Vestigia Nulla Retorsum - Moving Forward

The origins of Mayor Wright's "No Steps Backwards" Coalition.



I have heard the Mayor tell this story at least three times over the last couple of years. I have heard it as "re-elect City Council" and here he says "re-elect the Mayor." Vestigia Nulla Retorsum is the motto on the City of Hickory seal. You know the seal with the old log tavern. The Mayor after joking says that it means "No Steps Backwards."

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a firm resolve and stick to-it-tiveness, but sometimes in life we come to dead in roads, paths, and cliffs. It is absolutely amazing that the Mayor interprets this message of progress as a belief that in life that there is absolutely no time in which we should take a step back and reassess our mission. Situational Awareness in life is a key to survivability. Master Sun Tzu, one of the greatest philosophers in World history taught about living to fight another day in his epic "The Art of War."

It is the belief of those that were involved with the petition and now the referendum on the direct ward representation issue that the current modified at-large electoral system in Hickory is not working. We also see the need for term limits to keep energy and freshness on the City Council. It is nothing personal against the current Hickory City Council. If those members of the Council take it personally, then that is on them, not on us.

Over the last two weeks we have seen members of the movement to bring representation on City Council back to the Grass Roots level labeled with some very derogatory terms. Like they say, sticks and stones, but is this truly how our city leaders view many of the people that they are supposed to represent. If so that is very telling.

Being from Hickory does not mean that you have signed some kind of a suicide pact. There is no nobility in failure through pride and stubbornness. Every person in this community should have goals and aspirations that lead to a commitment to excellence. I have studied the mediocrity inherent to the status quo. The only thing constant in life is change. Success awaits those who are able to adapt to that change. That is an issue that we face in this community. A lack of open-minded vision and a top-down authoritarian push towards conformity.

Sometimes in life we must reassess where we are at, where we are headed, and look at the big picture of our mission. Sometimes we have no choice but to step back to take multiple steps forward. That doesn't mean that we aren't continually looking at ways to move forward. It means that we must adapt to succeed.

The Mayor on Hal Row - The Tent - The Referendum - August 6, 2012

The following is from Hal Row's First talk program and is the Monday Morning Meeting with the Mayor. I put the broadcast online so that you can go listen to it yourself. If you have a difference of opinion with the text below, then by all means tell me where I am wrong. Yes, some of it is my opinion and my supportive biases, but I don't think any of it is wild-eyed conjecture or what could be labeled as misinformation and mischaracterizations, which are a couple of words that have been proliferated these days by certain status quo forces in our community.



In the first and part of the second segment, the tent on Union Square was discussed. Hal and the Mayor gave it there all to promote it and sing its praises. The Mayor several times said, "Hickory deserves this." He said he wished the sails were taller and the many of the ad hominems he utilized to characterize the structure left me thinking, though there is no body language with radio, that behind the scenes he isn't exactly thrilled with the design. It ain't exactly the Opera House at Sydney. Besides the Sails being taller statement, there was the, "it looks different from the left and right side of the street."... "People say it looks interesting." He seemed to be searching to find comfort with his supportive statements and kept talking about what others said. Hal seemed a lot more enthused than the Mayor did. I think that most of us look at it and say, "THAT" cost $450,000+? And how much City Labor Man Hours were put into this. That has never been factored into the costs that have been released to the public. We have also never been given the names of the 17 people who were part of the committee to name the structure. That naming system changed several times, including after it was expressly stated that the Hickory Speaks site would name the structure, but that didn't go to the liking of the City Propaganda machine.

In the rest of the second segment, the Mayor spoke about the Referendum saying the "No Steps Backwards" coalition opposed the petition and he is part of that group. He labeled the statement that Hickory is the only city our size that has the modified at-large system as sinister and said that the council in 1967 had the wisdom and foresight to institute the system we have today. He never debated the point that we are the only community our size that has this system. He said this NSB group is absolutely committed to maintaining the current system.

It actually sounded like the Mayor is "THE" driving force behind this effort. It sounded like HE is THE effort. He's calling the shots with this group folks. Hal asked about the Mayor's involvement and then just sat back and let the Mayor have the mike. The Mayor said something awkward when he stated that the change in this system, if it were to occur, wouldn't affect him, but would affect the future Mayor. There are several questions that could be asked about that.


Most of the third segment was taken up by a live infomercial with comedian James Gregory. I left that in the presentation above because Mr. Gregory and the Hickory Community Theatre deserve the support.

At the end of this segment, Hal stated that he is going to give the Citizens for Equity in Government time on his show. The Mayor educated us all about the meaning of No Step Backwards. He then at the end of the segment said that the Direct Ward system would lead to Machine politics.

In the last segment, the mayor talked about misconceptions and spoke about the swimming pools. He seems to want to make this an issue about the pools -- Tent great... Pools bad... -- and an issue about race -- The Redistricting of the wards last year. By the Mayor's logic, it is up to the CEG to explain what the City's position was on the redistricting, when the city owns the process. The Mayor continued on with other broadbrushed statements about how the current system is best because you are accountable to your ward and to the city at-large. The problem with this statement is that the ward has zero input in its representation, if 2 or fewer candidates run for that ward position on the City Council and in several cases the ward has elected a candidate that the city at-large has rejected. It is also multiple times more expensive to run for those seats on the City Council and to get your message out against incumbents when you have to run a city wide campaign. So when these representatives are elected city wide they only answer to the people from where the majority of there votes come. Most of those votes currently come from a handful of precincts and those areas draw the attention of City officials. That is what has led to much of the disparity we have seen in this community.

The Mayor finished up by saying that a Ward system would lead to patronage and machine politics and it wouldn't necessarily lead to more turnover on the council.  We see where the current modified at-large system has led us. We already have a machine. The current system is a machine and has patronage to their family and friends. The city's recreation committee has two council's family members currently serving and more have served in the past. The Mayor fails to mention that one of the guidelines of the City's request about redistricting was that the redrawn ward lines must also keep Planning Commission members in their current ward. What was behind all of this? Control? and Patronage?

The movement towards a Direct Ward system will bring back governance to the grass roots level. It will empower the neighborhood associations. The Mayor talked about outsiders and political muscle as though he isn't an expert on both. Several thousands of the dollars he raised campaigning for Mayor came from outside of Hickory and the Mayor should be given his just due for the political machine and electoral effectiveness he has had through the years. The problem is that he has never moved from electoral effectiveness to leadership responsibility.

Now, make no mistake, I am for the referendum, because the goal is to get people to take personal responsibility for their governance. The other side says the Status Quo is great. Everything is working as it should. They have no interest in looking at the common man's perspective. I believe one of the biggest issues we face in this community is that the middle class is not doing well and their issues need to be addressed. I haven't seen many people in leadership positions take an interest in that subject. We have no sinister plans or influence peddling interests. We are not the conspiratorial forces in this community. We don't go back behind closed doors to make decisions. We hold public forums and attempt to engage the public constantly.

Ask Yourself... Are you in favor of the way the system was changed in 1967? The modified at-large system was rushed through in 36 hours, but didn't take effect until over 3 years later. No public discussion or input was allowed.

We went out and gathered 2,707 signatures which is way more than the number of people who voted in the last two elections. We have engaged people from every area and demographic of this community and they have joined us... White, Black, wealthy, poor, men, women, Republican, Democrat... We have held public gatherings and made public statements fully divulging our intentions and what our goals are. And then there is the other side... The Elite side... The side that knows best...  What have you gotten from them?

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- August 5, 2012

Survey: 40% of American Families Live Paycheck to Paycheck - Newsmax.com - Julie Crawshaw - August 3, 2012 - A new 60-page report from the Consumer Federation of America and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards reveals that two in five American households—almost 40 percent—live paycheck to paycheck, with no savings, retirement account or emergency fund, The Fiscal Times reports.                    The number of families living this way has increased by 7 percent over the last 15 years, in no small part because of the recession.              Now, only 30 percent of Americans say they feel comfortable financially, and only one-third think they have enough saved to retire before age 65. In addition, the survey found that 51 percent of Americans feel behind on saving for retirement, a figure that has risen over the last decade and a half.



Only 24.6 Percent Of All Jobs In The United States Are Good Jobs - The American Dream Blog -  Do you want to know why it seems like good jobs are very rare in the United States today?  It is because good jobs are very rare in the United States today.  According to a paper that was just released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all American jobs qualified as "good jobs" in 2010.  Over the past several decades, there has been increasing pressure on corporations to reduce expenses and increase corporate profits.  One of the biggest expenses that any corporation faces is labor.  Large corporations all over the globe are in an endless race to gain a competitive advantage by pushing labor costs as low as possible.  Sometimes this is done by using technology.  Computers, automation, robotics and other forms of technology have eliminated millions of jobs in the United States and those jobs are never coming back.  Millions of other jobs have been eliminated by offshoring.  In our globalized economy, American workers have been merged into one giant labor pool with everyone else.  That makes it very tempting for big corporations to move jobs from areas where workers are very expensive (such as the United States) to areas of the world where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.  When big corporations do this, corporate profits go up, but the number of good jobs in the United States goes down.  As a result, there is increased competition for the jobs that remain in the United States and this drives down wages.  Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up.  So millions of American families have fallen into poverty in recent years, and millions of others have gone deep into debt in an attempt to survive.  This dynamic is absolutely shredding the middle class in the United States.                     So how exactly did the authors of the paper mentioned above come to the conclusion that only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs?                         Well, they had three criteria for what a "good job" is....                        (#1) The job must pay at least $18.50 an hour.  According to the authors, that is the equivalent of the median hourly pay for American workers back in 1979 after you adjust for inflation.                    (#2) The job must provide access to employer-sponsored health insurance, and the employer must pay at least some portion of the cost of that insurance.                    (#3) The job must provide access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.


Seasonal And Birth Death Adjustments Add 429,000 Statistical "Jobs" -  Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden's August 3, 2012 - Happy by the headline establishment survey print of 133,245 which says that the US "added" 163,000 jobs in July from 133,082 last month? Consider this: the number was based on a non seasonally adjusted July number of 132,868. This was a 1.248 million drop from the June print. So how did the smoothing work out to make a real plunge into an "adjusted" rise? Simple: the BLS "added" 377K jobs for seasonal purposes. This was the largest seasonal addition in the past decade for a July NFP print in the past decade, possibly ever, as the first chart below shows. But wait, there's more: the Birth Death adjustment, which adds to the NSA Print to get to the final number, was +52k. How does this compare to July 2011? It is about 1000% higher: the last B/D adjustment was a tiny +5K! In other words, of the 163,000 jobs "added", 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging. Doesn't matter - the flashing red headline is good enough for the algos.

CHART OF THE DAY: The Scariest Jobs Chart EVER - Business Insider - Joe Weisenthal August 3, 2012 - With the unemployment rate ticking higher, and the pace of job creation still at a pathetically low rate (by historical standards), we're compelled to revisit this chart.                        It's put together every monthly by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, and it shows the trajectory of job losses in all of the various post-WWII recessions. This current recession (and recovery) is the bright red line.                 As you can see, the downtrend was far worse than anything else we'd seen since WWII, and the rise is far more meager than anything else we had seen.

'Real' Unemployment Rate Shows Far More Jobless - CNBC - Jeff Cox - August 3, 2012 - ... The government's most widely publicized unemployment rate measures only those who are out of a job and currently looking for work. It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time.

For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work.               The numbers in some cases are startling.                Consider: Nevada's U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.                 Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.


Friday’s Jobs Report: More Lies From “our” Big Brother - Paul Craig Roberts - August 4, 2012 -
In his report on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs and unemployment report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) writes: “The July employment and unemployment numbers published today, August 3rd, were worthless and likely misleading. . . . Suspecting at one time that the jobs numbers were being rigged against him by his own Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), President Richard M. Nixon proposed a new approach to reporting the numbers. Although the proposed changes never were implemented, several decades later the BLS adopted reporting methods that were somewhat parallel to the late president’s thinking.”                   ...According to the BLS, there were 163,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs created in July. This figure is about 13,000 more jobs than is needed to keep pace with population growth. Therefore, the unemployment rate should have declined fractionally. Instead, the unemployment rate (U3) rose from 8.2% to 8.3%.              In case you missed the point, new jobs, a net figure, rose and so did the unemployment rate!                    Moreover, the alternative, but much less reported, jobs report from the Household Survey found that the economy lost 195,000 jobs in July.





Grantham: Investors Should Gird for Global Food Crisis - Newsmax.com - Nancy Stanley - August 3, 2012 - While the relentless drought affecting much of the United States has increased agricultural commodity prices, a larger force is at work and this is only the beginning of the price increases, according to Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the global investment management firm GMO.                    We are “about five years into a chronic global food crisis that is unlikely to fade for many decades, at least until the global population has considerably declined from its likely peak of over 9 billion in 2050,” Grantham wrote in his quarterly letter to investors, CNBC reports......                 Grantham believes the main drivers of the crisis will be a spike in demand for food from an increasing global middle class, decreasing grain productivity, a tainted water supply, increasing fertilizer and fuel costs and climate change, according to CNBC.          Food production will need to increase 60 to 100 percent by 2050 in order to adequately feed the more than 9 billion people who will populate the Earth, he noted.                 “The portfolio investment implications are that investors should expect resource stocks—those with resources in the ground—to outperform over the next several decades as real prices of the resources rise,” Grantham wrote. “Farming and forestry, though, are at the top of the list. Serious long-term investors should have a very substantial overweighting in a resource package.”                 The drought that is afflicting more than half the country will drive up food prices, and losses could eventually rival the 1988 drought that cost $78 billion in today’s dollars...


Spike in Crop Prices May Signal 'Chronic Food Crisis' - CNBC - John Melloy - August 3, 2012 - ... In the last three months alone, wheat prices [WCV1  891.25    26.25  (+3.03%)   ] are up 41 percent, corn [CCV1  807.50    11.75  (+1.48%)   ] is up 29 percent and prices for soybeans [SCV1  1628.75    12.25  (+0.76%)   ] are up 17 percent.
 

CORN DEC2 - (For December Delivery) - (CCV1)

807.50     11.75  (+1.48%%)
Chicago Board of Trade

Ten States Where Young People Can’t Find Work - 24/7 Wall St. - July 23, 2012 - Unemployment in the United States has been a hot-button issue since the Great Recession left millions out of work. While the employment picture has begun to improve, albeit slowly, one group that still is in particular trouble is those aged 20 to 24 years old.                                  While unemployment rates rose during the recession, they shot up much more dramatically for the part of our population that had just graduated from college. In several states, the unemployment for young Americans is alarmingly high. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed historical unemployment data for the U.S. population aged 20 to 24 by state to identify the 10 states with the most unemployed young people.
Unemployment trends among young Americans tracks with national trends. Between 2009 and 2010, the national rate rose from 9.3% to 9.6%, while the rate for those 20 to 24 increased from 14.7% to 15.5%. Between 2010 and 2011, the national job market showed signs of recovery and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9%. In that same period, the rate for young adults fell to 14.6% — a rate still nearly double that of the country as a whole.                      Historically, things are as bad for young adults in these states as they have been in at least 29 years. Compared to 2001, when the nation was in the middle of its last major recession, the national unemployment rate was roughly the same as it was in 2011. However, the unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds was substantially higher. In nine of the states on our list, unemployment rates among this age group were higher than in 1981. In four cases, it is five percentage points higher.                      There appear to be several common trends among the states on our list. Those states with high unemployment among the young have some of the highest proportions of residents without at least a high school diploma. All of the top three states with high youth unemployment were among the 10 with the lowest percentage of 20 to 24 year olds with high school diplomas.                       These states are also, for the most part, extremely poor. Six of them have among the lowest median income in the country. Mississippi, which had the highest youth unemployment in the country in 2011, also had the lowest median income in the country in 2010, the most recent available year. As evidence of the extreme poverty in these states, many of these states have among the highest percentages of residents receiving food stamps. In Tennessee, for example, 17% of residents received food stamps in 2010, the second-highest proportion in the country.                    24/7 Wall St. reviewed historical unemployment figures for each of the 50 states provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify the ten states with highest unemployment rates in 2011 among residents 20 to 24. The BLS provides unemployment rates for a variety of age groups, including those aged 16 to 19. However, these ages were excluded because such a large percentage has yet to enter the job market. 24/7 Wall St. also examined overall unemployment rates for 2009, 2010 and 2011 from the BLS. Statistics on educational attainment, median income and poverty from the U.S. Census Bureau were also reviewed.

4. North Carolina
> Unemployment rate ages 20-24: 19.6%%
> Total unemployment rate: 10.5%
> Total no. unemployed ages 20-24: 93,000
> Pct. less than high school diploma: 18.3%
Last year, the unemployment rate for people aged 20 to 24 was five percentage points higher in North Carolina than the nationwide rate of 14.6%. Between 2007 and 2011, the proportion of North Carolinians in this age group who were unemployed more than doubled, rising from 8.3% to 19.6% over four years. This increase of 11.3 percentage points was the second highest among all states in the country for that period. The number of unemployed young workers in that age range rose by roughly 58,000 statewide at that time. In order to better prepare young adults for work, North Carolina, along with Tennessee and four other states, joined the Pathways to Prosperity Network.
           

Just Open Up Your Eyes And Look - 65 Signs That The Economic Collapse Is Already Happening - The Economic Collapse Blog - Micheal Snyder - August 1, 2012 - Do you want to know when the "economic collapse" is going to happen?  Just open up your eyes and take a look.  The "economic collapse" is already happening all around us.  So many people talk about the coming economic collapse as if it is some massively hyped event that they will be able to point to on the calendar, and a lot of writers spend a lot of time speculating about exactly when it will happen.  But as I have written about before, the economic collapse is not a single event.  The economic collapse has been happening, it is happening right now, and it will be getting a lot worse.  Yes, there will be moments of great crisis.  We saw one of those "waves" back in 2008 and another "wave" is rapidly approaching.  But all of the waves are part of a process that is continually unfolding.  Over the past 40 years, the United States and Europe have piled up the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and now a tremendous amount of pain is heading our way.  Economic conditions in the United States and Europe have already deteriorated badly and they are going to continue to deteriorate.  Nothing is going to stop what is coming.                     But many people are still in denial about our economic decline.  Some people still believe that everything is going to be just fine.  Way too often I get comments on my site that go something like this....                    "I just don't know what you are talking about.  Where I live everything is just fine.  The malls are packed, the restaurants are full and everybody I know is going on vacation this summer.  Personally, I am doing great.  I just bought a 60 inch television and a new boat.  Every year all the 'doom and gloom' types such as yourself proclaim that an economic collapse is right around the corner but it never happens.  And you know what?  It is not going to happen.  Those in charge know what they are doing and America has the greatest economy on earth.  We have overcome challenges before and we will be able to handle whatever comes this time.  Your lack of faith in America and in the American people astounds me.  Everything is going to be just fine, so why don't you just *************************************."
You get the idea.               I definitely understand that most Americans are terribly self-involved these days, but when I read comments like this I am once again amazed at just how delusional some people can be.                    Why can't people just open their eyes and look at the evidence of economic collapse that is all around us?                      Yes, there are wealthy enclaves all over the country where things may seem better than ever, but that is not the reality for most Americans.                     All over the country, our infrastructure is in shambles.              All over the country, our once proud cities are being transformed into hellholes.                 All over the country, formerly middle class families are living in their cars.                        There are dozens and dozens of economic statistics that clearly show that we are in the midst of a long-term economic decline.  I have listed 65 of them below, but I could have easily doubled or tripled the size of the list.                 I simply do not understand how anyone can believe that things are "great" or that the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine".
We are living through a complete and total economic nightmare, and hopefully we can get more Americans to wake up from their entertainment-induced comas so that they can begin to understand exactly what is happening to this country. (Follow the Link to the 65 Reasons)


G Edward Griffin Creature From Jekyll Island Second Look at the Federal Reserve

The World Wide Hound - God Bless America

As we approach the 75,000th unique visitor to the Hickory Hound, I show you the map below of the last 500 people to visit this site. You will see the broad reach of the Hound courtesy of the World Wide Web. Whether you agree or disagree with the message, thanks for visiting.

The World Wide Hound

Messages - August 3, 2012

Just wanted to take a minute and tell ya'll how much I love you and how you enrich my life. In this complicated, busy world we are running around, trying to make a living, straighten out our messed up politics, take care of our people, and trying to build a better tomorrow. I'm good with that, but also don't forget to love each other just as we are and thank God for the people we've had the good fortune to spend our lives with. Peace, love and good health to all. - Harry Hipps



I went and put some flowers on my Grandmother and Grandfather's grave on Tuesday. My grandmother would have been 98 years old this past Monday. She passed away on August 6th last year, one week after her 97th birthday. I didn't get to see her the day she died. That bothered me. It still bothers me. I spent all of those years with her in the same house. I was willing to see it to the end, but wasn't afforded that.

Some of the self absorbed losers in this world will think it was weird living with your grandmother. But, my grandmother was always there for me and I tried to be there for her. Sure, we got on one another's nerves sometimes, but that is what families do.

She always tried to instill in me to be an honorable person and to help people and she sure helped me. Some people say, you need to look out for number one. My grandmother always paid it forward and it is my obligation to do the same. People said that it was nice that I went and put those flowers on Mammaw's grave. I told them it was an obligation. They said it wasn't an obligation, but it was. It was an obligation of love. Miss you Mammaw. I truly hope you have the peace in heaven that we have never been afforded here on earth. - James Thomas Shell

Tent on Union Square finished by Friday - No "Big Top" among the 12 name finalists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: August 2, 2012
Contact: Dana Kaminske
Communications Specialist
828-261-2289
dkaminske@hickorync.gov

The structure on Union Square in downtown Hickory nears completion

HICKORY – The structure on Union Square in downtown Hickory nears completion with the final panels being hung.

The panels began being hung on Wednesday morning, August 1, and should be completed on Friday, August 3. The final touches will be made to the custom-designed structure, such as adding new tables and chairs and testing the lighting with the panels. Lighting and upgraded security cameras have been installed. The last piece to finish the structure will be to name it.

The name for the structure has been narrowed to the top 12 names from 360 submissions by the community. A committee, made up of individuals from various organizations, businesses, and age groups from within the community voted on the final name. The name will be announced, as well as the winner who created the name, at an upcoming grand opening event to be announced soon.

The top 12 names for the structure are:
COMET – (community, outdoor, market, event, tent)
Hickory Station Pavilion
Market Pavilion
Piedmont Pavilion
Randy Ingold Pavillion
The Canopy
The Hickory Pavilion
The Hub – (Hickory's Undiscovered Best)
The Pavilion
The Sails (on the Square)
Union Square Pavilion
Whistle Square

The outdoor furniture is being made by Timmerman Manufacturing, a local furniture company that specializes in wrought iron fabrications. Highly-skilled artisans fabricate each piece of furniture by hand. After each piece is constructed it is carefully inspected and cleaned by removing all of the dirt, grease, and scale. The piece is then etched to provide a superior surface for the paint to adhere. Every item made is painted with an electrostatic painting system that causes paint to flow evenly and uniformly around each piece.

The panels were designed using AutoCAD in conjunction with a fabric design software called MPanel. MPanel allowed the company, Leighweight Manufacturing, to draw the panels in 3D. The software takes the 3D shape and flattens the fabric panel out. It then creates a pattern from those pieces. Panels were cut using a computer cutting machine. The panels were welded together using a high frequency welding machine (RF), which basically melts the layers of fabric together. From start to finish each panel took about 12 hours to complete, this does not include the assembly of the hardware to the panels.

The panels are made of a fabric material that is a high performance coated PVC textile, 702 PVC Coated Fabric, White Translucent, 22oz/sq/yd with a weldable PVDF topcoat, made by a company called Ferrari, using their precontraint technology. This technology has allowed them to get a thicker coating than in more traditional structural textiles. The ultra white coloration allows for very uniform light transmission and blockage of harmful ultra-violet rays. All cable pocketing is re-enforced with a double layer and bracket sections made much thicker for strength with a high heat fabric weld process. The edge cables were galvanized aircraft cable with a clear PVC coating, stainless steel threaded end fittings. The membrane and clamp plates, the metal hardware, were all made from ASTM A572 Gr.50 steel and had a hot dipped galvanized finish. All tensioning hardware is stainless steel. The high tension of the panels is evident in the size and quality of metal components required to attach the panels to the structure.

Sleeping about money leads to having no money!

... And sleeping about the Economy leads to having no economy!

Did y'all see what happened yesterday morning when the Bot systems took over Wall Street?

Flood of Errant Trades Is a Black Eye for Wall Street - New York Times - NATHANIEL POPPER - August 1, 2012 - An automated stock trading program suddenly flooded the market with millions of trades Wednesday morning, spreading turmoil across Wall Street and drawing renewed attention to the fragility and instability of the nation’s stock markets.....             While the broad stock indexes quickly recovered and ended the day slightly down, it was the latest black eye for the financial markets. The runaway trading suggests that regulators have not been able to keep up with electronic programs that increasingly dominate the supercharged market and have helped undermine investor confidence in stocks.....                  Traders on Wednesday said that a rogue algorithm repeatedly bought and sold millions of shares of companies like RadioShack, Best Buy, Bank of America and American Airlines, sending trading volume surging. While the trading firm involved blamed a “technology issue,” the company and regulators were still trying to understand what went wrong.


Terminator or the Dark Knight Rises?


Latest Market Glitch Shows 'Trading Out of Control' - CNBC - Jeff Cox - August 1, 2012 - Wednesday morning's stock snafu had a familiar ring to it — mysterious volume in trades that simply could not have been made by a human comes surging out of nowhere, causing brief but acute market mayhem.....                   By now, many players on trading floors have gotten used to the disruptions that can come from the highly automated new world of high-frequency trading. But that doesn't mean they like it.....                      "This algorithmic trading is kind of out of control," Phil Silverman, managing partner at Kingsview Capital, said as officials at the New York Stock Exchange tried to make sense of what happened. "It seriously hurts investor confidence."

The Fed will print up more Monopoly Money once they decide who they want for President. Actually, I think they have already chosen.

Fed Holds Off on New Steps to Stimulate US Economy - Reuters through CNBC - August 1, 2012 - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said the U.S. economic recovery had lost momentum so far this year, but stopped short of offering new monetary stimulus even as it signaled further bond buys could be in store.....                         Fed officials described the economy as having "decelerated somewhat,'' and reiterated their disappointment with the slow pace of progress in bringing down the nation's 8.2 percent jobless rate........                     The central bank, which disappointed market expectations by not extending further into the future its guidance for low rates until late 2014, nevertheless showed it was prepared to do more to support an ailing economy.


Who does the Fed answer to?



75% Of Americans Believe The Fed Should Be Audited – Why It Won’t Happen - Gold and Silver Blog - July 30, 2012 - Most Americans under 30 have a strange sense of unease that something is very wrong with the way things are going in America. If you are 60 or older and can remember with nostalgia how life in America was prior to the days of blatant and corrupt crony capitalism, you know for sure we are heading in a very wrong direction at an accelerating pace.                    I can remember the days when the average worker could support his family without putting his wife to work, without having to give up on having children, without having to worry about banks going under, without having to worry about an implosion of the financial system and without the expectation that the government would provide handouts to solve every little one of life's problems.                  Gradually, it has begun to dawn on the average American of all ages that the Federal Reserve may be at the heart of the nation's financial problems. Much has been written about this, but two graphs sum up the situation quite nicely. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the dollar has declined to a fraction of what it was once worth and since the abandonment of the gold standard, government debt has reached levels that are no longer sustainable without further debasement of the paper dollar. The American public is beginning to connect the dots.

And then there is our Petroleum based Economy


Gas Prices Post Rare, Steep Rise in July - Wall Street Journal - July 31, 2012 - If it seems like the price of gasoline is rising quickly and at an odd time of year, that is because it is true. The average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. rose 5.1% or 17 cents to $3.50 per gallon today according to auto and travel group AAA.             This marks the first monthly increase since March and the largest July increase in at least a dozen years. The average price of gas in July was $3.42 a gallon. This was the third-highest average price for July ever recorded. AAA began keeping the fuel-price data in 2000.....                             National average gas prices rose for 26 days in July after hitting a low for the summer of about $3.33 a gallon on July 2.

And the LIBOR scandal

US senator asks NY Fed for more answers about Libor scandal - Reuters - August 2, 2012 - A U.S. senator on Wednesday asked the New York Federal Reserve to explain further the actions it took to address possible manipulation by big banks of the Libor benchmark interest rate.                  Democrat Sherrod Brown, who sits on the Senate committee that oversees the Fed, questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's assertions that he had no authority to address rigging problems with the key inter-bank lending rate.                       In light of the Fed's past claims to strong expertise and authority to oversee the largest U.S. banks, "it is difficult to accept the argument that the Fed has no authority to address this problem," Brown said in a letter Wednesday to the New York Fed's president and director of bank supervision.                          The Fed oversees large banks, including the U.S. branches of foreign banks such as Barclays Plc, which paid a record fine to settle charges that it manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate. (Libor scandal: Barclays executive Jerry del Missier given £8.75m pay-off - The Telegraph of London - Alistair Osborne - July 31, 2012)


Now back to sleep my children