Post Scripts

by Jack

  When we hear reports about the economy is almost without a pulse and that a record number of our adult children are living with their parents…it’s depressing.   Okay, let me go on the record for the umpteenth time to say, the Obama Administration has poorly managed our economy and the recovery from the Great Recession.   But, is there more to it, something pre-Obama, something about our own failures that set us up to be less than we could be today?

Let’s take a walk back in time to look  at the 1950’s.  Maybe that will give us a little perspective, so we may more fairly judge the government we have and where we’re at as a society?

During period 1950-1959, the average annual salary was $2,992, life expectancy for a man was just 65.6 years and women, 71.1. A loaf of bread cost .14 cents. The average home in California sold between $4500-$7000, and a really nice home sold for around $10k. A Pepsi cost .10 cents in 1953, a movie theater ticket was about .50 cents in 1955.

I had a stay at home Mom in the 50’s. My Dad worked 6 days a week in a service station he owned. An average work week for him…60 hours.  Our cloned, tract-style house, was built during the big housing boom of 1946-48 when the G.I.s were coming back from WWII and almost everyone wanted to buy a home and start a family.

Our house was the standard of the day, two bedrooms and one bath. Heating was by a brick fireplace in the living room and a gas floor furnace located in the hallway between the two bedrooms and bathroom, we bought a window mounted swamp cooler to get us through the sweltering summer. Oh, and we had a single car garage that we actually used to park the car in! We felt pretty comfortable and did not want for much.

In 1954 my Dad bought a like-new 1950 Buick. It was the newest and best car we had ever owned up to that point. My Dad was extremely proud of that Buick and eventually it would be the car I learned to drive in, but the point being it was 4 years old when we bought it. My Dad would saying buying new is for suckers, (no offense to those who buy new cars) he just felt very satisfied living slightly behind the old automotive curve and getting a little more for his money in the process.   Typical of people who grew up in the depression era.

We lived modestly, but I was never aware of any financial problems. We had everything I could want or even imagine wanting.  When television became popular we had an early black and white TV. When color came out, well, it took a few years but eventually we had a color TV too.

Once a year in was given new clothes. Make that, new to me. They actually came from my cousins who had outgrown them. I didn’t mind because it was a great opportunity to wear really good stuff. For example, I had to wear Foremost jeans if my Mom bought them, but if they were from my cousins, I got Levi’s! Levi’s were a big deal to kids my age. Looking back I suppose that was my first experience with material things that had the power to defined you. All the cool kids I admired wore Levi’s.

My cousins weren’t necessarily better off than my family, but they did live closer to my Uncle Bill who was, and he owned a clothing store…thus they got the good stuff, and I got it next, albeit as hand-me-downs.

In the summer of 1956 I wanted to a pair [real] roller-skates, black leather boots with wood wheels, for our local roller rink. Such things defined skaters and raised your coolness factor. But, the skates cost $30, so we (Dad and Mom) came up with a plan. My Mom got me up 5 a.m. and drove me to the orchards outside Yuba City. Along the road there were large signs that said, “Pickers Wanted” or just “Pickers.” I chose a plum orchard because they were paying .25 a lug box. I was assigned 6 trees and a ladder… and that was my first job. I was not quite 9 years old. Can’t do that today, can you?

It was hard work, but it only took me 3 days to earn the money for the skates and it made those skates something really valuable to me. A good lesson was learned.

Picking fruit became a regular summer job for a few years. Almost everybody I knew picked fruit at some point, because it was a good way to add money to the family budget. We did not feel like an underclass, it was just a good deal. Going in to the late 50’s I noticed more and more families coming from South of the border to cash in too. They were suddenly here for the summer then gone, back to Mexico. Prior to this time our crop pickers were a mix of derelicts/transients, poor people, kids like me, some stay at home Mom’s and the multi-state, grapes of wrath types that were our migrant workers. Only a few were Mexicans. I never saw a black family picking, but I’m sure there must have been.

Now fast forward to 2013.

You won’t find kids working anywhere today, but somehow they have lots of great stuff, mountin bikes, racing bikes, expensive skate boards, fancy cell phones to trendy new I-Pad tablets. Seems like there are massive flat screen tv’s in most homes. And speaking of homes…today’s homes are well over twice the size of homes built in the late 40’s and 50’s like I grew up in. Most families have a new car or one that is less than 3 years old and a good second car, but both parents work. The average income in 2006 was $50,233 (US Census) thats way up from the 50’s and inflation adjusted dollars. But, it takes more than two average incomes to buy a modern home in CA. Back in the early 50’s, slighly less than one income would do it.

The median home price in California prior to the Great Recession was $546,000! Today that median price has backed off to $350, 706, but it’s still not very affordable to the average person. A family household earning $75k before taxes rarely qualifies to buy a $350,000 home. (CA Assoc. of Realtors) No wonder adult kids are staying home with their parents longer! We’ve priced homes out of reach!

 In 1956 the average movie ticket was .50 cents – today it’s $10??? Ouch! In 1956 gasoline sold for .23 cents a gallon, sometimes cheaper. Today it’s around $3.72 a gallon. However, if you look at inflation adjusted costs, that .23 cent gasoline should ONLY be selling for $1.97. (I wish) A .50 cent show ticket should be $4.29 today, not $7.50-$10. Theater popcorn was 29 cents back in 1956. Inflation adjusted it should be $2.49, but it costs $7.50 for a large popcorn today. A .14 cent loaf of bread in 1956 should be $1.20 today and so it goes! it’s important to know that many basics have outpaced inflation, so the inflation C.P.I. is not perfect science.

 And here’s something very, very, surprising…. minimum wage in 1956 was $1 and adjusted for inflation it equals $8.58 per hour today. However, the current federal minimum wage is $7.75 an hour, and in Ca it is $8 per hour. Hmmmm? That’s not what I expected to find. So at first glance it looks like the poor are in this one area are really worse off today. Ah, then I remember this low wage also comes with government subsidies and tax credits.  Today’s welfare recipient with two kids gets paid an average of $17,500 a year, in terms of what they can buy.  While working at minimum wage is $16,650.   Hmmmm…  Why work for minimum wage then? 

 But what about you and me who don’t get subsidies – we pay taxes to government to give subsidies to others. What kind of things are higher for us than inflation adjusted costs? A lot, too many for this short article, but I noticed that show popcorn is now over 400% higher than inflation adjusted cost. Theater popcorn is 1200% higher than the cost of home-made popcorn, but they tell us that’s to keep ticket prices down…okay, but ticket prices have also outrun inflation by a huge margin. Another…hmmmm.

 Let me wrap it up like this. On one hand we have come to expect to more more fun stuff, more costly toys and we demand bigger and bigger homes, presumably to keep all our stuff in. Unfortunately, in the process of living large, we’ve heavily leveraged ourselves.

 Living month to month with a ton of bills does not a stable economy make or a stable home life for that matter. Financial woes bust up as many marriages as adultery. But, the upside is, technology has made many very helpful gadgets… very inexpensive! The downside is, those gains are offset because the costs of many basics have gone way up like energy. Gasoline is sky-high (mostly because of government) and looking back at my theater example, well, the cost of entertainment is really high! A family of four will spend about $60 to see a movie, buy a few soft drinks and some candy.

 Living in the modern world is a mixed bag isn’t it? Much is good, but it comes with a whole lotta bad! Overall our high cost of just living as we think we need to live has us in debt up to our eyeballs. So much for our insatiable appetite to have more fun stuff and a huge home with a 3.5 car garage to put all our surplus stuff in.  That was stuff we had to have yet we rarely use.  And forget parking cars in that big garage, cause its full of our stuff!  Uh, does any of this sound remotely familiar? 

We are clearly better off today in terms of owning things than we were in the 1950’s. But, the nagging question is, was it worth what we had to give up to get it?  Could we actually be doing better, and by that, I mean being happier by living simpler and demanding less? It’s all relative to what you are acclimated too. We’ve wasted an awful lot on stuff and placed a huge financial burden on ourselves in the process. The dot com bubble, the energy bubble and housing bubble…we could have easily avoided these things if we were not so darn gluttonous and just a little bit more sensible and frugal.

Posted by Tina

Well, well, well! What to think of this? Apparently there were “dozens” of CIA agents on the ground in Benghazi on the night Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the deadly terror attack. According to the CNN sources the agency is going so far as to subject them to lie detector examinations to make sure they are not talking about the events that night or the purpose for their being there:

Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency’s missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency’s workings.

The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, “You don’t jeopardize yourself, you jeopardize your family as well.”

Another says, “You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation.”

“Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that,” said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.

Republicans continue to suspect a cover-up and intend to pursue all leads:

Among the many secrets still yet to be told about the Benghazi mission, is just how many Americans were there the night of the attack.

A source now tells CNN that number was 35, with as many as seven wounded, some seriously.

While it is still not known how many of them were CIA, a source tells CNN that 21 Americans were working in the building known as the annex, believed to be run by the agency.

The lack of information and pressure to silence CIA operatives is disturbing to U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, whose district includes CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

“I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it’s an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way,” said the Republican.

Wolf has repeatedly asked for a Select Committee to look into the matter. He has the backing of 150 fellow Republicans.

A House committee heard secret testimony yesterday from Col. George Bristol, the task force Commander in Northern and Western Africa that has been mysteriously unavailable for several months.

Last month Lt. Col. S.E. Gibson, the commander of the Tripoli site security team, told legislators there was no “stand down” order given on the night of the attack.

The only man to be disciplined following the Benghazi attack, Raymond Maxwell, testified in July but insisted he had no involvement in decisions that were made regarding requests for more security under Hillary Clinton at the State Department.

I know…we aren’t hearing much about these hearings or any others. And we all know the print media would be all over this with front page screaming headlines…and we know the alphabet channels would lead on the hour and half hour with negative reports if Obama had an “R” after his name.

But we Americans are on our own in this brave new world. We must depend on the drip, drip, drip of information that leaks to the internet or is scored by the occasional news item.

The administration can run and they can hide but this scandal will not go away. Good people died and we want to know how this administration could let that happen!

by Tina Grazier

We have been discussing the effects of excessive taxes and regulation on small and local businesses. It seems to me that one of the barriers to understanding the plight of business is lack of first hand experience. The average person seems to be under the impression that anyone who owns a business is rolling in doe and just too cheap to share the wealth. I’ve wondered how to give the business owner experience to these inexperienced people who often support policies that result in fewer opportunities, higher prices for the goods they buy, and growing resentment in employees and employers.

Today I ran across an article in the Daily Mail about a small “chocolatier” in Briton who is closing his popular shop with deep regret. The owner, Simon Dunn, left a message in the form of a letter to his customers on his storefront windows. See the letter, which itemizes Dunn’s expenses and income here:

Mr Dunn, 52, listed the outgoings for his ‘busy and popular’ shop, which showed that his £208,000-a-year taking were being swallowed up by £52,000 in yearly rent and business rates, £41,600 in VAT and taxes, £41,600 in supplies and £67,600 on wages. …

… On a good week I made just £100 after taking £4,000. …

… ‘People were so shocked when they read the letter. They don’t realise how costly things can be.’

He’s right; they don’t have a clue, and why should they since they have never walked in those business shoes?

But is it too much to ask that they educate themselves as to the consequences of excessive taxation and regulation when in fact it will ultimately impact their own lives?

The problem with government intrusion into our freedom is that it eventually robs the human spirit of its sense of adventure and creative urge. The many who ride in the wagon don’t understand what it takes to create wealth and opportunity for the ride they demand. They don’t understand what happens when too much burden is placed on wealth and opportunity producers…or what it does to the smaller shops and restaurants that make our everyday lives more pleasant and enjoyable.

England is a few steps ahead of America. The VAT, for instance, is a real business killer, but this chocolatier’s story rings all to familiar for many American business owners. Will Mr. Dunn’s real life story create even mild curiosity in some of the inexperienced folks with equal votes in America? Or will their continuing demands for more and more government services and regulatory control shutter the doors of small businesses in America…perhaps forever? Will America reaffirm its place in the world as the land of the free…or will we continue down this dank and dreary “road to serfdom” under centralized government?

Only the American people can decide…we are on our own but as a united front we can restore our great republic.

Posted by Tina

Immigration reform legislation (path to citizenship/amnesty) is wending its way through the legislative process but many believe it hasn’t a chance of passing in the bitterly divided Congress. That may be a good thing for America because of dire safety and security risks that transnational criminal businesses pose, according to a letter distributed by the chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, a group representing agents from U.S., Canada, Southwest and U.S./Mexico border chapters:

“We must never lose sight of the fact that the United States is the market place for the bulk of transnational criminal businesses engaged in human trafficking and the smuggling, distribution and sale of illegal drugs. …

…Most heroin, cocaine, meth, and marijuana marketed in the United States is produced outside of our country, and then smuggled into the United States,” the letter stated. “The placement of trusted foreign employees inside the United States is imperative to insure success in continuing to supply the demand, and returning the profits to the foreign organization.”

“Members of these vicious transnational crime syndicates are already well established in more than 2,000 American cities and their numbers are increasing as networks expand and demands accelerate,” the letter stated. “These transnational criminals present a real and present danger to all Americans, and they live among us.”

The organization stated in the letter that “sanctuary cities” that allow criminal illegal aliens to live and work with impunity are partly to blame for the U.S. criminal network and urged Congress not to grant amnesty to the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally.

The unintended consequences that could result if this legislation is passed must be considered, particularly in light of the governments utter incompetence:

The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system.

The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays.

Is it just me or has our nation taken on a rotten stench?

Posted by Tina

Talk show host Mark Levin has a grand idea and a new book, The Liberty Amendments, that he hopes will inspire grassroots activism at the state level. He calls on his 8.5 million listeners to organize a “we the people” effort to demand a convention of the states with the constitutionally backed aim to reign in the federal government:

The author of two New York Times bestsellers on the threats to the Constitution, Levin hopes his latest, “The Liberty Amendments,” out mid-August, will spark the state lawmakers to tap a rarely used Constitutional provision to institute measures that would brake President Obama’s use of executive orders, bar thousand-page laws and collar inventive judges.

As Mark so brilliantly conveys in all of his work, the federal government has grown well beyond its original purpose to become, “…the nation’s largest creditor, debtor, lender, employer, consumer, contractor, grantor, property owner, tenant, insurer, health-care provider, and pension guarantor. Moreover, with aggrandized police powers, what it does not control directly it bans or mandates by regulation.”

That astounding reality is absolutely absurd for a nation founded on freedom! Read more about his plan, and find links to purchase his books, at the Washington Examiner link above.

Posted by Tina

The fundamental transformation of America is not sitting well with the American people. Growing numbers of us must now count ourselves as poor and unemployed in a country that was once the land of opportunity and the envy of the world. The statistics are indeed staggering. But economic burdens are not the only complaint Americans have. Scandals that the president has deemed “phony” have brought real harm to real people and visited distrust and shame upon various departments of government run by the Presidents appointees and czars. Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting of conservative groups and journalists, NSA snooping into private accounts, arbitrary Obamacare waivers and other abuses all represent serious problems in leadership. The candidate who promised transparent, open government has presided instead over serial abuses of Obama’s own power and that of career officials operating in secrecy and deception. The man who promised to transform the nation continues to overstep the constitutional boundaries and scope of the office of the presidency…see this article by Henry I. Miller in Forbes which concludes:

These cynical machinations by the Obama administration should elicit the same sort of outrage from scholars, the media and the public that we’ve seen over the excesses and abuses by the IRS, EPA, Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. Corporate entities and individuals alike deserve fair, impartial and transparent treatment from the government, but they aren’t getting it.

Americans have learned that we can’t count on “most scholars” or “the media” to hold this administration or any Democrat responsible; we must rely on ourselves. To that end groups around the country are being called upon to demonstrate on overpasses all across the country:

Starting Aug. 6, protesters across the country will rally at highway overpasses each Tuesday and display signs calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama.

Hoping for a patriotic “national wave of protests” to “spark a reaction in Congress” organizations are encouraged to get their people motivated to protest every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. when traffic is heaviest.

If you’ve been wondering what you can do here’s an opportunity.

by Jack Lee

Last night the Chico airport commission approved the Chico Air Museum’s formal request for a 10 year lease on the Ryan (former Areo Union) hangar. In addition to this good news the museum just received approval from the Navy to acquire an F-86 fighter from the Museum of Flight in Santa Maria.

The move from the current location (170 Convair Ave., Chico Airport) to the new facility down the street on Convair will not take place until Sept. or Oct. The F-86 will probably arrive about that time too. In the meanwhile, the new facility will be cleaned and painted and prepared for visitors with many new exhibits added that have been sitting in storage due to a lack of space at the old museum.   The new C.A. museum goal is to be self-sustaining through visitor contributions (donations) with enough funds to acquire more aircraft.

The Chico Air Museum is open to the public FRIDAY – SATURDAY – SUNDAY 10 am until 4 pm and is located next to the control tower just a few hundred yards south of the terminal. Admission is FREE.

“The Chico Air Museum was founded to collect, preserve, document and display artifacts significant to the rich aviation and aerospace history of Chico Army Air Field and the North Valley. Our primary purpose is to educate and inspire people of all ages, while honoring the creativity, dedication and sacrifices of the men and women who contributed to the remarkable aviation heritage in the Northern Sacramento Valley.” CAM

www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Dxy4n0UT82o?rel=0″

Posted by Tina

Women’s Liber’s in the 1970’s wanted power and respect. They wanted to shrug off the neediness in their pasts. They wanted to stand firmly on their own two feet and prove themselves. They wanted to take their places in the wide world and they expected to be welcomed and treated as men’s equals. Is the overall result that women proudly today stand on their own two independent feet?

Many women have managed to get educated and have brilliant careers. Some have found their way to positions of political power…one became Speaker of the House. Unfortunately the political baggage she brought to Washington is packed with the old and moldy thing women supposedly sought to escape. Nancy Pelosi is using her power and credentials to control the personal affairs of other women making them ever more dependent and needy. Under her tutelage the state is recommended as substitute father, husband…overlord. Her new (old) agenda is characterized as an “economic agenda” for women and includes the following ideas and goals:

Paycheck Fairness; Increase Minimum Wage (Including Tipped); Invest in Job Training and Education Opportunities; Protect and Restore Employment Rights; Support Women Entrepreneurs/Small Businesses; Pregnant Workers Fairness; Adequate Tools to Investigate Wage Discrimination; Paid Sick Leave; Paid Family and Medical Leave; Expanded Family and Medical Leave; Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave

Yep, if women today seek the same independence their elder sisters fought hard to get Nancy suggest they look to the government to handle all the tough stuff so they can play at being working girls…just like they once looked to their daddies to give them an allowance for a few chores but really did all the heavy lifting.

How does that old saying go…We’ve come a long way, “baby”?

Seems an appropriate tag to me!

Posted by Tina

The Obama administration has a “science advisor” to the President. Her name is Maya Shankar and her Job, according to The Daily Mail, is to head up a “behavioral insights team” and “supervise the organization of a federal government ‘nudge squad’ that will subtly change the behaviors of bureaucrats — and the rest of us”. Her purpose, spelled out in a paper, suggest there are insights from the social and behavioral sciences that “can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals.”

Gives me the creeps. I live in America. The land of the free. I deeply resent the nannie attitude of the bunch currently running the place. Efficiency is just another word for finding ways to spend even more of the money we earn on stupid, bureaucratic, parental control over our lives. If I want help from the behavioral sciences I will seek it out on my own. If I think a neighbor could use my help in this regard, and asks for my help, I will consider whether to help, on a case by case basis. I don’t think the government has a particularly good track record in this type of intervention anyway…my Lord these people are arrogant.

This young woman is simply following her passion…fine. But let her do it privately in her community, where she will have a greater impact. If she is successful she will attract attention and her work will be franchised or copied.

A quote from the article:

‘We are already working with over a dozen federal departments and agencies on newly-designed behavioral insights projects,’ the document reads, ‘including the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, Veterans Administration, Department of Treasury, Social Security Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the United States Department of Agriculture.’

Shankar did not respond to a request for comment. She finished her postdoctoral research at Stanford this year, where her faculty advisor was Dr. Samuel McClure.

McClure studies ‘delay discounting,’ the habit of giving up large future rewards in favor of smaller bonuses in the short term.

Oh goody…someone who wants us to settle for less now and not concern ourselves with the future? Sounds like the perfect set up to keep the masses medicated and malleable.

UGH! Who are these people?

The ideas stem in part from a book written by Richard H. Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The book may serve as a valuable tool for individuals…must the extremist elites in power shove it down our throats and pay for the privilege with money from our wallets?

Apparently the British have already tried this scheme at the government level and and have decided to privatize it.