, Prentis had this to say:
“Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security. The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
“At the stage between apathy and dependency, men always turn in fear to economic and political panaceas. New conditions, it is claimed, require new remedies. Under such circumstances, the competent citizen is certainly not a fool if he insists upon using the compass of history when forced to sail uncharted seas. Usually so-called new remedies are not new at all. Compulsory planned economy, for example, was tried by the Chinese some three milleniums ago, and by the Romans in the early centuries of the Christian era. It was applied in Germany, Italy and Russia long before the present war broke out. Yet it is being seriously advocated today as a solution of our economic problems in the United States. Its proponents confidently assert that government can successfully plan and control all major business activity in the nation, and still not interfere with our political freedom and our hard-won civil and religious liberties. The lessons of history all point in exactly the reverse direction.”
For more information about these quotes and their sources go to http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html
_____________________________
A very interesting interview about Obama’s “share the wealth” plan.
INTERVIEWER: Hello.
SUBJECT: Hey! How are you doing?
INTERVIEWER: Very well, sir, thank you.
SUBJECT: All right. My wife had a hard time trying to understand why Obama's plan to "spread the wealth" was unfair. She couldn't see (sigh), you know, what was wrong with taking from those who have and giving to those who don't have so what I did was I simplified it for her. She's a woman that prides herself on education. She's working on a PhD at Vanderbilt and she makes excellent grades.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, no.
SUBJECT: Now, I told her, I said --
INTERVIEWER: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are depressing me. Your wife's a PhD, working on a PhD, she makes excellent grades.
SUBJECT: Yes, and we have four kids.
INTERVIEWER: No, it makes total sense that she would think what she thinks because the culture she's immersed herself in, academia, is teaching her this stuff.
SUBJECT: (laughing) Well, let me finish. Let me show you what I did.
INTERVIEWER: Yes. Sorry for the interruption.
SUBJECT: That's okay. Let me just show you what I did to bring her around. I said, "You know, what if you made a hundred on a test and another guy in your class made a 60? This guy has a failing mark and you have a high passing mark. Would it be fair to say 20 of your points, bring you down to an 80, give the 20 to the guy that made the 60 and bring him up to 80 and everything is equal?" She said, "No." I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I earned that grade." I said, "Don't you think rich people earned the money that they get?" And so she was speechless. She couldn't say anything. She'd said, "No, I earned it." I said, "Think about it, Baby. "You're bringing a guy up from a failing grade to a passing grade, and we gonna bring you down to his level." I said, "Now you apply that type of example with everybody in the classroom, everybody being the dumper. Nobody would ever get out of your class because everybody would have a failing grade." So she then understood the point I was trying to make. Sometimes you have to use other examples to get other people to think, you know, to try to get the point across of what you're trying to say. That's all I wanted to say.
INTERVIEWER: Well, you did a great job out there. I don't know how much you made her "think" as you made her "realize."
SUBJECT: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: But I need to ask you something, Tim.
SUBJECT: Go ahead.
INTERVIEWER: Has this conversion held? Does she still get it now that you've explained it to her.
SUBJECT: She gets it but she hates it.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I tell you, if she goes back to class where she's studying for her PhD and she runs this story either by a fellow student -- or even worse, a professor -- the professor will say, "Well, here's what you shoulda said when your husband posed this question: 'The people who have a lot of money didn't earn it. They have stolen it.'" This is Obama's belief. This is why they've stolen it. They have unfairly taken what's not theirs. They haven't earned it. That's the whole point, they cheated and steal and had lied to get it and that's why he's going to take it from them and give the money to like these poor people lining up at Cobo Hall in Detroit for it. That's what he believes. You gotta stay on this, my man, because a professor's going to tell her that if she dares tell this story, and the professor is going to say, "Well, you can't compare wealth to grades because there isn't anybody else... You can't take somebody else's grade but you could take somebody else's money from them while they weren't looking. You could cheat 'em, you could steal." They'll work on them like this. This is going to be an ongoing thing. You did a great thing here, a great thing. You've taken a big, giant step here.
SUBJECT: Oh, yeah. Well, I just appreciate that. She doesn't like to listen to anything that disagrees with her beliefs. I'm like, "Whatever." I think sometimes she just don't want to listen because people are realists.
INTERVIEWER: Well, look, she's like a lot of people. Her worldview is safely wrapped inside a cocoon in which she lives, and if anything penetrates it that upsets this security blanket she's living in, you're right, she doesn't want it.
SUBJECT: Yep.
INTERVIEWER: She does not want to be challenged with anything that would question her beliefs.
SUBJECT: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: You have a huge challenge out there.
SUBJECT: Well, I'm teaching the four kids, bringing them up in the right way, teaching them.
INTERVIEWER: God less you. This is a great interview. I appreciate the fact that you're doing this, and I appreciate the fact that you are telling us.
SUBJECT: All right, have a good one.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you, Thank you very much. Well, sometimes it's just a simple little explanation like that is all it takes when you make it personal.
__________________________
Another difference between public and private enterprise.
Cheats and thieves in private business pay heavy fines and are sentenced to prison when caught. Liberal Democrats in government who do even worse are rewarded with bonuses and plush jobs. Ah, the blessings of liberalism/socialism/communism/feudalism.
One example of the results of the tireless efforts of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, (then Senator) Barack Obama, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, was the melt down of the mortgage market.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac problems were started by democrat administration personnel. Two Senators receive more campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than all others from 1989-2008. Number 1 – Senator Chris Dodd, (D) CONN Chairman Senate Banking Committee and former 2008 Democrat candidate for President. Number 2 - Senator and now President Barack Obama. How did Barack Obama do this after only 3 years as a Senator? You fill in the blanks.
Remember when Barack Obama stood up for his Vice Presidential Search Committee member Jim Johnson? It was June 2008 and Jim Johnson had to resign because of a “controversy” about his time at embattled Countrywide Mortgage. It was not important that Jim Johnson received loans at a below market rate.
It was also largely ignored that Jim Johnson was former CEO of Fannie Mae. It seems that the CEO’s of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were cooking the books. The CEO’s had been inflating yearly earnings to receive their annual bonuses! They would then amend the earnings statements later in the year. Typical government chicanery, like base line budgeting.
Those CEOs cost several orders more Americans to lose several orders more of their hard earned equity than Enron’s executives. Ken Lay who was demonized in the media, sent to prison by the government, and was held up as an example of “evil capitalists.” Not a single CEO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac missed their annual bonuses. For example, Franklin Raines made $90 Million in bonuses from Fannie Mae in 6 years! It seems capitalists go to prison and pay heavy fines while liberal Democrats in government are paid bonuses and are even awarded jobs in government when they do the same thing. Ah, the blessings of liberalism/socialism/communism.
One other note: I find it hard to believe that these people, who directly brought about the mortgage collapse, are that stupid. Ergo, this was a deliberate action intended to do just what it did. For instance, in California, homeowner’s equity in the housing market dropped from around 60% to about 30% while the banks’ equity (mortgages) increased from about 40% to 70% of the housing market. Sure, some foreclosures cost banks a bit, but overall they almost doubled their share of the mortgage market. I wonder how much of that is controlled by Goldman Sachs? Hmmmmm!
_______________________
Obama money at Cobo Hall in Detroit
A huge crowd assembled at Cobo Hall in Detroit when it was announced that the federal government would disperse several millions in recovery funds to individuals in hard hit Detroit. A reporter from radio station WJR went there and interviewed several who were there waiting to apply for some of the money.
WJR interviewer finds a Model Obama Citizen - October 7, 2009
ROGULSKI: Did you get an application to fill out yet?
WOMAN: I sure did. And I filled it out, and I am waiting to see what the results are going to be.
ROGULSKI: Will you know today how much money you're getting?
WOMAN: No, I won't, but I'm waiting for a phone call.
ROGULSKI: Where's the money coming from?
WOMAN: I believe it's coming from the City of Detroit or the state.
ROGULSKI: Where did they get it from?
WOMAN: Some funds that was forgiven (sic) by Obama.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?
WOMAN: Obama getting the funds from... Ummm, I have no idea, to tell you the truth. He's the president.
ROGULSKI: In downtown Detroit, Ken Rogulski, WJR News.
Another woman is questioned:
ROGULSKI: What are you doing here?
WOMAN: We’re all here to get some Obama money.
ROGULSKI: How much money will you be getting?
WOMAN: I don't know, but it will be worth the wait.
ROGULSKI: Where's the money coming from?
WOMAN: I don’t know. It’s government money Obama’s giving us.
ROGULSKI: Where did he get it from?
WOMAN: It’s Obama money. He’s got lots of money.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get the funds?
WOMAN: He’s the President. He promised us money. God bless Obama.
ROGULSKI: In downtown Detroit, Ken Rogulski, WJR News.
NOTE: There were 65,000 who went to Cobo in hopes of getting a cash handout. Only 3,500 will actually receive any money. What do you think is going to happen in Detroit when those 61,500 find out they will not get any money?
___________________________
Some interesting facts about American car sales:
The latest sales figures from the auto industry tell a great deal about the people's faith in their government when it comes to running auto companies. (Or anything else for that matter.)
GM reported a drop of about 44% in sales from a year ago. Chrysler reported a 48% drop. Ford, the only major American auto company still in private hands, reported a drop of just 4%. That's a pretty good indicator of the faith the American people have in their government, at least the car buying public. Roughly the same trend was shown in the results of the "cash for clunkers" program. The public has eloquently expressed their opinion!
I had to add this exchange with one of my SFN friends
Al:
Don't worry about idealists on the left coming down on you. Mostly they are decent, caring people who see everything remotely political in their own definition of black and white, no shades of gray anywhere. White is anything that follows the emotional mantras handed down by their high priests. Black is anything that does not. They are firmly indoctrinated in the fundamentalist religion of the left and live in a la la land with hardly a clue as to what is actually happening. No matter how factually wrong they are or how factually right you are, their belief system overrides facts, and logic never comes into play. I have a whole bunch of them in my family that I love dearly.
Remember that great liberal Democrat Howard Dean’s rant of a few years back, "I hate Republicans! I hate Conservatives! I hate Middle America! YEEEARGH!!!" This is the brand of unreasoning passion that controls the minds of so many liberals.
Add to that this thought. I hear echos of the old Al Capone/Big Bill Thompson/Jake Arvey/Richard Daly I and II machine now ringing through Washington. I lived enough in Cook County to have personal experiences with that gang. In fact, the son of Capone's accountant was a long time drinking buddy of mine. I could tell hundreds of horror stories. Of course, most libs wouldn’t listen to any of them, let alone believe anything counter to their liberal belief system. Most idealists on the left haven't a clue what that gang is really up to. Doesn't bode well for our country unless the people wake up soon. I'm encouraged because I see that beginning to happen. I just hope it is not too late.
Ho
____________________________________________
Ho:
I agree. I expected more intelligence out of Don, but Liberalism seems to carry its own set of blinders. My elder brother is a retired Physics professor. Very intelligent. UNTIL politics is mentioned. Then he reverts to his Pavlovian conditioning and his brain flies south. You'd think a "scientist" would apply scientific rigor to politics as well (if it doesn't work, the theory is wrong), but that doesn't seem to be the case. But then, he was never a researcher, just a teacher in California where the teachers are all super libs. You'd think an ex-Navy career officer would be able to withstand the peer-group propaganda better.
Al
Friday, September 18, 2009
Not so fast on the H1N1 vaccines
What is the real reason for all the emotional promotion by government and media of the fear driven panic over H1N1 flu and the supposed dire need for vaccines? All for a disease that has already proven extremely mild? Do you actually believe all that propaganda foisted off on a gullible public by a patently dishonest government? Somebody must be making lots of moolah. I wonder who?
By doubting we are led to inquire; by inquiring we perceive the truth.
Here are excerpts from a couple of articles that pose serious questions that should certainly be answered. The web addresses of the articles are included so the full articles can be easily read.
http://truth11.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/why-millions-of-americans-don’t-need-the-swine-flu-vaccine-all-of-the-risk-none-of-the-benefit/
Mike Adams
Natural News
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
(NaturalNews) The FDA has now suddenly granted approval to four different H1N1 vaccines, all on the same day! With virtually no testing, these fast-tracked vaccines are now approved for use on everyone: Infants, children, adults, senior citizens and even expectant mothers. But does everyone really need these vaccines? And all for a disease that is little more deadly than the common cold?
Even for those who got sick, virtually everyone survived the sickness. After a few days of extra rest in bed (and hopefully some nutritional supplementation), they were able to kick the virus and return to normal life. This is all a normal part of beating any flu.
All these millions of people who were infected by H1N1 and didn’t die have naturally made their own swine flu antibodies. They are now immune to the swine flu, and they now have zero risk of being infected or killed by this H1N1 swine flu in the future. The actual risk of serious illness or death from the H1N1 flu may be statistically less than the risk of taking the vaccine.
__________________________________________________________
http://truth11.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/now-legal-immunity-for-swine-flu-vaccine-makers/
Global Research
July 20, 2009
The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has just signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any new “Swine Flu” vaccine. Moreover, the $7 billion US Government fast-track program to rush vaccines onto the market in time for the Autumn flu season is being done without even normal safety testing. Is there another agenda at work in the official WHO hysteria campaign to declare so-called H1N1 virus—which has yet to be rigorously scientifically isolated, characterized and photographed with an electron microscope—the scientifically accepted procedure—a global “pandemic” threat?
Now just why would she do that?
With no legal liability, could it be that Baxter (a pharmaceutical company) is preparing to sell hundreds of millions of doses containing highly toxic aluminum hydroxide as adjuvant?
The current official panic campaign over alleged Swine Flu danger is rapidly taking on the dimensions of a George Orwell science fiction novel. The document signed by Sebelius grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies. Now just why would she do that?
This could easily mean that Sebelius knows that the expensive (and profitable) vaccines will pose more of a health risk than the disease itself.
With this immunity, vaccine makers can completely ignore safety testing costs. I wonder who benefits from the millions of dollars thus saved? Just where does all that money go? Who gets the payoff? I wonder how much will flow into Sebelius’ coffers?
By doubting we are led to inquire; by inquiring we perceive the truth.
—Peter Abelard
Here are excerpts from a couple of articles that pose serious questions that should certainly be answered. The web addresses of the articles are included so the full articles can be easily read.
http://truth11.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/why-millions-of-americans-don’t-need-the-swine-flu-vaccine-all-of-the-risk-none-of-the-benefit/
Mike Adams
Natural News
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
(NaturalNews) The FDA has now suddenly granted approval to four different H1N1 vaccines, all on the same day! With virtually no testing, these fast-tracked vaccines are now approved for use on everyone: Infants, children, adults, senior citizens and even expectant mothers. But does everyone really need these vaccines? And all for a disease that is little more deadly than the common cold?
Even for those who got sick, virtually everyone survived the sickness. After a few days of extra rest in bed (and hopefully some nutritional supplementation), they were able to kick the virus and return to normal life. This is all a normal part of beating any flu.
All these millions of people who were infected by H1N1 and didn’t die have naturally made their own swine flu antibodies. They are now immune to the swine flu, and they now have zero risk of being infected or killed by this H1N1 swine flu in the future. The actual risk of serious illness or death from the H1N1 flu may be statistically less than the risk of taking the vaccine.
__________________________________________________________
http://truth11.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/now-legal-immunity-for-swine-flu-vaccine-makers/
Global Research
July 20, 2009
The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has just signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any new “Swine Flu” vaccine. Moreover, the $7 billion US Government fast-track program to rush vaccines onto the market in time for the Autumn flu season is being done without even normal safety testing. Is there another agenda at work in the official WHO hysteria campaign to declare so-called H1N1 virus—which has yet to be rigorously scientifically isolated, characterized and photographed with an electron microscope—the scientifically accepted procedure—a global “pandemic” threat?
Now just why would she do that?
With no legal liability, could it be that Baxter (a pharmaceutical company) is preparing to sell hundreds of millions of doses containing highly toxic aluminum hydroxide as adjuvant?
The current official panic campaign over alleged Swine Flu danger is rapidly taking on the dimensions of a George Orwell science fiction novel. The document signed by Sebelius grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies. Now just why would she do that?
This could easily mean that Sebelius knows that the expensive (and profitable) vaccines will pose more of a health risk than the disease itself.
With this immunity, vaccine makers can completely ignore safety testing costs. I wonder who benefits from the millions of dollars thus saved? Just where does all that money go? Who gets the payoff? I wonder how much will flow into Sebelius’ coffers?
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