The Violence Worker!

Is This really What You Want?

I get it.  We are all fed up with the shenanigans of some of the Wall Street players.  I get it with the crony capitalism of the Obama administration and the way they throw good money after bad into the "green" industry made up of Big Democrat Donors. 

But is Socialism really what you want?  I still don't know exactly what the Occu-tards really want and I'm betting most of them don't either.  Most of them seem to to be happy to sit in their accumulated filth, smoke their weed and yell and rant that the system is unfair...or something.

But there is a dedicated core that drives this whole thing.  They are not stupid and they are not leaderless as they claim.  They are the 1% of their movement.  Their names are not bantered about as in times before creating a personality cult.  But they drive it.  The NYC protesters are well funded and well organized.  The professionally printed fliers proclaiming  their intention to shut down wall street and the suits they suddenly are attired in is circumstantial evidence that there might be more to this than a bunch of clueless hippies wandering around a park.

And whoever is behind this doesn't mind, for the moment, that there are the druggies, bums and potheads that inhabit their camps.  They tolerate them because it suits the for the moment.  The camps, however, are Potemkin to some degree.  They are meant to serve as a facade of democracy and peace.  Their so-called "general assemblies" are mostly for show.  They are not substantive, nor are they meant to be.  I've listened to hours of these and most of it has little to do with decision making outside minor administrative details like announcing that they need volunteers to take out the trash.  Most of it is spent denouncing the "99%" and how much they owe in student loans.

 

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The video proves my point.  It's theater.  The camps are nothing more than theater.  The politics behind the theater are real and it's a deadly reality.  It's not about just taxing the rich.  They are intent on destroying wealth.

They want communism.  They say they don't, but there is no other term for it.  It's extremist and it's anti-American.  They can try and pervert history (It's what they do), but this country was not built on government handouts.  It was not built on welfare and one could argue that the end of the dream started with the beginning of the war on poverty.  LBJ and the Democrats started raiding social security to pay for their socialist programs.

The left has earnestly pushed for economic collapse.  We are constantly told the lie that capitalism is a failure and that evil corporations are out to enslave us all.  It's all part of the big lie.  It was capitalism that built this country.  Big ideas that became big corporations.  Boeing, General Motors, GE, Exxon and thousands of others developed and made products that you and I could use and afford.  They also paid people good money to work for them.

The idea that corporations want to keep us poor is preposterous.  If we are poor and living at subsistence level wages, who would buy their products.  I can't afford to buy and operate my own private Boeing 787, but a big corporation can.  They sell me a seat at a price I can more easily afford.  It was just 50 years ago that only the well to do could afford to fly.  They were called "the jet set".  Now, it's common.  The term has no meaning any longer. 

Unionists like to claim they are the originator of the 40 hour week.  They are wrong, it was Henry Ford.  Ford did it before any union demanded it. Ford also was paying their workers top dollar for the time.  Part of his reasoning was so that they could afford buy a car!

Another lie is that the republicans somehow want to make you and keep you perpetually poor.  It's another oft repeated lie.  It's should be rather obvious why it's a lie, because a party that only wants you to be poor and dependent would, or should, lose elections.

Capitalism works!  We just need to make sure the players play by the rules.

We need to clean up wall street.  We need to tighten up rules for lending money.  Credit cards should have to be applied for, not sent to you in the mail.  Rules for mortgages need to be fair, but sub-prime loans should be highly regulated.  Your mortgage shouldn't be allowed to be bundled like a bale of cardboard.  I think most of us agree on all that.  What we don't need is for the system to be trashed and replaced with God only knows what.

The people who are driving this think you are stupid enough that they just might be able to pull off their revolution this time.

VW

Jobs And Jobs. How To Destroy America

Obama is trying to capitalize on our frustrations with the economy.  Supposedly, the Banks, Corporations and Wall Street are the bogeymen responsible for our present economic morass.  You have the occupy [Name Your] Street crowd out demanding the demise of our financial system as we know it because they aren't getting free college...or something.  Now we have President Zero weighing in on the issue and yep, he's blaming those evil Wall Street Bankers.  In other words, he's biting the hands that fed him last election, but that's for another time, perhaps.  Here is a praphrase (according to the LA TIMES) of what President Disconnect said:

Obama said he used "a lot of political capital" to prevent a financial meltdown and ensure banks remained solvent after he took office. He also touted the financial reform legislation he and Democrats in Congress moved through in 2010.

It was that very law that forced, not just the Bank of America, but others (soon to be following suit) as well to start charging a fee.  Why, because they capped what the banks could charge the merchants for a debit transaction.  So, instead of you paying a few pennies more for something at the store, the banks will charge you 60 dollars a years to use your card.

Don't get me wrong.  We need to keep a reasonable rein on the financial sector.  We need to keep them as honest as we can.  No one disagrees.  What we disagree on is how it should be done.  Since I'm no banking expert, I'm not even going to pretend I know.

What I will say is this:  If you think destroying banks, Wall Street and Corporations will get you a job, you just might be too stupid to even have a job.  If it wasn't for all of those entities, you would not have a computer, an internet or any one a myriad of modern conveniences that you enjoy today.  If it wasn't for the profit motive, the idea that you can better yourself and make yourself a millionaire, there would be little in the way of comfort and mobility.  Profit powers innovation.  Innovation powers the world.  There are bad banks, corporations and rogue Wall Street Traders.  There will always be a conman, a thief and a power hungry crook willing to take what isn't theirs.  These are the ones that we must always be watching.

Let's take the late Steve Jobs for an example.  The entire world is mourning the loss of this larger than life guy who literally changed how we think and interact with our world.  He was one of those "corporate" guys.  He bought and sold different companies, developing products and made more money than he could ever spend in two lifetimes.  Good for him.  He created a ton of jobs by providing us with goods and services that we decided we needed to have.  That is is legacy.  But he could not have done that on his own as a 20 something kid with his buddy Wozniak.  If it wasn't for the banks, other corporations and the stock market, we would have never even heard of this guy.  You wouldn't be reading this. 

Oh, and just like every other corporation in America, no one forced you to give him and his companies your money.  No one got poorer to make Steve Jobs richer.

Jobs created jobs and got rich by making things we wanted to buy.  Take away the ability of others to do the same and you will destroy America.

VW

 

 

 

How To Create Millions Of Jobs!

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  It also might just mean that you are completely cluesless as to how to solve a problem.  It's what you learned, and what's been drummed into your skull for decades with the fervor of a traveling salvation show on opening night.

Their mantra is that the President creates jobs, Congress creates jobs.  The government creates jobs.  It's been said so much by so many that it must be true.  And it seems like it should be true.  After all, these are the ruling elite.  They are the brightest and the best we have to offer.  They say it like it's gospel and everyone says, "Amen!"

Ever since the the debt ceiling fiasco, the President has returned to the "Jobs" theme.  People are telling him to create jobs so he turns to the only weapon in his arsenal:  Spend more money that we don't have.

Some are suggesting another stimulus bill (and we all know how that last one turned out) and others are suggesting we need to extend unemployment benefits as that is a sure-fire way to create jobs.  When that was mentioned at a recent White House Press Briefing, the young looking Jay Carney was asked a simple question.

"I understand why extending unemployment insurance provides relief to people who need it, but how does that create jobs," Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler asked Jay Carney at Wednesday's WH briefing.

Apparently, this is the simplest of questions not worthy of an answer.

Carney responded: "Oh, uh, it is by, uh, I would expect a reporter from the Wall Street Journal would know this as part of the entrance exam."

But wait!  After professor Carney slices the WSJ reporter with the White House Ginsu, he deigns to answer the question in order to enlighten the masses just in case Ms. Meckler reports it so that the readers of her paper will understand.

"There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance," Carney said.

Carney answers the question: "It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren't running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They're not going to save it, they're going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually."

"Every place that, that money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring. So, there are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance, Carney said.

Brilliant!  Absolutely Brilliant!  That will get everyone back to work as soon as the checks are cashed!  Think of it!  Endless unemployment checks and we solve unemployment. 

Carney estimates that unemployment benefits could create up to one million jobs.

We could start giving everyone an unemployment check!  Think of the jobs that would be created!!!!  These guys that are running the country!  We are in good hands!  They smartest guys in the world!

Until the benefits run out again - which they will.

We are broke. Doing this would only have a marginal effect, if that, and it would only be temporary.  It's a brazen attempt to buy a few votes, that's it.

Oh, and Creating more and more debt is not going to fix this economy. 

VW

As California Goes...

So goes the nation.  Or so says the old saw.  If it's true, then things really are in bad shape.

From CNN Money:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Buffeted by high taxes, strict regulations and uncertain state budgets, a growing number of California companies are seeking friendlier business environments outside of the Golden State.

And further down:

"There is a feeling that the state is not stable," Vranich said. "Sacramento can't get its act together...and that includes the governor, legislators and regulatory agencies that are running wild."

The state has been ranked by Chief Executive magazine as the worst place to do business for seven years.

Seriously, I've been saying for years that California is its own worst enemy.  California used to be the aerospace capital.  Forget about Boeing up in Seattle, there was Lockheed, General Dynamics (Convair) and McDonnell-Douglass and others producing aircraft of all types down in California.  Now, to my knowledge, there is only one major aircraft factory left down in long Beach.  It is the Boeing (formerly McDonnell-Douglas) C-17 line and it won't last for too much longer. 

There plan is to set up yet another state agency to study the problem.

Later this year, California will set up a new agency that will serve as a focal point for economic development and job creation, he said. Among its goals will be to reverse the perception that California is business-unfriendly.

This is hilarious, or it would be if it wasn't so serious.  Just what California needs, another useless agency, sucking up tax dollars so they can hold endless meetings,  do pointless studies and write worthless reports.

I like that one of their goals will be to "reverse the perception that California is business-unfriendly."

Good luck with that one!

VW

Applying Common Sense

Common sense is usually not very common.  Take politics for instance.  You won't find much there that, if put under a degree of scrutiny, makes any sense at all.  One of the themes in the Democrat's aresenal is that the Republicans are the party of the rich and all they want to do is ship your job off to China.  It is the Democrtas, the party of the "working family" that will save your job and help you prosper.  It's almost an article of faith in liberal theology politics.

If you apply common sense to that idea, you immediately understand the shallowness of it.  If there was any kind of independent news reporting in this country, it would be exposed for the lie that it is.

First, it is the goal of any and all political parties to get elected and stay elected.  In order to do that, you have to have the votes.  Here of late, Democrats, through their different surrogates like ACORN, are trying to manipulate the vote by illegally registering large groups of names, but that isn't my point here.  Getting and keeping votes is the ultimate goal.  The idea is that if you do a good job at your Representative/President/Governor/Mayor/Dog Catcher job, you will get re-elected.  That's the theory.  Add any number of random things like a disaster or crooked people and things go south real quick.  Again, I digress.  The point is that in order for you to get and hold office, your constituents must perceive some benefit from your efforts on their behalf.

Now, to the original assertion that the Republicans intend to drive you into the poor house and ship your job off to China.  Liberally apply some common sense to that statement (It's OK to be liberal when you are applying this) and ask yourself this one question.  Why would that be their goal if they intend to keep themselves in office?  Doesn't make much sense, does it? 

Unfortunately, many Republicans fall into the trap of offering you government goodies in return for your vote.  They learn that you sometimes expect it and they want to appear to be compassionate and caring people and give you what you want.

What you need to understand is that most employers (and politicians) don't really want to ship your job off to some place unpronouncable.  When they do that, that means you are less well off and you can't buy stuff.  If you can't buy stuff, the economy goes to hell along with many business. 

What ships most of these jobs out of the country is compliance with the myriad of laws and regulations that, in many cases, don't do much more than give a bureaucrat a job making sure that your employer is obeying them all.  Add up how many companies are still manufacturing airplanes in California and then figure out that California is extremely hostile to anyone manufacturing anything. See a connection yet? 

The Democrats run the business out, then blame the evil corporations because they move the jobs out in order to stay in business.  You elect them because you see the jobs leaving, but you don't ask too many questions or dig below the surface.

Conservatives want to limit the intrusiveness of government.  We want the rules to enforce equal opportunity, not equal outcome.  We want it easier for business to do business.  If they are making money, they stay.  It's common sense.

 

What Hath Capitalism Wrought?

It saved 33 miners.

Greed, we are told, is a sin that goes beyond religious bounds.  It's one of the seven deadliest in Dante's epic "Inferno", but it's the solo deadly sin in leftist theology.  If you have more than someone else, you are a greedy bastard who must be brought to heel.  (Unless you are a rich leftist, in which case your intentions mean more than your actions.) 

But is greed necessarily bad?  Is it greed to want to work to better your station in life?  Is it greed to invent a product or process that benefits people and in return, allows you to have a more comfortable life for you and your family?  Hasn't that always been the "American dream"? Doesn't it also benefit the rest of us?

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today written by Daniel Henninger, he explains the relationship of innovation and the resultant benefits to the rest of us.

If those miners had been trapped a half-mile down like this 25 years ago anywhere on earth, they would be dead. What happened over the past 25 years that meant the difference between life and death for those men?

Short answer: the Center Rock drill bit.

This is the miracle bit that drilled down to the trapped miners. Center Rock Inc. is a private company in Berlin, Pa. It has 74 employees. The drill's rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa. Seeing the disaster, Center Rock's president, Brandon Fisher, called the Chileans to offer his drill. Chile accepted. The miners are alive.

Longer answer: The Center Rock drill, heretofore not featured on websites like Engadget or Gizmodo, is in fact a piece of tough technology developed by a small company in it for the money, for profit. That's why they innovated down-the-hole hammer drilling. If they make money, they can do more innovation.

And so it goes.  The computer I am writing this on and the one you are reading it with is a product of innovation.  Constant innovation and invention built a better, faster, more reliable computer at lower cost.  Many of you may not remember, but a basic PC in the 1980s would cost you thousands of dollars.  Few could afford to have one in there home.  Now, it's hard to find a home without one and many (like me) have several.  Innovation and the hope for profit drives the industry.

Imagine the airplane industry without innovation and competition.  We'd still be ground bound.  Imagine the auto industry...You get my drift.  It isn't because Congress passed some law mandating innovation or some arcane rules put in place by some government agency requiring more reliable cars.

Look around you. everything you can see is there because someone thought it would benefit you and others in some way.  From a piece of artwork on your wall, to the post-it pad on your desk, someone created it and sold it for a profit.  The artist took that money and bought more paints and materials to create more or maybe even learned to create other things.  3M took the money you paid for that pad and applied to salaries, more research and development and yes, dividends to stock holders who invested in the company to help them invest even more in their research.  People invested in Center Rock. Their ability to innovate saved 33 miners.  It also means prosperity and jobs.

The irony in America anymore is that an entrepreneur who gets rich by inventing a product that benefits society in some way is some kind of evil, greedy bastard interested only in profits.  On the other hand, if a person gets rich by entertaining you, they are somehow exempt from that greed label.  Go figure that.

Capitalism means innovation and prosperity.  Socialism means mediocrity and subsistence.

VW

When Did It Become Acceptable To Be A Commie?

When did it become acceptable to be a Communist?  Seriously, when did it become patriotic to endorse a system that is just another way of truly enslaving people?  Why are Communists and Socialists given any credibility at all, let alone allowed to be a force in shaping American policy?

This rally that was held in DC last Saturday was not about liberalism. If demanding the complete end to our way of life and turning this country into some sort of big collective is liberalism, then we have a huge problem with that definition!

It was supposed to be the "liberal" smack in the face to the Glenn Beck rally that attracted several hundred thousand, but this was attended by fewer people than most large high school football games.  Understand that the size doesn't make it any less dangerous.

Communism/Socialism has never worked.  It may start off with the loftiest of intensions, but the only way it can even hope to survive (Notice I didn'y say succeed.) is by suppressing the very rights and freedoms that brought them to prominence. It is estimated that Communism and the resultant dictatorships are responsible for killing tens of millions of people - either through purges of opponents, outright slaughter, or through botched agricultural policies that starved millions.  Yet these are the people who are somehow deemed compassionate and tolerant.

You might point out that you support some of the things that were said or promoted at the rally, but you aren't a Communist.  Maybe you aren't, but the people who put together that rally are.  The SEIU is proudly Socialist.  Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, has long been a proponent of public or union take over of corporations.  Other organizers and participants at that rally are openly and avidly Marxist.  You may not be a Communist, but you just lent them your support if you attended or advocated for it.  You lay down with dogs, don't be upset if you wake up with a bad case of fleas.

If you are an admitted Socialist/Communist, you are ignorant of history and a fool.  You are the true extremist.  You are the anti-American.  You are the one that wants to hog tie liberty in the name of serfdom.

It's really not okay to be a Commie!

VW

A Right To A Job?

With high unemployment sitting on top of the "summer of recovery" like a the stench on a steaming pile, it's becoming increasingly apparent that there is no recovery and we are not in for a "double dip" recession.  We are in a prolonged one with no end in sight.  The stimulus did not work and a second attempt will most likely be met with the same epic fail.

This picture was on Drudge most of the day.  The article it was linked to was about youth unemployment.  It didn't mention that a job was a right but the picture got me thinking.  Exactly what do they mean by "A job is a right"?

In wading through a plethora of liberal to radical websites, it became clear that the government (in whatever form) is the ultimate guarantor of your right to a job.  As the Workers World folks wrote in an editorial recently:

The workers cannot afford to be in denial. There is an urgent need for mass mobilization to open struggles for jobs, to end the layoffs, for the reopening of closed facilities and, above all, for a government Works Progress Administration-style program to provide jobs, at living wages with benefits, to the tens of millions who are out of work or underemployed.

Ronald Sokol, an American attorney who practices law in France says this in a 2007 NYT op-ed:

If governments exist to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then the right to a job must rank among its main obligations.

Sokol admits in the same article that the 1973 French law making it nigh unto impossible for an employer to fire or lay someone off is detrimental to the economy.

It is widely acknowledged that the difficulty and cost of laying off employees has been a major factor contributing to France's high unemployment. An employer who is uncertain that he can fire an unsatisfactory employee or lay off employees when sales decline will exercise caution before hiring.

Admitting that it hurts an economy doesn't seem to deter Mr. Sokol from advocating that a right to a job should exist.  Indeed, he even declares that Sarkozy must CREATE [empasis mine] the right.  (As if it's any human's right to create a right.)

So do you have a right to a job?  Should the government guarantee that you will have a job and a "living wage"?

The obvious answer to conservatives is a resounding NO!  Rights are something you are born with, not granted or created by some head of state, legislative body or judge.  A right is the freedom to act and when you act, accept responsibility for whatever actions you take.  Your rights are the freedom to act without asking permission.

I found an interesting definintion in my research for this essay:

A right is something you are born with, and you will die with, granted to you by your "Creator" (whatever you imagine He/She/It/Them to be). A privilege is granted to you by the King, General, Church, or the State, and may be revoked at any time, if one loses favor. This is usually caused by a failure "consider the king", a failure to pay the "royalty", tax, indulgence, tithe, license fee, etc.

When you depend upon privilege from the state, you are essentially reduced to serfdom.

VW

Why Is This Different?

Imagine, if you will, a Black man walking into a coffee shop and being asked to leave because the owner feels "uncomfortable having him in the shop.  Lawsuits would abound, his shop would be picketed by every group in town and rightfully so.  You just can't do that type of thing in America in 2010 -- unless it's a cop.

PORTLAND, Ore. - A Portland police officer says he doesn’t take it personally that he was kicked out of a cafe where he had stopped to get a coffee.

Officer James Crooker told The Oregonian he was surprised he was asked to leave the Red and Black cafe but understands it was hostility directed at his uniform.

Co-owner John Langley says he asked the officer to leave May 18 because he felt uncomfortable having a uniformed officer in the vegan cafe, which is frequented by the homeless, environmental and animal rights activists.

Why is it different?  Why can you not discriminate against one group, but have no problem discriminating against an other?

The Red and Black Cafe is no ordinary coffee shop.  They are unabashedly left-wing extremists.  They are a capitalist operation (for profit) raging against the very system that gives them their existence.

Wonder what would happen if their store was robbed?  Who would they call?

VW

The Rush To Socialism

According to a recent Gallup poll, 53% of Democrats have a "positive view" of Socialism and America as a whole is only at 36%.  Looking at the whole page, it doesn't appear that they defined the term and if you look at the results of some of the other parts of the same poll, it seems a bit convoluted with most people (to include Democrats) having a highly favorable view of entrepreneurs  and small business.  That would be in direct opposition to how Socialism is generally defined which is the state controls the means of production and distribution.

Despite the apparent contradictions in the responses, I still wonder why so many people would have a positive view of Socialism.  What is it about Socialism that is so appealing?  Can someone explain this to me?  What is the draw?  Is it simply just to get back at those "rich guys"?

Most people in this country do not want government controlling healthcare.  They don't want a single-payer and they don't want the so-called public option which is nothing more than a foot in the door to a single-payer system.  It doesn't seem to matter to the Socialists in Congress and the White House.  They will continue to push for it. 

They explain the lack of support for government run healthcare on several reasons, but the main reason is simply that they view the average citizen to be too stupid to know what's good for them.  They truly believe they are smarter than the electorate in general. They also like to blame Fox News for deceiving us all (or something like that).

Socialism does not work.  It's never been successful anywhere.  The ideologues like to point to such things as Medicare and Social Security as being success and how we've come to depend upon them.  Yes, we've come to depend upon them, but only because they became the only game in town.  The government abhors competition.  When it was suggested that people be given a choice in how they wanted to invest in their retirement, the Socialists went nuts.  The Democrats opened that piggy bank long ago and continue to loot it and today the system is about to go broke. 

This country was not built on Socialism.  Freedom and liberty  built tjhis country, not serfdom to an all powerful federal government.  We need to shine the light on what Socialism really is and that is a giant step toward Communism.  Communism is a system of government that is responsible for killing and jailing more people than National Socialism ever did.  It's an evil that should forever be relegated to the proverbial dustbin  of history.

VW