Jobs Created Nonsense

Jobs created?  Obama claims 4.5 million jobs created.  Factual nonsense based on a cherry-picking distortion from the statistics at the United States Department of Labor web site.  The truth is there are 300,000 more jobs since Obama became President in 2009. This is really dismal and can be attributed to population growth.  Romney claims somehow if he is elected he is going to create 12 million jobs.  This is also political rhetorical nonsense.

What does all this rhetorical nonsense tell us?  Neither presidential candidate has a viable plan on how federal government policies can be used to increase the No. 1 political issue-jobs and a sustainable economic recovery as we return into a recession in 2013.

I have a solution-fire Bernake as Fed Chairman, raise interest rates and get rid of these artificially low interest rates as set by the Federal Reserve that merely benefits the federal government's payments on the federal debt. Artificially low interest rates as set by the Federal Reserve is merely an indirect tax on all of us.

Raising interest rates will cause cash to start moving in the economy again leading to investment, jobs, an economic recovery and yes, inflation.  Politically, neither candidate for President wants to be honest with us and talk about these artifical interest rates.

Why not?  What they do not say, is even more important this election that all these statistical distortions about jobs created nonsense.  

 

American Twilight Zone

This uneasiness many of feel and live can aptly be called our American Twilight Zone.  We are at that point where most of us realize the bright and sunny day is descending into the long and lonely darkness.  Like you, I understand why. 

Harder, it is difficult to pinpoint our progression and causation as our national clock slowly moved our nation into this American Twilight Zone. Clearly, this clock took decades of progressive socialism.  Nor can we merely blame our past, current, or future batch of yahoo politicians alone.  In several prior posts, clearly it always far easier to cast the finger of blame outward, instead of inward towards ourselves.

It is always easy for an individual or group of individuals to blame this political group or generation for your own unique situation. Blaming someone, or some entity does not solve much of anything and merely keeps us divided along the lines of our own personal self-interest.  While we remain divided, then federally, things will be shoved down your throat as we move closer to a police-state nation.

I have clearly written this clock started historically clear back to the Great Depression and FDR's progressive socialism movement.  We as a nation continued progressive compassion with an undue reliance on a national or central government continously moving away from individual responsibility. Welcome aboard this slow flight into and past the the American Twilight Zone. 

Our politicians no longer discuss solutions-instead, we get flowery rhetoric lacking any specifics.  That is a big warning sign the darkness is coming.  The current presidential election only matters on how dark it is going to get as we are clearly a broke-ass nation based on fiscal and monetary policies.  All that matters really is how many hours are we as a nation going to stay on the backside of a Twilight Zone descending rapidly into darkness.

The Federal Reserve Bank's use of artificial interest rates is about as clear a sign as one needs.  I have written about this several times over the last few years. In fact, artificial interest rates are causing several things related to capital markets, investment,  jobs, little consumption and no economic recovery.  There is one good reason why-the American Twilight Zone has transformed us into this broke-ass nation.

When we cannot unite on solutions, then those in power will tell us what is their solution.  Whether you like it or not.  Welcome to the dark side of the American Twilight Zone.






 

 

Onward to the Dem Convention

Romney's tag line-we deserve better.  That, most of us agree.  However, many question whether Mitt is better.  He failed to convince most of us that last night.  What I find worth noting is how the GOP party appears to be using their convention to give high profile Gen X politicians plenty of exposure going forward.

Having been in both parties, I noted how the GOP party was far better at grooming candidates for the future.  The Dem Party consistently fails to groom future candidates.  For example, name a few rising high profile democrats and their suggestions related to making our nation better.  I cannot honestly think of any.  Maybe the Dem party spends most of their time focused on incumbents and trying to keep them in office.  Well, that kind of strategy is short term-not long term. 

Now it is the Dem Convention.  Hopefully, they will do what Romney and the GOP did not do-give us some kind of specific details on some kind of economic recovery plan.  But, being realistic, I suspect neither party machine really has any solutions they will implement other than austerity measures relatively soon.  It does not take a rocket scientist to understand our federal government is a huge and divided mess leaving us citizens uncertain about the next few years. 

After the Dem convention, maybe then the Presidential candidates will start laying out with some specificity exactly what they will do, post-election.  Some of us are wondering about what Obama will do on the VP pick-is he going to keep Biden in place?  Realistically, I doubt to see much more than a lot of rhetoric as both candidates have few solutions.  Since Obama will clearly do better in debates than Romney, as stated months ago, it really remains more likely Obama will be re-elected. 

Some of the recent economic indicators seem to make it appear QE3 will not happen until our nation needs it later.  There is some stuff that is going to happen in October and this delay related to the fiscal cliff is going to have to be addressed before the end of the year.  2013 continues to indicate to me, we are all going to take a hit of some kind in 2013.  So, kindly and humbly I suggest to get ready for austerity measures and some pretty quantum changes politically, national to the local level. 

Someone has to pay for this mess. I suspect all of us will be relatively soon.

What causes more anxiety-Isaac or GOP Convention?

Well, Isaac came a lot closer than I am to Tampa.  So, to me the answer is pretty clear.  Isaac.

I would write about my addressing my problems related to Isaac, but I just have a hard time spinning all the zany preparations I went through for my first close encounter with a hurricane-Isaac.  Tropical Storm Debbie recently was also my first.  So, heck that was nothing as compared my mind getting spun by Isaac.

I worked on my Isaac disaster plan from Wednesday until Sunday night when I secured my garage door getting ready for the 100 mph winds and the shaking glass in my home.  I had gas, an evacuation route, extra ice, packed bags, froze some ice in case I lost electric, etceteras.  I was certain with my creative and anxious mind, my home was going to get flooded.  Heck, end result-hardly any wind or rain.

I saw an author this morning on CBS that was talking about a book called Monkey Mind.  Now I feel relieved doing some background on this writer and his NY Times Bestseller.   The process he described is similar to mine.  He too understands doom and gloom mentality.

How one simple event like Isaac or the GOP convention can cause internal turmoil of epic and debilitation to one's monkey mind.  This presidential election is giving almost all of us monkey mind.  We have a presidential election with two yahoos neither of which inspire us with all their negativity. 

I have empathy with those in the Gulf states now having to deal with Isaac.  And further, lots of empathy with those that watch the GOP convention the next 3 days.  The horror of it all.

Later.

Drinking the Grapes of Wrath

The grapes of wrath are bountiful this season despite the drought conditions.  The fermented wine made from these bitter grapes should make a sour austerity kind of wine come 2013.  The dislike of the haves against the have-nots should ensure there is plenty of us to pay for it all.

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath classic clearly predict the outcome of our political dilemma.  The working are tired of paying for those that do not.  And this is how we are divided as a nation. Therefore, this post is about getting prepared for a big glass of wine from the Grapes of Wrath.

I see so many in our nation that are divided standing on one or the other side of this long grapevine this election cycle wanting to harvest these grapes. So, I have been suggesting to many to get ready on both sides of this grapevine.  Neither side can estimate how bad it will be after the harvest as many things will happen after the grapes are turned into wine and we all get plenty to drink.

Many are going to die and suffer hangovers from this wine. Those that are alone will have to once again try to rely on each other just to survive the huge depression.  In a decade or so, many will look back and have plenty of hostility towards yahoo politicians, Wall Street and the greedy that sold us all these seeds of wrath. Fingers will be pointing in many directions, including inward.

What unites us politically?

Short intro: I listened to two buddies recently arguing politics. Borh are divided politically just like the rest of us.  They both did the typical form of argumentation that we all are so acclimated to.  Why their party leaders were better than theirs, the negative attacks, some witty comments and the typical stuff associated with their own values, morals and beliefs.

I then asked them simply, what do they both agree on.  They had no suggestions.  I then asked them about war in the Middle East.  Both agreed and did not like our national policies on war and the threat of harm to our armed services.  We reached something all three of us agreed upon.  Now I can use that in this post.  What exactly do most Americans want politically united?

First, this is not as simple as it might seem.  To find commonality instead of what we are divided upon is a tad bit harder.  It is easy to find what we disagree on.  It is also easy to criticize and go negative.  It is hard to get unity on what are the problems, much less the possible solutions.

I did some research on the Internet on what historically most of us believe in common including the way we want to be governed as one nation, undivided that love our country.  Here is a link that I found.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republicanism_in_the_United_States.

This link strongly suggests and explains what we Americans typically value when voting. Further, it further it explains our national political ideology-our values, virtues, morals and history as a nation; and as individuals.

Republicanism is a historical idea and a philosophy that we all have in common.  Has nothing to do with our two-party system by any sense of a rational mind.  In common, we love our country because if we did not, a rational person would leave or expatriate to somewhere else one sees or believes would be better for them.

To further drive home this point, there are more people internationally coming here, than us going to their country.  So as a united nation, most of us feel fortunate and proud to proclaim USA as our home; despite our varied problems and extreme difficulty in agreeing what is best for all of us on any given political issue, or solution to any present or future high priority national problem.

Now most of us experienced politicians have to be prepared to address many political issues including those that we are divided upon.  Hence, most politicians except stupid ones like myself, generally will be really ambiguous on hotly divided issues such as abortion, guns, marriage and such issues for a good reason-fear of voter alienation.  As a candidate, most politicians have a general rule of thumb to limit voter alienation to around 10% to really be able to win any election.  I know-sad.

This political reality of voter alienation is why usually, one cannot get a straight answer from many ambiguous and rhetorical yahoo politicians.  I tried to be the opposite and clearly would address any issue, risking voter alienation of almost everybody, preferring voters and non-voters knew and appreciated my own openess, honesty and integrity. 

Further, I already knew to win an election, I could not just simply go either negative; nor have no solutions to important and high priority issues that just keep changing year to year. 

For example, there were subtle changes from my campaign on voter issue priorities from 2006 to the present that required a slight modification to my own position.  I also did a good job as a candidate from understanding my own position contrasted to voter expectations.  I continuously was refining and getting better relatively as a candidate.  I was pretty happy getting 20% of the vote in 2010 during the primary election.

Furthermore, I also was a realistic and knew I would almost need a "miracle" to win the election.  I had solid reasons for why I decided to run for Congress as a statesman and my goal was really a good reason for all-to unite our nation-to help as many as possible.  That kind of goal I am still addressing even today. 

Finally, an attempt a  real short and concise statement of what I have learned that we have in common:

1. Most of us love our country and our founding documents such as the United States Constitution.     However, we are deeply divided by what I refer to as started by FDR-progressive politics that the     Constitution is an evolving document, which I personally totally disagree and consider it the reason    we are in such a tremendous mess based on monetary and fiscal policy.

2. Most of us believe in our founding fathers vision now and try our best hoping our politicians     follow it explicitly; despite changes like shifts from a rural nation to now being more urban. For      example, most of us support the constitutional Bill of Rights and the rest of the constitutional      amendments, and all laws and regulations derived from them.

3. Most of us want our many governments, from national to local limited narrowly to provide some basic services to which we will pay some nominal taxes we really dislike and try one's best to keep them as low as we can without compromise, corruption or pay of them to special interest groups.

4. There are really a long list of what we like and dislike about our nation including the federal      government.  Some of the top things we want in common from the federal government are really      basic and so taken for granted, but fundamentally important, most of us will agree in general:

We all want to protected from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We want our freedoms and liberties upheld and kept, while wanting those who infringe upon those precious items, held accountable for criminal conduct because of their bad decisions from poor values and morals. For example, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right of the individual and the dual sovereignty of a national and state government.

We all want quality education for our children.

We want a good economic climate now and in the future including jobs and a good business climate.

We want and expect our national government and the politicians that we elected, to be honest like us, and have some fiscal constraint on how they use our tax receipts both efficiency and effectively about like we do, having to live on a budget within what we can afford. (Fiscal and monetary constraint).

We want our nation to be respected and considered good and moral having good virtue both internationally and domestically preferring to feel positive and inspired by our  leaders. 

In closing, this writing really sux.  That is something I humbly can admit most will agree.  It is really pretty darn hard to simply write a blog post that is short and concise trying to capture what unites us as one people, one nation based on all these various factors including our religious beliefs and founding documents.

I am out of here.  I got some more important stuff to do right now on a personal level.  My dirty dishes are calling and it is almost lunch time.  The final piece to this puzzle is most of us dislike all the negatives and the lack of detail from most of these rhetorical and ambiguous politicians most of us do not trust.

Later, subject to editing later.

Scary-Feds are getting ready for riots

The longer we as one nation continue to be divided, instead of united as one people in what we can all agree to, things continue to get scary. 

A friend told me about this early this morning after she heard it on conservative talk radio she relies upon. Apparently, federal agencies and I also presume state, county and local bureaucrats too, are getting ready ahead of time for riots and protests. This afternoon, I got this feed confirming what she stated earlier in the day:

See or click this warning including their source at  http://www.teaparty.org/article.php?id=4089.

Now I have written the same scenario was going to happen several times over the last few years in various blog posts--predicting there is going to be blood in the streets.  It is little consolation however, if any of us get shot with a .357 hollow point bullet by the varied governments over some minor disagreement one, or many of us have with some of these zany bureaucrats and our yahoo politicians.

Things are getting serious. Typically, regular readers regardless of what country know I am not one of those alarmists.  But I am getting closer now.  These bureaucrats are getting their hollow points ready and wanting to take your 2nd Amendment rights away too, concurrently. But by clicking this link, there are also some clear clues ahead, regardless of who wins POTUS election. 

Social Security is getting lots of hollow point ammo?  Why? I know what that infers to me about next year.  Huge cutbacks to the poor who get vocal just to survive what is coming in 2013. With stuff like this, should a capitalist buy stock in companies that either sell ammo, or in fire truck manufacturers whom will be real busy selling a lot of equipment to fight fires from all the burning caused by the poor and shot rioters?  Or both?

In a simple prayer, can't we as a nation find some common ground to unite us and actually do something together that makes our nation better?  Apparently not-the governments are getting both desperate and ready to shoot. N

Naturally, they have more data than you and I. They might have bullets; but one thing they clearly do not have is leadership we trust, vision and a plan to implement it, hope and the direction and desire to making our lives and country better uniting and inspiring as one people, one nation, under God.

I have already recently written a no confidence vote in either presidential extremist candidate. As well as a recent post here on a grave futurist prediction millions will be dying related to some less than stellar leadership due to extreme right or left political social engineering in such areas as health care alone. Are we really going to have to wait until 2016 to get a centrist leader?  Appears so.

What are you going to do?  Get a bigger gun in some kind of zany spiral of anticipated civil war?  Die if you protest from one of their hollow points?  Be subjected to a police-state?  Riot and protest?  Even worse, succumb and give up and becoming slave labor to a huge central government?  Sounds bad now-and going forward things continue to get darker. 

Then just to cheer me up further, I get another feed dated Aug. 2nd on how the Federal Reserve is getting ready to release some more quantitative easing this fall by buying a half trillion in bonds including adding to the 2 trillion the Fed has bought recently in mortgage backed securities to insure the too big to fail banks from collapsing. Here is that link at http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?p=5&id=279129


Just great.  Not.  Get ready-they certainly are.  All of these yahoos in DC including the Fed continue to refuse to raise interest rates from all this artificially low rates.  Which I have argued is a big problem preventing an sustainable economic recovery-zero to near zero artificially low interest rates. 

I mean, just think about the Federal Reserve-they announce it over and over-artificial-fake-close as you can get to zero.  They just fail to be transparent what exactly are "artificial" interest rates. Much less explain the rationale to the rest of us explaining clearly why a thing like artificial or zero interest rate is somehow justifiable in the national interest; while also explaining somehow that kind of nonsense is good for most of us.

Further, the evidence is clear and overwhelming Federal Reserve policy is not working.  Working at what is a better question.  Few jobs, the economy is in the tank, we are on a fiscal cliff punting away common sense monetary and fiscal policy.

Particularly so when most of us cannot get a thin dime loan for a cheap cup of coffee from our too big to fail banking system we the taxpayers had to bail out causing the value of our homes to collapse. But hey, there is good news-internationals can keep buying our domestic corporations, commercial and residential property and businesses still left, from the rest of us.

In satire, soon it will be McChina burgers and the China PowerMac i-phone at your work station to match all the clothing you wear with a clothing label stating "Made in China" you bought from your neighborhood China-Walmart.   

While in the meantime, that same banking system keeps gouging the few of us left that still have bank accounts, always coming up with new schemes charging us outrageous fees to just handle the small amount of money the few fortunate may have left.

Click that link thing above.  Things nationally are going from bad to gravely bad, time to  pray for God to help our nation.  We now need a lot of divine intervention. I really doubt if  God, Jesus or even the angels will even help now. 

They have to worry about getting shot too. 

Thank you primary candidates and election officials

I want to thank all those candidates for political office for all their efforts trying to make some geographic location better. 

I am grateful and appreciate the tremendous work effort of many.

That thank you also includes staff and our election officials.

POTUS OPTIONS ARE EXTREME: LEFT OR RIGHT WING SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Both POTUS candidates are extreme left or right in 2012.  We have no political center to pick from in 2012.  Romney's pick yesterday of Congressman Ryan as his VP made this obvious yesterday.  Romney's VP pick clearly puts his campaign to the far conservative right.

Romney clearly wants to gut entitlements which should make many of the senior block switch their votes to Obama.  Romney made this pick hoping to improve polling numbers.  His pick will backfire soon enough because it does not expand his base and in fact, alienates some of his voters like senior citizens.  Further, most of us realize the Presidential debates favor tax and spend Democratic Obama.

Ryan can certainly give a better speech than Romney. I liked what Ryan stated regarding how we as a nation have to see problems as merely opportunities to solve many issues we are divided upon.  All politicans should be clearly stating what solutions do they support; rather than merely echo what the problems are.  Anyone can make a huge list of problems we face as nation.

A leader and the person we want to elect to be President will, or should be demonstrating confidence that their offered solutions will demonstrate their understanding of what are the highest priority solutions we face as a nation. By doing so, they can unite, inspire and give us hope their proposed changes will give us hope they might work. This election cycle continues to show to date neither candidate is inspiring or uniting us.

Romney has his voodoo economic free market vision that favors the rich and corporations.  Obama's redistribution and raise taxes kind of theories really are not sustainable and to date, have done very little other than to scare most of us as we move closer to jumping off an economic fiscal cliff of sanity related to our national debit and balancing the federal budget.

When this happens, the voters will merely go to that second tier level and vote against the candidate a voter believes will cause less harm, instead of voting for them.  Or, the third tier, disgust with both and not vote at all in cynicism and apathy. I am considering moving to a new tier-I do not want to have to take responsibilty when voters ask me, who did I vote for in 2012 because I am not cynical or apathetic.  I am just not inspired by either candidate.

Therefore, since Obama certainly appears to have the 2012 election to his favor, I merely wonder what will happen the next four years politically.  Obama does not discuss his plans or solutions to high priorty issues over the next four years. 

So, it appears Obama is not adapting or changing his policies, we can merely expect more of the same Obama theories after the election.  More taxes and more spending in left wing social engineering hoping for more quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve. 

If we all really want to solve our national economic problems quicker, the Federal Reserve should merely raise interest rates. By raising interest rates, the economy will take off ensuring a quicker economic recovery.  The downside is more foreclosures and inflation. It seems the only reason the Federal Reserve is not raising interest rates to stimulate the economy is because by resorting to artificial interest rates benefit the national goverment, instead of benefiting we the people. 

The positives of raising interest rates is more than the negatives.  Until we get investment in the form of money and capital flowing again, the economy will remain stagnant; or applied to Obama, worse in national debt.  Clearly, Congress is not walking their talk either-there has been no major reduction in federal spending either.  As more and more of us in this nation move into poverty class dependent upon a central government entitlements. 

Since Obama will not have to pander the democratic base anymore, maybe he can switch his policies to do what is best for our nation, and all of us finally becoming a leader. There is a simple solution to our economy recovery.  Demand the Federal Reserve raise interest rates. 

It is impossible to have a sustainable economic recovery when only a select few have access to the capital markets. With these artificially low interest rates, those with capital, do not want to loan money to consumers.  Without consumption, there is no possibility of any sustainable economic recovery.

Or, expect this downward trending slope of economic things will continue to get worse and worse, the longer these rates remain artificially low.   This is merely my vision of a solution that will give us hope.    

H.R. 6169-The New GOP Regressive Federal Tax Scheme

I have now received two congressional updates by GOP congressmen on the new GOP regressive tax scheme.  Here is what I just received related to the same:

"Thursday, the United States House of Representatives approved H.R. 6169, the Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act of 2012, by a vote of 232-189. H.R. 6169 would provide an expedited pathway to pro-growth tax reform in 2013. The bill would require the House of Representatives and United States Senate to consider tax reform legislation according to an expedited timeline. Under the bill, expedited procedures would be applied to a tax reform bill containing principles included in the last two House-passed budgets: (1) consolidation of the current individual income tax brackets into not more than two brackets and a top rate of not more than 25 percent; (2) reduction in the corporate tax rate to not more than 25 percent; (3) repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax; (4) broadening of the tax base to maintain revenue between 18 and 19 percent of the economy; and (5) change from a ‘‘worldwide’’ to a ‘‘territorial’’ system of taxation."

I tried to get some detail related to this new scheme that is clearly a regressive federal tax policy scheme that clearly benefits the rich and the corporates.  The details are lacking and I cannot find any explanation of what is a "territorial system of taxation."  Nor have I seen any democrats respond to this GOP sponsored tax scheme.

When I see a lack of detail like H.R. 6169, my hope is this kind of tax scheme is and should be rejected regardless of the name of the act.  Simple and Fairer. 

Sprinkle some fairy dust on that Chik-Fil-A dinner

Politics must be viewed with some humor.  Obama is talking about fairy dust now instead of cowpies; while the nation is divided based on a simple CEO statement at Chik-Fil-A.  Various media outlets are blowing the Chik-Fil-A situation way past the Twilight Zone. 

For example, if the Pope issues a decree, do all the non-Catholics go to the Vatican or the local Catholic Church to support or protest whatever was issued=Heck no.  Ditto applied here.  This is pure media hype and the CEO statement is politically nothing.

 Some of those I hear discussing this issue are confused about the First Amendment freedom of speech rights.  Other more informed writers address this issue in depth so I will not repeat arguments related to the same.

Once again, we remain a polarized and divided nation, lacking a good leader to unite us. As far as I am concerned, I am getting to the point where I no longer care about any of this kind of nonsense.

I just look forward to yawning a lot when it come to party conventions and the upcoming Presidential debates. Maybe there will be a famous line uttered.  While in the meantime, none of us really know what either Presidential candidate will do on most issues, post-election.  

The only thing most of us can agree on is we are screwed as a nation with either yahoo.  For me personally this election, I don't want either want of them.  I do not even know who I would go to the next layer of voting and state, I am voting for x, only because I detest candidate y. 

Which is kind of the way the Tea Party see the 2012 Presidential election.  We do not like Romney-we just detest Obama.  Which to me, means neither are very good leaders uniting as a nation when voters are picking the next President not for their leadership, but which of the two can one tolerate based on self-interest. 

Sad and pitiful. 

The medium is more than the message-the medium is the new addiction

I posted a blog piece a couple of weeks ago about the writings of Marshall McLuhan who wrote one of his most popular books in the sixties coining the phrase, "the medium is the message."  Expanding on what McLuhan did not write is,  "the medium can also be a new cultural addiction."

Too many of us are far too wired with the cable TV, our cell phones, social media, Internet, emails and other unmentioned electronic message devices.  What all this wired technology is doing culturally to our great society can cause harm to those of us addicted to being wired.  Or even better, wireless.

Being one of the wired addicted, I now have to figure out how to unwire and get connected socially again.  Understanding an addiction is the first step to my own health.  It is a cultural fad many of us find far easier to deal with, than dealing with our fellow human beings. 

For example, I would rather cruise the internet as being more rewarding than doing my dishes or laundry.  Wired addiction to the medium in excess can cause many problems to many of us, regardless of age.  It can cause real cultural harm to our nation, if too many want the comfort of living in a digital world. 

This wired addiction carries out in one's education and later in one's professional life.  There are a lot of factors if most of a national society want to be wired and not have to leave their computer keyboards when it comes to employment.

Too few want to work in hard jobs and industries that are not connected to any computers.  That creates a good job market for the non-wired leaving plenty job opportunities for the lawful and unlawful immigrants that just want non-wired work. 

This wired addiction is being aided by our family lives and by our academic institutions.  All of us are being led down this path to an electronic education.  Our society overall is comparable to the Roman empire that got so lazy, it started relying on immigrant labor.  Just like here in America.  We are repeating the same mistakes of the Roman empire.  Will we get the same outcome?

Probably.

 

VA Nonsense-VA is not vet friendly and is an adversarial process

The Veterans Administration likes to claim their process is not adversarial.

First, reject that kind of federal agency logic, about 99% of the time.  I have been dealing with this alleged "vet friendly, non adversarsial" process since 1976.  Decades now and still am. Which suggests to me, veterans should have the right to legal counsel on vet claims.  Which the VA does not want to allow the legal profession to provide representation. Why not? 

The VA scheme is relied and based on having regional offices staff generally deny most vet claims using their legalese to take advantage of eligible veterans claims. 

Take the Agent Orange veteran situation for example.  Most claims  took what-around 30 years or so.  The VA hoped some of these vets harmed by Agent Orange die first, or just give up in dealing with the futility  Really quite sad.  Then, we have these new veterans having honorably served in Iraq and Afghanistan with their PTSD claims, many of which are probably valid, but not from this adversarial scheme controlled by the VA.

There is a model of a system that is not as adversarial and a person has the right to legal counsel in dealing with claims-the Social Security system with some finality-unlike the VA system, a claimant gets about three years on an application for SSA claims, befiore a claimaint has the right to have a court case. This SSA bureaucracy is also stacked against most of the claimants, but is no where near the adversarial bureaucracy of the VA.

From my extensive experience and longevity in dealing with the VA system, I see no end in my lifetime to the VA adversarial process. The cards are stacked with the VA having their staked deck of regulations and statutes to make some vet claims a life-long process. Further, I have seen this VA process take away VA benefits as a vet ages.  Which gets me to the point of this adversarial bureaucracy.

The cost to the American taxpayers and the need/suggestion to allow veterans to obtain professional counsel related to their dealing with an adversarial bureaucracy.  There will be those that will argue otherwise the VA system works, sooner or later.  I do respect the overburdened vet service organizations that try their best to be assistive to veterans.  But they too, have their limitations based on volume and note that most of them are not attorneys and many  work at VA offices. 

On behalf of the taxpayers paying for all this VA nonsense, with due respect, I kindly disagree any illusion the VA is vet friendly and a non-advesarial process paid for by the taxpayers.  Fixing this system would be a plus.

I also think A. Lincoln would probably agree the VA system is one big advesarial bureaucracy far out of control and beyond what he envisioned. Naturally, if you are a vet dealing with this process without benefit of counsel, welcome home and thanks for your dedicated service on behalf of our nation.

Even better than fixing this advesarial bureaucracy, is as a nation, stop going to war so often solely so the military-industrial complex keeps getting fed.  That might fix the VA adjudication backlog.

If Mitt wins, millions will die-If Obama wins, we continue being a "more perfect brokeass nation" and millions will die later by rationing

First, the good news related to socialized health care I participate in.  A year ago, one doctor told me I had macular degeneration meaning if I lived long enough I would eventually go blind.  Today, an eye doctor stated I do not have this eye disease.  So, that was good news. 

Then second, there is some bad news.  If Romney was elected, as far as he is concerned, many of us depending on entitlement programs like for the poor, the disabled, vets and senior citizens would just end up dying from what Mitt wants. Mitt has no compassion or empathy for much of anyone.  Mitt is all about money and the corporates and killing millions of us would just make Mitt happier. 

On the other polar extreme is socialist, "I want to be Dictator" Obama and his ObamaCare. Which we cannot afford either as we continue to jump over the fiscal sanity cliff into becoming a more perfect brokeass socialist nation like those in Europe.  And if you are too vocal, the dictator will send out his DOJ goon squad by simple direction to "I hate all of you", USAG lackey and coward, Eric Holder, Jr., with their AK-47's.

I do understand the arguments of the people that work do not like having to pay for entitlements including health care for those that don't.  Remember the Rick Santelli rant?  I do.

Makes sense along the argument of individual responsibility for one's paying for one's own health care. What next-a carbon tax on the air we breathe again post-election? Why Obama loves sticking to us new federal taxes is just mind-boggling rationale for his early lack of being a good leader..

Like I stated right after Barry took over, bailing out all the whiny state governments and the too big to fail corporates blew all the stimulus money in the short term; while shrinking the funds that should have been used to build long term infrastructure domestically, will go down as his biggest Herbert Hoover-like plunder of his sad and pitiful legacy as time passes.

Further, the more we go to socialized medicine and a federal government takeover of this entire industry, millions of people will also die too, due to a rationing system.

But hey, at least everyone will by force and mandate have some health insurance.  Good for the health care related industries, state governments, some students and those that cannot afford health care, much less health care insurance. 

Obamacare is not a good solution either since as SCOTUS told us, ObamaCare is really a new and un-American as one can get zany federal tax being shoved down our throats.

Then, I go back trying to reconcile a good constitutional argument for either position.  There is those basic rights to life, liberty and happyness.  Both presidential candidates are attacking this constitutional guarantee. 

Mitt's position is attacking the right to life and happyness that some would argue include health care as a fundamental right.

Obama's socialist mandate is constitutionally afoul of the rights of liberty and attacks the rights of individuals to be responsible for their own stuff including their own health care and insurance.

Neither of these two extremist yahoos seem to remember our nation was founded based on the fundamental rights being one of the key basic fundamental and critical components. And do not get me digressing on Barry's statement today only the military should have AK-47 weapons. That was a stupid statement.

To which equally was Mitt's stupid response was only perfect people like Dick "Satan" Cheney, Tom Cruise, Scientologists and Mormons like Romney should be the only individuals to have the right to bear arms.

Regardless of whom is elected President in 2012 (Obama), people are going to die either way because of health care policies by either..  Kind of a sad reality. And if you do not cooperate or protest, both Obama and MMitt wants to ensure only the military and their Gestapo-like police-state has AK-47s the bureaucrats will use to kill you, if you protest much of anything, the federal, state, county and local  government want to do. 

 Overall, I still reject both of these presidential candidates extremist positions on health care and right to bear arms policies. 

Too bad there is not another centrist candidate that is more in the middle on heath care policy  this election cycle.  Until there is a centrist, condolences go out now to those families that will soon lose a loved one that dies due to all this polar political extremism we are enduring now.

I am just in a good mood today knowing I am not going blind now. The bad news for all of us will be the millions of deaths caused by this health care extremism either way.  And if you do not like it, we here at the Gestapo have our  are AK-47's and you citizens don't.

Finally, I am just hoping I go high on the blog stats for inventing and coining the phrase "more perfect brokeass nation". 

How important a factor is health in politics-Stigma of Dieases

Usually, I do not like posting two posts in a given day.  But today, I have excess time to do so. There is an article written in the NY Times about the VP pick of Thomas Eagleton back in July 1972 that was very fundamental in my own political aspirations.Here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/us/politics/eagleton-pick-in-1972-colors-todays-vice-president-hunt.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1#commentsContainer

Later, in my own life, a few years later I was given my own disability status.  Due to the Eagleton VP nomination, I just figured politically, any aspiration to me being a viable candidate was dead due to the Eagleton flap.  Framing this in a rhetorical question, how important a factor is one's physical and mental health when it comes to any job?

One effect of the Eagleton rejection was that in my own world, I went into the closet on my own cognitive disability.  For many years, I was ashamed and embarressed about a disease I did not caue.  Until after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 misled simpleton me to believing it was ok to come out of the closet around 1994. 

Furthermore, it led me a few years later in 1998 to finally go ahead and run for elected office when I was asked to do so by others. Plus, I no longer hid having a disability being very active with other disability advocacy groups in Kansas fighting against all the disability discrimination I had endured since the early seventies.

In fact, I can still get pissed off about the stigma still associated with cognitive diseases, but none with physical impairments like heart conditions and other diseases.  Take Dick Cheney and his heart condition-that was not much of a factor unlike Eagleton.

Or take Howard Dean running for President and his caffeine induce  yee-haw was enough that he dropped out.  With Dean, I just saw one excited politician that was happy and positive.  The media saw it otherwise and destroyed Dean's aspirations. Or even Obama who at least was transparent about drug usage and his niccotine addiction.  I bet Obama still smokes.

Now I remain one of the leading activists in America, not wanting to forget what other and myself have had to endure and do one's best to overcome stigma related to health most of our lives. Whether than be in politics, relations, education or profession.  Be glad if you are not one of us, yet.  Yet because sooner or late the probability is you or someone else you love, will join our "little club". 

For years in litigation clear to the United States Supreme Court several times, I was merely telling the judicial  and administrative branches at the federal and state level what our world was like-a long story around 18 years dealing with the many faces of disability discrimination that still occurs a lot even now.  I have heard all the arguments from the disability haters-how worthless we are and why we should be just like they are.

In evaluating my life, I am one of the fortunate people dealing with a cognitive disabillity.  I pay a price for being out of the closet.  On a positive note, when I write about it, a goal is to comfort those like me hoping they overcome their own disease processes and the stigma they have to endure.  So politically,  I took my own experiences and turned lemons ot lemonades. 

In turn, that is and was one of my strengths making me have empathy and compassion for anyone having to deal with health issues. I see very little between physical and congnitive diseases.  Now advance to today. This presidential election, Obama has emapthy and compassion, along with the high cost.

Romney on the other hand is one of those that has very little empathy or compassion and all he cares about our dollar bills.  So, that is how the country is divided as well.  Do you have focus on money;  or compassion and empathy.   Or fall somewhere in between.  And that is how I view politics-is a person transparent about their health as one of the factors of their qualifications.

 I hope we are not an uncivil society that judges one based on a disease process that one has no control over.  For example, I did not cause my disability-I just do my best in trying to overcome the stigma. That makes me a better person having learned empathy and compassion and yes, that plays out in my political aspirations.  My diseases shaped who I am now.  Whether I wanted that to happen or not. 

So in my own self-analysis, I have been quite successful and benefited as a human being due to my own labors and experiences including the stigma associated with my health.  And will remain so helping as many as I can make our nation and people's lives better by being a writer choosing to live my own life out of the closet.

If your concern is money, lean on compassion and empathy  resulting in an extreme dislike of us, that is your problem.  I hope you get better with your own mental state of mind as you or someone you care about join our club. Then you too will better develop compassion and empathy for others as a new member in or little club.

Is the VA Claims Improvement Process a Good Thing?

VA health care (socialized medicine) and its claims process is an adversarial system that costs the taxpayers a lot of money.  So, any improvement in this huge socialized health system in real terms might lead to improvements in non-socialized health care, as well.

For example, see this link used by VA doctors to diagnose disability claims.  http://benefits.va.gov/TRANSFORMATION/dbqs/ListBySymptom.asp.

As a veteran, knowing the forms used by doctors for any condition is a good thing.  I learn the VA medical jargon, the tests used, and can search for my own medical stuff via a convenient check-off list based on symptoms I am well acquainted with, with minimal effort.

The good news is these checklists are beneficial to evaluation of anyone's medical conditions and symptoms. Vet or civilian.  It also serves as a good example of a fundamental change in all health care.  The patient is the expert on their own health.  The difficulty in conveying their health problems and symptoms with such documents and data would lead to a better heath care system. 

I prefer the efficiency of check lists in health care because they are easy to complete and documents known and unknown symptoms for starters that anyone can review and complete. So to me, this is a vast improvement due to its transparency.

Second, in regard to the claims process and the increasing backlog due to all the warfare and new vets, the VA put into place, a routing system and continues to digitize medical records.  But still, like I stated above, the VA remains an adversarial system on purpose. 

How claims are routed by regional office in the VA regional office's zany adversarial system will be used against eligible veterans to get rid of them quicker, still lacking a fundamental fairness to those vets that are eligible..  So there remains a lack of confidence on my part the VA will merely continue to be adversarial to eligible veterans and their claims.

Finally, in regard to Congress controlling spending, I see little indication that is going to happen. Recently, Congress sent to the Senate the COLA adjustment for inflation that will at the end of the year, give COLA adjustments to both VA and Social Security recipients a 1.9% increase in 2013.  Coupled with the increase to the Department of Defense, politicians remain just that in their puffery-kicking the can closer to the triple storm effect forcing the federal budget over the cliff, sooner or later.

All of this indicates to me, politicians and their pre-election rhetoric merely convinces me post-election no fiscal sanity will occur this year and more than likely little will be done in 2013 either. The good news to this post is a subtle improvement in health care by simply getting better data at the beginning of any process is an improvement worth writing about here. 

Media Split Decision Endorsements in the 19th District Congress Race

The newsprint media resulted in a split decision-Fort Myers News Press favors Goss last week and now the Naples News favors Byron Donalds today.  Interesting.  I do note the News Press was more balanced and gave a better analysis of all the candidates for the congressional race. 

Now I typically discount media endorsements because the media is typically pro-business kind of endorsement because their revenue is driven by advertisements.  So, I never fully trust the biased newsprint or the local TV stations for their biased favorite typically favoring the pro-business kind of candidate.

Furthermore, I also got some communication taking me to task concerning why I decided to endorse and even volunteered to help Goss, a relatively wealthy DC insider.  Goss and his campaign manager are the typical kind of politicians that to date get a big fat F from me, on a broad-based rookie kind of failure to not communicate back, not understanding I too have voters that supported me as a candidate.  I would assume Goss's campaign will make similar mistakes that cost him votes. 

So, I would expect the same kind of failure to us voters, post-election if Goss takes the congressional seat.  Big mistake on Goss and his staff.  Now they pay a price. So with a divided media, this should be a really great congressional election with each vote counting.  With all these candidates, a vote of around 25% just might be enough to proceed to the general election.

I was a bit surprised with the Naples news giving the endorsement today to Byron.  Byron does not have deep pockets as compared to some of the other congressional candidates.  I know both Byron and the democratic candidate Roach have put forward tremendous efforts in this congressional race and both are not rich, like Goss.  I like both Donalds and Roach for their work effort and getting out to get the vote.

So, in summation, the next 19th District Congressman race will be a real nail biter in the GOP primary.  So, I hope the voters do not rely on who has the most name recognition or spend the most money on the campaign.  If you as a voter really want a fresh voice as a congressman, then Byron gets the edge over Goss. 

Goss has deep pockets and will soon be, or should be advertising on TV heavily.  Along with some of the other candidates with deep pockets.  I doubt Byron can afford costly TV ads since he does not have deep pockets.  I know sometimes, the best candidate is not the richest candidate that burns the most campaign cash to buy a congressional seat.  It really is sad when an election is determined by most voters by name recognition and usually results in not electing the best qualified candidate.

One of the other candidates is running a lot of ads on the local media.  Probably too early, although the ads are quite good-but not the candidate.  This is going to be a good congressional race come August.  I hope voters do their research and choose wisely based on whom is the most qualified candidate-do you want a new person with a fresh voice not having deep pockets, or an experienced DC insider that has deep pockets.

That kind of decision I leave to the voters.  Maybe Byron can pull an upset victory based on his political ideology instead of how much a candidate spends to buy a congressional seat. 

Stand by for the August primary.  This will be a tight race.  I hope Byron as an underdog money-wise gets a fair shot from the voters-he certainly will give Goss some concern.  To Byron, good job.  You get respect for your substantial efforts and outstanding articulation on key issues winning most of the straw polls. So when comes to effort and hard work, I give both Byron and Roach an A.    

Romney continues to fail to inspire

Romney not only is hiding his tax returns (an issue of trust), he also is not very inspiring.  The GOP National Convention starts August 27.  All Mitt has done to date is basically run a campaign stating, I am not Obama.

Finally, as President Romney, I will run the federal government like a business operation helping corporations continue to do global outsourcing applying some kind of voodoo economics trickle down theories that by helping the rich and Wall St. with my kinds of zany economic theory.

Meanwhile RomneySpin hopes someday, somehow his zany theories help the middle and lower classes indirectly sooner or later get their fair share, as I take away federal entitlement support for those that are not rich like me. Even the Tea Party folks do not want Mitt-they just want Obama out.

Clearly, there must be something in those tax returns Mitt wants to keep hidden.  So maybe he does not deserve our trust.  And if he does, then he will be in trouble. Either way, Romney's candidacy is in a big heap of trouble.

Here in SW Florida, there is one Romney commercial where Mitt states what he will do in his first few days in office which is basically get rid of ObamaCare, get the Keystone Pipeline going, and do some deregulation. 

What I want to know is what he would do over the next four years. Hardly inspirational. Can the GOP get someone else?  What if Mitt drops out, rather than release his tax returns?  Then what?  Ditto for Obama's strategy of attacking Romney.

Neither candidate for POTUS is very inspiring to most of us.  I wish both candidates would state with some specificity what they plan to do, if elected.  This may be one of this elections were some of us decide to just not vote for, or against against either. Negative campaigning by both is not uniting us a nation demonstrating a huge lack of inspirational vision. 

I do not remember a Presidential race where I wanted neither. So this indicates both parties are failing to inspire, lead and unite our nation.  Pitiful.  And post-convention, Obama is certainly going to be the better debater since he does have some personality.  If Romney continues doing what he is doing, the 2012 presidential election is really over. 

Welcome to 2012. 

QE3 vs. Raising Interest Rates: Which is the better option?

On one hand, Fed. Reserve Bernake clearly disappointed Wall St. yesterday in understanding QE3 will do very little to promote a sustainable economic recovery.  Merely see QE and QE2 did not accomplish a sustainable recovery.

Further, Bernake understands as the economy plods along and his warning about the fiscal cliff, at some point in 2013, there may be a point in time when there really is a need to give the economy a kick due to the expected return of the economy right back to a recession.

On the other hand, there is still no discussion on historic low interest rates might be the real problem.  With historically low rates, banks are not going to loan money to hardly anyone.  By raising interest rates, banks will start loaning money again.  With loans, come more jobs and increased consumption.  With more jobs, more tax revenue. 

So, consider the alternative-an increase in interest rates.  Clearly, artificially low interest rates are not working, unless one considers a stagnant economy a success.  So why not give raising interest rates as discussed on this blog for several years now as what needs to done a chance. Yahoos in favor of QE3 merely want to stall the economy in the short term.

With rising interest rates, those sitting on cash will rush in to by housing which should be favorable event to the economy.  Naturally, the problem with rising interest rates are those sitting on adjustable rate home mortgages will increase housing foreclosures again as the free market takes effect. 

I continue to suggest raising interest rates is a better idea than QE3, 4, 5 and 6.  Basically, increasing interest rates is the preferred long term solution for a sustainable economic recovery. 

In the short term, raising interest rates may be inflationary and cause another round of foreclosures.  Considering how artificially low interest rates really might be the cause of this rotten economic recovery that is not sustainable.  At least Bernake and I understand QE3 is short term and will only cause more delays preventing a sustainable recovery. 

In fairness, I guess there is might be some kind of zany idea related to why we are not raising interest rates by those in power for something these politicians, the Federal Reserve, the White House and others do not want to tell us the real story why we keep doing this artificial interest rate nonsense much longer.

Finally, who is really getting the most benefit from low interest rates?  Americans should consider and be asking why not raise interest rates. Whom will be the winners and losers out there when finally we do see rising interest rates?  If there is a good reason why raising interest rates is not a solution, where is the argument? 

What does Obama, Romney and Penn State have in common?

Lack of transparency and trust.  Obama refuses to produce a certified and authenticated birth certificate and hides contact data for federal agencies. Romney refuses to produce his tax returns which relates to an inability to trust him.  Penn State hid the Sandusky stuff allowing child molestation.

All of which makes most of us lack confidence in both major party candidates and in our public institutions.  Now in regard to this Penn State situation, specifically, most of us are well aware of how power corrupts and results in harm and injury, not limited to just Penn State.  For example, who trusts bankers, Wall St. or any big corporation anymore?  We have lots of reasons to not trust them, instead.

The corruption and lack of transparency in America including the Supreme Court ruling corporations are almost  humans and therefore, corporations have a right to free speech.  Translated, secret contributions can be used without any disclosure to buy political favor.

Does any entity or person wonder why most of us are skeptical and disfavor elected officials and these corporate entities?  What lies at the root of all of this is their morals and values. Or, lack thereof.  Until those in power become more moral with solid values of real transparency, expect more of the same lack of both our confidence and trust in them merely continue. 

While these yahoos will merely try that classic line, trust me.  Right. 

Not.  

Some good things related to America

Based on my experiences and aspirations including politics, following any subject area gives one an age on being a future predictor of what most likely will happen.  Ditto for what you are an expert on in life.  You can gather data and be a futurist in an area one specialized in.

In most of my writings, it is hard to see America in a favorable light in all this doom and gloom period.  Usually, when it comes to politics, people want to vote for the person that can spin the best illusion or hope.  This is one of the keys to winning elections.  In regard to some positive data I read lately, I was reading some economic data on GDP across the world.

The data reflects the US still has the highest GDP in the world.  So, we are NO. 1 in that category.  And the good is, that economic data is going to continue this decade.  Further, the US due to this high GDP, manufactures 20% of all products globally.  So, that is good data as well. 

I regularly read articles about what exactly do we still manufacture in the United States.  And one can google to see the results.  The US has certain manufacturing left where our manufacturing is still the best in the world.  What many of us see, is a slow reduction in manufacturing capacity and their jobs due to this globalization effect.  Clothing and apparel manufacturing is pretty topical right now.

I am seeing more posts related to returning to protectionism including slogans like Buy American resurge.  When of the negative effects of buying American like an American car is the poor quality compared to the global automotive market.  Further, we have to deal with foreign corporations buying up American manufacturing.

This leads me to suggest and support the need to reduce corporate tax rates on domestic corporations that are truly manufacturing with US parts and keeping jobs here in America at very low tax rates.  In turn, I also support trade protections and high tax rates on foreign and domestic corporations at the current rate that are globally shopping for parts and labor all over the world. 

This creates another negative effect because in doing so limits choice and tends to be inflationary on consumer choices. The bottom line is if we want to create American jobs using American made manufactured products, then the trade off is sometimes there will be  lower selectivity, lower quality at a higher inflationary price.

Sounds like changing the corporate tax rates favoring domestic corporations might be a chance and a change the American public can unite behind.  If we do nothing, things globally and domestically will only continue to get worse.

We need to unite as Americans, regardless of political affiliation and our selfish self-interest.  And if those in power in elected offices continue to not compromise and change something, we need to throw them over the cliff. So enjoy the GDP facts as I did, pondering endlessly into what exactly do we manufacture here in the United States that does not come with french fries or related to health care, or financial services industries including banks and Wall St.

In closing, get the tax code reformed including changing corporate tax rates, raise interest rates and let us get this doom and gloom economic phase over, finally making investment possible in our infrastructure creating non-government jobs that actually produce something across the board as the economic engine takes effect in a better and real economic recovery. 

Obama's expected 2013 Inaugural Speech Post-Election

Here is what Obama's post-election Presidential inaugural speech might/should look like around next year-he will simply change a few words and phrases around to modify the father of American progressive socialism's inaugural speech given by FDR in 1933 next year.

 If we forget the past, we will merely foolish repeat it.  I remember the past and it serves as a good warning what to expect real soon. In closing, how can one not notice the similarities and unreasonably expect 2013 to be optimistically different.  I merely add the only thing we have to fear is further expansion of progressive socialism and huge central government clearly out of control and dysfunctional to the point of being ineffective.

Below is a word for word text of that speech.  I am presuming Obama's speech will be very similar.

*********************FDR 1933 Presidential Inauguration Speech

I AM certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.	1
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.	2
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.	3
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.	4
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.	5
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.	6
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.	7
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.	8
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.	9
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.	10
Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.	11
Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.	12
There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.	13
Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.	14
The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.	15
In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.	16
If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.	17
With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.	18
Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.	19
It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.	20
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.	21
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.	22
For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.	23
We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.	24
We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.	25
In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.	26

Remembering Marshall McLuhan-The medium is the message

I remember reading Marshal McLuhan best seller released back in 1967. I remember it was not an easy read as a teenager, but I did get his message-the medium is the message.  He also is attributed with a lot of other things such as terms like "global village", "global theater"and predicted the Internet happening including coining the term "surfing".

Further, on-line, it is reported McLuhan personally inspired Timothy Leary to popularize the phrase McLuhan was credited with coining the phrase Turn on, tune in, drop out by its popularizer, Timothy Leary in the 1960s. So, I would really like to re-read some of what McLuhan wrote; updating and modifying what he wrote in 1967 and afterwards until he passed.

Some critics attacked McLuhan for what he wrote at the time. However, what he did write about pop culture rings true today, as it did back in 1967. So if you are an Ayn Rand fan and like trying to find John Galt, you might want to also read what McLuhan wrote on line regarding the various forms of media as we progress due to all this technology we have to deal with.

Moreover, if you understand Ayn Rand and get Atlas Shrugged by yourself the first read, McLuhan will be a simple read for those gifted more than my simple and humble self.

In short summation, what McLuhan wrote happened. Going forward, what we can we try and anticipate and predict about mass media forms, going forward in these difficult political and economic times?

But  first, I want to digress reflectively to those events before 1967 to give both your and my life some relative perspective.  Being a baby boomer, the impact on the various mediums led many including my generation into this mass media addiction-TV, Internet, surfing as described by McLuhan, and various other forms of electronic media available that others may use, but I do not use all. I think if I used less, I would probably be more social with the rest of humanity by turning off.

At my age of 58, I am jumping off the technology bandwagon choosing to no longer leapto each new fad form of media like cell phones, notepads, e-books and Twitter accounts.  Heck, I have one of those dvr things and have no desire or ambition to figure how to use such things.

Back in the fifties and sixties, the medium did certainly shape the message-our culture more than family or institutions.  Maybe even worse, the media propaganda formed not only our culture, but also impacted our values and morals.  My generation, during the late 60's and early 70's rejected most forms of authority including parents and institutions.  Now, many of us old rebels are now the Tea Party folks.

Instead of family and institutions, we relied instead on that TV thing having the 3 major networks controlling programming back in the day.  And wow, when we got a color TV, I felt our family moved socially to the middle class.  My family was now one of those small town "high class" families since we had the luxury of wall-to-wall carpet and an air conditioner.  We even had indoor plumbing, a 3 digit party line phone and no outhouse unlike some of our family still out there living and struggling to hang onto farming in rural America. 

For example, a lot of our baby boomer morals and values makes me wanting a simplier Leave it to Beaver kind of mentality person.  I miss Andy Taylor and that Mayberry kind of feel good morals and values types of programming.  And maybe we might see a resurgence soon in network programming allowing us a distraction and coping mechanism due to all the present doom and gloom mentality. 

John Wayne hero movies and Vic Morrow reruns of Combat are gone, but another John Wayne type hero or heroine many might wish for hopefully will appear soon promoting American morals and values  again, may appear in a similar type of feel good escape from reality format.

Not to mention all that Olympic stuff to watch from London later this summer, while I am waiting for NFL preseason to get underway. I also spent a lot of tv time back then watching sporting events including Jim McKay almost every Saturday on ABC's Wide World of Sports. So athletes were also hero and heroine types lots of us admired.

Right or wrong, leads me to kindly to suggest to others the new message might be "don't turn on, tune out and turn off"  suggesting we let go of this undue reliance on the mass media and technology for the hazards and harm these sources cause effect on our lives leading to avoidance of contact and social involvement with other human beings. Kindly, we need to reconnect with humanity again, fighting the addition and ease related to the tech universe.

Anyway, gotta go.  Time to tune in to cable news and check on my internet and Facebook account; while tending my Internet farm on Farmville. So enough blogging for today.  Probably write some more stuff hardly anyone reads tomorrow.  Thanks to social networking.  Almost everyone is now in some kind of form, a blog-type writer these days. 

To those that avoid libraries and books, here is a link source below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

2013-The Worst Depression-Expect the can to get kicked over the cliff shortly followed by lots of politicians by us, we the people

The way the economy and Congress is acting, 2013 certainly is going to see a post-election Congress kick the proverbial can off the fiscal sanity cliff.  Post-election regardless of who wins the Presidential election (Obama), 2013 is going to be even uglier than now.

To kick the can even closer to the fiscal cliff to delay for a short period, the Federal Reserve will have few options, other than do quantitative easing, part III.  (QE3).

Other sources report of the wrong direction of ObamaEconomics.  See http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/01/12/the-worst-economic-recovery-since-the-great-depression/

Now to put all of this into historical perspective, see this link of all US recessions as shown below for comparison.  I will leave it up to the reader to place proper perspective on which recession we are historically close to right now.

The link also states historically what happened to get into and out of that recession/depression.  So both links give us a good perspective based on history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

Subsequently, when QE3 fails to cause any sustainable economic recovery just like the first two parts, the only option remaining will be the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, finally. Which is what should have happened quite a few years ago.

Due to ObamaEconomics and his creepy theories and putting effect socialism by mandate backed by Chief Justice Roberts betrayal, plus raising all kind of federal taxes to pay for for it, QE3 is way too late fiscally as the federal government goes deeper and deeper into federal debt. Spending federally has never worked before, nor will it work now regardless of how  wrong Keynes was with distorted economic theories.

What has worked during domestic recessions to do an economic recovery is crank up the war machine engine. Which is what we have done as a nation over and over, making us few friends internationally.  Which sadly may eventually happen due to defaults and trade wars by countries like Europe and we will sadly call that kind of option, simply WWIII.

When interest rates do finally rise domestically, then there will be a major depression as the stock market collapses along with hyper-inflation and austerity measures coupled with higher taxes at all levels of government are put into effect. So, there is certainly going to be a lot of civil protests, that will only result in our governments forcing upon the rest of us, a police state when most of us realize creeping socialism here in America is about as un-American as we can get. 

So the bottom line here is we are heading for the perfect storm effect-major economic depression, austerity and hyper-inflation domestically.  While globally, there will be a global depression in many industrialized countries. For example, notice the ridiculus prices of groceries lately?  Are you tired of eating chicken like I am?

No big deal.  Many of us can get better when it comes to dealing with poverty.  Dealing with the upcoming austerity followed by a police-state will be a lot harder as more people join the poverty class as the middle class slowly evaporates losing their homes and jobs; leaving the elites in charge of everything as they rape the rest of us for a while. 

Clearly, the direction we are heading, the only safe jobs are working for a government bureaucracy that will do everything to maintain itself.  City governments taking bankruptcy is merely another  warning sign things are getting worse.  Soon, that will be following by states taking bankruptcy and ultimately, at a federal level. 

Naturally, all this doom and gloom is not all going to happen all in 2013. Politicans will drag it out as long as they can keep can-kicking.  Which subsequently, we the people will throw more politicians over the cliff also.  This scenario will take several years. But 2013 is when most of the economic stuff gets thrown over the cliff first as stuff continues to hit the fan in your household.

To those that have already been through,  or already in the poverty class, they already know how to survive and understand peace of mind is still possible by gratitude for simple things; while sadly having empathy as all these newbies join them. While the few elites most favorite line will be the French classic, "let them eat cake". Most of us remember how that turned out.

Out of that muck of a perfect economic and political storm, the American spirit will slowly climb out of this muck of poverty despite a police-state to slowly rebuild our nation as we come to this realization of how important family, friends, prayer and simple pleasures are once again, as we learn to rely on each other during tough times just like what people did during the Great Depression.

Naturally, expect many politicans and the can to get kicked over the cliff.  It is just a matter of when as federal, state and local politicians have few options remaining.  Out of all the muck, there will be a true leader that finally inspires and unites all of us. Hopefully, around 2016. 

If the Great Depression was bad, what should we call this depression? I suggest we just give it a name right now and at this juncture, I could care less what economists try to merely label what we are experiencing is only a recession and a really slow but unsustaintable recovery.  So, let us merely call it what it is. 

The Worst Depression. 

      

USAG Holder needs to go

Eric Holder needs to go.  He keeps wanting to be political and infringe on several states sovereign rights to ensure those that vote, are eligible to do so.  State election officials in turn have a profound duty to ensure there is no voter fraud come election time. When several states try to stop voter fraud, then Holder interferes in that process. 

Furthermore, Holder also is aiding in ensuring undocumented or unlawful immigrants are not deported.

What is Holder's problem?  Is this a problem with his boss, Obama?  We have a big problem in America when Holder and Obama want dead people in Texas to continue to vote unlawfully. See this link below for a practice that continues by Holder unabated, not limited to just Texas.  And Florida and Arizona.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/10/us/texas-id-law-holder/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Not only should Holder not be our USAG, he also should not be an attorney anymore for failing to uphold and enforce the United States Constitution as a condition of being licensed as an attorney-at-law.

How many people will be in heaven given the entire history of civilization?

I am just pondering again and googling stuff, like many do.  So, if good people go to heaven and presuming most are good in excess of their evil,then  how many people will be hanging out wanting to spend time with God; while still being near to their loved ones that have passed.  Considering most of the entire human civilization will be there.

Now I know humans or humanoids have existed over 40,000 years ago.  So here is a post on how many probable people might be in heaven when all the rest of us get there. Further, there are folks that will come after you and me.  Roughly, the link below states around 107 billion people are estimated to have existed including over 6 billion presently . See the link below as one source estimates.

http://www.prb.org/articles/2002/howmanypeoplehaveeverlivedonearth.aspx.  That is right folks.  Heaven will really be one big place with lots of people, however you believe heaven will be.  Standing at the Pearly Gates of heaven, St. Peter is going to need a lot of help deciding who gets in and who does not.  Maybe that is why God needs all those various kinds of angels.

I merely wonder if and when a person does get to heaven, do they have to work with real estate agents like I am now?  Does heaven have better neighborhoods that have status due to how well one has lived a good and moral life as defined here on the planet earth?

I know way too many rhetorical questions.  Nor am I a judgmental type.  I am uncertain even who and how many will be in hell.  I do think Dick Cheney will be there right next to Satan. In contrast, I bet Ronald Reagan will be in heaven, unlike Dick.

I remember long ago, attending 8th grade at a Catholic grade school. I asked both my teacher who was the principal and my church pastor where is my beloved cat going, and why animals and other creatures of God, are not going to be in heaven also. 

Both of these two informed me my cat does not get to go to heaven.  That made absolutely no sense to me as a 12 year old; or now.  That was one of those milestone events leading me into philosophy not taking what I was told by others as being an absolute truth.  I therefore became a critical thinker at the age of 12.

Finally, the data above makes a big presumption that includes only our planet.  What about the rest of the universe we know little about.  Where do they go? Are we really the only life form and species in existence that goes to either heaven or hell?

Gotta go.  Places to go. I need to find me a good real estate agent here on earth and another one in heaven so I can get prime beach front property in the afterlife right near my deceased family and cat.  I hope my loved ones including my cat are real close to God, near Oprah so I can ask some of these rhetorical questions directly to God in person.