iicc-iesi

End of Democracy

2010-01-22T07:38:00.000-06:00

End of Democracy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The newest way to do business - do favors.

2009-10-15T19:54:00.003-05:00

Since I was downsized, I'm focusing on my skills at my computer and with my digital camera. I'm gaining experience by doing favors for people. Digital photography and Adobe Creative Suite 4 allow me to create fliers, posters, websites, electronic forms, presentation slides, T-shirts, mugs, calendars, magazines, posters, and other forms of communication, for free.

Yes, free. Just because I'm unemployed doesn't mean I shouldn't stop gaining experience.

I enrolled in online training at Lynda.com and every day I spend at least two hours training on software such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat Pro, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.

If you visited www.spfld.net in the past you may see some improvements as a result of my continued education. I’m currently working my way through Flash Action Script 3.

The rest of my time is spent looking for work. I occasionally volunteer at a PBS television station, work on other websites, and get involved in political and social causes.

So the new way of doing things, since no one is willing to pay me, is to just keep doing it for free. If you have a problem with that, hire me before I officially start my own business.

Sales Tax

2008-11-07T10:28:00.002-06:00

Republicans want to replace the income tax with a sales tax.
Democrats want to replace the sales tax with an income tax.

Income tax, as a percentage of income, hurts rich people and poor people alike.
Sales tax as a percentage of the expense, hurts poor people more than rich people.

Democrats win, greed loses.

Market Predictions

2008-10-28T08:25:00.004-05:00

The high crop yield will bring down grain prices in a seasonal trend that won't reach to the grocery stores as many would hope, because it's a predictable seasonal trend that has built in levers that gate it at Chicago Board of Trade (CBT).

The result will be severe losses by farmers, not savings for consumers. Farms lose doubly because they bought the fuel, fertilizer, and seed when the prices were at their highest. Now the prices of their crops are plummeting.

It looks like Big Oil is fluctuating the production of oil at the same rate as our planting and harvesting seasons in an effort to destroy American Agriculture by causing price changes congruent with the cost of planting, harvesting and the sale of grain.

Farmers paid too much for supplies, then can't sell their produce at a price that makes up for their costs. This ripple effect can be traced back to petroleum producers. Such a strategy would ultimately benefit mega agriculture producers such as ConAgra and other giant agribusiness producers.

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to make it a conspiracy.

Silvio Gesell

2008-10-24T13:26:00.002-05:00

Money must circulate for an economy to survive.
Dollars are optional.

How many people are unemployed or underemployed?

2008-10-12T11:26:00.002-05:00

First, let's define employment.

When someone is employed, the are earning enough to live comfortably and save money for future expenses, unforeseen or otherwise.

When someone is underemployed, they fall into the following categories:

• They are a salaried employee making what appears at fist to be a reasonable annual income, but they are working between sixty and eighty hours a week which if calculated as an hourly wage will fall below minimum wage.

• They are making a reasonable hourly wage, but they are only working part-time hours which disqualify them from health benefits.

The Unemployed are those people who have file for unemployment benefits. Those are the unemployed that the government knows about. The official number is around eight hundred thousand.

The missing unemployed are those people whose unemployment benefits have expired and are still unemployed. When unemployment benefits expire, the government can officially, but falsely report that unemployment has gone down because the government no longer sees the paperwork.

What happened to the economy?

2008-10-10T09:50:00.002-05:00

It's simple. Workers were not earning enough money to pay for anything more than the bare necessities, and many were not being paid enough to afford the bare necessities.

Business owners thought they were being successful by using their own employees wages as a competitive tool. Workers were supplementing the difference between their wages and the required level of income to survive, with credit cards.

Now the credit had dried up and banks are failing. Prices for everything must be lowered. Raw material, commodities, manufacturing, shipping, etc.

Or wages must be raised to match inflation so the money can circulate through the economy. Money must circulate to be of any value, it cannot stagnate in some hidden war chest.

October Surprise!

2008-10-07T09:09:00.001-05:00

Here's the big October Surprise!

To share this video visit
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo

Demand that the Bailout Legislation Be Rejected

2008-09-24T10:31:00.001-05:00

We are witnessing a bankers' coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage.

“Give us your money and tear up what’s left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy,” is the message from Wall Street and the Bush Administration. “Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression."

Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit.

VoteNoBailout.org

Your consumers

2008-09-21T11:54:00.002-05:00

Hey bankers and businessmen, did you know that your consumers are also your own employees and the employees of your fellow bankers and businessmen?

If you and your friends employed people in the countries where you are trying to sell your products, and you paid them well, there's a good change you might have more customers.

But no. You had to compete with each other for the sake of your shareholders by cutting wages and benefits for your employees. Now your shareholders are losing because you have no customers. What good is your stock if nobody can afford your products?

You'll just chalk it up to poor fiscal management on the part of your customers. Fiscal management of what, minimum wage?

What? You don't care because you have your money now and you can feed your family for the next four generations? Good luck holding onto it. Your going to need razor wire around your gated communities.

Economic Depression

2008-09-16T09:53:00.003-05:00

What we have been posting on our website
http://www.iicc-iesi.org
and at the blog here has finally come to pass.

Chicken Little is out there standing wings akimbo clucking "I told you so, I told you so."

Ross Perot is probably reading the paper at breakfast nodding his head up and down, with a suppressed sense of self-satisfaction, thinking to himself, "I told them so."

Ralph Nader is staring out at the world with one eyebrow raised, his head slightly tilted, wondering where in the world he and those of his sensibilities will survive and how far will they have to run to get out of the shadow of a falling behemoth nation.

Bobb Barr, Ron Paul, Mike Gravell are probably planning to dequeue from the current hegemonic circus and begin collecting the intelligent among us and lead an exodus to a land for intelligent people.

The current culture of materialism and instant gratification is heading for major withdrawal and deprivation.

This blog and the website may not be available much longer. Good Luck.

The work time calculator

2007-09-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

A new interactive Adobe Acrobat document was posted at www.spfd.net

It's called "The American Dream Calculator for the Working Class" and it automatically calculates how many hours of work you need to perform to pay for thinks like:

• Gas for your car to actually commute to your work
• Cigarettes
• Lunches

You'll need your last pay stub from your employer and it doesn't calculate for overtime (Something I'll be working on when I actually work overtime and figure it out.)

First, it subtracts your withholding and gives you your actual net earnings, net wage per hour, and even net wage per minute. (for Minimum wage earners, it's $0.09 per minute.

Once you have that calculated, you will be able to divide any expense into your net wage per minute to find out how hard you actually must work to pay for what you want.

• For someone who earns minimum wage and travels 1.4 miles to work, it takes 29 minutes of labor to pay for it.

• Someone earning minimumm wage paying $7.20 for five lunches during a work-week must work 6 hours to pay $36.00 for lunch that week.

• If a pack of cigarettes costs $3.00, a pack-a-day smoker pays for it with 11 hours of labor per month.

• The form also recalculates the net wage after gas and meal expenses. The net wage for the minimum wage worker after lunch and gas in this scenario is $4.67 per hour.

This form is an early experimental form that is intended to make it easy to see the cost of your lifestyle in a new light.

Senators and Representatives on Summer Break

2007-08-07T07:21:00.000-05:00

Our U.S. Senators and Congressmen are on their August break. You might see them around your district. We, the people expected change after the 2006 election, and the rumors going around are that the Democrats have rolled over and have not been effective since they have become a majority.

But, we, the people rolled over. We only gave the Democrats a simple majority, not an overriding majority. For the Democrats to be effective against the onslaught of warmongering predatory capitalists, an overriding majority is needed, a better than two-thirds majority that can override a Presidential veto or some other arcane parliamentary procedure.

So we have nothing to complain about but our own inability to elect an effective majority of legislators different from those who dominated our government for the last six years.

Entrepreneurial Spirit - First Hiring.

2007-03-10T10:59:00.000-06:00

Starting your own business is the way to go. It's the right thing to do. Your first week has been really tough and for the first time ever, your thinking about hiring someone to work for you.

You metion it to your friends and family, and they all come forward with people they would like to see working for you. Friends, neighbors, and relatives.

What happens if you hire someone who was recommended by a friend or family member, and they can't or won't do the job, either properly, or at all? You fire the person and you fall out of favor from those who recommended the person. Or, you get sued for discrimination and lose because you did not do the following:

1. Advertise in the newspaper at least two weeks in advance of the hire date.
2. Accept and review all job applications and resumes from the period of the first advertisement to the scheduled hire date.
3. Of the qualified candidates, conduct at least ten interviews of a diversity equal in race, ethnicity, and gender.

I know someone who just started a business. They never listened to me before, so instead if giving them the advice directly, I'll just post it here. Ignore it at your own peril.

Bush in Brazil

2007-03-10T10:50:00.000-06:00

President Bush is in Brazil ready to make Ethanol energy deals with the largest country in the southern western hemisphere. This is going to bring down the price of corn so small American farmers will finally declare bankruptcy and become overrun by Cargil, Conagra, Archer Daniels Midland, and other Agracultural Giants.

But those companies will be competing with Ethanol imports by companies like Exxon Mobile, BP, Shell, and other energy giants.

So Americans will get trampled underfoot again by battling giant multinational conglomerates who are protected by laws that prevent the small farmer from producing his own fuel.

Trade Deficits

2007-02-20T14:17:00.000-06:00

Even on C-SPAN they talk of a trade deficit with China. There are goods being manufactured in China for consumers in the United States. Goods were once manufactured in Mexico for the United States too.

A Mexican Ambassador once said that most of the companies in Mexico are American companies. It was the first and last time something like that was ever again said on television.

The trade deficit with China is a lie. The companies in China are American companies. The one truth is, however, that the money is going to China, but then it goes into the bank accounts of those who were once American, but now can globe-trot and thumb their noses at the citizenship rules by which the rest of us live.

They are the global entrepreneurs who have shed themselves of any sense of loyalty to their childhood nation. When Leona Helmsley said “only the little people pay taxes,” her biggest mistake was living in the United States when she said it.

So let’s think about it for a moment. If they are doing it, why shouldn't the rest of us? Why should we be hindered by the rules of patriotism shirked by those who control all of our natural resources?

I worked hard, like the dutiful Kamikaze pilot who celebrated his final flight with rituals and parties, but when his engine didn’t start, he walked off the runway to his superiors who previously proclaimed they would soon follow him, and he discovered that they had no such plan to die that day, or any day.

There was no reciprocal loyalty at work when I was laid off at AT&T. They paid me a wage so they didn’t have to consider my intrinsic value as a human being.

So, what makes you so sure that all your hard work will win the hearts and minds of those who are forced by law to pay your wages, taxes, health insurance, and other benefits?

Never assume that you have job security. Always look over your shoulder. It’s a cold hard world in America.

Bad news for retailers

2007-01-05T11:06:00.000-06:00

Walmart will be the only survivor. That's the word passing through the economist underground. Prices everywhere else are unsustainable. Publicly traded retail specialty is doomed.

Consumers are hesitant not because of gas prices, or the increase in interest rates on mortgages and credit card debt, or because of some presumed knowledge of what the consumer perceives as valueable.

Who do these "economists" think they are? Sages? They don't even pay attention to wages as an important factor in their calculations. The consumer perceives his or her paycheck. Two thirds of consumers in Sangamon County earn nine dollars per hour or less, and at least two dollars per hour are taken out of a ten dollar per hour wage for taxes and Social Security.

Conservatives want to fix public school funding by replacing its source with something besides local property taxes. But what? Another income tax? Another sales tax? A sin tax?

Can the forty thousand people in Sangamon county, earning seven dollars or less per hour, afford an increase in sales tax? They can barely afford rent.

We know that money is a finite resource, and twenty cents for every dollar spent at a national franchise will leave Sangamon County, never to be circulated here again.

How small businesses struggle

2006-12-06T13:03:00.000-06:00

Twenty or thirty years ago, we never imagined that one day we would be able to communicate without paper. The printed word is already extinct in most major markets.

Large cities like Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and so on, have left their photo copiers and fax machines along the roadside, with a modest asking price, or a sign that says "Free to take!" but the lonely hulking plastic beasts begin to show tiny rings where rain has splashed the accumulated dust kicked up by weeks of passing traffic.

It's a trend that too many people are ignoring. Like the shoemaker who became adept at making buggy whips, and threw out his shoemaking skills and tools, only to find that suddenly, the orders for new buggywhips stopped, and instead, orders for automobile upholstery surge at the shop next door.

This habit of denial was seen in the post-election speech by Ken Mehlman, speaking about issues that appealed to an audience that had by this time, become too small to affect retention of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and Senate.

And so goes the photo-copier and document specialists, the United States Post Office, Newspapers and the rest of the print media.

Knights Action Park vs. Minimum Wage Increase

2006-11-27T21:47:00.000-06:00

The owner of Knights Action Park spoke out against a state minimum wage increase, saying that it would cost him $56,000 extra per year if the wage went up by one dollar. I did the math(1) and it translated to around 13%, which means a total expense increase to around $420,000.00 in payroll, or between five and seven jobs eliminated to maintain the same payroll as before.

If 13 percent of all the people in Sangamon County were laid off because of the increase in the minimum wage, we would have around 6,460 more unemployed low-wage workers. The rest would be earning a total increase of around $1.3 Million dollars per week in potentially disposable income, which, because the wages is still far below living standards, will wind up in the cash registers of Walmart, Meijer, McDonalds, Aldi’s, and other national franchises that can undercut our local businesses.

When people have to adjust their lifestyles downward, it becomes very difficult if not impossible to adjust their spending habits upward again once they start earning more. Loyalty goes out the window -- the baby with the bathwater.

Could there be a more fitting punishment for a state that does not care about raising the minimum wage, than to only spend your money at businesses that send their profits out-of-state, and which sell merchandise made in a foreign country?

(1) Let us say for example, that the average minimum wage worker works around 30 hours per week because he or she must work another thirty hour per week job elsewhere to make ends meet without costing the employer overtime. Assuming that one employee works 30 hours at the park per week, he or she can expect $195 per week gross income at minimum wage, or about $9,360.00 per year. Let’s say the wage goes up by one dollar per hour or $1,440.00 per year. That would increase our employee’s annual gross wage to $10,800 per year. Since $1,440.00 goes into $56,000 38.89 times, Knights Action Park must have about 39 employees who already earn a combined total of $364,000.00 a year.The cost would go up to around $420,000.00 for employee salaries. Providing of course that Knights Action park had 39 minimum wage employees. >From that base of 39 minimum wage earners, Knights Action Park can eliminate around five or six employees or around 13%

Fairview Closes

2006-11-18T07:40:00.000-06:00

The smoking ban has aided the national franchises in their competitiveness toward local restaurants.
The new national franchises have delicious food, but it’s also “cookie-cutter” food that it created in advance and frozen.

I once had an omelet at a new franchise and part of it was cold. It came to the table within ten minutes at 6:30 in the morning on a Thursday. It was very fast because advances in flavor technology give these large national chains the advantage (You will see this when you watch the new movie “Fast Food Nation.”

What is the dilemma? We must choose to eat food that is technologically advanced beyond our expectations, and send some of our money out of our local community, never to be seen again, or, we can support our local businesses so they can advance themselves and circulate profits within our own community?

Which is it going to be?

The domino effect of the smoking ban: Sacrifices on the altar of quality.

2006-10-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Bernie and Betty’s is one restaurant that feels the sting of the smoking ban, and it shows. The last time I ate there was before the smoking ban went into effect. The food took longer, but it was well worth the wait. Lately though, things were very different.

Even though the restaurant was packed on Friday night, October 20, 2006, the service was, by one patron’s account “The fastest I ever had here.”

I concluded that faster service increases turnaround, which in turn increases revenue, but that sounds like logic from some board of directors that looks at a balance sheet which typically omits the intangible social value of an eating and drinking establishment.

But like any Springfield restaurant these days, the quality of the food is being sacrificed for the bottom line, perhaps to such a degree that might increase turnaround so they would start to see a profit; or put them out of business.

Unfortunately, these business models are based on the success of national franchises that can compete unfairly because they have vertically integrated supply sources and are well established in other locations with more lenient regulations.

At Bernie and Betty’s, when I asked for a Pepsi, the waitress said they served RC cola. It didn’t matter much to me if they changed brands of soda, but another patron refused to drink anything but Pepsi. The major issue was the cooking.

The peppers and onions were barely grilled for the sandwiches (the Bernie Melt and Italian Sausage), one patron said her Meatball Sandwich was burned and had much less cheese than before, and another patron’s Poor Boy came without its customary dipping sauce.

These mistakes (as I prefer to call them) usually occur once in a while, perhaps more frequently on a busy night like Friday, but to all occur at the same time, and at the same table are much more than the acceptable level of error.

Depending on one’s perspective, the social value of the place may outweigh the quality of the food and keep them in business, but knowing “Springfielders,” a second chance may not come again for a very long time.

There was speculation that they changed chefs, but I have a feeling that an accountant was in the kitchen that night.

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard

2006-10-08T18:50:00.000-05:00

She said "Americans are not entitled for work for HP"
So she can go to Hell.

FairHills Mall - Foreign Property

2006-10-07T11:02:00.000-05:00

The shops that reside at Fair Hills Mall in Springfield, Illinois now pay their leases to a foreign company. The entire story is available in today's issue of the Illinois State Journal Register.

Fair Hills Mall is now foreign property.

Newspeak Dictionary

2006-09-21T22:12:00.000-05:00

I wanted to buy a thousand copies of George Orwell's book 1984, to give out at local high schools, because that book by now must be banned from public schools. But to my astonishment, I don't need to do that. Just visit the following web site!

http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/

Senate Poised to Pass Bill Taking Away Your Right to Know What's in Your Food!

2006-08-27T15:55:00.000-05:00

**Tell your Senator to vote "No" on the "National Uniformity for Food Act" **

The House of Representatives has passed a controversial "national food uniformity" labeling law that would take away local government and states' power to require food safety food labels such as those required in California and other states on foods or beverages that are likely to cause cancer, birth defects, allergic reactions, or mercury poisoning. This bill would also prevent citizens in local municipalities and states from passing laws requiring that genetically engineered foods and ingredients such as Monsanto's Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (RBGH) be labeled.

Soon, the Senate will vote on this bill, which would gut state food safety and labeling laws. The "National Uniformity for Food Act," lowers the bar on food safety by overturning state food safety laws that are not "identical" to federal law. Hundreds of state laws and regulations are at risk, including those governing the safety of milk, fish, and shellfish. The bill is being pushed by large supermarket chains and food manufacturers, spearheaded by the powerful Grocery Manufacturers of America.

Big food corporations and the biotech industry understand that consumers are more and more concerned about food safety, genetic engineering, and chemical-intensive agriculture, and are reading labels more closely. They understand that pesticide and mercury residues and hazardous technologies such as genetic engineering and food irradiation will be rejected if there are truthful labels required on food products. This industry-sponsored bill is gaining momentum and must be stopped! Act now! Preserve local and regional democracy and protect yourself and your family from unsafe food by sending an email or calling your Senator.

Learn more and take action here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/rd/labeling.cfm

Take action now at http://www.democracyinaction.org/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2752&t=

From: The GRACE Public Fund

Job search

2006-08-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

I’ve been searching for a part-time job for months now. I just discovered probably the most important reason why I’m not getting hired. I live in Congressman John Shimkus’s district (19), and I was applying for work in Congressman Ray Lahood’s district (18).

Also, they are both Republicans while I am a Democrat. I can conclude that I should move to Lane Evan’s district (17) which includes Washington Park, where only the homeless live. At least in that district they voted 51% in favor of John Kerry in the 2004 election. Maybe my chances of getting a job will be better. See you at the ninth hole.

Fred Slocombe

Flag Desecration Amendment is an Act of Tyranny.

2006-06-27T08:31:00.000-05:00

Senator Orrin Hatch was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, discussing the issue of the new flag protection amendment that is to be debated today at 11:00 eastern time in the senate. Senator Hatch said some absolutely astounding things and nobody saw through the rhetoric.

Over and over again he said “It’s not about the first amendment, it’s about bringing the power back to the congress and the people from a judiciary that was not elected.” Every time I heard him say those words, I felt sick to my stomach.

The Congress, Senate, Judiciary and Executive branches of our government are supposed to be a system of checks and balances against the tyranny of majority. This means that without these checks and balances, slightly less than half of all citizens in this country would have no legal representation and no protection from abuse.

The Senate, Congress, Judiciary, and Executive Branches, for six years, have been dominated by conservative Republicans. Now Senator Orrin Hatch believes that he will have 60 Senators who will help him “take back the power” which will undermine once and for all, the checks and balances imposed on him and his henchmen by the Judiciary branch of our government.

This will render the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, impotent against the tyranny of the growing trend of fascism in this country. Senator Hatch called the Supreme Court “usurpers.”

There should be a replay of today’s Washington Journal, visit http://www.cspan.org

Overpopulation is the root cause of Illegal Immigration.

2006-05-24T14:29:00.000-05:00

Senator Kay Baily Hutchison (R-Texas) began her debate on the floor of the Senate this afternoon by stating that America does not ask the question “What is the root cause of illegal immigration?”

My own answer is this: Illegal immigration is caused by overpopulation due to religious mission zealots who are against birth control and family planning. These religious zealots threaten to withhold support of the poor people that have reproduced under the threat of going to hell for using birth control. In other words, the best way to gain a large following is to keep them uneducated, highly reproductive, and dependent on your organization for basic necessities of life. This is the primary underlying mission of the Faith Based Initiative.

Senator Hutchison’s explanation was that there were no jobs in the home countries of the illegal immigrants. It all boils down to overpopulation.

Senator Hutchison (R-Texas) said she wants to approve an amendment (4101) to immigration reform legislation that would allow foreigners to work in the United States on a temporary worker permit and to take with them when they go back home, the money that would normally be withheld for Social Security.

Senator Kit Bond (R- Missouri), cosponsor of the bill, spoke right after Senator Hutchison, saying that people who work here temporarily won’t want to leave. He also mentioned that foreigners who are trained and educated in the U.S. must go home for two years under the current rules, and that they wind up not coming back to share with America, the benefit of their training in America. He wants foreigners who get educated in the United States to stay in the United States. He also wants special privileges of job placement for foreign college graduates.

Senator Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) wants a vigorous program of publishing job notices for Americans who are unaware of the jobs that Republicans claim Americans won’t do. Senator Kennedy also said that the wages of those jobs should also be published.

The central argument for having a guest-worker program is that Americans won’t do certain jobs. Republicans won’t admit that Americans are mostly unaware of the jobs that are taken by foreigners.

Senator Bond said on the senate floor that not enough Americans are enrolling in high technology education programs, not mentioning anything about Americans who are willing to try but cannot afford the education.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) said that he spoke with leaders of South American countries who said they have good guest worker programs with Spain and Canada. He didn’t mention anything about how well Spain and Canada pay their guest workers.

Senator Hutchison said that Mexico would like very much for their people to work legally in a guest worker program. I would like very much for Americans to work.

The Republican senators harped on and on about how foreign workers would like to not have their families disrupted and be able to create nest eggs for them to start their own businesses when they retire, or pass on to their children. Senator Hutchison finished up by saying America should have its borders secure.

Senator Sessions said later that Amnesty will cost America 16 billion dollars a year. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) said the Congressional Budget Office estimates that Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants would increase the cost to the United States by 54 billion dollars.

Senator Sessions also said that guest workers were supposed to go home, but they didn’t he said “they stayed and they stayed and they stayed.”

Art Fair This Weekend in Springfield, IL

2006-05-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

Art Fair: Downtown Springfield, IL
Saturday, May 20, 2006 - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, May 21, 2006 - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Old State Capitol Plaza on 6th Street

Minuteman Project Rally on C-SPAN today

2006-05-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

May 12, 2006

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Border Patrol is alerting the Mexican government to the locations of civilian border patrol groups when the organizations help detain suspected illegal immigrants or use violence against them, according to a published report?.

The meaning of "meaning"

2006-05-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

When photography was first invented and capable of being mass produced, the public came to believe that what they saw in a photograph was real. They didn't consider the influence of double-exposure, cropping, juxtaposition, montage, or diversionary captions.

For several years it was believed that spirits and ghosts could be photographed (see the book "Looking Askance"). Scandals continue to be generated out of nothing but mere association today in tabloid newspapers, and people are more skeptical regarding photographs, but the 2000 and 2004 elections have proved that the vast majority of the public still trusts television and newspapers with all their hearts and minds.

When Thomas Edison's moving picture camera and projector hit wide audiences, less people showed up at live events and ultimately, the circus, vaudeville, and other live events became unsustainable. The moving picture was accepted as a source for mediated reality. The only publicly acknowledged threat was the subliminal advertising image that would show up in one or two frames of film. This tactic was later proved ineffective.

Semiology was originally a language study, but has since grown to include any symbolic meaning. Our brains desperately seek meaning in all shapes that are projected onto our retinas. This explains why we were all entertained at one time by simply looking at the shapes created by clouds.

The human eye was developed over time through natural selection, to include an area on the retina called a fovea. This fovea creates the illusion that objects on the horizontal plain appear closer than they really are. Natural selection has also hardwired humans to readily see certain shapes and immediately imbue those shapes with meaning.

The word "meaning" itself can be defined as "a conditioned emotional response to shapes projected onto the surface of our retinas." The Crusades were driven by "meaning." To have power over meaning is to lift one's self from the muddy bog of beliefs, assumptions, and dogmatism.

Choices in our daily lives

2006-05-03T19:41:00.000-05:00

How many choices do we have in our culture? Let’s examine how we come to select the options that are given to us by our economic system.

Besides our own instincts and desires, we depend on other people to show us the kinds of choices we have regarding everything. We now depend mostly on the mass media to tell us the kinds of choices we have. The mass media suggests to us how we can occupy our free time and we accept what they say without asking if there is more. Do we really know all of our options?

The most obvious example of how our culture influences the choices we have is business. Restaurants, toothpaste, cars, groceries, and other products and services are laid before us because they pay for the privilege, not because they are actually popular or good products.

The mass media is a business like any other business. They must survive. To survive, they sell space in their newspapers or time on their televisions or radios, to businesses that can afford that space or time, and we must endure the advertisements and programming.

Since the owners of the mass media outlets are continuously under the threat of competition and increasing costs of production, they now offer businesses the privilege of submitting “press releases” for their newscasts in addition to commercial advertisements so the businesses will stay with the television station, radio station or newspaper.

Many new businesses are offered special news coverage so the media outlets can begin and maintain a lucrative relationship with the business. Most of the businesses are giant multinational corporations who long ago out-bid local, independently owned businesses for advertising space. The small business is totally eclipsed by the giant multinational corporation.

The argument by big business is that a small business fails on its own merits, or lack thereof, while the media is literally bribed to ignore the small business.

So, some of the choices made known to us take the stage because their sponsors pay a fee, while others are kicked off, never to be heard from again. But those are the tangible commercial choices. What are the intangible personal choices we have that were removed from us, and what are the intangible personal choices that were institutionally injected into our lives?

We can start by looking up banned book lists on the Internet and books and movies that were banned in the USA. I tried myself to see if the local public library kept statistics on books that were never read or rarely checked out. One way of doing a survey would be to actually go to the library and look for books that appear to have never been read.

Most importantly, one should go to the library at the local university and see what old books are in very good condition. This would indicate institutionalized avoidance of certain topics that might frighten the parents of potential students. Aside from books on theories that have been disproved, patterns may emerge that demonstrate economic, political and religious pressure to avoid certain topics in the classroom.

If you ever have a weekend with nothing to do at all, watch BookTV on C-SPAN, or visit www.booktv.org because you will not find most of those books on display at a bookstore.

NEW POSTER AVAILABLE!

2006-04-18T23:08:00.000-05:00

get the new fantastic poster!

OLDEN TIMES TO RETURN!
CONSERVATIVES WILL RULE FOREVER!
download the poster (56k PFD)
http://www.spfld.net/oldentimes.pdf

The end of workers as we know them.

2006-04-16T02:45:00.000-05:00

It looks like another job interview. Another itchy shirt with tight collar and necktie that refuses to hang straight. Sweating in my jacket; sitting in yet another waiting room. The receptionist politely looks the other way. Finally, the person conducting the interview arrives and summons me to his office. This time it's different.

This time I don't fill out a job application because I'm an independent contractor. I'm my own corporation. This means I have to provide my own health insurance. Suddenly, I have a new list of tax deductions my employer would have claimed for himself in times past. However, I also have a new list of expenses that an employer would have been obligated to take under labor relations laws.

If employers want to eliminate pensions, health insurance coverage, and other benefits that were fought for by the unions of the past, these employers should also eliminate any guarantee of service. As an independent contractor, you make a contract with disclaimers that allow you to walk away at the first sign of trouble.

You would also need a support structure that would protect you from becoming an indentured servant like so many employees are today.

This is just the beginning of an interesting experiment. How many people can you work for at once? How many contracts can you handle? Can we truly throw away the notion of counting our wages in terms of hours?

Author Barbara Ehrenreich

2005-12-30T14:08:00.000-06:00

Barbara Ehrenreich writes in her book Nickel and Dimed, “In evading and warding off wage increases, employers are of course behaving in an economically rational fashion; their business isn’t to make their employees more comfortable and secure but to maximize the bottom line. So why don’t employees behave in an equally rational fashion, demanding higher wages of their employers or seeking out better paying jobs?”

Her basic answer is that people require money for transportation. This explains why there are over forty thousand people earning less than seven dollars per hour in Sangamon County. Were it not for rent, car insurance costs, illegal immigrants, and gas prices, (all of which are controllable); the natural force of the market would drive wages higher or close low wage paying businesses.

When the gas prices went up to three dollars per gallon I saw many more pedestrians around town. Yesterday I saw someone walking on the railroad tracks over 5th street. I believe God has given us a reprieve in the form of warm weather, but winter is not over. People may still freeze to death this winter, not because they are homeless and developmentally disabled, but because they simply had no choice but to walk to work. If the good Lord should choose to make a sacrifice in order to gain the attention of the indolent affluent, he will bring in the New Year with an extraordinary ferocity.

Who is ultimately at fault? The employer who pays the low wage, the employee for accepting the low wage, or the bargain shopper who needs no bargain? I highly recommend that every reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s books Nickel and Dimed, and Bait and Switch.

Why the economy is doing so well?

2005-11-16T08:59:00.000-06:00

The economy is doing extraordinarily well. There is growth everywhere. The consumer price index is on the rise, and interest rates are still holding steady despite the threat of a possible increase.

So why is the economy doing so well? It depends on whose economy to which you are referring.

There is the economy of the "Marketplace Participant" which is the most widely reported, especially because they are the people who are buying the newspapers and subscribing to Cable television and the Internet. It’s easy to get the numbers from the Federal Reserve because you only need to include people who have stock portfolios. Nobody else counts.

The actual size of whole economy is shrinking by number of people, but growing in value in terms of wealth. The rest of the people, who have no checking accounts; live hand to mouth one paycheck at a time; are simply ignored.

A news reporter had to inform the head of FEMA about the people in the Superdome, and the French Prime Minister took over ten days to figure out why Paris and surrounding neighborhoods were being torched. The poor are now the majority, and they are angry.

Politicians who are considering cutting social programs such as Medicaid, School Lunch programs, are clearly oblivious to the real problem because it is being completely ignored by the media who serve only those who pay for the news or the privilege of advertising in the media.

It’s time for the newspaper and television news editors to take back gate keeping control from the corporate accountants, or be complicit in another Paris situation.

Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol

2005-10-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

Why is this book not in public libraries?

Jonathan Kozol's book The Shame of the Nation : The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America is not available at any University Library throughout the state of Illinois?

Were the libraries threatened with funding cuts because of the exposure this book presents of the American public education system?

Perhaps the book is just too new? It was published in September of 2005.

Perhaps the lack of availability in the library is merely the responsibility of the public relations firm that works for Crown Publishing. OOPS! There may be no controversy after all.

The Shame of the Nation : The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (Hardcover)
by Jonathan Kozol

Social Slaughter in New Orleans sheds light on national plight.

2005-09-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

Most people consider themselves literate, but we are not literate when it comes to how our government and businesses control our lives. The government has slowly lowered education standards to keep more people in the dark about how they operate.

Most of us don’t know what the traders on Wall Street are doing when they play with our savings accounts and retirement accounts. Changes in elementary school curriculum created an environment of studying limited information for tests that are mandated by state and federal governments, while college tuition climbs beyond the reach of most people.

Business rules our lives. They want us to double up on the work we do for less pay. Most people already work sixty hours a week just to keep food on the table, and those who were left behind in New Orleans are proof that most are already on the edge of disaster. One illness, one car breakdown, one furnace breakdown in winter and they will be bankrupt or freezing in homelessness. They are the “Slave Wage” earners. Those who loaded up their minivans and SUV’s and left for the spare bedrooms of their relatives to the north are those who earn the “Living Wage.”

A “Living Wage” is a wage that allows you to have money left over for emergencies and still go the movies on Friday night. Employers that pay the “Living Wage” are using social control methods like requiring that we already own cars in good working condition, that we have no preexisting medical conditions, that we can afford expensive clothing, and can already afford a college education. Potential employers also do credit checks on job applicants.

A “Slave Wage” is a wage that is low enough to keep you so afraid of losing time from work that you won’t even go vote on Election Day. It’s a wage that is so low that you must work overtime to keep up on your rent and car payments, often working two jobs. You are sometimes forced to get a payday loan for groceries or borrow money. You have to keep your head down and your mouth shut because if you lose your job, you lose your house, your car, your credit, and possibly your family. The “Slave Wage” employer can do whatever he or she wants with you.

Should we lower the cost of living? Or raise the minimum wage? “Slave Wage” earners work for national chain stores and restaurants that can sell for less here because they make up the difference in locations where they have already ruined their competitors and raised their prices. Local independently owned businesses like Gerber’s Drugstore, Pill Box Pharmacy, The Georgian, Heritage House, Roberts Brothers Clothiers, and others fell to behemoths like Penny’s Sears, Osco, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart.

If we can get consumers to spend their money where employees are held in better esteem, we might be able to avoid the social slaughter that occurred in New Orleans. Visit www.iicc-iesi.org and help balance our local economy.

Malpractice Insurance Big Winners in Illinois

2005-08-26T08:17:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, August 25th, 2005, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law, medical malpractice caps. $500,000 for doctors, and $1 Million for hospitals. The Illinois State Journal Register mentioned briefly and without any detail, that the law would also allow regulators to investigate and change rates. There was no mention of a mandate that rates should go down and there is no mention of legislation capping the malpractice insurance rates. There is also no mention of legislation mandating that doctors and hospitals reduce their rates either. Welcome to Lector Land. "I had his liver with some Fava beans and a nice Chiante, and it only cost me five hundred G's."

Wall Street propped up by Deception

2005-08-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Department of Labor reports national employment numbers for July while the State of Illinois Department of Employment Security has no available information later than June. The employment numbers are acceped as positive news, however, unreported were the actual wages for the new jobs. The news report claims that new jobs were created in a wide spectrum of industries without reporting the actual division of labor between non-farm industries such as clerical, retail, manufacturing, and hospitality. Unreported also were the specific gross wages for the various non-farm sectors.

Wall Street reports from the Associated Press claim that retail sales for July are improving. Although the reports specify that the automotive industry's artificially low and unsustainable prices are responsible, the report sumarizes a "bright future". The employee discount was extended for an additional month while it was only supposed to last for a limited time.

Dell computer stock took a hit on August 12, 2005 due to a faulty strategy. Dell sold computers below cost in an attempt to gain market share. Unfortunately, CNBC reported that shareholders felt that a price under $300 for desktop computers was too low and began to sell their stocks.

Ellen Simon of the Associated Press reported on August 13, 2005 that "the trade deficit rose to $58.3 billion in june, an increase of 6.1 percent from the May deficit of $55.4 billion.

C. Richard D'amato, Chairman of the U.S. China Economic Review Commission pointed out at a hearing on Thursday, 8/11/2005, that investment banks in China have extremely low ratings relative to other international banks in the private industry. "Banks are typically rated A, B, C, D, and E. The average bank gets a C+... some banks in China got an E minus and an E minus means you better watch out." Panelists who testified voiced in a chorus, concern that the Sarbanes-Oxely bill created a chilling effect for foreign companies to list on the New York Stock Exchange, and that foreign companies that are already listed on the NYSE are considering removing themselves to other exchanges such as Hong Kong.

Illinois Wages and Earners

2005-06-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

The pattern of wages and earnings in the chart provided at the website (http://www.iicc-iesi.org) that shows wage stratification for Sangamon County, is nearly the same for the entire state of Illinois.

More than 60% of the people residing in the state of Illinois are earning between $6 and $16 (Low for Chicago's standard of living) per hour. This group is the most vulnerable to consumption tax (as proposed by Senator Zell Miller on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart).

Taxes on products of necessity are especially harmful.

Raising the minimum wage will increase the availability of disposable income, reduced debt, and stimulate commerce. It is far better to have more people with money to spend than to have fewer people with more money.

Welcome again

2005-05-24T20:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Illinois Intrastate Commerce Coalition (IICC) / Illinois Economic Survival Institute (IESI) Blog.Since we are just starting, lets go over a few issues for which this organization was founded:Our local community is being inundated by national and global corporations that can operate in our area at a loss until our local merchants are priced out of existence.The television, print, and radio news and entertainment programs to which we are exposed are being constructed and framed by fewer and fewer competing sources of opinion, slowly eliminating diversity from our social landscape.Our two political parties (Democrats and Republicans) are presenting themselves as separate from each other with different ideologies, yet they operate in the same manner when either one or the other party is in the majority-- in favor of big business and institutional investors.More and more food is being imported from Mexico and South America, not only causing a drastic increase in E-coli and hepatitis, while undercutting local farm prices to such a degree that giant corporations are snatching up huge tracts of farmland, growing genetically modified crops, and quadrupling the number of hogs and chickens per square yard, choking our rivers and streams with animal waste.Just a few of the issues we will be taking under our wings. Ideally, the coalition will operate in secret, without the knowledge of the Chambers of Commerce or the bought-off civic authorities who give away land leases with tax abatements, to companies that hire less than a hundred people at wages below ten dollars an hour.Anyway, welcome to the revolution.

Welcome

2005-04-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

Our local community is being inundated by national and global corporations that can operate in our area at a loss until our local merchants are priced out of existence.
The television, print, and radio news and entertainment programs to which we are exposed are being constructed and framed by fewer and fewer competing sources of opinion, slowly eliminating diversity from our social landscape.
Our two political parties (Democrats and Republicans) are presenting themselves as separate from each other with different ideologies, yet they operate in the same manner when either one or the other party is in the majority-- in favor of big business and institutional investors.
More and more food is being imported from Mexico and South America, not only causing a drastic increase in E-coli and hepatitis, while undercutting local farm prices to such a degree that giant corporations are snatching up huge tracts of farmland, growing genetically modified crops, and quadrupling the number of hogs and chickens per square yard, choking our rivers and streams with animal waste.

Just a few of the issues we will be taking under our wings.

Ideally, the coalition will operate in secret, without the knowledge of the Chambers of Commerce or the bought-off civic authorities who give away land leases with tax abatements, to companies that hire less than a hundred people at wages below ten dollars an hour.

Anyway, welcome to the revolution.