MILITARY SERVICE PERSONNEL…..SURROGATE FOR INDUSTRY AND WANNABES!

MILITARY SERVICE PERSONNEL…..SURROGATE FOR INDUSTRY AND WANNABES!

(Al Jazeera, Georg-Andreas Pogany, Soldier Advocate)

(Dr. Ivan Covas, Robert Alvarez, Sylvia Dominguez, The Gazette)

(Dave Philipps, Michael Ciagio, Jerrald Jensen, Tom Brown, Luke Adams)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sean Cockerham, McClatchy, Frazer Chronicle)

 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, “I listened to the president’s speech,” and came away with opinions based on what he said and his track record over the first 460 days of living in the White House as guests of the American taxpayer. Please…..PLEASE don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want his job, and know that he spends many 14 and 16 hour days on the job, and more sleepless nights that would be healthy for a human being.

But near the end of his address to us he talked about Sergeant Cory Remsburg, and his 10 tours of duty in Afghanistan. And it got me to thinking as I got a tissue for my wife who was aghast to learn that somebody would risk himself to 10 tours of duty in Afghanistan. This is not to say that I wasn’t surprised to learn that somebody would open themselves up to the rigors and dangers of serving so many combat tours…..and was a bit surprised that the military would allow it.

Remsburg served with an elite Ranger Regiment whose tours of duty in combat zones were restricted to about one 100 days in the field. That still adds up to right around 3 years of combat, where you’re shooting at people, and being shot at. The law of averages simply ran out on Sgt. Remsburg and he’s lucky to be alive…..or is he?

For all intents and purposes Cory Remsburg’s life is over, he’ll never be normal again, he’ll always have a physical defect to deal with…..and in time, the attention and adulation will die down, and Mr. Remsburg will be left to his own devices, his own struggles, and the realization that he volunteered his life for his country.

Remsburg was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1983 and moved to St. Louis Missouri where he lived with his father and step mother. Remsburg participated in his high school marching band, orchestra, and jazz band. He also belonged to the German Club and played on the varsity volley ball team as well as being highly active in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary Civil Patrol program.

It was during the latter part of high school that Cory became interested in the Army Rangers, joining the United States Army from his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri in 2001. Remsburg attended One Station Unit Training Basic Airborne Course and the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program at Fort Benning, Georgia and was assigned to 1^st Battalion, 75^th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia where he served since 2002.

It was on his 10^th rotation (tour of combat deployment) in both Iraq and Afghanistan when he and his squad were conducting a combat operation involving multiple enemy contacts on October 1, 2009 when he was gravely injured by an impoverished explosive device, an IED from which he has been recovering ever since.

What we say at the end of President Obama’s state of the nation speech on January 28^th is probably about as good as this young man will ever get. His care and his well-being have now become a nation’s problem…..as it should be. When a U.S. soldier either is killed, physically or mentally damaged, it indeed becomes a civilian problem, we are the tax payers, and we’ll be footing Sgt. Remsburg bills for the rest of his days.

FEW REALIZE IT…..BUT WAR IS FOREVER

It can take some time, but eventually every man or women that is in the military, any branch, and no matter which country one’s affiliation might lay, when people shot weapons at one another, or when bombs are exploded, inevitably somebody is gonna get hit, killed, and blown apart…..it’s simply the nature of the beast.

The results of war is what is supposed to keep us from waging it, when are we ever going to learn that diplomacy, although much more tedious, is one hell of a lot better than scraping our people’s innards off the streets of some city that we can’t even pronounce let along spell. Collecting dog tags and writing letters to grieving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, girlfriends and wives is all that war accomplishes.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “conscription now, conscription tomorrow, and conscription forever,” without a doubt a draft is the best deterrent to war. Do you really think that SSG. Cory Remsburg understood the complexities of what he was getting into when he signed on the dotted line back in 2001, (hell no he didn’t,) and that’s part of the problem, recruiters lie their butts off to cover their quotas (they have them you know, quotas).

However Cory Remsburg went from being a victim the same time he volunteered for his 3^rd tour of duty in a combat zone. His fate was sealed when he agreed to serve another 100 day tour, why you ask, because after his two tours, when he was able to walk, talk and eat without assistance, he’d used up about all of his luck, his nine lives. He’d fought the good fight…..and needed to get the hell out! But he didn’t, and he’ll pay the price for the rest of his life, and so will we.

Hell he might as well have smoked four packs of cigarettes a day and drank a 5^th of booze, at least he’d of had a better time, and the life-style probably would have killed him, but ah-ha, we’d have been left off the taxpayers hook…..they still have Potters grave-yards all over the country…..where they’ll bury you at local taxpayers’ expense.

Do not get me wrong, I have all the respect in the world for SSG. Cory Remsburg and I respect the hell out of his decisions with regards to serving his country in the Army Rangers. However that is where my respect stops, anybody who volunteers 10 times to go into combat zones, and spend in excess of 3 years dodging bullets and bombs needs his head examined, because clearly he wasn’t operating with all of his oars in the water.

LET ME EXPLAIN EXACTLY WHERE I’M COMING FROM

It’s kind of funny how some people follow the United States government, and their decisions with a blind faith that is usually reserved for adolescence, or younger impressionable late teenagers. I think that these young men and some young women listen with their heart, and not their brains, you know, that lump about three feet above your ass.

Recruiting methods and materials are geared towards the younger adults, and proclaim all sorts of grandiose rewards for joining up. From those snappy uniforms, to traveling throughout the world, most recruiters remind me of car salesmen, and sell, sell, sell.

Again, as I’ve said in the past, I understand that we need a standing military force, if for nothing else than natural disasters. Guarding the president, or the pageantry that’s connected with visiting dignitaries, to patrolling borders, there is a need for a small military force.

LET’S GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT

Numbers of military personnel:

(Active duty)

Army,                                                   541,291

Air Force,                                             333,772

Navy,                                                   317,237

Marines,                                               195,238

Coast Guard,                                          42,357

Over 1.4 million active military personnel waiting for the call to front lines, so that they can use the military skills that they were taught, and spent months training for. These young men and women are like an itchy finger on the trigger of a weapon…..in fact exactly like the finger on the trigger of a gun.

The break-down for the male to female active count is 210,485 active women soldiers, and 1,219,511 active male counterparts. The reserve count, (American civilians that can be called to active service if needed,) stands at 850,880. Today in the United States, if there was an all-out war declared on anybody, we can rest assured in our defense, that there would be 2,280,876 able bodied fighting forces to protect our way of life.  

Having a powerful military has always proven to be the key for the development of any nation, from the middle ages on, nations have spent considerable amounts of money in maintaining and developing an active army. Investing in a country’s military helps to keep order, researching advanced equipment that are beneficial to the armed forces as well as a nation, and usually gives low paying employment to a pretty large segment of the country.

Today in most developed countries, civilian taxes support their military organizations entirely, in a kind of tit for tat (you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours) way. However the back scratching has escalated here in the United States more than anywhere else in the world…..in the history of the world.

Beginning with India, $112 billion, The Peoples Republic of China, $106.4 billion, Russia, $71.2 billion, United Kingdom, $62.7, Japan, $58.9 billion, Saudi Arabia, $48.1 billion, France, $44.7 billion, Germany, $31.5 and Brazil, $28.7 billion, these nations’ military spending follows the United States, who spends a total of $664.8 billion.

The U.S. has, in addition to active and reserve forces that number 2,280,876, more than 600,000 in their intelligence community with a budget that’ll approach $1.7 billion. I guess you could say that the United States intelligence and military forces is a booming industry, with no sign of a slow-down. And by the way, the additional $1.7 billion that the U.S. spends on intelligence is more than the entire defense budget of any country on the face of the planet.

So when I say that our military personnel are acting like surrogates for industry and wannabe’s I’m not badmouthing the military, rather I’m singling for a wake-up call to these brave young men and women. The battle that you’re engaged on a daily bases is not protecting the United States, rather the wallets of industrials and those politicians that are engaged in profiteering.

It’s not almost criminal, how these people bamboozle some of our young people, it is criminal, and these people need to be tracked down, brought up on charges, tried, convicted…..in put in jail, now, wouldn’t that be a fitting end to these scum, us taxpayers supporting their time in jail.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

I WATCHED, I LISTENED, BUT I DIDN’T HEAR MUCH!

I WATCHED, I LISTENED, BUT I DIDN’T HEAR MUCH!

(HUFFPOST, Howard Fineman, Washington Post)

(CNN, Tom Cohen, Chelsea J. Carter, Leigh Ann Caldwell)

(Associated Press, Calvin Woodward, Tom Raum, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I caught much of the president’s State of the Union speech on the old boob tube and once again was impressed on how the president can almost mesmerize a group of people that number a dozen, or an entire nation via television. Barack Obama is one remarkable public speaker, one of the best of all-time. He had the Chronicle’s editor and chief, (my wife) sniveling and asking for a tissue.

There are negatives all over the place, it comes when a country’s government is polarized like ours is, it’s impossible for the atmosphere to be any other way. As a nation we’ve had almost unbelievable bad weather when it comes to our last five presidential campaigns. First there was Bill Clinton coming out of nowhere to best incumbent George Herbert Walker Bush (a real stiff if there ever was one). And then he, (Bill Clinton) beat upstart Bob Dole and Ross (I’m all ears) Perot to claim a second term in the White House.

George W. Bush (G.H.W. Bush’s son) claimed a return to a Republican President in the White House when the Supreme Court did their own ballot count, and ruled that G.W. Bush had defeated environmentalist Al Gore. Bush won re-election in 1994 by defeating a career politician, John Kerry, whose wife, Maria Teresa Sinoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry has more names, and more wealth then her husband…..John Kerry.

Kerry in my estimation was a poster child for all the things that a presidential candidate should never do.  He tried to portray himself as an every-man, was talked into a photo op showing him in hunting garb, about ready to shoot at something…..he was grist for the Bush political machine, and he predictably ground Kerry into so much chaff.

The 2008 and 2012 elections were all about a black candidate who captured the sense of equality, and that anybody could attain that equality if they worked hard. Here again the opponents running against Obama in 2008, and then in 2012 were…..to say the least…..weak. John McCain tried to spice up his campaign by getting Sarah Palin to become his running mate, and in the process Palin became the first female Vice Presidential candidate…..Obama won.

Obama ran for a second term in 2012 against Mitt Romney, a professed regular guy even though he is a millionaire with assets that total into the millions. His fatal flaw was a remark caught on camera when he talked about 47% of Americans being on some sort of government assistance, and they we’re gonna vote for Obama anyways…..Obama won again.

A YEAR OF ACTION

Some figure that President Obama was laying out priorities for his second term in office, others said that his address to the nation was little more than a rehashing of issues that have already been a part of his administration’s agenda throughout his presidency…..I tend to agree with those people who talk about the rehashing opinion.

The president urged Congress to help restore opportunity for the American working man…..how I’m not sure, I didn’t hear any solutions to the labor shortage here in the U.S., and I really don’t know, nor have I ever understood how government could hasten the availability of jobs for Americans…..in reality.

I know from personal experience that finding a job when the financial picture of the country is less then rosy is damn tough. I do understand about incentives that government can offer to jog business into a kind of jump-start, but this usually features low ended jobs, not a very progressive way to get people back to work.

Afghanistan: Wind down war in Afghanistan by removing troops and completing mission by the end of this year. Hell I hate war, but for the life of me I can’t understand how this’ll ever happen, not when you leave a small amount of U.S. military to teach Afghani soldiers in warfare tactics, and hunt down and kill al-Qaida. You know what’ll happen the first time several American forces are captured or killed, bam; U.S. forces will be redeployed in numbers.

Education: Connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students with high-speed broadband in the next two years. Award grants to redesign winning high schools to prepare students for today’s job market. Improve access for low-income students and lower costs, and get Congress to fund universal preschool. All of this would be great, but most of us know it won’t happen, not in this administration, or any other administration.

Fighting terrorism: Paraphrasing here, “limit use of drones in foreign countries, overhaul U.S. surveillance programs”, ya sure, about the same time that cows fly, and close Guantanamo…..(which breed of cows were flying, Jerseys, or Herefords?)

Health Care: Encourage Americans without insurance to sign up through new exchanges by March 31 deadline. Urge Republicans to give up attempts to repeal Obama’s health care law. Mr. President, are you CRAZY, the act, or law, whichever you want to call it…..did not eliminate insurance companies from poking their hungry noses into the process…..how could the plan ever be a success for the consumer?

Immigration: Call for Congress for comprehensive immigration overhaul, this year. Include a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living and working in the U.S. illegally at the present time. I gotta ask you Mr. Prez, “how is that ever going to happen,” huh, you don’t know either.

Iran: Pursue negotiations with Iran towards a long-term nuclear deal, using the old sanction hammer threat if they don’t comply. Do these people on Capitol Hill need a transfusion or something, Iran’s not afraid of being sanctioned, hell they’ve been sanctioned for years, and they probably like it.

Minimum wage and taxes: Boy here’s two subjects that go hand in glove raising wages to $10.10 an hour, where in hell did a dime come into wage hike negotiations anyways. It would be a start Mr. President, however, a living wage is more like $16 or $17 bucks an hour, how in hell are we going to get to that plateau Sir? Here’s an idea, re-institute the old Works Progress Administration (WPA), hell the program employed more than 3 million people, and they did all kinds of work from road construction, to building sports facilities, to clearing federal forest lands. We’re paying unemployment now, we’re paying for public assisted food stamp programs, we’re paying for publically funded health care…..let’s take that money and get people to working on meaningful projects.

And Taxes, don’t expand anything, like earned-income tax credit, or any kind of tax refund program…..keep taxes exactly where there at right now, maybe levy an additional tax on anybody who’s paid over $100,000 a year, have it graduated from $100,000 up to a million, and then really take charge of anybody over that million dollar mark.

These are just random thoughts that invaded my head while I was listening to our esteemed leader, I really can’t figure out why things are so complicated…..just use some of my counter programs, they’ll work, I guarantee it.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

1, 2, 3, 4, WHO DO REPUBLICANS APPRECIATE!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dave Umhofer, Kimberly Amadeo)

(The Right Moves, But the Wrong Moves, Albert H. Hunt, Lane Evans)

(Congressional Record, John K. Galbraith, The Atlantic, Philippe Aghion)

(Karla Hoff, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Randy P. Albelda, Helen Delich Bentley, Hope Yen)

(Green Bay Press Gazette, New York Times, Ron Nixon, Getty News, PolitiFact, Frazer Chronicle)

In an hour-long state of the state speech this past Wednesday, January 22, 2014, Governor Scott Walker made 42 references to taxes while unveiling proposals for additional income tax and property tax cuts. I was all ears until I heard about the figures that our fearless governor was dancing around with. $101 dollars on your next property tax bill, or a family making $40,000 a year would give them about a $58 annual savings…..huh.

Gee Gov. if you’re talking about saving me $159 dollars off my state income taxes, and my property taxes, well, that would be just great…..however, I can get along without $159 dollars, why not take all of those $159 dollars, split it up among those people on food stamps, and other government programs, they can use it more than me.

Oh here’s an even better idea, divvy the $159 up amongst those business’s who pay their employees sub-standard wages and divide it up so their employees make $10.65 instead of $10 an hour. Of course the overhead incurred by government to divide this money up, and then the additional bookkeeping charge by these sub-standard wage payers would also take a bite outta the $159, giving the lowly employee even less…..and then there would be state and federal taxes paid by the employee…..you know what, just forget my ideas, Governor Walker, do whatever you figure is right.

There is some much intricate business going on here that people like me end up not knowing where to start from, especially when a guy like me preaches the value of uncomplicatedness. Maybe I’ve mistaken simple mindedness for uncomplicatedness, that’s probably more to the point; I’m just a simple minded buffoon that would explain everything.

Republicans continue to bang their drums of tax cuts and reforms mostly for the rich so that a trickle-down economy system will work, like Reaganomics back in the 1980’s. Damn boys, I got a flash for you, it didn’t work then, and it won’t work today…..actually it’ll never work, pretty much because the big money institutes (industrial giants and other big-wigs) operate on a bottom line mentality. Their jobs are to eliminate jobs, not to create them.

WHY REPUBLICANS WILL ALWAYS SUPPORT TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH

I could headline this Why Republicans will always support tax cuts for the rich, and corporations, but I figured that you guys already equated rich people and corporations as one in the same, I know that I do. Either through government bail-outs, or loans or subsidizing low wages with governmental assistance food, heat, and health programs…..business and the corporate world the in the good old U.S. of A. has never been better…..and I haven’t even touched outsourcing, and won’t.

According to Republicans dating back to the Nixon years, if you cut taxes to the rich, they’ll hire more, increase wages and all will prosper. Gee, Nixon invented Trickle-Down Economics, not Reagan…..what a discovery.

During the Republican years, holding power in the White House, without exception, these presidents that held their allegiance worked to implement this type of taxation…..and look where we’re at today…..further apart with regards to equal financial benefits that maybe in the history of our country.

Trickle-down economy doesn’t work, it’s never worked, if it did, PLEASE somebody explain to me why the average American’s wage is stagnant. An interesting word, stagnant, inactive, still, unmoving, foul, and stale…..a stinking situation. Politicians need to go back to school for a refresher course in the languages, labor in the United States STINKS, and it’ll get worse until we, as a people wake up and whiff it!

Okay here’s the gist of my dialog herein, rich people don’t care about the masses that make up the population of this country, they never have, and it’s not in their best interest, oh sure they’ll give, or initiate projects and issues to help the masses…..to a point, but they’ll never pass that point, that point, whenever the masses become too comfortable, and began to resemble coming to an equal plain as the rich…..that’ll never happen.

Republicans somehow figure that they’ll be allowed to sit at the same table as the rich and shameless, but that, like the masses getting to the same plain as the rich will absolutely never happen. In a way I feel sorry for these types of people, they simply do not understand that their being lead around by their noses, doing the bidding of the rich and the corporations.

1, 2, 3, 4, WHO DO THE CORPORATE - RICH APPRECIATE

The rich and the corporations appreciate people like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his cohorts that fill the governmental halls of the state capital in Madison. Walker is getting the job of industry done, not for the people of Wisconsin, but for the Republican machine that is looking to maybe mold them a serious candidate man to occupy the White House in 2016.

Running the state of Wisconsin is just the beginning of things for Scott Walker and his young cronys, for them, at this point, the political sky is the limit. These people run out their tired old statistics, and rhetoric and run the same message up their flag pole that was used 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and 30 years ago, the message is the massage, it titillates the same like-minded people as it did 40 years ago, the only difference is that they are now in the 70’s and 80’s, and are more entrenched than ever. The only good thing is that they are closer to death.

We need a new direction, not from Democrats, or Republicans, but by the people, the masses.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

BIG NEWS USUALLY IS BAD NEWS!

BIG NEWS USUALLY IS BAD NEWS!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ashley Luthern, Weird News)

(Joe Marfice, Piet Levy, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Bruce Vielmetti)

(Reuters, Herman Wasserman, Kevin Glynn, Tabloid Britain, David Kline, Dan Burstein)

(Revenge of the Blog People, Michael Gorman, David Nasaw, Mark M. Welter, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Have you ever heard of Justine Bieber, Lindsay Lohan, Madonna, or Beyonce, if you haven’t you’re either a monk, or a priest living on a mountain-top in Tibet, or you don’t know how to read. These are people whose lives mean next to zero, yet there important to us if for nothing else that the fact that they deter us from the crap that goes on in the world every day.

With these people, for them and for us, big news almost always means nothing with regards to the rigors of the daily grind that our lives usually become. Who could turn down a trip through the fantasy world of the Kardashians (Kim and Khloe)? And what about the ongoing struggles of Beyonce and Jay Z, I know my day wouldn’t be complete without another episode of these current vanguards of entertainers.

Of course Bob and Maureen McDonnell, and Antony Weiner, and their high profile scandals, one involved body parts being exposed, the other for business favors (I don’t think sex favors were involved), in exchange for $165,000 in loans and gifts. Antony Weiner, New York State Congressman had served in that capacity since 1999 and never received less than 59% of the votes. He resigned from office in 2011 not because of political pressure, but from sexting certain parts of his body to adult women on his Twitter account.

Former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and his wife have been accused of fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding could get 30 years on the more serious charges. McDonnell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1954, is a Republican, got his education from Notre Dame, Boston University and Regent University. McDonnell went up the political ladder a few rungs further then Tony Weiner, being elected Governor of Virginia, and served one full term before for whatever reason he and his wife, Maureen, needed a loan.

The proverbial roof caved in June, 2013 when Bob and Maureen were the subject of a critical Washington Post article detailing improper spending at the Executive Mansion for energy drinks, dog food, and Detox Cleanse. It was a family thing all the way, as McDonnell twins Sean and Bobby, and sister Rachel carted off more than $2,400 of state bought supplies to their college dorm rooms…..Bob and Maureen wrote a $2,400 check to the state of Virginia repaying the taxpayers in full!    

POP STAR ARRESTED…..GOOD

Justin Bieber was arrested on a DUI and drag racing charges in Miami, Florida this past Thursday which brought an irate father figure Jeremy Jack Bieber stomping out of his seclusive life-style and to a protective stance beside his son. Mother Pattie Mallette was nowhere to be found, and is believed to be vacationing in her home country of Canada in between hits on her bong.

This kid, Justin Bieber looks, at least to me, like a baby, which he is, the kid isn’t 20 years old yet, and he’s already making most of the adults around him millionaires. The “little fella” was born March 1, 1994, which begs the question “minor in possession of alcohol” at least to me. If you ever have a prodigy and you want to be successful, follow this kid’s example, you can’t miss.

He was on his own in 2008, when he was discovered, by Scooter Braun, any relation to Ryan Braun, who became his talent manager, and Bieber later signed a contract to Raymond Braun Media Group, and then to an Island Records recording contract offered by executive L.A. Reid.

If there ever was a kid who started with the wrong people in his corner, it’s gotta be Justin Bieber, with two loopy parents, and a bunch of seeming shady business people in probably the lower end of the recording industry.

NEWSPAPERS, COMPUTER NEWS FEEDS RESEMBLE TABLOIDS WHO

WHO RESEMBLE YELLOW JOURNALISM, AND FINALLY THE BLOG

First there was the printed word, or the weekly rag, then it used to be called Yellow Journalism, this was before there were the Tabloids, and now there’s Computer generated news. Each has distinct differences, yet they are all the same. Of course I did leave one additional source of news out, it’s the blog which has instantly made almost anybody with twitchy fingers, a keyboard and a computer screen a journalist.

I do not consider myself a journalist, I’d be what you’d call “a day short and a dollar late on education” however, if a love of the English language, and a keen interest as well as respect for history…..of all types, then ya, you could pencil me in…..but only as an amateur journalist, or a cub reporter.

I’ve learned that each of us, in varying degrees, desires some sort of a platform from which we can deliver our message. Some of us need a bigger platform, while others…..not so big. I hope that I fall in with the not so big types. I’ve found a medium that allows me to express my thoughts and opinions to a wide and varied audience, and I am thankful for that.

Newspapers, bloggers, and computer generated news sources have a responsibility, and it’s not that hokey one that’s listed in many rags across the nation. Responsibility to give the news in an objective manner, which hopefully gives the reader, watcher or listener the chance to take several different views of a subject, giving him insight and other opinions so that the reader, listener, or watcher can actually make an informed and somewhat educated opinion. If that is the case, than I have succeeded in my personal mission.

The news is all too often dour, full of doom and gloom, and the people who write, or deliver the news can’t help but allow some of his personal feelings come through. The secret is keeping control of that emotion, and letting you decide which way to go.

Penelope Disick, Katy Perry, Madonna, Taylor Swift and Lindsay Lohan all would thank you for digesting the news before you make a final decision on whether to listen, or watch these people who are in the public TABLOID EYE-BALL and to catch them on one of their good days…..you know, we all have bad days.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

THE IMMIGRATION RAGE IN THE UNITED STATES!

THE IMMIGRATION RAGE IN THE UNITED STATES!

(Council on Foreign Relations, Brianna Lee, Associated Press)

(Paul J. Weber, Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, Heaven’s Door, George Borjas)

(Immigration Time Bomb, Richard Lamm, Gary Imhoff, Mark Cooper, James T. Fawcett)

(Brookings Institute, Nancy Foner, Lisa Lowe, Alejandro Portes, Robert L. Bach, Frazer Chronicle)

 

An immigration rage in the United States, let’s take a quick look at the word RAGE and the meaning of the word…..my handy dandy spell-checker has the following to say: “extreme anger, angry outburst, object or fad, force or intensity, strong passion or enthusiasm, act with or feel rage, the word is a noun, and can be an intransitive verb.” Wow, am I glad that I don’t delve much into the English language, I’d get lost really fast.

Seems to me as if the long and the short of whatever debate is RAGING on Capitol Hill with regards to the question of immigration isn’t complicated, and the subject doesn’t really divide either political party, it’s really not a divisive issue at all. The question of illegals has been around for years, whenever American industry needs a bumper crop of cheap labor, both parties turn to other more divisive topics…..until the need for cheap labor is gone, that’s when the question comes up as a topic of divisiveness.

Immigration to the United States has happened in four epochs: during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, when almost everybody could have been considered to be immigrant, and the American Indian the only true native to the country. The middle 19^th century, the start of the 20^th century, and post 1965 rounded out the major influx of foreign born people. Each period brought distinct national groups, races, and ethnicities to America.

Most of those people that arrived literally by the boat load, in the middle 1860’s were Japanese and Chinamen and were recruited to build the great railroads of not only the western states, but the Upper Mid-Western states of Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan for the new iron mining industry and the steel mills. To a lesser degree the East Coast, which already had thousands of miles of railway did take advantage of the oriental workforce to add another valuable railway system that opened up much new coal mining territory.

Around the turn of the 20^th century, more than 1,200,000 persons entered the United States, and by 1910 more than 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States, working all kinds of mining, construction and mill jobs, It got so bad that in 1921 Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924.

There hadn’t been an immigration act, or law passed in the United States since the Page Act of 1875, all of these acts and laws were enacted to curtail the booming foreign immigration to the U.S. that had flooded the labor market with thousands of cheap laborers. In 1929, 279,678 immigrants were recorded and admitted into the country, however by 1933 only 23,068 admitted. In fact during the depression years (1930-1939) more Americans immigrated to other countries than were admitted into the U.S.

CONSEQUENCES OF IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES

There are/were all sorts of ramifications attached to immigration to the United States, for not only the immigrants but American citizens as well. Years ago, early in the 20^th century, economic instability brought the pressure on the poor to offer up their children for labor in the agriculture industry, the coal and iron mines as well as the still mills.

Some kids as young as 5 were expected to carry their own weight, helping to supplement the rest of the family’s income. There was a whole new generation of illicit and poorly educated children that got their educating through learning how to count the number of coal clinkers that they removed from coal or how many buckets of slag that they removed from the iron ore piles.

Until the 1930’s most legal immigrants were male, this trend continued until the 1990’s when women accounted for half of the legal immigration to the U.S. and it was during these times, the 1990’s, when people between 15 and 34 were substantially overrepresented. After about 1980 immigrants were more likely to be married with families than at any time during either the legal or illegally immigrated to the U.S.

Without a doubt an influx of immigration workers competed for lower end jobs across the industrial spectrum, and brought the minimum wage down, directly benefiting U.S. business in the agriculture fields, as well as light manufacturing, warehouse work, temporary service organizations, and the food service from dishwashing to a breakfast and lunch cook.

Immigration population gravitates to their own kind, living in areas where people of their heritage and background have settled. The problem herein is that these people living with people who share the same background, speak the same language and worship the same deity fail to gain an education with regards to English, laws, and the rules and regulations that govern our society.

By the 1970’s immigrants accounted for 4.7% of U.S. population, by 1980, 6.2%, and by 2000, immigrants made up an estimated 12.5% of the population. As of 2010, a quarter of the residents of the United States under the age of 18 are immigrants, or immigrants’ children. 8% of all babies born in the United States by 2010 belonged to illegal immigrants.

Legal immigration in the United States increased from 250,000 in the 1930’s to 2.5 million in the 1950’s to 4.5 million in the 70’s to more than 7.3 million in the 1980’s to leveling off at about 10 million in the 1990;s. The immigration glut in the 1990’s lead to a 57.4% increase in foreign born population by 2000.

WE HAVE A PROBLEM

To say the least, the United States has a problem that by now can’t be taken care of by immigration laws that are already on the books. Immigration laws have been in place for decades, lawmakers simply didn’t want to enforce them, and now we have this problem…..one that won’t go away, one that is effecting lower end employment, not only wages, but workplace safety, health issues, and believe it or not, child labor infractions.

We need our lawmakers to sit down, and hammer new and realistic criteria that’ll rule immigration laws here in the United States. People on both sides of the political spectrum need to come together, people that are living, working, and collecting any kind of benefits without going through proper channels here in the United States have absolutely no rights…..of any kind, they’re illegal, and by being here are breaking the laws of the United States. I could care less how anybody feels about the laws that are being broken, they are the laws of our land, so don’t cry to me about the poor immigrant who’s being taken advantage of by his country as well as mine.

GET LEGAL

HAVE A NICE DAY!

AM I THE ONLY ONE WITH A FUNNY FEELING IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH?

AM I THE ONLY ONE WITH A FUNNY FEELING IN THE PIT OF MY STOMACH?

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Nathan Phelps, Lewis C. Solomon)

(Kimberly Firetag, Robert F. McNergney, Susan Hansen)

(National Teachers Association, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’m scanning the local rag newspaper this morning (Green Bay Press Gazette) when I run across an article titled “2 found dead at west-side apartment were mother, son” “The two people found dead in an apartment on Green Bay’s west side were identified Wednesday as a 33-year-old women, and her 9-year-old son.”

 

“April Veraghen and her son, Damien Veraghen were found dead Tuesday in an apartment on Fisk Street police said.” Authorities will continue their investigation, and stressed the fact that the public is in no danger.  Autopsies and toxicology tests were scheduled for Wednesday, January 22.

 

There won’t be any further information until after both the autopsies and toxicology tests are completed, but I was relieved to hear that there wasn’t any danger to the public. Although I’m at a loss to figure out how police arrived at their opinion, I’ll sleep better at night knowing that the Green Bay City Police, (GBPD) feel no need that people should be on guard.

 

In another move, at the Beaumont Elementary School, where young Damien attended school, his class-mates received a sealed letter for parents, notifying parents and guardians of the fact that the students had in fact lost a class-mate.

 

The letter was composed by Principal Chad Collier, Social Worker Heather Hougard, school psychologist, (we’ll come back to this one) Kelley Selissen, and Counselor Angela Watt, my, my, what care, comfort and attention 3^rd graders get in today’s public schools.

 

“We feel it is important as parents and guardians, that you have the opportunity to be the first one to share this news with your children according to your family values and religion beliefs” the letter said. At between 8 and 10 years old, did you ever get a sealed letter that you left sealed………………I didn’t think so. Either before you walked a block, or rode a school bus a half mile, you were buzzing to your friends about little Johnny.

 

TEACHERS FIRST AND FOREMOST ARE…..TEACHERS

A teacher is a wonderful person, they are entrusted to be role models at least 7 hours a day, a hell of-a lot-more time than Ma and Pa spends with them. Some walk to school, others ride the public transit, and some ride busses. Parents also deliver their kids to their designated school at a pre-determined time in the morning, and pick them up at a certain time in the afternoon.

 

While during the hours of 7:30 A.M. 3:15 P.M. your children is reading, writing, adding and subtracting…..and is also learning how to get along with his peer group, and take orders from a teacher, and his/her assistants. Some would argue which part of a school day is more important, and I’m not here to argue the values, but what I’ve described pretty much covers a typical grade schoonlers day.

 

Being 9, and in the 3^rd grade is a great time, I actually can recall some of the highlights of my 3^rd grade year, the only girl in my life was my mother, I wasn’t worried about being the best at anything, and the only guy who I had a problem with was a dude who took exception of me being a galoot…..but other than Dan  Bailey, I didn’t have a care in the world, nor was I intimidated by anything, yes, 9 was a great year.

Teachers somewhere along the line lost sight of what their real mission as a teacher was supposed to be, and for that, I think everybody suffers. Either on staff or having access to a school psychologist to me seems at bit much. Writing a sealed-secret letter home for parents…..using 9 year old students as carrier pigeons also seems a little melodramatic.

 

With regards to a behavioral psychologist on staff (come on, give me a break), how often is there a need for a behavior experienced expert who can provide therapeutic services to 9 year olds, hell these people administering their cures to high school and college aged kids…..talk about over your head, those poor 9 year olds.

 

Oh sure, you’ll catch the occasional soccer mom who uses every ounce of extra service that she can possibly wring out of a grade school setting…..”can’t hardly wait till little Johnny can perform in high school, and make mom so proud.”

 

Teachers are manning their posts for one reason, and one reason only…..to administer the three R’s reading, righting, and rithmatick, that’s it, there ain’t no more. And with some of the (ACT) (American College Testing) and SAT (Scholastic Assessment Tests) at historic lows, they really need to bone up on what their objectives really need to be.

 

I helped put my three kids through school…..my wife did more, I was kind of around as the Gestapo enforcer…..and sometimes didn’t even handle that job very well. School for kids is tough, it isn’t tougher on parents…..but it almost is.

 

Schools and teachers are NOT SUPPOSED REPLACE PARENTS, they’re supposed to augment them, parents still need to be in charge, it’s imperative to the parent, kid relationship, and to the family circle. Being a parent is tough, really tough, but parents need to be everything that the word parent implies, if you don’t know, look it up, you’ll be surprised at the meaning.

 

COUNSELORS AND BEHAVIORAL SPECIALTS

To a degree these people are living a life of scamdom, (I think I just invented a new word, scamdom) ain’t life wonderful! These people have a special place, of that I am sure, however, their place ain’t in grade school, those kids aren’t aware enough yet…..and thank God, kids need to be kids for as long as they can get away with it.

 

Football, basketball, ice hockey and baseball are supposed to be seasonal sports (like certain times of the year) but coaches are so demanding that they want their student athletes to participate in summer sports programs so that they’ll be better in their sport for themselves, their coach, and the school.

 

The exact same can be said about academic progress, reading, writing and all the other academic situations that students can get themselves into. As I mentioned a paragraph or two ago, KIDS NEED TO BE KIDS, which is a full time job, and it’s a wonderful job.

 

Teachers, counselors, principals, coaches and parents get in the way of this responsible that kids need to fulfill, ultimately being a kid will be one of the biggest of life’s tests, not being a kid impedes a kid from growing up…..hell I’m 70, and I’m still a kid…..let your kids be kids!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

THE TROUBLE WITH AN ALL-VOLUNTEER MILITARY!

THE TROUBLE WITH AN ALL-VOLUNTEER MILITARY!

(New York Times, Casey B. Mulligan)

(Kennebec Journal, Washington Post, Ian Shapira)

(Julie Tate, Tim Richardson, Walter Pincus, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Conscription, now there is a great word, and one that I gotten mixed up for years, I thought that conscription was a problem with a person’s lower tract, like constipation, man was I wrong. Conscription and constipation are nothing alike…..of course both are the same in a way, they both are forceful…..kind of, and both do have a release at their end time.

 

Being constipated and falling prey to any kind of military conscription definitely has a binding effect on a person’s life. And to rid one’s self of either (feeling constipated or conscription) does take a bit of time, and a certain diet must be followed to cleanse the body. Its funny how different, yet how the same words in the English language can be.

 

Blogging about stating an opinion, I’ve come to understand, is usually taking exception to another’s opinion. And nobody will ever accuse me of not having an opinion about…..well, almost everything. That’s not to say that my opinions are always right, however in one aspect of offering my opinions, I’m pretty comfortable in the fact that I do, in fact offer them. There are way too many silent types who for whatever reason do not offer their opinions and that is sad because opinions are how we learn and grow

 

Today I’ve taken exception with the so called expediency of an all volunteer military, there are several reasons why I feel this way…..and I’ll list them right now. Casey B. Mulligan wrote a piece in the New York Times dated January 15, 2014, where he explains his opinion about an all-volunteer army being cost effective, more in tune with today’s world.

 

An all-volunteer military in the United States through the marketing mechanism of offering soldiers enough pay and benefits that there is a willingness to give up civilian activities in favor of using the U.S. military as a career choice of 20, 30 or even forty years like a job to retire from…..like being a truck driver, or working in a factory.

 

Casey B. Mulligan feels that intellectuals have been responsible for many changes, policy structures, and political changes in America. Intellectuals, scholars or thinkers do sometimes have major effects on governmental or industry changes in America; however, mostly a scholar’s thought on policy are more the subtle type.

 

VOLUNTEER VS. CONSCRIPTION MILITARY

There are distinct reasons why a country’s military quotas are filled by different ways of making the prescribed or perceived necessary numbers. Number one would probably be a duty or obligation to one’s country. Personally I’ve always thought that, that mind-set was hog-wash, that old duty to God and country, what a truck load of crap.

 

By and large people have absolutely no responsibility with regards to where they were born, so why would I owe anybody anything. A military draft, which I grew up with and internalized over (wasn’t everybody worried about getting drafted back in the 1960’s), I felt was unfair…..and unnecessary.

 

I really never understood the thinking behind the military readiness of a nation, I can tell you this, I don’t crap on my neighbors porch because he’s 6’-5” weighs a couple hundred well proportioned pounds and is more than capable of kicking my ass. He’s friendly, but if I crossed him…..well check out the first sentence of this paragraph.

 

Being in the military today is way too lucrative, a decent wage…..a nice pension…..some great benefits, and the chance to travel all over the world…..not bad, not bad. That however isn’t the best of it, a fearful respect by the rest of the world, a 20 year plan of employment and a destination of retirement bliss…..wow, how do you spell sweet!

 

The numbers for a military readiness operation back in the late 1960’s and 1970’s were about one-sixth of the male population. By 2003, (a time of wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan) armed forces numbered a scant one-fifteenth of the males of eligible age.

 

In today’s world, and the war like attitudes that seem to permeate much political thinking, a one-fifteenth share of a country’s population that is serving their country through military service is about the norm.

 

Intellectuals, economists and scholars fervently hope that their ideas matter, however in truth, they might help accelerate policy change that would have occurred anyways because of the costs and benefits, or help to prevent a nation from slipping back into old policy mistakes.

 

However the biggest and best argument for a conscription military over an all volunteer one boils down to one really simple truth. War needs to be avoided almost at any costs; nobody wants to risk a son, a daughter, a niece or nephew, or husband or wife from either traumatic injury or death from warfare. A conscripted military force has a way of ending all meaningless military interventions.

 

The powers that be in the world have made war an almost surgical process where little blood is spilled, and few of civilian populations see the horrors and carnage of what war really is. I personally have little sympathy for soldiers who lose their lives in some far off country that poses absolutely no threat to me, my family, or my way of life.

 

I have little regard for the intellectuals, thinkers and scholars who help to mold U.S. policies that govern how we deal with foreign governments through our foreign policies. Yes, the world is a violent place to occupy but it’s a place that we’re relegated to, the alternative wouldn’t be very pretty.

 

FROM THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS TO THE WISE BROTHERS

If you’ve never seen the movie, The Fighting Sullivans, find a copy of the 1944 movie, it’s a stark message on why war is to be avoided at all costs. Five brothers from a family living in Waterloo, Iowa lose their lives during World War II causing a complete different way that the military would operate their recruitment and the assignments of relatives in military operations.

 

It was designed so that one family would never again suffer such a tremendous lose, however it did, this time to the two Wise brothers who would make the ultimate  sacrifice…..their lives for what I would term outdated and illogical thinking. The embrace to military service was fueled by patriotism, swagger, and a youthful restlessness.

I don’t call our young people our treasure, they are young people who need to be protected…..from themselves, but other than that, they got a whole bunch of learning to do, so let’s leave them alone so that they can get on with that task.

 

Stupid wars get in the way, and make widows, orphans, and grieving sweethearts, grandparents, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. I hate war, war never ever solves anything, for the people like the Sullivans, and the Wises, let’s try really hard to solve world conflict without shooting one another.

 

I say…..again (bring back the draft), do you realize that a bit less than 2 million have served and fought the war on terror since 2001, less than 1% of the U.S. population, this fact has fostered a who cares attitude. I haven’t lost anybody close during the last 13 years of warfare…..but I still care.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!