Tag: Stupid in America

ISIS Deliberate Destruction of Archaeology: Hiding the past to preserve power

 

As predicted the thugs, losers, and knuckle-dragging misfits of ignorance have repeated history. Nearly four years prior to the day I predicted this would happen and would be the worst impact of the Muslim Brotherhood radicalism in Egypt. Glenn Beck was being ridiculed for his predictions of a caliphate, and many were wondering why I was more concerned about the museum in Cairo during the siege than the supposed wonderful flowering of “democracy” that was emerging under the full support of the Obama White House. READ WHAT I SAID THEN BY CLICKING HERE, then continue with this article. I knew this would happen, and now it has. New videos released on Thursday apparently show ISIS militants destroying Assyrian and Akkadian artifacts in Mosul—smashing statues and scraping through a winged bull from the 7th century B.C.

This is only the latest episode in a spree of iconoclasm ISIS has unleashed across the areas under its control in Iraq and Syria. In May 2014, there were reports of separate Assyrian artifacts being excavated and destroyed. In July 2014, fighters destroyed the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Nineveh. Earlier this week, reports said the group had burned 100,000 books and manuscripts from the Mosul library.

Related Stories

  1. New ISIS Video Shows Militants Smashing Ancient Iraq Artifacts Huffington Post
  2. Militants abduct more Christians, smash ancient artifacts Associated Press
  3. The Destruction of Cultural Heritage Should be a War Crime The Wall Street Journal
  4. UN Official: ISIS Destruction of Ancient City of Nimrud, Artifacts a ‘War Crime’ ABC News
  5. With sledgehammer, Islamic State smashes Iraqi history Reuters

http://news.yahoo.com/erased-isis-destruction-ancient-artifacts-210549825–politics.html

History is being erased right before our eyes in a deliberate attempt to re-write it into a theocracy as predicted by Vico. The scale of destruction occurring in modern-day Iraq and Syria all up and down the Tigres Euphrates Valley is on par with the tragic killing of Hypatia by the barbarian Cyril who skinned her alive in the streets of Alexandria ripping her into pieces limb for limb eventually being burnt until nothing remained of her. The destruction of the Library at Alexandria is one of the greatest crimes ever committed and it was done by Christian extremists who wanted no knowledge of the world that existed before their religion in an open attempt to cast the world into ignorance, which launched the Dark Ages from that moment in 415 AD. To this day much of this prehistory has been lost. CLICK HERE TO READ MY ARTICLE ON THAT ISSUE AS WELL.

Archaeology in Iraq had been impossible because of the various wars conducted there for the last several decades. Of a particular interest the original Garden of Eden is thought to be in Iraq and much of the history of Sumerian religion originated there. Research in the war-torn area has been contentious at best and what has been found over the last 100 years of archaeology ended up in the museums, which have now largely been destroyed by ISIS terrorists. The intent is the same as it has always been, to erase the past so that the new regime of religious thought can pronounce themselves rulers of the world and throw everyone under their domination. It’s an archaic mentality that mankind is meant to evolve from, but due to the lack of vision, or rather the support of the political underpinnings of our current civilization, it’s being encouraged.

Even in the United States there have been several instances of revisionist history conducted. The giants who lived in North America – people over 7 feet tall in a large society that extended from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico had an advanced mathematical culture and large cities that are now buried beneath our feet. The bones have been hidden away or destroyed all together to maintain the illusion that the Indians of Columbus were always in place and that no greater culture prior to the European arrival was ever in place before Christian conquest. I have written much on the deliberate destruction of many archaeological sites in just my home state of Ohio, including the one up the road from my house at the The Mound nuclear complex. CLICK HERE TO READ ALL ABOUT THAT.

It is because of all this deliberate destruction of history that I don’t trust much of anything reported by any institutional claim any longer preferring to make my own judgments from puzzled together pieces of text, such as the late Zachariah Stichen conducted. He was one of the few people who could read Sumerian text and he was convinced that the Tigres Euphrates Valley was settled by the Anunnaki who were extraterrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru—at least according to the mythology he was able to decipher. It’s possible that some of these stories were early versions of fiction the way that Star Wars is to us today—but from what origin did the stories spring from their imaginations? Because the sudden rise in culture in that region is extremely mysterious. It defies logic. Some of the relics that were destroyed recently by ISIS where painting a picture toward this contemplation of extraterrestrial seeding. How convenient.   Just recently scientists finally concluded what many in science fiction have been saying for years, Mars had vast oceans and land masses complete with rivers and streams. Apparently a fifth of the planet’s surface had oceans at least the size of the Atlantic here on earth. The planet lost their atmosphere and also the water molecules that existed there which were eventually sucked out into space except for at the poles where the water was frozen. If one logically put all these elements together it would seem that Earth was seeded from someplace else—likely from Mars as the planet died and a race of larger, taller people came here from there. Sure it sounds like science fiction, but how can anybody ever prove otherwise—because ISIS just destroyed much of that past displayed in the museums of Iraq?

In many ways this is why I think the current caliphate in the Middle East has been allowed to spread-actually encouraged by the politics of Europe and America into fruition. I doubt that the many deaths that are occurring were part of the plan, but certainly the hope that science couldn’t do any real research in the Middle East to confirm some of these wild theories about human civilization coming from places like Mars to settle the city of Ur and the hanging gardens of Nebuchadnezzar could be supported by emerging evidence. There is an intense desire to protect the secrets of many current religions driven by a fear that new evidence will destroy the power structure given to them by public ignorance. Iraq was ground zero for much of this research and once the world began to notice the archaeology of the region and were trying to correspond it to Biblical text, some questions were naturally asked leading to the Sitchin theories which drives much of the New Age science contemplation to this day, that an undiscovered planet called Nibiru collided with a planet between Mars and Jupiter called Tiamat. The planet Nibiru is according to mythology in a long elliptical orbit which comes into the inner solar system only every 3,600 years. The people called the Anunnaki (Nephillim in Genesis) arrived on earth 450,000 years ago. Their descendents were likely the giants who settled North America and started the mound building cultures–at least according to the scattered archaeological evidence that have been pieced together. When Nibiru hit Tiamat leaving behind the vast asteroid belt that is currently between Jupiter and Mars it looks to have created a need for some sort of evacuation that put the Anunnaki onto earth to settle the Sumerian culture. Maybe they were on the doomed planet Tiamat, or perhaps they were on Mars—or both—but the catastrophe sent them fleeing to earth as their planets failed to sustain them. Highly likely, when we finally travel to Mars much of the archaeology that we are talking about here will be discovered—which is why our cultures are drag-assing to return to space. I am convinced that the reason we haven’t returned to the moon is because the governments of the world don’t think they can maintain their control of the population once such things are realized. Again, its only conspiracy at this point that is hard to prove when the evidence is destroyed—the way ISIS just did. In this case I think of the ISIS terrorists as the useful idiots in erasing information that the civilized orthodox isn’t comfortable with revealing to our educated tapestry.

The ISIS destruction of archaeology in Iraq and Syria—let alone Iran which is impossible to excavate in, points to a massive cover-up of the evidence emerging from scientists with a keen mind toward the puzzle pieces emerging of humanity’s actual origins—which extend well back before the Bible or the Koran. Knowledge is ultimately power and the ISIS thugs have had the winds of rebellion blown into their ears by the powers of Europe who want to maintain their “perspective” centered on religious doctrine. It is easy to hide such evidence if the Christian based west is insulted into defending their religion from the religious fanatics of Islam. Everyone eventually forgets to ask the question of what came before both of them were even considered. That is the million dollar question, one that was destroyed by ISIS for all the reasons that barbarians, cut-throats and terrorist through the centuries have done—to hide history so that they can declare themselves to an ignorant population the new rulers.

Just remember this dear reader, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it—it still fell. History happens whether or not anybody consciously records it–or whether or not the evidence of such occurrences are destroyed. Whatever the truth is, it is still the truth even if ISIS destroys all the chronology of that truth. The big difference is that ISIS and all who look at the destruction left in their wake—which has been deliberately set off by those seeking to guard the truth from prying eyes—has been created to throw people off the trail and keep secrets that way for as long as possible. And that is the real crime being committed which is something every human being should take as an insult.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Fire Across the Galaxy: A wonderful first season of ‘Rebels’

Star Wars is about substance. The stories and my love for them trace back to my Joseph Campbell Foundation days where George Lucas was one of the original board of directors. I understand and appreciate what he has been trying to do, which I have talked about extensively in other articles. To that effect, the first season of Star Wars: Rebels is about to air as of this writing and my reason for this article is to remind you to tune into Disney XD at 9 PM Eastern time to watch it. Here is a preview of what you will see.

If you think about the themes of that episode, the Empire torturing Kanan for information about the increasing resistance from the Rebellion is a theme that harkens directly back to the end of the great Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged. In that work John Galt was tortured into compliance for his help in assisting the collective whole of civilization. It’s a mature theme intended for adults in a very grown-up story. Star Wars is obviously for kids. George Lucas is an open supporter of Barack Obama and even has his hands in Chicago politics in paving the way for his Star Wars museum on the shores of Lake Michigan. But, the content of his intentions with the expansion of Star Wars through first the San Francisco operation expansion into the Presidio, then the sale to Disney and the upcoming films is a strategy through myth that I think is excessively important.   Lucas has always been the best articulator of modern philosophy that our world currently knows. He will be remembered at the level of a Socrates, or Plato in bringing mythology, religion, and global cultural understanding to humanity in an excessively positive way. I doubt Lucas would see himself that way—but I do. History will prove me right.

Star Wars: Rebels is one of the best and most important programs on television currently. The season started off slow as it was obvious that the creative people behind the series were getting their feet wet with Star Wars without the hand of Lucas directly guiding them.   But as they completed a few episodes, it is clear that they are off to a roaring beginning to a very dramatic series. I love the show and my wife and I watch it every week. I don’t know that I’m all that excited about the new movies because I have a feeling my favorite character isn’t going to be around much longer, but I love the overall world of Star Wars because of the power it has of harnessing myth in a positive way. Star Wars: Rebels is special because it has captured that power in a way that is appealing to adults and children—it is a truly family oriented show about values.

The depth of ability that Star Wars has to reach into the nature of politics is truly amazing. The range of characters and how they interconnect allows stories to truly explore human nature from the motives of a galactic empire hell-bent on power, to a common smuggler straddling the cracks of the law to make a living the best way possible without squandering away their integrity. It’s a very dramatic portrait of competing ideas that goes well beyond the simplicity of a child’s tale.

For those who know Star Wars, which is most everyone, Darth Vader will be in tonight’s episode. If you are reading this after the date of March 2nd 2015, then this episode will be available at Star Wars.com. Vader is from the original trilogy and is actually the main character through the first six films and the entire Clone Wars animated series that went on for six seasons. Vader will be there to torture Kanan and it will be intriguing. The point of the torture is of course to coerce Kanan into revealing the location of his friends and the greater threat of a larger rebellion emerging from the senate. In a lot of ways the story lines look to be peeled away from the pages of our current history. But what’s important is that they often deal with difficult issues of extreme complexity with a joy that is openly supportive of living life as joyfully as possible.

In the episode leading up to Fire Across the Galaxy the Rebels even under great duress, managed to have a good time finding out information on where their friend and leader is being held—which is on Mustafar—which those who know Revenge of the Sith will know as the planet that made Darth Vader into who he is. Also, Bail Organa makes another appearance revealing that he has all along been the contact the Rebels have been using to get information. So there are some critical plot points that will be revealed in this episode that will serve as a nice cliffhanger to the new season that will begin in the upcoming fall of 2015.

Prior to the release of this episode my wife and I discussed my upcoming birthday and in having some fun with it this year. We spent much of the weekend playing our new favorite game Star Wars: Commander and making plans for the birthday at Dave and Busters having a Star Wars theme party centered on their new arcade game Battle Pod. Star Wars never gets tired to me; it is fun, exciting and full of interesting things to think about if the conflict at large is considered. But more than any of that, the technical achievements to tell those stories never gets old. For instance, it’s been thirty years since the film Return of the Jedi, but in Battle Pod game players gain the opportunity to fly into the second Death Star and blow it up flying the Millennium Falcon which is something I’ve always wanted to do. Battle Pod allows for that kind of experience, which is exactly how I’d want to spend my birthday with my family. I wouldn’t want to go to Dave and Busters really for anything else, but that they have a Battle Pod machine there.

Star Wars is fun, and special, so it is quite a treat to having something as unique as the episode Fire Across the Galaxy coming up on television tonight at 9 PM. If you can make time, be sure to watch it. It’s about a lot of things, but more than anything, it’s about substance. By far, it’s the best kids show on the air. But, because of the serious content underlying the story lines, and the philosophy emerging from them, it’s the best adult show also. It’s just a matter of time before the full impact will be felt. But, tonight’s episode for the uninitiated would be a great place to start. Enjoy!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

Why I’d Vote For Scott Walker: The worthlessness of a college education

Out of all the potential candidates for the upcoming presidential election in 2016, it is Scott Walker who most personifies my expectations for such a high administrative position. He is certainly the most qualified, and vetted of any potential candidate except for maybe President Obama himself. Walker has been through a remarkable amount of tribulation—and has come out on top each and every time. He has the even temperament to take on anything and still come out as someone who can build bridges with those he disagrees with. From my vantage point, he’s the perfect candidate including the fact that he did not graduate from college. Recently when progressives have witnessed the polling numbers of Walker and realized that he could have a legitimate chance at running for President of the United States, they have been clamoring for anything and everything negative about Walker that they could—which has been a very short list. Even when they looked for skeletons in his closet they found it surprisingly empty. All they could muster was an attack on his intelligence because he did not complete college—which again to me is one of his greatest strengths.

The college myth was created by the progressive class to perpetuate the complete lie that college would allow kids to purchase their way into merit for income earning potential. It has only worked in regard to government workers who don’t have any real expectation of performance anyway. In the private sector college experience has not replaced the traditional ground up mentorship’s which used to be so common—where a hard enterprising worker learned everything there was to know about a business and worked their way up the ranks through tribulation and experience. Progressives in their desperate task of creating a society of collectivists decided that the best way to accomplish the task was through public education and colleges—which they have done. There is a good reason that most educators throughout the United States are known liberals. It is to teach students liberalism and to implant in their young minds the concept of selflessness. For instance, when my wife attended college she was told to read the Koran. When she asked the question about why the Bible wasn’t offered she was instantly told that she wasn’t there to ask questions but to do as she was told—which came as a surprise to both of us. The college had an agenda for their students and that was to spread the theocracy of Islam while charging students huge amounts of money for the indoctrination. The results can be easily seen around us to this day.

In college I was primarily interested in economics and philosophy—and my professors were wrong on both. In philosophy on the very first day the topic of conversation and first reading assignment was I Ching, which I thought was stupid. I explained the book to the class and professor as a ridiculous expression of oriental mystics that had very little to do with American economic power. Of course the professor attacked American domination through economics around the world and cited that the oriental people had it right as a best approach through a happy life toward our deaths. Even more shocking to me was the fact that out of a class room of 50 students I was the only one who had read I Ching so I was the only one who knew what I was talking about—except for the professor who was clearly a huge bleeding heart liberal. I Ching essentially preached the ideals of Confucianism which was really a back door approach to preparing the mind to accept communism as a state-run option—because the orient is essentially a collectivist based society and their philosophies reflect a lack of focus on individuality. I had read the book on my own the year before and already knew what I was going to get out of it, yet the philosophy professor was planning to spend four weeks on the book—which to me was just ridiculous.

There was a similar story which involved my economics studies. When I discovered that the professor in that class was essentially preaching the merits of Keynesian economics I completely rejected the class and was ready to withdrawal. Again, I had already read enough prior to the class to know what the professor was teaching and to stay in his class meant I would have to turn off my mind—not turn it on to a greater degree. Clearly, the experience my wife and I had in college was evidence that the college experience was not about teaching students to be productive people in society—it was to indoctrinate them with as much liberalism as they could cram into a four-year degree hoping that students would take with them that idiocy into the real world to implement progressive political strategies.

I lived on the campus of the University of Cincinnati for one full year and part of another without the desire to party at the fraternities, or to hang out at the bars and nightclubs. I went to a few of those events just to see what all the fuss was, and I didn’t like them. So I spent my time reading books in restaurants that were open all night and maintaining my emotional distance so I’d have clear observation. I was able to watch the college students—who were my age, with the gained insight of uncommitted logic and I drew my conclusions—which turned out to be extremely right. College for most people is a really bad idea. It’s good for learning something in the medical industry and other sciences, but for practical application into the manufacturing sector, or in sales, invention, and even engineering—college does a terrible job in producing intelligent, hard-working masterpieces. College is the dream of progressives to ruin the minds of the young with collectivist crap with the promise that success in life can be purchased. All you have to do is sit through the liberalized classes like a time share victim and hope that you come away from the experience with a free vacation from life.

College teaches people to think within a system—but often the answers to the hardest problems are outside of any organized structure. This is why major progressives like Howard Dean were threatened by Scott Walker as seen in the video above. This is also why Walker has been so successful in Wisconsin where other governors throughout the country have faltered. Walker is functioning from personal experience instead of direction from a system of collective thought. College graduates make nice little party leaders who will think for the good of the political orthodox, but if a problem falls outside of those parameters, they are often lost as to what to do—because collectively their party has not yet answered those types of questions. That happens to Barack Obama all the time. He is the epitome of a college graduate ill prepared for the world outside of liberal institutional thought.   He cannot think on his feet.

College success is a myth created by progressives and largely the baby boomers bought into the lie completely surrendering logic to pure speculation. Boomers wanted to believe that they could purchase a better life for their children with a college ticket—but all their kids really received was a trip into the “Brave New World.” College often ruins minds and destroys opportunity—and most kids are better off not going. There is no replacement for good old-fashioned hard work—and that is the kind of person that Scott Walker is. A quick study, and one of my most popular articles seen on the sidebar to the right indicates that most successful people avoid the damage that college does to their minds. I saw little of nothing in my college days that was helpful to a human being who desires to think. What I saw happen to women in particular I thought was devastating to their integrity forever. What I gained most out of college was found at a local Burger King that I sat in and read my many books—which I could have done without going to college. It was the most positive aspect of my experience. I ate a lot of Whoppers.

The panic of a Walker candidacy from both Republicans and Democrats is in finally convincing America of the worthlessness of a college education. If Walker wins, it will be a major blow to the progressive myth—and that has all those who love their institutions deeply concerned. But that issue needs to be addressed, sooner rather than later, because America needs the innovation that comes from those who normally get frustrated with college and drop out all together as opposed to those looking to purchase their way through life by turning off their minds just so they can get a piece of paper. From my personal experience there are a lot of potential Bill Gates types out there along with his nemesis Steve Jobs—both who didn’t have a college education. College destroys minds, it doesn’t help them grow and develop new ideas—not at the normal pace of human need. College limits people far more than it helps them, and that is what a Scott Walker President would illustrate to the 21st Century masses. The college scam is already falling apart and people will discover it by default, but Scott Walker could accelerate the process, and might actually save some of what’s left of America. So if I get the opportunity, I will vote for Scott Walker.

Rich Hoffman

CLIIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

The Control of Net Neutrality: Third Way economics reinvented

One of the great failures of the human condition is the personal desire to control other people through manipulation, social titles, and just sheer domination. Anyone who has worked in an environment where other people were constantly in interaction, they have witnessed this desire for control over others in all its dysfunction. Control is essentially the primary reason for the governments’ desire for gun control over its population. It is also the primary reason Obama through the FCC wants control of the internet through Net Neutrality. The control desired isn’t anything needed, but is only to satisfy the egos of bureaucrats and their lust to have the kind of control over others that they can’t get in their personal lives. If the root cause of the human desire for control is analyzed in most situations it will be found nearly 100% of the time that those who desire control over others most are those least secure about how to guide their own lives from moment to moment.

Often control is disguised to be seen as a helpful measure. An insecure parent might desire to control the finances of their children so to keep them close—so not to leave them vulnerable to social judgment which might otherwise be noticed. A boss might desire to control an employee they know is superior to them by crafting mundane procedures to wear down the challenging individual in hopes that the tasks will hone down ambition so corporate superiors might not notice. And the government at all levels–from the local zoning board all the way up to President of the United States can’t resist controlling other people through rules and regulations. For the political employee it is difficult to resist when power is confiscated through government mechanisms and provided to the desk of a bureaucrat the means to sort through and re-distribute the fruits of productivity to those they deem worthy. For the zoning administrator the rich land owner who wants to build a new garage will have to pay more and grease many more wheels to get approval than the hot young blond who wants to build a deck to sun bath upon. When the rights of others must be filtered through some government bureaucrat abuse through control is a common occurrence.

It is because of this human frailty desiring control over others that economies struggle and do not reach their full potential. It is also why there is much resistance to laissez-faire capitalism as opposed to socialism, communism, or some mixture of those ideas, especially by the political left. If the mind of those who call themselves democrats is analyzed correctly, it will be discovered that deep down inside they typically have serious personal control insecurities—which is why they are Democrats to begin with. Those who lean liberal tend to be insecure with themselves and desire to use re-distribution of resources through politics as a means to inflate their personal power over others. This was never more apparent than in the 1990s when then President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair attempted to hide their human frailties behind economic policies that pretended to support capitalism, only with a new spin on the type of socialism that control addicts desire most. They called it “The Third Way.”

In politics, the Third Way is a position that tries to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies.[1][2] The Third Way was created as a serious re-evaluation of political policies within various centre-left progressive movements in response to international doubt regarding the economic viability of the state; economic interventionist policies that had previously been popularized by Keynesianism and contrasted with the corresponding rise of popularity for economic liberalism and the New Right.[3] The Third Way is promoted by some social democratic and social liberal movements.[4]

Major Third Way social democratic proponent Tony Blair claimed that the socialism he advocated was different from traditional conceptions of socialism. Blair said “My kind of socialism is a set of values based around notions of social justice … Socialism as a rigid form of economic determinism has ended, and rightly”.[5] Blair referred to it as “social-ism” that involves politics that recognized individuals as socially interdependent, and advocated social justice, social cohesion, equal worth of each citizen, and equal opportunity.[6] Third Way social democratic theorist Anthony Giddens has said that the Third Way rejects the traditional conception of socialism, and instead accepts the conception of socialism as conceived of by Anthony Crosland as an ethical doctrine that views social democratic governments as having achieved a viable ethical socialism by removing the unjust elements of capitalism by providing social welfare and other policies, and that contemporary socialism has outgrown the Marxian claim for the need of the abolition of capitalism.[7] Blair in 2009 publicly declared support for a “new capitalism”.[8]

It supports the pursuit of greater egalitarianism in society through action to increase the distribution of skills, capacities, and productive endowments, while rejecting income redistribution as the means to achieve this.[9] It emphasizes commitment to balanced budgets, providing equal opportunity combined with an emphasis on personal responsibility, decentralization of government power to the lowest level possible, encouragement of public-private partnerships, improving labour supply, investment in human development, protection of social capital, and protection of the environment.[10]

The Third Way has been criticized[11] by some conservatives and libertarians who advocate laissez-faire capitalism.[12] It has also been heavily criticized by many social democrats, democratic socialists and communists in particular as a betrayal of left-wing values.[13][14][15] Specific definitions of Third Way policies may differ between Europe and America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way

In other words, the Third Way is identical to the corporate boss who is technically incompetent who steals the ideas of a superior minded employee so to impress their bosses when performance reviews are requested to drive up job security. Government has recognized that socialism and communism tend to rob people of initiative, so they give the illusion of capitalism so that the work excess produced can then be stolen and re-distributed to their political supporters to keep them in power. So essentially the Third Way is socialism without the title designed to hide the intentions toward control. It would be equivalent to the jealous husband who won’t let his wife drive a car under abusive circumstances—afraid she might find a better lover—by telling her that driving is dangerous and that he loves her so much that he doesn’t want her to get hurt. That is the essence of the Third Way economy patterns so prevalent today, introduced by progressives like Bill Clinton and heavily supported by open socialists like Barack Obama.

The point of this article is to illustrate what is really going on behind Net Neutrality. Under the current policy of Internet regulation and creativity, it is essentially a model of laissez-faire capitalism. Products are bought and sold rapidly in great number because there is an incentive to make money—so a very diverse number of products are available to consumers at a wide range of prices driven by competition. Government regulation hardly exists on the Internet and this has allowed a market sector to flourish—much the way the economy in America did during the 1920s, and 1980s under presidents Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.   Communists and socialists however have had their presidents elected in most of the other periods and the result has been lackluster economic growth—except for the advent of the Internet. At the heart of the desire for Net Neutrality is the desire to control the economy and the people who make it up.

There is no problem with the Internet, there is no unfairness. Everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed or fail on the Internet because of its limitless creative options. It has regulated itself through competition the way laissez-faire capitalism tends to anywhere it is utilized without controls imposed upon it by weak-willed personalities. Net Neutrality is all about control over others. That need for control is built on inner insecurities by lesser individuals who want to appear as equal or even superior to their betters. With Net Neutrality weak people who know they can’t compete in life need the protection of government so that they can feel equal to everyone else. Under open market capitalism, they can’t, so they must sabotage the successful so that they can feel equal. That is what is called “social justice.”

Net Neutrality is all about control and insecurity. It’s about a government that is useless trying to make itself relevant with “social justice” by stealing from the productive and giving to the lazy. It is just another version of the Third Way. It’s a scam—just like most things in government are. It’s an attack on laissez-faire capitalism. It’s all about control from inferior minds over superior ones in the only way that such an arrangement can occur—through manipulation, emotion, and a promise of security from illusionary concerns. Net Neutrality is a false argument against freedom by a lying government for the sole purpose of convincing the strong to give up their rights to the weak so that social justice through the Third Way of compromise can occur—which is nothing more than a way to hide the inadequacies of failed personalities from the realities they’d otherwise make for themselves.

 

Rich Hoffman

CLIIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

 

Obamacare is the Cause of Longshore Worker Stoppage: An American embarassment

 I spoke months ago about the embarrassment of the Longshore workers on the West Coast with their deliberate slowdown of work to force contract talks with their employer.  Because of the amount of cargo moving to and from their ports, their work slow down is embarrassing to American productivity.  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  I am embarrassed that they are Americans representing to the world the merit and speed of the American workforce.   Because of their actions, they should all be let go and replaced with newer—less expensive workers who will show the world the enterprising speed of Americans.  Instead they have been drag-assing for months upset that they have not received a new union contract forcing valuable product to sit idle until the workers get to it.  This entire workload backup has forced numerous weeks of consecutive weekend overtime which has cost millions of dollars in lost profitability.  That was always their union strategy.   Not only did they waste time during the week forcing trucks and ships to wait on their weak effort at productivity—but they have done the same under premium pay on the weekends compounding the insult.

Then to make matters worse to any investigator with an inquisitive eye toward reality, one comes to realize how much these union workers make as a salary—which proves how out of touch they really are.  When the union leaders were upset that their employers just shut down the weekends because they are now so dreadfully behind schedule it is no longer worth the premium money to spend to move units—the audacity of the Longshore workers unions become very clear.  What follows are a collection of articles that explains more deeply the situation:

Longshore workers, according to a contract that expired in July, can earn $25.71 to $35.68 — or annual salaries of $53,476 to $74,214— depending on seniority. Workers get more money for special skills and experience, plus overtime.

According to the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the employers, the average salary is $147,000, which combines the earnings for registered longshoremen, clerks, walking bosses and foremen who have worked 2,000 or more hours.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20150202/longshore-workers-deal-with-no-night-shifts-vie-for-day-jobs-amid-contract-dispute

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Companies that handle billions of dollars of cargo at West Coast seaports said Friday they will hire far fewer workers this weekend, the latest escalation in a contract dispute with dockworkers that threatens to shut down a vital link in U.S.-Asia trade.

The association representing port terminal operators announced its members would not hire crane drivers to move containers on and off massive ocean-going ships. Instead, employers could order smaller crews to clear already-unloaded containers from congested dockside yards.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/west-coast-port-employers-to-cut-weekend-shifts-amid-contract-dispute-with-dockworkers-union-291119461.html

The slow-roll implementation of Obamacare threatens to close U.S. commercial ports on the West Coast. The 29 ports, which handle 70 percent of maritime imports from Asia, were closed over the weekend after months of contentious contract negotiations. The ports reopened Monday, but 20,000 longshoremen are still threatening to strike over a new Obamacare tax.

Obamacare imposes a 40 percent tax on health benefits deemed too generous by the government. Health benefits exceeding $10,200 a year in value for individuals or $27,500 for families are defined as “Cadillac” plans and are subject to the tax. Health benefits for longshoremen exceed $40,000 per employee, meaning the union would be served an enormous tax bill when the penalty is imposed in 2018.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/10/obamacare-tax-threatens-to-close-west-coast-ports/

Well, how about that, Obamacare penalizes health care plans that are too luxurious so to ensure that everyone is the same no matter their personal effort or worth—and the Longshore workers don’t like it.  The situation is so serious that it should require the involvement of the President of the United States to step in and keep American productivity flowing.  But he hasn’t because Obama is aligned with such radicals as they think the same way.  Yet even in this case even the union workers are to the political right of Obama—because it is Obamacare that is the largest sticking point in obtaining a new contact.  The Longshore workers already make too much money to be worth the effort—now with Obamacare pressing down on the port employers they simply have reached their breaking point and are giving up.

For Obama, this is one of the biggest issues of his presidency.  When President Bush was faced with the same type of work stoppage in 2002 after only a ten-day lockout by the same union he invoked the Taft-Hartley Act as reported by the World Socialist Web Site:

On Tuesday a federal judge in San Francisco granted the Bush administration’s request for a temporary injunction lifting a ten-day lockout and sending West Coast longshoremen back to work. The court order was a prelude to the declaration of an 80-day “cooling off” period under the provisions of the anti-union Taft-Hartley law.

The lockout had shut down 29 West Coast ports. The judge issued his order barely three hours after attorneys from the Justice Department presented a fact-finding report drawn up by a special Board of Inquiry. George W. Bush had announced the formation of the panel the day before, setting into motion the legal process leading to the declaration of a national emergency and the implementation of the Taft-Hartley Act

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the West Coast shipping companies, reopened the ports on Wednesday for the 6 p.m. shift.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/10/ilwu-o10.html

Of course the socialists thought that Bush had overstepped his boundaries and forced the Longshore workers back to work because they represent the basic philosophy of all labor unions—that jobs exist for employees and that employers are meant to be servants to the whims of the “middleclass.”  And now that socialist types have their president in the White House there is no relief for employers coming—instead there are only more socialist driven costs induced by Obamacare.  So for employers—it’s a no win situation.  Product is stacking up on shipping docks and not making it to their destination on time—and America looks inefficient because of it—which makes socialists happy.

The Longshore workers are disgraceful.  They have a history of this radical behavior and have driven up their wages to a level that is simply not sustainable.  And now because of Obamacare, they have overstayed their welcome and are due for an innovation to replace their sudden worthlessness.  The rest of America should not have to wait for those idiots to do their jobs.  Their selfishness is epic—but worse than that—it is Obamacare that has broken the back of logic.  Yet nobody is talking about that on the nightly news.  That is because the dispute is between various factions of liberals—the Longshore workers and Obama himself.  The companies caught in the middle simply want to operate their businesses.  And with the Obamacare imposition being so high—they decided they can’t.  So employers shut down their weekend work and are ready to move on.  For them—it was the correct decision.  These port employers aren’t alone.  Here is a list of other major companies who have decided that Obamacare is just too expensive.   And this is just the beginning.

http://news.investors.com/politics-obamacare/090514-669013-obamacare-employer-mandate-a-list-of-cuts-to-work-hours-jobs.htm?fromcampaign=1

Rich Hoffman

Visit Cliffhanger Research and Development

The Obama and John Kasich French-Kissing Budgets: It will cost Lakota $5.9 million and worse–yet another levy

 

John Kasich has shown that he is fully capable of surpassing Pete Carroll’s Super Bowl losing decision as the dumbest idea to date. Failing to address the runaway costs of Ohio public schools by giving more money to poor districts while taking money away from the wealthy ones—he proposed early in February 2015 to solve the gulf with a tax increase. His comment to the wealthy districts was, “If you live in a district that can afford it, you can help yourself.” Essentially what he means is that he’s redistributing the wealth of Ohio tax payers from well-off regions to poorer ones with an established result to raise taxes on communities hosting gigantic schools with treacherously inflated employee wages like Lakota. Taking the largest schools hit in Butler County will be the Lakota Local School District—where I live, which will lose a total of $5.9 million over the next two fiscal years. A neighboring distinct to the west, Ross will lose $438,765. Talawanda to the north, $594,482. As residents we already pay state taxes intended for the unconstitutional distribution of public education—yet Kasich is taking that money and passing it out disproportionately to districts deemed more needy than others, then telling wealthy districts like mine to raise taxes and take care of themselves—all while taking our state tax money and dispersing it like Santa Clause everywhere but in Lakota and other Butler County schools. Then to make matters worse Kasich said this to a Cleveland newspaper—which is appalling. It looks like Kasich and Obama put their budgets together on the same napkin at the same bar, French-kissing each other when they thought nobody was looking—because they are both just as ridiculously stupid.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Gov. John Kasich said he doesn’t consider his new school funding plan to be a redistribution of income, even as it sends more money to poor districts and less to richer ones.

“It is a conservative point of view in that every kid should be in a position to thrive,” Kasich said.

“I don’t see it as redistribution,” he added. “I see it as a formula for driving resources to kids.”

In an appearance at the E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills charter school campus in Cleveland his morning, Kasich said he expects “a lot of squawking” when he releases the changes in state aid to individual districts this afternoon.

About half of Ohio’s districts will see reductions, he said, despite him adding $700 million in aid to schools overall.

Kasich said he wants to send more money to district with less “capacity” to pay for schools and less money to those that have the income and property values to cover the costs.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/gov_kasich_says_his_school_fun.html

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/kasichs-education-speech-under-way/nWCBT/

http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/budget-increases-funding-for-poorer-school-distric/nj4tr/

The ultimate failure in this debacle is in believing that more money will actually help kids in a poor community—as if money alone will make schools better. Government schools suck because government is incompetent. You could throw $1 million dollars per pupil into a poor community and the money will be completely wasted on teacher salaries, new paint for the schools but not a single elevated child—because schools do not make children great. Teachers don’t make good people. Parents do. Schools and teachers can assist, but they can’t take broken Humpty Dumpty families and put all their broken shells together again if their home environment is full of drug addicts, gamblers, whores, or people who enjoy watching the Bill Cunningham show. It doesn’t work now, it hasn’t worked in the past, and it certainly won’t work in the future. Money does not make quality. People make quality and there is a reason that kids in richer districts do better scholastically than poor kids. It’s because their parents generally care more about the outcome of their kids and there is likely peer knowledge of similar families who also care about the fate of their children. In poor communities very few people care about kids. Teachers generally pretend to, but in the end, if their union calls for a strike—they’ll march in the streets and leave the kids in need of a mentor. Most teachers are unfortunately in the profession to make money. I believe they start out well-intentioned, but a few years into their mandatory union membership—they become socialist radicals just like the rest of the employees in public education. And those employees aren’t worth the money they demand to be paid.

That is the real issue—the money the employees cost a district. A properly run school district would wisely cut all their most expensive employees and let some other school have them—hiring cheaper teachers who will do the same work for half the cost. Experience doesn’t mean much in public schools because kids aren’t learning anything anyway. Government schools are simply an expensive state funded baby-sitting service and nothing more—for parents too busy to care for their own. So they pawn their kids off on society to raise and hope the school will cover their faults. At least in a wealthy district the parents ask how the child’s day went and try to bring some semblance of family structure to children. In poor districts—an intact family is as rare as an eclipse. Money can’t fix that problem.

As for pre-school education and subsequent grade school skills—teaching itself has entered a new age, and the government schools are way behind the curve. For anybody who hasn’t yet learned, there is a thing kids have these days called, LeapFrog—which is a computer tablet intended for kids 3 to 9 which teaches them math, grammar, and other logic skills. If I had one of those when I was a kid I would have been done with all the skills of grade school before 5 years of age because the programs are so good, and intuitive. The government school profession is no longer effective in this fast paced age of massive data consumption. Kids are bored with public school by the time they are in the 2nd and 3rd grades and learning for them becomes a chore instead of a pleasure because of the way its sold to them in public schools driven by radical—expensive labor union personnel—is destroying our youth—not helping them.

So Kasich has made an epic error. To mask his lack of courage in dealing with the public labor unions, he has instead punted to the local districts to allow them to fight it out due to his progressivism.   He might as well be Obama in the Ohio capital at this point. Sure he moved some money around to create a surplus, but he largely did it with wealth redistribution like this situation with the schools, and by taking federal money. He’s not a conservative—he is the definition of a RINO. If he were a governor in New York or California—he’d call himself a Democrat because that’s where his values and leadership point to as far as values.

As for the development of the I-75 corridor in Southern Ohio surely he knows what this means. He remembers the Lakota fights of a few years ago, and now because of his decision, he’ll see them again. If he thought they were bloody before, he and they haven’t seen anything yet. And those fights will be in the newspapers, and they will influence investment into the area at a critical time—and he’ll be to blame. I can say that I’m not alone in anger on this high tax proposal by Kasich of the Lakota and Mason area. Paying for overpriced government babysitters isn’t going to go over well and it will take a while for those districts to pass a tax increase because of the fights coming—so public relations of the area will take a hit. And the blame will fall squarely on John Kasich. Once something is done—you can’t undo it. And now he’s simply blown it. He has fallen from a political star to a simple grain of sand on a vast beach being washed out to sea by larger and larger waves. Any hopes he had at greatness are now washing away with the high tide as he panders to the power of the unions with a feeble attempt to appease them—which of course won’t work. His decision and budget proposal regarding education will have a catastrophic effect and the blame will be solely in his possession.

Rich Hoffman

Visit Cliffhanger Research and Development

An Insulting Budget Proposal: What happens when you let a drug abuser become president

What happens when you take a former drug abuser and put them in the White House and ask them to come up with a budget? Well, you get the 2015 budget proposal by president Obama who brought out his budget this week with great fanfare only to essentially reveal it as a word for word utterance of the preposterousness shown in the recent Greek election. In Greece the communists are now in control of the economy which swore to reject the austerity measures there. In the United States, Obama declared the same with an insane budget against austerity as reported by USA Today:

WASHINGTON — President Obama submitted his $4 trillion budget wish-list to a Republican Congress Monday, calling for a return to increased domestic and military spending to be paid for in part by higher taxes on the wealthy.

The plan includes a $478 billion public works infrastructure program for roads, bridges, and transit systems, to be financed by taxes on overseas earnings. The budget calls for new tax credits and other initiatives devoted to education, child care, paid leave, and infrastructure, with tax hikes resulting from the closure of tax loopholes. The president also wants to put an end to the automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, calling for a 7% increase in spending over the budget levels he agreed to in a 2011 compromise with Republicans.

“I want to work with Congress to replace mindless austerity with smart investments that strengthen America,” Obama said in a speech at the Department of Homeland Security. “I’m not going to accept a budget that locks in sequestration going forward. It would be bad for our security, and bad for our growth.”

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/02/obama-budget-399-trillion-republicans/22695611/

For those who don’t know, austerity by definition is a severity of discipline, regime, expression, or design—a saving, economy, or act of self-denial, especially in respect of something regarded as a luxury. Obama instead of austerity applied to an out-of-control government suggested even more debt, spending, and taxation. It really is amazing that he even could conceive of such a proposal as to actually put it in printed form, because in reality, it amounts to the blithering of an intoxicated drug addict. It is amazing that this kind of nonsense even gets print in USA Today without a complete castigation for the mere proposal. Who is going to pay for all this stuff—the “rich?” That’s the plan, just increase taxes on people who create wealth? He’s kidding right?

Well, apparently taxing the rich and bitching about austerity is the essence of Obama’s entire budget proposal which is as ignorant as giving the keys of a nice new car to a slithering drunk barely conscious. It’s not even in the realm of viable possibilities, let alone considered seriousness. Yet Obama put out the proposal and the media covered it as if it were a legitimate attempt which was only laughable to those who can actually read.

Obama is an embarrassment to the United States and is a functioning communist based on the type of values he expresses. “Laughable austerity” means he doesn’t think there should be financial restrictions that are confined to a budget at all—his world view is simply beyond consideration of any legitimacy. It is as loony as the slap stick Greeks believing that their debts can be forgiven without payment and that the social spending they are all addicted to can continue forever. One might expect such stupidity in a country like Greece, or some Middle Eastern armpit of a world where economic activity is traded in goats—but in America—such budgets as Obama’s 2015 anti-austerity proposal doesn’t even count. Congress should have stopped the delivery of the proposal right at the door without even wasting further time—and sent them back to the White House unopened. Unless the President’s budget included budget cuts—and a reduced deficit plan—there isn’t any worth to it. It was disrespectful to the American people to even print such foolishness on actual paper.

Corporate taxes are already too high, yet Obama proposed a 14% one-time tax on overseas profits. He proposed $478 billion over six years for roads and bridges and he suggested a $38 billion dollar increase in defense spending over sequestration levels due to his mismanagement of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Obama’s numbers don’t even come close to balancing out; he expects to increase the national debt to 26.2 trillion dollars by 2025. That is insane!

Look, if someone put such an insult on my desk I would have likely blasted them out of a canon in less than a second. So I have no personal tolerance for that kind of thing. Congress should deal with this recklessness appropriately and set an example that future losers in the White House will never forget. Because if they don’t, more attempts like this one will be tried—and its about time that Americans learn the hard truth about our economy rather than through politicians who are obviously mentally deficient and seek to hide it by giving away other people’s stuff.   Obama is a spending addict—just as he needs to chew gum to keep from smoking cigarettes, covering up his drug abusing past, and his Marxist teachers who made him the person he is today.  He has an addictive personality. He needs an encounter group to help him with his various addictions. He doesn’t need more enablers in his life. He needs to hear the word “NO” much more often and to be treated like the louse that he truly is. Obama is a reckless loser who happened to talk himself into winning elections by giving things away to those too lazy to work. It doesn’t make him capable of putting together a budget—obviously. So his proposal deserves the ridicule measurable to the insult of even trying.

Rich Hoffman

Visit Cliffhanger Research and Development

John Boehner Sticking Up for Himself: Benjamin Netanyahu and Congress

My biggest criticism of my representative John Boehner over the years is that he has been too soft on President Obama. The current president is obviously engaged in a power grab and has been pushing conservatives around for years without a proper response. Speaking from personal experience the best way to deal with a bully is to push back when they push you, and Obama is simply a bully when it comes to radicalism and advocating his points of view. Largely Boehner, obviously respectful of the presidency in a way befitting royalty, has let the president push him and his congress without fear of retaliation to the point of embarrassment.

Well, it appears that Boehner is finally pushing back a little, now that the Senate has gone to the Republicans, and it’s good to see. It’s about time. It’s also good to see Boehner go on Fox News to talk about the ways that he plans to push back against the encroaching president. Obama has done plenty of speaking to the media from MSNBC to MTV and one of the primary reasons that Boehner’s Congress has such low approval ratings is that the President has out-talked him as the Speaker of the House to the media. Boehner could take advantage of the many conservative talk shows on the radio and television, but really hasn’t much—which is why he has lost over the years to the slick talk of the Democratic socialists and their wealth-redistribution schemes. But that appears to be changing as reported by the below Fox News article speaking about the recent Boehner interview.

WASHINGTON –  House Speaker John Boehner confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that Republicans plan to sue President Obama over his use of executive action on immigration.

“The president’s overreach when he took executive action to deal with the immigration problems in our country, frankly, in my view, is a violation of our Constitution,” Boehner said on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

“We believe that the filing of a lawsuit to try to stop the president from – from violating our Constitution is an important step for our institution,” he added. “This isn’t about immigration. This is the president violating the Constitution, violating his oath of office, and frankly, not upholding the rule of law.”

The move to sue has been seen as an effort to appease conservatives who are upset they may be forced to accept a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that does not include provisions rolling back the president’s executive actions.

Earlier Wednesday, the White House shrugged off Boehner’s threats of a lawsuit.

“House Republicans seem to be relying more and more on the courts these days to challenge the president’s authority,” White House spokesman Eric Shultz said. “We believe that we acted within the full bounds of authority enshrined to the executive branch, and we’ll be defending that.”

Last year, the House moved to sue Obama over his administration’s delayed implementation of the employer mandate in ObamaCare.

In the wide-ranging interview with Baier, Boehner said he wasn’t surprised by the pushback he’s received from inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress.

“The Israeli prime minister can also talk with some expertise about the growing threat of radical Islam,” Boehner said. “We’ve got a serious problem in the world and the president just wants to act like it’s going to just disappear. And so as a co-equal branch of our government, I don’t have any problem at all in doing what I did to invite the prime minister to come to Congress and address those concerns.”

Boehner also discussed hiccups he’s had with the Republican caucus.

“Listen, I was the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” he said. “I understand their concerns. I understand their frustrations. But we have a Constitution that we abide by and we’re going to live by.”

When asked why the House would once again hold a vote to repeal ObamaCare, as is planned next week, Boehner said it came down to getting new Republican voices heard.

“We have 47 new members of Congress on the Republican side who have never had the chance to cast their vote to repeal ObamaCare,” Boehner said. “ObamaCare is hurting our economy. It’s hurting the job prospects for millions of Americans. And it’s hurting our whole health care delivery system while at the same time driving up costs for the average American.”

Boehner also said Republicans would offer an alternative to ObamaCare by the end of the congressional session.

“There are three committee chairmen that have the jurisdiction over the health care policy in our country and those three chairmen are working together to craft what we believe would be a better approach with regard to health care for the American people than ObamaCare.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/28/boehner-confirms-lawsuit-against-obama-on-fox-news-address-pushback-on/

Of the most important note in that interview was Boehner’s claim to be a co-equal branch of government, which a lot of people apparently don’t know. Obama behaving like a king of some kind has routinely stepped around Congress to implement his plans, so when it came to inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Boehner finally stepped around the president and acted on his own—like he should have.

No politician would dare say it in the light of day for being labeled a conspiracy advocate but Obama’s behavior has been dangerous in regard to Israel. He obviously is sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view and has created an adversarial relationship with Netanyahu consistent to the views of radical Islamic elements. Even when ISIS terrorists have done their worst against the peace and stability of the entire world, Obama has been careful not to call them Islamic terrorists so not to insult Muslims—which is strange behavior. When Christian radicals go too far, most sane Christians will call out the bad behavior as such—as in the case of the Westboro Baptist Church types people. There are plenty of Christians who thought Reverend Fred Phelps was over the top and vile—and they were not afraid to say so. They certainly didn’t make excuses for him the way Obama does with radical Muslims. So what is really going on? Likely, the answer is not a good one.

I think Boehner thought Obama was a decent human being who played golf with him, and considered that the names people like me were calling the president were uncalled for, and the stuff of conspiracy. But any rational person would have to look at the evidence and conclude that there is something really wrong with Obama and his view of the American presidency—and that he has been bullying Republicans around for years—especially John Boehner.

So it’s good to see Boehner starting to stick up for himself, and Republicans in general. At a bare minimum, Obama is a scum bag, liar and history will confirm it. So there is nothing wrong with pushing back against such a person when it is obvious what his intentions are from the White House perspective. There is certainly nothing wrong with bringing Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress to speak without asking Obama if it’s alright. Obama doesn’t ask for permission to do things and routinely bypasses Congress—so the precedent has been set—and Boehner as an equal member of the federal power structure has a right and obligation to do the same. And he finally has—and it’s about time!

As far as Boehner being “Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” well, there’s room for converts, and people have to live with their decisions in life. If he sees correctly where the wind is blowing from and to, and decides that he wants his sails to be carried by those currents into fate—well, that’s fine. He can believe what he wants. What really matters is what he does and says day to day—and if he suddenly discovers in himself a spine against Obama—then he can call himself a Tea Party guy from now until eternity. Because in his position—Boehner is best prepared to keep the power grabs of the president in check. So we’ll see how long the Tea Party in him lasts. Hopefully, it won’t fade away in the coming months like it usually does. I remain hopeful that Boehner has finally discovered within himself the Marty McFly from Back to the Future. Hopefully he’s finally going to say to Biff—“Hey you, take your damn hands off her.” We’ll see if this time he can actually make a fist.

Rich Hoffman

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This is What Democracy Looks Like: Greece falls to communism

I was at Barnes and Nobel in West Chester purchasing my usual weekly necessities when I happened to notice the Wall Street Journal behind the counter. It stated “LEFTISTS TAKE OVER GOVERNMENT IN GREECE.” I had to take a minute to consider that severe world problem. As I read it a major snow storm was bearing down on the North East and President Obama was in India back slapping authorities there hoping to open up trade with that nation—for some reason—as if that would solve some major economic hurdle in the United States. I bought the paper and found the following information scrolled upon the pages:

Alkman Granitsas

Updated Jan. 26, 2015 6:17 a.m. ET

ATHENS—Greek voters handed power to a radical leftist party in national elections on Sunday, a popular rebellion against the bitter economic medicine Greece has swallowed for five years and a rebuke of the fellow European countries that prescribed it.

With nearly all votes counted, opposition party Syriza was on track to win about half the seats in Parliament. In the wee hours of the morning, it clinched a coalition deal with a small right-wing party also opposed to Europe’s economic policy to give the two a clear majority.

“Today the Greek people have written history,” Syriza’s young leader and likely new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said in his victory speech late Sunday. “The Greek people have given a clear, indisputable mandate for Greece to leave behind austerity.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/syriza-win-in-greek-election-sets-up-new-europe-clash-1422168982?tesla=y&.tsrc=lgwn/

That night I watched Fox News Special Report at 6 PM and the Greek tragedy wasn’t covered at all during the entire hour-long episode. I watched the next night and discovered the same apathy. The snow storm sucked up the entire news cycle. CNN covered the story a bit, and Fox News covered the Greek story on other programs to a lesser effect and did an online article about it for their website. Glenn Beck and Alex Jones did some radio on the topic—and MSNBC was dancing in the streets over the news, but certainly didn’t cover the story from the perspective of the extreme negative connotations that are directly implied by the Syriza party. It was the biggest news in the world and nobody was talking about it—relatively speaking.

Essentially Greece voted to default on their debts to Germany and the European Union. The danger is that other countries a few years away from the present Greek situation will follow. It was clear that this is what democracy looks like; when the mob of ignorant masses decide they collectively didn’t want to deal with the ramifications of their austerity measures, that they could just vote against reality in the hopes that the debt would just be wiped away. This is a very dangerous precedent.

Greece spent themesleves into economic ruin with their vast amounts of socialism introduced to their culture without an economy to even begin to support it. The only proper thing for them to do is to tuck up their belt and thin down their financial expectations dramatically. That is what Greece has been doing over the last 5 years, which was originally covered here at Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom. I said this event would happen even way back then, but I didn’t think the Greeks would be so arrogant to not even pay their bills.   After all, they incurred the debt, so they have to be the ones to pay back the obligation. Nobody else is going to pay for it—because they have their own problems. Italy is suffering from nearly the same problem. Spain is as well. France has an openly socialist president who seemed gleefully relieved that the Paris terrorist attacks took the focus of the world off his dismal economy and onto something that people can unite behind—which is terrorism. Greece stated that their reasons for supporting the Syriza party was to restore their sense of national pride. The falseness of their assumption is that eliminating debt through the forgiveness of the lender of the value lost can do that—which is an extremely scary proposal.

The Greek people have lost their way and think that their ability to maintain their pensions, long vacations, and trips to the beach with a lifestyle that is above the means of their GDP will restore their pride when they have essentially filed for bankruptcy against the European Union. This trend will have a domino effect with ever other nation within that union struggling against the same excessive legacy costs from a generation gone by. The youth of Greece does not want to pay for the sins of their parents—and that is why they voted toward communism—and relief of their financial obligations. The same issue is headed for America.

More and more young people are turning toward socialism and communism to give them relief against the massive debt incurred by their parents. Under president Obama the national debt will be $19 trillion on an economy that only produces $17 trillion per year. The path is unsustainable and reckless, and Obama knows it. When 9/11 occurred the national debt was $5.7 trillion and it is presently over $18 trillion in just that very short time. It has grown by over $2 trillion since I first wrote about the Greek financial crises just a few years ago. It is a mess and spiraling out of control in full view of Washington D.C. Obama knows very well how bad the situation is, yet he won’t stop proposing measures that inspire more spending. Because he knows what happens in a democracy and it favors his politics. Not the politics he shows to the world. But the politics he was committed to when he started his political career in the living room of Bill Ayers.

The United States was built to be a republic. It is supposed to vote wise representatives to their state and federal appointments to act as caretakers of the tax payer resources. The quality of those representatives is directly attached to the value of the republic. And the culture that produces those representatives dictates that the voters behave in an intelligent fashion so to preserve the republic. A democracy is where popular elections occur by the masses toward a contest where raw numbers determine the outcome allow for poor quality people to gain power, which erodes value. Obama and the rest of the current Beltway know that as America has eroded away from a republic and more into a democracy that the chosen mode of politics in the future will be the same as there is in Greece currently. When given an option between debt relief and austerity a democracy will choose bankruptcy over paying back the sins of their fathers. So communist sympathizing politicians like Obama know what they are doing. They are purposely toppling our economy right before our eyes to fulfill their promises to the communism popular within intelligentsia circles on college campuses and Marxist fan clubs. The desire for global communism is what is fueling this recklessness. In that respect, because Greece had very little GDP to sustain it, they are the first to hit the communist insurgency. But America is not far behind. For us, it is within a generation to reach the same mark—and it’s by design.

Those same academics are also saying that this situation in Greece will be good for them. How ironic. Clearly a wave is coming; it is hitting Europe as we speak. It is going to wash across the Middle East—also as we speak. It currently has all of Africa under its spell. It has China, presently with the exception of Hong Kong, parts of Malaysia, and Japan. From there it will sweep across old communist Russia and meet in the middle by the Black Sea. Communism within a few short years from this very moment will completely dominate all the land mass from Europe to Asia. Then it will be coming to America and when it arrives it will find a youth in the same situation as modern Greece. And they will vote the same way because nobody wants to pay for the sins of their parents and at over $19 trillion dollars, and a debt of over $60,000 per person, nobody will want to work hard through austerity to communist China to pay all that money back. So they will vote the same socialism/communism that brought Obama to the White House in the first place and it will be too late for historians to say they should have seen it coming. Because the youth will vote in favor of communism—which was always the plan. Democracy will flourish to wipe away capitalism and usher in the darkness of communism—and just like in Greece it will be done to waving red flags and lots of partying. That is what democracy looks like—and it’s coming to a neighborhood near you soon.

You would have thought that the news outlets would have covered this tragedy more vocally, because it is much more serious than a simple snow storm. However, the more I thought about it, the more it was obvious that many in the media are actually hoping that what happened in Greece will in fact happen in America. And unlike a snow storm, it won’t melt away when spring hits. Instead, it will linger for the rest of our days, and will destroy many lives. So for television ratings, such an inevitable destruction is pretty scary if reported correctly. So they stayed away from the story hoping for some miracle that will never come. And even Fox News didn’t have the courage to look at the terrible fate that is before us all. So they just turned toward the next presidential election and a New England snow storm for relief and did as most everyone else is—just looking away and hoping that they won’t be around when the next wave of communism hits. But sadly—they will be. In many ways—its here already.

Rich Hoffman

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Fairfield Township Tax Increase: The signs of a declining community

No matter where you are in the world articles like this one are something you should pay attention to. Even though the story is a local one, gradually its contents will find you in whatever corner of the world you happen to reside. When I was a kid, Fairfield Township was one of the booming areas around the City of Cincinnati. With Jungle Jims bringing international attention to the area as one of the most unusual grocery stores in America, General Motors operating a parts plant off RT 4 and a number of other developments, Fairfield Township was the rising star of Ohio. I lived in neighboring Liberty Township and used to think the people who lived in Fairfield were rich and very lucky. Well, years of mismanagement and sheer stupidity have brought to the Township a promise of bankruptcy by 2018 unless the trustees put a 4.9 mill levy up to pay for their fire and police protection on the May 2015 ballot. Here are the numbers provided by the Journal News:

The problem stems from the fact that since 2012, the township has transferred more than $1.7 million from the general fund to the police and fire departments to cover budget shortfalls. Expenses have been outpacing revenues in both departments since 2011, Geis said. (Ken Geis,is the township’s interim administrator.)

Police expenses, including salaries and equipment, were just short of $3 million in 2013, while revenues were about $2.2 million. The fire department had similar figures in 2013, Geis said. The township transferred about $350,000 from the general fund in 2012 for the fire department, $1.1 million in 2013 for fire and police combined and about $300,000 so far this year for the police department.

The township’s finances are strong now, with a Aa2 bond rating from Moody’s, the second highest rating possible and an indicator of good credit risk, and a projected balance of nearly $4 million this year after expenses. However, that’s down from the 2011 balance of $6 million. Projected balances show the general fund gradually diminishing until it dips near or below $1 million in 2018.

http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/local/township-may-consider-levy-to-avoid-insolvency/nhWC6/

The smart thing to do would be to restructure the contracts and staffing levels of the police and fire departments to reflect the declining community that Fairfield is. Let’s face it; Fairfield Township is not the best place to live anymore. It is mired with the same types of challenges that most big cities face with a demographic population overly dependent on government services as the more self-reliant types have picked up and moved on to places where people think more the way they do. It was easy to keep adding fire departments as part of a gigantic international labor union and expect massive wages for mostly sitting around all day doing nothing while Fairfield Township was experiencing its economic boom that lasted for several decades during the 60s through the 80s. It’s not like the roughly 18,000 residents around Fairfield Township were having houses burn down every day. There is the occasional arson case, the occasional pot bust, and domestic violence calls that come when you put stupid young people with no money and addictions to alcohol in conflict together near a bowling alley—but other than those issues, Fairfield Township is grossly overstaffed with police and fire department employees—and the trustees know that the fight to reduce those positions will likely be more unpopular than filing bankruptcy—which is just fine with the labor unions behind the police and fire departments. For instance, the Township in the fourth quarter of 2014 hired Lawrence Barbiere to replace Jack Grove as the township law director. Guess what, Grove was charging the township for his services–$315 per hour. Barbiere only charges $150 per hour. If the trustees look at their fire department and police payrolls they will see a lot of officers pushing over $100,000 per year with their overtime roll-overs. Those employees should be cut—or put on a RIF so that newer—cheaper employees could be implemented so not to force residents to vote for a tax increase. You can still have your police and fire departments sitting on the side of the road playing on the internet all day—but at least they’ll be there if some delusional drug addict has a bad drug bust or ends up burning down their home to collect insurance money so to pay off their gambling debts.

But of course the fire department will inflate their numeric needs because it must always be remembered; they are an international labor union first—servants of the local citizens second. Chief Matt Fruchey said this of the trustees decision for a tax increase in May—“I am very pleased that the trustees have aligned with our assessment of current and future needs of the township.” What that means is that Fruchey believes staffing levels need to be increased to some magic number consistent with the number of people living in the area. Increasingly Fairfield Township is filled with people like Barbara Holland who said to the Today’s Pulse newspaper that she’s not worried about her taxes, as her property is not of a great monetary value. “They’re (trustees) going to really have to get out there and push this….it’s the people with these big houses that are going to fight it.” So essentially what Barbara said is that she wants the services of the police and fire without paying for it, and wants wealth redistribution from those “big houses” to give her community resources that she isn’t equally contributing to.

It is that kind of mentality that tells the money to leave Fairfield Township because the trustees failed to protect them from people like Barbara Holland and Chief Matt Fruchey. Fruchey knows that his guys need a few more players in their Call of Duty network down at the firehouse, so he’s protecting their interests by exploiting the stupid in Fairfield Township. So guess what happens, the people in those big houses get up and leave Fairfield Township and move next door to Liberty and West Chester where personal wealth and property value is still appreciated somewhat leaving the community who just passed the high tax rates filled with people like Barbara, and without people in those big houses. Guess what happens to the revenue stream of a community when value leaves and poor value stays? The community dies.

Yet in a different newspaper Barbara Holland spoke a different note about the upcoming levy when the trustees split the vote on a May ballot or a November vote during a special Friday meeting on January 23rd. Suddenly Holland stated to the Enquirer that “I think you need to have another town meeting roundtable. Tonight was not informative. I’m going to be cutting something out if this goes through.” So in one paper Holland doesn’t care about the tax, the next she’s undecided. What is going on is that the trustees know they have to come up with more money to pay for the police and fire services and they don’t want the pain of lawsuits if they force staff reductions to balance the books. Wishy washy residents like Holland they need to speak out in favor of the levy to put peer pressure into the community to support the next levy—they just can’t decide when the best numbers will be that will work toward their advantage. These are the decisions of a declining community—because no matter what the trustees do, failure will follow. If they pass a tax increase more money will leave the township for friendlier districts. If they don’t pass the tax increase the international unions connected to the fire and police departments will put the screws down on the trustees in ways they aren’t equipped to deal with financially or emotionally. So either way, Fairfield Township loses and will further go down in value. There will become more residents like Barbara Holland demanding more taxes on properties of little value and less in those “big houses” who will pay a lot more just because people like Holland ended up voting for the increase.

The same struggles are coming to your front door dear reader. It’s just a matter of time.

Rich Hoffman

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