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.