Why conservative speakers are protested on college campuses

Simple answer: They keep touting arguments that have long been debunked. Take tax cuts for example: They keep insisting that tax cuts will pay for themselves despite the fact such a policy eventually cost' George H. W. Bush his second term when he had no choice but to raise taxes again.

Check these sources if you will:

NO, TAX CUTS ARE NOT PAYING FOR THEMSELVES

YES, TAX CUTS ARE PAYING FOR THEMSELVES

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: Do Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves?  The Fiscal Times: Are the Tax Cuts Paying for Themselves?  New York Times: No, Trump’s Tax Cut Isn’t Paying for Itself (at Least Not Yet)  FactCheck.org: CBO Didn’t Say Tax Cuts Were ‘Virtually Paid For’  The Washington Post: History lesson: Do big tax cuts pay for themselves?  Politifact: Do tax cuts pay for themselves? Evidence is thin / Trump economic chief Larry Kudlow wrong about CBO report on tax cuts

Investor's Business Daily: It's Official: Trump Tax Cuts Are Boosting Growth And Mostly Paying For Themselves.  The Wall Street Journal: The Corporate Tax Cut Is Paying for Itself  Forbes: The Tax Cuts Will Pay For Themselves If We Wait Long Enough YouTube: Mnuchin - Trump's tax cuts will pay for themselves. American Thinker: Trump's tax cuts already paying for themselves Town Hall: Dems Wrong Again: Republican Tax Cuts Are Paying for Themselves

Then there's Market Watch: Opinion: The unanswerable question: Do tax cuts pay for themselves?

Income Distribution and Civil Unrest

This chart will plainly explain why corruption and civil unrest spreads and more militarized police are needed to crack down on the deprived masses who are desperate for basic needs. What was the income distribution in Rome when it fell? How about France in 1797? Russia in 1917?

The New Catch-Phrase is 'The New Gilded Age'

The Supreme Court just made another decision in favor of employers, rolling back worker protections that were borne of blood. As old as they are, the justices seem to have forgotten the coal mine wars. Oh, you never heard of the coal mine wars? This is where the term 'Redneck' originated.

• Supreme Court backs employers over workers in first of two major labor cases 
• We are proud to be 'rednecks'. It's time to reclaim that term 
• The Mine Wars (PBS: American Experience video)
• Trump’s National Labor Relations Board will be anti-labor 

Rent's going up, and so are evictions:

• Decatur evictions are double the statewide rate. Here's a map that shows where they happened. 
• Reframing Evictions as a National Crisis 

Now everyone is starting to talk about "The New Gilded Age."

• Lessons From the Gilded Age 
• A comparison of income inequality and working conditions of present day to the late nineteenth century. Support for the working class peaked and began declining with the Reagan administration, and deregulation is accelerating.
• 'The Alienist' Stars on How TNT's Drama Shines a Light on New York's ... 
• The cast of 'The Alienist' reflects on their roles in the setting of New York in the 1890's, and mention the "timeliness" of the story.
• Montana's Primary Tonight Could Be a Testament to the New Gilded ... 
• Esquire report on a carpetbagging east coast real estate developer who was able to run in the state because an old law protecting fair politics in the state was erased by the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision.
• In the second Gilded Age, the mansions get bigger, and the homeless ... 
• Karma reaches a five hundred million dollar home in the hills of Bel Air in the form of a wildfire started from a portable stove at a homeless encampment.
• America's Second Gilded Age: More class envy than class conflict 
• Nine specific events from present day and the past are presented as indicators of our current economic and social status. A surprise about a new project by the creator of Downton Abbey. 
• Wall Street Needs a New Tom Wolfe: John Micklethwait 
• A profile of Tom Wolfe who wrote about Wall Street, among other authors who wrote about our Gilded Ages.
• It's Billionaires at the Gate as Ultra-Rich Muscle In on Private Equity 
• Avarice is leaving millionaires in the dust of bankers drooling for the absurdly wealthy.
• Opinion: Blame tax breaks for loss of historic neighborhoods 
• 15 year tax abatements are giving developers enough time to raze historic homes, build new ones at an extreme tax discount, then flip the properties at the last minute before the tax abatement expires, leaving the new owners hold the bag.
• PACIFIC • These five companies own the future 
• The future of monopolies and price gouging.
• America's new aristocracy: the 9.9% and their delusion of hereditary ... 
• And introduction and summary of a much longer article in the Atlantic about The New Aristocracy.

The pressure is on. What and where the breaking point will be is anyone's guess.

The Antebellum Cycle

When you learned history in school as I did, you were likely bored to tears. The way I was taught was filled with names and dates of people long-dead and their accomplishments, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, etc., etc., We had to pass tests to make the teachers look good, so they could keep their jobs. Nobody actually told me that, if they did it would be easier. It teachers straight-out said "here's what you need to remember so I look good and can keep my job," that would be fine, because when you feed the teacher good scores, he or she reciprocates with little favors too. It's human nature.

When you don't know why you must remember things, and the basic answer to the question why is "because your grades will go down," then you either rebel by ignoring the work or you just remember "whatever" with zero context and even less care. I became averse to history of any kind because of this. I hated it.

It wasn't until I was laid-off from what I thought would be a life-long career, that I became interested in economics. When I dug into the history of my own plight, I found countless examples of history, repeating. It's one thing to warn people that "he who ignores history is condemned to repeat it." but it's an entirely different thing to teach students only the rudimentary history of conquests.

I'm certain many people assume that Russia was the aggressor for invading and annexing Crimea, but one can go back to the late 1990's when Gorbachev was promised again and again that NATO would not expand any further east beyond the boundaries at that moment. By 2002 during the Prague Summit, former eastern bloc nations were invited to join NATO. Because as part of the Helsinki Formula, a loophole in the accord allows states to choose their own alliances. Foreign Affairs posits this argument and other possible explanations.

When Japan declared war on the U.S. did anyone ever tell you why? It all started on 18 September 1931. Japan created a false-flag pretext to invade Manchuria by setting off weak explosives near a railroad track. After years of gradual expansion into the Asian continent, the United State started an oil embargo in response. I wonder what would have been if the oil embargo never happened and Japan was allowed to try expanding throughout China unfettered?

Capitalism has cycles of booms and busts, yet we rationalize it's existence because it's most appealing to our desires. There is a larger, more menacing cycle, the Antebellum Cycle that builds up over generations of growing economic inequality and repression, until the final result is violent revolt.

Our global capitalist economy is entering a phase that remotely matches but is drawing gradually closer to conditions that meet the criteria for revolution. France 1789, Russia 1917, etc. Indicators are violent police action against peaceful protesters, politicians ignoring the needs of voters in exchange for the needs of their donors, news media criticism of political issues disappearing because of acquiescence to corporate owner gate-keepers, the injection of corporate ideologues on academic boards of trustees through bribery.

The Occupy movement started a year after the Arab Spring. They both appear to have been tamped down by brute force, the only difference is the U.S. is brimming with distractions and the Middle East is literally on fire with proxy wars over oil and gas. Things are not getting better.

Siege in the 21st Century

Venezuela is under siege by the few companies it came to depend on for many critical products. The aim is to force the people to revolt and replace the current leadership, because they attempted to nationalize and socialize their oil industry.

What companies do we depend on for most of our products?

• Cargill 
• Conagra 
• General Mills 
• Info Graphic of other corporate ownership of products 

Some suggest that these companies were behind the market manipulation that devastated small farms in the 1980's, so the corporations could snatch up their land and build huge factory farms. Luckily, Farm Aid put a stop to it and continues to help small farmers today.

• Become aware of your local food producers and sellers.

Evo Morales Defends Venezuela Against the Empire

Oregon Standoff: Is it rooted in commodity prices?

News.GroopSpeak

Oregon Militia Member Gets Hit Right Where It Hurts, Way Worse Than Being Arrested

It was mentioned the family broke-even on the ranch they owned. I was reminded of the recent crush of commodity prices.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A 'mountain of meat' translates into lower prices

Severe drought reduced cattle herds, raising beef prices and causing a surplus in grain for feeding domestic livestock.

The Times-Tribune

After rocky 2015, price of cattle begins to rebound

The Story from the Northeast part of the U.S. is different from the drought-stricken Southwest.

Powdersville Post

Clemson economist: Over-supply could stress crop prices in 2016

The production costs remaining the same is partly due to farmers locking in long-term price contracts on fuel and fertilizer which are related to the price of oil.

The Real News

The Interests Shared by the Oregon Militia Movement, Koch Brothers and LDS Church

I was looking for some kind of rational explanation from the above articles. This seems to go all the way back to Joseph Smith and the LDS Church.

Skeptical Analysis

High-Pocket Pickpocket

In the end it's really just illegal business practices.

I'm searching for a rational explanation behind the stress that seems to have triggered the standoff in Oregon and I wondered if it might have something to do with economics.

I wondered if the drought might have something to do with this, but it turns out the problems go much farther back before the drought.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)

A Description of the DJSI can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Sustainability_Index

I created a sample portfolio at Google Finance with a list of individual shares from each company, which can be found at https://www.google.com/finance/portfolio?action=view&pid=33&ei=o2RNVPCqK8KziQLW_oCoAQ

Between October 8 and October 16, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) dropped $830.88 from $11,599.86 to $10,768.98.

After reaching $11,905.36 on September 18, the DJSI floated up barely over one dollar the following three days then began a record decline that lasted until its October 16 low before struggling back up to $11,416.17, over $489 below the highest point.

[Speculation]
The chart from October 22 to October 24 looks like the beginning of three degree convex slope which I will hazzard to guess will peak below $11,600 points before another downturn.

The previous major downturn began after July 24 when the DJSI reached $11,884.72, then bounced off the floor at $11,310.81 on August 7 before slowly sloping back up to it's last peak a month later.

The declines seem to average around two weeks while increases take about a month. This downward pressure on stocks and commodities prices will likely continue in the absence of consumer demand due to low wages and debt from college loans.

Source
http://youtu.be/tZTuX_8dR-c?list=UUbjBOso0vpWgDht9dPIVwhQ

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/25/1339064/--Trickle-Up-Major-Corporations-Losing-Money-Out-the-Wazoo

Slip-Sliding Awayeee...

Last month there was a report about a surge in factory orders ahead of what was assumed to be rapid growth in the economy. Reuters reported an increase in 4th quarter growth and apparently retailers, anticipating further growth loaded up their inventory. A misleading Bloomberg headline (12/05/2013) read "Economy in U.S. Grows at 3.6% Rate on Bigger Inventories" but the meat of the story was about a possible slowdown by years end because "unsold merchandise piled up at the fastest rate since 1998."

The economy was being measured by factory orders. It seems the traders were paying attention to the wholesale transactions and ignoring retail numbers. For whatever reason, Wall Street was avoiding the looming shadow of consumer sentiment.

Now it seems Bloomberg's prediction has come to fruition. The LA Times reports the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq are dropping because factory orders are down significantly. Inventories are full. Where are the customers? Many more customers are going to the food banks because their unemployment benefits and food stamps were cut.

Russia Today (RT), A Russian news agency with an odd obsession for America, is a news source with no apparent "skin in the game" here in the U.S. RT seems to focus on what the American main-stream corporate media avoids in order to curry favor to its financiers.

RT posted two stories explaining the aggravating factors obvious to us working class folks down on the "line level." Most food stamp payments issued to working Americans for first time - report and Silent misery: Actual US unemployment 37.2%, record number of households on food stamps in 2013.

It seems plainly obvious that customers aren't magical visitors from another universe with lots of money to spend, but supply-side economists appear to have detached from the ideal image of the consumer, the bare naked facts that the majority of consumers are working class, and they are not paid well enough to spend money to stimulate the economy. Consequently, inventory fills up and factory orders go down.

Since McDonald's and Walmart are notorious for having their payroll subsidized by the very food stamps that are getting cut, they face employees with the obvious question: Is it more profitable to simply be unemployed?

Human Stress and Persuasion

What's ironic is people under the most stress are easily persuaded by deception against the wrong group as the cause of their problems to such a degree that they vote against their own best interests, develop hatred and fear based on minor ideological, physical or lingual differences or geographical distances. The New York Times developed an interactive map showing precisely where most of these people are. It's not a stretch to guess which states and counties belong to which political party.

This stress build-up is engineered by recession, unemployment rates, energy rates, food prices, rent, and control over the mass media. It's not a difficult undertaking when so few have control over so much.

They were banking on enough public stress to start a war with Syria. Well, it didn't work so if House Democrats have enough votes for a discharge petition to get the budget to the floor for a vote, bypassing Speaker Boehner, they could do it, but I suspect by the echoing sound of nails being hammered into a coffin of a certain political party that they might be holding off on that.

They better not wait too long or the fight over the Debt Ceiling will shatter the global market's confidence in the U.S. Dollar, but something is off this time. The stock market is not reacting like it's usual high-strung incontinent self. It's behaving more and more like a single entity, a behemoth waiting to see the whites in the eyes of gullible borrowers.

The Market's reaction to the government shutdown was counter-intuitive to previous similar events according to Bloomberg Business Week: The Market Calm Before the Debt-Ceiling Storm (10/04/2013) The markets may have gained confidence since the previous debt-ceiling extravaganza, or they figured a way to profit from the crisis and are on a hair-trigger.

Either way it might not matter if we are destroyed by the debris field of the comet ISON.

The looming Fiscal Cliff

What is the Fiscal Cliff? It's a future radical policy change in the U.S. federal  government that will take place automatically, potentially sending the economy back into a recession that will reverberate around the world.

Chaos may ensue, creating violent upheavals in all major urban centers where the largest federal, state and municipal employees will become unemployed due to the loss of Federal grants and other locally distributed federal discretionary spending.

The beneficiaries of money from the Greek government have already proved the consequences of these types of decisions. The Greeks are raging in Athens over their new austerity. But first, the private sector will feel the damage.

December 31, 2012 will ring in the new year with expiration of the Bush era Tax Cuts for the wealthy. The two percent "Payroll Social Security Tax Holiday" for employees will also expire. This may show up in the first paycheck of the new year. Employers as well as politically appointed upper-level bureaucrats will experience minor grumbling from the workers, however, upper echelon people probably should consider saving their vacation and sick time for shortly thereafter.

Also expiring will be the Research and Experimentation tax credit, also known as the R&D Tax Credit, which according to Wikipedia has already expired as of December 31, 2011, but the Council on  Foreign Relations (CFR) states this will not expire until December 31, 2012. According to Wikipedia, the magnitude of this tax credit in 2005 was $6.6 Billion, claimed by 17,700 corporations.

There may be a massive sell-off of shares in companies supported by the R&D credit in advance of its expiration.

Are you covered by Medicare? If your doctor's medical practice has a high percentage of patients who are on Medicare, your doctor's income from Medicare will be reduced by 30% According to the CFR. Will your doctor be able to maintain his practice without announcing that he can no longer have you as a patient?

Unemployed? Unemployment benefits will expire at years end as well. I think this also means that support systems for unemployed people receiving these benefits will also be affected. The anticipation of this event will have an impact on the Christmas holiday in 2012, if the unemployed haven't forgotten yet. There will be a huge reduction in spending on non-essentials which will also impact sales tax revenues for state and local governments.

The ranks of Anonymous and Occupy movements will swell to numbers unmanageable by the local and state police, but the military and national guard have been exercising in simulated urban environments that coincidentally resemble western architecture. There are many empty state prisons with factory-capable facilities for laborers who will eventually compete and overwhelm the private sector labor force, driving down wages in the United States. The U.S. having the most prisoners of every country in the world has the potential to also have the cheapest workers.

Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 22, 2012. Black Friday of 2012 may be unlike any we have seen in history. The unemployed will be anticipating loss of benefits, grandparents on Medicare will be anticipating losing their doctors, employees will be anticipating a payroll tax-hike, entrepreneurs will be anticipating a lack of federal grant money and a tax hit that was once shielded by research and development of new products.

The final day of the one thousand three hundred year old ancient Mayan calendar is Friday, December 21, 2012. You would be wise to save up and plan a huge party, hunker in your bunker, or haven on Cayman.