Your Government Needs Your Help 2-29-24

By Norb Leahy, February 1994, Georgia Medical Journal.

Dear Citizen, We hope you think that we in government are doing a good job.  We know that life isn't perfect and, therefore, we have made that our philosophy.  We are doing the best we can with the little money we have.  We have been busy worrying about our society.  That's our job.  We would like to share some of our concerns.  We are having some problems funding our criminal justice and education systems, and our environmental protection and health programs and could use more money.  Most of all, we want you as citizens to do your part by volunteering to help us implement our newest program ideas.

Our parole boards are having to let violent criminals out of jail because there aren't enough jail cells.  We would like for you to initiate a petition to increase your state and federal taxes so that we can set up a fund and study it and maybe build some more prisons in 10 or 20 years.  In the meantime, we are excited about using the money to start our new "adopt a felon" program, where you can adopt a released convict and keep him in your home and be the family he never had.

Our immigration service is concerned that illegal immigrants are streaming across our borders and have given up trying to catch and deport them because they all claim political asylum.  We passed a law that prevents companies from hiring them, so some are selling drugs and the others are going on welfare.  We are currently planning an "adopt an illegal Immigrant" program so that you can keep one in your home and learn a second language and a different culture.

Some time ago, we let all of the crazy people out of the mental institutions because we were afraid that we were violating their civil rights and besides, we needed the money we spent to keep them there for other things.  We need a "crazy person neighborhood watch" program so that if these people wander into your neighborhood, we will know what they are doing.  Remember, we can't do anything unless they kill somebody, so if they do, make sure to call and let us know.

Our police officers are unable to stop the violent crime associated with drug gangs and crazy people.  Drugs flow freely over the border, and crazy people are everywhere.  We need money so we can hire 100,000 police officers who can get out into bad neighborhoods where these drug gangs and crazy people live so they can get to know them.

Our teachers are having to teach kids about safe sex, hand out condoms, check kids for weapons and teach classes in self esteem, environmental protection, diversity, homosexuality, child abuse, and political correctness.  Consequently, we no longer have the time or money to teach them to read, write, or do math.  We would appreciate it if you could go over reading, writing, and math with your kids at home in your spare time.  We would like to avoid any further decline in their SAT scores.

Our nuclear production sites are a mess.  We can't clean them up.  This stuff could be leaking into your drinking water soon.  We need money to throw at this until somebody figures out what to do.

Our Medicare and Medicaid programs were a big success, and the demand for health care skyrocketed.  Giving free health care to old and poor people was much more expensive than we thought, and there's no end in sight.  We are continuing to spend much more on these programs than we take.  Rather than raise your taxes, we decided not to pay the providers what they charged.  These providers then raised their charges to make up for what we didn't pay.  Insurance premiums got so high that 37 million people didn't buy health insurance and really sick people couldn't get it.  Providers treated them anyway and raised their charges to make up for what they didn't pay.  Well, now we have to fix this mess and make everybody buy health Insurance.  We need your support to make these 37 million people pay premiums to the insurance companies.  It's an outrage.

On a more positive note, we want to share our excitement with you over some of the ideas we have to help families through government programs and create more non-manufacturing jobs.  We are excited about our health reform, foreign trade, and gun control initiatives as well as our plans to purchase more land.  We plan to issue everyone a national health card and a national ID card and perhaps give everyone a tattoo with their number on it for a small fee.  In addition, we are excited about our plans to help the former Soviet Union, South America, Africa, Asia, certainly all of the third world countries, and let's not forget about Europe.  I hope you are as excited as we are about our ideas for new programs, and we know you'll agree that increasing taxes, so that we can begin to cook up new things to try on our many problems and fund many worthy projects, is the answer.  We need to hire a lot more government employees, because you taxpayers will be demanding a lot more government services, and it's our job to see that you get them.   Warmest regards, Your Government

Source: Published in THE JOURNAL OF THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA Volume 84 FEBUARY 1994

Comments

Some things never change.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Tea Party Movement 2-28-24

On September 12, 2009, Tea Party protests were held in various cities around the nation. In Washington, D.C., Tea Party protests gathered to march from Freedom Plaza to the United States Capitol. Estimates of the number of attendees varied, from "tens of thousands" to "in excess of 75,000". Google search 

The Tea Party Movement began in 2009. Tea Party Republicans were beginning to be elected in 2010. Establishment RINOs were retiring and failing to win their seats. The battle between the Tea Party Republicans and RINOs raged until 2016. The Tea Party supported Conservative Constitutional Republicans and helped define Trump’s 2016 campaign. The MAGA movement merged the Tea Party and all remaining Conservatives. 

The Tea Party Movement took a break from 2017 to 2020. We only come out when the “Redcoats” hit the bridge. We continue to blog in cities and have meetings in rural areas. We are comfortable with our merger to the MAGA Movement.

I founded the Dunwoody GA Tea Party in 2011 and registered on TeaParty.net. I started this blog in 2011 after I attended a rigged “vision” meeting that threatened the Williamsburg architecture in our strip-malls.  It was UN Agenda 21 implementation initiated by ICLEI. 

Dunwoody was incorporated as a city in 2009 to escape DeKalb County and needed road maintenance. DeKalb had allowed Non-Profits to squat on county land and the City Council elections included members of the Non-Profit boards. They immediately protected their Non-Profits and began implementing US Agenda 21 under Regionalism laws passed by the Georgia Legislature. They added unnecessary expenses by using Engineering Consulting Companies to road repair and intersection expansion costs. They replaced “low bidder” purchasing for road maintenance with “most favored insider” requirements.  The whole thing smelled of corruption. Their “brand” was “Smart Growth”. Cities and Counties adopted the same planning manual provided by the American Planning Association. These planning manuals were adopted across the US. Regional planning replaced city and county sovereignty. City Managers replaced elected Mayors. Costs doubled from 2010 to 2012.

The Dunwoody City Council took control of private businesses with their “Master Plan” to turn Dunwoody into a Transit Village. The “Master Plan” included an unnecessary increase in parkland required by the American Planning Association (a UN Agenda 21 enabler). They included unnecessary bike lanes and 12 foot wide multi-use trails and an edict that 10% of our 13 square-mile city should be Parks. They established a “Development Board” to give tax breaks to bribe companies to locate in Dunwoody.  Dunwoody had been an established haven of single-family homes nestled in subdivisions with swim and tennis clubs, narrow roads and 4-foot wide sidewalks limited to main roads. It sat due north of Atlanta with access to I-285.

The City of Dunwoody issued restrictions on what homeowners could do to upgrade their property. I was fortunate to expand my own driveway parking pad and lay my own brick patio before 2009. 

I funded yard signs to defeat the Dunwoody Park Bonds in 2011. This was a 30 year, $66 million bond paying 5% with a price-tag of $128 million for unnecessary parkland and multiuse trains. Voters voted it down.

 I served on the Georgia Tea Party Team Committee in 2012 and defeated the TSPLOST vote. It was an $8 billion tax and failed in all but one Region. Half of the $8 billion would have been spent on expensive rail transit and the other half on road projects were all special interest projects that had failed to be passed and that didn’t connect to solve any problems. I did the financial analysis for the Atlanta 10 County Region and found that all costs doubled from 2010 to 2012. The Atlanta by-pass I-285 was built too close to the city and was choked with interstate trucks and local commuters. GDOT refused to connect US 27 with I-70 and i-85 South of Atlanta to give trucks a real by-pass. The EPA had frozen highway construction in Georgia due to auto exhaust air pollution and that delayed real improvements for decades.

Atlanta was rebuilt after 1865 with narrow residential streets. As the city rebuilt its commercial property, much of it remained on narrow streets. When highways were built, they were built on expanded roads and elevated ramps and exited on narrow streets. It was a recipe for congestion. The sewers and water lines that were added after 1900 were poorly maintained and now Atlanta is the sink-hole, sewer break and watermain break capital of the South. The population of the 11 county Atlanta Metro is 5.1 million. The population of the 2 core counties of Fulton and DeKalb is 1.885 million. The population of the 2 largest suburban counties of Gwinnett and Cobb is 1.78 million.

https://atlantaregional.org/what-we-do/research-and-data/atlanta-region-population-estimates/

The suburban counties around Atlanta that were built in the 1960s allowed for wider streets and most of the industries located there before they left for overseas.

My career led us to Atlanta and we like the weather and our 1000 foot bug-free elevation at the base of the Appalachian Mountains. We liked to flowering trees and plants. Our kids grew up here and settled in the Atlanta suburbs and Florida.

I was impressed with the quality of leadership and government in St. Louis, St Charles Mo and Salina Kansas. I knew Atlanta had problems and was curious about what went wrong in Atlanta.

I served as a Delegate to the Georgia Republican Convention in 2012 and 2013 to elect a Party Chairman. The meetings were designed to control the outcomes to favor “insiders”. These were Georgia RINOs. My DeKalb County Republican and Young Republican organizations had Ron Paul Constitutional Conservatives.

I led the Save Dunwoody campaign to reject multi-purpose paths and roundabouts with yard signs and a website in 2013 and ran 4 candidates for City Counsel. I served as Chairman of the Dunwoody Community Counsel from 2014 to 2016 for zoning hearings. I rode in the Dunwoody July 4 Parades from 2011 to 2017. From 2020 to 2023, I posted Covid19 Pandemic data. In 2023, my group defeated another Dunwoody Park Bond vote.

The Blog has enabled me to share relevant data on history, economics and politics that is not easily accessible. This includes data on Careers, Motivated Abilities, Medicine, Life Expectancy, Home Ownership and Family Wealth Creation and data I use to track our Economy like US Nominal GDP, Debt-to-GDP, Average Household Income, Population Demographics, Government Spending, National Debt, Jobs Reports, Trade Deficits, Illegal and Refugee Immigration, Energy Production, Energy Costs, Taxation and Inflation.

The battle between the Tea Parties and the RINOs is not over. We are counting on Trump to reinstate his policies and drain the swamp. I prefer Mike Pompeo to succeed Trump. We need Conservative Republicans to take the House and Senate in 2024. We need real conservative Republicans in the Governor’s office and in the Georgia Legislatre to clean up the mess and return manufacturing from overseas to rural counties. This should be easy, because most of our Legislators are from rural counties. We need to shrink the population in large metro areas like Atlanta to decongest our road and highway traffic.

The major political parties in the US includes the Democrats and the Republicans. In 2023, 25% of people identified as Democrat, 25% as Republican and 49% Independent. Apr 17, 2023. There are a large number of voters who have declared that they are Independent, but polls indicate that Trump will be reelected in 2024. There are minor parties, like the Libertarian, Green. The Socialist and Communist parties usually vote Democrat and now control the Biden Administration.

I base my political world view on free-market economics, history, data and trends. I am immune to distractions, fads and bandwagons. I oppose economy-wrecking hoaxes and scams and view these as acts of sabotage. I believe God has a plan, but it’s instructive and you’re not going to like some of it. I believe we are all mammals doing the best we can. I have an instinct for detecting corruption and attacking it.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

NTL Blog Focus 2-28-24

This is a Conservative Blog and contains common sense solutions based on trend data and world-view.

I chose to publish a daily Covid Blog from 2020 to 2023 and ended that with a summary. I continue to blog reports on economics, history and politics that are not easy to find on Google or local newspapers and reported too quickly on “sound-bite” TV News. 

I report on data by State and by Country to compare differences and comment on the causes of these differences.

The US data I report includes

US Nominal GDP

US Population

US Debt to GDP

US Per Capita GDP

US Household Income

US Trade Deficits,

US Federal Spending

US National Debt

US Inflation

US Gasoline Prices

US Oil Prices

US Natural Gas Prices

US Mortgage Rate

US Rent Prices

US Insurance Prices

US Healthcare Prices

US Education

US Illegal Immigration

US Refugee Immigration

US Productivity

US Jobs Reports

US Stock Market History

The State data I report on includes

State GDP

State Population

State Taxes

State Minimum Wage

I report on Globalism and its effects on US consumers. I report on the Deep State and events that effect our Laws and policies. I include jobs data and tips to assess job skills and interests.

US workers compete with workers in other countries where labor costs and the cost of regulatory compliance is lower. The US needs to increase the supply of Oil and Natural Gas to lower its Trade Deficit and starve Russia and Iran into ending their aggression.

I don’t report much on US crime or violent protests, because the TV and local News programs do the job.

I do report on ways to identify skills and interests to get US workers thinking about pursuing jobs they would love and do well. I believe we are each responsible for ourselves. We are responsible to provide for our own food and shelter. I believe families are the basic unit of our economy and are responsible for helping family members survive and succeed if possible. I believe we are each responsible for our actions and decisions and will have to work through the consequences of our own mistakes and failings.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Federal Spending vs Revenue 2-27-24

During FY 2023, the federal government spent $6.13 trillion. Federal revenue was $4.44T. 

During FY2022, the federal government spent $6.3 trillion. Spending as % of GDP is 25.1%, almost 2 percentage points greater than the average over the past 50 years.

Major categories of FY 2022 spending included: Medicare and Medicaid ($1,339B or 5.4% of GDP), Social Security ($1.2T or 4.8% of GDP), non-defense discretionary spending used to run federal Departments and Agencies ($910B or 3.6% of GDP), Defense Department ($751B or 3.0% of GDP), and net interest ($475B or 1.9% of GDP).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_States_federal_budget#:~:text=Major

US Government Revenue Source 2021

Individual Income Taxes $2.044T

Social Security and Medicare Taxes 1.247T

Corporate Income Tax   $372B

Misc Revenue $133B

Custom Duties  $80B

Excise Taxes   $75B

UC Insurance  $57B

Estate and Gift Taxes $27B

Other Retirement $10B

Total  $4.045T

U.S. Government Spending Category2021 Amount ($B)

Income security $1,649

Social security $1,135

Health $797

National defense $755

Medicare $697

Net interest $352

Commerce and housing credit $304

Education$297

General government $270

Veterans benefits $234

Total $6,820

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/us-federal-spending-versus-revenue-2021/

FY       Spending Revenue  Debt     Cause

2023     6.13T      4.44T      1.69T    climate change

2022     6.3T        4.9T        1.23T    climate change

2021     6.820T   4.045T       0.8T     Afghanistan

 

2020    6.552T     3.420T    3.132T  covid

2019    4.45T        3.5T       0.95T    military

2018    4.094T      3.4T       0.694T  military

2017    4.0T          3.4T       0.6T      military

https://www.statista.com/statistics/200405/receipts-of-the-us-government-since-fiscal-year-2000/

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Minimum Wage by State 2-27-24

23 States are raising their minimum wage in 2024. 20 States continue to use the Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25 per hour. The remaining States use a higher minimum wage, but are not raising it in 2024. 

State                  2023            2024

Alaska               10.85           11.73

Arizona              13.85           14.35

California           15.50           16.00

Colorado           13.65            14.42

Connecticut       15.00           15.69

Delaware          11.75            13.25

Hawaii              12.00            14.00

Illinois               13.00            14.00

Maine               13.80            14.15

Maryland          13.25            15.00

Michigan          10.10            10.33

Minnesota        10.59            10.85

Missouri           12.00            12.30

Montana            9.95            10.30

Nebraska         10.50            12.00

New Jersey     14.13             15.13

New York NY  15.00             16.00

New York        14.20             15.00

Ohio                10.10             10.45

Rhode Island  13.00             14.00

S Dakota        10.80             11.20

Vermont         13.18             13.67

Washington   15.74              16.28

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/04/state-minimum-wage-increases/

Comments

The Federal Minimum wage at $7.25 per hour has become the starting wage for teenagers who work part-time and summers. Companies in the 20 States who have not strayed from the Federal Minimum Wage actually pay more to attract and keep their adult employees. Most “lower wage” jobs in these States pay about $10 per hour. Harder jobs and more experienced employees are paid about $12 per hour. Many of these jobs are part-time.

Retail stores who tried “self-check-out” solutions are now re-thinking this solution. They are also facing smash and grab theft in many cities.

States are using higher minimum wage strategies to attract families and individuals to move to their States and teen employment will continue to drop.

I believe that States will regret their higher State Minimum Wage actions.  Teens need to work to have spending money and pay for their portion of the family auto insurance bill. Teens need to learn to work to prepare for a life of self-reliance.  

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

US Stock Market 2-26-24

The US Stock Market is one metric we can use to understand the down periods in US economy as we try to understand the causes of these contractions. 

The Dow Jones average shows the value of stocks in the largest 30 companies over the last 100 years.

The US stock market history since 1920 shows the retractions in the US economy in 1929, 1941, 1982, and 2008. These retractions were caused by bad news and bad moves and created bad economies.

The Dow plunged from 6780.52 in 1929 to 1969.49 in 1931. This was the Great Depression.

The Dow plunged from 4062.88 in 1941 to 1918.54 in 1942. This was the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Dow plunged from 94485 in 1965 to 2685.62 in 1982. This was Vietnam and the War on Poverty.

The Dow plunged 20560.69 in 2007 to 10032.93 in 2009. This was the Mortgage Meltdown.

https://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart#google_vignette

The 500 index plunged from 565.33 in 1929 to 171.53 in 1932.

The 500 index plunged from 314.69 in 1942 to 195 in 1946

The 500 index plunged from 899.15 in 1965 to 368.74 in 1982   

The 500 index plunged from 2700.44 in 2008 1156.91 in 2009

https://www.macrotrends.net/2324/sp-500-historical-chart-data

The Great Depression began with the US Stock Market Crash in 1929, but continued with the Dust Bowl drought in the 1930s. Unemployment reached 24.7% in 1933. It took war production to restore US unemployment in 1942.

World War II restored the US economy until the 1960s. US manufacturing soared in the 1950s and 1960s.

Vietnam, the War on Poverty and the introduction to Medicare and Medicaid resulted in excessive federal government spending in 1965. This always results in inflation.

The Mortgage Meltdown in 2008 to 2009 caused the Great Recession from 2009 to 2016. Banks were under pressure to grant mortgage loans to unqualified buyers. When these loans defaulted, they were sliced up and sold as securities to investors. The US Congress bailed out the Banks. The Federal Reserve issued liquidity by printing money and set the interest rate at zero. This always results in inflation.

We had a good economy for 10 years from 1920 to 1930.

We had a bad economy for 10 years from 1930 to 1940.

We had a good economy for 50 years from 1940 to 1990.

After 1990 we gutted our manufacturing by off-shoring and allowed a 90% increase in the National Debt. 

In 1990 the US National Debt was $3.233 trillion. In 2024 the US National Debt is $35 trillion.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader 

US Military Training History 2-26-24

In the 1700s, the Colonies were forced to develop marksmanship to hunt for food and defend against Indian attacks. Marksmanship continues to be important for military and police today. 

Christian Brothers College

The Christian Brothers established St Joseph’s Academy in 1850.  In 1851, the name changed to Academy of Christian Brothers. In 1855 it received a college charter.  In 1882, it moved to larger facilities and served as a Seminary Prep School. By 1890, over half the Catholic Priests in St. Louis had attended The Academy of Christian Brothers. In 1922, it moved to Clayton Road and became Christian Brothers College Military High School.  In 1993, the Jr. ROTC was disbanded.  In 2003, CBC moved to a large West County location. 

The unpopularity of the Vietnam War 1965-1975 had made its mark. The draft ended in 1973 and the US moved to an all-volunteer army.

I grew up in St. Louis and CBC was the family school. My dad and all of my uncles were CBC grads. I graduated from CBC Military HS in 1961. I continued Airforce ROTC at St. Louis U, also a family school, and graduated in 1965. I was married in 1964 and we were expecting a child. I was a “Kennedy father” and was exempt from the draft. I opted to turn down the commission and go to work. I concluded that the Vietnam War was a mistake.

My time at CBC was amazing. I had won a trumpet scholarship to CBC and was elected President in my Freshman homeroom. I had started a Rock Band and worked 3 nights per week. I graduated as Band Company Commander in 1961.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Brothers_College_High_School

Boy Scouts

The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 as a junior military organization for boys.  I joined as a Cub Scout at age 8 and moved to the Boy Scouts at age 10.  We had monthly meeting and I became the Troop Bugler. I had joined the Grade School Band and learned to play the trumpet. I was tapped as 1^st Chair trumpet in the 300 scout marching band. We learned to camp at the Boy Scout camp near St. Louis.

In the 1970s, pedophiles and homosexuals infiltrated the Boy Scouts.

A sex abuse scandal was identified in 1988 and $2.46B damages awarded in 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_sex_abuse_cases#:~:text=In%202010%2C%2

They Boy Scouts went bankrupt and was disbanded in 2022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Boy_Scouts

Conclusions

I suspect Marxists planned the end of the Boy Scouts and the end of ROTC programs. I was schooled in the 1950s and 1960s in the middle of the Cold War. We are fortunate to have been able to develop technology to ensure our defense in the 1980s to 2000s. I suspect Marxists infiltrated to weaken the US military in the 2010s to 2024.

Trump has proven that total economic isolation can replace war. But the US still needs to maintain the US military to defend against attacks. A modern technologically advanced military is required to provide deterrence.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

US Cultural Erosion 2-25-24

When I was 10 years old in 1953, I read a book titled American Communist Goals. There were 20 goals.

In 2011, I found a website that had a post on American Communist Goals from a reading in the US Congress in 1963. There were 45 goals and most of them had been fulfilled. Nikita Krushchev served as Chairman of the USSR from 1953 to 1963 and said ‘the US would fall like a rotten apple’.  

Russian Communist leader, Nikita Khrushchev said, “We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.”

 https://www.courierjournal.net/letters_to_editor/article_66bfb98a-34a7-11ea-bc7a-0f17d8e05c60.html

It started in the 1960s with the demand for “academic free speech” at Berkley. American Communist Professors wanted to teach Marxism in college. It morphed into “pollical correctness” in the 1970s and 1980, to silence any opposition against their Marxism. The next attack became accusing everybody of “racism” to silence opposition. By the 2000s the Lesbian-Gay Movement got the Liberal Supreme Court to bless Gay Marriage. In 2009, Obama threw the gate open with Obamacare to require coverage of medical procedures for everything. The Transgender Movement began and the Gay Movement became LGBQT.  Now in 2024, LGBTIQA+ stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual and many other terms (such as non-binary and pansexual)". Now in 2024, DEI Diversity, Equality and Inclusion has become Democrat Left-Wing Policy. This has temporarily replaced the US Meritocracy, where people had to create a career of Merit in order to move to a leadership position. DEI requires quotas for LGBYIQA+ folks to hold leadership positions. The Obama-Biden administration has replaced the US Meritocracy with DEI. Biden has populated his cabinet and administration with LGBQT and Black appointments. It is unfortunate for these appointees that they are implementing a destructive agenda and will end their careers in 2024. We will need jobs that require people who are smart, but lack common sense for these Marxists. I don’t think there will be many job openings for Marxist professors in colleges.

Like the rush to hire Blacks, this experiment has produced a group of compliant, incompetent Marxists. In earlier days, we recognized Black inventors like George Washington Carver in the 1920s and Black Leaders like Fredrick Douglas in the 1860s, Booker T Washington, Founder of Tuskegee College in 1881 and Martin Luther King in the 1960s. We knew that many Blacks were very smart, inventive and talented. We have Black role models like Clarence Thomas, Dr Ben Carson and Tim Scott.

The problem Democrats have in 2024 is that Biden botched everything from opening the border to crashing the US economy, to reversing energy independence, to funding Iran to resume terrorist attacks and pursue a nuclear weapon, to encouraging the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to encouraging Chinese aggression and to encourage suicidal spending. It began with Biden’s Executive Orders and continued with his mishandling of foreign relations. His botched withdrawal from Afghanistan signaled a lack of common sense, weakness and incompetence.

Biden warns that Trump is a threat to “democracy”, but his performance suggests that Democrats are the real threat to our democracy. Democrats define “democracy” as continuing Democrat Rule. They would take the US to exactly what Ben Franklin had warned us about when he said that the US is a Republic, if you can keep it. The Founders designed a government with very limited powers for good reasons. We need to reduce the Federal Government footprint in order to save our Republic. Ronald Reagan told us that one generation could destroy our Republic and we are witnessing that destruction now.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

American Communist Goals 2-25-24

The 45 Communist Goals as read into the Congressional Record in 1963 

Current Communist Goals - Congressional Record–Appendix, pp. A34-A35 - .January 10, 1963

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. HERLONG:. “Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America. At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen”.

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy making positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.” 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.” 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.” 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.” 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.” 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.” 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat]. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use “united force“ to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court

https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/watchwomanonthewall/2011/04/the-45-communist-goals-as-read-into-the-congressional-record-1963.html

Comments

I read the first publication of these goals when I was 10 years old. They were published in a book by the American Communist Party dated 1920. The Goals above are dated 1963 and have been achieved through infiltration into the US government, US Congress, US Education, US Media and US Multinational Corporations. The goals in bold are currently active in the protests and riots.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

US Gasoline Price Update 2-24-24

All gasoline prices have fallen from August 2023 to January 2024. 

 Type          Aug 2023      Jan 2024

All Grades    3.954            3.197

Regular        3.840            3.075

Diesel          4.370             3.854

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/PET_PRI_GND_DCUS_NUS_M.htm

Gasoline prices are international and depend on supply and demand. The US needs to increase oil production by 7 million barrels per day to meet US demand and to reduce Russian and Iranian revenue to stop the war in Ukraine and stop the terrorists in the Middle East.

US Gasoline price history from 1994 to 2024 shows the recent history of gasoline prices bouncing up and down.

Gasoline prices rose for all grades from $1.98 in 1994 to $4.105 in 2008. Prices dropped to $1.84 in 2009 due to layoffs in the Great Recession Mortgage Meltdown. Prices rose again to $3.96 in 2011 due to oil drilling restrictions. Prices dropped again to $1.872 in 2016 due to increased oil drilling. Prices were low at 1.638 in 2020. Prices rose again to $5.032 in 2022 due to oil drilling restrictions. Prices stood at $3.257 in 2023.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m

Prices vary widely by State. California is the highest due to high gasoline taxes.

https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/

The US is dependent on gasoline powered engines to allow us to work. High diesel costs increase food  prices and price increases in natural gas increases the cost of nitrogen required to grow our food.

We need to elect Republicans in 2024 to increase oil and natural gas production to lower our cost of living

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Compensation in the US 2-24-24

US  Average annual salaries by occupation for 147.866 million employees range from $30,000 for light work to $50,000 for technicians to $100,000 for engineers to $246.440 for CEOs.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000 

Compensation costs peaked in 2022 at 1.4% and declined in 2023 to 0.9%.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/eci.pdf

Median weekly earnings of full-time workers were $1,145 in the fourth quarter of 2023. $59,540 per year.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/median-weekly-earnings-of-full-time-workers-were-1145-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2023.htm

The BLS Productivity increase for 2023 was low at 1-2%.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/nonfarm-business-sector-productivity-increased-1-2-percent-in-2023.htm

In Q2 2023 Job gains were 8.1 million, job losses were 7.8 million with net job gains of 332,000.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/

Computer and mathematical occupations had employment of 5.0 million and an annual mean wage of $108,130 in May 2022. Software developers was the largest computer and mathematical occupation, with 1.5 million jobs and an annual mean wage of $132,930.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/

Wage and Salary information is available on-line.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/index.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/electrician-salary-SRCH_KO0,11.htm

https://www.indeed.com/career/salaries

https://www.shmoop.com/careers/career-salaries.html

shmoop.com lists salaries for jobs from Cashier $18k, Administrative Assistant $35k, Carpenter $39.9k, Fire Fighter $42k, Chef $47k, Plumber $49.1k, Home Care Nurse $62k, etc.

https://www.shmoop.com/careers/career-salaries.html

Rental costs have quietly doubled over the past 20 years.

https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/

Comments

US workers who earn less than $30,000 per year need to either have a spouse that also makes $30,000 per year or a roommate who makes $30,000 per year to pay for shelter. Rent costs in the US average $1372 per month. The US average Apartment Rent costs is $1702 for 900 sq feet. Apartment rent in big cities is higher and is lower in smaller cities. If $1500 per month is a good average, annual apartment rent is $18,000 per year. 36% of US households are renting.

When you add food inflation and energy inflation, It requires an annual household income of $60,000 to make ends meet.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody Tea Party Leader

Electric Vehicle Sales 2-23-24

2,926,500 Electric Vehicles were sold in the US from 2021 through 2023. Most Federal Subsidies were $7500 per vehicle. A good estimate of the cost to taxpayers was $219.4875 billion for subsidies. 

In 2020, 308,000 EVs were sold in the US.

In 2021, 608,000 EVs were sold in the US.

In 2022, just under 918,500 light electric vehicle sales.

In 2023, more than 1.4 million electric vehicles were sold in the United States 

There are currently 2,442,270 electric vehicles registered in the United States. Nov 23 2023.

EVs stop working after 10 years and could account for the drop in “registered vehicles”.

https://explodingtopics.com › blog › electric-vehicles-stats

Tesla batteries are supposed to last from 300,000 miles to 500,000 miles.

Source: Google

Comments

EVs are still on the drawing board until they solve the 10 year life-cycle, or 100,000 mile life-span for cheaper models. They also need to lower the cost. It took the US over 20 years to lower the cost of flat-screen TVs from $5000 to $500, but we had to send all manufacturing to China and other low wage countries to get the price down.

The unnecessary $220 billion in subsidies are being put on the US Credit Card and are landing on the National Debt and increasing the Federal Budget Deficit interest to $1 trillion. The US Federal Government is in the exact same place as the Roman Empire was in 400AD, we are going broke and need to pull back on Federal Government spending.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader