Here is a part of Martin Luther Kings wonderful speech:
"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead."
Now today it is so unfortunate that we still have racism and prejudice in our great American Society. Not only against blacks - but against all nationalities. It is sad and it is somewhat of a disgrace. Not only are whites displaying this sad state, but so are Hispanics, Asians and Blacks. Blacks are even hating on their own, Asians are hating on their own, Hispanics are hating on their own and whites are hating on their own. And everyone is still hating on each other. Until we can all learn to get along - Martin Luther King's "Dream" will never be fully realized. We must all cut out the derogatory words, the hate toward others. We are destroying ourselves. I have several black friends that say the worst thing they here out of a black man' mouth is the "n" word. If they can't stop using it, how is the rest of the world going to stop.
White people need to get a grip also, not all are bad, but i have still seen my fair share. I lived in a neighborhood that wrote KKK on my front door - an absolute disgrace to America. The Asians that run some stores - you need to get a grip also - just because a man of color enters your store, he is not looking to rip you of or rob you. I have been in stores where Asians have asked people to leave - not for anything they have done, but because of their color - a behavior that is disgrace to America. Hispanics - show respect for a country that has given you so much opportunity - speak English when others are around, stop talking behind peoples backs thinking they don't understand you because you won't speak English. Everyone - quit hating on others. take the 1st step, someone has to. Indians (from India) seem to be the most tolerant and non-racist people I have met.
So now all of us have issues we all need to work on. Let's get started and have Martin Luther King look down from Heaven and smile. Let's strive to make his dream a true reality. - My Explosion of Thought!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tell Congress you support the F136 engine program.
Airmen Will Suffer Without 2 Types of Engines for Joint Strike Fighter
“…with a JSF engine monopoly, the big losers will be America’s airmen…our history is rich with examples of engines that got into production and subsequently failed. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Wood, an F-16 pilot and a former U.S. air commander in Korea, said in an interview: ‘There is a great risk in allowing only one propulsion system for the Joint Strike Fighter, which could make up over 85 percent of our nation’s fighter force in 20 years.’…”
http://www.f136.com/?gclid=CNaRqIKeuKYCFQFM5QodBTvEHQ
“…with a JSF engine monopoly, the big losers will be America’s airmen…our history is rich with examples of engines that got into production and subsequently failed. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Wood, an F-16 pilot and a former U.S. air commander in Korea, said in an interview: ‘There is a great risk in allowing only one propulsion system for the Joint Strike Fighter, which could make up over 85 percent of our nation’s fighter force in 20 years.’…”
http://www.f136.com/?gclid=CNaRqIKeuKYCFQFM5QodBTvEHQ
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Who needs enemies when we have ourselves
The rest of the world is now laughing again at America. Actually some are laughing and some are thinking we are pretty stupid. How can we take a tragedy, like what happened in Arizona and blow things so far out of proportion. Terrorist around the world are saying to themselves - "they don't need us as an enemy - they are destroying themselves - let's just sit back and watch."
Let's face this as a fact - Loughner was a wacko, a loner acting on his own. He never got help when others obviously recognized he needed it. That may not have helped anyhow because if a person does not want help, he will not accept any help. So many shootings that occur across this country are enacted by similar type persons. Why do we try to put the blame on everyone else and make ourselves look like fools. Or actually, why do we allow those in the media to make us look like fools to the rest of the world. This makes me sick.
Then you have some idiotic so called church groups who are just as wacko and sick wanting to stage a protest at a 9 year old's funeral. They had to enact an emergency law to head off picketing by a fundamentalist Kansas church near the funeral service for a nine-year-old girl killed during the mass shooting in Tucson. What the hey?
No - America - we need to take a deep look at ourselves. Something that should be uniting us is tearing us apart. How long will we let those in the media do this to us. Who needs enemies when we have ourselves! - My explosion of thought!
Let's face this as a fact - Loughner was a wacko, a loner acting on his own. He never got help when others obviously recognized he needed it. That may not have helped anyhow because if a person does not want help, he will not accept any help. So many shootings that occur across this country are enacted by similar type persons. Why do we try to put the blame on everyone else and make ourselves look like fools. Or actually, why do we allow those in the media to make us look like fools to the rest of the world. This makes me sick.
Then you have some idiotic so called church groups who are just as wacko and sick wanting to stage a protest at a 9 year old's funeral. They had to enact an emergency law to head off picketing by a fundamentalist Kansas church near the funeral service for a nine-year-old girl killed during the mass shooting in Tucson. What the hey?
No - America - we need to take a deep look at ourselves. Something that should be uniting us is tearing us apart. How long will we let those in the media do this to us. Who needs enemies when we have ourselves! - My explosion of thought!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tragedy in America
Another tragedy born out of the Tragic shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she fights for her life and of the 6 others killed and others wounded is the fractured souls in the media putting blame for this on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin. Some going so far as to say Palin and the Tea Party are militant because in speeches they have used the words “Targeted” and “Reload”. I think many of the media need to look more at themselves for helping to create this discord in America. We all need to face the fact that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords fights for her life after a mad gunman shot her on Saturday.
Even some in the Democrat party have joined the media to try to pin the blame for her attack on the tea party movement and conservatives like Sarah Palin, despite the fact that the we have learned that the shooter was both deranged and fascinated by left-wing politics. Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, told Mother Jones magazine within hours after the rampage that the “political tone and tenor” created by Palin and the tea party movement had set the stage for the shooting. He went so far saying, Palin's “apparatus” had put Giffords' and his own life at risk. “Both Gabby and I were targeted in the apparatus in that cycle [saying] these people are ‘enemies.” I say these people and the media better take a better look at themselves. They are hyping this type of behavior and trying to split and tear America apart.
The NY Times was not far behind in jumping on this band wagon, insinuating that the conservative criticism of President Barack Obama and his policies may have been at the root of this weekend's violence, noting that " it was hard to separate what had happened from the heated nature of the debate that has swirled around Mr. Obama and Democratic policies of the past two years." They went so far as to suggest that tea party criticisms of Obama's healthcare plan, the debate over Arizona's new rules on police handling of illegal immigrants, and even the fact Giffords were Jewish could have played a role. They joined in the tale that Palin's political action committee had targeted Giffords for defeat may have played a role.
Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, noted on his website that Giffords is “a liberal,” but added, “that does not matter now. No one should be a victim of violence because of their political beliefs.” He is absolutely correct in this. This is a free country where we are free to express our beliefs and no one should be faulted for those beliefs and no harm should come to you because of your beliefs.
The profile that has been obtained of the accused shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, is that of a deranged young man whose mind was deeply disturbed, but who also tinkered with both anarchist ideas and left-wing politics. He had identified among his favorite books "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," and the fiction classic "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" — hardly the reading list of a conservative supporter.
He is "described by friends and former classmates as a loner, prone to dressing in black regalia of boots, trench coat and baggy pants even on the hottest days. He was removed from Pima Community College "for causing disruptions in classrooms and the library, college officials said. His dispute with college officials prompted him to post a bizarre YouTube video declaring the college illegal under the U.S. Constitution and culminated in his suspension from campus." His rants against the government that have surfaced on the Internet don't suggest he had a conservative perspective on big government. Instead Loughner 's MySpace featured a photo "showing a close-up picture of an automatic handgun sitting atop a book or paper titled 'United States History.'" Another video shows a masked man burning the American flag. "I can't trust the current government because of fabrications," Loughner wrote in a YouTube slideshow. "The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar."
I blame many in the Media for blowing tragedies out of proportion. The media needs to tone this down, don’t they realize that they are the ones are causing a tear in our society. I have watched the media trying to cause many uproars over the past several years. Why can’t they accept the fact that there are some crazy people out in society? Those out their blaming the Tea Party and many in the conservative movement are actually guilty of doing what they are blaming on others. Is it acceptable to condemn vitriol in politics while contributing to it in the same breath? Can this be what passes for restoring civility to our nation's discourse?
The Tea Party, Sarah Palin and Conservatives are no more responsible for Mr. Loughner's attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords than the liberals were for John Hinckley Jr.'s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. America, let’s get a grip on ourselves. We need to come together in times of tragedy and not allow our media to try and incite more violence and split us apart as a nation. We have enough enemies around the world – speak out against the media and it’s rhetoric, don’t let them create a voice for you. This was a tragic event orchestrated by a deranged soul – let’s face that fact, pull together as a nation and make our society better.
Even some in the Democrat party have joined the media to try to pin the blame for her attack on the tea party movement and conservatives like Sarah Palin, despite the fact that the we have learned that the shooter was both deranged and fascinated by left-wing politics. Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, told Mother Jones magazine within hours after the rampage that the “political tone and tenor” created by Palin and the tea party movement had set the stage for the shooting. He went so far saying, Palin's “apparatus” had put Giffords' and his own life at risk. “Both Gabby and I were targeted in the apparatus in that cycle [saying] these people are ‘enemies.” I say these people and the media better take a better look at themselves. They are hyping this type of behavior and trying to split and tear America apart.
The NY Times was not far behind in jumping on this band wagon, insinuating that the conservative criticism of President Barack Obama and his policies may have been at the root of this weekend's violence, noting that " it was hard to separate what had happened from the heated nature of the debate that has swirled around Mr. Obama and Democratic policies of the past two years." They went so far as to suggest that tea party criticisms of Obama's healthcare plan, the debate over Arizona's new rules on police handling of illegal immigrants, and even the fact Giffords were Jewish could have played a role. They joined in the tale that Palin's political action committee had targeted Giffords for defeat may have played a role.
Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, noted on his website that Giffords is “a liberal,” but added, “that does not matter now. No one should be a victim of violence because of their political beliefs.” He is absolutely correct in this. This is a free country where we are free to express our beliefs and no one should be faulted for those beliefs and no harm should come to you because of your beliefs.
The profile that has been obtained of the accused shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, is that of a deranged young man whose mind was deeply disturbed, but who also tinkered with both anarchist ideas and left-wing politics. He had identified among his favorite books "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," and the fiction classic "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" — hardly the reading list of a conservative supporter.
He is "described by friends and former classmates as a loner, prone to dressing in black regalia of boots, trench coat and baggy pants even on the hottest days. He was removed from Pima Community College "for causing disruptions in classrooms and the library, college officials said. His dispute with college officials prompted him to post a bizarre YouTube video declaring the college illegal under the U.S. Constitution and culminated in his suspension from campus." His rants against the government that have surfaced on the Internet don't suggest he had a conservative perspective on big government. Instead Loughner 's MySpace featured a photo "showing a close-up picture of an automatic handgun sitting atop a book or paper titled 'United States History.'" Another video shows a masked man burning the American flag. "I can't trust the current government because of fabrications," Loughner wrote in a YouTube slideshow. "The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar."
I blame many in the Media for blowing tragedies out of proportion. The media needs to tone this down, don’t they realize that they are the ones are causing a tear in our society. I have watched the media trying to cause many uproars over the past several years. Why can’t they accept the fact that there are some crazy people out in society? Those out their blaming the Tea Party and many in the conservative movement are actually guilty of doing what they are blaming on others. Is it acceptable to condemn vitriol in politics while contributing to it in the same breath? Can this be what passes for restoring civility to our nation's discourse?
The Tea Party, Sarah Palin and Conservatives are no more responsible for Mr. Loughner's attempted assassination of Congresswoman Giffords than the liberals were for John Hinckley Jr.'s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. America, let’s get a grip on ourselves. We need to come together in times of tragedy and not allow our media to try and incite more violence and split us apart as a nation. We have enough enemies around the world – speak out against the media and it’s rhetoric, don’t let them create a voice for you. This was a tragic event orchestrated by a deranged soul – let’s face that fact, pull together as a nation and make our society better.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Jillian Michaels is leaving 'The Biggest Loser'
This is a loss for this show. She always knew how to motivate people and even though she was tough, she had a big heart and really cared for all the contestants. Hope they can find someone with the same character. Wish her well and I believe she will make a wonderful mother.
Jillian Michaels is leaving 'The Biggest Loser'
Jillian Michaels is leaving 'The Biggest Loser'
Third Angels Message
I have been studing this lately. This is all very interesting and all backed up by factual finds and statements.
Thirdangelsmessage.com - main page
Thirdangelsmessage.com - main page
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Broken Machine
Small business is crucial to the American economy. These businesses have helped kick start our economy after the past several recessions. So why is this not taking place now? What has affected the make-up of our economic machine? It could be many reasons – the recent scandal in the mortgage industry with foreclosures is now leading the way to a apparent downfall, one that could send the whole economy reeling again to the likes of what we witnessed in 2008. Also contributing could be all the government tinkering over the past decade and a half. It is quite possible and very apparent that we simply broke it. We allowed greed to let the government make decisions that essentially broke our capitalistic economic machine. A machine that had run well for us over the past hundred years or so.
Several years ago when so many businesses – large and small – were making money like gangbusters, we all got greedy. Housing prices were skyrocketing, people were spending freely and everyone was buying things they really could not afford trading away a future. Credit was handed out like free candy at a record breaking pace. People were buying homes and getting loans on things they could not afford and should never have been able to obtain. Homes that really should have been worth about $200,000 were now selling for $350,000 or more. Interest rates were kept artificially low and so even more credit was handed out. Hell – money was being thrown around so much some people were really starting to believe that money was growing on trees. Everyone was getting credit, credit for everything they had dreamed about. If someone didn’t qualify, the banks created new ways for them to be able to get credit. We allowed our government and corporations to break the machine – we broke the machine!
Then when everything came crashing down – no one was spared. We all in some way contributed to the mess because we allowed our government and ourselves to fail. When the machine broke this time, there were not any spare parts to fix it. There was no way to put a band aid on this. People lost their homes – many who should have never owned them in the first place – people lost their possessions, businesses began to fail due to lost sales, mismanagement and bad loans and so many people lost their jobs – jobs that will take many years to recover. What were we all thinking? We listened to a government tell us things were fine, they said inflation was in check (that was minus food and gas, two items that skyrocketed in this timeframe). They said look – People can buy overpriced homes and cars and get credit for them.
Think about this now – how can family of four, making about $70,000 per year total income afford a $400,000 home, two car payments and all the other associated family expenses? This was happening all across America. Back in 1999, I bought a home in Las Vegas for $108,000m sold it in 2002 for $149,000 and as I followed is it sold again in 2005 for $350,000 – at one time the value had shot up to $400,000. Then what happens – the machine starts to make rumbling sounds and finally breaks down – crashes! That home now has a value of about $100,000 – 11 years later it is worth less than what is was brand new. It should have never been worth $350,000, Las Vegas’ economic make-up centered on tourism and the casinos, the city could not sustain that. But we let our government tell us different. We did not pay attention to what the politicians we elected were doing because we were greedy. We trusted the people we elected – yet we did not pay attention to what they were doing once they got in office.
So why is small business not pulling us out of this mess this time? It is because we broke the machine, we abused it, we did not take care of it, we allowed others to borrow it, tinker with it and they abused it. We messed it up pretty good. Now – we really need to face the facts – we can no longer fix it, we don’t have the right parts available. We need to build a new machine and learn to take care of it, put it on a maintenance schedule to keep it running smoothly.
There are so many people out of work, unemployment continues to hover around 10%. No one has cash to spend. We were all dependent on credit. People out of work, pay raises are slow to come or still non existent, hundreds of thousands lost their homes and jobs and businesses. Now we are also looking at a Mortgage Industry that has foreclosures on hold and many possible lawsuits lining up due to the crisis. Small businesses thrived on people being able to spend. Small business is now stuck in a rut along with many larger businesses.
President Obama has come up with many short term ideas but unfortunately his administration and the congress as a whole can not come up with the necessary solutions to get the economic machine back on track. They are unwilling to face the fact that we as a whole actually broke it. The government broke it, corporate America really broke it and we as Americans broke it. The bail out money given to all these companies did not help – the corporations used it to clear the red ink from their books and invest it in higher yielding shares and reaped the profits. With the profits, they did not invest it in hiring but are holding it within. Sure, now some of these corporations are paying back the money but we as Americans are the losers in this process. They borrowed our money, they made profits off it and they keep the rewards of those profits. Tell me – how did this help the economy? It didn’t not one bit, unemployment rose and is still hovering near 10%.
I still applaud Ford Motor Company. They did not take any bailout money, they went back and figure out what they needed to do and turned things around and made a profit at doing it the right way. Sure car sales went up at some of the other car manufacturers once the cash for clunkers was in place, but as soon as it expired, sales slowed again. The same happened in the housing industry, once the incentives were removed housing sales slumped. To top it off the government and the economist wondered why this happened – are you sure we have the right people running things?
The process is a simple one, the answer is not so simple. To keep business growing and to sustain that growth, people need to buy your product, your sales have to keep growing. At issue is the fact that so many people are out of work and so many people have less money that no one is spending. It used to be we spent more than we saved in this country – now we are saving more and there is less to spend. Credit is harder to come by and people are buying more with cash. All this contributes to lower sales. This all should be common sense to our government officials – we elected them in part because we believed they had some common sense. So to tackle this whole issue we all have to start with common sense. We first have to face the fact – We Broke the Machine.
Now – we faced that fact. Unfortunately so many of our elected officials have not. We have to face the fact that this will be a long process – not good news but it is a fact we need to face. So far our elected officials have not faced that fact. We also need to face the fact that we need to build a new economic machine – one we all agree we will take care of and nurture – many of our elected officials refuse to want to do this.
Some things are starting to turn around, but not enough to help us out of this mess. Several banks are still failing, some have seen the errors of their ways and have cut back on issuing credit, making it much harder to qualify. This is making it harder on many small businesses who rely on short term loans to stay afloat and other loans to expand. So many of these businesses no longer can qualify. They no longer have the sales to generate enough capital to show the banks they are able to repay the loans.
A big key to this whole process is finding a solution that will lead to middle class Americans increasing their spending. A substantial part of the process will also involve spending with hard cash and much less credit. Doing it this way is a longer healing process, but it would be more sustained and much more credible. This will be one of the pains of rebuilding the Machine. With so many people out of work we must face the fact that this process will be long and tedious. Many people will need to be retrained for new jobs and roles in other fields – a situation for which we as a country are simply not prepared.
The big fact we need to face is that we do not have the right people in power to take care of this job. We need to quit looking at which party is at fault – both parties help mess this up and neither seems to have the answers. The leadership is poor. We do not have a winning team in place and now the draft is approaching (election) a chance to get valuable replacement players that are willing to take us to the next level, willing to put in the true work it is going to take to get a new Machine built. This all starts in your own communities, with your local poloticians all the way up to the national level. Many localities are still run by the same families that contributed to this mess in the first place. People who are descendents of people who have been in power in some instances for a few hundred years, they are elected just because of their name. Not a good deal – this is not any better than voting along party lines. This country was not meant to be a two party system but we have now made it that way.
Further bailout packages to corporations is not the answer. We need to find a way to get money into the hands of the people so they can spend again and get companies to start growing. If we don’t build this machine correctly and maintain it, we are going to end up in this mess again. We need to build the Machine the right way, make it work and take care of it. It will be a long process for everyone, but working together we can do this. America was built on the backs of hard working Americans – we can not forget this. Hard work is what made us, hard work is what will get the Machine built and hard work is what will sustain growth.
With the elections coming up – remember this. Now is your opportunity to make a change for the better. Get people in office that will work hard for us, for the belief in America! Ignore the party lines, look at what each candidate has to truly offer. IT is our time to make a change and let our voice be heard. We must all remember that our government is – “By the people and for the people” it should not dictate to us, we should dictate to it. _ Just My Explosion of Thought!
Several years ago when so many businesses – large and small – were making money like gangbusters, we all got greedy. Housing prices were skyrocketing, people were spending freely and everyone was buying things they really could not afford trading away a future. Credit was handed out like free candy at a record breaking pace. People were buying homes and getting loans on things they could not afford and should never have been able to obtain. Homes that really should have been worth about $200,000 were now selling for $350,000 or more. Interest rates were kept artificially low and so even more credit was handed out. Hell – money was being thrown around so much some people were really starting to believe that money was growing on trees. Everyone was getting credit, credit for everything they had dreamed about. If someone didn’t qualify, the banks created new ways for them to be able to get credit. We allowed our government and corporations to break the machine – we broke the machine!
Then when everything came crashing down – no one was spared. We all in some way contributed to the mess because we allowed our government and ourselves to fail. When the machine broke this time, there were not any spare parts to fix it. There was no way to put a band aid on this. People lost their homes – many who should have never owned them in the first place – people lost their possessions, businesses began to fail due to lost sales, mismanagement and bad loans and so many people lost their jobs – jobs that will take many years to recover. What were we all thinking? We listened to a government tell us things were fine, they said inflation was in check (that was minus food and gas, two items that skyrocketed in this timeframe). They said look – People can buy overpriced homes and cars and get credit for them.
Think about this now – how can family of four, making about $70,000 per year total income afford a $400,000 home, two car payments and all the other associated family expenses? This was happening all across America. Back in 1999, I bought a home in Las Vegas for $108,000m sold it in 2002 for $149,000 and as I followed is it sold again in 2005 for $350,000 – at one time the value had shot up to $400,000. Then what happens – the machine starts to make rumbling sounds and finally breaks down – crashes! That home now has a value of about $100,000 – 11 years later it is worth less than what is was brand new. It should have never been worth $350,000, Las Vegas’ economic make-up centered on tourism and the casinos, the city could not sustain that. But we let our government tell us different. We did not pay attention to what the politicians we elected were doing because we were greedy. We trusted the people we elected – yet we did not pay attention to what they were doing once they got in office.
So why is small business not pulling us out of this mess this time? It is because we broke the machine, we abused it, we did not take care of it, we allowed others to borrow it, tinker with it and they abused it. We messed it up pretty good. Now – we really need to face the facts – we can no longer fix it, we don’t have the right parts available. We need to build a new machine and learn to take care of it, put it on a maintenance schedule to keep it running smoothly.
There are so many people out of work, unemployment continues to hover around 10%. No one has cash to spend. We were all dependent on credit. People out of work, pay raises are slow to come or still non existent, hundreds of thousands lost their homes and jobs and businesses. Now we are also looking at a Mortgage Industry that has foreclosures on hold and many possible lawsuits lining up due to the crisis. Small businesses thrived on people being able to spend. Small business is now stuck in a rut along with many larger businesses.
President Obama has come up with many short term ideas but unfortunately his administration and the congress as a whole can not come up with the necessary solutions to get the economic machine back on track. They are unwilling to face the fact that we as a whole actually broke it. The government broke it, corporate America really broke it and we as Americans broke it. The bail out money given to all these companies did not help – the corporations used it to clear the red ink from their books and invest it in higher yielding shares and reaped the profits. With the profits, they did not invest it in hiring but are holding it within. Sure, now some of these corporations are paying back the money but we as Americans are the losers in this process. They borrowed our money, they made profits off it and they keep the rewards of those profits. Tell me – how did this help the economy? It didn’t not one bit, unemployment rose and is still hovering near 10%.
I still applaud Ford Motor Company. They did not take any bailout money, they went back and figure out what they needed to do and turned things around and made a profit at doing it the right way. Sure car sales went up at some of the other car manufacturers once the cash for clunkers was in place, but as soon as it expired, sales slowed again. The same happened in the housing industry, once the incentives were removed housing sales slumped. To top it off the government and the economist wondered why this happened – are you sure we have the right people running things?
The process is a simple one, the answer is not so simple. To keep business growing and to sustain that growth, people need to buy your product, your sales have to keep growing. At issue is the fact that so many people are out of work and so many people have less money that no one is spending. It used to be we spent more than we saved in this country – now we are saving more and there is less to spend. Credit is harder to come by and people are buying more with cash. All this contributes to lower sales. This all should be common sense to our government officials – we elected them in part because we believed they had some common sense. So to tackle this whole issue we all have to start with common sense. We first have to face the fact – We Broke the Machine.
Now – we faced that fact. Unfortunately so many of our elected officials have not. We have to face the fact that this will be a long process – not good news but it is a fact we need to face. So far our elected officials have not faced that fact. We also need to face the fact that we need to build a new economic machine – one we all agree we will take care of and nurture – many of our elected officials refuse to want to do this.
Some things are starting to turn around, but not enough to help us out of this mess. Several banks are still failing, some have seen the errors of their ways and have cut back on issuing credit, making it much harder to qualify. This is making it harder on many small businesses who rely on short term loans to stay afloat and other loans to expand. So many of these businesses no longer can qualify. They no longer have the sales to generate enough capital to show the banks they are able to repay the loans.
A big key to this whole process is finding a solution that will lead to middle class Americans increasing their spending. A substantial part of the process will also involve spending with hard cash and much less credit. Doing it this way is a longer healing process, but it would be more sustained and much more credible. This will be one of the pains of rebuilding the Machine. With so many people out of work we must face the fact that this process will be long and tedious. Many people will need to be retrained for new jobs and roles in other fields – a situation for which we as a country are simply not prepared.
The big fact we need to face is that we do not have the right people in power to take care of this job. We need to quit looking at which party is at fault – both parties help mess this up and neither seems to have the answers. The leadership is poor. We do not have a winning team in place and now the draft is approaching (election) a chance to get valuable replacement players that are willing to take us to the next level, willing to put in the true work it is going to take to get a new Machine built. This all starts in your own communities, with your local poloticians all the way up to the national level. Many localities are still run by the same families that contributed to this mess in the first place. People who are descendents of people who have been in power in some instances for a few hundred years, they are elected just because of their name. Not a good deal – this is not any better than voting along party lines. This country was not meant to be a two party system but we have now made it that way.
Further bailout packages to corporations is not the answer. We need to find a way to get money into the hands of the people so they can spend again and get companies to start growing. If we don’t build this machine correctly and maintain it, we are going to end up in this mess again. We need to build the Machine the right way, make it work and take care of it. It will be a long process for everyone, but working together we can do this. America was built on the backs of hard working Americans – we can not forget this. Hard work is what made us, hard work is what will get the Machine built and hard work is what will sustain growth.
With the elections coming up – remember this. Now is your opportunity to make a change for the better. Get people in office that will work hard for us, for the belief in America! Ignore the party lines, look at what each candidate has to truly offer. IT is our time to make a change and let our voice be heard. We must all remember that our government is – “By the people and for the people” it should not dictate to us, we should dictate to it. _ Just My Explosion of Thought!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
America The Beautiful - Where have we gone wrong?
On this day 9 years ago, America suffered an attack on her home soil. On that day I felt thousands of souls pass through me and pierce my heart with a sadness like I had never felt. On September 11, 2001, Americans united as a nation for the first time in a long time. We all came together and celebrated the heroes who struggled to save survivors when the Towers fell. We also mourned the thousands that died that day In NY, Pennsylvania and in Arlington, VA at the Pentagon. For quite a while afterward we were united as a nation, as brothers and sisters. We forgot all our differences and pulled together, help one another out and showed our patriotism.
Since that day, we have all now faded back into the horizon. Where is all the Patriotism, the unification of people, minds and ideas? In this time of economic strife, we need to become more patriotic, we need to unite, pull together as a nation and help out those in our own country in need. When someone falls down, put out a hand and help them up.
You see, when the towers fell, the terrorist hoped we would fall apart as a nation. That in some form we would self destruct. Well during our current crisis, that is exactly what is happening. They are sitting back and laughing at us as we all continue to fall apart. We are not uniting, we are not working together and no one is putting out that hand to help a fallen neighbor back up.
So today is a time to remember what happened. Remember how we all united and stood strong, how we went the extra step to help each other out. Let's not let them continue to win, we need to show the world our true strength. Show the world what America stands for and that we are Proud to be Americans!
Since that day, we have all now faded back into the horizon. Where is all the Patriotism, the unification of people, minds and ideas? In this time of economic strife, we need to become more patriotic, we need to unite, pull together as a nation and help out those in our own country in need. When someone falls down, put out a hand and help them up.
You see, when the towers fell, the terrorist hoped we would fall apart as a nation. That in some form we would self destruct. Well during our current crisis, that is exactly what is happening. They are sitting back and laughing at us as we all continue to fall apart. We are not uniting, we are not working together and no one is putting out that hand to help a fallen neighbor back up.
So today is a time to remember what happened. Remember how we all united and stood strong, how we went the extra step to help each other out. Let's not let them continue to win, we need to show the world our true strength. Show the world what America stands for and that we are Proud to be Americans!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Romer's Departure and the Economy
Christina Romer, chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, was giving her "valedictory" at the National Press Club before she returns to teach at Berkeley, she used this stage to establish four points, each point much more unnerving than the last:
1. She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be.
2. She still doesn't understand exactly why it was so bad.
3. The response to the collapse was inadequate.
4. She doesn't have much of an idea about how to fix things.
She will be leaving the council chairmanship after a dismal tenure that resulted in a loss of nearly 4 million jobs in a year and a half. Understanding this is not all her’s or this administration’s fault; the financial collapse occurred before she, and Obama, took office. It must be understood though that she was the president's top economist during this time and the administration consistently underestimated the depth of the economy's troubles. These serious miscalculations have caused many Americans to lose faith in the President and the Democratic party as a whole.
Romer had anticipated that President Obama's stimulus package would keep the unemployment rate at 8 percent or less; it has been at 9.5 percent and higher. One of her main bosses, Vice President Biden, had told Democrats in January that "you're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." The country lost over 350,000 jobs in June and July.
In her speech Romer acknowledged, they (her and the administration) did not realize "how quickly and strongly the financial crisis would affect the economy." They "failed to anticipate just how violent the recession would be." Even I had seen this coming and people who are paid to analyze and predict these events did not see what hit them? What kind of amateurs are running our country. They had calculated that with the stimulus package they proposed being passed that unemployment would remain below 8%, instead it had the opposite effect and unemployment rose to 10%. Why would they think a bailout of corporate America would stimulate the economy, all it allowed for was companies to clear the red off their books and give them some breathing room while all the corporate heads could remain employed or receive generous severance packages to leave. All this while lowly middle class Americans were laid off in droves or had their salaries frozen for at least a few years.
The administration does not have an answer nor do they understand the concept of how America works. Here is the process – a person goes to work and earns a salary or wage, he takes home his pay, pays the bills, supports his family and in this process goes out and spends his earned wages. In so doing, he supports sales at other companies and in turn they are able to go out and purchase more products, pay their employee wages and with enough sales expand their operations. Now this is what happened, so many of the people that spent their money are now forced to reduce their spending because their wages were cut or frozen or can not spend or even pay their bills because they have no job. The companies that used to benefit from these sales on a consistent basis now are faced with reduced sales and have been forced to cut back on staff and reduce many of their prices. So this created a recession. This is what the current Administration that is running the country does not seem to understand – this simple concept.
How do we fix it – you have to get middle class America to feel confident about spending and then find a way to stimulate those people – not corporate America. If people were spending again, corporate America would fix itself. Unfortunately, in this process you have to train and condition people to spend again. The government has done the opposite, they have conditioned people to spend less and be more cautious now. This in effect will slow down any recovery.
Home sales have not recovered why? They have not and will not do well because so many people that were once eligible to purchase are now unable to even qualify. So many people have been foreclosed on and lost their jobs that now they no longer are even able to qualify for a loan. Sadly, many are even unable to find anyone to give them a lease to rent and have been forced to move back in with parents or relatives. This administration does not understand this. Not only this administration – but the one before it was not any better.
Fixing the problem is an issue that can not be ignored or delayed. Extending the tax cuts for wealthy Americans will not work. We need to stimulate the Americans that make less than $150,000 per year, this is the group that in the long run will pull us out of a recession. One they are able to spend again, sales will increase across all areas of the economy. But how will this administration and this congress understand this or find a way to fix it? – My explosion of thought!
1. She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be.
2. She still doesn't understand exactly why it was so bad.
3. The response to the collapse was inadequate.
4. She doesn't have much of an idea about how to fix things.
She will be leaving the council chairmanship after a dismal tenure that resulted in a loss of nearly 4 million jobs in a year and a half. Understanding this is not all her’s or this administration’s fault; the financial collapse occurred before she, and Obama, took office. It must be understood though that she was the president's top economist during this time and the administration consistently underestimated the depth of the economy's troubles. These serious miscalculations have caused many Americans to lose faith in the President and the Democratic party as a whole.
Romer had anticipated that President Obama's stimulus package would keep the unemployment rate at 8 percent or less; it has been at 9.5 percent and higher. One of her main bosses, Vice President Biden, had told Democrats in January that "you're going to see, come the spring, net increase in jobs every month." The country lost over 350,000 jobs in June and July.
In her speech Romer acknowledged, they (her and the administration) did not realize "how quickly and strongly the financial crisis would affect the economy." They "failed to anticipate just how violent the recession would be." Even I had seen this coming and people who are paid to analyze and predict these events did not see what hit them? What kind of amateurs are running our country. They had calculated that with the stimulus package they proposed being passed that unemployment would remain below 8%, instead it had the opposite effect and unemployment rose to 10%. Why would they think a bailout of corporate America would stimulate the economy, all it allowed for was companies to clear the red off their books and give them some breathing room while all the corporate heads could remain employed or receive generous severance packages to leave. All this while lowly middle class Americans were laid off in droves or had their salaries frozen for at least a few years.
The administration does not have an answer nor do they understand the concept of how America works. Here is the process – a person goes to work and earns a salary or wage, he takes home his pay, pays the bills, supports his family and in this process goes out and spends his earned wages. In so doing, he supports sales at other companies and in turn they are able to go out and purchase more products, pay their employee wages and with enough sales expand their operations. Now this is what happened, so many of the people that spent their money are now forced to reduce their spending because their wages were cut or frozen or can not spend or even pay their bills because they have no job. The companies that used to benefit from these sales on a consistent basis now are faced with reduced sales and have been forced to cut back on staff and reduce many of their prices. So this created a recession. This is what the current Administration that is running the country does not seem to understand – this simple concept.
How do we fix it – you have to get middle class America to feel confident about spending and then find a way to stimulate those people – not corporate America. If people were spending again, corporate America would fix itself. Unfortunately, in this process you have to train and condition people to spend again. The government has done the opposite, they have conditioned people to spend less and be more cautious now. This in effect will slow down any recovery.
Home sales have not recovered why? They have not and will not do well because so many people that were once eligible to purchase are now unable to even qualify. So many people have been foreclosed on and lost their jobs that now they no longer are even able to qualify for a loan. Sadly, many are even unable to find anyone to give them a lease to rent and have been forced to move back in with parents or relatives. This administration does not understand this. Not only this administration – but the one before it was not any better.
Fixing the problem is an issue that can not be ignored or delayed. Extending the tax cuts for wealthy Americans will not work. We need to stimulate the Americans that make less than $150,000 per year, this is the group that in the long run will pull us out of a recession. One they are able to spend again, sales will increase across all areas of the economy. But how will this administration and this congress understand this or find a way to fix it? – My explosion of thought!
Friday, August 20, 2010
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