George Rebane
The President is on the stump again in a desperate effort to divert attention from his administration’s scandals and jobless recovery. He is pivoting on platitudes which the sheeple noddingly accept as planning. I have often advised readers on the difference between an objective and a plan to achieve the objective. The President is into his fifth year giving evidence that he does not understand that difference, but there is also an alternative explanation.
His “plan” consists of specifics like ‘creating more jobs’, ‘raising middle class wages’, and ‘fixing education’. Typical of socialist thought, his objectives all along have been to reduce inequality rather than promote growth. And what such objectives result in are policies that seek to distribute ever more broadly wealth that has not been created by the private sector. No administration has hurt the middle class as much as Obama’s whose policies have burdened businesses to such an extent that middle class wages have actually dropped during this so-called recovery. (Recall, I still maintain that we are in Depression2.)
Every new regulation and tax added by government increases economic friction. For example, the closest Obama has come to specifying something from a plan is his prescription to fix education by reducing its cost. How does he plan to do that? We don’t really know, but the first thing he wants Congress to do is to pass a new law requiring colleges and universities to start submitting regular reports to government on their spending, student attendance, and graduation statistics. Brilliant! Now these hoary bureaucracies will have to add another layer of faceless employees to satisfy this new government diktat.
The President continues to pillory his opposition with the Grand Lie that the other side has offered nothing better than what his minions have inflicted on us. This ignores the specific proposals on tax reductions, regulatory rollbacks (including Obamacare), and tort reform that have been advanced continuously for years by the more conservative economists and institutions. When these are brought up in Congress, the progressives immediately pronounce them DOA and then deny that any such proposals have been made.
In the meantime 100+ more cities in the country are getting ready to follow Detroit and pull the Chapter 9 trigger. The unfunded liabilities problem, created by atrocious union pension plans that was pooh-poohed for years (even on these pages), has now become a reality. The response to it all has been a combination of crickets and denial, while at the same time arguing that the jurisdictions have no recourse but to pay the contracted amounts – one way or another. Progressive public policies passing in review.
The problem, as long argued on RR, is an electorate of ever more ignorant sheeple. Obama is not laughed off the podium because the adoring faces surrounding him really believe in the fertilizer he spreads to grow their unfounded faith in the brand of hope and change he has been successfully peddling since 2008. Our post-American president is on plan with his fundamental transformation, the major element of which is an economically weak United States which creates the pre-requisites for an international standdown and internal class warfare.
So this is how the federal tension is going to spend itself for the rest of summer until the debt limit brouhaha starts again later this year. The bottom line is that spreading wealth rather than creating it ignores the fundamental truth that the public sector cannot distribute what the private sector does not create.
His “plan” consists of specifics like ‘creating more jobs’, ‘raising middle class wages’, and ‘fixing education’. Typical of socialist thought, his objectives all along have been to reduce inequality rather than promote growth. And what such objectives result in are policies that seek to distribute ever more broadly wealth that has not been created by the private sector. No administration has hurt the middle class as much as Obama’s whose policies have burdened businesses to such an extent that middle class wages have actually dropped during this so-called recovery. (Recall, I still maintain that we are in Depression2.)
Every new regulation and tax added by government increases economic friction. For example, the closest Obama has come to specifying something from a plan is his prescription to fix education by reducing its cost. How does he plan to do that? We don’t really know, but the first thing he wants Congress to do is to pass a new law requiring colleges and universities to start submitting regular reports to government on their spending, student attendance, and graduation statistics. Brilliant! Now these hoary bureaucracies will have to add another layer of faceless employees to satisfy this new government diktat.
In the meantime 100+ more cities in the country are getting ready to follow Detroit and pull the Chapter 9 trigger. The unfunded liabilities problem, created by atrocious union pension plans that was pooh-poohed for years (even on these pages), has now become a reality. The response to it all has been a combination of crickets and denial, while at the same time arguing that the jurisdictions have no recourse but to pay the contracted amounts – one way or another. Progressive public policies passing in review.
The problem, as long argued on RR, is an electorate of ever more ignorant sheeple. Obama is not laughed off the podium because the adoring faces surrounding him really believe in the fertilizer he spreads to grow their unfounded faith in the brand of hope and change he has been successfully peddling since 2008. Our post-American president is on plan with his fundamental transformation, the major element of which is an economically weak United States which creates the pre-requisites for an international standdown and internal class warfare.
So this is how the federal tension is going to spend itself for the rest of summer until the debt limit brouhaha starts again later this year. The bottom line is that spreading wealth rather than creating it ignores the fundamental truth that the public sector cannot distribute what the private sector does not create.
Magnificent photo of our president taken while experiencing another beatific vision of god. Although were the photo to be shown to Chris Matthews I'm sure he would say that it was the other way around.
Posted by: fish | 25 July 2013 at 11:43 AM
President Alinsky Threatens Americans with Rising ‘Social Tensions’
J. Christan Adams writing at PJ Media.
You can take the community organizer out of the South Side, but you can’t take the community organizer out of the community organizer.
Today, America heard threats from the increasingly predictable President Alinsky.
“The position of the middle class will erode further,” Mr. Obama said. “Inequality will continue to increase, money’s power will distort our politics even more. Social tensions will rise, as various groups fight to hold on to what they have, start blaming somebody else for why their position isn’t improving. That’s not the America we know.”
This is standard-fare Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Obama doesn’t even attempt to disguise it, leaving out only the original author’s name. Obama merely adds the threat of social tensions.
For that, thank speech co-author Saul Alinsky.
Alinsky saw social tensions as a necessary circumstance to effective community organizing. Without anger, without the have-nots blaming the haves, it is harder to accumulate power. Alinsky considered the creation of social tensions, or the exploitation of them, as essential to move wealth and power from those who have it to those who don’t.
Once “social tensions” are stoked, all that is left is the tactical organization.
You can read the rest HERE
While there was nothing new in the speech, it is part of a longer plan to create "fairness" across the land, bringing us all to the same level of misery. As we reduce the inequality, he will slow the economy and misery will spread through out the middle class, adding them to the lower classes. We will all be sharing the same level of equality - economic misery! The question is what will happen when the class tension rise, and there is a need for a powerful civilian force to quel this dissatisfaction? Are you ready?
Posted by: Russ Steele | 25 July 2013 at 01:22 PM
The question is what will happen when the class tension rise, and there is a need for a powerful civilian force to quel this dissatisfaction?
That civilian force will go unpaid.......
Posted by: fish | 25 July 2013 at 01:47 PM
Here is some thing to think about:
10 Poorest Cities in America and how did it happen?
City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level:
1. Detroit , MI32.5%
2. Buffalo , NY29.9%
3. Cincinnati , OH27.8%
4. Cleveland , OH27.0%
5. Miami , FL26.9%
5. St. Louis , MO26.8%
7. El Paso , TX26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA25.1%
10. Newark , NJ24.2%
What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?
Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list)
hasn't elected a Republican mayor
since 1961
Buffalo, NY (2nd)
hasn't elected one since 1954
Cincinnati, OH - (3rd)
since 1984
Cleveland, OH - (4th)
since 1989
Miami, FL - (5th)
has never had a Republican mayor
St. Louis, MO - (6th)
since 1949
El Paso, TX - (7th)
has never had a Republican mayor
Milwaukee , WI - (8th)
since 1908
Philadelphia, PA - (9th)
since 1952
Newark, NJ - (10th)
since 1907
It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats, yet they are still POOR. Perhaps some of the other blog readers can come up with some other reason for these Democratic controlled cites have so many poor people?
Posted by: Russ Steele | 25 July 2013 at 02:48 PM
I don't know Russ.
Republicans are generally just the flip side of the bi-factional ruling party coin. The warfare faction to the dems welfare.
Place no trust in them either.
Posted by: fish | 25 July 2013 at 03:05 PM
fish, Utah has a 4.7% unemployment rate. All Republicans. Hard work, no nonsense at the state and local levels. Wisconsin has a R Gov and he has turned them around.
Russ, I noticed many of the crappily run cities have pro ball teams. Is there a connection? You know, Roman Coliseum and gladiators? LOL!!!
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 25 July 2013 at 03:17 PM
Utah has a 4.7% unemployment rate.
Majority Mormon and self sufficient by choice. Low crime rate due to religious effect and Republican because...well where the hell else are they going to go politically? Although they do keep sending the execrable Orrin Hatch back to the senate year after year .....obviously they do make mistakes.
Wisconsin...turned around? Way too early to make this claim. Nonetheless a serious shot across the bow of government employee unions. Time will tell.
Posted by: fish | 25 July 2013 at 03:33 PM
It's more than interesting to consider how much evidence do we need to conclude that progressive governments in the pockets of unions (public and private) don't do well in managing economies at whatever scale they are examined. What, give them another 25 years before concluding? Detroit and the other hundred will not wait that long for resolution.
Posted by: George Rebane | 25 July 2013 at 04:45 PM
Really guys, don't you realize that the best example of Saul Alinsky style political organizing tactics in the last 10 years has been the Tea Party?
http://washingtonindependent.com/54554/conservatives-find-town-hall-strategy-in-leftist-text
Posted by: stevenfrisch | 25 July 2013 at 06:14 PM
Sure, yep, you are too smart for the Tea Party. Sheesh!
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 25 July 2013 at 06:31 PM
Really guys, don't you realize that the best example of Saul Alinsky style political organizing tactics in the last 10 years has been the Tea Party?
So?
Posted by: fish | 25 July 2013 at 07:32 PM
We all saw the Detroit bankruptcy coming for a couple of years. Detroit is a victim of NAFTA and our free trade agreements. Also ALEC along with Koch Brothers are front and center of this bankruptcy. This is about busting unions, screwing workers benefits, and privatizing the commons.
Michigan's Hostile Takeover
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit
Michigan bill would impose "financial martial law"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20042299-503544.html
Detroit is the New Conservative Wet Dream
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/24/detroits-deep-discount-dollar-days.html
Posted by: Ben Emery | 25 July 2013 at 07:58 PM
"Russ, I noticed many of the crappily run cities have pro ball teams. Is there a connection?" -- Good point Todd..What other similarities do these cities have other than a lack of Republican governance? We all know Detroit went off shore with the auto industry. How many of those other cities have lost a major industrial base? Florida is in poverty because of retirees and Cuban refugees. To draw the conclusion that these cities are poor because of a lack of Republicans is a fallacious statement. Using the same logic, I can state without hesitation that all of the economic and social woes the country faces is absolutely because, until Obama, every president since 1980 (including Bill Clinton according to Alan Greenspan) has been a Republican.
Posted by: Joe Koyote | 25 July 2013 at 08:24 PM
Joe from wonderland, again. Detroit did not go offshore, it went broke (except Ford). The auto industry is thriving in Indiana, and all over the south. German and Japanese companies. And Joe - please consult a map from time to time. Florida is not a city and it is not poor. Those retirees are well off and bring a lot of money into Florida. There are many poor areas in Florida but it isn't the Cubans or the wealthy Jews from New York. They have a huge problem with poor Haitians. Yes, Detroit lost a lot of it's tax base. If it had competent leadership, it would have adjusted for that and made plans to try to bring in new businesses. But it just kept on spending and spending. And now it's broke.
No R's were involved, just D's. They had it all and blew it. Now they want my money to throw into the rat hole that Detroit has become. Detroit also has had a little problem with corruption. That doesn't help.
It goes far beyond just Dem mayors. In many of those cities, if not all, all elected power was Dem. You can't say that about the US presidents and not mention who controlled congress. The US govt is increasingly socialist and increasingly broke. I don't care who is in power. More govt equals more debt and less freedom.
Posted by: Account Deleted | 25 July 2013 at 09:26 PM
I just want a balanced budget. Is that so hard?
Posted by: Barry Pruett | 26 July 2013 at 07:14 AM
Barry,
Cut the military budget in half and we would have a balanced budget and still have the largest spending budget on military empire in the world.
Posted by: Ben Emery | 26 July 2013 at 07:52 AM
Scott, 25 July 2013 at 09:26 PM
I encourage you to take some anti nausea pills of you liking and watch "Roger and Me".
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/roger-me/
The other thing, when the entire system is set up to benefit the few at the expense of the rest of us the government tries to make up for it with social programs to fill in the gaps. Those gaps are getting wider and wider. As our manufacturing left the country so did blue collar living wage employment. It has benefited big companies and their shareholders but has absolutely devastated the middle class while promoting dangerous work conditions and wage slaves in undeveloped and developing nations.
Posted by: Ben Emery | 26 July 2013 at 08:03 AM
Roger and Me has been debunked as leftwing propaganda. Try again.
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 26 July 2013 at 08:10 AM
BenE 752am - Our military budget is about $700B out of federal budget of over $3T for which we collect about $2T. Your formula would still leave the budget unbalanced by $750B which amount we would again have to print or borrow.
But the real damage would in be the state of the world. You folks on the far left have never understood the function of US hegemony in the post-WW2 world. With the EU cutting military budgets, and Russia, China, etc increasing theirs, the world would very quickly become a balkanized mess where alliances meant nothing and it was every man for himself. All of your human rights, environment, and social justices objectives would become moot across the world literally overnight.
In short, the standard socialist script provides no intended solutions and creates an historical global instability. There would be no chance for peace and GROWTH.
Posted by: George Rebane | 26 July 2013 at 08:28 AM
I remember reading about the invasion of Poland and France by the Nazi's and how fast their country's laws were tossed and how the people had to adjust to the new government almost overnight. many were stiid up against the wall.
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 26 July 2013 at 09:16 AM
Another comment in spam.
Posted by: Ben Emery | 26 July 2013 at 09:22 AM
BenE 922am - Took out two of yours; hope that covers it. Else please repost. Always save your lengthier comments in your text editor until you see them posted. Thanks.
Posted by: George Rebane | 26 July 2013 at 09:34 AM
Here you go, Ben, from the wiki:
"Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages, especially advertising, indiscriminately."
Hint: It isn't advertising, it isn't bulk, it isn't indiscriminant and you asked for the comment by pointing your browser to RR so it also isn't unsolicited.
So, in every way, it wasn't "spam" by every accepted definition I'm aware of. What is your definition of the word? Any message you don't like?
Posted by: Gregory | 26 July 2013 at 09:36 AM
Greg,
Other than being a dick why on earth would you make your last comment?
Fu#$ Off, you're unbelievable.
Posted by: Ben Emery | 26 July 2013 at 09:47 AM
George,
Either you are making a honest mistake like most people including myself until I was corrected about a decade ago or you are being misleading towards your readers of the blog. Our Department of Defense budget is around $700 billion but our military $1.4 trillion. A perfect example of this is our military foreign aid to Israel who received $3.1 billion in 2012, which had the strings attached to buy US manufactured weapons of war.
US Budget Deficit of 2013 is $642 billion. Half of $1.4 trillion is $700 billion, which would wipe clean our deficit and we would even have a $58 billion surplus.
U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks Far Faster Than Expected
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/cbo-cuts-2013-deficit-estimate-by-24-percent.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Posted by: Ben Emery | 26 July 2013 at 09:58 AM
BenE, I am unable to support Greg's comments but for me you are truly going mad with your cussing.
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 26 July 2013 at 09:59 AM
Ben, you get the energy you send out. Ommm. I now gather your "in spam" is a shorthand for "a message of mine is stuck in the Typepad purgatory" and not a comment. If you want to speak in code to George, you might try an email.
George's accounting is substantially correct; if you dig deeper, I suspect you'll find your inflated "military budget" is primarily pay and benefits, and the cost of care for veterans. Go ahead, toss elderly WWII vets out of their rest homes and let the civilian death panels decide on their care.
Going directly to the CBO, their picture (fundamentally flawed as they have to take the word of congress on their basic assumptions) of the debt as a percentage of GNP remains bleak, up at WWII levels as far as the eye can see.
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/images/pubs-images/44xxx/44172-land-figure2.png
If Obamacare results in skyrocketing costs, rip that chart up.
Todd, consider responding to Ben a special case :)
Posted by: Gregory | 26 July 2013 at 10:33 AM
The Trayvon Martin post has been updated with a PJMedia video that summarizes what was not reported for almost a full year in the lamestream.
http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2013/07/honor-the-memory-of-treyvon-martin.html
And the BB4 video is now available on NCTV's site. See the 26jul13 update.
http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2013/07/bb4-on-climate-change.html
Posted by: George Rebane | 26 July 2013 at 11:36 AM
George,, I got a message third hand that you needed some dirt moved.
The message was " the same guy you did some work for in the past " up there"..."
If it's not you,, my apologies. If so,,, let me know and we can work out the details.
Posted by: Walt | 26 July 2013 at 05:40 PM
Walt 540pm - call me please.
Posted by: George Rebane | 27 July 2013 at 10:12 AM
Todd,
I am a blue collar kind of guy and I use rough language once in awhile. I hope it didn't hurt your sensitive eyes to read such language.
Posted by: Ben Emery | 27 July 2013 at 02:05 PM
BenE, your cussing has nothing to do with me or anyone else except you. It shows everyone how shallow you are and how you are unable to lead because you have little control.
Posted by: Todd Juvinall | 27 July 2013 at 04:15 PM
Todd,
"It shows everyone how shallow you are and how you are unable to lead because you have little control."
I guess you never have been a leader just a follower.
A brief history of bad language in Washington.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2010/03/wtf_did_biden_just_say.html
Posted by: Ben Emery | 28 July 2013 at 12:13 PM
I am troubled by the latest employment figures released by the Labor Department. Sure we continue to create jobs. But those jobs are the jobs we took as teenagers and young adults. 3 out of 4 jobs created (according to the July report) are part time jobs. 74%. Part time, low skilled. For the entire year of 2012, over half the jobs created pay under 15 bucks an hour.
If the labor force was as big as when Obama took office in 2009, the official unemployment rate would be 11%. Who knows what the true undoctored unemployment rate would be without our shrinking labor market.
Dr Rebane is correct once again. Even the administrator assigned to take over Detroit's finances said that the solution IS a skilled Detroit workforce, which that city simply does not have. We need to revamp our education system to face the challenges of the brave new world. Low wage growth is technically growth, but it is not going to get us to the Promised Land.
Skills. Simple word, yet seemingly impossible to obtain by our current direction taken by the unwashed sheeple.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/become-nation-hamburger-flippers-dan-alpert-breaks-down-145831220.html
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 03 August 2013 at 08:45 AM