WyBlog

More Obamanomics #fail: US wage growth falls to a 33 year low

Gee, I wonder why wages are stagnant 7 years after The Great and Powerful Obama took charge of our economy?

Pay no attention to the community organizer behind the curtain.

Because really, after businesses are done paying all his extra taxes, and shelling out for Obamacare, and complying with thousands of onerous new regulations, who's got any money left for frivolous stuff like salaries?

And if you're one of those Bernie Sanders bozos who bought into the idiotic allure of a $15 per hour "minimum" wage, well, McDonalds has some bad news for you too.

But hey, you can always line up for more government cheese.

Posted at 11:11 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Now they tell us: Obama's economy is the worst in over 80 years

Remember right before 2012 election when the government swore the economy was recovering nicely?

They lied.

And now that it doesn't matter, they can deign to tell us the truth.

So Obama's Commerce Department just quietly "revised" their GDP estimates for the last 3 years, downward.

Well sure. 2013 was when the reality of facing 8 years of Obamunism really set in.

And with this latest "oops," Obama now ranks dead last among all US presidents since 1932. That's a new level of #fail over 80 years in the making.

Over the first five years of Obama's presidency, the U.S. economy grew more slowly than during any five-year period since just after the end of World War II, averaging less than 1.3 percent per year. If we leave out the sharp recession of 1945-46 following World War II, Obama looks even worse, ranking dead last among all presidents since 1932. No other president since the Great Depression has presided over such a steadily poor rate of economic growth during his first five years in office. This slow growth should not be a surprise in light of the policies this administration has pursued.

Ayup. Obamanomics sucks.

The numbers don't lie.

But Obama's administration does, or else they would have told us when it actually mattered.

Trickle-up poverty, it's the only thing Obama's good at, uh, creating. He'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please.

Posted at 15:38 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Pravda on the Hudson: Isn't it great Obama is gutting the army and leaving us defenseless?

Hey, isn't this a great time to cut the army to its lowest level since before World War II? Because that's what Dear Leader is doing. And Pinch Sulzberger's Pravda on the Hudson is giddy:

The Army's plan to cut 40,000 troops, as well as 17,000 civilian employees, over the next two years is unsettling many American communities. Congressmen and senators in the affected districts are railing against the reductions and insisting they will fight to reverse them. But the cutbacks are a sensible and necessary move.

Obama is reducing our active duty army from 570,000 troops to a pre-WWII level of 450,000. Because getting caught flat-footed again isn't something he worries about.

And the guys who signed up to serve their country? Yeah, it sucks to be them.

President Obama needs to make sure the Army is well positioned to do its job, but that does not mean maintaining bases and a level of troops that go beyond what the country needs and can afford.

Lavish social programs? Wealth redistribution? Obamacare subsidies? Green energy boondoggles? Obama doesn't care what that stuff costs. But his media sycophants are suddenly worried about cost containment when it comes to defending us from Islamofascists, Iranians, Russians, and probably Chinese too?

One can only conclude that these progressive bozos want to see us conquered.

I guess they're planning to be the Vichy Americans, and in their minds, enslaved last.

Posted at 18:49 by Chris Wysocki   [/media]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Holy cow, my school tax bill jumped 10.5%, what happened to that 2% tax cap?

I almost had another heart attack when I saw my new property tax bill.

It's up almost 7 percent over last year.

Almost all of which is because the drunken sailors on our local school board hiked their tax bite by a whopping 10.5 percent.

Ten point five percent.

A double digit increase, when property taxes are supposed to be held to a 2% cap. By law.

What the hell is going on with the Caldwell - West Caldwell Board of Education?

Have they lost their minds?

Have they no shame?

Because this tax increase in unconscionable.

But this is what happens when the Democrats in our state legislature, who are of course a wholly owned subsidiary of the teachers union, decided to stop letting us vote on the school budget.

Without the voters to curb their profligacy, the school board runs amok, screwing the taxpayers with abandon.

So here's a special "thank you" to CWCBOE President Paula Getty, Vice President Thomas Adams, and board members Marie Lanfrank, John King, and Dan Cipoletti: You are a disgrace. You have failed in your fiduciary duty. You are unfit to call yourselves representatives of the hardworking taxpayers of Caldwell. You embody everything that is wrong with out-of-control government spending in this state. You have forgotten those of us who are affected by your wanton disregard for any semblance of budgetary restraint.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

But that would require you to actually care about us taxpayers. Which clearly, you do not.

Posted at 12:08 by Chris Wysocki   [/caldwell]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Hope and Change in action: 1.7 million more kids live in poverty since Obama was elected

Like everything else he's ever said, "hope and change" was a lie too.

Welcome to Obama's era of despair and misery.

Barack Obama's economic policies have pushed more kids into poverty.

Barack Obama's economic policies have actually reduced wages.

Barack Obama's economic policies have destroyed millions of good jobs.

Barack Obama's economic policies have turned us into a nation of part-time workers, scrounging just to make ends meet.

Barack Obama's economic policies are an unmitigated failure, especially for his core constituency.

Race is one of the strongest factors influencing a child's economic stability. Data show the economic recovery of the past several years has bypassed many children of color. Rates of unemployment at the close of 2014 were in single digits for all races except African Americans. African Americans were also the only group for whom unemployment remains higher than before the recession.

If only they had voted for a president who actually cared about their plight.

Or as Instapundit Glenn Reynolds likes to jibe, they told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney black people in this country would end up worse off, and they were right!

There's an opportunity for the GOP here. Ronald Reagan famously said "the best social program is a job." And I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about minimum wage, part-time jobs. America needs good jobs, and the only way to get them is to grow the economy. Progressive policies don't do that. Electing Hillary Clinton as president won't do that.

To grow our economy we need to get government out of the way. It's a simple message for the GOP to adopt. For far too long people have put their faith in government, and government has always let them down. So the solution is definitely not the Democrats' perpetual mantra of more government.

Unless we reverse course, America is headed for the same fate as Greece. It really is as simple, and as scary, as that. The choice is ours. All we have to do is choose wisely.

UPDATE 22 Jul 2015 14:27:
Adding insult to injury: Only fifty percent of black men born 25 years ago have jobs.

Posted at 11:53 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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What if Obama uses his HUD racial database to impose a "Rooney Rule" on housing sales and rentals?

You've heard of the Rooney Rule, right? It's an NFL regulation which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every open head coach and front office job.

Because in the meritocracy of pro football, tokenism counts.

So, after posting yesterday about Obama's secret town by town, block by block racial database I got to thinking about how he'll use it. And I thought, "Rooney Rule."

Imagine having to prove you tried to sell your house or rent your vacant apartment to at least one black person just to satisfy Obama's racial bean counters.

It's not as far-fetched an idea as you might want to believe.

Banks and mortgage companies already are required to amass volumes of statistics on the racial makeup of their loan portfolios, and they're in danger of being sued by the feds for not approving "enough" loans for low-income and minority borrowers. Welcome to the bizarro world of "disparate impact" litigation.

So why not another HUD form at closing to document how many minority buyers put in an offer on your house? Complete with a section for you to explain why you chose not to sell it to them, of course.

And no, price won't be a valid reason.

We've already seen how affirmative action requires colleges to allow lower SAT scores for minority applicants. So why wouldn't the Obamaunist social justice warriors demand that you accept a lower price for your house in order to fulfill their utopian goal of racial balance in housing?

Ditto for apartment rents. I can see Obama using his database to define below market rents that would only be available to minority tenants. Meanwhile, white guys, if you're even allowed to rent to them, still pay full price. You know, to make up for past discrimination, or slavery.

Because nothing can stand in the way of giving Obama's sycophants the right to live wherever they desire, regardless of their ability to pay. It's all part and parcel of the Equality Of Outcome worldview. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Posted at 15:01 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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1 out of every 7 businesses wants to leave New Jersey

The verdict on New Jersey is in, and it's time to get out while the getting is good.

Yay Chris Christie.

Old and busted: The Jersey Comeback.

New Hotness: Jersey says "come back!"

Of course, given it's a foregone conclusion that one of the two tax-hiking Steves (Sweeney or Fulop) will be governor in 2017, the stampede down the Turnpike is only going to get bigger, fast.

Will the last guy to leave please turn off the lights?

Posted at 09:28 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Big Brother Barack has a secret town by town, block by block racial database

Remember last month when I said you should pay attention to the Supreme Court's affirmation of "disparate impact" lawsuits? You know, the racial grievance industry's statistical tool to "prove" discrimination and guarantee equality of outcome and big paydays for the reparations crowd?

And remember too when I noted that Obama voided every zoning law in America in his quest for affordable housing?

Well, here's how his grand redistributionist scheme is playing out. While we weren't looking, he took census data and built a humongous database to map the racial makeup of every city, town, neighborhood, and block in America. It shows exactly how many minorities live on your street.

In Obama's world, all white people are racists. And his goal is to take from the whites and give to the blacks. Because slavery. And Confederate flags. Or something.

I suppose at some point he'll make us white folks pin yellow stars on our shirts too.

The idea of homogenizing America is not new. It's one of those utopian fantasies bantered around in college faculty lounges on Friday nights after everybody's gotten just a little high.

Except, President Choom Gang now has the power, and the desire, to impose this racial spoils system across America.

As I recall, there once was another country that kept detailed records of every citizen's race. They moved people around too, although their goal was to prevent mixing of the races, and they locked up the "undesirables."

So imagine my lack of surprise when retired General Wesley Clark, a true nut who's politics are even farther to the left than Obama's, floated the idea of segregating "radicalized Americans" from the "normal community."

Now let's parse that statement: "Radicalized Americans" who are not "loyal." Ergo, Conservatives. As in people opposed to Obama. What this president and his supporters demand is loyalty to his regime. Opposition to Obama is de facto evidence of racism.

Really, that's how they think. Ask a liberal. She'll tell you.

And of course the way to stamp out racism is to impose quotas. Quotas in housing. Quotas in lending. Quotas in employment. Quotas in education. Quotas everywhere. That's what his database is for. Ensuring the proper quotas. Deviate from the preferred racial makeup, and yup, you're a racist. So Obama will impose quotas on you.

Quotas ensure equality of outcome. Or so I'm told. Quotas will make us all "equal," no matter what that freedom of assembly clause says. And if anyone doesn't feel "equal," he sues, and then he gets a check. Cha-ching! Equality!

This is your future America. Obeisance to the racial bean counters.

Of course sooner or later we'll end up like Rhodesia Zimbabwe — no white people allowed. But hey, that's a small price to pay for "equality," right?

Posted at 15:27 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Donald Trump is hitting a nerve, and leading the pack

Look who's sitting at the top of the GOP presidential heap:

Now, you may not like Donald Trump. I'm certainly not a fan, for a whole host of reasons not having anything to do with his current populist rhetoric. But he's out there telling people what they want to hear. He's saying things that need to be said. He's resonating with a whole lot of voters.

And the establishment, on both sides of the aisle, is scared of that.

The GOP shouldn't be.

In fact, they should embrace Trump.

Ride his wave. Harness the energy he's unleashing, and direct it into a dagger aimed at the heart of the Obama - Clinton progressive juggernaut.

Democrat policies are failed policies. And right now Trump is highlighting one of their more spectacular failures — unfettered illegal immigration coupled with law-flouting "sanctuary" cities. It's a deadly combination, and Kate Steinle's murder is the straw that broke the camel's back.

The fact that San Francisco democrats are unrepentant, doubling down on their sanctuary policies while reflexively calling for more useless gun control laws, only serves to further highlight how out of touch they are with average Americans.

So instead of bashing Trump, somebody had better figure out how to get him and his followers on board their bus.

Indeed. Trump is selling the one issue that overwhelmingly resonates with GOP primary voters. Immigration.

To say that the GOP establishment is out of touch is an understatement.

They lost to The Worst President In History, twice.

And they're on track to lose to the Worst Secretary Of State Ever.

Unless they get off their rocking chairs and give the voters what we want.

Here's a hint. What we don't want is a xenophobic nut. We want a candidate who'll treat immigration like the serious issue that we believe it is. Which means doing 5 things:

Instead of calling Trump "crazy," we need a candidate who'll co-opt Trump's message. Emphasize positive immigration reforms. Make Democrats defend their sanctuary cities and their eager willingness to ignore the rule of law.

Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez is the Willie Horton of 2016.

Democrats own him. Democrats created him.

Right now Donald Trump is the only candidate speaking out against him.

That has to change. A better candidate could ride Trump's wave into the White House.

The GOP needs Donald Trump. More importantly, they need to find a way to work with him, to keep him in the fold, to use him as an asset. Because an awful lot of voters are fed up with politics as usual. So why not give them what they want?

Posted at 11:33 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Obama beats up on nuns, wins contraceptive "victory" over Little Sisters of the Poor

Pope Obama, and 3 liberal judges, know more about the Catholic religion than any old group of nuns. Or so they say.

Beating up on nuns. Obama is a real class act. He couldn't take "no" for any answer from SCOTUS. So he schemed and he schemed and he didn't sleep until he found a loophole he could use to force the sisters into compliance with his evil mandate.

And a religious order is destroyed. Elderly nuns, who only want to care for the sick, old, and forgotten among us, are sacrificed to the false god of Obamacare.

It takes a Big Man to squash a bunch of little old nuns.

What are you gonna do next Chief? Kick a dog? Punch a kid?

I wouldn't put it past him. Because exercising his absolute despotic power is his greatest pleasure. He gets off on pummeling his "enemies." I'm sure he's ecstatic over putting these nuns in their place. He'll probably make them kiss his ring too.

You'll note though that his enemies are not the enemies of America.

Nope. He makes common cause with our real enemies. Which, of course, is why he gave Iran the bomb. With Obamacare, he's at war with Christians, and Catholics in particular. With the bomb, Iran can wipe out the Jews. And maybe a few million Christians for good measure too.

And on that day, Obama will be happier than he's ever been.

Posted at 12:25 by Chris Wysocki   [/religion]   Comments | Perm Link |
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The business of abortion: Planned Parenthood admits selling aborted baby body parts

How evil is Planned Parenthood?

Selling aborted baby body parts evil.

Dr. Mengele, please call your office.

They're murdering children to harvest their organs.

Try to wrap your mind around that.

Planned Parenthood is murdering children to harvest their organs.

That's what they mean by "pro-choice."

That's why they perform so many late-term abortions. Why they encourage women to have abortions. Why they vociferously advocate for unfettered access to abortion on demand.

They want the body parts.

Watch the video. And be prepared to recoil in horror.

This isn't the case of some outlier part-time staffer caught in a manufactured sting.

Dr. Deborah Nucatola is Planned Parenthood's senior director for medical services. A top executive in the national organization. Someone who sets policy. And her idea of a "medical service" is the harvesting of body parts for sale on the black market.

She teaches other doctors how to best kill a baby without damaging the most valuable organs.

And she brags about it.

Planned Parenthood is evil incarnate. And their enablers are firmly in the grasp of Satan himself.

Children are being murdered for their body parts. And meanwhile, our national outrage is directed at a flag.

I weep for civilization.

Posted at 12:15 by Chris Wysocki   [/feminists]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Hillary Clinton: You work too hard but don't pay enough in taxes

It's the tale of two Hillarys.

Some of you work too hard. You need government to save you from free enterprise.

And then some of you don't pay enough in taxes.

Left unanswered? How working less translates into more tax payments.

Oh, right, she's gonna tax the other guys.

Hillary's economic populism is a disjointed bunch of rubbish. She's trying to steal Bernie Sanders' thunder, but all she's accomplished is to make him look sane by comparison.

Here's the first part of her economic plan. Work less. Let government do more.

Sit on your ass, light up a Camel, and collect welfare. It's what Hillary's government wants you to do.

Yup. Hillary loves her some more government. Except the oversight part. She's really not a fan of that. I imagine that Inspectors General will become an endangered species in her administration.

Anyway, her second point involves how to pay for more government.

Can you guess she wants to raise taxes?

Speaking of wealthy financiers, how's Chelsea's husband doing these days?

Rumor has it he won't be paying anywhere near 30% in taxes!

Neither will the Clinton Foundation, aka Hillary and Bill's personal slush fund. See that's the thing with Hillary. She talks a good game. But she adamantly insists her rules don't apply to her.

In her world taxes are something people who are not named Clinton pay.

So let's recap Hillary's plan to save our economy.

Step 1: Regulate your new home business into the ground.

Step 2: If by some miracle step 1 doesn't kill you, tax you into oblivion.

Remember when America was the Land Of Opportunity?

Yeah, me neither.

Posted at 20:07 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Yesterday Obama voided every zoning law in America and put HUD in charge of your town

Your town doesn't have enough black people.

Obama is going to fix that.

And if it means turning your neighborhood into a slum, well that's the price you gotta pay.

Citing "exclusionary zoning" HUD Secretary Julian Castro released Obama's totalitarian regulatory onslaught against suburbia. The goal? Uniformity in racial balance and housing quality for every town, city, hamlet, and village in America.

AFFH is easily one of President Obama's most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education. Not only the policy but the political implications are immense — at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels.

It doesn't matter what kind of neighborhood you want to live in.

Obama will dictate who moves in next door.

Obama will dictate what kind of house you'll be allowed to build.

Obama will dictate where you live, where you shop, where you work, and how you get around town.

It's the culmination of decades of "equality of outcome" nonsense spewed by the denizens of "fairness." Because it's "unfair" that someone who worked hard all his life has a nicer house than someone who is sliding by on Section 8 vouchers.

So the Section 8 vouchers are coming to you.

They couldn't wave their magic wands and make the inner cites safer and nicer. So they're going to force every town to look more like the inner cities. Only they're called "transit villages" now. High density housing. Designated retail locations. Bus and train depots. And no parking lots.

Sounds wonderful, right?

And if that's what you want, great. Go for it.

But America is not a communist central planner's blank canvas. Our towns and cities each have unique features that make them desirable to different groups of people. Homogenizing our living experiences will not bring us all closer together; it'll bring conflict and foster resentment since we'll lose control over how and where we live.

Or does no one remember what East Germany looked like before the Berlin Wall came down? Because that's Obama's vision for your town. Depressing, unappealing sameness, miles and miles of bleak utilitarian boxes, devoid of color and indistinguishable from any other corner, anywhere.

I don't want to live there.

Posted at 10:30 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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JPMorgan Chase donates $1 million to Jersey City schools, gets $188 million tax break

Usually the quid pro quo isn't so blatant.

But Jamie Dimon doesn't do subtle.

Hot on the heels of his generous donation of $1 million dollars to Jersey City schools for "job training" he's in line to reap an $18 million dollar annual windfall in economic development tax breaks.

$18.8 million annually for 10 years makes for a total of $188 million bucks.

How's a nice tidy $187 million dollar profit on the backs of New Jersey's taxpayers sound to you?

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it too.

BOHICA.

Posted at 14:10 by Chris Wysocki   [/nj_politics]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Medicare wants your doctor to tell you how expensive it is to keep you alive

Soon your doctor will be required to tell you how much your end-of-life care is going to cost. But please don't call it a "death panel."

Advocates for better end-of-life care expect Medicare to soon announce that it will start paying physicians for having advanced-care planning conversations with patients — reviving the widely misunderstood provision that gave rise to "death panel" fears and nearly sank the Affordable Care Act.

Spin, Politico, spin!

If it looks like a death panel, and it acts like a death panel, well, I'm gonna call it a death panel.

Sorry Grandma, you're not worth it.

Oh, wait, I'm being "hysterical" again.

Such a policy shift would come six years after former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's wild charges of "death panels" triggered near-hysteria that bureaucrats might begin to withhold medical care from older Americans. Polls showed that the charges stuck, and the ongoing uproar in the summer of 2009 almost derailed Obamacare. The same fears have shadowed the law ever since.

Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, right, because cutting Medicare / Medicaid reimbursement rates is the one thing Obamacare has been good at doing. Except that doctors voted with their feet, leaving an acute shortage of physicians willing to play by Obamacare's rules.

So what do you do when there aren't enough doctors to go around?

You ration care!

How do you ration care?

By making old people feel guilty for "wasting" the doctor's time. They're just going to die anyway, why prolong their agony?

You've heard the push for assisted suicide — the humane choice! — to supposedly enable suffering patients to die with "dignity."

Now imagine how that'll play out in conjunction with discussions of costs for end-of-life care. Grandma has a duty to die, before she wastes precious resources that could be used for more important stuff like sex-change operations and free birth control.

Sure sounds like a death panel to me.

Posted at 10:41 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   Comments | Perm Link |
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Obamanomics is working: Labor force participation drops as Democrat party affiliation grows

Oh, right, you thought Obama was trying to help the economy. Sorry to burst your bubble. Obama is doing everything possible to ensure Hillary gets elected president.

Just read between the lines.

The unemployment rate is down! Again! Yippee!

Except there are now fewer people in the workforce than there were in 1977.

And no, the population hasn't fallen to 1977 levels. Far from it.

So were did all those job-seekers go?

Into the arms of Big Government. They went on the dole and joined the Democratic Party. Because, as the saying goes, it's easier than getting a job.

All is proceeding according to George Soros' diabolical plan.

And no one is heeding the lesson of Greece. Least of all, Puerto Rico. Or, for that matter Chicago. Democrats nationwide continue on their tax-and-spend course, not caring that our spiraling national debt is unsustainable. Throw in the coming public pension tsunami, and oh, did you just lose your lunch?

Sorry about that. But the news, it is not rosy. Not today. And not tomorrow.

Climate alarmists say the world is running out of water. I'd be worried, except we're going to run out of Other People's Money first. And then the fun really starts.

Posted at 12:00 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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