Mid-Atlantic Labor Activists

Not Vindictive, Just Prudent to Invest Billions on Main Street

Ray Pairan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:57:11 EDT

Barack it has absolutely nothing to do with saving our neighbors house that is burning because it might be a threat to our own but everything to do with not risking life and limb to save this same house that is already entirely destroyed by termites. The American people are not being vindictive by wanting to hold back $700 billion dollars from Wall Street but are being prudent by not wanting to waste what may be the last substantial amount of taxpayer dollars before the final decent into the abyss of a global income crisis.

We have one last chance at 'jump starting' this economy and that can only be done from below where 95% of lower to middle income citizens consume by purchasing products and services that are produced by the global economy. Nothing will be accomplished by throwing more and more money at Wall Street in an attempt to get the credit markets lending again because once the investment community became aware of the extent of consumer and business leverage they lost a certain amount of confidence in all facets of the U.S. economy. Both foreign and domestic credit markets are not freezing up but what is actually occurring is a natural reaction to the discovery that U.S. businesses and consumers have overextended themselves in an un-concerted attempt at maintaining a level of economic expansion (lifestyle or revenue stream) that is unsustainable given the continuing drop in consumption spending by consumers as a result of their declining incomes.

Now that both businesses and consumers are facing the reality of the real market economic forces that act to stabilize out of balance conditions, all facets of the economy are crying for immediate relief even those such as the financial institutions that will just have to write off or write down most of the over valued credit assets that their customers both businesses and citizens are unable to continue to carry.

Until the 95% of low to middle income U.S. citizens are afforded a substantial increase in income (equated to all the lost income never received from years of productivity gains) the global economy will continue to tank. No other option remains - either use the $700 billion (more required) to 'jump start' this dying income starved economy or watch it decline to the point of no return.

Also, we shouldn't believe everything pandered by the sensationalist media parrots especially when it regards Economics. Investors moved back into the markets today mainly to acquire 'dirt cheap' bargain stocks and investment instruments not simply because they even remotely expect help in the form of a bailout from the U.S. Congress or that if it did transpire would have any effect on confidence anyway. Therefore, what all of us should attempt to do is maintain a link to reality based upon the facts of each day and not take credence in any neoclassical Economic ideology predictions that are rooted in policies that have brought us to this calamitous point in time.

Moving our economy back to a higher level of consumption spending that is not based upon consumers who are over leveraged and businesses that are equally overleveraged because their income is being drained off by greedy executives and board members must be the goal for our nation. Draining more income from the 95% of low to middle income citizen taxpayers in order to invest in worthless debt related assets that would be better purged from our economic system entirely does not lead to a sustainable economic system nor does it help in resolving our current chronic income crisis - it only makes matters worse. We need to invest in America not throw what may be our last remaining dollars that haven't yet been devalued (given time) to the point of being worthless up into the wind, only to be blown across a fast encroaching economic desert.

We have the power to thoughtfully address the income crisis which is the root cause of our economic calamity but only if we remain open-minded to all approaches that are centered upon getting substantial income in the hands of average Americans who will faithfully spend (representing 2/3's of GDP) it on products and services. Not only is it the economically sensible thing to do but the morally right thing to do.

http://structuralEconIssues.blogspot.com/

Essays - Get Income to Main Street

Ray Pairan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:20:18 EDT

All the below essays may be read at-

http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

o Use $700 Billion to Stimulate Real Economy
o Fast Bailout of Wall Street â€" No Help for Main Street
o Stand Up Citizens - It is Time to Be Counted
o Death of the Great Consumption Engine
o Stepping from the Past into the Future
o Our Nation’s Dying Debt Engine
o $700 Billion to Feed the Supply Side Monster
o $700 Billion Bailout â€" Reverse Robin Hood Effect
o Financial Pollutants, Government Bailout, and HOLC
o Great Depression History Propaganda Spread by Elite
o Income Drained From Below Covers Losses of Elite
o Federal Toxic Debt Clearinghouse â€" Cleansing Debt from Books
o U.S. Treasury Open To Loot â€" An Economy Spiraling Down
o AIG Raids U.S. Treasury â€" Lobbyists Work Pays Off
o Root Causes of Our Current Income Crisis
o Acquiring a Rational Economy
o Workers Demand Democracy Not Machiavellian Evil
o Income Crisis - Accelerating For Impact into Economy
o They Sacrifice the Dreams of a Nation
o Building a Foundation of Understanding
o Completely Nationalize Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
o Deflationary Stage of Income Crisis Reached
o The Illusion of Justice

Essays - Let's Light a Path To The Future

Ray Pairan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:01:37 EDT

All the below essays may be read at-

http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

[The Illusion of Justice]
Unique boundless power is exerted upon those citizens that are unfortunate enough not to be among the corrupt few. Regardless of your stature, education, or intelligence those unscrupulous corporations and other guardians of government 'disservice' who command influence over our judges will engage in any action that will perpetuate our obedient servitude to their slanted economic system. It is an economic system integrally tied to a legal system woven to snuggly fit our corporate culture manipulated by a few business elite who use it to their exclusive benefit.

With staggering sums of money being spent by the elite to maintain a legal web of forced obedience on the part of the general citizenry is it any wonder that a citizen of modest income is 'priced out' of obtaining council for anything other than trivial cases.
...

Essays written in August-

Our Survival Depends Upon Cooperation
Don't Become another One of the Worn-Out
Citizens Gather to Hear Message of Hope & Change
A Sustainable Future for America Built Upon Equali...
Americans United Behind a More Equitable Future
One Nation, One World Willing To Dream
Pragmatic Solutions to Global Economic Problems
Henry Ford Realized the Importance of Adequate Wag...
Reach Out For the Radiant Light of Hope
Production Camps Build Upon Tumor of Greed
Unity Vanquishes Selfish Destruction
Business Alchemists Believe In Their Infallibility...
Democrats and Republicans Extol Business Party Lin...
Russia's Plan for Reestablishing Empire
The Programming Wasteland
Crumbling, Neglected, Cheap American Society
Shock Waves from Russian Conflict with Georgia
Corporate Masters Marginalize Current Citizens
Collusion to Lower Wages and Thus Fix Prices
The Corporate Beast Reigns Supreme over Everything...
Human Labor Exploitation Has Occurred For Eons
Message from Behind the Economic Iron Curtain

It is important that all our efforts be directed at getting Barack's message of positive change out because it is currently being overshadowed by the news coverage devoted to Sarah Palin.

Building Alliances and Voting for Change in 2008

Stephen Crockett — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:39:22 EDT

The American nation has an excellent opportunity to change the nature of politics in our country this year. We have a real chance to build lasting alliances that will re-define the political landscape at every level of government and permit us to take back our government by the average citizen.

For decades, the political power of the largest international corporations and the wealthiest of the Super Wealthy have been tightening their grasp on governments in America. They have effectively bought their way to power by giving billions in campaign donations and buying up the media.

The effect has been passage of laws that undermine the power of average citizens to control their own economic futures, have an effective voice in government policies and to hear opposing political viewpoints. It is no accident that most Americans think that their children will not have as high a standard of living as they currently experience. It was economic policy on the national and international levels that forced tens of millions of families to have both parents working to maintain a decent standard of living.

Your rights to sue corporations when they abuse you as a worker, investor or consumer are being stripped away by Republican politicians like George W. Bush, John McCain, Dick Cheney and your allegedly “moderate Republican” member of Congress. The same bunch of Republican politicians are and have been for decades falling all over themselves to pass legislation that ships high-paying jobs with healthcare benefits to Third World nations where the high pay and employer provided healthcare vanishes while corporate profits explode! Yes, Bush, McCain and Cheney love NAFTA, the WTO, CAFTA and the rest of these deals. They have been a goldmine of campaign cash for the Republican Right and the alleged “Republican moderates” in Congress.

By appointing corporate thinking federal judges and government regulators, American workers have seen their rights to form labor unions effectively undermined and often destroyed. The public fiction of “free elections” in the workplace is there for these deceitful Republicans to “defend.” However, in most workplaces, the reality is that these giant corporations make real free elections impossible by intentionally breaking the law (the penalties are a joke), firing pro-union workers, preventing union organizers from talking to workers or distributing material, issuing threats and the like. The reality of these “free unionization elections” is that they are no more free and fair than the “free elections” in the former Soviet Union, communist China or Nazi Germany! Still, the Republicans vehemently oppose passage of the Employee Free Choice Act which would return effective workplace democracy when it comes to unionization votes.

The decline of labor unions has meant the decline of the American Middle Class both economically and politically and corporate forces know it! An effective labor movement has meant real economic opportunity for tens of millions of working class and poor Americans. Labor unions have been the vehicle for millions of racial and ethnic minorities to join the mainstream, Middle Class majority in experiencing the American Dream.

Corporate controlled politicians like Bush and McCain are simply killing that Dream. Will we let them?

The wealthiest of the Super Wealthy control our mainstream media but not our votes.

We all should know that racism has an economic purpose. It is the tool most often used in America to get the working class whites and Middle Class majority to put in power politicians who vote against the economic interests of working class and Middle Class whites. Racism is the tool used to divide the non-economic elite majority so that all working class and Middle Class Americans do not demand government policies that provide real economic opportunity for the vast majority. Racism is a sucker bet for all poor, working class and Middle Class Americans!

Union Web Sites that can help you buy union-made products

Stephen Crockett — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:35:55 EDT

Union Web Sites that can help you buy union-made products

BUILD UNION, BUY UNION, SHOP UNION, BE UNION!

http://www.unionlabel.com

Miscellaneous

http://www.allamericanclothing.com

Clothing (Formerly Union Jean Company)

http://www.unionhouse.com

Clothing

http://www.justiceclothing.com

Clothing

http://www.unionmade.com

Miscellaneous

http://www.kinglouie.com

Clothing

http://www.legendaryusa.com

Leather Jackets (All Jackets Made in USA, Schott Jackets are Union Made)

http://www.tigereyedesign.com

Promotional Items – Bumper Stickers, Buttons, Pens, Etc.

http://www.unionvacations.com

Air, Hotel, Car, Cruises

http://www.unionsales.com

Miscellaneous

http://www.unionwear.com

Miscellaneous

http://www.atc-ny.com

Watches, Clothing, Clocks, Etc.

http://www.buyunion.us

Clothing, Specialty Items, Promotional Items

http://www.backdraftproducts.us

Specializing in IAFF Products Union Retail Stores

Greater Lehigh Valley Area in Pennsylvania

Wines & Spirits Shoppes

Rite-Aid

Super Fresh

Shop-Rite

Strauss Auto

Mailroom Copy & Print Center (call Stephen Crockett at 443-907-2367 for details)

K-Mart , T.J. Maxx Distribution Centers are Union, Retail is Not

Marshall’s

Do Not Shop! Wal-Mart Sam’s Club

Union Web Sites

• Bakery Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM)

http://www.bctgm.org

Food Products

• UNITE-HERE (UNITEHERE)

http://www.unitehere.org

Textiles, Hotels, Casinos, Etc.

• International Association of Machinists (IAM)

http://www.goiam.org

Motorcycles, Miscellaneous

• United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW)

http://www.ufcw.org

Retail, Miscellaneous

• International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)

http://www.teamster.org

Truck Drivers, UPS, Misc.

• United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1776 (UFCW 1776) http://www.ufcw1776.org Eastern Pennsylvania

• AFL-CIO http://www.aflcio.org

• Change to Win http://www.changetowin.org

-United Steelworkers of America http://www.usw.org

-United Auto Workers http://www.uaw.org

If you cannot find a Union Made product, please contact me at 610-217-5123 or at schlen@union-america.com

In Solidarity,

James S. Schlener

IAFF Local 735

UFCW 1776

Lehigh Valley CLC. VP.

Bethlehem City Democratic Party Chair

Latest news from the AFL-CIO Blog

Stephen Crockett — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:04:00 EDT

Aug. 5, 2008 The AFL-CIO Executive Council is in Chicago this week fine-tuning the union movement's largest-ever voter mobilization to take back the White House and strengthen working family majorities in Congress. The labor leaders will focus on the drive to inform union voters--who will make a difference in key battleground states--about the candidates and the strategy to get out the vote on Election Day. ***** Quick Poll: Whom do you trust most for information about House and Senate candidates? http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/o1a31_F1xcTy/ Got comments? Post them at: http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/9pa31_F1xcTU/ *****

Executive Council Meeting Focuses on Election Drive http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/kpa31_F1xcTu/

Verizon Contract Talks Continue Past Strike Deadline http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/9da31_F1xcTm/

Kentucky Nurses' Long Struggle for Justice Takes a Step Forward http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/91a31_F1xcTj/

Bricklayers Endorse Obama http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/k7a31_F1xcT7/

Why Democrats should organize boycotts of Wal-Mart, picket their stores and challenge all store openings

Stephen Crockett — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:49:00 EDT

Wal-Mart Wants to Make Sure Its Employees Don’t Vote Democratic

by Tula Connell, Aug 1, 2008

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/08/01/wal-mart-wants-to-make-sure-its-employees-dont-vote-democratic/

Wal-Mart and all its $13 billion in 2007 profits are quaking. The retail monolith is scared that Democrats will be elected to office this fallâ€"and might pass legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to join unions.

The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121755649066303381.html reports on Wal-Mart’s corporate tremors today, noting that

in recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

Downsides, huh? Like getting paid enough to support yourself and your family. Or maybe even the real big downside of having affordable job-based health insurance so that the emergency room isn’t the only option when your child has the flu. Because by not paying its employees enough to afford the company health plan, Wal-Mart dumps the cost of health care onto all taxpayers http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/upload/walmart_tax_memo.pdf , even making it a corporate policy to encourage new hires to use public emergency rooms, according to author Barbara Ehrenreich.

(You can tell Wal-Mart to stop its unfair and immoral workplace intimidation by signing a petition here http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition .)

Wal-Mart has been so intent upon piling up its billions in annual profits, it has created a mini-industry of anti-unionism to ensure it keeps its employees at everyday low wages. So, Wal-Mart is stepping up its efforts to prevent Democrats from being elected this fall, by telling employees http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121755649066303381.html that “voting for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in.” And Wal-Mart employees report feeling pressured to vote for candidates who oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.

Wal-Mart is doing even more arm-twisting workers on their way to the ballot box. Rather than pay its employees a decent wage and provide affordable health care, Wal-Mart is putting mega bucks into front groups that are spearheading a multi-million dollar ad campaign to slam workers, their unions and their efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/ .

For instance, Wal-Mart is the largest member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, one of the main funders of the $30 million anti-union campaign called “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20080424-557-273.html .”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says this latest revelation of Wal-Mart’s egregious meddling into its employees’ voting preferences

goes to show the extent that companies like Wal-Mart will go to maintain the status quo, which allows them to exploit workers to maximize profit. It’s clear the business community intends to spend heavily to protect its interests but working people know this election is about creating real, lasting economic change.

Wal-Mart is ready to use its corporate power as America’s largest private employer to corrupt the political system to safeguard its profits. American Rights at Work has lots of info on Wal-Mart’s actions attacking the Employee Free Choice Act here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/latest-updates/wal-mart-mobilizing-against-the-employee-free-choice-act-20080801-605-83-83.html and has a detailed report here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/wal-mart/wal-mart/wal-mart-rolling-back-workers-wages-rights-and-the-american-dream.html on how Wal-Mart rolls back workers’ wages in an assault on the American Dream. Plus the worker advocacy organization also tracks the front groups behind the Employee Free Choice Act smear campaign, with info here http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20080424-557-273.html .

Take action now and tell Wal-Mart stop intimidating its employees http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition . Sign the petition here http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wal_mart_petition .

Future Liar-in-Chief McCain and his BS Express

Stephen Crockett — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:05:16 EDT

The fear that Republican Presidential candidate will be soundly defeated by Obama in November has generated a massive barrage of outright lies and some very smelly BS. Some of the lies and BS come from the usual disreputable sources like Right Wing talk radio hosts, Republican bloggers, Ann Coulter clones and certain Fox News commentators. These are to be expected.

Right Wing Republican Congressional candidates have been using slash and burn campaigns and outright lies routinely since at least the 1994 election. The recent negative comments by Congresswoman Heather Wilson falsely smearing Obama are a prime example of this low road campaign style. Republican Congressman Charlie Dent has been trying to defend his close ties to the oil industry and the huge amount of money they have donated to his campaign by blaming his Democratic challenger Sam Bennett for high fuel prices. Wilson and Dent sound just like McCain. They are just frightened of the voters and trying to hide their roles in creating the current economic mess.

However, the Republican Presidential candidates usually have not been nearly as vicious or desperate as John McCain. McCain seems to have become as divorced from the truth or civil political discourse as Dick Cheney. Smears and attack lines cannot conceal the truth forever.

Only about a half dozen years ago, I remember talking about the respect I held then for John McCain, as an independent-minded Republican, on my talk radio show. While I respected the McCain of Bush’s first term and admired the soldier McCain of the Vietnam era, I have little respect for McCain’s behavior as a Presidential candidate in 2008.

I admit that I would not have voted for John McCain at any point in his political career because he has always been a political enemy of working Americans and a powerful tool of the Corporate forces crushing us as workers, taxpayers and consumers. Those differences were ones of policy.

The problem with McCain in 2008 is that his character has apparently been corrupted by his lust for the Presidency. His nasty tone and negative personal attacks on Obama show how much of a failure McCain has been as a Presidential candidate trying to defend on the failed policies of Bush Republicanism!

McCain has falsely blamed Obama for high gas prices. McCain has been receiving huge campaign donations from Big Oil. He has done absolutely nothing to promote more competition in the oil industry. He has opposed oil windfall taxes that would have been used to promote alternative energy development.

For your reading pleasure or pain....you decide

JC — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:47:40 EDT

In the extended, you will find the text of my speech in Martinsville, VA on Monday. Tom Perriello announced a 22 city Economic Revival tour to help restore jobs to the Southside.

Hope you like it.

Register To Vote, And Send Voltage To DNC Convention.

Michael Tiffany — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:57:20 EDT

Register to vote, and send Voltage to play at the Democratic National Convention. We have songs that are perfect for the event already written, and I am already the number one democrat at the DNC.

Articles - Breaking Through To Reality

Ray Pairan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:57:12 EDT

Blind Acceptance of Unjust Economic Society
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/blind-acceptance-of-unjust-economic.html

We've all been blessed with the ability to rationally discern reality from illusion propped up by an aesthetic orthodoxy of economic fundamentalism. What do we realize when we arrive at a gas station to fill our car up with gas, visit the grocery, receive a bill from a hospital that shows a $200,000 balance that our insurance didn't pay, open the mailbox and find a foreclosure notice on our home, get the news that our office or factory is closing and moving overseas, or we find ourselves unable to send our child to a university because the cost is now beyond our comprehension? Are we then struck with a profound belief that the 'free market' coupled with 'globalization' will continue to provide us with economic security or does reality grasp us by the neck demanding our recognition.

We all know far to well what is transpiring globally - a select group of oligarchs (the business elite) that comprise less than 5% of the population have setup a system (totalitarian economic society) that ensures them ultimate power over the 95% of us that fall under their crushing 'boot'. Within their society we're continually bombarded by the frantic ranting of fanatic experts espousing the omnipotence and infallibility of the 'free market economy'. They've even instructed the most intellectually pliable among us in the fine art of simultaneously reconciling a multitude of contradictions into unquestioned compliance and acceptance of their orthodoxy. Essentially, all it requires is a citizenry that is indoctrinated into thinking in terms of proffered processes and dissuaded from deep thought.

When you can rob someone of all pretenses of personal power over their lives and instill in them a sense of hopelessness in the face of forces seemingly beyond their control you've essentially anesthetized them from taking meaningful actions at understanding the reality of their situation much less directly acting to change their condition. Feelings of "that's just the way it is", "we've done it to ourselves", "there's nothing we can do about it", and "we'll just have to adjust", begin to permeate the collective consciousness.
...

The 'Free Market' Guise Is "Big Brother"
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/free-market-guise-is-big-brother.html

Funnel everything back onto the adaptive, receptive masses of the global citizenry instilling in them a feeling of inferiority whereby all their actions have and will be perceived to result in a continuing deterioration of their economic situation. It is a perversion of thought pandered through the totalitarian economic society that every injustice or inequality committed by the business elite is ultimately our fault due to our inherent inferiority. We are to blame for not adequately educating ourselves, for over spending, and generally not adjusting to the new world economic order.

In order to effectively perpetuate this ball-faced lie the media is used by the business elite to manipulate not just public opinion but thought itself. There now exists correct and incorrect thought and incorrect thought is portrayed as deviant thought to be identified and ultimately vanquished within our current authoritarian society. Thought is always constrained to only those ideas and concepts acceptable to those who wield power within a strictly regimented hierarchical society. Therefore within the totalitarian economic society complete uniformity of opinions throughout the entire global citizenry is a goal strived for constantly by the elite.

The totalitarian economic society can only effectively extend it tentacles of corruption, subversion, hate, and inequality into every crevice of existing equality through their complete obliteration of the self. Individuality is the enemy of the oppressor for it represents individual thought that disrupts the currents of illusion perpetuated by effective societal propaganda. In fact, the two primary aims of the totalitarian economic society is the complete subjugation of all global citizens under the 'heal' of the business elite and the maintenance of a perpetual vigilance targeted at rooting out and extinguishing all independent thought from whatever level of society it originates.
...

Not Inflation but Monopolistic Pricing
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-inflation-but-monopolistic-pricing.html
Inflation is an increase in prices that is triggered primarily from rising wages among the general population which in turn results in a significant consumption 'pop'. With more and more money flowing into the economic system from the acceleration in consumption spending by a citizenry flush with wealth - prices will trend higher. Companies realize that there are far more consumers that are willing to spend money on their products than products available to purchase - they therefore ramp up production to meet the demand. In the process, these companies will increase their prices for their products realizing full well that consumers that may never have purchased their products before may now want them given their new found wealth.

Prior to reaching an inflationary period the Federal Reserve will analyze trends in inflation indicators such as the M1 money supply and wage levels relative to worker productivity. If the money supply and wages start rising within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity increases this (along with other economic markers) typically indicates that an economy is moving towards an inflationary period. Wage increases within an economy that has experienced negligible productivity gains is indicative of a tight labor market and/or a well organized labor market that is in a position of strength relative to (capital) corporations. In the 1960's & 70's when the United States was at its economic nadir and labor unions represented a larger percentage of workers there were periods of inflation and one brief instance of stagflation.
...

Wake up America - The Financial Pillage Continues
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/wake-up-america-financial-pillage.html

The U.S. dollar's fall against most of the major currencies is the result of a lack of confidence by speculators and governments in the future viability of our economy. We are a nation of debtors that produce very little of anything - not even our past ingenuity and technological base remains for it was erased by greed induced multinational companies scouring the planet in search of cheap labor. Why would anyone want to possess even one dollar bill since it represents a government in name only, a government that is completely beholden to special interest business elites that only use its shell to do their exclusive bidding. Therefore it is only logical that these same evil cloaked speculators realize that the United States is on the verge of a final pillaged by their fellow wicked business elite rulers. Why possess the paper money of a shell of a nation whose poor citizens are bleeding profusely on the pavement (from globalization) unable to muster any meaningful spending power without acquiring debt that they can no longer find or afford.

Only the special interests of a few well heeled business elites matter to our governmental representatives - you're of no concern to them, just a mere citizen. National interests are no longer relevant because nations are fast becoming just fascades that are used by the business elite to exact their complete control over every aspect of our lives - our wallets will be completely drained into the bottomless cauldrons of a seething greed that covers the entire financial landscape of this corrupt totalitarian economic society.
...

The Human Toll of Our Economic Death
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/human-toll-of-our-economic-death.html

Sitting out in the car last fall waiting for Diana to step out of the last remaining department store in a dilapidated mall that had been dying slowly for a few short years, it occurred to me that the moment represented the collapse of our nation. This store was closing its doors forever, when the setting sun caressed it in shadows - there would be no returning. Looking over the quiet, dark, and desolate concrete that the encased towering glass opening one couldn't help but wonder what went wrong, for when it happened we were all in the midst of flying head first towards the payment with hair streaming back - there was no halting the terrible fall.

This had mall been just a reflection of the general capital destruction (both material and human) that had been occurring even prior to the 'Great Fall' which happened in just a few sharply defined months. Through a combination of factors both inherent to the distorted economic society and symptomatic of the resulting consumption crisis that grew unabated as real wages steadily dropped lights everywhere started their crescendo of darkening.
...

Consumption Crisis Resulting From Distorted Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/consumption-crisis-resulting-from.html

Everything that transpires on our planet cycles within one of many natural loops given that the entire biosphere is our self contained spaceship hurtling us on its elliptical track around the Sun. Space engulfs this living organically lush planet reaching around it with a cold vacuum of nothing other than plasma energies that race across the poles ebbing from our pulsing star. All the various natural systems stabilize across a range of dynamic spectrums merging, mingling, and converging across boundaries that are in a constant state of flux. Nothing is at any instant in a state of equilibrium but only continually approaching a natural steady state. The key word is approaching, since the planetary events are like a boiling pot of water vigorously active but never so stimulated to exceed the natural limits placed upon their expanding volume of molecular excitement.

Chaotic systems both natural and artificially induced (like our contorted, manipulated economic society) always involve the excitement of a multitude of variables that operate within a unique closed system. It is still a system even though most of the variables have been distorted in order to bring short-term gain to a few at the expense of those many who continually grope for income with outstretched hands. Any one of the perturbed variables may tilt the entire system towards temporary instability. Granted a multiplicative effect of income generation is possible by generously infusing the system with income but only through meaningful production either creative or actual transformation of material into useable capital is unperturbed economic steady state migration possible.
...

Caress Us with Lies from a Corrupt System
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/caress-us-with-lies-from-corrupt-system.html

The cackles can be heard coming from behind every wall of this 'windowless dirty room' that where trapped within - with little or no hope of escape. Don't worry every now and then they'll throw us a dark moldy piece of stale bread from that opening in the wall to our far right. Word is that those on the other side who call themselves 'controllers' have nightly banquets within crystal palaces. The controllers belong to a select group of privileged citizens who are the lobbyists, business elite, corrupt elements of the intelligentsia, and least we forget the governmental representatives that have been 'body snatched' by the business elite through their lobbyists.

We've been dropped here because when we were working outside within their society we had the indiscretion to engage in wasteful spending. Not just your average supplementing of our paltry subsistence wages through excessive borrowing (credit card, and 2nd mortgage debt) at their financial 'company stores' but the heinous act of causing a correction within their economic society. We neglected to cut back our daily meals from 3 to 1 in order to save some of our meager income at their banks.
...

Oil Block Induced Profit Inflation - Crumbling Economy
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-block-induced-profit-inflation.html

Immediately nationalize all the oil companies whose corporate offices reside within the borders of the United States. Seize all assets belonging to the oil companies and their associated oil block (OPEC, oil speculators, and oil companies) thieves' intent upon exacting a short term extraction of available income from every sector of our dying economy. The consuming nation-states should use any and all means at their disposal to ensure that an adequate oil supply is maintained. We cannot afford to idly watch while the entire contrived totalitarian economic society swirls into an income drain gasping with flailing arms for consumption that is mostly chocked off through artificially imposed oil company profit inflation, and speculator income extraction enhanced through OPEC production limits.

Stop the profit inflation spurred on by the oil 'block' intent upon financially razing each and every global citizen leaving behind a barren economic landscape incapable of sustaining consumption spending. With the consumption 'machine' already sputtering from lack of any real wage growth among the working class (even during a period of unprecedented productivity gains) the assault by the oil 'block' on the wallets of this most important group of citizens further erodes their already strained ability to spend. With each and every day the erosion of potential spending from this majority of the citizenry is spilling every additional dollar of potential spending into an encroaching sea of oil profits.
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Many more articles that break through the wall of illusion...
http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

Is American headed for a New Revolution?

JC — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:07:36 EDT

I'm not advocating anarchy, nor am a talking about a political uprising across the country. What I am asking is this:

"How much are Americans willing to take before they rebel either in an armed coup or a non-violent coup against the status quo?"

Four points:
1) Our government is corrupt and supressing the middle and lower class working people.
2) Business is corrupt and suppressing the middle and lower class working people.
3) Our rights are being trampled on almost daily.
4) Media supports the above by ignoring it.

These are the very reasons that colonists revolted against the British empire.

Thoughts please.

From the London Times Online

JC — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:30:27 EDT

Someone else may have posted this but here it is....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4207235.ece

Christianity...A peaceful, loving religion?

JC — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:58:13 EDT

Read extended for this article by the AP....makes me sick.

Letters to the Editor

JC — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:36:50 EDT

This letter appears in todays issue of the Martinsville Bulletin.
Read the extended post for my reply.
Thanks all!
Peace

Save the United States from becoming a Third World country.
Both of the (presumptive) presidential candidates are against drilling for oil in the Anwar province in Alaska or drilling for natural gas off our shores. I think if we held back contributions to their campaigns until they changed their minds on this issue, they may get the message.
If the policies of the United States are not changed, we may quickly become a Third World country. If the citizens of the United States do not persuade our political leaders to change their minds, we may go broke and be deeply indebted to China.
We have billions of cubic feet of untapped natural gas, which could be used to power autos, trucks and other machinery. And we have huge deposits of oil in Alaska. But our own political leaders are refusing to let us develop these resources.
The leaders of the U.S. House and Senate will not let this issue come to the floor for a vote. Everyone should be putting pressure on their congressmen and senators to let this issue come to a vote. It seems unnatural for us to be building refineries in Iraq but not in the U.S. We have not built any new refineries in the last 30 years. We are not preparing well for the future.
I want to take this opportunity to thank 5th District U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. for the steadfast support he has given to try to make this drilling possible. We need more people like him representing us. Please write letters, make phone calls, or whatever you can do to get the attention of those who are now in office to realize there are alternatives to mortgaging our future to the oil producing nations.
Ronald A. Ressel Jr.

Why Obama CAN win!!!!

JC — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:40:41 EDT

....dummies

JC — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:09:53 EDT

I have been reading posts by certain...ah hem...shall we say...Demicans? Posting here as Democrats. I'm not talking about those folks we know are Dems that question, I'm talking about those that post crap straight off the RNC website, which I monitor.

I will not name names or screen id's, you already know who you are.

If you don't realize just how transparent you are, then the title of this posts fits you. Lets see how you like your own medicine...OK?

Virginia Rep Goode won't endorse McCain...yet!

JC — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:16:36 EDT

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/goode_wont_endorse_mccain_yet/4343/

Read this to see the veiled threat from the McCant camp to Virgil Goode...I love it when Repukes fight!

From my blog

JC — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:29:19 EDT

About the Senate vote on cloture on the Renewable Energy and Jobs Creation Act (HR 6049). Hope you enjoy! JC

Just read shopmans post "Go to hell! Part two"

JC — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:13:50 EDT

I have a question for those that claim to be long term Democrats, but say they can not support the nominee. Are you telling the rest of us, you have ALWAYS been satisfied in the past with the nominee? No if's, no ands, and no buts?