IT'S BEEN A WHILE, CALL IT THE HOLIDAY ACTIVITY SYNDROME
And frustration pointing out the mistakes of our government leaders, especially our Imperial President. To kick off 2015, let's go back to looking at a wide variety of issues:
THERE'S A LOT OF CRAP ON TV THESE DAYS
I confess, I watch more TV than I used to. I have more time to do it, and there is more of it to watch. Sometimes, however, I rethink whether that is the best use of my time. (A good book takes longer to read, but can be far more rewarding and memorable). A lot of my TV time is watching sports--Football and Basketball games--but usually just my favorite teams. (Like the Ohio State Buckeyes!--Go Bucks!)
EVERY NOW AND THEN, A REALLY GOOD TV SHOW COMES ALONG--BUT USUALLY HAS A SHORT LIFE
Two recent examples, which are totally different kinds of shows, but share my vote for good, entertaining TV …and both just ended recently. THE NEWSROOM & LONGMIRE
One ended recently: the HBO show THE NEWSROOM, starring Jeff Daniels as a major network anchor, with an excellent supporting cast. It opened with an explosively good episode and closed with two more great hours of entertainment. Aaron Sorkin was the creator and wrote a lot of the episodes--and influenced many others--and while he and I have different political ideologies, I found the show provocative and compelling to watch. Since it dealt with "news," much of the content was very recently timely, news related. Its real victory was that it creates a very human interaction among various cast members in that setting. Anyone who has HBO and didn't watch it, can probably pick it up with the HBO On-Demand feature
The other was on a "lesser" cable channel (A & E) was LONGMIRE. It featured a lantern-jawed Wyoming sheriff, solving a variety of crimes and human issues, all set in the rugged state of Wyoming, and including Native American (Indian) reservations and their unique cultural and law-enforcement issues. It was dropped after three seasons--but recent reports say that Netflix might pick it up (part of the growing trend of regular programming on streaming video sites.
IF YOU HAVE TURNED ON THE NEWS ANYTIME LATELY: IS ANYBODY ELSE SICK OF DEMONSTRATIONS?
I am… I've gone from feeling sorry for the (primarily) black minorities to feeling sorry for everybody, including the police because the true "Racists" are the misguided minorities (and their leaders) who sustain and spread this unrest. (I suspect that it's the same groups that always do it, but I'm not sure.) Anytime a person like Al Sharpton is involved then I know it is likely to be a "rotten situation." Somebody needs to knock that man off his pedestal (and podium.) He has become the successor to Jesse Jackson as the biggest "shakedown artist" …a reverse racist, and extortionist.
THE BEHAVIOR REWARDED IS THE BEHAVIOR REPEATED
As long as the blacks have a sympathetic 1/2-black president and a black attorney general, willing to bend every rule of law to help their constituents, (including unruly, law-breaking demonstrators), they will make some perceived gains; get some new rules and regulations passed. There's no doubts that blacks suffered mightily in America. In some instances they still do--less than before--but more than is right. A lot of it they bring on themselves too. The problem arises when "reverse discrimination/rascism" comes into play. Would any of the news media cover a big story of a black policeman who shot a 6-4, 290 lb. white man who stole something, then taunted and attacked the police officer so badly that he felt his life was threatened and had to shoot the man? It would be buried on page 7 of the Metro section of the paper, and never make it onto TV or Cable news, except locally, where it happened.
FOR EVERY ACTION, THERE IS AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION (One of Isaac Newton's Laws of Physics)
However, when the advocacy goes "over the top," which is what it's doing right now, there will be a negative reaction--a backlash. There is a basic law of physics: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." That is not good for the longer term outcome. By ramping up welfare higher and higher, Barack Obama and his supporters are creating a 21st century form of slavery--indentured servitude kept in place by economic chains--not real ones. Obama et. al. become the "massa" and the "overseers" and they don't rule with a whip, but with a series of welfare check, creating a dependent underclass, subservient and angry.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE JOBS ARE PAYING THE DEMONSTRATORS WAY--INDIRECTLY
I have not checked the crime statistics shown below, but I believe they are largely correct. One reason so many people can demonstrate in the daytime is that they don't work for a living. If they did, they'd be at work. The popular excuse might be that they can't find a job; nobody would hire them. Maybe so. If they have a bad, resentful attitude, that's probably true. If they have little or no motivation to work, that's also probably true.
"BRING A MAN A FISH AND YOU FEED HIM TODAY [And soon he will become dependent on that]; TEACH HIM TO FISH AND HE CAN FEED HIMSELF FOR A LIFETIME"
The primary enabler that creates the underlying problem is that they can live on a broad range of government welfare programs, paid for by taxpayers who do work for a living, and make enough money that they don't have to go to work. Since many of these folks don't have the education or training to do much more than low wage jobs, welfare "pays better." That allows them to parade in the streets, making a spectacle of how abused and mistreated they are, and permitting--even endorsing--a criminal minority that loots, burns and terrorize law-biding citizens. And the sensationalism driven media is their PR arm…running to each demonstration with reporters and camera crews, and blasting it 24/7 all over the news.
STATISTICS TO PONDER
Black Americans are 12.6% of US population, yet they commit 32% of all rapes, 34% of all assaults, 55% of all robberies, and 49% of all Murders. 91% of murdered Black Americans are killed by other Black Americans. This is the BIG Problem. No wonder the Police seem biased, because criminality is biased.
For much more detail, read the following CITY Journal article:
THE POLICE HAVE A TERRIBLE DILEMMA
Police have a reputation--probably earned based on past practices--of being too quick to judge, punish, abuse and arrest blacks. Blacks earned it too, because of the statistically high crime rate. They have few good male role models growing up. They are unemployed at a rate 3-4 times the general population. Females who raise them often have numerous children with different fathers--and some openly encourage more and more childbearing--since it earns larger and larger welfare payments. Thus, psychology being what it is, since many more crimes are created by blacks, police naturally make assumptions about criminality and race. That leads to animosity, violence and in some cases death.
FERGUSON WAS DECIDED RIGHT (IT SEEMS), BUT THE TRUTH DIDN'T MATTER
Ironically, tragically, the Ferguson case was probably decided correctly. The grand jury concluded that Michael Brown was a belligerent criminal, who confronted the police officer in a life threatening manner, justifying the use of lethal force. Even multiple witnesses who were black gave testimony that supported the decision. So why demonstrate violently? Because it gets attention, sympathy and raises awareness of the actuality of the problem. Racism cuts both ways. It does harm both ways. It overwhelms common sense and rational thought. As long as influential leaders like Barack Obama align with minority leaders like Al Sharpton, this racial divide problem won't get better--it will get worse. It has since Obama has been president.
THE OTHER DEMONSTRATION--FOR A MUCH HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE--IS EQUALLY MISGUIDED
Would people like to make more money? Sure. Can they simply demand it? Not for very long. Why? Competition comes in a takes business--and jobs--away from anyone who is charging more than the market will bear. Just like the sadly misguided, volatile, demanding demonstrators vilifying the police for racial bias, these people demanding a $15 wage for fast food work will simply harm themselves. Have you ever heard the phrase "price yourself out of the market?"
HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
If you were a cop, and the reward for doing your job is like Ferguson and these other demonstrations, what would you do when encountering crimes involving black minorities? Did anybody say, "Look the other way?" That's human nature. "The behavior rewarded is the behavior repeated." and vice versa: "The behavior punished is the behavior avoided."
THE BOOMERANG EFFECT (What goes around, comes around)
If you run a franchise fast-food restaurant (or a big chain of them) and get saddled with nearly double the wage level, what would you do? Find a way to reduce the number of people and hours they work, and get more out of them when they are working. As soon as possible, change the way you do business to automate, let customers do more, and reduce employment costs back to the level they were--or close to that--and cover the rest by increasing prices. Who shops at these franchise restaurants? The very people demanding more money. That's who will pay more for their burgers and fries…and everything else where wage demands are granted (or legislated) in excess of what the market will bear.
WHAT KIND OF HOLIDAY SEASON, AND THE OUTLOOK FOR 2015?
It was a pretty good holiday season if measured by spending, but since gas prices are down, and seasonal hiring ticked up, competition was fierce, and consumers typically saved up to spend on holidays--especially Christmas gifts. However, if measured by retailer profitability, it will be a strange, mixed up economic season. Profits will be just so-so and not likely to match up with sales gains. 2015 should show another small increase in growth, from around 2-2.5% this year to perhaps 2.5-3%. That extra half point is meaningful. A good, but not great, 2015 is on the horizon.
iT'S A WHOLE NEW WORLD OUT THERE.
The economy is clearly picking up steam. Some hiring as increased. Many who have dropped out of the work force will never come back. They will be on welfare or disability rolls, and thus, there is little or no motivation to go back to work. Shopping patterns are changing--dramatically. More on-line buying. Smarter price shopping. A longer "Black Friday" turned into week long event, and had less impact than ever. Ditto Cyber Monday. There is less and less reason to go out and do everything just because retailers are pushing to get your money ahead of their competitors.
HABITS CHANGE SLOWLY, BUT THEY ARE CHANGING IN MANY WAYS
Buy on-line, pick up at stores is getting lots of hype, but only slowly picking up steam. Goods are arriving sporadically because of chaos among the entire West Coast ports. Labor troubles. Seasonal glut of goods. Too few trucks available to move the goods back East. Further change comes due to Free Shipping, from nearly everyone, and behemoth amazon. Prime (@$99/yr to belong) service has become a big factor. This year FedEx and UPS got smart and warned retailers to throttle back promises of instant delivery at the very last minute. They will both have good holiday seasons, regardless of how retailers do.
GREAT AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS--COMPANIES--ARE STRUGGLING
What do IBM, Walmart, McDonald's, and P & G have in common? All are American iconic companies, and all suffering from plateaued, flat sales and earnings, not just this year, but for multiple quarters in a row. Two of them are suffering from the effects of complexity--McDonald's and P & G. The latter is dropping HALF of its brands. McDonald's is nibbling around the edges while its problems continue. Walmart's size is now a problem when measuring growth--like Gulliver being attacked by the Lilliputians, it is being chipped away at by an army of smaller competitors. Amazon has the opposite problem:L growth continues, although it is slowing, but losses are growing. That is not good either.
THAT'S ENOUGH FOR NOW.
HAPPY 2015.
JOHN
A PARABLE OF SORTS--ON HOW AMERICA IS BEING LULLED INTO A DEVASTATING SITUATION BY BARACK OBAMA
CATCHING PIGS..
There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.
In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said that it was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn.
"When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. "They get used to that and start to eat again.
You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.
"The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.
They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income,tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.
One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
If you see that all of this wonderful government "help" is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably delete this email.
But, God help us all when the gates slam shut!
Quote for today:
There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.
In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said that it was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn.
"When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. "They get used to that and start to eat again.
You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.
"The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.
They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income,tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.
One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
If you see that all of this wonderful government "help" is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably delete this email.
But, God help us all when the gates slam shut!
Quote for today:
"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now out numbered by those who vote for a living."
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