The Economy
Our communities are falling apart and the American Dream is fast fading. The Dream that, "If we work hard, we can get ahead," has all become a big, fat corporate lie. We are now told that we shouldn't feel "entitlement" to those ideas. We are now told that our idea of entitlement is what is ruining the country and causing it to go bankrupt. Wow! That's a hard pill to swollow for the working class who gave most of their lives working toward that Dream. What should we tell our children about their Dreams and aspirations?
I believe that the American Dream is failing because of corporate greed and unconstitutional trade agreements--namely GATT (which also authorized the WTO), and NAFTA. These documents were not passed in a method stated as permissible by the United States Constitution. Treaties made by the President must be ratified by 2/3 of the Senate. But these two "Agreements" were merely passed by a simple majority of both houses, just like a common law, and are what is known as congressional-executive agreements, and are dictated to us by other nations. So, the way they are getting away with it, you just don't call it a treaty.
The President is not a law maker. The President's duty is that, "he (we'll have to work on making this gender neutral) shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." But no one in Congress has the spine or backbone to make these two agreements null and void. Congress is where that power lies. Congress holds the key to keeping jobs in America and turning this whole bad idea on its head. I'm not afraid to stand up and do the right thing for America by offering legislation to repeal both of these common laws!
Here's what happened to the American Dream. Check out these facts! When I first moved out of my parent's home around 1974, all of the groceries that you could fit into a grocery bag cost about $5. At that time entry-level legal secretary positions paid about $10 an hour and attorneys billed their clients at about $100 an hour and, remember, gas was cheap! I worked at a gas station in 1969 and we had a gas war with the station across the street. Our normal 19 cents a gallon price dropped to 11 cents a gallon that day! These days, all of the groceries that you can put into a bag costs around $75-100 dollars, entry-level legal secretary position still pay around $10 an hour, and attorneys now bill around $300-$500 per hour. And gas, let's not even try to imagine what the price might be tomorrow. How come the working person's salary hasn't gone up, but everything else has?
Now since we are on the subject of the economy, credit and money, let's take the picture and make it even bigger. Credit, banking, the government, recession, depression! What's it all about?
Well, let's start with way back when the country was young. Our Congressional leaders thought it necessary to set up a Federal Banking System. Why? So they could borrow money and charge the interest and payments off to you and me. They had a war, the Revolutionary War, to pay for after all. You think I'm joking-I'm not! That's how this whole thing got started. So, when Congress spends money, they are spending YOUR money. Are you happy with the way it is being spent? Are you happy that when your children are born they are saddled with over $40,000 worth of debt, each and every person and growing every day thanks to the war in Iraq! That's just outrageous!
Now, let's talk about the money, since I don't like credit. I'm what you would call a hard money Democrat, just like Andrew Jackson. I think that the dollar should be directly linked to gold. Thomas Jefferson wanted the dollar tied to something. He used a specific weight, 371-4/16 grains of silver, to be fixed to the dollar. The price of gold would float on the market, just the way it has done for over 3,000 years, and the dollar would fluctuate as the price between silver or gold fluctuated. Now that's a stable market! Here's the problem with the way they've set everything up. They changed the rules! Now, the dollar is tied to absolutely nothing. There is no set weight or standard. Its just there and its called "Fiat" money, or, "Let it be printed!" President Nixon was the final farewell to our dollar. He took away the last remnant of the gold standard and that is when the price of! gold really started to skyrocket. It's going up again, so buy now. (Notice all of the home parties where housewives are buying all of your broken gold jewelry?)
Before we go to the next section, let's have a primer on inflation. Inflation is when they make more money, than there is gold to cover it (by a percentage, of course). But they give the dollar the same value as if the gold some how appeared out of thin air to cover the new paper money, or the Federal Reserve Board artificially "inflates" the price. So, even though the dollar is really worth only say 74 cents, we still say it's worth a dollar, just to make the whole thing work. This deflated price of the dollar is called deflation. Remember, the Constitution gives Congress the right to "Coin Money," not to print worthless paper.
Well, the gold doesn't really cover anything then does it? But, since the dollar is actually worth less, because they are printing more of it and artificially holding up the value, when you go to the store your dollar buys less and less. Because on the world market, the dollar is worth less, and all of those goods that you buy from China are actually costing you twice, once in the pocket book and once because that is where your job went. (NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement) I know that most politicians think that Americans aren't very bright, but how in the heck did they ever get us to buy into the fact that India and China are part of North America? That is where the jobs went under NAFTA, to India and China--not to Mexico and Canada.
Let's talk about what is happening in the US now. Yes, we are in a recession. I'm not afraid to say it or be the first to say it. A recession is when, as the economists like to politely call it, a correction occurs. A correction is when you really can't keep interest rates low (cheap money), and you can't keep printing any more Fiat (fake) money, because we are getting too tight on how far we can stretch the "imaginary" gold. So, the value of the dollar starts to fall. And it's falling very fast now. At the same time China holds a lot of our debt and they are dumping the dollar so that they won't lose any more on the market. This drives down the American dollar further and faster, and ruins confidence in the American dollar.
The government says that the economy is strong. This is true if you are the owner or shareholder of a company now doing business in China or India; but if you are here in the US and you are the working poor, the economy for you is probably pretty dismal. Productivity has increased--just not here in the US. This false security of productivity in China and India, projected into our economy, gives the impression that inflation (cheap money) is beneficial, and that our economic outlook is bright.
But inflation hurts Americans directly in the pocketbook with a disincentive to save and to use credit instead. The cost, or price, of inflation (the fact that your dollar is worth less and less when you go to the store), is actually more than what you would earn on the interest were you to put the money in the bank. You are in essence putting $1.06 in the bank, but getting back only 94 cents because of the cost of inflation. This inflation is what is also driving you to go to Walmart--the "illusion" of cheap prices. You can't really afford much these days, can you? Now ask yourself, do I really need the things I'm buying from China? Can I buy them US made from my small, local merchant?
The same thing has happened with your home. The correction in the market, I'm sad to say, is that your home is worth less than what you paid for it just months ago. The correction checks the market and brings the real price back into line.
So, what can we do now? Well, the banks still holding the paper on the home loans that have not yet foreclosed could do the right thing and refinance the loans at a lower, fixed interest rate. That way, families might have a chance at keeping their homes. Had the banks not been so greedy in the first place, and their customer service people not been so mean spirited on the phone (with families who were losing everything, because the bank had hooked them into a loan that they would someday not be able to afford), the house payments would have kept coming in. The defaults would have been avoided. Families would be happy and the banks could save themselves the embarrassment of having to borrow money from Dubai and China. We can still turn this around--the banks just have to suck up and refinance these good Americans--all of them!
Our Michigan state legislature had a chance to make a difference last year, but made a complete debacle out of our state budget--they couldn't even read a balance sheet to know that we had a surplus, instead of a deficit. They can redeem themselves, though, by rolling back the property tax default to from two years to three. Currently, if you are 2 years behind on your property taxes, the County can take your home or farm. Rolling back the tax to 3 years delinquency, instead of two years, could give homeowners one more year to try to gain employment, and get back on their feet. This would give homeowners, who are teetering on the edge of losing their home, a little bit of relief and hope, instead of seeing the County Treasurer smiling on TV as she tells of auctioning off their home on Ebay to the highest bidder.
This is a family's home we are talking about. How much more callous can our society get? How much more can we kick someone when they are down? I say, it's time to hold out our hands and start helping one another. When we can learn to depend upon one another again, like we are starting to do as evidenced by community building with Katrina, we can start to build our communities here at home. That is where our strength truly is, with each other. That, you will see, is what our campaign is about.
That takes us to the next step. Please stop buying from China! Do everything you can to buy American. Here's why, that sneaky little word NAFTA, again. 1) NAFTA opened the door to the demise of the US. 2) On April 30, 1992 Sr. President Bush signed Executive Order No. 12803, which said that it was OK for private capital to invest in US infrastructure projects, (including foreign companies). 3. On June 23, 2006, President Bush signed the Executive Order on Eminent Domain which states that they can take your property should they think its purpose would be better suited for the benefit of the government, like Interstate Commerce, or the NAFTA Super Highway.
So, since NAFTA, remember the NA stands for North American, didn't quite live up to its reputation and deliver jobs for America, Canada, and Mexico. They had to do something. So . . . they are! They are building the NAFTA super highway. It's already being built, by a non US firm, with YOUR taxpaying dollars. It will be a toll road with trains and lanes as wide as 3 football fields. But you and I won't be the recipients of the tolls. The Spanish company who bid the job out will be. Yep, you and I will pay to build the road using a non-American company. The non-American company gets to control the road, and keep the tolls. Welcome to what used to be the good old USA!
They have already disrupted farmers and ranchers in Texas and, through eminent domain, have taken their valuable family ranch land. Just recently, the Trans-Texas Corridor portion of the superhighway has been placed on a 2-year moratorium. The public found out about the plan! They don't like the fact that the government is building this highway with their taxpayer dollars and taking away their homes and farms. Do you? Think again, do you really need all of that stuff from China?
But why would they build a superhighway? Well, they need a super expressway for all of those goods that you and I will be buying from China. Plus, it's the easiest way to BUYPASS US Customs, the US Coastguard, and The International Longshoremen's Union, the very people who keep us safe in America! The very people who check the vessels that float into our country. And, as we speak, a Mexican customs office is being built in Kansas City, (called the Kansas City Customs Port, Smart Port, in the geographic center of the US and the current point of disembarkation for many current illegal immigrants), with, you guessed right, American taxpaying dollars.
Remember the President's 2008 State of the Union Address, the one where he spoke of a summit this summer in New Orleans with the United States, Canada, and Mexico? They are keeping nothing in the dark and everything in plane site. Everyone has gotten so into not watching Bush's State of the Union, that he's just putting it all out there on the table.
Well, friends, here's the scoop. The US, as we now know it, probably won't be the US for very much longer, not unless we can do something about it. The powers that be at the top think we might better be off as the North American Union, similar to that of the European Union. Instead of the dollar, we will have the Amero. I'm not kidding!
I'm sitting here stunned thinking about all of our brave men and women who have been sold a bill of goods about protecting our sovereignty against an enemy with no face, fighting on the front lines and giving the ultimate sacrifice for the United States of America and defending our Constitution, while at the same time being sold out by the very person from whom they take their commands.
The President has the right to make treaties, provided that they are approved by the Senate. But this President is also making Memorandums of Understanding with Canada and Mexico under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. AND, Congress doesn't have to approve these Memorandums, and doesn't even have to know about these Memorandums of Understanding. That's right!
They are making one border, which is why they aren't really doing too much about the "big fence project" on the Mexican border. By 2010, according to the document, we won't even need the fence. Immigration won't be an issue. The invisible boundaries will go away. The new boundary will be from sea to shining sea and from the top of Canada to, well, who knows where it will stop with the new treaties and trade agreements with Colombia and CAFTA. This, they say, will help to alleviate illegal immigration by Mexican nationals because opportunities will be the same everywhere within the union. This, I say, will give the US control of all of the cocaine (Colombia), and opium and heroin (Afghanistan). Is anybody seeing a pattern here? Have we become the mob?
Like I said, it will be sold to us under the guise of Security and Prosperity, because those are two of the things that Congress can legislate under the Constitution-National Security and Commerce. Hum? But for how long? Whose Constitution will we use? Will Congress even have a say in the matter? Whose laws will prevail? Will we elect these officials? Will you have the right to a trial by jury, or possibly (as sometimes happens in Mexico) no trial at all? Believe me, the rule books are being written as we speak, just as the Patriot Act was pre-written before 9/11. It's all part of the bigger plan-a one world economy controlled by large corporations, bankers and a wealthy few. We are just the worker ants.
Welcome to the slave class and it's not about to get any better, but worse. When you buy products from China many times you are buying and supporting the very abusive standards of workers that we outlaw here: children subjected to long hours of work, terrible environmental standards, no right to form a union, no public health care, etc.
You can change all this! You can do your part by helping to support your small local businesses and business that allow their employees to organize and form a union, instead of shopping at Walmart, and for goodness sake please quit buying products from China! Remember, Walmart costs you more, ALWAYS! As do the dollar stores. Find a different way to make yourself feel better, other than by purchasing a dollar item that you will probably throw away in a few weeks. Volunteer at a shelter, help someone else! You will be amazed at how good you will feel about yourself.
We have to remember that we are Spartacus. There are more of the working class people (95%), than the elite (5%). That's why we are so strong, our very numbers, and our right to vote. That's an incredible combination! Think of how powerful you really are!
The thing you need to do is vote for people who are going to tell you the truth and uphold the Constitution of the United States. I need your vote! The United States of America as we still know it needs your vote too!
The Smith Act of 1940 is a United States Federal Statute that makes it a criminal offense for ANYONE to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing the government of the United States or of any States by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association."
Article I
Section 1 All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 8
[1] The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; . . .
[2] To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
[3] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations . . .
[5] To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
[18] To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof;
Section 9.
[2] The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
Section 10.
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; . . . make anything but gold and silver Coin a tender in Payment of Debts . . .
Article II
Section 1. [1] The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.
Section 2. [2] He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur . . .
Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Notice also how after the Civil War ended, most of the Amendments to the Constitution give power to Congress to enforce the article by appropriate legislation. It takes the power to enforce the Amendment away from the Executive and from the Courts.
