Three years ago I went to a Catawba County Chamber of Commerce event about the upcoming "Affordable Care Act". It was more than obvious that people like myself weren't even an afterthought when it came to all of this so called reform. We don't even register.This has never been about affordability. That was a bait and switch for the gullible.
I work in the restaurant business. No owners of such small businesses can afford to furnish health care to their workers. They would have to raise prices by 33 to 50% and people already complain about prices as it is.
When I worked at one of the local Clubs at the turn of the 2000s, we were given full Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage, but that all ended after 9/11 when everyone's premiums spiked. So we started paying around 25% of our premium as I recall and dropped a tier in our coverage.
After a couple of years, I decided I wanted to go back to work for my aunt and so I was going to have to get a personal policy. Basically if you work in a small business you are a contract employee without a contract here in North Carolina. Labor laws are a one way street here. My Insurance premium was $107 per month with a $1,000 deductible in 2003.
I am a chef by trade and so I have stayed in the restaurant business and I am pretty much locked into this area because I bought a house back in 2005. The premium amounts on my health insurance have gone up by double digits every year and so to keep it affordable, I eventually had to have the deductible raised to $2,500 and then to $3,500 -- I also have higher out of pocket expenses.
In 2010, my premium had risen to $210/month and that is when I changed the deductible to $3,500. That lowered my premium/month to $138/month for 2011, but the 2012 premium rose to $161/month, and in 2013 I have been paying $181/month. I pay that in after tax dollars, although I do get to take it off my taxes, which probably gets me back about a month's premium. I don't consider putting out over 10% of my income on a product I can't afford to use as being affordable.
Having a degree in finance and twice passing the State Health Insurance Licensing test, I know a thing or two about the Ponzi Scheme/Multi-level Marketing scheme that is the Insurance industry. The Insurance industry is one of the main culprits in this mess. Their lobbyists had major input on writing this legislation. You can thank our bought and paid for legislators, on both sides of the aisle, for the mess we find ourselves in today. They took the money, but of course they don't think they should take any blame.
On September 30, 2013 I received a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield in the mail informing me that if I wanted to keep my current policy I could. Oh how fortunate you must think I am after hearing about people losing their current policies. Well I could keep my current policy at.?.?.?.......... $424 per month. Oh, but I could get subsidies... whoopee, everything's gonna be alright. If I'd only pay over $5,000 up front, then they'd send me around $3,500 back with my taxes in **2015**. These people are freaking nuts. Does any of this even make sense?
Now, I received a letter in the mail today informing me, "We understand what you are facing. Now, you can keep your current plan."
What is even funnier is that I had planned on taking care of this today and making a decision whether or not I was going to have health insurance. This has been seeping around in the back of my mind for a couple of months and I didn't want to wait until the very last minute. Well that isn't happening, because when I went to the BCBS website it is under maintenance and says it won't be up until the beginning of December. I will have until December 15 to decide what I want to do.
Where was this understanding a couple months ago when these idiots had to have known that there weren't just glitches, that this is a wholesale fiasco with dead end stops and people's health will truly be in peril as a result of all of this. They took a system of bureaucratic red tape and coated it with super glue.
I'm to the point where I'm most likely going to do without insurance next year. I'm not going to participate in their convolutions. I saw where the "Exchange" policy for me would be $295 per month. I pay that up front and they reimburse me on the backside -- or will that be in the backside bwahahaha! I ain't doing that. I'll just have to gamble and not go to the doctor. Frankly, I think we should all walk away from the system. We need to break these people, because they evidently don't care if they break us. No good businessman treats their customer like this!
And for you Republicans running around peeing in your pants with glee, the status quo isn't working either. If this fiasco were to be repealed, you have offered nothing that will help working class Americans. Health savings accounts do nothing for people like me. Nothing has been done to curtail costs and help with affordability, which businesses can't afford and doesn't allow them to compete against your globalist corporate buddies. Premium costs are going to keep escalating out of site just as they have.
Thank You, but no Thank You for all of this.
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Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Crony Socialism is destroying our society
(from Wikipedia) Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of dirigisme.[1] Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals... In many cases, the term is used interchangeably with corporate welfare.
You who support "'friendship' capitalism" are giving critics of capitalism, including socialists and other anti-capitalists, the ammunition that they need to help destroy the free market. You cannot sustain manipulating supply and demand economics. Everything will eventually come back to equilibrium. It will happen outside of existing market dynamics and past history shows that this is what happens. It happened in the Soviet Union with black markets, when people didn't want to wait in lines to get rationed essentials. It happened during the Nixon administration when they tried to institute price and wage controls and inflation started spinning out of control. It is happening now with the gyrations of the housing market and most commodities as the "Too Big to Fail" Banks have been given trillions for virtually free to invest and manipulate markets and are causing our economy to fail.
There are these people in our American society that sit on the fringe of the Republican party who are very intolerant of others. They want to fight everyone and everything. They don't want to personally fight. They seek to have vulnerable people do their fighting. They aren't going to negotiate and build a consensus about anything. They seem to believe that they are 100% in the right and somehow moderating their position to try to move issues forward is always deemed to be a taboo "Compromising of Principles".
At the same time these self described "Patriots" complain about the cultural division in society, they go right along with creating these labels. Real Patriots don't beat their chest. They act. These simplistic labels play right along with those who want to divide and conquer our society. These people are the ones who want to label any Democrat as a socialist. Of course that kind of rhetoric is non-constructive and keeps anything political from moving forward. They are so blinded by their prejudice that they fail to recognize that there is socialism on both sides of the political spectrum.
The leftist socialist paradigm is communism. The rightist socialist paradigm is fascism. The Communist ideal focuses socialism upon the worker, while the Fascist ideal focuses a social agenda upon Consolidated Corporate structures being controlled by and through the governmental structure. In a Fascist system, those who control the corporations control the government. A government of, by, and for the corporations.
Communism doesn't work for the same reason that Pure Democracy doesn't work. There has to be some form of representation of the people (workers) and that leads to power structures, so then the reality becomes about those in the power structure and not the workers. Those on the extreme right dismiss any of the marriage between the State and Corporations as just good business and they allow it to run a muck through their perverted ideal of laissez faire economics, which is not, never has been and never will be the reality.
I believe in the free market (free enterprise), but there cannot be a free market without rules. The rules have to be instituted and obeyed by everyone. This might seem to be conflicting, because any rule making/enforcing organization is governmental by nature and the ideal free market system has as few rules as possible. Rules need to be as simple as possible and wholly enforced. We need to be as Libertarian as possible, while understanding that rules and justice ensure trust.
What we see now is a completely convoluted system of rules that are arbitrarily enforced. There is a lack of trust in our economic structure. We have become a nation where "the elite" take precedence over the law. Those in power have created barriers to entry through this complexity of regulations that keep start-up entrepreneurs from entering the system. This is the reason we have seen a stifling of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. These Corporate socialists want to limit competition and filter everything through their system of control. This is what keeps them in power and the rest of us under their thumbs.
If we are to move forward there has to be a leveling of the playing field. We are operating in a culture of corruption. If we don't immediately institute rules to bring back a system based upon merit, then we are going to see a complete economic collapse. Look! the signs of this implosion are all around you.
You who support "'friendship' capitalism" are giving critics of capitalism, including socialists and other anti-capitalists, the ammunition that they need to help destroy the free market. You cannot sustain manipulating supply and demand economics. Everything will eventually come back to equilibrium. It will happen outside of existing market dynamics and past history shows that this is what happens. It happened in the Soviet Union with black markets, when people didn't want to wait in lines to get rationed essentials. It happened during the Nixon administration when they tried to institute price and wage controls and inflation started spinning out of control. It is happening now with the gyrations of the housing market and most commodities as the "Too Big to Fail" Banks have been given trillions for virtually free to invest and manipulate markets and are causing our economy to fail.
There are these people in our American society that sit on the fringe of the Republican party who are very intolerant of others. They want to fight everyone and everything. They don't want to personally fight. They seek to have vulnerable people do their fighting. They aren't going to negotiate and build a consensus about anything. They seem to believe that they are 100% in the right and somehow moderating their position to try to move issues forward is always deemed to be a taboo "Compromising of Principles".
At the same time these self described "Patriots" complain about the cultural division in society, they go right along with creating these labels. Real Patriots don't beat their chest. They act. These simplistic labels play right along with those who want to divide and conquer our society. These people are the ones who want to label any Democrat as a socialist. Of course that kind of rhetoric is non-constructive and keeps anything political from moving forward. They are so blinded by their prejudice that they fail to recognize that there is socialism on both sides of the political spectrum.
The leftist socialist paradigm is communism. The rightist socialist paradigm is fascism. The Communist ideal focuses socialism upon the worker, while the Fascist ideal focuses a social agenda upon Consolidated Corporate structures being controlled by and through the governmental structure. In a Fascist system, those who control the corporations control the government. A government of, by, and for the corporations.
Communism doesn't work for the same reason that Pure Democracy doesn't work. There has to be some form of representation of the people (workers) and that leads to power structures, so then the reality becomes about those in the power structure and not the workers. Those on the extreme right dismiss any of the marriage between the State and Corporations as just good business and they allow it to run a muck through their perverted ideal of laissez faire economics, which is not, never has been and never will be the reality.
I believe in the free market (free enterprise), but there cannot be a free market without rules. The rules have to be instituted and obeyed by everyone. This might seem to be conflicting, because any rule making/enforcing organization is governmental by nature and the ideal free market system has as few rules as possible. Rules need to be as simple as possible and wholly enforced. We need to be as Libertarian as possible, while understanding that rules and justice ensure trust.
What we see now is a completely convoluted system of rules that are arbitrarily enforced. There is a lack of trust in our economic structure. We have become a nation where "the elite" take precedence over the law. Those in power have created barriers to entry through this complexity of regulations that keep start-up entrepreneurs from entering the system. This is the reason we have seen a stifling of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. These Corporate socialists want to limit competition and filter everything through their system of control. This is what keeps them in power and the rest of us under their thumbs.
If we are to move forward there has to be a leveling of the playing field. We are operating in a culture of corruption. If we don't immediately institute rules to bring back a system based upon merit, then we are going to see a complete economic collapse. Look! the signs of this implosion are all around you.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- November 24, 2013
Fake Employment Numbers – And 5 More Massive Economic Lies The Government Is Telling You - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael Snyder - November 19th, 2013 - According to a whistleblower that has recently come forward, Census employees have been faking and manipulating U.S. employment numbers for years. In fact, it is being alleged that this manipulation was a significant reason for why the official unemployment rate dipped sharply just before the last presidential election. What you are about to read is incredibly disturbing. The numbers that the American people depend upon to make important decisions are being faked. But should we be surprised by this? After all, Barack Obama has been caught telling dozens of major lies over the past five years. At this point it is incredible that there are any Americans that still trust anything that comes out of his mouth. And of course it is not just Obama that has been lying to us. Corruption and deception are rampant throughout the entire federal government, and this has been the case for years. Now that some light is being shed on this, hopefully the American people will respond with overwhelming outrage and disgust. The whistleblower that I mentioned above has been speaking to John Crudele of the New York Post. In his new article entitled "Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report", he says that the huge decline in the unemployment rate in September 2012 was "manipulated"...
“This Is Really A Symbol Of What’s Going On In This Whole Country. We’re Losing Middle-Class Jobs” - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden's - November 21, 2013 - We wish we could say we didn't warn Boeing's machinists about the key trend taking place in the US economy under the Obama "recovery" but unfortunately we did. Three years ago, to be specific, when we wrote: "Charting America's Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society" and followed it up with "A "Quality Assessment" Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet" in which we explained that while the propaganda machine was fixated on numeric, quantitative, job additions every month, what has subversively going on, was the constant deterioration in the quality of jobs - and specifically the declining wages - available to those Americans who had not rotated outside of the labor force permanently (currently at a record 91.5 million). We say "alas" because it once again took several years before our cautions to be felt by the broader population, in this case the Boeing machinist union struggling to extract a wage increase from its employer: Boeing, whose stock keeps hitting new record highs with every passing day. The machinists' lament is well-known to virtually everyone who relies on labor instead of capital to exist: pay us more. Bloomberg reports:
Not a genuine housing market recovery - Fox News - David Stockman - Neil Cavuto - November 18, 2013
The Race to the Bottom - The Hickory Hound - April 29, 2010
Rand Paul: Janet Yellen 'Will Be a Disaster for the Economy' - November 24, 2013
“This Is Really A Symbol Of What’s Going On In This Whole Country. We’re Losing Middle-Class Jobs” - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden's - November 21, 2013 - We wish we could say we didn't warn Boeing's machinists about the key trend taking place in the US economy under the Obama "recovery" but unfortunately we did. Three years ago, to be specific, when we wrote: "Charting America's Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society" and followed it up with "A "Quality Assessment" Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet" in which we explained that while the propaganda machine was fixated on numeric, quantitative, job additions every month, what has subversively going on, was the constant deterioration in the quality of jobs - and specifically the declining wages - available to those Americans who had not rotated outside of the labor force permanently (currently at a record 91.5 million). We say "alas" because it once again took several years before our cautions to be felt by the broader population, in this case the Boeing machinist union struggling to extract a wage increase from its employer: Boeing, whose stock keeps hitting new record highs with every passing day. The machinists' lament is well-known to virtually everyone who relies on labor instead of capital to exist: pay us more. Bloomberg reports:
That's ironic: when we said it first three years ago, the mainstream media mocked it. Curious how things change when that hope you once believed in becomes a "zero balance" nightmare at the ATM machine, eh? Blame it on the Fed, blame it on globalization, blame it on corporations who have a virtually unlimited labor, cheap and global pool to pick from, but the bottom line is US workers have zero leverage.“We need to focus on how many jobs there are that give an adult a chance to earn a decent living,” said Gordon Lafer, an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center in Eugene. “Too much of the discussion has been about the number of jobs, and that’s obviously important, but there’s also a crisis in the quality of jobs.”
Not a genuine housing market recovery - Fox News - David Stockman - Neil Cavuto - November 18, 2013
The Race to the Bottom - The Hickory Hound - April 29, 2010
Rand Paul: Janet Yellen 'Will Be a Disaster for the Economy' - November 24, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Messages relevant to today - November 23, 2013
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - attributed to Muhatma Gandhi
The Art of Subtlety - difficult to detect or analyze, often through being delicate or highly refined... not immediately obvious or comprehensible.
John Connally speaks about the intolerance and hatred that lead to President Kennedy's death 5 days before. This interview was given on November 27, 1963. (Link to video)
Gerald Celente: Founder & Director of the Trends Research Institute gives an interview to King World News and a sneak peek into his upcoming Autumn Trends Journal.
(King World News Interview with Gerald Celente - November 20, 2013)
The Art of Subtlety - difficult to detect or analyze, often through being delicate or highly refined... not immediately obvious or comprehensible.
John Connally speaks about the intolerance and hatred that lead to President Kennedy's death 5 days before. This interview was given on November 27, 1963. (Link to video)
Gerald Celente: Founder & Director of the Trends Research Institute gives an interview to King World News and a sneak peek into his upcoming Autumn Trends Journal.
(King World News Interview with Gerald Celente - November 20, 2013)
Friday, November 22, 2013
Newsletter about the City Council meeting of November 19, 2013
I began recording the City Council late last year, because of my desire that the City do it on their own as any modern 21st century community began doing long ago. I had people tell me that they couldn't make it to the meetings, but they would like to see what is going on. I was also told by some council members that my summaries did not truly reflect the record, so having a video/audio recording cannot be misinterpreted.
So below is the City Council meeting. With each agenda item, you can click on the links and it will take you to that specific point in the meeting. You can always drag the marker on the video display to the point in the broadcast that you are interested in seeing.
Agenda about the City Council meeting of November 19, 2013
Highlighted Links below take you straight to that point in the video.
Special Presentations
A. (1:55) Presentation of the Business Well Crafted Award by David Gissy of the Business Development Committee, to Dan Causey, President and Doyle Keever, Vice President of Keever’s Key and Repair Service. (From City Action Agenda Minutes) - Mr. David Gissy of the Business Development Committee discussed the purpose of the Business Development Committee. He gave background information on Keever’s Key and Repair Service, which started in 1920 as Hickory Nut Shop on Union Square. He presented the Business Well Crafted Award to Mr. Dan Causey, President of Keever’s Key and Repair Service. Mr. Causey thanked everyone for the recognition and the Committee for recognizing Businesses that have been in business for more than 75 years.
B. (14:15) Neighborhood College Class Graduation - (From City Action Agenda Minutes) - Mrs. Dana Kaminske, Communications Specialist spoke briefly about Neighborhood College and asked some of the graduates to the podium to speak. Mrs. Erin Jones and Mrs. Alicia Hubbard, both City Employees; Ms. Bonita Hawkins, a new resident of the City; and Ms. Peggy Fullwood, a long time resident of the City, shared their experiences with Neighborhood College. Mrs. Kaminske, the Mayor, and City Council presented diplomas to the Neighborhood College Class of 2013: Jeff Bartlett, Bari Cooper, Jerisha Farrer, Peggy Fullwood, Juliet Good, Ardellia Hawkins, Bonita Hawkins, Alicia Hubbard, Erin Jones, William Kanupp, Donald Lewis, Reverend Logan, Phil McCaul, Ken O’Neill, Tracy Ray, John Robson, Rebecca Simpson, and Walter Smith.
Persons Requesting to Be Heard (33:45)
Mr. T. Anthony Spearman addressed Council on a Resolution regarding the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He asked the members of the Hickory Branch of the NAACP to the podium to stand with him. He appealed to Hickory City Council, on behalf of the Hickory Branch NAACP, for support of the Resolution and any other action that would prevent the upset of decades of well established practices that help to make sure that voting is fair, and that Council would stand publicly against any act that appears to abridge voting rights and disproportionately affect the voting ability of any minority by encouraging the Congress of the United States of America to fully restore and reactivate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Hound: Always good to see people stand up for their rights... don't expect any of the requested action from this Council.
Consent Agenda:
Item A removed from the Consent Agenda and briefly discussed
A. Approval of Resolution to Surplus Library CD/DVD Display Case and to Donate the Case to the Hickory Music Factory, a Local Non-Profit Organization. - The Library requests approval to surplus a CD/DVD display case that is no longer in use or needed by the Library and to donate the display case to the Hickory Music Factory, a local non-profit organization. Public Notice advertised on November 8, 2013 in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area.
Consent Agenda approved Unanimously.
New Business - Public Hearings
1. (47:20) Rezoning Petition 13-12 for Property Located at 1024 and 1030 4th Street NE, as well as Two Vacant Lots - Presentation by Cal Overby. Video shows the Powerpoint presentation
New Business - Departmental Reports: Presentation by Warren Wood, Asst City Manager - Video shows the Powerpoint presentation
1. a. (57:10) Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Hickory and Hickory Baseball, Inc. regarding Additional Projects to be Under-taken at L.P. Frans. Stadium. - Staff will outline what these projects are and who has responsibility for them. Additionally, there will be a budget amendment to fund the City’s additional projects in the amount of $391,000.
b. (1:13:05) Budget Ordinance Amendment Number 9. - To provide funding for additional improvement projects at L.P. Frans Stadium as described in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Hickory and Hickory Baseball, Inc. Therefore a $391,000 appropriation of General Fund balance to the L. P. Frans Stadium Capital Improvements line item is necessary.
The Hound: I appreciate having baseball in Hickory. I think having a sports team is good for the city. I don't know what the profitability picture is for the City or for Don Beaver. I've been to a couple of games in the past few years and the attendance definitely isn't what it used to be.
As part of the agreement with the Crawdads, I would have liked to have seen the city secure a certain number of tickets. These tickets could be given to kids that make good grades so that their families could go enjoy a game. Whay not have a couple of games dedicated and promoted as being kid friendly? Kids go to High School football games on Friday nights. Why not have some Young Fridays and/or Saturdays during the summer while school is out? This would be a whole lot better than kids out cruising all night long on the weekends. Have a concert after the game. End it all around midnight.
The Crawdads wouldn't make money off of such an exchange, but it would help to boost awareness of their product and create some enthusiasm. I remember when that stadium was first built that there were concerts there. I'd like to see some more concerts brought to the venue. Thinking outside the box, I wonder if there could be a way to hold a high school football game there. It certainly would be a bigger venue than Hickory High. You could hold the Hickory vs Newton- Conover or Maiden games there and I believe it most certainly would fill the place. I don't know about sodding the infield portion and the expense of that, but it certainly would be nice to see the venue used for more than it is.
I just think we need to look at all of the possibilities. We also need to look at getting some kind of a Return on Investment from this facility to mitigate some of its costs.
General Comments
(1:17:35) Mayor Wright comments about the election.
So below is the City Council meeting. With each agenda item, you can click on the links and it will take you to that specific point in the meeting. You can always drag the marker on the video display to the point in the broadcast that you are interested in seeing.
Agenda about the City Council meeting of November 19, 2013
Highlighted Links below take you straight to that point in the video.
Special Presentations
A. (1:55) Presentation of the Business Well Crafted Award by David Gissy of the Business Development Committee, to Dan Causey, President and Doyle Keever, Vice President of Keever’s Key and Repair Service. (From City Action Agenda Minutes) - Mr. David Gissy of the Business Development Committee discussed the purpose of the Business Development Committee. He gave background information on Keever’s Key and Repair Service, which started in 1920 as Hickory Nut Shop on Union Square. He presented the Business Well Crafted Award to Mr. Dan Causey, President of Keever’s Key and Repair Service. Mr. Causey thanked everyone for the recognition and the Committee for recognizing Businesses that have been in business for more than 75 years.
B. (14:15) Neighborhood College Class Graduation - (From City Action Agenda Minutes) - Mrs. Dana Kaminske, Communications Specialist spoke briefly about Neighborhood College and asked some of the graduates to the podium to speak. Mrs. Erin Jones and Mrs. Alicia Hubbard, both City Employees; Ms. Bonita Hawkins, a new resident of the City; and Ms. Peggy Fullwood, a long time resident of the City, shared their experiences with Neighborhood College. Mrs. Kaminske, the Mayor, and City Council presented diplomas to the Neighborhood College Class of 2013: Jeff Bartlett, Bari Cooper, Jerisha Farrer, Peggy Fullwood, Juliet Good, Ardellia Hawkins, Bonita Hawkins, Alicia Hubbard, Erin Jones, William Kanupp, Donald Lewis, Reverend Logan, Phil McCaul, Ken O’Neill, Tracy Ray, John Robson, Rebecca Simpson, and Walter Smith.
Persons Requesting to Be Heard (33:45)
Mr. T. Anthony Spearman addressed Council on a Resolution regarding the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He asked the members of the Hickory Branch of the NAACP to the podium to stand with him. He appealed to Hickory City Council, on behalf of the Hickory Branch NAACP, for support of the Resolution and any other action that would prevent the upset of decades of well established practices that help to make sure that voting is fair, and that Council would stand publicly against any act that appears to abridge voting rights and disproportionately affect the voting ability of any minority by encouraging the Congress of the United States of America to fully restore and reactivate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The Hound: Always good to see people stand up for their rights... don't expect any of the requested action from this Council.
Consent Agenda:
Item A removed from the Consent Agenda and briefly discussed
A. Approval of Resolution to Surplus Library CD/DVD Display Case and to Donate the Case to the Hickory Music Factory, a Local Non-Profit Organization. - The Library requests approval to surplus a CD/DVD display case that is no longer in use or needed by the Library and to donate the display case to the Hickory Music Factory, a local non-profit organization. Public Notice advertised on November 8, 2013 in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area.
Consent Agenda approved Unanimously.
New Business - Public Hearings
1. (47:20) Rezoning Petition 13-12 for Property Located at 1024 and 1030 4th Street NE, as well as Two Vacant Lots - Presentation by Cal Overby. Video shows the Powerpoint presentation
New Business - Departmental Reports: Presentation by Warren Wood, Asst City Manager - Video shows the Powerpoint presentation
1. a. (57:10) Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Hickory and Hickory Baseball, Inc. regarding Additional Projects to be Under-taken at L.P. Frans. Stadium. - Staff will outline what these projects are and who has responsibility for them. Additionally, there will be a budget amendment to fund the City’s additional projects in the amount of $391,000.
b. (1:13:05) Budget Ordinance Amendment Number 9. - To provide funding for additional improvement projects at L.P. Frans Stadium as described in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Hickory and Hickory Baseball, Inc. Therefore a $391,000 appropriation of General Fund balance to the L. P. Frans Stadium Capital Improvements line item is necessary.
The Hound: I appreciate having baseball in Hickory. I think having a sports team is good for the city. I don't know what the profitability picture is for the City or for Don Beaver. I've been to a couple of games in the past few years and the attendance definitely isn't what it used to be.
As part of the agreement with the Crawdads, I would have liked to have seen the city secure a certain number of tickets. These tickets could be given to kids that make good grades so that their families could go enjoy a game. Whay not have a couple of games dedicated and promoted as being kid friendly? Kids go to High School football games on Friday nights. Why not have some Young Fridays and/or Saturdays during the summer while school is out? This would be a whole lot better than kids out cruising all night long on the weekends. Have a concert after the game. End it all around midnight.
The Crawdads wouldn't make money off of such an exchange, but it would help to boost awareness of their product and create some enthusiasm. I remember when that stadium was first built that there were concerts there. I'd like to see some more concerts brought to the venue. Thinking outside the box, I wonder if there could be a way to hold a high school football game there. It certainly would be a bigger venue than Hickory High. You could hold the Hickory vs Newton- Conover or Maiden games there and I believe it most certainly would fill the place. I don't know about sodding the infield portion and the expense of that, but it certainly would be nice to see the venue used for more than it is.
I just think we need to look at all of the possibilities. We also need to look at getting some kind of a Return on Investment from this facility to mitigate some of its costs.
General Comments
(1:17:35) Mayor Wright comments about the election.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
John F. Kennedy... a man not saddled by ideology
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered 50 years ago tomorrow. He is looked upon as being a President of distinction and significance even though he served just 1,036 days in office. His death has had a resonance in this country, because he is viewed upon as being struck down in the prime of his life.
Young people related very well with this man. His Presidency was viewed upon as a new era in this country and upon his death we went from an inspirational leader backwards to a hard man, and some would even say a crass man, in Lyndon Johnson who stole hope and ushered in years of fear, control and paranoia that still grip the Presidential office to this day. Six revolutionary seconds in Dallas changed the world forever.
John Kennedy died 966 days before I was born, but he has had a significant impact on my generation -- Generation X. You see we were born into a world of shock. Twenty years after the Greatest World War. Born into a world that could now destroy humankind in hours through the use of Atomic weaponry. We were born amongst the tumult and surrounded by the mayhem of great and significant people being murdered, because "they didn't think right." Think about Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King being murdered, just like JFK, in the prime of their lives. Think about the lost contributions. Think about how they weren't able to put their own stamp on their own works. Think about what we missed out on.
The public didn't see the Zapruder film until 1975. We see any and every form of video of every situation in life these days. The world now changes so rapidly every day. Many say that the United States lost its innocence after that day in Dallas. I think what they mean to say is that the people lost their naivete after that event and the subsequent events that followed, including the murders, Vietnam, the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention, and Nixon's Presidency ending in Watergate.
Kennedy wasn't stuck in the old conventions. He wanted to move the country forward. I can't get into all of the non-conventional stances that he took without introducing the controversial subjects surrounding his assassination. No! I do not think that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, if he even fired a shot. Kennedy had made many enemies by standing up to and against the establishment of the time. His assassination brought the establishment back into absolute power and no one has stood against accepted conventions, to the degree that Kennedy did, since that time.
As I wrote nearly five years ago in The Hottest Places in Hell - December 30, 2008:
I watched a documentary about President John F. Kennedy this week. The man was an enigma. He wasn't stuck within a political party mindset. I truly believe that he wanted to represent all of the people and if that meant making controversial decisions, then so be it. That is most assuredly what got him killed. But, he did not live a life in fear.
JFK was a leader, who never stuck his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. He also didn't play the blame game. He was a visionary with a mind set towards accomplishing goals. He realized and communicated time and time again, through words and actions, that those who do not take a stand in life are relegated to a life of insignificance. He road tall and proud on that fateful day in Dallas, because he believed in his cause.
From the JFK Library online: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Dante+Quote.htm
One of President Kennedy's favorite quotations was based upon an interpretation of Dante's Inferno. As Robert Kennedy explained in 1964, "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante, 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" This supposed quotation is not actually in Dante's work, but is based upon a similiar one. In the Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil, on their way to Hell, pass by a group of dead souls outside the entrance to Hell. These individuals, when alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. Virgil explains to Dante that these souls cannot enter either Heaven or Hell because they did not choose one side or another. They are therefore worse than the greatest sinners in Hell because they are repugnant to both God and Satan alike, and have been left to mourn their fate as insignificant beings neither hailed nor cursed in life or death, endlessly travailing below Heaven but outside of Hell. This scene occurs in the third canto of the Inferno.
In this era of Tumult, does this fit you? For all who espouse themselves to be followers of the Kennedy Ideal, how do you defend your inaction?
There is hope. Today is a new day. You can shed your neutrality today and strive for a life of significance. Ambivalence won't change anything. Contributing to our community can change everything!!!
When I think of Kennedy, I always think about the speech below. This is the John Kennedy that represents me.
Young people related very well with this man. His Presidency was viewed upon as a new era in this country and upon his death we went from an inspirational leader backwards to a hard man, and some would even say a crass man, in Lyndon Johnson who stole hope and ushered in years of fear, control and paranoia that still grip the Presidential office to this day. Six revolutionary seconds in Dallas changed the world forever.
John Kennedy died 966 days before I was born, but he has had a significant impact on my generation -- Generation X. You see we were born into a world of shock. Twenty years after the Greatest World War. Born into a world that could now destroy humankind in hours through the use of Atomic weaponry. We were born amongst the tumult and surrounded by the mayhem of great and significant people being murdered, because "they didn't think right." Think about Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King being murdered, just like JFK, in the prime of their lives. Think about the lost contributions. Think about how they weren't able to put their own stamp on their own works. Think about what we missed out on.
The public didn't see the Zapruder film until 1975. We see any and every form of video of every situation in life these days. The world now changes so rapidly every day. Many say that the United States lost its innocence after that day in Dallas. I think what they mean to say is that the people lost their naivete after that event and the subsequent events that followed, including the murders, Vietnam, the 1968 Chicago Democrat Convention, and Nixon's Presidency ending in Watergate.
Kennedy wasn't stuck in the old conventions. He wanted to move the country forward. I can't get into all of the non-conventional stances that he took without introducing the controversial subjects surrounding his assassination. No! I do not think that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, if he even fired a shot. Kennedy had made many enemies by standing up to and against the establishment of the time. His assassination brought the establishment back into absolute power and no one has stood against accepted conventions, to the degree that Kennedy did, since that time.
As I wrote nearly five years ago in The Hottest Places in Hell - December 30, 2008:
I watched a documentary about President John F. Kennedy this week. The man was an enigma. He wasn't stuck within a political party mindset. I truly believe that he wanted to represent all of the people and if that meant making controversial decisions, then so be it. That is most assuredly what got him killed. But, he did not live a life in fear.
JFK was a leader, who never stuck his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. He also didn't play the blame game. He was a visionary with a mind set towards accomplishing goals. He realized and communicated time and time again, through words and actions, that those who do not take a stand in life are relegated to a life of insignificance. He road tall and proud on that fateful day in Dallas, because he believed in his cause.
From the JFK Library online: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Dante+Quote.htm
One of President Kennedy's favorite quotations was based upon an interpretation of Dante's Inferno. As Robert Kennedy explained in 1964, "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante, 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" This supposed quotation is not actually in Dante's work, but is based upon a similiar one. In the Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil, on their way to Hell, pass by a group of dead souls outside the entrance to Hell. These individuals, when alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. Virgil explains to Dante that these souls cannot enter either Heaven or Hell because they did not choose one side or another. They are therefore worse than the greatest sinners in Hell because they are repugnant to both God and Satan alike, and have been left to mourn their fate as insignificant beings neither hailed nor cursed in life or death, endlessly travailing below Heaven but outside of Hell. This scene occurs in the third canto of the Inferno.
In this era of Tumult, does this fit you? For all who espouse themselves to be followers of the Kennedy Ideal, how do you defend your inaction?
There is hope. Today is a new day. You can shed your neutrality today and strive for a life of significance. Ambivalence won't change anything. Contributing to our community can change everything!!!
When I think of Kennedy, I always think about the speech below. This is the John Kennedy that represents me.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
A Statistical Analysis of the 2013 Hickory Mayoral Election
Rudy Wright won a fourth term with right at 55% of the vote. His strong showings were in the North Side precincts that we have come to expect to be represented well for the establishment in Hickory Elections. The Mayor got strong showings in Oakwood, Viewmont 1, and the Northwest Precinct. He had solid showings in College Park, Springs, Viewmont 2, and Falling Creek. He carried Mountain View and Sandy Ridge, but these precincts had smaller vote counts.
Dr. Inglefield's solid showings came from the 4th ward precincts in contiguous Hickory. He basically walloped the Mayor in Kenworth, Ridgeview, and Greenmont 577 to 121, which is 82.7% of the vote. He also solidly won Brookford. Highland and St. Stephens were toss-ups and he actually fared pretty well in Falling Creek.
In looking at these results we see momentum with several areas that could start to come into play very soon in local municipal elections. Highland is already a toss-up and will likely flip in the next election. Oakland Heights, Falling Creek, and Sandy Ridge could easily flip away from the status quo candidates. You can see that the blue collar areas of town and the areas further away from the city center are much more likely to vote against the status quo candidate. A little bit better turnout in these elections and the local establishment could get overturned easily.
If we look at this election compared to the referendum, we see that Dr. Inglefield lost about 200 votes somewhere and Mayor Wright gained about 160 somewhere. I don't think that this was a flip. The Mayor has always had a coordinated vote effort involving the people living in the assisted living centers in the community. Some of this also is due to a concerted effort to paint Dr. Inglefield as basically being a Communist -- the McCarthy effect like Harry Hipps pointed to in his comment the other day. I also think that a good many of those people that voted yes on the referendum just didn't show up and some of the people who voted for Mayor Wright hadn't shown up to vote in the referendum.
If this city council doesn't immediately work to move some issues forward for the whole of the city, then the three seats up in two years will be completely up in the air. This divided city is teetering away from the status quo due to the stagnation in the economy and other aspects of quality of life issues. There are some variables that are currently masking some of this to a certain degree, but the reality lies under a very thin skin. North Hickory is tapped out. They can't turn out much more than they have, but there is growth to be had in the disenfranchised areas of Hickory. If there is growth to be had it will come from non-traditional areas. We are going to see some very interesting local politics moving forward. Those who look to control the uncontrollable are losing their grip. They would be much better off if they would move away from the monopoly and the bullying and attempt to work and play nice with others. But as I was listening to someone say the other day, "Southern politics is all about raw power... and raw power is ugly to its core."
I wish we could move away from that, because raw power is destructive and growth comes from being constructive.
The Electoral Reality of Ward 4 in Hickory
A Statistical Analysis of the Hickory Ward 5 Election
A Statistical Analysis of the Hickory Ward 6 Election
Dr. Inglefield's solid showings came from the 4th ward precincts in contiguous Hickory. He basically walloped the Mayor in Kenworth, Ridgeview, and Greenmont 577 to 121, which is 82.7% of the vote. He also solidly won Brookford. Highland and St. Stephens were toss-ups and he actually fared pretty well in Falling Creek.
In looking at these results we see momentum with several areas that could start to come into play very soon in local municipal elections. Highland is already a toss-up and will likely flip in the next election. Oakland Heights, Falling Creek, and Sandy Ridge could easily flip away from the status quo candidates. You can see that the blue collar areas of town and the areas further away from the city center are much more likely to vote against the status quo candidate. A little bit better turnout in these elections and the local establishment could get overturned easily.
If we look at this election compared to the referendum, we see that Dr. Inglefield lost about 200 votes somewhere and Mayor Wright gained about 160 somewhere. I don't think that this was a flip. The Mayor has always had a coordinated vote effort involving the people living in the assisted living centers in the community. Some of this also is due to a concerted effort to paint Dr. Inglefield as basically being a Communist -- the McCarthy effect like Harry Hipps pointed to in his comment the other day. I also think that a good many of those people that voted yes on the referendum just didn't show up and some of the people who voted for Mayor Wright hadn't shown up to vote in the referendum.
If this city council doesn't immediately work to move some issues forward for the whole of the city, then the three seats up in two years will be completely up in the air. This divided city is teetering away from the status quo due to the stagnation in the economy and other aspects of quality of life issues. There are some variables that are currently masking some of this to a certain degree, but the reality lies under a very thin skin. North Hickory is tapped out. They can't turn out much more than they have, but there is growth to be had in the disenfranchised areas of Hickory. If there is growth to be had it will come from non-traditional areas. We are going to see some very interesting local politics moving forward. Those who look to control the uncontrollable are losing their grip. They would be much better off if they would move away from the monopoly and the bullying and attempt to work and play nice with others. But as I was listening to someone say the other day, "Southern politics is all about raw power... and raw power is ugly to its core."
I wish we could move away from that, because raw power is destructive and growth comes from being constructive.
The Electoral Reality of Ward 4 in Hickory
A Statistical Analysis of the Hickory Ward 5 Election
A Statistical Analysis of the Hickory Ward 6 Election
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