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2/28/11

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

We're in for a long, hot summer...

The forgotten man is preparing to say and do something though.

Those of the boomer generation who complain of "political correctness" in the rewriting of textbooks and education curriculum ought to study history themselves. We were also sold in schools a whitewashed history that was written to suit the purposes of the mood of the country facilitated by government, educational institutions and the private sector.

One of the biggest lies goes something like this: There was a stock market crash one day in 1929 and President Hoover was oblivious to it and did little about the economic condition the country was in. There was an election in 1932 and Franklin Roosevelt won and saved the country from the Great Depression by instituting work programs, allowing unions to bargain fairly for a fair wage and created Social Security and things got better. Except that it is all a big distortion of truth.

In fact almost everything FDR did made the Depression worse and created the "Depression Within A Depression" that caused another stock market crash in 1937 and what actually ended the Great Depression was the US entering WWII in 1941. There had been a brief respite for some people due to WPA, CCC, RA, TVA and other projects but when the work was done, those people were out of a job and angry enough about it that they went on strike. In other words they went on strike against a temporary welfare program. (This should remind people of the "99ers" demanding unemployment extensions.) Not only that, since FDR had the Wagner Act passed liberalizing union organization, people began striking against employers, inside their very place of employment by having 'sit ins.' (This should remind people of public employees, school teachers in particular, ranting in New Jersey and rallying in Wisconsin that they should be immune to the economic crisis, occurring today.)

What Roosevelt's war against business caused companies, since they had no idea what Roosevelt, the Fed, the Treasury and Congress over-regulating and arguing over taxation and budget restraint would do next, they hoarded cash and did not reinvest in the economy to create new industry, new business and real jobs. They also had passed retroactive tax laws, with the Justice Department then pursuing people and companies for doing what was perfectly legal at the time they did them, with criminal charges for acts that had been made illegal after the fact.

Does any of this sound familiar to what has been happening in recent years? It should. The Political Class would have you distracted by the big bonuses (that is not a good thing) corporate executives are getting, frightening you the government is going to shut down (maybe not a bad thing) and anything that will keep the mainstream media busy.

In Muncie, Indiana a newspaper editorialized in 1936:

"Who is the forgotten man in Muncie? I know him as intimately as my own undershirt. He is the fellow that is trying to get along without public relief...In the meantime the taxpayers go on supporting many that would not work if they had jobs." (excerpt from Amity Schlaes "The Forgotten Man")

The contagion had already spread from Wall Street prior to the 1937 crash to Main Street, just as this current economic crisis has.

Much like the respite from 1934-1936 during the Depression that things were getting a slightly better, we have experienced a similar respite from 2009-2010. The stock market has reached ridiculously inflationary highs that have nowhere to go but down. Meanwhile Main Street is still experiencing high unemployment, highly leveraged consumers, a financial institution and mortgage/foreclosure crisis with attendant real estate deflation, alongside consumer product inflation, higher gas and food prices being the prime examples. Additionally national and international problems are entering into the picture, affecting the average person. The Middle East problems will not be resolved quickly or easily, affecting our oil supply, our national and state governments are technically insolvent and for all practical purposes most of the European Union countries are bankrupt. A currency crisis looms of epic proportions, so complex even the experts really don't have solutions to offer for it.

The stage is set for stagflation as bad as, if not worse than the 1970s. Obama can do a fake out to becoming a centrist, but for all his trying he's not fooling the average person who still recognizes him for what he is, a collectivist. His regulatory policies are harming business and not helping consumers. The Republicans can bellow all they want and the tea party coalition can rant but most people have figured out they are in collusion and their tune hasn't really changed. We're in for a long hot summer of an economic Double Dip quake of high magnitude on the Richter Scale. A real good shaker and the powers that think they are in control will have no idea what to do about it.

The average person, the modern day "forgotten man" isn't without backbone and not finished yet. He (and she) are quietly standing by, saying little at the moment, my bet though is that will not be the case by the end of the year. Much like Bill Wilson, founder of AA and Dale Carnegie, founder of self improvement courses, started the mutual and self help movements during the Great Depression, many Americans are already following similar paths. They recognize government intervention and dependence has had little results of value to them. They still have faith in individual effort, being achievement oriented and believe in the American ideal of a strong work ethic and people pulling themselves out of difficult situation. They've figured out that the whitewashed history that has been sold is just as much a lie as collectivist politically correct revisionism is. Government and politics can do little for them.

Look out for a revival of the real American hero who still believes in the American Dream by no later than early 2012. Decide what you want to be and go do it.

Arizona Landscape

Sunrise Blooms...

Before torrential rain

2/24/11

Writing: Fact and Fiction

Much of life is like fiction...

If there is anything I can say about my somewhat routine life, it is not boring, rather it's quite interesting most days. Not always in a way I care for but most of the time at least one interesting thing happens, I learn something new or a connect-the-dots moment occurs and mostly it's enriching. Sometimes all of that happens, when it does it's usually at my humble job, which I'm just fine with because it is the most likely place for an engaging event to happen. Almost always it involves the carousal of people that cross over the threshold. Not the predictable ones but those that dare to live in the pale of what many consider "irregular."

I do think it's in the way you approach and perceive your daily life. It is what you make of it. I notice things and have a keen perception of what many people, even seemingly unpredictable ones, are likely to do. It's a highly honed sense developed from a lifetime of people watching and interaction with a variety of souls from all walks of life. I think it's important to absorb that and turn it into something useful. For me it manifests itself in two ways, the first is I learn how to understand and interact with a cornucopia of human behaviors. That enriches me and as well as other people if they have something that I can help them figure out. A two-way interaction.

The second is I jot a lot of it down in bits and pieces. I would hardly call this note-taking a journal or a diary, merely a memory jogger. It's because in order for me to wrap my head around the still-cryptic-to-me world around me, having never really been regular enough to resolve the perplexities of life, I make sense of it by creatively expressing myself. Out of the second thing I do, jotting down ideas that come from experiencing life, I turn into writing. When I was younger I turned these notes and sliced them into fiction stories. In the past few decades I would use them as examples in the non-fiction I was writing. Nowadays I've rediscovered fiction writing and these memory joggers are spliced into parts of short stories.

There is truth that much of life is like fiction and that fiction is a lot like life; which is not so strange as we think.

Arizona Landscape

Hummingbird in flight...

2/18/11

Geography of the Mind

More on writing fiction...

I'm writing a short story. Actually it would be better to write that I am attempting to write a short story. It is a class assignment for the Fiction Writing class I'm taking and it's going to be "workshopped" next week by 14 people I barely know. I've already written some flash fiction for this class that's been workshopped and also read some short stories and written reviews for them. The more I write fiction, not only do I realize I have no idea what I'm doing, I also realize that I'm not such a great non-fiction writer either. Not as good a one as I thought anyway...fairly decent but not a great one.

Taking this college freshman class in writing fiction has been very humbling and very good for me. I'm not the only person in the class who already has a bachelors degree with writing experience, returning to school, to learn to write fiction for the "fun" of it. All of us realize now that we know very little about writing, in fact it probably would be better if we knew nothing about writing. The class members, a mixed group of all ages, who haven't yet gone through writing the long essays and papers of upper division undergraduate classes and dissertations of postgraduate classes are far better off. They've also never had to write nonfiction for a living, the world of white papers, curriculum, policies and procedures, legal briefs, correspondence templates, technical documentation.

They have much brighter, clearer, fresher eyes. I remember looking through my eyes that way once, a long time ago, and am learning a lot by looking into their eyes about seeing things anew. Inside I squeal a little bit of happiness when one of them asks something that would be considered naive amongst a group of so-called educated people. It's teaching me to not be so jaded, to look at things with an unprocessed and open mind, an opportunity for replenishment and regeneration.

I'm going to finish writing that short story and then write another and maybe even more.

Arizona Landscape

Higher Education...

2/17/11

You Can Quote Me On That

r u tlkg 2 me? rly?...

"Are you talking to me? Really?"
Why, yes I am and I find your communication skills appalling. 

I work for a division of a large international education company and am not surprised that they are putting out curriculum for "tweens and teens" on how to communicate in standard English. It is a sorry statement on the public school system and parents, that Americans kids that are native English speakers, have to be taught how to communicate in full sentences and paragraphs with proper grammar and spelling. Especially using a designed curriculum external to what they should already be learning at home and in school.

What I have to say about the need for this could fill volumes. I'll spare you.

What I will comment on though is the adults I know under a certain age, especially the former public school educators I work with, who engage in this dots and dashes connection with others. To them it is perfectly acceptable, although not to any of their work peers, to only correspond in cryptic text messages and instant messaging. Don't ask them to actually read an email or listen to a voice mail either. They're not at all embarrassed about telling the rest of us, when asked if they got the important email or voice mail, with information too complex to send in the contemporary telegraph of text or instant messaging..."Oh...I never read email or listen to voice mail, I just delete them."

I'm willing to accept that as their choice long as they understand that it is also my choice not to engage in discourse with them if they are unwilling to respond in an adult manner. Any complaints to me about their being "left out of the loop" on important matters falls on deaf ears. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect people who work for an educational outfit, who have at a minimum underdergraduate degrees, to be articulate and use standard English sentence structures and make sense when they communicate.

Music Break

Mumford and Sons, The Avett Brothers, Bob Dylan...

Live 2011 Grammy Awards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HlUEnNMVaU


Mumford and Sons "The Cave"
The Avett Brothers "Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promises"
Bob Dylan "Maggie's Farm"

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

2/16/11

Thinking Out Loud

Switching the channel...

On turning the "news" off.

Once I was like a newshound hot on the blood trail of every economic, political, entertainment and social news that I could sniff out. After the events of 9-11-01 I backed off watching TV pretty much completely but still followed news on the internet and by reading. At one time the news was also a common source of conversation in work break rooms, waiting rooms and other public gathering places. As we became homogenized by becoming educated, mainly in the workplace, about what was acceptable to say and not to say in case we should offend someone, public discussion became bland. It was too difficult to deal with the niceties of political correctness we were trained to submit to in order to avoid confrontation, especially at work where there were consequences. News was a minefield for making an error in this new environment and by the nineties most people limited public conversation to the superficial.

Although I still followed news, it was only discussed among trusted people. I started recognizing that not only following news was exhausting, it had become an addiction to always being current. In 2007 when the economic crisis broke out, I decided to see if I could uncover the source of lack of veracity of news media that we absorb in the United States. My suspicion for the previous 15 years was that it was a product, prepared and sold in the mold of the MBA Marketing mindset that permeated our consumer economy was confirmed. It seemed obvious, due to the advent of cable television becoming widespread in urban markets, with multiple channels and cable news. Call me naive for not recognizing this earlier but actually I wasn't that simple-minded, my assumption was that it was marketed to us (Y2K was a perfect example) but there was a kernel of truth in much of it we could discern for ourselves.

The beauty of the internet is that much of the real truth can be ferreted out and the beast of it is that it's not that easy. There are as many charlatans proclaiming all kinds of junk economics, science, political analysis as there always has been in the world. It's just more available. On the other hand there is much truth and factual information to make lie of what is sold in newspapers, television and old mainstream media but it requires a lot of discernment and time to discover it. My conclusion is there is collusion between the power players in traditional mainstream media, government and the financial world. This is a revelation that I recognize is no surprise to any thinking person. It was once easier to distinguish the "MSM" since it was primarily in newsprint and on radio and television but now it has also crossed over and permeates the internet also. The real question is how does the average person stay abreast of current news without having to filter out so much?

Early in 2009 I had enough of following current events and backed off considerably. I still waffle between willful ignorance, a preference a lot of the population seems to opt for, or keeping one eye open for headlines. Realistically I can't turn it all off, primarily because of the intellects I'm around most of the time. It's difficult to not be engaged by intelligent people who have something realistic to say about factual events occurring. Especially since it's a much better kernel truth than what the media would have us believe.

My conclusion is that if I pay close attention to the so-called news media, in all the forms it takes shape, it frustrates me for no useful purpose. It's full of contradictory information about the state of our world, country, economy, politics and social attitudes. My determination is the actuality of where we are as a country fundamentally is we're in a period of change, with severe underlying economic problems being propped up, there is little I can do about it and paying any attention to what the media says is vexing. My answer is to be aware we are in for stormy weather, many people and institutions are unprepared for it and that I cannot afford to let it affect my day to day life.

I base this on one piece of logic. I've weathered enough international, national, local and personal storms and in hindsight, my positive thinking and attitude have in the long term kept me safe and sound through them all.

Arizona Landscape

Puerco River, Little Colorado Tributary...

2/15/11

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

A bolt out of the blue...

As events unfold daily in different countries, across mainly the Middle East, once again I'm reminded of the opening lines of PF Sloan's song "Eve of Destruction," made famous in 1965 by Barry McGuire and still well recognized today:

"The eastern world, it is exploding
Violence flaring, bullets loading..."

We live in a tumultuous world but I personally do not believe we are on the eve of destruction. What I do think is we are experiencing another cycle of history and in that sense, events are generally fairly predictable and specific to each era. What is evident now is that we live in an era of significant change, disruptive, uncertain and violent, that can be disturbing but also exciting in context of the narrative of the world.

There is a global shift in power, deep economic dilemmas coupled with currency crisis, political eruptions throughout primarily the Islamic world, major technological and scientific change, creating a multitude of social uncertainties. We seem to be on the cusp of something very big happening in the world around us and what, when, where and how depends on individual interpretations. These range from my historical context, to others views including Biblical prophecy adherents to doomsday believers to New Agers to Zeitgeist followers and more.

I'm a pragmatic man. It appears we are at the nexus of some unascertained change and how that will unfold is unknown to me. I only know I sense something very consequential of large proportions is happening, I trust my instincts, by nature I don't buy into movements that believe they know the outcome. What I do know is most of us can only guess at the most likely course of events.

One thing that has been fairly consistent through time is that in ages such as the one we're in, when humanity as on the verge of a significant shift in thinking it is usually preceded by something quite unexpected and surprisingly, underwhelming common. Like a bolt out of the blue some seemingly small occurrence triggers a chain of events that makes it clear to everyone what happens next.

Southwestern Landscape

Telephone Museum of New Mexico...

2/14/11

Geography of the Mind

The real estate of my moods...

Some call it "writer's block" but that seems to me a term more for professional writers who must create some work on a deadline. I have no deadline except the inevitable one that we all face. Besides, it's not just about writing for me either, it's about everything, the panoramic landscape of living.

Over the years I have come to understand intellectually that a lull in my creative self has value but the knowledge makes it no easier nonetheless. It is because I tend to view life itself as a creative endeavor. I'm usually figuring out new ways to do things, see situations in another way, ponder different points of view, read something stimulating, engaging in interesting conversation. It also means acts of creativity, snapping a picture here or there as it strikes me, writing something, creating a video and occasionally a piece of art. I used to do music until I lost my singing voice, an adjustment that caused a real crisis, a story for another time. I do believe though that event helped me understand the terrain a creative soul deals with much better, teaching me a lot about coping with a dry spell. I've never quite understood how some people repeat every day in much the same way and never give it a thought, I see that as incredibly boring, although evidently they do not. To each his own.

When I'm experiencing a lull in creativity, such as I am now, life seems flat, dull, sometimes melancholy and at its worst, fortunately rarely, depressingly black. My field of vision is narrowed and not by choice. It is a good thing I have a strong sense of self (some would argue, especially my sister, far too strong) and I recognize that it will pass and usually when it does, I burst with a maniacal creativity which would leave some (especially my sister) to believe I'm manic depressive. That's an incorrect diagnosis, it is much more mood swings, going from a lull to being charged up with ideas. I tend to think that is not unique among creative thinkers.

The real estate of my mind crosses this Saharan desert condition, with meager oasis scattered in between, every once in awhile and if I wanted to I could map the path it takes. It's enough that I know it is usually seasonal and occurs around this time every year, briefly in the very dead of summer, again somewhere around the beginning of winter. I can't be bothered to survey it except with fundamental navigational tools to get out of the terrain. Road maps to steer myself away have proved useless to me since every time I've tried to avoid it, it's actually made it worse, steering me towards believing it's a natural occurrence to recharge myself. Easier to consider it like a cactus absorbing stored water for lean times, since by the time I'm past it, I'm too engaged again to chart it. I'm busy moving on in the lush Sonoran desert, marveling at how the minimalist landscape maximizes what it has, utilizing it as inspiration while recharging from the taproot for more water.

The best anecdote to this vista of plodding mind and parched brain is doing exactly this...writing about it. It is an effort, sometimes more so than others. Thankfully I've learned from being in rougher territory, the aforementioned losing my singing voice, that this pause too will pass and my inherent nature is to be always learning and creating something.

2/9/11

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

Real Americans must create the Real Deal...

One of the major problems our country will be facing for the long term is not just unemployment but also underemployment. The two other major complications to our economy, the mortgage/foreclosure crisis and the personal and national debt problem are linked to them. Also in the combustible mixture is low Gross Domestic Product (GDP or simply "production") and a global currency crisis, creating an economic policy dilemma beyond the abilities of the current political and bureaucratic classes. In actuality they are exacerbating the situation.

Employers are reluctant to hire for a several reasons. Primarily it is the uncertainty of where the economy is heading in general, since 2010 appears to have been a mild recovery respite and we are headed for a Double Dip recession this year. The other is the uncertainty of what the Federal Reserve, Treasury, Administration and Congress is going to do. In the Great Depression employers were reluctant to hire because of so much unpredictable government interference, which is where we are today. What employment needs companies have, they are tending towards temporary or part-time employment to avoid long-term commitments to employees. Health Care Reform also has a lot to do with this, since they are unsure of what the voluminous regulations mean and if they are going to stand the way they are. It creates a reluctance to provide full-time employment with benefits within the country.

There are almost 17 million people who have been unemployed for 27 months or longer. Their unemployment insurance, if they were eligible for it, has been exhausted and since they have been out of the workforce for so long, the chances of them locating a job is not very high. Nineteen percent of the workforce, nine million people, is underemployed, working part-time or temporary jobs. There are 139 million people employed full-time, 58% of employed people, in the non-farm private sector and their average hours is now around 34 hours a week. Statistics are always suspect and can be skewed but there is every reason to believe these are in the ball park.

United States employers have been creating jobs but the vast majority of them have been in emerging economy countries such as India, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. One problem that is a potential liability for work created offshore, is with the uprising in Egypt and other countries along with global inflation, these jobs may disappear from these locations. If they are necessary jobs then they may be brought to the US but Americans will have to accept one cold reality, they will be working for lower wages than accustomed to.

Inflation is increasing because Bernanke made a bumbling professorial miscalculation. He did a second Quantitative Easing based on no-to-low inflation statistics that, well known now, were incorrect and based on inflation numbers adjusted downward by the federal government for at least 15 years. That means that inflation was much higher than stated by the government and QE2 is creating inflation as the Fed, Treasury and Administration wanted but at a much higher rate than they expected. In fact, we risk hyper-inflation, the very thing that started the Depression in Germany prior to the Great Depression in the United States, that conversely was caused by deflation. To put it simply, Bernanke feared deflation since it caused the Great Depression, wanted to create inflation but based it on incorrect data, now putting us at risk for an economic demise due to thoughtless unintended consequences. Worse, he was warned and arrogantly, as all Keynesians do, waved off those signalling trouble.

A real life example of hyper-inflation is the current US stock market that is at an all time high when the underlying economic fundamentals are all wrong. The stock market is manipulated by the Fed and Treasury buying stocks and bonds, in a fairly predictable fashion, inflating it out of proportion to actual price to earnings ratio and other indicators of individual stocks real worth. It is not a matter of if the market crashes but when and in what fashion since this is a new era. It is likely to be a cascading crash, with mini-crashes and mini-rallies over a period of several months until it reaches its natural bottom.

The combination of inflation and low production creates an economic conundrum that is difficult to get out of and usually creates stagflation as happened in the 1970s and we are probably already there. The unemployment and underemployment problem also creates a very low tax base and is translating into low revenues for all levels of government. Most state and local governments have budget problems and many are technically insolvent. Compounded with the out-of-whack stock market, the mortgage/foreclosure crisis, high personal, national and global debt ratios and international currency clashes, deeper trouble clearly lays ahead. There are those who refuse to believe it is very serious, some who are doomsayers, with many others in between.

My thought is that in the US we can expect significant stagflation for a long period of time (5-10 years) far deeper than the 1970s. We should be prepared for high inflation with a possible brief period of hyper-inflation and long term unemployment and underemployment. It is also my belief that this country will be able to pull out of it, unlike some other countries who will never fully recover, but it will require an awakening of a large segment of the population and some sacrifice and hard work. It is clear, as I've written before, that the government cannot pull us out of this, history indicates they actually make it worse, neither can corporations nor the uber-rich who have little incentive to do so. One clear advantage of low tax revenues is it creates a condition that makes it difficult for the government to operate and specifically to interfere with onerous over-regulation. This should make it easier for the American people to work for themselves, create their own businesses or become free agents to employers.

Theodore Roosevelt created his Square Deal, Franklin Roosevelt made a New Deal, Truman had the Fair Deal and now the American people must create the Real Deal.

Arizona Landscape

Construction crane...

2/8/11

You Can Quote Me On That

On difficult situations...

Almost every time I have ever had adversity and difficult circumstances to cope with, in the long term it has always turned out to not only be enriching but also an opportunity. Naturally at that moment, it doesn't seem like a fortuitous event, more often it feels like a crisis or conveys disaster. Sometimes it takes a long time for the positive to come to light and become evident but when it eventually does, then it seems obvious. It helps to remind myself of that when facing difficult situations.

2/2/11

Only In America

Walk like an Egyptian...

Most Americans export ideas with the exception of the left and liberals in the country, the so-called progressives, who import them. The heart of American ideals is to figure out a solution to a problem or invent a new device. This is also true of our values and views that we forged out in our unique, original way several hundred years ago. These ideas have been spontaneously exported around the world, inspiring other people. These values and views, since the early 20th century, have never been good enough for the left, liberals, socialist and unionists. They import their ideas from Europe and Russia, seeking to impose them upon us.

Think about that every time you hear someone say "Well in England people get free and better health care because it's nationalized." Ask them the question "Have you ever been there and received health care?" I have and can tell you that it depends on which region you live in and there's a reason why a private health care system also coexists alongside the public one, making for double taxation. Perhaps this is why federal Judge Vinson has dealt a severe blow to a leftist administration and Congress, that forced through Healthcare Reform, using strong academic and legal reasoning on why HCR is a violation of the US Constitution.

We've suffered enough under the dogmatic browbeating of socialists, who call themselves by every name but that, for almost a century. They've slyly undermined the American Way from Teddy Roosevelt's regulated monopolies to his cousin Franklin Roosevelt's myriad government programs to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society social agenda. It has crept in like mold and spread itself all over the walls built up from the foundation of America. Don't count on the Republicans to stop HCR or reform Social Security and Medicare, the recipients are their constituents. All of this will have to be countered through legal challenges, the election process and probably some civil unrest to boot.

Where do you suppose modern day Egyptians, as well as Tunisians, Algerians, Syrians and Jordanians, got the idea that they could rid themselves of the centuries old ancient ruling class concept of their civilizations? I would propose it is from so many of them being educated in our universities and studying the United States and spreading the ideals of America by bringing them back home with them. In some ways they are exemplifying our ideals more than we are at the moment. This should wake us up to what we can do to promote real change, not the phony political party campaign rhetoric kind.

If the Egyptians can rise up and out into the streets against a ruling class that until now has had the cooperation of a very strong military, what are we waiting for? Afraid of? We are far better able to defeat the status quo that has slowly entrenched itself into the halls of power in this country. We have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on our side. The amount of guts, blood, sweat and tears we would have to expend is small compared to those in truly oppressive regimes of the second and third world. It is only a matter of time that economic collapse, court rulings and elections combined with fierce determination weaken the kingmakers within the Beltway and on Wall Street, paving the way for a return to real American ideals.

2/1/11

Economic, Social and Geopolitical

re: those of little faith in the ideals of America...

It's understandable to me the different attitudes and frame of mind that contrasting people have taken towards the current economic crisis across our society. There are those few that have been barely dented and just don't get it and insensitive to it all (if you're in Arizona think pretentious North Scottsdale or Oro Valley) but they will be hit, sooner or later. The majority of people have taken various viewpoints that I do understand, ranging from denial to "eat, drink and be merry," to recognizing there's nothing they can do about the macro but focus on the micro, to those who are devastated, to optimists and positive-thinkers to purposeful obliviousness and everything else in between.

One positional longitude that I don't understand strikes me as plain anti-American. It emanates from people who preach we are heading for a long term difficult economic era due to excessive capitalism, firmly believe it and spread a message that the "power elite" will control the markets, while the rest of us will suffer under these people's thumbs forever. Basically to them, truly free America is over. Ironically, I notice that these skeptics, who think we are stuck in the grip of a ruling elite of our own, have something in common. They tend to spring out from liberalism or the left, a gross generalization I realize but too noticeable to ignore. They are the legacy and descendants of the progressives from the period after the WWI. I'm supposing their answer is more government intervention and control.

I don't buy that frame of mind. 

What makes this country different is we are not a European, Middle Eastern, Eurasian (Russia) or Asian country, where it is quite possible to be entrenched in a truly stratified society. Even so, I'm not sure it is possible in some of those countries, of those regions. As a recent example look to Tunisia, which ran its leader out and now Egypt which is on the verge of overthrowing their government, Jordan is likely next. They certainly have more obstacles to overcome to bring down their ruling class than we do in the United States. We may not care for or fear their culture but it is an example of the middle and lower classes bringing down a ruling class that has made life too difficult for the majority to live with.

I do believe we have a class of people who have gotten the notion that they know best and act as power brokers in government and business. Corporations are a large component of our economic distress due to their excessive access to government policymakers. The entire premise of America however, is based on our ability to overthrow our own government quite easily, without real bloodshed. That ideal is based on the Founding Fathers vision, the principles of the US Constitution and our kind of rule of law. Some argue that so much control has been taken by the so-called "power elite" of our country, defined as the corporate and business class and I would add, in collusion with trade unions (who fancy themselves as downtrodden members of the lower class) alongside the political and bureaucratic classes, that "they've" made it impossible to overthrow their control and power.

I don't believe that we've lost that much control.

It may be there are a lot of lazy, entitlement-minded, sheep-like people in this country but I don't think in the big picture, they're the majority. In the long view, when it comes down to brass tacks, I believe most Americans will do whatever it takes to rise above the power structure we have now when pushed too far. The current leadership and ruling structure is out of touch with the average person in this country but we still own that. We lulled ourselves asleep while they snuck in like thieves in the night and stole our stuff but they still didn't get our basic rights. It is a matter of us asserting those rights and overthrowing the current government in our own unique American way. What that way will be, I can't predict, I do think that we are heading towards a turning and a tipping point.

I have faith it will happen.

My thought is that the time is coming when we will have to make some bold moves, as a people, to rid ourselves of the current leading classes that do not have the rest of America's best interest in mind. The civil war of ideas that will occur within the country, when the time arrives for our own overthrowing of the status quo dominating classes, will be between those of us who believe in the ideals of the founders of this country and those schooled in liberalism and socialism. The conclusion I've reached is that those who think more government is the answer will lose that civil war and the overturning of a century's worth of their meddling will be undone.

We will then be rid of two things. The current ruling classes as well as the ideas of the left and liberalism. Both of them are twin evils that are equally responsible for the economic, social and geopolitical crunch we are in, due to the national power they've held. Momentum is building and a shift is coming, ready or not.

Arizona Landscape

Branching Out...