Interesting times...a more literal middle-class massacre.

In the 1990s it had been popular to quote a supposedly ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."  Well, here we are.  I have all but abandoned this blog, but with all of the strange goings-on, I thought it might be good to share my take on what is happening with this current pandemic situation.

Again, it is really hard for a working-class person to keep up a blog like this.  Too many times life gets in the way.  And unlike many unfortunate others, I still have my job, which is good because it looks like Google has stripped my ability to collect ad revenue.  This doesn't matter because I wasn't collecting any anyway. 

In future posts, I hopefully share with you my speculation as to what lead us to this tragedy and what the powers-that-be are doing to make sure that working-class people's lives remain miserable. 

The Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court decision is another nail in the American middle class coffin.

The recent Supreme Court ruling on Janus VS. AFSCME has put another nail in the coffin for middle class America as it makes union dues optional for employers with unionized workers. Unions will lose money and can no longer lobby for workers' rights with the employers themselves as well as local and federal governments.  This overturns the Abood decision made back in the 1970's that made it legal to charge dues.

It is odd for the Supreme Court to overturn a long standing decision, which only highlights the calculated planning of the rich to throw us back into the middle-ages.

I still don't understand how charging mandatory union dues limits free speech.  A company does not represent the whole country, and with only 7% of American workers unionized there are plenty of places to work that do not have unions.  If you don't like working where there is a union shop there are plenty of places to work that do not have them, your freedom of speech is left perfectly intact.  This whole thing has been a farce to further hobble the American middle class and to turn us all into paupers.

Was Donald Trump a possible shill for the Republican Party all along?

It really did surprise me when Donald Trump won the Presidential election.  And I was so certain that he was actually a shill for Hillary Clinton, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  Now, that I think about it, he was probably a shill for the Republican Party all along.  President-elect Trump was actually a false outsider.  Now that Trump has been elected, we are witnessing him appointing a cabinet that sounds like some very traditional right-wing insiders that will care way more about Wall Street than Main Street.

You see the Republican Party knew if they couldn't win the 2012 Presidential election with a mainstream guy such as Mit Romney, there was no way they were going to win the Presidential election 2016.  Unless. they got a pretend outsider such as Donald Trump.  

Remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California? There were Republican's actually saying that we should amend the Constitutional clause that says that the American President must be an American citizen by birth.  They liked Schwarzenegger's mass appeal in the Golden State, and they thought he could hoodwink the whole country in the same way he did the left coast.  Luckily that plan didn't get very far, but ironically Schwarzenegger is now taking over Donald Trump's hosting duties on "The Celebrity Apprentice."  Coincidence? I wonder.

Trump was the perfect outsider.  He would say all sorts of outrageous stuff to rally the disenfranchised uneducated voter, and at the same time get mainstream leaders, like Paul Ryan, upset with him.  Ryan would flip-flop between shunning Trump and making amends with him, probably to see which would potentially attract more voters, or to further confuse voters.  Is Trump accepted by the mainstream or not?

The other scary thing is the alleged involvement of the former Soviet Union in the 2016 election.  I have heard speculation that this was to help lift the trade embargo with the former Soviet Union so that Exxon Mobil could get access to a vast supply of oil that the Soviets have.

Since Trump has been elected, accusations have been flying back and forth mostly between Trump and the main stream media.  It is like that ancient Chinese curse that gets quoted all the time in the media, "May you live in interesting times."  It looks like "interesting times" are happening now.  I hope the next four years are a lot calmer than the last four weeks.

    

    

I hope women show up en masse to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton has a chance to make history as the first woman to be elected to the office of the United States President.  It would be poetic justice for her to defeat her opponent, Donald Trump, who has in the past boasted about his womanizing.  Women all across the country should of course make the effort to get out and vote not only to vote for Clinton, but to come out in force to show the influence and power that they really wield in America.

Yet, there are some diehard Republican women who think that a notoriously narcissistic, less than reputable businessman is still the only clear choice in this election.  They think that Trump's portrayal of Clinton as part of a broken political system that only an outsider like Trump can repair, is an accurate description of our current situation.   I think that electing a woman president is a better option for helping to change politics in America, although it does look like overall Clinton will pretty much maintain the political status quo.  While I think change may be good, the kind of changes that Trump has proposed will spell nothing but trouble for the United States.  I also do not think that Trump has the political wherewithal to make all the the changes he claims he wants to make.

If Clinton is not elected president, the United States will not have have the opportunity to make history, but it will become history.  Women really need to show their support by getting out to vote for Clinton and show the world how much American women really matter.

Republican Party's acceptance of Donald Trump and why this is a bad thing.

I can't believe all the changes that have taken place in past month since I have posted here. Donald Trump managed to get the votes necessary to win the Republican nomination for President. Now, the Republican party looks like it has a truce with Trump.

This should be a warning sign to voters that Trump has no intention of keeping any of his campaign promises, and he will likely fall into to the mode of  the regular right-wing conservative once elected. There will be no wall between the United States and Mexico and there will be renegotiated deals with mainland China.   He has already stated that he has no plans to raise taxes on the rich, he is going to drop taxes on everybody and then gradually raise them on the rich, but they will be paying much less taxes than they currently pay.

It looks like it will be Republican business as usual if Trump is elected.  I think Trump has figured that it is OK to lie to the American people, because most politicians lie anyway.

There is still an outside chance that Trump is shill for Hilary Clinton and when it comes time for the Presidential campaigning he will try to completely alienate himself from voters.  There will be an audio recording of him leaked out saying how he really plans to totally screw over the American worker and help out his new wealthy cronies of the Republican far right.  Or some other purposely leaked information to make sure that Clinton wins the race for President.  This of course, is probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Whatever happens, it has been a wild ride so far.  Jimmy Kimmel live had a sketch featuring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick doing a parody of their Broadway show, "The Producers." They play their characters as campaign managers looking to make Trump a false candidate so he can loose the nomination and they can keep all the campaign money.  Of course their plan backfires like in the play and they loose everything.  This just like how the American people will loose everything if Trump is elected.  

The Controversy over the $15 minimum wage, what rich people are really afraid of.

California and New York now both have $15 an hour minimum wage bills signed into law.  This is great, but I think in most of the urban areas of those states you need at $25 dollars an hour just to get by, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Already there are company CEOs, such as Andy Puzder, of Carl Jr. Burger, saying that he now wants to eliminate jobs with automation as a counter against the minimum wage.

The real thing that the wealthy do not like about the minimum wage, other than taking money out of their own personal profits, is the impact it will have on inflation.  For many business, especially, I would imagine, fast food, the biggest expense is labor cost.  Labor cost increases mean that businesses would have to charge more for goods and services in order to see the same level of profit. Also workers will have more money to spend making more of a demand for other goods and services and their prices will go up. This will start a rise in inflation, and if you like to gamble on the stock market like many wealthy people do, you will have a harder time borrowing money because inflation will ultimately make interest payments go up.  The stock market won't get the infusion cash it needs and stock prices will ultimately go down, making it very hard to make easy money with stock investments.  This why stock markets tend to drop in value when investors hear that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates.

Andy Puzder is a long way off from Henry Ford, who wanted to make sure his employees made a fair wage in order for them to afford the cars that they were building in his factory.  A well paid employee is actually good for business and good for making the economy grow.  Poor and middle income people who have money are more likely to spend the money they earn because in many cases they have no other choice, while wealthy people can horde their money in offshore banks that will do no good to anyone other than the bank and themselves.  Henry Ford understood Keynesian economics, and I think the wealthy business owners understand Keynes as well they just choose to ignore him for an economic policy that says that they get to keep all of the money.

I just cannot believe how callous wealthy people can be to the common man.  The minimum wage increase helps make their lives more comfortable, but this is unacceptable to the wealthy just so they can make greater profits and fatten their own wallets.

The media's negative spin on Bernie Sanders.

The mainstream media is really downplaying Bernie Sanders's state primary and caucus wins and greatly touting Hillary Clinton's victories.  Could it be that corporate controlled media is afraid of a Sanders presidential candidate nomination?  Clinton is really the Republican-light candidate and would fit in with business-as-usual politics, therefore I am not surprised that the media is spinning a certain Clinton victory.  But I am thinking that things are not so certain.

The Republican party is so hell-bent on getting rid of Trump, but I think that Trump will disappear if Sanders gets the nomination.  This is because I still believe that Trump is a shill for Hillary.   I think if Republican party wants Trump to go away they should make sure that Sanders wins in all of the remaining states and gets the presidential nomination.

I do hope that Sanders gets the nomination because I do believe he is the only hope for saving the American middle class.  

Bernie Sanders really needs to win on Super Tuesday.

I really hope that Bernie Sanders comes through on Super Tuesday.  After not the greatest showings in Nevada and South Carolina, I am concerned for his campaign.

I think Massachusetts and Vermont will come through for Sanders, but a lot of the states voting on Super Tuesday are southern states, and because the Clintons are from the South, Hillary may have the advantage there.

I was surprised that a lot of Sanders's supporters are twenty-somethings.  They are probably recent college graduates who see very little employment opportunities using the skill-set that they learned in college.  They are probably unemployed or underemployed and they are the first generation to get the full brunt of country destroying policies of Nixon, Reagan, and two Bushes.  They see a not very bright future ahead for this country as I do, and Bernie Sanders is the only candidate really promising to do something about it.

If Hillary Clinton gets the nomination I will vote for her , but her husband has done some lasting damage to this country as well.  NAFTA and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act under his administration has also weakened this country's economy, therefore I worry that Hillary is also a wolf in sheep's clothing.  

I know Barack Obama ran on a platform of change and didn't deliver, but it doesn't mean that Sanders will be the same way.  I think he will at least make the effort.  If Clinton gets into office the Republicans will hem and haw about her, but I think ultimately she will do there bidding and not make any more change than Obama did in his two terms.

It is very important for Sanders supporters to participate on Super Tuesday if is campaign is going to continue to have momentum, so please get out to vote on March 1.

Friedrichs vs. California Teachers' Union and the death of the middle class. Or mandatory union dues do not limit free speech and here is why.

Destroying organized labor, in the form of labor unions, has always been one of the  ultimate goals of rich Americans and the radical right-wingers that dominate today's Republican party.   To achieve this goal, they have moved almost all manufacturing overseas (when practical) and are in the process of off -shoring as many service jobs as possible, and, of course, with each passing year new technologies are designed to take away more and more jobs.

Pesky labor unions are still around for many state's civil service employees because those jobs are harder to offshore.  But the wealthy right-wingers have been slowly working on taking away the collective bargaining rights of workers.  The ironically named "right-to-work" legislation passed in several states takes away the ability for unions to charge dues and some states to not allow civil service employees to unionize at all (which in my opinion should also be unconstitutional.)  It should be called "right-to-work for low wages and in poor conditions"

The Friedrichs vs. California Teachers' Union case which was heard before the United States Supreme Court in January would take away all unions' rights to charge mandatory dues to all employees regardless of whether or not they want to participate in the union.  This would weaken any remaining unions in the United States.  Fortunately before the decision could be written up, right-wing Justice Antonin Scalia died,  This leaves the case in limbo, and I am not certain if a decision will ever be official.  The lower court had ruled in favor of the Teacher's Union which would maintain unions for now, if the Justices hold the ruling to only the surviving members of the Supreme Court.  However if this attack fails, I am sure there are other lawsuits either in progress or ready to launch trying to do the same thing.

The argument against the California Teachers' Union's right to charge dues to all members, states that mandatory dues take away the right to free speech.  I would agree with that however, unionized employers are now few and far between, therefore workers have a right not to choose to work for a unionized business or organization or not.  Their free speech is protected by them not working for a unionized school district.  I am sure there are union free school districts in California as well as non-union private schools,  Ms. Friedrichs  could have utilized her free speech by choosing to work for one of those districts or schools.  I think free speech should only come into question if all employers in the United States had unions and the worker had no choice as to whether or not to work for a unionized employer.

As the right-wingers constantly push their agenda through, you have progressives like Elizabeth Warren trying to get legislation passed that will force employers to give worker sufficient notice about shift changes and working overtime.  She sponsored the "Schedules that Work Act" which basically regulates how employers can change schedules.  This is something that unions would normally do, but since unions are being eliminated you know have to have laws modify labor practices nationwide.

If the unions are completely wiped-out the American middle-class will eventually be wiped-out as well.  I do not know who Rachel Friedrichs is but if you Google her, you get a picture of someone who has wry smile on her face, a look that says, "I am getting a big payday for doing this, and you stupid unionized workers are all going all be out of jobs or working for minimum wage very soon, heh, heh, heh,"  I am not sure if this was the intention, but that's what the photo looks like to me.

Whether you worked for a unionized employer or not, it is important to support labor unions, if we want to continue to have a middle class, but if the wealthy right-wingers get their way labor unions will quickly become a thing of the past.

Donald Trump's road to the Republican presidential candidate nomination is going as I predicted.

Instead of the ultra-conservative right-wingers trying capitalize on Donald Trump's appeal, they are, of course, flat-out denouncing him as a viable candidate for President.  A recent issue of the conservative magazine "The National Review" has the front cover dedicated to a multi-author feature entitled "Conservatives Against Trump."   The feature's authors go down a laundry list of how Trump is not aligned with conservative movement and therefore not a viable Republican candidate.

Trump is of course winning most of his primaries and caucuses and most likely will continue to do so, because what he says, no matter how nastily he says it, is more in line with what Americans want to hear.

The conservative movement is really for the top 1 percent of earners and magazines like "The National Review," "The Weekly Standard" and news organizations like Fox are out to market it to the masses.  They refuse to see that Trump's success shows that their message is no longer getting through to the American people.  They cannot keep saying that, "white is black" (or in an economic sense "red is black") and get away with it.

I still think that the top 1 percenters and the Tea Partiers are going to continue to denounce Trump every chance they get, and when the time comes for the Republican convention, they will push delegates into voting for the number two candidate instead of Trump.  Whether or not this actually happens, at some point Trump will get disgusted and run as a third-party independent candidate.

I do not think Trump is a serious candidate for United States and he may only be there to help ensure Clinton gets voted into the White House. I can't imagine he says the things he says in such a tactless manner and expects to be taken seriously.   I am willing to bet if Sanders gets the Democratic nomination Trump will drop out of the race altogether.  We can just wait and see what happens.

And to make things worse, billionaire and former NYC Mayor, is also considering running for President as an independent.   I think his candidacy will be more about the hot button issue of gun control, and upset conservatives even further by ensuring a Republican loss.  Whatever happens it is going to be a very interesting election year.

Ted Cruz is Canadian. And he scares me.

Ted Cruz is in my opinion Canadian.  At one point he had dual citizenship.  He has renounced his Canadian citizenship, but this means nothing.  Americans are not allowed to have dual citizenship, period.  Go try to become a citizen of another country and try to remain United States citizen, just try to do it and see what happens  This means that Cruz is Canadian and he should not be allowed to run for United States President.  Yet he seems to have quite a great deal of financial backing to skirt the law.

It is just like the rich elite to want show off how the law does not apply to them.  They are special and they want to get a Canadian in as President just to show how powerful they really are.  

Another thing that bothers me about Ted Cruz aside from this ultra-right-wing agenda is that he is very disturbing to look at.  He is very uncharismatic in my opinion.  While running for President is not a beauty contest, a Presidential candidate should have a certain commanding yet comforting presence.  Cruz just gives me the heebie jeebies.  I cannot see how right-wing supporters can look at him and say, oh this is the guy I want running this country, but I guess he is telling them what they want to here in order to get their financial support.  The appeal is there for them, but I just don't see it.

There are lawsuits against Cruz trying to stop him from running because of his past Canadian citizenship, he should not have the right to.  I am just amazed that this would not scare financial backers away, because he may not be a viable candidate.  Trump has the right to sue him, but hasn't done it yet.  Perhaps he is afraid it will backfire and make Cruz some sore of right-wing martyr.

Ironically, if Cruz becomes President, I think a lot of Americans are going to want move to Canada, but I doubt the Canadians will want to let us in. I hope someone will stop Ted Cruz, because I think that even if Trump wins the Republican party will not let the delegates vote for him at the Republican convention.  And if my theory is correct, Trump will only run as an independent if Hilary wins the Democratic nomination.  

I hope in the end the lawsuits challenging Cruz's right to run for President will eventually do him in as a viable candidate.  

  

My Speculation: Is Donald Trump a shill for Hillary Clinton or could America turn into the United States of Trump?

I know I have all but abandoned this blog.  Who has the time these days?  The recent news of Donald Trump throwing his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination for United States President is too hysterical not to comment on.  Below is just all my speculation and opinion.

As other people have speculated, I believe that Trump is not making a serious bid for the White House and if Hillary Clinton, for whatever reason, does not get the Democratic nomination, Donald Trump will withdraw from the race altogether.

Have you noticed Donald Trump has been way ahead in polls for the Republican primary? He has really been telling the middle class what they want to hear.  Close the borders, cut taxes on the Middle Class and raise taxes on the wealthy.  This is not what wealthy Republicans want to hear, they want to keep the borders wide open to flood the United States with cheap labor, they want the shrinking Middle Class to pay for everything with through their taxes, and they want their own taxes reduced to nothing.  It doesn't look like Trump will be getting any donations from the wealthy ultra-conservatives. but he doesn't care because he has plenty of his own money.  And if he doesn't get the nomination, he has then threatened to run as third party candidate.  I think here is where things get interesting.

Mr. Trump is a little too crass and blunt for the Republican party style and he knows it.  At some point either top GOP officials will tell him to take a hike, or perhaps at some point he will pretend to get fed up dealing with the GOP and then run as a third party candidate.

Here Mr. Trump is acting  like H. Ross Perot did for Bill Clinton.  In  1992, Perot ran as a Third Party candidate and pretty much divided the Republican vote which helped Clinton to win.   I do not believe Perot was in cahoots with the Clintons, I think he at least made a sincere bid for the White House.   For the 1996 campaign, seeing Perot as a spoiler for the Republican party, the corporate controlled media helped squash Perot's second attempt by not selling him any airtime on their networks and helping with a smear campaign.

The Clintons so desperately want to be back in the White House again and I am not sure why, but I feel that it is most likely that hey are in cahoots with Trump.  I could be wrong and Trump is really making a sincere bid for the White House,  I have to say he does tell the American public what they want to hear.  And he did have his own TV show for a while which may have added to his appeal.   Well if  my speculations are wrong,  America better get ready to change its name to "The United States of Trump."

On a side note, I recently read a book about narcissism and Trump and Charlie Sheen were given as two celebrity examples, oh boy.

Staples closing stores: That was easy!

Bloomberg News Service reported that Staples plans to close 225 stores!  That was easy! But it will be hard on all of those people who will loose their jobs.


Bloomberg reported that fifty-percent of Staples' business now comes from the Internet.  Closing stores is major cost cutting move that will save them $500,000 they reported. 


The major loss of retail jobs is the scariest thing about e-commerce.


And you've got nut-jobs like Jeff Bezos looking to automate all aspects of his online retailing giant Amazon, which includes delivery drones.  Which leads to the question, "When no one has job, whose going to be able to buy all that crap from Amazon or any other retailer?"

One might argue that perhaps that in towns that loose their "Staples" stores, that the mom-and-pop stationary store might make a comeback, but what is more likely to happen is that the Wal-marts and the Targets in the area will just increase their stationary offerings. 


It is stories like these that give me the feeling that another major economic collapse is coming.  Perhaps President Obama should get one of those "Easy Buttons" to make our economic problems go away.

Recommened viewing: The Queen of Versailles

I recently saw this movie about this rich guy named David A. Siegel whose timeshare business, Westgate Resorts was very badly impacted by the 2008 economic collapse.

Near the beginning of the movie Mr. Siegel mentions that he had a hand in George W. Bush  winning the 2000 Presidential election.  The same President whose economic policies that led to the "Great Recession" at the end of his second term in office.  Based on what he said in the movie, I think Mr. Siegel should be subject to a criminal investigation, but I doubt anyone would take up that cause thirteen years after the alleged fact.

Now Mr. Siegel  is a guy that in my opinion should wake-up and realize the importance of Keynesian economics, which basically states that the masses need to be employed and have enough money to feel confident enough to make purchases in order to pump more money into the economy which allows the economy to then in turn grow.  When they do not have money, they cannot afford to invest in things like timeshare resorts and no bank will give them a loan no matter how desperately they want to do so.

Mr. Siegel and the other heads of businesses and industries that depend on the fact that the masses need money to spend in order for their businesses to be profitable should be lobbying the American government to return to Keynesian economics to keep people employed and ready to spend money.  Instead they are just riding things out and hoping that the governments usual supply-side response (or non-response in some cases) will rectify things.  Well, it hasn't in five years and most likely won't any time soon.

According to his wife Mr.Siegel's wife, Jackie, in an August 27, 2013 Orlando Sentinel article written by Hal Boedeker, Siegel was able to salvage his business by selling one of his properties, therefore he was able to come out if this with only some damage to his business and the mega-mansion that he is building will continue to be built in spite of the minor setback depicted in the film.  Therefore I am very doubtful that Mr. Seigel or any person of means will come out on the side of Keynesian economics anytime soon.

If you have a Netflix streaming subscription, at the time of this posting, the movie is currently available for streaming.

You can also buy it from Amazon.com here:




or the physical DVD from Amazon here:



Really worth checking out, if you are interested in finding out more about what is really wrong with this country.

Layoffs and more layoffs and the latest job reports.

Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics had good news when it came to the month of May's unemployment claims and job creation, all I have heard in the news lately are stories about layoffs. 

IBM is allegedly sacking at least 3,000 employees worldwide.  There was big hoopla over a Manhattan law firm, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, laying off 60 attorneys and 110 support staff, something that was unprecedented in its 82 year history.   The construction vehicle and equipment company, Caterpillar, has laid off about 800 works starting last month.  And many banks and other businesses are allegedly laying off workers in spite of record profits.  Also not to mention all of the layoffs that have and will result from congresses budget sequester.

These layoffs will have ripple effects as all of these people loose their spending power and can no longer pump their dollars into the economy.  Businesses that once served them will stop getting a regular money in and they will eventually be forced to close their doors.  Layoffs like the ones reported above are likely to have a strong ripple effect on other jobs and the economy as a whole.

On a side note, I think that companies are starting to realize that they can work much more efficiently with today's computer and networking technology and there is no point in keeping around workers that they don't have to keep around.

To me it looks like we are getting ready for recession round-two and I think it is going to be a scarier bout than the first one. 

This is where the government should step in and create more jobs, but the Ayn Rand disciple Republicans will have none of that,  as they make sure the government sequester takes away even more jobs.

Another scary bit of news I have heard that it is getting harder and harder for Harvard Law School graduates to find jobs.  A Harvard Law degree was an almost certain path to employment years ago,  I have heard that as much as 30 percent of their graduates cannot find jobs.

I am not sure why so many people want to go into law and not study medicine.  Law must be an easier way to earn money, but now that lawyers seem to be tripping over each other you would think that at least some people would want to choose medicine for a guaranteed well paying job and career.  One thing that scares me about the glut of lawyers is that they have to find ways to drum-up business which will mean a future of a lot of unnecessary lawsuits.

I hope all of these layoffs stop at some point, but I get the feeling that this is only the beginning.

Recommended Reading: "Pity the Billionaire" by Thomas Frank.

Here is another book by Thomas Frank that explores the crazy political and economic situation we are in now.  Frank deftly explains how after the 2008 economic crash many people expected a return to Keynesian economics.   You know John Maynard Keynes, he basically said that in order to have a strong economy the common folk have to remain employed in order to in turn have the money to spend to pump up the economy and create economic growth.  This has to be done at all costs, even if the federal government has to be the employer of last resort, creating jobs where the private sector just won't.   Of course the government would have to tax the wealthy to pay for all this, and this has now become a taboo topic.

What happened after 2008 was pretty much the opposite the bailout was a supply side solution basically giving money to banks and other financial institutions that were too big to fail.  This of course never trickled down to the common folk an we still have high unemployment today. 

Frank illustrates how adamantly the right-wing yahoos and the wealthy wan to keep the United States on the same course of tax cuts for the wealthy, a government that is shrunk down into an ineffectual peanut, and big business given a wide berth to do what every the hell it wants. 

Recently the Huffington Post had a blended picture of George W. Bush and President Obama calling him George W. Obama to illustrate how the Obama administration is pretty much just a continuation of the Bush administration.  Obama certainly wasn't the agent of change he promised to be.  So are Titanic of an economy is not getting turned around we are just headed for the same iceberg over and over again. 

I wish more people would read Frank's book.   You can buy a copy from Amazon.com here:

Pity the Billionaire by Thomas Frank.

Recommended reading: "The Wrecking Crew" by Thomas Frank.

I am going to try to recommend books on this blog since there are many people who can understand and explain the predicament the United States is in much better than I can.  Even if you do not want to read my stupid blog, you should really check-out the authors that I will be recommending as required reading.

I am not a professional writer, I am not a professional anything really.  I am a poor working schlub who is disheartened by the current economic decline and how the wealthy bullies of the world have stacked the cards of the game of life against us.

I wanted to start a blog because I felt that not enough people are talking about these issues and the corporate controlled media is disturbingly silent about the causes of our economic decline. 

Also I felt that there are not enough people who are looking to help working class people and/or shine a light on the devious right-wing activities that have the United States as we know it on a path to ultimate destruction.

I have found an author who is trying to do just that, it is Thomas Frank.  And the only talk show that I have seen him on is on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  I wonder why he is not on more main stream talk and news shows.

In his book "The Wrecking Crew," Frank describes how the wealthy corrupt government with their money and then turn around and complain that the government is corrupt and must be reduced in size or come as close as possible to be eliminated altogether.  Ronald Regan and the two Bushes ran up big spending deficits, cut taxes on the wealthy and then complained that government spending was out of control and big government needed to be reigned in.   And as James Carville put it, "The rich want small government for the same reason criminals want fewer cops on the street, so they can get away with murder. [This quote I got from the Internet and is probably paraphrased]" 

Frank goes on to explain how the lobbyists of Washington DC's K Street are the ones who are truly running the United State government and through this abuse of the constitutional rights America has become a plutocracy.

He also tells of the horror story of Saipan, a small island that is a United States territory.  In the 1990's was turned into basically a corporate controlled labor camps where guest workers had no rights and extremely low wages.  And all to keep the "Made in America" label on clothing.  The factories were eventually shut down for humanitarian reasons.  I believe what happened in Saipan is what the rich have planned for all American citizens eventually.

You must read this book is order to see the horrors that right-wingers like John Boehner have planned for us.  Even if you do not care for my blog, Please read this book.   The link to purchase it from Amazon is below:

Buy a Copy of "Wrecking Crew" from amazon.com

Koch brothers' attempts to buy up major media.

It looks like the oil billionaire Koch brothers are allegedly trying to buy-up newspapers and such in major markets to, I would speculate, make them all right-wing, free-market, and supply-side economics propaganda machines.  I think this is something that Rupert Murdoch has been doing with Fox for quite some time now.

We are somewhat lucky that people get their news from so many different sources today, not just newspapers, radio and television, but also Internet sources like search engines, Facebook, and even blogs...

Say....if the Koch brothers wanted me to stop writing this blog, all they would have to do is pay me $300,000, chump change for them.  I could change it from "Middle Class Massacre" to something like "Plutocrat's Party."  And say things like,  "What we really need is more tax-breaks for the wealthy individuals, and large corporations, yeah, and have an open door to immigrants to keep labor costs down, and deregulating banks and letting Wall Street do whatever it wants is best for the economy, yeah that sounds good."    Or perhaps just stop writing it altogether.   I'll be waiting for my check...

Hopefully, the right-wing won't be able to buy up every possible media venue, but it is amazing what you can do with a lot cash and determination. 

The immigration reform and its potential impact on employment

A while ago, I was surfing the net to get more information about "The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013" the latest in immigration reform, and one that has been touted by the media as good one.

You know who likes this bill, Grover (I wish he could be as nice as his namesake Muppet) Norquist.  I saw an opinion piece he wrote for the British newspaper, "The Guardian."  He says that the bill will be good for the American economy.

 

Why does he like the bill? For the same reason all the Republicans like the bill (but some do pretend to hate it), because it basically opens the flood gates for immigration.   With more available people to compete for jobs, wages will go down, it is the simply law of supply and demand.  Republicans will not be happy until Americans are making the same wages as the Chinese and Indians (of India not Native Americans).  

The bill does call for more border security, but only across Mexico as many of the states that border Mexico have pleaded for.  I do not believe the bill does much for the Canadian border or any other way someone can enter this country illegally.  

In times of economic prosperity, when America has a growth economy, it makes sense to allow for immigration, but in the shrinking economy that Americans are living in, it would make sense to freeze immigration until unemployment dips below 4% or so.

Australia, which has a very strict anti-immigration policy, and no countries bordering it, currently has only 5.6 percent unemployment as opposed to America's 7.6.

Wealthy Americans will not be happy until unemployment is around 26% as in Greece which would eventually enable them to drive wages down to a fraction of what they currently are at least as low as mainland China's. 

Then why are some Republican politicians opposed to the bill?  Perhaps it is to appeal to some of their racist constituents or perhaps they just want to keep President Obama from appearing to move things forward with immigration and by doing this they make him look even more inept than he already does.

President Obama is behind giving Visas to highly-skilled foreigners in order to help grow the economy, but I think this also hurts opportunities for American citizens.  If we had a strict anti-immigration policy, companies would be forced to pay to train Americans to fill the jobs they need.  This would benefit the American worker who would gain a useful skill set and make him employable as well in demand in the workforce.  It would also benefit the college or institution that has to train him.  The only one that looses out is the company that has to pay for the training.  It is much easier and cheaper to import foreign laborers that already have the skill sets that American companies need.  It is even cheaper if the company can off-shore the jobs altogether.

And then there is the issue of security.  While America has always been a country made great by immigrants who have left their oppressive countries to be free in the USA, the times have changed greatly.  While immigrants love to come here to enjoy a higher quality of life, there is much hate and envy of the United States.  We have to make sure that at all entry points,not just the borders, that we are not letting in foreign terrorists.  Any immigration reform act should have strict provisions for this, but of course it does not.

In summary I think we should keep the doors to immigrants closed as much as possible until our economy makes a full recovery.  I think that it is awful that there are liberal groups pushing for both lax immigration and raising the minimum wage, because the influx of cheap labor, especially in hard economic times, would only keep wages down.

 

The sequester

I know I should have chimed in on this weeks ago, but who has the time these days, and I really have to admit I don't understand the sequester on government spending.  Apparently it has something to do with a budget act that Obama had signed into law that calls for massive spending cuts that will result in the loss of around 750,000 jobs in a time when we cannot afford to loose one job. At least that's my understanding.  However, it does cut quite a bit from defense which is something that I think America should be doing now that the cold war is over.

If this was going to be problem, why did Obama sign it into law in 2011?  Government should be spending money now to create jobs rather than worrying about the deficit.  They should be acting as the employer of last resort in order to get Americans back to work. 

It seems that the Republican controlled House of Representatives wants nothing more than to be thorn in Obama's side, and make sure that there is complete gridlock when it comes to moving this country forward.  I hope the Democrats can take control of the House after the 2013 election, then there might be a slim chance of Obama making some progress in restoring this country's economy.