Kids are making drugs. Kids are trafficking the drugs. Our
police nab the kids, track down their suppliers and arrest the minor king pins.
Rarely are the major king pins caught and prosecuted. Meanwhile the jails and prisons
are filling up with young people caught in the web of drugomania. They got into
it without much forethought. Now they have time to think the thoughts they
didn’t take the time to do before now.
The war on drugs is underway. Has been for decades. And the
aftermath is not after anything. It is still in process. We still don’t have
answers. We just have victims, dead bodies, patients in hospitals, lock down
rehab sites and open doors to ongoing aftercare facilities scattered throughout
our neighborhoods and communities. Parents and grand parents don’t understand.
Neither do the kids caught in the spiral.
All we know is it is lethal business.
The Ohio family murders
east of Cincinnati
all are drug related. We thought it was mass murder, or terrorism, or something
else. Well the else won. It is drugs. Skirmishes among the drug heads supplying
others. Turf wars. Revenge against family members. But many of the family
members were production and sales agents for the drugs in production. Even the kids. It is
tawdry. It is simple. It is deadly.
When will we come to grips with this and do something
creative and effective? Time is running out, folks. We need leadership on this
not platitudes and muscle mania or even Trumpmania. That doesn’t work any
better than the War on Drugs.
Think of something better this time?
Putin’s Military War
of Words: Well, well, well. Russia ’s
Putin is putting on his serious face about NATO defense installations at what
once was the USSR ’s
military posts. Putin says this is provocation by the West, NATO and mostly the
US .
What do you think, Putin? Do you really think we don’t get
Sochi Olympics? The sweet talk you gave the world while hosting the Olympics,
all the while you were drugging your athletes so they would win Gold. And while
we were all focusing on those shenanigans you were invading Crimea
and taking it over?
Then you implemented your sloppy takeover of eastern Ukraine ? You
think we don’t notice these things? Don’t be foolish.
We know all about that. We were on to you long ago. And now
you fly planes over lands of peace, invade their air space, shoot up Syria ’s
landscape showing your biceps and bravado while daring other nations trying to
keep peace from doing their jobs.
We get what you are about. You have a populace that thinks
you are wonderful so they give you power for life. But the rest of the world
community understands exactly what’s up. You are at your wits end. You have
drained Russia
of its assets and safeguarded them elsewhere for your personal future use. You
are one of the wealthiest men on the planet. And all from stealing it. While
the Russian people have the wool pulled from their eyes, you do your dirty
work. And you are trying to make it look like Russia is under siege by false
enemies while you stir up the ruckus.
You are a school yard bully, Putin. We know what they look
like. And they are you. Wake up and join the world community and build peace
for the good of your own people and culture.
Sheriff Arpaio Again!:
83 years of age and still in an elected sheriff’s position. He’s an old hand at
his job and has exercised his freedom of action for years. Now the courts have
cited him for contempt. And it’s not the only time Sheriff Arpaio has been
reprimanded for overstepping his authority. But hey, he’s a conservative republican
who doesn’t believe in government, or at least big government. He thinks
elected officials should take the reins and make cutting edge decisions that
get things done quickly with no fanfare.
Trouble is he is the king of fanfare. He rarely doesn’t do anything he doesn’t seek publicity for. He has an over-inflated opinion of
himself and has for decades. Yet the voters continue to return him to office
again and again.
Maybe the courts will finally cure the Phoenix area of their recalcitrant egotist
sheriff and remove him from office. Yeah, I hope that’s what happens. Obviously
the sheriff thinks he is so good that no one can afford not to have him in this
sheriff-for-life position.
Hmmmm. He’s embarrassed the community for decades. I wonder
if they will finally get the message and remove him from office? Time will
tell. But such moves take initiative and hard work. That’s something the Phoenix voters are not willing to do for themselves, so I suspect Arpaio will remain in office until
he dies.
Disappearing Middle
Class: Salaries and wages have stagnated for those in the middle class
demographic. Regardless of their years of service to the same employer, or
their massive accumulation of experience in their jobs, or their education and
advanced degrees, employers continue to hold wages and salaries pretty much
unchanged. And they have reduced benefits and increased employee contributions
to help pay for those benefits.
Caught in the midst of raising kids parents still labor to
put the kids through college. All savings, investments and disposable income
are focused on that one goal. And if they are short the kids seek education
loans and mortgage their own futures for years to come.
This means the middle class will not be able to consume
goods and services as they once did until the kids are out of school. And the
kids, once graduated, are restricted in the cars, apartments or houses they
will obtain. Their purchasing power is restricted by their school loans.
You see the downside effect of stagnated household incomes?
That’s what’s been happening for a dozen years. That’s not an Obama thing; he’s
been working hard to fix it. No, this was the recession of denial caused and
birthed in full during the Bush years.
Economics is not all striving. It is mostly systemic. And if
that system is unbalanced by hook or crook or pure gravity, a price is paid. By
whom? This time around it was the middle class. Trouble is the effects go on
and on with a host of missed opportunities and upset plans.
For example, empty nesters and pre retirement people have a
few years to recover from paying for their kids’ educations. But actually not;
you see they used their 401k’s for tuition and fees and they didn’t up their
savings for retirement while they were paying for college. So retirement
funding has been shorted and the middle class is less able to fulfill their
original plans to fund their retirement years.
That’s how it works. So the housing demand is shorted, so is
the auto market, frills, vacations and clothing. And eating out? Once the
staple behavior of the middle class that is now a receding behavior in favor of
paying utility bills. The disappearing middle class is still present but
without funds; that’s what’s disappearing and the means for others to dream of
becoming middle class? That’s up in smoke, too.
Yet the 1% keep thinking there’s more blood in that turnip.
Wait until they see that isn’t true!
Golf Course Recession:
See ‘Disappearing Middle Class’, above. Enough said!
May 17, 2016
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