Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘failed economic policies’

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon

Saturday October 8, 2016

the-gig-economy

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Retail apocalypse: Major chains closing 6,000 stores

Posted By -NO AUTHOR- On 05/04/2015

Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/retail-apocalypse-6000-chains-closing-stores/

Officedepot

WASHINGTON – The long feared “retail apocalypse” may be hitting with little or no fanfare if a growing list of store-closing plans by major chains is any indication. Major U.S. retailers have announced the closing of more than 6,000 stores from coast to coast. The list includes only those retailers that have announced plans to close more than 10 outlets this year and next.

For example,

1,784 Radio Shack stores are vanishing,
400 stores in the Office Depot/Office Max chain by 2016, and
340 Dollar Tree/Family Dollar stores.

The growing list of stores getting shuttered coincides with the decline in discretionary consumer spending over the past six months. “Expect to see more storefronts closed at malls across the country,” one retail watcher told WND. “It’s getting ugly out there.”

Another factor, the source said, is that Americans’ credit is maxed out – a problem that will impact holiday season sales later this year. Add the demand of rising taxes, housing and health-insurance costs and you’ve got a formula for belt-tightening across the board. Expected to be hit hardest by the trend are poorer- and lower-middle class neighborhoods. The recent riots in Baltimore are expected to make retailers even more skittish.

See the big list:

Retail

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Another Politically INCORRECT Cartoon for Today

Get Over It

Posted on January 1, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://conservativebyte.com/2015/01/get/

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Labor Force Participation Remains at 36-Year Low

By Ali Meyer, December 5, 2014

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/labor-force-participation-remains-36-year-low-0

: In this Thursday March 13, 2014, file photo, job seekers line up to attend a marijuana industry job far in Downtown Denver. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

(CNSNews.com) – The labor force participation rate remained at a 36-year low of 62.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The participation rate, which is the percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population who participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one, was 62.8 percent in November which matches the percentage since March 1978.

In November, according to BLS, the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, consisting of all people 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 248,844,000. Of those, 156,397,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.

The 156,397,000 who participated in the labor force was 62.8 percent of the 248,844,000 civilian noninsttutional population, which matches the 62.8 percent rate in April, May, June, August and October of 2014 as well as the participation rate in March of 1978. The participation rate hit its lowest level of 62.7 percent in September 2014.

Another 92,447,000 people did not participate in the labor force. These Americans did not have a job and were not actively trying to find one. When President Obama took office in January 2009, there were 80,529,000 Americans who were not participating in the office, which means that since then, 11,918,000 Americans have left the workforce.

Of the 156,397,000 who did participate in the labor force, 147,287,000 had a job, and 9,110,000 did not have a job but were actively seeking one -– making them the nation’s unemployed.

The 9,110,000 job seekers were 5.8 percent of the 156,397,000 Americans actively participating in the labor force during the month of November. Thus, the unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, the same as it was in October.

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Thanks A Lot Imperial President Obama. It’s official: America is now No. 2

By Brett Arends / Published: Dec 4, 2014

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-america-is-now-no-2-2014-12-04

A Bank of China branch under construction early this year in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

Hang on to your hats, America.

And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.

It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.

The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.

As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.

To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.

This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.

I reported on this looming development over two years ago, but the moment came sooner than I or anyone else had predicted. China’s recent decision to bring gross domestic product calculations in line with international standards has revealed activity that had previously gone uncounted.

These calculations are based on a well-established and widely used economic measure known as “Purchasing-Power Parity (or PPP)”, which measures the actual output as opposed to fluctuations in exchange rates. So a Starbucks venti Frappucino served in Beijing counts the same as a venti Frappucino served in Minneapolis, regardless of what happens to be going on among foreign-exchange traders.

“Make no mistake. This is a geopolitical earthquake with a high reading on the Richter scale.”

PPP is the real way of comparing economies. It is one reported by the IMF and was, for example, the one used by McKinsey & Co. consultants back in the 1990s when they undertook a study of economic productivity on behalf of the British government.

Yes, when you look at mere international exchange rates, the U.S. economy remains bigger than that of China, allegedly by almost 70%. But such measures, although they are widely followed, are largely meaningless.

Does the U.S. economy really shrink if the dollar falls 10% on international currency markets?
Does the recent plunge in the yen mean the Japanese economy is vanishing before our eyes?

Back in 2012, when I first reported on these figures, the IMF tried to challenge the importance of PPP. I was not surprised. It is not in anyone’s interest at the IMF that people in the Western world start focusing too much on the sheer extent of China’s power. But the PPP data come from the IMF, not from me. And it is noteworthy that when the IMF’s official World Economic Outlook compares countries by their share of world output, it does so using PPP.

Yes, all statistics are open to various quibbles. It is perfectly possible China’s latest numbers overstate output — or understate them. That may also be true of U.S. GDP figures. But the IMF data are the best we have.

Make no mistake: This is a geopolitical earthquake with a high reading on the Richter scale. Throughout history, political and military power have always depended on economic power. Britain was the workshop of the world before she ruled the waves. And it was Britain’s relative economic decline that preceded the collapse of her power. And it was a similar story with previous hegemonic powers such as France and Spain.

This will not change anything tomorrow or next week, but it will change almost everything in the longer term. We have lived in a world dominated by the U.S. since at least 1945 and, in many ways, since the late 19th century. And we have lived for 200 years — since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 — in a world dominated by two reasonably democratic, constitutional countries in Great Britain and the U.S.A. For all their flaws, the two countries have been in the vanguard worldwide in terms of civil liberties, democratic processes and constitutional rights.

By WhatDidYouSay.org

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

failed economic policies

Electorate awakens: Obama gas and mortgage groupie now says he lied about everything [VIDEO]

Written by Allen West on July 20, 2014

Remember that South Florida woman who had her fifteen minutes of fame claiming Obama would pay for her mortgage and gas?

Before the 2008 election, she was filmed saying “I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. If I help him, he’s going to help me!”

Well, documentary filmmaker Joel Gilbert tracked down Peggy Joseph to see how all that hope and change is working out for her and six years later, she’s had a complete change of heart. After living through Obama’s failed economic policies, she now says “he lied about everything.”

Yes ma’am. He certainly did.

The weekly jobs report numbers released last week included 302,000 new jobless claims. That number is lower than the expected, but even new Federal Reserve Chairman, Janet Yellin, has expressed concerns about the lagging workforce participation rate, which is close to 35-year low. In other words, more Americans have just fallen out of the workforce and raised the white flag of “I quit – for good.” As well, we more Americans are working two to three part-time jobs to make ends meet, instead of having a quality full time equivalent job.

And last week, we learned 18,000 employees at Microsoft will be getting their pink slips. They join our brave men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces, namely the U.S. Army who are getting the same.

On the subject of the economy, remember the consumer price index doesn’t include two critical components: food and energy prices. We’re all feeling the squeeze at the gas pump (as we discussed here) and at the grocery store, for that matter. And the Obama’s “War on Coal” families will be feeling the pinch in their home energy bills this winter.

The Fed continues its “quantitative easing” program of damaging low interest rates — but even worse, incessant printing of money to the tune of nearly $80 billoion per month — which effectively devalues our dollar and causes inflationary reactions in the marketplace. In other words, because of our failing economic policies, we have even worse monetary policies to try and abate the ensuing problem. And this week the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that in 25 years, our debt will surpass our GDP. Currently our debt to GDP ratio is at 76 percent, a very dangerous place.

However, far more troubling is if all the unfunded liabilities are included, our $17.5 trillion debt explodes to nearly $100 trillion, and that dwarfs our gross domestic product — the entire economic production of this nation.

Is this “sexy stuff” to discuss? Probably not to most. It’s nearly impossible to wrap your head around a trillion, let alone 17 or a hundred. Anyway, all Democrats seem to want to discuss is contraception, abortion and “marriage equality.”

And all of this is happening as America is flooded with illegal immigrants from Central America. The absorption cost is unknown. It may start with a $3.7 billion price tag but factor in education, healthcare and welfare benefits and this fiscal crisis for America is exacerbated.

So, the weekly jobs claims numbers may on the surface look good, but the truth lies beneath the surface. It’s just a matter of the American electorate waking up to recognize their plight and not be manipulated by the snake oil charmers of Washington D.C.

Category:

General

Tagged with:

Newspaper Apologizes for Endorsing Obama: ‘Far Worse Than Nixon’

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/07/01/newspaper-apologizes-for-endorsing-obama-far-worse-than-nixon/

July 1, 2014 By TPNN Staff

Billings Gazette: “Sometimes, you have to admit you’re wrong. And, we were wrong.”

“Sometimes, you have to admit you’re wrong,” The Billings Gazette said about its 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama. “And, we were wrong. We said that things couldn’t get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush,” the paper wrote in an apologetic editorial on Friday.

The Montana and Wyoming newspaper says that after endorsing the Democrat president in 2008, it now “has us yearning for the good ol’ days when we were at least winning battles in Iraq.”

The paper begins by stating that Obama has earned “every bit” of his “abysmal” approval ratings, referring to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal polls that “show that Americans are giving Obama lower marks than in 2006 when Iraq was going poorly for Bush and a tepid response to Hurricane Katrina sunk Bush’s ratings.”

“Obama’s hope and change have left liberals and conservatives alike hoping for real change, not just more lofty rhetoric.”

The lengthy op-ed goes on to provide a detailed laundry list of Obama regime failures that have led to its change of heart, including its NSA spying, its attacks against American energy, the “civil war” in Iraq, the Bergdahl exchange that released five top terrorists, and the VA scandal. Mysteriously, the piece fails to mention the IRS scandal, in which Americans were targeted for their political beliefs, and the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, in which four Americans were left to die while the Obama and Clinton machines lied repeatedly about what caused the attacks.

Contrary to its promise to be the most transparent administration in history, the paper claims that the opposite has turned out to be true, stating the regime “has actually cracked down on journali

Click on image to see movie trailer and more

sts, spied on citizens and retaliated against those who leak information to the press.” The Obama administration has earned a reputation must worse than the “disgraced” president, Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face likely impeachment.

“In fact, the Obama administration has become so opaque and difficult that it has earned the reputation of being far worse than Nixon, the disgraced president whose terrible clampdown of information led to federal law being changed for more transparency.”

After blasting Obamacare as being synonymous with the word “boondoggle,” The Gazette says that when combined with the multiple other massive self-imposed problems, its “a disturbing trend of incompetence and failure.”

Do you think Barack Obama is a far worse president than Richard Nixon? Take the Official Tea Party Poll. Click HERE!

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon

Coal Killer

Posted on June 5, 2014

http://conservativebyte.com/2014/06/coal-killer/#kBSpEi9ilurpB8Bw.99

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon

The Godzilla of Incompetence

Posted on June 2, 2014

http://conservativebyte.com/2014/06/godzilla-incompetence/#eRScShv7VMVgJlLL.99

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Obama Calls for Highest Sustained Taxation in U.S. History

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/obama-calls-highest-sustained-taxation-us-history

April 21, 2014 – 4:43 PM

By Terence P. Jeffrey

“Anti-Christ” President Barack Obama

(AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – In the budget proposal he presented to Congress last month, President Barack Obama called for what would be the highest level of sustained taxation ever imposed on the American people, according to the analysis published last week by the Congressional Budget Office.

Under Obama’s proposal;

taxes would rise from 17.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2014 to 19.2 percent in 2024.
During the ten years from 2015 to 2024, federal taxation would average 18.7 percent GDP.

America has never been subjected to a ten-year stretch of taxation at that level.

In the twelve fiscal years preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1930 through 1941), federal taxation averaged 5.3 percent of GDP.

In the five fiscal years encompassing U.S. involvement in World War II (1942 through 1946), federal taxation averaged 16.1 percent of GDP.

In the fiscal years since World War II (1947 through 2013), federal taxation has averaged 17.1 percent of GDP.

In the period from fiscal 1992 through 2001, federal taxes averaged 18.3 percent of GDP. But in the last four years of that period (1998 through 2001), the federal budget was in balance.

In the twelve fiscal years from 2002 through 2013, federal taxes averaged 16.1 percent of GDP—the same that they averaged during World War II. However, the federal government ran deficits in each of those twelve years.

In all ten years from 2015 through 2024, under Obama’s proposal, federal taxes would be higher than 18.3 percent of GDP. During the period of 1992 through 2011, there were only five straight years (1997-2001) when federal taxes were higher than 18.3 percent of GDP.

Under Obama’s budget proposal, according to the CBO, the budget will never balance. But over the next ten years, the federal government would add $7.183 trillion to its debt held by the public.

While adding that $7.183 trillion to the debt held by the public, Obama would increase taxes by $1.4 trillion, said the CBO report.

“The President’s budget would make a number of changes to the tax law,” said the report. “If enacted, those changes would boost revenues by $32 billion in 2015, and by $1.4 trillion, or about 3 percent, during the 2015-2024 period.”

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like NPR.

CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like PBS.

CNSNews.com relies on individuals like you to help us report the news the liberal media distort and ignore. Please make a tax-deductible gift to CNSNews.com today. Your continued support will ensure that CNSNews.com is here reporting THE TRUTH, for a long time to come. It’s fast, easy and secure.

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Today’s Political Cartoon

“LANDSIDE”

Posted on February 26, 2014

http://conservativebyte.com/2014/02/landslide/

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

10 Stories From The Cold, Hard Streets Of America That Will Break Your Heart

http://joeforamerica.com/2014/02/10-stories-cold-hard-streets-america-will-break-heart/#Bbc5Bv0Bhm2rFRa2.99

Posted by SHTF Plan on Feb 24, 2014

This article has been generously contributed by Michael Snyder. You can follow his regular writings, research and analysis at The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. Read his recent book The Beginning of the End to get an idea of what America may look like in the very near future.

If the economy is really “getting better”, then why have millions upon millions of formerly middle class Americans been pushed to the point of utter despair? The stories that you are about to read are absolutely heartbreaking. I don’t know how anyone can read them without getting chills. In America today, if you lose a good job, there is a good chance that you will get back on your feet before too long. But there is also a good chance that you won’t be able to find a decent job and will plunge into the abyss of depression and desperation that so many millions of other Americans have fallen into. As I wrote about earlier this month, the U.S. economy is definitely not getting any better. For example, if you assume that the percentage of Americans that want to work is about at the long term average, then the official unemployment rate in the United States would be above 11 percent. And compared to six years ago, 1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today even though our population has gotten significantly larger since then. Behind all of these numbers are real flesh and blood people, and you are about to hear from some of them. The following are 10 stories from the cold, hard streets of America that will break your heart…

#1 A 34-year-old man named Rocco…

“While my wife goes to work, I’ve been staying at home to conserve fuel. I’ve been losing weight from eating less, so my family has more on their plates. It feels like the government and big business expect more and more while trying to give back as little as possible. Soon my internet connection will be shut off and since most companies don’t offer paper applications, how will I find work then? Walking around for miles a day, asking for an application that may or may not be available?”

#2 Homeless people wasting away in “Obamavilles” on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland…(See the pictures at the end of the article)

A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel.

On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters.

You can see some incredible photos of how these homeless people are living right here.

#3 A 50-year-old woman in Pennsylvania named Karen…

“My husband only makes 10 dollars an hour and drives 30 miles round trip, so it’s taking all we have just to keep the Jeep filled with gas. We stopped going to church and all to save gas. We are homebodies now, afraid to use what gas we have. We save two kids from getting put in foster care just to be hit like this. It’s just a constant trap they try to keep you from receiving any help! I’m so disgusted when my 12-year-old asks me why we don’t have snacks anymore, or why are we eating so much rice, etc.”

#4 The following is an excerpt from a comment that was recently left by one of my readers…

“I live right at ground zero. South West Virginia and let me tell you things are bad and getting worse by the day. We don’t do drugs but have family members hooked on meth and or pills or both. Many of these pills are prescribed by local doctors either Suboxone to get you off the opiates, a total joke by the way and tons of Xanax why would anyone need 120 Xanax a month how can you even be expected to function. These pills get traded for cash sex and other items, same goes for the SNAP cards. We have family members going to jail repeatedly for the same crimes making meth, selling pills and stealing anything that’s not nailed down. People who are 30 years old look like they are 55 years old. The jobs here are awful walmat, gas stations, fast food etc. Most of our whole county is on the government dole.”

#5 A 55-year-old man from California named Randy Carpadus…

“I was working as a firefighter for the state of California and was laid off in April 2012, right at the beginning of fire season. At my age, I’m not going to be picked up by another fire department. They want younger guys.

I’ve applied for everything from truck driver, to sales, to nonprofit work. I’ve sent out almost 400 resumes, and I’ve gotten nothing. I’ve done whatever I could to make ends meet.

Through some connections, I got a temp job as a truck driver in Napa Valley — a 3-hour commute from where I live. I lived in my car and worked during grape harvest.”

#6 In this tough economic environment, debt collectors are becoming even more aggressive. Just check out the kind of harassment that one woman named Jennifer Posey has been put through…

“This is Jimmy Lee calling from CheckCare. Just letting you know we’re in full force,” he said. The man had a thick Southern accent that stretched the word “you” into a two-syllable accusation. “We’re going to have warrants out for your arrest in Columbus, Ga.,” the man threatened. “We know you have an apartment on the canal in Clearwater.”

It was when he mentioned her home in Florida that Posey began to feel anxious. “We’re hurting you,” he continued. “We’re hurting your family, your son’s family, your cousin’s family. Whatever we can do to get you to pay.”

Forty minutes later, her phone rang again. “What about that 12-, 13-year-old child you’re trying to raise?” the voice sneered.

#7 A 50-year-old woman from New York named Sharon Ritchie…

“I am constantly told I am ‘overqualified.’ I’ve also been told to dumb down my resume, but I can’t just erase 30 years of experience.

You can only stand the word ‘no’ so many times. There are times that I cry at night wondering what happened, and at times I have thought about suicide.

But, I keep on going, hoping the cycle will break.”

#8 In response to my recent article about Appalachia, a reader named Rob shared the following…

“I am from rural south central KY (Brodhead, Rockcastle County) and I can tell you that most of the things described above are exactly how it is here. There are so many people on drugs it’s crazy. First it was the meth, which was more of a problem back in 2002-2007, then the pain pills really started becoming a huge problem, OxyContin and perc 30′s (roxicet) obtained from Florida and Georgia doctors. The pain pills are something that you can’t just walk away from after doing them for a while; they cause people to steal from family, sell everything they own, and/or prostitute themselves in order to avoid opiate withdrawal.”

#9 A 30-year-old man from California named Alejandro…

“I need to provide for my son who is diagnosed with autism and my baby girl. I’ve sold a bunch of my belongings to try and put food on the table, to buy clothes for my kids, to pay rent and utilities and to put gas in my vehicle to go job hunting. Not having money for necessities takes a toll on my mind. Depression has kicked in. It really takes a toll on one’s self-esteem and confidence to move forward.I’ve applied to countless amounts of jobs, only to not even get a call back. I’ve gone from construction site to construction site, only to be told they are not hiring. Finally, I got at least a positive call back from a company telling me they will call me to work in a couple of weeks. I am crossing my fingers and praying. There are millions of people in my situation or even worse.”

#10 An excerpt from a heartbreaking letter that an unemployed woman named Paula Bray sent to Barack Obama…

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you today because I have nowhere else to turn. I lost my full time job in September 2012. I have only been able to find part-time employment — 16 hours each week at $12 per hour — but I don’t work that every week. For the month of December, my net pay was $365. My husband and I now live in an RV at a campground because of my job loss. Our monthly rent is $455 and that doesn’t include utilities. We were given this 27-ft. 1983 RV when I lost my job.

This is America today. We have no running water; we use a hose to fill jugs. We have no shower but the campground does. We have a toilet but it only works when the sewer line doesn’t freeze — if it freezes, we use the campground’s restrooms. At night, in my bed, when it’s cold out, my blanket can freeze to the wall of the RV. We don’t have a stove or an oven, just a microwave, so regular-food cooking is out. Recently we found a small toaster oven on sale so we can bake a little now because eating only microwaved food just wasn’t working for us. We don’t have a refrigerator, just an icebox (a block of ice cost about $1.89). It keeps things relatively cold. If it’s freezing outside, we just put things on the picnic table.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

The economic despair that we are witnessing right now is just a taste of the horrible economic nightmare that is going to unfold in the United States during the coming years.

And already there are signs that things are starting to take another turn for the worse. In recent months, we have seen a whole host of retail chains announce store closings. In fact, one of my readers wrote to me the other day and told me about a home appliance chain known as “American TV” that is going out of business in the Midwest. When these stores shut down, close to another 1000 Americans will soon be out of work…

“While this is a sad moment it is also a proud moment. It’s a moment to be proud of our efforts and to be proud of what we have delivered to the community”, said Doug Reuhl, President and CEO of American since 1988. “Words cannot adequately express how grateful we are to our millions of loyal customers, and to the incredible, dedicated family of employees that we have been blessed with over our 60 years of business”. Advanced notice of the business closing has been given to the 989 employees affected in eleven locations. Employees will be compensated, with benefits, through the notification period, and the majority will continue employment through the closing process.

But if you listen to the mainstream media, you would think that happy days are here again for America. Just check out some of the bizarre headlines that I have collected in recent weeks…

CNBC: “Stop whining! The US economy is in good shape”

USA Today: “Economists: U.S. will see better growth in ’14”

Newsday: “Why the economy isn’t doomed”

Most Americans will buy into this propaganda and will never see the next major economic crisis coming until it is too late to do anything about it.

So what do you think about all of this?

Do you have a personal story to share?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by leaving a comment…

Baltimore’s people of the woods: Inside the hidden homeless camps made of milk crates, wooden doors and tarps on the outskirts of town

Photographer Ben Marcin’s series ‘The Camps’ captures makeshift settlements near railway lines, gas stations, Walmarts and bridges
He said many of Baltimore’s homeless feel safer in the woods than in shelters
While most homes are made from tarps, some more elaborate constructions use milk crates and wooden doors

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 10:48 EST, 21 February 2014 UPDATED: 10:48 EST, 21 February 2014

A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel.

On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters.

Photographer Ben Marcin has captured some of the shanties in his thought-provoking photo essay, ‘The Camps’, documenting the struggle, loneliness and ingenuity of Maryland’s people of the woods.

The Camps: Snapper Ben Marcin has uncovered the illusive, hidden dwellings of Baltimore’s homeless in his moving photographic series.

Out of sight: Marcin searched for secluded territories, learning where camps were likely to spring up behind various railroad tracks, Wal-Marts and fast food areas

Rough sleepers: Marcin said some of the homeless people he spoke to preferred to sleep under a bridge than in a shelter which they considered unsafe

Desolate: Marcin’s photo series reveals the loneliness of many rough sleepers who chose to carve out their own lives using whatever materials they could get their hands on.

Similar to his Last House Standing series which captured lonely rowhouses around the Mid-Atlantic, Marcin shot the shanties around Baltimore without their inhabitants to add to the ‘mystery’.

Marcin said he first stumbled upon the homeless dwellings as he hiked through the woods bordering the city during hunting season.

When he saw a ‘mini-fortress’ made of milk crates just yards from a major thoroughfare, Marcin began searching for other transients ‘living off the grid’.

Most were based near railroad tracks, Walmarts, gas stations, and liquor stores.

Representative: The incredibly diverse style of shelters reflect the personal struggles and needs of their owners.

Special touches: Despite living on the outskirts of town, shelter owners often tried to make their space homely with greeting mats and flower vases.

Inspiration: Marcin was inspired to track down the city’s hidden dwellings after stumbling upon this makeshift home made up of stacked milk crates hidden in the bushes just yards from a major thoroughfare near downtown Baltimore

While most of the camps Marcin came across used basic tarps or tents, several were quite elaborate such as this home built entirely of wooden doors

‘I have always been interested in the unique places people live in, particularly where there exists an element of defiance or desperation, or both. In these situations, a house can often reflect the dilemma of its owner. In the case of the hobo camps, this reflection is quite pronounced for obvious reasons,’ he told The Atlantic Cities.

‘A sheet of plastic laid out over a clothesline may be the last stand for somebody who has either been rejected by society or who has refused to conform to whatever rules are being imposed on them.

‘Several camp people I talked to said they wouldn’t relocate into one of the City’s shelters because they were afraid of being assaulted or having belongings stolen.’

The road most traveled: Most of the settlements Marcin photographed were by waterways, railway tracks, Walmarts, gas stations and liquor stores.

Mystery: Marcin deliberately didn’t photograph camp residents, instead focusing on how they lived, the mark they made and what they left behind

Slums: Marcin came across a number of makeshift settlements or groups of people living off the grid around Baltimore.

Marcin said about year after finishing the project, he returned to the woods to find all the camps were gone. One had burned to the ground, some had been bulldozed, while others moved to different locations.

‘My guess is that these, too, will not be around for long,’ he said.

Other Ben Marcin photographic collections can be viewed at his website benmarcinphotos.com or at C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Living off the grid: While some homes comprised a sheet over a branch, this settlement had a clothes line, barbecue and gym equipment

Out of the way: Marcin captured each makeshift abode in full panorama view, showing their isolation and alienation

Traveling light: The dwellings Marcin snapped have since been abandoned, demolished or burned to the ground.

Homely: During his photographic odyssey, Marcin became increasingly fascinated at the effort that went into remaining hidden in plain sight and the creativity involved.

Hidden away: Marcin said he found himself ‘practically stepping into a number of homeless camps that were carefully hidden among strips of trees or bushes’ near highways and shopping centers.

No options: While several residents told Marcin that living in a tent or sleeping on a mattress in the woods was a personal choice, it seemed to him that there was often no other choice.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2564858/Baltimores-people-woods-Inside-hidden-homeless-camps-milk-crates-wooden-doors-tarps-outskirts-town.html#ixzz2uNBSJicN Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. If you want to know what things in America are going to look like in a few years read his new book The Beginning of the End.

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Rick Santelli: Tea Party Are Those Who ‘Carry the Water’

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/02/23/Rick-Santelli-Unlike-Occupy-Movement-Tea-Party-Powerful-Political-Force-Five-Years-After-Rant-Heard-Around-the-World

by Tony Lee 23 Feb 2014

Five years after his “rant heard around the world” spawned what is now known as the Tea Party movement, CNBC’s Rick Santelli appeared on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 and said the energy from 2009 has created a powerful political movement that has already achieved many tangible results while changing the political landscape.

Speaking to host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, Santelli said the Tea Party movement is a big-tent movement that attracts Americans from all walks of life. He said what is appealing about the movement to him is its emphasis on fiscal responsibility. The size, scope, and reach of government is becoming a bigger political issue and platform, and that, he said, is where the Tea Party will have its most lasting impact.

Unlike the Occupy Movement that fizzled, Santelli argued that the Tea Party has “morphed.” Even though the movement does not have a convention to elect an official leader or spokesperson, the “energy from ’09 has been put to work in a way that has been tangible.”

Calling his impassioned rant the “neatest five minutes” of his career, Santelli said the speech’s legacy was “a bit surprising to me.” He said the country was going through many massive “emotional upheavals” at the time, starting with the financial crisis that he believes started when the government tried to interject itself into the housing market.

He said he was merely venting about issues “that were burning through the country.” He was surprised that the Tea Party movement, composed of those who had been especially frustrated with George W. Bush’s big-government programs and inspired by Sarah Palin in 2008, formed at the grassroots level and then exploded.

He said “mothers and grandmothers worried about the kids and grandkids” started some of the original meetings which turned into what Santelli said was a “conservative fiscal movement that is the cornerstone of the country.”

“We still have it in our DNA to express our will… and the notion that government works for us is forever enshrined and followed through as it’s denoted in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,” Santelli said, saying he was very proud that his words galvanized Americans.

After Bannon said that Santelli doesn’t come across as someone who is a typical trader or a professor and connects with working people, Santelli said that he was a “very passionate individual,” and “there is never a doubt about whether someone is telling you what’s in their heart or not.”

“I was fed up, and maybe at that point in time I had the same thoughts of many in the country,” Santelli said.

He said he was inspired by hosts on CNBC like Carl Quintanilla who at the time were discussing how the financial crisis and the bailouts were impacting workers on the floor who were trying to pay their bills. Santelli said he believed his words “struck a chord” with Americans because “the way the words were put together” was “not the most politically correct.”

“When things come from the heart sometimes they are a little rough around the edges,” Santelli said. He said he had strong emotions about the bailouts, and that was a moment in which he shared his unfiltered views with many in the country instead of just with friends and family.

During his rant, Santelli spoke about “those that carry the water versus those that drink the water.” Though he admitted that he had no idea where those words came from – because “my brain and my mouth get on automatic pilot” – he really loves that expression now, especially because those who receive excessive government benefits and favors at the top and the bottom squeeze out the middle class.

Santelli said that America is such a compassionate country, filled with so many charitable people, before noting that there is a difference between being charitable and living the right way and having a government that “superimposes what it believes are parameters of charity and priorities of tax collection.”

He blasted Obamacare for giving Americans less incentive to work, which Santelli said goes against what the country has always been about. He passionately noted that “the reasons we’ve done so much in such a short period in history and are the envy of the world… is because we have that work ethic.”

Five years after his “rant heard around the world,” Santelli said too many elected officials still want to “take care of people from cradle to grave by using bureaucratic responses,” and he emphasized that that approach “is not working in Europe.”

Santelli said that the best way to help “the poor or the underprivileged or the handicapped” is through free markets that create surpluses of capital “that can be put to use,” and “a government that can spend what it takes in and prioritizes” the programs on which tax dollars are spent.

“Free markets and capitalism take care of people,” Santelli said. “It isn’t perfect all the time… but the hiccups [mostly occur] when government tries to mold it in different ways.”

Santelli blasted the permanent political class for using emergencies to ram through bailouts by circumventing all of the rules that have defined society because “it is more expedient.” He also slammed politicians who want to raise taxes and collect more fees by promising to spend it on education and roads, saying with all the money that is spent on “education and roads,” Americans should have “super smart kids and be driving on the best roads in the world.”

Unfortunately, Santelli said, politicians spend more on focus groups and buzz words than actual thoughts about the Constitution. He pointed out how Democrats have monopolized politics in places like California and Detroit that have been failing, but politicians continue to throw more money at the same problems, cover up failures, and paper over them like “wallpaper over termites.”

“You can’t try to do everything for everybody because you end up doing nothing for anybody,” Santelli said.

He also dismissed critics that say the Tea Party is not a powerful force because it represents about a third of the population.

“A third of the population in five years gives me goosebumps,” he said. “There is something going on in this country.”

He said the voices for fiscal conservatism are growing and the Tea Party movement can bring about an America “that we kind of long for, that all of a sudden that has all of this change, much of it outside of the rules that had guided us so well.”

He urged people to always “kick the tires” on the politicians and the policies they sell, and emphatically noted that politicians should always know that the “people put them there and the people can take them away.”

As Breitbart News has reported, Tea Party leaders will hold a massive conference in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the movement. Those like Breitbart’s Michael Patrick Leahy organized the original conference call after Santelli’s speech that formed the modern Tea Party movement and led to the creation of groups like the Tea Party Patriots, which will sponsor the conference. Mark Levin will keynote the conference on February 27 while Sean Hannity will deliver a capstone speech. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), two of the most beloved politicians among Tea Party conservatives, will also speak at the event.

PLEASE WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO;

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘failed economic policies’

Saturday October 8, 2016

Share this:

Like this:

Posted By -NO AUTHOR- On 05/04/2015

Share this:

Like this:

Get Over It

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://conservativebyte.com/2015/01/get/

Share this:

Like this:

By Ali Meyer, December 5, 2014

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/labor-force-participation-remains-36-year-low-0

Share this:

Like this:

By Brett Arends / Published: Dec 4, 2014

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-america-is-now-no-2-2014-12-04

Hang on to your hats, America.

And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.

“Make no mistake. This is a geopolitical earthquake with a high reading on the Richter scale.”

Does the U.S. economy really shrink if the dollar falls 10% on international currency markets?

Does the recent plunge in the yen mean the Japanese economy is vanishing before our eyes?

Share this:

Like this:

Written by Allen West on July 20, 2014

And all of this is happening as America is flooded with illegal immigrants from Central America. The absorption cost is unknown. It may start with a $3.7 billion price tag but factor in education, healthcare and welfare benefits and this fiscal crisis for America is exacerbated.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Coal Killer

Posted on June 5, 2014

Share this:

Like this:

The Godzilla of Incompetence

Share this:

Like this:

April 21, 2014 – 4:43 PM

By Terence P. Jeffrey

Under Obama’s proposal;

Share this:

Like this:

“LANDSIDE”

Posted on February 26, 2014

Share this:

Like this:

Posted by SHTF Plan on Feb 24, 2014

CNBC: “Stop whining! The US economy is in good shape”

USA Today: “Economists: U.S. will see better growth in ’14”

Newsday: “Why the economy isn’t doomed”

Baltimore’s people of the woods: Inside the hidden homeless camps made of milk crates, wooden doors and tarps on the outskirts of town

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

In His Service

Email Subscription

Recent Posts

Business

Family

Military

NEWS

Opinion

Personal

Political

Spiritual

Archives

Spam Blocked

Tag Cloud