My time at Occupy Oakland. Hanging with the 99 percenters. 2011

I spent a few weeks at the occupy movement in Oakland, camped out like a forest ranger in the park by the civic center. It is normally called Frank Ogawa Plaza, but for the time of the protest it was always referred to as Oscar Grant Plaza. Why? Who the fuck knows? The dead delinquent had nothing to do with Wall Street or politics. I am told he was a victim of “The Man.” I thought he was shot by a dumb cop who couldn’t tell the difference between his Taser and his Glock. A lot of people tried to convince me what a noble fellow Oscar was. Each time it came up I asked if they knew him personally; no one did. “How do you know what an honorable and noble fellow he was?”

Yeah, there were Oscar Grant fans there. There were a lot issues besides Oscar that were brought to the forefront each day. Some were there to protest their growing student debt. I asked them, “Are you still going to college?” Yes. “Why don’t you quit and stop going into debt?” Invariably, the answers were that “The Man” will eventually forgive all student debt so there was no need to drop out of school. “Dude, when this revolution is done, no one will owe a dime on a student loan.” Shit, I paid my student loans years ago. I should have let them ride and let “The Man” take care of them.

A typical day at the camp started just after midnight when the first of two or more drunks/stoners fell on my tent, keeping me wide awake. I never had a good night’s sleep there. I’d fall asleep for a little while and then the guys in the tent next to mine would start making love, usually about 3am. They sounded like hogs going at it. Their tent would shake and the poles would rattle. Sometimes they had an audience who would stand next to my tent and clap and cheer for their orgasms.

A couple of times I went to the community kitchen to see what there was to eat for breakfast. There was a lot of organic this and natural that cooking in pots. It wasn’t the food that I distrusted; it was the people cooking it. It was hardly a sanitary affair. I am still surprised there was not an E-Coli outbreak. I knew a lot of folks who had the trots. That caused a real crisis for our toilet facilities. I noticed a few guys and gals squatting like dogs on the lawn as the lines at the porta potties were too long and the urge of their diarrhea too great! I think this pissed off a lot of dogs as they spent their time trying to reclaim that territory with their own poop.  

The morning porta potty wait became a ritual. I would often find myself with the same people in line day after day at sun up. Sometimes we’d sing songs. There were a lot spontaneous chants that would arise. “Get the fuck out of the toilet!’ was my favorite. It tended to move the line along.

Well, in the mornings I usually took a walk to McDonalds or a coffee shop for some eggs and good ol’ processed meats. I was told by many that there was not enough food for all thru the community kitchen. It ran out often. When it didn’t run out, the food was very bad. After a while some of the nearby coffee shops closed during the protest and I had to walk farther for lunch and dinner. I’d be damned if I was going to eat anything made by “Natural Dan” and “Constantly Stoned and Happy Katey.” I was talking to “Constantly Stoned and Happy Katey” while she was making a dinner dish one night. She suddenly sneezed into the pot. She winked at me and said, “You didn’t see that.” Yeah, I did. I nearly threw up my Big Mac thinking of all the folks who were going to be dining on that later.

There were anti-war protesters there in droves. “Out of Afghanistan” read many signs. I talked to a nice couple who were singing some old protest songs. The guy looked like a young version of Pete Seeger and the lady looked like any other Dead Head/Phish Following Spin dancer. Should I say she had an “earthy” scent about her? “We gotta pull our troops out now!”

Another group out there at Occupy was the Tree Huggers contingent. This consisted of various backwoods types of hippies. Some were more concerned with global warming, others were the true tree hugger who literally save trees. One guy was very proud of the Redwood Trees he had spiked. Spiking a tree is hammering a metal spike deep into a tree so when a chainsaw hits the spike it breaks the chain injuring or possibly killing the lumberjack. The most creative of this group was the fellow who occupied a tree, calling himself an Ohlone Indian and declaring the tree his reservation or tribal property.

Many of the people I describe above were affiliated with socialism or socialist parties. There were people there who called themselves socialists and some who referred to themselves as communists. There were even those who called themselves anarchists and openly promoted the violent overthrow of the United States Government. All three of these groups advocated distinct and sudden changes to be made to our government. According to many in these particular groups, the current system of government provided through the U. S. Constitution is antiquated and unresponsive to the needs of the 99%.

Yep, I said, “Hey, good luck with that!”

American Economic Weakness

September 13, 2012

   

Sept. 7^th we had a very disappointing jobs report. Another disappointing report is expected Friday the 14th. Hewlett Packard has announced thousands of lay offs to start before the end of the year. The Fed has initiated a new round of Quantitative Easing (QE) whereby they purchase mortgage bonds in order to grow the economy.  This could be known as QE 3, but QE’s 1 and 2 both had definitive dollar amounts and dates attached to them. This QE does not have anything definite related to it; no dates and no dollars. No expectation of $40 billion in monthly bond purchases ever ending.

The intent is to weaken the dollar and increase the amount of money available in the economy. Printing money is a trick that third world countries use to heat up their economies and generate inflation. A weak dollar will generate inflation by increasing the costs of anything we import. Part of the intent of QE is to make American made products more attractive pricewise. Does that work? Did the first two rounds of QE help? Can anyone say, “QE 2 was a Godsend! I could not have hired so many employees without it!”

I also have not heard any business owners, small or otherwise, speak highly about our President’s economic policies. These four million jobs that were created under his watch sure seem to be under the radar. How can that be if there has been a constant 11 million unemployed since the end of the recession three years ago? Statistics are tricky. It all depends on when you look at the job market. If you look at the bottom of the market in 2009 and compare it to today, I suppose you could say four million jobs were created. But how many were really lost in this recession since 2007?

Let’s consider a very cogent statistic; the job seekers vs. available jobs. As of July 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows it at 3.5 seekers per job. At the height of the recession in July 2009, it was 6.7 to 1! The numbers changed dramatically over the past three years. Why? Not because four million jobs were created, it is because millions dropped out of the job market. 

Check this out. The ratio of unemployed as a percentage of the population is cogent. In 2007, over 63% of the job aged population was employed. By August of this year, it wsa just barely over 58%. How about those out of work for six months or more? In 2007, less than 20% of unemployed Americans were out of work for six months or more. As of August 2012 that number stands at 40% per the BLS. So, of the 11.5 million+ Americans currently out of work, about 5 million have been out of work for more than six months. Ouch. One stat that is hard to track is the statistic of those who have dropped out of the workforce and ended their job search. The percentage of Americans who have been out of work and dropped out of the workforce keeps growing. This is a statistic our government does not want everyone to know about. If you did, you might want to question their abilities at job creation. 

Huffington Post recently called the government jobs reports a “Jobs Mirage.” The unemployment rate dropped because hundreds of thousands of Americans drop out of the job market each month and are no longer looking for work.  
 
Quantitative Easing may work. It may work very slowly. It could also cause a greater disaster in relation to inflation. How about unleaded gas going for $5 or $6 or more per gallon? Not just in California but in the Midwest? A weak dollar makes imported oil more expensive. If you were a Saudi Prince, you would be thanking Bernanke right now! “Allah, has blessed me! Thank you, Mr. Chairman.” 

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A final tidbit for you….Our car manufacturers are not very smart. QE will increase the prices of Japanese, German, and Korean automobiles. GM, Chrysler, and Ford will see the prices of foreign cars going up and raise the price of American Cars. Why? “We need to remain competitive even in price!” It happened in the 70’s during Jimmy Carter’s regime. History can repeat.  

Prior to the bailout, GM and Chrysler let the UAW run their businesses into the ground for them. The unsustainable union pensions and pay plans were doomed, but no fear. Our government was there to bail them out and make them whole. Now the UAW manages their holdings like GM and Chrysler from the White House. C’mon, our President is in the pocket of unions. We all know it. It’s no secret. The millions in government owned auto manufacturer shares are meaningless without some real negotiations with the unions. Those negotiations won’t start until our President’s second term. As a lame duck, will he be tough on the unions? Will he do the right thing to support the sustainability of our auto manufacturing here in the U.S.? Simple answer: No.

Arizona - Drawing a Line in the Sand

Arizona passed SB 1070 and raised a real national ruckus. The media describes it as a "National Firestorm" and are making big dollars selling ad time by keeping it as a top story every night. True, there are many who feel the law is wrong, discriminatory, and opens a door to racial profiling. There are many who believe Arizona cops will be playing like the Gestapo, taking unsuspecting Latinos off the street to an uncertain future. When you read the law you discover that police must have a reason to ask for ID, they cannot just "profile" someone and take them into custody. To date, the President nor our Fearless Leader of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, have read the bill. Here, read the bill for yourself: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf

70% of Arizonans believe strongly in this law. Over 50% of Americans support the law. Over the past 8 years, drug related crime has increased in Arizona. Phoenix has become the kidnap capital of the North America. Mexican druglords run raids to kill rivals and other associates as far north as Phoenix. Ranchers on the border live in fear for the lives of their families as drug cartel couriers armed with assault rifles cross their lands constantly. In April in Pinal County, directly south of Phoenix, there were 64 high speed car chases. 100% of the perpetrators were illegal immigrants.

Here is how Sheriff Babeu of Pinal County described it:
"Last month (April) alone, just in one patrol region, we had sixty-four pursuits. That means people who were driving a vehicle, failed to yield, took off like a bat out of hell, running red lights, creating traffic wrecks, numerous people were killed in these wrecks over the last several months, and who are these people? Not one of them was a U.S. citizen."

How did we get here?

Democrats didn’t want to do anything with immigration as many in their party like the open borders concept. Here is Marcella Aviles, the Executive Director of San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza’s take on open borders.: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14996692 Some Democrats believe it is criminal not to let Latinos into our country. They are so downtrodden in Mexico and Guatemala et al they crave the many freedoms that America has to offer. They have rights as a human being to decide where they wish to live and they wish to live here. America needs to accept the fact that our population growth will come from the south and our nation will become more Hispanic. There are still others who believe that California, Arizona, and Nevada still belong to Mexico and these people crossing the border are only moving into another state of their own country. The Democrats see power coming from across the border. If these folks can be made into citizens, they will become union members, community activists, and serve to grow the democratic voting block.

The Republicans have had no appetite to do anything about the border until now. For many years, illegal labor helped build the homes and downtowns of San Diego, LA, Phoenix, Tucson, the Bay Area. Big business and the Republicans looked the other way. Big Business, more specifically-real estate developers, have spent a lot of time preventing any immigration legislation. You can’t build brick homes in Texas and pay a union wage! You can’t build a 500 home subdivision and pay prevailing wage to all workers. That is not economically feasible. Homes would be way too expensive. The way to make it work is to have a big chunk of your workforce working below prevailing wages. Thus, the defacto rules were to allow illegals into the country with a nod and a wink to border enforcement.

The growth of illegal immigration has been pretty steady since 1986 when Reagan allowed a “path to citizenship.” Crime has increased dramatically as a result. My best friend is a defense attorney in San Mateo County. Most of his business on the public defender side is illegal immigrants. Thus we pay Public Defenders something like $400 per hour to defend people who should not be here. Their crimes cost us more in insurance payments. Heck, California has the highest uninsured drivers’ premiums in the country. We pay more in taxes to pay for the additional corrections personnel and jail improvements and expansions. That’s not to mention the billions in subsidies spent nationwide on welfare, food, housing, and medical treatments for those living here illegally. Annually, there is legislation in the Cal Assembly to officially make our state bilingual. Is everyone ready to force your kids to learn Spanish in school? Well, teachers love it. That’s at least one more teacher per school for which we can all pay.

Legislation I’d like to see: Place the National Guard on the borders. They take all illegal immigrants crossing the border to a concentration station on the border where they can be fingerprinted, photographed and shipped by bus back across the border. If they are caught again, jail time, then back across the border. Caught smuggling people or drugs? You go to immigrant jail. Not a normal federal jail. It’s more like a Mexican jail, but nastier.

No path to citizenship for anyone with a past criminal record either here or in Mexico or in the miserable country they hail from. Back across the border they go and into our criminal database.

Those wishing to become citizens shall pay a substantial fine for living illegally in our country. Hey, they skated on paying taxes for years, they ought to pay up a bit before we welcome them with open arms. After they pay their fine and complete the other legalities of immigration, they get a green card. Now they must take English and civics classes and have a passing grade of 75% or better to be considered for their citizenship tests. I will not stand to have a bunch of radicals here as Reagan allowed in his 1986 Cart Blanche Amnesty. I don’t want a bunch of Sandinistas and other central American radicals given sanctuary here. They don’t like democracy in their country and they don’t like it here.

What I am getting to is, the Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of allowing this flow of illegal immigrants into this country for different reasons. If our government fails to provide a safe living environment for those living in our border states, then it is up to those states to protect their citizens. The Federal gov has failed us if states are enacting laws like SB 1070. Arizona is standing up for the rights of its citizens to live in a secure environment. The Republicans have grabbed hold of this issue and have a real tiger by the tail. They have captured the imagination of much of the nation. I hope they do something constructive with it.

President Obama and our Foreign Policy

Well, this is the first post to this blog. I have never had a blog before and see it as the new "letters to the editor" for the 21st Century. Everybody seems to be putting in their two cents with a blog so, why can't I?

The President has neither had any victories nor any major defeats in his first year managing our foreign entanglements. The President manged the Iran Nuclear issue rather well despite the fact that nothing has gone our way. The Iranians continue to thumb their nose at us and threaten the destruction of Israel as soon as they have a nuke. Will they really make a nuclear bomb? Duh! Why else are their nuclear facilities in (relatively) bomb proof underground shelters? If they wanted it for purely peaceful means, why not accept the help and resources that have been offered to them? If they accepted this help, they could likely be creating electricity to spark the lights of all of Tehran in a few short years. Instead, they take it upon themselves to construct devices that purify the nuclear materials and create fissile substances. Hey, Tel Aviv, can you say kaboom?

Obama could not do any better than George W. Bush on this issue. Neither man is able to get the Chinese to buy in to sanctions on Iran nor can they get the Russians onboard. Obama gave up the missile defense of Poland and the Czech Republic to get Russian concessions on this very agenda item. Medvedev and Putin are of one voice- "Not now Mr. President Obama." Essentially, they don't see the need for sanctions yet. It leaves an American Public asking, when will they see the need? The actual question is, will they see the need. Not when. Iran is a very strong trading partner of Russia's and purchases a surprising amount of refined gasoline from them. Apparently for all its money Iran has not made any decent investments in their refining capacity. If Russia wants Iran to bend to its will, it would be fairly easy for them to embargo refined gasoline and see the Iranian people uncork.

Russia will not do this as it would look as if they were conceding to the requests of the western world. That does not fit into the Russian world view. The Russian leadership cannot be seen by its people as being weak or playing the role of stooge; easily giving concessions to the west due to fear ala Boris Yeltsin. These new leaders of the former USSR are trying to create a new Russian Empire. Russian leadership wants to be seen as firmly in control of Russia and its' periphery. Thus its conquest into Georgia and its not-so-thinly-veiled threats to the Ukraine. You may have noticed that countries on the Russian periphery are becoming much more Russian friendly. "Join NATO? Nah, my big neighbor says that's not a good idea for me." Ukraine could have all of its access to natural gas cut off by the Russians in the dead of winter. It is a good idea that they are playing ball with the Ruskies.

China won't help with Iran either. They have an excellent commerce relationship between them. Iran's population has disposable income and China wants a piece of the action. This springs the eternal question of the decades, is China a communist or capitalist country? In reality it is a capitalist dictatorship under the guise of communism. Instead of the dictatorship of the proletariat it is the dictatorship of the capitalist industrialist.

The traditional American Democratic controlled government is hot for human rights violations and China makes a good target for the human rights do-gooders. What does that do for our relationship with China? Not much. The Chinese want to be left alone and control their populace the way they want. Our policy is to challenge China on its human rights practices. Our policy is to have dialog with the leader of Tibet, the Dali Lama. If we push China a bit too far, would it be beyond them to raise the rates on the substantial amount of U.S. debt they carry for us? Bush knew better than to push the Chinese on human rights.

China will never give up Tibet. Why? China has been invaded many times. The mountains of Tibet create a natural barrier that seals off the Chinese frontier from India. With deserts to the west, inhospitable mountains to the north and an ocean to the east China has well established barriers to invasion. China has a tremendous population and a huge standing army. Regrettably, the army is not as mobile as other world class armies. With so much land to guard and protect, it pays to have natural barriers to invasion.

So the Iranians won't cooperate. The Russians are rebuilding their empire and the Chinese want us to let them deal with their populace the way they please. No openings here for our President. Then, let's go to Europe. They love Obama, don't they?

Copenhagen is a wonderful city and the Danes a wonderful people. The International Olympic Committee met there to consider where the 2016 Olympics would land. They had several wonderful choices before them and they had Chicago. Chicago was turned down. It seemed the committee could not turn down Chicago fast enough despite our President's impassioned speech to them. Olympic Committee: 1 President Obama: Zero

Copenhagen was also the home of the Climate Summit. Though President Obama talks a good game about cap and trade, green technology, and solar photovoltaic panels, he was able to negotiate us out of any binding treaties. Without the U.S. onboard, there could be no binding treaty to end or even slow the growth of greenhouse gasses. For our president it was a good idea not to buy in on any of the fluff the Summit was selling. It seems the science behind global warming is being questioned and, most particularly, it is being questioned by his constituency at home. An international promise to enforce job killing Cap and Trade rules upon U.S. industry would have been a fast path to one term for our President. Without the indulgence of India and China on their fast growing greenhouse gas issues, there could be no treaty according to our President. Europe is pissed and basically got nothing for all the protests and bombast. He wins for us by accomplishing nothing. That is not unusual in international politics.

Well outside of sending more troops to Afghanistan, which he promised in his campaign, he has had little effect upon international issues. he won the Nobel Peace Prize based upon his speeches and his campaign. Not for anything he did to truly foster world peace. As far as the U.S. foriegn policy under this administration, not much has changed from the days of GW Bush. The State Department would likely challenge that statement, but in the end, if you truly look at the facts, we are continuing the foriegn policies of the past administration.