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Guest Post: More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey & Decay
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey & Decay
It happened again yesterday morning. There was an accident on the Schuykill Expressway so I had the pleasure of navigating through the 30 Blocks of Squalor, again. After having made at least 25 posts about the 30 Blocks of Squalor over the years, I keep thinking I’ve run out of things to say. But it seems to be a never ending treasure trove of insights about our society and the people who live in this country. It was a particularly grey day in Philadelphia with a dreary overcast and intermittent rain. It seemed fitting for this trek through the slowly decaying landscape leading to my workplace in West Philly. I’ve talked previously about the stretch of highway leading to the 30 Blocks of Squalor. It’s called West Chester Pike (Route 3) and it cuts through Delaware County where I grew up. It cuts through Havertown, Haverford, Drexel Hill, and Upper Darby and eventually spits you out at 69th Street, where I’ve previously detailed the flash mob of savages rampaging through the Sears stealing everything in sight (all caught on surveillance cameras to be shown on a future reality TV show). In a shocking turn of events, Sears decided to later close this retail establishment.
The 30 minute excursion along West Chester Pike and then the 30 Blocks of Squalor (Chestnut St from 69th St to 39th St) is like traveling through Dante’s nine circles of hell. Every mile leads you deeper and deeper into the abyss. My observations along this route are of a country in a slow methodical steady decline that has been underway for decades and shows no signs of abating.
The neighborhoods and towns along West Chester Pike were occupied by the rising middle class during the 1950?s, 60?s and 70?s. These towns were where blue collar middle class families built a life and raised their families. The fathers worked in factories, refineries, schools, power plants and thousands of other productive enterprises. Americans made stuff back then. Most wives stayed home and raised the three or four children in the small brick row homes or small detached singles that dotted the landscape. These neighborhoods were entirely white and most were church going. Most of the adults had not graduated college, but they were still able to move up the economic ladder through hard work, saving, and living within their means. Their children were guaranteed an even better life if they studied hard, went to college, and got an office job as an accountant, engineer, marketing executive, or in some other promising profession.
This progression began to transform into regression in the 1980s and the slow steady descent has picked up speed. There is now a grey pallor that seems to engulf this once thriving corridor. The houses that were built in the 1950s and 1960s and kept up by middle class families that took pride in their neighborhoods have been deteriorating for years. The homes are in disrepair. The bricks have grown dingy from years of pollution buildup and lack of power washing. Porches and awnings are sagging. The woodwork hasn’t seen a paint brush since the 1970s. Trash is strewn in the streets. Gardens are no longer tended to. Lawns are overgrown with weeds. The inhabitants of these neighborhoods either don’t care or don’t have the financial wherewithal to maintain their homes. On the current trajectory, these once proud neighborhoods will eventually resemble the 30 Blocks of Squalor.
I believe a country and a community will have a lot of what it values most. Our country has a lot of debt, a lot of vehicles, a lot of bombs, a lot of psychotic criminals running our economic and political systems and a lot of willfully ignorant drones – disguised as citizens. As I drove along West Chester Pike I tried to observe what it is we value today. This route is inundated with automobile repair shops, gas stations and auto dealerships. We cannot live without our cars. I can say without a doubt that I saw not one manufacturing facility along this entire route, but if you want your Japanese car fixed, detailed, or waxed, you’ve hit the jackpot.
We value our cars, purchased with debt or leased, but the roads are crumbling, filled with potholes, traffic lights aren’t timed, and the small towns are too bankrupt to do anything about it. The second most important thing to the zombies that inhabit this wasteland is mass quantities of food. You’ve got donut shops, fast food joints, pizza places, Chinese restaurants, Irish pubs every two blocks, and coffee houses on a mind numbing scale. It is easy to see why we’re the most obese people on earth. There are no farmers markets, produce stands, or even grocery stores. But there are at least six beer distributors. And of course there is one L.A. Fitness Center for the ten people out of ten thousand who want to keep in shape. I expect to see a Space Available sign in front of this place in the not too distant future.
Besides the general decay of the commercial properties, you can’t miss the fact that every block has at least one vacant commercial property. There are far more For Sale, Space Available, For Rent, and Leasing signs dotting the barren wasteland than there are wedding rings on fingers in West Philly. The vacant buildings are antiquated relics from the 1960s. It’s as if time stopped at the end of the 1970s and no one has invested a dime in this stretch of highway in 30 years. It’s like “The Land that Time Forgot”.
The only new buildings along this stretch of highway further emphasize what is seemingly important to our society. There are numerous architecturally grand bank branches dominating this highway. There is a beautiful new building housing the Social Security Administration for this area. This is where the obese, depressed and unemployable flock to sign up for the SSDI gravy train. And lastly there are a few medical facilities that are top notch. It seems that banks, government and medicine are doing just fine. But what do they produce?
I think this is a reflection of why this area has deteriorated over time. Industries that made things left this area and left this country. Small businesses were overwhelmed by mega-corporations who cared only about next quarter earnings. They met these earnings targets, set by Wall Street, by shipping the good paying blue collar jobs that supported these communities overseas. The middle class families living here saw their wages stagnate or decline. Wives were forced into the workforce to just keep their households afloat financially. The family unit suffered, with children raised by strangers or left to fend for themselves.
This is where the Wall Street maggots stepped in and sold these middle class families on the illusion of faux wealth built on a pyramid of credit card debt, auto loans, and mortgage debt. Who got wealthy? Not the families living in these fading neighborhoods. The bankers got rich and continue to flaunt their wealth by paying themselves obscene levels of compensation, buying off politicians, gutting our economy and opening fancy new outlets. An economy built upon manufacturing, production, and value added work results in rising wages and a thriving community. An economy built upon debt attracts consumer consumption outlets that add no value and result in declining wages, government dependency and a dying community.
These once thriving communities have rapidly aged. As the jobs and wages dried up, these communities have become dependent on the government to provide. Social Security payments are now a primary income source for many. The government controlled healthcare industry is thriving as Medicare and Medicaid pay for an increasing proportion of the care in these neighborhoods. After decades of pretending that debt could replace wages and savings, these communities are collapsing due to lack of income, decent paying jobs, capital investment, and common sense. West Chester Pike is well on its way to becoming a future 30 Blocks of Squalor.
Once you pass through the 69th Street death camp which resembles a scene from Night of the Living Dead, you spill out onto the 30 Blocks of Squalor.
This is where the circle of hell began. The rotting carcasses that pass for homes on this stretch of squalor were once occupied by the white families that moved to Delaware County along West Chester Pike in the 1950s and 1960s. It is now 90% black and 10% Hispanic. The real unemployment rate exceeds 50%, murder is the number one industry, with drugs a close second.
As you drive down the 30 Blocks of Squalor you meet the ghost of Squalor future for West Chester Pike. The population along this corridor is ignorant, dependent, and represents the dregs of our society. There is virtually no legal commerce along the squalor. The Asians, Koreans, and whites that attempted to open stores have all been shot down in cold blood. The once proud homes are in shambles. Bags of garbage dot the landscape. Most of the people who live here are parasites on society. Personal responsibility, work ethic, education and marriage are unknown concepts in this community. Even though more than 50% of the students in West Philly drop out of high school and the SAT scores of West Philly High students are lower than whale shit, the bankrupt school district spent $70 million to build a new high school/prison to babysit derelicts and future prison inmates. The windows do not have steel bars yet, as the architect was smart to put all windows at least eight feet above street level.
The Chestnut Plaza truly represents what is important to this community. This Squalor Center, as opposed to Power Center, includes a video porn store, cash checking/payday loan outlet, smoke shop, donut shop, Laundromat, and liquor store. No need for a wedding ring store or resume writing service. Evidently this community values gorging themselves on fast food, getting high, getting drunk, jerking off to porno, and then having their sheets washed. They wouldn’t want to invest a few hundred dollars of their welfare payments on a washer and dryer, when they can spend it on the Direct TV NBA package. They utilize their 8th grade level education to get payday loans from the check cashing store at 40% interest.
Our entire society is in a downward social and economic spiral. We are just at different levels of decay (Dante’s circles of hell). At the current pace it won’t be long before I’m writing about the 50 States of Squalor. It is virtually impossible to reverse a decline that has been underway for the last three decades. We sold our souls to Wall Street and chose a debt financed illusion of wealth over productive savings and investment which would have led to real wealth. Our choices are reflected in the continued deterioration and decay along West Chester Pike and the squalor that is West Philly. Grey and decay will carry the day.
The words on the Statue of Liberty should be revised from, ”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, to “we have become your indebted, materialistic, obese, aging masses yearning for the government to protect and sustain us as our once great nation decays.”
As a nation, we have chosen this path. We made the choices and now we will suffer the consequences.
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I wish u would choose to STFU
90% black...say no more.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there are some $700 trillion sloshing around in OTC derivatives at your favourite bankster ghetto.
WTF, or who the fcuk owns that crock of shit.
Before 1970, American cities solved this problem with "urban renewal". They bulldozed "vibrant" neighborhoods and built parks, highways, office buildings, and affordable apartments in their place. These quickly became luxury apartments, because rich people actually want to live in cities once the criminal element is removed.
James Baldwin famously said that "urban renewal" means "negro removal". How right he was!
But, but, we have DWTS...........
Once the good jobs for high school grads evaporated, so did the sense that things would continue to improve. That ended the pride and hope, which destroys the family and leads to squalor.
Those of you touting race have it somewhat right. But realize that race is a social construct. It doesn't actually mean anything genetically. Race is just "the people society craps on" in America. In Britain and Australia, which have massive lily-white ghettoes, race is replaced with class or accent. In all cases, it's just who's on the bottom and not anything genetic. The pathologies are the same when there is no hope, however you divvy people up.
Bullshit. Race is not a social construct. Race is a genetic construct.
med.stanford.edu/ tanglab/ publications/ PDFs/ GeneticStructureSelfIdentifiedRaceEthnicityAndConfoundingInCase-Contr olAssociationStudies.pdf
Read this, and other studies like it. Take back your own mind from the PC orthodox propaganda.
Lol I can see how hard it is to objectively discuss solutions. People seem easily distracted from looking for solutions. Focusing on race is a distraction. I am sure it serves someone but probably not most of us
I blame racial apologists and race baiters alike. Both are just tools.
Trav made a comment once that people had promoded and embraced the 'ghetto culture'. It wasn't about race it was the culture.
Exactly
Now thats a good start
Why is it maladaptive?
How can it be changed?
Made me laugh.
Ghetto culture? what is that?
No, people have embraced and are embracing US citizenism.Nothing else.
A society that promotes its own through massive theft as US citizen societies have have structural weaknesses when the flow rate of theft opportunities is thinning out.
US citizen blacks have entered the great scene of US citizen wealth transfer programs a bit late one could say, mainly during the fiat era.
Question is simple in US citizen terms: who is going to be thieved to promote US citizen blacks?
Made me laugh.
Question is simple in Chinese citizenism citizen terms: whose roads are going to be thieved to promote Chinese citizenism citizen craps?
That is indeed the anguishing question US citizen chinese will have to answer.
Who are they going to rob to allow the building up of a US citizen middle class?
Could be a smeller.
AnAnonymous pontificated:
As for that Chinese citizenism must answer completely, it is the question Chinese citizenism is tormented aroma.
It should take it is in order to permit the fact that middle class of some Chinese citizenism goes citizen to make?
Smeller can do a certain thing.
STFU
You thoght West Philly was bad? Take a cruise through North Philly. It only gets worse
Now now, no need to cry and whine, Citizens.
Opinion-laced journalism should always be welcome. You could take a long hard look at just about anything and make just about any point. Kind of like the Bible, eh? Perspective broadens the mind. Any of you ever watch an entire Farrakhan sermon? Similarly interesting material.
This piece is in fact exactly like a black Islamist sermon. OK, maybe less numerology. But the same buttons are pushed. Which, again, is fine.
I think we all know that the middle class lifestyle in the US peaked in the early 1970s, with Archie Bunker bitching about it just as it was at its height. Thank you Norman Lear.
Did the Greatest Generation win a temporary victory, including such nifty items as weekends and retirement packages, only to have good old Hegelian entropy in the guise of evil corporate interests wear it away?
Did the Illuminati or the Queen of England or the aliens grant us a stay of servitude in fear at the cataclysmic upheavels of those times?
Was the triumph of mowed lawns and vacations and martinis for the masses merely an illusion, a ruse as the forces of global control cast their net ever closer?
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll?
Here's my answer: Bite it instead, just like the owl does in the old ad.
Crunch.
We know we need morals and responsibility. We also know we need to break the back of corruption at the highest levels. I assert that the two are inseperable. For how moral and responsible can you be WITHOUT resisting today's terrible, all-powerful yet psychopathically infantile global elites? And, why become moral and responsible if the mighty continue to frolic and splutter with open contempt toward morality and law?
Of course there are good answers to that, one should always strive for the righteous path, just like the Nation of Islam correctly states. As a Presbyterian deacon I have other notions of the exact dimensions of that path. But God's gift of reason allows us to consider the balance of rewards and risks facing any one person or group.
And it stands to reason that breaking the corrupt elite system goes hand in glove with a seizure of righteous truth for personal advancement, for all citizens on the streets in America today.
i know this area of Philly well. it's a shame.
Since I'm guessing most of you are financial gurus, when did "shorting" become legal? Seems anti-capitalist to profit from failure.
I have no idea. Just be interesting to know if there's any connection between "shorting" and our current demise.
I don't think poor people do much "shorting" - which again appears to be profiteering from the failure and misery of others. I'm probably wrong, though.
Nothing wrong with shorting. A cereal grain producer might short grain futures in case the price falls. That way he might have to sell his grain at lower prices, but makes up for the loss on his short position. Hedging is a way to eliminate or severely reduce risk we are exposed to. A cereal company might be the counter party to the grain producer. They would go long grain prices. That way, if prices go up, they have to pay more, but offset the increase by gains on their futures position. Here we have two parties who hedge their risks in making opposite sides of the same trade.
I dunno - that sounds like the rape violation in favor of abortion.
What percentage of this "shorting" involves preparing for "Acts of God"?
Is it as helpful and benevolent as you make it sound - or is it more like financial rape in most cases?
Seriously just posing a question. Maybe it is good, but it sounds bad?
You're starting at way too elementary a level to get "an answer" here.
Spend a few years studying economics or markets, I guess.
The function of the market is to determine prices. Market-participants all need the ability to bid UP and bid DOWN for the market to function properly.
Thanks - I guessed as much. I f'd up and spent my "career" at NYC's top marketing firms. So lying to a shitload of people made me LESS of a liar. They just didn't understand I was lying to them. They should read more.
But like Pooh Bear, I do so wish I could just find some honey.
Fwiw, I love ZH bc I am allowed to set a day off for myself and engage the gurus of finance :)
At least I'm willing to admit there aren't enough books anyone could read to "comprehend" how full of shit I was.
Sadly now I'm at that "inner peace" stage, throwing my "talent" away on small businesses :)
There is no edumacation. Only lies that perpetuate lies.
And not accusing you of lying. Thanks for referring me to references.
I get you. I used to have a lot more money than I do today, and I was a lot unhappier.
I found my peace in the quest for knowledge and wisdom, and I'm glad to have retired from the scrabble for scraps that keep most people distracted.
Very cool. Maybe I'm too "spiritual", but my thirst for human "knowledge" (well, other than keeping with my profession, given my responsibility) has zero hedge :)
Future generations will view us as ignorant as we view ancient civilizations.
If it's not an original thought (or complicitely stolen), then you died and you're dead.
Finance decays. Art lives on. And NOT modern art.
Art is science, the residuals of science only living up to what we proclaim as art (or genius, which, unlike art, can and will be refuted.
So I suggest to you - CREATE!
Nice article Jim.
Very familiar with thearea, grew up nearby in DE.
This article and it's writer brings this to mind. The Greatest Cycle - Rebirth of a Civilization. - The greatest challenge ever faced by our nation and the world.
http://www.fourthturning.com/forum/showthread.php?88-The-Greatest-Cycle-Rebirth-Of-A-Civilization&s=8aba0ebb6515100f4148908b13853a5b
Can we dig deep and change?
Perhaps beyond left and right is something to consider...
http://www.henrygeorge.org/isms.htm
There is a concept raised in Romans 1 about the wrath of God. The idea is that God established a system whereby our sins will lead to our destruction if not abated by a relationship with Jesus Christ.
There is also a concept of the Sovereignty of God, He is in control, and His will is all that matters. For those in doubt, read Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address in scripted at the Lincoln memorial. Lincoln was clearly of the opinion that the Civil War was God’s doing and that He would see justice prevail. From the speech:
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
We are facing the same issue, although different in detail. Wall Street (and many others) greed, managed by the criminals of the money center financial institutions, is clearly God’s target. And He will see justice prevail. It started on 911, what was the primary target? It was the twin towers, the center of American financial infrastructure. And they were demolished, yet to be rebuilt. The 2nd target was the banks themselves, AIG, Lehman Brothers, etal and God knocked them down a few notches in 2008 when they begged/threatened for the people to bail them out. But no one has learned the lesson, JPM, Goldman, the Federal Reserve continue to rob the people and God’s final round of judgment approaches. The next “crash” is soon, and much like the Civil War, his retribution against those who have perpetrated this injustice will be severe. The modern day money changers will be dealt with.
I guess I would not want to be in Bennie’s, Jamie’s or Lloyd’s shoes right now. But it really is too bad for all of us caught in the cross fire.
The same applies to our political leaders right now, but you get the picture.
sschu
I agree with everything except being hoodwinked by the Wall Street people on debt part. That smacks of "ain't my fault." People didn't have to take on debt. People could have run businesses that were loyal to customers and got their reach around business in response if WE valued that. We are responsible for our own individual lives. The socialist/welfare state is failing as magnificently here as it is in Europe, but our zombie dependents are determined to continue the decline until the collapse forces change.
Wall Street funds the politicians who fund Wall Street. Circle jerk. I'd primarily fault liberals who pretend to be too stupid to realize that creating "dependent" generations of "people" justifies the means. Doing so supplies them with the voters they need to continue testing their "academic" theories.
I'd argue that you can always follow the money and that the elite are always more at fault than their serfs. After all, they make the rules and spread the propaganda through their "independent" media.
The elite are in the business of continually "breaking" people (somewhat similar to someone bashing your head in with a crowbar) - so that they can continue competing against each other with their great washes of monopoly money.
Yes, anyone can "overcome" - but given so many reasons to remain victimized and dependent, why change?
In the end, both parties serve the same corporate masters. Just a game to them.
For example, in NYC the age of consent is 14 - so the rich can literally fuck the poor. (Sorry my ex was a model, heard quite a bit of the abuse). Yet NYC proclaims itself liberal?
Why I try (again try) to ignore the propaganda.
Just gimme a Philly cheese stake sandwich and STFU.
There may be vampires there among the zombies, but I'd rather have a cheese steak.
I remember when ZH was all up in arms about HFT. Whoever owned the closest fastest computer wins...
So Wall Street is just this big computerized gambling hall, with the TBTF raking in as the "house".
Yeah some of you are smart enough to outwit even the computers. Congrats!
But doesn't it seem weird that, given the layman's understanding of what an "investment" is - eg Placing their risk "capital" on the best horse...
Why is it legal for people to bet on a horse breaking its leg - the horse goes to the glue factory...
Anyway, some day maybe I'll have extra money. But I'll just invest in a local business.
Just saying - I don't think the poor and ignorant are to blame for our problems.
I'd put my lack of money first on myself, then on anyone who directly bets on and profits from failure. It's more unAmerican than any alternate degenerate form of government than Democracy - which has sadly allowed for this bullshit, the elite playing on the given ignorance of the general populace.
Social problems flow from poor economics.
Ah, but check the history of the US, and the utility of.
AnAnonymous said:
Made me laugh. Chinese citizenism history of the US involves time traveling Ben Franklinism interspersed with algebraic coconutism and Easter Island panda hobnobbery.
Such bewilderment is inherent to the eternal nature of Chinese citizenism.
Coconutism: black on the outside, white on the inside.
Quite topical to the comment section. Interesting US citizen concept indeed.
AnAnonymous said:
Ah, fine example of Chinese citizenism shifting all focus of responsibility and blame to the exterior.
Good blame shifting, strawsman, and denial. That's some good Chinese citizenism you have doing downthere. Very judicious Chinese citizenism perfectionism exercise there.
Missing the big picture.
How US citizen.
Moving responsibility? The whole comment section is full of US citizens performing so.
But contrary to me, they do not have to feed their poor.
STFU
STFU
Cheesesteaks Bitchez!
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/godseden/godseden.htm#Engli...
http://www.claymontsteakshop.com/
Drooling thinking about it now...
Better Cheesesteaks than in Philly, and you can buy boxes of it to go! Don't forget rolls!
2 Convenient locations if you are in the area, stop by, you will not regret it.
good ol' Philadelphia, playing second fiddle to NYC. When I lived in West Phila. I used to run to the boathouses separated by the Sure-kill Expressway through the neighborhood that was bombed by the then mayor. As soon as you cross the river you get to the art museum & park where Rocky was filmed.
Is it me or does this article scream "Blame it on the black people"?!?!? Allow me to remind those of you that wish to use the darker skinned as a scapegoat that this U. S. of A. is yours, not ours. You designed it, we just provided you the labor. This is your mess. First you're too lazy to make it, and now that its broken you want to point the dirty end of the stick at the non-white citizens. Well, if you weren't so hell bent on keeping non-whites oppressed maybe we could've all worked together. Now, we're the current POTUS so you want to blame it on him too. i could go on for days but it would fall on deaf ears...
US citizenism drives to the end it has to be someone else.
Added to the US citizen middle class syndrom, you've got:
-the lower class, the non consumer, the third worlder are the main factors behind the crisis
-the upper class, the elite, the bankers are the main factors behind the crisis
Indeed, one is not responsible and that is the US citizen class.
US citizen classical pattern, it is either the rich and/or the poor.
Funniest being that the US citizen middle class is the elephant in the room, the very root cause of the situation through its incredible aggregate demand.
AnAnonymous said:
This abnormal of logic conclusion can put out just inside the range of the spiritual paranoia of the Chinese citizenism hysteria.
Posting of ZeroHedge article last week revealed consumptuation of the Chinese concrete is high abnormally. The high abnormally Chinese concrete consumptuation results to incredible Chinese citizenism citizen demand for aggregate, being also incredible rebar demandings.
Buy hey, Chinese citizenism citizen denial and pushing blame to exterior is self justifying.
Wait for more US citizen spreading around in China to see what a US citizen middle class aggregate demand means.
You wont be disappointed. US citizenism seldom disappoints in certain departments delivery.
STFU
Nobody's listening to you because you're lying. The African slave labor force was a small percentage of the working population of the early USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1850_United_States_Census
The truth hurts, but you've got to face it. "Black labor built the country" is patently false.
But, since you're so oppressed by the White Man, try Haiti. Lots of opportunities there for enterprising people of color, and no lazy Whitey to mess everything up. Good luck.
Jim Quinn sees half of the cause. "We sold our souls to Wall Street and chose a debt financed illusion of wealth over productive savings and investment which would have led to real wealth."
He is right as far as he goes, but what led to the need for the debt was the baby boomer generation continually voting for entitlements. Debt was ratcheded up to fund government spending on entitlements, welfare and warfare, and now we are bankrupt.
So the cause was Government AND Wall Street. Now there is no way out except for monetising the debt with inflation, or massive deflation and depression. The US elites will never allow the latter so they will 'print the money'.
Hang onto your gold, silver and guns and keep your powder dry. Don't fall for the antics of the evil party or the stupid party. If you do, you are blind.
US elites will never allow the latter so they will 'print the money'? Yeah I don't think so. If you're refering to the elites as those with money and power, traditionally the "old money" here in the U.S., they fear inflation. These folks typically hold truckloads of U.S. Treasury securities and investment grade corporates. These things don't perform well if you print money and inflation takes hold. If they are pulling the strings to have the U.S. print money then they are truly betting that this debt problem will keep spiraling and keep sucking any newly printed money down with it. This is what the bondholders of U.S. bank debt see happening. Did these folks take a haircut in 2008? I don't think so.
Good point about the entitlements though. With ERISA passing in the 1970s labor began to see the end of road for pensions and private sector security and instead turned to the government to make up for the difference.
Separation of Street and Government should be a constitutional mandate.
Ha, you've got my vote.
Is that original? Separation of State and Street? Very catchy.
Hell, call the idiots who are abandoning their slot on the Presidential ballot and run SOLELY on THAT!
You win, hands down.
But be careful - politicians spend more time thinking about money than they do about sex.
"Packing The Court" __ James MacGregor Burns c.2009
Quoted exerpts: Congress was founded in a ploy by John Marshall that was exploited and expanded by later conservatives until the court today stands supreme and unaccountable, effectively immune to checks and balances that otherwise fragment and disperse power throughout the constitutional system. Confronted by a hostile court repeatedly striking down vital progressive legislation, a president could declare that there is no place in a modern democracy for unelected judges to veto twenty-first-century laws. The president would announce flatly that he or she would not accept the Supreme Court's verdicts because the power of judicial emasculation of legislation was not-- and never had been-- in the Constitution. [pg 253]
If judicial rule was not ratified by the people in the amending process, the Supreme Court's exclusive grip on the constitutional interpretation would be broken. Shorn of its supremacy, the court would still retain crucial tasks. It would still be called upon to interpret ambiguous statues, adjust conflicting laws, clarify jurisdictions, and police the boundaries of federal-state power-- virtually all it's present responsibilities except that declaring federal laws unconstitutional. It would simply be brought closer to the role the Framers originally envisioned for it. [pg 254]
Far more often, American presidents and legislators have had to act effectively as transactional leaders-- brokers, negotiators, coalition builders-- to produce slow and incremental change. For them, as political scientist Keith Whittington has written, "constitutional disputes are more likely to be a distraction than an opportunity," a source of unnecessary conflict. They have willingly and eagerly left such disputes to the Supreme Court. "For such beleaguered politicians, the heightened judicial authority to say what the Constitution means is a respite from the responsibility and burdens of leadership." [pg 257]
Note: These few quoted excerpts should open the eyes and ears of the huddled masses, just what non-representative government were dealing with today. The Supreme Court has hijacked the Constitution from the people, that was subjected only for the people-- thus favoring the "Hamiltonian-Reaganomics Federalist Government System", for the power elite! jmo
Wonderful Read... thankyou
Uhm...
Yeah, fuck the Constitution. Inherently anti-progressive.
I spout some off-the-wall tangents in here, but what hole did you climb out of? Obama's sphincter I'm guessing?
This has nothing to do about Obama, period! It has to do with laissez`faire and the status quo. America has had a grand total of 112 Supreme Court Justices, in which 70 were Republican [GOP & Federalist], and 52 were Democratic [ Dem's & Whigs?]. There were a total of 17 Chief Justices [which set the docket?] of which 13 were solid conservative Republicans. Needless to say the cases to be heard were mostly at the discretion of a 'Packed [5-4] Court' virtually always dominated by hard-line conservatives. Why is this of importance? As the author illustrates through a timeless narrative - our country has been deteriorating exponentially because of unchecked 'Trickle-Down' economics. It simply doesn't work. This should be blatantly obvious to you when you look at pro-business and the wall street cronies court decision being handed down [don't forget Bush #43 v. Gore travesty of justice?] running ramshod over the American proletariat today!
Ps. Cheney Energy Policy?
Ps2. Read a few books an learn how to trade,... how politics correlate emphirically to the current markets!
Always read your work. It makes me think and I have forward a few. Thanks Jim.
This article pretty well displays all of America, not just Philly area. The decay will continue until the ultimate root canal takes place. Thanks for refreshing me on how fucdup it is.
There are still some little Caribbean countries that are good spots, ie St Lucia,Turks & Caicos , Anguilla......The Grenadines.
This article pretty well displays all of America, not just Philly area. The decay will continue until the ultimate root canal takes place. Thanks for refreshing me on how fucdup it is.
There are still some little Caribbean countries that are good spots, ie St Lucia,Turks & Caicos , Anguilla......The Grenadines.
"Once Great Nation"....blah blah blah, that didn't get blown apart in the GREAT colonial competition for oil from 1914-1945 and then just didn't really understand what Capitalism (Long-term investment that creates Long-term VALUE) really is. We mustn't forget that some Supremely-Out-of-Control Court Justices helped greatly by deciding that the biggest legal obligation of a corporation is to quarterly profitability. Some more moron graduates of Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Uof Chicago would be my guess. (Then they created the Federalist Society to protect this bogus dogma) But, we mustn't forget either that 60% of the Federal budget does NOT have any NONE, ZERO, accounting system to actually track where all the money is going, hummmmmmm, "Once great NATIOn" with institutionalized ACCOUNTING FRAUD.
That seems like an oxymoron to me. Then there is the whole matter of racist exploitation and business models built on the concept of the SLAVE plantation....."ONCE GREAT NATION" hmmmmmmm, sounds like some more 'Madison Ave.' PR Bullshit to me.
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
Fix your damn site, Quinn!
It locked up the GD browser!
I don't get your deal with marriage and why it's such a great and moral thing
male ownership model of relationships.
every other form of relating to another undermines the meme.
Its what we humans do. Give it a try. The institution of a family, one mother and father with kids, is a time tested method of rearing a well balanced minors who grow up to procreate. And the cycle starts over again.
ha, you forgot the legal caveat of "your mileage may vary"
No thanks, I don't think I'd get a good deal out of the arrangement.
Chances are, any extraterrestrials monitoring Earth consider IT to be one of THEIR 30 planets of squalor.
We can talk about race till the cows come home, and probably get a million different opinions.
But one thing is for sure...all of you Jews and lily white liberals who think that the Chinese, Mexicans, and blacks are going to work together to rebuild America into a utopia are so utterly mistaken that it has to classify as a form of brain disease.
The views are straightforward, the words are spelled correctly, and the meaning is very clear.
THIS is the result of our technological progress.
dolph9 gets to share that message on a global scale. Whee.
good post, all true. its been like you describe for 30 years I have visited usa and went to school there. nobody noticed. nobody believed. everyone looked away when driving through areas like the ones you describe. I guesss now its so bad now there is no where to look away to but the usa people had 30 years to do something and they chose not to, for whatever reason. now it seems irreversable and everything will have to be rebuilt after some sort of rebirth. personally, i dont see how it can happen. i think usa will de-evolve into something too terrifying to think about. Now its all about finding the right pocket or place to be in when it happens. that's what my friends tell me.
i've "walked" down the 30 blocks you speak of with Google StreetView (the images were taken this year). I don't get it - what's so terrible? I was expecting crumbling buildings and garbage strewn around. These blocks look like a pretty typical part of the American urban landscape - sure, perhaps one CheckCashing place too many, but overall not that different from Anycity, USA. Some buildings are even pretty (I don't know how they are maintained on the inside, but the facades are quite ok). And at 44th there is some landscaping.
Wake me up when you all get this settled... Zzzzzzz...
We did not choose this. We are witnessing the final stages of financial terrorism brought into existence via a parasitical illusory fiat economy soon to celebrate it's centennial in 2013. The elite manipulate, pillage and syphon everything and everyone until there is nothing left but a hollowed-out shell. The final straw is to blame the victim for the conditions forced upon them by their malfeasance. We are forced to dig our own graves at gunpoint. We did not choose this.
Outstanding observations. The reality is that while black Americans, for whom I have a great appreciation, have been done in by their own. Under the guise of destroying "white", which has been heralded as Bad Bad Bad, for decades now, the liberals let in massive amounts of feral immigrats (deliberately misspelled) believing that destroying white culture and white hegemony via destruction of majority numbers, would spell supremacy for blacks. However, they are hoisted on their own petard. Africans who have been let in now run gangs in Minnesota; Hispanics/mexicans in California, Texas, Arizona and Colorado now destroy everything they touch and fear rises as the sun sets; in Washington State the Asians who have been given the state by Governor Christine Gregoire in return for China buying the state's apples and pears elbow harshly the few whites who brazenly show up at the malls or in stores: Make no mistake. The foreigners see that you are cowed via "discrimination" and "xenophobia" and liberals who pursue their own destruction without regard for where their own children shall live. This country must stop all immigration to survive, send home any green card workers, purge foreign doctors from our hospitals and medical system (they are here because they have no ethics regarding the stupid white people; they ARE the death panels and I speak from experience. Over the last couple of years I've seen a Russian doc, a Mexican doc, and an Asian doc...the Russian was negligent in treating me; the Mexican was negligent in treating me, and the Asian's English was so poor I still have no idea if he had any idea what I was saying. The introduction of foreign docs is easily counted: pull up your local hospital and look at the list of doctors...it will be one-half foreigners. What else but death panels are they? Speak ill of Christianity if you will, but when we had a Christian country we fought for the health and life of Americans. You think the foreign docs will? Ha...)
Americans are on the run and the foreigners know it; they believe they have control and that you have lost your country. No more "disabled" foreigners taken in on our dime. No more foreigners period. No benefits for foreigners, period. English only. And stop cowering...take back your country or you die. And your children die for they will be the slaves of China whose eyes already are focused on America, believing that they own American as surely as they own Africa and Australia. Under the guise of "compassion", Americans have been compassioned into a morass of filth turned upon our country. No, we are not all alike. Americans have long been the moral compass and now the liberals, who love self-immolation via drugs, stripper poles, sex at will, and the abuse of your children via the media turning them into groomed next-generation sex partners riddled with stds and any-and-all perversions of sex are equal, destroy us all. Good luck with that.