Zodiac Times » Iraq

THE ENEMIES IN OUR MIDST OR HOW TO KILL THE WORLD’S LARGEST ECONOMY

Ella Moss — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 03:02:02 +0000

I just heard on the news that the 3rd Al Queda biggie was killed, giving the U.S. the edge on that murky shapeless war on terror we have been officially waging since 2001.
While I am happy to hear these news, I think that even we were to win the 4 wars (1.this “war on terror”; 2. in Afghanistan; 3. in Iraq; 4. in Lybia), we’ve been waging since the fateful 2001 (and I am not counting the “war on drugs”), we are heading to lose our way of life.
It’s not the democracy I am worried about here, but material comfort and relative peace on the streets (outside of occasional shootings and muggings).
It appears that there has been another war waging, and it is on American economy.
It’s beginnings are murky. But I would trace it as far back as Reagan’s Administration, that first began an unofficial war on unions. Unions make labor-intensive manufacturing very expensive and eat into profits of investors.
Well, nobody likes unions (except for unions’ bosses), so what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that everybody likes the middle class.
The middle class is as essential to any economy, as an engine to a car. Without it, economy is dead.
Even if we were to end up with a few thousands of super rich dudes, while the rest of us would struggle to survive (i.e. the middle class would disappear completely), all the many billions of these super rich would not create the job growth a multi-million population requires. They would invest into emerging markets, not the dying ones.
Why would they create a factory of any kind in the U.S., where people are struggling to stretch a dollar to pay rent, bills and buy groceries and their discretional income is so tight that all they can afford is cheap Chinese goods in Walmart, when these super rich investors can build a factory in Brazil, or India, or same China, where people are eager to spend their increasing earnings?
By the way, is not it one of the main reasons, that the numbers of unemployed right now stay where they are despite us giving continuous tax breaks to these super rich?
Yes, the second attack on American economy began during the prosperous 1990s, when Clinton Administration signed away any kind of protection of American labor force, and internet was born (internet makes outsourcing a breeze).
Suddenly, American labor force had to compete with the labor force of other countries, and American people could no longer ask for wage increase, because the majority of the world’s labor force was so much cheaper and just as good.
It took about 10 years for Americans to notice that their incomes were stagnating while their bills grew. They kept waiting for their personal prosperity to come, while changing jobs, professions and investing into 401K and increasingly expensive real estate.
But Clinton Administration also approved the deregulation of financial markets.
Suddenly, the credit was so cheap and so available, that the American people have not noticed that their actual discretional income was dwindling to nothing.
Why worry, if one could still buy a McMansion, and buy even more stuff by turning the McMansion into an ATM machine?
Yes, 1990s were prosperous. The economy was booming as people were eager consumers. The problem was that everything was bought on credit rather then with actual money.
Everyone was expecting the actual income to catch up, as it used to.
But it did not, because so many jobs have either left the country or paid as much as in other (read CHEAPER) countries.
Eventually, the credit bubble had to burst, and it did in 2008.
If the federal government did not pump money into the banks that lost the money by lending it to population so indiscriminately, The economy would have simply collapse like it did in Argentina in 1990s.
Americans were saved, although suddenly they came face to face with their economic reality and realized they were so much poorer than a decade ago.
So many of them have lost their job, that those who did not no longer dared to ask for a wage increase or benefits or union perks. In fact, they started giving up their last benefits and perks just so they could keep a job.
And that is when the final attack on American economy began.
Since it was now the federal government that was pulling the economy down the road as its engine, the middle class, stalled, the enemies in our midst began to attack the federal government.
The ideas Obama put on the table were nothing short of brilliant: invest federal dollars into aging crumbling infrastructure and green economy – labor-intensive enterprises that must hire domestic labor force. Every created job would spur on 10s of other jobs, and the economy would begin humming again.
But the enemies in our midst thought otherwise. Suddenly, federal deficit began to be used as a panic-inspiring weapon of choice.
Of course, the surplus that Clinton Administration left the country with would have been a much better deal. But if credit is sparse everywhere else, how else would you come up with money needed to pump the economy?
The enemies in our midst said, “Let starve the federal government of tax income, let’s keep taxes low so the few super rich would invest their money into economy. The government is too big and lives beyond its means. Its deficit is going to bankrupt our children”.
Americans love their children, so anything threatening the kids works as a great scarecrow.
They are also badly educated (read my American Education Reform ).
So Obama’s proposals were decimated, the government began shedding its work force, unemployment came back to its pick numbers, and unions everywhere lost their power and benefits.
Now there is no one to pull our economy from the brink. Those who are employed, work at REDUCED wages, that are getting closer to the 3rd world range.
Meanwhile, every single life staple, like groceries, rent, cable bills, insurance, etc. doubled or more in price (as compared to 10 yrs ago or less). Even those who work at median salaries have less money to buy desirable but unnecessary things.
This means that businesses producing and selling anything that is not a life staple make less profit so they begin to shed their labor force.
The less there is labor force, the less income the government gets. Since deficit is now a dirty word, the government has no choice but shed its work force and cut services to the impoverished population.
Now the time came to put the final nails into the coffin of what used to be the largest world economy: refuse to raise the ceiling on federal credit.
Once the federal government loses its credit-worthiness, watch American economy collapse into THE GREATER THAN THE GREAT DEPRESSION ditch.
The idiot dream of labor-intensive manufacturers like Koch brothers would come true:
labor in America would become as cheap as in Africa.
Unfortunately, the American workers would no longer be able to afford using the toilet paper they manufacture for Koch brothers. Like their African brethren, they would have to use tree leaves to wipe their asses. So Koch brothers would eventually go broke too.
No, it is not the federal deficit that threatens the future of our children. It is our inability to discern the enemies in our midst.
As for the scary federal deficit, it was Reagan administration that first racked it up into the trillions. Then Bush administration turned the surplus into another multi-trillion dollar debt. No one screamed of deficit while republicans were in power. The congress did not attack neither of the republican presidents for taking us into expensive wars (Reagan’s Panama blitz, Nicaragua fiasco, etc.; Bush’s Afghanistan, Iraq and the amorphous war on terror).
No, I am not happy at all with Lybia war either. I just don’t think it matters much anymore.
Like I predicted in 2008, “FINANCIAL CRISIS – IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER”

Tagged: Al Queda, Bush, deficit, economy, financial crisis, global economy, great depression, India, Iraq, money, news, Obama, outsourcing, politics, predictions, Reagan, recession, taxes, unemployment, war, worry

EAST VS WEST

Ella Moss — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:33:29 +0000

As I was growing up some 20-30 years past WWII in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), its ghosts were all around. Kids from my neighborhood would still blow up grenades, and other old and unused ammunition we’d find in the ground, sometimes with deadly consequences. Everyone had family stories about the war, and every family has lost someone to that war. My very own grandma had to kill her second child, who was born during a bombing, when Leningrad was under siege. Everyone was starving then, she had no milk, and nothing to feed her baby with. So one day, as the baby lay down next to her, crying, she put pillow to his face. Then she sent my 10 yr old father to fetch people to help to bury his brother. She went to her grave still crying about that…
So I was growing up certain that humanity would never have another terrible war like this one.
Well, I’m no longer so certain of our maturity.
It appears, that during the last 50 years of the past century, 2 worlds were growing: the Western and Eastern (Muslim). Western world has been prospering and fostering tolerance and acceptance. Muslim world was getting riches too, but the great majority of it still lived in poverty, and it grew dark, intolerant, jealous and hateful. So these 2 worlds grew apart, and then, one day, the Muslim world attacked the Western world.
It was in 1993, and I just happened to be at the WTC shopping mall where I bought a skiing bag 15 minutes before the bombing, as I was planning to go skiing with my friends that Friday.
After seing all those wounded, and, perhaps, some dead, I quit my job that day, and went skiing, determined to enjoy my every moment on earth.
But because only 6 people died, and the WTC kept on standing, no one, including me, paid attention to the growing Muslim menace.
Sure, I’ve noticed that all wars around me seemed to be involving muslims, and I was wondering to myself – what is it about that religion that makes people so blood thirsty…
But then, in 1997, I happened to find myself in Pakistan, living for 4 days with a fundamental Muslim family.
This was a very good, happy family. The wife and the mother of 4 children was obviously adored, respected and cherished. The 3 girls, ages 10, 15 and 17, were well taken care of, studying in school and planning to go to college (they all wanted to be doctors). All 4 women in the family laughed a lot and easily – a good sign of happy people. It was their choice to cover themselves in black burka, when they were heading out. They could not go outside their home past 6 pm, if unaccompanied by a male relative, but even that somehow turned out to be a sign of being cherished and protected.
When I was comparing my free western life to theirs, I could feel a pang of jealousy: neither me nor any other western woman I knew were as cherished, revered and protected. But then it is another topic altogether.
I just wanted to say that I was enamored by Pakistani people I’ve encountered there: they were so open, so hospitable, so generous…
And then, 9/11 happened.
This time I was about 14 blocks away. But I could still see the II WTC falling in the cloud of yellowish white dust.
As I was walking home all the way to the Northern tip of Manhattan (no one could get a ride that day), I was hating all Muslims and Arabs like I never hated anyone before. My heart was churning blackness.
But at about 55th St., a car stopped by me and a guy asked me if I need a ride. I gladly accepted (I had another 130+ blocks to go).
My driver just happened to be a Pakistani. I immediately thanked God for this “coincidence”, as I knew it was a reminder not to hate the whole nation or religion.
Of course, when I got home, the Palestinian family who lived across the hall from me was having a party, ordering pizza, smoking and dancing right there in the hallway….
Still I was sad, when nice Afghani people closed their fast food joint across the street that day, and never re-opened, being afraid of us, people waiving American flags.
And that’s how the Great War of East and West really began in earnest. West has attacked 3 Eastern countries since then, and one was destroyed completely. But because that country was completely innocent of all attacks on the West, the West has destroyed its reputation and further damaged its already wounded economy.
But now the Muslims have decided to exploit the West’s famous tolerance and build a mosque 2 blocks away from the ghosts of the 2 towers they have destroyed.
Of course, these are not the same Muslims that destroyed the Towers. Those are dead. These other Muslims who want to build the mosque may very well be very nice people (like those who hosted me in Pakistan).
But now we know that we are at war. And I know that there are Muslims like my Palestinian neighbors who partied on 9/11. Those kind of Muslims would look at this mosque like their flag raised above the graves of the enemy. That would hurt. A lot.
And I don’t think that we, the Western world, would lose whatever is left of our tolerance (let’s face it, we don’t have much left – but that’s another topic), if we ask those Muslims angling for the mosque to build it 20+ blocks away.
Just, please, don’t keep reminding us at the grave of 3,000 people about those who murdered them one sunny beautiful day 9 years ago….

Tagged: 9/11, bombing, East, flag, grave, Iraq, life, mosque, Muslims, NYC, Pakistan, politics, the WTC, tolerance, war, West, worry, WWII, WWIII

GOING CRAZY IN JUNE

Ella Moss — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:55:44 +0000

I found this little poem of mine, written on 06/09/04 but still quite relevant, and decided to publish it as a tribute to the upcoming Poetry Cafe edition:

1.
It is only beginning of June,
But it feels like the end of the world
That is certainly coming up soon,
As the weather turns hot
And the souls turn cold.

My money is gone, and so is love
And everything else disappears…
But my heart has been so light –
I’ve lost everything, even fear.

Or, maybe, my body’s been shed
With the very last tear drop.
God has caught me in His blue net,
And I am slowly going up.

I am dancing and dancing with God –
After all, it’s the end of the world –
And my heart has been just so light:
It no longer has something to hold.

There are drops of the warm summer rain
Licking nakedness of my soul,
And I deem myself finally sane,
Flying into the sky’s blue hole.

2.
Wait, God, wait! Can’t You see, are You blind?
There is my little boy left behind!
I have not lost him just yet,
But he’s losing me fast, can’t you wait?!
I can bear my losses, not his
I can bear my crosses, not his
Can’t You hear him crying at all?
Let me fall back in June, let me fall!

3.
There are towers falling with me,
and spilled blood smells a lot like the oil,
And young boy in Iraq whispers scream,
His red life sipping into the soil,
His dark skin slowly turning white…
That’s my son, only older somehow…
Did I sent him into the fight?
Am I responsible now?

No, my son is a three-years-old,
Starving and all alone,
Licking an empty bowl
That’s been empty for so long…

I am lost. Are we in China?
Texas? Afghanistan? Uruguay?

I cannot help him. I switch TV channel,
Eat my potato chips and cry.

I’m sorry, my baby, we’ve fallen
To the very bottom of June,
And the rivers of prayers are swollen..
But the end of the world’s coming soon.

I am walking my son to day care.
He is holding my hand so tight!
“When you need me, I’m always there” –
That’s what God has told me last night.

5.
At the bottom of June, I am dancing with God.
I am asking Him questions, ‘cause I am His child:
“Am I dying, my Lord, or just changing my skin?
On what day have You thought of the concept of sin?”

“My child, I am only the Maker of Dreams.
Each soul wakes up, when it actually screams.
Still, I am your closest friend,
‘cause I am always there.
Right now, I’m holding your hand,
As you’re walking me to the day care”

Tagged: crisis, God, hunger, Iraq, life, loss, Love, money, mother, prayer, recession, relationships, spirituality, the end of the world, war, women, WTC

FLYING P.I.G.S., ETC.

Ella Moss — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:49:21 +0000

In my previous articles Financial Crisis: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over and More on the Great Financial Disaster of 2010, I’ve predicted 2010 being an interesting year that would go down in history as the year when the world we have known since the industrial revolution finally bursts its tires. We are already seeing pigs fly (these “pigs”, of course, being Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Italian finances have also been questioned recently. I doubt that Germany, France and Great Britain can bail out the rest of Europe.
Don’t forget that Eastern European countries are likely to be the next pigs to fly.
What’s in it for us?
As European Union falls on its face and euro devalues to almost nothing, American exports would stall, American manufacturing would dwindle to its lowest yet, American corporations would run to hire the best and the cheapest labor force on the planet (that would be the European one), and we here are going to struggle with unemployment of such proportions that 10% would seem like a reasonable figure.
We are already seeing enormous inflation when it comes to basic staples of life (rent, food, transit and all kinds of insurance costs went up significantly in the past 2 years). At the same time we are seeing deflation of real estate, clothing, furniture, electronics and luxury goods. These trends are likely to continue.
I really feel for Obama Administration and sincerely pray for them every day. This administration inherited the crisises created by the previous administration. These crisises are as grave as they come.
On top of it, the people who created these problems are trying to undermine Obama at every turn – just because he is not a republican.
Bill Clinton had to endure the republican ire too, and for the same reason – he was not a republican. Remember the impeachment debacle? That was the time when I stopped watching my soap operas and turned to politics for entertainment.
What tickled me the most then was how easily Larry Flint succeeded in outing the sins of the stone throwers. Do you remember how many republicans had to resign because of their extra marital indiscretions?
The republicans did not succeed then either because Clintons bit back or because they realized that they may loose all their leaders to Flint’s private investigators.
They have succeeded though by manipulating elections of 2000. Not many know the true story behind Bush Jr.’s victory.
The story goes like this: Bush the elder brother (the governor of Florida at that time) managed to eliminate thousands of voters from the list under suspicion that they were felons. The great majority of suddenly eliminated voters (who had no idea they were eliminated) were not felons. They were simply democrats.
Then that Bush places a call to the anchor of Fox news in the middle of vote count and tells him that Bush Jr. won in Florida long before all the Floridian votes were in. That anchor calls the vote. Dan Rather, dismayed that someone else got the results before him, immediately follows the suit, and the rest of TV anchors follow him.
The rest is well known.
Bush Jr. ascends to the throne and immediately proceeds to damage his country.
His first blunder: NEGLIGENCE THAT BORDERS ON THE TREASON. He had the report about the imminent attack by Al Qaida and sat on it. Now I pass by the hole in the ground where the WTC once was almost every day and it’s still hurts.
His second blunder: destroying Iraq and millions of American families, whose loved ones went to serve his whims. Some people thought he did it for oil. But he was too stupid to see that far. I’m certain he did it to show his daddy that he could do better.
To me, that’s treason. But democrats, spineless without Clintons, thought better of impeaching him and suing him as a war criminal that he was.
In a sense, their meekness enabled him to put everything in place in order to destroy global economy. Actually, he did not do it. He did nothing, and allowed his fellow republicans to deregulate all they could and for their greed to take over.
America voted for him in 2004, because people were running scared of terrorism and wanted guys toting guns in the helm. They did not trust John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war hero, to tote the gun at spooky Arabs, because they believed the “swift boat” ads and mistook his dignified silence for weakness.
Instead, they voted for a guy, whose family was tight with those Arabs, and who lied and bought out of the service to his country during that long bad war.
Perhaps, because next to him stood big dick Cheney known for shooting ducks and people.
So republicans under his banner went ahead and destroyed the world.
They could hardly believe that they lost to Obama (THE BLACK GUY?!). They worked so hard to take Hillary out, so their man would take on the reins. They could never imagine a black guy becoming a president, so they did not bother to “swift boat” him.
They were so sure of themselves, that they gave their man Sarah Palin as a running mate.
Of course, it could have been that they secretly hated McCain too – after all, he had some friends on the other side of the isle.
So these Egotistical Vicious Ignorant Liars republicans miscalculated and got Obama + democratic congress.
And the only thing they can do now is preventing Obama to do anything he tries.
Of course, they also try to “swift boat” him in the most underhanded manner.
This is what I’ve received recently as a comment to one of my posts:
I also appreciate your work Ella and I too thought Obama was a great man in a time of peril, however I just watched a documentary called “XXXXXX”-(my editing), which I highly recommend, and it opened my eyes to the facts. Obama is worse than Bush as he has reached celebrity status and capured the hearts of millions of people but is just another puppet committing treason. I am not trying to slander anyone and again would like to praise your work Ella but think that the people NEED to know the facts of what is happening to the Government.
I bet, many people received something like this in e-mail or as a “comment”. This must be Republican way of making their disinformation “viral”.
Just recently, they tried to put Obama’s citizenship in doubt. Now they keep telling us that the stimulus did not work (well, my business is better because it DID WORKED)
Next it is going to be a rumor that he eats little white children for breakfast.
Poor Obama: he needs to fix the dirtiest mess on the planet with his hands tied by republican obstructionism and with “swift boat” mud all over his face.
So I am praying for him to succeed nonetheless, because I live in this mess and I need him to get me out of it. Don’t you?
By the way, historically (at least for the last 100 years or so), the republican administrations have lead our nation into wars and huge deficits, while democratic ones have brought us peace, prosperity and reduction in deficits.

Tagged: Arabs, astrological predictions, astrology, Bill Clinton, Bush, Cheney, dollar, economy, elections, elections of 2000, elections of 2004, euro, European Union, financial crisis, Florida, global economy, great depression, Greece, impeachment, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, John Kerry, McCain, Obama, P.I.G.S., politics, Portugal, republicans, Spain, stimulus, treason, unemployment, viral, war crimes, worry

SERENDIPITY

Ella Moss — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:18:37 +0000

On my way to work this morning, the train conductor kept wishing us “Great day, and exciting weekend.” Rarely subway conductors wish us that to begin with. But this guy has also put so much heart into these words, that there were no doubts he meant it. He made me believe it.
As I walked into the office, I’ve noticed a lady in her late 40s – early 50s. She was tastefully and comfortably dressed, her blond hair was framing perfectly her attractive face, but, most importantly, she was glowing with such inner joy and happiness that is rarely seen.
As we started talking, she revealed that she and her daughter both got admitted to a nursing program at college.
- But you are a court reporter!, – I said in surprise, pointing to the court reporters’ equipment standing next to her.
Court reporting is tough but a very well-paid profession. Nursing is tougher, yet pays much less.
She revealed that her son is a marine, who went through 2 tours in Iraq.
- I just wanted to do something for the boys, – she said.
For a year, she worked at a field hospital as a nursing aid.
- It is unbelievably tough. Every morning I would have to pray for strength and courage just to walk through the door. But then, helping all those boys was so gratifying and humbling, – she said, and her face lit up with inner light.
In order to get into the program, she had to take college physics course (which was actually course on quantum mechanics) and few other very tough courses, that she barely passed despite studying very hard. Let’s not forget that this single mother of three was also working to make a living and stressing out, worrying for her son in Iraq, at that time.
Needless to say I was impressed.
- I don’t know how you did it. I have a 7 y.o.. I can only imagine what you have went through with your son out there in the middle of the war.
- I was so worried, I could not eat. I was like a stick. I prayed, and prayed, and prayed. And then, one day, I said, “God, I cannot take it no more. I am going let you to take care of everything.”
And, you know, I immediately felt lighter and knew that everything is going to be alright. And it did!
My son is back in one piece, and he has no more tours – although he’s unhappy about it. Once a marine, is always a marine. But he is going to be fine, once he adjusts to civilian life. You know, once you ask God to take care of you, you have nothing to worry about.
- I know what you mean. I also went through very tough times a few months back. And, like you, at some point, I’ve just thrown my hands and asked God to take care of me and my son because I no longer could, and He did!
I’ve told her the story how I lost my major client, which effectively placed my tiny business on life support.
-Wait a minute, -she said, examining my face closely. – Ella Moss?! Are you Ella Moss?!
-Yes, – I said sheepishly. And then.. – Jacky?!…
Yes, this wonderful, glowing, brave lady was the one who actually helped me to establish my present business when I was pregnant and was looking for a way of making a living other than astrology and past lives regressions…
Wow! The conductor was not kidding!