How Are You Doing, America? Trick or Treat?

31 October 2009

To know how the economy is really doing, I use the measure of my own eyesight and ability to “google” for facts related to the economy.
Here in Michigan, we are hurting. Everywhere I ride around town, there are new foreclosures. This includes every income level, not just poor workers from the factories who have been laid off. This foreclosure crisis is hitting everyone.
And I wonder, “Is anyone in Washington going to take note and start giving a bailout to the workers who are, after all, the people who worked to create the wealth that the rich are now enjoying.” They seem to have forgotten that it IS the worker who makes the country rich or poor, not the bankers and the wealthy. Of course, the wealthy think that it's there generosity in creating jobs by building corporations that is the generator of wealth in a country. Everyone knows better than this. Everyone. But, the historical memory of the “brilliant” economists covers a range of not over one or two decades. Anything that occurred before that is out their minds. They don't recall it and don't want to.
States are being forced to shut down various services and use every cost cutting measure available because the worker, who pays the taxes, is hurting financially, and just doesn't have the money to pony up for taxes.
How many millions of foreclosures do we have at this point? And, all of these are homes that no longer pay into the tax base to support state and local governments. Plus, the recession is not over with. That's propaganda. There's more trouble coming for home-owners and the American economy: [from ezinearticles.com http://ezinearticles.com/?Second-Wave-of-Foreclosures-Due-in-2009-As-Option-ARMs-Default&id=1252213 ]
Second Wave of Foreclosures Due in 2009 As Option ARMs Default

“If the previous year of record foreclosure rates, falling home values, a declining stock market, and continuing inflation have seemed like too much catastrophe for the US economy to bear, just wait. There will be no short term recovery in the housing market; in fact, foreclosures will continue to increase and property values will keep falling for at least the next year, with a second wave of foreclosures set to begin in the spring of 2009.”
And, guess what, the big-boy economists haven't noticed yet. They're still laser-focused on fixing the banks/financial institutions and supporting the wealthy.
As stated in an article on uruk.net, “ While the Obama administration has spent trillions to bail out the banks and financial speculators, it has done next to nothing to address the massive employment.” See: http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m59568&hd=&size=1&l=e
How long before the fallout from the massive unemployment impinges upon the coffers in Washington? Think income taxes. In an excerpt from the same article: “Meanwhile, the real living conditions for regular people are becoming more and more intolerable. Wages for non-managerial workers have fallen by 1.4 percent so far this year, according to an article in USA Today, and are on track for even further declines. The official unemployment rate has reached 9.8 percent, and when one takes into account discouraged workers and people who are underemployed, it is at 17 percent.”
Sooner or later, this fall in income and resulting fall in collected tax revenues will hit Washington. Of course, the genius economists don't consider this significant as they are watching the stock market which is no real indicator of the American economy, but is an indicator of the international economy. I'm really beginning to think that the guys in Washington are really focused on running the world economy, not the American economy. Has the New World Order already installed itself in Washington? It appears it has. So, what this means for the working class American, is that you are on your own. You are not going to get any help from Washington.
Our governor in Michigan had high hopes for the good outcome for the people of Michigan in terms of jobs created from the stimulus package, but the real figures are severely disappointing: “In some states, the impact of federal programs has been negligible—including about 400 in Michigan, which has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 15.2 percent.”
400 short-term jobs amounts to nothing in a population of millions.
I've come to the conclusion that they do not plan on bringing the outsourced jobs back, nor really creating new jobs here, that is, until they have broken the backs of the working person and end up with a population of clamoring-for-any-job unemployed workers who will take any job at any price. This is the real goal.
So, how are you doing, America?

The Recession is Over, But You Didn't Notice

One of the "experts", Bernanke, tells us: "From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over."
Oh, really? I heard this claim from some of the other "economic" experts, and I and many other Americans just don't buy the crap-propaganda any more. Out here in the real world, we know better. It's called reality testing, where the facts are right in your face. Facts like unemployment is going to top 10%, which is bad enough, but the real figures are more like 20%. when every 1 or 2 people you meet on the street is out of a job, and they tell you that they're going into foreclosure on the home, they'll probably have their car reposessed, and perhaps soon, they'll lose their unemployment benefits. They're stressed. They're not in recession. They're in a depression (in every sense of the term).
I think Washington is still stuck in the unreality play that was shockingly exposed by one of Bush No.2's White House staff when he said: "We create our own reality."
This act of "creating their own reality" has been going on for over 9 years now, openly stated to the public that is, a public who knows that unreality is common disease in Washington, D.C and has been a theory, like their economic theory, that has been practiced for decades.
If anyone hasn't figured out that their economic theories are totally out of sync with reality has been on Prozac too long. How can anyone listen to the very same economists who created this humongous problem we have, not just in the U.S., but world-wide? How? See this article in the New York Times that explains how the "master-mind" economists got off track.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html


How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 2, 2009

Here's an excerpt from the article--current thinking--that demonstrates the lunacy accepted as reliable theory: "
Thus Chicago’s Casey Mulligan suggests that unemployment is so high because many workers are choosing not to take jobs: “Employees face financial incentives that encourage them not to work . . . decreased employment is explained more by reductions in the supply of labor (the willingness of people to work) and less by the demand for labor (the number of workers that employers need to hire).” Mulligan has suggested, in particular, that workers are choosing to remain unemployed because that improves their odds of receiving mortgage relief. And Cochrane declares that high unemployment is actually good: “We should have a recession. People who spend their lives pounding nails in Nevada need something else to do.”
Oh, sure, the guy next door who lives from payckeck to payckeck, justs wants a vacation from the business of feeding his family, paying for his house, keeping his car, and other necessities of life. If he takes this little vacation, nothing terrible is going to happen. He is going to get "mortage relief". Sure, right. Say that to the working people going into foreclosure all over the U.S. Funny how none of them got the mortgage relief, but found themselves and their familes dumped on the streets. No relief here. Just world of trouble. But in Washington, the smart-asses think they guy just needs a break from pounding nails!
These economists and their followers in D.C. just can't seem to learn from past history nor their current mistakes. They continue to spew theories that in no way match with reality.
Had enough theories yet?

American Drivers Are Totally F***ed In Their Skulls

I had a liaison at the police dept tell me that at least 10 percent of the drivers out there shouldn't have been give a driver's license. I asked her why, and she said because they're incompetent, but, when they screw-up and harm someone or damage someones property, the judges deem that, because they have to have a car to get to their jobs, he, the judge, just can't see taking their licenses away. I mean, they'll lose their jobs. The world will fall apart if the arses lose their jobs! Hey, try walking, riding a bus, or getting a bicycle. You creeps are too much of a hazard to be on the roads with the rest of us.
How many more of us have to be maimed, permanently disabled, or dead before you judges decide that “Oh, I do have the power and will to take their licenses away!” Hey, judges, here's a clue: Before there were cars, people still managed to get to work. And simply because the current “system” seems, I repeat seems, to make it necessary to have a car to get to work or do anything else, just remember that for centuries before the invention of the car, people got around, and they somehow, miraculously got around that entire huge world without a car! Even today, hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, get to work every day without using a car.
And, you Americans have a sickness that I call “hurry sickness”. This sickness comes from being turned into mindless little machines [That's what our education system is designed to do; make you a complacent, obedient, mindless machines.] that turn out parts for stuff, like toys, cars, ships, etc, all of which are so cheap that you have to replace them frequently. But, the money system that runs us demands more and more and more speed. You gotta turn out those tinker toy parts faster and faster so that you're megalomaniac boss can make more profit. Hurrying senselessly becomes an ingrained mental habit that spreads like a disease to every other part of your life, and it seems, especially your driving life. But, no matter now hard you worked, how fast your were, they still sent your jobs to China and other foreign countries where the slave laborers do the same jobs for pennies. Try to get a coffee pot from China to last more than a year. Hey, aren't you proud that you are part of a system that handed bankers and big business billions of dollars, and yet, you haven't seen a dime of it. You lost your job to outsourcing, after that you were foreclosed on because quite reasonably, you couldn't pay that armed robbery call an ARM mortgage [Where do you think they got that acronym?], and now you're in danger of losing your precious car too, your alter ego, the only place left where you can feel any sense of power in your sorry life. No wonder you Americans are pissed off and want to run over everyone and everything that's in their way! No wonder. No wonder cyclists, pedestrians, and people in motorized wheel chairs are in constant, mortal danger from you nut cases! Aren't you proud that you bent over and allowed yourself to become just another mindless part of their mindless machines and did it without a whimper? Your grandma and your mama tried to instill a value system into your skull, but under the pressure and brain-washing of the system, you abandoned that wisdom. Dang! Be proud!
And keep in mind that you've been convinced that your really are a worthless piece of crap, valued at some low dollar value [Note: A dead Iraqi is worth about $2,000 last I noted.] Life used to be considered priceless. Not any more. Now that you know you aren't valued much, kind of a throwaway person in a throwaway culture, I can understand how you think that when you main, permanently disable, or kill another person, that they weren't valued as very much either. So, give them a toss. What's the big deal about the loss? The judge isn't going to make you pay.
Now that I understand what's driven you out of your skull, I still don't want you on the roadways with me. Stay home and get drunk. Take your violent urges out on someone else. Oh, you are doing that already, aren't you. Domestic violence? That's rising exponentially. I understand, but I still don't want you crazies on the same road with me. Go home. Stay there.

Humaneness is Still Alive

Humaneness is Still Alive

25 October 2009

In the Lansing State Journal this morning, it said that Howard the Combine Kitty is going home.
He was found, in July, by two boys, and apparently had his front paws nearly detached by a combine or other farm machine.
Donations came in to assist in the surgeries needed to repair his legs so he has a chance to walk again, though not with paws, but on stubs that will have to callous up. Amazingly, even in recessionary times, enough donations came in to care for Howard's medical costs and 3 other shelter animals too.
At moments like this I still feel a slight hope for the human race; that it may have enough caring and sane members left to prevent its entire demise through self-hatred and self-destruction. I'm celebrating Howard's happy outcome too because it shows me a little light at the end of the tunnel in that, if you leave the average person to their own devices and behaviors, they come through and demonstrate decency and humanity which is what I would love to see coming from our so-called “leaders” in government. Humaneness is still alive. Let's nurture it!

Yellow Journalism-It's All We Have In America

This morning I read an article by the Cato Institute titled “Medicare For Everyone”? The lack of facts and fear-mongering tactics overwhelmed me. I almost had to lean over the porcelain bus and let hurl.
What a shame that this is allowed in print and called journalism!
They provide links that lead to articles that supposedly prove their point, but which is not proof at all, but just another opinion. Very few facts are presented. They read the article/document and then provide their own conclusions. They expect you to assume that because the evaluator of the contents of that article is perfect in his evaluations because he/she is a lawyer or has some other alphabet soup behind their name. They don't simply present the article link and then allow the reader to come to their own conclusions. Then, after adding their own evaluations, they then proceed to generate fear and emotionalism. This is yellow journalism prime time. Do a “google” on “yellow journalism” and you'll numerous links to what yellow journalism entails.

In the article “Fannie Med? Why a "Public Option" Is Hazardous to Your Health”, they state: “A full accounting shows that government programs cost more and deliver lower-quality care than private insurance.” An accounting by whom? Where are the hard facts and graphs that you can read and decide for yourself if this is true? They also say: “but that government can hide its inefficiencies and draw consumers away from private insurance, despite offering an inferior product.” Where are the hard facts that prove that the government hides its inefficiencies , and offer an inferior product? No facts. Just their conclusion.
Here's a real generator of cognitive dissonance in the same article: “A health insurance "exchange," where consumers choose between private health plans with artificially high premiums and a government program with artificially low premiums, would not increase competition. Instead, it would reduce competition by driving lower-cost private health plans out of business.” First it says “private health plans with artificially high premiums” . then a sentence later state “driving lower-cost health plans out of business”. Which is it? Are private plans higher or lower cost? And common sense tells you that a lower cost, private plan is NOT going to be driven out of business by a government plan just because it's a government plan!
Here's another conclusion without hard proof: “Congress should reject proposals to create a new government health insurance program — not for the sake of private insurers, who would be subject to unfair competition, but for the sake of American patients, who would be subject to unnecessary morbidity and mortality.”
Unnecessary morbidity and mortality? Where are the hard facts, charts and graphs that prove that? Not presented.
Please read the article and links for yourself. Note that 3 of the links don't present the article itself, but are links to buy the article so that you can then draw your own conclusions, which, of course, they don't want you to do.
I can't take much more of this kind of “journalism”!

Adaptation Time

23 October 2009

Time to adapt again for cyclists. Those cyclists, that is, who cycle year round.
Looking outside the window from my comfy rooms, I see cold drizzle, trees turning color and shedding their foliage, people getting on the bus wrapped up in thick clothing, and a cyclist peddling by.
The cyclist is one of the “hardies”. He rides that bike to work and everywhere else year round. It's not because he's poor. He's not. It's not because he's a drunk and lost his driver's license. He obviously has his license to drive. As a matter of fact, he has 6 cars sitting in his garage, some of them called “classics”. Why would a guy do that? Ah, he's a cyclist, a dedicated cyclist who understands that the human body is to be used—hard. That's what it was made for—hard work, not sitting for hours glaring at a boob tube in an 8 by 8 cage, otherwise referred to as an office cubicle.
He's fit. He's healthy. He's slender as a reed bending against the cold, wet wind. And he feels good and successful. Successful? Yes, he's beating the system that produces members whose obesity numbers grows daily, which is accompanied with increased disease and hugely growing medical costs.
He is not part of this group.
He is part of the group of cyclists who resent having to cover up those tan-lines at mid-leg and put on the protective winter gear. Time to adjust that saddle height because of the additional layers on your fanny. Time to switch the tires out to knobbies or spiked tires that will take you through anything. Time for platform pedals so you can cycle in boots and put your feet down fast when you slide. Time for the lobster gloves, neoprene boot covers, balaclava, thermal underwear, hugely increased calorie intake, wet lube on all the moving bicycle parts, and a pugnacious, “I can handle it” attitude. Their fight, that they greatly enjoy because you get a natural high from the continuous exercise, feeling good and being more alert than their non-exercising, sonambulistic work fellows is a fight that will make them fit for the future that appears to be one that will be inherited by the physically able, mentally alert, and those who are accustomed to adapting to a constantly changing environment. He's a winter/all-year-round commuter.
The next time you see a cyclist riding in winter conditions a deer herd would shun, feel a little admiration. Don't assume, as most spoiled Americans do, that he's a drunk who lost his license or he's too poor to buy a car. He/she (Yes, there are many female cyclists too who ride year round.) is a good example of a person who has learned to, and wants to adapt and is prepared for whatever the future throws at them. Actually, it's fun!

The political process in America-Defunct

22 October 2009

The political process in America is broken beyond repair. I think that participating in the Federal and State process is pretty much a waste of time any more, it being corrupted to the core by “politicians” whose primary goal is totally self-interested. “There to serve the public interest?” Forget it. Please, have you not noticed this by now?
Now, I am beginning to understand that the local process is also corrupted as much as the Federal and State political processes.
The sociopaths/psychopaths who so obviously are running governments, worldwide, have become so firmly entrenched on every level, International, Federal, State, and now local, that trying to use the political process is truly a waste of your time.
So now it is self-sufficiency time, you know, that state of mind and existence where you look to no one but yourself for what you need. Stop begging. Haven't you noticed that your requests for help are being ignored anyhow? Start learning—how to take care of all your needs on your own.
This is a pretty big order since the citizenry has been dumbed-down by the “education” process—ask any student and they'll tell you they hate it. It's like a prison in which you're conditioned to be stupid. And our kids are bright enough to know this.
And the rest of the population has been conditioned to pervasive complacency in which they feel powerless to do anything to help themselves.
Plus, the system is designed to keep you from being able to learn self-sufficiency. You are taught to look outward for your needs, not inward.
Under these conditions, lots of luck in learning to be self-sufficient. The deck is stacked against you. But here's a fact: You don't have any choice.
So, what is a person to do? Your survival will come from working at the grassroots level which means those who live around in your neighborhood. Get to know them and learn what their skills have. You will be amazed at the basic survival skills, like gardening, hunting, fishing, etc, that the dumb guy next door who sits in 8 X 8 cubicle glaring at a computer screen all day really knows about these things. But, you get the idea. Organize at a grassroots, neighborhood level. This is doable.
While you're at, rediscover your humanity which has been scrubbed out of your innards by the compulsory American lifestyle. Another suggestion: Turn off the T.V. It's not entertainment, it's propaganda.

$85 million plan puts shops, hotel near Eastwood

Lansing, Michigan. The Lansing "planners" are at it again. Like we need to add more urban sprawl among dozens and dozens of empty buildings in the city that sit empty and are rotting. There's a huge building on Cedar St that has set empty for over 8 years that I've noticed. It's a Wal-Mart sized and style building surrounded by acres of paved parking lot. But it sits unused by anyone. Did anyone notice it sits on major thoroughfare? Nope, nobody wants that. They want to go after and rape the green areas like that surrounding Eastwood Town Center.
They're having a hard time finding funding for a parking ramp downtown to provide parking for the Accident Fund workers. They had a parking ramp there, but they just had to tear it down. Nothing wrong with it structurally. They just didn't seem to like that one. I don't know, the problem was aesthetics, maybe? Yet, they want to dig up $85 million for this unneeded behemoth that sits near an intersection that is a driver's nightmare. Even now, the Eastwood Town Center (Who gave it that name? It's not the center of town), the location near where they want to build this monstrosity, is inaccessible by anyone who isn't driving a car. Walkers? Cyclists? Motorized wheelchairs? Forget it, you'll get run over. Even if you are driving a car, it's a high-hazard, high accident area.
Instead of building another "mall" designed exclusively for cars, and adding retail space, restaurants, and other spaces that are not needed in a recession period when a large part of the population is losing their jobs and their homes are going into foreclosure, try building something that's really needed. Try focusing on rebuilding Lake Lansing Road and making it usable for everyone.
See this URL for the article:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20091021/NEWS01/910210324