Most arsons of commercial properties tend to be done by the owners. Often the reason is that a failing business needs the insurance money, other times it is done to make way for new developments. In Los Angeles a few years ago a developer was told that he would not be allowed to remove a historical building so he bulldozed it anyways and then paid the fine. In the end, he was allowed to develop the property anyways, the City Council just waited until the public forgot, it didn't take long.
A very long time ago I lived, for a short while, in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was actually in the national papers being listed as the worst city in America. It was an old mill town that became a symbol of our lost industrial base long before the steal mills left. If you want to understand me, you have to understand what I have lived and seen. It was a desperate place that had no hope; but, somehow the hardworking old school people that lived there still had integrity and believed that they would somehow hold out, they believed in community and helped one another.
Well apparently one of the factory mills that had been there for about a hundred years (1884) and been abandoned for decades has mysteriously burned to the ground the day before the mayor of Haverhill was to meet with someone who "planned on redeveloping the property". According to CBS Boston, the fire appears to have been intentionally set. What a surprise. What lucky timing for the developer.
I am a socialist libertarian. I believe in America and I believe that people should have as much personal freedom as they can without working against American interests. If you are against this nation than I believe you should be given the choice between leaving this nation and taking nothing with you or being treated as a traitor to this nation under the Patriot Act. I don't believe you should get benefits or tax breaks from this nation for working against this nation's people.
My readers should read "The Scarlet Pimpernel". He was an aristocrat (I am not) who thought that the French went to far, were too extreme during the French revolution in killing the aristocrats who destroyed their lives. He believed in mercy and letting people leave the country rather than being guillotined. He risked his life to save bad people from suffering more than they needed to. I am with that philosophy. I am a pacifist at heart.
The problem with extremism is that it ceases to believe in compromise and seeks revenge instead. The people in charge of this country have become more and more extreme in believing that only they deserve to benefit from this country. The response, as history shows, is slow in coming; but, it always comes. The Magna Carta came about because the English monarchy was willing to compromise, the French monarchy was not. It openly told it's own citizens that they did not matter and the response was equally extreme. I don't want to see that play out in America; but, I fear it will.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Looking Out For You and Your Families Interests
Political choices are a lot like business choices. In the end people make choices based on personal interests. Business is very cut and dry on this. Many CEOs have gone on record that what is best for this country is not a consideration in business, their only duty, they will tell you, is to the stock holders. Following that logic, a citizens interest is only for them and their family. So here is the question, is this country working for you?
For 99% of us the answer is no, not anymore. Why else would congress only have 7% of us supporting them? Clearly half of us are under direct attack from the system. Our congress and business leaders want to eliminate all the benefits that one achieves from working hard all your life for your family. They want to end social security (which we pay for), welfare (which more and more will need as we outsource jobs to foreign countries), food stamps (which is the only way many poor can eat at all) and our ability to organize to complain. The political system and the financial system have both been caught for being rigged to only benefit a very small percentage of us.
Are you hopeful that your children will have it better off than you? Do you think they will? While our children are sent off to foreign countries to die and fight for big oil, upon returning they are ignored. It is unlikely they will go to college or get a job that pays well. The truth is that if you are under 40, your prospects are not that good unless you hit the lottery or make very rich friends. These are the real driving forces behind the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Trump's doing well in the polls and Bernie Sanders support and I now fear that the establishment will not listen or understand any of it, just as Louis the 16th never got it.
When things in a country go bad, people wait for improvement, they support trying all kinds of things until they see that nothing they do improves their situation or gives them hope for their children. When they figure out there is no way to improve their children's lot in life, they stop supporting the government and accept that they must cheat the system or change it through any means possible. Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, understood this and in the book he says that Sancho Panchez was as honest as a poor man could be. The Soviet Union failed not because of a revolt; but, because none of its people would support it. The same is true for ancient Rome, it fell from a lack of support on the inside and that allowed for attacks to be successful from the outside.
Donald Trump is both right and wrong about something. He believes our politicians are stupid and that is why he believes the Chinese are beating us. If we are as a nation are competing with China, why are we sending them our jobs and why are we sending our technologies there? Even the dumbest person does not give his strengths to his opponent to use against him. Our corporate leasers see it to be in their personal interests to sell us out as a nation.
If you doubt me, go back a post or two and see what Jamie Dimon said about how this nation is doing, the said better than ever. He also said that we should continue electing politicians that go with the status quo. Kids, the status quo is not working for just about all of us and we all know it, that is why we have ceased having confidence in congress.
The un-Patriot-ic Act says that if you work for the interest of a foreign government against those of the United States you can go to jail, without due process and be held without a trial indefinitely. As a consequence we have jailed people for wanting to leave the United States to work with certain Arab factions; but we give tax breaks to companies that send American jobs to China. Think about it.
For 99% of us the answer is no, not anymore. Why else would congress only have 7% of us supporting them? Clearly half of us are under direct attack from the system. Our congress and business leaders want to eliminate all the benefits that one achieves from working hard all your life for your family. They want to end social security (which we pay for), welfare (which more and more will need as we outsource jobs to foreign countries), food stamps (which is the only way many poor can eat at all) and our ability to organize to complain. The political system and the financial system have both been caught for being rigged to only benefit a very small percentage of us.
Are you hopeful that your children will have it better off than you? Do you think they will? While our children are sent off to foreign countries to die and fight for big oil, upon returning they are ignored. It is unlikely they will go to college or get a job that pays well. The truth is that if you are under 40, your prospects are not that good unless you hit the lottery or make very rich friends. These are the real driving forces behind the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Trump's doing well in the polls and Bernie Sanders support and I now fear that the establishment will not listen or understand any of it, just as Louis the 16th never got it.
When things in a country go bad, people wait for improvement, they support trying all kinds of things until they see that nothing they do improves their situation or gives them hope for their children. When they figure out there is no way to improve their children's lot in life, they stop supporting the government and accept that they must cheat the system or change it through any means possible. Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, understood this and in the book he says that Sancho Panchez was as honest as a poor man could be. The Soviet Union failed not because of a revolt; but, because none of its people would support it. The same is true for ancient Rome, it fell from a lack of support on the inside and that allowed for attacks to be successful from the outside.
Donald Trump is both right and wrong about something. He believes our politicians are stupid and that is why he believes the Chinese are beating us. If we are as a nation are competing with China, why are we sending them our jobs and why are we sending our technologies there? Even the dumbest person does not give his strengths to his opponent to use against him. Our corporate leasers see it to be in their personal interests to sell us out as a nation.
If you doubt me, go back a post or two and see what Jamie Dimon said about how this nation is doing, the said better than ever. He also said that we should continue electing politicians that go with the status quo. Kids, the status quo is not working for just about all of us and we all know it, that is why we have ceased having confidence in congress.
The un-Patriot-ic Act says that if you work for the interest of a foreign government against those of the United States you can go to jail, without due process and be held without a trial indefinitely. As a consequence we have jailed people for wanting to leave the United States to work with certain Arab factions; but we give tax breaks to companies that send American jobs to China. Think about it.
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