OBOF SS & MORE PART 37 EXTRA

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
SS & MORE PART 22	Oct.   24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22 EXTRA	Nov.  04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 23	Nov.  07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 24	Nov.  21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 25	Dec.  05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 26	Dec.  19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 27	JAN.  03, 2012
SS & MORE PART 27A	JAN.  05, 2012
SS & MORE PART 28	JAN.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 29	JAN.  31, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30	Feb.  14, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL1	Feb.  21, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30 EXTRA	Feb.  23, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31	Feb.  28, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL2 - 59	Mar.  06, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31 EXTRA	Mar.  07, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32	Mar.  13, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL3 - 1	Mar.  20, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32 EXTRA	Mar.  24, 2012
SS & MORE PART 33	Apr.  10, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL 4 - 2	Apr.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 34	Apr.  24, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL5 - 49	May  01, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35	May  09, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL6 - 19	May  15, 2012
SS & MORE PART 35 EXTRA	May  18, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36	May  22, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36 EXTRA	May  25, 2012
SS & MORE PART 36
EXTRA II	June 01, 2012
SS & MORE PART 37	June 05. 2012
SS & MORE PART 37 EXTRA	June 07, 2012

 IN  THIS  ISSUE

1.  Opening note.

2.  Wisconsin recall election.

3.  Another example of what money can buy.

4.  Some misc. tid bits of real interest.

5.  General rambling about the economy w/a suggested answer.

      I think you may find this interesting.

~~~

"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.

~~~

OPENING  NOTE.

If any of you have not looked at the blog except before June 5, I want to call your attention to the fact that there was a posting on June 5 and now again on June 7.  I mention this only because if you pull it up now it will first show the latest one, June 7, and you might miss the June 5th one entirely.  I just didn't want that to happen as there are things in the June 5th one that I sure want you to see. 

The items in this posting were such, that I just had to get it out to you.  If I can keep up with it, I'll probably be posting a number of EXTRAs. 

~~~

THE  RECALL  ELECTION 

IN

WISCONSIN

The recall election in Wisconsin didn't turn out to be anything like the polls were saying.  They said it was going to be a very close election.  A win by Walker by almost 20 points doesn't sound very close to me.

The election was bought and paid for.  Walker had $45 million to spend and Barrett only had $9 million.  (These figures were reported on Tuesday night, the 5th, and now, on the night of the 6th it's reported as $30.5 and $3.9).  What the hell do you believe?  To me, that total of $54 (or $34.4, which ever) million spent on a campaign like this is simply DISGRACEFUL.   Walker was able to use some real dirty tricks at the end. 

They had a calling campaign where they called those that had signed the recall petition and told them that since they had signed the petition that was the same as their vote, so they didn't have to go vote.  There were some others like setting up phone banks that did nothing, but call Barrett's phones so as to load them up.

We better use this as a real true wake up call for the November election.  If we don't all really work hard and support the President in every way we can, we could sure lose this thing.  Obama will have about the same money ratio as Barrett had in Wisconsin.  It is said that the Republicans are planning to provide at least $1 billion for this campaign, which again, is absolutely DISGRACEFUL.

 (I wrote the above on the evening of Tuesday June 5, 2012.)

(The following has been written on the evening of Wednesday June 6, 2012.)

Tonight, I am totally confused.  Of course, many of you may think that I am always confused, but then again maybe many of you don't think so.  At any rate, here is my confusion.

There appears to be more proof that money really does buy anything, particularly when it comes to politics.  In Wisconsin, Gov. Walker had the money, but Mayor Barrett had the people.  I mean, Mayor Barrett had more people on the ground, seeing people, making telephone calls, pushing signs and, it seemed, he had the issues on his side, one being destruction of Unions.

Why then do you suppose 38% of union families voted for the Governor?  Destroying the Unions was one of the biggest problems that brought about the recall in the first place.  The answer is MONEY and lots of it. 

The money that Walker had was used to flood the airways with reasons this recall was unjustified, so that 70%, by polling, said that it was unjustified. 

One other main factor was that they attacked Barrett about guns, saying that he would take away your guns.  That played heavily in rural counties, which makeup a very large portion of the state.  All of this, because Walker had the money to do it--  money buys anything, including elections.

~~~

Another example of what money can do to a campaign.

 California is the second lowest smoking state in the union.  They have not raised tax on cigarettes, since 1994.  There was an issue on the ballot yesterday raising that tax by $1.  The proposal stated that the additional $1 was to go, totally, for cancer research.  It was estimated that the tax would bring in $50 million a year.

In March, the people were very much for the tax.  In fact, a poll showed that 67% supported the tax increase.  What do you suppose happened?  You guessed it.  The tobacco industry poured money into the state and the final vote defeated the tax increase 50.2% to 49.8 %.  What an example of the results of having money.  Incidentally, this was on the Rachel Maddow's show on June 6, 2012.

~~~

SOME  OTHER  MISC.  TID-PITS  AS OF

JUNE 6, 2012

Polls mean little, if anything.

Latest poll, 6-6-12, showed Obama leading Romney 49% to 42%.  IT MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  WHY, because the real money has not yet started to be spent and the Democrats can't start to raise the kind of money that the Republicans have and will have.  From what you have read above, you can see that money can buy almost anything, particularly elections.

A field day for Republicans - only by the way they play ball.

Oh, what a day they have had.  Many Republicans, including Speaker Rep. John Boehner and Senate Minority leader McConnell, were on television.  They were talking about former President Bill Clinton saying in an interview that he was for extending the Bush tax cuts.  They really played it up big all day.

The problem is that it was quite inaccurate, as usual.  What the former President said was "I am in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone, except the wealthiest."  They, of course, left off the part "for everyone, except the wealthiest."  Makes quite a difference doesn't it.  I viewed the interview myself and heard exactly what Clinton said.   

I have a next door neighbor, who is a strong Obama supporter and he was taken in by this.  I had not heard it, until he told me about it.  He was upset that Clinton would say such a thing.  That is, when I started to look into it.   

Then I found what really happened.  I called him and showed him how they get to people with this sort of misrepresentation.  I said to him "They even took you in."  He was unhappy about the whole thing, particularly, that he hadn't found the truth himself.  

My real point, in regard to the above, is that when we hear something that just doesn't ring right, be sure to check it out before you believe it and then, if you find it to be bogus, shoot it down every chance you get. 

Misc:

Recently, Romney made the statement that "Obama has not sent any plan to Congress to improve job creation."

People eat it up and say things like "He isn't trying to help us at all."  This, when the President has presented the Jobs Act to Congress and they are sitting on it, because they know that if it passed it would work and make President Obama look good and they can't have that, at all costs.  Actually, as far as jobs are concerned, the private sector has added four (4) million new jobs in the last 27 months.

The scary thing is we haven't seen anything yet.  When we get into convention time and after, the money will start to flow. 

THE SAME THING COULD HAPPEN IN THE GENERAL ELECTION, THAT HAPPENED IN WISCONSIN.  OBAMA WON'T HAVE THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THE REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE AND THAT WILL, ALSO, APPLY TO ALL DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.  THEY ARE ALL GOING TO NEED AS MUCH HELP AS WE CAN GIVE THEM. 

~~~

SOME  GENERAL RAMBLING ABOUT THE ECONOMY

by Floyd Bowman

A most unqualified writer.

June 7, 2012

As usual, I have been doing a great deal of reading about various answers to our recovery and future GDP growth.  Therefore, I, of course, am totally qualified to provide all the answers to all our recovery problems. 

Seriously though, I have been studying a number of writings on the subject.  I don't pretend to fully understand all the implications of various actions, but I believe I am as qualified to respond as some of the comments I have read at the end of these writings.  I am sure that I am going to over-simplify the problem and solution, but here goes.

It seems that there are a couple of approaches that could speed the recovery, like the Daytona 500.  The real problem is that the Republicans are not going to let anything happen that would do anything for the recovery - - why?  Because it would make President Obama look good and they simply are not going to let that happen, until after November election.  They truly care more about winning the White House than they care about the ordinary people of this country.  Now that is a simple fact and that is a sad commentary, when so many millions are in such poor scraps that the suicide rate is up. 

There is one suggestion called the Barbell approach, by Peter Orszag, which means that you do two things simultaneously.  First, you provide another stimulus.  However, this time make it big enough to work.  The other one did work to some degree, even quite successfully in many ways, but not enough to turn things around.  Second, at the same time, pass a deficit reduction package that will have some real meaning to it, BUT to be implemented after the recovery is in full swing.

Now, that seems to make good sense to me.  It, of course, can't happen for the reason I set forth above in red. 

To simplify our problem, demand just isn't here - - why?  It is because the middle class doesn't have the resources to create the demand.  They are either unemployed or their wages have been reduced, so that disposable income, is not sufficient to allow them to buy anything, but the real necessities.  NO DEMAND.

What does that do to businesses?  While businesses do have plenty of money on hand to expand, they simply aren't going to risk expansion, until they see demand, or at least, an outlook that demand is going to be there. 

 SO, BUSINESS IS NOT GOING TO EXPAND UNTIL THERE IS DEMAND AND THERE WON'T BE DEMAND, UNTIL BUSINESSES CAN HIRE WORKERS WITH A WAGE THAT WILL PERMIT THEM TO BRING ABOUT A DEMAND.  IT'S THE OLD SAYING ABOUT THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG. 

So, we need something to put the middle class in a position where they can create demand.  Thus, enters a LARGE stimulus.  This stimulus would not be just a hand out without some needed results.  Our country has plenty of need, where this stimulus could produce real results, i.e. infrastructure, upgrade public transportation, airport renewal, education, and increased export to name a few.

Once this was done, the demand would take over as a result of the stimulus and manufacturing would begin to expand, hiring workers and now we are off and running. 

This all is quite useless, for the simple reason that the Republicans won't let it happen.  I haven't checked back on some of my earlier writings, but I know I wrote something similar to this about 10 or 12 months ago.  It did no good then and I am sure it won't do any good now, except for me, to get it off my chest and maybe, just maybe, you will have an opportunity to explain to someone, what the Republicans are holding up.

~~~

PARTING  THOUGHT.

We are always the same age inside.

by Gertrude Stein

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again on Tuesday June 12, 2012 with another issue of OBOF.  Until then:

God Bless you all

&

God Bless the United States of America

Floyd