Eating Our Substance

The current economic situation comes from eating out our substance.   This Depression has been delayed, but expanding, since around 1990.  We have begun to eat the foundation beneath our wealth, and the outcome will be absolutely disastrous.  The outlook is amazingly bleak, and the only reasonable solution will never be implemented by our Republicans and Democrats.

I attribute the progression of this collapse to three primary problems.  First, we stopped manufacturing in America.  Consequently, we upped the tax ante for those players who tried to continue.  Third, we created a spending spree.

When we stopped creating wealth, we were the richest nation in the world.  We had enough cash in hand to finance several decades even though we knew it could not last forever.

We taxed the lion’s share from producers and manufacturers (employees and employers) to feed and house the displaced.   When we packed up our production and sent it away to foreign lands, we could afford the alternative from the money in our collective savings.  It was cheaper — in almost every way.

The logic in our situation called for rebuilding industry — newer, better, more up-to-date.  Instead, we went crazy building houses and shopping malls.  Fully 40% of the new jobs from the millennium change to now have been construction, real estate, and all the supports for the boom.  Not only did we fail to create wealth, we spent the last of it.  We went into a thirty-year debt with five to ten years of wealth.

Now our businesses are gone, our homes are falling apart, we have maxed out our personal and governmental credit, and anything we try to rebuild will have to come from China, India, Mexico, and a host of Pacific Islands.

The solution is quite simple, really.  We have to tighten our belts and go to work.   We must convert our assets into production, and stop spending money.  Many of us have already lost everything, but not our will to survive.

The great remaining obstacle to the solution is Congress and the succession of Presidents who brought us here.  We never could afford a few trillion here and there, and we need to stop them from trying.

In my opinion, we will not.  We will continue to sail the ship of state right into the rocks.

May God grant that I am wrong.

Jobs and Health Care in America

How do manufacturing jobs and health care relate? Let me count the ways…

The chronic unemployment rate, essentially meaning those whose unemployment ran out, is the highest since the depression.  People without jobs tend to lose their health insurance.

Students enrolled in school full time aren’t included, yet unemployment for young people, aged 16 to 24, is 52%.   That, too, is the highest rate since the Great Depression. Unemployed youngsters, especially, tend to be uninsured.

Job rates go up and down.  Even Depressions come along with the fluctuations of time, government policy, and economic ripples.  What makes the current situation utterly terrifying is the category of manufacturing jobs.   Making stuff is what drives an economy and improves the world.   Manufacturing in 1979 provided 17.5 million jobs.  Twenty years ago, 17.9 million.  Ten years ago, at the cusp of the new millennium, U.S. manufacturing provided  17.3  million jobs.

Now, fewer than 11.8 million Americans still earn a living “making stuff.”  In less than 10 short years, we have lost over five and a half million jobs in manufacturing in America, and an estimated 2.5 million of those losses happened in mass layoffs in the first half of this year alone.  Five and a half million unemployed manufacturing folks add a big dose of pain to the health insurance scam that Congress and President Obama want to force on us.

What is the national government’s solution to all of this pain and suffering?  Well, higher taxes, more taxes (especially on manufacturing), Cap and Tax to kill more manufacturing jobs by shutting down more American business in favor of China’s spewing factories, less American manufacturing and therefore lower paying jobs for Americans, illegal immigrant “amnesty” and more bodies to cover with non-existent health care resources, taxing people for health care and then taxing them for not having health care,  more foreign competition, greater dependence on foreign power, foreign oil, and foreign pollution, and a deadbeat economy that is 10 trillion dollars in debt. Oh, and let’s not forget socialized health care that includes stripping six hundred billion dollars from Medicare so we can “level the playing field” for those who already worked their whole lives.

I’m telling you, this is impossible to make up and difficult to imagine but every word of it is real.  (The labor stats are here.)  President Barack Hussein Obama and Congress are actually “out to get us.”  They trust every word written here, and they go ahead with every plan.

If we fail to reclaim our nation, nobody will want it… and that is just the way Washington’s Democrats and Republicans want it.  They will be exempt, rich, and powerful.

Swine Flu, Common Flu, Government Flu

After a long and worrisome article about the potential horrors of this season’s flu strains, the Washington Post turns to a different set of facts.  After detailing the fear and potential horror of a deadly flu, they begin quoting doctors…

For instance, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center Director of Emergency Services, Barry Gilmore, says, “We are mostly dealing with the worried well or kids who are mildly ill but not severely ill.”

Ari Brown, an Austin pediatrician, states that, “There’s clearly a certain level of hysteria.”

As a father and grandfather, I have concerns for my children and grandchildren, but the Swine flu is not high on that list.  Their liberty, sense of direction, ethical sense, moral underpinnings and financial future are way above H1N1.

Ninety-one years ago, in the height of WWI, a flu strain roared around the globe, killing hundreds of thousands of robust young people.  The possibility of some horrible mutation always remains, but that possibility is a long-shot.

Call me “easily spooked,” but the resurgence of influenza is well-timed to coincide with the Radical government plan to seize control of the U.S. health care system.  No, I do not think they planned it, but they are using it to further their agenda.  As Number Eight of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals says, “…utilize all events of the period for your purpose.” And don’t forget Rule Nine:

“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”

Doctors tell patients how to deal with the flu: “Drink plenty of fluids to maintain the body’s hydration, and take aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen to reduce the fever and discomfort.  Get plenty of rest.“  This is the same advice whether it’s this year’s run-of-the-mill flu or the H1N1 strain.  In fact, the Swine Flu ends in a few days instead of a week like most.

If you or your child become ill in other words, accept the fact that the flu will be uncomfortable — perhaps very uncomfortable.  Dr. Brown suggests that you keep yourself or your kid in bed, as comfortable as possible, and ride it out.  Only go to the hospital or doctor’s office if it becomes serious.

With the prevalent terror tactics of the Radical Progressives taking such a prominent role in our information sources, it can be a terrifying time, but never overlook the overwhelming desire of those Radicals to grab the power of the medical community and turn it into big government.

Of course it’s always sad to face death from common illness.  We lose something like 30,000 people from the flu with every strain. It’s easy to lie with statistics, but keep in mind that your child has a 99.7+% chance of making a full recovery in five days.

You can find “news” that H1N1 is a terrorist plot, or a government plot.  You can read about doctors who say that this strain will decimate the population.  The British Homeland Terror Chief said the Swine flu threat is more dangerous than terrorism.

You can find others who say that the worst is already on us, and will quickly fade as the strain loses it’s grip and succumbs to natural immunity.  You can also surmise that the best and worst scenarios are least likely.  It is, perhaps, a very, very nasty flu… but it is still a flu, and not a complete loss of liberty.

We faced the swine flu in the 1970s and it was uncomfortable for many, and tragic for some.  It will be uncomfortable for many again, and tragic for some.  That truth we can foresee, but the greatest terror we face is allowing Radicals to use this or any other problem as a means to control our lives and make our children and grandchildren “wards of the state.“

Mmm, mmm, mm.

What’s 10 trillion Among Friends?

“Our government needs to fundamentally reform the rules governing financial firms and markets to meet the challenges of the 21st century.” – Barack Obama, September 19, 2009

He wants to control all consumer financial products, including mortgages, credit accounts, and cash.  To put that in perspective, our President proposes rules on what you can buy, what it will cost you, and how you will raise the money.  He wants to “control the risk.”

There are people in this country who want Congress and President Obama to control our lives.  They actively rejoice that Americans will join the third-world nations to make sure that we all go into the soup together.  Together is exactly what the President has in mind.

Our President went on to say, “We know we still have a lot to do, in conjunction with nations around the world, to strengthen the rules governing financial markets…“

Those in agreement with the President want to restrict everything but government spending.  Those people who will “restore reason and accountability to credit” are 10 trillion dollars in debt.

An important meeting takes place this week, with a lot of uncooperative national leaders rallying behind the prospect of controlling us.  The G-20 wants what we have, and are willing to go to any lengths to get it.  They call us “rich.”  After all, it takes a wealthy nation to create a ten trillion dollar debt (see Monetizing Debt) and print two hundred billion in unsubstantiated currency to defer the first 2% of that debt to our grandchildren… with interest from the coming inflation that will follow.

U.S. vs. the Obama Nation

While the Washington mall was packed, fewer than 15,000 carefully selected people three-quarters filled the Target Center’s 20,500 seat stadium to hear President Obama speak yet again about health care.  Several thousand showed up but could not gain access to the available seats.

It struck a nerve as mainstream news channels showed people filing in like a choir to fill row after row in single-file order without skipping a seat, starting behind the podium.  The best seats in the house remained empty, but out of camera view.

Orchestrated for no reason but to give an alternative to wooing Network fans, the speech said nothing new.  It went nowhere.  It showed a “vigorous and authoritative President Obama” (not my words.)  ABC, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC were excused from covering the enormous March on Washington and the dozens of two to twenty thousand people at each of dozens of other locations around the country.

Among the hundreds of absurdities of the day, a few caught me as especially noteworthy: patriotism, spontaneity, American thoughts, patriotic songs and expressions ruled in Washington, DC,  for the first time in a great many years; the “astro-turf” crowd showed up on their own from around the country and remained lighthearted and willing to forgive, while the Obama nation refused to bend; the patriots in DC were orderly and decent while the “true grassroots Obamanists” were carefully selected and coordinated and brought in for the staged event; and of course the President arranged to be away from home for the special day.

ACORN ALINSKY OBAMA

ACORN calls impressive journalism a “smear” campaign, and they will attempt to sue for the recent expose’.  Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals bite back.

ACORN’s president Alton Bennet and executive director Mike Shea are squirming. They know better than anyone alive how terrifying their plight is right now, because the people they call “the enemy” have studied and understand ACORN’s own rules. Right now, they are caught in their own tactic of rule 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Rule 10 of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals says, “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.” So far, the ACORN Radicals immediately fired two expendable employees in Baltimore, and then two more in DC. The exposure continues and they can’t effectively do that again. The next step is likely to be a “corrupt regional manager” or something equivalent.

Calling this an illegal and immoral smear campaign is very curious. It illustrates Alinsky’s Ninth Rule of the Ethics of Means and Ends beautifully: “Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.” The very tools that ACORN use abruptly change to “unethical” when reality knocks in the form of a 25-year old young man and 20-year-old girl who apply their own rules against them.

Bennet and Shea are pleading at this point. “But that does not excuse the behavior of the employees. We have fired them and are initiating an internal review of practices and reminding all staff of their obligation to uphold the highest legal and ethical standards,” yet according to Alinsky’s Rules of Means and Ends, number Seven states that, “Generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.” As pressure mounts against them, their hideous excuse for “ethical behavior” gets a double slam from reality and failure.  They lose on both sides — those who truly know their ethics are horrible, and those who do not care.

ACORN has followed Rule 10 of Means and Ends: “Do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.” Oops. As the moral clothing come off, they are being exposed. We can see the immoral private parts. This is amazing stuff! It further serves to illustrate what Radicals do in every single organization they participate in, and every elected office they hold!

The Rules are all there, flapping nakedly in the breeze. As this story continues, it can be predicted. Early calls for investigation into ACORN have begun. Next you see another story, and another, and pretty soon the Alinsky community of Radicals will distance themselves from “the nuts of ACORN.” Last week, ACORN leaders were friends. This week they will be a sham, viciously fighting one another.

ACORN will try to fight back and name names. Even the big fish will become involved. President Obama, who ran his campaigns for Senate and the Presidency on his experience in “training Community Organization Leaders at ACORN” will try to scramble out of the hole.

Means and Ends Rule number Two says, “Judgment of the ethics of means and ends is dependent upon the political position of those sitting in judgment.” While he held the cards, his friends at ACORN have been an “organized, helpful group of hardworking individuals bringing together the poor and underprivileged,” or something like that. He even proclaimed that, “Now ACORNS ideas will be carried into the White House!” It will be more than fascinating to watch how he sneaks away from that.

Civil War?

Immediately after posting yesterday’s blog, biggovernment.com posted the second story (in a series?) of ACORN perversion, immorality, and illegality.  James and Sarah are two youngsters with a liberated future.  This is some excellent stuff, though I do fear for their safety.  The ethics of Radicals could easily include direct murder.

Today is the 9-12 DC rally, with many sister rallies taking place across the nation.  It should be a fascinating day to watch FOX News, and not hard to predict another sleepy day for network news channels.

Another civil war in America?  You betcha!  And so far, the guns have remained quiet.  (Lord, may that continue!)  The sides in this conflict can be broadly defined as Radicals vs People of Reason.

It comes down to the idea of, “F*^# everything” vs “Hold on to what remains.”  If you prefer, it comes down to a big government that sides with the group that believes, “What’s yours is everybodies” vs “We can all have more,” or even, “All men should get your s*-t equally”  vs “All men are created equal.

Leave Parties out of this, because they represent nobody.  Our President and Congress are bought and paid for with our money, and serving themselves.

The highlight of the biggovernment.com journalism is that they exposed this stuff to the common man — clearly and convincingly.  You will notice nothing but token gestures coming from Congress, and no mention from the White  House.  The expose’ fuels us with knowledge, and we need nothing but wisdom to act.  The government will not be on our side until it, too, has been fully exposed and mostly replaced with a new breed of statesmen.

Calls for denying our tax money to the IRS is certainly premature at this point, but don’t rule it out by next April.   Sure, they get enough from us to continue by sucking our paychecks before we see them, and they still print cash from thin air, but it has to stop somewhere.  Some will say they cannot continue without us for another year, yet they pursue a goal of destroying our nation before Christmas.

If you are a free and liberated American, you know that this is a great day to be alive!  If we reclaim our soil, it will be torn up.  But we can rebuild in no time flat, and the Trade Tower can finally be replaced with a real American Liberty Tower. God bless you.  God bless all of us.

Acorn Prostitution

The thorns I reaped are of the tree

I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.

I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed.

- Lord Byron

Acorn exists to tear up the system and abuse power.  Hundreds of abuses have been exposed, and the latest example demonstrates their mission and purpose perfectly.

It might be too soon to state certainly that a very prominent man in Washington, DC, is responsible for the treachery, but it is entirely true that he worked to train these people in their evil art.

Before you can really understand the mindset of the Radical, watch the video. Then look at a fairly typical Leftist comment by some guy going by the name, mikeskew:

“Just watched the video and kinda underwhelmed. What I saw was two concernned women trying to help a dimwitted girl trying to live on her own. No harm there. Interesting but not as earth shattering as Beck let me to believe… Rest easy people, the Baltimore branch of ACORN is not going to steal your children and eat them despite what uncle Glen told us.”

That was a more charitable post. Somebody named vhw28672478 reflects the other side of ignorance.  He simply dismisses the whole thing as, “FOX News is fake.”  He must be convinced the whole thing will blow over, and probably feels sorry for the two women who were fired for trying to help a “dim-witted girl” get a home.

They get it.  This is not about credibility.  Friends, this is what they want.  They like this stuff.  ACORN is doing exactly what Radicals adore.

This is Obama’s baby.  He loves the group and their goal and purpose.  Are there ties?  Absolutely!  That is the most ridiculous question you can ask!  The proper question is, “How involved is the President of the United States in a group like ACORN?”  We know Obama came up through their ranks, trained their leadership, received overwhelming support from them for his election as Senator and then President.  We know they accepted his pledge to “install their ideas in the White House.”  What else do we need to find?  Where are the researchers and journalists?  Why did this story break only because of a pair of brave young amateurs?

Whether you choose to ignore this gathering insanity or deal with it, the worst is yet to come.  What will you wait for?  The day it really is too late?

Obama Health Care Speech Analysis

Mr. Obama is a good speaker, but he failed last night for the most obvious of reasons: once again, he provided no solutions.  He stayed the course with meaningless goals that ultimately turn health care over to the United States government at a phenomenal cost.  He fed every existing fear that Medicare and Medicaid will be stripped as partial payment for his glorious pie in the sky.

When President Obama (or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi) speak of “competition,” they mean “government alternative.”  That is not competition.  It is socialism.  Many commentators have pointed out that if a business provides health care benefits for over 9% of payroll and gets a chance to pay a “fine” of only 8% of payroll for not offering health care, many will opt to pay the fine and lose the benefits.  If you have trouble understanding the results, trust this.  That is not a good solution.  That is government takeover.

Obama says that he will generate over six hundred billion dollars (still two hundred billion short of the cost) from medicare and Medicaid alone!  How can that be done?  Is there six hundred billion in waste in caring for seniors?  Do the chronically impoverished actually waste that much with no benefit?  Hardly!  They already have to wait for a medical problem to become “life-threatening” before they can get services… so where is the waste?

A special report from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) pushes the idea that, “From 1992 to 1996, mean annual medical expenditures (1996 dollars) for persons aged 65 and older were $37,581 during the last year of life versus $7,365 for nonterminal years.”  Their conclusion? “Policies promoting improved allocation of resources for end-of-life care may not affect non-Medicare expenditures, which disproportionately support chronic and custodial care.” You can read more about it here.

What that says is that “improved allocation” will shift the burden to private health care.  It says, too, that private carriers already support end of life services, “disproportionately.”  You can read into this that the government will withdraw caring for the terminally ill.  What else might it mean?  Those who do not have private insurance (isn’t this the group President Obama says he wants to help?) will get significantly reduced services.

To get the savings from plans like that, 16 million people would get no services from government in the last year of life!  Surely there must be more, but the President doesn’t say.  Here are the options: reduce services, increase copayments, eliminate services, and increase the age of eligibility.  But wait, there’s more!

The federal government is already dipping into the general pool of taxpayer wealth to cover Medicare as it exists today.  The program requires tremendous “cuts” to survive on its own… so where is the great “excess” of six hundred billion plus?  You can be assured, although government wastes money everywhere it opens business,  it is not available from Medicare without some programs, services, or population group being “terminated” from coverage.  Does that amount to “killing grandma”?  Well, no, of course not.  Grandma can fend for herself.

Okay, to be completely fair, we need to see his ideas clearly written out on paper before we judge his system as totally unreasonable.  The problem is, that will not happen.  The Congressional Budget Office already concluded that the House Plan will cost escalating billions.  The only reason it starts with lower figures is that it will collect for two years before providing anything.  The 10-year result is a big loss after only eight years of expenditure.

It might be appropriate to ask again why the two most viable ideas — supported by the most doctors, accountants, and legal analysts — are left off the President’s plan.

Lawsuits cost a lot of money, and obstetricians and brain surgeons (who needs them, right?) pay up to $200,000 per year in malpractice insurance.  Can we say, “Completely out of control”?  Our laws stink.  Reform in that arena would benefit all Americans — except the corrupt lawyers, who used to be called “ambulance chasers.”  Mr. Obama offered a tip of the hat, but he remains dedicated to taking over health care, not solving legal problems.

The other is real competition.  You have to figure this out for yourself.  Why are insurance companies prevented from operating across state lines when the President himself chided that some areas only have two or three available plans?  His solution?  Continue to limit the plans available, but stuff a socialist idea into the mix.

Just a guess, but it looks like the President likes the Socialist answer and the bankrupting of Medicare a lot more than any reasonable option.

Van Jones Wilted, a New Bloom

Van Jones, the first communist, is fallen, is fallen.

President Obama’s first communist czar has responded to the intense exposure and fell over the long weekend.  It may be wrong to call Obama a racist, but it certainly fit the Green Czar who felt that “Whites poisoned the people of color.”

We have a long way to go, but Czar Jones’s departure is a great victory for liberty.

Before the dust settles, however, the President has appointed another czar — this time in manufacturing.  Ron Bloom comes from a strong Union background with experience in banking.

“He is a passionate, committed guy, totally idealistic.” — Michelle Galanter Applebaum, steel industry analyst

“The management of the Big Three are probably not going to like what Ron Bloom has to say; the UAW is not going to like what Ron Bloom has to say; and certainly the stockholders and creditors will not like what he has to say.” — Michael Psaros, co-founder, KPS Capital Partners

Bloom has been in the automotive industry since July of this year, and according to Time magazine, he was ready to get out.

Just Three Questions, Plus One

The critical decision for all people comes down to one question: “How free do I wish to be.” To some extent, most of us readily answer, “Oh, very free!”  But in reality, that often is not the case.

We want certain freedoms, but enjoy some constraints as well.  Many of us choose, for instance, to be “bound” by obligations to our spouse and children, extended family and friends, religion and morals, our careers, homes,  and other restraints against absolute liberty.

And be careful!  There are freedoms we wish to restrict from others that we might enjoy for ourselves.  Those should be considered as well… in the same way that Congress and Mr. Obama want “universal” health care for all but themselves.

The second question is, “How much is freedom worth?”

The final question becomes, “Who will protect that freedom and exercise the authority over my neighbor and me?”  If you some say in it, you are “old-fashioned” and might just want to be free.

Liberty is best preserved by restraint.  Killing people and blowing things up leads to loss of freedom.  That is a no-brainer, but what about the liberties we enjoy most every day?  Raising a family, living securely and peacefully in our own homes, keeping our jobs (or changing them if we wish), making decisions about our money and where to use it, deciding what to eat, what to wear, and who to associate with have been the American way for over 200 years.  Why does our Radical government and its supports now want to change all that?

Radicals want to indoctrinate our children and limit how many you have. They prevent us from protecting ourselves while they openly harass and watch us, and take our money to spend for “the common good.”  They tell us what jobs to take with which corporation by whittling away the laws of liberty.  They even have designs on  condemning meat, leather, and fur as a “greenhouse gas problems.”

Are you content with all of this?

Those were the Three Questions Plus One.  You now have a choice (and you had better make it quickly!) you have to ask yourself one more question: “If this is not acceptable to me, what am I willing to do about it, and how long do I have before the shrinking pool of liberty is locked away?”

Decide what to do first, and do it now.

Correcting Insensitivity

Whoever created the Obama Joker poster received a Progressive tongue-lashing for being “racist.”  Clearly, the communist/socialist community sees Lord O differently.  In order to correct the political scandal for Radicals, I have taken the liberty to recreate the concept using Nancy Pelosi in a PROGRESSIVE, CHANGE IS FAIR AND GOOD, sort of way.

The Pelosi Penguin