WELCOME TO OPINIONS BASED ON FACTS (OBOF)

Name	Published
OVERVIEW	Dec. 28, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 1	Dec. 30, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 2	Jan. 10, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 3	Jan. 17, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 4	Jan. 24, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 5	Jan. 31, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 6	Feb. 07, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 7	Feb. 14, 2011
SPECIAL ISSUE	Feb. 18, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 8	Feb. 21, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 9	Mar. 01, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 10	Mar. 07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1	Mar. 14, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1A	Mar. 21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 2	Mar. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 3	Mar. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 4	Apr. 04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 5	Apr. 11, 2011
SS & MORE PART 6	Apr. 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7	Apr. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7A	Apr. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 8	May 02, 2011
SS & MORE PART 9	May 09, 2011
SS & MORE PART 10	May 16, 2011
SS & MORE PART 11	May 24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 12	Jun. 06, 2011
SS & MORE PART 13	Jun. 20, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14	JULY 05,2011
SS & MORE PART 14A	JULY 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 15	JULY 19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 16	AUG. 03, 2011
SS & MORE PART 17	AUG. 15, 2011
SS & MORE PART 18	Aug. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 19	Sept. 12, 2011
SS & MORE PART 20	Sept. 26, 2011
SS & MORE PART 21	Oct. 10, 2011

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Surprising news for me.

2. Mistreatment of the Postal Service.

3. Republicans ~ Economy ~ Reflection on Posting #20.

4. The Decline & Fall of America.

5. U.S. adds 115,000 new jobs, but unemployment is the same.

6. The Billionaire Boys Club. You really don't want to miss this.

7. My parting thought.

"VOTE AN EDUCATED VOTE"

What is an educated vote? It is one that has been made with as much knowledge, based on facts, not misinformation, that an individual can obtain.

~~~

SURPRISING NEWS FOR ME

A surprise to me, I recently learned that my computer counts the number of hits made on my Blog. It, of course, DOES NOT track who or where the hits are made, except that it does tell if the hits are out of the US.

Now I realize that some of you may hit a posting two or three time, reading just part of it at a time. I, also, believe that most of you will make a comment to, at least, one other person. Considering those facts, I arrive at the following statistics.

Since I started on December 28th, there have been 1,775 hits as of today. That averages 197 hits per month. If just half of you talked to someone else that would be another 98 that, at least, knows something about my Blog, for a total of 295 hits per month.

That really makes it all worthwhile. The one thing I don't understand, is that I don't hear anything from any of you except for two. I know that one of those two had a problem, at the beginning, trying to get logged-in to make a comment. If any of you have had that problem I would like for you to write me an e-mail. I promise you that I will not let anyone else know your e-mail address and I, also, promise you that I will not bug you by writing back to you, unless you have asked me to. At any rate I would sure like to hear from you any time you are so inclined. My e-mail address is fab (underscore) 80@cox.net.

I thank all of you for reading my assembled information. Hope you are finding it helpful.

THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING TO THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE AS HAS HAPPENED TO SOCIAL SECURITY PLUS MORE.

The United States Postal Service receives ZERO TAX DOLLARS. The Republicans are going after it anyway, because there is a union attached to it and they want the Postal Service to be privatized.

USPS is the second largest civilian employer in the United States of America. They have 574,000 workers. Only Wal-Mart has more employees, than the United States Postal Service. They operate 215,625 vehicles. The largest civilian fleet in the world. Almost 32,000 Post Offices around the country, referred to as Retail Locations, 31, 871 to be exact. Small town America has these little Post Offices.

They have more locations than Wal-Mart, Starbuck, and McDonald stores combined. The Postal Service is big. They deliver 40% of the World's card and letter mail. In 2010, they brought in $67 billion in revenue.

The Republicans have been on a mission to get rid of the Postal Service since 2006. This is an attack by the Republicans that think PRIVATIZING everything is the best thing to do. The Postal workers have taken to the streets to try and help save the United States Postal Service by passing House Bill 1351, which would help solve the Postal Service's budget problem, which was created by the Congress in the first place.

There are 120,000 jobs on the line, because of a manufactured budget crisis. It all stems from some legislation that was passed in 2006. What happened in 2006?

Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over the House of Representatives. BUT, before the Republicans gave up the gavel, in a Lame Duck session, they just had to stick it to workers one more time. They passed the "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act." The "Act" forced the Postal Service to "Pre-fund the Pension and Health Care benefits" for seventy five (75) years to come and they had to get the pre-funding complete in a 10 year period. A totally impossible task.

That is an enormous amount of money, particularly when you consider that they pay more than FIVE AND ONE HALF BILLION DOLLARS, THAT'S $5,500,000,000.00 per year for these benefits. THINK ABOUT THAT. MULTIPLY THAT BY 75 AND THAT IS WHAT THEY HAVE TO PRE - FUND IN A 10 YEAR PERIOD. No wonder the Postal Service has a budget problem. Can you imagine any business in the country that could do that or that would even stand still for such a demand? Of Course not.

Now keep in mind that the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE DOESN'T RECEIVE ONE DIME FROM TAXPAYERS, ZERO, NONE. Well, the Postal Service has to make some changes or Congress has to make some changes. Congress created this problem and they can correct it with the passage of HR 1351.

The President is out trying to create more jobs and Congress is forcing the Postal Service to layoff 120,000 employees. Folks, this just doesn't make any sense at all. The Postal Service could be making money and provide even better service, if they weren't harnessed with this ridiculous legislation.

They are going to have to stop Saturday delivery, close some rural offices and destroy a great American tradition that started 235 years ago on July 26th, 1775.

Here is another little tidbit that most people don't know. The Postal Service is mandated to go to every nook and corner of the country, so the United State Postal Service delivers 25% of all of UPS and Fed - X packages, because they don't go to some of the places where the Unite States Postal Service delivers.

The thing that has and is happening to the Postal Service Pension and Health Care fund is exactly the same thing that has happened to the Social Security Trust Fund. The Postal Service pays their funding for the Pension and Health Care to the Government and the Government is using it to shift around to different accounts. The Postal Service is going to wind up in the same position as the present Social Security Trust Fund.

It seems to me that there were two purposes in 2006 in legislating the requirement that the Postal Service pre-pay those funds for 75 years in a 10 year period. First, they, the Republicans, who passed this bill, want the Postal Service to go broke, so that it can be turned into a private operation, which will make Wall Street and the shareholders even more money, and probably in the process, provide much poorer service. Second, this gives the Government another way to mask the real deficit of the budget. NOW REMEMBER, THE POSTAL SERVICE GETS ZERO TAX DOLLARS, NONE. Yet the Government is draining the Postal Service and making it impossible to operate, under the pretence that they, the Government, are protecting the Postal workers pension.

This is another fraud and outright stealing of the Postal Service Pension fund. Everyone that is presently in Congress and voted for this bill, is guilty, for this and the $2.6 trillion they have stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund. They all have committed high fraudulent crimes.

If you have been reading my postings you know how much I have been telling you about the Social Security Trust Fund and now the same thing is happening with the U. S. Postal Service. I AM SO FEED UP WITH THESE CRIMINAL REPUBLICANS I HARDLY KNOW WHAT TO DO. IF THIS WAS IN PRIVATE BUSINESS THEY WOULD ALL BE IN PRISON. THEY AREN'T A BIT BETTER THAN COMMON CRIMINALS.

I realize that this is profiling and putting them all in the same pot, which I guess is the wrong thing to do. They just can't ALL be that bad, but I get so frustrated about all this, it is difficult to keep objective. I just bet you do too.

The one thing we can all do right now about the Postal Service Republican fraud, is to call your Senators and Representative and tell them you want HR 1351 passed. I have little hope that it will pass, but we can, at least, try. Please do that. I will, but I am at a real disadvantage as both my Senators are strong conservative Republicans and my Representative is the same.

REPUBLICANS ~ ECONOMY ~

REFLECTIONS ON POSTING #20

First, I want to look back at posting 20 and the subject, "What is happening between the Republicans in Congress and the President?"

In that section I asked WHY? Why do the Republicans refuse to work with the President on anything. As much as I hated to say it and as much as I hope I am wrong, I concluded two reasons. One that he was a Democrat. The other was that he is a Black Democrat. I truly hate to say, that one reason, because he is Black, and I truly hope that I am wrong.

Since I wrote that, I have thought a lot about it and I have come to realize that there is another reason, a third reason, that may be the primary reason. The Republicans may have taken the position that they want the economy to be as bad as possible until Nov. 2012 and the election. They may feel that that would be the sure way of defeating the President in the next election.

If they feel that way then, they also have to feel that having another 12 months of bad economy would be worth it and then they would try to fix the economy, in their way, when they have the whole ball of wax, the Presidency, and both Houses of Congress. Now that I have thought more about this, and I should have before I wrote posting 20, it makes more sense than the fact that he is black.

However, one reason I still have some feeling that race is a factor, is because, if it were not why would the Minority Leader in the Senate say, in just a few days after Mr. Obama became President, that their, the Republicans, agenda was to be sure that President Obama would be a one term President. I do believe that the two main reasons for wanting to beat the President in Nov. 2012, and not work with him now, is 1) he is a Democrat and 2) a poor economic recovery.

THE DECLINE & FALL OF AMERICA

Nation of Change

Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr.

Published Oct. 7, 2011

Nye is currently University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University, and previously served as dean of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also serves as a Guiding Coalition member for the Project on National Security Reform. The 2008 TRIP survey of 1700 international relations scholars ranked him as the sixth most influential scholar of the past twenty years, and the most influential on American foreign policy.

After reading and re-reading this article two or three times, I thought I would simply write about it and paraphrase and not print the entire article. As I started to do that, I found that to get the important thought, that way just wasn't going to work. I think you will find this to be of real great interest to you. It is written by a man with a tremendous background. What I have listed above is a very, very small part of his accomplishments. I grant you that it is rather lengthy, but I think you will find it worth your time.

Of the comments at the end there is one that I am including only to show some of the thinking that is out there. I got the feeling that this is not just a crack pot, both from his age and the way he has written. It's here for whatever it is worth to you.

The United States is going through difficult times. Its post-2008 recovery has slowed, and some observers fear that Europe’s financial problems could tip the American and world economy into a second recession.

American politics, moreover, remains gridlocked over budgetary issues, and compromise will be even more difficult on the eve of the 2012 election, when Republicans hope that economic problems will help them unseat President Barack Obama. In these circumstances, many are predicting America’s decline, especially relative to China.."

And it’s not just pundits who think so. A recent Pew poll found that in 15 of 22 countries surveyed, most people believe that China either will replace or has replaced America as “the world’s leading superpower.” In Britain, those putting China on top rose to 47%, from 34% in 2009. Similar trends are evident in Germany, Spain, and France. Indeed, the poll found more pessimistic views of the US among our oldest and closest allies than in Latin America, Japan, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. But even Americans are divided equally about whether China will replace the US as a global superpower.

Such sentiments reflect the slow growth and fiscal problems that followed the 2008 financial crisis, but they are not historically unprecedented. Americans have a long history of incorrectly estimating their power. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, after Sputnik, many thought that the Soviets might get the better of America; in the 1980’s, it was the Japanese. Now it is the Chinese. But, with America’s debt on a path to equaling its national income in a decade, and a fumbling political system that cannot seem to address the country’s fundamental challenges, are the “declinists” finally right?

Much will depend on the uncertainties – often underestimated – brought about by future political change in China. Economic growth will bring China closer to the US in power resources, but that doesn't necessarily mean that China will surpass the US as the most powerful country.

China’s GDP will almost certainly surpass that of the US within a decade, owing to the size of its population and its impressive economic-growth rate. But, measured by per capita income, China will not equal the US for decades, if then.

Moreover, even if China suffers no major domestic political setback, many current projections are based simply on GDP growth. They ignore US military and soft-power advantages, as well as China’s geopolitical disadvantages. As Japan, India, and others try to balance Chinese power, they welcome an American presence. It is as if Mexico and Canada sought a Chinese alliance to balance the US in North America.

As for absolute decline, the US has very real problems, but the American economy remains highly productive. America remains first in total R&D expenditure, first in university rankings, first in Nobel prizes, and first on indices of entrepreneurship. According to the World Economic Forum, which released its annual report on economic competitiveness last month, the US is the fifth most competitive economy in the world (behind the small economies of Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, and Singapore). China ranks only 26th.

Moreover, the US remains at the forefront of such cutting-edge technologies as biotech and nanotechnology. This is hardly a picture of absolute economic decline.

Some observers worry that American society will become sclerotic, like Britain at the peak of its power a century ago. But American culture is far more entrepreneurial and decentralized than was that of Britain, where industrialists’ sons sought aristocratic titles and honors in London. And despite recurrent bouts of concern throughout its history, America reaps huge benefits from immigration. In 2005, foreign-born immigrants had participated in 25% of technology start-ups in the previous decade. As Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew once told me, China can draw on a talent pool of 1.3 billion people, but the US can draw on the world’s seven billion, and can recombine them in a diverse culture that enhances creativity in a way that ethnic Han nationalism cannot.

Many commentators worry about America’s inefficient political system. True, America’s founding fathers created a system of checks and balances designed to preserve liberty at the price of efficiency. Moreover, the US is now experiencing a period of intense partisan polarization. But nasty politics is nothing new to the US: its founding era was hardly an idyll of dispassionate deliberation. American government and politics have always experienced such episodes, and, though overshadowed by current melodramas, they were sometimes worse than today’s.

The US faces serious problems: public debt, weak secondary education, and political gridlock, to name just a few. But one should remember that these problems are only part of the picture – and, in principle, they can be solved over the long term.

It is important to distinguish such problems from those that cannot, in principle, be solved. Of course, whether America can implement the available solutions is uncertain; several commissions have proposed feasible plans to change America’s debt trajectory by raising taxes and cutting expenditures, but feasibility is no guarantee that they will be adopted. Still, Lee Kuan Yew is probably right to say that China “will give the US a run for its money,” but not surpass it in overall power in the first half of this century.

If so, the gloomy predictions of absolute American decline will turn out to be as misleading as similar predictions in decades past. And, in relative terms, while the “rise of the rest” means that America will be less dominant than it once was, this does not mean that China will necessarily replace the US as the world’s leading power.

The following is one of the comments at the end of the article, for whatever it is worth to you. As I said earlier, it is just to show what some of the thinking is out there. Due to the age and the manner he has written, I don't think he is a crack pot.

Theodore Ziolkowski
October 07, 2011 6:39pm

I am 70 years old and I never thought that I would say this about the United States of America and the Republican Party that I use to be a Member of.

I will predict that if the Republican Party gains control of the White House (Presidency) in 2012 and retains control of the Congress (House of Representatives and gains the Senate) that we will have open and armed warfare in the United States of America.

It will not be a Fair or even War because it will be the 99% against the 1% who will try to hire Individuals to fight for them or to have the Federal Government order the Federal Troops to attack American Citizens on United States of America's soil. These troops are the Sons and daughters of the 99%. Do the "Rich and Powerful" really think that the United States of America's Military will turn against their Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers Aunts and Uncles??? I DON'T THINK SO.

U.S. Adds 103,000 Jobs But Unemployment Rate Unchanged

By Josh Voorhees | Posted Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, at 10:20 AM ET

(People wait in line to receive free milk from the Milk from the Heart program October 6, 2011 in New York City. As the economy throughout the nation struggles, prices on many food staples have continued to rise.)

The U.S. added roughly 103,000 news jobs in September, according to the latest batch of numbers from the Labor Department – but despite being more than most analysts had predicted, the gains were unable to make a dent in the nation’s unemployment rate, which remains at a stubborn 9.1 percent.

The new data, however, "at least temporarily calms fears of a new recession that have hung over Wall Street and the nation for weeks," the Associated Press reports.

The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey predicted the report would show a gain of roughly 60,000 jobs last month. The 103,000 number, however, may be overstating the strength of the economy given that 45,000 Verizon workers who had been on strike in August went back to work, "so the underlying pace of job creation was a more modest 58,000," the Washington Post reports

The new data, however, "at least temporarily calms fears of a new recession that have hung over Wall Street and the nation for weeks," the Associated Press reports.

The new report showed that in addition to last month’s gain, the nation also added 57,000 jobs in the previous month, a revision from an original estimation of zero. July's figures were also revised upward.

The New York Times with a closer look at the jobless: "Over all, there were still 14 million people out of work, 6.2 million of whom have been on the job hunt for six months or more, the report showed. Including those who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment and those who are too discouraged to look for work anymore, the total unemployment rate rose to 16.5 percent in September."

THE BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB

The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President

The following is the first of a two part series, that I find extremely fascinating. Well, not only fascinating, but valuable information that shows us what we are fighting, if you are a person that believes in Democracy, and particularly if you are a Democrat. Having knowledge about your enemy is the first step in beating them. Mr. Palast conducted in depth investigation of these men for The Guardian.

Thursday 6 October 2011

by: Greg Palast, Truthout | Investigative Report

The untold story of the sources of the loot controlled by Paul "The Vulture" Singer, Ken Langone and the Kochs - and why they need to buy the White House.

Hedge fund magnate Paul Singer likes to breakfast on decayed carcasses. What he chews down is sickening, but just as nausea-inducing are his new tablemates: billionaires Ken Langone and the Koch Brothers, Charles and David.

Singer has called together the billionaire boys' club for the purpose of picking our next president for us. The old-fashioned way of choosing presidents - democracy and counting ballots and all that - has never been a favorite of this pack. I can tell you that from my investigations of each of these gentlemen for The Guardian. When the Statue of Liberty has nightmares, she dreams that these guys will combine to seize America via a cash-and-carry coup d'état.

Welcome to the nightmare. Singer, Langone and the Kochs last month decided to elect Chris Christie for us. The New Jersey governor's pseudocampaign went belly up before it began. But that's beside the point. Now that the Supreme Court has effectively ended campaign finance limits and allowed secretive contributions through "corporations," this new combine of the ultrawealthy should not be viewed as just a political threat to the Democrats, but as a threat to democracy.

Let me give you a rundown from my sulphur-scented files on these men who would be king-makers.

Billionaire 1: Ken Langone

Langone likes to be known as the founder of Home Depot, just your local tool guy in a blue apron with a little bag of screws.

But he was also the man, with his right-wing partners, behind Database Technologies (DBT). It was in my first investigation of Langone in 2000 that I discovered that DBT had created a list of several thousand "felons" - most of them black, all of them innocent, all of them purged from Florida's voter rolls by DBT's client, Katherine Harris. And Langone's company knew exactly what was going on.

What qualifies Langone to pick our president? In his own words: "I'm nuts; I'm rich."

Billionaires 2 and 3: David and Charles Koch

You think you've read all about the billionaire brothers. Well, there's more:

In 1996, an FBI agent, Richard Elroy, told my team that oil had been pilfered from the Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma. He and other G-men filmed the filch-theft, say witnesses, personally ordered by Charles Koch. A few barrels here, a few barrels there.

It all added up: to about a billion and a half dollars in looted petroleum, says one expert, a third of the Koch fortune at the time. David and Charles shared in the booty via their private company, Koch Industries.

Why the Billionaires Need to Buy the White House.

A Koch Industries executive (not knowing he was being taped) said he had asked Charles Koch, who already had a billion from an inheritance, why Koch was pocketing a few bucks a week from poor American Indians. Koch told him, "I want my fair share, and that's all of it."

And "all of it," of course, includes the White House.

Putting Bush in the White House was worth his weight in gold to these gents - more, in fact. And now, the Kochs, Singer and Langone have teamed up to pick a candidate they pray can take back their real estate at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
.

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THE NEXT POSTING ON THIS SUBJECT

The next posting will start with the run down on Paul Singer "The Vulture." It is, by far, the most bizarre and there is more on the other three as well. There is a section entitled "Gimmies." What they want and how they are planning to get it.

MY PARTING THOUGHT

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. John Quincy Adams

God willing and the creek don't rise I'll talk with you again on October 24, 2011. God Bless you all.

Floyd

Opinions Based on Facts

Monday, October 10, 2011

OBOF SS & MORE PAART 21

U.S. Adds 103,000 Jobs But Unemployment Rate Unchanged

The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President

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