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What Is The American Dream?

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

What Is The American Dream?
by
David Schlecht

Since the days of Reagan, the American Dream has been recalibrated. We once believed that the American Dream was to live in a society that is upward mobile. In other words, to live in a society where you aren’t limited in life based on what class you were born into.

The Reagan years recalibrated the American Dream into getting as rich as you can regardless of who you have to hurt or destroy to make it. Greed became God. Even today, you hear of people pursuing a commercial theocracy. We went from being a “We” society to a “Me” society.

What is the American Dream today? What is your definition of the American Dream?

What best describes "the American Dream"?

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Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »

Some Times

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Some Times
by
David Schlecht

Some times I get so frustrated with Republicans and Conservatives and Libertarians when they don’t put any effort into understanding more than one side of an issue.

How will we ever fix this country until we can come together and Obama and the Democrats have been trying relentlessly to work together and the Republicans have done nothing but try to derail any hope of recovery just for political gain.

The Republican Party has done such a good job of convincing their unthinking followers that anyone who disagrees with them is the enemy. No, I’m not calling all Republicans unthinking, I’m saying only the unthinking ones think everyone else is the enemy.

Honestly, if we can’t come together to fix this mess that both parties have bestowed on us, how will we ever get out of it? We need to agree on what has caused this mess in order to fix it and stop it from happening again. We Americans have come together and fixed it before the last time this happened. But coming together this time is more of an effort since half (arguably the majority) of America is now painted as the enemy.

I talk with many of my conservative friends and family and it’s like talking to someone in a foreign language at times. I honestly try to understand and find items of mutual agreement but all they seem to be looking for is an argument. It’s not about coming together.

How can we help heal this country while half of us are calling the other half names?

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Cultivating Fear

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Cultivating Fear

The Manipulation and Exploitation of Emotions

by
David Schlecht

Have you ever wondered how people and businesses and political parties can get otherwise intelligent people to do things contrary to their best interests? In this text I will illuminate some of the root causes of our most basic emotions and show how they can be purposely triggered repeatedly to achieve reliable results. With this information you can better spot attempts to manipulate your emotions and better prevent such attempts.

What are emotions?

What kinds of emotions we experience can vary widely but for the purpose of this text we will  investigate the most common and most easily exploitable, namely fear, jealousy, hate, and love. There are numerous other emotions and numerous other ways to exploit them but the concept is the same.

Our emotions, like our memory, are strengthened by repeated use. For example, the more our fear emotion is evoked, the easier it is to evoke it again. Being frightened by the same thing repeatedly will eventually desensitize us to the fear response from that stimulus, but invoking fear from a new stimulus is still easier with each successful fright.

The strengthening of the emotion and ease of triggering it is caused by the increased number and the strength of the neurons in our brains stimulated by each emotion. This is similar to learning through repetition as we all do in our younger school years.

We experience emotional fatigue when the same emotions are triggered too often. Different people have different thresholds before fatigue sets in.  The more emotional exploitation you can endure before becoming fatigued, the better candidate you are for those intent on exploiting it.

You have probably wondered why I selected this particular list of emotions to explain rather than some other list. If you did, then, good. There is some thought involved in which emotions best explain this phenomenon.

Fear

Fear is our most basic and most easily triggered emotion and as such is the most easily exploited. Typically, newborn babies do not experience fear. They can be startled by a sudden rush of sensation, such as loud noises, but there is no lasting emotion from the experience. As a child grows he learns that consequences follow events. It is the anticipation of the consequences that teaches a child fear.

The fear response does not require logic and, in fact, will often trigger contrary to logic. Most of us remember going through life with certain fears that we eventually realized were groundless. Some people can go their entire lifetimes with unfounded fears that they never successfully deal with. It is the fact this this emotion is so quick that we, as a species, have survived our history.

Fear is a repelling emotion. Its value is that it repels us from negative consequences.

It should be obvious from this that fear is the easiest emotion to induce and can be induced regardless of facts.

Jealousy

Unlike fear, jealousy is not a base emotion. This emotion requires thought. This emotion also requires fear as a catalyst. How does one become jealous? Jealousy comes from fear of having to do without. From fear it can evolve into greed where we demand that other do without just so we can benefit. At its most fundamental level, jealousy is just a short distance away from fear.

Where fear is a repelling emotion which repels us from harmful consequences, jealousy can start as repelling and can become more of an attracting emotion as it evolves into greed.

Anger and Hatred

These emotions are both by-products of fear so neither are base emotions. Where anger is a reactive emotion, hatred is a proactive emotion. Anger requires a certain amount of logic. It is only after we have decided what the consequences may be that we become angry over the cause.

Hatred, on the other hand, is an emotion based on fear of future actions and future and possibly imagined consequences.

Obviously both these emotions require some level of thought.

Love

Love is typically associated with sensations associated with certain hormones in the bloodstream. A newborn baby may feel the emotion of love while cuddling with a parent or most commonly, while breastfeeding. The mother also typically feels the emotional bond.

There are also other hormones that trigger this emotion, some related to sexual intercourse such as oxytocin.

As most romantics will tell you, there’s more to love than physiology, and I agree. There is a huge amount of thought required to process the emotion of love outside the physiological level and that, though pertinent, is far outside the realm of this text.

Where the previous three emotions are typically repelling, love is attractive.

Comparing these four emotions, you can see that three are fear based and are strong due to their necessary role in keeping us alive. Still, in the long run, love can help us overcome all the other emotions and thus can be the strongest.

Exploitation

As we have seen, fear based emotions are repulsive so we try to avoid conditions that cause the fear. If the unethical exploiter can push the fear button in you and redirect your repulsion to another cause, your quick fear response will typically fire before you have had a chance to evaluate the real cause. If this happens more than once then the displacement to the new imagined cause will become more solid and easier to associate with that fear.

There is a multi-billion dollar industry that provides this exact service. We teach orators how to get the crowd worked up and riled up and all full of fear and tell the crowd, “it’s them, over there, who are causing the problem.” In such an emotionally charged environment such as a great speech or a rally, it’s easy to get caught up in the fear without realizing what’s causing it.

Once you’ve been lured in by the fear tactic, it’s an easy step for someone to not only say it’s them people over there, but let’s all hate and fear them. It’s easy to get a crowd riled up enough to go get the torches and pitch forks. It takes some skill to work the crowd up just enough to get them to take the fear and hatred home and act on it outside the rally.

As we’ve learned, people get fatigued from fearing all the time so the way to keep the fear fresh in the followers’ minds is to change the fear. This is why you will see leaders manipulating their people by swapping one fear for another at regular intervals. One great orator went from pushing the hate and fear buttons because of Jews, then it was because of those carrying bad genes (handicapped citizens), to fearing communism and then back to the Jews. Can you guess who this was? His tactics are obvious in hind sight.

To take another obvious example, notice how the American Republican Party induces fear of “illegal aliens are taking your jobs” or “the illegal aliens are breeding us out of existence” only to ignore this fear for a couple months while they’re ginning up fear of the socialists in the Democratic Party that we should all fear and hate, only to find that a few months later they’re preaching fear and hatred of abortion mongers and then it’s back to the illegals.

By bringing in fresh new fears regularly, those intent on exploiting our emotions keep up perpetually hooked on fear and hatred.

Just to be fair, the Democratic party uses plenty of fear tactics as well but since the Democratic voters don’t have over-stimulated fear neurons, the tactics don’t have the same impact. That’s why controlling Democratic voters is so often referred to as herding cats.

What You Can Do

All is not lost. There are things that you can do to minimize the impact these unethical fear merchants have on you. The first line of defense is the old rule of counting to 10. Don’t succumb to non-immediate fear without first stopping and taking a breath and counting to 10. Then, ask yourself if someone is trying to take advantage of your emotions.

Secondly, any time someone is trying to stir up your fear emotion, cover your wallet and get ready. A fear that comes from outside you, one that has been sold to you is almost certain to be manipulation. That means it’s time to really stop and evaluate and more than anything, research the facts that the fear merchant is peddling. This isn’t to say that all fear merchants are false. Sometimes people really do have to get others educated to the risks.

And, most importantly, realize that everyone is vulnerable to these tactics. Those who are the most vulnerable to unethical salesmen are those who feel they have nothing to fear. If you think you’re immune to the tactics, you’re the easiest target.

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Posted in General, Politics | 4 Comments »

Tea Bagger Education #3

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Tea Bagger Education #3
by
Captain Jack

There’s no shortage of amusing stupidity in the lies told to the poor naive tea baggers. From today’s mail box, the honorable (convicted felon criminal) former mayor Roger Hedgecock spews lie after lie after just plain stupidity. Check out how low this man goes in deceiving the poor scared tea baggers. Why do you still listen to those you know are lying to you? Wake up tea baggers. There are real problems we ALL need to be addressing and we can’t while you’re distracted with these silly foolish lies.

Here goes — watch out, be scared, wet your pants, Obama wants to steal your retirement.

The idea to confiscate your retirement money came (no surprise) from academia.

Do you get that? Mr. felon criminal Roger Hedgecock warns you about how Obama wants to confiscate your retirement. Does anyone really believe this filth? Well, obviously a few here and there will be inclined to follow this garbage. It’s sad, but some people don’t have the critical thinking skills required to know up from down. But this is just sad to be taking advantage of the poor Americans that don’t know any better than to believe this nonsense.

Just think about that for a moment. An American president wants to confiscate your retirement? Really? And what’s next? Is he having an affair with an alien from outer space? It’s sad, but yes, some poor people don’t know any better than to believe this stuff. Shame on conservatives like Hedgecock for taking advantage of the less fortunate. Shame on them for taking advantage of our friends and neighbors.

Some people don’t remember much past last week, but about 30 years ago employers used to provide pensions for retirement benefits to their employees. A pension is like an insurance program. The longer you live the more you take out. The shorter you live the less you take out. In the long run, the same amount is taken out as is put in and everyone gets paid until the day they die.

The conservatives have brainwashed us all into thinking 401Ks are the way to go. Think for a moment about your 401K. If you are lucky enough to live a long healthy life, you’ll run out of retirement money and end up homeless or on Social Security or Welfare. Nice! Thank you Republicans for the 401K.

If, on the other hand, you die early, then you don’t get to use all the money you saved up. Thank you again, Republicans, for the 401K.

In other words, you lose either way. Who ever thought up such an awful retirement plan and who sold this lie to us? But, that’s another story.

So, Theresa Ghilarducci (repeat after me, OBAMA’S name is OBAMA, not Theresa), suggests many possible changes to the handling of 401Ks. For anyone alive today and who still has a brain cell, our 401Ks are worthless! The current Republican Depression has wiped them out. Theresa’s recommendations would prevent this from happening again and again. Shame on her for trying to come up with solutions. Let’s all hope the Republicans in Congress continue to obstruct everything that can possibly help us.

Yes, my dear tea baggers, Obama is after your worthless 401Ks and he plans to spend them on dinner and a night out with his favorite alien from Mars.

Oh, and by the way, Hedgecock’s bribery case and lying under oath was mysteriously tossed out by an appellate judge on a technicality. Do you really want to take the word of this man?

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Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 3 Comments »

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom

Monday, February 1st, 2010

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom
by
David Schlecht

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

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2010 and America’s Lost Decade

Monday, January 4th, 2010

2010 and America’s Lost Decade
by
Captain Jack

Happy New Year to one and all. May this year bring you the financial relief and medical coverage you so deserve. Let’s take a quick look back at the past decade.

Let’s see, it’s January 2000. The economy is booming, the federal budget is in the black for the first time in decades, we were at a time of relative peace. We trusted our sciences and scientists, we had confidence in our banks. We had some control over our banking sector, even though Gramm-Leach-Bliley act had just been passed but the banking sector insanities hadn’t shifted into high gear, yet.

The middle-class American made almost $1700 more per year than today.

Oh, and did I say that we weren’t in the middle of two middle-eastern wars? Oh I did?

So, what, exactly, can you say that America saw in the past decade that was beneficial? Okay, sure, there were a few Peace Prizes, a few discoveries, oh, and we finally pulled the life support from a long gone dead woman.

You can say it is just a coincidence that these were the Bush years, but no one really believes that it was anything but Bush and the Republican politicians who benefited from everything that is now harming America.

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More Examples of Welfare for the Rich

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

More Examples of Welfare for the Rich
by
David Schlecht

This week I’ve seen a scenario played out in Nevada that I’m sure most Americans will recognize in their their own neighborhoods. In Nevada, we’ve had a week of cold and snow, the same cold and snow affecting most of the country about now. So what have we noticed during this weather?

In Nevada, the ability of the towns to clear the snow has been greatly diminished, mostly because of budget cuts. Many of the businesses are paying fewer taxes and the rich have been paying fewer taxes for 30 years now, and the tax revenues are drying up, so the civic services, like snow removal, are greatly reduced. But, who is getting the services and who is not? Look around your town and you will notice what I see here in Nevada.

The businesses get plowed first, followed by the wealthy neigborhoods. And, if at all, the middle class and lower class neighborhoods get plowed last. Is this because businesses and the rich pay a higher percentage tax than the real Americans? Of course, not, they’re paying considerably less. Corporations now pay less than 7% of the country’s tax burden. Who pays the rest? You and I do. The Rich have seen insane tax breaks over the last 30 years, down form 92% to as low as 15% in most cases.

How much do you pay? 25%? 30%? 35%? Include your income tax and your property tax and your sales taxes and you can bet you’re paying a higher percentage than the corporations or the rich. So, aren’t you glad that your neighborhoods aren’t getting plowed but theirs are?

Isn’t it time to start getting enraged by this theft? Isn’t it time to say enough?

The Tea-Baggers have it right. Something stinks in America and we have to get motivated to get it fixed. Unfortunately for the Tea-Baggers, though, nobody is telling them that it’s the rich that are stealing their money so they think it’s the Mexicans or the Liberals or the illegal aliens to blame. But, eventually they will realize, and we all need ot be ready to stand beside them and demand that this mess get fixed. Or better yet, it’s time we stood up ourselves and let the Tea-Baggers join us. Get motivated!

NO MORE WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY!

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Fox Lies

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Fox Lies
by
David Schlecht

So, is there still anyone out there who doesn’t believe that Fox is just a propaganda network? Check out this case. Fox reporters refused to rewrite their story condemning Bovine Growth Hormone to instead glorify it and were fired for their refusal. Google it if you want more information on Fox Lies.

In a case decided by a jury of their peers, Fox was found guilty. However, when Fox appealed it to a higher court, the judge (mind you, no jury) found in favor of Fox. Sounds to me like an appellate court judge should be investigated.

The bottom line, Fox Lies.

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Compartmentalized Thinking

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Compartmentalized Thinking
by
Captain Jack

Extrapolating some on David’s earlier post regarding deficiencies in logic and reasoning, I’ll cover a specific shortfall in human thought.

To begin with, humans have a natural curiosity and a natural tendency to group our thoughts and learnings into compartments and to link these compartments together. In other words, once you learn that one stovetop hurts when it’s hot, you don’t have to learn the same for every other stovetop but rather can believe that everything in the compartment is the same.That’s compartments.

The next step is to link these compartments so since you know stovetops are hot and ovens are like stovetops, they just might be hot, too. That’s linking.

When a child learns too many things that can’t be reasonably linked, they learn to skip the linking part. As a simple example, a child may learn repeatedly that Jesus loves us and Jesus is Lord. He also learns, repeatedly, conflicting data, such as examples where God is hateful and destructive. [This isn't about religion, so don't get too excited.]

In order to believe the two conflicting compartments, the child learns not to try to link, or to give up easily on the task of linking. This condition makes it easier for the child to learn falsehoods and outright lies because there is no need to link and to reconcile the differences.

This is a mental deficency that is often a learned behavior.

This condition also arises when a child believes that he cannot question the authority figure that is lying to him or unknowingly misguiding him.

So you should be asking, “what does this mean to an adult?”

Let’s take a look at another example. Ask yourself, are you pro-life? [No, this isn't a rant on abortion rights.]

If you said yes to this question, then it is most likely (statistically speaking) that you also endorse capital punishment. Capital punishment is not pro-life so why do you say you’re pro-life? Okay, maybe you’ll argue that I’m pro-life for everything except for that.

Is that really true? Are you pro-life? Do you think all American, better yet, all people should have free health care? If you’re pro-life, I’ll bet you are saying absolutely no to that question. Now we have three different compartments and you have no way to link them. How can you be pro-life and be against the majority of things that reflect a respect for life?

It’s natural for humans to interpret new data in the context of his understanding of the world around him. Things that don’t fit into this model of the world are rejected or forgotten. When there are too many things to reject, he finally stops and re-evaluates his model of the world.

If he has become an expert at not linking the categories then he can have any number of conflicting beliefs and never lose a night’s sleep.

Obviously this is not only bad for our hypothetical thinker, but for the world around him as well since he is constantly making decisions that are not only wrong but often dangerous.

If you find yourself wondering how to get out of this ditch, it’s easier than you might think. Just start trying to link your compartments. Start slowly and work from what you see to be true around you. For example, are you a kind person? Do you consistently make decisions that demonstrate that you are kind? When you catch yourself demonstrating otherwise, then stop and ask yourself if you’re really a kind person. Every day is full of opportunities to learn and grow.

Take the poll:

Are you pro life?

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What are the Commons and why should we care?

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

What are the Commons and why should we care?
by
David Schlecht

We’ve discussed the concerns over our Commons in previous posts, specifically on Reinventing Capitalism.

The Commons were originally defined as the parts of the property of a society that all or most of the people shared. As an example, a small tribe may need nearby grazing lands where they can allow their horses to graze.

As long as the tribe is small and as long as none of the tribe members decides to make a profit off the commons, everything works perfectly. But sooner or later someone will find a way to make money off allowing his cattle to graze and the more cattle he can use to exploit the free commons, the more money he can make at the expense of the rest of the tribe.

This situation typically leads to an agreement (law) that the commons are for everyone equally and nobody should make a profit at the expense of anyone else.

When humans weren’t over-populating the earth, many argued that the commons were limitless and we could always move to a new land once we’ve exhausted the current commons. Back when America was young, we could dump all our waste in the rivers and it would just mysteriously disappear, or so we thought.

This misconception that the commons were limitless caused America’s forefathers to overlook the immense need to protect the commons. They didn’t say we shouldn’t protect the commons but they didn’t explicitly protect them to the level we need today with our over population problems.

Today we are beginning to realize that everything provided by the earth should reasonably be considered the commons and protected as such. Automobile manufacturers are making profits by building cars that spew their waste into our limited atmosphere and not paying to clean it up. Eventually there won’t be any clean air left unless we protect our commons.

Many industries are making a profit while they dump their poisonous waste into our rivers and streams. Eventually there will be no more clean water unless we start protecting our commons.

Many more industries are treating our earth as a dumping ground for their toxic waste, and then moving on to new land when the run out of room. Eventually we will run out of land unless we start protecting our commons.

In present times, we consider our commons to include things like our airwaves. Also, utilities that have a right-of-way across our properties are also reasonably society’s commons.

Another kind of common is that which is required for a successful society. This includes education, the press (or specifically newspapers as defined by America’s founding fathers). Some argue that reasonable medical services are required for a successful society and should also be treated as our commons. That is a whole other topic for a post of another day.

America felt that phones where required for a functioning society so American tax dollars were spent to ensure that everyone could get phone service. The same applied to the supply of energy. These are also commons. That’s not to say that nobody can make money off them, but that no one can have such a strangle hold on them that people die so big business can make more money. Sounds like America’s medical system, doesn’t it?

Protecting the commons is the only way, I repeat, the only way that society can survive.

As we’ve seen, commons can change over time. What is required for a society to flourish today is not the same as what will be needed in the future.

Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 3 Comments »

America is a Great Country

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

America is a Great Country
by
David Schlecht

Some of us believe this, and others of us just say the words but don’t believe it, and still others just plain think We the People stink, and we may all love America.

How can this be? Simple. It all boils down to who you listen to.

Take a moment today, during lunch, jot down a quick list of the things America does well and another list of the things it does poorly, and then go through and place a value for the importance of each item.

Here’s my very short list, but really, don’t cheat. Make your own list and grade your country:

Does Well

(5) Protect us from foreign invaders
(5) Protect us from violent criminals
(4) Protect our homes from fire
(4) Protect our environment from greedy corporations
(3) Protect the weak and down-trodden
(3) Provides fair and equitable education for all
(3) Protects us from unethical businesses
(2) Protects us from disasters
(4) Protects our food supply, medicines

Does Badly

(5) Protect us from corporate greed
(5) Ensures access to an unbiased media
(5) Protects us from greedy corporations polluting our information, media, and science
(4) Protects us from the ultra-rich having undue influence in our government
(3) Research to help mankind

Okay, now remove everything from your list that isn’t an actual current function of the government. In my list I’ll remove:
- Protect us from corporate greed
- Ensures access to an unbiased media
- Protects us from greedy corporations polluting our information, media, and science
- Protects us from the ultra-rich having undue influence in our government

Now, add up the two groups, Good and Bad. In my list, I have 33 Good and 3 Bad.

This is a quick look at how good you think We the People are at governing ourselves.

The next time you hear someone say how lousy the government is at doing anything, remember this little test and ask yourself if maybe the speaker has no idea what he’s talking about. If that’s the case, perhaps it’s time to change the channel.

Leave a comment and let us know how good or bad you find America to be.

One last point. Why do we know America is great but still listen to people tell us it can’t run anything successfully? Here’s a quote. Can you guess who said it?

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

How Well Does America Do At Running Government

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Healthcare Rally at UNR

Friday, September 4th, 2009

… this from the Young Dems:

UNR Young Democrats Initiate Health Care Rally
in Support of Obama’s Sept. 9 Address to Congress


WCDP and Organizing for America to Sponsor Rally
What: “Health Care: Our Issue, Our Future” Rally

When: Wednesday, Sept. 9, from Noon to 1 p.m

Where: UNR Campus, HilliardPlaza “Mini Quad”

Parking: Metered lot north of Whalen Garage ($1.50 per hour)

Contact: Taylor Anderson, (775) 848-1137, ander517@gmail.com
“It isn’t the senior citizens who will be stuck with the broken health care system we have today, it’s our generation,” said Taylor Anderson, member of the UNR Young Democrats of Nevada (YDNV). “If we don’t pass meaningful health care reform now, it won’t happen in our generation.”

The Young Democrats are leading a coalition of other Democratic groups to show that health care is a vital issue for students and young people.

“What gets done in the next few months in Congress will determine our access to full, affordable insurance coverage for the foreseeable future,” said YDNV activist Adam Allen, who will emcee the rally.

“The students want to engage in the national health care debate to show they care, and also to bust some of the myths that are floating around,” said Chip Evans, chair of the Washoe County Democratic Party (WCDP), a rally sponsor.


In addition to the UNR YDNV chapter and the WCDP, other sponsors are: Organizing for America; Nevada State Democratic Party and Health Care for America Now (HCAN).

 Featured speakers at the rally are: Nevada State Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie; Theresa Navarro, State Director, Health Care for America Now; Ann Newsome, Speaker, UNR Student Senate; Gracie Geremia, UNR Student Senate and Dave Osolnick, Nevada Deputy Field Director, Organizing for America.

Young Democrats at the University of Nevada, Reno are rallying around President Barack Obama’s health care reform to prove they have a huge stake in this national debate. The WCDP will be among the sponsors supporting the event.

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Free Market Madness

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Free Market Madness
by
David Schlecht

The next time someone tries telling you how wonderful the “free market” is and how it will solve all our problems, I suggest you stop and take a breath and really question it. Here’s why.

Though I’ve discussed the silliness of the supply side economics, or voodoo economics as it’s called, the “free market” is also based on outright lies.

Going all the way back to Econ 101, let’s revisit the economic structure of the robber barons. A middle class in an economy is something that does not grow or survive without political regulations and pressures. It’s that simple. Without regulations (in other word, a free market) pay for the working class will always reduce to subsistence levels. Always!

In a truly free economy, there are a few wealthy leeching off the misfortune of the rest of society. And then there are the working poor. There is basically nobody in between. In other words, no middle class.

Sure, there is a very small percentage of small business owners, but they are barely a step away from the working poor. Ever read any of Dickens’ stories? That is exactly how England’s free market worked in the 19th century; it’s how any free market works over time. Been to Somalia lately?

Other than the stinking and unethical rich, who would ever want such a society? Well, obviously someone is doing a great job of convincing the uneducated or naive that “free markets” are in our best interests.

There is no shortage of “think tanks” funded by the rich, whose sole job is to fool the gullible amongst us.

A “free market” society is an imoral society. Don’t believe the lies. It only causes disaster for anyone but the elite.

Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 3 Comments »

Republicans and Presidential Signing Statements

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Republicans and Presidential Signing Statements
by
David Schlecht

Let me get this straight. Eight years of Bush signing statements circumventing the purpose of Congress and not a single Republican representative objecting. Eight straight years of prostrating themselves to a criminal president and not a word.

Now every republican in Congress is opposed to signing statements.

There’s really no way to spin this. It’s obviously party over country when it comes to the morally devoid Republican Party. It doesn’t matter what harm the president does as long as he’s a Republican but oh, no, we have to stop the Democrats at every opportunity.

Ensign was ranting and raving about Clinton having an affair but now too corrupt and crooked to step down for the same crime. The Republican Party is so far out of touch with the American people that I wonder if they will ever be believed or trusted again. Personally, I find it frightening.

By the way, I’m seriously opposed to signing statements and have voiced my opposition here and in letters to the president and to my representatives. How many Republican voters did that about Bush’ signing statements? Not a single one.

What does all this say about the Republican voters? It means that many if not most of them are as slimy as their representatives. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad for the country, as long as my president is the one making the singing statements. It doesn’t matter if he’s having an affair and neglecting his duties, but boy if it was a Democrat, all hell would break loose.

We will never see the Republican Party with less than 25% approval rating because of all those party-first folks, as long as it’s your party. It’s a sad sad statement about the party.

Posted in General, Politics | 7 Comments »

Gaia and the Balance of Life

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Gaia and the Balance of Life
by
David Schlecht

Dr. James Lovelock, decades ago, wrote about the Gaia of Earth. He was trying to explain to us, in a different bent, that which we learned in early childhood: life on earth is a delicate balance of life and elements.

Earth is a collection of interconnected lives. As species come and go, the balance changes but always remains in balance. Imagine back before any life on earth, back when earth was pretty much like any other planet in the universe. It was pretty bleak, certainly not a place where live would have much of a chance to survive.

After millions of years (or seconds, depending on your religious beliefs) life started to get a foothold and earth became a home to living organisms. Earth became life. Earth, unlike the other planets, was becoming conducive to life.

Back in the beginning, mankind would have never survived. Earth, like other planets had no oxygen. As life flourished, plants that consumed the carbon produced oxygen as exhaust. After millions of years of this exhaust, finally there is enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support life as we know it.

As we continue to over populate the earth, we’re replacing the oxygen with carbon and devolving back into the bleak earth of before, an earth that can’t support life as we know it. Just the act of breathing means we’re putting more carbon back into the atmosphere. The more of us there are, the more oxygen we deplete and more carbon we emit. There’s no doubt that we are heading in the wrong direction.

Obviously earth cannot support the number of people already on the planet. It’s time to start discouraging large families. And it’s time to start thinking about what we’re doing to this home of ours.

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Mankind’s Exemption from Evolution

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Mankind’s Exemption from Evolution
by
David G. Schlecht

I once had a dear friend explain to me that she believed in evolution but didn’t believe that mankind was subject to it. In my naivety, I poo pooed the notion that we could somehow be blessed with some magical powers endowed by our creator. Today, I must apologize for my failure to believe in the answer because of my discomfort with the delivery system. CLW, are you there?

Today I heard a discussion on the radio regarding the “ultimate goal” of evolution. Of course, this implies some magical forethought (or Intelligent Design) rather than a simple system of selection. But, still, what is the final phase (ultimate goal) of evolution? The final evolutionary phase of any successful species is to evolve beyond the reach of evolution. Let me explain.

All around us we see species mutating and dying off. In fact, last count I read was that we are seeing the extinction of hundreds of thousands of species every decade. Most of this is due to the success of the human race. Species that don’t do so well around humans (like many birds, wildlife like lions, ocean dwellers like dolphins) are all dying off. Species that coexist well with humans, like cockroaches, flourish.

Studies show that when a species’ parents are unhealthy (such as those under environmental pressures) they have a higher rate of birth defects. In other words, mutations increase as the species’ environmental fitness reduces.

Environmental fitness changes as the environment changes. As the environment becomes more alkali or more acidic, or more rich in oxygen or more rich in carbon or methane, the species may become less well adapted and thus experience more mutations. With the increased mutations, there is a chance that a random mutation may cause the offspring to be better adapted to the new environment and thus have a better chance of surviving, reproducing, and spreading the new, better characteristic (mutation).

I’m not talking evolution, here, but just describing what we all see around us every day. You may call it natural selection, or evolution, or God’s will, or the coming of the X-Men.

We see species change around us all the time. Just look at how good mankind has become at breeding dogs. Man made the different dog strains, not evolution. However, in the time that we’ve seen numerous breeds of dogs come and go, we’ve seen mankind stay exactly the same. There are no discernible genetic differences in mankind’s genes in our entire species’ history. We see different mixes and matches but no mutations allowing the offspring to better adapt to the environment.

Why is that? Why has mankind not evolved since we first began keeping records?

Mankind is reaching the pinnacle of evolutionary perfection. We are becoming such a well suited species that there are few mutations and none of the mutations create better suited offspring. Did God make us this way? Who knows. With no witnesses alive today to testify and no reliable history books from the dawn of mankind, your guess is as good as mine. And what’s more, what does it matter?

The better adapted a species is to its environment, the less control evolution has over it. This means that the “ultimate goal” of evolution is to produce a species that perfectly matches its environment. Of course, when it does, the environment usually changes.

Posted in General, Religion | 5 Comments »

Finding the Right Balance

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

Finding the Right Balance
by
David Schlecht

The American Conservatives are working overtime trying to scare America about being socialist. They even go so far as to equate socialism with Communism. Firstly, it’s immoral and really sad to see a political party taking advantage of the ignorance of our fellow Americans. It only takes a few seconds to research the meaning of the two and one realizes that they are not equivalent. Shame on those Conservatives for taking advantage of the less fortunate.

Let’s talk about socialism, here. In simple terms, socialism is when a society unites together to ensure that certain needs are fulfilled. A good example of the dreaded socialism is our local police departments. We combine our tax dollars to ensure that everyone is protected by our socialist police departments. Personally, I like our socialist police departments. It was a good idea.

Our fire departments are socialist, as well. We have all combined our taxes to ensure that the fires will be put out, no matter whose house or whose neighborhood is on fire. Yes, a very good socialist idea, indeed.

Basically, almost everything about the services we collectively provide for each other through our taxes is socialism. And, all this socialism works quite well, until the Republicans get in power and privatize our social programs. Once profit is the primary purpose, the social value is lost.

Nobody really wants a social automobile industry, or computer industry. But, we do all agree that certain needs must be guaranteed, certain needs as defined by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. A good place to start is “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Is that where we want to draw the line? Or should we do like the Republicans want, and throw away the social programs our forefathers have put in place for us and our country?

Is socialism bad and evil like the Conservatives would like you to believe? Imagine a country without social programs. Somolia comes to mind. That’s the kind of country the Conservatives want us to become: the ultra rich feeding off the poor, sick, and dying. It really makes you want to vote in another Republican, doesn’t it?

So, I think we can all agree that we want some level of socialism in our country, at least we know the country’s founding fathers did. So, how much is the right amount?

Again, getting back to the words of our founding fathers:

  • Life
  • Liberty
  • and the Pursuit of Happiness

Should we have a national health care system? This is so very obvious that it’s the first item on the list. Without a national helath care system, there is no life. Without an education and without our legal systems, there would be no liberty. And, without education, and a national financial system, there is no guarantee of the pursuit of happiness.

Simply put, the bare minimum that our founding fathers wanted for our citizens is:

  • National Health Care, available to all (for the slower among us, that means free)
  • Police and legal protection, available to all.
  • Education, again free to all.

Now there are obviously numerous considerations that our founding fathers didn’t think of. For example 200 years ago, there wasn’t much thought of environmental protections, but without the EPA, today, there is no way to stop the greedy (Conservative-donating) corporations from destroying the world around us.

This short list of social programs that we don’t have contains services provided for free or almost free in all the other industrialized nations. In other words, the minimum requirements as put forth by our founding fathers are provided by all the first-world countries EXCEPT America.

How did this happen? You can thank the Conservatives.

Now, let me be fair. The Republican Party has not always been like this. Only in the post Reagan era have the Corrupt Conservatives been in total control of the Republican party. And, now that America is seeing exactly what the Conservatives have to sell, they’re abandoning the Republican Party in droves.

This is bad.

If we are going to have political parties, we need more than one. But, as we all see, the Republican Party marches in lock-step opposing all the things America’s founding fathers fought and died for.

How do we get the unhealthy conservative bent out of our political discourse? Now that the Democrats are in charge, the corrupt corporate conservatives are working overtime trying to corrupt the Democrats as well and we can guarantee that they will have some level of success, but hopefully, not the kind of success they’ve had with the Republican Party.

It’s time for the Republicans to retake control of their party and it’s time for America to kick out the caustic Conservative memes. Some level of socialism, as envisioned by our forefathers is a good thing. Now we only need to decide how much is enough.

Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »

Who Owns our Government?

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Who Owns our Government?
by
David Schlecht

In recent posts I’ve gone into some detail onto the problems with our existing financial system. As I’ve pointed out, we will never be able to avoid the bubbles and busts without stringent regulation. The lack of regulation directly led to the great depression of the 30s and is the direct cause of today’s financial problems.

Let’s look at today’s disaster. As posted, earlier, the crux of our current disaster is the derivative market. We have numerous home loans bundled up with other loans and sold like stocks. These bundles are then re-bundled and sold off again. By the time the final sale happens, a buyer may be getting bits and pieces of hundreds of mortgage loans, many in default.

The loans, themselves, aren’t the real problem. The real problem is the banks and investors have trillions of dollars tied up in billions of dollars worth of loans.

Think about that for a moment. The main problem isn’t the mortgages going into default, but those mixed and multiplied derivatives.

The cheap and easy way to fix the problem (for today, anyway) is to make the mortgages good by buying them out and negotiating with the owners for terms that the owners will accept. In fact, we could pay off all the bad mortgages for around 800 billion dollars. Our government could buy up the bad loans and negotiate with the borrowers and spend less than we have given to the banks, so far.

Making the foundation of the bubble good, the derivatives problem goes away. Once the bubble is re-inflated, we can reintroduce the regulations that the Republican Free Market Cult has destroyed and get back on track. This, of course, means getting rid of and possibly outlawing derivatives.

If this makes sense, then you’re probably wondering why our government, in all its wisdom, didn’t already think of this.

Well, they did! In fact, they were trying to buy up the mortgages and do just this but the Republicans and the banks were screaming so loud and putting so much money into lobbying Congress, that OUR GOVERNMENT couldn’t do what we needed them to do. Instead, we’ve put trillions of dollars into the banks, and nothing has been fixed.

The stock market is showing signs of rebound, but once one realizes that the root of the problem isn’t fixed, it becomes obvious that we’re spending trillions of dollars to bolster up the banks but the problem won’t go away. The current Free Market Depression will come back with a vengeance by this Fall. By then, we’ll have trillions less to spend where we really need it.

Now, ask yourself, why do the banks get money but the mortgagees are losing their homes? It’s because we are still allowing lobbyists to control our politicians. The only way to resolve this issue is to refuse to vote for any politician, no matter what party, if they accept business donations. Sorry, but that means no more Republican politicians and good bye to many of the Democrats as well, until they come clean.

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Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 6 Comments »

America’s Coming War With the Right Wing Radicals

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

America’s Coming War With the Right Wing Radicals
by
Dave Speck

Three news reports in the past year bring light upon the dysfunction of the American Conservative Movement. Three times in the past year Conservatives has taken up arms against the scary Liberals. Before that, we had Waco, Oklahoma City, and even Columbine. There are numerous more cases that don’t even show up in the news as Conservative Attacks against America, because the news is afraid to paint it in that light, lest the Right crucify them for it.

Today the Department of Homeland Security warns us that Right Wing Radicals are recruiting our military veterans for the coming war. The greatest internal threat of violence against America is the Conservative party. The Right is going crazy trying to get the DHS to take it all back. Rather than asking their radicals to stop preaching hatred and violence, they’re in full blown “hide the truth” mode.

Now, tell me, how many scary Liberals have attacked Americans because of the political views of the attacker or the victim? Zero! Even the radical groups like Green Peace use peaceful demonstrations.How many Liberal Hate Radio stations are there? Practically none. None successful. What are the most successful Conservative shows? Hate Media. It’s that simple.

Today the Conservative Hate Media is chanting kill, kill, kill, and their mobilized zombies are rushing to the ammo stores to stock up on their Librul Killing Buddies. Ammunition and weapons sales are at an all time high. Why? Obviously it’s not because the Liberals are planning on murdering Conservatives, but rather, the weak-minded followers of the Conservative party are arming themselves for the coming war with Librul Amerika.

The rest of us Americans (yes, the huge majority of us) can complain all we want but the problem won’t go away until Hate Media is silenced. We are way past the point of comparing this to yelling “Fire” in a theater. This Hate Media is already proving to be causing Conservatives to murder their neighbors. Hate Radio and Fox must be silenced.

I’m not for censoring anything that isn’t already against the law. I’m for enforcing the laws that we already have that forbids media from insiting violence.

Will America’s Conservatives recognize this as a problem with their media and put a stop to it? Of course not. Never will happen. The vast majority of the Conservatives would never believe that the problem is with them. Heck, there’s still 20 some percent that think George W Bush was anything but a criminal. Talk about blind alegance to a party platform. Party before Country! The Republican Motto.

Posted in General, Politics | 9 Comments »

What’s With the Thomas Paine Lies?

Monday, April 13th, 2009

What’s With the Thomas Paine Lies?
by
David Schlecht

I’ve seen numerous posts over the years questioning the sickness of unending deceit coming out of the Republican Party. Today is no different. Why would any political party want to lie about the political leanings of one of America’s Founding Fathers?

The new video out pushing the Tea Party features a Thomas Paine impersonator. I just don’t understand why a party would choose one of the more progressive forefathers and make him up to look like he would, in some remote way, support what the Republican Party stands for.

There is no question that the Republican Party relies heavily on the failure of their followers to question their motives, or to even possess a grade school education.

Thomas Paine was for taxing the rich, and ensuring that aristocracies don’t take root in our country. He was all for “stakes” which were his program for scholarships which would be given to the young to allow them to get educated and start businesses, by taxing the rich.

For those who didn’t pay attention in elementary school, the Tea Party was really a revolt against big business, with the name of The Honorable East Indian Trading Company. It was a revolt because this mega-corporation, like Wal-mart, was given unfair tax breaks that threatened to destroy New England’s tea houses. It was a revolt against all the things the Republican Party stands for.

Thomas Paine wrote extensively about building a social safety-net, like Social Security, to protect the people. Check out Rights of Man.

Simply put, Thomas Paine was for all the things that this Tea Party is against. The purpose of this Tea Party is to revolt against taxes on the rich, the same taxes they were paying before Reagan screwed up our country. Thomas Paine was for estate taxes. Yes, those exact taxes the organizers of the Tea Party are opposing.

The billion-dollar families in America have united to create the Tea Party and they’re relying on the ignorance of the Republican followers. How can they expect such stupidity? Well, because they haven’t been let down, yet. Will they this time?

Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 5 Comments »

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