Freedom of Philadelphia

Both Merlyworm and I have done many posts here regarding the slippage of our world into the Randian (is that a word? If not it should be) world of Atlas Shrugged. So many that I’ve created a category for it now and will start moving posts into it! I’m calling what’s going on the “Atlas Effect“.

Over the last couple of years we’ve seen the world start shifting radically towards the bleak future describe by Rand. Lately people have been saying “Who is John Galt” in relation to the wealth redistrubition efforts of our Media sanctified and elected President Obama. With a stimulus bill designed to primarily spread government money around to those recipients that it deems most worthy i.e. government itself.  There have been mass protests called “Tea Partys in multiple cities decrying the spending of our childrens inheritance. Oh what’s that you say? You haven’t heard about it on your local media? Of course not, you can not tell the emperor he has no clothes! Do a google search “Philadelphia Tea Party Inquirer“ and you’ll find nothing in Philadelphia’s largest newspaper about it. Ironically the 3rd link listed is one talking about how the owner of the cities 2 largest newspapers filed for bankruptcy! We’re told that the stimulus plan and the coming tax hikes on the rich are for the benefit of the middle class and for the poor. What’s that Vice President Biden, it’s our duty to be patriotic and pay more taxes?  When people start talking like that, when they use words like “fair for everyone” and “equalization of wealth” it’s a sign of the “Atlas Effect”.

We’ve seen people start to discuss whether or not it’s worth it to work so hard and make what they make. So imagine if you’re a small business owner. You’ve worked hard to build a clientele and it’s paying off for you now. You’re income is starting to rise above that 250k a year line. What do you do? Do you expand, hire some more people and build on your clientele or do you pull back and make less? Sure you could make more money but is it worth being classified as “rich” and falling into an excessive tax bracket? Of course it isn’t, you’d end up working even more just to bring home as much as you did below that line so you don’t hire those few more workers, you don’t expand you product line. You go Galt. Going Galt hurts the government by hurting it’s ability to rake in tax revenues. Unfortunately, it has the collateral damage effect of really hurting the economy. Another sign of the “Atlas Effect“.

We also need to remember that this is not just an American problem. We live in a global economy and an ever shrinking world. The “Atlas Effect” just doesn’t show up here in America. Rand wrote about things that would happen in other countries. An integral part of her book was how Venezuela’s nationalization of the copper mines and Mexico’s nationalization of an American built railroad effected situations here. Well guess what folks, Venezuela has nationalized energy production, steel plants, cement plants, telecommunication companies and just today nationalized a rice processing plant owned by American company Cargill. Cargill operates 13 plants in Venezuela (well I guess 12 now), when Chavez turns his eye towards the other plants don’t you think that might have an effect on Cargill here? Perhaps the loss of that plant causes them to rethink opening a new feed mill in Arizona while they recoup those losses? Once again, the “Atlas Effect” in action.

When you look at all that’s going on through a larger scope, looking at all the pieces as they are falling in place you have to be worried. Events unfold every day here in America and throughout the world that are practically cribbed right from Rands book and if you read it, you realize there was no happy ending in it. Have we started to slide down this slope too fast? Are we too far gone to avoid the ending? I don’t know. I like to think that the country that survived the Great Depression, that basically saved the world 3 times (WWI, WWII, and the cold war) will not be brought down so easily. It does make me all wonder though, if this much of her story is coming to pass then who and where is John Galt now?

I love my iPod. Nevermind that I dislike Steve Jobs more than Bill gates. I refuse to think about it.

Anyways, I load my iPod every morning from a couple of radio shows I never get a chance to listen to, and listen to them on the way to work, on break, and on the way home. One of these is a silly FM rock-jock morning show. They’re VERY funny, but they usually only put 1-2 short segments on their site. One of these was an interview with John Ziegler.

Who is John Ziegler? Well, the press really doesn’t want you to know, or even hear about him. See, he made a movie called, “Media Malpractice: How Obama got Elected and Palin was Targeted.” Interesting, eh? This is something most of us on the ‘right’ know about and see everyday: the fairness of the liberal press. This movie points out, using very hard to argue with facts and polls of voters, just how badly the press was backing Obama over everyone else. I would suggest you watch the clips on his site. Some of them are seriously depressing. Like the college student looking woman saying “Redistribute wealth? That sounds like a great idea!” Man. I’ll be ordering the movie as soon as I can. (Kids eat too much. heh)

Which leads me to the main point I wanted to make. The press has become more than what was expected of them by our founders. The Press (capital intended) has become the driving political force in this country. More and more people get their information from only the Press, thus the Press controls the flow of information..and more importantly, DISinformation.

The Press has become the true power in the country. THEY control everything. Even the economy! A recession such as we have now can be created and driven by the perception that there’s a recession. I firmly believe that this recession was created, purposfully, by the Press. Why? To get Obama elected. To oust the Republican party from power. All because the electorite really doesn’t try to find out facts. They accept as facts the things they are told. Like Palin is incredibly stupid. That Obama will save us all. That Dubya is a moron.

What can we do? Spread facts. Dont let the Press take over the country. Read for yourself the things going on in the world and around you. The Press is ruining this country.

-Merlyworm

Seems like the Obama administration has decided to create a logo for any projects funded by the massive porkulus steal from our kids Stimulus plan.

See now this picture is going to be used on projects funded by the stimulus plan. That way, you and I as the taxpayers know where our money went and that it’s being put to good use. Isn’t it purty? See the leaf represents green technologies paid for by the carbon cap and trade taxes. The gears represent the factories closed down after Card Check forced the owners into bankruptcy and the stars represent the dreams of so many Americans that will never get fulfilled.

So as we walk to the unemployment lines because we can’t pay the carbon tax to drive our cars there we’ll be mollified just a bit. So as we stand in line waiting for our cheese, we won’t be quite as hungry. When our kids ask us where their inheritance is, where is the shining city on the hill we were supposed to leave them? When the words fail us to explain how we got suckered in and spent their money on rainbow shitting unicorns full of empty projects we can point to the sign. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case 9000 earmarks.

Of course there was another culture in recent memory that had to go through the same things we’re heading towards America. They had a sign too, there’s was a little different in appearance but the sentiment and results were the same as ours will be.

Wake up America and welcome to the new proletariat.

A couple days ago, I was at work and talking to a couple of my coworkers about the stimulus package. Its amazing how little people understand about simple economics. Its depressing as hell.

All everyone is worried about is getting a check from on high. Not a single person understands where the money is coming from. When I pointed out that the money is being borrowed and will have to be paid back by our children and their children, they either don’t believe it, or even worse don’t care.

What has happened to education in this country? I know everything I have learned about economics has not come from my public education. I had to learn it on my own, and use logic to think things through. Not a single bit of it comes from school. Hell, most people don’t even understand that government spending and raising taxes will make the recession worse, not help it.

I firmly believe that this is not an accident. An ignorant public is exactly what our government wants. This way they can tell you whatever they want and the public, not knowing better, just believes. Joe Public believes that Obama and Nancy Pelosi have their best interests at heart. When in reality, they dont care a bit. All they want is to further their own schemes and socialistic morals.

“Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” – Ronald Reagan

There’s a song “Where have all the Cowboys Gone.”  My question is “Where have all the conservatives gone?” Why can’t we get a real conservative to run for President? McCain is a RINO. Dubya wasn’t really a conservative either.

Really, tho, this isn’t the fault of the Republican Party so much as the fault of the voters:

“In a democracy, people get the government they deserve.”

And considering what I’ve seen, we deserve it.

-Merlyworm

Saw this over at Atlas Shrugs and had to post about it and share with the rest of CAII. The video here is from Cohen and Grigsby, a law company with offices in Pittsburgh, Pa and Bonita, Fla. and in Naples, Fla. It shows representatives from Cohen showing employers how to game the system and not hire American’s for jobs. These aren’t low paying “fruit picking” jobs either. These are high paying programmer type jobs. It’s rather disgusting.

You can contact Cohen and Grigsby in Pennsylvania to tell them about how distasteful their practices are here:

Pittsburgh, PA
11 Stanwix Street
15th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1319
TEL: 412.297.4900
FAX: 412.209.0672

Naples Florida offices here:

>1100 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 301
Naples, FL 34102-6407
TEL: 239.430.1800
FAX: 239.430.1840

and Bonita Florida here:

27200 Riverview Center Boulevard
Suite 309
Bonita Springs, FL 34134-4317
TEL: 239.390.1900
FAX: 239.390.1901

For more information on how lawyers like this are helping American companies find ways to not hire American workers check out the Programmers Guild.org for more info. Here’s an interesting bit of info from the Programmers Guild.

While the U.S. lost about 500,000 tech jobs between 2000 and 2003, Congress admitted about 500,000 foreign tech workers on nonimmigrant visas: L-1 and H-1B – resulting in the displacement of over one million American workers. These visas provide no protection to U.S. workers, as employers are not required to consider U.S. applicants as a condition of obtaining H-1B visas. Even with record unemployment and new graduates unable to find work, Congress continues to flood the job market.

While protecting Citizens is among the most important roles of government, the U.S. Congress has knowingly violated the liberty and property interests that 500,000 Americans had in their chosen profession by allowing them to be displaced by foreign workers. Many highly skilled U.S. workers now work at Wal-Mart and Borders Books, while their jobs have been given to foreign workers.

It’s a fiction that the United States suffers a shortage of skilled labor, and most H-1B aliens fill entry-level jobs. By far the most H-1Bs are issued to people from India, with the second largest number coming from China.

On Oct 8 2004 the San Jose Mercury News reported that 50% of U.S. tech workers have been displaced from the profession. On Oct 9, 2004 the Indian press concedes the reduced H-1B visa quotas is “bad news for Indian body shops,” and reveals that many companies “sandbag” visas, securing visa before they even have the need for them.

Corporations continue importing H-1B aliens at the same time they lay off U.S. citizens. In 2002 the DOL granted 8000 LCAs for H-1B visas to Intel, even as Intel was laying of it’s American IT workers. The USICS website explains how easy it is to hire an H-1b rather than an American.

With hundreds of thousands of unemployed American engineers, why should corporations receive special privileges to import even more foreign workers?

Corporations love H-1B aliens not only because they work longer hours for lower wages, but also because it is more difficult for them to change jobs. This system is an affront to free enterprise because the regulations confine the foreigners to their sponsoring corporations like indentured servants.

Government officials don’t check for violations of H-1B regulations or determine if there really is an actual shortage of U.S. skilled workers.

Computer science expert Dr. Norman Matloff provided ample proof to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, that H-1B aliens depress wages for all workers. He cited a UCLA study that H-1B engineers were paid 33 percent less than comparable Americans, a Cornell study that found wages 20-30 percent less, and a Forbes Magazine report that H-1B wages are 25-30 percent less.

This is not free-market economics. It is collusion between corporations that pour big money into politics to pass legislation that replaces American workers with foreign substitutes. The law keeps wages artificially low for the benefit of corporate profits.

Siemens ICN, used L-1 visas to replace 20 American computer techies with aliens from India. “Management mandated we train our foreign replacements, then Americans were shown the door. It was the most demoralizing thing I have ever experienced,” stated Mike Emmons.

These nonimmigrant visas are causing irreparable constitutional harm to Americans and should be suspended immediately.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

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