Category Archives: Shortages

Apr 21 0 comments
National Security, Patriotism, Poverty, Shortages

Meeting Bernie Sanders

Bernie_Sanders

Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Dateline July 17, 2003. The following is the transcript of Rep. Bernie Sanders‘ question-and-answer period with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan during Tuesday’s Financial Services hearing.

SANDERS: Thank you, Madam Chair.

And, Mr. Greenspan, nice to see you again. Mr. Greenspan, I have long been concerned that you are way out of touch with the needs of the middle class and working families of our country, that you see your major function in your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations. And I must tell you that your testimony today only confirms all of my suspicions, and I urge you—and I mean this seriously, because you’re an honest person, I think you just don’t know what’s going on in the real world—and I would urge you come with me to Vermont, meet real people. The country club and the cocktail parties are not real America. The millionaires and billionaires are the exception to the rule.

You talk about an improving economy while we have lost 3 million private sector jobs in the last two years, long-term unemployment is more than tripled, unemployment is higher than it’s been since 1994.

We have a $4 trillion national debt, 1.4 million Americans have lost their health insurance, millions of seniors can’t afford prescription drugs, middle-class families can’t send their kids to college because they don’t have the money to do that, bankruptcy cases have increased by a record-breaking 23 percent, business investment is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, CEOs make more than 500 times of what their workers make, the middle class is shrinking, we have the greatest gap between the rich and the poor of any industrialized nation, and this is an economy that is improving. I’d hate to see what would happen if our economy was sinking. Now, today you may not have known this—I suspect that you don’t—but you have insulted tens of millions of American workers. You have defended over the years, among other things, the abolition of the minimum wage—one of your policies—and giving huge tax breaks to billionaires. But today you have reached a new low, I think, by suggesting that manufacturing in America doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where the product is produced. We’ve lost 2 million manufacturing jobs in the last two years alone; 10 percent of our work force. Wal-Mart has replaced General Motors as the major employer in America, paying people starvation wages rather than living wages, and all of that does not matter to you—doesn’t matter. If it’s produced in China where workers are making 30 cents an hour, or produced in Vermont where workers can make 20 bucks an hour, it doesn’t matter. You have told the American people that you support a trade policy which is selling them out, only working for the CEOs who can take our plants to China, Mexico and India. You insulted Mr. Castle. Mr. Castle, a few moments ago—a good Republican—told you that we’re seeing not only the decline of manufacturing jobs, but white-collar information technology jobs. Forrester Research says that over the next 15 years, 3.3 million U.S. service industry jobs and $136 billion in wages will move offshore to India, Russia, China and the Philippines. Does any of this matter to you? Do you give one whit of concern for the middle class and working families of this country? That’s my question.

GREENSPAN: Congressman, we have the highest standard of living in the world.

SANDERS: No, we do not. You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs. Wrong, Mister.

GREENSPAN: May I answer your question?

SANDERS: You sure may.

GREENSPAN: Thank you. For a major industrial country, we have created the most advanced technologies, the highest standard of living for a country of our size. Our economic growth is crucial to us. The incomes, the purchasing power of our employees, our workers, our people are, by far, more important than what it is we produce. I submit to you—may I?

SANDERS: (inaudible)

GREENSPAN: The major focus of monetary policy is to create an environment in this country which enables capital investment and innovation to advance. We are at the cutting edge of technologies in the world. We are doing an extraordinary job over the years. And people flock to the United States. Our immigration rates are very high. And why? Because they think this is a wonderful country to come to.

SANDERS: That is an incredible answer.

We feel the topic and the tenor of the arguments are even more critical in understanding the slide from the America that Mr. Greenspan describes to the nation that Bernie Sanders knows is now a reality.

So I ask you, Project readers, is Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont a working class hero or a commie socialist pig? Neither. But I like the man. I like his radical middle approach. The poor you will always have among you saith the realist, and mostly, the problems of acute poverty in this country are created by the poor themselves. It is very easy if dedicated to correct thinking to rise above the carp and crap of poverty by application of a few hard-won principles this country’s founders once and Bernie Sanders now seems to stand for. The problem however, is that the middle class is shrinking for the very real quite avoidable reasons Sanders continues to pound. Who gets richer off the exporting of American manufacturing jobs? Rich people safe in their posh, talking head adminstrative jobs and leisures, not working class Americans needing a sweat and toil job. Yes, in order to stabilize the planet, other nations must have meaningful and lucrative work as well, but most of these very same nations are the first ones either banning or burning down hapless American restaurants every chance they get, and decrying American imperialism. Social distortion is a double-edged sword. The only winners shouldn’t be the strutting suits wearing Ferraris and yachts and highbrows up their noses, while swearing up and down in their golden parachutes they’re surely not to blame…

We agree with every word that this self-confessed socialist congressman from Vermont has testified. Now why can’t a Republican feel the same pain in his gut about the state of the working poor that this socialist does? When Asia makes all the steel in the world, how can we possibly be safer as a nation, safer from internal and external enemies, than when we made our own steel? our own cars, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners…?

(Originally published at The Bellicose Augur on July 17, 2003, now a part of the Project Scenewash archives. We feel the topic and the tenor of the arguments are even more critical in understanding the slide from the America that Mr. Greenspan describes to the nation that Bernie Sanders knows is now a reality.)

Mar 28 0 comments
America, Barack Obama, Children, Demographics, Elections, Financial Crisis, Government, Lawsuit, Markets, Orwellian, Poverty, Radicalism, Shortages, Tactics of Domination, Taxes, Tea Party, Wall Street, Wealth, Women

Bernanke Cast Doubts On Administration’s Jobs Claims

obama

President Barack H. Obama

Declining joblessness figures, sprouting lately from the current administration like so many spring crocuses, have left even the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, puzzled over numbers that are “out of sync” with the overall economy.

“The combination of relatively modest GDP growth with the more substantial improvement in the labor market over the past year is something of a puzzle,” Bernanke admitted to the National Association for Business Economics earlier this week.

Bernanke then proceeded to explain why unemployment figures from the administration seem so out of step with the reality most folks are experiencing. He started with a basic, but often overlooked, part of the jobless equation. “The monthly increase in payroll employment, which commands so much public attention, is a net change,” he said. “It equals the number of hires during the month less the number of separations (including layoffs, quits, and other separations)[.]“

Then Bernanke concluded, “the increase in employment since the end of 2009 has been due to a significant decline in layoffs but only a moderate improvement in hiring.”

So, despite the Obamedia’s attempt to paint a sunny picture heading into the November election—note their relative inattention to Bernanke’s speech—very few new jobs are actually being created during Obama’s watch. In fact, the most recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited by Bernanke, show that the number of people being hired has declined in 2012—even as Obama officials reported that unemployment figures came down.

Early in his administration Barack Obama said that job creation was goal Number One. He promised to create 3 million new jobs during his first two years in office, a pledge which would seem laughable if his failure didn’t adversely affect so many people. Even with recent improvements in jobless numbers—caused mainly by a slowing of layoffs—as Benanke noted, “private payroll employment remains more than 5 million jobs below its previous peak; the jobs shortfall is even larger, of course, when increases in the size of the labor force are taken into account.”

The Obama administration was claiming jobless improvement in a job market that, according to non-Obama sources, was still grim. “American employers put the brakes on new jobs in January,” according to Forbes, citing employment firm ADP. And Gallup reported in February that their surveys show new hirings dropped and that “the February score matches those recorded from October through December 2011.”

As to the unemployment numbers emanating from Obama’s regime, Bernanke noted, “the better jobs numbers seem somewhat out of sync with the overall pace of economic expansion,” before concluding, “the job market remains quite weak relative to historical norms.”

Read it all at American Thinker.

This article points out the corrupt methodology this administration has used on the American people since day one. Opening the Obama toolbox, one would suffix lie after lie, distortion after distortion, monkey wrench after monkey wrench. Our puerile president is NOT inept. He is defiantly on point, with concerted efforts to deconstruct American history, its industry, its liberty—its very way of life. He doesn’t seem to care to whom he hands off a weakened America—could be the Soviets-in-training, the Chinese, or the Islamic Caliphate he works so diligently to reward at the expense of his own supposed homeland.

Countdown to creation in a bloodless dream…

Aug 06 0 comments
Demographics, Deportation, Dollar Crisis, Federal Government, Food Shortages, Peace, Poverty, Serfdom, Shortages, Tactics of Domination, Taxes, US Congress, US Constitution, Wall Street

Forgive Us Our Debts

Ostrich

The Ostrich Revolution

FATHOM A FEW FACTS about our flipping national debt. LBJ’s Great Society and a few other distractions—like the Vietnam war—stormed into 1969 and the Nixon era with buckets of deficit spending. Since then, the national debt has grown dramatically each decade, as shown below:

• In the 1970’s, the national debt more than doubled, from $366 billion to $829 billion.
• In the 1980’s, the national debt more than tripled, from $829 billion to $2.9 trillion.
• In the 1990’s, the national debt almost doubled again, from $2.9 trillion to $5.6 trillion.
• In the 2000’s, the national debt is projected to more than double again, from $5.6 trillion to $12.9 trillion (projected national debt at the end of fiscal year 2009).

Just for giggles and lollipops, let’s analyze who was in charge of the Spending and Budget Authority—The House of Representatives:

In the 1970′s the Democrats held the House all 10 years.
In the 1980′s the Democrats held the House all 10 years.
In the 1990′s the Democrats held the House for 4 and The Republicans for 6 years.
In the 2000′s the Democrats held the House for 10 years.

The only time we ever balanced the budget was when the Republicans held the house in the 1990′s during the Gingrich Revolution.

The anti-Constitutional Progressives give the credit to Bill Clinton—who was forced to accept the budgets from the Republican-dominated House. In addition—Clinton only got to a balanced budget by gutting the military and called it the “Peace Dividend” that rather quickly led to a tragic series of missteps that opened the door for 911.

Anyone who blames people who want to balance the budget and make excuses for fools who want to spend money we don’t have and then raise taxes—is historically ILL-INFORMED and most often always DEMOCRAT to the core.

However, over time even the Republicans began to pitched gobs of cash wherever they could, just to make a good impression on the debtor nation the Democrats were grooming. Gotta keep them national defense and compassionate conservative votes coming, ya know.

Aug 05 1 comments
Demographics, Dollar Crisis, Federal Government, Financial Crisis, Government, National Socialism, Poverty, Serfdom, Shortages, Tactics of Domination, Taxes, US Congress

National Debt Made Simple

Budget In Toilet

US Budget is in the Toilet…

THE US CONGRESS SETS a federal budget every year (Before Obama*) in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let’s put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

* US income: $2,170,000,000,000
* Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to, so let’s remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family:

* Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
* Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
* Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Amount cut from the budget: $385

So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending? It’s a start, although hardly an easy solution.

Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt). One would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress.

The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state. To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders.

It will be brutally hard, but not impossible, to reverse course and to insist the government stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now. In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money. Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab…

—Marco Nolo

* Neither Congress nor POTUS have offered up a budget these past two fiscal years, contrary to constitutional and traditional mores.

May 04 0 comments
Food Shortages, Markets, Poverty, Shortages

Turning Fishermen Into Garbagemen

WITH HEAPS OF PLASTIC CHOKING the world’s oceans and fishermen chaffing at new regulations meant to protect dwindling European fish stocks, a top EU official has proposed a clever idea that may help address both problems: Pay fishermen to catch plastic trash, rather than fish.

EU fisheries chief Maria Damanaki has been under fire for the European Commission’s plan to ban discards of edible fish. The practice is no small problem, The Guardian wrote this week:

Two-thirds of the fish caught in some areas is thrown back, usually dead, because fleets exceed their quota, unintentionally catch juveniles or species for which they lack a quota, or because they prioritize higher-value fish and throw away lesser species. About 1 million tons are thrown back each year in the North Sea alone.

Instead of caving in to the fishing-industry pressure on the issue, Damanaki has vowed to move forward with the discards ban—saying “time is running out” to make “radical reform”—while offering fishermen an alternative source of income.

Under a trial project to start in the Mediterranean this month, fishermen will be equipped with special “nets to round up the plastic detritus that is threatening marine life, and send it for recycling,” The Guardian wrote. The EU will initially subsidize the initiative, but the hope is that it could eventually become self-sustaining as fishermen make more money from the recycling itself.

Read it all.

It may be a step down in one’s own personal psyche, to go from food supplier to garbage collector, but if it needs to be done, somebody’s got to do it, and impoverished fisherman should step to the task, and get ‘er done for decent wages, of course. Oops, that’s government nee the people’s money, but I’ve always said littering is one of the first signs of a dangerous personality though probably the most preventable of sins an individual can make.

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