Butler on Business, March 27, 2013

My 11 minutes commentary on Cyprus and communism. I come on at the 30 minute mark.
http://host1.cyberears.com//18871.mp3

"We've Become Rich Plundering the Planet"

I do not watch TV much anymore. There is too much propaganda and re-engineered information to advance the progressive agenda. Historical facts have fallen victim to political correctness and the war on truth is waged on all fronts by progressive liberals from academia, the main stream media, and Hollywood.

Channel surfing one day, I found a “documentary” produced in 2011 that captured my attention. The breathtaking photography, the music, the powerful narrative, and the clever editing would have made a convert out of me, had I been a low-information American who believed everything MSM said, factoids repeated at nauseam and coated with a veneer of veracity. When Hollywood hypocritical elites are the messengers and the pop culture icons speak, millions follow what they say with blind devotion and adoration devoid of rational thought.

The theme was “addiction to money” but the subtle topic was global environmentalism through U. N. Agenda 21. Economist and author David McWilliams presented the scenario of reengineering a sustainable economy and why it was necessary.

The film starts in Copan, Honduras, panning over the remains of the Mayan civilization, a city of 27,000 people, a thriving civilization for many years. “It overstretched,” said the narrator, implying that the west will suffer the same fate unless globalists intervene and re-engineer it on the path to sustainability. The Australian film criticizes United States in particular, the thorn in the side of the globalists.

The Mayans fatal flaw that doomed them was “cutting down the forest.” It would have been honest to say that the Mayans did not know forest management, ran out of an important resource at the time, “sowing the seeds of their own destruction.”

Professor Paul Ehrlich, ecologist and climatologist from Stanford, is quoted throughout the film, exposing what a former VP termed, the “inconvenient truth.” Here are some examples:

-          “Eastern Islanders did the same thing, cut down all the trees and wound up eating each other”

-          “For the first time with globalization, we are facing collapse of everything”

-          “We are done with fossil fuels, we are done with automobiles, most Americans may have bought their last car”

-          “If we continue on the long range energy course that we are on, sooner or later we will melt the polar ice caps and we will be swimming around, at least in the coastal areas” (Sydney, 1971)

-          “What do we do about the current economic problem so that it does not lead to a social collapse?”

-          “How do we move to a sustainable civilization?”

If one explores other statements by Paul Ehrlich, it is evident what he considers social collapse, sustainable civilization, and who decides the definition. For example, “Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.” Another example, “A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.”

Could we suffer the Mayans fate, since “the system that sustained us is in ruins?” The camera pans cleverly over pumping oil wells, assembly line cars in Detroit, and Wall Street. He blames the principal “architect” Alan Greenspan, for creating “an economic philosophy that has completely failed.”  

Never mind that this failed system has created wealth beyond anybody’s dreams, millionaires, billionaires, and has improved the standard of living of billions around the globe. Yet the insatiable greed of six billion people who want to live better is going to destroy the planet. “The environment is under unsustainable assault.”

The financial crisis caused the wealthy endowments of many Ivy League schools to lose billions of dollars. “They were not wise, they were in fact, quite stupid,” said Robert Reich. Oxford lost more than 100 million pounds. Economists, bankers, regulators were wrong and “did not see this coming.” This is not true, most knew this was coming.

The technocrats of EU have moved to salvage their union by allowing the largest Cypriot bank to collapse and by confiscating 40 percent of everyone’s deposits exceeding 100,000 euros. What rights do socialist technocrats (bent on re-engineering the economies of 27 nations) have to the depositors’ money in order to salvage the poorly run socialist Cypriot economy is a very good question.

“The future is going to look very different from the past.”  True, but the question is, will the future be “fundamentally” altered by globalists’ re-engineering intervention, or will it be a future resulting from normal change.

The future will be violent and angry when jobs disappear. Robert Reich said, “The blame game can be very attractive when people are hurting.” Did we not lose millions of jobs in the U.S. in the last four years and none are being created in the foreseeable future except “green jobs?” I did not see any anger and hurt, just 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

The price of energy has gone through the roof, especially oil, as China and India are buying more cars. Did the current administration not stop the Keystone XL pipeline that would have brought cheaper oil from the tar sands in Canada? Did they not put a moratorium on domestic drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while allowing Brazil and other foreign countries to drill? Did the EPA not reject the building of new refineries and nuclear plants in the U.S.?

We are going to fight in the future over food and water since it reached its limits. “The global economy cannot grow in this model.” We have to adopt the environmentalists’ model of sustainability to save ourselves. We are running out of everything because there are too many people on the planet, “60 million more each year,” McWilliams said.

In Malthusian fashion, the narrator warns that the most “terrifying’ of all future prospects is a “climate that is changing so rapidly that we have no time to adapt to it because we are pressing against the limits of the planet to sustain our civilization.” Climate and weather are two different things, not interchangeable, but low information viewers are easily persuaded.

Professor Robert Solow describes how “we did not run the society very well” in the 20^th century and thus we must rethink how we do things – “that is the advantage of a crisis that we do not want to waste.” Where did we hear that before, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste? Is it not the modus operandi of the current administration?

“A crisis gives us the reason to change everything, we cannot continue as before.” The common denominator of all our problems is energy, cheap energy that fuels our economy. We burn too much oil, a giant supertanker every twenty minutes. “We have to redesign our economy around people, not around automobiles,” said Ehrlich. Who gave him the mandate to redesign the economy and why does it need to change to suit his opinions?

Apparently, we have reached the point of no return, oil supplies are going to decline and, according to a BP oil executive and activist, we are going to run out of oil in 30-40 years at the current levels of oil use. China and India will have more cars than America and oil is going to be very expensive. How can a low-knowledge person argue with such a definitive and scary statement? Yet huge sources of oil have been discovered around the globe.

We are such “resource junkies,” that we are craving one last hit from an ever more scarce resource that has been polluting our environment and destroying Mother Earth.

Electric cars will “save us from an addiction to oil, for which we are mortgaging all of our assets.” But changing to electric cars is not enough, says the documentary.

We have to re-engineer agriculture as well, the next item on the environmentalist agenda because it is not sustainable. We use too much fuel, too much fertilizer, “we are effectively eating fossil fuels.”

We consume more grain than it is produced, reducing stockpiles of rice, wheat, and corn by 40 percent since 2002. The documentary fails to describe how droughts and the use of grain as biofuels have reduced the supply of food in poor countries. Riots took place as a result of doubling of rice and corn prices. Environmentalists are responsible for pushing the use of grains as biofuels.

“We have a world in which you have a relatively few incredibly rich people and huge numbers of poor people, getting more hungry and desperate and we must do something about that,” says Ehrlich. Rich people again are at fault that starvation resulted from an ill-designed biofuel energy policy by the very groups who claim that fossil fuels are not sustainable.

“We’ve spent billions bailing out banks and car companies, but peanuts securing food supplies,” laments McWilliams. Do we not give food aid to third world countries all the time?

As China loses more land to urban development, food prices will go “through the roof.” If China changes its tastes from rice to meat, the price of meat would double, the narrator predicts. Meat is also not sustainable because animals pollute the environment and use too much water.

China is building 3 gorge dam projects, rivers around the world are running dry, and by “2025 three billion people will suffer water shortages.” Which is it, are our shores going to flood and water will cover islands around the globe due to polar ice caps and glaciers melting, or are we going to have a severe manufactured water shortage?

The world’s finite resources will cause unstoppable migration, wars over land, food, and water. Parading a throng of low information citizens, the common cause identified for all the ills enumerated is GREED, the greed of the rich who stole everything from the rest of us.

We have to fundamentally change. Capitalism is bad, unregulated markets are bad, governments are financially and morally bankrupt and not trustworthy. FDR was the only president who had the courage to confront the banking oligarchy. American taxpayers saved the banks from the “huge losses they made.”

Actually, Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 had a lot of to do with the worthless mortgages – it changed the dynamics of lending and borrowing. Realtors were eager to sell to people who did not qualify for loans, buyers were eager to buy what they could not afford but felt entitled to, and banks bundled good loans with bad loans to reduce losses and then sold them to unsuspecting investors.

There are 41,000 lobbyists in Washington who force the agenda of the U.S. government. Nothing happens in D.C. without lobbyists. “The threat to democracy by business and financial lobbyists is profound,” said Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary. I believe that out of control spending (generational theft), resulting in the increase of the national debt by $6 trillion in four years, is the biggest threat to our national security.

The documentary suggests that the resolution of problems, the ageing population, migration issues, global warming, the coming wars over oil, water, and food rests with the merging of the “Mean and the Green,” forcing Wall Street to support the environmentalist cause (global warming) and to finance the “green economy.”

There is a potential $10 trillion electric car industry, with China’s BYD as the leader and the largest car maker in the world by 2025. How do they propose to generate electricity for these cars since wind and solar power are not enough? A different type of nuclear power plant will be the solution if the Chinese are successful.

Our “addiction to money” and a better standard of living will put the planet in peril unless we fundamentally change. Professor Ehrlich has been warning us since 1971 and we have not been paying significant attention. Unfortunately, globalists will re-engineer us on the path to sustainability. It may require the reduction in global population to a manageable size of 1 billion because the existence of the other 5 billion is unsustainable and inconvenient to the resource environmentalist planners.

I have described in my book, “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” (http://www.amazon.com/U-N-Agenda-21-Environmental-ebook/dp/B009WC6JXO/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364404317&sr=1-1&keywords=un+agenda+21+environmental+piracy) all the ways and venues by which globalists will fundamentally change every facet of our lives but the question remains, will the low information citizens pay attention and learn quickly that everything they like to do and cherish is going to be labeled unsustainable?

 

Poplars and Nostalgia

I parked the rented beige Jetta under the tall tree that I had planted as an 8 year old, a life time ago. The entire street was shaded by poplars, painted white half way up the trunk to prevent insect invasions. The lush green trees have grown taller than the five story buildings surrounding them.

On a regular schedule, the Marxist community and street organizers would show up and corral everybody to a day of volunteer work, sweeping the streets, picking up trash, mowing the grass, planting trees, shrubs, pick up garbage, rocks, and pull weeds. Adults would work quietly, fearful of saying something that would be reported downtown, but the kids laughed and ran carefree in their exuberant playfulness.

The hill where I used to run sleds in wintertime was now occupied by 9-story apartment buildings, so clustered together that one could touch a neighbor’s hand in the other building through the bedroom window.  

Near the stairs leading to another housing project below, there was a patch of heaven where I ran my sleigh many winters ago, laughing, falling, and rolling in the snow. It was now strangely covered in asphalt on a 30 degree incline.

I walked down trying to retrace my steps but I froze at the bottom of the hill. A large pack of street dogs was approaching, barking and growling. I went uphill quickly, regretful that I could not continue my exploration. The street below, with 40 or so homes still standing, was familiar – three of my school mates lived there with their families. I was surprised that these homes had not been demolished to make room for more high-rise ugly concrete block apartments. Utilizing every inch of space to the max was a primary goal of city planners.

My former home, a tiny match box sized apartment on the fifth floor, still painted the same dirty sea foam green, was oozing decay and pollution stains. Nothing has changed since 1977 when an earthquake damaged many buildings but somehow left ours with cracks and a bathroom window dangling chunks of concrete from the reinforced steel bars, like a loose tooth.  That was my family’s bathroom window. The concrete bar was still missing and the window looked odd.  Why fix it, nobody was going to climb to the fifth floor and invade the home through the gaping hole in the bathroom. The only addition to the old building was a security entry at the main door. All apartments had been bought for $30,000 each by the former communist era tenants who used to pay subsidized rent to the Communist Party.

The sidewalk was cracked, leading to the shopping center where we bought our milk, bread, bones with meat on them, wilted vegetables, and the few groceries available for which we stood in line a few hours every day. I was shocked that the building still stood. Half of it was abandoned in a pitiful state of decay; the other half did not fare much better but it was occupied. A lone, dingy grocery store sold a little bit of everything - the shelves were full of food and merchandise. I don’t know why but tears welled up in my eyes. I remembered the empty, clean shelves of my childhood, the pharmacy, the bakery, the dairy, the “cofetaria” selling sweets, the book store, and the pub always full of people who were trying to drown their sorrow in beer and plum brandy. They were long gone. The young shopkeeper ignored me after a cursory look at the middle-aged woman in front of him.

My old elementary school was still behind the shopping center, surrounded by the same fence and locked gates. It was freshly painted a happy yellow. The educationally-themed mosaic created by a commie artist on the left hand side of the building was still intact. It showed mother education as a goddess of communist learning holding a book adorned with a hammer and sickle.

I will never forget the misery and torture the dictator Ceausescu had subjected my people to during his reign of socialist/communist terror. Some individuals have short memories though, especially those who try to excuse the horrible treatment of a nation as a “fatherly,” well-intentioned attempt to rid the country of the national debt to the west.

A professor who used to be the communist party secretary to the university system during Nicolae Ceausescu tried recently to blame Ceausescu’s demise on his announcement in 1989 that Romania had paid off all its debts to the west; additionally, Ceausescu allegedly forbade the Romanian government to seek any foreign credit. In other words, Romania had become such a threat to the one world government bankers and their ill-gotten interest-based fortunes that they were able to get rid of Ceausescu and “punish him physically for his insolence.” Perhaps this professor forgot that Ceausescu did not consult the Romanian people if they were willing to suffer so much hunger, cold, poverty, neglect, misery, torture so that Romania would owe no money to the west. He also forgot the brutal abuse, imprisonment, and swift punishment citizens suffered if they dared to criticize the communist party.

This professor’s national debt explanation makes for an interesting conspiratorial theory. The powerful western bankers cowed by a “maverick” defiant dictator who stood in their way to control the world financially. God forbid Ceausescu’s move would be copied by other dictators and turn into a contagion around the globe, robbing the bankers of their fortunes acquired by shameless interest charged to poor countries. Did someone force his hand to sign on the dotted line? Did the dictator with an elementary school education not become a wealthy billionaire from these loans, and lived a life of luxury while his people starved? Did I miss something here?

Communism did not die behind the Iron Curtain in 1989 – it re-emerged in a more nefarious form around the globe, promoted by the compliant media and hypocritical Hollywood. McCarthy was right about some of them after all.

The has-beens of the old communism and total government control are nostalgic for the good ole days of totalitarianism, romanticizing the past, trying to reclaim their positions of power and privilege. The global communism of U.N. Agenda 21 is making great stride, using environmentalism, land preservation, zoning, and care for the planet as a tool. And the Fabian socialists in the west are winning the hearts and minds of low information voters who believe anything they are told over and over by the main stream media.

Silvio Canto Jr. Radio Dialog 3-21-13

The Week in Review with Silvo Canto Jr. of Dallas on National Blogtalk Radio. (one hour)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/03/22/the-us-economy-in-review-with-dr-ileana-johnson-paugh

Butler on Business, WAFS 1190, Atlanta's Premier Station

My 10 minute commentary on immigration reform. I come on at the 30 minute mark.
http://www.cyberears.com/audio_temp/18812.mp3

Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Disguised Amnesty

Politics and court decisions are driving the immigration debate. It is no longer considered illegal to cross the border into our country, it is economical, moral, and “socially just” to inhabit a country that you have no legal claim to, a country that gives you the title of “undocumented, in the shadows” citizen, with all the benefits and no responsibility, a country whose language you have no desire to learn, whose history, traditions and culture you reject.

Every time I enter a store or my local bank, I am greeted by signs in Spanish. If I go to my local hardware store, every isle is labeled in Spanish. It is a resume enhancement if you seek a job and speak Spanish, other languages, not so much. “A house divided cannot stand” and neither does a nation without a common language.

Bill Clinton made it easy for illegal immigrants to take up shop in our country, vote, and work illegally by signing Executive Order 13166, “Access to Services for Persons with Limited English” on August 11, 2000.

The order was designed “to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities for persons who, as a result of national origin, are limited in their English proficiency (LEP).” Was the order intended for legal immigrants? Perhaps the intentions were to help the old who could not learn English although they may have tried. The order assured that the recipients of federal financial assistance with limited English proficiency (LEP) could not be discriminated against.

All health care  providers had to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin,” if they received federal funds. They had to provide translators to patients with LEP at no cost to the patients. President George W. Bush reaffirmed this order on October 26, 2001.

As a legal immigrant myself, I learned English and had every intention of assimilating into American society, learn about its history, culture, traditions, respect its flag, the national anthem, and its leadership. Is English hard to learn? It depends on the willingness, determination, and the age of the learner. If you have no intention to learn and reject it outright, yes, it is very hard. Is it harder to learn than other languages? As a speaker of several European languages, I can answer easily, no.

What are we going to do with 12 million illegal aliens who are now in the country, may or may not speak English, may or may not be willing to assimilate into our American society, and may or may not accept our American values and culture?

We know that the Democrat Party wants to give everyone blanket amnesty because those in the 12 million pool of illegal immigrants who are of voting age will become immediate Democrats. If they are Hispanic, they consider government a huge source of financial success and survival in spite of the fact that they lead conservative, family-oriented lives.

Republicans, until recently, were against amnesty.  President Reagan amnestied a couple of million illegals in 1986, with the Congressional bi-partisan promise of border enforcement which never came. Republicans were disillusioned – few illegal aliens who were amnestied voted Republican, and brought with them an even greater wave of illegal immigration. President Reagan regretted his decision.

What is the Republican Party’s stance on immigration now? If we are to judge by CPAC 2013, the panel discussion on immigration policy was quite telling. The topic was, “Respecting Families and the Rule of Law: A Lasting Immigration Policy.” The title begs the question, which families are respected, the illegal aliens’ families or the families of the hard-working Americans who pay the bill for all the welfare benefits and programs afforded to illegal aliens?

Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of Eagle Forum, said at CPAC 2013, “We do not need so many people on welfare” and “we do not need comprehensive immigration reform, a code word for amnesty.”

The moderator of the forum on immigration, Helen Aguirre Ferre, host of “Zona politica, “a self-described Hispanic American, introduced the discussion as a “topic that has divided the country unnecessarily.” The “undocumented” as she calls illegal aliens, “go to the same churches, shop at the same places, our children go to the same schools, we go to the same hospitals, it’s a deeply personal issue.”

Dr. Whit Ayres, President of North Star Opinion Research, pointed out that we are losing the battle against European-style secular socialism and in order to stop the tide we need more allies, like the hard- working, church-going, family-oriented illegal aliens. The gentleman next to me in the press pool shouted, “LEGALLY.”

“Every single month for the next 20 years, 50,000 Hispanic youngsters will become eligible to vote,” Dr. Ayres said, Hispanics will be the predominant population in the United States, and there is nothing we can do about it, change is coming. “If we want to have a center-right coalition, we have to reach out aggressively to Hispanic Americans.” We need a different tone and a different message, Dr. Ayres said.

Since Hispanics are going to take over the country in the future numerically, let’s give amnesty to 12 million more Hispanics who will vote Democrat in perpetuity. Of course, we cannot just be Americans, we have to follow the lead of the Democrat Party that divided America long time ago into ethnic and race groups in order to better divide us, control the message, control us, and retain power over the welfare of the people.

Dan Garza, Executive Director, LIBRE Initiative, said, “American rugged individualism is what kept America prosperous for 300 years.” My family became part of the American dream because they assimilated into the United States. America needs the work force in order to compete in a global economy. We need a path to citizenship. We need a bi-partisan compromise that helps the American economy. We need our hard-working people to come out of the shadows.”

In spite of the fact that illegals have affected wages and salaries, Garza believes that our economy has become dependent on illegal cheap labor. “The best antidote to illegal immigration is smart immigration policy that unites employers with illegals who are crime-free.”

Helen Krieble, founder and president of The Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, discussed the core principles of conservatism and how they related to immigration:

-          limited government and lower taxes (we can govern ourselves)

-          free markets based on supply and demand

-          a vital private sector (we are free to succeed or fail without government intervention)

-          the rule of law with limited federal government

-          secure borders and sovereignty

-          all men are created equal and should be treated equally under the law

-          no special deal for special groups

-          a moral and humane solution to our issues

Any immigration plan should be based on our conservative core values and our borders should be secured.

Krieble proposed a red card work permit, the size of a credit card, with two paths:

-          a path to work permit (does not need to be a federal responsibility but the business community’s responsibility)

-          a path to citizenship

A guest worker permit must be market-driven, based on the laws of supply and demand. The unions cannot have input to decide how many workers a company needs to run its business successfully. The work permit is “job specific” and implemented by the private sector, employment agencies, driven by the profit motive.

Data bases established by employment agencies could be filled with job needs of employers and potential workers can post qualifications and the types of jobs they are seeking. Potential foreign workers are fingerprinted and photographed; the information goes to the national security data base and the terrorist watch list. If the foreign worker passes the search then a red card is issued within 48 hours for $5, containing the encrypted information embedded in a microchip.

The red card can be scanned by a machine that costs less than $100, with 99.9 percent accuracy that the person holding the red card is the person to whom it was issued. Foreign guest workers become legal workers and are treated equally to American workers, pay taxes, and are covered by workman’s compensation.

Fees must be paid on both sides of the employment process. Krieble believes that employers would hire Americans first in order to avoid paying fees for foreign guest workers. What if the wages offered to and accepted by foreign guest workers are lower?

“Undocumented workers” currently in the United States can go through the same process and prove that they have a job and no criminal record. “This process should be the cornerstone of any immigration plan.” She concludes that “sixty percent of people who come to work in the United States do not wish to be American citizens.” How many of the 40 percent who stay wish to become Americans who assimilate into our culture?

Jenny Korn, Executive Director, American Action Network, said, “the immigration system is broken at every level and we need to fix it.” She believes that immigration reform entails:

-          Overhauling the legal system - “There is no line for immigrants to get in line.” It is disingenuous to say that there is no line for immigration – tell that to the legal immigrants who have been waiting for years to have their applications for visa or permanent residence heard. “The legal system turns away low skilled workers.” Could that be because we already have enough low skilled workers in this country?

-          Temporary working program – “Undocumented people come to work; the “Braceros” program with Mexico was somewhat successful; thanks to President Obama’s horrible economy, we have net zero immigration right now.” Because they are afraid to go across the border back and forth, they stay here, bring their spouse and children, thus becoming permanent and behind the “shadows.” Where did I hear this terminology explained before, “undocumented workers,” behind the shadows?” Of course, it is the terminology invented by Democrats. So now, the GOP is Democrats light.

-          Family reunification is important (it has always been)

-          Secure the border (it is the law)

-          Track our entry/exit system (people overstay their visas and nobody tracks them)

-          Worker verification by employers (I have e-verify already in place)

-          Earn legal status (“People should be able to come out of the shadows, register, pay back taxes, pay a fine, pass a background check, learn English, get a provisional visa, fix the legal system that we have, secure the border, and provide a tough but fair system for “undocumented” -  getting not at the end of the line but in line.”) Did she not say that there is no line for immigration?

If there was anything more infuriating out of the entire forum, it was certainly this speech, throwing our legal system, our laws, and the anti-amnesty stance of most Americans under the bus in order to please the Hispanic voting block that will never vote Republican.

Raul Labrador, U.S. Representative from Idaho concluded the forum on illegal immigration. He believes that our prosperity is threatened because our immigration system is broken. With all due respect to the Congressman, our prosperity is threatened by our huge national debt, the quantitative easings that the Federal Reserve has been engaging in, the devaluing of the dollar, the out of control spending in Congress, the crony capitalism, the general gross mismanagement of the economy, continuing spending resolutions, and the lack of a budget for the past four years.

Jenny Korn lectured us that the harsh tone and rhetoric for the last years from a “few elected officials and a few groups have turned off Americans and immigrants of all backgrounds.”

I wonder why would conservatives suggest that we allow foreigners to cross our borders illegally, which is a crime, offer them a lavish welfare system, free medical care, free housing, WIC, free hospital care, free education for their children, in-state university tuition, Pell grants, and then turn around and reward them with amnesty for breaking our laws?

We are a nation of legal immigrants but we immigrated legally, jumped through many hoops, thousands went through weeks of quarantine at Ellis Island, and others waited patiently for years for visas, green cards, and naturalization papers.

Americans approve of legal immigration and would like to see our current immigration laws enforced and the border protected. There is no such thing as an “undocumented worker,” or “working in the shadows.” Everybody knows who the illegal immigrants are, where they congregate to get work, and they do have documents from their countries. Illegals are smart; they take advantage of our golden welfare system while Americans work like slaves to pay for it all, a redistribution of wealth sanctioned by our government.

We are subjecting the military to financial sequestration and furloughing civilians in order to have enough money for the military to operate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we have money to advertise food stamps in Mexico and the process to obtain them. We also have $250 million in financial aid to Egypt, a country that is run by the Muslim Brotherhood whose citizens chant “death to America” while burning our flag and attacking our citizens. We are so generous with those who want us harm and do not wish to assimilate into our culture, but are ungrateful recipients of our largesse, biting the hand that feeds them.

 

Note: The statements were quoted directly or indirectly from the immigration forum speeches and panel debate on March 14, 2013 at CPAC 2013.

 

 

Cyprus and the European Union Excess

For the past two years, the EU has struggled to keep its tenuous union intact, a union based on a common currency adopted by some of the members. As Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal economies downturned, it did not surprise many because their admission into the EU was questionable at the time – there is a reason why they were called the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) - they never ran their socialist economies responsibly, spending on social welfare with abandon.

Cyprus is the first chip to fall in the confiscation of private property initiated by the socialist government as directed by EU although Germany denies that claim. The government devised a plan to levy a 10 percent tax of all citizens’ savings in order to bail out the struggling nation.  This ill-advised plan sparked panic across the globe, causing stock markets to fall sharply.

The government of Cyprus made the decision to contribute to EU’s bailout package 10 percent of all citizens’ bank deposits, savings and checking, punishing the savers and rewarding the careless spenders, thus forcefully redistributing wealth to salvage the overspending of the Cypriot government.

The euro fell in value against the dollar and a justifiable fear grew that citizens across the Eurozone might start withdrawing their funds from various banks causing runs.

Stunned Cypriots found out on Saturday morning that their parliament in Nicosia would levy a tax on bank deposits, 10 percent across the board and possibly less for smaller savers. The ATMs were emptied quite fast. Bank holidays were declared on Monday and Tuesday in order to prevent citizen from withdrawing all their money. Electronic transfers were also stopped.

According to Reuters, the original proposed levies were 9.9 percent for those with deposits of 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on lesser amounts. (Michele Kambas, March 17, 2013)

The Eurozone finance ministers have decided to lend Cyprus a 10 billion euro aid package if Cypriot savers would give up a portion of their deposits. This came as a surprise to many investors since the Euro zone has not attached such conditions before to any of the previous bailouts to other member countries. Why Cyprus? The small island has been affected financially by its exposure to the financial mismanagement of its neighbor, Greece.

It is worthy to mention that all of these nations that are in trouble financially, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Cyprus are run by socialist governments who cannot control their spending on lavish social programs, citizens do not like to pay taxes, many participate in the underground economy, and the unemployment rates are quite high, especially in Spain with a whopping 25 percent. It is also rumored that Italy may pursue the same venue, confiscating people’s savings in order to save their struggling economy, without making any changes to its out-of-control spending.

The troika of lenders, European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank asked for a percentage of deposits which would raise 6 billion euros, but it had to be ratified by parliament. Since there is no clear majority of any party, if the parliament does not ratify the confiscation of wealth, President Nicos Anastasiades warns that Cyprus’s two largest banks will collapse, including the Cyprus Popular Bank. Is this an American style “too big to fail” bailout?

Euro zone officials said that it was the only way to salvage Cyprus’s financial sector. They were not going to pony up any more money without serious collateral and the government is broke.

The anti-bailout Syriza party leader of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, was quick to blame Angela Merkel’s “criminal strategy.” Tsipras wants the German Chancellor to forgive the debt in a pan European debt conference, thus forcing German citizen to foot the bill for the rest of the Euro zone irresponsible spending.

The President of Cyprus, Anastasiades, a socialist elected three weeks ago, promised that savers will be compensated by shares in banks guaranteed by future natural gas revenues. Cyprus may be sitting on vast amounts of natural gas worth billions but the results of the offshore drilling appraisal will not be made public until later in the year.

The IMF director, Christine Lagarde, approved the deal and asked the IMF board in Washington to contribute to the bailout. If the law is approved, any depositor who fails to pay will receive up to three years in jail and a 50,000 euro fine. Europeans and rich Russians, who live on the island and would be subjected to the levy, are livid, standing to lose a lot of money. The British military personnel on the island will be compensated by their government.

The blame game has already started, and fingers are pointing at Germany because they have benefitted the most from the European Union by being the main exporter to the EU. Germany has a relatively low unemployment rate thanks to its large exports. However, these countries with socialist governments forget to point fingers at their own problem – socialism gone amuck. As Margaret Thatcher so aptly said, “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”  The French are not wising up either. Instead of reducing their welfare spending and reducing the heavy tax on the rich, they are blaming unemployment on their socialist “darling” President, Francois Hollande, whose approval rating has dropped to 37 percent.

There is another twist to the European Union saga. While ordinary citizens are asked to adopt austerity measures and they should, the powers that be across the 27 member states are fighting hard and dirty to join the EU administration in Brussels. Why? The technocrats have voted a law to pay themselves lavish pensions. Every EU technocrat can now retire at the age of 50 with an average pension of 9,000 euros a month.

Here are some examples of technocrats and their lavish pensions paid by hapless member countries:

-         Giovanni Buttarelli, who was the Assistant Supervisor of Data Protection is going to receive 1,515 euro a month after only one year and 11 months of service with EU

-         Peter Hustinx, with a 5 year renewed contract, will receive 9,000 euros a month upon retirement from EU service.

-         Roger Grass, Justice Court clerk, 12,500 euros per month

-         Pernilla Lindh, Judge of the Court, 12,900 euros per month

-         Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, attorney, 14,000 euros per month

A list in French shows the names of some EU technocrats/bureaucrats, their titles, the EU body they work for, the length of service, and the pensions they receive when their terms expire. (http://www.kdo-mailing.com/redirect.asp?numlien=1276&numnews=1356&numabonne=62286)

The maximum time these technocrats are required to serve, after which they can fully retire, is 15 years, pensions are huge, and they contribute nothing to the pension fund, it is provided by the rest of the European Union members.

At the same time, while presiding over the collapse of the retirement systems in the 27 member countries, the one world EU technocrats/bureaucrats recommend longer employment for ordinary citizens - 37 years, 40 years, 41 years (in 2012), and projected 42 years in 2020. Assuming that a person starts their working career at 21, European retirement age is still earlier than the American retirement age of 65.

Le Point.fr gives more details about the EU bureaucrats’ retirement system. It is reminiscent of our Congressmen who receive full benefits after serving one term, vote lavish benefits for themselves, including a separate Cadillac health care plan, while asking the rest of us to tighten our belts and to accept the destructive Obamacare. (http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/les-retraites-en-or-de-l-europe-19-05-2009-344867_28.php)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Last Day at CPAC 2013

The third and last day at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2013 had not lost any of the initial steam and enthusiasm. The music, the robust energy, the youthful excitement were vibrant and bursting at the seams. The speeches were fiery and motivating.

The leitmotif of every speech was the loss of the GOP’s core principles of conservatism in the eager race to pander to and win the hearts and minds of various voting blocks that self-segregated long time ago from the population at large. Orators agreed that the GOP has become a miniature Democrat party in their haste to please and earn the trust of voters who are now used to the Democrat promise of more government dependency and helplessness.

The first speaker of note, Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin, remarked how he had never thought that he would run for office twice during the same term and that he would win the second time with more votes in spite of the national unions’ and the Democrats’ opposition and the disruptive and destructive moves by Wisconsin legislators who ran away instead of doing their jobs to protect the interests of the people who elected them.

He reminded people that the federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government, and real courageous reforms happen in the states by creating economic prosperity at the small business level and citizen level by cutting taxes and creating jobs.

By eliminating union seniority, tenure, changing health insurance plans, he has saved taxpayer money in his state, creating a surplus. He believes that able-bodied adults should not receive welfare and food stamps. His 75,000 Wisconsin residents on food stamps have to work or sign up for employment training in order to receive food stamps.

The second speaker was Newt Gingrich, introduced by his wife Calista. She emphasized their foundation’s work, the many projects and books that celebrate the greatness of America, and the children’s books she writes to promote our Founding Fathers’ principles with the help of a “time-traveling pachyderm named Ellis the Elephant,” the true history of our nation, American values, and capitalism, the only way to lift people out of poverty and create long-lasting prosperity for our large middle-class. Newt is currently working on “God Loves You, The Life of Billy Graham,” a book about the life and legacy of our most beloved and influential spiritual leaders in America.

“The Republican establishment is just plain wrong about how it approaches politics,” said Newt. “It is mired in the past and mired in its own stupidity.” In his opinion, Pat Caddell, famous Democrat pollster, raises the right questions. “The changes we need are vastly different.” We have to disengage ourselves from the “consultant culture” of running ads to attack somebody. We do not need new principles, we need new ideas to implement our principles, to “empower people to leave poverty,” to create jobs and to get government out of the way.

Channeling Edison who said, “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles,” he juxtaposed Edison’s idea to President Obama’s idea to skyrocket electricity prices by destroying the use of fossil fuels, particularly coal and oil.

Newt recommended Gavin Newsom’s book, Citizenville, recommendations on how to move out of government bureaucracy and into citizen empowerment in the Toquevillian model, where “you become the citizen activist in the new world.” I found his recommendation surprising since Gavin Newsom is the mayor of San Francisco, the most liberal city in the country with a City Hall that pays for every liberal pet project but cannot afford to fix its roads. Is this the kind of city we want? Is San Francisco a model to be emulated?

The Honorable Michelle Bachmann took the podium next. The most ardent conservative who stands on principle, Rep. Bachmann supports no debt ceiling and the unilateral repeal of Obamacare. She opposes any Democrat or Republican who does not stand on principle.

Welcoming the enthusiastic crowd to Washington, D.C., “a very unique city where you have to show a photo I.D. to tour the White House and then they demand you put your photo I.D. away before you vote for the man standing in the White House,” Rep. Bachmann defines D.C. with sarcasm as the city of “care and compassion.” She defines Republicans as the real care and compassion people because they want everyone to succeed economically; they want cheap gasoline, and second amendment rights to protect anybody’s sister.

Recounting Benghazi, Rep. Bachmann described the sacrifice of Tyrone Woods and Glenn Dougherty who cared enough for their fellow Americans to defy orders and to fight for 7 hours while saving many American lives. They begged for help and help never came. She recounted how the President knew about the attack in the first hour but he did nothing to help these brave men. The very next day, she said, he flew to Vegas to meet with Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

She also recounted how our President went to United Nations in New York and told the delegates that “The future must not belong to those who insult the Prophet of Islam.” Rep. Bachmann said that the President should have stated instead, “The future does not belong to the low-life murderers who kill innocent Americans.” The future belongs to Americans, she said, who will never give up their right to free speech and the right to bear arms.

The President is “presiding over a war on the young” by putting their future in serious debt through the $16 trillion wasteful and out-of-control spending. Borrowing money from our enemies is “a generational injustice of epic proportions. It is the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the young,...to whomever our President wishes to give our money.” How does that help the poor, she asks. She describes the “imperial presidency” and the excessive spending to maintain it. Yet a disabled veteran can no longer take a White House tour.

Caring is exemplified by individuals like Dr. Jonas Salk who teamed up with a private group to develop the polio vaccine in order to save millions of lives. Developing cures for diseases like Alzheimer, diabetes, and cancer represents caring. “It is our duty to pay it forward for the next generation,” not bankrupt it, she concluded.

Millie Hallow introduced Dr. Ben Carson and Eric Metaxas as “President Obama’s (Prayer) Breakfast Club” to the roaring crowd and thunderous applause. Dr. Carson, in his gentle professorial tone, lectured on the importance of common sense and the message to government that it works for the people.

Many “nasty grams” later, received after his famous breakfast prayer speech, Dr. Carson explained that he refuses to talk about race because “he is a neurosurgeon.” Neurosurgeons operate on the interior, after removing the exterior scalp and the dura. It is this interior who makes us who we are, not the exterior.

Emphasizing the importance of turning off the TV and reading books, he recounted his hard-working mom telling him, “Benjamin, you are too smart to bring home grades like this. And I brought them home anyway.” Education was so stressed in his home through discipline that it changed him from the “dummy” in 5^th grade into the kid to whom all other kids came for help with math problems. “Education is so fundamental to the success of America.” Our system of governance was based on a well-educated and informed populace and we are no longer so, we are on our way to a different country.

“If I were trying to destroy this nation, if you were to magically, so say, put me, you know, into the White House [long applause], … what would you do?” Let me tell what I would do.  First of all, I would create division among the people, I would have everybody pitted against each other because a wise man by the name of Jesus once said that a ‘House divided against itself cannot stand’ and then, I would encourage a culture of ridicule for basic morality, and the principles that made and sustained the country, and then I would undermine the financial stability of the country and drive it so far into debt that there was absolutely no chance that it could recover, and I would weaken the military, and destroy the morality of the military.” It appears coincidental that this is exactly what is happening right now, and can we stop it? It has happened for a long time and education is the key.

Dr. Carson continued, “Socialism started as a reaction to America” against its tremendous success. Redistribution of wealth in a fair way did not and does not work, but a mechanism and an infrastructure to create jobs and opportunity to enable people to succeed has created the largest middle class in the history of the world. Nobody starves in the streets, churches take care of the poor, the wealthy give a lot to charity, more than anybody else in the world. It is not the government’s responsibility to care for its citizens and everybody must have “skin in the game” and pay taxes.

Dr. Carson said that if the government controls health care, one fifth of our economy, “they can control everything.” Good health care can be provided by other more efficient ways. In his opinion, 80 percent of our care can be provided with the help of health savings accounts without the “need of a bureaucracy that sucks out at least a third of the money.” As a neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson understands Economics, it is certainly “not brain surgery.”[pun intended] “Corporations are not in the business of being social welfare organizations.” And that includes health organizations and doctors that provide medical services. Corporations are our friends, not our enemies.

Dr. Carson ended his speech with the wish that we end the war on faith, the war on God.  We have freedom of religion and the PC police must stop imposing their beliefs on the rest of America. Likewise, the political class and the media must stop “creating friction and chasm” between Americans, creating problems and crises when none exist. Values and principles are important for our nation’s survival under God.

In 106 days Dr. Carson will be retiring and plans an active role in educating the next generation. Joking that he did not answer the question about politics, Metaxas said that Dr. Carson obviously entered politics by not answering the question. Dr. Carson is going to be 62 years old in September and would like to retire at the pinnacle of his career. “There is a reason why they retire pilots at 62, to keep them from crashing airplanes.”

Senator Ted Cruz introduced the next speaker, Governor Sarah Palin. A wiry, fearless momma Grizzly, size zero ball of energy, Governor Sarah Palin bounded onto the stage in skin tight pants and a smile to light up the room. The energetic hockey mom from Wasilla was definitely in the house. She talked about our second amendment rights and background checks that should have started “with yours, Mr. President.” She complained that “We don’t have leadership from Washington, we have reality television.” Everything from Washington seems like a con, she said, a scripted calculation, it is no longer about leading and serving.

She asked pointed questions. How does punishing the job creators create more jobs? What about the cost of living, the price of gas? What about inflation? Why does Congress refuse to pass a budget for four years in violation of our Constitution? Why does it not tell the American people what it intends to do with the taxpayers’ money? “Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever. Barack Obama, you lie,” said Governor Palin.

The audience went wild when Governor Palin brought out a Big Gulp soda and took several sips. He advised young Republicans to think Sam Adams not drink Sam Adams.

She demanded a stop to the pandering to different groups of voters, who are promised goodies and special perks. “We are all created equal, there are no Hispanic issues and no African American issues.” We are all Americans. We must believe in American exceptionalism. “Nobody is guaranteed success but everyone is guaranteed an equal opportunity at success.”

Governor Palin believes that crony capitalism must end, including the free Obama phones, green energy, and free prophylaxis. “If you don’t have a team of lobbyists in D.C., or a canceled campaign contribution check, well, you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” She urged politicians “to put a stake in the heart of too big to fail.”

She told Alaskans and Americans that “God’s resources are owned by the people, don’t let corporations own you, you have a right to those resources for our use.”

She emphasized that “our challenges are so big and our leaders are so small.” Our country is desperate for leadership, it is tired of campaigning, and it is tired of those in power creating and exploiting crisis after crisis. “You won, step away from the teleprompter and do your job.” We need leadership to stop government waste, to provide national security, to stop spending our money recklessly, to provide cheaper sources of energy.

Governor Palin told Washington to “get over yourself.” America belongs to we the people and it is high time that we take our country back by demanding accountability from politicians.

Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum, took the podium to urge Americans to guard against voter fraud, pick winning candidates, and stop trying to create a third party. Nominate and elect the right candidates, she urged. She believes that the GOP wants candidates who vote the way they are told to vote, candidates who only discuss economic issues, not moral and social issues. “The social issues are the cause of our economic issues, issues like life and marriage.” We cannot win elections if we call GOP candidates “moderates.” Spending money on ads is wasteful since most people don’t watch TV anymore.

The breakdown of the family is costing us dearly financially. According to the Heritage Foundation, there are 79 welfare programs. “I have not figured out which agency hands out free cell phones yet.” We do not need so many people dependent on government.

President Obama wants a “baby-sitting service,” national education core standards, and comprehensive immigration reform, a code word for amnesty. Interestingly, the panel on immigration recommended comprehensive immigration reform. I will write a separate article detailing that panel discussion.

Mrs. Schlafly also described the challenges the country faces in regards to confiscation of guns and zero nukes policy. She reminded the students of the bumper sticker that says, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns,” and “when nuclear weapons are outlawed, only terrorists will have nukes.”

She concluded, “We need your help to take back the Republican Party for the grass roots. We want candidates that we nominate instead of those who follow the dictates of the establishment.”

Senator Rick Santorum personally introduced a 53 minute documentary, Our Sacred Honor, “a journey into our past that explores the meaning of our founding documents.”

Newt and Calista Gingrich made a brief, live introduction to the 90 minute movie, America At Risk: The War with No Name. They asked the question, “How do we win a war with an enemy the Obama Administration refuses to identify?”

A screening of the 75 minute film, Occupy Unmasked, starring Andrew Breitbart and directed by Stephen K. Bannon, was followed by a panel discussion on the legacy of Andrew Breitbart.

The visual entertainment was provided by some attendees dressed in colonial attire, a Transformer robot, and other colorful characters. Young people everywhere were excited and applauding, cheering, and agreeing with speakers’ points quite loudly.

In the media pool, the numerous liberal bloggers and reporters were easy to spot by their displeased concentrated demeanor, lack of direct eye contact with the people around them, and irreverent attire.

A tall retired police detective from Colorado, dressed in a Texas cowboy outfit was standing in a strategic corner wearing a t-shirt that said, “Cops Say Legalize Pot, Ask Me Why.” A Washington lobbyist, Howard ‘Cowboy’ Wooldridge was representing “Citizens Opposing Prohibition” of drugs. A libertarian, Howard gave an interview in German to a reporter from Bavaria on the follies of chasing pot smokers when real criminals such as pedophiles escaped unpunished. “It is hard to fight crime from a helicopter,” he said. He was bemoaning the thousands of innocent foreign nationals killed as they came in the crosshairs of drug lords.

A liberal group from Jackson, Wyoming was advertising their initiative “to bring together Americans from disparate political backgrounds to partner on projects that advance the common good, both nationally and in our communities, and restores civility and cooperation in our discourse.”

One of the booths advertised “MarriageMarch” on March 26 in Washington D.C. to support “marriage, religious liberty, and the right of every child to both a mom and dad.” The organizers promised that the gathering in D.C. will be a historic event with nationally-recognized speakers. (www.Facebook.com/MarchForMarriage)

At the conclusion of the conference, the results of the straw poll were announced. Rand Paul won out of 23 candidates. The media pool was not allowed to vote.