Conservative Refocus

Barry Secrest

Has anyone ever stopped to wonder how it is that the brainiacs within our government, not to mention a large number of moderates, and virtually every Democrat on the planet, cannot seem to wrap their collectively singular mindsets around one very glaringly simple truth?

It is, in fact, quite elementary:

Blaming Wall Street and the wealthy for America's severe economic downturn would be no different than trying to blame America's breadbasket and its Farmers for a severe national drought.

And yet, here we have a raucous gaggle of mostly leftist freaks, lugubriously huddling together in the streets of America's largest cities, in order to provide their own personal exclamation point to this commonly held mistruth of class warfare, if not envy, which our President commiserates with, not surprisingly.

Meanwhile, the erstwhile Collectivists have promised occupy protests to coalesce in virtually every major city in the US.

So, what exactly is this all about, anyway?

Well, in a word, this ain't your Mom and Dad's Tea Party, to put it mildly. It was initially billed by some as a US day of Rage, something that the Tea Party folks could certainly identify with, but only initially, as it turns out. You see, while many of the aims of the newly contrived mass demonstrators seemed to mimic some few aims of the Tea Party, at least in spirit, what we have learned as information continually oozes out, is that just as the Tea Party is a Conservative movement grounded in the principles of the Right, the occupy protesters are nothing more than a de-evolutionary Rent-A-Mob derived from the insights of the loony Left.

In fact, it would seem that the Arab Spring has indeed arrived in America and it has taken the same form of "occupation" as those demonstrations exhibited in many other countries. Except, in this case, there is one very big problem with this newest insurrection, and this particular problem is a doozy. You see, the US is already a Liberal Democracy indirectly controlled as  a voting Republic. Our Constitutional based Federal Republic is, in fact, the  defacto model for virtually every other freedom loving democracy in the free world.

So then, what are these protesters really demanding?

Well, below is a list of demands as pulled directly from the website Occupywallst.org... before they deprecated it, and yet, it was prominently listed on the main page, initially. The reason they deprecated it?  Well, it's high-time we both met and understood the aims of our nauseatingly ignorant Collectivists in order to at least understand both their plight and their faulty ideas. So, below is their complete list of demands along with a Conservative exercise in explaining why none of these demands could ever work in actual practice:

Demand One: Restoration of the living wage.

This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hour.

Ah yes, apply draconian trade Tariffs to imported goods, that should do the trick. These collectivists, ironically, started out by sounding a bit like  an unwashed grouping of bizarro Donald Trumps on international trade,  but do they actually know of this particular fact, one has to wonder? Granted, trade often seems largely unfair at first glance; however, the law of unintended consequences always applies and is comically never adjusted for within the ranks of the Left, a phenomena frequently seen with the Obama Administration. In fact, one excellent example of free trade benefits would be the amazing Apple iphone , which, while being designed and engineered in the US, is actually constructed in China and has been seen to be in use quite profligately by our anti-capitalist occupiers, in addition to myself.

But if the iphone were to actually be built, in contrast to occupy thinking, within the US, our costs for the phone would resultantly skyrocket almost as quickly as unemployment has under "Change we can believe in."  You see, with the average Chinese manufacturing wage being  an inflationary adjusted $175 per month, as opposed to the average US workers manufacturing wage being about $2,500 per month, the US would automatically begin with a bit of a problem in this case. By adjusting for the supply costs to build the iphone inside the US, along with the application of similar manufacturing standards,and utilizing the prevalent wage structure plus misc. charges, our scraggly occupying Marxists would end up paying  about $ 1,265.00 per iphone in the US, as opposed to the relative bargain of $ 600 for each Chinese-made iphone.

Cheap, Apple products certainly are not, nor should they be. Our estimated US price for the iphone would assume the same profitability percentage for Apple as now, a glaring counterpoint in all of this, to be sure.

So, if  iphones were manufactured in the US at our revised American price, might that also be cause for our malleable Marxists to angrily lounge in the streets?

But in addition to the protesters' ridiculously constrictive trade arguments, their main aim is to end free trade and, therefore, free market capitalism as we know it, which is one of the basic underpinnings of our constitutional Republic.  Additionally, and adding a bit of sauce to the gander, the fisting crowd also wishes to raise the standard minimum wage to an astounding $ 20.00 per hour.  If they think unemployment is bad now, just imagine what that might do the ranks of those needing a job.  At $20.00 per hour, businesses would be shuttering all over the US, while other companies would be outsourcing even the cooking of hamburgers and fries to foreign nations, for Heaven's sake. Perhaps our liberal collectivists went to the Paul Krugman school of junk-economics?

Brilliant economists these guys, quite obviously, are not.

Demand Two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system.

To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Indeed, I think we have already planned for single-payer, Government  controlled healthcare, haven't we? If memory serves, it was called the Affordable Healthcare Act, better known as Obamacare, which was passed in early 2010, but should we tell them do ya think? Or perhaps the early ill-effects of Obamacare's passage, which has already caused healthcare shortages to blossum while dramatically increasing health costs, would leave our naive collectivists to think that healthcare was still privately controlled. The simple fact is that while the coverage mandate was supposed to dramatically reduce the costs per person, Obamacare has preemptively ratcheted up costs even before the full act is close to being fully implemented in 2014.

Oh bother, and please don't tell our malodorous Marxists that better than 1/3rd of our healthcare insurance is already underwritten by the Federal Government, which, unsurprisingly, has one of the worst claim paying rates of any payer "in history." Simply can't wait for the Death Panels, too, by the way...a thing that might provide comforting solace should Obama be re-elected in reference to our plunging economy. A point further to be noted to our Occupiers is that  Wall Street is not taking money from the doctors, it is, once again, the Federal Government which has cut its truncated payments to both doctors and clinics to the point that many will now no longer accept Medicare/Medicaid patients.

The law of unintended consequences rules, once again, in that vein. Ask any doctor or hospital who they would prefer to deal with when it comes to payments--private insurers or the Federal Government? The answer to that question is rather predictable...

Demand Three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

I thought we already covered this point in Demand One? Expectant redundancies aside, the guaranteed living wage is a thing that Marxist/Communists the world over have repeatedly tried to install, while repeatedly failing at their efforts throughout history. The problem lies within human nature itself, in that few individuals are willing to work their collective arses off while their neighbor hangs out on the front porch or lays in bed all day long. But this particular aim by the Occupy groups lends itself completely to the unstated cause of collectivism and also speaks to where Obama falls within the range of ideologies.

You see, both Cloward and Piven were Communists, and their singular goal in the Cloward-Piven strategy was to overwhelm government to the point of collapse and then reinstate a Statist government which would guarantee a living wage to all peoples. The infamous Saul Alinsky was also devoted to the establishment of a living wage, and we all know who his most famous student was.

The living wage, in fact, is  the very essence of Communism and would be established to ultimately defeat personal property ownership in time, which lies fully along the road to serfdom and eventual tyranny.

Both marching and lounging  is so much harder to do with someone's boot grinding down on your neck, guys....

Demand Four: Free college education.

Why even go to college? If everyone is equal and making essentially the same salary, whether working or not, why purloin the effort required to obtain an education?  Yeah, I know, I know, but think of it as fire for effect -- in truth, why should an advanced education be free? And for all of those who may be thinking that a normal education is free, you are forgetting that it is actually not free at all. A large part of most local property taxes is what typically feeds our education system. State funding, as well as Federal funding, all go towards education, but where does this funding come from? Taxes!

So, if a college  education were to be free, then everyone would be required to ante up an additional estimated 1/2 of one trillion dollars per year to the Federal Government. In essence, your base taxes would be required to double and if everyone were a communist well then who could actually afford to pay these exorbitant costs? Remember also, these are just static numbers and don't take into account the number of students additionally enrolled if college were to be free. If enrollment were to double as a result, then over $ 1 trillion dollars would need to be spent on advanced education alone. Our government only collects, at present, about $2.2  trillion in Federal and Corporate tax dollars each year.

So while a free advanced education sounds just peachy-keen, the real-world scenario teaches us that, all things being equal, it is simply unworkable as to the costs in a free market economy, nevermind a Marxist economy, and don't completely forget the fairness deficit to those who simply do not wish to attend to a higher education.

Oh, wait! Unless, of course our left-wing educators wouldn't mind offering their academian skills for free...I mean, they preach Socialism and Collectivism all the time, but would they actually live it by donating their expertise?

I think we all know the answer to that question...*smirk*

Demand Five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Another neat trick that falls under the same heading as successfully orbiting the gigantic hull of the USS Enterprise around earth, were we to actually have a USS Enterprise, which we obviously do not.

At present, virtually the entire nation is run on fossil fuels with solar, wind and hydro-electric providing only about 7% of the nation's power. The simple fact is that we have no way to power the US naturally; it would be akin to  asking each individual to propel their vehicles by cutting the floor boards out and using their feet a la Fred Flintstone style, which works quite famously in cartoon land and, come to think of it, in Obamaville too, where both collectivists and Statists seemingly prefer to hangout. But not in real-life, which we heartily recommend visiting at least once per year, to our Marxist friends.

But wait! Unless, of course, Professor Obama finally finds his lost formula to the amazing energy product known as Imagifuel, which is about the only thing that would allow this demand to pan out. Remember, Imagifuel is the amazing concoction that allows all of the Left's ridiculous theoretical energy ideas to work...if it actually existed.

Demand Six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Sheez, this is a getting really expensive for a Marxist economy! First of all, we do not have one trillion dollars to spend. Second of all, our infrastructure is not crumbling, it is in fact fine. Why waste our precious funds on an already sound  infrastructure? Will it make us a more competitive economy to the rest of the world? No, absolutely no effect whatsoever. Will it produce immediate jobs? No, mass infrastructure improvements, as Obama admitted, takes years to effectively plan-out and implement.

Will it lower our bond ratings and push up our debt to insurmountable levels? Absolutely, it will, and most of it will sit in the US treasury waiting for implementation while already being rather miserably counted towards the national debt, in addition to being occasionally siphoned by the Democratic Legislators for Union purposes "only."

If you really want to receive a stimulus from spent money, then simply do away with all taxes for one year. It would massively exacerbate our debt levels, but it would also ramp up economic activity to a fever-like pitch while creating untold jobs.

But does Bam-Bam really want that?

Demand Seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

And where shall we plant these forests, pray tell? Perhaps we should grow them on land that we currently use to grow food? Or maybe just seize other people's farmland so that we can grow these uber-forests. Granted, this would allow for a substantial increase in product from the toothpick industry and the non-existent building industry, and yet, we would most likely be so starved in the scarcity of food, as a result, that  there would be no need for toothpicks. A quandary to be sure.

The simple truth here is that forested land has only decreased from 45% to 33% since the Pilgrims first set foot in North America. In addition, according to the National Forest Service, the amount of land dedicated to forests has remained about the same since 1920. In addition to that, what the environmental Marxists mean when they say "reestablish the natural flow of river systems,"  is to eliminate all dams, and that would include..... wait for it....hydroelectric energy production, you just can't make this stuff up.

Uh-Oh! Now we have even less renewable fuel out of the diminutive 7% that the Leftists had earlier wished to, somehow, expand into 100%? But, in answer to that quandary, they then demand an end to nuclear energy, which would effectively eliminate pretty much all power production in the US, except for the 7% naturally produced which has now been reduced to about 3.5% by the demand from one line up.

And here, headache pending, are the remaining list of demands which are essentially too ridiculous to even comment upon:

Demand Eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand Nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand Ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Indeed, let's move away from the prehistoric digital election booths to the ultra-modern and sleek paper balloting/#2 pencil method, then, we can perhaps move on to the highly futuristic, Einsteinian developed ink on finger-dipping method, which is mostly in use in the highly developed third world.

Demand Eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now!

Demand Twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Ok, follow me for a minute; if we forgive all debts, then banks will have no operating capital, so then the banks will go out of business, and if the banks go out of business, then we will have no need of credit-rating agencies. So, this demand seems to have taken care of itself as a result of Demand Eleven. Brilliant!

Demand Thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign.

I find it not a little interesting that the Occupy writers end their list at the number thirteen, which is an historical symbol that boasts all sorts of significant consequences to include change and death in numerology. The number 13 also represents the sign of the anti-Christ and the Beast in the 13th chapter of Revelation, but maybe the writers were just being cute on purpose.

But what else do we know about the Occupy movement?

-The Left-Wing organization called Adbusters, located in Canada, of all places, was the first identifiable group which began running the Occupy Wall Street ads. Adbusters was originated to combat consumerism, which is a primary facet of capitalism and is a global movement whose main goal is to topple existing power structures, sort of of a "top down, bottom up, inside out" organization commonly referred to by Communist Vann Jones, the former White House Czar for Obama.

-Virtually every Left-Wing organization in existence has now jumped on to the Occupy protests bandwagon, to include the Democratic party, the President in a voice of sympathy, and of course the usual suspects. Community Organizers, Socialists, Labor Unions, Communists, have all joined  the fray. George Soros and many of his left-wing sponsored media organizations, to include moveon.org and Thinkprogress.org, have all voiced sympathy, if not sponsorship to the movement. We know that SEIU and a large nurse's union have also joined in. Remember also that the George Soros / Barack Obama connection runs very deep and very silent.

-Much has been made of the Occupy Wall Street's use of a private park. The lonely Conservative website recently wrote an article which detailed how the owner of Zucotti Park, being Brookfield Asset Management of New York , was a recent recipient of one of Obama's green energy loans to the tune of nearly $ 170 million. The park has uttered not even a whimper for the park's misuse and the mountains of garbage that have sprang up.

- The violent overthrow facet associated with the Occupy movement has found its voice. One Mideastern sounding revolutionary in the Occupy LA movement spoke out forcefully that both violence and bloodshed would be needed to overthrow the Bourgeoisie class in the US, which is an obvious reference to the bloody French Revolution where millions died, and which led to Napoleon's reign as a dictator.

- A recent Daily Caller article detailed the fact that some of the Occupy Protesters admitted to being paid to attend. A sort of Rent-A-Mob it would seem, but who's paying them? One website representing the Working Families Party, which is an offshoot of ACORN, blatantly states "make a difference on Wall Street-Get Paid!" but whose paying WFP? According to a recent "The Blaze" article, none other than former White House appointee Patric Gaspard is a co-chair for the WFP and the New Party; Gaspard is also a director for the DNC.

-The SEIU, a powerful union, has many close ties to the White House, has a concentrated web of connections to this new WFP party--originally founded by a group of prominent Communists and Socialists to include Francis Fox Piven and Professor Cornell Wilde. The Tides Foundation, which many say was instrumental in ejecting Conservative Glenn Beck from Fox, also  is  heavily involved in the cross-connections between the New Party and the WFP and co-chairs which are held commonly between Tides Foundation and New Party members.

So where is all of this going?

Difficult to say at this point. Rush Limbaugh calls these Occupy protests a "boot camp" for the upheaval that's coming. Glenn Beck and this website, among others, have been dreading the day that these mobs would find their left-wing voice, but we have also predicted that this movement would spread from the Mideast and Europe to the US, as conditions worsened. Well, they're here, so now what happens?

Difficult to say.

The simple truth is that this movement is now teetering on either getting bigger or fizzling out, but the one thing that is not happening, so far, is the lack of a true Black involvement, which could put this movement into overdrive, should Blacks care to get involved.

Or perhaps they have had enough of "Change We Can Believe In." We'll see....