rwnutjob's Open Salon Blog

Headlines conservatives love to see.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:11:52 -0500

Climategate: 'Greatest scandal in modern science'...
Call for Congressional investigation...
Paper: Junk science exposed among climate-change believers...

RASMUSSEN:
Obama Poll Drops to New Low: -15
Strongly Approve 27%
Strongly Disapprove 42%
Total Approval 45%

Amid Calif. Attorney General Investigation, ACORN San Diego office dumps 20k docs in dumpster...

BARONE: Are Democrats exiting the sinking ship?

=========================

Now, let's take a look at the current state of affairs. This is a lengthy excerpt from a publicrecord.org article:

You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before exposing the root causes of this breakdown, let’s look at some vital statistics and facts:

* The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The US already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top one percent, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high.

* As the stock market went over the 10,000 mark and just surged to a 13-month high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and benefit the most from the government bailout have just set a new global economic record by issuing $30 billion in annual bonuses this year, “up 60 percent from last year.” Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s history, they are also benefiting by only paying 1% in taxes.

* The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth.”

As the looting is occurring at the top, the US middle class is just beginning to collapse.

* Workers between the age of 55 – 60, who have worked for 20 – 29 years, have lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans went up by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion.

* Home foreclosure filings “hit a record high in the third quarter [of 2009]… They were the worst three months of all time… 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter” in this three month period. “3.4 million homes are expected to enter foreclosure by year’s end, with some experts estimating that next year will be even worse.”

President Obama has enacted a $75 billion taxpayer funded program that has been a spectacular failure in stemming the foreclosure crisis and has proven to be another massive waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.

* 25 Million people are unemployed or underemployed.

This means we have 25 million people who urgently need to increase their income, and they’re quickly running out of options. The unemployment rate is expected to rise further and remain high for several years. “The president’s chief economic adviser warned that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay ‘unacceptably high’ for years to come.”

The NY Times reports: “Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse. Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking…” As this ratio continues to grow, it will lead to a further reduction in wages – average worker wages have seen a sharp decline over the past year.

Economist Nouriel Roubini, a man who accurately predicted our current crisis, just reported on unemployment stating: “Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening…. So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back.”

* As the few elite banks thrive, there have been 123 US bank failures thus far this year. Recently, three banks that the government declared “healthy” and gave taxpayer money to have folded. The Wall Street Journal reports: “U.S. regulators have seized or threatened at least 27 banks that got capital infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including some lenders government officials knew were troubled when they awarded the money. The troubles put taxpayers at risk of losing as much as $5.1 billion invested in the banks since TARP was launched in October 2008.”

* As bankruptcies surge across the board, 10 US states are on the verge of bankruptcy, with several ready to declare a financial state of emergency. California, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are all “barreling toward economic disaster, raising the likelihood of higher taxes, more government layoffs and deep cuts in services.”

This is occurring at a time when the “federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before.” In total, “US public debt topped 12 trillion dollars for the first time in history… The public debt topped 10 trillion dollars in September 2008. The debt is quickly approaching the statutory limit of 12.104 trillion dollars, meaning Congress would have to raise the ceiling to prevent a shutdown of government operations.”

Economist Dean Baker explains the risk of running such a large deficit: “The debt limit must be increased at regular intervals in order to allow the government to function normally because the government is currently operating at a deficit. If the debt limit is not passed, then at some point the government will not be able to pay workers and contractors. It won’t be able to send out Social Security checks or make payments for Medicaid and unemployment insurance to state governments. And, it will not be able to make interest payments on government bonds, effectively defaulting on the national debt.”

Needless to say, all of this will make life drastically more difficult for citizens of the US. As the middle class continues on the path of economic decline, the number of citizens living in poverty has already hit an all time high.

* Although the government’s official figure tries to low-ball the number, 47.4 Million US citizens live in poverty, and the US poverty rate is the highest in the industrialized world.

Predictably, homelessness is rising at an increased rate as well. “The US government does not tally the numbers but interested organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at some point over the past year…. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children.”

Children have been hit especially hard by the economic crisis:

* 50% of US children, one out of every two children, will need to use food stamps to eat.

One out of every two children in the United States of America will need to use a food stamp… to EAT!

If you didn’t think starvation was a serious threat in the US, just read this new Washington Post report: “The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat… Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished by how much the problem has worsened. ‘This is unthinkable. It’s like we are living in a Third World country,’ said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America.”

The United States Department of Agriculture released these findings in a study that was completed in December 2008, which means these numbers don’t take into account the millions more unemployed throughout 2009. The numbers of people living in poverty and struggling to eat has seen a significant increase since then.

This a national tragedy. But it gets much worse.

* In 2008, according to the Census Bureau, the number of US citizens without healthcare grew to a record 46.3 million. “The new figures, however, understate the severity of the economic downturn because a large portion of nation’s job losses and unemployment rate increases occurred after the Census survey data was collected in March as part of the annual Current Population Survey.”

* Lack of health Insurance has caused 45,000 preventable U.S. citizen deaths in the past year. The American Journal of Medicine recently released a study that stated “Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem from medical bills, and even people with health insurance face financial disaster if they experience a serious illness.”

A Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study reported that 17,000 children have died due to lack of healthcare. You can also add in a recent report that revealed that 2,266 US Veterans have died in 2008 due to lack of insurance.

The 50 million now uninsured and the 45,000 preventable deaths per year statistics are expected to drastically rise over the next few years. As the Senate continues to strip meaningful amendments from a healthcare bill that wouldn’t even take effect until 2013, it has become clear that, despite the media hype, the healthcare bill is going to fall far short of meaningful reform and continue to rig the game in favor of large insurance company profits at the expense of the US population. With the highest cost healthcare in the world, current trends will continue and much needed change is not on the horizon.

Never before has the United States had so many citizens with so little means, little to no income and heavy debt. Debt and costs of living have now shackled US citizens just as it has shackled people throughout the world. The economic hit men have now hit the US as well and millions of US citizens are now effectively sentenced to a slow death.

Economic Imperial blowback has hit the mainland.

And the clock is ticking louder by the day…

Here’s another fact for you:

* The gun and ammunition manufacturing industry in the United States has over 200 companies producing billions of dollars in annual revenues. This huge manufacturing base cannot fulfill demand quickly enough. The demand for guns and ammunition has hit a record high and the gun industry cannot produce enough bullets to keep up with orders.

American’s are arming themselves to the teeth!

* In the past year, 100 new armed militia groups have been formed, as militia members have doubled in numbers. Federal authorities are gravely concerned about the “uptick in militia activities.” One federal authority recently said, “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”

So let’s breakdown these numbers.

You have a population of 50 million people who are in desperate need of money, they most likely have no health insurance and can’t afford to get healthcare or help of any kind. Part of this population probably also has loved ones who can’t get life sustaining medical treatments, or loved ones that have already died due to lack of costly medical treatment. The clock is ticking loud for these people and they are running out of options fast, and time delayed is time closer to death.

While the richest one percent have never had it so good, a significant percentage of the US population now has firsthand experience in this. Millions upon millions of Americans are poor, broke, struggling, starving, desperate… and armed.

We are sitting on a powder keg!

We are now witnessing the critical unraveling of US society.

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The reality is that none of us should be happy about failure. While the left wants to enact policies that the right does not want and vice-versa, we should be concentrating on cooperating to enact legislation that will have a general benefit to all. As it now stands, nothing is getting accomplished that will benefit the average American, but plenty has been done to stuff the coffers of the richest Americans.

Think of the Titanic. It was the steerage passengers who made it possible for the wealthy elite to get their subsidized luxury cabins. The average Republicans are the steerage passengers who think that if they support elitist policies that the wealth will trickle down to them and they can one day get out of steerage. The average Dimocrats are the steerage passengers who know they won't be getting out of steerage without stealing from the rich.

The bottom line is that ALL of the steerage passengers are chumps being played by the wealthy elite. Solution? The steerage passengers need to stop going at each others throats and cooperate on a solution that benefits everyone. The elite do not want this to happen. Things are going to get ugly.

Forgotten History: Civil War Coffee

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:11:23 -0500

Although it is not something most people stop and think about, have you ever wondered how coffee ended up as our national drink instead of tea?

You can thank the Union Army for that. Most historians are aware that the Nazis pumped their troops full of amphetamines during WWII to keep them going. (Ya know, Blitzkrieg) Far fewer know that the Union Army was pumping their men full of coffee for the same purpose.

While it is generally accepted that the superior industrial base was ultimately responsible for the Union victory, of equal importance, in my opinion, was the fact that the Union kept their troops pumped full of caffeine.

The top photo is of a reproduction Union coffee wagon as supplied by the United States Christian Commission. Although the USCC helped mostly Union soldiers, they also supplied some Confederate soldiers as well. From their website:

"There is a group of heroes that served upon the battlefields of the Civil War without rifles or cannons. They came with bibles, bandages and the love of Christ. These were the heroes of the U.S. Christian Commission.

Where was God during this terrible suffering and bloodshed? The answer lies most notably in the stories of heroism exhibited by the United States Christian Commission and the delegates that so fearlessly and faithfully served the soldiers with the gospel. Formed in the fall of 1861 by the Young Men’s Christian Association to “take active measure to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the soldiers in the army, and the sailors and marines in the navy, in co-operation with chaplains and others.

During the war, five thousand delegates volunteered and distributed over $6,000,000 worth of goods and supplies (in 1860's valuation) to the soldiers and sailors of the Union army on the battlefields, camps, hospitals and prisons. They also served the soldiers in grey when the opportunity arose. It is estimated that the service rendered by the delegates of the Christian Commission equal the continuous work of one man for 658 years!"

As an aside, nicotine, via the tobacco leaf, helped keep the Southern soldier on his toes, though to a much less extent than his Union counterpart. Nevertheless, now and again Union and Confederate soldiers would meet up and swap coffee for tobacco. Another factor in Northern performance was the fact that the North had better rations.

From the U.S Army Quartermaster Foundation website: "Who shall have this?" Sergeant John W. Fuller asked in a voice loud enough for all the assembled troops to hear. He stood beside two ordinary army blankets laden with precious contents. One contained forty-five carefully divided mounds of ground coffee, the other an equal number of piles of sugar. Together, they represented a four-day ration of coffee and sugar for Company C of the 100th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

Sergeant Fuller was pointing to one of the heaps of coffee. No matter how carefully they tried, it was impossible to divide the coffee equally; the company had no scales. As a result, each mound was always a bit larger or smaller than the others. In order to distribute the ration, First Sergeant Sanford W, Meyers, facing away from the coffee and the company, read from the muster roll and called out a name at random. Private Theodore F. Upson stepped forward to claim this most important part of a soldier's ration, then, its sweetener.

Salt pork and hardtack, the rest of the marching ration were to be weighed and issued later by the regimental commissary but that wasn't important now. The company focused its attention on the blankets. The weather in this third week of June, 1864 was wet and unseasonably cool, as it had been for the four previous weeks of the campaign to Atlanta. The source of that next, all sustaining cup of hot coffee, now ranked in importance with the Confederate enemy entrenched less than a mile away - Private Upson returned to the ranks with his fair, if not quite equal share of coffee, and the issue continued, by random name, till each pile of coffee and sugar had been claimed."

Union coffee was typically issued green and had to be roasted and ground, not always an easy task in a combat environment, but eventually the troops got to guzzle their java.

After the war ended, returning Union troops kept up their desire for coffee and eventually the South would come to demand it as well.

More on the Ukraine "Black Lung" H1N1 mutation.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:11:15 -0500

========================================================================= ========================================================================= =========================================================================

Here is the latest from recombinomics:

Ukraine Dead Increase to 344 - Sequences Released
Recombinomics Commentary 22:45
November 18, 2009

1,502,345 Influenza/ARI

85,904 Hospitalized

344 Dead

The above tally is from the latest update from the Ukraine Ministry of Health. The 344 dead represents an increase of 16 from yesterday's total, which is similar to recent daily increases (see map). The steady climb in fatal cases highlights the importance of the release of sequences by Mill Hill a WHO regional center in London.

Included in the sequences from 10 isolates were four HA sequences with the receptor binding domain change, D225G, which was found in the one throat and three lung samples. The change was not found in isolates from nasopharyngeal washes, suggesting D225G may lead to high concentrations of H1N1 in patient's lungs. The high concentration of virus leads to a cytokine storm that destroys the lungs in a few days.

The finding of D225G in lung tissues raises concerns rergarding sequencing of isolates from nasopharyngeal swabs. The monitoring of this important genetic change in the receptor binding domain may require sampling of lung tissues or fluids.

==========================================

In other related news, it was discovered that President Obama owns a nice chunk of stock in Baxter, a large vaccine manufacturer. Also, U.S. congress is pressing for legal immunity for vaccine makers.

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==================================================== ==================================================== From the Baxter International website: "DEERFIELD, Ill., October 15, 2009 – Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) today reported solid financial results for the third quarter of 2009, and provided its fourth quarter and updated full-year 2009 financial outlook.

Net income grew 12 percent to $530 million from $472 million reported in the third quarter of 2008. Marketing authorization from the European Commission for CELVAPAN H1N1 pandemic vaccine using Baxter’s Vero cell technology. CELVAPAN H1N1 is the first cell culture-based and non-adjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccine to receive marketing authorization in the European Union." =============================================

Is that a sweet deal or what? Invest in high profit pharmaceutical companies and then have congress give them legal imminuty if they screw up a vaccine so the investors don't take a hit. How can I get in on that action?

We aren't a third world country yet, however.......

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:11:24 -0500

Record numbers go hungry in the U.S.. Too bad I have to go to news sources outside the U.S. to find out what is going on in our country. Here's the latest from guardian.co.uk.: (My bold)

More than a million children regularly go to bed hungry in the US, according to a government report that shows a startling increase in the number of families struggling to put food on the table.

President Barack Obama, who pledged to eradicate childhood hunger, has described as "unsettling" the agriculture department survey, which says 50 million people in the US – one in six of the population – were unable to afford to buy sufficient food to stay healthy at some point last year, in large part because of escalating unemployment or poorly paid jobs. That is a rise of more than one-third on the year before and the highest number since the survey began in 1995.

The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said: "These numbers are a wake-up call … for us to get very serious about food security and hunger, about nutrition and food safety in this country."

Vilsack said he expected the numbers to worsen when the survey for this year is released in 2010.

The report said 6.7 million people were defined as having "very low food security" because they regularly lacked sufficient to eat. Among them, 96% reported that the food they bought did not last until they had money to buy more. Nearly all said they could not afford to eat balanced meals. Although few reported that this was a permanent situation throughout the year, 88% said it had occurred in three or more months.

Nearly half reported losing weight because they did not have enough money to buy food.

The number of children living in households where there were shortages of food at times rose by nearly one-third to 17 million. The report says that most parents who did not get enough to eat ensured their offspring received sufficient food but that more than 1 million children still suffered outright hunger.

The worst affected states are in the south with Mississippi having the largest proportion of its population enduring shortages of food followed by Texas and Arkansas. More than half of those affected are minorities, principally black people and Hispanics.

Millions more Americans do not go hungry only because they are so poor they receive government food stamps or rely on handouts from food banks such as Feeding America. In some states, such as West Virginia, one in six of the population is on food stamps. (I will add that nationally one in ten people are on food stamps)

Vicki Escarra, head of Feeding America which runs 200 food banks across the country feeding 25 million people, described the report as "alarming" and noted that the situation is continuing to deteriorate.

"Although these new numbers are staggering, it should be noted that these numbers reflect the state of the nation one year ago, in 2008. Since then the economy has significantly weakened, and there are likely many more people struggling with hunger than this report states," she said.

Feeding America said there had been a "dramatic increase" in requests for emergency food assistance from food banks across the US. It said that food banks in some parts of the country were requesting more than a 50% increase in assistance than over a year ago.

"Our network food banks are calling us every day, telling us that demand for emergency food is higher than it has ever been in our history," said Escarra.

The principal cause is unemployment, which has risen past 10%, as well as increasing numbers of people who have had their hours cut back or been forced in to minimum wage jobs. Even before the recent economic collapse many working people were struggling to meet rising living costs, such as those who drive long distances to their jobs in rural states who were hit by the rising cost of fuel.

Feeding America said 40% of the people it helps live in families with at least one working adult.

Charities say that many of those who fall into financial difficulties take years to get back on their feet and so the problem is likely to persist for years.

========================

The above numbers actually make some sense as do the latest figures that show that over 6% of homeowners are 60 days or more behind on their mortgage. (No duh!! No job, no make the mortgage payment.)

Here is the latest from Nouriel Roubini:

"Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%.

While losing 200,000 jobs per month is better than the 700,000 jobs lost in January, current job losses still average more than the per month rate of 150,000 during the last recession. (My edit to add that 52% of college and HS grads cannot find work)

Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession.

So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back."

==========================

Retail may not do too bad as I think many folks will spend out of desperation. If that happens, the retail numbers will be down after the first of next year. Conversely, people could see the handwriting on the wall and not spend much this holiday season. We will see what the stats show.

An additional unknown is what will happen on the international front. The Chinese are openly chiding Obama on America's reckless spending and when a major incident happens, such as Israel attacking Iran, which is looking more and more likely, then who knows what the domestic economy will do.

Is Humanity Worth Saving?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:11:14 -0500

As I mentioned in a previous post, our son's school lets us visit for lunch. I usually really enjoy these visits. Today, both the wife and I were able to go and it was a treat for our son to see both of us. Usually, only one of us is able to go for one reason or another.

Our son (2nd grader) can pick up to two friends to join him for lunch. One of the kids he picked today had been an abused child. The birth father lost custody after throwing scalding water on his son. The kid was 2 or 3 at the time. I had a chance to observe this kid as he was eating. He wore a shirt that came down to his forearms. I counted at least eight different significant scars on his forearms and one on his nose. His little arms shook slightly but constantly and his speech indicated he had some neurological issues.

Matthew 7:1 advises "Judge not lest ye be not judged." Sometimes that is much easier said than done. What kind of evil does it take to harm an innocent child? Should not the evil doer be punished?

Evil has always been with us and there has been murder and many other horrible crimes committed throughout history. In recent times though, we seem to be putting the pedal to the metal in terms of the ever increasing evil we do to each other.

From AP Nov. 4, 2009: MEXICO CITY — "Three doctors and a nurse have been arrested for allegedly selling newborns after telling mothers their babies had died at a private hospital in Mexico City, authorities said Wednesday."

From Reuters (Moscow): Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

From AC: Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Wednesday. His lawyer asked for bond, stating that Anthony Sowell was a Cleveland resident, had a medical condition, a pacemaker. Prosecutors argued that the man was an imminent threat to the community and anywhere he might be. Judge Ronald Adrine denied bond and called the allegations against Anthony Sowell some of the most serious he had ever seen. And although he was only being charged with five counts of aggravated murder, the judge also knew that five more bodies had been found at Anthony Sowell's east Cleveland residence, bringing the total number of bodies recovered in the house and on the grounds to 11.

From WJZ13: Police in North Carolina say more charges are coming in the case of a missing 5-year-old girl whose body was found dumped along a wooded road. .....Particularly disturbing were the accusations against Shaniya's mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for sex.

From FOX News: BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. — A man angered after a dispute with his wife confessed to tossing his four young children off a bridge, authorities said Wednesday as they searched murky waters for the bodies.

And the list goes on and on. Not everyone is bad, of course, but I do have to wonder, considering the worldwide scope of death and destruction we are seeing, if it isn't time for God to just go ahead and drop the hammer on us.

What kind of future do our children have?