Hickory's One Percent -- Silence DoGood

Quite often in the distribution of wealth, be it tangible assets (those things that can readily be converted to cash) or monetary value and cash on hand, we often hear of the top 1 percent. Those persons own and hold a sizeable portion of the wealth and value of the entire United States, 34.6% of net wealth and 42.7% of the financial wealth in 2007. When you consider that is just the top 1% of persons in the population and in 2007, that’s roughly 285,000 people who own a sizeable chunk of everything. So what I want to do here is examine this group and their sense of entitlement to the positions they hold.

I want to focus on that 1% and their sense of entitlement to be in the positions they hold in society and work consistently to maintain them. And here the question is first asked, “Who has power in America?” The naïve would say that the ‘people’ as a collective have the power. Alas, if this were only true. First of all, if it were true, it would denote an institution of Socialism in this country. Well, we know that can’t be possible or even true. Although this concept of people in control existed prior to the fomenting of the concept of Socialism as a formal understanding. However, power resides with those who own income producing land or businesses. So if you want to know who is truly in charge, who really wields great influence, who can get things done, now you know. Is this a recent development? Not really. If you look back across the history of the United States and before, you will see the bulk of those in power or positions of influence as being affluent in their time and held tangible assets that held sizeable value or could be used to generate sizeable income.

That cuts against your notions of what America is, doesn’t it? I know, me too. It doesn’t mean however that the social elites are in complete dominion over everyone else. But this class view of who they are cuts across the centuries and generations. The behaviors of these social elites takes it’s cue from the practices of the nobility in the countries from which many of us trace our roots. In that regard, I’ll offer you these points to ponder. The means by which these elites are educated, from the day or boarding schools starting in the lower grades all the way through the exclusive universities. The places these people live. The ways in which the elites socialize with each other at the members only country club, the debutante ball, membership in exclusive organizations such as the Junior League or a particular golf course. Each of those organizations are exclusive by virtue that they charge exorbitant fees to be a member, you much be voted on or sponsored by an existing member in many cases, and by virtue of those parameters, the organization can exclude people from membership. The elites live in certain older established neighborhoods, socially desirable downtown digs, or gated and secure communities in more rural environs. Each of these facets eludes to exclusivity and association only with their own kind or type of person in their social class. Newly wealthy are assimilated into the class. This is a small group of persons, remember? They know each other, and atypically only associate with each other. For those that have known success for generations, these families have intermingled, married, and entwined themselves and consolidated their holdings and status. And lastly, lest we forget, this same group of people also share a common viewpoint of the world and the things in it.


What does all of that have to do with Hickory? Just this. If you use that same percentage of 1%, that equates to 400 core people of influence in a population of 40,000. Now, when you factor a spouse, children, and siblings, that number can grow exponentially. If you conservatively figure that there are at least 3 other people in around each nuclear core person in the model of 400, that’s 1,600 people. The significance in that is, if you consider that is a core voting nucleus, in Hickory, that carries significant weight and influence. That is enough people to take any local election in Hickory when you consider the voter turn out in the off years. To illustrate that point, I’ve compiled tables of the municipal elections in Hickory since 1999. Look at the numbers and consider the implications of what I’ve just pointed out.

1999 Hickory Municipal Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Jay Adams	1,743
	37.7%
Hamilton Ward	2,893
	61.9%
Write In	17
	0.36%
Bruce Meisner		2,646
		54.7%
Wilfred A. Wells		2,171
		44.8%
Write In		25
		0.52%
Danny Seaver			3,662
			98.2%
Write In			69
			1.8%

2001 Hickory Municipal Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Pat Moss								2,653
								43.1%
Rudy Wright								3,478
								57.0%
Write In								22
								0.00%
Z. Ann Hoyle					4,373
					96.8 %
Write In					146
					3.2%
Sally Fox						3,211
						53.1%
Jerry Phillips						2,825
						47.0%
Write In						12
						0.00%
W. Grimes Byerly							2,880
							49.6%
C. John Watts							2,930
							50.4%

2003 Hickory Municipal Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Brad Lail	2,457
	97.1%
Write In	74
	2.9%
Gary Ewing		1,486
		44.3%
Bruce Meisner		1,868
		55.6%
Write In		4
		0.01%
Danny Seaver			2,465
			98.4%
Write In			39
			1.6%

2005 Hickory Municipal  Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Jay Adams								2,105
								42.1%
Rudy Wright								2,906
								57.9%
Z. Ann Hoyle					2,822
					59.5%
Larry Pope					1,921
					40.5%
Sally Fox						4,178
						100%
Jill Patton							3,151
							63.5%
C. John Watts							1,814
							36.5%

2007 Hickory Municipal Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Brad Lail	2,095
	58.2%
Nancy Willingham	1,496
	41.6%
Write In	9
	0.02%
Bruce Meisner		2,819
		96.8%
Write In		93
		3.2%
Danny Seaver			2,194
			66.4%
Lee Wilson			1,106
			33.4%
Write In			5
			0.02%

2009 Hickory Municipal  Election
Candidate	Ward 1	Ward 2	Ward 3		Ward 4	Ward 5	Ward 6	Mayor
Rudy Wright								1,923
								95.7%
Write In								86
								4.3%
Z. Ann Hoyle					658
					29.2%
Hank Guess					1,586
					70.4%
Write In					9
					0.04%
Sally Fox						1,753
						97.2%
Write In						50
						2.8%
Jill Patton							1,422
							66.2%
Harry Hipps							721
							33.6%
Write In							4
							0.02%

What these tables demonstrate, at a glance, is that 20 persons, excluding write-ins have run for office in the last 6 municipal elections from 1999 – 2009, and:

10 or 50% were first time candidates and lost.
4 or 20% ran three times and won three times.
2 or 10% ran twice and won twice.
1 or 5% ran twice and lost twice.
1 or 5% ran twice and won the first and lost the second.
1 or 5% ran three times and won two and lost the third.
1 or 5% ran once and won once.


Now, think back to how this all started. Remember those power elites that hold and wield power with the shared attributes? How 1% of the entire population was quite probably deciding the outcomes of the elections, who is elected, and who will represent the entire city and determine the path the City and it’s population is to follow and the City’s vision for the future. Taking that 1% and expanding their span of immediate influence in just their own immediate families, you have 1,600 people that think, act, vote, and associate themselves in a like manner on an array of varying topics and political viewpoints. Look at the impact with citywide voting and the immediate impact that 1600 votes have. The weaker the turnout during any election cycle, the more power those votes yield. During the 2001 election cycle, which had the strongest voter turnout of the all the contests examined, there was a total of 22,530 votes cast for all candidates. Now in reality, that is probably about 6,200 voters that turned out. I say probably because the highest vote tally cast for any seat that year was 6,153 and I don’t have the exact voter turnout data. So in that scenario, those 1,600 votes would account for 26% of all the votes cast. Compare that to the weakest voter turnout election cycle, which was 2009. The same seats at stake in 2009 were the same seats up in 2001. However, while 22,530 total votes were cast in 2001, only 8,212 total votes were cast in 2009. Again, the total number of voters would be in the 2,275 range due to the largest number of votes cast in any one race this cycle were 2,253, and the approximations are for the same reasons as previously stated. The difference however is the effect of those 1600 core voters. The representative ratio just jumped 50% so that those 1600 represent 75% of the voters who went to the polls in 2009. Folks, that’s how you maintain control and keep the focus and the impetus on just those things that you deem important, relative, and you ensure that your interests are looked after and safe. You are making certain that the rules, if any are formulated, are in your favor. If you can maintain that hypothetical 75% ratio of the vote, even if there is decent, it can very quickly and easily be pushed aside and played off as a minor disgruntling or sore loser syndrome.

Now, is any of this scientific or empirical as proof of what is going on? I’m sorry to say no, it isn’t. But if you think about the who, the why, and the how of the way things work, who the repeat players are, and the successes of certain people and the falls from grace for others, patterns begin to develop. When you see those correlations between people, it’s not hard to draw reasonable inferences based on those correlations. That core group of people you and I will never see. They move behind the scenes to cloak their agendas and because they don’t want the associations mentioned here to be public knowledge. But they exist. The numbers can be quantified, but the persons will remain nameless, unless one of elites chose to break ranks and expose the charade of power. But there is no incentive to do that. However, there is hope.

The hope is in the numbers themselves. When you fail to vote, you are denying yourselves the representation that you so desperately demand and for which you cry out. If you do not get redress of grievance from the government that currently occupies the offices of your representatives, then it is time to replace them. We have the power of numbers and if you want change and a voice, then you have to exercise both. Those in power will listen or they will be replaced. We outnumber the power elite, but we have to exercise the power of superior numbers and never pause whenever an election is in contention. It is too late to do anything about 2011. No one found enough interest to file for any contest in the November election. If you want a voice, then someone has to stand up to be counted.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- September 18, 2011

The International Forecaster - Bob Chapman - The income of the typical American family long the envy of much of the world has dropped for the third year in a row and is now roughly where it was in 1996 when adjusted for inflation.

The income of a household considered to be at the statistical middle fell 2.3% to an inflation-adjusted $49,445 in 2010, which is 7.1% below its 1999 peak, the Census Bureau said.

The poverty rate clicked up again this year. WSJ's David Wessel, DJ Newswires' Neal Lipschutz and MarketWatch's David Callaway discuss on The News Hub whether the government needs to intervene to the rising number of Americans affected. The Census Bureau's annual snapshot of living standards offered a new set of statistics to show how devastating the recession was and how disappointing the recovery has been. For a huge swath of American families, the gains of the boom of the 2000s have been wiped out.

Earnings of the typical man who works full-time year round fell, and are lower adjusted for inflation than in 1978. Earnings for women, meanwhile, are a relative bright spot: Median incomes have been rising in recent years and rose again last year, though women still make 77 cents for every dollar earned by comparably employed men. The fraction of Americans living in poverty clicked up to 15.1% of the population, and 22% of children are now living below the poverty line, the biggest percentage since 1993.

To be sure, there are other measures of American financial health that are more positive. The nation's per capita net worth, for instance, hit $169,691 at the end of 2010, according to the Federal Reserve, up from $147,889 in 2007. Much of that gain is in the form of stocks, retirement accounts and other investments. The biggest asset of most American families is their homes, and those have declined in value in recent years. And there are those who argue the Census report offers a flawed gauge of living standards. For example, the Census Bureau adjusts for inflation using government measures that attempt to reflect the improving quality as well as price of goods. But these inflation adjustments are imperfect and don't reflect advances in medicine, the wonders of the Internet or the improvements in air quality.

Deborah Bagoy-Skinner and her husband, Chester, are among the faces behind the numbers. Four years ago, the Tucson, Ariz., couple owned their home and had a combined income of around $100,000, much of which came from Mr. Skinner's job conducting safety training classes for a heavy-equipment maker. They lost their three-bedroom home in 2007 during a two-year spell of unemployment, and have since downgraded to a two-bedroom rental. Through 2008 and 2009, the darkest days of the recession, they sold everything from golf clubs to antique nickels to pay rent and bills. Today the couple is well above the poverty line: Mr. Skinner makes about $65,000 a year doing contract safety classes. But with their savings wiped out it will be a long road back, and likely they won't own another home or ever make as much as they once did. "We've pretty much accepted that that probably won't happen," she says.

The Census report, viewed as a key gauge of American prosperity, comes at a time of growing anxiety about the health of the U.S. economy and is likely to play into the political dialog this election year. With more than 14 million unemployed, many of them out of jobs for extended periods, the recovery is faltering and the administration and Congress are debating how to respond. Consumers account for some 70% of demand, so thinner pay checks are a major problem for anyone trying to boost growth and get the unemployed back into jobs.

The Census report was studded with data that underscore the economic strains across society in the aftermath of the worst recession in more than half a century. Poverty rates among people younger than 18 grew to 22%, compared with 20.7% the year before, while the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance edged up to 16.3%. Echoing a longer-term trend that is in part a reflection of an aging population, the share of people covered by private insurance fell last year, while the share of people on government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid increased. As families struggle to make ends meet and young workers navigate the moribund labor market, many have turned to each other. According to the Census report, 5.9 million Americans between 25 and 34, or 14.2% of that group, lived with their parents in spring 2011, compared with 4.7 million before the recession, or 11.8%. Meanwhile, the gap between the best-off and worst-off Americans remained largely unchanged. The top fifth of households accounted for 50.2% of all pre-tax income; the bottom two-fifths got 11.8%. In 1999, the top fifth claimed 49.4% and the bottom got 12.5% of the income.

The Census Bureau said 15.1% of Americans were living below the poverty line, set at $22,314 for a family of four in 2010. That's up from 14.3% last year and from 12.5% in 2007, before the recession. The official poverty rate overestimates the number of people living in poverty because it doesn't count many government anti-poverty programs, such as subsidized housing, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit.



5 most shocking Census facts about growing poverty in the U.S. - The Raw Story - Kase Wickman - September 13, 2011 -
1. The number of those living in poverty is the highest in Census history - the poverty rate rose for the third consecutive year, to 15.1 percent.
2. We were richer last millennium - Average income took a dramatic hit, declining 6.4 percent since 2007
3. Women still earn a fraction of what men make - a woman working full-time for a full year earned approximately 77 percent of what a man working the same amount of time in the same job was paid
4. There's no safety in numbers - About 9.2 million families (11.7 percent) were under the poverty line, up from 2009's 8.8 million families (11.1 percent).
5. Everything's bigger in the South — including the poverty rate - the South experienced an increase in poverty. In 2009, 17.6 million (15.7 percent) were under the poverty line. By 2010, they had added 1.5 million to that number, sending the poverty rate to 16.9 percent.


Payrolls Decreased in 30 States in August While Jobless Rate Climbed in 26 - Bloomberg - Bob Willis and Shobhana Chandra - Sep 16, 2011 - Payrolls fell in 30 U.S. states in August, led by New York and Georgia, while the jobless rate increased in 26, showing the slump in hiring is broad-based... Employers cut staff by 22,700 workers in New York last month, and by 18,200 in Georgia, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Nevada continued to lead the nation in unemployment with a rate of 13.4, up from 12.9 percent in July... The economy needs to generate more jobs to spur income growth after consumer spending stagnated in the second quarter, raising concerns of another recession. A Labor Department report on Sept. 2 showed employers added no workers to payrolls last month, the weakest reading since September 2010, and the jobless rate held at 9.1 percent.


US Real Unemployment Rises To 22.8% - Before It's News - Infowars.com - Kurt Nimmo - September 16, 2011 -The Census Bureau’s annual report released Tuesday offers a snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for 2010, when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. It comes at a politically sensitive time for President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged in the midst of a re-election fight that the unemployment rate could persist at high levels through next year…. Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty is the largest on record dating back to when the census began tracking poverty in 1959. Based on percentages, it tied the poverty level in 1993 and was the highest since 1983...   In fact, the real unemployment figure is 22.8%, according to John Williams’ Shadow Stats. During the last Great Depression, the unemployment rate peaked at 25 percent in 1933.


“During Great Inflations, Societies Turn On Themselves” And Prosecute Minorities … And We’ve Got A LOT Of Hidden Inflation - Washington Blog - September 15, 2011 -

Inflation Is A Tax

The father of the theory that government stimulus is the way to fight severe downturns – John Maynard Keynes – famously said about inflation:

By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke also admits that inflation is a tax on the American people:




Money printing creates inflation.

But quantitative easing doesn’t help anyone but the biggest Wall Street companies (and see this, this and this). We can’t inflate our way out of our debt crisis, and without prosecution of Wall Street, all of the stimulus in the world won’t work. Indeed, Bernanke knew in 1988 that quantitative easing doesn’t work.
(War also causes inflation, and we’ve been on an endless series of wars over the past 10 years.)

Stimulus Versus Austerity: A False Debate

And as I’ve repeatedly noted, the never-ending fight between Keynesian stimulus and debt-cutting is a false debate. It is really a debate between helping the American people or continuing policies which simply redistribute wealth upwards to the richest .1%.
Stimulus could work … if it went to the American people and Main Street, instead of the Wall Street fatcats. And the Fed could easily deploy trillions into the economy if it simply stopped paying banks to park their excess reserves at the Fed.


Obama Team Backed $535 Million Solyndra Aid as Auditor Warned on Finances - Bloomberg - Jim Snyder and Christopher Martin - Sep 12, 2011 - Two months before Obama’s visit, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP warned that Solyndra, the recipient of $535 million in federal loan guarantees, had financial troubles deep enough to “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”... The Obama administration stood by Solyndra through the auditor’s warning, the abandonment of a planned initial public offering and a last-ditch refinancing where taxpayers took a back seat to new investors. That unwavering commitment has come under increasing scrutiny since the company’s travails culminated in its filing for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6 and a raid on its headquarters by the Federal Bureau of Investigation two days later... “People including our government put blinders on and did not want to believe in the obvious,” Jonathan Dorsheimer, an analyst in Boston for Canaccord Genuity Inc. of Vancouver, said in an interview with Bloomberg Government. “The fact that the government chose Solyndra as their white horse is mind- boggling.”


Gerald Celente - Yahoo! Finance - 15 September 2011 : whoever have ever seen a summer like this ?1 Gold fluctuating a $200 a month , no the world is becoming very very wary and concerned that there is no way out of this mess if you take the United States for example yes there is ( a way out of this mess) cut military spending says trends master Gerald Celente , but there is nobody who seems to want to talk about it except Ron Paul cut military spending what we are talking about 1.5 trillion a year ! and how about taxing the billionaires , that makes sense to me , and stop the free trade , this is what got us into this says Gerald Celente exporting our manufacturing plants into slave labor countries and bringing back the finished products , probably October will see the big crash says Gerald Celente , it usually happens when people come back from the summer holidays and start facing reality , they are talking about double dip recession it is not a double dip recession this is a Depression

Will Hickory Airport Operators be forced to liquidate -- and why is no one talking about this?!?!?

In information sent to me this evening, we see that the operators of the Hickory Airport are to be forced into either Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or there will be a court appointed trustee who will administer River Hawk's Chapter 11 filing. Under United States Code Law, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy provides for "liquidation" of assets, ( i.e., the sale of a debtor's nonexempt property and the distribution of the proceeds to creditors.). Chapter 11 Bankruptcy provides for reorganization, usually involving a corporation or partnership (a business entity). A chapter 11 debtor usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time.

According to the document provided, River Hawk filed the petition four months ago on May 19, 2011. On May 22nd, an order was given by the court to River Hawk that its operators must file monthly status reports and pay quarterly fees. According to the documents below, as of the motion within these documents on September 14, 2011, River Hawk owes status reports for May, June and July of this year and owes quarterly fees for the second quarter of 2011. This means that River Hawk has done nothing to meet its obligations under the rules of voluntary bankruptcy.

The Bankruptcy court attorneys state that "Cause exists to dismiss or convert the Debtor's case... whichever is in the best interests of creditors and the estate, for cause."


The Hound: It is high time that this show be brought to an end. This has been the Modus Operandi of this company and it is a sorry way for our airport to be managed. The City should have ended this charade long ago, but apparently they have been afraid to take any action. They are culpable in this mess, because they were not made privy to the buy out/merger of Profile Aviation to this entity known as River Hawk. Yet, they went along to get along, even though the lawyer who represented the city at the time on Aviation issues told the city that they should not carry forward with the Fixed Based Operator contract that was agreed to with Profile Aviation and transferred to River Hawk without the City of Hickory's knowledge or consent. The contract was breached, so they should have reopened an open process of negotiations to obtain a contract that would be in the city's best interests.

The other issue is that River Hawk basically doesn't own much of anything at the Hickory Airport. The Flight Operations Center and hangars are owned by the city. All River Hawk is doing is leasing these facilities. You can and should read the past documents that have been written on this subject matter (linked below). 

At a point in time two years ago, some aviation interests here in the area thought that River Hawk was operating in good faith, but over the subsequent time period they have expressed to me a much different conclusion. Has River Hawk taken out loans by using city property as collateral? How far behind is River Hawk in its payments to the city? What impact (negative) has the mismanagement of this situation had upon the viability of the airport? Will the City finally implement the recommendations of the 2006 Hickory Airport Task Force?

What I want you to understand is that this is what happens when government officials operate constantly under a cloak of darkness without communicating with the public. You only trust government officials when they prove themselves to be honest and forthright, not when they bungle issues of public interest!!! Where is the local media on this issue? Have you read anything about the happenings at the Airport in the Hickory Daily Record or heard anything on WHKY? What is going on around here? We are talking about millions of dollars folks. The next time city officials tell you that we don't have any money, you need to point to boondoggles such as this!!!

Do people even know? Hickory Airport Operators (River Hawk Aviation) in Bankruptcy - June 18, 2011 

Mind Blowing - The City's Mismanagement of the Hickory Regional Airport. - September 30, 2011