Monday, December 30, 2013

SEIZE THE MOMENT

A newsletter from Bernie Sanders I suggest you read as he lays out the agenda for 2014 that we all should back. read  IT HERE

I DON'T LIKE 2013,GREEN EGGS OR HAM

There were so many things that caused my eyebrows to rise and bring pain to my aging heart that I didn't know  if I should start this blog.  But an article by Paul Craig Roberts gave me incentive to post.

So here goes list of things that bothered me in 2013.

Leaks that showed my government spying on me my means never even thought about and worse yet it doesn't seem to bother others as much as it does me.

Keeping troop in Afghanistan knowing full well that it will return to Taliban control when we leave example Iraq today is worse than we went in at the cost of many lives killed and damaged.

Then the President saying he wanted to bomb Syria and the country mostly saying Hell Yah

Watching a congress sit on their asses and accomplish nothing while in public starting a ruckus over problems that did not exist.  Watching while the country burned.

Watching the Federal Reserve pour almost a trillion dollars into the banks interest free with the thought of creating jobs.   It bother me they might think I am dumb enough to believe that. It bought a beautiful rise in the stock market in which few of us participate and call that an economic recovery,REALLY

Watch almost daily film of cops brutalizing citizens for little of no reason, I mean just beating the shit out of them for sassing a cop.

Watching a major city locked down with heavy armor rolling thru the streets looking for two bombers (sure they caught them) but the sight of cops dressed like combat soldiers depressed me.

Watching banker after banker allowed to settle for millions of dollars if fines for stealing trillions from common folk seemed like less that justice.  After all they committed multiple felonies easily proved they just walked away from.

Militarily Gitmo is still open, we are still in Afghanistan, we are now in Sudan, the drone program has been expanded in war and in peace.  The collateral damage is seldom talked , except when we bomb wedding parties.   The mental state of the guys and gals running these programs is never talked about but some of the pilots and annalists have started to talk of the mental problems they are experiencing during and after their tours.

It's troubling to see a huge number of folks unable to find work of any kind and then see their social programs cut time and time again.  23% is the real number of unemployed not the 7% the government claims.

It's troubling to see that half the countries household income in 50,000 or less.

It's troubling to see the ten largest employers in the country pay minimum wage and some teach their employees to supplement their income using government support programs, and then their is McDonald's telling their employees not to eat fast food because it is unhealthy.

It bothers me to hear teachers I know talk of high school student who can't read, follow simple instructions.  To see school administrators have kids hauled off by cops for supposed crimes that any good teacher of old would have handled in the classroom .

It bothers me to watch hours of cable new and local news and actually see little news.. If you want to know what is going on you have to search it out yourself.

It bothers me to see folks driving , walking , doing business while on their cell phones it is like they can't stand to have an idle time to think.  Then get them in a room they have little to say.  I'm confused.

It bothers me to see things like are in Roberts article linked above to see mother hauled off to jail for child abuse for letting her kids ride scooters in their own driveway because the gal who called it in was to lazy to look and see the mother in a lawn chair watching her kids.

It bothers me to see kids expelled of suspended for bringing as aspirin to school and other offenses so minor they could have been handled in  a better manner.

This list could go on for a lot longer but I know your eyes are getting tired.  By now you know a lot of things bother me about our country .  The hell of it is most of this can be changed by each one of you but you have to act... The fact that we allow all this to happen to us and say very little is the most troubling to me of all the things mentioned.

Hell I think I will close and go watch DUCK DYNASTY!!!    

Saturday, December 28, 2013

SHIT HAPPENS ON SCHEDULE

We do not learn from history , because if we did the same thing wouldn't happen over and over again, but it does.  80 years ago we were in the Great Depression and we are living thru another one right now. Sure they don't call it that because we are less honest today than back then.  If you use the actual data figured in 1930 style as plotted by SHADOW STATS you'll find the same kind of numbers as found during the GD.

UNDERSTANDING OUR PLIGHT

Even a quick look at the above chart gives you instant understanding of why your budget just doesn't cut it anymore.  After you factor in inflation you are further behind that your grandpa was during the big one.  

So how did we get back it the sane spot as the last depression.  The name of the game was the same and they sold it essentially the same way as last time.  In 1980 Ronald Regan convinced us that deregulation and huge tax cuts for the rich was the way to go... running up a 3 trillion dollar deficit and large increases in defense spending did create some jobs..  The most damage done in that time period was by Bill Clinton , hands down the winner in screwing the working man.  NAFTA , GATT, WTO AND BANK DEREGULATION put in motion that gets us the gears in motion to destroy us. 

Blowing bubbles in the economy became the job of the Federal Reserve and they did it with gusto ,  First blowing a Internet bubble where startup after startup went public in a few months and sold for large sums of money although they have never made a dime and never will.  So of course the market blew up.  According to the FED there is only one way to recover from a bubble , blow another one and they chose housing this time around.  Simply by selling houses to anybody that had a body temp slightly above room temp causing housing prices to skyrocket upwards at 15 to 20% per year to heights unmanageable by the working man.  But before the bubble popped they built derivative packages so corrupt making Al Capone look like a nun.  Even today an exact dollar amount on the housing derivative market are just guessed at the real number is unknown.  With those jewels they brought down the world. Watching much of Europe suffer trying to pay off the bankers that sold they that trash is causing austerity programs that are destroying country after country.  

At home millions lost their houses while also loosing their jobs thru the loss of 50000 factories with only some of them replaced by minimum wage jobs..  Here we sit facing the real unemployment rate running at 23% and benefits from the government either being reduced or done away with , putting people on the street and desperate.  

Now we are waiting for the final leg down, probably cause by a huge Interest rate derivative package that runs as high as a quadrillion dollars, when it pops it will destroy every bank in the world , one reason you see the rich and corporations holding huge sums of cash. When the world explodes they will buy it up 10 cents in the dollar as they always do.  That will put us  economically  officially in the Second Great Depression.  

The way out is generally done in one of two ways.. You spend huge sums on rebuilding infrastructure providing jobs which puts money in the hands of working man and then into the market replacing the stuff they lost in the downturn. Sometimes this escape is aided by a Great War and I hope we don't do that this time..  Either way we will pull our way back to a decent life.  Till the next time the  big guys go on another rampage.  

Somewhere we will find a leader to lead us outta the swamp. There are several out there we just have to get more desperate before we act.. Hang on , help  one another , believe nothing you are told till you can verify it..   and then we will be back.     




Wednesday, December 25, 2013

SEASONS GREETINGS


WISHING YOU ALL  HAPPY HOLIDAY'S 
THE TIGER




Thursday, December 19, 2013

COMPLACENY OR HELPLESSNESS?

The American middle class has been hammered for the past 33 years yet all is calm.  How can that be?  We have lost most of our manufacturing jobs replaced by low wage burger flipping or retail sales paying in a lot of cases much less that a living wage. Some have several of these jobs to try and provide for their families.  In lots of cases both members of the family have multiple jobs and just earn enough between them to live.

No street movement has been detected unless you wish to count the Occupy movement as a street movement.. At this juncture I am not sure what I call the Occupy folks, hardly a movement I think as they had no real goal , bragged on the fact that they had no leaders, they relied on hand wiggling meetings to decide their course of action.. No stated demands, no leaders, no effect..

We look around the world and see masses in the streets over a lot less than has been done to our middle class.. Everywhere you look except the USA people are in the streets fighting for their rights or some social change , they are even at times violent.. 

But not here in the good ole US.. So it begs the question are our citizens complacent, or do they just feel helpless.   I can make a case for both but I am leaning toward the complacent side of the argument..   There is little excuse available for folks to claim they didn't know they were being had.. what with the internet, Facebook like sites, Twitter, texting, cell phones etc. they can't possibly not know they are being had.

If you talk to people in the streets about their economic plight they look at you like your crazy.. More often than not they shrug and say that is just the way it is.. If quizzed on how to bring about a change for the good , they don't have a clue.  We see the beginning of a movement in the fast food business with their one day strikes..but one day is not near enough.. The hell of it is if they walked till they win the day , the day would never come as their are too many unemployed folks waiting to take their crappy jobs.

So the change needs to be made by those of us who buy their products, but a whole lot more need to participate in boycotts of their establishments.  We can with a little effort change who we buy from.  Walmart is the biggest offender in the country but the other top  ten retailers are as bad..  Fast food joints are a major offender.  We can select other choices, local providers where possible but if not available choose places that treat their workers better.. Some examples of choices I have made , I don't shop at Walmart most of the time, I don't use Dishnet because their customer service is foreign based.. Direct is local.. There are local food establishments I use.. Winco, Cosco, Foodmax etc.  If we all started making choices like that we could force a change..

So in the end I believe that a majority are complacent and because they see it as hopeless that they could bring about change..

What we are needing is a leader such as a Martin Luther Kind, or maybe just a John Kennedy .. There are a couple of politicians out there that could lead a Elizabeth Warren, or a Bernie Sanders or an Alen Grayson, they would of course require we get off our dean and dying asses and back them by going to the streets, not going to work, not paying bills and spending no money.. Shortly when their cash flows stopped they would seek what it will take to bring us back to work..  The leaders such as those mentioned would have the clout to get us what we need.  If we took the political route it would take longer with a lot of small contributions to fund and cut the corporate folks out of the loop.. It might take an election or two to vote out the scum factor in congress but it can be done.. the Tea Party showed us how..

We can change it if we want to get change.  

Friday, December 6, 2013

DANGER-THEIR TRUE COLORS ARE STARTING TO SHOW

Third Wave claims to be a centrist group although I have yet to see a policy that was center at all , mostly to the far right.  This week in the Wall Street Journal attacks Elizabeth Warren and the newly elected Major of New York for their progressive "You can have it all agenda"  .  This said by a player in the top 1% game whose real goal is to have it all, while the two mentioned dems simply want what really should be called a right not an entitlement.

In a later piece in the Journal a response to the attack on the two dems four other dems were outed for their support of Third Wave projects.. They of course said they disagreed with the piece but stayed on board.  Any democrat who participates in any organization that pushes for destruction of the two premier progressive programs most important to the health and welfare of our senior citizens.  A quick look back at the plight of seniors before these programs will tell you how serious the elimination of these programs would be.

Both of these programs are easily fixed but of course getting those changes are not going to be easy at all with pukes like Third Wave and Alex aided by the Koch brothers money is backing the propaganda this bunch pukes out.

The democrats named in the second piece should be targeted right now for places in the unemployment lines.. Wavering like these folks should not be tolerated and should be removed from politics.

For a mental update on the causes of the Great Depression with parallels to our current depression read Tom Hartman's THE CRASH OF  2016.  Mount up folks the fight is just beginning.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

AS GO DETROIT SO GOES THE NATION

A federal judge ruled today that any state or municipality can negate their pension liabilities by seeking federal bankruptcy protection.  In the state of Michigan these pension rights in the state constitutions are not to be changed from the negotiated agreement , but the judge didn't even consider the city employees right under that constitution .  The details of the agreement are in THIS DOCUMENT.

THE BEST STORY OF THIS RAPE HERE

Agreement after agreement private and public have been dispensed with in these bankruptcies making a suspicious one like myself to believe that the real reason behind these bankruptcies is to destroy the union agreements and get out of the benefits owed.

First it was the wholesale removal of factories making  everything from socks to heavy equipment.  Removing in the end 50000 factories and 5.5 million blue collar jobs from the workplace.  Never fear we were told high wage white collar jobs would arrive to take their place.  Some did appear only most of them to disappear a short time later off shored as well . Unemployment has shot up to 23% according to Shadow Stats even as a recovery is in progress.  On top of the unemployment numbers you have the sad fact that half of the jobs created were minimum wage jobs, flipping burgers, or mixing drinks and waiting tables.  Many I know with college degrees cannot get hired even to flip burgers and God help you if you are over 50.

With all corporate forces including our own government working to drive our living standards lower and lower we don't have a chance as long as we cling to the falsehood that we are a nation of independent people.. You must know by now that we cannot win this fight standing alone.. their will always be a guy willing to flip burgers for less. So are you beginning to get the picture?

Their is only one way to get our nation back, we have to ban together in a NEW MOVEMENT (not a party) all parties are against us .  We need a movement embracing right, left, middle, everybody to work as a force against those who are against us.

I know what you are thinking YOU BET YOUR ASS I'M TALKING IS CLASS WARFARE, the problem is we are already in one and we don't have an army.  No I am talking about a shooting army , I am suggesting we get together and apply the one thing we have to fight with. Our labor , our wallets and our will to win.  Generally an army needs a leader but we don't have one, but to begin we don't need one.  If as one we did not go to work, don't go to Walmart or Amazon and keep it up till they cave in and ask what will it take to get us back to work.  If we don't participate in their game then their profits start to drop , stockholders start to squirm and they realize they do in fact need us.

There are lots of progressive organizations out there functioning as individual units , ready forces that could all unite behind one game plan and take back charge of our own destinies.