Today is a new day!

The Economy

A few days ago, I heard Donald Trump speak about the American economy and our dealings with the Chinese.  While I can’t say at this point time whether I would support him as a presidential candidate, I can say that I agree with him about how to deal with the Chinese, by taxing their products and how to deal with OPEC.   I clearly would extend the taxing of products to include American businesses that have oversees operations as there is no way that America can be competitive, as far as labor prices are concerned, when compared to other countries.  It is only by taxing that we can level the playing field.

Oil Prices

In my previous blog, I mentioned the 1973 oil embargo and how we have not had an energy plan that would pave the way for our country to be self sufficient.  While mandating higher mileages for automobiles should be included, it is imperative that all major cities have safe and affordable transportation offerings.  What is the daily waste of gasoline for cars that are sitting on highways unable to move because of traffic jams? 

Americans also need to conserve until a plan of action can be put in place that eases the issues with gasoline and heating oil prices. As much as Americans value their ability to drive by themselves to work, carpooling is necessary if we are going to conserve gas.  In the case of heating oil, there clearly needs to be a continuation of incentives for upgrading heating systems, replacement windows and alternative forms of energy. 

The prices of almost all products are affected by the cost of oil prices and higher prices make it more difficult for the unemployed to pay for their energy costs while having a critical effect on the economy.

It is a shame that I find many buildings, used for business purposes closed or with a ‘For Rent’ sign.  A lot of businesses have failed in the Massachusetts area and we are just an example of a trend that has swept America.  When I was a child, imports made up seven percent of the automobile sales.  Clearly, no one will argue as to how this figure has dramatically increased, in part due to poor management of the American car companies.   It was said that Chrysler was ‘bailed out’ because over 300,000 workers would have been affected.  This figure does not include other companies that do business with Chrysler and the affect of taking these amounts of people, many of whom are probably homeowners and adding them to the unemployment roles.  What would be the affect if a high percentage of these people defaulted on their mortgages?

Republicans and Democrats

As I said yesterday, America needs solutions and it does not matter whether they come from a Democrat, Republican or the private sector.  Democrats and Republicans needed to work together and cut out the politics if America is going to rebound from our worst economic conditions since the depression. In many ways, I feel we are in a depression and clearly timely solutions need to be found. 

I also heard on the news that Newt Gingrich was talking about repeal of the health care law.  It was going to be a targeted approach where Democratic senators would be placed in the spotlight so if they didn’t vote for repeal, then they would potentially be affected in the 2012 elections. 

The amount of money spent on getting a health care law, that is needed in some form and yet the game of politics will be played in hopes of the law’s repeal.  Republicans should have been part of the initial health care law and if we are going to have two years of Republicans vs. Democrats, then America will be the loser.

Basic Rights

I’m sure that over time I will add to this list, but Americans should have the rights of:

1.  Affordable Health Care where technological advances in medicine are available to all U.S. citizens whether it is through company insurance or government.  This right should also include mental health benefits!

2.   A safe city or town that has an effective police and fire department that is sized correctly to adequately meet the city or town’s needs. 

3.   Safe and reasonable priced public transportation in those areas where required to stop  the wasting of gasoline caused by traffic jams.

4.   An honest federal government.  We get upset about how BP lied to the American public, but Democrats and Republicans have lied to the American people and outrage should  be shown by voting the individual from power not from attacking these individuals with  weapons.  The George Bush Whitehouse clearly showed that it was full of lies and  backroom deals, just by looking at the reasons for invading Iraq.  This federal  government is no different from other Democratic federal governments and Americans must hold the government accountable. Is it lack of caring that causes less people to vote  for elected officials that vote for American Idol?  Is it a feeling that any action to hold  the government accountable will be doomed to failure that has more people voting for American Idol?

More rights will follow!

911 Attitude

One of the effects of the 911 tragedy is that for a period of time, Americans bonded and people felt the sadness of the time. The plain American, even those that did not have someone die in the tragedy, could identify with the feeling of those individuals that had loses and also could identify with the feeling of not being safe in our own country. It was only when government turned this bonding into total fear that any chance for public good, was lost.

America needs to work with it allies to solve the issue of terrorism or the value of the United Nations and the National Security council is not worth the effect. We cannot pay the major price for this war in terms of dollars and personnel.  In addition, the countries we are helping must be held to task so they are not corrupt. American dollars cannot fund corrupt governments and the price for American assistance must be a change of these governments so they are accountable in their actions and in their use of American money.

If changes are not made, then Americans will leave these countries and we will have another Vietnam on our hands where the enemies invaded after we departed resulting in a waste of human (American) lives and money.

Final Thought for The Day

In the fight for equality, what have we lost? For some reason the Prayer of Allegiance was found to be counter to the American way as was prayer of any kind in the schools.  While I am not religious, I believe that children should be exposed to religion, including the true Muslim way, in hopes of clearing up any misconceptions and allowing our children to realize that there is a higher power that is beyond individuals and governments that created the planets, stars, our Earth and that this higher power, for whatever religion the person has chosen, calls on us to treat each other fairly.

Once the Supreme Court ruled that many of the basic happenings of the fifties and before such as prayer in school and our Pledge of Allegiance violated some groups basic rights, we have gone downhill.  Clearly, segregation should have been made illegal as again, we are all on this earth together and living in the United States means that we have, by design, many cultures that affect us.  It is time these groups of people accept the other cultures and work for the general good of America.

Maybe I will be a little less Invisible with my first blog entry

Purpose

The reason for the creation of this blog is to allow me to exchange information with people on my views and to gain an understanding of views that are different from mine. I clearly do not want to come across as superior as I have made numerous mistakes in my life. I also have had to deal with unfortunate medical illnesses, but it is amazing that even with my problems that affect my thinking, that I am able to see problems in how our government is run and its interaction with the people of this country and the world.

As a Child

When I was a child, I would look out into the upstairs hallway and I could see my parents having the television turned on and they were watching the news.  Clearly, I could not understand why someone would want to watch someone on television telling you about bad events happening to other people.  There were the anchorman standards of the time such as Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, Chet Huntley, Ted Koppel, and Harry Reasoner. I clearly mean no harm by missing any of the anchorman’s names, but it was a long time ago.

When I would watch the news, it seemed to me that the purpose of the anchorman was to provide the listener with the information pertaining to the events of the day.  As distinguished as these newscasters were, they did not spend time attempting to build their image beyond being a reliable news source. It was much different t from today where new anchorpersons spend a significant amount of time hyping their personalities and clearly go beyond the delivery of news to the providing of commentary and even a stadium event which did little to provide news coverage and spent more time embellishing the newscaster and his views.

I happen to grow up at a time where things were a lot simpler.  We were not ruled by technology and my generation was supposedly the generation of peace in the world. We were supposed to have a different way and we demonstrated against (I did not) the Vietnam War and we were supposed to be the peace generation. 

I grew up in a political atmosphere of Democrat versus Republican and saw the spectacles of the presidential nomination events. It was politics where at each election, each party would tell you the deficiencies of the other political party and what their party would do for you.   I was too young to understand, but the reality of the situation was that politics and the whole political process was a way that Americans would be governed that was inefficient and wasteful.  It seemed that the most important point was for the political parties representative to be elected and a wide variety of promises would be made, the defects of the other candidate would be constantly brought to the attention of the American people, but the reality of the situation was that people or political parties would spend an enormous amount of money to be elected and part of the money used was from organizations or businesses that had a political agenda.  Lost in the election process and even the post election time, were the needs of the people.

When I was young, our enemies were identified and it seemed to be a case where each side didn’t use the nuclear weapon as they were both aware that repercussions would occur and they didn’t want to deal with a nuclear war affecting their country.  In today’s world, we have many enemies that do not seem to care whether they are attacked or die.  The United States, the supposed savior to the world, has spent numerous dollars to fight wars where we have little buy in from other countries. The end result is that we have spent an enormous amount of money and there is a question whether Afghanistan will end up being another Vietnam where we exited and opposing forces ran the country. How can we spend significant dollars helping a corrupt government which has relatives selling high quantities of drugs?

The Biggest Waste

We are in a major recession where people need to rely on the government for continuation of unemployment benefits otherwise we will have a greater amount of foreclosures which will affect the housing market.  The government has numerous programs that fail and then money is given again to start up a new effort that hopefully will not fail.  Yet as desperate as we are, it is still Republican vs. Democrat and, to me politics has become a dirty word that ignores the plight of Americans.  We are clearly at a point where all the perks that are given to our representatives should be stopped until the economy is stable.  

In a time where American companies send jobs oversees and we cannot compete in the labor market, the government doesn’t take into account this situation and take appropriate action. When I was a child, full employment was considered to be when we were at 4 percent unemployment.  Now, with all the jobs sent oversees, what would be considered full employment? 

The biggest saying, when I was in high school was “What is good for General Motors is good for the country”.  GM has fallen, due in part to poor management and deafness to the needs and wants of the people.   In its place, you have Wal-Mart as one of the largest employers and there have been documented cases as to how this company treats its suppliers and employees. 

What America Accepts

I was saddened when I saw on the news the events that occurred in Arizona.  The loss of life of six people including a nine year old child was terrible. I was also upset that the state of mind of this individual was known for some time and nothing was done to get this person the help they needed, even if the person didn’t want the help.  I suffer from mental issues and I clearly am not like that individual, but I am amazed as to the double standard in treatment that occurs when someone has a mental issue as opposed to cancer or some other recognized disease where significant treatment is provided.

In Boston, some time ago, we had a killing where adults and a very young child (much younger than nine) occurred.  The tragedy of these killings is in no way less than the tragedy of the killings in Arizona, but budget cuts force reductions in police and far departments instead of cuts to wasteful programs and accountability for the management of other government programs so, like any business, there is a plan put together with measurable goals and if a program fails, then it is analyzed and the appropriate people are not left to run the program again where it is most likely to have the same result occur.  All killings are a tragedy!

I am tired of Republican vs. Democrat or Tea Party!  In one race in California you had someone spend 146 million of their own money to be elected.  Thankfully, in this case, the election wasn’t for sale. I clearly don’t care whether a Republican or Democrat gets elected as long as we get results. I am amazed at the state of Massachusetts as we are in a deep financial bind yet no one takes into account the amount of money that the government has made on the lotteries. While we are led to believe that lottery money is spread to cities and towns, there have been significant cuts, due to the economy and most likely wasteful spending. 

It is time for the American people to not accept political as usual.  It is time for the government to bring some sense of control to the energy companies as we cannot live with gas prices rising at an unrealistic rate which affects almost everything that is produced and transported.  In addition, these increased energy costs affect the profitability of companies and their ability to hire new workers.

The View From the Invisible Man

As a result of my depression, I am in many ways invisible in this world. I do not know a lot of people and therefore my view are kept to myself.  If I can see these problems, then I believe most Americans can see that the problems occur. We have less people voting in political races that we do for American Idol as Americans have given up. They expect politics as usual and the most recent political anger was not from someone reacting to our current situation, but from an individual affected by medical problems.  It is time, at least from a political standpoint, for Americans and the political powers to not be invisible to the needs of this country.

I will write again soon.