HOW DO YOU SAY CANADIAN OIL?

HOW DO YOU SAY CANADIAN OIL?

(Enbridge Energy Partners, The Canadian Press)

(Murray Rankin, Sunny Dhillon, Louise Dickson, Yinka Dene)

(Pembina Institute Report, McLean Tanara, Reuters, Frazer Chronicle)

The Keystone XL pipeline is big; it’ll stretch across several states on its journey from Canada to Texas and Port Arthur on the Gulf of Mexico. It’ll be more than 1,700 miles in length, create a whole host of jobs, and inject billions of dollars into local economies along its route.  The parent company, TransCanada is big, and old…..founded back in 1951.

TransCanada controls more than 2,150 miles of oil pipelines, and an additional 42,564 miles of wholly owned, and 7,146 miles of partially owned gas pipeline that connects with virtually all major gas supply basins in North America. The company is one of the continent’s largest providers of gas storage and related services with approximately 400 billion cubic feet of storage capacity

Enbridge Incorporated is an energy delivery company, and is focused on transporting and distributing crude oil, natural gas, and other liquids. The company controls approximately 15,380 miles of pipeline that delivers more than 2.2 billion barrels per day of crude oil and liquids. Enbridge also gathers, processes, and transports billions of cubic feet of natural gas every day, and has a growing involvement in the natural gas transmission and midstream business. The company was founded in 1949 and employs more than 10,000 employees.

There is a third company that is vying for a piece of Canada’s tar-sand oil, and their reportedly going to dump $36 billion dollars into investments in British Columbia. In comparison, $36 billion that this Malaysian oil company will invest is larger than the entire GDP of New Brunswick or Newfoundland.

KNOW WHO YOU’RE GOING TO DEAL WITH BEFORE YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE

PETRONAS, (Petroliam Nasional Berhad) is owned and operated by the Malaysian Government, was founded in 1974 and employs more than 40,000 people. The company is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. It is rated the 68th largest company in the world, and was ranked 12^th most profitable company in the world in 2012.

PETRONAS is going to frack for natural gas, pipe it to the coast and load it into specialized tanker ships for (LNG) (liquid natural gas,) and ship it from North America, where gas sells for about $3.50 per thousand cubic feet, to Asia, where it sells for up to $19.

Little attention was given the transaction, the fracking plans, and the final destination of the finished product by the Canadian press…..and absolutely zero in the United States. Keeping the lid on a $13 billion pipeline construction project, and the eventual $50 billion that PETRONAS spend was done for one reason; Enbridge and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion would get the lion’s share of that $13 billion.

The entire projects, the Keystone, and the PETREONAS, wIll be worth close to $65 billion dollars, and create thousands of initial construction jobs, and hundreds of long term employment opportunities for the locals along the length of the project.

IT’LL BE LIKE A SLOW MOVING MUD-SLIDE…..ONE THAT CAN’T BE STOPPED

Thousands of people along close to 4,000 miles of projected oil pipeline are waiting with watering mouths in anticipation of good paying jobs that’ll lift entire areas out of a prolonged lethargy. Extraction companies, no matter what they are taking from the ground can play a waiting game better than anybody in any industry. They’ll simply wait for a generation or two, and after the objections have all died off, (literally) they’ll come back to an area, and start the process all over again.

Don’t get me wrong, harvesting whatever the element from the ground is okay by me, in fact I hope it all works out (remember I’ve got an interest in a natural gas property) but those people who are wanting the project need to be up front and honest…..with everybody, and on every subject or concern.

There’s an overbearing reason that people might overlook some environmental sticking points…..it’s called “green-backs, dinero, dough-ray-me…..money.) People will sacrifice a whole bunch of stuff for the right price. It’s funny how industry can’t believe how crooked the average guy can be, but industry doesn’t have a corner on that human trait.

I guess all that we can do, those of us who are concerned citizens, and hope for rational thinking and decisions that will govern the path taken by these oil people, is that they hear the faint voices warning of a degradation to environment, one can only hope, cause we sure do need petroleum products…..and me, I need for my gas well to get to processing so that I can quite this damned blogging.

HAVE A NICE DAY AND A SAFE NIGHT!

 

 

PETROLEUM A GOOD THING…..MURCURY CONTAMINATION A BAD THING

PETROLEUM A GOOD THING…..MURCURY CONTAMINATION A BAD THING

(Al Jazeera, Peter Moskowitz, Carl Hoffman)

(Edward Buntynsk, Jiri Rezac, G.R. Gray, R. Luhning)

(Ezra Levant, Paul Anthoney Chastko, Alastair Sweeny, Frazer Chronicle)

“Tar Sands of Canada,” sounds kind of like a resort, like a luxurious spa for the rich and shameless…..however, nothing could be further from the truth. In the case of the tar sands of Canada that I’m talking about, the site is anything but a resort, it’s a barren piece of land near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. And just like anything else that we humans harvest from the ground, there’s an environmental price-tag connect that we’ll pay for now, or probably worse…..years later.

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear and straight right from the get-go, nobody has ever harvested anything from the ground for the good of the human race…..it was done for strictly monetary reasons. And this list would include the farmer, although he would be more in tuned with nature than probably any of the other extractors.

Scientists have found a nearly 7,500-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, where energy companies are producing and shipping oil throughout Canada and the United States. There’ll soon be a scientific report published that found levels of mercury up to 16 times higher around the tar sand operations, principally due to the excavation and transportation of the bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies.

This report will be authored by Canadian environmental researcher Jane Kirk, who presented her findings at a recent toxicology conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The revelations add to a growing concern over the environmental impact of the tar sands industry which includes increased carbon emissions.

Kirk’s study suggests that the development of the tar sand mining method of capturing oil from sand may be responsible for spreading mercury far beyond the areas where drilling and transportation are taking place. And of course we all know that mercury can cause cancer in humans and birth defects in unborn babies.

HUMANS ALWAYS GO OFF HALF COCKED…..AND THAN PUT THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND

Without any doubt, the world today needs petroleum products to continue living in the fashion that we are accustomed to. We use petroleum, and its bi-products for all sorts’ daily needs that we take for granted, and if we didn’t have access to these products, our whole way of life would be changed.

Without a doubt, our way of living in today’s so called modern age leads us to explore and search for new and revolutionary ways to concoct all sorts of human devices. As I’ve mentioned, these new concoctions that are invented, although wonderful achievements of the human mind and spirit, are for money and glory…..and nothing else.    

Bitumen is a thick, sticky form of hydrocarbon that won’t flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbon. At room temperature the substance resembles cold molasses…..which I’ve hated since I was a kid.

There are problems with the extraction of the bitumen from the (host) soft sort of rock, as steam is injected as part of the refinement process. This steam process generates 12% more greenhouse gases per barrel of final product than extraction of conventional oil.

The use and exploitation of bituminous deposits dates back to our great, great, great…..Paleolithic times, and our grandparents. Before them, their grandparents used the stuff that would be grandma and grand pa Neanderthal.

The reserves of the sticky substance is huge, 598 deposits in 23 countries, with the largest deposits in Canada, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Discovered original oil in place is, 2,511,236 billion barrels, and total original oil in place is estimated 3,328,598 billion barrels.

There are three major areas located in Canada, the Athabasca-Wabiskaw oil sands of northern Alberta, the Cold Lake deposits of east northeastern Alberta, and the Peace River deposits of northwestern Alberta. Between them, they cover 140,000 square kilometers, and hold proven reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels of bitumen.

In Russia, there is an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil located in the Tunguska Basin in eastern Siberia, Olenek and Siligir. Other deposits are found in the Timan-Pechora and Volga-Urals basin. There are already test wells, some of which are producing small amounts of oil.

In the United States oil sand resources are primarily concentrated in Eastern Utah, with 32 billion barrels of oil (known and potential) in eight major deposits elsewhere in the state. Canada is the only country actively producing oil from tar sand, 1.25 million barrels per day, through 81 oil sand projects. 44% of Canadian oil produced was through this method.

FURTHER STUDY NEEDED NOW

Environmental impact studies can’t wait, whether conventional extraction, (the old fashioned derrick like in the old movies) or surface mining…..(open pit type). There are also other types of processes that’ll extract the sticky goo, but I don’t understand them…..and neither would you…..however if you do, drop me a line.

Air pollution, land use and waste management, waste water management, greenhouse gas emissions, aquatic life, public health impacts, and input energy, the amount of effort to produce one barrel of oil; all of these issues need to be addressed, even after the barn door has been left open and the horses have escaped.

I had…..and have no idea what sort of problems we will run into as a race of people who are grubbing around looking for petroleum products to power our daily lives. I however can be counted in with those folks that are interested in knowing the consequences of this latest search for a power source…..actually we should demand comprehensive studies and answers to a plethora of really, really important questions.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

LET’S RECAP THE YEAR’S WAR STORIES

LET’S RECAP THE YEAR’S WAR STORIES

(Strategy Page, Global Security, History Guy, Barrie Barber)

(Jim “Casey” Greenhill, Donna Mills, Jason Koebler, George Friedman)

(Loren Thompson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Erensto Londoo, Greg Miller)

(Yasir Ghazi, Tim Arango, Washington Post, New York Times, Mark Thomson, Frazer Chronicle)

Everybody loves a good old fashioned war story that’s related by an old craggy retired military guy who actually was there and participated, it’s the stuff that has made America great, it almost seems like our country’s legacy. I’m 70, was born back in 1943, and by 1953, when the United States was involved with the Korean Conflict…..which has since been upgraded to a war. My point is that during some of my formative years, I knew war, albeit in a land far, far away.

I’m old enough to recall talk around the Frazer family supper-table about the military struggle that our country was going through. I also recall playing war, you know with sticks as guns…..unless you were fortunate enough to be friends with Billy. He had those clicker toy guns that were metallic in texture, kinda silvery and gray in color. Let me tell you, whenever I had one of those babies, every imaginary shot that I took was a dead on bull’s-eye shot…..no mistaken that.

Nobody wanted to be a (Jap, or an oriental, a German, or an Italian-o, these people were the sworn enemy of the good guys, the United States. Of course we thought like little kids, absolutely no abstract thinking by any of us, just black and white, Americans against the world. Nobody ever wanted to be English, or French, we were all just American’s fighting the world’s bad people.

Our thinking patterns were simple…..kind of like former president, George W. Bush, the good guys and the bad guys, and those other nations that were willing…..but only to a point, when it came to helping fund the war, or staffing a fighting force with its military personnel, there was a reevaluation of the commitment.

Today we’ll take a look at the two longest military efforts in the history of the United States, where else, Iraq and Afghanistan. These two theaters of military activity by the U.S. have been the longest in the military history of the country. As with any military confrontation, there are achievements as well as short-falls and outright defeats. However at the end of the day those people that fought, which were on the (front lines) want to feel that their efforts as well as sacrifices accomplished an overall objective.

Sadly in both countries there’ll never be a sense of accomplishment, or a lasting peace or a better form of government. I assume that the word joke is still spelled joke, because that’s what’s been left in Iraq. A government in shambles, an unstable government, a civil war raging and more than 8,000 people killed randomly throughout much of the country this year.

The blow-hard Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his corrupt cronies can do little to stabilize the country, pretty much because there to busy grabbing stuff for themselves before the inevitable forced relocation process to some other country.

The face of the average Iraqi gives off a myriad of feelings, anger, anguish and disbelief among the easiest to read. These people have been rung through the ringer as it were, they are ready for some peaceful time in their lives…..but the conflicting religious groups, and the political upheaval won’t allow that to happen any time soon.

AFGHANS’ FUTURE IS DIM AND GRIM

In order for a successful transition from the occupation of American and coalition forces in any country, several issues need to be addressed, and solved. Ignoring whatever problems exist will do nobody any good with regards to a draw-down of military forces. Once the threat of outside occupation is reduced, and problems remain…..you can bet the baby’s milk money that they’ll return, usually worse than before.

Throughout much of the world today, wars, conflicts and disagreements continue to make the attainment of peace in our time pretty much hopeless. There’s the world-wide war on drugs, insurgencies, border, water, and element (valuable natural element) skirmishes, civil wars, ethnic cleansing, religious, and international difference of opinion conflicts.

By far the most worthless wars are those waged by the United States in Afghanistan, and the one in Iraq which we vacated a little over two years ago. What the U.S. is about in both of these wars is nation building pure and simple. Oh sure we call it “spreading democracy, freedom and peace,” but the phonics are a bit jumbled here, Iraq has huge oil fields, and Afghanistan keeps our boots firmly in the area.

As the United States military begins its impending draw-down, the future of Afghanistan, according to experts has little chance to continue on the road to a democratic country where people can live, love, work and raise a family. There’s talk of an international contingent left beyond 2014…..but is that how a democratic society operates?

Without continued military and financial support, intelligence assessment suggests that the situation would deteriorate quickly, and the gains, (hatever they are that we’ve fought for would soon be unrecognizable.

And of course there’s Iran, Syria, Libya, Mali, Somalia and the Horn of Africa, Pakistan, the Philippines and the Yemeni struggles with al-Qaida. Just the other day I listed the hot spots of the world, so never fear you war-hawks, there’s a never ending less of countries that can be rescued or invaded in the name of peace…..and democracy.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

UNEMPLOYMENT IS BAD; UNEMPLOYMENT LONG TERM IS REALLY, REALLY BAD!

UNEMPLOYMENT IS BAD; UNEMPLOYMENT LONG TERM IS REALLY, REALLY BAD!

(CNNMONEY, Tami Luhby, Mother Jones)

(Kevin Drum, Reuters, Mike Segar, New York Times)

(Rory O’Sullivan, Emily Jane Fox, Stephen D. Simpson, Frazer Chronicle)

 

An understatement, “unemployment is bad,” “do ya think,” and long term unemployment is “really, really bad.” The question of unemployment is a bug-a-boo that has plagued the U.S. for decades…..on and off. Universally people agree 110% that people out of work, struggling Americans can be worse than any other problem that now faces the country. While economists and academics make convincing arguments that there is a certain natural level of people that are out of work, and it can’t be erased.

I can’t figure that one out…..a natural level of unemployment, what in hell does that mean, a percentage of Americans are going to get the flu every winter, the same as a certain number of people will catch a cold, but a level of people out of work…..and enduring all of the struggles that go along with being unemployed, what in hell is up with that mentality.

Worse yet, most of the costs tied in with unemployment are of the dead loss variety, where there are no offsetting gains to the costs that everybody must bear. No doubt about it, a country which periodically battles double digit unemployment, or close to it will always be scrambling to devise ways to help support those folks that are out of work.

Personal loss to a person who loses his/her job, no matter the reason, aren’t hard to envision, an immediate impact to the standard of living,  loss of buying power, self esteem, a complete loss of an ability to save, and plan for the future. Without exception, the loss of a job is replaced by about 50% of governmental assistance. There also is an erosion of skills and talents the longer that a person is away from his job, actually robbing society of otherwise useful talents.

Long term unemployment leads to forced educational denial for spouses, as well as dependents, therefore depriving society of future work-place skills. Long term unemployment leads to mental and physical health problems which can go unattended because there is usually a lack of health insurance.

There also is a societal cost to long term unemployment, although difficult to calculate, but non-the-less real. When unemployment becomes a pervasive problem, there are often increased calls for protectionism and severe restrictions on immigrations. There is a whole different dichotomy connected with people that are out of work, like not pulling their weight, being poor providers, being satisfied for less, counting on entitlement governmental programs, and actually being lazy.

Of course the economics of unemployment are more obvious when viewed through the lens of the nation’s checkbook. Unemployment leads to higher payments from state and federal governments for unemployment benefits…..in excess of $330 billion dollars, plus food, medical and Medicaid assistance.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STEM THE TIDE

Government frets about the consequences of inflation, but unemployment is as serious an issue that is usually overlooked until the situation is either totally out of control…..or close to it. Inflation must have some sort of romantic ring to it that some guy going to the second hand store, and using food stamps at the local grocery

About 70% of what the U.S. economy produces goes to personal consumption, and those people living on the reduced monetary income due to being out of work lowers consumption, and hurts the economy, kind of like a double edged sword. Consumer and business confidence are key to economic recoveries, and workers must feel confident in their future to invest in developing the skills that the economy needs to grow in the future.

Unemployment compensation is way higher then it was designed to be, add the misconception that long term unemployment mostly effects older workers really is only true in certain industries. With the exception of the construction industry, long-term unemployment is fairly distributed across the age and industry spectrum.

With the exception of death, or a debilitating terminal disease, long-term unemployment can be the very worst thing that can happen to an individual today, in the modern world. It’s economically awful, socially disgusting, and a terrible blow to self-esteem and happiness. Being unemployed cuts you off from you’re peer group, stress’s the family, and can lead to divorce, or worse, suicide.

Long-term unemployment usually lasts even after a new job is found…..usually a new job will garner between 50 and 75% of your former paycheck, and the malady of the long-term unemployment can linger for as long as five years.

Cutting off unemployment benefits makes a bad situation worse, and can lead to all sorts of situations that economists and politicians only remotely understand. These whiz kids who devise operating budgets at the local, state, and federal levels seem to always leave one very important equation out of their budgets…..the working man and women who are long-term unemployed.

People habitually want to work, they want to be productive, and they want to consume, but until we get a handle on this long-term unemployment problem, it’ll be an area that we continually struggle with. One thing is for sure, it’s impossible for us to continue to pay billions of dollars in unemployment to those out of work folks.

And cutting the defense budget isn’t an answer (damn it), all that would do would create more people roaming the streets looking for gainful employment.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

TERMINAL ILLNESSES ONLY

TERMINAL ILLNESSES ONLY

(Bernice Yeung, Medicine Net, Washington Post, Peter Hudson)

(Huffington Post, Peter Whoriskey, Dan Keating, Patricia Sullivan, Henryk Szeloch)

(California Watch, Florence S. Wald, Robert Kastenbaum, Cicely Saunders, Frazer Chronicle)

Hospice care: Care designed to give supportive care to people in the final phase of a terminal illness, focusing on comfort and quality of life, rather than a cure.  The goal is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible. Aggressive methods of pain control may be used, and the hospices programs usually are home based, but sometimes provide services away from the home, in nursing homes, extended care facilities or within hospitals. The philosophy of hospice is to provide support for the patients emotional, social, and spiritual needs as well as medical symptoms as part of treating the whole person.

I’ve never been involved with a hospice situation, thank God, but the above, which came from MedicineNet.com, explained the goals and services pretty much as I envisioned them. I suppose the philosophy part might be a bit much for me, but hey, who am I to question the dying wishes of patient or family.

Like I said, never having been around a hospice situation, how they operated was pretty much what I expected as laid out above. However, there’s more here, actually a hell-of-a lot more, to the story than meets the proverbial eye. Hospice programs generally use a multidisciplinary team approach, including the services of a nurse, doctor, social worker and clergy in providing care. Additional services provided include drugs to control pain and manage other symptoms: physical occupational and speech therapy.

Medical supplies and equipment; medical social services; dietary and other counseling; continuous home care at times of crisis; and bereavement services are all a part of hospice care. There is also a volunteer program that can be offered by trained folks who can take over care of a patient’s needs so that care giving family members can get away for a few hours at a time.

HOSPICE IS LATIN FOR HOSPITUM MEANING GUESTHOUSE

Originally described as a place of shelter for weary and sick traveler returning from a religious pilgrimage, hospice was established in the 1960’s. During the 60’s, Dr. Cicely Saunders began the modern hospice movement by establishing St. Christopher’s Hospice near London, England. The first United States hospice was established in New Haven, Connecticut in 1974.

The nitty-gritty of hospice care really is very simple, patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on comfort for the terminally ill…..not to find a cure. Hell, to enroll a patient in a hospice program, he’s gotta be at death’s door, or no longer than six months out…..from death, and be certified as such by two licenses doctors.

Where there’s a will, there’s usually some green-backs involved, at least in America, and that’s exactly what has happened to the hospice program that is approaching 40^th birthday. Hospice which was once headed by religious and community help organizations has evolved into a $17 billion dollar industry, dominated by for-profit companies. Much of that price tag is paid for by the U.S. government…..roughly $15 billion of the industry revenue comes from Medicare.

Hospice care today has next to no relationship with the 1974 model, without exception for-profit companies have completely taken over the industry. There’s currently a FBI investigation into what in the hell is going on with a program that is paid for mostly by Medicare which is funded by the taxpayer, and is not a bottomless pit.

AN INGENIOUS IDEA FOR FRAUD

There is a hospice company, based out of San Francisco; California that is, if not the biggest in the industry, is one of the largest, they are located in 19 states and are a subsidiary of an equity firm, and have been in the business of hospiceing since 1978.

In a complaint filed by the United States Department of Justice, this hospice company is accused of bilking Medicare of millions of dollars, and has been since 2007. Here’s how it’s been working; the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that the company, through its reckless business practices, admitted and retained individuals who were not eligible to receive Medicare hospice benefits, because it was financially lucrative…..and did so even after the company auditor alerted them, (company) to the troubling problem. The company misspent millions of Medicare dollars intended for Medicare recipients.

Medicare allocates more than $13 billion annually on hospice care, and the industry serves about 1.5 million people throughout the United States. The current legal problems are the result of a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the company’s former executive director.

I’ve omitted the company name because I might have a conflict of interest…..but I’ll say this, the plan, although not fool proof, is really a nifty piece of larceny. You could almost say that clients were dying to become customers!

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE

So I get it, people nearing the end times of their lives need some sort of program to ease them 6’ under, more to the point, the caregivers need this type of help to cope. Not only are they losing a loved one…..and know it, but the event completely screws up their lives. From family relations, to personal obligations, to work and bill paying duties, a lingering death, can be tough. I saw it last year with my brother-in-law and cancer.

However the innocent here isn’t the patient, or the family, or probably the hospice caregivers, it’s us…..the taxpayers. Medicare taxes pay for part A Medicare hospital benefits…..employers and employees pay these taxes, taxes that you paid in the past provide benefits to others. About 99% of Medicare beneficiaries do not pay a premium for Medicare Part A since they have at least 40 quarters of Medicare covered employment.

There are other particulars involved here, but the gist of this conversation is that what “some” of these hospice companies are doing…..taking on patients that’ll linger on…..maybe for years, are denting the hell out of the Medicare fund.

And I’m wondering about doctors that sign off on some of these people who live eight, ten, twelve months, or, as in several cases…..years. Is there a kick-back going on here…..after all, we’re not talking about penny-ante stuff here, its billions.

Just a final political shot here, for all you conservatives who feel that the Federal Government needs to keep its nose out of people’s private business and affairs…..look the story up on-line…..the company is AseraCare…..you might just be surprised at AseraCare’s plan to defraud us taxpayers.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

AHA, IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!

AHA, IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!

(Forbes, Howard Glickman)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentential, Jason Stein)

(Diffen, Frazer Chronicle)

Well it figures, whenever conservatives start talking tax slashes, the election cycle is just around the corner, and by now everybody in the universe should know this fact of political life. First it’s on the local level, then at the state level and finally nationally. It’s like a reverse of trickle down, in this case it’s trickle up!

Here in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker opened that creaky hinged door a bit in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentential, either eliminating or flattening income tax among options to investigate. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, my tax burden isn’t really a burden, I get services for my taxed dollars.

There is one thing to never forget, people, politicians never, ever eliminate taxes, they simply shift how taxes are assessed and paid into different areas. Politicians are like preachers, tithing is a good thing, in fact the very word means 10%.

Whenever there is talk of cutting the tax burden somebody or something is going to get cut, and it’s always…..in the beginning…. kind of a secret, or worded so technically that the average guy can’t understand what the hell will happen. (I’m really average, so I’m always grasping for straws when it comes to tax elimination.)

In the Journal Sentinel piece dated 12-26-13, Walker talks about Republican failures by governors pushing massive tax overhauls in Nebraska and Louisiana too quickly without laying the groundwork with voters. A very interesting statement by the governor, but ya know something, I don’t recall any political figure laying groundwork, that would mean that the issue can be judged from both sides…..and that’s just not the case, either from Republicans or Democrats.

Walker, in the same interview, talked about engaging business leaders and the public using meetings, a website, and other tools that the Gov will announce early next year. Until that time, Walker won’t be doing much talking about his plans. Hummmmm, I think Walker is recruiting like minded people for his 2014 tax reform run.

DO DEMOCRATS EVER WANT TO CUT TAXES

The short answer is no, while the long answer is maybe, look, everybody would like a bit more in their paycheck every couple of weeks…..hell it’s the great American way. I get paid once a month and I’d love a little extra, and I know just what I’d do with the extra…..indulge myself.

For whatever reason Democrats look through different glasses than Republicans, I guess I’d explain it this way, Democrats see things in the here and now, Republicans see things long term. It may not be correct, but it’s my best answer…..and I’ve thought about this issue.

Many people, both Democrats and Republicans seem to think that there’s a shadowy Federal Government somewhere in a misty co-universe, and they produce money, devise stupid programs that’ll take this money that they have produced which means we’ll (taxpayers) have to replace that money with our own. I know it sounds stupid, but I swear some people actually believe that the Federal Government is completely different from the one in Washington D.C.

So to answer the great debated question, do Democrats ever want to cut taxes; the answer is absolutely yes…..but on a more limited basis than Republicans. Both attitudes need to have checks and balances, so that not enough tax breaks is not a good thing, as well as too much tax breaking would be a bad thing.

It’s where we are supposed to come in, the American voter should serve as both the checkers and balancers of what government figures is good for the people regarding our money. You see, unlike some believe, there really isn’t a shadow government, government is us, we hold the purse strings…..and actually can dictate what our federal government does.

THE ANSWERS HERE, WITH REGARDS TO THIS ISSUE ARE REALLY SIMPLE

With little exception, every tax dollar is explained, oh sure we might not like what the answers are, but non-the-less, a budget does really explain where our money is going. And surprise, surprise, if enough of us taxpayers don’t like what our money is being spent on…..well then we simply kick the bums out of office.

Take stock in what we get for our taxes, schools, street maintenance, police and fire protection, the electrical grid (yes my friends, some tax dollars do go for the power grid), public utilities of all sorts, political services, a standing military, and mouth pieces that deal with whatever foreign policies that we are supposed to mandate through our election patterns.

I don’t need a diet of bull-crap from an elected official (no, I didn’t vote for Walker, and yes, I supported his recall) but as a voting public, we’re stuck with the dink, so why not make the best of it, and really analyze what he stands for, where he wants to take us…..and when we need to stop him through all the legal political avenues at our disposal.

So when these political hacks and whores start chirping like a bunch of dodo birds we can be smart enough to examine the issues (whatever they are) and make decisions on whether to make a stand against the activity, support it, or reluctantly understand that we only have a little while longer with this guy before we vote the jerk out of political office.

And don’t give me the idle assessment of a situation without first examining the top, bottom and all four sides of an issue…..cause in the long run, you’re only screwing yourself.

HAVE A GOOD DAY!

A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION!

A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION!

(SOCYBERTY, Al Jazeera, Peter Moskowitz)

(Paul Ryan, J.E. Stiglitz, John Christoffersen, Paul Krugman)

(Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, Frazer Chronicle)

I have a really novel idea, in fact it’ll be one of my New Year’s Resolutions, (I’ve got a few,) let’s all petition employers to pay honest, decent wages to their employees…..you know, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Forget the benefits, except overtime, and a week’s paid vacation, all the rest of the benefits, six days, personal days, health and dental insurance…..those items are up to the employee…..not the employer!

Oh I know I’m dreaming, neither side (employee-employer) would be willing to make concessions like that…..but think about it for a minute, doesn’t it make perfect sense, you get paid in hard cold cash for what you accomplish during your eight hour shift. No more paid breaks, no more paid lunches, and no more company parties, picnics or holiday cheese boxes…..(I always hated them anyways).

This isn’t revolutionary thinking, hell, it’s what employers want to do anyways, they’ve always hated to pay for health insurance, paid sick days, holiday pay and the like. Just negotiate an hourly rate of pay, and get all that other crap yourself, it’ll make you more self efficient anyways (it’s what my mother used to tell me).

This is the time of year when the president, political figures, the Pope in Rome, the preachers in their pulpits, and all the other do good groups lay on everybody. What happens the other eleven months of the year…..huh? People who are taken advantage of every two weeks at the pay window hurt just as bad during the holiday season as the rest of the year.

What happens is that those that have, kinda feel a bit antsy about how good they got it, and how bad most of the rest of us have it. So they talk a little more benevolently for a month, throw a few bucks into those bell ringing people with the little red pots and go on about their business.

LET’S GET DOWN TO SOME BASIC FACTS OF LIFE

There aren’t any statewide, nationwide, and for sure, no world-wide move to help the poor and starving, I had some hope for the Occupy Wall Street movement, but the New York City cops effectively quashed whatever that move was about when…..under the protection of dark, and a media blackout protesters were forcibly removed from Zuccotti Park.

Talk is cheap, so when some help group shows a small movement to help people, or politicians preach the perils of inequality in people’s pay envelope…..remember this, it’s the holiday season, and it’s what politicians do…..at Christmas.

President Obama in an early December speech called inequality “the defining issue of our time,” what exactly is Mr. Obama talking about? Inequality is on the shoulder of our democratic system of government, inequality goes hand in hand with how our country operates under a Capitalistic mindset.

Inequality has been around, more or less almost since our founding as thirteen colonies in the 1700’s, when a bunch of Englishmen, Spaniards and some French dudes decided to settle on America’s East Coast, and begin pro-creating…..and like the man said, the rest is history.

Inequality has been our Achilles Heel here in the United States, but ease up on the concern; inequality has been the Achilles Heel for the entire planet since the dawn of man himself. Racial inequality, pay inequality, living conditions, access to some of the finer services in life…..these things that have been taken for granted by some, throughout history will, down at the end of our collect roads, come back to haunt us when each one must stand before his/her supreme being.

YOU CAN’T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER

Equality attained is really 95% of the people of the planet’s goal…..few reach it, although most attempt to reach that goal. Just think about it, everybody with a chicken in their pot, a refrigerator, air conditioner in the summer, furnace in the winter, a car, garage, and a three bedroom home for the FAM.

People in the middle class have, for years been sold a bill of goods, that BOG dictates that kids have it better than their parents, and then those kids need to offer situations where their kids have it better than their parents. (Are you confused yet?)

It’s all a big fat load of horse pucky, what you owe your kids is a roof over their heads, three square meals, decent clothes, and your best effort, and the advantages that a proper upbringing means. Warmth, love, and the ability to detect right from wrong, and know the difference between the two.

There’s no secret to this old life that we are given, there aren’t any hidden easy paths to take, to succeed is simple…..you keep your nose to the grind stone and keep it clean, and if you’re lucky, maybe, just maybe you’ll achieve a measure of human equality.

Inequality is, well…..inequality, it’s wrong in every sense of the meaning of the word, and it should repulse every one of us. Because to truly achieve all that we can be there aren’t any shortcuts, and everybody needs to be treated equally, in every way.

I guess that would be my new year’s resolution, that we treat everybody equally.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

UNEMPLOYMENT KNOWS NO SEASON!

UNEMPLOYMENT KNOWS NO SEASON!

(Mother Jones, Dave Gibson, AJ Vicens)

(Tasneem Raja, Frazer Chronicle)

Officially, the Great Recession of 2007 ended in June of 2009, I’ll bet if you pressure the economists who write their dribble about such topics, they’ll give you an exact starting date, time and event, and the guy who perpetrated cashing the first unemployment check, and the last person to get a job in June of 2009. I have absolutely no idea how these people operate, but they sure know how to exact history.

The question of unemployment benefits is a tough subject…..at least for me; there are all sorts of reasons why people lose their jobs, employee theft, coming late to work, unable to handle customers, unable to function with co-workers, inability to take orders from superiors, and poor job knowledge, or job performance.

Available work for Americans is a tricky commodity, and the attitudes that are shared by workers and employers regarding work, work conditions, pay scales and benefits can be, and usually are, the trickiest part of the entire equation. To me, by far the most important issue of the employee-employer relationship is respect, and I mean both parties need to respect the other.

The United States boom or bust economy is, of course, a blessing and a curse, and you can see that analogy through the unemployment rates back to two years after World War II and 2013. From 1947 through the early 1970’s unemployment never went above 6% nation-wide, and was as low as 3% in the early 1950’s.

After the war, people made lots of money, and you could quit one job, walk down the street and grab another. Housing after the war boomed for a decade, as returning servicemen got married, had babies, and went to work, not necessarily in that order.

My dad was a builder back then, and I remember him talking about building entire new neighborhoods, hundreds of homes. According to my dad, everybody “got a piece of the American pie.” Remember the U.S. was just coming out of the Great Depression when war was declared on Japan and then Germany in 1941-42.

The nation shifted gears (so to speak) and turned to a military product industry, everything from hats, to shirts, to underwear, to tanks and bombs, the United States learned how to do it all. By the end of World War II Americans were supplying a majority of the war making products and materials for the world. As one Japanese General said after Pearl Harbor, “I hope we haven’t awakened a sleeping giant” (with the attack.)

The ingenuity of American innovation, engineering, technology and the labor force combined to make the most streamlined industrial force the world had ever seen…..and although busted, broken down, and hanging on by a thread, could be reinvigorated…..and that is a scary thing.

THE NEW WAY

Can you say “off shore” it’s where all kinds of American jobs are going, a phenomenon that had stripped and robbed American jobs. Landing in foreign lands where the pay is literally pennies on the dollar. The worst part of the entire scenario is the fact that the Federal Government say’s they can’t do anything.

 

Luckily for business, there’s nobody in political office like me because I’d have business by the really short strontium hairs…..laws be damned. I’d also have labor by those same hairs, wage demands and benefits have also been a deterrent to keeping jobs here in the mainland.

It’s like the old man said, postage is due, and over the past eight decades the American worker has had two separate periods of almost two decades each of almost unprecedented growth. One was based on solid growth (the late 1940’s through the early 1970’s), based on building and road construction, and the other, the 1990’s through sometime in 2007, based on smoke and mirrors (housing bubble and lending institutions).

There were many dynamics connected with the late 1940’s through the early 1970’s economic growth in the United States. Many Americans feared that the end of the war would drop the nation’s economy back into some sort of depressed state.

However that was far from the truth as exceptionally strong growth prevailed as the automobile industry successfully converted back to producing cars and new industries such as aviation and electronics grew by leaps and bounds. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages for returning members of the military, added to the expansion.

The nation’s gross national product rose from about $200,000 million in 1940 to more than $300,000 million in 1950 and more than $500,000 million by 1960. The growth was unprecedented, and the jump in post war births known as the baby boomers increased the number of consumers…..it was like a perfect storm of growth.

The American work force also changed significantly, during the 1950’s the number of workers providing services grew until it equaled and than surpassed the number who produced goods. By the middle of the 1950’s a majority of U.S. workers held white-collar rather than blue-collar jobs. At the same time, labor unions won long-term employment contracts and other benefits for their members.

DOT, DOT, DOT COM

The 1990’s boom in the United States was an extended period of economic prosperity, during which the Gross Domestic Product increased continuously for almost ten years, the longest recorded expansion of the GDP in the history of the United States. The times are remembered as a time of strong economic growth, steady job creation, low inflation, raising productivity, a surging stock market, and sound central monetary policy.

Between 1990 and 2000, the country’s Gross Domestic Product from $5.5 trillion to an astounding $9.8 trillion, there were 24 million jobs created, and in 2000 the country had a surplus of $236.4 billion dollars. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the 1990s was the longest economic expansion in the history of the country.

Of course there was a recession, by the busting of the Dot-Com bubble in late 2000 and the ensuing down-time which was felt from 2001 until the end of 2003. But there was a new boom bubble just around the corner to bail-out the country; it was called home loans, mortgages and shaky lending standards.

THE END…..ALMOST

After the attacks of September 11, 2001 President Bush, in his reassuring manner, told everybody to “hit the streets,” go on with life as normal, purchase items…..and buy a home, hell buy two, “everybody in America should be a home owners.”

There even was a time between 2004 and early 2008 that lending institutions were writing home purchasing loans to NINJA’s. I thought that NINJA’s was a mortgage program for oriental Ninja’s you know, those guys in black robes who kick people, guys like Jackie Chan, boy was I wrong.

A NINJA loan was a program that specifically targeted people who didn’t have a job, and I guess no source of income. The letters NINJA stood for (no income no job or assets,) wow I’m not sure who was manning the directors chairs…..but I thought a criteria of home buying was having a decent job, and kind of rock solid credit…..or a pretty big chunk of cash up front…..but I guess not for the NINJA’s between 2004 or 2008.

This NINJA thing was just the “frost on the top of a beer” the good times during about the middle of the first decade of the 21^st century featured wild mismanagement, unbelievable greed, and crazy governmental bail-outs. And the lessons haven’t been learned yet.

It’s Christmas Eve here in good old Packerland…..and I’d like to wish all of my loyal readers a happy holiday, and remember to spend within your means…..except when purchasing my Christmas gift.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

WARS ALWAYS BECOME UNPOPULAR

WARS ALWAYS BECOME UNPOPULAR

(Tom Germain, New York Times, Michael Hauben, The Village Voice, Mary Nemeth, Phoebe Marr)

(Anthony Shugar, Joseph Gerson, Richard Reeves, Lisa Beyer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

(Brian Jones Jr. Steven M. Walt, Dominic Tierney, Carol J. Williams, Frazer Chronicle)

Did the U.S. government want the American people to be well informed on the serious question of whether the U.S. should initiate a war? Since August 2 all United States authority figures (e.g. the media and the government) have only given reasons to or enforce why people should be in favor of war.

It’s the old Pentagon two step, and it’s been going on for years and years, in the above scenario, it was the lead-up to the Iraq invasion back in 1990-91. The U.S. held a hard spot for Iraq and Saddam Hussein long before the 2003 altercation initiated by President George W. Bush for all kinds of reasons.

In fact, Bush 42 wasn’t even very original in his reasoning for the invasion of Saddam in March of 2003, was it weapons of mass destruction, nuclear threat, inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians, or to clean up a destructive presence in the Middle East…..you pick-um, any one can fit.

The American people are a fickle lot, it’s the “what have you done for me lately issue” as its being reported through polls that 66% of Americans say that the Afghan war was not worth fighting. Well gee wiz folks; war is one of the most permanent exercises that people can do, one to another. Without exception, war brings two things for sure, injury and death. The misery and human carnage caused by war are two of the biggest reasons not to make war. War is dirty, its sticky, and it never, ever solves problems.

I never was for war after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks because frankly I thought that the enemy, which I acknowledge there was one…..the enemy, was a different breed of cat, and using conventional methods of rooting out the enemy wouldn’t work.

The Taliban, terrorists, or radical Muslims, whatever you want to call them, are a shattered movement, it seemed to me at the time, 2001, as if all of the parts were independent, yet dependent one on another. I didn’t think, nor do I think today, that there was much of a chain of command. The accusation or organization for terrorism was more a media and military necessity,

What happened to Osama bin Laden wasn’t captured. He wasn’t held as a prisoner of war, to be questioned by U.S. authorities; he was rooted out of his hiding place, executed, and buried at sea. Exactly what in the hell is up with that; maybe bin Laden could shed some light on some thorny issues of the day…..or something. But oh no, shoot the dastardly bastard, and then dump him at sea…..will wonders never cease.

SINCE WW II

Since the end of hostilities in August, 1945, ending World War II, the United States has been involved in five different skirmishes, encounters with what could be called enemies of the United States. Korea, June, 1950 to July, 1953, which claimed 54,246 deaths and 8,142 missing in action.

Vietnam, 1959, to April 1975, where the U.S. suffered 58,193 killed, 153,203 wounded, and 1,948 missing in action. I call this encounter the real beginning of the United States effort to enlist enemies of the United States. We didn’t have an enemy, so we went looking for some.

Korea could be labeled as the first attempt by the U.S. to look for enemy candidates, but I figured that the Korean Conflict, being so close to the end of World War II, you could give America a break, and site as legitimate the fear of the spread of Communism. But after Korea, all bets were off, and the United States simply needed an enemy, one, to hate, and two, for the military industrial complex, which by the latter part of the 1950’s was becoming bigger, and bigger, and required an enemy to embrace!    

After Vietnam there was Desert Storm, (August, 1990 to February 1991) which claimed 378 deaths and around a thousand wounded. There were 30 coalition nations, and of course the coalition was lead by the U.S. No other nation suffered as many casualties as the U.S. why, did we have the most military forces…..the answer is yes, and sadly whenever a country leads a coalition in a war it’s an unwritten law that that country must suffer more deaths than anybody else except the enemy.

Of course we all know about Afghanistan, October, 2001 to the present, by far the longest conflict that the U.S. military has been involved in. In total the U.S. again the coalition leader has suffered 2,300 casualties, with 2,400 wounded.

And finally we have what lots of people call “Bush’s War,” March, 2003 to December 2011, the invasion of Iraq…..which has cost the U.S. 4,404 deaths and a whopping 31,827 wounded in action. Iraq marked a new chapter of U.S. military activity…..as President Bush said, “even if there isn’t a coalition of the willing, we…..the United States…..will act alone.”

A BAD EGG TO CROSS

There has been two instances of enemy attack on American soil, Japan on December 7, 1941 in Hawaii, and terrorists on September 11, 2001. The retaliation in both instances was decisive, quick and brutal, no preparatory was safe, his family wasn’t safe, his town wasn’t safe, and probably where his ancestors were buried wasn’t safe. The United States can be one vindictive son-of-a-bitch when it comes to payback, everybody in the world knows that by now.

That knowledge, coupled with the fact that we have the second largest standing army, and the biggest budget in the world illustrates that the U.S. ain’t nobody to screw with…..unless you’re one of those idiots who’s willing to strap on a belt of dynamite and blow himself up for the cause.

With two exceptions, the U.S. fights wars on foreign soil…..that’s why people hate us, it’s ridiculous for anybody to say that “people hate us for our lifestyle, or freedom, or the bountiful way we we, drink and be merry.” How naive, George W. Bush and his cronies were to figure that we (as a nation) would believe such dribble, hell most people around the world, those un-tethered to ritual or religious belief, want to be just like us.

There are five basic reasons why the United States keeps waging war in a fashion no other country can…..at the moment:

1. Because we can, it’s the most obvious reason, the U.S. has a remarkably powerful military, planes, ships, mechanized military vehicles, and a million man army…..who you gonna call in a crisis, or who’s gonna stop us?

2. The U.S. has no serious enemies go ahead name one…..betcha ya can’t, oh sure the Taliban, or radical terrorists…..wow, how long would they withstand a (real attack) by the U.S.

3. The all-volunteer force, in conscription, no problem, everybody who suits up every day to play soldier wants to. Probably the very smartest most that the evil forces of darkness that reside in the secret places of our government has done. With no draft, you create less of a voice to curb military intervention by the U.S.

4. It’s the Washington establishment, it’s why we keep fiddling around all over the world, it way we keep poking our collect noses in places it doesn’t belong. The establishment in Washington is “hard wired” in favor of doing something, there’s a huge need to export democracy and liberty…..and these neoconservatives have never met a war that they didn’t like, and hey, if there ain’t one, they’ll make one.

5. Congress has checked out, yea that’s right, the Congress is supposed to be the one’s declaring war, but we all know it’s damn easy for the president to get a case of the old red ass, flip a few switches, make a couple of calls, and wham-o-, the U.S. is another shooting war.

Not a pretty sight huh, nothing real good to think about either, but it’s our lot in the world at the present time. Oh somebody some day will come along and give us the whacking that we deserve…..but I think that day won’t be in my lifetime

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!