Uncle Ho and the Founding Fathers ... J. D. Longstreet

Uncle Ho and the Founding Fathers
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************
“…we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.”  – President Obama talking to reporters alongside Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.
___________________________

I can't speak for you, of course, but there was no need for me to hear the words above pass the lips of the US President for me to be convinced he is a communist.

See, I'm so old I actually got an education when I went to school.  Hell, by the time I had graduated high school I had an education every bit the equivalent of, at least, a two year college degree -- by today's standards -- maybe even four years depending upon the individual institutions of higher learning.

Plus, I am a veteran of the US military during the Vietnam War. 

Look.  I won't dispute that Uncle Ho may have studied our Founding Fathers and founding documents.  Lots of dictators have done so.   Heck, if I was a fledgling dictator, I'd be darned sure to study those men and those documents because -- they are dangerous to tyrants and dictators. 

No, I wasn't surprised to hear Obama mention Uncle Ho in a respectful manner.  Not in the least.  Ho Chi Minh was an enemy of the United states.  'Nough said.

Our President, Obama is a died in the wool socialist.  (Socialism is what one might call "Communism Lite.")  His spread the wealth policies and statist philosophy of governing and disrespect for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and his shallow knowledge of US history mark him for what he truly is.

Ho Chi Minh was a bone fide tyrant.  A communist tyrant! 

The following is a clip from a piece published in Reader's Digest back in November of 1968:

"The terror had its real beginning when Red dictator Ho Chi Minh consolidated his power in the North. More than a year before his 1954 victory over the French, he launched a savage campaign against his own people. In virtually every North Vietnamese village, strong-arm squads assembled the populace to witness the “confessions” of landowners. As time went on, businessmen, intellectuals, school teachers, civic leaders — all who represented a potential source of future opposition — were also rounded up and forced to “confess” to “errors of thought.” There followed public “trials,” conviction and, in many cases, execution. People were shot, beheaded, beaten to death; some were tied up, thrown into open graves and covered with stones until they were crushed to death, Ho has renewed his terror in North Vietnam periodically. Between 50,000 and 100,000 are believed to have died in these blood-baths — in a coldly calculated effort to discipline the party and the masses. To be sure, few who escape Ho’s terror now seem likely to tempt his wrath. During the 1950s, however, he had to quell some sizeable uprisings in North Vietnam — most notably one that occurred in early November 1956, in the An province, which included Ho’s birthplace village of Nam Dan. So heavily had he taxed the region that the inhabitants finally banded together and refused to meet his price. Ho sent troops to collect, and then sent in an army division, shooting. About 6,000 unarmed villagers were killed. The survivors scattered, some escaping to the South. The slaughter went largely unnoticed by a world then preoccupied with the Soviet Union’s rape of Hungary."   SOURCE:  http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html   

Consider this:  "On November 15, 2008, Sam Webb, National Chair of the Communist Party USA delivered an address to the Communist Party USA National Committee. During his address, he noted the following concerning the party's relationship with Obama,

    "The left can and should advance its own views and disagree with the Obama administration without being disagreeable. Its tone should be respectful. We are speaking to a friend."  SOURCE: http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party

And this:

"The late Marxist academic Manning Marable claimed that Barack Obama has read some of his books and "understands what socialism is."

Marable, writing in the December 2008 issue of British Trotskyist journal Socialist Review, also claimed that Obama worked in Chicago with socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party.

    What makes Obama different is that he has also been a community organizer. He has read left literature, including my works, and he understands what socialism is. A lot of the people working with him are, indeed, socialists with backgrounds in the Communist Party or as independent Marxists. There are a lot of people like that in Chicago who have worked with him for years... "   SOURCE:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party

Frank Marshall Davis became Obama's mentor at the tender age of ten years.  " ... FBI file reveals that Davis (born 1905) became interested in the Communist Party USA as far back as 1931.

Certainly from the mid/late '30s to the early '40s Davis was involved in several Communist Party fronts including the the National Negro Congress, the League of American Writers, the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties and the Civil Rights Congress.

The FBI first began tracking Davis in 1944 when they identified him as member of the Communist Party's Dorie Miller Club in Chicago-card number 47544.

Davis taught courses at the party controlled Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago and attended meetings of the party's Cultural Club until he left for Hawaii in 1948."  SOURCE:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party
(We recommend you read the entire article cited above.  It is entitled:  "Barack Obama and the Communist Party."  You will find it at:  http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party )

And finally -- "The famed Russian news site “Pravda,” which ironically was formed as the official Communist publication of the former Soviet Union, recently released a scathing opinion column entitled, “Obama’s Soviet Mistake,” in which the author unabashedly labels the U.S. president a “Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so.” - SOURCE: http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/11/blazecast-russian-news-outlet-labels.html#sthash.eECgrcwI.dpuf 

No, I was NOT surprised by Mr. Obama's drift from the teleprompter line.   (NOW you know why his "handlers" have him virtually chained to a teleprompter!)

But, dear reader, what is even MORE troubling is this:  With all this knowledge of Obama sympathies toward communism, roughly half the American electorate put him in office -- and kept him there for a second term.  Now THAT is TRULY frightening!

© J. D. Longstreet

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Liberalism 'Always Fails' We Know that ...

The question we face is "will we end America's liberal journey as a fascist country (our current trajectory) or as the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Help educate the brainwashed...!

We need to educate the ignorant, send this video to a lib or two, (a dozen) ... ALSO - send it to kids in school, even your very young grandkids and your nieces and nephews.  Kids know something is wrong  with America, they are yearning for answers, help them... suggest they ponder this age old concept ...




Give liberals a chance to show how smart they are - have them explain this.

You younger kids in the school, engage your teachers, explain the U-Haul research on this video. I contend it is simple supply and demand. Have them do their own research and prove me wrong...

Send it to your news papers and ask them to verify it.  Put it to the test... 

 ask them if they do similar studies on anything important?

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Malaise is here -- Misery Index On The Way ... J. D. Longstreet

Malaise is here -- Misery Index On The Way
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*************

You DO realize this is President Jimmy Carter's third term -- don't you? 

Yeah.  I KNOW that's not funny.  There hasn't been much fun for a long time now.

During the Carter era years I was trying to run a profitable business, keep all my employees on the payroll, and figure out how to comply with all the ridiculous regulations handed down from DC -- up to and where, exactly, to set the heating and cooling thermostat in my office!  YES!  It WAS just that ridiculous.

The picture of Jimmy Carter in a cardigan sweater sitting in front of a fireplace with logs burning cheerfully in the background still haunt my nightmares to this day.

You know, Obama was not the first President to be referred to as the Messiah.  Carter owns that irreverent title. At some point during that trying time some one tacked a photo of  Jesus Christ with Jimmy Carter's face superimposed on the head of Christ on one of our studio's bulletin boards.  It came down when Reagan was elected.  

It was, indeed, a miserable time.

The country was wallowing in syrupy malaise.  And then there was the misery Index.  (You find the misery index by adding the unemployment figure to the inflation figure.)   It was pure-"T" awful under the Carter Administration.

Jimmy Carter delivered the famous or infamous televised "Malaise" speech on July 15, 1979. That was 34 years ago.  

Recently Laura Ingram said the following:  "Friday marked the 32-year-anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence” later pegged “malaise speech,” a nationally televised and ill-received address trying to combat what Carter saw as apathy and doubt among Americans concerning politics and the energy crisis. In the days following the speech Carter fired cabinet members feeling that his administration failed to capitalize on a window of opportunity, which some believe was the beginning of the end for Carter and his ability to appear as a strong and significant leader.

Thirty-two years later another first term Democratic president faces a crisis of continued economic decline and failure to bridge heated political differences from Capital Hill to Main Street. Ingraham’s audio suggests that like Carter, Obama is failing to step up as a strong and believable leader in the eyes of Americans looking to him in a time of crisis."  SOURCE:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/07/16/laura-ingraham-airs-scary-obama-remix-of-jimmy-carters-malaise-speech/

My friend Alan Caruba said recently:  "The current economic malaise has affected everyone in some fashion—losing a job, having a job converted to a part-time status, having work hours limited, possibly facing foreclosure on their home, experiencing extremely low interest rates on their savings, the higher cost of gas and groceries, all without seriously affecting Obama’s job approval ratings or popularity."  Source:  http://www.factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-economy-it-must-be-gops-fault-right.html

If you recall, Carter's Malaise speech, otherwise known as the "Crisis of Confidence" speech you will instantly note that it sounds exactly like speeches given by President Obama today. 

For instance Carter said:  "I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism."  SOURCE:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/carter-crisis/

Of course we knew it was more an act of desperation on Carter's part than it was patriotism on the part of the American civilian population.  We weren't as dumb then as we are today. For evidence, note that WE DID NOT REELECT CARTER TO A SECOND TERM!

A year ago I wrote the following:  "Malaise in an individual is bad.  Malaise in a nation can be fatal.

America is currently mired in the worst case of malaise in my lifetime.

I’ve been around since FDR was President.  I have experienced American national malaise twice in my lifetime.  Both times it was during the administrations of Democratic Party Presidents.

The first case of American malaise (in my lifetime) was under the administration of the 39th President of the United States—Jimmy Carter.  It was BAD.

I was trying to run a business—and it was pure hell.  All business could do was hunker down and wait for a flicker of light at the end of that very long and very dark tunnel.

When it came, it was not a flicker—it was a sunburst by the name of Ronald Reagan.

America came roaring out of her national depression and raced back to the to the top—turning on all the lights as they went —illuminating “the shining city on a hill.”

Now, under the Obama administration (another Democratic Party President) here we are—in an even deeper national depression—or malaise—than we were even under Jimmy Carter.  This time—there is no Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings. In my opinion THAT is why THIS malaise is even deeper than Carter’s."  SOURCE:  "America’s Malaise Is BACK!" at: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/48449

I wrote those few words BEFORE the 2012 election.  As I said in that piece, there was a sense of impending doom which spanned the entire right side of the political spectrum in America.

A year ago, when I wrote those words,  America's future doom, under an Obama second term, was as clear as the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's Feast. (You'll find the story in the fifth chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament of the Bible.  We recommend you read it.  It certainly won't hurt -- and you just might learn something about what lies in America's immediate future.)

The moving fingers wrote: מנא, מנא, תקל, ופרס
or: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." 

So what DID those words, written by the hand of God, announce to THAT corrupt King of Babylon: "And this is the writing that was inscribed: mina, mina, shekel, half-mina. This is the interpretation of the matter: mina, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; shekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; half-mina, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." — Daniel 5:25–28

Suppose, just for a moment, that that feast was a state dinner at the White House and the reigning king was Obama.  To whom would the hapless kingdom of America be about to fall?  Who ARE the modern Medes and Persians?

Well,  Easton's Illustrated Dictionary lists the Medes as part of the Assyrian Empire, which covers the area of today's IRAQ, SYRIA, and LEBANON.

The Persians are still Persians, of course, but Persia is known today as -- IRAN. 

Of course, we are thousands of years removed from that feast, but, isn't it strange how ancient scripture and modern history seem to interlace, seem to be spun and twisted together?  Interesting, what?

Is America modern Babylon?  Judge for yourself at:  http://www.beaconoftruth.com/babylon.htm

I'm no prophet, or "seer."  I just pay attention with, possibly, a higher than usual degree of situational awareness. That's all.

America's state of national malaise bespeaks a people who are uneasy about something very bad they sense is in the offing for their beloved country.  They can't get past the feeling that our shared malaise is a signal and/or a symptom of a very unpleasant future.

Whatever the reality is, we can all be sure it isn't the the future scenario, the President and his cronies are painting, of a prospering America returned to her days of glory as a result of his socialist "share the wealth" agenda.   Reality by definition is real -- and it does not match his words.

© J. D. Longstreet

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A National Shouting Match On Racism ... J. D. Longstreet

A National Shouting Match On Racism
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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As a Southerner, I am used to -- well, allow me to rephrase that:  as far as it is possible, I am used to being called a racist, a bigot, a redneck, and several other epithets that I refuse to print here.  That is not to say that I am comfortable with them, I am not.  Nevertheless, again, as a southerner, hardly a day goes by that such disparaging words are not used, in reference to yours truly, singularly, as an individual, or collectively, as a member of the politically conservative right, or regionally, as a Southerner. 

I suppose the thing about all this infantile name calling that troubles me most is the utter hypocrisy of those using such hurtful language. I have learned as an adult that many, if not most, of those tossing about such colorful, yet hollow charges, are soaked in ignorance of the origins of such words and the history of the my region of America, and indeed, the history of America itself.

For instance -- before the American Civil War, (you know -- the war we Southerners refer to, and think of, as “The War for Southern Independence,”) it was the Democratic Party, that had a death grip on the Southern States, which our young scholars have been  erroneously, taught were the only slave holding states in the country. 

That is far from the truth, very far. The Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, had legally sanctioned slavery in the 17th, 18th and even part of the 19th centuries.

This may come as a shock to you but… not only were black people enslaved in the North for over two hundred years, but the vast majority of all slave trading in America was done by northerners. Yes, we did just say: “The VAST Majority….”  Remarkably, half of all North American voyages involved in the slave trade originated in Rhode Island, and all the northern states benefited. This is a fact much hidden from the youthful eyes of America’s young scholars for many, many, decades.  In fact, many of those folks who so piously refer to Southerners as racists (because of our ancestors participation in the detestable trade) themselves hail from regions (and, yes, even families) that made fortunes on the trade of African blacks into slavery. 

Shocked?  You needn’t be.  It has been SOP in America’s public (Government) school system for many years.  It is the foundation of the ignorance from which springs the scurrilous charges made against so many of my ancestors and yes, even this scribe today.

I tell you this so you will be less shocked when we say that much of the name calling of southerners and politically right conservatives is coming from Representatives and Senators, of those Northern States who desperately want to paint all members of the political right as racists, and bigots.

There is also a statement made, time and again, which goes something like this:  Blacks, or, if you prefer, African-Americans, cannot be racists because they lack power or clout.  That is absolutely pure, unadulterated nonsense, clap-trap, BS, horse hockey, and a few other things we dare not print for general consumption.   If one human hates another because of the color of his skin, regardless of the color of his own, that is bigotry.  We see it everyday, as well, or hear it referenced every day in the music popularly known as “Rap” Music and "Hip-Hop" music. 

The left claims to want a national “conversation” about racism in America.  They don’t, of course.  If they did they’d stop using the first sentences out of the mouths of members of the right to label them racists , which simply shuts off all conversation instantly.

No.  The left does not want a national confab on racism in America.  It is a ploy, that’s all. 

White America has grown tired of pretending not to see the overt racism of the left.  We’ve grown exceedingly resentful of being used as a punching bag and we’re beginning to punch back. 

The national conversation on racism in America, the left claims to want, may yet materialize – in the streets of the nation’s cities as black and white mobs clash.  It will be a conversation of the fist and club and, eventually, the gun. 

Nobody in their right mind wants this to happen. But that is exactly where America is headed once the last straw is applied to the camel’s back.

I DO realize the weight of the words above.  I DO realize, as well, that until we are ready, as a people, as a nation, to face up, honestly, to the racism of the left -- and the black community in particular – then it is a non-starter.  Until that time a civil conversation will not be had for it cannot be had.

The best we can hope for is the continued stand-off and the barely concealed hatred boiling just beneath the surface. The plain truth is, I believe, the very best we can hope for is that the black community will continue to pretend they're not racists and the white community will continue to pretend that it doesn't notice black racism.

No, there will be no national conversation on racism.  There WILL be more shouting matches, bruised egos, and hurt feelings, which will do nothing to salve the wounds of the vicious national argument on racism.

WE Americans have tried for 237 years to hold the people of the country together in some sort of union -- even with the numerous cracks and fault lines running between us.  Today those cracks and fault lines have become chasms. And some are un-crossable. This is one of them.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Obamacare’s serious weaknesses driving even strong supporters away

Commentary by James H. Shott

Although Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) only recently acknowledged that the health care reform bill he helped create – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare – is a “train wreck,” most Americans suspected that at its creation.

Things are so bad that President Barack Obama, trying to prevent some of the disastrous results, did something he is not allowed by the U.S. Constitution to do: postpone implementation of part of the law by suspending the employer mandate until 2015 and leaving the rest of the law intact. The Executive Branch of our government is obligated to enforce the laws – all of them, and all of each of them – and does not have the power to choose which ones, or parts thereof, it will enforce.

The House of Representatives passed two measures delaying the employer and individual mandates for one year, with 35 and 22 Democrats respectively joining in those efforts, which Mr. Obama has curiously threatened to veto.

And more recently, one of Obamacare’s most devoted groups of supporters has jumped ship. In a letter to Democrat Congressional leaders, Teamsters union president James Hoffa, and the presidents of two other unions, said this: “Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

The law has already encouraged some employers to trim their staffs to fewer than 50 full-time employees to avoid the expense of the mandate, and in other cases to decide against providing insurance altogether, and pay a much cheaper fine.

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama declared last week that "the law is working the way it was supposed to for middle-class Americans,” and criticized House Republicans for trying to dismantle it.

Polling data from five different polling organizations from mid-May through July 13 shows continuing disfavor among Americans, with the disparity of opposition-to-support running from as little as 5 points to as much as 15 points, and the Real Clear Politics average of the five polls at 10.2 points.

According to the Gallup poll from late last month, 42 percent say that in the long run the law will make their family's healthcare situation worse, and only 22 percent say it will make it better. And 47 percent believe the law will make the healthcare situation in the U.S. worse, while only 34 percent say it will make it better.

Republicans also are criticized for offering no alternatives while trying to dismantle the measure. “Three years after campaigning on a vow to ‘repeal and replace’ President Barack Obama’s health care law, House Republicans have yet to advance an alternative for the system they have voted more than three dozen times to abolish in whole or in part,” Sunday’s editorial in The Washington Post complained. That ignores, however, H.R. 3400 - Empowering Patients First Act, introduced in 2009 before Republicans campaigned for and won control of the House.

And now there is another, H.R. 2300 – the Empowering Patients First Act of 2013. Its principal sponsor is Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who sponsored H.R. 3400, and he has credentials for health care issues matched by few in the Congress. Rep. Price is also Dr. Price, a physician who actually delivered and understands patient care.

This measure allows patients, families and doctors to make medical decisions, not Washington, DC. That is an excellent place to begin improving health care. What a shame that wasn’t the driving factor behind the ACA.

“You can get folks covered, you can solve the insurance challenges, and you can save hundreds of billions of dollars in this health care system,” said the physician/Congressman, “all without putting Washington or health insurance companies in charge of those decisions that ought to be between patients, and families and doctors.”

How can H.R. 2300 – a bill of only 249 pages, less than a tenth the length of the monstrous Obamacare bill – accomplish this?

Rep. Price describes it as comprehensive legislation under which “every single American has the financial feasibility to purchase the coverage they want, either through tax deductions, or credits, or advanceable credits or refundable advanceable credits so that they can purchase the coverage they want for themselves or their families, not what the government forces them to buy.”

He says further that everyone owns their own coverage, like a 401k plan, so if they change their job or lose their job, they take their coverage with them, and it allows all of those with pre-existing conditions to pool together, giving them the purchasing power of millions so that no one person’s adverse health status will change the cost for anyone else, including that one person.

While H.R. 2300 has the great advantage of being properly focused on patients and physicians, trying to straighten out the voluminous failures of the ACA in one bill is a Herculean feat. Obamacare needs to be repealed in total, and as soon as possible, and then Congress must undertake a sensible approach to correcting the problems of the health care system without turning it over to the government.

Cross-posted from Observations

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The Detroit Detox ... J. D. Longstreet

The Detroit Detox
NO Government Bail Out For Detroit
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***************

Of course, Obama will do everything humanly possible to bail out Detroit -- in one fashion, or another. There can be no question about it.

After all, Detroit IS spelled:  U-N-I-O-N .

There are a host of municipalities standing by, holding their collective breath as they wait to see what the federal government will do about Detroit.   IF the US government writes a check to Detroit, get ready.  The flood gates will open and, in the twinkling of an eye, the US Treasury will be bone dry -- or at least as dry as Death Valley in the middle of August. 

In a letter authorizing Detroit's bankruptcy filing, Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, noted a few problems that have contributed to Detroit's dilemma:

• The city's unemployment rate has nearly tripled since 2000 and is more than double the national average.

• The homicide rate is at historically high levels, and the city has been named among America's most dangerous for more than 20 years.

• Detroiters wait an average of 58 minutes for police to respond, compared with the national average of 11 minutes.

• An estimated 40% of the city's street lights didn't work in the first quarter of 2013.

• Roughly 78,000 city structures have been abandoned.

Consider this:  "The combination of lost auto industry jobs and rising crime rates prompted many middle-class whites and African Americans to flee Detroit over the past few decades. That exodus left behind an overwhelmingly poor and nearly 83% African-American population, making Detroit the nation's largest black-majority city."  SOURCE:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/18/detroit-files-for-bankruptcy/2567159/ 

Kevyn Orr, the city's appointed emergency manager, has said Detroit's  financial responsibilities -- in total -- could be as much as $20 billion.

In October of 2012, President Barack Obama said:  "We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way.”  That was then.  This is NOW.

"The municipal workers’ pension plans (that face 90% losses) will be bailed-out via the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)"  SOURCE:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/18/obama-flashback-we-refused-to-let-detroit-go-bankrupt/

The PBGC is a US Government Agency.  That means, of course, taxpayer money. 

How could this happen?  Detroit is the largest city to file bankruptcy in US history.   Spending money you don't have is a very effective way to bankrupt anything or anyone. 

Detroit tried taxing the rich, you know, the foundation of Obamanomics, and what did they get for their effort?  Well, a ride through the city observing the hulking multi-story -- empty -- factory buildings and the explosive unemployment rate should answer that.  THE RICH LEFT -- and took their businesses -- and JOBS -- with them.

Detroit has been circling the drain for decades.   The decline in the auto business and the population moving away was a symptom, not the cause, of the city's collapse.

When you cut through all the Bovine Scatology the answer is clear.

Consider this from an article by John Hayward at Humanevents.com:  "And let’s not dump too much of Detroit’s crisis at the feet of those automakers, because that corrupt Democrat Party elite spent the city into penury, racking up enormous long-term debt.  They spent money like tomorrow would never come, but yesterday tomorrow came.  Bloated pensions are just another form of deficit spending: commitments given to today’s workers, without worrying about who’s going to pay the bills when they come due.  At some point, the spendthrift government can’t borrow enough money to keep the shell game floating any more.  Who wants to buy bonds from a city that’s talking about 90 percent haircuts for creditors?"

Mr. Hayward continues:  "All of a sudden, the politicians who spent decades assuring their constituents that debt and deficits are no big deal throw up their hands, declare nothing can be done to escape the fiscal black hole they’ve created, and retire to their lavish estates.  Detroit is end-stage Obamanomics."
SOURCE: http://www.humanevents.com/2013/07/19/detroit-goes-bankrupt/ 

So.  We watch the dance in DC take shape, over the weeks and months ahead, as the democrat controlled government figures a way to bail out Detroit without appearing to bail out Detroit.  Then, we watch as one municipality after the other lines up at the trough until the entire country goes the way of Detroit.
But, HEY!  This is redistribution of the wealth.  This is Obama's socialism.  I seem to recall having mentioned in the weeks, months, and years past that the end result of socialism is always the collapse and death of the host country .  It never fails.

 "The Detroit death spiral is Democrat corruption, which drives people out of the city, which leaves fewer taxpayers to finance the next round of Democrat corruption." -- John Hayward/Human Events  http://www.humanevents.com/2013/07/19/detroit-goes-bankrupt/

This is a sad story but it is not unexpected -- well, it is not unexpected by conservatives, who've been predicting it for decades.  And -- just as we've been proven correct about Detroit, unfortunately, we will be correct about the financial collapse of the United States. I take no joy in saying that -- at all.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Trayvon Matin: the aftermath

Trayvon Martin: the aftermath

 

 

America’s conscience was awakened the day George Zimmerman’s six member jury found him innocent. A properly empowered jury of six women heard reams of evidence from both sides of the aisle and decided for the defense. Vindication of Zimmerman may have been a pyrrhic victory. A diverse group of individuals has concluded Zimmerman is guilty by fiat. Many who claim to speak for the Afro-American community deny the results of this trial as an invalid representation of the facts and call for further justice for the deceased Martin. Tens of thousands are crying out that Martin’s Civil Rights were violated. Investigations by numerous law enforcement authorities in Florida found no basis for the claim. Federal Bureau of Investigation explored the possibility the shooting was race based. After an extensive inquiry they found no element of racism could be attributed to Zimmerman’s interlude with Martin. Eric Holder, the federal Attorney General, was not moved by the jury’s verdict or the multiple investigations relinquishing Zimmerman from racial motivations. Holder’s Department of Justice has opened its own investigation to appease a contingent of people who survive on keeping racism alive amongst their flock. These masters of rhetorical nonsense have called for protests throughout the country to reconcile the jury verdict with the reality they believe actually happened. To spike the flames of racial hatreds further President Obama has thrown himself into the mix. His contorted statements drive home the fact that he questions the legal basis of the verdict. Numerous arrests, some caused by violent acts, have occurred in many jurisdictions. A more profound issue is media management of this debacle. Misrepresenting elements of the Zimmerman case were the norm in left-wing media outlets. NBC doctored voice recordings of Zimmerman to give the impression racism was a key element  the night Trayvon was killed. Overwhelming evidence moves the subject in another direction. Eric Holder’s intervention provides another glimpse how the Justice Department bases its decisions on community emotions not facts. In the event Holder’s Department of Justice manufactures a Civil Rights case against Zimmerman, it will be Zimmerman’s Civil Rights on trial not Trayvon Martin’s. If this case comes to fruition, Eric Holder should be the next person to be placed on trial for subverting clearly written law. Mark Davis, MD author of Demons of Democracy and the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. President of Healthnets Review Services and Davis Book Reviews. www.healthnetsreviewservices.com, twitter.com/americassage, platomd@gmail.com, Manager of the group on LinkedIn, Government in Transition.

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