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Jobless rate grows to 9.5% ... and still growing
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ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH ...



Now that you're getting a tast of the New World Order, are you ready to swallow it.
I'm going to take over
America
and rule it my way.
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BRAIN FOOD FOR THOSE WHO GIVE A DAMN
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The house voted and passed the bill of the century (below) without even reading it.
[ Who Pays for Cap and Trade? ] [ The Cap and Tax Fiction ] [ Obama Hovers From on High ]
[ Mounting Jobless Claims Force States To Borrow Funds ] [ Obama turns screws on Israel ]
[ Netanyahu endorses Palestinian independence " BUT " ??? ] [ Paranoia spreads in Israel ]
[ FRIENDLESS PERSUASION - BARAK MEETS BIBI ] [ The Death Of Israel ] [ Above The Mural Of Annunciation ]
[ Jordan king: Israel must accept Palestinian state ] [ How many Americans have heard of the Shadow Party? ]
[ The Declaration Of Independents ] [ Obama: Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’ ] [ Death Of U.S. Health Care ]
[ Obama: The Grand Strategy ] [ Welcome to Jerusalem Mien Pope ] [ But Not A Democracy ]
[ The Mosssads Ambassador To Washington ] [ The Sting In Four Parts ] [ The Political Machine ]
[ Brief Summary New World Order ] [ Citizenship & Charter of Incorporation ] [ Six Alone Proved It Can Be Done ]
[ History of wealth in America ] [ Official Secrets ] [ Feudalism ...alias American Capitalism ] [ What Is Socialism? ]
[ Give Me Back My Dog ] [ What Is A Politician ] [ Corporate Structure ] [ Our Hidden History of Corporations ]
[ The most chilling words since 'New World Order'] [ Greatest Con Game In History ] [ Give Us The USS Liberty ]
[ What Caused The Financial Collaps? ] [ A Guide to the Institutions of Global Power ] [ The Evil Federal Reserve ]
[ When Americans No Longer Own America ] [ The Dream Is Gone ] [ We Are Falling Apart ] [ Peter Principle ]
[ Corporate Takeover Of America ] [ Battle against corporate globalisim ] [ The Creature from Jekyll Island ]
[ Eight Steps To Destroy America ] [ Is America Committing Suicide ] [ What Is Capitalism? ]
[ It's Transparent, All Right: Our Lawmakers Are Crooked ] [ Congress's betrayal of the American worker ]
[ The origins of capitalism: 13th - 16th century AD ] [ Learn how it began ] [ Declaration Of Independence ]
[ Republic? Democracy? What's the difference? ] [ Our Society Is Falling Apart ] [ Social Manipulation ]
[ Libraries Oldest Authentic Copy Of The Constitution Of The United States ] [ The U.S. Constitution ]
[ Articles Of Confederation ] [ Federal Reserve Fraud ] [ Downfall Of Democracy ]
[ The Subversion of Education in America ] [ Was 13th Amend. secretly changed? ]
[ Force Greater Than The United States ] [ Deliberate Dumbing Down ] [ Global warming? Not so fast!! ]
[ Hidden History of Corporations in the United States ]
Articles that are removed from this section are put in the left hand yellow column below and from there moved into the archive. The archive link is at the bottom of every page
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That's what our founding fathers
recommend when all else fails.
We no longer have a government. We
now have a club of
indictable murderous SOB criminals.
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Obama: USA 'one of the largest Muslim countries in the world' ... Duh???
Barack/Alice
in wonderland
WHERE I DECIDE TO
TAKE YOU IS UP TO ME.
You made me the ruler of the world and that's what I'm going to be.
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The Emergence of President Obama's Muslim Roots
I know because I 'm one of them!!!
The other day we heard a comment from a White House aide that never would have been uttered during the primaries or general election campaign.
During a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said "the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago."
Given widespread unease and prejudice against Muslims among Americans, especially in the wake of 9/11, the Obama campaign was perhaps understandably very sensitive during the primaries and general election to downplay the candidate's Muslim roots.
The candidate was even offended when referred to by his initials "BHO," because he considered the use of his middle name, "Hussein," an attempt to frighten voters.
With insane rumors suggesting he was some sort of Muslim Manchurian candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his campaign did everything they could to emphasize his Christianity and de-emphasize the fact that his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born Muslim.
The candidate's comment at a Boca Raton, Florida, town hall meeting on May 22, 2008, was typical: "My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn't know him," he said.
In September 2008, candidate Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd, "I know that I'm not your typical presidential candidate and I just want to be honest with you. I know that the temptation is to say, 'You know what? The guy hasn't been there that long in Washington. You know, he's got a funny name. You know, we're not sure about him.' And that's what the Republicans when they say this isn't about issues, it's about personalities, what they're really saying is, 'We're going to try to scare people about Barack. So we're going to say that, you know, maybe he's got Muslim connections.'...Just making stuff up."
Back then, the campaign's "Fight the Smears" website addressed the candidate's faith without mentioning his father's religion:
"Barack Obama is a committed Christian. He was sworn into the Senate on his family Bible. He has regularly attended church with his wife and daughters for years. But shameful, shadowy attackers have been lying about Barack’s religion, claiming he is a Muslim instead of a committed Christian. When people fabricate stories about someone’s faith to denigrate them politically, that’s an attack on people of all faiths. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this deception."
The website also provided quotes from the Boston Globe and Newsweek mentioning his father's roots.
Since the election, however, with the threat of the rumors at least somewhat abated, the White House has been increasingly forthcoming about the president's roots. Especially when reaching out to the
Muslim world.
In his April 6 address to the Turkish Parliament, President Obama referenced how many "Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim majority country. I know, because I am one of them."
The Best Of The Best
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Heavenly
Commands
Just around
the corner?
"Oligarchy"
... a government in which a small group exercises control,
especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.
To the extent that we, the people, are removed from control over our lands, marketplaces, central banks, and media we are no longer empowered. In practice, those few who do control the land, central bank, media and "free market" are the real rulers of our corrupt and declining "democracy."
Due to propaganda from a corporate-owned and edited media we are kept from knowing, much less debating, the nature of our system. Due to a central bank owned by bankers, media owned by a few global concerns, and trade regime controlled by global corporations (i.e., one designed to remove the people from control over their markets and environments) the vast majority have become little more than latter-day serfs and neo-slaves.In 1913, in a coup by capital similar to that which led to the current GATT-NAFTA scheme, our central bank was handed to a private cartel of big Bankers. Thus, an oligarchic setup emerged allowing for the ultimate conflict of interest - an Enron-type debt-money creation process.
As a result, we no longer own or control our money-creation process or monetary policy. In effect, our representatives are slaves to big banks. Every dollar we need to create we must borrow, with interest, due private, for-profit, bankers and the bond-dealing owners of the Fed.
The "independent" bank scam (setup to be independent of the people's purse powers) means monetary powers given us by the Founding Fathers are no longer ours. As with the GATT-NAFTA deceit yet another congress of re-election hungry, oligarchy-serving, politicians gave away our essential banking powers... and we have trillions in interest-bearing debt as a result.
Imagine, for example, no-interest home loans? Imagine paying only once for your home instead of 3 or 4 times over due to compound interest? This possibility of no-interest funding for the building blocks of society would be real if, in fact, the people owned their own central bank and purse powers as the Founders intended.
Unfortunately, we are never likely to ever hear of any such proposal, nor do we even hear of the Sovereignty legislation - a bill pending in congress for years allowing for interest-free infrastructure financing. Why? Where is the "free press?" And why does the Fed enjoy a unique exemption from the Freedom Of Information Act? For more facts on the "Fed" we suggest Murray Rothbard's The Case Against The Fed.
"We are back to an oligarchy pretending to be a republic pretending to be a democracy."
Where the few control the many due to their greater money, media, land, and political power what emerges is plutocracy and predation via forced-trade schemes. Immense disparities of wealth, terrorism by ruling elites, and evermore enclosures of the people's interests occur in what become fascisms and totalitarian capitalisms... in "free markets" without exit.
History is one long tale of the chicanery of the few manipulating and extorting the many in order to maintain power and privilege.... until, of course, real reforms or a revolution reverses the course of events.
Transparency and Open Government?
Barack Obama
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government's effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.
Government should be collaborative. Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector. Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation. I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.
The maelstrom of words, the shower of money, the corruption and protection, all part of deception.
For decades this corporate controlled government has been funneling us into a dead end, destroying the very society that made this country great.
Now that the game plan of the once invisible hand (corporate) has hit the wall and there was no way to further conceal their grand objective ... total control ... the money brigade ... trillions ... is being produced to cover up the predatory practices of those that created our disaster.
The panic talk about creating new jobs is in fact pure mumbo jumbo ... trash talk. The nonstop shipment of manufacturing, service, and technical jobs to other countries has denuded this country of its base and the base of the middle class.
While all the talk coming from the talking heads is about creating new jobs the truth is what they are referring to are government do nothing jobs or bringing back the WPA of the Roosevelt administration. Hooray! now college grads can pick up pick and shovel. Their future?
Even as the printing presses continue to bundle trillions more to prop up the corrupt financial institutions, hardly anything is being proposed that might get Americans back to work. A buy American program, stopping the flow of illegal competition, and the e-zine successful program are under attack.
The purpose of the last stimulus package that gave money to all levels of society was that it would be spent on goods and that would keep companies that provided them ... solvent. Sounds like that thinking was on the right track, but now that has changed and so has the rhetoric.
Knowing there is no way under our present situation to get that premise going the new premise is that the American workers are no longer the engine of success ... finance is.
This begs the question, is capitalism dead and needs to be replaced, maybe socialism, or an exotic new invention?
Bush said under the circumstances he has to stray from the free market practice. Obama has indicated government growth will create most of his imagined jobs. Are they both not signaling a New World Order?
I have seen this coming a decade ago but wrote about it as a spectator. Now! that it has reached the point of possibly destroying my country, a country that provided the good life for me and my family I have changed from spectator to activist.
There are many diverse differences of opinion our society is engaged in: gay marriage, pro life, gun control, energy, on and on, but these must be put aside for the moment.
Unless we save our republic there will be no platform left for us to democratically argue for causes. Our voices will be muffled.
Click here for a complete listing: pictures, e-mail, telephone numbers, websites of Senatores.
Click here for a complete listing of congessmen.
Click here for complete listi ng of state governors.
WEALTH
In yet another age of oligarchy, corporate predation, and gross disparities of wealth (much of which has accrued over time from enclosure-driven exploitations of labor) we still have no limits to corporate salaries, no excess profits tax, no limits to land ownership, wealth, or corporate franchise.
Concentration continues despite the fact both liberal and conservative economists (John Kenneth Galbraith and Peter Drucker) agreed the highest paid employee/CEO should not be paid more than 15-25 times the lowest. In today's rapacious plutocracy, we see ratios that are 100-500 times.
In addition, our ruling powers now seek to end virtually all estate taxes on the mega-rich, and so capture forever the spoils of a good deal of corporate crime, exploitation, enclosure, and oligopoly. Meanwhile, wage earners face job export, job loss, retirement funds decimated, and 24% credit card rates as predation and usury emerge big time.
While so many face financial ruin and loss of health insurance (triggering stress, heart attacks, divorce, family disintegration, and forced moves) the mega-rich use their increasing wealth and power to expand control over our lives, economy, and "democratic" system. The time has come to explore limits to wealth and oligopoly. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in the 1930's "We can have a democratic society or we can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both."
I WANT
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THE TRUTH
I'm fed up with either party's "bullshitSo! What can we do?
Rise up and clean house. Its our duty.
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Where, Oh Where Have All The Jobs Gone?
Where corporations with the help of government wanted them to go.
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Say so long to the plumber's crack. So long Roto Rooter Man. To be precise, so long to the Roto Rooter man you used to know. But, the plumber you used to know is not the only worker you soon won’t be able to recognize. Your doctor, nurse, architect, accountant, your librarian, lawyer, dentist, your physical therapist, psychologist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, your social worker, your children’s teacher, your puppy’s vet, even the judge you may stand before, or your country’s nuclear engineers are among the workforce being imported to America. So, too, they could be your new salesperson, sales manager, or your company’s sales representative, attorney, the graphic artist that designs the company letterhead, the pharmacist that fills your next prescription, or your next auditor. Perhaps even the biologist or chemist in any number of American corporations or government institutions. As a matter of fact, we are in the midst of the highest percentage of immigrant workers America has seen in 70 years.
America ’s corporations are importing workers as fast as they are exporting jobs. Any workforce from any country where the beleaguered populace is willing to work for a pittance is a viable candidate for the insatiable greed of the American corporation. At a time when there are more American workers out of work than at any time in our history—ten million or more unemployed, without any hope of employment--without a scintilla of savings, with their unemployment benefits having long run its course, and an estimated 20 million skilled and educated American workers that are under-employed, our legislators have voted historic increases in H-1B, L-1 visas securing a foreign workforce that is economically practicable and beneficial for none but corporate America.
Amazingly, the true numbers of H-1B visas, as well as H-2A, H-2B, J-1, L-1, and TN visas are not known because INS, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, does not keep an accurate accounting. Although, Corporate America would attest that these visas are necessary--that they are temporary visas created because high-tech companies couldn’t find workers with math, engineering, and computer science skills, the truth is far-less appealing.
Corporations and our government are utilizing H-1B and L-1 visas purely to import a cheap, effective workforce in lieu of hiring the more expensive and educated American worker. Estimates from those in the know figure we now have more than the entire populace of Canada in alien and work-related visas.
Early in 1998, the 65,000 allowable work-related H-1B visas were already issued resulting in high-tech companies clamoring for an immediate increase. Congress obliged and raised the number to 115,000 in 1999 and 2000 and to 107,500 in 2001.
In 1999, Senator Phil Gramm, (R-TX) sponsored, and Trent Lott (R-MS) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), co-sponsored Bill S 1440 IS, to allow the H-1B work-related visa to raise the annual cap to 200,000 for the years 2000, 2001, and 2002. The three additional co-sponsors were republicans from Michigan , Utah , and Kansas . On March 9, 2000 , the Judiciary Committee approved a related bill, S 2045.
S 2045 IS, or the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act, sponsored by Orrin Hatch, (R-UT) and co-sponsored by 19 fellow republicans, who included then Sen. John Ashcroft, and 4 -democrats, of whom one was Sen. Joseph Lieberman, increased H-1B visas to 195,000 annually.
Contrary to popular understanding, not all H-1B visas are granted to college educated graduates. A good immigration attorney can win an applicant status with proof that they gained professional expertise through experience that is equivalent to a degree.
For the employer’s role, they must certify that no U.S. workers will be adversely affected and that the H-1B employee will be paid the prevailing wage; the L-1 visa, which has grown monumentally has no such wage restriction and no caveat regarding any undue harm to the American worker. Also, unlike the H-1B visa that is filed per individual worker, the L-1 can be filed for a group of workers. Employers argue that they just want access to the best talent and if they didn’t import workers it would undermine their competitiveness and force them to outsource more jobs far from our shores.
Lobbyists representing millions of companies use unrelenting fear tactics to tout their position. Recently, Randel K Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told a congressional hearing, 'Any limitations on this visa category could severely harm the ability of US companies to operate and expand in the domestic and international markets.'
Another spokesperson before the aforementioned hearing, Sandy Boyd, Chair and V.P. of American Business for Legal Immigration, said matter-of-factly that “it would be unfair to undermine the program simply because a few companies have misused it”.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), stated before a senate committee regarding the L-1 visa that the L-1 was originally established to allow companies to temporarily bring managers and executives to the U.S. to impart their knowledge to the U.S. staff.
Poignantly, he added, “What is self-evident is that the status quo is not acceptable. American workers have a right to expect Congress to do what is necessary to protect their jobs - so that they will be able to continue to provide for their families.”
Clearly, the American worker has been the brunt of Corporate America’s shenanigans. It is time to relinquish their stranglehold on the nation and its workers. It is time to repeal their power and reduce them to the entities our founding fathers reserved for them. Primarily, states and its citizens chartered and monitored corporations. If they did not act “for the purpose of serving the public interest” their charters were revoked.
Through chicanery corporations manipulated the courts into deeming them “personhood”. That single act of malfeasance gave them the power to become the unwieldy behemoth it is today. It is time to reel them in.
Until we do, not only will the Roto Rooter man you used to know take on a new look, but so too, will the face of America – and the American worker will
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A tragedy that knows no end?
Is it too late or is there a way to regain the golden years that offered a promising future? Is it possible for us to vote for someone that would be dedicated to accomplish that? So fare, the answer is no. Is the answer ... revolution?
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Slowly but surely, bailout by bailout, the American dream is approaching an American "Nightmare."
CAN IT STILL BE STOPPED?
To date
this is what we
usually get from government.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy,
but you cannot have both.
THIS IS WHAT THE NEXT GENERATION FACES
They are not acknowledging the negative impact illegal aliens have on the economy.
They are not truthful about the devastation occurring to the middle class.
They are porously creating a two tier environment, the haves and have not.
The boarders are wide open and will remain that way, it suits their purpose.
Wake Up! politics like never before has become the ultimate art of practiced lying.
i HAVE YET TO SEE A SINGLE, HONEST CANDIDATE ACKNOWLEDGE THE CHAOS AND SUBMIT A PLAN TO GO BACK TO THE FUTURE.
Exclusive
We have been hoodwinked by the corporate carrot
and its been leading us to "doomsday."Written ten years ago the premise of the book has proven to be on target.
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Pushing Hamburger, where we've been, where we are being yanked to. The historic family has been forsaken. Education has been forsaken. Almost all expectations firmly established in the Declaration of Independence have been forsaken. Employment diversity has been forsaken. Honesty amongst our elected has been forsaken. Corporate has completely corrupted the principle that elected officials are our servants ... they instead have become the enemy. Understand how it happened.
" Download Free" All the 38 chapters are now posted. You can follow the page links from chapter to chapter or skip to a specific chapter using the links in the left column of each page.
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[ Either you Fight Back or Surrender you liberties forever ]
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Articles by our contributors do no necessarily reflect the views of this site. To be fair and balanced they are presented to be a part of the "What Is Going On ???" theme of this site.
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Exclusive
Barry Chamish is an Israeli journalist who has done a great deal of research into corruption of Israel's government--from outside forces and from within.
"Barry had three novels and one book of short stories published in Canada from 1971-75. He moved to Israel, got an MA at Hebrew University and started army service. In 1982 he fought in the Lebanon War. After that Barry pursued a writing career with vigor and published pieces in well over 500 publications, including The Atlantic, National Review, Hollywood Reporter, New York Newsday, etc. In 1992, his career took a sharp unexpected turn. Barry's book, The Fall of Israel, was published in Britain by Canongate Publishers. It was a stinging expose of Israeli political corruption.
The way it is, from Israel, by Barry Chamish, writer and journalist
Barry Chamish E-mail chamishba@gmail.com
Barry Chamish Website www.barrychamish.com
Exclusive
David Ben-Ariel, a Christian-Zionist, has a God-given love for the Jews and the nation of Israel. His Israeli lawyer stated that David's "future is linked with that of the Jews," and Gershon Salomon, chairman of the Temple Mount Faithful, says "God has some special task" for him. His sacred bond with the land and people of Israel has been strengthened over the years by his service as a volunteer on eight kibbutzim including during Operation Desert Storm.
A firm believer in the Israelite roots and responsibilities of the Anglo-Saxons and Northwestern European peoples, David works towards the ultimate reconciliation and restoration of Joseph with Judah. As a student of biblical prophecy, he is alarmed about Germany and the Vatican's increasing control of the European continent, remodeling it after the "Holy Roman Empire." As the outspoken author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, he is determined to do all he can to help wake the world up to the clear and present danger Germany poses to world peace, with a special emphasis on the Middle East.
Click here for David's posts The Lion Has Roared
E-mail davidbenariel@earthlink.net
Expand your mind read these posts
I am watching the American dream die before my eyes
Obama wants to control the banks
If It Had Teeth It Would Bite You
Let The Smoking Gun Rest In Gaza
ISRAEL LOSES and How
It Could Have Been Different
Dumping The Third World On The West
Holiday Sales Drop will Force Bankruptcies
Bank robbery protected by gov.
Obama’s “Natural Born” Problem
President Hillary Clinton of Israel
Is David Ben-Ariel a Terrorist?
Missing Statistic: U.S. Jobs
That Went Overseas
Detroit Bailout: Unsafe At Any Cost
Wall Street Cedes M&A to Bank Collapses as
Fees Fall
The Fannie/Freddie Bailout:
Consequences to the U.S. Taxpayer
What if we didn't bail out the creditors?
Chinese hack into White House network
American workers have been screwed every which
way they could”!
Dumping the Third World on the West
Leaders have squandered our wealth
A Flagrant Violation Of Our Constitution
Bailout makes America more communist than China
Lies Destroyed the American Dream
You Can Fight back: NY
State passes bill banning ‘universal default’
What credit card companies don't want you to
know
A Guide to Institutions of Global Power
The Hidden History Of Corporations In
The United States Working Poor
Once There Was A Middle Class
We must stop the "NAFTA Highway
TO HELL."
It's all coming together before you
very eyes.
JOBS AND THE WORK PLACE
Oh for the good old days!!! The following
were some comments made in the year 1957
Click here to enter this
Address Questions or comments to [
admin@pushhamburger.com ]
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"It Has Been Destroyed"![]()
The 1960s were the decade in which
my parents grew up. Their parents were the so-called Greatest
Generation and I, for one, actually think that moniker is appropriate,
considering that their childhood was the Great Depression and their
early adulthood was fighting World War II, a set of experiences almost
beyond my grasp. My parents (and with some good probability, yours)
grew up in the era of the rise of the military-industrial complex, in
which people could reasonably expect to get a solid paying job and
stay there throughout their lives.
This meant several things:
One, American education was the envy of the world. You simply couldn’t
get a better education than the one provided by an American
institution. Colleges were yet to be overcrowded as even then only a
small minority went to college, so if you were to get post-secondary
education in the United States, you were set.
Two, real worker compensation was never higher. In terms of the actual
value of a dollar at the time, the average American worker had it made
in the 1960s and 1970s. No matter what you did in life, you could fall
back on a factory job that would pay you a strong enough wage that you
could make it, no matter what.
Three, although the Soviet menace was real, it was distant. Although
the Cold War was terrifying in its own way, it never ascended into a
fighting war and there was never any sort of direct attack on American
soil. The Vietnam War was ongoing, but it was literally on the other
side of the globe, abstracting in a way the bitter horrors of war and
death.
Four, the art of marketing and consumerism was in a nascent stage.
Look at the sophistication of advertising in the 1960s and compare it
to now. There were some baby steps, clearly, but the psychological
edge of today’s marketing utterly blows away what you would find in
those days.
Five, the price of homes in real dollars was extremely low compared to
today. The price of a home since 1960 has gone up at a rate much
faster than inflation, a bull run that is perhaps finally being slowed
or reversed after many years of incredible growth. Thus, someone who
bought a home in 1960 stumbled into a killer investment.
Six, employers took long-term care of their employees. If a person
worked in a factory for thirty years, the company would guarantee them
a pension that would safely enable them to live out the end of their
days in a comfortable fashion. If you took care of the company, it
took care of you.
Under these assumptions, my parents could buy a home (rather cheap)
when they were younger than I am right now merely on the wages earned
with just one of them working a seasonal factory job (which paid quite
well). Because of this factory job, they now receive a very nice
pension after having never put anything into their own retirement
plan.
Does this sound like your economic reality? It certainly sounds
nothing like mine. My reality is more like this:
It involves employment that treats me more as an independent
contractor instead of a real team member, which means I have to save
for my own retirement rather than plan on a pension.
It involves homes that are amazingly expensive, even in the relatively
cheap area where I live.
It involves no “fall back” plan in the form of abundant factory work
that anyone can do. The fall-back jobs that I know of make minimum
wage, which is far less than a true living wage in the United States.
My parents regularly offer “advice” on how I should manage my finances
based on these assumptions that their childhoods and early adult lives
showed them, pointers such as you should buy a house as soon as you’re
married and you’re young - you should be buying fun stuff - go ahead
and get that monster plasma television. Their hearts are undoubtedly
in the right place, and they are speaking things they believe to be
true, but they aren’t true for me - if I took their advice, I would be
in the poor house.
So what’s my solution? If you are given advice by your parents - or by
anyone at all (including me) - consider the assumptions they’re coming
from. Are they valid for you? Even if they are, ask yourself does this
advice really make sense for me? Don’t just blindly follow any advice.
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It's happening and it's the beginning of the end.
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It's only a matter of time. The clock
is ticking.
If you doubt it, your politically blind.
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The sweat shop, with its dangerous
work conditions, minimum wage not yet legislated, children exploited without compunction,
is not a picture of the dark ages ... "it was only yesterday."
Those conditions were representative
of city life in the early 1900s. It was the normal environment where a predominance
of new immigrants clustered. This was where they would gather their wits and aim for a
better life. They quickly understood what was required and amidst a maelstrom of
indoctrination hurdles, they forged ahead and their efforts paid off.
Back then, reward for effort might
have appeared to be happening at a snails pace. In retrospect, as my thoughts wander back
to then, I can only regard the advances made at that time to be amazingly rapid. Did this
create a problem? Was this "new" strongly developing class of achievers rising
too fast, getting uncomfortably close to penetrating "Powers Towers"?
Unionism was surging ahead -- minimum
wage was established -- child labor laws were enacted. Everyone, even those with minimal
education, were climbing the ladder to success. "Achievement," possible for all,
permeated the social climate.
America was surging ahead as never
before. A courageous entrepreneurial climate was largely responsible for ongoing success.
Destructive corporate practices, advanced by socially sanitized MBAs ... was yet to
come.
For the moment, corporate careers
promised a good living and most important "stability." Newly developing
technologies began to set agendas for the educational system. Students were pleased to
graduate, armed with specialties tuned to industries needs. We were still a
manufacturing based society. Employment opportunities were broad ranging. Our industrial
base was expanding ... "not eroding."
Welfare, social security, income tax,
were newly emerging concepts. Prosperity for the increasing middle class was just as new.
They were the avant-guard for Americas surging success. It led to undaunted
progression. Everyone was focused on bettering themselves ... and they could. The notion
of creating government monitored safety nets wasnt needed. The traditional family
was not threatened. Educational tools were rewardingly accurate. The community was
involved and socially entwined. Concern for others was still alive and functioning.
This "praised, energetic
society" forged ahead. It advanced from crowded city cliff dwellers to suburbanite
home owners. They departed from train, trolley, bus rider, to proud owners of shiny new
automobiles. The sought after forty hour work week became reality. Leisure time,
disposable income, continuing trust that the bubble would only expand, kept it growing
bigger.
Honest effort and pride in
accomplishment was a winning formula. That factor made all else possible, or so it would
seem. In short order, the guidelines became insignificant. A new breed of corporate
masterminds, consumed with greed and rewarded for it ... implanted their socially destructive objectives.
Product, product quality, worker consideration, fell prey to daily stock market
performance requirements. Paraphrasing a board room remark, "GM doesnt sell
cars; it sells stock." What was the end result of this arrogance? Japan, Germany,
England, eagerly moved into the U.S. auto market. They remain embedded and prosperous
until today. We are asked to accept a transformed picture of our economy ... the
"nonsense" of an unrestrained global market place.
Our socially responsible formula in
tatters, resentment and mistrust pervades the mass of hurting, disillusioned, workers ...
destroying their social fabric. Workers that made America great, vested their future in
believing, are now suffering the teachery of trashed promises. Again, I must repeat ...
"Its not the buggy-whip syndrome; its the greed syndrome."
Our economy has had its ups and downs
before. Unemployment reached much higher levels than todays publicized numbers.
Temporary disruption of the work force is not a new phenomenon. Abrupt and extreme
dislocation of the work force "is a new and frightening happening." This shift
in job opportunity was formulated behind our backs. If this planned switch to a service
society was forecast, approached honestly, open for national discussion, there might have
been a chance it could have been designed to be successful for all. Would that have been a
bad way to go?
Before society was beset with
todays chaotic, hateful downsizing and restructuring, people willingly listened to
explanations. When intelligently presented with facts, accepting a glitch appeared to be
reasonable. Faith and the willingness to believe in a return to normalcy was still
possible.
Recessions of varying degrees came
one after another, but as disruptive as they were they seemed manageable. Never did the
"glitch" elevate anxieties to the point where we reached a level of combative
disintegration. During all previous up and down cycles faith in the system prevailed.
There was always a rosier future on the horizon ... a believable rosier future.
Life did get better. A thirty five
hour work week was in the wind. Some corporations had already instituted a forty hour four
day week, affording families more leisure time.
Everyone! banks, corporations,
workers, appeared to be on the same wave length, convinced the future would continue to
promote mutually beneficial advantages for all.
Banks, in particular, were at the
forefront of displaying confidence. Credit was freely dispersed. Werent the banks
determined to shower us with credit ... confirming the recipients ability to handle
it? If one had any doubts about the future and the ability to repay debt, banks were
instrumental in dispelling such anxieties. We were on our way to owing our lives to the
company store. An accident?
Corporate promised ... workers
believed. We were glad to have them. They were glad to have us. Who did more for whom?
It was a time when I witnessed
computer repairmen advance to marketing executives ... trained within the
company. I witnessed office personnel
at Aramco being sent to the Middle East for high level training ... within the company. I
witnessed many success stories, where people with intelligence, not necessarily with
degrees, made it to the top ... trained within the company.
Small, entrepreneurial family
businesses were sprouting up wherever you looked. Under the elevated trains in Brooklyn, a
cluttered drab store, selling mops, pots, and assorted housewares eventually became a
splendid store on Manhattans 5th. Avenue. A hard working electrician, carrying his
load of tools on bus and train, converting gas to electric light, eventually had crews
working throughout the city. A baker from Europe, starting with a small facility, the
bakery and a four table restaurant, eventually grew to develop an extensive bread delivery
business. Another newcomer to America began by nailing shingles on the roofs of Levittown
homes. He grew to the extent where his real estate holdings became legendary and was
written about in the Readers Digest.
While this freedom to progress
appeared to be Americas solid doctrine, all too soon corporations showed signs of
how they could exercise muscle. Merger mania grew, in spite of laws that were supposed to
prevent the inevitable ... "too much corporate power." Mergers with suspicious
motives, hostile take-overs, junk bond deception, were visible gathering storm clouds. It
was obvious, "Power" -- not improvement ... was on a rampage. It wasnt
long before workers notions of opportunity and security, began to melt away. Every
merger or takeover produced sell-offs and lay-offs. As power got fatter, we got leaner.
Many of us went broke.
Middle management, a substantial
segment of the middle class, had the rug pulled from under them. No longer could the
emissaries of power, "our silver-tongued renegades in government" preach the
glory of tomorrow. The words of Barnum, "a sucker is born every minute" had
reached a climax. The sucker was waking up. The "Chip" not yet fully utilized,
was beginning to emerge as the ultimate tool of power. Fighting back still appeared to be
possible. Now! waiting much longer ... may insure impossibility.
The middle class society that brought
America to her greatness was unconscionably altered and dismantled. The dedicated workers
who created the bubble of growth -- who cooperated in every way to ensure its future ...
were unceremoniously dumped. "Power" affirmed its capabilities of ultimate
control. Normally expected job longevity, ensuring a workers future well being, was
being eradicated. As a result, the "Family" was relegated to continue its slide
to oblivion.
Debt, so readily showered on us,
became a noose around our necks. As our death rattles grew in intensity, consumerism, the
"wheels of powers limousines" ... was going flat. That didnt seem to
matter so much. Its easier to repair a tire than restore a life. "Power"
knew that and proved that.
Today, turmoil reigns as never
before. Corporations profits, greater than ever, stock values flying high, have been
created by inexcusable downsizing ... a practice that will come back to haunt them. Those
who have gotten the ax are being bombarded by government to embrace retraining. Our
government, though they secretly sponsored corporate advantage, now tries to sweet-talk us
into submission. If they succeed we will all wind up "Pushing Hamburger." Will
the Pacific Rim economic expansion be receiving economic refugees from the USA?
As if there is not enough greed
created chaos, more is being cooked up. Welfare reform, an attempt at improvement, is
being engineered by sadistic minds. It is being designed to force welfare recipients into
an already shrinking job base, which has displayed an inability to "keep the American
family together." Crazy? Clever?
General Motors closes a plant in the
U.S.. Needed downsizing and reorganization are some of the publicized explanations. Jobs
gone, a community dedicated to the corporation is put in jeopardy as a new General Motors
plant appears in Mexico. Is this chicanery or stratagem? Does our government intercede on
our behalf? No way! Government steadfastly argues in favor of its appropriateness. They
did sponsor NAFTA ... you know. Tons of our tax money went to Mexico as an outcome of the
deal. Think again ... chicanery, stratagem, or both?
Even if we wanted to be patriotic and
buy American goods to regrow our industrial base how can we, if most arent made here
any more. Try a simple experiment. From the time you wake up in the morning and brush your
teeth, till youre ready to retire, write down where everything you touch or go near
is made. The countries of origin will speak volumes. We, the consumers didnt want
everything to be made over there. It was our submissive government, bending to corporate
will, that created corporate welfare (tax advantages) and looked the other way, dismissing
our abhorrence to exploited labor competing with us.
There seems to be no end to
suspicious, perplexing inconsistencies. Why, when America attained phenomenal meteoric
growth and dominance in the production of goods for the world market, are we now imitating
the job market of third world economies? There are those who will have lots, as the rest
are relegated to limiting toil. Why, after becoming the worlds leading industrial
power, are we importing so many of our daily necessities and have become the worlds
biggest debtor? Why, when we proclaim to be a utopia, do we lag far behind in education,
health care, crime prevention etc. ... of those we bombed into oblivion? Have the
custodians we entrusted to adhere to "our rational," including the President,
become one with a conspiracy? Are we entering a new age ... "domestication of the
work force"?
Too cynical a thought? Think! Look
back! Only a generation past -- rewarding beliefs, rewarding application of rewarding
employment, usually resulted in rewarding achievement ... and a promising future. Where
have those attributes gone? What kind of future are we being led to?
Simply put, we have come to
disbelief, disillusionment, disconnected depression. This characterization is not
portraying isolated pockets in our society, nor is it the result of isolated intentions of
those in power. It couldnt be. its too pervasive and therefore must be assumed
to have been orchestrated through coalition, and with hidden intent.
Our President has no compunctions of
appearing on television and announcing in emphatic terms, "our country has become a
service society, get used to it." It didnt just come to his attention, he must
have been in collusion with "powers agenda" for a long time.
The louder we cry out for our
government to intervene -- to put the brakes on what is happening -- to curtail corporate
abuse of power ... the more defensive and ridiculous become their antidotes.
A persistent ominous thought keeps
surfacing. This recently acknowledged, guardedly admitted to, "New World Order"
-- is it a prelude to strategies of "multi-national organizations" ...
specifically designed to divide a world they will eventually own?
The more I contemplate the
connections in todays world, the more I have to believe that corporate is bent on
dominating it in their own way. The more I contemplate the outcome, the more I believe an
"Orwellian" era is closing in on us.
Will machine supplant the mind of the
masses? Is man destined to become an organic appendage to the "Chip"?
When 350 of the worlds richest
people have more wealth than 3,000,000,000 of the worlds population, anything is
possible and many things are becoming probable. When 350 are equal to 3,000,000,000, could
there be temptation? You bet!
How might ownership of the entire world be controlled
and administered? Not to worry, its already under way. The tool is the chip.
"Chip." A godsend for some ... a curse for most.
(1) "I'll tell you one thing,
if things keep going the way they are, its going to be impossible to buy a weeks groceries for $20.00."
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(2) "Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long when
$5,000 will only buy a used one."
(3) "If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous."
(4) "Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a
dime just to mail
a
letter?"
(5) "If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside
help at the store."
(6) "When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost
29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage,"
(7) "Kids today are impossible. Those ducktail hair cuts make it impossible to
stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as
the girls,"
(8) "I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let
Clark Gable get by with saying damn in "Gone With The Wind", it seems every new
movie has either hell or damn in it."
(9) "I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man
on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call
astronauts preparing for it down in Texas."
(10) "Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000
a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday that they will be
making more than the President."
(11) "I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be
electric. They are even making electric typewriters now."
(12) "It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women
are having to work just to make ends meet."
(13) "It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to
watch their kids so they can both work."
(14) "I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole
lot of foreign business."
(15) "Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half
our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to
Congress."
(16) "The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously
doubt they will ever catch on."
(17) "There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend. It
costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel."
(18) "No one can afford to be sick any more, $35.00 a day in the hospital is too
rich for my blood."
(19) "And now the interruption of the good part, whatever the movies, as the
lights go on, and everybody (including little kids) are going and coming from
the refreshment stand and the restrooms!"
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