BloggeRhythms 7/14/2013

Haven’t written about Edward Snowden much at all. Primarily because, until all the actual details of his actions, situation and purpose are known, I have no clue as to what his real story is. I further suspect that other than he -and whoever he might be associated with- neither does anyone else. So, sitting here speculating with no hard facts, makes no sense to me.

 

Nonetheless, a link on Drudge caught my eye leading to an article by Geoff Dyer, a Washington based reporter for London’s Financial Times. The headline was, “Snowden revelations stir up anti-US sentiment.”

 

Mr. Dyer points out that, Snowden “has managed to create uproar in Europe with information about the bugging of EU offices and over the past week he has created a new international stir in Latin America.”

While the rest of the column contains details, background information and a chronology of Snowden’s known activities until now, it was the last paragraph that triggered my thoughts for today, and this is what it says: “US officials believe the sentiments aroused by Mr. Snowden will dissipate. “Great powers all engage in espionage. That includes China, Russia and the US,” says Jim Lewis, a former intelligence official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It’s not war, it’s not an attack, it’s not use of force, it’s not even coercion.”

Now, Mr. Lewis’ explanation made perfect sense to me because it reminded me not only of my business career, but how the world really works overall.

I’ve been in, or further responsible for, commission sales almost my entire professional life. And after all is said and done, I’ve chosen that road because that’s where the greatest opportunity for earning exists. So much so, that commissioned folks often earn more than those who employ them and frequently financially exceed owners of the business entities they represent.

However, the downside is, as they say in the trade, as far as remaining employed goes your usually only “as good as your last deal.” Which means that if you trip, slip, or fail in your endeavors, the probability is you’ll be axed in a New York minute, and out the door. Because the reason businesses compensate producers so highly is that they’re the one‘s that pay the rent. And, if top producers can’t continually do that, there are no acceptable excuses, the time has come to immediately hire somebody else who can.

So, coming back to the world’s complaints about the overpowering capabilities possessed by the U.S, in a lot of ways it’s remindful of how business works in its purest sense. Because if our nation used its expertise and capabilities to build an entity that can outperform any, or all, of the others, that was by choice and prerogative. And if others didn’t, wouldn’t, or can't compete at that level that’s not America’s fault or problem, its their own.

And what seems absolutely ridiculous to me is when losers or weaklings whine and moan because somebody better might be taking advantage of the strengths and capabilities they built for themselves. My answer to wimps is to get out of the game and come back after you grow up, or find some quiet room and cry to yourself. Because competition isn’t a joke and winners ride while losers walk, and that’s what becoming the best is all about. So, like it or stuff it, and I really don't care which one you choose.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/13/2013

A friend posted this photo on Facebook this morning, along with the text which I’ve pasted below exactly as written.

 

 

“If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying. This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, "on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately.

 

When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU." GOD Bless Our Warriors. Send the ACLU to Afghanistan!”

 

I couldn’t put it any better than the commandant did, and absolutely agree that the ACLU’s relocation to Afghanistan would be a good thing for all of us. Although I could suggest another place, even hotter. But before they go, I’ve got a question for them. Exactly how comfortable would they be in their causes and biased demands if folks like those who join the marines, putting their lives on the line daily, weren’t there to insure and protect those rights for them?

 

Now, having led off with the finest, bravest individuals our nation has to offer, I’ll move on to the other extreme with some examples of the scum of the earth, addressed in an article from Fox News.com titled, “The year of the cad?”

 

The text points out that South Carolina Republican, Mark Sanford, was elected to Congress in a May 2013 special election -- four years after acknowledging an extra-marital affair while governor.

 

And now New York Democrat, Anthony Weiner, “who resigned from Congress in 2011 after tweeting seminude pictures of himself, has joined the New York City gubernatorial race, leading a large field by 4 percentage points, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC NY/Marist College poll.”

 

Then there’s also Democrat, Elliott Spitzer, forced from office in 2008 after revelations he was a frequent customer of a high-end call-girl service.”

 

Now, I’m no prude by any stretch, nor naïve either and been around long enough to rarely be shocked by anything folks do. Furthermore, as long as they leave me alone, I couldn’t care less about what they do with others, sexually or otherwise. So, if they’re kinky, voyeurs, perverts, deviates or worse that’s their problem to deal with, not mine.

 

However, in governance there's something called public trust. There are also the responsibilities of representing other's, presenting an image reflecting the values, judgments, ideals and expectations of those constituents. Therefore, elected positions should be won by the finest among us. But, on the other hand, if the three colossal failures listed above are the best that have an interest in running for office, it has to be the dirtiest, sleaziest, most worthless occupation on earth.

 

Which brings me to my next subject, Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, whom I wrote up yesterday. 

 

According to Fox News.com: “The leadership vacancy created by [Napolitano's] resignation is the latest and greatest blow to a department where one-third of the heads of key agencies and divisions have been filled with acting officials or remained vacant for months.

 

Her departure, slated for September, will create the 15th hole in the department's 45 leadership positions. Napolitano's chief of staff and the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are leaving this month. 

 

The pattern of putting acting officials in leadership positions at the Homeland Security Department-- sometimes replacing acting officials with other acting officials -- has been going on for months. This swath of vacancies raises questions about how a department depleted of permanent leadership could implement changes, particularly as Congress considers overhauling the nation's immigration system.”

 

So, here we have Democrats trying to ram a poorly drafted, weak immigration bill down the nation’s throat, promising that sometime in the future illegal immigration will be curtailed. Yet their Homeland Security department presently has no effective leadership at all and is obviously a subject they care nothing about whatsoever, while they lie through their teeth about how they plan to fix it quickly. 

 

And mentioning absence of leadership brings us to U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, “who took 62 out-of-town trips in fiscal year 2011 at a cost of at least $1.45 million, according to a set of disclosures sent to Bloomberg News.” 

 

Travel included a trip to Las Vegas, marked business and personal,  costing $46,358. Nine other trips, including visits to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Miami, were labeled “personal,” and cost a combined $169,502. He took an $83,002 flight to Krakow, Poland to attend the G-6 summit. 

 

Flight costs for seven trips, including journeys to China, Hawaii and Brussels, weren’t provided. 

 

Furthermore, “As attorney general, Holder is a “required use” official who is compelled by executive order to use government aircraft for all travel while in office due to “security and communications needs,” according to a February 2013 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. For personal trips, Holder is required to reimburse the government for the equivalent commercial coach fare, which is often much less than the total trip costs, the GAO said.”

 

As I read the preceding, absorbing that the attorney general spent almost a million and a half dollars on travel in a single year, I had to wonder how someone heading the Justice Department in DC did all that travel and why. Especially when the destinations included Las Vegas, Martha’s Vineyard, Miami, China, Hawaii, Brussels and Poland. 

 

But then I realized that much like the other stories I covered today, so much of leadership quality is established by example. Therefore, if the guy at the very top of the administration ducks decision-making and avoids responsibility by constantly travelling to other places, I guess its no wonder that other incompetent’s in his cabinet do the exact same thing.

 

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/12/2013

I really don’t pay much attention to government workers compensation. During most of my business career, it was the private sector that provided economic opportunity and I rarely, if ever, thought anyone would seek any kind of public service position for the “money.”

 

Now, naturally, there were many already wealthy individuals and others who’d been financially successful elsewhere, later deciding to enter the public sector. Most of them were considered patriotic, dedicated citizens for abandoning self-interests to serve for the greater good. Folks like the Roosevelt's, Rockefeller’s and Kennedy’s come to mind. And certainly, none of them truly needed whatever compensation their public positions yielded.

 

Along the line, there were also those who abused their power, accepting bribes, engaged in graft and involving themselves in corrupt activities or shady deals, but most of that was abided by the public as small-time dalliance, so long as jobs themselves were performed in acceptable manners.

 

And then, in the late 1980’s and early 90’s, when Bill Clinton arose as a national presence, although corruption, power abuse and money as primary motivations for public service were still relatively small in scope, awareness rose considerably. Nonetheless, he ascended to the presidency, despite the taint and distrust associated with his name.

 

Now, here we are thirty years later, where a couple of headlines on Drudge clearly illustrate how much things have changed. Because, politics and public service are not only now among the highest compensated occupations in the nation, I think it’s truly incredible how things have developed career-wise overall.

 

According to Amy Chozik of The New York Times, “Just a few months after leaving the State Department, Hillary Rodham Clinton has plunged into the lucrative world of paid speechmaking, joining a branch of the family business that has brought the Clintons more than $100 million since her husband left the White House in 2001.”

 

So, here we have Slick Willy who’s built himself into a national icon, while also collecting the rewards attained by virtue of his prior position as POTUS. His wife, however, accomplished absolutely nothing other than marrying Bill, yet still demands $200,000 for a speaking engagement. That’s an awful lot of cash for an empty pants-suit wed to a high profile guy.

 

Along the same lines we also have Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, who according to Larry Gordon of the Los Angeles Times is being named as the next president of the University of California system.

 

Mr. Gordon reports that it’s “an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, The Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.”

 

In this case, we have someone who’s stood by while the nation’s border with Mexico has become so porous nobody really knows how many illegal aliens cross it each day. She’s also the person who’s blocked every reasonable attempt to uphold our immigration laws to the extent that subversives from other lands now enter the U.S. the same way, knowing there’s little chance of ever being caught.

 

But, in the end it really doesn’t matter how poorly she’s performed because she’s moving on to become the next president of the University of California system. What’s more, it appears that as a reward for total incapable job performance, she’s receiving a handsome reward.

 

While I couldn’t find current information about her compensation, I found her predecessors, Mark G. Yudof.

 

According to Wikipedia, in 2008 Yudof received “an annual base salary of $591,084 (The UC salary falls below the midpoint salary ($606,200) set for this position by the Board of Regents and below the median salary ($644,900) of leaders of similar public and private universities used by the California Postsecondary Education Commission for comparison purposes.”

 

Additionally, “Supplemental pension funding amounting to $228,000 in 2008-09 and varying somewhat each year thereafter. Along with, an automobile allowance of $743 per month or $8,916 per year and University-provided housing, as a condition of employment.”

 

So, here we have another total incompetent from government leaving a post for another which will likely pay her around a million bucks per annum. Which means, I guess, I’ll have to change my opinion of those who enter public service. Because today, as strange as it may sound, these dregs of society are doing it because that’s the road to where the money is. Who would have believed it?

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/11/2013

Just returned from a day of travel for personal reasons. Stopped for gas this morning, paying $3.64 per gallon which sounds like a reasonable price, demonstrating how inured we’ve all become to spending hard-earned money because of a bunch of radical's lunatic, baseless environmental ideas.

 

Thanks to these zealots misguided perceptions, fuel now sells for almost twice as it should, and indications are prices are likely to rise even higher in the near future. About two weeks ago, the barrel price for oil ranged from the high eighties to low nineties, still far higher than it should be, but better than it's been for quite some time. Additionally, consumption had waned, suggesting further future reductions.

 

And then some Egyptians decided to overthrow their government, riot in the streets and by their actions raise the possibility of harm or closure regarding the Suez Canal. Whereupon speculators seized the opportunity to gouge future prices, which this afternoon closed at $106.40 per barrel, up $16.00 or so from where it was before the insurgency began.

 

Which brings me back to the same question I keep raising frequently. How long are people going to sit still, while the incumbent continues to block the Keystone pipeline, cuts back licensing for shale, and curtails off-shore-drilling, particularly in the gulf of Mexico?

 

A couple of days ago, I wrote about some Middle-Eastern guy who bought a half-billion dollar boat, trying to make the point that I thought it beyond tragic that there are U.S. citizens who have to decide between purchasing food or fuel. Yet, trillions of our dollars have wound up overseas, simply because of misguided political ideology and distortion of facts. And I for one, am very, very tired of paying so dearly for idealist’s mistakes, but most often it seems no one else cares at all. Which is why I get the feeling I'm (no pun intended) yelling down a well.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/10/2013

An item on Fox News.com this morning points out a problem in our system of governance that likely cannot be really fixed, but does need some kind of adjustment. And, once again, the issue involves the IRS.

 

According to Fox, “House Republicans want the IRS to pay for targeting political groups and are pushing legislation that would cut the tax collecting agency’s budget by $3 billion -- nearly a quarter of what it received last fiscal year.

 

The cuts aren’t sitting well with the National Treasury Employees Union which represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.

 

Union President, Colleen Kelley, “argues that the tax agency should not be penalized because a May 14 audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration “found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing or political motivation on the part of IRS employees in the tax-exempt division.”

Now, I remember watching the televised IRS hearings, and when the subject of wrongdoing or political motivation was concerned, Inspector General, J. Russell George, specifically stated that his departmental audit wasn’t charged with seeking information regarding any specific employee’s performance. Consequently, since he wasn’t looking for evidence regarding any individuals behavior, obviously none was found.

I mention the forgoing because, regardless of what finally happens with budget cuts, employee compensation or union bargaining, there’s something horrendously wrong with the entire IRS from top to bottom. And that’s the flaw in our system. Because for anything else but government services, customers can turn to competition, which in a case like this would solve the problem immediately, whereas folks would go somewhere else to conduct their business.    

 

So here we are, faced with incredible incompetence and the absolute worst in job performance, total mismanagement and misdirected departmental goals and objectives. And yet we’re forced to not only wait while a bunch of incompetents tries to weasel their way out of a horrendous quagmire they created themselves, but there’s a very good chance that this band of lying bozo’s won’t lose any jobs, income or bonuses in spite of it.  

On the other hand though, if the IRS were a real business having to provide acceptable customer service, I wouldn’t be sitting here typing about them at all, because they'd have long ago been forced out of existence.  

 

Now, I don’t know what the answer is, and I’m certainly not suggesting opening a competitive government. But, I think the time’s come that a flat tax be enacted and the IRS cut to about 10% of its present size and structure with practically no responsibility whatsoever.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/9/2013

If the incumbent had gone into the automobile business, instead of whatever it is he really does for a living, my guess is he would have designed the Edsel.

 

For those not familiar with the name, according to Wikipedia: “The Edsel was an automobile planned, developed, and manufactured by Ford during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. It was expected to make significant inroads into the market share of both General Motors and Chrysler and close the gap between itself and GM in the domestic American automotive market. But contrary to Ford's internal plans and projections, the Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly. The Ford Motor Company lost millions of dollars on it’s development, manufacturing and marketing."

 

Presently, as every day goes by, the administration’s mistaken ideas and constant misjudgment's look more and more like the Edsel fiasco. The exception being that Ford eventually recovered from its one mistake, but the administration keeps repeating its errors, botching everything it touches, making things consistently worse.

 

In that regard, there are three more disasters so far  today, but its only noon, so there’s plenty of time for a few more.

 

According to Fox News.com: “Some smokers trying to get coverage next year under President Barack Obama's health care law may get a break from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable.

 

The Obama administration — in yet another health care overhaul delay — has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

 

Older smokers are more likely to benefit from the glitch, experts say. But depending on how insurers respond to it, it's also possible that younger smokers could wind up facing higher penalties than they otherwise would have.

 

Premiums for a standard "silver" insurance plan would be about $9,000 a year for a 64-year-old non-smoker, according to the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator. That's before any tax credits, available on a sliding scale based on income.

 

For a smoker of the same age, the full 50 percent penalty would add more than $4,500 to the cost of the policy, bringing it to nearly $13,600. And tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty.”

 

Now, ordinarily I’d just read the item, shake my head in disgust and not give the subject much further thought. However, since the incumbent’s involved and I know that older folks are more likely to vote, I did some research and found that in 2011, tobacco lobbies spent $6,638,837 on their cause. 

 

And although the sum’s not really not that great for D.C., those tobacco folks still expect some bang for their bucks which is probably why they got a free ride for a year. Which gives them time to up their spending, and if it’s enough, maybe next time the smoker’s penalty will be erased altogether. Because even though those at the administration’s top can’t perform their jobs well at all, they’ve always been for sale to the highest bidders. 

 

In item two, Elizabeth Harrington of CNSNews.com, reports that “The number of Americans receiving subsidized food assistance from the federal government has risen to 101 million, representing roughly a third of the U.S. population. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a total of 101,000,000 people currently participate in at least one of the 15 food programs offered by the agency, at a cost of $114 billion in fiscal year 2012.” 

 

At the same time, I found that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 97,180,000 full-time private sector workers in 2012. 

 

Consequently, thanks to the marvelous job the administration’s done with the economy, there are now more Americans receiving food assistance then there are employed. All of which makes me wonder what the un and under-employed rolls will grow to when health care taxes really take hold and businesses find them totally unaffordable.

 

And, regarding the looming health care tax fiasco, the programs will be handled by the IRS -currently buried in gross mismanagement issues, total ineptitude, and illegal political bias- adding to the tasks they’re already incapable of fulfilling now.

 

Further proof of their absolute incapability surfaced today today when, according to Fox News.com, “The IRS mistakenly posted the Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of Americans on a government website, the agency confirmed Monday night. One estimate put the figure as high as 100,000 names.

 

The numbers were posted to an IRS database for tax-exempt political groups known as 527s and first discovered by the group Public.Resource.org.

 

An IRS spokesman told FoxNews.com on Monday the agency was alerted about a "substantial number" of Social Security numbers posted on the site and removed web access to the information "out of an abundance of caution." The spokesman also said the IRS is now "assessing the situation and exploring available options."

 

In the meantime, nonetheless, 100,000 innocent taxpayers have had one of their most personal and invaluable private pieces of information haphazardly disclosed by a dithering bunch of dunces who'd be challenged by the task of simply lining up in alphabetical order.   

 

So, as noted above, the administration’s three for three today, which in baseball would be pretty good performance in batting. Unfortunately, though, these were three huge errors which would immediately send players back to the minor leagues where they obviously belong.

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 7/8/2013

Scanning Drudge this morning, I clicked on a link titled, “World's largest yacht sets sail for first time.”

Curious about who’d bought it, I found that the owner’s name would not be disclosed, but the craft’s name was “Azzam,” believed to “have been ordered by a Middle-Eastern billionaire,” arousing my interest even further.

My search next led me to the Wikipedia encyclopedia which contained only one match: Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, described as follows: A highly influential Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, who preached in favor of defensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders. He raised funds, recruited, and organized the international Islamic volunteer effort of Afghan Arabs through the 1980s, and emphasized the political ascension of Islamism.

He is also known as a teacher and mentor of Osama bin Laden, who persuaded bin Laden to come to Afghanistan and help the jihad, though the two differed as to where the next front in global jihad should be after the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan. He was killed by a bomb blast on November 24, 1989’

Azzam's trademark slogan was "Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues." In Join the Caravan, Azzam implored Muslims to rally in defense of Muslim victims of aggression, to restore Muslim lands from foreign domination, and to uphold the Muslim faith.”

Now, I fully realize my simple search provides nothing on which to form even the slightest conclusion, and that from what I learned so far, I can establish absolutely no certainty.

Nonetheless, letting my imagination wander based on what I’d found, the only Middle-Eastern business I know of that could yield enough money to buy this boat would be oil. And since the 590 foot long vessel cost £400 million, at an exchange rate of 1.4941dollars per pound, that comes to about $596 million dollars.

So, taking my supposing’s to the next step, I couldn’t help but think there’s likely a guy in the desert, dedicating his new half-billion dollar toy to someone desiring to expand the jihad, and paying for it with our hard-earned money. Yet, if tired, outdated, environmental restrictions were lifted, those dollars would still be here, funding our economy like they should be. Instead however, it seems we just bought a sand-surrounded camel jockey a boat. And, to me,  it just doesn’t get any dumber than that.

If you’re interested in the yacht, here’s a link: World's largest yacht sets sail for first time

That’s it for today folks.

Adios