America Unraveled: 2008-2012 the Political, Cultural and Economic Collapse

Copyright © 2012 by Phillip Torsrud.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-4960-5 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012916761

iUniverse rev. date: 10/02/2012

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I :    2008

Letter to Governor Jim Doyle

of Wisconsin

Bailout: Short-Term

Economic Solution

Freedom

Credit Cards and Criminals

Due Process Eliminated

Obamanomics

China, Please Stop Lending

US Money!

Catholic Church Should

Be World Changer

Juvenile Offenders

& Equal Protection

Part II :    2009

State Aid in Stimulus Package—One Time Deal?

Coward Nation?

Economic Policy—Insufficient

Rappers—Killing Siblings

Migration of Madness

Biden Vs. Quayle—

Dumbest Veep Ever

Revolution Rising

Only Education Leads

to Diversity

Stagnation in Prisons

Concealed Carry

How to Keep Your Child

From Becoming a Felon

Integrity

Cop Killer

Cyclical Vs. Structural Recession

Islam and Democracy

Part III :    2010

Business as Usual

Pissing on MLK Day

Talk is Cheap

A House Divided

Tea Party Time?

Free Speech Saves Lives

Greece: Death of

a Democracy

Budget Deficit Solutions

Purpose

Path of Least Resistance

Budget Cuts, Necessary

for Survival

Discrimination Against Juveniles

Discerning Truth in Politics

Crime Statistics

Sophistry

Double-Dip Recession

Drunk With Power

Liberal Media Myth

Revolution Without Change?

Debt Bomb

Wisconsin Prison Suppresses Speech—Our Very Own Gulag

Part IV :    2011

Co-workers Corrupt

Work Environment

Criminals With a Conscience Don’t Get Plea Bargains

Wisconsin—Drunks-R-Us

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Poses as Job Creator

Egypt’s Quest for Democracy

Jim Doyle’s Legacy—Wisconsin’s

Funding Crisis

Stop Cyber Warfare—

Make Computer Virus Treaty

Corporate Responsibility

and Social Justice

Unions, Collective Bargaining, Fair Pay—Inciting a Riot

Save American Labor—

Amend GATT

Milwaukee DA John

Chisholm, Reformer?

State and Federal Crisis.

Whom to Blame?

Lybia Beware—Western Support for Democracy

is a Fraud.

State Budget Priorities—Schools Vs. Prisons

Republicans Attack Art in America—Fraud Exposed

Two Types of Liberals—

Same Approach on Crime

Attention! Keeping Focus

in a World of Distraction

Bin Laden Dies—Evil Lives

Corporate Religions

Referendums on

Prison Reform

Dollar Standard Devalued

and Undermined

Culture Wars

Interest Rates and

the Economy

Obama’s Impact on Crime

Political Agendas

and National Identity

Obama’s Re-election and Clinton’s Legacy

Can a Stimulus Work?

Statistics and Social Engineering

Drug Dealers: Using Others

or Getting Used?

Economic Forecast for 2013

Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton—Birds of a Feather?

Identity Theft—Preventive Measures

Part V :    2012

Republicans Favor Stimulus,

for Themselves!

Prison Privatization—Conflict of Interest

Cruel and Unusual Punishment—The American Justice System

Anxiety and Aggression

Voting for Christianity

Market Totalitarianism

President Obama’s

Gay Agenda

Wisconsin’s Recall Fiasco

President Obama’s War

on Latinos

President Obama Copies

Bush’s Economic Blueprint

Europe’s Debt Crisis Resolved

Deterring Crime

Epilogue

Our politicians often ignore problems until it is too late. This book was written with the hope of encouraging responsible Americans to participate in a debate to fix our nation. Democracies are not built from the top down, but by citizens understanding and demanding real change.

Introduction

America Unraveled is a series of essays examining the decay of America’s institutions as it occurred, between 2008 and 2012. The essays are arranged in the sequence they were written, rather than by topic, to emphasize the many elements contributing to America’s social decline. The failure of our leadership to recognize the structural problems America faces, thus requiring solutions significant enough to replace or redesign much of our infrastructure, is proven by the fact that real solutions are not being realized, much less debated. The magnitude of our problems, and the inability to fix them, is directly related to the selfishness of our culture. These essays offer a multitude of topics which clarify the overall picture of why America cannot truly recover. America’s current anemic growth does not reflect a nation on the right path. Understanding our problems is the first step to solving them.

America Unraveled follows up on Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher, completed in 2007, which was predicated on the need to reform our Justice System before our economy collapsed. Those Essays also explored a wide range of political issues in chapters like, Labor Pains, Solar Fund, Exporting Culture, and others. If you enjoy America Unraveled, then you must read Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher.

Part I

2008

First the truth is ridiculed. Then it meets outrage. Then it is said to have been obvious all along.

Schopenhauer

Letter to Governor Jim Doyle

of Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s economy is facing two dramatic transitions that must be faced if jobs and money are to be kept in our state. The first transition is the shift to a global economy, which has already resulted in a reduction in manufacturing jobs in states like Wisconsin, nationwide. The second is the shift from an oil based economy to alternative forms of energy, which our leaders in Washington have not made the commitment to, despite $4.00 a gallon gas. Wisconsin cannot afford to wait for Washington to make this transition for us. Our lobbyists have a different agenda. However, the change from an oil based economy is a blessing in that Wisconsin can recoup many of the manufacturing jobs lost to globalization.

To keep our industries and attract new ones to Wisconsin, simply giving them money or a tax break won’t cut it. A commitment to a deeper relationship must be made and state governments must consolidate all the buying power of government to negotiate a better deal for taxpayers and lure companies to Wisconsin. An example would be auto manufacturing. If the state could negotiate on behalf of all cities, counties and municipalities, as well as the state agencies that use vehicles, you could parlay that purchasing power into a contract requiring those vehicles to be built in Wisconsin. Therefore, the first step in making the transition to becoming a competitive state in a global economy is to consolidate the purchasing power of our many layers of government into one centralized purchasing authority.

The next step is to understand that there are leaders in industries who believe in the importance of shifting away from an oil based economy, because of environmental concerns as well as economic concerns. T. Boone Pickens makes a valid point that when we buy gas at the pump, we are sending money overseas that will never come back. Continuing to consume this amount of gasoline is the equivalent to building hundreds of bridges to nowhere. Then, how can the state provide the incentive to build the infrastructure to keep those dollars in Wisconsin?

Carlos Ghosn, who runs Renault-Nissan declared, We must have zero-emission vehicles—nothing else will prevent the world from exploding. Nissan has promised to launch an electric car by 2010 that will have the performance of a V6 and a range of 100 miles. It will be capable of an 80% recharge in an hour. Clearly, Renault-Nissan is serious about making the change, and if Wisconsin is serious, they would make a great partner for our state.

If Renault-Nissan knows that if they built a plant in Wisconsin, every government vehicle would be purchased out of the plant. That’s a huge incentive. Why shouldn’t all the tax dollars spent on government vehicles stay in Wisconsin, both in their production and energy consumption? Furthermore, a law could be passed requiring that all taxis, as well as city and school buses purchased after 2010, be electric. With that commitment, Mr. Ghosn would be interested in building a plant in Wisconsin.

From there, you have the trickle down effect that allows the transition away from an oil based economy. Once the commitment to build an electric car plant is made, you have the incentive to begin training a workforce capable of manufacturing these specific products. Once other industries see Wisconsin training to transition their economy to alternative fuel sources, investment will follow. The incentive will then exist to build the infrastructure necessary to produce more electricity. Wisconsin’s beloved cows produce methane, and more can be done there. Wind, solar and nuclear power will see growth. We will cut carbon emissions and keep all those energy dollars in Wisconsin. It will be an economic boom. It all starts with taking that first step and bringing a new industry that can change the dynamic of our entire state’s economy.

Bailout: Short-Term

Economic Solution

Once again, America suffers economic problems as a result of deregulation. The Savings and Loan scandal during the Reagan years, the Enron/WorldCom/Tyco scandal at the end of Clinton’s presidency, and now the sub-prime mortgage crisis that caps off Bush’s legacy. It seems the formula is the same: businessmen get their hooks into politicians and get them to pass laws that allow formerly criminal desires to become legalized business practices. To grasp the totality of just what happened this time, we must review the circumstances in which it happened.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates very low in recent years, around 2%. That’s the rate banks get, which means they have a greater profit margin on the money they lend people. For the rest of us, since the banks can borrow money so cheaply, they can offer very low interest rates to depositors who put their money in banks. Therefore, the average person would be better off putting the money in the stock market or spending it. As the stock market and consumer spending went up, it looked as though all was well. Yet, Wall Street wasn’t satisfied.

Investment banks got the SEC to allow them to leverage at a rate of 30 to 1. In laymen’s terms, that would be like being allowed to borrow three million dollars and only have to put up a house worth a hundred thousand as collateral. If you made a six percent profit, minus the two percent you had to pay to borrow it, you’d make $120,000. All by just putting a $100,000 asset at risk! That’s why investment banks were borrowing like mad in sums of billions of dollars, which inevitably led to a liquidity crisis. This is not to say that there should be no leveraging by investors, since you can’t always have the required capital on hand to make the investments, loans, etc… , that make the economy move. Getting a mortgage or getting a car loan are forms of leverage.

Leveraging encourages debt, with the illusion of minimal risk. That’s because even though you only have to have one-thirtieth of the capital to make the loan, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay back every dollar of debt if you mishandle the money. That’s where AIG got in trouble. They sold insurance on hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate loans, mortgages and other debt. That’s why the government had to rescue them. When leveraged at a 30 to 1 ratio, nothing can go wrong because you only have a minimal amount of cash to cough up in comparison to the debts you accrued to make these investments. When all the heavily leveraged investment banks began losing on the sub-prime mortgage mess, the danger was that they’d begin selling off assets to cover the spread. This devalues the assets as they are dumped on the market, while those with cash can gobble them up at fire-sale prices. Sovereign wealth funds from China and the Middle East can do well in this transition of wealth. The $700 billion bailout is a way to prevent American businesses from literally being sold out.

The bailout doesn’t address a number of other problems however. Did the investment bankers have any intention of paying up if their gambles failed? It is no less than blackmail to threaten economic collapse to pressure politicians to buy these toxic securities. People say that the $700 billion is necessary to save our financial system. Is a system so vulnerable to economic terrorism, by the people who have profited the most from it, worth keeping? Osama Bin Laden would be proud. But it’s not just the bankers who were greedy. Despite the obvious reason, politicians receive millions in campaign contributions from Wall Street to allow these shenanigans, there is a deeper self-serving reason for their failure to regulate.

Politicians encouraged spending and debt because that gave the American economy a false bill of health. Growth at the expense of haphazard debt. While debt can at times be used to create growth, reckless debt on credit cards and bad mortgages are the equivalent of filling up on junk food. You wouldn’t feed your kids chips and doughnuts and when they gain twenty pounds of fat, brag about their growth. That’s what our politicians have been doing. This obesity has now led to cardiac arrest in our financial markets as bad debt clogs the arteries of finance.

Where is the growth in manufacturing, education or other infrastructure during this period of false growth? These are the benchmarks that reflect real growth. We’ve been sold this idea that it’s good to shift to a service economy. Financial services had grown to 20% of GDP before the meltdown, and now 40,000 of those jobs will be lost in New York alone.

Our leaders would rather tell us that all is well as each of these bubbles grow, using the illusion of growth to claim they’re doing a great job on the economy. The $700 billion bailout will not work because providing liquidity to allow banks to make more bad loans does not solve the structural problem of our economy. They continuously say that this plan will not only save Wall Street, but Main Street as well. This reflects their ambivalence towards Main Street. The problem on Wall Street wouldn’t be happening if people could pay off their mortgages and credit cards. They are defaulting, filing for bankruptcy and having their homes foreclosed on at record levels. The American economy can no longer grow in this manner, too many people have destroyed their credit. This means less consumer spending, a decrease in profits and more layoffs.

Where is the investment in our future? In the short term, the $700 billion will provide plenty of cupcakes to deceive the public through another election, that our leaders know what they’re doing. If they did, they wouldn’t repeatedly make the mistake of deregulating to satisfy businessmen. We must demand that our government invests in our infrastructure, with education becoming a priority. That way, the next generation of voters might be smart enough to elect leaders who will actually address our problems, rather than help create them.

Freedom

Many entities like taking credit for the freedom that American people have. Politicians, the military, even the media at times use the mantra, fighting for our freedom. It’s a surprise that the scientists and engineers who develop our weapons don’t feel the need to explain that if they didn’t invent the atom bomb, stealth bomber, M-16, etc… , we would not be the leader of the free world. Perhaps the billions of dollars we spend on our weapons industries keep them from wasting time explaining how much we need them to maintain our freedom.

The problem is that a free country cannot remain so if people believe that it is someone else’s responsibility to provide them with their freedom as though it were a service. The justification for personal freedom is that people have a conscience that makes them aware of the significance of being free and the faculties to exercise that freedom responsibly. When people lack a conscience or are irresponsible, they are sanctioned through a loss of freedom. This can range from taking away someone’s driver’s license, to putting them in prison.

While sanctions have always existed, the current trend of legislating away personal freedom is a reaction to a tremendous number of irresponsible people who abuse their freedoms. Rather than do the real work needed to develop a society of educated, fully developed adults who can function in a free society, people are satisfied with simply reiterating the sanctions we’ve always had by passing a new law. This is an offered service, which only results in empowering the government. Does this address the dysfunctional nature of the people who abused their freedom? Empowering the individual to take responsibility for their community and self is the only workable solution in a free society.

Freedom is a revolutionary idea, and only in recent history became a social norm. As societies constantly organize and reorganize, whatever party takes on the power of the establishment in our ever shifting political landscape will try to control people, markets, ideas, etc… , to serve their agenda. Therefore, the individual is always faced with the dilemma of conforming, or staking out their values against the herd of sheep who will trample over their own freedoms in pursuit of a leader who promises to do their work for them. Free societies depend on individuals with the backbone to reject these false promises and thereby manifest their identity and maintain their culture.

Today, Americans have a false sense of freedom that is manifested in style, not substance. Through the clothes they wear, the way they talk, tattoos, piercings, or even riding motorcycles, Americans like to present the façade of a rebel mentality, implying how deeply they value freedom. Yet when a problem arises, the first institution they call on to solve it, is the government. No matter what the cost in freedom or money, only the government is thought of as having any problem-solving ability.

In France, there are 63,000 inmates in prison, and 1,100 are incarcerated for terrorist related activity. That works out to almost 1,000 inmates for every million people. Wisconsin would have around 5,000 inmates at those rates, but instead has over 23,000 inmates, and zero for terrorist related activities. Paris itself has more people than all of Wisconsin, and has more visitors per year than any place on Earth, some of whom commit crimes.

After we liberated France from the Germans, the French now value freedom more than Americans. In France, incarceration is only used when absolutely necessary. Why is it the last option? So that the government can invest in an educational system that is far better than ours, national health care, and an infrastructure that makes people want to go there to live or travel. It’s called having your priorities straight. Since the French are educated, they would never allow their politicians to use fear to turn their nation into a police state. Only people with a slave mentality would sacrifice their future by wasting so many precious resources on institutions that only offer the illusion of safety.

Freedom starts in the mind. It is an idea that once embraced becomes an attitude. When a sufficient number of people adopt that attitude, it becomes a movement. When that movement is successful, a society begins to have institutions that reflect that attitude in their policies. The reason that America’s national anthem ends with, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, is because freedom and bravery go hand in hand. The freedom to live a worthwhile life will never be risk free. America will never be a free country until it stops living in fear.

Credit Cards and Criminals

As America has floated its economy on a pool of debt these last couple of years, criminals have taken notice. Why rob, deal dope, or steal when you can max out a couple of credit cards for thousands of dollars? This is much more than your average heist will net, and with much less risk. Nobody is going to shoot you in the ass while leaving Best Buy with thousands of dollars worth of electronic gadgets you charged on a credit card you had no intention of paying.

No wonder crime was down for so long! Why bother even trying to figure out an elaborate caper when all you have to do is check your mailbox for the latest credit card or loan offers. You might get in trouble, you might say. Criminals, by nature, take risks. What might surprise most people is that some criminals are smart enough to take calculated risks, you need look no further than Wall Street to find numerous examples.

While our media perpetuates the stereotype that criminals are dumb, some are in fact quite intelligent. While our glorious