Recently I was informed that my county had been declared a drought area for 2012 and was eligible for all sorts of freebies and loans, etc. etc. And by law then all contiguous counties are eligible as well. I can't EVER remember having this much grass in October. WHY do we have so much grass you ask? RAIN, we have had , more and better timed rainfall than any growing season I can remember. The grass in this picture is about waste high. You can't drive through it because you could run over a calf. But this federal administration has declared this a drought area. :
I have always wondered how in the world people in Iowa and Ohio could ever vote for Obama. Now I know. It's this re-distribution of wealth thing. You people are voting to take my tax dollars and put them into your pocket through agriculture programs like the Ethanol subsidy for instance. And since there really is no money, we are 16 trillion dollars in debt and rising by the second, eventually government will demand more and more of my money to redistribute and give to you for things like propping up Ethanol production which is the poster child for stupidity in this country. It makes all the little rubber hoses on small engines gradually disintegrate leaving small rubber particles to clog up the tiny carburetors and causing costly repairs to those who cant fix them on their own. It is far less efficient than gasoline, which is grossly inefficient its self. I cost MORE to make than gasoline. It causes the price of animal feed to be so high that my customers who used to buy 3 calves just buy one now because they can't afford to feed that many. It causes the corn products used to make almost everything in the grocery store to go up in price. So tell me why we do this again? Oh yeah. So these big farmers can have million dollar corn crops. Now I know why Iowa votes for Obama.
Unless you live in Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virgina, Pennsylvania, Florida and maybe one or two other states, you won't have much say so in the coming election. Whether you vote or not, there will be enough people on one side or the other that WILL vote so that that states electoral votes go to one candidate or the other. If you've ever looked at one of these "blue state, red state maps, you've no doubt noticed that the vast majority of democratic support comes from a handful of states in the northeast and on the west coast. Places with large population centers like New York city, Los Angeles and then there is Illinois with Chicago. It's a sweeping generalization to say this, yet still true, that those who live in those areas have a whole different view of life, different values, different everything than those in the majority of the nations states. So if you live in one of these key states and you stay at home and don't vote on election day, you are allowing those with different values than you have to IMPOSE those values upon you, the ones who feed them, the ones who clothe them. Does that make any sense to you? Do you like it that those in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago will be the people who determine how you and years of your children will live and what the country will be like for them?
I've been in the real estate business buying and selling homes since 1993. I saw a little blurb today that said that there are more empty homes than there are homeless people in the United States. I did a little research and the best I can tell that is true. Imagine that. Think about that. There are more homes without owners than there are people that can afford to buy them. 9 years ago there MIGHT have been one foreclosure listing in our paper a week here in this county of about 100,000 people. Usually it was from someone who couldn't pay because they were in jail or had something catastrophic happening to them. In 2003 George Busch enacted some a tariff on imported steel that caused lots of companies here to go out of business. Over 200 actually in our part of the state. Many jobs were lost, including mine when my company moved operations to the Philippines. That tariff was purely political because it was intended to prop up the steel industry in OH and PA because those are important states to win in order to win a presidential election. States like this state, GA, aren't because he knew he would get the vote here no matter what. Long story short, foreclosure listings began to creep up into the paper on a weekly basis. In 2008 it ballooned and all those people the banks gave loans that they never should have began to lose their homes. That was over and done in about a year. This coming Thursday in my local paper there will be 50 to 60 foreclosure listings. It's been like that for about 3 years now. And I understand that the banks are holding off as many as they can until this election is over and then there will be a deluge of them. These are not people who shouldn't have gotten a loan or dead beats. These are people that have been paying on their homes for 10 or 15 years, have lost their jobs and either don't have one at all or have one that pays half of what they were making and they simply can't make ends meet. Not only have all these people lost their homes, if by some miracle they are able to get back on their feet it will be YEARS before they can buy a home because now, through no fault of their own, they have bad credit. The last home I sold had 8 sales contracts on it before someone could actually get the money to buy it. The banks regulations have swung back the other way almost to the place that the only way to get a loan would be if you don't need one. There is no shortage of people who want to buy homes. There is a BIG shortage of people who CANNOT afford a home or cannot qualify for a loan to get one. There is no "Housing Crisis" in this country. There is a JOBS crisis.
As an American you do not have a right to own a home. You don't have the right to have a good paying job or a job at all for that matter. But we DO have the right to govern ourselves with policies that promote an environment that produces a job for everyone that wants one and that pay enough that we can buy a home. Discretionary spending is what runs the economy. You just having enough money to eat ramen noodles and squeek buy to pay your light bill and rent doesn't put anyone to work either providing a service or making something. It takes "extra" money that you spend to do that. Until we have LOTS, MILLIONS of jobs that pay enough for more people to have "extra" money to spend this economy will continue to circle the drain. I hear Republicans all the time refer to the fact that 51% of all Americans pay no income taxes. Well, the tax code hasn't changed lately for lower and middle incomes. What has changed is that 51% of all people in the US now don't have a job that pays enough to force them to pay taxes. How sad is that? And how stupid is it to think that raising taxes on those that already do pay them will somehow magically make those that pay none suddenly have a good enough job so that they can pay taxes?
Recently I read that the unemployment rate in SD is like less than 2%. All those are probably on reservations. The agriculture economy is booming. Every little implement dealer and machine shop and elevator is going as hard as they can go in support of farming. If it weren't for fuel prices, which have doubled since this President took office btw, people in places that have an ag based economy wouldn't even know there was a bad economy. I had a very well known cattlemen friend in IA call me this summer to get a job reference for someone and he asked me how the real estate was going. I told him it sucked and his answer was "I thought they had all of that straightened out. That's what I hear on the news, everything is better." This is someone you would know, He isn't a dumb guy. He's a smart guy. He's a reasonably worldly guy that should know. Real unemployment here is over 20%.
The administrations handling of the recent terrorist attack in Libya that cost the lives of 4 Americans including the ambassador has been criminal. Like steel tariffs of George Busch, this administration handled this the way they did for purely political purposes. They want you to think that since Bin Laden was killed all is well. No more "War on Terror." Actually, I guess they never acknowledged that we were in a war with these people. So in order to make that appear to be the case, no extra protection was given to the embassies across the world because if it's over we don't need to protect them, right? Nothing to be afraid of, I got him, so its over, we are all safe now : So when something happened, they went into cover up mode and you see what has now happened. 4 more good men lost their life because of politics. And now they are covering it up, again, because of politics. Did you know that since the day the Treaty of Paris was signed (Look it up if you don't know what that is and you should be ashamed), that VERY day, Muslim terrorists have sought to attack us? And always will. This administrations foreign policy has been more than a failure. Apologizing to the world for us being Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts a war with Iraq just before the election as cover for this latest flub up.
Long gone are the days when John F Kennedy asked Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." and people actually took it to heart. Today it's what are you going to do for me? What can you give me? Last week France announced that their highest tax income tax bracket would be 75%. Would you enjoy living in a country that you had to work 3/4 of your time for the federal government? What if the provencial tax were 10% more? It crosses few peoples minds that this country could ever be different than the way we know it today, that we would lose our right to free speech, that America would be just another country on the earth, that you can own land, that you have the right to pursue a career of your choosing. If the path that we are on for the last10 years continues, within three generations American as we know it will no longer exist.
Feel free to comment how ever you like. I'll not debate you. I'll not answer your posts, but just look at the picture below here and tell me that if the current people in charge of our government proclaim this as a drought area, are they the ones you want handling your money and influencing your way of life. Of course it's unknown if the opposition would do better. But it's easy for me to see that the ones that are in charge now are no less than incompetent and quite possibly intentionally sabatoging the very fiber of the country. They need to go before it is too late. If you live in one of these crucial states that I mentioned I am asking you to take the election seriously, to take the responsibility of being an American seriously and get your head out of the sand and see what is going on around you. I am asking you not to take the future of the country for granted.
I have always wondered how in the world people in Iowa and Ohio could ever vote for Obama. Now I know. It's this re-distribution of wealth thing. You people are voting to take my tax dollars and put them into your pocket through agriculture programs like the Ethanol subsidy for instance. And since there really is no money, we are 16 trillion dollars in debt and rising by the second, eventually government will demand more and more of my money to redistribute and give to you for things like propping up Ethanol production which is the poster child for stupidity in this country. It makes all the little rubber hoses on small engines gradually disintegrate leaving small rubber particles to clog up the tiny carburetors and causing costly repairs to those who cant fix them on their own. It is far less efficient than gasoline, which is grossly inefficient its self. I cost MORE to make than gasoline. It causes the price of animal feed to be so high that my customers who used to buy 3 calves just buy one now because they can't afford to feed that many. It causes the corn products used to make almost everything in the grocery store to go up in price. So tell me why we do this again? Oh yeah. So these big farmers can have million dollar corn crops. Now I know why Iowa votes for Obama.
Unless you live in Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virgina, Pennsylvania, Florida and maybe one or two other states, you won't have much say so in the coming election. Whether you vote or not, there will be enough people on one side or the other that WILL vote so that that states electoral votes go to one candidate or the other. If you've ever looked at one of these "blue state, red state maps, you've no doubt noticed that the vast majority of democratic support comes from a handful of states in the northeast and on the west coast. Places with large population centers like New York city, Los Angeles and then there is Illinois with Chicago. It's a sweeping generalization to say this, yet still true, that those who live in those areas have a whole different view of life, different values, different everything than those in the majority of the nations states. So if you live in one of these key states and you stay at home and don't vote on election day, you are allowing those with different values than you have to IMPOSE those values upon you, the ones who feed them, the ones who clothe them. Does that make any sense to you? Do you like it that those in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago will be the people who determine how you and years of your children will live and what the country will be like for them?
I've been in the real estate business buying and selling homes since 1993. I saw a little blurb today that said that there are more empty homes than there are homeless people in the United States. I did a little research and the best I can tell that is true. Imagine that. Think about that. There are more homes without owners than there are people that can afford to buy them. 9 years ago there MIGHT have been one foreclosure listing in our paper a week here in this county of about 100,000 people. Usually it was from someone who couldn't pay because they were in jail or had something catastrophic happening to them. In 2003 George Busch enacted some a tariff on imported steel that caused lots of companies here to go out of business. Over 200 actually in our part of the state. Many jobs were lost, including mine when my company moved operations to the Philippines. That tariff was purely political because it was intended to prop up the steel industry in OH and PA because those are important states to win in order to win a presidential election. States like this state, GA, aren't because he knew he would get the vote here no matter what. Long story short, foreclosure listings began to creep up into the paper on a weekly basis. In 2008 it ballooned and all those people the banks gave loans that they never should have began to lose their homes. That was over and done in about a year. This coming Thursday in my local paper there will be 50 to 60 foreclosure listings. It's been like that for about 3 years now. And I understand that the banks are holding off as many as they can until this election is over and then there will be a deluge of them. These are not people who shouldn't have gotten a loan or dead beats. These are people that have been paying on their homes for 10 or 15 years, have lost their jobs and either don't have one at all or have one that pays half of what they were making and they simply can't make ends meet. Not only have all these people lost their homes, if by some miracle they are able to get back on their feet it will be YEARS before they can buy a home because now, through no fault of their own, they have bad credit. The last home I sold had 8 sales contracts on it before someone could actually get the money to buy it. The banks regulations have swung back the other way almost to the place that the only way to get a loan would be if you don't need one. There is no shortage of people who want to buy homes. There is a BIG shortage of people who CANNOT afford a home or cannot qualify for a loan to get one. There is no "Housing Crisis" in this country. There is a JOBS crisis.
As an American you do not have a right to own a home. You don't have the right to have a good paying job or a job at all for that matter. But we DO have the right to govern ourselves with policies that promote an environment that produces a job for everyone that wants one and that pay enough that we can buy a home. Discretionary spending is what runs the economy. You just having enough money to eat ramen noodles and squeek buy to pay your light bill and rent doesn't put anyone to work either providing a service or making something. It takes "extra" money that you spend to do that. Until we have LOTS, MILLIONS of jobs that pay enough for more people to have "extra" money to spend this economy will continue to circle the drain. I hear Republicans all the time refer to the fact that 51% of all Americans pay no income taxes. Well, the tax code hasn't changed lately for lower and middle incomes. What has changed is that 51% of all people in the US now don't have a job that pays enough to force them to pay taxes. How sad is that? And how stupid is it to think that raising taxes on those that already do pay them will somehow magically make those that pay none suddenly have a good enough job so that they can pay taxes?
Recently I read that the unemployment rate in SD is like less than 2%. All those are probably on reservations. The agriculture economy is booming. Every little implement dealer and machine shop and elevator is going as hard as they can go in support of farming. If it weren't for fuel prices, which have doubled since this President took office btw, people in places that have an ag based economy wouldn't even know there was a bad economy. I had a very well known cattlemen friend in IA call me this summer to get a job reference for someone and he asked me how the real estate was going. I told him it sucked and his answer was "I thought they had all of that straightened out. That's what I hear on the news, everything is better." This is someone you would know, He isn't a dumb guy. He's a smart guy. He's a reasonably worldly guy that should know. Real unemployment here is over 20%.
The administrations handling of the recent terrorist attack in Libya that cost the lives of 4 Americans including the ambassador has been criminal. Like steel tariffs of George Busch, this administration handled this the way they did for purely political purposes. They want you to think that since Bin Laden was killed all is well. No more "War on Terror." Actually, I guess they never acknowledged that we were in a war with these people. So in order to make that appear to be the case, no extra protection was given to the embassies across the world because if it's over we don't need to protect them, right? Nothing to be afraid of, I got him, so its over, we are all safe now :
So when something happened, they went into cover up mode and you see what has now happened. 4 more good men lost their life because of politics. And now they are covering it up, again, because of politics. Did you know that since the day the Treaty of Paris was signed (Look it up if you don't know what that is and you should be ashamed), that VERY day, Muslim terrorists have sought to attack us? And always will. This administrations foreign policy has been more than a failure. Apologizing to the world for us being Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts a war with Iraq just before the election as cover for this latest flub up. Long gone are the days when John F Kennedy asked Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." and people actually took it to heart. Today it's what are you going to do for me? What can you give me? Last week France announced that their highest tax income tax bracket would be 75%. Would you enjoy living in a country that you had to work 3/4 of your time for the federal government? What if the provencial tax were 10% more? It crosses few peoples minds that this country could ever be different than the way we know it today, that we would lose our right to free speech, that America would be just another country on the earth, that you can own land, that you have the right to pursue a career of your choosing. If the path that we are on for the last10 years continues, within three generations American as we know it will no longer exist.
Feel free to comment how ever you like. I'll not debate you. I'll not answer your posts, but just look at the picture below here and tell me that if the current people in charge of our government proclaim this as a drought area, are they the ones you want handling your money and influencing your way of life. Of course it's unknown if the opposition would do better. But it's easy for me to see that the ones that are in charge now are no less than incompetent and quite possibly intentionally sabatoging the very fiber of the country. They need to go before it is too late. If you live in one of these crucial states that I mentioned I am asking you to take the election seriously, to take the responsibility of being an American seriously and get your head out of the sand and see what is going on around you. I am asking you not to take the future of the country for granted.
