As the current financial "crisis" continues and all assume it will be avoided by August 2nd or there abouts our Nation will still suffer and suffocate under the current regime and this will not at all put confidence in business owners due to regulations put upon them.
All these new regulations really equate to hidden taxes or "unfunded mandates" on business and most informed folk's know full well what two major things happen when this occurs;
1) The business's of all sizes and industries pass on those higher taxes or cost of new "regulation's" to the consumer be it individuals or other business's and
2) When the cost of doing and or operating a business rise they cease to do any hiring of new worker's and most likely will begin a new round of layoff's.
Even if this so-called "crisis" is averted we will not be out of the wood's of a dangerous financial forest until we stop all the culprits such as Green Peace, Van Jones and Al Gore with his ilk from lobbying against American interest's and that is people working to support their families.
The following video from the Heritage Foundation contains links for more information if the viewer so chooses. At the 1:15 mark, pause the video and there are two active links to click on to learn more.
The following article I found thought provoking to say the least. And that is exactly why I have decided to post the article in full, to provoke thought.
I realize the length but wish you set aside time and or return when you have some to review this article/post and express your opinion on the content if you so choose to do so.
In his short story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845), originally published as a hoax, Edgar Allan Poe described a dying man who was hypnotized precisely at the moment of his death. The hypnosis preserved him for some time, until the hypnotist broke the spell. As a result, "his whole frame at once -- within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk -- crumbled -- absolutely rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome -- of detestable putrescence."
At the moment, the American body politic resembles the body of M. Valdemar. To be more precise, both American conservatism and American progressivism in their familiar forms are dead, but decay has not caught up with them yet, because both are in a state of suspended animation.
The world changed radically when the global economy crashed in 2008, but the news has not yet reached Washington. The Republicans are giving long-discredited Reaganomics another good old college try, while Barack Obama, having surrounded himself by veterans of Bill Clinton's economic team, is practicing, or malpracticing, 1990s style neoliberalism, or "Rubinomics," named after Democratic Party fundraiser and Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
Reaganomics and Rubinomics were both toxic political byproducts of the generation-long asset inflation of the late 20th century in the United States. As long as the bubble lasted, their exploding wealth permitted Wall Street "bundlers" or fundraisers to capture both national parties by dominating campaign finance. Financialized conservatism differed from financialized progressivism, but the two schools of thought were both based on cheerful happy-talk scenarios in which there were no deep conflicts of interests between the rich and the rest in America.
Robert Wright, borrowing the concept of cooperative "non-zero-sum" and competitive "zero-sum" games from mathematical game theory, caught the utopian spirit of the Bubble Era in his bestseller Non Zero: The Logic of Human Destiny (2000). Both Reaganomics and Rubinomics depend on a non-zero-sum economy in which everybody goes home with a prize and "a rising tide lifts all boats." The right's trickle-down theory assumes that as the few get richer, the many will get richer as well, eliminating distributional conflicts among classes.
New Democrat neoliberalism in the tradition of Rubin, Clinton and Obama also posits a non-zero-sum game -- it might be called "social promotion" theory rather than trickle-down theory. In social-promotion progressivism, the New Deal project of progress through more money for the majority -- higher market wages and more contributory tax-based social insurance -- has been replaced by the New Democrat project of redefining social mobility as educational credentials and high-paying professional jobs for the majority. According to the neoliberal happy-talk narrative, as the children of the working class go to the university and join the ever-expanding college-educated professional class, there will be a labor shortage at the bottom. The labor shortage can be filled not only by the native poor but also by vast numbers of immigrants, whose entry into the labor market will not lower wages or raise the costs of welfare. The outsourcing of American industry doesn't matter, the neoliberals told us, because even if everything is made in China, the inventors, bankers and consultants will stay in America, and their posh ranks will include the upwardly mobile children of former manufacturing workers. Win-win, zero-sum, everybody's happy!
But the world of Reaganites and Rubinites collapsed in 2008, when it became clear that much American and global wealth had been illusory. In the past few years, the government has sought to prevent investors who bought toxic junk and homeowners who bought overpriced houses from simply eating their losses, as speculators are supposed to do when they make bad bets. But this policy has merely kicked the can down the road. At some point, as in the case of M. Valdemar, the mass of dead money will have "shrunk -- crumbled -- absolutely rotted away." A lot of Americans, most of them rich people or affluent professionals, will face the prospect of being much poorer, permanently.
This will produce a crisis for upscale progressives in the nonprofit sector and public sector, as well as for impoverished upscale Republicans who had planned to play the markets until they could buy private islands. Social promotion liberalism assumes that the economy can support an ever-growing class of affluent white-collar workers, while trickle-down conservatism assumes that the economy can support an ever-growing class of ever-richer investors. But what if, in the New Normal economy, there are too many professionals for the job market, and too many investors chasing too few investment opportunities?
The most probable outcome, when the depth of wealth destruction becomes clear, is likely to be crony capitalism -- the use of political power to provide jobs and income for a much greater number of self-styled "venture capitalists," corporate managers, nonprofit workers, university professors and highly paid public sector managers (not ordinary civil servants like schoolteachers and police officers) than the slowly growing, post-crash economy can actually afford. The right will try to preserve and expand a simulacrum of free enterprise, in the form of defense contractors and privatized welfare state functions. The left wing of the elite will try to create a zombie economy based on taxpayer-subsidized "green industries" that would collapse without tax subsidies and mandates on utility rate-payers. Each party will try to cut the zombie sector of its rival in order to fund its own pet zombies. In the long run, the attempt to prevent an elite economy that is already dead from decomposing, by putting it into suspended animation, is unlikely to succeed, but the project could last a decade or two. Bubble Conservatism and Bubble Progressivism will morph into Zombie Conservatism and Zombie Progressivism.
Less in the spirit of Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes than of Edgar Allan Poe, self-described "conservatives" and "progressives" will struggle to create an American zombie economy with protected enclaves for the managerial and professional elites. Meanwhile, most ordinary Americans will work in industries that, unlike elite zombie sectors like defense, private healthcare, higher education, the higher civil service and the subsidized green economy, are not rigged and protected from competition. American workers in the dwindling manufacturing sector will continue to face competition from low-wage workers and state capitalist regimes abroad. Many more American workers in the domestic service industry will face competition from immigrants, particularly in low-wage jobs. As the "classes" wall themselves off from competition in their protected, subsidized crony capitalist and nonprofit and public sector jobs, the masses are likely to insist that they, too, deserve to be protected from zero-sum competition with foreign workers and immigrants.
To make matters worse, if the crony capitalists of the right succeed in cutting back Social Security and Medicare, American wage-earners will be compelled to pay more of their stagnant incomes to private mutual fund managers and insurance companies. And if the green crony capitalists of the left succeed, working Americans will be forced permanently to pay artificially higher utility bills to subsidize politically-connected "venture capitalists" who will derive a permanent, rigged stream of income from zombie green corporations, whose uneconomical solar and wind energy will be purchased by utility companies under legal mandates written by green lobbyists.
At the moment, the Tea Party has tapped into popular anger, but it represents the last gasp of a dying Reaganism, not a genuine populist alternative. At some point, a national populist movement in the spirit of Ross Perot, Patrick Buchanan and Lou Dobbs will almost certainly reappear in the United States. As in Europe, the next American populism is likely to focus on immigrants, who compete with many American workers, more than on trade, which affects comparatively few. Needless to say, the servant-bossing elites of both parties can be counted on to cry "Racism! Nativism!" at the prospect of having to pay Americans to perform tasks done now by Central American maids, European au pairs and East Asian tutors.
Protectionism and immigration restrictionism have been the typical responses of nations to depressions before, in the 1870s, the 1890s and the 1930s. These policies don't work well, in the theoretical sense that they do not promote long-term global growth as well as would a combination of liberal trade and immigration policy with coordinated, demand-expanding Keynesian expansionary policies among all nations at the same time.
But protectionism and immigration restriction can succeed in the short run. If you preserve your domestic market for domestic producers, you encourage domestic investment and create domestic jobs, as multinational companies, whether nominally American or foreign, are forced to locate production in the U.S. in order to have access to American consumers. This assumes that many if not all customers will have no choice but to buy necessary goods from the protected national industries. Similarly, if you reduce the flow of immigrant labor, you create domestic jobs, assuming a fixed demand for necessary, labor-intensive services in sectors like healthcare. In the long run, your country and others will be worse off than they would be in an imaginary world without barriers to the free flow of goods, labor and capital. But that is like arguing that we would all be better off in "Star Trek's" imaginary United Federation of Planets.
Which side will ultimately prevail in America and other Western democracies -- the crony capitalists or the national populists? In some Western countries, national populists may successfully combine support for the welfare state with restrictions on outsourcing and mass immigration. In others, like the United States, the crony capitalists of the oligarchic left and oligarchic right may create Latin America-like societies, in which a cosmopolitan, globe-trotting elite dwells in fortified communities and downtowns and rural manors, surrounded by a mass of the poor and near-poor, for whom the "progressive" crony capitalists seek slightly higher levels of means-tested welfare.
My guess is that in most first-world countries the national populists will eventually succeed. The depressions of the 19th and 20th centuries produced waves of nationalism, protectionism and immigration restriction; why should this recession, which is looking more and more like a depression, be any different? Such an outcome would be resisted by America's financial elite and its professional elite, including liberal professionals. But both of these economic elites are much too big to be sustained by a slow-growing U.S. and world economy. Both elites will be downsized in the years to come, and while their political power will remain disproportionate, it will weaken.
You can be certain of one thing. If you think that today's American politics is bitter and polarized, wait until upscale crony capitalists of left and right who seek to tax America's impoverished workers to subsidize their zombie economic sectors collide with working-class Americans demanding labor-market protection from immigrant competitors and imports. Fasten your seat belts. Things are going to get nasty.
Most know we have multiple problems here in th U.S. but listening to the following it is very easy to see just how two of those problems could and would be solved,,,
If we are to be serious about cutting spending then we have to be very serious on deportation of illegal aliens. This is not a left or right issue any longer, this is about the country's very survival.
For the transcript and further examination of the charts featured please GO HERE
P.S., Captain, Respectively, the reason I mention you is that you seem to have bought into the hyped-up myths mentioned above in my last post and one of your own and thus may so have your readers. I understand completely the anxiety but cooler heads must prevail.
"It's time to own this economy Mr. President. The stimulus didn't work. The debt is crushing us. You may have inherited a recession, but the actions you've taken have made it far worse"
[Editors Note; I maybe rendered incommunicado for a short period due to a somewhat recent storm that a tree limb came down and stretched to the limit my cable line which is due to be repaired today.]
I have only spoken about this case on one blog and remained silent since. I will try too make this short as I am not inclined so-to-speak on it but,,,,,
I my opinion and experience the ENTIRE Anthony family is clinically insane and all are part and parcel involved in that young, very young, girls' death.
No I did not serve on that Jury so have no idea what they heard but I do not fault them. The reason for this is I have served as a Juror and as the Foreman of said body of Peers and what one hears in court is greatly different than what the media portrays.
I regress,
I mean to speak on the Anthony family and alike. In my past I have known of a family that the Anthony's remind me of exactly. Friend's, I extracted myself as soon as possible as soon as I reconsigned just how destructive they were,,to each other (leaving me aside).
Forget the verdict.
Turn to your right, turn to you left, have eyes behind your head, This is not at all limited to Florida, this shit is all around you be they arrested, convicted or released or not yet committed a crime,,they are right there in your neighborhood.
CP has featured Sebastien once before as his guitar work really impressed me and this time around is no different except for his new approach at least in the following tune/video embedded below.
Now I use the term impressed being a fan of music in general but by no means a musician myself (although I wish I had been) but when I heardthis selection of his; 'Sparkle', well I just kicked back, closed my eyes and jammed peacefully.
With all that is going on here in the U.S and the world it is my wish that those who might enjoy music might take the time to do as I did but just for a few minutes, kick back and jam peacefully,,,,,,,
Literally. When I wake up. Many of us have been taught to say prayers before we go to sleep as that is very good advice of which I myself maintain as it brings me peace.
I ask though, as I do, how many wake in the morning thanking God for just that, waking up breathing?
I bring this up as I get many a strange look and laughter and some times a look of "whatever" when I am asked "How are you doing today?" and I respond; "Well, I woke up breathing again today, always a good start".
I have no sickness or disease (yet anyhow) but everyday I thank God I woke up from my slumber rain or shine. I have an American and might add Irish attitude instilled in me by my parents that may not bleed through into my word's here all the time but remains true in my soul.
There are many things my Mom and Dad taught me but have to say this one stuck with me for life;
When you walk out that door you tell yourself and the world; "Look out world 'cause here I come!"
This is me. I suppose what I am trying to relate is a positive approach to everything; work , family, traffic,,yada, yada, yada. Yes we all have trials and tribulation's but if facing them with a positive attitude and I might add a conservative one you might be amazed at what follows.
Now us in the blogging sphere have the habit when waking and throughout the day for that matter, day after day, of being very aware of the current news of not only where we may reside but that of the world in general and this brings me to another point mentioned above, trials and tribulations.
I have often said we need to speak with those who, for lack of a better term, are Obama supporters and being I am in the Detroit area and in the U.A.W. I have ample opportunity to do so on a daily basis.
A recent conversation with a female co-worker who just happens to be of the hyphenated African-American persuasion was going on and on about "Bush's illegal wars". Now of course I reminded her that they were not illegal and all the facts based in that very real fact, but then I asked her opinion on Obamas very real illegal war in Libya. What I got in return was not at all what I expected.
I did expect MSNBC related talking points and a complete distortion of the Constitution but what I got from her, and believe me I took it as real being I respect her not in her political beliefs but as honest, she had not a clue about Libya, that we are there bombing or even who Col. Qaddafi (sp? I am sick of finding the correct spelling!) is???
I was honestly unprepared for this reaction and left it at explaining this has been going on for months and to just please Google the word 'Libya' and find another news source.
We have to do better my friends, when we wake up we have to inform others of reality as often as possible so that they may be awake mentally as well.
Keep the attitude; "Look out world, here we come!" And please do not forget to thank God that you are indeed awake!
{Note, I have no confidence my coworker will Google 'Libya' so I will provide the data myself}
I love my British brethren but really? Americans, or as you may refer to us as 'Yanks' or even 'Colonists' to this day do not listen too Hollywood nor should YOUR future King for that matter should you keep this ridiculous and impractical practice of a Monarchy.
Sky News produced this arrogant and distorted piece,,,,,,
By the by William and Kate, stay the hell away from Streisand as she is the modern day Medusa!
"Wild Bill for America, the nation's leading liberalologist teaches Americans to recognize this insidious malady".
Sure most of us know of this liberal disease when we see or hear it but Wild Bill gives us a colorful reminder. And for those who might still be in the dark on this topic or even, God forbid, suffering of this disease, pay attention.
The image is seared in the memory of many in Detroit's Belgian community: firefighters carrying a 13-foot crucifix out of the devastated and fire-ravaged Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church on Meldrum Street on the city's east side.
The date was April 10, 1963. Shortly after 8 a.m., a five-alarm fire, believed but never proved to have been set by arsonists, roared through the deserted Briggs auto plant. Leaping flames, driven by 18 mile-an-hour winds, jumped from the plant to the church.
By the time the fire was under control, the factory had been leveled, and all that remained of the half-century-old Belgian National church was a roofless skeleton.
With the church in ruins, "many felt it was a miracle that that crucifix had even survived," says Dale Pascoe of St. Clair Shores.
Pascoe's great-grandfather, John (Joannes) Emmanuel Verbiest (1854-1914), an entrepreneur who emigrated from Antwerp, Belgium, purchased the cross and several stained-glass windows, donating them to his church in 1911.
Now, 100 years later, the revered Christian symbol and Verbiest family heirloom is once again being rescued. The all-but-forgotten cross — neglected and found on the floor behind an altar at Detroit's Good Shepherd Church covered by a sheet — will soon be restored to its original beauty. Once refurbished, the crucifix will resume its place of honor for adoration and prayer in a new church home.
On Saturday, relatives of the firefighters who carried the crucifix out of the ashes will replicate the work of their forefathers, lifting the cross to their shoulders and transporting it to a studio where it will be refurbished.
Included in the processional will be members of the Verbiest family led by the Rev. Robert H. Blondell, who is of Belgian ancestry and is now the retired pastor of St. Hubert Parish in Harrison Township. He will be holding the folded Belgian flag that belonged to Rene DeSeranno, a deceased pillar of the Belgian community who headed the successful fundraising committee to rebuild Our Lady of Sorrows after the fire.
"This is an important piece of Detroit history and of Belgian history," says Mary Lou Schulte of Harrison Township. "It has to be preserved for generations to come. It's our obligation."
Schulte, a cousin of Pascoe and a great-granddaughter of the original benefactor, John Verbiest, is responsible for spearheading the crucifix project. "It's been a labor of love," she says.
One of the firefighters who searched for the cross in the rubble was Jules "Joe" DeSchryver. DeSchryver served mostly at the Mount Elliot and Sylvester firehouse from 1947 to 1984, retiring as chief.
"My dad was 100 percent Belgian, a first-generation American," says his daughter, Layne DeSchryver Montesino of Harrison Township. "For him to be called to this fire was really ironic, especially when you consider how legendary this fire was."
DeSchryver's first-born son, George DeSchryver, is flying in from California to help carry the cross on Saturday. "My whole family considers it a privilege and an honor to be involved," Montesino says.
Haven for Belgian Catholics
The 1963 fire was a brutal blow to the city's Belgian Catholics. Established in 1884, Our Lady of Sorrows was the only Belgian parish in the city, and it drew families from all over Metro Detroit.
Historical accounts were understandably dramatic: Four cars parked outside the church were destroyed by the fire. One parishioner who ran out of the church told a Detroit News reporter: "When I came out the whole sky was afire. It looked like the end of the world!"
Attending 8 a.m. Mass that morning were some 200 schoolchildren. They were safely evacuated from the burning church, thanks to the Dominican nuns who marshaled their little charges in orderly rows and led them in reciting the rosary.
All the more poignant, the Sunday following the fire was Easter Sunday. Parishioners attended Mass in the school auditorium that Easter and worshipped there until the church was rebuilt.
The parish pledged its own resurrection, adopting the motto for the building committee's fundraising campaign: "I shall rise again."
Four years later, they made good on that promise. In May 1967, a new church opened its doors, with the refurbished crucifix taking center stage. Some 1,000 Catholics watched as the firemen who rescued the cross carried it down the aisle on their shoulders.
Close to four decades later, in 2000, Our Lady of Sorrows Church was sold to a Baptist congregation, becoming the New Liberty Baptist Church.
Following the sale, the cross was moved to Good Shepherd Catholic Church (formerly Church of the Annunciation) on Parkview Street. In the ensuing years, life went on and the cross became a distant memory.
On a quest
But three years ago, motivated by a death in the family, Schulte decided to find out what happened to the family crucifix after the death of her brother, Donald Leininger, a Catholic priest.
"As a Capuchin priest, he chose the name Father Emmanuel, after our great grandfather," Schulte says.
She found the crucifix at Good Shepherd — on the floor covered by a sheet. Evidently the cross, which is made of fir to which a 5-foot plaster corpus is affixed, was too heavy to securely hang from the wall.
"When I saw it, I could have cried my eyes out," Schulte says. "It's just brought back so many memories of my ancestors."
Schulte enlisted the support of her two cousins, Pascoe and Frank "Bud" Verbiest, both of St. Clair Shores. The three agreed to share the cost of the restoration, estimated to be about $3,000. After several information packages were sent to the pastors of area churches, the precious heirloom has found a new home: St. Gerald Catholic Church in Farmington. Restoration is expected to take two months.
Fighting back tears, Pascoe says: "I just can't wait to see the cross of my Belgian heritage hanging in the church for all to adore. When you think of it, the whole ceiling collapsed on that cross. There's a reason it's survived so long: It may have powers waiting to be discovered."
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" - MATTHEW 5:16
I do not even know what to really say here, except to say I am appalled at this action.
These British soldiers, airmen and navy fight side by side with our military service personnel and believe they all should receive the proper welcome home and respect for which they have truly earned.
To "avoid the public" for which they served valiantly is really an insult to all who love freedom and deprives those British Subjects who hold that thought to say a final goodbye and thank you.
Both our shared history aside we are in fact allies for quite sometime now and it is my wish that this "back road" policy in Britain be rescinded if not for the lost soldier but for their family.
UPDATE: Via my friend Barking Spider,,,,,,Pat spellls it out
It was stated by Benjamin Franklin when asked what he and his comrades were doing; "Creating a Republic, if you can keep it".
I am one American that intends to do just that come hell or high water, with your help!
I will not make this post long as I know most are celebrating including myself, friend's and family but wish to share a video I shamelessly lifted from Karen at Eastern Right as I found it apropos,,,,,,
May God Bless America now and always!
Enjoy our day fellow Americans as we have much work to do before our 236th B-Day heading into removing socialism from our shores,,,if we can?
Not many stop to ponder on just how the products they purchase at any given store arrived there?
Most likely all complain in traffic about their size without thinking as above as too their purpose and the very reason, should they shop for anything, that they have anything at all to purchase.
Now I am not one of them, a Trucker that is, but I do know that their function in our society is crucial.
All I mean to state here is to give a shout-out too those that keep the wheel rolling and their families,,,
Holidays usually bring about these types of interview-on-the-street, impromptu questions pertaining to the holiday we mark and knowledge of it.
Now of course we celebrate our nations Independence Day this weekend culminating on July 4, 2011 marking 235 years of independence and freedom from the British Monarchy.
But one would not know that if they were born sometime after 1964 (best guess) and in a liberals case,,,ever. Mark Dice takes this interview style to the beach, well the description sums it up;
"Mark Dice talks with beachgoers in San Diego, California to ask them why the 4th of July holiday was started. Many of them have no clue at all and simply agree with him when he insinuates blatantly false explanations"
“Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.” - James Arthur Baldwin
