Green Job Initiative Just A Fantasy
Anyone who understands basic economics already knows that President Obama’s $2.3 billion green-jobs initiative was snake oil. Now, thanks to Kenneth P. Green, we have statistics as well as theory to prove it.
In a new article, “The Myth of Green Energy Jobs: The European Experience,” the environmental scientist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute writes, “Green programs in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs for every green job created, while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create almost five jobs in the general economy.”
Ironically, Obama boasts his initiative “will help close the clean-energy gap between America and other nations.” But Green says, “(C)ountries are cutting these programs because they realize they aren’t sustainable and they are obscenely expensive.”
Obama claims that if we “invest” more, “the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs — but only if we accelerate that transition.”
What could make more sense? A little push from the smart politicians and — voila! — we can have an abundance of new good-paying jobs and a cleaner, sustainable environment. It’s the ultimate twofer.
Except it’s an illusion, as economic logic demonstrates.
“It is well understood, among economists, that governments do not ‘create’ jobs,” Green writes. “The willingness of entrepreneurs to invest their capital, paired with consumer demand for goods and services, does that. All the government can do is subsidize some industries while jacking up costs for others. In the green case, it is destroying jobs in the conventional energy sector — and most likely in other industrial sectors — through taxes and subsidies to new green companies that will use taxpayer dollars to undercut the competition. The subsidized jobs ‘created’ are, by definition, less efficient uses of capital than market-created jobs.”
Green is using good, solid economic thinking. Many years ago, Henry Hazlitt wrote in his bestseller, “Economics in One Lesson,” “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”
In judging any government initiative, such as Obama’s green-jobs plan, you can’t look just at the credit side of ledger because the government is unable to give without first taking away.
Worse than that: Inevitably, more is taken away — destroyed — than is given because the government substitutes force and taxation for consent and free exchange. Instead of a process driven by consumer preferences, we get one imposed by politicians’ grand social designs. It’s what F.A. Hayek called “the fatal conceit.”
So we shouldn’t be surprised that green-jobs programs make energy more expensive. “(F)orcing green energy on the market (is) much, much more expensive,” Green said. “Using Spain as a model, when you do the math, you realize that creating 3 million new green jobs could cost $2.25 trillion.”
Of course, many people who push “green jobs” want the price of energy to rise so we’ll use less. If the environmental lobby wants Americans to be poorer, it ought to come clean about that.
The advocates of such programs don’t just misunderstand economics. They have lapsed into a pre-economic mentality. Rulers once believed they could do whatever they wanted, subject only to the physical laws of nature. If things didn’t work out as planned, it was because the people had failed to cooperate. But as economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, once economics emerged as an intellectual discipline, “it was learned that in the social realm too there is something operative which power and force are unable to alter and to which they must adjust themselves if they hope to achieve success … .”
That “something” is inescapable economic forces like the law of supply and demand.
Green is right when he says, “Central planners in the United States trying to promote green industry will fare no better (than Europe) at creating jobs or stimulating the economy.”
John Stossel is host of “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network. He’s the author of “Give Me a Break” and of “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.” To find out more about John Stossel, visit his site at >johnstossel.com.
Omar Suleiman: Torturer In Chief
By Frank Whalen
Is the man suggested by the U.S. government to be the new leader of Egypt, Vice President Omar Suleiman, personally responsible for the brutal torture and disappearance of countless people, using U.S.-approved “enhanced interrogation techniques”? The evidence is overwhelming that he was trained and cultivated for just such a role.
Suleiman is thought of fondly in U.S. intelligence circles, being the “C.I.A.’s point man in Egypt for renditions—the covert program in which the C.I.A. snatched terror suspects from around the world and returned them to Egypt and elsewhere for interrogation, often under brutal circumstances”, according to a recent piece in The New Yorker. Ron Suskind writes in his book, The One Percent Doctrine, that one rendition victim, whose after torture testimony was used to make the fraudulent connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 2003 conflict, would “be handed over to Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s intelligence chief and a friend of [C.I.A. director George] Tenet’s”. The tortured man, Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, eventually recanted his confession saying he gave the false information to Egyptian interrogators because “They were killing me…I had to tell them something”, reads the book Hubris, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.
As ProPublica reports, “while renditions happen only with the assurance that a foreign partner will not torture the prisoner, as one CIA officer once told Congress, the assurances “weren’t worth a bucket of warm spit.” In the case of Egypt, the assurances were given by Omar Suleiman”.
So where did Suleiman learn to be so effective at torture and information extraction? Could it have been, in part, from the United States?
The Australian newspaper states, “A product of the US-Egyptian relationship, Mr. Suleiman underwent training in the 1980s at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Centre at Fort Bragg in North Carolina”.
The United States Military has a course known as S.E.R.E., an acronym for “Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape”. One aspect of this program teaches captured military, private contractors and even some civilians how to endure and resist torture and advanced interrogation techniques. Perhaps coincidentally, the U.S. Army’s S.E.R.E training also takes place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
S.E.R.E. trainers actually were enlisted to pass on their expertise during the War on Terror. As Salon.com reported in 2006, “A March 22, 2005, sworn statement by the former chief of the Interrogation Control Element at Guantánamo said instructors from SERE also taught their methods to interrogators of the prisoners in Cuba.”
There is another connection to North Carolina: the rendition aircraft themselves. After an eyewitness reported a tail number on one craft, information began to unfold, despite being classified. A CBS story refers to the company that registered the craft as “Premiere Executive Transport Services” as well as “Premiere Executive Airlines”, and states that “The planes are based in North Carolina”. Of the rendition programs itself, CBS states: “The indispensable tool for that work is a small fleet of executive jets authorized to land at all U.S. military bases worldwide”. There are eight military bases in North Carolina and Wikipedia lists Fort Bragg as “251 square miles…best known as the home of the US Army Airborne Forces and Special Forces”.
The S.E.R.E. program was instituted toward the end of the Korean War, in which the Soviet Union provided material support to the Communist North, specifically to counter Soviet-style torture techniques. The New York Times wrote about the Soviet interrogation protocols in 2007, saying they utilized, “isolation in a small cell; constant light; sleep deprivation; cold or heat; reduced food rations” as well as “stress positions”. Like the American position recently, the Soviets denied that this treatment constituted torture and, similar to what happened in Egypt with the interrogation of Libi, the Soviets were content to get usable information, whether true or not. The Times states, “When it desired to use such methods against a prisoner or to obtain from him a propaganda statement or “confession,” it simply declared the prisoner a “war-crimes suspect” and informed him that, therefore, he was not subject to international rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.”
Oddly enough, Suleiman also has Russian expertise to draw from. The Canadian newspaper The Globe And Mail states that Suleiman, “like other promising officers of the time, was then sent to Moscow for additional training”.
So whether his expertise and appetite for torture came from the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union or is due to the U.S.-led War on Terror, Omar Suleiman might be the most learned and practiced masochist since the Gestapo, who called their version of torture, “Verschärfte Vernehmung”.
That, translated, means “enhanced interrogation”.
Technology: The Face Of 21st Century Slavery
By Frank Whalen
While the readily available technology of today, and the sci-fi realities of tomorrow, seems to herald a more capable, productive and intelligent human being, the results seem to point to a future where mankind is more machinelike than human.
The Internet’s popularity and growth has represented an opportunity for many to profit.
Various news organizations once attempted a subscription fee or password to access content but search engines allowed a bypass for those who wanted information freely. News groups began to decry bloggers and “citizen journalists” for their biased and unqualified opinions. Once they realized they couldn’t suppress the movement, they began to embrace it. Using pictures and videos from cell phones, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the once despised citizens could now do the work for them.
Now Rupert Murdoch has initiated another attempt to profit from subscription based content, with the arrival of his much-hyped Ipad news application, The Daily. In his own words, “Our ambitions are very big, but our costs are pretty low”. Therefore, if it can be managed properly, revenue should come easily and in great amounts.
Control and profit has always been the motivator for the elites, and The Daily could be the success story they have been waiting for.
All technology is structured and in order to partake of its wonders, one must surrender to the rules of play. To use email, one must have an account. However, to get an account, personal information is required, rationalized that security protocols will keep the personal information you just gave away, safe.
Convenience plays a role in this. The myriad of passwords one needs can be collectively accessed with a Universal Password, or even biometric scans. You can save the environment by paying your bills online and foregoing bank statements by using the Internet. Google Health was launched to digitize your medical records, making them available to both yourself and your doctor.
However, such accessibility requires security. The Obama Administration recently suggested, an “Internet ID”, under a program called the “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace”. This would create a single profile and leave a digital track for all cyber activity, thereby protecting people from harassment, crime, child exploitation and crafty terrorism recruiting supposedly taking place online. Not highlighted is that such a trail would be a far more comprehensive monitoring system than any fingerprint or social security number, and could very easily be doctored for evidence of criminal behavior.
So the idea of presenting something for entertainment or convenience, structuring it completely by making certain things necessary for security and safety, allows for total control and unimaginable profit.
With each compromise, people seem to relinquish more of themselves to gain a way into the mass entertainment consciousness. In a sort of Pavlovian response, the tech-savvy are taught that they are rewarded for not thinking. The rules and regulations foster learned helplessness; the boundaries of technology are annihilating creative thinking.
Aside from the self-conditioning and rewarded behavior, such instantaneous access to all things at all times changes the brain. Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield wrote recently that, “our brains now under such widespread attack from the modern world, there’s a danger that that cherished sense of self could be diminished or even lost”. And regarding those who have never known a life without the Internet she says, “We could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment, and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world.”
In a recent experiment to alter the brain, MIT researcher Dr. Liane Young discussed the successful findings, saying, “To be able to apply a magnetic field to a specific brain region and change people’s moral judgments is really astonishing”.
The toxic wireless soup of today’s environment also has an impact. Known as “electrosensitivity syndrome”, it affects millions of people worldwide and is thought to cause mood changes, nausea and perhaps even neurological disorders.
Technology is like anything else, it’s how it’s used that matters. When the lines blur between user and machine, when the brain slips away into a cognitive dream state while an artificially intelligent computer directs our lives, that is the day when humanity will see not its decline, but rather its end.
Case in point, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, said recently that he wants the search behemoth to become the “third half of your brain”. Controlled, profited from and eagerly desired, this is an insight into the high tech slavery agenda for the 21st century.
BP Directors Take Bonuses For Year Of Gulf Spill
Byron Grote, finance director, and Iain Conn, head of downstream, had their £800,000 and £724,000 salaries and benefits topped up with rewards of £380,000 and £310,500 respectively. The bonuses amounted to 30pc of the full potential payout.
BP’s annual report also revealed that Tony Hayward, the former chief executive who left the company after the worst of the crisis, will get almost £100,000 a year for his work as a non-executive of BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP. He left the board in October with £2m in salary and severance payments, plus a £600,000-a-year pension.
According to the report, Mr Dudley denied himself a bonus in what was a “painful year” for BP. In October, Mr Dudley insisted that incentive payments would in future be linked to safety performance.
Despite forgoing his bonus, Mr Dudley is still potentially eligible for up to 581,084 shares, currently worth £2.8m, on top of a £1m salary. The shares will vest according to BP’s performance over the next few years.
Andy Inglis, the head of exploration and production who left following the crisis, was given a £690,000 pay-off and the report reveals that he was also handed an extra £200,000 for “repatriation costs” on top of his £745,000 salary and benefits. Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP criticised for his handling of the disaster, took home a £750,000 package, plus £90,000 in relocation costs.
Last year, shareholders protested against BP’s executive pay at the company’s annual meeting, with 16pc refusing to back the remuneration report.
Egypt PM Shafiq resigns amid pressure
“The Supreme Council of Military Forces announces that it has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq,” Egypt’s ruling military council said, without elaborating on the reasons for the move, AFP reported on Thursday.
He will be replaced by former Transport Minister Essam Sharaf, the council added.
Shafiq was in charge of the North African country after embattled Mubarak resigned on February 11 following nationwide anti-government protests.
Egyptian opposition activists had called for another million-man march this Friday to pressure Shafiq to step down.
Thousands of Egyptians protested in capital Cairo after last week’s Friday prayers, demanding the resignation of key figures of the former regime.
Since Mubarak’s ouster, Egyptians have called on the ruling military to hand over power to a civilian government elected by the people.
Activists have also called for the release of political prisoners, the lifting of a 30-year-old state of emergency and the disbandment of military court.
The popular revolution in Egypt has concerned the US and Israel, whose unshakeable support for Mubarak’s regime was always taken for granted and with the rise of Islamic groups in Egypt see their interests at stake.
Anti-Union?
The term “Anti-Union” is being flung around the news rooms, blogs, and Internet forums as if it were radioactive dog doo doo (Yes, I just typed that). If you don’t like the unions, then you’re
The non unionized workforce in America lags far behind in both pay and benefits. Unions have raised wages and fringe benefits 15-30% above comparable nonunion workers. In addition, non unionized workers are contributing to our own retirement and paying a healthy percentage of our insurance benefits compared to many unions. In the goods and services industries, that 15-30% benefit bump is a cost that is passed down to consumers – us! In the case of the Wisconsin teachers, the Wisconsin taxpayers are footing the bill, as are other state taxpayers facing similar budget problems of their own.
My point is that non union employees and other Americans who don’t support the actions of the Wisconsin teachers aren’t necessarily anti-union, but rather are simply tired of paying more for products they buy. They are tired of listening to unions complain about “the man” and “conditions in the workplace (code for so-called low pay and poor benefits). They are tired of listening to a group of adults screaming like toddlers instead of having a civil debate. Union voters had a chance to maintain the status quo last November but you failed. You failed because the status quo can no longer be maintained and those ideas were voted down. Government is a business, not a charity, which seems like a simple concept to a concerned many. Unfortunately in the current climate, it is the few that are screaming the loudest. “No longer,” I say. No longer.
However, if the left is bent on calling those with opposing views “anti-union”, then I suggest turning the name-calling tables around and start using labels of your own when referring to left politicians, media, unions, union supporters, paid supporters, protesters, and paid protesters.
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
By Frank Whalen
In the riveting 2010 documentary “What in the World Are They Spraying?”, filmmaker Michael J. Murphy delves into the controversial topic of chemtrails.
Murphy himself was an admitted skeptic…at first. “People have been conditioned to disbelieve things like this and are prone to distraction,“ he said to this writer. After his years of research, interviews and investigation, Murphy says his informed opinion now is that chemtrails, known more officially as “geo-engineering programs”, are a “crime against both humanity and nature itself”.
Much has been made of the “chemtrail vs. contrail” discourse. While contrails would be named for the condensation trails that follow jet aircraft, chemtrails are the plumes of chemicals that extend from certain aircraft that do not dissipate in mere seconds and can result in a grid pattern as they crisscross the skies.
As far as the chemical composition of this artificial cloud cover, Murphy’s film describes the high levels of poisons found in chemtrails, as well as the adverse effects these substances have on the environment and human health. “Aluminum oxide is highly toxic and diminishes immune functions, as does barium, while strontium is a known carcinogen”, he said.
Murphy says that experts have told him that the damaging effects caused by chemtrails on both the population and on the Earth are “unquantifiable”.
Murphy looks to the scientific community for answers to the inevitable question: why would they do this to us?
“Geo-engineers sell these programs as being for the greater good, that they are doing it to save the planet from global warming” he stated. “At the same time, they admit that starting such a program would ravage the ozone layer, allowing for higher levels of solar radiation to reach the surface of the Earth. And they have already started these programs and that is exactly what has been taking place”.
Murphy also discussed the military applications of such a program, examining the potential for both weather modification as well as population control. Perhaps inevitably, HAARP came into the discussion as another example of a tool of geo-engineering and weaponized weather. When this writer asked if chemtrails and HAARP could be used in conjunction with each other, Murphy responded, “Absolutely”, stating that the higher concentrations of heavy metals would seem to make HAARP more effective.
Interestingly enough, on the official website for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, listed in the Frequently Asked Questions section, is the query: “Is HAARP capable of affecting the weather?” The answer isn’t what you might expect. Instead of a dismissive answer such as, “That’s nonsense” or “You clearly are a conspiracy theorist for even asking”, the site bizarrely responds with this answer: “The HAARP facility will not affect the weather.” Yes, it does in fact use the wording “will not”, as opposed to the anticipated answer of “cannot”.
As “playing God” isn’t the same as being God, there are consequences to scientific endeavors that attempt to control anything. In the case of geo-engineering, obviously one can conclude that a certain level of plausible deniability must be maintained. For example, if any country were to acknowledge that they possessed the capability to steer hurricanes or cause earthquakes, then every time a hurricane struck or an earthquake occurred, the victimized country would say it was an intentional act. This could be construed as an act of war and could pave the way for endless conflicts.
Murphy agreed, saying that individuals have confirmed his research and conclusions but are under extreme pressure to be silent. “I would remind skeptics to look at the Manhattan Project and how long it took for that program to be admitted to openly”, he said. “These are multibillion, maybe multitrillion dollar black operation projects”.
Despite such a well-funded assault, Murphy’s spirits remain high. “My hope lies in my fellow man,” he said. “This issue will not be solved by governments or politicians. It is up to us to be enlightened and then to stand up and say ‘no more’”.
The idea of using the weather as a weapon isn’t a new one. Operation Popeye, Project Stormfury and Project Seal are just a few examples of just such government operations. When considering the documented and even admitted experimentation upon unsuspecting populations during programs like Project 112, Project SHAD and Operation Big City, it is hard to be skeptical anymore. The adage that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it still applies even if the past has been hidden from us. If that can’t even be acknowledged as worthy of thought, perhaps there is a bit of chemical residue on your rose colored glasses.
Michael J. Murphy’s film can be purchased and seen on his website: www.truthmediaproductions.blogspot.com
Top Bills in Congress- Constance Cumbey’s Blog
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- The Week Ahead in Congress May 7, 2012
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- CISPA Rushed to Passage April 27, 2012
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- The Week Ahead in Congress March 26, 2012
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