Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

We live in interesting times...

Barack Obama has won the Presidential election with a 1.7% margin of the popular vote. That makes for an evenly divided country with the cities being Democratic and the rural areas being Republican.

We may see gridlock on a continuing basis with a Republican House and a Democratic Senate and Executive Branch, but Obama now has the chance to stack the Supreme Court with Liberal judges, so his plans for making the US a Socialist country will continue at an accellerated rate.

The only problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money so we will probably encounter problems with the current uncontrolled printing of money as the government spends more than the country produces.

Will we see more bankrupt cities? I think so, but I could be wrong. The idea of more Detroits makes me shudder.

Either the Administration figures out how to get its act together so American small businesses can grow  and prosper or we will see a rapid growth in an underground economy where more and more transactiona are being done off the books in an effort to evade confiscatory taxes.

Living in flyover country will have more significance than ever before. I can envision that the quality of rural life and urban life will move in different directions as pressures increase to make the government provide an ever increasing range of free services.

If we can keep working together at the local levels and avoid the extreme polarization which has permeated the political scene for the past two years, we will probably be able to come to a rational solution that benefits our families and the children to come.

Looking at our common needs and desires can allow us to work through the issues of the next four years. Looking only at our philosophical differences will get us nothing but strife and stagnation.

It will definitely be a challenge and challenges are best handled with the most cheerful attitude we can muster. Let's make it happen!

 

The Completely Boring List of Barack Obama’s Scandals, Misdeeds, Crimes and Blunders

[Reposted from PJ Media http://tinyurl.com/c8v2eph]

I only say it is boring because we have been subjected to this unbelievable outrage for almost four years:

• $6 trillion in new national debt under Obama…after he promised to decrease the deficit.

• Obamacare — A massive and incredibly convoluted bill which exponentially increases the federal government’s control over our personal lives…which neither Obama nor a single Democrat even read before passing, and which will likely bankrupt the nation.

• In both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, the Obama campaign purposely disabled the credit card verification system for its Web site donations, allowing anyone from any foreign country to donate with no limit and no proof of identity; in both elections it was demonstrated that people overseas and people with obviously false identities were able to donate to Obama campaign, in direct violation of several laws. To this day it is not known what percentage of Obama’s campaign funds are illegally obtained, since there is no documentation.

• Billions of taxpayer dollars gambled on “green” companies like Solyndra, NextEra, Ener1, Solar Trust and many others — all of which went bankrupt.

• An intentional refusal to enforce federal immigration laws.

• Unemployment at or above 8% for almost his entire term in office (which was actually closer to 15% actual unemployment).

• Operation Fast & Furious — a government-sponsored illegal gun-running scheme designed to purposely go awry so as to induce public outcry for gun control.

• Spent 20 years listening to a racist anti-American pastor (Rev. Jeremiah Wright), whom Obama described as a mentor. On March 18, 2008, Obama gave a speech in which he said “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother” and “[Wright's church, Trinity United] embodies the black community in its entirety.” Now Obama tries to pretend that Jeremiah Wright doesn’t exist, and that his extremist anti-white philosophy didn’t influence Obama’s worldview.

• Increased the percentage of Americans dependent on food stamps to unprecedented levels (now over 15% of the nation’s population).

• Militarily intervened in Libya in 2011 without the Congressional approval required by the War Powers Act — technically an impeachable offense.

2012 Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on Oct 16 - transcripts

 

Last night's debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney was claimed as a victory by both sides. Candy Crowley was supportive of Obama as expected and gave him additional time, but both candidates had a chance to show their degree of preparedness. "Fact checkers" on both sides had a wonderful time pointing out errors made by the candidate on the other side.

Fortunately, there were running transcripts of the remarks made during last night's debate and you can read them and decide for yourself if your candidate presented himself as you hoped he would.

I have links for the final transcripts by the New York Times and The Washington Post so you can compare them and see if there are omissions or alterations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/us/politics/transcript-of-the-second-presidential-debate-in-hempstead-ny.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/2012-presidential-debate-president-obama-and-mitt-romneys-remarks-at-hofstra-university-on-oct-16-running-transcript/2012/10/16/be8bfb9a-17dd-11e2-9855-71f2b202721b_story.html

They will probably not stay up forever, so you might want to download these transcripts for future reference.

 

 

Outsourcer-In-Chief: Obama Of General Motors

Reposted from Forbes - Paul Roderick Gregory, Contributor

 

Barack Obama delivers his “The End of an Old GM, and the Beginning of a New GM” speech on June 1, 2009 in the Grand Foyer of the White House.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At a Colorado pep rally, President Obama praised his GM bailout as an example for American industry to follow.

“The American automobile industry has come roaring back…So now I want to say what we did with the auto industry, we can do it in manufacturing across America. Let’s make sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in China. And that means supporting investment here. Governor Romney … invested in companies that were called ‘pioneers’ of outsourcing. I don’t want to outsource. I want to insource.” Applause!

According to Obama, GM does everything right. It offers high-paying jobs to American workers. It invests at home. GM put American manufacturing back in the high-tech race on American soil. The new GM is good for America, and America is good for GM, as a former GM chairman declared in 1953. GM is back where it should be.

We need to look no further than General Motors’ own figures to  learn that GM outsources almost two thirds of its jobs overseas. Less than one in five GM vehicles are manufactured in the United States.

Former Cocaine User Obama Attacks Romney Over Event Hosted by Ex-Dealer

Reposted from Breitbart News.

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by Joel B. Pollak 13 Aug 2012

No, wait--seriously? Did the Obama campaign just tweet an Associated Press article about how a guy who owns a juice store that Mitt Romney visited in Miami was once convicted of dealing cocaine, 13 years ago?

Does Barack Obama, who admitted he once had a cocaine habit (has any journalist asked if he still does?), really want to go there? Does he really want us to revisit his history of close association with criminals?

It's not easy being green

A burning Chevy Volt lighting up the landscape illustrates some of the dificulties in achieving an all-green sustainable lifestyle. The path of development has never run smoothly and that is why pioneers get used to scoffers pointing out design flaws.

Creating a green economy with green technology is not all that different from the creation of a digital economy in the years following the Second World War.

Early digital computers were inefficient and unreliable like today's wind generators and all-electric vehicles. They were the butt of many jokes just like today's efforts at capturing wind energy and all-electric transportation.


I was involved in the commercial development of several generations of early digital computers and I know that government support was instrumental in the very early days of computer development. As I recall, however, there was no big push on the part of the government to get us to discard our calculators and pencil and paper. Computers took over the workplace and the homefront when they became MORE CONVENIENT than the alternatives.

I feel there will be a place for wind generators and all electric vehicles when they become MORE CONVENIENT AND COMPETITIVE than our current generators and vehicles. This may only occur in specialized sitations, but I feel we will see working installations with excellent customer satisfaction eventually.  Right now, we see too many failures like this:

The efforts of our current administration to shove untested ideas down our throats will only result in discrediting their motives. The unfortunate examples of crony capitalism like Solyndra, General Moters, and these later failures:

Evergreen Energy-Which has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, saying it’s "impossible to maintain operations" due to funding shortfalls. This announcement comes after the company received $5.3 million in "stimulus" funds.

Abound Solar Manufcturing of Longmount, Colorado received a $400 million federal loan and laid off 70% of its workforce in March, 2012.

Amonix Inc.-A manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the "stimulus", will lay off about 200 employees only seven months after opening a factory in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home State of Nevada.

Beacon Power Corp-Sought bankruptcy protection last year after they received a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

Ener1 Electric-A car battery manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy last Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.

The nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste counts nearly 20 energy companies that have gotten federal loan guarantees or grants that have run into financial trouble ranging from layoffs to losses to bankruptcies. An outside consultant hired by the White House said the Energy Department's loan pool includes $2.7 billion in potentially risky loans and suggests the agency hire a "chief risk officer" to help minimize problems.

To watchdogs, the pattern of firms awarding bonuses only to file for bankruptcy raises questions about how well the Energy Department chose its winners, and how thoroughly it kept an eye on them once selected.

If we are going to see a green economy, perhaps we should see more open and competitive bidding.

Attack Watch, the gift that keeps on giving

In his drive to emulate the success of past tyrannies, Obama has resurrected the concept of an official snitch squad and has created AttackWatch.com where loyal citizens can report on their neighbors who resist the Great Leap Forward to complete government control.

Progressives no longer have to suffer in silence as their neighbors snicker about progressive dreams of an oncoming utopia in which all will receive rewards according to their needs and those that have will be sharing their wealth whether they want to or not.

All of the wannabe occupiers can now report on those spoilsports who insist on exchange instead of encouraging debt. They can go to Attack Watch and get even with those who made something of themselves through hard work and sacrifice.

Comrades, turn in your neighbors now! They may be plotting to unseat the One.

Obama Presidency by the Numbers

Created by John E for Ace:The Obama Presidency - By The Numbers

In this infographic, John E. took a look at various statements and promises made by Barack Obama (and a few others) during both the 2008 campaign and early on in his Presidency. These statements were then set against current statistics and those from inauguration day or 2008 for annual stats.

Here is a large version suitable for framing: