Taking a Blood Oath / 2013 Version

" We are all faced with an economic situation unparalleled in our life times and all accounts are it is not getting better....the world economy is still rattled and NO ONE knows what is around the corner. "

I wrote those words in 2010, almost three years ago while I was in Afghanistan, just like i am right now. Little has changed as we have the same thick-headed President and the same bunch of business types spouting BS each week about the " Recovery "

The Record Highs on Wall Street are not a sign of good things but of more profit taking by those who wrecked the financial health of our country....remember all HIGHS are followed by LOWS and that LOW will only hurt the ones at the lower rungs of the economic ladder, not the guys on Wall Street or the lead-bottomed POLS in Washington, DC.

ALL the " Blah, Blah, Blah" from the Administration on the Sunday Talk Show circuit and all the " The economy's improving" talk has not improved a single thing....Americans are still hurting and it is likely that many will NEVER recover to the level they were at before the SHITE hit the fan.

The U6 unemployment number is still at 14.4% in 2013 and that means millions of Americans are without work or have settled for low wage crap jobs as they have no other choice.

The present "Lords of the Manor" in the White House seem more hung up on why they aren't being lauded than why people are still out of work...POTUS sputters as he thought he had all the answers but his “Messiah” act is getting panned around the world….the World still sees him for the empty suit that he is and that is why the confidence level in the American Administration is at an all time low all around the world.

 

The companies who have slashed employment are no better – they are taking full advantage of the crisis and reaping extra profits on the backs of the remaining workers…..

To the guy who is on his 85th week of unemployment, he could care less about politics or polls - He is worried about how he is going to get back to something that resembles a normal life…

This brings me to the point where I am today, working in AFGHANISTAN just as I was three years ago when I first wrote about taking a "blood oath"

I continue to do the best work I can while here in Kandahar Province. The 7500 mile commute is the real kick in the old "Hurt Locker", if you know what I mean... What has changed in the past three years is that the situation here is winding down very very very quickly.

In my life, I have had to make some tough deals and have always done what I felt was right, just and true to being honorable.

Now, I have to make a new "blood oath" when I get home to see what will be in store in the job market back home.  I have a few months here but by Summertime, I will be back in the Shire instead of hanging out here in the sandbox.

A "Blood Oath" is a solemn promise to keep an agreement using each party's sense of honor or reputation to uphold the deal.

Life for workers is now similar to the discussion that the two main characters have in the movie, The Untouchables –

Sean Connery plays an older beat cop and Kevin Costner is Elliot Ness, G-Man….They are discussing what they are willing to do to accomplish their goal – getting Al Capone…

Malone: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?

Ness: Anything within the law.
 

Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? …. I'm offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?
 

Ness: I have sworn to capture this man with all legal powers at my disposal and I will do so

[Malone looks up at the ceiling of the cathedral as if seeking a sign…]
Malone: Well, the Lord hates a coward. 

[jabs Ness with his hand, and Ness shakes it]

Malone: Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness?
 

Ness: Yes.
 

Malone: Good, 'cause you just took one...

 

" What are you prepared to do??" – We have all taken a “blood oath” of sorts - We have sworn to do whatever is necessary to provide for our families – even if that means going to the Afghanistan desert for an extended period of time.... I made my oath and endured an extended separation from my family, friends & home.

Mainly due to a group of corporate fat-arses & Wall Street types deciding they needed another bonus for themselves and a politician or two allowing them to get away with it…..and eliminating jobs that would be available for me & others back home.

Somehow all of that was more important than correcting the problems and ensuring that people who needed jobs got them at a decent wage with good benefits…..

Seems as the Joker in "Dark Night" was right when he said:

"Things have changed…..Forever. There’s no going back."

"The house is burning down, and the Democratic constituencies want free ice cream."

Jennifer Rubin from the WAPO puts it succinctly - The DEMS haven't got a clue and we need ADULT LEADERSHIP, not a President who acts like a petulant teenager on a spending spree with our national credit card.

Whistling past the graveyard at the Democratic convention By Jennifer Rubin - Washington Post

If you had been dropped from outer space into the Democratic National Convention, you would have thought that we enjoyed full employment, reduced poverty and stared down Iran, leaving us with deeply important issues like paying for birth control for grown women. You would have thought that a large majority of Americans weren’t sympathetic to Israel and weren’t religious. You’d have thought that the federal government had money to burn and no looming debt crisis. You would never have thought that Obama had signed a “historic” health-care bill. And you’d have thought that the political heavyweight in the Obama household was Michelle. (Well, you might have been right about the last one.)

But knowing that the America of 2012 is so very different than the convention portrait, it’s worth asking how the Democrats’ convention became so divorced from reality.

We saw a party in which the inability to tackle the monumental problems of our time ( entitlement reform, fiscal crisis, endemic high unemployment, a nuclear-armed Iran) has left a large gaping hole where its core should be. As our problems have gotten bigger, the party has gotten smaller, angrier and less grown-up. The house is burning down, and the Democratic constituencies want free ice cream.

So, how does it happen that days are spent on abortion on demand (which we essentially have anyway until the Supreme Court decides differently) and contraception, while big-ticket items are ignored?

The answer is twofold, I think. The current state of the Democratic Party is both the natural consequences of a longtime trend and the reflection of a president who is tragically unequipped to do his job.

Constituent politics is nothing new to the Democratic Party, of course. Ever since FDR strung together an alliance of urban blacks, Southern whites, labor and immigrants, the Democratic Party has been collecting interest groups like a girl collects charms for her bracelet. The groups have multiplied (gays, Native Americans, public employees), but the concept has been the same for 70 years. In exchange for votes the Democratic Party will give you lots of “free” stuff. To get free stuff you have to pay a lot of taxes and idealize government as the font of good deeds, so that citizens won’t mind an increasingly intrusive and expensive government. The point is not to solve problems or even measure success; the point is to keep the swapping (votes for free stuff) going strong.

A lot of the big-ticket items have already been doled out. So now we’re down to the really small beans ( free contraception!). Whether the giveaways are small or large (e.g., unlimited health care for all, free college education) the idea is propounded that the measure of a decent, successful society is how much free stuff you give away.

This phenomenon has been amply documented (most recently by Jay Cost in in his new book, Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic). But usually the itty-bitty items and the atomized nature of a party strung together only by the common desire to get free stuff are not so obvious. Usually, there is an overarching purpose that takes center stage, while the interest group plate-spinners carry on along the sidelines. What was so startling at this year’s Democratic convention was that there is nothing else but the interest group beg-a-thon.

And this brings us to the current president. In 2008 Barack Obama had big themes and big ambitions that gave the party coherence. Having failed to do the big things (curb the debt, stop Iran, jump-start the economy), he chose to ignore the biggest issues of our time. My colleague Michael Gerson aptly put it: “Obama made almost no mention of the continuing jobs crisis. He offered nothing new or creative on a fiscal and debt crisis that undermines economic confidence. Much of Obama’s agenda — lowering tuition costs, recruiting math and science teachers, ‘long-lasting batteries’ — sounded like a seventh-year State of the Union address, a collection of policy leavings and leftovers.”

So then it wasn’t merely that Obama let loose the rent-seekers (and birth control-seekers and free-education-seekers). No, he needed them to fill up the space and the airwaves, to promise that no matter what (fiscal crisis, recession) he will still be there to cater to the whims and demands of the constituent groups. Sure the economy is bad, but who’s going to give you free college tuition?

It’s ludicrous, of course. If the economy doesn’t improve and we don’t avoid the fiscal cliff, we’ll be taking away, not handing out stuff. This is the “austerity” against which the liberals inveigh. In fact, they are driving us ever closer to the point where we will will have to quickly and severely cut out the handouts.

It is, as conservatives have said for so long, the Western European syndrome. As we spend and cater to the demanding crowd, we push ourselves closer and closer to the point where both the excessive demands and actual needs will go unmet.

It is interesting that on Friday major financial institutions sounded the alarm about the state of the economy. James Pethokoukis quoted JPMorgan’s economist Michael Feroli:

Labor market activity was disappointing again in Aug . . . The more comprehensive employment-to-population ratio ticked down to 58.3%; this measure is a mere 0.1% above its cycle trough, indicating that once one takes account of population growth there has been essentially no progress in repairing the labor market after the recent downturn. In fact, if you go through the details it’s hard to find any redeeming aspects to this jobs report. In terms of the broader economy, today’s numbers should check any enthusiasm that the economy was gaining momentum toward the end of the summer. Instead, the economy appears to remain stuck in the mud.

“Awful,” “dreary,” weak” and “dismaying.” He sounds like the town crier straining to wake up the town. But in Charlotte the Democrats had their fingers in their ears, as if blocking out the noise would make it go away, or at least muffle others’ hearing. What’s that? The economy is near a recession? Hmm. Did I mention we’ll give you free birth control?

I like to say that the first side in a campaign to raise social issues is losing on everything else. In this case, the campaign spending three days on wedge issues and statist trinkets is getting clobbered on everything else.

Maybe the Obama cynicism is right and the public is willing to be coddled and distracted. But somehow I think not. At some point voters want to fix the big things; they might even be willing to forgo a lot of free stuff

People joining SSI Disability Outpaces New Jobs last three years

This is the key indicator that the present occupant of the White House isn't getting it done.   It pretty poor when more people take advantage of DISABILITY than are able to get new jobs.

Obama has got to go......really.  We need a President that understands how to create jobs and not act like a petulant teenager.

Obama is a one term President.....this is the clearest indicator he is a failed leader.


Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery
 By JOHN MERLINE - INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.

The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.

The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama's recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.

In other words, the number of new disability enrollees has climbed 19% faster than the number of jobs created during the sluggish recovery. (Even after accounting for people who left the disability program because they died or aged into retirement, disability ranks have climbed more than 1.1 million in the past three years.)

And the disability ranks will continue to swell. In just the last month, almost 275,000 put in applications for disability benefits. Experts say that more people try to get on disability when jobs are scarce, and changes to eligibility rules enacted back in 1984 have made it far easier to qualify.

In addition, while hiring has been very weak during the recovery, the number of people who have dropped out of the labor force entirely has exploded by 7.3 million since June 2009, an IBD analysis of BLS data show. Some aged into retirement, but most either signed up for disability, stayed in school, moved back in with parents, or just quit looking for a job.

As a result, the "labor force participation rate" — the number of people who have jobs or are actively looking for one compared with the entire working-age population — is now 63.8%, down from 65.7% in June 2009. This participation rate is at the lowest levels in 30 years. In previous recoveries, the participation rate has almost always risen, not fallen.

Other indicators show that the three-year-old economic recovery isn't producing jobs in adequate numbers:

The unemployment rate has been above 8% for 41 consecutive months. In the previous 60 years, the jobless topped 8% in a total of only 39 months.

The number of people with jobs is still nearly 5 million below its pre-recession peak.

The number of long-term unemployed — those out of work 27 weeks or more — is still 5.4 million — almost 1 million higher than when the recovery began, and almost twice the level it ever reached prior to Obama's recovery.