Thoughts and Observations of the Past Year, Macro Big Picture and Personally Looking Forward

Some observations about the past year. Understanding that this day is an arbitrary mark in time, it is nice to have a traditional place to stop, review, take stock, and think about what we need to accomplish in the next twelvemonth. Looking back on the past year, it was not good, macro or micro [my personal world].

I’ve put my personal life observations/experiences at the end. I think much more important are the things at the national and international level causing pain and destruction to millions of lives, which to me is pretty much the meme of the past year.

At the macro level, we must start with our President, whose personal agenda has replaced the traditional role of the office. He has been and is a force of destruction socially, politically and economically.  The first year Obama took office the Bush deficit was about $840 Billion which Obama said was irresponsible and unpatriotic. The national debt as of this past Dec was $18 Trillion. That is up $7.4 Trillion since Obama took office. Six years and a little over a $Trillion a year added.

When Obama and his political party lost the midterm elections in a landslide, from local to state to federal offices and legislatures, he response was, “To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you too.”  We see stupid. That those who didn’t vote, he assumes they would have voted for him and his Party’s failed policies and totalitarian mindset. Some numbers on that election. Republicans gained nine seats in the Senate, and picked up seats in the House they already controlled. That House thing is the largest majority since 1946. [BTW, that was a repudiation of the Democrats and FDR then. Not put in history books is the FDR and Dems were seriously disliked by more than half the country then; this country was as divided as much as it is now. One of the best-selling books then was a repudiation and revealing of what really went on during the FDR years; all the hypocrisy, lying, corruption and illegality.  The Roosevelt Myth by John T Flynn.] Republicans will hold 31 of 50 governorships, and hold both house and senate in 24 states. Republicans are not so much liked or trusted either, but there ya go. Says much about Obama and the Democrat party and how they are perceived.

Epic failures. ObamaCare became the law of the land in October 2013. A billion dollar website crashed and no one could use it. It's still rotten.

The Veterans Administration falsified data that caused extreme suffering for some vets and their families and killed other vets through negligence.

Word went out to countries south of the border that the border was open to children. Tens of thousands of unchaperoned kids flooded the border causing a humanitarian crises. Hundreds of the “kids” were gang members. I remember reading at the time leaked memos that this invasion was planned by the Administration months in advance.  

The IRS targeted conservative groups to silence any effective campaigns for the 2012 elections. There were emails that proved this, that were “lost” but recently found. A lying corrupt federal Leftist “judge” recently ruled there was no law broken and there was no foul play since the targeted groups were eventually granted their tax requests, and the investigations that stopped their activity have been ended, and the emails were found. Even though the emails proved illegal activity, they are to be ignored by court order. I guess now getting away with breaking the law is okay according to Leftists as long at not caught at the time.

A major health threat to this country was created when Obama and his Departments of Health, and Homeland Security, allowed people into the country with the deadly disease, Ebola. Some of those refused to be guaranteed citing their civil rights were being violated by being asked to remove themselves from the general population. Put hundreds if not thousands at risk of probable death for personal feelings and comfort. The Obama and his administration changed rules all over the place to cover up their incompetence.

Obama and his political party claimed Al Qaeda on the run, the war in the Middle East over, war on terror pretty much done. Syria had used chemical weapons, Obama said this was unacceptable, and drew a “red line”. He erased it when it came time to take action on it. He pulled troops out of the Middle East against the advice of his generals, leaving a vacuum that is filled by ISIS, now slaughtering thousands, and conquering land. The murder of Christians by them is pretty much ignored by Obama; his disdain for them is only exceeded by his disdain of Jews.

Putin re-lit the Cold War by taking over Crimea and threatened to conquer Ukraine. Obama did not come out and support either country, offer weapons or military tactics/training.  Putin uses oil and gas energy as a political weapon, both of which we have an abundance of and could have sent to undermine Putin and cool Russia's heals.

Obama has aggressively attacked Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu personally. Two senior administration officials (names not given to the reporter for the Atlantic) called Netanyahu a “chickenshit”. If anyone has any knowledge of the man, that’s one thing he’s not. Obama has tried to block, or spoken out against everything Israel has done to protect itself from terrorist countries and organizations. Obama and the Dems support in word and deed ($’s) Hamas, Iran, ISIS, PLO, and initially the dictator of Syria that slaughtered thousands.

This is nothing less that the anti-Semitism of Obama and the Democrat Party. (Remember at the Democrat convention they removed God and support of Israel from the Party Platform until political backlash force them to put those back in.) That Party and Leftist anti-Semitism is fueling the reemergence of it here in the US, and it's getting more and more prevalent especially on college campuses. This is supportive of the dangerously increasing anti-Semitism in Europe, where Synagogues are being burnt down and Jews are being attacked and murdered. Coming soon to a town near you?

Economically about 92 million people are out of work. Not reported in the administration’s labor statistics because they are no longer counted since their unemployment ran out. People on Food Stamps are highest that any time in the history of the program. Bush 2 was excoriated in the Jurassic Press when unemployment got over 5%.  Now the “official” unemployment rate is 6% or 7%, and since the “new norm” at the beginning of Obama’s reign was 10%, this is now a good thing. Actual unemployment is between 13% and 17%. Hard to tell since Labor Statistics are controlled by the White House. I noticed that the month and weeks before the presidential and midterm elections, the unemployment rate dropped a couple percent and after those elections the Bureau of Labor statistics revised them back up. 

Racism, along with anti-Semitism is hugely on the rise. Whenever a Black man confronts the police and gets killed for his efforts there are riots. Racist Attorney General and his racist boss gin up the Black population to hate whites especially before elections as a get out the vote tactic. The Leftist New York Post found this out during the Ferguson riots. An accidental act of journalism. Still ignored are the hundreds of Black on Black murders, or Black on White murders, or the murder of police by Blacks.

I’ve gone on enough about this, thinking the point made. This has been a terrible year for this country, and the head of the fish that stinks is Obama and the Democrat Party. Anything done to protect America’s borders stopped, anything to decrease unemployment stopped, to produce lower cost energy stopped (anti fracking, anti-oil exploration, stopped Keystone pipeline, drove away offshore drilling) [there’s a vid of him before his run for president that he wanted to drive up the cost of energy, it was necessary].

Yet I keep going on about the macro stuff. It’s endless the badness that’s happened in the past year. I don’t see it improving much in this new year even with Republicans winning such a landslide election. They badmouth, push to the margins Conservatives, the base, campaign against them harder than they do against the Democrats. They are both incompetent and proving themselves they earn and keep earning the moniker ‘the party of stupid’.

Now the personal. I know I have friends that read my postings, and I thank you for your interest and support. At the micro level, my personal life, I have much less to say. Work is okay, with the usual corporate hassles, but it does provide, and I am able provide service through them, to customer service agents and the customers of UPS. With that I missed a lot of work due to illness, more of an affliction, vertigo. I’m amazed how many amateur doctors and healers there are with advice how to deal with it, get rid of it. Specialists, my GP and neurologist unable to do anything but help me maintain, but many still have better health advice.

I had stopped attending my church for a while. Got caught up in church politics, was personally attacked and was shown less than appreciation for my contributions. There’s enough aggravation in life, I don’t need it where I worship. After a couple/three months breather, I went back and the love shown let me know this is the right place for corporate worship. I had given a sermon on worship, and the theme was the unbroken connection between corporate and personal worship.  That was born out with my noting my diminished prayer time and study of faith and religion. Worship, corporate and personal, is the centerpiece of my life, and informs how I live.  {If interested, my last sermon, "Road to Emmaus" can be seen at fcclv.com>Webcast>and scroll down to sermons 6 months ago.}

Looking back at this year, which has been seriously ungood; the goals are to get back to reading and studying more, writing more, praying more. I’ve read less this year, and watched more vids. Mostly due to it really being hard to read when the vertigo and other illnesses I have make the Kindle move around, and/or nausea make the concentration necessary for reading, or writing, pretty much impossible. The books and movies I’ve read and seen are on the right of this blog. Noticeably fewer than years past, just as there are way fewer posts to this blog than years past. I don’t list the vids I watch, but the most entertaining for me this year were the series “Justified” (my fav) and “Longmire” and “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”.  Lots of British produced mysteries with great stories and acting.  

I pray all a healthy happy holy coming year. We pray God to start working to remove, through each of us, all the bigotry, hatred, lies, deceit and violence that has marked this past year, and for us personally to stay in a worshipful spirit and state of mind to effect in a loving and positive way, those around us. It all starts with each of us, and our communion with God. He must be what informs every aspect of our lives. 

"Austerity" Is Actually Government Growth and a Bunch of BS

Base line budgeting, only reduces the rate of growth. If last year the government increased spending by 10% and this year they only increase spending 8%, we are told that government spending is being cut cut cut, killing old people, causing starvation, poverty, babies are dying, pollution is getting worse, employment is being forced up....on and on it goes. Then we are told "austerity" measures are being used. What a bunch of BS.

Obamanomics: The Record

Clear numbers driven analysis, each economics bill passed and the result. Well worth a few minutes.

http://youtu.be/ZPNjWtwDbso

DEBT!

Debt. None of us like it. We all do what we can to keep it down, keep it under control. If we're in debt, we don't borrow more money, thinking that's a good way to reduce it. We don't keep spending more and more money thinking this is a good way to get out of debt. This president and his political party think the opposite when it comes to our national debt. Our Dear Leader has increased the debt over a $trillion a year since taking office, and next year another $trillion will be added. Six!!!! $trillion!!!!! in about five years!!! That's an increase of 51%! They say we need to keep spending at that rate to make things better.

If that were the case on a personal level, I'd stop paying rent and buy a $500,000 house (in Nevada that a pretty big and luxurious house) and buy that Cadillac CTS, plus max out my credit cards.

At the beginning of the Democratic Convention a couple days ago, we passed $16 Trillion national debt. Each of us, according to the US Treasury, now owe $51,874. That amount was $17,454 when Obama took office.

This is an increase to $4,073,237,142 per day!

As a percentage of the GDP, it has risen from 40% to an estimated 73% by the end of this year. We've seen what happens when it gets that high. Greece, France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal. They are all collapsing. We are getting ever closer. This must must must must be reduced to 20%.

These numbers come from the Treasury Department and the Congressional Budget Office.

http://youtu.be/mLO9K5uTsng

Explaining Conservative Economics in 25 Quotes

Compiled by blogger John Hawkins on Townhall. This captures the conservative mind. Think while reading these, Leftists believe the opposite. They don't believe in property rights, free enterprise, keeping your own money, limiting the government in citizens's lives...just for starters.

1) "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it." -- Benjamin Franklin

2) "The great danger to the consumer is the monopoly — whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world." -- Milton Friedman

3) "Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property." -- Milton Friedman

4) "A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers." -- F.A. Hayek

5) "Either immediately or ultimately every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation. Once we look at the matter. In this way, the supposed miracles of government spending will appear in another light." -- Henry Hazlitt

6) "The larger the percentage of the national income taken by taxes the greater the deterrent to private production and employment. When the total tax burden grows beyond a bearable size, the problem of devising taxes that will not discourage and disrupt production becomes insoluble." -- Henry Hazlitt

7) "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." -- Robert Heinlein

8) "The prudent capitalist will never adventure his capital... if there exists a state of uncertainty as to whether the government will repeal tomorrow what it has enacted today." -- William Henry Harrison

9) "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." -- Thomas Jefferson

10) "A rising tide (in the economy) lifts all boats." -- John Kennedy

11) "The basic idea behind the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues is that changes in tax rates have two effects on revenues: the arithmetic effect and the economic effect. The arithmetic effect is simply that if tax rates are lowered, tax revenues (per dollar of tax base) will be lowered by the amount of the decrease in the rate. The reverse is true for an increase in tax rates. The economic effect, however, recognizes the positive impact that lower tax rates have on work, output, and employment--and thereby the tax base--by providing incentives to increase these activities. Raising tax rates has the opposite economic effect by penalizing participation in the taxed activities. The arithmetic effect always works in the opposite direction from the economic effect. Therefore, when the economic and the arithmetic effects of tax-rate changes are combined, the consequences of the change in tax rates on total tax revenues are no longer quite so obvious." -- Arthur Laffer explains the concept underlying the Laffer Curve

12) "What pays under capitalism is satisfying the common man, the customer. The more people you satisfy, the better for you." -- Ludwig Von Mises

13) "With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses." -- Rand Paul

14) "Don’t knock the rich. When did a poor person ever give you a job?" -- Laurence J. Peter

15) "America’s abundance was created not by public sacrifices to 'the common good,' but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America’s industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance—and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way." -- Ayn Rand

16) "We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much." -- Ronald Reagan

17) "Companies are not charitable enterprises: They hire workers to make profits." -- Paul Samuelson

18) "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." -- Adam Smith

19) "Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality." -- Adam Smith

20) "Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets." -- Thomas Sowell

21) "Politics offers attractive solutions but economics can offer only trade-offs. For example, when laws are proposed to restrict the height of apartment buildings in a community, politics presents the issue in terms of whether we prefer tall buildings or buildings of a more modest height in our town. Economics asks what you are prepared to trade off in order to keep the height of buildings below some specified level. In places where land costs may equal or even exceed the cost of the apartment buildings themselves, the difference between allowing ten-story buildings to be built and allowing a maximum of five stories may be that rents will be twice as high in the shorter buildings. The question then is not simply whether you prefer shorter buildings but how much do you prefer shorter buildings and what price are you prepared to pay to mandate height restrictions in your community. A doubling of rents and three additional highway fatalities per year? A tripling of rents and six additional highway fatalities per year? Economics cannot answer such questions. It can only make you aware of a need to ask them." -- Thomas Sowell

22) "In a small town, an idiot breaks a shop window. He’s called a vandal, until someone points out that a window installer now must be paid to replace the window. The window installer then will have enough money to buy a new suit. A tailor will then be able to buy a new desk. And so on. The whole town apparently gains from the economic activity generated by the broken window. Of course, if this made sense, cities should hire people to run though town, breaking windows.

But it doesn’t make sense. It’s a fallacy because the circulating money is seen; what is not seen is what would have been done with the money if the window were still whole. The shopkeeper, instead of paying the window installer, might have expanded his business, or bought a new suit or a new desk. The town is worse off because of a broken window." -- John Stossel

23) "A thousand restaurants close every month. They re-open, and that's good for America. Nobody's rescuing them. They employ people, too. If we let them go bankrupt, the factories don't go away, the creative people don't go away. They get employed more productively by others." -- John Stossel

24) "Suppose I hire you to repair my computer. The job is worth $200 to me and doing the job is worth $200 to you. The transaction will occur because we have a meeting of the mind. Now suppose there’s the imposition of a 30 percent income tax on you. That means you won’t receive $200 but instead $140. You might say the heck with working for me — spending the day with your family is worth more than $140. You might then offer that you’ll do the job if I pay you $285. That way your after-tax earnings will be $200 — what the job was worth to you. There’s a problem. The repair job was worth $200 to me, not $285. So it’s my turn to say the heck with it. This simple example demonstrates that one effect of taxes is that of eliminating transactions, and hence jobs." -- Walter Williams

25) "How many times have we heard ‘free tuition,’ ‘free health care,’ and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the sacrifice of other goods or services. Take a ‘free’ library; is it really free? The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy." -- Walter Williams

Compiled by John Hawkins on Townhall

Paul Ryan, Choices and Taxes

Ryan offers a clear choice. Do we want to have Washington and local governments take most of our money and pass it out as they see fit, or let the people spend their own money as they see fit. Brilliant presentation.

http://youtu.be/fDzRFSPglM4

Father Barron on The Financial Crisis

We’re $trillions in debt, an unimaginable number. Added to that is all our personal debt. Paul Ryan has come up with a budget, two years running that have been attacked, and it really only nibbles at the margins of the problem. If we just stopped what we’re doing now with the spending, and politicians stop stealing money from citizens to line their own pockets, pay bribes and and pay off their donors, three or four generations down the road our fiscal problem may be on the road to recovery. Parents and grand parents, you are enslaving your children and grand children. Is there any shame in this?

Money is also a moral issue. Is it moral for the government to confiscate nearly half of the income of citizens? Is it moral for half the population to support another half that doesn’t pay income tax? Is it moral to spend our great great grandchildren’s income and wealth so we can live large?

Fr. Barron on this issue:  

http://youtu.be/RwX1tPjOaVY

The National Debt and Federal Budget Deficit Deconstructed - Tony Robbins

More and more popular cultural figures are coming out with the truth of how much trouble we're in. We're glad to see this. 

http://youtu.be/jboTeS9Okak

Bill Whittle did the same about a year ago, with a little different twist since he’s a Conservative here. 

Facts and Fallacies with Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell outlines common misconceptions about economics, race, and racism. I haven't read Sowell in awhile; added this to my Amazon wish list. 

http://youtu.be/V6ZPg6kOBkc

Elizabeth Warren and Leftist Voodoo Economics

Elizabeth Warren is running for Senate in Massachusetts. In this vid, which is happily viral on the Left, speaks volumes about the hatred for the producers of wealth and employment, and the gross misunderstanding of economics. She seems to believe producers don’t contribute anything, or pay no taxes while generating jobs or wealth, and it’s Socialists like her that have to strip money and success away for the good of everyone else.  

http://youtu.be/htX2usfqMEs

This stupid woman seems to believe no taxes are paid by wealth creators, so now that they've built their businesses, the government has the right to take everything away. She ignores all the fees and taxes, payment for regulations paid by business while growing the business. She ignores the revenue generated by employed people paying taxes as a result of people with the drive to create business creating jobs. 

Rep. Paul Ryan Educates on Fiscal Policy

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZrVoQCPV8

"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem (vid)

Funny vid about two opposing economic views. Informative too.

Article: "Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Link here.

Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural born citizen, a college student said: "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified than one born by C-section?"

Airlines that keep passengers trapped for hours in planes sitting on the runway should be prosecuted for unlawful imprisonment.

When politicians propose some hugely expensive new program and are asked how the government is going to pay for it, a standard ploy over the years has been to claim that they will pay for it by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse." At a recent town hall meeting, a citizen raised the obvious question: If you can do that, why haven't you done it already?

Marxism is an ism that has become a wasm.

What is called "universal health care" can turn out to be universal "don't care" medical treatment, when Washington bureaucrats can over-rule what you and your doctor want to do.

Whatever happened to Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel? Could she have met with foul play? Where is the FBI when we need them?

The older I get, the more I learn to tolerate human shortcomings-- and the less I tolerate bad attitudes.

After political crusades for "affordable housing" ended up ruining the housing market and much of the economy with it, many of the same politicians are now carrying on a crusade for "affordable health care." But what you can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. Refusing to pay those costs means that you are just not going to continue getting the same quantity and quality-- regardless of what any politician says or how well he says it.

Want to win an easy bet? Bet someone that Babe Ruth had a lower lifetime earned run average than Cy Young, Whitey Ford or Sandy Koufax. During his early years with the Red Sox, Ruth pitched nine shutouts in a season, which is still the American League record for a left-handed pitcher. He would have made the baseball hall of fame, even if he had never hit a home run.

Congressman Joe Wilson got into more trouble for telling the truth than President Barack Obama got into by telling a demonstrable lie about adding millions of people to the insurance rolls without adding a dime to the deficit. As regards providing medical insurance for illegal immigrants, I doubt that the president will do that. More likely, he will legalize them first and then give them medical insurance.

The way Hollywood elites have sprung to the defense of Roman Polanski to keep him from being extradited to the United States, despite the heinous crime he is accused of, suggests that-- like other egalitarians-- they consider those who are "one of us" to be more equal than others.

When I contemplate the direction in which this government and this society are moving, my biggest consolation is that economists' predictions are often wrong. I can only hope that my expectations are wrong by miles.

What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Think things, not words." In words, many see a need for "social justice" to override "the dictates of the market." In reality, what is called "the market" consists of human beings making their own choices at their own cost. What is called "social justice" is government imposition of the notions of third parties, who pay no price for being wrong.

Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America-- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc.-- at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?

Democrats at Convention Claim

The speakers at the DNC and the Main Stream Press continually state that the economy is in horrible shape, that we are on the verge of a full blown depression. I looked up the numbers, and right now reject any statement the stats can prove anything. These are hard cold numbers, like two plus two equals four.
The economy grew at 3.3% last quarter. Bill Clinton handed off a growth rate of negative 0.49% to George W. Bush in 2001 -- and then came 9/11. That was followed by 54 months of steady economic growth. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. The revised reading was much better than the government's initial estimate of a 1.9 percent pace and exceeded economists' expectations for a 2.7 percent growth rate. According to the US Census Bureau the poverty rate today continues to remain below those Clinton years: The average poverty rate for all Americans for the first seven years of the Reagan terms was 14.2%. For the first seven years of Bill Clinton's terms, it was 13.6%. Under George Bush, the average poverty rate for 2001-2007 is 12.4%.