IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There seems to be an outbreak of brutality between U.S. citizens and law enforcement over the past several years, and I find it disturbing. I’m not in a street gang, I don’t sell narcotics on street corners, and I don’t have a stable of ladies of the evening. I try and operate my life as a law-abiding citizen…..however, last November (2014) there was a loud knock at my front door on a Sunday night right around 10:00 P.M. It was the cops, and they wanted to know if I had been beating my wife.

 

First off, I was interrupted from my Tru-TV show, and secondly I only beat my wife on Wednesday evenings between 7:30 and 8:00 P.M. so they were early! There’s a little deal that’s called probable cause that cops use all of the time, I know, I watch Law and Order, what those two words, (probable cause) means that John Law can enter your abode whenever they want, all they got to say is probable cause.

 

I was intimidated, scared, bewitched, bothered and bewildered, “actually just intimidated and scared” and one of the cops (there was two plus a trainee) wanted to search my house. Now I ask you, “what would you, think, say and do in such a situation” ….comply…..it’s what I did until my daughter stepped in and kind of put a halt to the silliness. At this point I kind of regained my composure and told the trio of authority figures to leave…..there’d been enough scare tactics for one Sunday evening.

 

There parting shot, “dispatch must have given us a wrong address which I hardily agreed with, anyways I always get sweaty whenever I’m beating my wife…..and on this Sunday night my brow was completely dry.

 

The incident left me with several different emotions, and you can’t know what I mean until you experience firsthand the vulnerable feeling that you have when blue uniformed men demand that you open your door for inspection with pistols hanging from their hips. It doesn’t matter the day, or the hour, the law simply suspects somebody of something.

 

Okay, I’m getting to be an old fool, as opposed to at one time being a young fool, and even though I seldom have had to deal with the law, I have an abiding fear of the law. The only respect that I have for these authority figures is that they can hurt me, they can arrest me, smash down my door and cart me off to jail for…..whatever, or worse…. shoot me.

 

I have to be totally honest, I have been happy to see the law only one time in my life, and I’ve been around a bit. I ran all over the Midwest for thirty years chasing a baseball (playing or involved with the game) and I got to tell you I wasn’t always sober when I drove. I also drove a semi-tractor trailer in 41 different states, and never once was glad to see the law.

 

I have noticed during the past decade or so that regular law enforcement has been stockpiling all sorts of military type equipment that they use once in a while for special incidents, you know, like crowd control, or the disbursement of the same. Pepper spray Tasers, billy-clubs and all sorts of choke-holds that can turn lethal in a heart-beat, or lack thereof. Police forces in the world of 2015 are armed to the teeth, and baby they’re ready, willing and able to use what they got.

 

TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE

I’ve always somehow had a problem with that slogan stenciled across police squad car doors, I personally have never felt the need for police protection, and I sure as hell don’t need a cop to get my cat out of the tree. No-sir-ee, I can protect myself just fine thank you, and you sure as hell don’t need to worry about cops serving me, I’m capable of taking my own sustenance.

 

There has been a dramatic shift in what cops are expected to do, and it hasn’t all been because they simply assumed more responsibility. It seems like a kind of gray area with regards to exactly what police departments across the fruited plains of America are really supposed to do.

 

I believe that fifty or so years ago, the average cop in any average community was supposed to ensure that there was peace, and some stability within a community. Today it seems as if the major thrust of police officers is enforce laws, make arrests and issue citations for an ever broadening litany of rules and regulations, some it seems enacted to generate an income for budgeting situations.

 

The techniques in use by police departments has made a gradual change over the years, there is a seeming heightened focus on total control in every situation. As if the control factor wasn’t enough, many in law enforcement seem to have a trigger finger when confronting a civilian no matter the reason for the stop.

 

I haven’t felt this, but there seems to be a kind of epidemic of police harassment and violence, which is a nationwide issue. I read about it, and see it in newscasts every day of the week.

 

Another issue that has spread across the nation like a wildfire is a seeming unbridled unaccountability for abuse of power, and police brutality has been an issue for several decades now. Cops do not have the right to manhandle, punch, kick, or whack with those batons that they carry.

 

I DON’T HAVE THE TIME…..BUT IF I DID

There is no data base that tracks police killing civilians, there is no data base that tracks police brutality, or abuse of authority, but if I had the time and the where-with-all, I’d bet that the numbers would be significant, scary, and sobering.

 

Here’s the problem in a neat little nut shell, there can’t be a cop-land (where mostly cops live), police forces aren’t families, and they aren’t brothers. Like the rest of us, they are little more than working stiffs, grubbing for a paycheck. When we, as citizens kowtow to the silly notions that fire and safety departments are more than jobs, when they are held up, above the rest, and some kind of hero’s we are asking for trouble, the kind of trouble that we now find ourselves in.

 

And please don’t waste my time with that tired line about appreciating “their service,” because quite frankly…..I don’t. Some of these guys are way past dangerous, they are down-right barbaric, and need to be locked away with some of the people that they arrest.

 

I also take exception to the “the bad cops are just isolated, and the vast number of police officers are fine, upstanding public servants”. If that was the case, why would they refer to themselves as family, and brothers…..and the blue wall of silence!

 

There is an old saying that was uttered by somebody a hell-of-a-lot smarter then I, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Truer words were never spoken, especially when talking about the shape of law enforcement in the United States today.

 

Race DOES play a role in how police act and react to situations, areas of their communities, and you’d better believe that the residents of these areas are aware of the race card being played over and over. Race is a big reason that there really isn’t a nationwide data base of police and civilian action, and reaction.

 

A BLACK A DAY IN THE EASIEST WAY

It is estimated that as many as 400 black men are shot to death here in the United States every year that means that at least one black man is shot every 24 hours, an appalling figure if true. There’s all sorts of stories about blacks getting murdered by cops across the country, and make no mistake, it is murder.

 

The numbers aren’t much different for Latinos with the average being shot to death between 350 and 400 males. The vast majority of police who shot either blacks or Latinos are white, which shouldn’t be surprising because the about 75% of all police forces in the country are white.

 

Believe it or not, there is also a status type symbol with regards to the killing of a black young person. I suppose you might relate shooting a black man to death the same as earning you’re bones. Of course for the vast majority of Americans this type of an attitude is completely foreign, and is unbelievable to understand.

 

With the attitude and the atmosphere on the streets of America today, as far as I can see, there is little reason for a black or Latino to confront cops in any sort of situation because that minority has an almost 50% chance of getting shot, or otherwise manhandled. White people, the basic framers of government today understand little about what a black person goes through during his life, yet it’s still the white man who sets standards, regulations rules, and laws that are supposed to aid minorities in their struggles with racism today.

 

CLOSING SHOTS

A 34 year old biomedical technician, Ricardo Arceo (a Latino), got out of his sisters van after a traffic stop, raised his hands over his head and begin walking towards the cop who pulled his revolver and shot Arceo to death…..on a Los Angeles street.

 

Undercover drug officers in Orlando, Florida shot to death unarmed Izzy Colon after a physical altercation. Colon may have been stupid to involve himself in a physical struggle, but undercover agents, guns, money and drugs make for a witches brew.

 

In Kent, Ohio a 29 year old police officer, Sarah Berkey, is on paid leave after the off duty officer shot and killed a 29 year old man.

 

Sidney, Nebraska police shot and killed Dana Hiavinka after cops responded to a domestic disturbance. The two officers saw a women running away from her residence, and when they entered the house they were confronted by the knife wielding Hiavinka who they shot to death. A graphic illustration of why one should never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a police car dash cam shows Officer Lisa Mearkle shooting David Kassick fatally in the back for a traffic stop.  It parallels the South Carolina shooting death of black motorist Walter Scott for a broken tail-light.

 

Of course there was the fatal shooting of black man, Eric Harris by a 73 year old white former real estate broker Robert Bates when Bates mistook his pistol for a Taser. It is true that Harris was a suspect in a weapons sting operations, and it’s also true that he ran from officers…..but getting shot by a ride-along 73 year old former real estate agent…..with an unauthorized gun to boot…..not cool.

 

And finally there’s the case of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, Maryland who died in police custody from a snapped spine injury. Police are at a loss to figure out how Gray “picked up his injuries”, here’s a clue, he was black and the cops were white.

 

I remember my brother-in-law getting busted for driving while under the influence of alcohol in Pontiac, Michigan 20 or so years ago. After he was released and came home, his face looked like somebody had danced on it…..and he’s white.

 

Yup police are out of control, and we’ll probably never get control back again, at least in my lifetime. It’ll be up to my kid’s kid’s to deal with the problem, all I can say is “good luck.” For me, I plan on keeping my head low and my butt lower than my head!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY CONTRACTORS AND JAMES BOND

PRIVATE MILITARY AND SECURITY CONTRACTORS AND JAMES BOND

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I read with interest an article by Sam Hananel in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting on judicial action against four former Blackwater security guards who allegedly shot to death 14 Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others. I use the term alleged because in a war zone does anybody ever really know what happens.

 

Although these guys were convicted (one will get life, while the three others will serve 30 year sentences) they may never be incarcerated except during the time that they await their appeals. Possibly Blackwater, the Iraqi war, and the recent judicial action speared some poor down and out American citizen from their seeming blood-lust for shooting innocent people to death.

 

Of course the reaction after the decision was read to the four former security guards was typical…..”utter betrayal by the same government that was served honorably”. “I cannot say in all honesty that we did anything wrong.”

 

Not one ounce of remorse for the tragedy that killing 14 innocent men, women and children, and wounding another 17 people. I won’t even ask the question of “what price do these four men feel would be fair for killing 14 innocent people”, there answer would be meaningless to all of those involved that remain citizens in Iraq.

 

Of course the defense argued, and argued, and argued for mercy, saying that “decades long sentences would be unconstitutionally harsh for men who operated in a stressful war-torn environment and who have proud military careers”. Defense attorneys also argued that the guards were “using weapons that had been issued by the U.S. State Department for their protection”.

 

THREE THINGS WERE MISSING IN THE LEGAL PROCEDINGS

Actually there was more than three things missing during the legal-beagle proceedings, but I’ll list just three, an almost total disregard for the loss of so much human life, and the total lack of remorse by…..anybody. And nobody talked of the war between the United States, her allies, and Iraq being preemptive…..the war was completely unnecessary.

 

People here in the United States (not that many people) talk about the injustice of the war with Iraq, there used to be talk about bringing those responsible for the war to some sort of justice. Nobody seems to have gotten the reason why nobody has been taken to task over the insanity. The answer is easy…..there is no justice.

 

How can anybody be brought to justice when hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and another million or so have had their lives irreversibly changed by the actions of a handful of people.

 

So now we are down to four men who killed 14 people and wounded 17 others with weapons that were issued by the U.S. State Department for their protection. These men didn’t only kill these people, they used weapons that were manufactured in the United States through a government contract, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, and offered up to these guys for their protection.

 

The ammunition (bullets) that ripped through those innocent men, women and children came through a government contract that was paid for by United States taxpayers…..in other words every taxpayer in the U.S. is complicit in the dastardly deed.

 

And here’s the kicker…..the United States taxpayer paid these guy’s salaries, and probably much of the equipment that they used right down to their skivvies. Now ain’t that a hot kettle of fish, like me, I’ll bet you didn’t figure that you were actually complicit in war-time murder.

 

Remorse…..it’s a funny word, but it fits in this case “to a t” this incident, (the 14 dead and the 17 wounded) can be used as an illustration that depicts how horrible war is, and why it should be avoided at all costs.

 

I can guarantee you that the four men who killed and wounded the Iraqi’s feel absolutely nothing, no remorse and no shame. If anything their only regret is getting caught, being brought to trial, convicted and sentenced. Obviously these men, their superiors, and most military personal figured that the incident was little more than collateral damage, a cost of a war…..and acceptable.

 

And the loss of human life, while regrettable, is necessary…..right…..well hell no, human life is precious, something to be treasured, and protected at all cost. And please don’t waste my time with the “but they are oppressed, under the evil dictatorship of Saddam Hussein”, or the really tired excuse…..”the United States and her allies have given the Iraqi people a chance for freedom, and a chance to operate their country as they see fit”.

 

That sentiment is hubris and frankly, to me, distasteful, but it’s basically how our Federal Government authority figures operate, and exactly how our foreign policy is conducted. The Pentagon is happy, and the military industrial complex is overjoyed.

 

IT’S HOW WE ROLL

There is a massive deception campaign in the United States, and in its global propaganda, which seeks to portray the U.S. as a poor set-upon nation that would like world peace but has to keep military stations around the world to “police” the entire world’s “troubled hot spots”. Of course nothing could be further from the truth; the fact of the matter is that the United States is the world’s biggest war-monger that the world has ever seen.

 

Lets us take a quick peek at exactly how a peace loving society has to spend on defense, “keeping in mind that the fiscal year of the United States is October 1 to September 30”. The request for fiscal year 2016 for defense alone will be $585.2 billion dollars, $25.9 billion more than FY 2015, or 4% more. And here’s the kicker, the estimated cost of report or study for the Department of Defense alone will cost the taxpayers an addition $12,000.

 

Sadly the $585.2 billion figure doesn’t even come close to what the taxpayers of the United States will be paying for our brand of peace. There’s something called military activity of other government departments, such as nuclear weapons program, much of which is handled by the Department of Energy, or the Veterans Program which pays for the care and benefits of former military personnel which in all totals $166 billion. There is also more than $400 billion that is paid in interest on loans from prior wars and military expenditures.

 

Since the 1960’s the United States has been playing slight of hand to hide the actual scale of its military spending from the American taxpayer. There’re several different ways that the U.S. government has accomplished this shell game. Adding to the federal budget the amount of money spent of Social Security, the nation’s retirement program, and Medicare, the health insurance for the aged, and disabled. And as everybody worth a hoot knows, both of these programs are funded by separate payroll tax paid by employees and employers, and the resulting funds are actually dedicated to the citizens who receive or will receive benefits from those programs.

 

Because of the gerrymandering system of accounting that is practiced by the federal government, it’s next to impossible to guesstimate how much is spent on America’s drive for world peace, but a starting figure would be in excess of $1.5 trillion dollars.

 

That figure…..$1.5 trillion is more than the budget of many second world countries who are struggling to get somewhere near where the United States occupies sits in the world of this century.

 

Lets us count the ways that the United States government conducts its peace-making, war-making approach to the world at large. I said earlier that the U.S. taxpayers are complicit with regards to how the U.S. operates around the world. Our authority figures are mirror images of what many, many citizens say, think and do.

 

When American soldiers shoot innocent women in the head, or shoot a toddler in the middle of the back, everybody shares in squeezing the trigger. We are the ones who allow our government leaders to appropriate tax dollars to do these dastardly deeds. We are the ones who elect these people to power, and then don’t rein them in when they revert to form. It’s how we roll.

 

SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED

James Bond couldn’t have said, or done it better, there’s no draft in the United States, little honest news coverage, very little images of exactly what is going on in these far off places, and a general lack of interest. Remember former President George W. Bush and his famous comment, “continue on with your normal lives, and don’t let the terrorists spread their fear”.  

 

I’m sure that James Bond would have likened the way that the United States endeavors to achieve peace throughout the world as a kind of job security effort. You do not spread peace by doing so through threats, genocide, and bully-boy tactics.

 

Somewhere, somehow many U.S. authority figures forgot the real meaning of spreading peace…..which is relatively easy to achieve. Two words come to mind for me…..understanding and acceptance. Believe it or not, everybody in the world is not the same as United States citizens. No one country in the world…..ever…..has had all of the answers.

 

Until the general public of the U.S. understands this fact, there will continue to be war, death, and human degradation on a grand scale.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE RUNNING RAMPANT IN THE U.S.

AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE RUNNING RAMPANT IN THE U.S.

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

Apparently we are a sorry collective lot of people here in the United States…..at least domestically, on the national stage, not so much. We US citizens are coddled and cajoled into and out of all sorts of domestic situations…..and I’ll be damned, back into again some of the same crap we just were steered out of.

 

Gun violence here in the United States is awful, thousands of people die every year by firearm activity, whether by suicide, by mistake, or by murder. It doesn’t really matter which way the fatal shot was administered; the results are always the same, blood, smagma and the involuntary execration of bodily fluids. Getting shot to death by a firearm is never, ever pretty.

 

People on the streets of America are under attack by authority figures every single day of the week, and probably twice on Saturday. I have blogged before on the danger on the streets of the United States, so I won’t bore you with numbers…..well maybe just a few! I ran across an article while researching for this blog, and wouldn’t you know it, I felt that I simply must share it with you-all. The info is from PolitiFact.com, a reputable outfit that I’ve used for several years now, and their information has never steered me wrong.

 

Now these figures are from 2013 which actually isn’t that long ago when one considers that either a data base or manual record keeping of civilian shootings, or deaths involving a weapon is sorely lacking here in the United States. Probably gun owners, gun sellers, and the policing organizations would rather not dwell on the negative side of the issue of people getting wounded by gunfire, or worse killed.

 

JUST THE FACTS MA’AM

Some people say that statistics can be rearranged to conform to whatever it is that people might want to prove. Me, well I believe in the power of statistics as a gauge to track what might be happening regarding a certain subject. In this case when somebody tells me that 87 people die every single day of the year due to gunshot wounds I immediately sit up and take notice.

 

When that same person tells me that 270 people are shot every day with a firearm, and that 100,000 people suffer gunshot wounds every year I don’t just take notice, I raise out of my chair and begin looking over my shoulder to see who’s following me. And I think that I’m aware…..huh, I guess I’m far from being informed.

 

These figures aren’t influenced by either liberal or conservative types, the data comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC); experts in the field who keep the most reliable statistics on the subject. Apparently there are also another 13,851 non-fatal injuries from BB or pallet guns which are not included in that 100,000 figure listed in the previous paragraph.

 

The only area of the study by the CDC that I guess I would have issues with is the 18,735 suicide killings by firearms, although these people are wounded…..(beyond repair) I don’t think that those figures should be counted in with the 100,000 people that are injured by a gunfire shooting.

 

Besides the 18,735 who commit suicide by firearm, there are 11,493 homicides, 554 unintentional shooting deaths, 333 legal intervention deaths, and 232 undetermined deaths by gunfire. If you discount the 18,773 suicides by gunfire, there are still 81,265 people shoot during an average year in the United States, or about 35 deaths per day, down from the 87 if you count suicides, however still unacceptable as far as I’m concerned.

 

With this background, the country’s authority figures consider that they are more than well equipped to hand out sorts of advice with regards to all sorts of issues that are confronting the world at this time. Forget about the deaths in the streets of America, forget about the 80 some thousand that are shot but don’t die in the US, what the hell, the authority figures work better with foreign problems than domestic stuff anyways.  

 

AND NOW THE U.S. PASSES OUT ITS BRAND OF HELP TO ITS NEIGHBORS AND ALLIES

The United States is by far the most militant country in the entire world today, just because most of our authority figures (elected, appointed and enlisted) think and say that “the United States is the best equipped, and has attained a higher plane of rationality” does not make it so.

 

This attitude is self-consoling and delusional: it is not rational, but only enervated, and confuses its own lack of interest in the future with moderation. After the great blood-letting of the past two twentieth century world wars, and the war on terror that is currently fourteen years on, somebody needs to step forward and halt this ongoing madness.

 

We don’t even have to go back into the twentieth century to make a body count to show that wars of the world are being waged through a thin veil of major world-wide credit and debit corporation balance sheets.

 

The twentieth century military skirmishes and declared wars have taken more then 8,621,000, this figure after the world collectively had learned a lesson from the two world wide wars that took a combined 60,670,868 human beings.

 

What the world authority figures learned from probably the bloodiest segment of world history  was that the human conscious could take wars with smaller casualty lists, less collateral damage, and worst of all, turn a blind eye towards those people who advocate war mongering where smaller amounts of human degradation and petulance occur.

 

For some, in other countries, waging war is as common as mom and apple pie is here in the United States. For decades and generations, the mentality of war has been passed on from father to son. As a people, US citizens are beginning that long and arduous path down the generations of military families. There is no honor in this perceived path to glory, what it is, is a ticket to a loss of a father, a son, daughter, aunt, uncle, or other relatives, or worse horribly disfigured and completely reliant on others for help.

 

For the United States authority figures to pass weapons, military advice, and military support that includes American boots on the ground is ridiculous and moronic. And for the US citizen to allow this dispensing of governing and justice is distasteful to me. Oh I know what some might say…..”if you don’t like it here, move.” And that would be fine with me…..except the way that the United States authority figures are passing out their way of governance, and weapons, a guy like me would be hard pressed to secure that utopian nirvanic place.

 

I must add that I have absolutely nothing against military personnel, nor do I hold anything other than the highest regard for those veterans from World War II. But since that time wars have been engagements of profiteering for those world-wide military corporations. As a people, peace lovers of the world need to reign in their authority figures before we’re all pushing up the daisies.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THOSE WITTY ECONOMICAL TYPES

THOSE WITTY ECONOMICAL TYPES

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Austerity, bankruptcy, belt tightening, poor as hell, upside-down, or in the poorhouse, no matter which way you put it, an $18,000,000,000,000 national debt is really a financial figure that nobody can get a handle on…..even the rich and shameless. I recently read an article by a couple of young economic reporters, Jesse A. Myerson and Matt Bruenig in an edition of Al Jazeera about how to put the national debt in a kind of context.

 

It was their contention that although the Federal Government does have a huge national debt, (and that the $18,000,000,000,000 debt) is nothing to sneeze at, the Fed does own all sorts of assets. In fact the United States Federal Government is the largest asset holder in the world. The portfolio includes 900,000 buildings, 41,000,000 acres of land, 4,000,000 miles of roads, 12,000 miles of commercial inland water channels and 6540 dams.

 

Of course the actual value of all of the above is impossible to estimate a value on, but there was a study in 2010 that loosely took a stab at that figure and came up with a value figure of $17,000,000,000,000. If that figure is even close, the United States isn’t really that bad off. Just sell of a few acres here, a couple of buildings there and maybe a couple of million miles of road and, bingo, we’re out of debt.

 

Now I understand that the situation isn’t that easy to solve, but come to find out, all this rhetoric by Democrats and Republicans is, well, a bunch of bull. Those authority figures in Washington really have little honest to goodness clue about what is driving the country. While they bicker over adding on their own little pet peeves in order for the passage of a higher debt ceiling, the poor working class continues to get poorer.

 

LET’S TAKE A QUICK LOOK AT WHERE SOME OF THIS DEBT COMES FROM

“Why did the U.S. government spend $2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly”? “Why did the U.S. government spend $175,587 to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”, and finally, “why did the U.S. government spend $2 million dollars for a soccer field for Guantanamo, Cuba detainees”? Don’t have an answer, neither do I, and the guy that compiled this information, Tyler Durden doesn’t either.

 

Here’s just a few of the ways that the federal government piles on the debt;

a. IRS paid $70 million in bonuses to employees.

 

b. The United States military will be leaving $7 billion worth of military equipment behind in Afghanistan.

 

c. In 2012 $25,000 of taxpayer money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.

 

d. Over the past 15 years $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.

 

d. U.S. Government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.

 

e. The U.S. Government is spending $3.6 million a year to support the opulent lifestyles of former presidents.

 

f. Government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the Palestinian Authority.

 

g. The Fed spent $505.000 in 2012 for hair and beauty products for cats and dogs.

 

h. $10,000 was spent for talking urinal cakes in Michigan.

 

i. When Vice President Joe Biden and his staff stopped off in Paris for one night, the hotel bill was $585,000.50.

 

j. 15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting federal pensions for life worth a minimum of $100,000 per year.

 

I could go on, Durden has a bunch of these facts and figures, but I think that you get the idea, the same people that’s job it is to curb spending, and bring the national debt more in line with some sort of payback and the same people who got us to where we are at the present time. Isn’t that kind of like the foxes guarding the hen-house…..from the foxes!

 

REMEMBER THIS FALL AND THE DEBATE ON THE NATIONAL DEBT FIGURES

It’ll come again this fall, all the scare tactics will come to the forefront, and the dire predictions of unimaginable debt will be hauled out of the closet. Just call or write your representative and tell them to simple sell a few thousand acres, a couple of those unused post office buildings, and a dam or two, and hey, we’ll be just fine…..for another year.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

EUREKA! I FINALLY UNDERSTAND IT

EUREKA! I FINALLY UNDERSTAND IT

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I read an article in the US Today dated 4-1-15 (could this be a joke) about the Koch brothers, who were being defended by some of their donors. Yeah, I was shocked too, I understand that people like the Koch brothers didn’t need any help to advance whatever agendas that they might have. And anyway, the group being subsidized, Freedom Partners, a non-profit doesn’t need to disclose its donors.  But a few have, people and businesses like John Saeman, an investment firm founder, and Chris Ruger, CEO of a California tomato-processing company says that he donates between $500,000 and $1,000,000 yearly. Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota broadcasting magnate said that he “disagrees sharply with Democrats portrayal of the Koch brothers being power hungry billionaires.”

 

The “small-government, free-market agenda” isn’t something new, that thinking as been going on since back in the early 19^th century. Look, economists and big business moguls sing the praises of mass production, of a free market system and a more mobile work-force. And all of this is true…..and helps out the business mogul…..only.

 

Big business talks about how government gets in the way of progress, and of developing natural resources for human consumption, and creating new jobs…..and this is all true. But did you know that the United States industrial revolution (somewhere between 1840 and 1900) gained its impetus from the 1807 Embargo Act and the War of 1812.

 

The Embargo Act of 1807 forbade all exports from the United States; the act was sponsored by President Thomas Jefferson and enacted by Congress. The goal was to force Britain and France to respect American rights during the Napoleonic Wars (you see, even 208 years ago, appearance was important). Britain, France and others were involved in a series of military conflicts pitting the French Empire led by Emperor Napoleon I against an array of European powers. The wars were long, 1803-1815, and bloody and caused much destruction and death.

 

The ideas of small government and free markets is almost a cornerstone of Capitalism, you remember that concept of living, (Capitalism) don’t you? Capitalism is an economic system and a mode of production in which trade, industries, and the means of production are largely or entirely privately owned and operated for a profit. Characteristics of Capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage, labor and, in many models, competitive markets. In a Capitalists economy, the parties to a transaction typically determine the prices at which assets, goods, and services are exchanged.

 

THAT WAS IN THE OLD DAYS

Today there aren’t really any Capitalistic economies to be found…..unless you can tell me where I can find a gallon of gasoline for less than $2.44.9 a gallon, or where I can find a tube of tooth-paste for less than $3.00, or buy a pound of hamburg for less than $4.59 a pound. Producers dictate the prices…..not the consumer as in decades past.

 

One thing that does remain from the old days is the fact that management dictates wages, and by management, I mean the owners or shareholders. It has very seldom mattered how much work was produced, a good employee opposed to a bad employee in the long run has made little or no difference in what an employee was paid, at least in the corporate picture.

 

I usually tried to give an honest effort for a day’s pay, I say “usually” because I had bad days the same as anybody else. I believe that the vast majority of workers, no matter the color, the education, or the background attempts to give his best effort while at his job.

 

However things have changed over the past thirty to forty years and for the worker, not for the better. Union’s authority and power in the work-place has been waning over the past several decades to where it’s now just a shadow of its former prominence. Early in the union movement in the United States, pay, job security or the length of the work-week was not the issue, workplace safety was the biggest complaint, and was a paramount issue for several years after the Wagner-Act which gave employees the right to collectively bargain.

 

The act, also known as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was by far the single biggest governmental intrusion into the private work area in the first half of the 20^th century. It was also fought hammer and tong for close to three years by corporate America before the act finally became the law of the land.

 

The effects of that act can still be felt in today’s workplace, but it’s under attack from almost all sides. And the worst part of the situation is the fact that organized labor and their membership have not seen, in time, that bargaining for personal days, sick days, paid holidays, and astronomical pensions, health insurance, and other union benefits could only be supported for so long by not only the private sector, but the public sector as well.

 

Part of the problem today can be traced right back to the solution that initially helped labor, and brought to light how shabbily some industries actually treated their employees…..and some of those employees were as young as 5 years old, early in the 20^th century.

 

It has never been the job of the corporate world to create new jobs for the people that they were making products for. With little exception, creating jobs was somebody else’s responsibility and worry. It is a kind of strange and antiquated way to look at the situation (paying substandard wages to workers, and then expecting them to purchase what they’ve just produced). But that is really the way that corporate America looks at the wage issue, today as they did back then!

 

SO I DON’T GET TOO EXCITED

These business leaders, the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett have been fooling around with people’s wages for as long as they’ve been alive. I’m sure some of them played childhood games with an emphasis on fleecing the working class out of a decent wage for his job. How could it be any other way, seven of the top richest people on the face of the planet reside in the United States.

 

I suppose you could say that it’s not their fault, it’s in the water, or that they’ve been practicing inbreeding for a few generations. Whatever the reason, like one economist put it…..”we are in a pickle.”

 

I’m a baseball fan, and I read the other day the average big league baseball player’s salary had hit $4,000,000. Wow there’s lots of ball players who are making $10, $12, or $15,000,000 a year because there’s still some players who are making the minimum Major League salary of $500,000. Sadly these guys are in the same boat as the average union worker was years ago, you ask for the moon, and pretty quick the moon’s too far off to visit.

 

I have yet to read about a baseball owner offering a player $30, 40, or $50,000,000 a year, but I also read about that same owner who capitulates to a players agent who says that his “agent is worth $4 or $5,000,000 a year, and the owner pays that kind of money.” Now I ask you, who’s at fault here, the player and agent for asking, or the owner paying…..in my view their both at fault.

 

These people bear watching, these private and secretive outfits that eventually mold the future in a way that is financially advantageous to their kid’s kids. It’s how they operate, to them it’s simply a board game kind of like Monopoly, and everybody knows how that game came out…..the person with the most money always won.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!