ExxonMobil’s earnings: The real story you won’t hear in Washington | ExxonMobil’s Perspectives Blog

share save 171 16 ExxonMobil’s earnings: The real story you won’t hear in Washington | ExxonMobils Perspectives Blog tagged politics oil industry Oil and Gas ExxonMobil energy economy
300px West Texas Pumpjack ExxonMobil’s earnings: The real story you won’t hear in Washington | ExxonMobils Perspectives Blog tagged politics oil industry Oil and Gas ExxonMobil energy economy

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It’s time for our leaders to stop playing politics with the energy industry and to start working for solutions that will take the pressure off household budgets and enhance our energy security. Continue reading

Wal-mart as the new head of state

share save 171 16 Wal mart as the new head of state tagged War on Poverty Wal Mart United States Postal Service stimulus politics national debt government Freddie Mac federal budget Fannie Mae economy
300px Wal Mart in Madison Heights Wal mart as the new head of state tagged War on Poverty Wal Mart United States Postal Service stimulus politics national debt government Freddie Mac federal budget Fannie Mae economy

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(Plucked out of an email.  I cleaned this up a bit, but the factual points are quite intriguing.)
1.
Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart every hour 
of every day.  

2.
This works out to 
$20,928 profit every minute! Continue reading

Keeping own property = benefit per Pelosi. The arrogance!

share save 171 16 Keeping own property =  benefit per Pelosi. The arrogance! tagged taxes estate taxes economy conservatism congress

(edited to add a resource below detailing the changes)

Firstly, about this “tax cut” bill.  It’s not a tax cut.  The fiscally responsible folks in Congress stopped a tax hike.  The irresponsible ones, those who have no idea of what makes the U.S. economy tick and care little about individual rights, were trying to hike your taxes.  But secondly, the pandering rhetoric about the estate tax is more pathetic than pandering.  The gall of the (almost) former Speaker talking about the concession NOT to gouge successful people with a draconian estate tax as if that was a “benefit” is the height of economic class-warfare! Continue reading

Scary: China holds our debt, the Cold War never ended, now — China, Russia quit dollar

share save 171 16 Scary: China holds our debt, the Cold War never ended, now    China, Russia quit dollar tagged Wen Jiabao Vladimir Putin trade imbalance Russia national debt foreign trade economy Cold War China Bilateral trade
300px Obama COP15 Jiabao Scary: China holds our debt, the Cold War never ended, now    China, Russia quit dollar tagged Wen Jiabao Vladimir Putin trade imbalance Russia national debt foreign trade economy Cold War China Bilateral trade

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China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Continue reading

Thanks … for the stim-u-lus … Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted

share save 171 16 Thanks ... for the stim u lus ... Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted tagged Thomas Jefferson taxes stimulus society politics New World Order monetary policy inflation George Soros Federal Reserve System federal budget economy democracy congress
300px Debt to GDP Forecast Chart1 Thanks ... for the stim u lus ... Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted tagged Thomas Jefferson taxes stimulus society politics New World Order monetary policy inflation George Soros Federal Reserve System federal budget economy democracy congress

(To the tune of Bob Hope‘s “Thanks for the Memories” and apologies to him.)  By the way, you can subscribe to this blog in the box to your right.

What are the consequences of federal policies, and what is the message of the 2010 election? Continue reading

Don’t Cry for me Argentina — America

share save 171 16 Dont Cry for me Argentina    America tagged federal budget economy

Don’t Cry for me Argentina America … you have to watch this if you care about the fiscal disaster which America is rapidly becoming. Besides, the music alone is worth it. Argentina was once a thriving country and was driven into the economic ground by soaring debt resulting from its government’s (remember Peron? Evita?) pandering to those with their hands out for the “entitlements.” Can it happen here? After you view this you’ll be convinced … yes.  Just today, the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury estimated the national debt to be $19Trillion in five years, up from the $13Trillion it hit in May of 2010. About a 50% increase in only five years. Here’s a nice summary:

According to the Debt Clock:

• Total national debt: $13 trillion
• Debt per citizen: $42,026
• Debt per taxpayer: $117,982
• Total interest due: $1.9 trillion
• Interest per citizen: $2,211

Click here to see the Debt Clock, which is updated every second.

(Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/26/national-debt-clock-tracking-red/ (accessed 6/9/2010))

Click here to view the powerpoint show. (be patient, it can be slow to load)

Source: http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/soundmanjay-344588-dont-cry-america-obamacare-socialism-argentina-ppspap-business-finance-ppt-powerpoint/ (accessed 6/9/2010).

There is a copyright notice on the website, but no name or attribution.

HOW IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULURALISM DESTROYED DETROIT

share save 171 16 HOW IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULURALISM DESTROYED DETROIT tagged welfare multiculturalism immigration free enterprise economy crime America

This is a must read article. I am NOT expressing an opinion about either immigration — whether any form of it is good or bad — or multiculturalism (whatever that means to different people). But this writer appears to have his facts in hand and thus I pass along the facts he presents, together with his analysis of his opinion of cause and effect. I don’t vouch for that analysis but do think there has been enough written about Detroit to lend credibility to the notions presented to at least warrant discussion.  The typos, regrettably, are his.

Also see Okrent, Daniel.  “Detroit:  The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City.”  Time.com. September 24, 2009.  http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1925796,00.html (accessed Dec 3, 2009)

Feel free to come to my blog and comment.

HOW IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULURALISM DESTROYED DETROIT

By Frosty Wooldridge
October 5, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

For 15 years, from the mid 1970s to 1990, I worked in Detroit, Michigan. I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses and school yards. Trash everywhere! Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it and ignored it.

Tens of thousands and then, hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing and food stamps! With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10 and in once case, one woman birthed 24 kids as reported by the Detroit Free Press—all on American taxpayer dollarss. A new child meant a new car payment, new TV and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “Great Society” flourish in Detroit. If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing.

Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America, outside of Richard Daley in Chicago, rode Detroit down to its knees. He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence and arrogance. As a black man, he said, “I am the MFIC.” The IC meant ‘in charge’. You can figure out the rest. Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.

As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state. Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit.

As the Muslims moved in, the whites moved out. As the crimes became more violent, the whites fled. Finally, unlawful Mexicans moved in at a torrid pace. You could cut the racial tension in the air with a knife! Detroit may be one our best examples of multiculturalism: pure dislike and total separation from America.

Today, you hear Muslim calls to worship over the city like a new American Baghdad with hundreds of Islamic mosques in Michigan, paid for by Saudi Arabia oil money. High school flunk out rates reached 76 percent last June according to NBC’s Brian Williams. Classrooms resemble more foreign countries than America. English? Few speak it! The city features a 50 percent illiteracy rate and growing. Unemployment hit 28.9 percent in 2009 as the auto industry vacated the city.

In this week’s Time Magazine October 4, 2009, “The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell and how it can rise again,” I choked on the writer’s description of what happened.

“If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we’d know a lot more about it,” said Daniel Okrent. “If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we’d see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.

But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.”

As Coleman Young’s corruption brought the city to its knees, no amount of federal dollars could save the incredible payoffs, kick backs and illegality permeating his administration. I witnessed the city’s death from the seat of my 18-wheeler tractor trailer because I moved people out of every sector of decaying Detroit.

“By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit’s treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services,” Okrent said. “The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers’ union to reject a philanthropist’s offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9%. That’s worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.”

At the end of Okrent’s report, and he will write a dozen more about Detroit, he said, “That’s because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city’s collapse. It’s also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can’t find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?”

As you read in my book review of Chris Steiner’s book, $20 Per Gallon, the auto industry won’t come back. Immigration will keep pouring more and more uneducated third world immigrants from the Middle East into Detroit—thus creating a beachhead for Islamic hegemony in America. If 50 percent illiteracy continues, we will see more homegrown terrorists spawned out of the Muslim ghettos of Detroit. Illiteracy plus Islam equals walking human bombs. You have already seen it in the Madrid, Spain, London, England and Paris, France with train bombings, subway bombings and riots. As their numbers grow, so will their power to enact their barbaric Sharia Law that negates republican forms of government, first amendment rights and subjugates women to the lowest rungs on the human ladder. We will see more honor killings by upset husbands, fathers and brothers that demand subjugation by their daughters, sisters and wives. Muslims prefer beheadings of women to scare the hell out of any other members of their sect from straying.

Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country and way of life.

Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as he interviews top national leaders on his radio show “Connecting the Dots” at www.themicroeffect.com at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in to your time zone.

© 2009 Frosty Wooldridge – All Rights Reserved


Source: NewsWithViews.com
URL Source: http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty506.htm
(accessed Dec 3, 2009)

The Business and Media Institute — Guarding the news of our Free Enterprise System

share save 171 16 The Business and Media Institute    Guarding the news of our Free Enterprise System tagged media freedom economy democracy

The engine of America’s freedom and prosperity (yes, they go hand-in-hand) is our system of free enterprise. It is under attack now more than ever in a steady march toward facism. No, I don’t think I’m being an extremist in stating that.  That march has become a rush and it is fueled to a great extent by the so-called main stream media.

Want to find a source of credible information about attacks on our system of free enterprise?  Here is a bit about the Business & Media Institute:

Before the Media Research Center (MRC) launched the Business & Media Institute (BMI) in 1992, there was no entity in America devoted solely to analyzing and exposing the anti-free enterprise culture of the media. With the BMI in operation, that void has been filled.

The mission of BMI is to audit the media’s coverage of the free enterprise system. It is our goal to bring balance to economic reporting and to promote fair portrayal of the business community in the media. Providing resources for journalists, such as connections to sources who can speak intelligently about the economy, is one way we pursue this end. BMI is the economics division of the Media Research Center, and it is the only organization in the world dedicated to the unique challenge of correcting misconceptions about free enterprise in the media.

BMI has produced numerous pieces of research, many of which received critical acclaim in the national media. BMI focuses on the culture of the free enterprise system. Analysts research and assess material concerning taxes, regulation, government spending, the environment, Social Security, and business.

via About BMI – The Business and Media Institute. http://www.businessandmedia.org/about/about.aspx (accessed 11/18/2009)

They have a nice newsletter to which you can subscribe here.

What’s your view of what’s wrong in America?

share save 171 16 Whats your view of whats wrong in America? tagged stimulus politics government federal budget economy constitution conservatism congress bailout

My view is that NOTHING is wrong in America — not in the REAL America.

It’s the politics in Washington that is trampling on the Constitution, spending us into the poor house, and padding the pockets of special interests that’s wrong.  The following is a piece from Glenn Beck that lays it out pretty nicely. There may be something in what follows with which I don’t agree, but I haven’t found it yet. What’s your view?

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again.. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why — what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability.. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try — please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me..

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now. 
 
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business s of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill.. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot.. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented.. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one.

We are coming.. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.