Thinkin' Outloud

Our current attitude of letting us know, after the fact, that we have entered a recession seems truly odd. Here are these leading economists from both Wall Street and our government getting paid top dollar to state the obvious after the fact instead of recognizing and acknowledging the obvious and applying solid analytical thought to making things better. You know, like the economic genius Allan Greenspan letting things run amok for years including poor lending practices and the export of our country’s valuable edges in manufacturing and design and then looking back now and saying “holy cow, look what happened!!”

Just like right now--- Instead of our leaders discussing how to buckle down and capitalize on our country’s strong points that we have left and ones that may arise in the future so as to secure our economic future, they are borrowing money to bail out Bear-Sterns and give money away to citizens to stimulate the economy for our past bad decisions with nothing more than a cross-your-fingers-and-hope attitude and virtually no real analytical thought being even considered. Hell, they are still waiting for another six or eight months for the geniuses to let them know that our economy is bad!

I am dying to see what these geniuses thoughts and attitudes will be when this “stimulus package” peaks and dies in a couple of months leaving us in worse economic shape that we already were in. What’s nesx, another rate cut? What will happen from all of this is that our world financial standing will worsen from adding more debt, and our dollar will weaken even further. Given it will take more dollars to buy oil even if the world price stays constant, this economic stimulus will soon compost into more money being taken from us than was given out.

We should have taken those same funds and built a nuke power plant or built a pipeline in Alaska to do real benefit for America including demonstrate some reasonable degree of intelligence to the international community-for once lately. Either of these would have spurred job creation and had the long term benefits of lower living costs to Americans and balancing our trade deficit.

Folks, we need to be thinking about what we Americans have to offer the world and covet and protect it at all costs. For instance, education. Only our legal citizens should have access to higher education (or any education for that matter) so we can regain a hope of a comeback in this world economy. If those from other countries desire our quality education that we have to offer, they should pay very dearly and/or agree that their work be proprietary to the United States for the same length of their education here. In other words, we have rights to their inventions and innovations before and exclusive to all others. Matter of fact, getting a Doctorate should streamline citizenship into our country so we can retain and capitalize off of these professionals for life.

Education is one of the best investments that any society can make as its benefits will reap returns for a lifetime. Perhaps we should have put the entire “economic stimulus” money into our educational system as the best investment we could have made for America. Maybe even using it to get the illegal aliens out of our school system so our own kids could benefit from the money being stolen by them would have been a good idea too. That might have been a “two-fer”.

Just thinkin outloud.

Coop

Posted by Garry Cooper at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lowering interest rates to fend off this recession as the Fed says it is poised to do has more implications than what meets the eye I think.

Investors world wide seek one thing---return on their investment. By that, they mean a reasonable rate of earnings for the amount of money they invest considering the amount of risk they have by that investment. The United States has always enjoyed an excellent cost for the money that we borrowed because we have always been considered a safe haven from runaway inflation, political turmoil, corruption, and default. Investors world wide even came to accept our currency in their own economies, if not at their banks then in booming black market trade. We have enjoyed strength in our dollar as it was thought of as a hedge against uncertainty in other countries’ moneys due to its safety and upside potential.

Things have changed I think my friends. Our dollar has been plummeting against most other currency in the more developed nations. Investors have been trading our dollars for precious metals like gold and silver as they have some doubt in our future apparently. Part might be that some suspect that we may be increasing our money supply (printing money). Some investors are worried about repayment problems and one report that I heard mentioned that Standard and Poor’s (the premier bond rating firm) might consider moving us from an excellent rating to a “B” rating, which is pretty much like getting a D- in school, unless we move towards balancing our budget and trade deficit. The effect would be to drive away investors causing us to have to pay much more to get investors to finance our country’s activities. We are talking higher interest rates that they want.

Back to lowering our rates to spur our economy. Here is the problem---or part of it. If, because of our lackluster economic growth and sales of goods we truly need lower rates to kick start us back into action for the next few years but investors can earn more else-where in places with expanding economies and money from things like oil, why would they accept our next-to-nothing returns. With each lowering of interest rates in our country, your can be sure that heads are turning in the investment world looking for alternatives. After all, are investors willing to accept zero interest and just lend and invest for the fun of it?

With other economies like China, India, and the Petroleum rich nations building factories to supply the world with cheaply produced goods and services while demonstrating their ever-growing economic and political stability, and their strong demand for money and willingness to pay higher rates to get it, we could be finding ourselves in somewhat of a “pickle”. How can we pay higher rates when we can’t afford the ones we have now without risking a recession---or worse.

One could argue, I guess, that these nations would not want us to collapse into economic hard times as it would damage their own economies as we could not afford their products. But we are but just 300 million of the world’s 6+ billion folks and I kind of think that they might be able to get along fine without us. Of course, even we will be buying some of their cheap stuff in the worst of times---especially in the worst of times as our stuff that we produce costs too much which is evidenced by that little “Made in China” sticker inside everything we already use.

Part of me thinks that the answer is getting rid of our idiot politicians who spend like drunken sailors on those special interest groups that bribe them daily with campaign donations, perks, and put those in their place that truly understand the graveness of our situation and by electing a President who is man enough and has the leadership to guide us into forced hard-times to put our affairs in order to allow us to regain or economic respect and standing. I think the right leader and communicator could have the following of us Americans If he or she led by example and wasn’t hindered by a bunch of uninformed idiot senators and congressmen like we have now.

I kind of wonder if our enemies, like the many Muslim nations that hate us like Saudi Arabia, along with Russia and China, are just sitting back watching and laughing to themselves as the world is giving us just enough rope to hang ourselves.

Posted by Garry Cooper at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our country needs to set forth as law basic principals for having the right to enjoy the freedoms that we have to offer.

For instance, if some immigrant community ever expresses that their way of life, customs, or religion trumps our constitution or our freedoms, that person and their ilk should be jailed and deported immediately. You don’t want to remove your veil or burka for a picture I.D., you want to perform genital mutilation on women, or if you threaten violence for the writings of another that somehow insults your religion or god, out you go after you get out of jail. This is not the country for you my friend. That is just that simple.

If any church or organization ever is shown to express a desire to harm our country or commi9t genocide on others due to their race or religion, it should be recognized as subversive to our beliefs and way of life and be disbanded.

To enter our country as anything other than a visitor, all should swear, under penalty of jail and deportation, allegiance to our constitution and its absolute protections of others’ ways to believe as they see fit. One threat of violence and you are out. No individual belief should bring harm to any other person. Again, our constitution trumps all religion and customs.

Every person here should be required to accept our nationalism and submit to it. Our national interest prevails over your loyalty to your homeland or you are gone. Our flag is above those of other countries, our country’s borders are fully respected, and our countrymen and women’s interests are absolute over those of any nation you might have come from or off you go. Any immigrant must understand and submit to the principals that are at the heart of our country’s nature and know their welcome here is fully contingent upon this understanding.

I for one don’t want to become Syrian, Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Hmong, Russian, Irish or any other nationality. I happen to be mostly of Irish descent but I am and I want to be American of the United States type and I want everyone here to want the same or my country is being robbed right out from under me.

Is this too much to ask?

Posted by Garry Cooper at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m for a shoot on sight policy on our borders. A simple 100 yard fully mined, video surveyed automatic machine guns firing at any movement, unmanned drones with weapons to kill anyone daring to enter our country illegally and through the proper channels. Patrols with orders to shoot to kill.

Why not? It’s our country and getting shot is 100% avoidable---don’t come across illegally. If each person was sure to die, deaths would actually fall from their current levels as hundreds die each year in the desert from dehydration and murder by smugglers. Again, it is simple to stay alive---do not illegally cross our borders. This is our country, not to be invaded by anyone who feels like coming here for what ever reason.

Mexico is very strict on its southern borders and illegals there are jailed and tortured. You get caught working a job as an U.S. citizen in Mexico and you will be jailed and treated harshly.

How can you possibly argue with this position unless you do not care about our country. We cannot afford the problem nor do we deserve to support lawbreaking illegal raiders.

We must immediately repeal the “Anchor Baby” laws as well. If you come here illegally and plop a kid down on our soil illegally, that child is illegal and all should be sent directly home and the country of Mexico or wherever they came from billed for any costs for medical care, incarceration, processing, and transportation back to their home. We can’t afford this invasion nor the diseases being drug into our country unchecked. If you feel different that I do, then you should be allowed to sponsor, at your full expense, any costs related to such an anchor family and prove the resources to do so including pledging all of your assets for that purpose as I just don’t feel like pledging my assets and my kids’ futures for that purpose.

If your child is not a citizen, he or she gets no school, welfare, nothing. If you get caught one time entering illegally, you are forever barred from applying for citizenship period--no exceptions.

Commit a felony in the United States while here illegally, your prison time is mandatory and tripled in length and your country on origin is billed for such costs related there to including legal defense.

Get caught here illegally and you get a simple deportation hearing in front of a citizen panel without legal representation and sent home with a bill for our expenses sent to your government. Any non-citizen is barred from using our courts unless in the process of becoming a legal immigrant.

If here for any reason as a non-citizen, you are fingerprinted and your retina is scanned and put on a highly accessible data base so those with work visas who apply for work can be verified as legally here in minutes at any law enforcement facility.

All monies or assets found to be in possession of illegal aliens are confiscated---period. Any employer hiring illegal workers should be taxed at 100% as a penalty. All monies being sent out of the country via money orders should require proof of legal residency to the vendor.

If we aren’t going to protect our sovereignty, then why don’t we just abandon our homes and businesses and just let this ever increasing anarchy just have its way with us and not recognize our national rights at all. You know, just say screw it and let our county collapse to a point that no one would want to be here anyway.

Posted by Garry Cooper at 07:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Russia invaded and occupied Afghanistan for selfish and imperialistic reasons. they wanted to own and control it.

We invaded it to quash the mostly foreign financed and foreign led fake government there established for the purpose of training and promoting terrorism against the western world. The Taliban simply stepped in and captured a mostly tribal nation to use it for their evil purposes and imposed their violent, perverted, fifth century brand of Islam upon those people for nothing more than control purposes. Russia did not have a 9-11----we did.

Marc, and Heather too, you and I and us Americans are not evil. We are good folks with good hearts, aren't we? You and I are not facist, are we? Will we become one? No, not over my dead body. Do we know war is not good and recognize all people as valuable and dear? Of course-- We are civilized, intellegent, and very decent Americans.

But, we must be prudent in our actions in self preservation. Are you folks suggesting we should sit back and do nothing? If not, please share with us your plans and fixes. I am dying to hear some good ideas other than sitting around a camp fire hugging a radical facist islamist that wishes death to all infidels singing cumbya, and hoping they will "feel the love" and drop their millenium old quest to dominate the world.(AND FOLKS, EXCUSE MY SPELLING)

Answer me this too--- should we sit back and let Iran have Nuclear Weapons??? If the nuclear armed Pakistan falls to the radical islamists, now that Mushareff was voted out a couple weeks ago, should we lay ground rules for our co-existance or sit back and hope? I throw these questions in to complicate the discussion. This is a complicated world.

Share with us your ideas on our future actons Marc and Heather and everyone. A plan. A good idea. that is what this is all about my friends. But, it has to be practical, realistic, and an improvement over what is happening right now.

It is complicated, and other than the changes that I have laid out before, I am stumped.

Coop

Posted by Garry Cooper at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ashley's point is a great one. Ash, I encourage you to read my first post as it ties into your thought more than you might imagine. I think that the vunerability that you point out is very real but I know that the terrorist on 911 planted the real fear and it is not make believe, nor did Bush mastermind it. It is very real and the next attack will dwarf 911 in size.

I do agree that Bush and his clan are capitalizing on it to some extent but not anything like Hitler. However, as our economy and government become more desparate, we could find ourselves in a position such that war is all many might see as our only way to survive, as my friend Ashley has set forth.

Let's say the Saudis, Venezuela, and some of our other oil supplying nations and our biggest lenders to our government cut off our funds tomorrow unexpectedly. Our bills come due for our nation's operations including our military. Say we have funds and weapons for one last assault upon the world and we know that we either capture our vital resources (oil mostly) or we collapse and submit to Muslim rule, what do we do my friends?

In that light, is it wrong or against human nature to act to survive. This question raised by Ashley begs for thought and I am happy that it was brought up. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Coop

Posted by Garry Cooper at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Marc, I agree that Bush and his cronies are running this country into the ground. His cronies include Clintons, Mccain, Pelosi, and all of the current idiots in office and those now running.

But, this war at this stage must be won at any cost. We need to quit playing political games and level any area of insurgency and show our enemies that we mean business once and for all. Leaving Iraq now would be a mistake that would lead to a much larger confrontation later. I do think we should have given diplomacy a little longer to work and done something to impress Saddam into believing we were going to take him down for sure. But, that is the past and now we have unleashed the tiger and we have to tame it.

If we were to leave now, what would happen? Surely the radical Muslim world would see us as week and beatable in any confrontation. With the military void in Iraq, surely the radicals would begin to fester and grow---especially fueled by their victory. Then what? Go back in? Let it grow un-checked.Let the Shiite Iran commit genocide upon the Sunnis?

What we should do is exert massive force for the sake of our military men and women and to end this mess once and for all. We need to respond with overwhelming force to each and every act against us. When the Iranian speed boats rushed our ship, we should have blown them out of the water and do so 100%of the time. We can win and moreover we can prove that we as a nation have the means and resolve to do so which would take the wind out of our enemy's sails and give every Muslim notice that we mean seriou7s business.

Yes, Bush and his ilk are making fools out of our nation and wasting money and lives.

Coop

Posted by Garry Cooper at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)