Wanda Arnold, You are a Patriot

I read the Letter to the Editor in the Hickory Daily Record this morning in response to your response of a response to your initial Letter to the Editor talking about Alternative Media and your legitimate concerns about issues facing our nation and its citizens.

I have agreed with what you have espoused so far and appreciate your open mindedness. I know that you visit this site and many of the others that I visit also. I have read many of Mr. Flo's LttE in the past and appreciate his candidness, but he is still stuck inside the box. There are many people who consider themselves to be mavericks and free thinkers who live inside the box.

Wanda, we are called Conspiracy Theorists because we are looking into issues that way too many people are too lazy to look into themselves. Alternative media is the real media. The television is an idiot box. It is there to mesmerize you and feed you pablum. It is entertaining; but like anything, overindulging is bad for your health.

Going to alternative media sources and learning how to read between the lines is how you stay ahead of the curve. With the corporate media, issues have to be funneled through the proper channels and meet various criteria before they can be mentioned -- ie don't upset Big Brother. Then they want to figure out how they can explain the information to the least common denominator mindset. Under such a system, only those well connected to the government and major corporations have the privilege of knowing the details of important issues.

Do you want to be the first to know or the last to know?

Mr. Flo gets into the matter of the Banking Industry. I don't know what world Mr. Flo lives in, but Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve's manipulations of the currency have not helped anyone, but the wealthiest of the wealthy.  He did not keep us out of a Depression. By most legitimate measurements, we have been buried neck deep in one.

A little economic lesson for Mr. Flo, increasing the money supply decreases the value of the dollar. That means it takes more dollars to buy things. Inflation is a variable in determining interest rates. Only through the Fed's manipulated interest rate policies have the rates been kept absurdly artificially low.

What is the Fed doing with this extra money? Their policies have encouraged the Financial Industry to manipulate commodities across the board and across the world.The Fed is lending money to investment institutions who are placing bets in the worldwide financial markets. This is bidding up the price of commodities and creating unintended consequences and moral hazards in the markets. This manipulation of interest rates downward is like keeping a lid tamped down on a steaming pot. Eventually the billowing force in the pot will cause it to explode. That is what is going to happen to interest rates, if it doesn't end up making the markets completely seize up in the process. Ask people who have bought money market instruments how they feel about being paid 1% or 2% on their money. When interest rates spike, it is going to mean bad consequences for the United States Annual Deficit and the National Debt.

I am also not comfortable following Mr. Flo's advice and trusting the government to do what is best for me. I am not comfortable to allow them free rein without checks and balances to do what is right. In a free and open society there is nothing wrong with questioning authority. If necessary, there is nothing wrong with citizens redressing their grievances through civil disobedience.

I believed in the wars that occurred after 9/11 in the beginning, but after all of these years and looking back on what has occurred, I have felt foolish. Mr. Flo talks about feeling secure because of the security apparatus that has been put in place; I do not. Look at all of the money that has been spent and we are constantly told that we need to spend more and the reality is that it all is benefiting the very few at the expense of the very many.

Ben Franklin on Liberty:

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The debts racked up over the last decade have been directly attributable to this negative force of power. Mr. Flo talks about this mechanism preventing further terror attacks, while I say the real terror has been against our individual liberties. Why is it that our voice doesn't count and our monies are spent when we are against all of this... and there is no real debate of the issue?

They call us Conspiracy Theorists, because they don't want to debate the issues. We won't partake in their Kool-Aid and this frustrates them to no end.  They can have my share, because I am not going to join the cult; I am not a Sunshine Patriot. Because we don't go along to get along and automatically support the Powers that Be, they want to take away our freedom to express ourselves. They want to shut us down.

Wanda, others, one more quote from Ben Franklin:

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates. - "On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette, 17 November 1737.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- December 1, 2013

The Dying Dollar — Paul Craig Roberts - November 22, 2013 - Since 2006, the US dollar has experienced a one-quarter to one-third drop in value to the Chinese yuan, depending on the choice of base.                           Now China is going to let the dollar decline further in value.  China also says it is considering undermining the petrodollar by pricing oil futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange in yuan. This on top of the growing avoidance of the dollar to settle trade imbalances means that the dollar's role as reserve currency is coming to an end, which means the termination of the US as financial bully and financial imperialist.  This blow to the dollar in addition to the blows delivered by jobs offshoring and the uncovered bets in the gambling casino created by financial deregulation means that the US economy as we knew it is coming to an end.                      The US economy is already in shambles, with bond and stock markets propped up by massive and historically unprecedented Fed money printing pouring liquidity into financial asset prices.  This month at the IMF annual conference, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said that to achieve full employment in the US economy would require negative real interest rates.  Negative real interest rates could only be achieved by eliminating cash, moving to digital money that can only be kept in banks, and penalizing people for saving.                              The future is developing precisely as I have been predicting.                     As the dollar enters its death throes, the lawless Federal Reserve and the Wall Street criminals will increase their shorting of gold in the paper futures market, thereby driving the remnants of the West’s gold into Asian hands.

Paul Craig Roberts interview on King World News - MP3 Link

China Announces That It Is Going To Stop Stockpiling U.S. Dollars - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael Snyder - November 21st, 2013 - China just dropped an absolute bombshell, but it was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the United States.  The central bank of China has decided that it is "no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves".  During the third quarter of 2013, China's foreign-exchange reserves were valued at approximately $3.66 trillion.  And of course the biggest chunk of that was made up of U.S. dollars.  For years, China has been accumulating dollars and working hard to keep the value of the dollar up and the value of the yuan down.  One of the goals has been to make Chinese products less expensive in the international marketplace.  But now China has announced that the time has come for it to stop stockpiling U.S. dollars.  And if that does indeed turn out to be the case, than many U.S. analysts are suggesting that China could also soon stop buying any more U.S. debt.  Needless to say, all of this would be very bad for the United States.                          For years, China has been systematically propping up the value of the U.S. dollar and keeping the value of the yuan artificially low.  This has resulted in a massive flood of super cheap products from across the Pacific that U.S. consumers have been eagerly gobbling up.                          For example, have you ever gone into a dollar store and wondered how anyone could possibly make a profit by making those products and selling them for just one dollar?
Well, the truth is that when you flip those products over you will find that almost all of them have been made outside of the United States.  In fact, the words "made in China" are probably the most common words in your entire household if you are anything like the typical American.                    Thanks to the massively unbalanced trade that we have had with China, tens of thousands of our businesses, millions of our jobs and trillions of our dollars have left this country and gone over to China.                           And now China has apparently decided that there is not much gutting of our economy left to do and that it is time to let the dollar collapse.  As I mentioned above, China has announced that it is going to stop stockpiling foreign-exchange reserves...





Black Friday: A Shameful Orgy Of Materialism For A Morally Bankrupt Nation - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael Snyder -  November 29th, 2013 - It has been called "America's most disturbing holiday".  Black Friday is the day when millions of average Americans wait outside retail stores in the middle of the night in the freezing cold to spend more money that they do not have for more cheap Chinese-made products that they do not need.  It is a day when the rest of the world makes fun of Americans for behaving like "rabid animals" and "zombies" as we indulge in a tsunami of greed.  It truly is a shameful orgy of materialism for a morally bankrupt nation.  It is being projected that approximately 140 million Americans will participate in this disgusting national ritual this year.  Sadly, most of them have absolutely no idea that they are actively participating in the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the United States.  If you don't understand why this is true, please be sure to read this entire article all the way to the end.                       The amount of merchandise that is purchased on Black Friday is absolutely staggering.  For example, just consider how much stuff is sold at Wal-Mart alone...

10 things department stores won’t tell you - What to know before entering J.C. Penney, Macy’s, other retail giants - Marketwatch (The Wall Street Journal) - Charles Passy - November 30. 2013

The late Bob Chapman saw it in 2008 - The International Forecaster -   November 30 2013: Bob was known for his caustic wit, contrarian viewpoints, and clairvoyant foresight of things to come. In 2008, he saw the corruption of what was to come in the markets. - “The dollar has clearly been abandoned and foreigners are starting to bail from dollar-denominated assets in droves. This is where bailouts, and the hyperinflationary destruction of the dollar that comes with them, are leading us, along with miniscule bond rates caused by continual flights to “security” as everyone flees in terror due to rapidly deteriorating market conditions caused by subprime fallout, over-leveraged speculation, fraudulent lending and borrowing, lack of oversight, transparency and confidence, frozen credit markets, an out-of-control money supply, profligate borrowing and spending, as well as an economy destroyed in less than two decades by globalization, free trade, off-shoring, outsourcing, unrestrained illegal immigration, insane wars for profit and the rampant inflation and unemployment that come from a completely, totally and malevolently mismanaged economy thanks to the reprobates and sociopaths that run the Fed and our government.” Bob Chapman, International Forecaster, 2008.





Sundown in America - Wall Street Journal interview with David Stockman - November 30, 2013

Agenda about the City Council meeting of December 3, 2013

This Agenda is about the Hickory City Council meeting that took place on the date listed above. City council meetings are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each Month in the Council Chambers of the Julian Whitener building.

At right of this page under Main Information links is an Hickory's City Website link. If you click on that link, it takes you to our city’s website, at the left of the page you will see the Agenda's and Minutes link you need to click. This will give you a choice of PDF files to upcoming and previous meetings.

You will find historic Agenda and Minutes links. Agendas show what is on the docket for the meeting of that date. The Minutes is an actual summary of the proceedings of the meeting of that date. You can also look in the upper right hand corner of the front page of the Hickory Hound and (will soon) find the link to the past history of Hickory City Newsletters.

Here is a summary of the agenda of the meeting. There were a couple of important items that were discussed at this meeting and the details are listed further below:

Please remember that pressing Ctrl and + will magnify the text and page and pressing Ctrl and - will make the text and page smaller. This will help the readability for those with smaller screens and/or eye difficulties.

City Website has changed - Here is a link to the City of Hickory Document Center
City Council Agenda - December 3, 2013

Invocation by Rev. John Duncan, Pastor Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Senior Chaplain – Hickory
Fire Department

Oaths of Office Ceremony

Recognition of Retiring Ward 5 Alderwoman Sally Fox

Election of Mayor Pro Tempore for Calendar Year 2014 Pursuant to NC General Statute §260A-
70 and Section 2-54 of the Hickory City Code.

Appointment of a City Attorney for Calendar Year 2014 Pursuant to the Hickory City Code, Section 4.151 of the Charter.

Special Presentations
A. Community Appearance Commission’s 2013 Beautification Awards Presentation

Persons Requesting to Be Heard


Consent Agenda:
A. Resolution Certificate of Appreciation Suzette Bradshaw, Western Piedmont Regional Transit Authority.

B. Proclamation for Bill of Rights Day, December 15, 2013.

C. Approval to Accept a Grant to Assist in Funding the Purchase of Bulletproof Vests for Police Officers. - Since 1999, the BVP program has reimbursed more than 13,000 jurisdictions, a total of $277 million in federal funds for the purchase of over one million vests. BVP is a critical resource for state and local jurisdictions that saves lives. The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act of 1998 was signed as law (Public Law 105-181). The purpose of this act is to save the lives of law enforcement officers by helping States and units of local government equip their law enforcement officer with armor vests. The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to improving officer safety and has undertaken research to review and analyze violent encounters and law enforcement officer deaths and injuries. Due to the increase in the number of law enforcement officer deaths, coupled with our renewed efforts to improve officer safety, beginning with FY 2011, in order to receive BVP funds, jurisdictions must certify, during the application process, that all law enforcement agencies benefitting from the BVP Program have a written "mandatory wear" policy in effect. Hickory Police Department has a mandatory wear policy. This grant will pay 37.10% Federal cost of NIJ approved vests and the City of Hickory portion will be 62.90%. Monies are placed in the police department budget annually to purchase vests for police officers. Life expectancy of each vest is approximately five (5) years. Hickory Police Department requests permission to accept a grant to assist in funding the purchase of bulletproof vests for police officers. The federal share of this grant is $9,350 and the City’s share is $15,850. 

D. Community Relations Council (CRC) Requests Approval for Fall 2013 Grant Recommendations in the Amount of $5,828. - As part of the Community Relations Council work plan and annual budget process, CRC receives funds to disperse during the fiscal year through the CRC grant process. Nonprofit agencies working with diverse populations in Hickory are eligible for grant funding. The grant proposal must show how the program under consideration fits into the CRC goals and mission and how the program will serve to improve human relations in the Hickory area. The Community Relations Council recommends funding of four grants totaling $5,828.00 Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry, dental care for those in need, $1,500; Patrick Beaver Learning Resource Center, “What do I do now?” A bi-lingual guide tolocal services for families with a child with learning disabilities, $1,500; Family Care Center of Catawba Valley, Life Skills Workshops for homeless in shelters, $1,500; and Council on Adolescents, Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program, $1,328.

E. Approval of a Renewal of Agreement between the Western Piedmont Council of Governments and the City of Hickory to Support the Western Piedmont Stormwater Partnership for Phase II Public Education. - The City was issued an NPDES Phase II Stormwater Permit by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources on July 1, 2005. One of the requirements of the permit in the Public Education and Outreach Minimum Measure is that the City develop and implement a pubic education and outreach program to raise public awareness on the causes and impacts of stormwater pollution. This renewal agreement is the result of the establishment of a regionally focused and municipally supported Phase II public education and outreach coalition, the Western Piedmont Stormwater Partnership, which is administered by the Western Piedmont  Council of Government (WPCOG). The activities in this agreement will meet the public education and outreach minimum measures of this section of the NEDES Phase II permit. This agreement would be for the period of October 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014. Payment would be in quarterly installments of $2,581.75. Funding for this agreement is available from the current stormwater budget.

F. Acceptance of Offers to Purchase and Contract for Properties Located at 1742, 1743, and 1746 Whitewater Court, in the Waterford Hills Subdivision. - Staff requests consideration of Offers to Purchase and Contract for properties located at 1742, 1743, and 1746 Whitewater Court, in the Waterford Hills Subdivision. The properties were originally purchased by the City because they were on the route of the proposed Southern Cross-Town. The route for the future thoroughfare has since been amended, and the properties are no longer needed. Vale Traian Vasiu and Gelu Vasiu are interested in purchasing these lots in order to construct singe family dwellings. They are offering $15,000 per lot. Notice of Upset Bid was advertised on November 8, 2013 in a newspaper having general circulation in the Hickory area. No upset bids were received for the properties.

G. Call for Public Hearing - For the Consideration of Rezoning Petition 13-15 for Property Located at the Northeast Corner of Cloninger Mill Road and North Center Street (NC 127 North).

H. Call for Public Hearing – For the Consideration of Amending Chapter 16 of the Hickory Code of Ordinances of the City of Hickory by Amending Section 16-43. 

Here is the Ordinance to be addressed: 

Sec. 16-43. - Use of unlicensed premises prohibited; exception.

No secondhand precious metal business shall make use of any property or premises not included within the premises designated in or by the license required by this article for the display of any secondhand article made, in whole or in part, of gold, silver, or platinum or for the conduct of a secondhand precious metal business. This article does not prohibit the storage or safekeeping of any such secondhand article off of the licensed premises.

(Code 1981, § 16-15)

I. Budget Ordinance Amendment Number 10.
1. To budget a $400 Friends of the Hickory Library donation in the Programming line item for Senior Programming Supplies.
2. To budget a $4,999 insurance claim payment from Argonaut Great Central Insurance Company in the Parks and Recreation Department Specialized Equipment line item. This payment is for a stolen Club Car from the Field House and will apply towards the cost of a replacement.
3. To transfer $15,850 from the Police Departments Uniform line item to the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant (BVP) budget. The United States Department of Justice awarded the City of Hickory a Federal Grant to pay up to $9,350 (37.10%) of the costs of National Institute of Justice approved vests. The Grant awarded by the Department of Justice requires a local match of $15,850. This Grant will allow the City to purchase 40 vests at $625 and includes shipping costs.
4. To transfer $10,256 of General Fund Contingency to the Economic Incentive line item to fund a total of $45,256 incentives payment to Turbocoating Corporation. The joint economic development agreement between the City of Hickory and Turbocoating Corporation specified improvements to machinery, equipment and fixtures, and the creation and maintaining of specified jobs. Turbocoating Corporation has met the conditions of the agreement.
5. To appropriate $5,500 of Transportation Fund-Appropriated Fund Balance and budget in the Airports Other Professional Services line item. These funds are the remainder of the $20,000 grant from Eastern Aviation and will be used towards covering costs in the Other Professional Services line item.
6. To transfer $605,750 to the appropriate expenditure codes for the purchase of 3 Solid Waste Heavy Equipment Replacement Vehicles which were approved by City Council in the FY13-14 Annual Budget.

J. Grant Project Ordinance Number 4.
1. To accept and budget a $15,850 transfer from the Police Departments Uniforms line item and to budget a $9,350 Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant (BVP) for a total of $25,200. The United States Department of Justice awarded the City of Hickory a Federal Grant to pay up to $9,350 (37.10%) of the costs of National Institute of Justice approved vests and requires a local match of $15,850. This Grant will allow the City to purchase 40 vests at $625 and includes the shipping costs.



New Business - Departmental Reports:
1. Inspiring Spaces Update - Staff will review the last Inspiring Spaces Steering Committee discussions and outline the next steps.

2. Approval of a Recommendation from Parks and Recreation Commission Establishing a Tobacco Free Parks Policy. - There is a current initiative underway between the Catawba County Public Health Department and the North Carolina Community Transformation Grant Project in a unified effort that would establish tobacco free parks in all local governments within Catawba County. Municipalities in the county currently have smoke free policies in place for buildings. All City of Hickory buildings have been smoke free since 1993. Additionally, discussions have been underway for several years to establish tobacco free grounds policies across the county as well. Staff presented two (2) tobacco free parks policies to the Parks and Recreation Commission for consideration at their October 8, 2013 meeting. The first policy option would prohibit the use of tobacco products in all park areas. The second policy option stipulates that tobacco products may be used only in the paved parking lots located in the parks. Whichever policy is adopted would become effective January 1, 2014.

3. Analysis of City Manager’s Employment Agreement - At the November 19, 2013 City Council meeting, Mayor Wright asked that at the next meeting staff provide explanation of how the City Manager’s pay is determined. The manager will review the employment agreement and salary
history since his employment in August 2004.

We all have to eat a little S***

Today is Corporatocracy Day here in America. Black Friday is a day when people run out to buy things that they don't need... made in countries that support poor labor practices... by people making a couple bucks a day... for Multi-National Corporations paying huge bucks to senior management, while sending the jobs of the vary people who buy their products to those countries that are more than willing to allow them to carry out this treason against the United States.

These corporations have done as much, if not more, damage to the United States as any military could. Look at the infrastructure crumbling. It doesn't necessarily take a bomb to destroy property... and the gullible follow right along.

Please watch the clip below. It is from a movie I enjoyed a lot that came out 7 years ago. The movie is Fast Food Nation (2006) and it is adapted from a book entitled Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001). The movie has an All Star cast and though quirky I believe the story is told well.

In this clip, the Bruce Willis character (Harry Rydell) admits to the Greg Kinnear character (Don Anderson) knowing there is fecal matter in the Ground Chuck used to produce the company's top selling burger "The Big One."

How many times do we run across this mindset in our everyday lives. At the end watch as Bruce Willis slaps his belly as if to say, 'I'm full (fat, dumb, and happy). Don't rock the boat Don. I'm on your side until it hits the fan. Then I'll sell you out. Be careful where you tread Donnie Boy.'  He doesn't care if people get sick or what effects this could have on the company. All he cares is that today he gets to be fat, dumb, and happy.

This is the mindset that is killing this country.

***  Had to take the video down due to copyright issues.

Happy Thanksgiving - November 28, 2013

How US Picked Date for Thanksgiving - Newsmax.com - Cathy Burke - November 27, 2013 - President George Washington was the first to set an official date for Americans to give thanks, but it took politicians 152 years more to get it right.                It wasn't until October 1777 that all 13 colonies celebrated Thanksgiving, but its official commemoration came in 1789, when Washington proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 26 "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer," especially for the chance to form a new nation and its constitution.                        The timing varied in subsequent years, with other presidents trying to switch things to their own liking.                    In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set a date for Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, and that worked for the next 75 years.                       In 1939, however, when the last Thursday was also the last day of November, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that was too close to Christmas, so he moved the day of thanks to the second Thursday in November.                      Thirty-two states followed suit, but 16 others held out, and for the next two years, the United States celebrated Thanksgiving at two different times.                 Congress stepped in to end the confusion in 1941, passing a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November as the legal day for Thanksgiving.                    The Senate, mindful of the 1939 debacle, amended the resolution to say the fourth Thursday in November, accommodating those years when November has five.                      Roosevelt signed the bill into law on Dec. 26, 1941.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation - October 3, 1789

Abraham Lincoln, father of the Thanksgiving holiday - USA Today - David Jackson - November 26, 2013

Thanksgiving Prayer
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving - Wikipedia - This was a tradition when I was a kid.






Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Wikipedia - was another Thanksgiving tradition.

The Health Care Fiasco on a personal level

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.

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.