Category: Economy

Yes, my job was outsourced to Mexico via China.  I attempted to prolong my value to the company by trying to diamond machine prototype innovative energy saving ceramic parts using a cheap Chinese imported lathe which of course was permanently off center.  Anyway.

I looking back searching for some lower position of relative importance, ie, a job I was excellent at having 22 years behind me doing what I did there are corporate obstacles in the way.  Most of these “obsolete” jobs are either contract short term when they formerly were core paths to advancement from within.  Contract works pays benefits not.  The “agencies” doing the contract hiring speak English as a second language and might be located ten states away on top of the secret resume parsing/data mining auto-reject features based upon my age/my name on the AE911 truth petition/a minor traffic accident last year and or my avoidance of the medical surveillance system.

I don’t have the heart nor the stomach for scamming people via the mis-using the internet, I make stuff, build stuff.  I am innovative, go beyond the mundane requirements of going through the motions and can recognize the atomic emission spectra of many contaminating species in five nines semi-conductor grade argon.  I am not ugly.  I don’t smell bad and I would actually show up on a regular basis.  My real unmarketability I guess lies in the years of experience I do have and that dangerous potential to pass that wisdom on to co-workers.  That former work ethic, that path towards innovative and not compliance type thinking, that Edward Tufte why Microshit sucks type of stuff.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tuf…

When are we going to “nation build” in our own nation?

What are we waiting for?

Each bridge to fall down,

Every road to turn back to gravel,

Water mains to burst,

Grids to burn out?

To say nothing about the Investments in

Schools, and Computers, and Networks.

Small Businesses, Parks, EcoSystems, and Science?

and another thing, if “9-11 changed the world”,

when are we going to change our “soft targets”

to prevent the next 9-11?

All these Projects spell JOBS.

All these Projects are an Investment in OUR Future.

They are NOT a Hand Out.

They are Protecting Our OWN.

Another Labor Day has arrived, with FAR TOO MANY Citizens,

having FAR TOO LITTLE to Celebrate …

The Oil Age is over. Running on the fumes of empty. It is a ghost empire. The Age of Ponzi-scheme fractional banking is over. The house of cards has collapsed. The emperor not only has no clothes, but he has no skin, bones or blood. He was always a mirage.

Civilization as we have known it in our lifetimes – the move toward centralization, globalization, authoritarianism – is at an end.

Believe it or not.

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

As Dean Baker reported on the (bookmark worthy) Real World Economics Review Blog, new home sales figures for July are out, and they are exactly as would have been expected when the Mortgage Brokers Association reported a slump in mortgage applications in May.

The stronger figures earlier in this year, in other words, included more than a normal rebound from a recession:

People who might have bought in the second half of 2010 or even 2011 instead bought their home before the tax credit expired. Now that the credit has expired, there is less demand than ever, leaving the market open for another plunge in prices. The support the tax credit gave to the housing market was only temporary

This does not mean that all policy response is futile: what it does mean is that the policy response must address the problem we are experiencing, not the problem we wish we were experiencing.

The first Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, STOP digging.

—  Molly Ivins

Stop Digging?   Check!

Heck, even Erin Burnett (of CNBC) admitted the Stimulus is working, today on MTP … that

“Without the stimulus we would be significantly worse off than we are now.”

— any serious economist says so. …  She has the charts.

so do we.

Gulf Coast Communities Investigate Oily Sea Mist

by Debbie Elliott, NPR — September 3, 2010

Orange Beach city hall has been inundated with calls from residents with complaints – foam that they think is dispersant, a gray-metallic slick in back bays or seaweed that looks oiled. There’s a heightened sense of environmental awareness, and local officials are looking for a way to determine what’s going on.

Mayor Tony Kennon says that’s why the town hired independent scientists to test the air, water and soil.

[…]

Orange Beach is using grant money from BP for the testing, and posting the data on the town’s website. Mayor Kennon says negative results could affect tourism in the short term, but finding the truth is more important.

Kudos to Mayor Kennon for taking a stand, for what’s right!

The Major is a man of his word.

Monitoring, he is.

How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular

Michael Scherer, Sept. 02, 2010, Time.com

A couple of weeks back and a dozen miles west of Elkhart, hundreds gathered in another school gym – except this time it was for a job fair. With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in ’08, sat down at the room’s edge, well dressed and discouraged. After 23 years as a payroll administrator at a local RV plant, she got laid off 18 months ago. “Really, what has he been doing?” she said when I asked about Obama’s efforts to help people like her. “I guess I don’t know what he is doing.”

…

This shift in perception – from Obama as political savior to Obama as creature of Washington – can be seen elsewhere. When Obama arrived in office in January ’09, his Gallup approval rating stood at 68%, a high for a newly elected leader not seen since John Kennedy in 1961. Today Obama’s job approval has been hovering in the mid-40s, which means that at least 1 in 4 Americans has changed his or her mind. The plunge has been particularly dramatic among independents, whites and those under age 30. With midterm elections just nine weeks off, instead of the generational transformation some Democrats predicted after 2008, the President’s party teeters on the brink of a broad setback in November, including the possible loss of both houses of Congress. By a 10-point margin, people say they will vote for Republicans over Democrats in Congress, the largest such gap ever recorded by Gallup.

With the construction industry in the toilet across all aspects and across the country believe me I know what this country has been ignoring, we have a big problem with doing that on a whole host of issues {like sending military into invading then long occupations and not listening to them thus not caring for many when they return}, for decades should have been at least more than just started to be taken care of {some states and communities did use stimulus monies for just that but once no money preventive maintenance, or replacement, once again stops} as the collapsed economy started and those with the wealth {that’s how most of theirs is made with breaks given on taxes enhanced development packages just to attract companies and much much more} should be main contributors to upgrading our Deteriorating Infrastructure, and it ain’t just bridges and roads!!

  After nine years of work, $330 Billion in treasure, and nearly 1,300 American fatalities, bankers might ultimately do to Afghanistan what the Taliban could never accomplish.

 Even as it battles a resurgent and spreading Taliban, the beleaguered government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is facing a more immediate threat: a run on the country’s largest banks.

  This week, droves of depositors rushed offices of Afghanistan’s Kabul Bank, pulling out their money amid concerns that bank has lost millions of dollars. BBC News broadcast images of Hummers and SUV’s racing to the bank, a troubling sign of growing mistrust for Mr. Karzai’s already heavily criticized government.

Something in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 million in deposits have been withdrawn in just a couple days, about half of all the bank’s assets. If the stampede continues for just a few more days the bank will fail.

 So why is this important? Because the Kabul Bank is what the government uses to pay its teachers, police, and soldiers.

Gottlieb and Diane G. are live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio Friday night at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.

Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!

1984 much anyone? Come to the land through the looking glass yet again; where attacking an innocent Country and destroying it is Victory, where leaving means staying, where Oil spills become the Norm, where both Parties are One and Slavery is the best end-game for our economic system.

We have myriad breaking news stories to cover, friends, listeners and lunatics… but really?  We wish the song remained the same… but no, it IS getting worse.

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Instead of wringing our hands and exchanging insults and blame —

We should be, getting up to speed on,

How the Republicans Keep putting the Brakes on Progress!

For Example:

Republicans block small business plan in Senate

Donna Smith, Reuters – Jul 29 2010

Obama has been pushing for passage of the lending measure arguing that getting more capital into the hands of independent community bankers would lead to more small business loans. It is supported by independent bankers and business groups.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, small businesses have found it difficult to obtain loans that would help them expand as the economy recovers from the recession.

[…]

Senate Republicans blocked a $30-billion plan to help community banks boost lending to small businesses […]

Some Republicans have cast the small-business proposal as part of what they consider government overreach by the Obama administration.

Huh?  

Helping Small Businesses to put people back to work — that’s government overreach?

On what planet?

Let me jog your memory, about one of the more memorable things the Former VP said to a ‘fiscally responsible’ Treasury Secretary — right before he fired him …

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was told “deficits don’t matter” when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis.

OnTheIssues.org

[…]

O’Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone — posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: “We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due.” A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

Source: Adam Entous, Reuters, on AOL News Jan 11, 2004

Maybe “deficits don’t really matter” — whenever the Gophers have the National “Credit Card” in THEIR Pockets — Then it’s Party time, for their friends and buddies in the corporate boardrooms?

Otherwise — it’s “evict the lazy bastards”.  

Cut the Funds for something — NOW!